CHAPTER XXXI.

Clutha Leader, Volume XII, Issue 596, 18 December 1885, Page 7

CHAPTER XXXI.

— Continued.

AT GIBRALTAR. Early in the morning, five days after tTom had wished his late brother officers farewell, the good ship * Poonah ' poked her sharp nose round the west point of the bay of Gibraltar, and in one moment afterwards a gun on. the signal station roared forth the intelligence from its iron throat, setting all the inhabitants of the * Rock,* except those sluggards still buried in sleep, on the gui vive. Swivel was on his way to bis master's rooms with Kit's regimental clothes, brushed, and folded over his arm, and a pair of small but highly-polished boots in his hand, when the noisy announcement reached his ears, on which he hastened with quickened pace to the side of the small iron -camp bed, whereon Kit lay curled up in dreamland. * Gun's fired, sir !' 1 Oh, May!' muttered Kit, at the same time seizing Swivel's horny fist, * this is indeed happiness to hear -' * Gun's fired sir !' repeated Swivel in a louder key, and with the addition of a respectful shake of the shoulder. 1 What's on fire V drowsily asked Kit 1 Mail's coming in, sir, and there ain't only time to dress.' * Hooray !' said Kit, waking up in a moment, ' bright as a button,' just as if he had taken some of Mrs Winslow's syrup before going to bed. { Hooray !' and in one moment he transferred himself, with remarkable agility, and most enviable strength of mind, from his warm bed to his cold tub, in which he splashed and blew like a young grampus, and gasped out quivering snatches of songs, partly out of exuberance of spirits, and partly to cajole himself into the belief that it was not at all cold.

As he proceeded with his dressing, all in a rosy glow after his ablutions, it was apparent that foreign service was not undermining his young constitution to any very serious extent.

'Hang it! I shan't have time to shave,' said Kit, dispensing reluctantly with his little matutinal game of putting some lather on his chin and scraping it off again. ' I shall look a perfect brute. I say, Swivel !'

' Sir V said Swivel, putting his head in at the door, outside of which he always stood during the dressing operation.

' Tell them to bring Jack round, and x look sharp 1 I shall only just have time.'

For a wonder, Swivel did look sharp, and, in a short time, Jack-of-all-trades, looking as if Spanish corn and hay agreed with him very well, was brought to the door.

'I'll leave him at the Water Port Guard, and will drive up with Captain Bullkley ; so you'll have to go and fetch him, Swivel, and you can ride him back.'

So saying, Kit jumped on Jack's back, and cantered off in his usual neck-or-nothing style.

' Now what's this 'ere for, I wonder V remarked Swivel with a mystified countenance, as, a few moments afterwards, he produced from under Kit's pillow a worn piece of paper, containing a few withered-up rose leaves. 'He ain't taken to chewin' baccy in bed, has ho ? No, it ain't baccy ! Ah ! somethink for tilling fleas, I suppose. This *ere rock's full of 'em.'

Swivel had just arrived at this conclusion, and was still holding the precious little keepsake in his hand, when there was a clatter of hoofs outside, and In another moment, Kit, burst into the room, blushing to the roots of his hair.

*By Jove 1 in my hurry, I've quite forgotten — oh, there it is !' and, with a savage glare at Swivel, he snatched the cherished little souvenir from off his hand, and rushed out again in a state of confusion bordering on temporary insanity.

* They're a bitm' of him now, I suppose,' was all the explanation of this fuss and hurry that occurred to Swivel's unromantic soul.

It's very hard to go any distance in Gibraltar without encountering a precipitous hill or a flight of steps ; but all such little difficulties Jack-of-all-trades made very light of, and such good use did he makje of his legs that Kit arrived, in, his shore boat, at the 'Poonah's' moorings before she did. He had not to wait many minutes, however. On she came sweeping majestically towards him, the Hindoo gentleman at her bows, gliding calmly and contemptuously over the tiny craves dancing in the bay. . It was all very well here, where they were little and harmless, but outside, where they ■were bigger and more powerful, it was Very different There the Hindoo "bowed and salaamed to every one that passed him, and the higher and mightier they w were, the lower and deeper were his obeisances to them and sometimes, when a bigger swell than the general run came by, he would even hide his diminished head altogether. But now, as he approached nearer and nearer tp Kit, he looked immeasureably above anything of the sort, so that," for all the difference there may have been in his behaviour, he -might just as well have been made of flesh and blood as of wood.

Getting out of the path of the Hindoo, who would have run him down as soon as have looked at him, Kit was soon on the ladder alongside, and, as he stepped on the deck, his hand was grasped by Tom, who had seen him for some time from the ship. 'Well, Kit!' « Well, Tom !' There was not much in the words, but there was a great deal in the grasp of the hands and the tones of their voices. These conveyed more fully and delicately than words, on one side, * I'm both glad and sorry to see you — full of joy that you're here, and full of sorrow and sympathy for the causes, that have sent you f on the other, *AH right! thank you, my boy — I understand you, thoroughly !'

Tom took his young friend's arm, and walked him aft, where there were a number of ladies grouped about, brought up on deck at that early hour by the excitement of entering port. There was every variety and shade of the genus — fair, dark, pretty, old, young, ugly, modest, bold. Some going to India with their husbands, some going most unmistakably without, aud some going to set husbands. Some everything that wives should be, some everything they should not. Some demure and proper, others seasoned flirts — some of whom had already had some experience of Indian society, and had become so wedded to habits of flirting and trifling, that they would have made eyes at the wooden Hindoo, if they could have got nothing else.

These last had looked with hungry eyes at Tom when he had first come on board. He was a tempting morsel, and a dead set had been made at him at once ; but his insensibility to their charms had soon piqued them all into throwing up the game. He would laugh and talk and treat them with that gentleness of manner which was his way with all women; but to go through all the tedious minutice of a flirtation, the squeezing of hands, the stereotyped soft nothings, the telling glances, he would not take the bother.

He had not been so hard up for amusement as all that, although he was on board ship. There were fine old Indian veterans, bronzed and bearded old shekaris, with whom it was more enjoyable and wholesome to have a pipe and a yarn. There were men of his own age to chaff and talk with. There were even the children to romp and play about the deck with ; and there were other ladies whom he could assist in many little ways, and whom he could talk to without the bother of having to appear desperately in love.

' What a queer-looking place !' said Tom to Kit, making the remark that bursts from nearly everyone on first seeing the far-famed Rock of Gibraltar. ' Where is our regiment quartered V

' Right over there,' replied Kit, pointing to the extreme right of the Rock, as seen from the anchorage. ' Not such jolly barracks as at Hurlingford. How are Mrs and Miss Chichester »' 'All right,' replied Tom; 'they both sent their love to you.' Now it was peculiar Kit had not, asked this question before, but it was a peculiarity quite in keeping with the behaviour of lovers, who always will beat about the bush so in anything connected with their idols, even to the simple question of asking how they are.

' Oh ! by-the-way ! I forgot, May has sent you out something she worked.'

How Kit did blush, although he was about twelve hundred miles away from the kind, thoughtful little donor.

'Has she? What is it?

'A dodge-my-eye of some kind for your room, I think. I say, Kit, you stay up here while 1 go down below and see after some of my small things, and I dare say by that time my man will have got the luggage together.'

Kit was not long by himself on the deck.

Tom soon made his appearance, and his servant having got all the luggage safely in the boat, they took their departure. As they drove up to the barracks, Kit had much to tell Tom. How he was to be offered the mastership of the Calpe hounds. How the garrison steeplechases and the spring meeting were coming off in a month or two, and how he would be certain to be pestered by every one to ride. How Brunton and all the men he knew in the regiment were ; and how Swivel, who was particularly inquired after, was getting on. Then there was Clennell's disappearance to be discussed, and also the different places of interest to be pointed out on their way. * This ia the main street.'

•By Jove ! what a narrow one ; full of soldiers and Moors; not an English civilian to be seen scarcely.' ' That's the convent where the Governor hangs out.'

' Why do they call it a convent V

'Don't know. There's the Ragged Staff Guard, and there's Markhara of the " Queen's " on guard. Morning, Markham.'

' Morning, Trevor ! Your regiment furnishes duty to-day. Who relieves me, do you know ?' '-Brunton.'

* Oh, the devil ! I must go and stick another bottle of soda water in ice then.'

'This is the Alameda, Tom, where the garrison parades are held, and where the band plays in the evenings ;

and there's the Guard mounting parade going on now.' { By Jove ! there's Brunton.' * Yes, he twigs us, and is grinning like a great monkey under his shako.'

* Hulloa ! the whole line is laughing ; what's the matter I wonder, Kit 4 Blazes ! it's Swivel and Jack having a difference of opinion. Ha, ha, ha ! what a lark ! You see Jack did duty as the adjutant's charger when we first came here, and he took quite a fancy to soldiering, and he wants to inspect the guard, I suppose. Besides, he always has a bit of fun with Swivel. It will be all right, though ; it generally ends in Swivel falling off, and both coming home separately. That's the signal station, right above vs — looks aS if it were going to topple over on top. of us, doesn't it ? Isn't there a jolly view\ of the harbor ? and there's the old " Poonah " getting her steam up to be off again. We're quite close to Windmill Hill barracks new. I declare, Tom, those men of ours who just saluted as they passed, recollected you, and looked at you as much as to say, tl We remember the day you stood us the beer, and thankee kindly for it, again, sir." Here we are : these are our barracks.' Tom here received a hearty welcome from all his new brother officers, and, before the morning was over, was thoroughly established in his quarters.

The arrival of so great an acquisition was an event of some importance in the regiment ; but it was one which paled before the amazement occasioned by a disclosure made by Swivel that very afternoon.

There was some connection between the two — Tom's arrival and Swivel's disclosure — for the latter in all probability was made purposely on this day when Swivel knew his master's heart, in the fulness of its joy, would be more than usually flowing over with goodwill towards everything and everybody.

We will not take away the reader's breath, as Swivel did Kit's, by at once plunging, as he did, into the subject, but will approach it gradually and cautiously with a view of avoiding any unpleasant shock of surprise.

Of all material articles, withered flowers, on the wings of associations, perhaps mount the highest into the realms of sentiment and romance : of all material articles, there are none which perhaps descend to a lower and duller practical level than a ' flea exterminator ;' and in the heart of that man who would take the former for the latter, no one would imagine there could be a spot sufficiently soft for a tender passion to nestle in. Yet such a paradox as this did Swivel prove himself to be on this day, for the disclosure he made to Kit was nothing more nor less than an avowal of his plighted troth.

And now, having introduced the subject, let us unfold this tale of love in its proper course. The object of Swivel's affections was the Colonel's cook, and her acquaintance he had made when acting as the Colonel's orderly during a short absence of Kit on leave in Spain. His duties, while engaged in this capacity, consisted principally in waiting for orders down in the kitchen, and it was while thus employed that ideas of matrimony first floated in a . savoury mist before his mind, as he watched the cook performing her culinary operations. In what way he communicated his thoughts; how he elicited a response; or how the courtship, generally, was carried on, the stew-pans, if gifted with the power of speech, could tell, but we cannot. We should think, though, that these proceedings were conducted on most matter-of-fact principles, for it is highly improbable that he could have known how to execute a kiss or an embrace, as he might have searched his ' field exercises and evolutions of infantry ' through and through in vain for information on these points. Instinct might certainly have done a great deal, as it does do

in these cases, but, with Swivel, instinct had been nearly strangled in its birth by military training, and what little remained could have been hardly strong enough to force itself through that outer crust of stolidity, unless— as indeed might have happened — this had become slightly melted by the kitchen fire. But here is Swivel's own view of the case, as given to his master after having opened the subject.

' You see, sir,' he explained to Kit, still aghast at the sudden announcement, * I think as how it would be bettering myself in more ways than one, sir. I didn't think so once, but since I come to be your servant, sir, I've seed there's a many things I knowed nothing about, and that, out of a y barrack room, I was just like a babby thro' never havin' lived out of one since I was born, or a tent which is pretty nigh the same thing. Well, sir,' (and here Swivel - heaved a bitter sigh) ' I've well nigh put in my time, and when so be as I gets old and stiff, sir,' (heavens, to what degree of stiffness did he expect to arrive ! At that very moment his own ramrod was limp compared to him !) 'and they won't have me for a soldier no longer, I shan't know what to do with myself. It would be like setting a man to march past afore he'd learned his goose step. If I was put out of them barrack gates this moment, sir, and told to go and be a civilian, I shouldn't know how to do it. I should be as

helpless as the babby unborn, sir.' 'So, then, you think,' said Kit, 'that she would be a help and assistance to you. when you have to leave the army and that you wouldn't feel so strange and awkward with her as without V. 'That's it, sir-r-that's just where it is.' 1 Well,. I didn't look at it in that light, and I dare say you're perfectly right,' said Kit, lost in a second wonder at the unparalleled burst of eloquence into which the subject had warmed Swivel. ' Then, sir,' proceeded Swivel, going on to enumerate the other advantages, * she'd do your washing for you a sight better and cheaper than you gets it done now, and she'd look after your clothes, sir, as if they was her own. You'd have no call to "go cursin' about there bein' no buttons at the back of your shirt.'

' That would bo a blessing, certainly. She isn't young and giddy, I suppose !'

Swivel broke into one of his heavy smiles, which negatived the question without further reply.

' Or very pretty, eh V

' The ugliest woman, I suppose, you ever see, sir, in all yer bom days !' replied Swivel, with a considerable amount of emphasis and self-con-gratulation in his manner.

In corroboration of these last words of Swivel, it must be here explained that, in this military hotbed,, there seemed to be a matrimonial whirlpool always eddying and seething fiercely, into which, maid after maid, cook after cook, had fallen and bpen swallowed up before the Colonel's very eyes. At last, in his wrath, he had determined to have a plain cook with a vengeance, and had sent home directions that the United Kingdom should be searched for one whose plainness should verge, if possible, upon monstrosity. In obedience to these instructions, there had arrived* in due course, a hardfeatured, squint - eyed, fiery - complexioned female of about forty, who seemed to bid defiance to Cupid to kindle in the most amatory heart that ever beat the tiniest flame of love for. her. The Colonel's satisfaction knew no bonnds. In glowing raptures he held forth about her honesty and her soups, her sobriety and her made dishes, her good temper and her hot curries, until the promulgation of her virtues superseded all his well-worn Indian stories, for which his officers, on the principle of anything for a change, felt truly thankful. But, alas for the uncertainty of human felicity, this Guy Fawkes of a Swivel was at work, in his kitchen, laying the train which would blow his happiness skyhigh.

' Well, but do you think that's a recommendation f asked Kit, referring to Swivel's last reply, and inwardly congratulating himself that neither Tom nor Reggy Brunton waspresent, as he would then have been utterly

unable to keep from bursting out laughing.

' Certainly, sir ; the greatest recommendation she's got. Why, there'll be no chaps hanging about after her, nor no lookin' in the glass, nor thin-kin' o' ribbons and dress to keep her mind off what's bilin' for dinner.'

There was no gainsaying these many advantages, and so Kit, seeing that there was no blind infatuation or romantic glamour about Swivel's projects, but that they were, on the contrary, the result of calm deliberation, promised his hearty co-operation in their furtherance.

;To make a short story still shorter, in a few weeks the gallant bridegroom led his erubescent bride to the altar (blushing would be a weak and silly term to express that fierce richness of color which years of companionship with kitchen fires had imparted to her face and arms). The ceremony was conducted in much the same matter-of-fact style that had probably characterised the courtship, and after it was over the bride returned to the Colonel's kitchen to finish cooking his dinner with a whispered confession on her lips that something which had been ' simmering had been weighin' awfully on her mind the 'ole time ;' while Swivel, just for form's sake, obtained a half holiday, which at first bored him fearfully, and finally was spent in the barrack square, looking at the recruits drill.