CHAPTER I.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1039, 22 June 1894, Page 7

CHAPTER I.

Thi Napier parade-ground at Karacki lay deserted under the glowing ray of the morning sun ; but a crescendo blare of tumultuous music, which came from behind the echeloned barrack blocks, multiplied into something very like discord by the echoes from the great buildings, gave notice of speedy occupation. As the band rounded the farthest block, the echoes ceased, *nd the full melody of ' The Campbells are comin' ' rang out clear and crisp while Her Majesty's 110 th Regiment of the Line — better known as ' The Queen's Own Hamilton Highlanders ' — defiled in fours oft to the parade-ground 800. strong. The battalion was returning from practising ft new skirmishing drill •with blank cartridge on the sandy scrub at the rear of the barracks. When the last files were well clear of the barracks the Colonel turned his horse aside from the head of the regiment; quarter column was smartly formed on the leading company, and the word was given to halt and stand at ease. At a sign from the chief, the officers fell out and grouped themselves round him ; the men were called to attention, and the parade was dismissed. In a moment the orderly formation was dissolved into a swaming mass of hungry soldiers hurrying to their resprctive barrack rooms intent on breakfast.

But the colonel, still sat motionless on his horse in the centre of the parade-ground, surrounded by his officers. This was the. time at which, if anything had gone wrong with the drill, he would improve the occasion and administer a soldierly lecture to the delinquent ; but to-day all the latest joined subalterns had clear consciences — the drill had been performed without a blunder, and there seemed to be no reason why the customary 1 good-morninggentlemen,' should not be spoken at once. There was no cloud on the colonpl'shard-featuredbutkind face; he appeared only thoughtful, and as though he were waiting. As soon as the last laggard of the rank and file had passed beyond the possibility of hearing, he looked clown on the upturned faces round him and said very quietly : ' Gentlemen, I know you will be sorry to hear what I have to tell you. Twice this morning in the course of the practice I was shot at with ball cartridge.'

Discipline prevailed, and no one spoke; but the little group unconsciously pressed nearer, and the combination of suppressed emotion yielded a sound like a long-drawn sigh. The colonel, keenly in touch with those confronting him, evidently felt, and was movfd by, the angry horror his announcement had called forth j he stooped down and patted his charger's neck before proceeding : 'It is not the first time. On Tuesday I thought I heard a bullet pass close to me; but not being positively cprtain, I decided, for the credit of the regiment, to say nothing. To-day there was no room for doubt. One ball just cleared my left shoulder, within a couple of inches of my ear ; the other, as you see made its mark. Both shots were fired in quick succession when I was on the rough ground at the rear of the hospital.' He held up his bridle arm, and, plainly visible to every one was a bullet-hole through the sleeve cuff.

The sight was too much for the B«nior major — comrade and trusty friend of the colonel's since they fought side by side as boy ensigns at Alma. Throwing parade-ground etiquette to the winds, he blurted out : • Good h?avens, Macleod, you're not hit, are yon V while an excited murmur of surmise and suggestion began to be audible among the others.

The cplonel held up his hand again —for silence this time. 'I did not detain you, gentlemen,' he said, 'to discuss the matter here, but merely to inform you of what has happened, so that company officers may endeavor to put their finger on the man who fired at me. At the same time, you are to take it as a positive order not to let a susDicion of this leak out. Tell no

one but the color-sergeants, and impress it on them that they are only taken into confidence in order to assist your inquiries. If I find that so much as a rumor gets about among the men or outside, I'll break every color-sergeant in the regiment. For the honor of the corps, we must discover the delinquent without any fuss, and that being so, directly you have a clue, you will report to me before making an arrest In the meanwhile, this is not to be referred to at mess or anywhere in public. — I think that is all, gentlemen j I thank you for your sympathy, and hid you good-morning.'

Colonel Macleod turned his horse towards the officers' lines, and rode off slowly, accompanied by the two majors and the adjutant. The unmounted officers strolled after in twos and threes in the same direction, and it was a relief to them to hear the chief, now that the stiffness of ' duty ' etiquette was relaxed, explaining to his companions that he was quite unhurt. For Colonel Macleod was adored by officers and men alike. Stern and unbending enough on. duty and in the field, in private he was the guide, counsellor,

and friend of every one. To all ranks the colonel's person and the honor of the Hamilton Highlanders were the two most sacred things on earth.

And now both these cherished possessions had been threatened with startling suddenness by the foul deed ol the morning. Small wonder was it that those to whose astonished ears the secret had been entrusted should be agitated and anxious as they sought their quarters. The chief point in the minds of all was the utter absence of motive ; for ' crime,' in the military sense, was almost non-existent in the happy and contented ranks of the regiment, and punishment, with its consequent heart-burnings, was therefore a rarity. The colonel had not even had occasion to confine a man to barracks for nearly & year.

1 It is the act of a madman ; one of the men must have gone suddenly mad,' said Stuart Dalzell, the only subaltern of G Company with the battalion, as he paced by the side of Alec Frazer, his captain.

1 That is the only explanation I can see which would not involve disgrace,' replied the other thoughtfully.

lls there not the alternative of accident V asked Delzell. *It is not unknown in other regiments for l>all cartridge, to get mixed with the blank ammunition.'

1 That must be left out of the question in this case,' said Frazer. ' The fact of the colonel having bften narrowly missed on Tuesday, and again twice tO'dar, bars such a supposition, If there had been any mistake in the ammunition, the odds are a hundred to one that some one else beside the chief would have heard, or felt the bullets. There is some influence at work more dangerous than error, 1 fear ; and if I am right in my judgment, it concerns you and me rather more closely than the other fellows. — Here we are at my bungalow. Come in, Dalzell, and I will tell you what I mean.'

Captain Frazer led the way on to the veranda, where several Bombay chairs were set out ready for guests, aftpr the hospitable fashion of the East. Motioning his companion to be seated, before joining him, he called his Hindu servant and told him to run over to the bungalow as soon as he had finished breakfast. Then he sat down by his friend and subaltern, and put into words a suspicion which was already half formed in the minds of both.

1 T see by your face that you have gupsscd the drift of tny hint, Dalzell,' he b«gan. 'The scoundrel or lunatic who is at the bottom of this outrage belongs to G Company as sure as you and I sit here. On us two and on Ferguson — for he must help vs — lies the 07ius of saving dear old Macleod from the danger that threatens him. The worst of it is that our success in that direction, which we must move heaven and earth to attain, will most likely mean everlasting ignominy to the regiment and our own company in particular.'

'You arrive at this conclusion from the position of G. Company at the time the shots were, fired — that is to say, when the colonel was among the boulders at the back of the hospital V said Dalzell.

* Quite so,' replied Frazer. 'As you doubtless remember, our company was at right angles to the boulders some five hundred yards away, and was firing hard during the few minutes the colonel pulled up there. It is true other companies in our half-battalion were firing also ; but they were extended much farther out on the plain, and a shot from them would not have pierced Macleod's cuff laterally in a neat hole like that Had the ball come from either extremity of the line, the sleeve would have been ripped lengthwise.'

The lieutenant made no reply for a few moments. He sat abstractedly staring at the sandy plain, and then he said : ' All that you suggest is terribly true, Frazer, and yet, somehow, it seems incomprehensible. All the men in our company are. such good fellows ; even the last batch of recruits are as nice a lot of lads as ever joined us. Before parade this morning, I would have trusted my life to any one of them, and I'm not at all sure that I would not do so still. Is it not just on the cards that there may be some native devilry it the. bottom of this V

|,That is a little too far-fetched, I am afraid,' returned Frazer. ' The country all round is as flat as a billiard table, and we used every available inch of cover ourselves. A murderously inclined native, even did such a one exist, could not have passed unnoticed. — But here comes Ferguson ; let us hear whether he can help us. 5

The color-sergeant of G Company was a splendid specimen of the Highland soldier — a great black-bearded man, from whose six feet two of stately growth the drills of 20 years had failed to knock quite all the loose-limbed lissomeness of his mountaineering

youth. There were many veterans in the corps who had fought in Afghanistan and in Egypt ; but for personal prowess in the field, the record of this stern-visaged warrior out-distanced those of all his comrades. Was it not written in the chronicles of the regiment that his strong right arm had saved the colors at Maiwand ; nnd was not the ribbon of the V.C. on his breast in token that he had snatched Colonel Macleod, sorely wounded, from among the Arab spears at El Tab 1 ? Fraser

and Dalzell, watching him step on to the veranda and stiffening visibly as he approached his officers, could not help thinking that but for the colonel's injunction, if Ferguson ever had the handling of him, it would go hard with the miscreant who had tried to unrlo that bravf rescue.

The color-sergeant halted with a salute in front of the Bombay chairs, and stood waiting. Captain Frazer knew his man too wesll to beat about the bush and try to break the news to him gently. The soldiery qualities of the veteran required solrWly treatment and his officer was aware that whether he got it first or last, the shock would be all the same, and its effects equally well concealed.

' Ferguson,' said Frazer, ' the colonel was shot at this morning on parade— with ball cartridge, you understand-— and from the position he occupied at the time, I am inclined to think the bullets came from G Company. Can you suggest any clue which may help to trace the scoundrel or madman who fired them V

The angry glare in the Sergeant's eyes and a quiver of the nostrils were the only sign he gave, except that there was a scarce perceptible tremor in his voice as he made answer : *It must have been an accident, sir ] there's nae lad in G Company — ay, nor in a 1 the regiment, would willingly put his hand to sic a dastardly deed.'

Frazer hastened to inform Ferguson of the previous attempt on the preceding Tuesday, which had put the idea of accident beyond the bounds of reasonable conjecture.

' It's nae matter,' said tho eolorsergeant. ' Sic an accident as that wad be waur than a crime. I'm glad to ken that it is neither, by your honor's showing. Some puir body among the lads has been stricken daft, and done this thing ; but I canna say who — before to morrow night.'

Both the officers started in surprise. ' You suspect some one, then f exclaimed Dalzell. ' You have noticed a strangeness in the manner of one of the men, and wish to verify your suspicions V

In that case, Sergeant,' added Frazer, ' it is your duty to confide your suspicions to us. This is a serious affair, in which wo have the colonel's positive orders not to act definitely without informing him. It is my belief that if he can see his way to preventing a repetition of the attempt, he will move heaven and earth to hush the whole thing up.'

1 1 wadna tak' upon tnysel to act in the matter except under orders, sir, replied the color-sergeant, ' the mair especially as I liae nae inair suspicion than a bairn. It is just that suspicion I'm after getting, and by your honor's ieavp, I'll get it to-morrow night.'

' How do you mpan to go to work V asked th?. captain.

' I ken nan quid it will do tellin' ye, sir. Seem' that I'll c'en tak the risk o't raysel, ye maun let me hae my am way, and no speak ac word,' replied Ferguson.

Now, the color-sergeant was a privileged old soldier, and might on ordinary occasions have presumed a good deal more than he was in the habit of doing ; but under the circumstances, his answer was a little more, than the captain of his company could stand.

' Nonsense, Ferguson,' said the latter sharply. ' You will either inform me at one* what steps you mean to take, or take no steps at all. That is an order, mind ; and please, remember that the colonel's life may depend upon your decision. There will be another blank-firing parade the day after tomorow, and he is not the man to absent himself because of what happened to-day.'

The color-sergeant was still standing at attention, and his fingers clawed convulsively at the seams of his trews as he listened to the alternatives thus plainly placed before him ; but he chose the one Frazer had expected, prefacing his explanation with : lYe m&y ca' me a fule, sir ; but I ken better than that.' And then he told how he had scraped acquaintance with one Rajab AH, a native of Surat, who had recently established himself in the Sudder Bazaar, ostensibly as an astrologer, but who, to justify the sergeant's evident belief in him, must have been a past Master of the Black Art as well. According to Ferguson, Rajab Ali had the means, either b}' the cards or by the divining rod, of unveiling what was hidden in the past, the present, or the future. He, the sergeant, had been privileged to test the astrologer's marvellous powers, and he had little doubt but that the latter would be able to cope with the mystery which wa3 puzzling them. He was to meet Rajab by appointment at the rear of the, barracks on the following night, when he was to be favored with a further demonstration, and he would take the opportunity of getting this matter cleared >ip once for all.

(To be Continued.)