FOLLY BRIDGE.

Otago Witness, Volume 02, Issue 2420, 2 August 1900, Page 70

FOLLY BRIDGE.

A SPECIAL MISSION.

ABOUT A EAILWAY PASS.

AN INDISPENSABLE AUTO-

GRAPH.

By RUDYARD KIPLING.

[All Rights Reserved.!

The Boers had wrecked the three centre spans and blown huge pieces out of the stone piers. " The wreckage lay adrift in dirty water, and a section of the British army was now picking up the pieces. A pontoon bridge had been thrown across the river. You reached it by way of a steep sandy track through the scrub ; and on the north bank met a steeper, sandier scarp, that climbed out past the haunches of the bridge under the edge of the rocky embankment. Till the temporary railway trestle was finished, this plunge and that scramble was the only path into the Orange Free State. By that road came M'MamtSj head of the Coi'Dorate Equatorial

Bank of Africa, on urgent business. He had been summoned to Bloemfontein by the Fieldmarshal Commanding-in-Chief, who, with the High Commissioner, was then striving to disentangle some finances which President Steyn had dropped. In an inner pocket lay a pass calling on all officers, civil and military, to assist and expedite E,. L. M'Manus, Esq., by every means in their power; for the State had need of him, and his time, which meant other people's money as well as his own was valuable. M'Manus was not used to passes. As a rule of 30 years, few people interfered with his uprisings or downsitfcings. He was known to remotest Diitch farmers for an institution representing an institution, from the edge of the Kalahari to the outskirts of Portuguese territory — from Salisbury, where they lend money on mortgage, to the sea, where they foreclose on villa property. His grizzled head held most intimate knowledge of South Africa's finance for the last quarter of a century; his word, when" they importuned him, to speak, was law alike to speciilative Bond or Progressive Ministries. Capetown knew lhafc he had been called up to Bloemfontein, and flashed the news to Natal and Kimberley, nor need we for an instant doubt that Pretoria iiiew it within 12 hours of his departure from the coast. The Corporate Equatorial had been chased out of, Bloemfontein with bad words early in the war. Its return signified more than army corps victorious.

M 'Manus, his secretary, and half a dozen, fellow-travellers came in a desolate evening to the southern end of Folly bridge. A simple race of God-fearing herdsmen had been before them. The platform, after three days', vehement , cleansing, etill reeked of putrid onions, stable litter, and the remnants o£ bloody sheepskins. They had defiled the corner of every room they had lived in as dirty little boys defile abandoned houses; they had removed everything save the doorlocks, and had left in exchange a portrait in crayon on the wall of one " Chamberlain at Modder," which represented an eye-glassed person at a rope's end.

"My word ! " said a New Zealand doctor, hoping to join his countrymen in the big camps to the north, " this is a lovely land to figlit over ! When do you suppose we go on to Bloemf ontein ?"

" I'd give something to know why M'Manus is going up," said the captain of a troop of Colonial Horse, returning from a Karroo hospital.

"Who's M'Manus?" said the New Zealander.

" Good Lord! " the South African replied, aghast at this ignorance. "He's M'Manus.He's in his carriage now ! You'll see he won't get out. - He's got all his skoffwith him. -He'll have a decent dinner — sodawater, too."

The colonial had been picked up among the tangled Colesberg kopjes, where sodawater was scarce.

" I'm going up with the Little Man's private letters." This was an officer late of the Bengal army. "That ought to be good for a reserved compartment in a cattle-truck. Wonder how long we have to wait." He stumbled forth, grasping the Commander-in-Chief 's private mailbag. The noises^of a full camp filled their ears, but the station was void and black.

" There must be a railway staff-officer somewhere," a young and brisk gunner murmured. "Let's find him. Isn't that a light at the end of the platform? Phew ! How the place stinks."

They formed an untidy little procession, and, falling over sleeping men and stray baggage, found at last a bare room, lighted with three candles in beer-bottles and somewhat oyer-furnished, with two men both in khaki — one of them very angry.

"But — but — confound it all," said the latter. " How -did it come to be broached, guard? "

"I don't know, sir. My business is to report it to you. Qne case of whisky with the top smashed in, *md a bottle gone, between here an' Arundel. They're always' doing it along the line, sir. I think it's those Irregular Corps." "Yes, that's all very fine, but how did it come to be broached? Well, never mind—never mind. I shall report it, of course."-. •

"Report it," whispered a sapper with documents for the Intelligence department. " They've been looting the Staff's reserve baggage down the line. A lot they'll care for one bottle o' whisky missing."

" What can I do for you, gentlemen? " said the railway staff-officer, when the train guard, properly reported, had withdrawn.

I ' We want to know how we can get on to Blbemf ontein. " " Not another train till to-morrow night. You'll have to wait till then." The R.S.O. drummed merrily on the table.

It meant a check of full 24- hours, and someone said so.

"It isn't my fault," said the R.S.O. "I assure you it would give me the greatest pleasure personally to shoot rubbish up the line, but I have my orders ; and I've nothing more to do with it. I've noticed that every man. who comes up thinks his business is the one thing I've got to attend to, and that the whole army will go to pieces if he isn't sent to the front at once, but Hullo ! What do these Kaffirs want? Been out of ihe camp without a pass? Four Kaffirs were thrust into the room, and the company departed, leaving the R.S.O. to execute justice according to his own, lights and those in the beer bottles.

"My word ! " said the New Zealander. - " But we didn't make a fuss about not going up, did we? Why was he so stuffy? "Who, is that man?" " He's been here precisely nine days," said a voice in the darkness. "Nine whole daysin Africa. H,e has his orders. We'll hear a lot about those orders before we leave. I know the breed. There will be' larks. Now,

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let's* see- how we- can whack up something to eat."

" Get a light first," said the gunner. "If we couleE find some oil we'd' light the lamps in our carriage. Those candles are no good. They always- drop into the victuals. Morgan, you', go an' unscrew the lamps an' bring 'em out here. I'll look for oil. H ! " (this to a shadow that passed) " where do you keep your lamp oil? "

"In the lamp room, of. course. I'm the stationmasler," was the fretful reply.

"iTbeg your pardon. You must be awfully hard worked. Don't bother, we'll get it."

" Thank you, sir. Ye=. We're working 20 hours a day. There's the oil. I'll strike a match, and you can get the cork oul of — "

" No, you won't ! Chuck that match away. I'd! sooner waste your oil than set myself alight. Morgan! Bring the lamps here. I'll fill 'em."

" One of the lamps ain't empty at all." Morgan's voice came across the siding with a rising snarl. " IV s full! Its all trickling down my. cuff." - _ , " Never mind ; bring what's left* We must see! before we can eat. "_

The- lamps were filled; and lit rough-hand-edljjh and plate "by plate> and tin by tin,. with jack-knives, for tin-openers, a ' meal was dragged together. " The Railway Staff Officer suggested that it i-hquld be eaten in his room, and there enlarged on the, ditties and responsibilities of his* office./ But tha company were tired. Moreover, R.S.O. 's were old birds to them. They knew not less than £0 of the breed', and* a- few had been R.S.O.'s themselves.

"I think,"- said the New Zealand doctor skewering- cold linned herring with a pocket knife, "before I talked about shooting rubbish up the line I'd try to burn a little of the muck that's lying about the station. Sweeping isn't any earthly good."

" Oh, that department is probably in charge of the officer commanding the Royal Engineer a," faid the Colonial Captain with a short, dry laugh. E'e had served since the outbreak of the war, and counted 13 engagements to his credit. "A little of that lamp-oil we wasted and a match would— do wonders," the New Zealaijder insisted. " Don't presume to dictate to the army," an Imperial officer said, almost proudly. " I!ll back a R.S.O. against anyone except (he looked across the- table) a sappsr."

" We're learning. I swear we're learning." The young engineer flushed very prettily. "We aren't such fools as we were. The,- colonial3 have taught us a lot. Take that Railway Pioneer Corps that laying down the new line on the north* bank, for instance."

" Yes," the Colonial • Captain grunted. " They're the pick of the Rand — all mine managei'3 and machinists and engineers and boilermakers. They're working double shifts to finish the track, because- they want to get home to Johannesburg. Yes; I know about them." Again he laughed .unpleasantly.

"What?" the New • Zealander asked. I "Oh, the.fisual thing. They worked day and night, and of course they wanted' more than service-ration, so their commandant — Phil Tenbroek, he's a big mine manager when he's at horne — bought a lot of bovril and peameal, and made soup of it, and served it out to 'em at night. You can see their flarelamps across the river now if you look. Day and night they work. Well, the authorities found he'd spent five whole pounds Government money, and they told him he wasn't to do it. , Mind you, that's now — now — now — when every day — what am I talking of? — every hour's' work means thousands of pounds saved. Yes, they told him the expenditure was unauthorised.'' "'And' then," said the young sapper, uneasily/; *' Oh, then. You know Phil Tenbroek? At least, I do. Phil sent a wire to Port Elizabeth, on his own hook for fifty pounds' worth of bovril' and peameal. We paid out of 'his own pocket,, of course, but" Phil wants to -get back to the- Rand as soon as- possible, andit seemed to him. the- quicker that new line was livid, the better. 'And they'd have crippled _the whole corps — the best engineers in the world— for a ftver ! Nice- tale, ain't it? True, too. Look at their flare-lamps. They work."

Ear away across the dark to the northward of the formless country was a line of .fire dots. The Railway- Pioneer Corps, were at work* on the 1 new track that was to connect witk the temporary trestle-bridge. A dull boom came up. the gorge? between the kopjes.

"'Blasting away tile wreckage,"' the colonial explained. " Risky work at night, but Phil told, me, he was in a- hurry. Oh, Philly Tenbroek is a man. I bet he hasn't taken off his clothes for a week." •Morning,, hot and, sultry, put out the.flare^ lam^s.o'n 1 the north of the river, and' brought in., a trainload of troops from the south to bearded, the aerea of dusty tentage- around' Folly : -Bridge. The travellers, including Mpianus,, had see,n.-men..and guns and buck waggons,, doctors, dust, and wounded — stony hills, and. scrub-strewn downs — a few hundred times before. Jfi pleased them better to observe the R.S.O. as he~ valiantly faced the tenth day of his official life. The four Kaffirs had. been disposed, of v but. he- was still much troubled about the broached whisky, and much annoyed by the eccentricities af lunatic civilians who, scrlely for the jest of- it, wished to know when they could get goods up to Bloemfontein. The big railway junction 30 miles behind him was also a, nuisance.' It complained of A congested 1 goods yard, and desired him to take the trucks. Now, his desire was to keep his end of the line neat and open, and, so far, he- had succeeded. He drew- attention with pride to the long empty sidings which he had " saved," though he did not" exactly specify the purpose of his economies: There, were far too many people anxious- to- gw- to* Bloemfontein. Officers, of course, if their pa«sos were' in> perfect/ order. Slight be allowed, but thesg idle civilians, h*e

was free to say; annoyed him. They simply had no conception of military matters, and they never seemed to think a man had orders. However, he had his orders, and, faithful as the Roman sentry overwhelmed in the lava of Vesuvius, he meant to carry them out. What otherwise was the sense of orders? He paused very often for a reply. The station i in the warm, close air stank to heaven. " We.l, that's all right," said the New Zealander, " but when I was quite finished with my orders it seems to me I'd have another, try at the rubbish about here. My word ! look ot all that amount of unemployed labour in the camp ! "

There were not fewer than two thousand men under canvas. Some of them were being drilled.

M'Manus went for a walk through the mimosa bushes lo look at the late bridge. It cost a hundred thousand pounds, and somebody would have to account for the breakage. That, indirectly, was M'Manus's department. "Have you seen. M'Manus? " cried, a private of the Railway Pioneer Corps as he rode up to the colonial captain, sitting in the window of what had been Folly Bridge lefreshmenfc room. " I've seen him. He looks as if hod just come out oFAdderley street." " Did you speak to him? " " No, But I wanted' to ask him who he expects is going to nay for the bridge." " You- will, on the Rand — after the war,'' the Csvgtain drawled. ' " That's' what I supposed, but I wish to goodness M'Mo/nus could work out some scheme o' compensation that 'ud- hit the Transvaal hard."

" So do I — but the war expenses will have to be paid by the Rand just the same."

"That's rather hard on us, working as volunteers to mend what the Boers have broken, and then we have the bill sent in to us at the end. M'Manus lent me two thousand once on stands I had in Johannesburg. I paid him before the war. Wish I hadn't now. Well, I must go on. S'long ! " At 4- in the afternoon a train was made up ai Folly Bridge. Into this marched the pas- , sengers and their baggage, and at that hour the R.S.O. reappeared to satisfy himself that all the passes were in proper order, and to issue a ukase. \ "You will be turned back at the other side of the river by the E.S.O. there if your passes are not countersigned by -'the station commandant here," he said smiling. " The- deuce ! When was that order issued? " the colonial captain demanded. "It isn't my fault. I've only got my orders, and " "Yes, yes, we know all that; but 'where is the station commandant?" "I don't know. He was about here this morning, but he left after lunch." " No — no," reflectively from, a corner of the carriage, "you wouldn't." " Well, I hope you'll get across all right, but I tell you now that unless your passes are countersigned by Smith, station commander, ■ you- won't be able to get across even if you were Kitchener, himself."

" I'd give a month. — I'd give three months' pay to have K. of K. on this platform now — and we'd see," said Hie officer with the Little Man's letters. "I'm only giving you my orders." "And you don't know where Smith is?" '• No." "And you expect us to hunt him all round the camp, do you? We've been seventeen — -twenty-two houra^in this blasted onion-heap, and you and Smith between you have only j ust discovered ' ' "Well, it isn't my fault; I'm only " " You ought to keep Smith on the premises, then."

" That has nothing to do with me. I should recommend you to" go and look for him." " Oh, I've no interest in the matter. I'm only going up with the Little Man's private mail. Here's the bag. I don't care. If I'm stopped on the other side it's your look-out. I'm sure the Little Man would be quite pleased."

" Oh, here's M'Manus," said the colonial captain, looiaiifr out of the window. " I suppose he's- hunting Smith. D'you think they'll stop M'Manus if his pass isn't countersigned by Smith?"

"Who's M'Manus?" A giggle of deep delight interrupted the R.S.O. "Oh, that civilian. 'Pon my word, you'd think Bloemfontein was Piccadilly. They're all wanting to go im there." "Thank you," said the colonial. "I'm afraid we'll have to be turned back the other side. Perhaps if we saj r we couldn't find Smith they'll forgive us."

" Well, I'm. only giving you my ord — '

Tlie train rolled out nearly half a mile and halted in a deep cutting. The passengers stepped out over ankles- into the sand, that slid under their feet,, and their baggage followed them. A gaggle of Kaffirs marched away with bags and beddins rolls, and the company followed,' depressedly,. They ex.pected« to be rndt on the other side by a train from the north, which, in. God's gcxfcl time, would go back to Bloemfontein. '^

" But — but what da they want to stop in the. middle of a cutting 7 for? " said the New Zea-lander. ."I wouldn't have minded' walking' a hundred yards on the level back there. They might hay& made a decent platform there. I believe I've twisted my arikle climbing up the bank."

" Oh, this isn't a patch, to what ft is the other side," said an officer on the bridge works. And they walked till they reached the pontoon, a hundred feet below. M'jlanus's face seemed- a little set,, as it were — set, but in no wise troubled.

"Did he find Smith?" the colonial asked, ps they climbed the desperate north bank, down, which buck-waggons were slidiua: iii billows of dust. Here, again 50 men's labour r'for two days would have greatly smoothed the jroad. ; "He said he didn't," Jlis companions re- .' p!:=d. 1 " Oh,> glory!" -said the colonial, and. 'liopphrg over- a boulder; fell into a bush. A hundred foot of river, bank, through 1 deep sand, at the end of a mile walk, is not easy to negotiate ; and it was a dewy-browed detachment thair broke through the scrub and ' landed, wanting, among the rocks at the ganger's hut on the north side of the bridge. (But the R.S.O. who received them there was cool and. utterly calm. He wished to know whether their passes were in order, and a hush of delicious awe fell upon the company. Was it possible, they asked of one another— was it .conceivable that M'Manus climbed' the slope info the Orange Free State easily and dispassionately, his

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lower jaw protruding" perhaps one-sixteenth of an inch beyond the normal clinch. The travellers — brothers in that joy — made a little semicircle about the R.S.O. — the R.S.O. of the north bank of FoLy Bridge — about him and about M'Manus, of the Corporate Equatorial Bank. It was heavenly weather. There \vas no accommodation of any sort or description, for the ganger's hut was occupied by the military telegraphers.

" May I trouble you for your pass, please? " M'Manus produced it clumsily. He was more accustomed to demand than to supply documents of identification.

" Yes — yes — this is all right." The company winked as with one eyelid. "But I don't see that " — the officer turned it ovei — " that it has been countersigned by Smith." " Captain Smith was in his bath when I went to him at Folly Bridge at 3.45. He sent a verbal message that it would be all right — so far as I understood through the door, at the time."

" I'm afraid I can't help that." The R'.S.O. paused uneasily. M'Manus, in grey tweeds, black boxer, and immaculate white collar, gave him not the slightest help. "This pass is no good." The sentence came out ha a rush. ~

" Indeed." There was a meekness about M'Manus and a silence on the little knot of bystander*, that would- have warned any other than an imported Imperial,- alien that that kopje was occupied in force. _ " No. You'll ljave to go back across the river and get "Smith's signature. I can't let yovi go up on that pass." This very cheerfvlly.

Whole hierarchies had signed it. Lions and uniccrns ramped on the top of it. It appea'ed, as has been said, to earth, fire, and water* — to horseflesh, steam, and steel, and all in command thereof, to forward with speed and courtesy R. L. M'Manus to Bloemfontein.; but it lacked the signature of Smith — that Smith who was then towelling himself two miles away. "I must go back?" M'Manus's clear eye travelled down the rocky slope behind him to the far pontoon and the -further south bank, where a few soldiery' pink as prawns, and at that distance not much larger, were bathing ; climbed the wooded bank beyond, and rested v/ith disfavour on the domino-small houses of Folly Bridge. "Yes, go back, of course, and get Smith to sign it."

A lesser man would have said, "I will see you damned first," but M'Manus was in no sense small. His face did not even flush. He turned away slowly, as though the matter had no further' interest for him, and the R.S.O. dealt with the other passes. As a matter of detail, not carried the niagic signature of Smith. The officer in charge of the. Little Man's private mail aZinost implored the R.S.O. to stop him for 24 hours, because he fished to learn whether there was any truth in -the -current army legend that under no circumstances would the Little Man swear. The officer in charge of the staff's mail followed suit. He had two bags of official correspondence for the staff, and there were generals a'mong'them who could swear. He, too, prayed to be turned back. The officer with the new maps in the Intelligence department joined in his entreaties.

"After, all," said one, cheerily, as -they sat down on their bedding, .rolled in the gathering dust, " what does it matter, old man? You're bound to be Slellenbosched in three days." Now, Stellenbosch. is not a name to use lightly, for there go the men who — have not done quite so well, and the R.S.O'.'s face clouded as he asked for an explanation.

"Haven't yoxi stopped M'Mauus?" said one who knew his man. " Who's M'Manus? " • " Oh, I'm sorry. Never mind— you'll find out before Tuesday."

" The only person I've stopped was that civilian who hadn't got his pass signed by Smith. r can't accept a verbal message across the Orange River."

" Quite right. You'll be getting all your messages from Bloemfontein in a little while. I wouldn't be in your shoes for a trifle."

" I don't think M'Manus minds much,, though," the colonial captain struck in soothingly. " I srioke to him just now. He says he is going on."

" I'll take dashed good care he doesn't," said the PwS.O., exploding. This was something he could understand.

" Yes, he's going on the- train when she comes in — so you'll have another chance, you see. If you stop him as he gets in I suppose he will go back to Capetown, and he'll tell, the Little Man why. He's rather busy, and' he won't be able to come tip again."

" But} confound it all! Does he expert the whole blessed Orange. Eree State to wait on his. business? "

"It would be a rather bad j.ob if she didn't — just now. He's the head of the Corporate Equatorial Banking/ Corporation, and he- has been called up to Bloemfontein. rather urgently, to put the finances of the place straight. He isn't going up for pleasure, you know."

Somebody lit a pipe ; and in the hush you could hear the great river running through the dry hills. A far-away voice on the construction engine, backed close up to the bridge, called to someone under a staging.

" M'Manus goin' up to Bloemfontein toniajlit? " " Ye-es." "That means business, thank God." "Why?"

" Why? 'Cause they don't care one scarlet weir for the whole army — the Boers don't.. They reckon they can get them withdrawn if they win the game in London,, but reopenin' the bank at Bloemfontein means business. -That's why. It teaches ■ the Dutch more than- 20 battles. Wonder they don' t.try to cut the line; and nai> him to-night,' 1 t*

The silence by the ganger's hut .continued unbroken for 20 puffs. • ; , "And he did wait' outside Smith's door while Smith was washing— - because I saw him.* I wouldn't have done it," 'said an Imi^eriai officer., slowly, " but I suppose he wished to see precisely what sort o£ fools we can be. wlien we go in for war."

" And you've told him to walk two miles back and two miles here again," said the New Zeala-nder; "to get Smith's signature?" "And' there's no guarantee Smith won't be having a hair-cut and shampoo when he reaches there," -the colonial captain added. " We knew in Capetown a week ago M'Manus had been called up. But, of course, if lie hasn!t got Smith's signature that settles it."

" What does Ml matter? 'Let the brute frolic round the kopies till Smith's dry. He's only the boss of the biggest bank in the country. Who cares for how much they want him at Bloemfontein? I'd put a guard on him. and march him back in irons, by* Jove! " said a cavalry officer. "I say, old man, didn't it ever occur to you to knock off the points of pome of those beastly rocks that we're supposed to sit on? They're infernally nubbly."

One by one the stars came out over the hills, and the flare-li.invDS of the never-sleep-ing Pioneer Corps puffed and blazed 'afresh' in tlje river bed. Last of all came the train

from the noTth, and wherr M'Manus- and his secretary rose up to take their labelled places, reserved for them at Bloemfontein, the R.S.O. took no notice. No more, for that matter, did M 'Mantis.