"BROWN, V.C."

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 12, 1 September 1900, Page 915

"BROWN, V.C."

By Edgar M. Djsil,

Illustrated hy E. B. Vaughan

yzr THINK," said Captain Hallwill I to himself, " that the majority of jc-/ recruits enlist from an egotistical desire to commit suicide in a respectable manner." The captain, who had been comfortably lying hid in the shade of a large rock, leapt to his feet with an audible oath. " Here, you cursed fool," he yelled excitedly, " d'you want to pi'ovide a ball's eye for the enemies' marksmen ? Come over here at once, sir !" The man to whom he shouted waved his hand cheerfully, and advanced towards the rock at a leisurely double. Ping ! A bullet chipped a little bit off the top of the rock a foot from HallwiU's head. Ping ! another bullet scattered a cloud of the endless veldt dust over the running man's legs. " Good shot," said the man, and waved an encouragement to the disappointed Boer in the unseen distance. " In time, by Jove !" gasped Hallwill, as a small hailstorm of shot richochetted off the surface of. their shelter.. He looked curiously at the man, who had come through such danger scathless, and now leaned back against the rock with every sign of Satisfaction on his lean, browned face. The man noticing something interrogative in the officer's eyes, looked up quickly. " Trooper Brown, sir," he said, explanitorily, "4469, No. 2 Company, First Colonial Contingent." .

Hall will smiled grimly. The humour of the man with his burnt hatchet face, and uniform so ragged as to bo almost, in<lintiiiguishablc, touched a kindred chord in his own nature. " My name's Hallwill," ho said, introducing himself in turn, " Hallwill, of the Yellow Hussars." He had intended to add his particular rank in the service, but at the moment somethingof the absurdity ofclussdiHtinolionH between men in their position struck him, and he omitted it. The trooper, recognizing the other's runic, caught the distinction in the words, and turning his grey eyes with their tired expression of cynical amusement on Hallwill, in kindly look, he motioned to the vista of veldt undulating around them into eternity. "It's both level and a leveller," ho said, languidly. " There's a sweet uncertainty in being potted by a bloke obscured in a bush large enough, apparently, to hide a fly, which adds a flavour of impartiality to the guine. In the big goes it's ten to one against the officer. Here wo rank and file come aboufc level in the betting." Hallwill nodded his head thoughtfully. This debonair trooper was something- of a revelation to him. Ho himself was a man who took most things seriously in peace or war. He was brave with that courage of mind which rises so far above mere animal spirits. In times of peace, a studious man,

in social life, noted for a minute neatness in dress, in war, he carried out his allotted task with a precision and regularity that made him a magnificent subordinate. When he was ordered to cross the Tugela in the face of a withering fire, he marched as calmly as when at home he had ridden to review, and on both occasions he carried himself stern and unbending — the picture of a man whose work is ever to the satisfaction

of his conscience. At this time he would no more have thought of needlessly exposing himself to danger than he would have thought of laughing on parade. Bravado in his moral creed was the acme of bad form. He regarded the trooper with a cynical wonder. Had the man been showing off, the Captain would have sneered, bat those humorous, grey eyes forbade the suspicion. Brown looked languidly across the veldt, and spftly whistled between his teeth the

melody of a music-hall song. Suddenly he laughed gently. " What's up ?" queried Hallwill. " Oh, nothing," said Trooper Brown. " I was only thinking of this day last year. I took a girl out to see a review of our Permanent Artillery. She was rather sweet on me, that girl — " he continued meditatively, " but when she saw those fellows in their Doctor Jim hats and toff khaki, she fairly

gave me the go-bye. ' How I wish you had a uniform,' said she. I'd like to give her the chance of seeing this real ' Soldier of the Queen ' this afternoon " He pointed derisevely to his out-of-heel boots, torn breeches and ragged shirt. Instead, Hallwill glanced again at the trooper's face. It sparkled with humour now — genuine, downright fun that made laughter to see, and Hallwill sighed. Many men jest with death, but their laugh

is mostly a stage one. This man laughed truly. " If you get out of this alive," said Hallwill, abruptly changing the conversation. " You will probably gain a V.O. some day, or get shot in the next engagement. I should say thei'e was no in-between in your destiny.:' He spoke naturally, without intention to natter, and the trooper neither blushed nor denied. " Probably," he said coolly. " I've been recommended already, so I've got some hope, you know," he confided. " It's about the one thing I would really care to get. I

think the sight of it would knock some sense into my girl's head, and there'll be such a dashed lot of heroes after this war that without some mark, some sort of Al. at Lloyd's stamp — a man won't count much." Hallwill was interested. " When was it ?" The trooper shuffled himself into a more comfortable position. " Oh ! that mess up when the Q. Battery got chopped about. I happened to see some horses taking a lone hand with a gun in tow, and I just jumped up, and rode them out of it. That's all."

"By God!" cried Hallwill, "so you're the fellow ! Why, man, that's boon rend of all over the Empire !" He looked at the trooper with admiration, almost worship. But Brown shook his hoad sadly. " Worse luck," he said despondently, " Iny girl doesn't read the dailies, and not being an ' Honorable ' they've forgotten it at headquarters. Not that it was anything," ho apologised, " but still when a bloke draws the winner at Tattersall's ho does like to got paid." "Boers, by Jove!" cried Hallwill.

MAN TO MAN,

"We shall have to cut for it," said Brown. On the horizon of the veldt they could see half-a-dozen horsemen galloping towards them, their broad-brimmed hats, and a white horse among them, leaving no doubt as to their nationality. Hall will peered cautiously round, and Brown cursed silently, for his rifle was lying a mile away, lost in the melee from which he had marvellously escaped with a sound body. Hallwill had only a service revolver in hie belt. "You see that rock over there," he

said quickly. " Come on, we'll run for it — there, that one with the tuft of grass on the top." In another moment they were bolting across the veldt — sprinting the two hundred yards of intervening open for all they were worth. ■„ ( The Boer on the white horse, a man evidently, of slow but methodical habits, leisurely reined up, dismounted and carefully sighted 1 his rifle. "Home!" shouted Brown, falling prone behind the rock. "Ping!" went the rifle, and Hallwill, staggering into shelter with a bullet somewhere in the region of his lungs, fell on to his prostrate comrade. "My oath !" muttered the trooper. " There's no doubt about the brutes at a long distance range. That was a clipping shot !" He disentangled himself from Hallwill, and kneeling by his side, raised the wounded man's head. " There's something going buzz — buzz," said Hallwill, feebly, "and I feel cursedly sick. Here, Brown, in my right-hand pocket. A letter — you know — the usual thing." He tried to smile, but only gasped spasmodically. Brown deftly followed his instructions, and discovered the letter, which lie tucked into his trousers pocket;, -i ■ '■ i • > .: " All right, old man," he remarked cheei*fully. "If necessary, I'll see to it, so 'elp me!" ■• ' ■ After giving this assurance, he proceeded to remove Hallwill's revolver, with which, grasped in his hand, he peered curiously round the rock. " Jehosephat ! what luck !" he chuckled. " Three of the blokes have gone off to the right. Something up over there !" The other three riders separated, and

approached, the rock at a canter from three sides. "I wish to the dickens I knew her distance," muttered Brown. " However, I didn't win the Manly pistol trophy for nothing." The man on the white horse was twentyfive yards away, and Brown hung to the side of the rock as close as a barnacle to a ship. Hallwill was in view, but obviously out of the fight. Bang ! from under the sheltering rock spoke the revolver, and the methodical man slipped from his white horse placidly — for the last time. Bang ! Another rider reeled from his saddle, and the third, now within five yards distance, wildly- fired his rifle, the bullet harmlessly chipping the rock. Then, if any one had been looking on, they would have seen the trooper's grey eyes dilate, as will a cat's when she springs on a mouse, and from his lips poured inarticulate oaths. It was war — war, not as we read of it in cablegrams, but as it is, out on the lonely veldt — man to inau ! The butt end of a service revolver, wielded by a strong arm, is almost as deadly as the tube, and far more ugly in results. # # * # Hallwill was a twelve-stone man, and it was weary work carrying him across the veldt. 7 Yet that night he slept peacefully in the camp hospital, and when on the morrow he tried to fervently thank Trooper Brown, that worthy stretched out a deprecatory hand. "My oath, Captain," he said, and his grey eyes smiled, " there's no need for thanks ; I've got the V.O. and a sergeant's billet, you know,- and my girl is pretty sure to be sugar on me now." Hallwill is still uncertain as to what value his saviour put on his life.