“And of ours too, Field. He has been a
first-rate caterer. I do hope he will pull through
it.” The lad himself had not seemed to suffer
much pain, and three days later the surgeon had been
able to assure his friends that as no fever had set
in they had little fear of serious consequences ensuing.
The boys had not been allowed to see him. Captain
Brookfield, however, reported that he was going on
capitally, but was in a very bad temper because he
was allowed to eat nothing but a piece of bread and
a sip of milk, while he declared himself desperately
hungry, and capable of devouring a good-sized leg
of mutton.
“I don’t think you need worry about him,”
he said to Chris; “the doctor told me that in
a fortnight he would be very likely to be about again,
and none the worse for the wound, the bullet having
evidently missed any vital point, in which case its
passage would heal as quickly as the little wounds
where the bullet enters and passes out usually do.”
Harris had his arm broken just above the elbow, and
Brown a flesh wound below the hip. He was the
stoutest of the party, and jokingly said, as he was
carried back, that the bullet had passed through the
largest amount of flesh in the company. Chris
once or twice went into the hospitals with a doctor
whose acquaintance he had made. They offered a
strong contrast to the scene that had taken place after
the battle of Elandslaagte, as in the hospitals at
Chieveley and Frere everything was as admirably arranged
as they would have been in one of a large town.
In the daytime the sides of the marquees were lifted
to allow of a free passage of air. The nurses
in their neat dresses moved quietly among the patients
with medicines, soups, jellies, and other refreshments
ordered for them. There were books for those
sufficiently convalescent to be able to read them,
and those who wished to send a letter home always
found one of the nurses ready to write at their dictation.
By some of the bedsides stood bouquets of flowers
sent by the ladies of Maritzburg, and all had an abundance
of delicious fruit from the same source.
MAJUBA DAY
“Did you hear of that plucky action of Captain
Philips, of the Royal Engineers, last night?”
an officer who had just ridden in from the front asked
Chris that evening.
“No; I heard that the Boers set up a tremendous
musketry fire in the evening after the truce was over,
but no one that I have spoken to knew what it was
about.”
“Well, we ourselves didn’t know till next
morning. The general idea was that it was a Boer
scare. They thought that we were crawling up to
make a night attack, and so blazed away for all they
were worth. We found out afterwards that Philips
had conceived the idea that it was possible to destroy
that search-light of the Boers. He had learned
from prisoners that it was the last they had with
them, and although we have not made any night attacks
