Читать книгу The Seed of Empire - Fred M. White - Страница 6

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Kemp bustled about the room with the matter-of-fact air of one who has settled some commonplace piece of business, but he was careful not to look at Bentley just then. Harold was grateful enough, but he was feeling just a little unmanned. He was disposed to blame himself for not having looked up some of these good pals of his before; he could see now that it had been foolish pride on his part; at the same time, he had not the slightest intention of accepting any of Kemp's money, but this new offer was a different matter altogether.

"I don't know how to thank you," he said.

"I'm jolly glad to hear it," Kemp laughed. "You'd have done just as much for me. Now, look here—I'm no end anxious to get you into our first battalion. Of course there's no chance at present for either of us to get a commission, but there are certain to be a few vacancies in the ranks, seeing that we are dead sure of being at the front in a month's time. A goodish few chaps who are all right for ornamental work won't pass the doctor now, and that's where you come in. Now, sit down and scribble a letter to your mother, and say you won't be back till some time to-morrow. Say I'm giving you a shakedown for to-night, and that you have got some good news for her. Then we'll pop down to the depot early to-morrow morning and clinch this business."

Kemp called down the stairs to the porter and asked if he had a messenger in, one of the class of men who hang about big blocks of flats in want of a job; Bentley looking up from his letter presently saw his old acquaintance Ginger Smith standing in the doorway. There was a grin on his face, and he appeared to be perfectly at home.

"I knowed you was all right, sir," he said. "I see you 'op it inter Mr. Kemp's car, so I jest jumps on the back, an' 'ere we are! I runs lots of errands for Mr. Kemp, and 'e's werry kind to me, 'e is. I'd do anything for 'im, I would."

"Except work," Kemp smiled. "Ginger is quite a handy man, but work frightens him. He thinks nothing of walking ten miles from here to a golf club and back and lugging half a ton of clubs round a long course, but that's because he doesn't think it's work. I've offered to take him into my employ, but it's no use. He'll never be good for anything."

"Oh, yes, 'e would," Ginger grinned. "Because 'e's got 'is charnce. I never told you, sir, did I, as my father were a Tommy? Served seventeen year, 'e did, an' died in the Boer War, and 'e wasn't shot in the back, neither. I was only a bit of a nipper in them dyes, an' mostly I've storved on an' off ever since, but 'ere in a little bag wot I carries rahnt me neck I've got three little silver things as belonged to the ole man wot 'is country give 'im, an' I never pawned none of 'em yet, though many a dye I've known wot it is ter go wifout a mouthful o' grub, An' now I'm goin' ter arsk you, sir, ter give me one more charnce. You may call me a loafer an' a wister as is good for nothin' except sellin' pipers an' 'anging abaht a golf club, but all the sime I believe as I've got the right stuff in me ter make a soldier. An' if you would be so kind as ter get me in that there regiment o' your'n then I'll never forget it. An' I'll do more'n that. I've bin caddyin' this mornin'. An' when I come in an' drawed my money, the caddie master 'e says ter me:—'Don't let me see any o' you chaps 'ere agin as is between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five.' O' course, I knowed wot 'e meant, an' I say's, 'Wot o, ole pimple fice. It's me for the flag to strike a blow for me King an' to keep a roof over the head o' you an' yer ole missus.' Then we shakes 'ands, an' parts like two ole pals. An' I ain't goin' back no more. An' I'll tell yer wot, sir. I knows as you wants recruits for that second battalion o' your'n, and if you'll 'elp me to shove meself in khaki and fight shoulder to shoulder with two gentlemen like you, then it'll be a real proud moment for me an' the other chaps."

"Regular orator, isn't he?" Kemp laughed. "What other chaps are you talking about?"

"Nearly all the rest o' the caddies. We come back together this evenin', over 70 of us, an' we all made up our mind as we was out for the flag. But we didn't jest know wot ter do till I 'as wot yer calls a Hinspiration, an' I says, 'Leave it ter me,' I says. An' they did. An' if yer don't mind, sir, I'm comin' rahnd ter yer 'eadquarters ter-morrow mornin', an' I'm goin' ter bring abaht eighty more wif me. We ain't much ter look at, but you feed us up an' treat us like men, an' you'll find as 'wot we are men. I dare say you'll think as I'm doin' a lot o' gas wif me mawth—"

"Here, shake hands, Ginger," Kemp cried. "My good fellow, I'm delighted to hear you talk like this. It's the good old British spirit bred in the stock that Drake and Nelson and Wellington came from, and it shows that the old country is still sound to the core. I'll go out of my way to get you into our first battalion, and I don't mind telling you that you will be the first working man who ever belonged to it. It may sound rather snobbish to talk like that just now, but still—"

Ginger held his head high as he took Bentley's note and swaggered from the room. In some subtle way his rags seemed to have taken on a certain dignity, his powerful shoulders were drawn back, and there was a keen look in his eye.

"Here, just half a moment!" Kemp cried. "I'll tell you what. There's plenty of room here, and if you like to bring those pals of yours round here to breakfast to-morrow morning I'll be proud to welcome you as my guests and shake hands with you. Now then, off you go."

Ginger clattered importantly down the stairs. Through the open windows came the cries of the newsboys yelling the very latest sensation. Belgium had already been invaded, and there was nothing for it now but to see this thing through.

"I haven't grasped it yet," Bentley said. "It only seems a few hours since I was wondering how I was going to spend my bank Holiday. You can't get much fun on a solitary half-crown, and my idea was to take a long country walk. And here we are with the biggest job in history before us, and we are actually looking forward with pleasure to-morrow morning to breakfasting with a choice assortment of golf caddies. Now, what would you have said if anybody had told you that a week ago?"

"I don't know," Kemp confessed. "Advise him to go and see a doctor, probably. And yet, by Gad, it's true! I don't mind telling you that I shall be downright proud to march those chaps into our quadrangle to-morrow morning. And, mind you, I don't underrate the seriousness of this job. We can see now that the Kaiser and his gang have been getting ready for this business for over thirty years, and many a good fellow will be down and out before we are in sight of Berlin. The question is, shall we be in time to save Paris? Personally, I doubt it. Those brutes will be through Belgium almost before we can stir. In all these years Lord Roberts has been no more than a voice crying in the wilderness. Well, I suppose we shall muddle through somehow. We always have, and we always play the game and give the other fellow the benefit of the doubt till the last moment. And we've paid for our generosity in blood and tears. Half an hour ago I was going to suggest that we cheered ourselves with an hour or so at a music hall. But in some funny way I seem to have grown about two years older. I seem to have lost my taste for all sorts of pleasure, even my cigarettes don't smoke quite so pleasantly. How could they, with those words ringing in one's ears?"

For down below strident voices of the newsboys were pitched in another and more ominous key.

"Germans across the frontier. Heavy fighting in Belgium. Dreadful slaughter, Official."