The Young Buglers. Henty George Alfred
Читать онлайн книгу.
angrily. "You want a licking, you do; and if you were in the 15th, you'd get it pretty quickly."
"Oh! I beg your pardon," Tom said gravely; "I did not know that the 15th were famous for thrashing boys. Thank you; when I enlist it shall be in a regiment where men hit fellows their own size."
There was a shout of laughter, and the sergeant, enraged, stepped forward, and gave Tom a swinging box on the ear.
There was a cry of "shame" from the others; but before any of them could interfere, Tom suddenly stooped, caught the sergeant by the bottom of the trousers, and in an instant he fell on his back with a crash.
For a moment he was slightly stunned, and then, regaining his feet, he was about to rush at Tom, when the others threw themselves in between them, and said he should not touch the boy. He struck him first, and the boy had only given him what served him right.
The sergeant was furious, and an angry quarrel was going on, when an officer of the Rangers came suddenly out of barrack.
"Hullo, Summers, what is all this about? I am surprised at you. A lot of non-commissioned officers, just in front of the barrack gates, quarreling like drunken sailors in a pothouse. What does it all mean?"
"The fact is this, Captain Manley," the sergeant said, saluting, "these two lads came up to speak to me, when Sergeant Billow chaffed them. The lad gave the sergeant as good as he got, and the sergeant lost his temper, and hit him a box on the ear, and in a moment the young one tripped him up, and pretty nigh stunned him; when he got up he was going at the boy, and, of course, we wouldn't have it."
"Quite right," Captain Manley said. "Sergeant Billow, I shall forward a report to your regiment. Chaffing people in the street, and then losing your temper, striking a boy, and causing a disturbance. Now, sergeant," he went on, as the others moved away, "do you know those boys?"
"No, sir; they are strangers to me."
"Do you want to see the sergeant privately, lads, or on something connected with the regiment?"
"I see that you have vacancies for buglers, sir," Tom said, "and my brother and myself want to enlist if you will take us."
Captain Manley smiled. "You young scamps, you have got 'runaway from home' as plainly on your faces as if it was printed there. If we were to enlist you, we should be having your friends here after you to-morrow, and get into a scrape for taking you."
"We have no friends who will interfere with us, sir, I can give you my word of honor as a gentleman." Captain Manley laughed. "I mean," Tom said confused, "my word of honor, as—as an intending bugler."
"Indeed we have no one to interfere with us in any way, sir," Peter put in earnestly. "We wouldn't tell a lie even to enlist in the Rangers."
Captain Manley was struck by the earnestness of the boys' faces, and after a pause he said to the sergeant,—
"That will do, Summers; I will take these lads up to my quarters and speak to them."
Then, motioning to the boys to follow him, he re-entered the barracks, and led the way up to his quarters.
"Sit down," he said, when they had entered his room. "Now, boys, this is a foolish freak upon your part, which you will regret some day. Of course you have run away from school."
"No, sir, we have run away from home," Tom said.
"So much the worse," Captain Manley said gravely. "Tell me frankly, why did you do so? No unkindness at home can excuse boys from running away from their parents."
"We have none, sir," Tom said. "We have lost them both—our mother many years ago, our father six months. Our only living relation, except a younger sister, is an aunt, who considers us as nuisances, and who, although meaning to do her duty, simply drives us out of our minds."
Captain Manley could not resist a smile. "Do you not go to school?"
"We did go to a school near, but unfortunately it is broken up."
Captain Manley caught a little look of amusement between the boys. "I should not be surprised if you had something to do with its breaking up," he said with a laugh. "But to return to your coming here. There is certainly less reason against your joining than I thought at first, but you are too young."
"We are both strong, and are good walkers," Tom said.
"But you cannot be much over fifteen," Captain Manley said, "and your brother is younger."
"We are accustomed to strong exercise, sir, and can thrash most fellows of our own size."
"Very likely," Captain Manley said, "but we can't take that into consideration. You are certainly young for buglers for service work; however, I will go across with you to the orderly-room, and hear what the colonel says."
Crossing the barrack-yard, they found the colonel was in and disengaged.
"Colonel Tritton," Captain Manley said, "these lads want to enlist as buglers."
The colonel looked up and smiled. "They look regular young pickles," he said. "I suppose they have run away from school."
"Not from school, colonel. They have lost both parents, and live with an aunt, with whom they don't get on well. There does not seem to be much chance of their being claimed."
"You are full young," the colonel said, "and I think you will be sorry, boys, for the step you want to take."
"I don't think so, sir," Tom said.
"Of course, you don't at present," the colonel said. "However, that is your business. Mind, you will have a rough time of it; you will have to fight your way, you know."
"I'll back them to hold their own," Captain Manley said, laughing. "When I went out at the barrack-gate just now there was a row among a lot of recruiting sergeants, and when I went up to put a stop to it, I found that a fellow of the 15th had chaffed these boys when they went up to speak to Summers, and that they had got the best of it in that line; and the fellow having lost his temper and struck one of them, he found himself on his back on the pavement. The boy had tripped him up in an instant."
The colonel laughed, and then said suddenly and sharply to Peter,
"Where did you learn that trick, youngster?"
"At Eton," Peter answered promptly, and then colored up hotly at his brother's reproachful glance.
"Oh, ho! At Eton, young gentlemen, eh!" the colonel said. "That alters the matter. If you were at Eton your family must be people of property, and I can't let you do such a foolish thing as enlist as buglers."
"Our father lost all his money suddenly, owing to a blackguard he trusted cheating him. He found it out, and it killed him," Tom said quietly.
The colonel saw he was speaking the truth. "Well, well," he said kindly, "we must see what we can do for you, boys. They are young, Manley, but that will improve, and by the time that they have been a year at the depôt—"
"Oh, if you please, colonel," Tom said, "we want to go on foreign service, and it's knowing that your regiment was under orders for foreign service we came to it."
"Impossible!" the colonel said shortly.
"I am very sorry for that, sir," Tom said respectfully, "for we would rather belong to this regiment than any in the service; but if you will not let us go with it we must try another."
"Why would you rather belong to us than to any other?" the colonel asked, as the boys turned to leave the room.
"I had rather not say, sir," Tom said. "We have a reason, and a very good one, but it is not one we should like to tell."
The colonel was silent for a minute. He was struck with the boys' appearance and manner, and was sorry at the thought of losing them, partly from interest in themselves, partly because the sea service was generally so much more attractive to boys, that it was not easy to get them to enlist as buglers and drummers.
"You see, lads, I should really like to take you, but we shall be starting in a fortnight, and it would be altogether impossible for you to learn to sound the bugle, to say nothing of learning the calls, by that time."
"We can't play