Gil the Gunner: The Youngest Officer in the East

Joined to the love of a military life, I had all a boy's ideal notions of bravery and chivalry. By which I mean the frank, natural, outside ideas, full of the show and glitter,...

I passed the whole of the day in misery, thirsting for news with a very great thirst, but none came. The servants about the palace evidently knew nothing though, if they had, th...

In the eagerness of pursuit but small heed had been paid to the rajah's course, and hence it was that my father, who knew little of this side of the city, had been so taken by s...

At the appointed time the men fell in, rested a little, no doubt, but not one had slept, and after a few words respecting the importance of silence, Brace placed himself at thei...

As soon as I could drag my eyes from Ny Deen's mocking gaze, I looked round sharply for Dost, and a chill ran through me as I failed to see him. For the moment I hesitated to sp...

A thrill ran through me at the colonel's mention of Nussoor, and I listened eagerly to Brace's reply, for I had felt in a dread lest he should oppose the plan of marching on tha...

Bajgunge proved to be strongly occupied by the enemy, and after due reconnoitring, Brace felt that nothing could be done there, and determined to strike off across country for A...

I dared not go to the window now, for I knew I was right; and it was impossible for me to be aware of how much I might be watched, while a look might be sufficient, if exchanged...

Brace and the infantry officers passed between the guns, and took a few steps forward to meet the bearer of the flag of truce, who came forward alone and saluted them, but with...

I felt that if whoever it was would only have left me alone, I would not have cared; but to be bothered like that, when I was so sleepy, and when I had been so hard at work all...

The days passed slowly by, and one hour I was horribly dejected by the dulness of my existence, the next cheery and in high spirits, as I felt that I was getting stronger, and i...

The good-byes were said, and I was sent off with a ringing cheer by my old companions. My luggage had gone to the ship days before, and I had only a couple of tin cases to take...

I noticed all this, but our attention was taken up by the wounded man, to whose side we had rapidly descended, all thought of tigers being now at an end.

It was night when I awoke, refreshed and ready to ask myself whether it was a dream, one of the many vivid sleep scenes which I had conjured up since I had been there, wounded a...

There was a buzz of excitement. Coats flew off; two of our fellows eagerly pressed forward to act as seconds; my shirt-sleeves were rolled up over my thin arms, and in another i...

The rajah came upon me suddenly the next day, just when I was most disturbed, and had been lying down here and there, poring over that note with the strange characters till my h...

"What?" cried Brace, excitedly; and he raised his voice, so that I sprang to my feet, and snatched my sword from its scabbard with the edge grating in an ominous way as it left...

"Awake, Gil?" said a voice by me, and I started up to see that Brace was seated close by me, with his elbow upon his knee and his chin resting in his hand.

It was only exhaustion, and I woke the next morning very little the worse, and half expecting to find myself back in my tent and the journey part of a fevered dream. But the fir...

The doctor came the next day, and did not seem satisfied; the fact being that, on awakening, my mind was all on the fret. For I was always face to face with the thought of what...

"Gil," he said huskily, "it almost stunned me. The idea is as grand as it is simple. It is certain of success. My dear boy, what a brain you have!"

"I hope so," muttered the doctor. And then we toiled on and on, under the blazing sun, with our pieces growing so hot that they scorched our shoulders, but he man made a complai...

My heart beat faster than ever at his words, and as the troop advanced at a walk, wheeled, and then came along towards us, I felt that the time had nearly come, and offered up a...

The rajah did not come that day, nor the next, and it troubled me sadly, for it made me feel that he thought he was sure of me, and the more I led that solitary life, and satisf...

The strange silence that reigned in the palace, the dying out of the fierce glare of the fire, and utter exhaustion, at last weighed down my eyelids, and I dropped into an uneas...

As I saw the two attendants waiting there, and by the light of a lamp caught sight of a glittering uniform wonderfully like my ideas as given to the rajah in conversation, I fel...

My work was hard at Rambagh, for I had no measured hours. I was ambitious too; eager to master my profession, and in constant dread of exciting derision by making some mistake.

It was a delightful change, for the country was grand, the English society pleasant and hospitable, and the chief of the district most eager to be on friendly terms with the off...

Rough weather as soon as we were out of the mouth of the Thames gave me something else to think about, and I did not spend much time in calculating whether I liked Captain Brace...

My toilsome marches through a country that was generally deserted, we came to village after village in following the track of those guns; and generally it seemed as if the force...

He turned sharply and went for help while I congratulated myself on my power there. For it seemed that in most things I really only had to order to be implicitly obeyed.

I suppose it was the returning flush of strength which made my rest so pleasant during my stay in the rajah's palace, for my sleep was dreamless and delicious, and I awoke every...

The place did not seem so desolate and horrible in the bright morning light; and after we had bathed our faces in water brought for us by our host, who also produced some homely...

He crossed at once to my couch, and stood looking down at me, his handsome, thoughtful face, with its dark eyes, being wonderfully familiar, as he bent over me; and as he gazed,...

I was spared one trouble to add to my others that day, for the rajah did not come. If he had, I fear that he would have noticed my manner as being peculiar and strange. I dreade...

"Then three cheers for Sergeant Craig, if I lose my stripes for it," shouted the corporal again, who was as intoxicated with excitement as if he had partaken of drink--the vile...

The colonel was delighted with the position, knowing that, if the ammunition held out, he could, with Brace's help, make it a centre from which he could thrash twice as many of...

"Drowned? Dock water?" I said in a puzzled way; and then "Oh!" and I started up, but lay down and said "Oh!" again in a different tone of voice, for I had given my head a soundi...

That night passed away slowly as I lay listening, expecting at any moment to have some visitation before morning, and three times over I heard faint footsteps outside the tent,...

That day passed slowly away, with the heat increasing till the afternoon, and then slowly declining again towards evening. The greatest care was taken of the sepoy prisoners, an...

I remember feeling a kind of angry contempt for the magnificently dressed men who bowed down before this eastern potentate, and I believe I drew myself up stiffly in face of all...

I worried and fretted a great deal about that proposal of the rajah's, but I firmly declared that it was quite impossible, however tempting to my vanity. How could I become offi...

In my horror, as I saw the knife flash, and as my senses became under my control, I was about to cry aloud for help, but grasping this, the hideous-looking being clapped his han...

There was the sound of blows at each _that_, and then a volley of abuse as I neared the officers' quarters, and every word and blow came through the open windows.

I was not happy at Rambagh, for though the other officers were pleasant enough with me, Barton always seemed to be sneering at my efforts, and was ready to utter some disparagin...

I felt bound to tell Captain Brace of Lieutenant Barton's proposal respecting my horses, and he looked at me sharply. "Do you wish him to manage that for you?" he said.

"No, no, sir; that will do no good," he replied, laughing. "It's mental pain, because I'm so helpless. I want to be on my legs again, and then on a horse. It's horrible being ca...

I suppose it was through being weak, and having passed through a feverish state, which made me dream to such a tremendous extent, with everything so real and vivid that it was h...

"His old wound, colonel. Broken out with the exertion, perhaps from a blow," some one was saying when I opened my eyes, and saw the softly glittering stars over my head. Then al...

I was horribly suspicious about that military tailor in Saint James's Street. Over and over again I felt that he must be laughing at me, as he passed his tape round my chest and...

I stayed by my father, who, in the intervals of giving orders for the occupation of the palace by the troops, the planting of sentries and pickets, and the stoppage of all pilla...

I went back to my tent directly after, glad to lie down and think of my position, and to try and work out some course to follow when the rajah came back, as I felt convinced he...

My appearance excited plenty of surprise as we reached the front of the palace, where a portion of my father's regiment had now fallen in, the enemy having taken flight, and a c...