He did not entertain the thought of failure to hold
the crossroads, and he was so certain that General Baines would come
with his division that he could almost see the advance-guard trotting
toward him down the trunk road. But there is no accounting for a
soldier's moods, and something told him--something deep down inside
him that he could neither name nor understand--that he was out now
on the adventure of a lifetime, and that the heart-cord which had
held him tight to England all these years had been cut. He felt gloomy
and dispirited, but not a man of the nine who followed him had the
slightest inkling of it.
He halted them outside the guardroom, and bullydamned two of them
because some unimportant part of their accouterments was missing;
and he "'Tshuned" them, and stood them at ease, and "'Tshuned" them
again, until he had them jumping at the word. Then he marched them
two abreast in and out among the huts in search of any sign of native
servants. They found no sign of any one at all. Though in that
black darkness it would have been quite possible for half a hundred
men to lie undetected.
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