Prev | Current Page 93 | Next

Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936

"Soldiers Three"

He sees the little orf'cer bhoy, an' comes up, talkin'
thick an' drowsy to himsilf. "Blood the young whelp!" he sez; "blood
the young whelp"; an' wid that he threw up his arms, shpun roun', an'
dropped at our feet, dead as a Paythan, an' there was niver sign or
scratch on him. They said 'twas his heart was rotten, but oh, 'twas
a quare thing to see!
'Thin we wint to bury our dead, for we wud not lave thim to the
Paythans, an' in movin' among the haythen we nearly lost that little
orf'cer bhoy. He was for givin' wan divil wather and layin' him aisy
against a rock. "Be careful, Sorr," sez I; "a wounded Paythan's worse
than a live wan." My troth, before the words was out of my mouth, the
man on the ground fires at the orf'cer bhoy lanin' over him, an' I saw
the helmit fly. I dropped the butt on the face av the man an' tuk his
pistol. The little orf'cer bhoy turned very white, for the hair av
half his head was singed away.
'"I tould you so, Sorr!" sez I; an', afther that, whin he wanted to
help a Paythan I stud wid the muzzle contagious to the ear. They dare
not do anythin' but curse. The Tyrone was growlin' like dogs over a
bone that had been taken away too soon, for they had seen their dead
an' they wanted to kill ivry sowl on the ground.


Pages:
81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105