"He does not know how many years ago," said Dirkovitch, facing the mess, "but he says it was very long ago in a war. I think that there was an accident. He says he was of this glorious and distinguished regiment in the war.""The rolls! The rolls! Holmer, get the rolls!" said little Mildred, and the adjutant dashed off bare-headed to the orderly-room, where the muster-rolls of the regiment were kept. He returned just in time to hear Dirkovitch conclude, "Therefore, my dear friends, I am most sorry to say there was an accident which would have been reparable if he had apologised to that our colonel, which he had insulted."Then followed another growl which the colonel tried to beat down.
The mess was in no mood just then to weigh insults to Russian colonels.
"He does not remember, but I think that there was an accident, and so he was not exchanged among the prisoners, but he was sent to another place - how do you say? - the country. So, he says, he came here. He does not know how he came. Eh? He was at Chepany," -the man caught the word, nodded, and shivered, - "at Zhigansk and Irkutsk. I cannot understand how he escaped. He says, too, that he was in the forests for many years, but how many years he has forgotten - that with many things. It was an accident; done because he did not apologise to that our colonel. Ah!"Instead of echoing Dirkovitch's sigh of regret, it is sad to record that the White Hussars livelily exhibited un-Christian delight and other emotions, hardly restrained by their sense of hospitality. Holmer flung the frayed and yellow regimental rolls on the table, and the men flung themselves at these.
"Steady! Fifty-six - fifty-five - fifty-four," said Holmer. "Here we are. 'Lieutenant Austin Limmason. Missing.' That was before Sebastopol. What an infernal shame! Insulted one of their colonels, and was quietly shipped off. Thirty years of his life wiped out.""But he never apologised. Said he'd see him damned first,"chorused the mess.
"Poor chap! I suppose he never had the chance afterwards. How did he come here?" said the colonel.
The dingy heap in the chair could give no answer.
"Do you know who you are?"
It laughed weakly.
"Do you know that you are Limmason -Lieutenant Limmason of the White Hussars?"Swiftly as a shot came the answer, in a slightly surprised tone, "Yes, I'm -Limmason, of course." The light died out in his eyes, and the man collapsed, watching every motion of Dirkovitch with terror. A flight from Siberia may fix a few elementary facts in the mind, but it does not seem to lead to continuity of thought.
The man could not explain how, like a homing pigeon, he had found his way to his own old mess again. Of what he had suffered or seen he knew nothing. He cringed before Dirkovitch as instinctively as he had pressed the spring of the candlestick, sought the picture of the drum-horse, and answered to the toast of the Queen. The rest was a blank that the dreaded Russian tongue could only in part remove. His head bowed on his breast, and he giggled and cowered alternately.
The devil that lived in the brandy prompted Dirkovitch at this extremely inopportune moment to make a speech. He rose, swaying slightly, gripped the table-edge, while his eyes glowed like opals, and began:
"Fellow-soldiers glorious - true friends and hospitables. It was an accident, and deplorable - most deplorable." Here he smiled sweetly all round the mess. "But you will think of this little, little thing. So little, is it not? The Czar! Posh! I slap my fingers - I snap my fingers at him. Do I believe in him? No! But in us Slav who has done nothing, him I believe. Seventy - how much - millions peoples that have done nothing - not one thing. Posh!
Napoleon was an episode." He banged a hand on the table. "Hear you, old peoples, we have done nothing in the world - out here.
All our work is to do; and it shall be done, old peoples. Get a-way!" He waved his hand imperiously, and pointed to the man. "You see him. He is not good to see. He was just one little - oh, so little -accident, that no one remembered. Now he is That! So will you be, brother soldiers so brave so will you be.
But you will never come back. You will all go where he is gone, or" - he pointed to the great coffin-shadow on the ceiling, and muttering, "Seventy millions - get a-way, you old peoples," fell asleep.
"Sweet, and to the point," said little Mildred. "What's the use of getting wroth? Let's make this poor devil comfortable."But that was a matter suddenly and swiftly taken from the loving hands of the White Hussars. The lieutenant had returned only to go away again three days later, when the wail of the Dead March, and the tramp of the squadrons, told the wondering Station, who saw no gap in the mess-table, that an officer of the regiment had resigned his new-found commission.
And Dirkovitch, bland, supple, and always genial, went away too by a night train. Little Mildred and another man saw him off, for he was the guest of the mess, and even had he smitten the colonel with the open hand, the law of that mess allowed no relaxation of hospitality.
"Good-bye, Dirkovitch, and a pleasant journey," said little Mildred.
"Au revoir," said the Russian.
"Indeed! But we thought you were going home?""Yes, but I will come again. My dear friends, is that road shut?"He pointed to where the North Star burned over the Khyber Pass.
"By Jove! I forgot. Of course. Happy to meet you, old man, any time you like. Got everything you want? Cheroots, ice, bedding?
That's all right. Well, au revoir, Dirkovitch.""Um," said the other man, as the tail-lights of the train grew small. "Of - all - the - unmitigated!"Little Mildred answered nothing, but watched the North Star and hummed a selection from recent Simla burlesque that had much delighted the White Hussars. It ran -I'm sorry for Mister Bluebeard, I'm sorry to cause him pain;But a terrible spree there's sure to be When he comes back again.
