No More Learning

The visitor displayed a cutting-whip, brandished it, and advanced as seriously as if he were on parade. Lucian met him, seized the cutting-whip in one hand and his assailant's collar in the other, disarmed him, shook him, and threw him lightly into an easy-chair, where he lay gasping and surprised. Lucian hung the cutting-whip on the wall. He looked at his visitor with a speculative gaze.
' What shall I do with you, young sir? ' he said. ' Throw you out of the window, or grill you on the fire, or merely kick you downstairs? I suppose you
thought that because I happen to be what your lot call " a writin' feller," there wouldn't be any spunk in me, eh? '
The visitor was placed in a strange predicament. He had expected the sweet savour of groans and tears
LUCIAN THE DREAMER
243
a muscleless, flabby ink-and-parchment thing: this man had hands which could grip Hke steel and
frorrn
Moreover, he was cool—he actually sat down again and continued his breakfast.
iron.
* I hope I didn't squeeze your throat too much,' said Lucian politely. ' I have a nasty trick of forgetting
If you feel shaken, help yourself to a brandy and soda, and then
that my hands are abnormally developed.
tell me what's the matter. '
The youth shook his head hopelessly.
' Y—you have insulted the Army ! ' he stammered at
last.
* Of which, I take it, you are the self-appointed
Well, I'm afraid I don't plead guilty, because, you see, I know myself rather better than you
champion.
know me. But you came to punish me? Well, again, you see you can't do that. Shall I give you satisfaction of some sort? There are pistols in that cabinet —shall we shoot at each other across the table? There are rapiers in the cupboard—shall we try to prick each other? '
The young gentleman in the easy-chair grew more and more uncomfortable. He was being made ridicul-
ous, and the man was laughing at him.
' I have heard of the tricks of foreign
duellists,' he
said rudely.
Lucian 's face flushed.
' That was ' a silly thing to say, my boy,' he said, not
unkindly. Most men would throw you out of the window for it. As it is, I'll let you oft easy. You'll find some gloves in that cupboard—get them out and take your coat off. I'm not an Englishman, as you just now reminded me in very pointed fashion, but I can use my fists. '
Then he took off his dressing-gown and rolled up his sleeves, and the youngster, who had spent many unholy hours in practising the noble art, looked at the poet's muscles with a knowing eye and realised that he was in for a very pretty scrap. He was a Uttle vain of his own
244
LUCIAN THE DREAMER
prowess, and fought for all he was worth, but at the end of five minutes he was a well-licked man, and at the expiration of ten was glad to be allowed to put on his coat and go.
Lucian flung his gloves into the comer of the room with a hearty curse. He stroked the satiny skin under which his muscle rippled smoothly. He had the arm of a blacksmith, and had always been proud of it. The remark of the drunken man came back to him. That was what they thought of him, was it? —that he was a mere slinger of ink, afraid of spilling his blood or suffering discomfort for the courage of his convictions? Well, they should see. England had gone mad with
the lust of blood and domination, and after all he was not her son. He had discharged whatever debt he owed her. To the real England, the true England that had fallen on sleep, he would explain everything, when the awakening came. It would be no crime to shoulder a rifle and strap a bandolier around one's shoulders in order to help the weak against the strong. He had fought with his pen, taking what he beheved to be the right and honest course, in the endeavour to convert
people who would not be converted, and who regarded his efforts as evidences of enmity. Very well: there seemed now to be but one straight path, and he would take it.
It was remembered afterwards as a great thing in Lucian's favour that he made no fuss about his next step. , He left London very quietly, and no one knew that he was setting out to join the men whom he honestly believed to be fighting for the best principles of liberty and freedom.
CHAPTER
XXXI
When the war broke out, Saxonstowe and his wife, after nearly three years of globe-trotting, were in Natal, where they had been studying the conditions of native labour. Saxonstowe, who had made himself well acquainted with the state of affairs m South Africa, knew that the coming struggle would be long and bitter
He and his wife entered into a discussion as to which they were to do: stay there, or return to England.
Sprats knew quite well what was in Saxonstowe s mind, and she unhesitatingly declared for South Africa. Then Saxonstowe, who had a new book on hand, put his work aside, and set the wires going, and within a few hours had been appointed special correspondent ot one of the London newspapers, with the prospect of hard
work and exciting times before him. Saxonstowe, ' And what am I to do? ' inquired Lady
inward thankfukiess that he was a rich man.
Before they knew where they were. Lord and Lady Saxonstowe were shut up in Ladysmith, and for one
of them at least there was not so much to do as he had anticipated, for there became little to record but the story of hope deferred, of gradual starvation, and ot death and disease. But Sprats worked double tides, unflinchingly and untiringly, and ahnost forgot that she had a husband who chafed because he could not get more than an occasional word over the wires to England.
At the end of the siege she was as gaunt as a far-travelled gypsy, and as brown, but her courage was as great as ever and her resolution just as strong. One day she received an ovation from a mighty concourse that sent
and answered her own question
* There wih be sick and wounded— m plenty, she said. * I shall organise a field-hospital,' and she went to work with great vigour and spent her husband's money with
before he could reply.
246
LUCIAN THE DREAMER
her, frightened and trembling, to shelter; when she emerged into the light of day again it was only to begin
reorganising her work in preparation for still more ardu- ous duties. The tide of war rolled on northwards, and Sprats followed, picking up the bruised and shattered jetsam which it flung to her. She had never indulged in questionings or speculations as to the rights or wrongs of the war. Her first sight of a wounded man had aroused all the old mothering instinct in her, and because she had no baby of her own she took every
man, Boer or Briton, into her arms and mothered him.
wounded
CHAPTER XXXII
A HUDDLED mass of fugitives—men, women, children, horses, cattle—crowded together in the dry bed of a river, seeking shelter amongst rocks and boulders and under shelving banks, subjected continually to a hurri- cane of shot and shell, choked by the fumes of the exploding Lyddite, poisoned by the stench of blood, saturated all through with the indescribable odour of death. Somewhere in its midst, caged like a rat, but still sulkily defiant, the peasant general fingered his
switch as he looked this way and that and saw no further chance of escape. In the distance, calmly waiting the inevitable end, the little man with the weather-beaten face and the grey moustaches hstened to the never- ceasing roar of his cannon demanding insistently the word of surrender that must needs come.
Saxonstowe, lying on a waterproof sheet on the floor of his tent, was writing on a board propped up in front of him. All that he wrote was by way of expressing his wonder, over and over again, that Cronje should hold out so long against the hell of fire which was playing in and around his last refuge. He was trying to realise what must be going on in the river bed, and the thought made him sick. Near him, writing on an upturned box, was another special correspondent who shared the
tent with him; outside, poHshing tin pannikins because he had nothing else to do, was a Cockney lad whom these two had picked up in Ladysmith and had attached as body-servant. He was always willing and always cheerful, and had a trick of singing snatches of popular songs in a desultory and disconnected way. His raucous voice came to them under the booming of the guns.
' Ow, 'ee's little but 'ee's wise, 'Ee's a terror for 'is size,
247
LUCIAN THE DREAMER
An' 'ee does not hadvertise: Do yer, Bobs? '
* What a voice that chap has ! ' said Saxonstowe's companion. 'It's like a wheel that hasn't been oiled for months! '
* Will yer kindly put a penny in my little tambourine, For a gentleman in khaki ordered sou-outh? '
chanted the poUsher of tin pans.
' They have a saying in Yorkshire, ' remarked Saxon-
stowe, ' to the effect that it's a poor heart that never
248
rejoices. '
' This chap must have a good
'un, then,' said the
other. Give us a pipeful of tobacco, will' Saxonstowe? Lord! will those guns never stop ?
' For the colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady, Are sisters hunder their skins,'
you,
sang the henchman.
* Will our vocalist never stop? ' said Saxonstowe,
handing over his pouch. ' He seems as unconcerned as if he were on a Bank Holiday. '
* We wos as 'appy as could be, that dye, —' Dahn at the Welsh 'Arp, which is 'Endon
The raucous voice broke off suddenly; the close- cropped Cockney head showed at the open flap of the
tent. sir,' said the
' Beg pardon, Cockney
'
but I
voice,
fink there's somethin' 'appened, sir—guns is dyin' orf,
sir. '
Saxonstowe and his fellow scribe sprang to their feet.
The roar of the cannon was dying gradually away, and it suddenly gave place to a strange and an awful silence.
LUCIAN THE DREAMER 249
Saxonstowe walked hither and thither about the bed of the river, turning his head jerkily to right and left.
'It's a shambles! — a shambles! — a shambles! he kept repeating. He shook his head and then his body as if he wanted to shake off the impression that was fast
stamping itself ineffaceably upon him. A shambles !
j
He pulled himself together and looked around him. It seemed to him that earth and sky were blotted out
he said again. , -, , -,
u-
in blood and fire, and that the smell of death had wrapped him so closely that he would never breathe freely again. Dead and dying men were everywhere. Near him rose a pile of what appeared to be freshly slaughtered meat—it was merely the result of the burst- ing of a Lyddite shell amongst a span of oxen. Near
him, too, stood a girl, young, not uncomely, with a bullet-wound showing in her white bosom from which she had just torn the bodice away; at his feet, amongst the boulders, were twisted, strange, grotesque shapes that had once been human bodies.
* There's a chap here that looks like an Enghshman,
j Saxonstowe turned, and found the man who shared his tent standing at his elbow, and pointed to a body
said a voice behind him. ,
i.
stretched out a yard or two away— the body of a well- formed man who had fallen on his side, shot through
his face half hidden in his arm-pit; near him, within reach of the nerveless fingers that had torn out a divot of turf in his last
and statuesque in death, caught the sunlight that straggled fitfully through the smoke-clouds which still
the heart. He lay as if asleep,
moment's spasmodic feeling for something to clutch at, lay his rifle: round his rough serge jacket was clasped a bandolier well stored with cartridges. His broad- brimmed hat had fallen off, and half his face, very white
curled over the bed of the river.
* Looks like an Englishman,' repeated
the special * Look at his hands, too—he hasn't
correspondent.
handled a rifle very long, I'm thinking. '
250
LUCIAN THE DREAMER
with perfunctory interest—there were so many dead men lying all about
in the dead man's face woke a chord in his memory : he went nearer and bent over him. His
Saxonstowe glanced
at the body
him. Something
brain was sick and dizzy with the horrors of the blood
and the stink of the slaughter. winked his eyes rapidly.
He stood up again, and
' No!
be—of course it can't be. What should Lucian be doing here? Of course it's' not he—it's mere imagina-
' No, no ! ' he heard himself saying. !
tion—mere im-ag-in-a-tion ' ' Here, hold up, old chap !
said his companion, pull- ing out a flask. ' Take a nip of that. Better? Hallo
—what's going on there? '
He stepped on a boulder and gazed in the direction
of a wagon round which some commotion was evident. Saxonstowe, without another glance at the dead man, stepped up beside him.
He saw a roughly built, rugged-faced man, wrapped in a much-worn overcoat that had grown green with age, stepping out across the plain, swishing at the herbage with a switch which jerked nervously in his hand. At his side strode a muscular-looking woman, hard of feature, brown of skin—a peasant wife in a faded skirt and a crumpled sun-bonnet. Near them marched a tall British officer in khaki; other Boers and
British, a group of curious contrasts, hedged them
down from the boulder. thank God! '
It can't
round.
' That's Cronje,' said the special correspondent,
stepped
The conquered was on his way to the conqueror.
LONDON AND GLASGOW: COLLINS' CLEAR-TYPE PRESS.
as he ' Well, it's over,
COLLINS' POPULAR NOVELS BY FOREMOST WRITERS OF THE DAY
FULL CLOTH ^Ifi LIBRARY BINDING
Complete List of Titles 4- These Charming People
5. Piracy
6. The Romantic Lady
50. The Green Hat
70. May Fair
139. Claire and Circumstances
176. The Moon Thro' Glass
85. The Splendour of Asia The Treasure of Ho
57- The Way of Stars 117. The Decoy
86. The Tapestry
87. Unity
88. Love*s Pilgrim
24. The Monkey Puzzle 39- That Kind of Man
138. All or Nothing 118. Wild Grapes
89. The Belated Reckoning 36. Old Wine
69. The Kingfisher
150. Strange Fruit 64. Experience
96. A Gay Lover 97- Safety Last
I. The Return
3- Memoirs of a Midget 153. Brighton Beach
162. Fair Lady
167. Life Isn't so Bad
14. The Foolish Lovers 129. The Wayward Man 166. Martin Pippin
170. Kaleidoscope
MICHAEL ARLEN MICHAEL ARLEN MICHAEL ARLEN MICHAEL ARLEN MICHAEL ARLEN
E. MARIA ALBANESI £. MARIA ALBANESI L. ADAMS BECK L. ADAMS BECK L. ADAMS BECK
J. D. BERESFORD J. D. BERESFORD J. D. BERESFORD J. D. BERESFORD J. D. BERESFORD J. D. BERESFORD J. D. BERESFORD
PHYLLIS BOTTOME PHYLLIS BOTTOME PHYLLIS BOTTOME PHYLLIS BOTTOME PHYLLIS BOTTOME
CATHERINE COTTON RUTHERFORD CROCKETT RUTHERFORD CROCKETT
WALTER DE LA MARE
WALTER DE LA MARE MRS. HENRY DUDENEY MAY EDGINTON MAY EDGINTON
ST. JOHN ERVINE ST. JOHN ERVINE
ELEANOR FARJEON SLEANOR FARJEON
COLLINS' POPULAR NOVELS
Complete List of 3/6 I20. Deep Currents
173. Lucien the Dreamer 33- The Crater
Titles— continued
A. fielding
j. s. Fletcher Robert gore-brown^
Robert gore-brownb
172. An Imperfect Lover
67. My Lady of the Chimney Corner
68. The Souls of Poor Folk 98. Told by an Idiot
99. Mystery at Geneva
100. Potterism
8.
Dangerous Ages 7- Orphan Island
52. Crewe Train
DR. ALEXANDER IRVINE DR. ALEXANDER IRVINE ROSE MACAULAY
ROSE MACAULAY ROSE MACAULAY ROSE MACAULAY ROSE MACAULAY ROSE MACAULAY ROSE MACAULAY
PHILIP MACDONALD CONAL o'RIORDAN CONAL o'rIORDAN conal o'riordan CONAL o'riordan CONAL o'riordan CONAL o'riordan
JOHN PARIS JOHN PARIS JOHN PARIS
RALPH RODD MRS. ALFRED SIDGWICK
MRS. ALFRED SIDGWICKl MRS. ALFRED SIDGWICKl MRS. ALFRED SIDGWICKJ MRS. ALFRED SIDGWICKl MRS. ALFRED SIDGWICF
KATHARINE TYNAN KATHARINE TYNAN KATHARINE TYNAN
ROMER WILSONf ROMER WILSON
HANNAH YATES HANNAH YATES
149. Keeping Up Appearances 134. Patrol
121. Soldier Born
II. Adam of Dublin
12. Adam and Caroline 55- In London
43- Married Life
153- Soldier of Waterloo
9- Sayonara 10. Kimono 33. Banzai
A Man Beguiled 122. The Bride's Prelude 103. London Mixture
63. None-Go-By
161. Come-by-Chance
95. Haroun of London
145. The Respectable Lady 171. Lover of Women
119. Greenlow
42. The Death of Society 130. Irene in the Centre 158. Dim Star
163.
104. Humming
53- Sack and Sugar
Bird
COLLINS' POPULAR NOVELS BY FOREMOST WRITERS OF THE DAY
155. 147.
143. 108.
40. 137. 148. 174.
105.
44.
The Instrument of Destiny The Silk Stocking Murders
j. d. beresford A. Berkeley
51.
133. The 142. The
19. The 144. The
Dalehouse Murder
Net Around Joan Ingilb^yy Diamonds
Golden Venture
Time- Worn Town Ravenswood Mystery
francis everton A. FIELDING J- S. FLETCHER
J- s. FLETCHER A. FIELDING J- S. FLETCHER
141.
152. The
hulbert footner ROBERT GORE-BROV/NE
FULL CLOTH 3J/6Q LIBRARY BINDING Detective Novels
lynn brock agatha Christie agatha Christie The Mystery of the Blue Train agatha Christie
The Slip Carriage Mystery The Big Four
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Man from the River G. d. h. and m. cole
Superintendent
Wilson's Holiday
G. D. H. and M. cole
Inspector French and the Starvel Tragedy
freeman wills crofts
Inspector
French and the Cheyne Mstery
freeman wills crofts
The
Grootc Park Murder freeman wills crofts
The
132. Queen of Qubs
127. The Murder of an M. P.
156. The Murder of Mrs. Davenport anthony gilbert
128. The Tragedy at Freyne 164. The White Crow
177. The Rasp
168. Without Judge or Jury
anthony gilbert
philip macdonald
philip macdonald ralph rodd
COLLINS' POPULAR NOVELS BY FOREMOST WRITERS OF THE DAY
FULL CLOTH 3/0 LIBRARY BINDING Wild West NoveZs
123. The Desert Girl
124. The Two-Gun Girl
Robert ames bennet Robert ames bennet Robert ames bennet Robert ames bennet Robert ames bennet
The Cow Country Killers 151. Ken of the Cow Country
136.
Deep Canyon
165. 178.
154. Bird of Freedom
The Mystery of the Four Abreast
COURTNEY RYLEY COOPER
The Boss of the Double E frank c. Robertson
The Boss of the Ten Mile Basin
FRANK C. ROBERTSON
146. The Boss of the Flying M frank c. Robertson
140. 157.
The Hidden Cabin 179. The Far Horizon 131. The Corral Riders
frank c. Robertson
frank c. Robertson charles wesley sanders charles wesley sanders
w. c. tuttle w. c. tuttle w. c. tuttle w. c. tuttle w. c. tuttle w. c. tuttle
175.
The Crimson Trail
126. Hashknife of the Canyon Trail 111. Hashknife of the Double Bar 8 112. Hashknife Lends a Hand
169.
82. Sun-Dog Loot
83. Rustlers' Roost
84. The Dead-Line
hugh pendexter
COIXINS' POPULAR NOVELS BY FOREMOST WRITERS OF THE DAY
2/6 Complete List of Titles
129. Ghost Stories
133- The White in the Black
61. Roseanne
116. Sally in Her Alley 160. Seed Pods
131. Quince Alley 132. Beanstalk
103. The Finger Post
169. Trilby
134. The Allbright Family
56. Big Peter
74. Pippin
99. The Graftons
MICHAEL ARLEN E. MARIA ALBANESI E. MARIA ALBANESI E. MARIA ALBANESI
MRS. HENRY DUDENEY MRS. HENRY DUDENEY MRS. HENRY DUDENEY MRS. HENRY DUDENEY
GEORGE DU MAURIER ARCHIBALD MARSHALL ARCHIBALD MARSHALL ARCHIBALD MARSHALL ARCHIBALD MARSHALL ARCHIBALD MARSHALL
no. Anthony Dare
127. The Education of Anthony Dare
159. That Island
163. Woman's Way
166. The Whipping Girl 137- Treasure Island
138. The Black Arrow 139. Catriona
140. Kidnapped
141. The Master of Ballantrae
ARCHIBALD MARSHALL ARCHIBALD MARSHALL RALPH RODD RALPH RODD
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
142. The Dynamiter
157- Prince Otto
165. New Arabian Nights
168. Island Nights' Entertainments
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON U5. Men Like Gods h. g. wells
COLLINS' POPULAR NOVELS BY FOREMOST WRITERS OF THE DAY
2/6
Complete List of Titles—continued
156. God, the Invisible King
16. The Passionate Friends
18. Tales of the Unexpected
21. The Research Magnificent
27- The First Men in the Moon 35- Tales of Life and Adventure 58. Marriage
43- In the Days of the Comet 51- Tales of Wonder
59- The Food of the Gods
68. Tono-Bungay
72. The History of Mr. Polly 75. Kipps
79- Love and Mr. Lewisham 89. The War in the Air
92. The World Set Free
106. A Modern Utopia
109. The Sleeper Awakes
III. The Invisible Man
118. The New Machiavelli
122. The Secret Places of the Hearrt 153- Mr. BritUng
156. The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman
H. G. WELLS H. G. WELLS H. G. WELLS H. G. WELLS H. G. WELLS H. G. WELLS H. G. WELLS H. G. WELLS H. G. WELLS H. G. WELLS H. G. WELLS H. G. WELLS H. G. WELLS V^ G. WELLS H. G. WELLS H. G. WELLS H. G. W^ELLS H. G. WELLS H. G. WELLS H. G.