The Project Gutenberg EBook of With Rifle and Bayonet, by F.S. Brereton

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: With Rifle and Bayonet
A Story of the Boer War

Author: F.S. Brereton

Illustrator: Wal Paget

Release Date: June 20, 2010 [EBook #32918]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH RIFLE AND BAYONET ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

With Rifle and Bayonet, by Captain F.S. Brereton, R.A.M.C..

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________
WITH RIFLE AND BAYONET, BY CAPTAIN F.S. BRERETON, R.A.M.C..

CHAPTER ONE.

A SAD MISTAKE.

The last few rays of a cold September sunset were streaming through the
High Street of a large and populous village called Redford, in the
county of Surrey, lighting up the pretty red-brick cottages and casting
a deep shadow beyond the quaint and tumble-down old porch which led to
the church. A few mellow shafts had slipped by it, and, struggling
through the iron bars of a massive gate, travelled up a long gravel
drive and cast a ruddy glow on the windows of a fine country mansion.

In one of the rooms facing the sunset, a man and a woman were standing
opposite one another, engaged in angry conversation, while outside, on
the great staircase, the subject of their dispute, a boy of about
eleven, was slowly making his way upward, stopping now and again to let
his head drop upon his folded arms against the banisters, and sob as if
his heart would break. At last, after many stops, he reached a landing
midway up, and was just in the act of succumbing once more to his grief
when a jeering and unsympathetic laugh from above caught his ear, and
caused him to give a violent start. Instantly the lad dried his eyes,
and choked back his sobs. Then, with a sudden gesture, as if of
determination to forget his sorrow, he crossed the landing, and with his
head now held proudly erect in the air, ran up the remaining stairs and
was quickly out of sight.

Meanwhile, in the room below, the man and woman faced one another in the
gathering gloom, while angry words passed between