Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/569

 INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918 551

Ubique means the tearin' drift where, breech-blocks jammed

with mud,

The khaki muzzles duck an' lift across the khaki flood. Ubique means the dancing plain that changes rocks to Boers. Ubique means the mirage again an' shellin' all outdoors.

Ubique means "Entrain at once for Grootdefeatfontein"! Ubique means "Off-load your guns" at midnight in the

rain! Ubique means "More mounted men. Return all guns

to store." Ubique means the R. A. M. R. Infantillery Corps!

Ubique means that warnin' grunt the perished linesman

knows, When o'er 'is strung an' sufferin' front the shrapnel sprays 'is

foes;

An' as their firin' dies away the 'usky whisper runs From lips that 'ave n't drunk all day: "The Guns! Thank

Gawd, the Guns!"

Extreme, depressed, point-blank or short, end-first or any'ow, From Colesberg Kop to Quagga's Poort from Ninety-Nine

till now

By what I've 'card the others tell an' I in spots 'ave seen, There's nothin* this side 'Eaven or 'Ell Ubique does n't mean!

THE RETURN

(All Arms)

DEACE is declared, an' I return

To 'Ackneystadt, but not the same; Things 'ave transpired which made me learn The size and meanin' of the game.