Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/202

180 An' some one shouted ' ' Ook it!' an' it come to sove-ki-poo,

An' we chucked our rifles from us—O my Gawd!

There was thirty dead an' wounded on the ground we wouldn't keep—

No, there wasn't more than twenty when the front begun to go;

But, Christ! along the line o' flight they cut us up like sheep,

An' that was all we gained by doin' so.

I 'eard the knives be'ind me, but I dursn't face my man,

Nor I don't know where I went to, 'cause I didn't 'alt to see,

Till I 'eard a beggar squealin' out for quarter as 'e ran,

An' I thought I knew the voice an'—it was me!

We was 'idin' under bedsteads more than 'arf a march away;

We was lyin' up like rabbits all about the country side;