Benton of the Royal Mounted

BENTON OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED

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Title: Benton of the Royal Mounted

Author: Ralph S. Kendall

Release Date: January 20, 2013 [EBook #41889]

Language: English

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BENTON

OF THE

ROYAL MOUNTED

A TALE OF THE ROYAL

NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE

BY

RALPH S. KENDALL

Let us now praise famous men—

Men of little showing—

For their work continueth,

And their work continueth,

Broad and deep continueth,

Greater than their knowing!

—Kipling

GROSSET & DUNLAP

PUBLISHERS—NEW YORK

Copyright 1918 by John Lane Company

FOREWORD

The scenes of this story belong to bygone days. As the passer-by views the ugly half-constructed railway terminus which now sprawls itself over the original site of that historic group of Police buildings, known as the Post, little does he appreciate the pangs of real regret which stir the hearts of old members of the Force, as they recall associations of earlier years.

Scattered now beyond the writer’s ken are those good fellows with whom he served in years gone by. They were men of a type fast disappearing, with whom any one would have been proud to associate and call comrades. No longer do those once orderly grounds resound with the clear notes of the trumpet-call, the neighing of troop-horses, or the harsh-barked word of command. Gone is the old Guardroom at the gates of the main entrance. The spot where the O.C.’s house lay half hidden amidst its clustering shrubbery and trim, well-kept lawn and kitchen garden, is now but a drab area of railway tracks. Missing is the towering flag staff, from whose top-gaff, visible for miles around, there flew from Reveille to Retreat the brave emblem of our Empire.

But today, while these lines are being penned, many members and ex-members of the old Force are still sternly serving that flag; gaining well-deserved military honors, shedding their blood, and laying down their lives in the great and terrible struggle for supremacy between Human Liberty, and Iron Oppression that overshadows the world.

Aye! ... small wonder that the sight of the old spot awakens strange memories in those of us who were stationed there in our youth. Members of a force of comparatively small numbers, it is true, but with a reputation for efficiency, discipline, and stern adherence to duty which has rarely been equaled, and is too widely known to need any further eulogy in this story.

—R. S. K.

PART I

CHAPTER I

"We’ve some of us prospered, and some of us failed.

But we all of us heave a sigh

When we think of the times that we used to have

In those happy days gone by.

When we used to whistle, and work, and sing,

Make love, drink, gamble, and have our fling;

Caring little for what the morrow might bring—

In those good old days gone by."

—Memories

With the outlines of its shadowy white walls and dark roof silhouetted in sharp relief against a glorious full moon, the big main building of the old Mounted Police Post of L Division stood forth—like a lone monument to the majesty of British Law. A turfed square, framed within a border of whitewashed stones, lay at its front like a black carpet. Clustered about the central structure were the long, low-lying guardroom, stables, quartermaster’s store, and several smaller adjacent buildings comprising the Barracks. Stray patches of silvery light illuminated the dark recesses between them. It was a perfect night following an unparalleled June day in sunny South Alberta.

The Post, with its shadowy outlines, presented a striking contrast to its activity by day. In the daytime gangs of prisoners in their checkered jail garb were to be seen tramping sedately here and there, engaged on various jobs about the carefully kept grounds. An armed escort followed grimly behind each gang. Police teams, hitched to buck-boards and heavy, high-seated transport wagons, arrived and departed with a clatter. Mounted men, on big upstanding horses, came and went continually, each rider intent upon his own particular mission. At the guardroom, the quartermaster’s store, and the orderly-room the same ordered action and busy preoccupation were noticeable.

The only sounds that disturbed the peaceful serenity of the moonlit scene proceeded from a lighted open window in the center of the main building, where the men’s quarters and the regimental canteen were located. An uproarious hilarity resounded through the stillness; the shrill yaps of a pup and the tinkling of a piano rising above the tumult of song and laughter.

These jovial evidences of good fellowship floated across the square, not unwelcomely, to the ears of a solitary rider, whose weary horse was bearing him slowly along the hard graveled driveway which led from the main gateway to the stables. Dismounting somewhat stiffly, the man stood for a moment, listening to the sounds of revelry. He gazed silently toward the beacon of good cheer which seemed to beckon him. Then suddenly turning on his heel, he trudged wearily on to his destination, leading his mount.

After spending half an hour or more in off-saddling, rubbing down, and attending scrupulously, if mechanically, to his animal’s wants, the horseman emerged from the stable, locked the door, and walked slowly across the square to the Canteen.

Duly arriving at his cheerful haven, the newcomer opened the canteen door and for a moment or two silently contemplated the all-familiar scene of a large, well-lighted room with a bar at one end, behind which, on rows of shelves, were stacked various kinds of dry provisions, tobacco in all its forms, and miscellaneous odds and ends of a mounted policeman’s requirements supplementary to his regular kit.

Seated around small tables, playing cards, or else perched upon high stools against the bar, he beheld a score or so of bronzed, soldierly-looking men of all ages, ranging from twenty to forty. They were dressed variously—some in the regulation uniform of the Force—i.e., scarlet serge tunic, dark-blue cord riding-breeches with the broad yellow stripe down the side, and high brown Strathcona boots with straight-shanked, cavalry jack spurs attached. Some again—with an eye to comfort alone—just in loose, easy, brown duck fatigue slacks. Many of the older members might have been remarked wearing the active-service ribbons of former campaigns in which they had served.

Their day’s duty over, careless and jovial they sat, amidst the tobacco-smoke-hazy atmosphere, smoking and drinking their beer and exchanging good-natured repartee which occasionally was of a nature that has caused a certain great writer to affirm, with well-grounded conviction, that single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints. Poor enough stuff it was for the most part, I fancy, but there! ... we were easily satisfied—we were not inclined to be over-fastidious in the Canteen, and anyhow ... it passed the time away.

At the piano was an ex-Dublin Fusileer, with a comical face and an accent suggestive of Silver Street, who acted as general accompanyist. His own vocal talent was being contributed just now, and a chorus of shouts, banging of beer tankards and stamping of feet greeted the final verse of his song, the burden of which was—

"An’ whin we gits to Donnybrook Fair, comes Thady, with his fiddle,

An’ all th’ bhoys an’ colleens there a-dancin’ down th’ middle;

Shpuds, shillaleghs, pigs an’ potheen—all as ye thrapsed along—

Hurroo! for a chune on th’ nob av ’um who’d intherrrupt me song!".

A little fox terrier pup, clinging with ludicrous gravity to a somewhat precarious position behind a man who was perched all doubled up on one of the high stools aforesaid, growled and snapped with puppy viciousness at all teasing attempts to dislodge him, adding to the general uproar. His master, Constable Markham, who, from certain indisputably simian peculiarities of feature and habits, was not inaptly designated the Monk, had, as the result of his frequent libations, succeeded in cultivating—what, in canteen parlance was termed—a singing jag. Now, elbows on bar, he began to bellow out a lone doggerel ditty for his own exclusive benefit. Something where each bucolic verse wound up with—

"O be I I, or bain’t I I—

I tell ee I bain’t zuch a vule as I luke!"

The Orderly-room Sergeant, Dudley, a tall, good-looking fair man about thirty, who, leaning on the bar alongside was endeavoring amidst the din to carry on a conversation with a corporal named Harrison, turned somewhat wearily to the maudlin vocalist.

Oh, now, for the love of Mike! ... try an’ forget it, Monk, do! he drawled. "Charity begins at home! ... as if there wasn’t enough racket in here without you adding your little pipe! ... sitting there all humped up an’ hawkin’ away like a—old crow on his native muck-heap! ... Be I I, or bain’t I I? he exploded, with a snort of derision at the other’s uncouth Somersetshire dialect, and after a long pause: By gum! there’s no mistake about you ... you’re well named! You’d be quite at home in the jungle!"

He faced round again to the grinning corporal. Say, Harrison, he resumed, don’t know if Benton’s come in yet, do you? He lowered his voice confidentially. ‘Father’s’ called him in about something and I want to see him directly he lands in—first crack out of the box.

His eyes, wandering vaguely over the noisy crowd as he spoke, suddenly dilated with surprised recognition as they lighted upon the newcomer, whose unobtrusive entrance amidst the general revelry had somehow escaped his notice.

Talk of the devil! he ejaculated with easy incivility; why here the —— is! Why, hello, Ben! How’s things goin’ in Elbow Vale?

The object of this familiarity, walking silently forward to the bar with a whimsical smile on his bronzed, dusty countenance, merely opened his mouth to which he pointed in dumb show.

Dear me! remarked the Orderly-room Sergeant sympathetically, as bad as all that? Here, Bob! set ’em up! ... give Sergeant Benton a ‘long ’un’!

The long ’un tendered by the canteen orderly arrived and disappeared, another following speedily on top of it; their recipient then, his thirst temporarily appeased, turned to the two non-coms.

There remains engraven indelibly upon the memory of the writer, as he recalls the striking personal appearance and quietly forceful character of Ellis Benton, a slightly saturnine, still face, with high, bold, regular features, suggestive rather of the ancient Roman type; coldly handsome in its clean-cut patrician mold but marred somewhat by a peculiar thin old scar, like a whip-lash, which extended from an angle of the grim-lipped yet tender mouth up to the left cheek bone. This facial disfigurement contrived to give him an expression of faint perpetual cynicism, as it were, which was accentuated by a pair of tired-looking pale gray eyes, deeply set under thick, dark, level brows—eyes which seemed to glow at times with a somber light like smoldering fire in their depths—eyes that were vaguely disturbing, bidding you beware of the man’s ruthless anger when aroused.

Altogether it was a remarkable face with its indefinable stamp of iron-willed, quietly reckless courage, indicative of a strenuous past and open with the possibilities for good or evil alike, as caprice should happen to sway its possessor’s varying moods.

And yet, strange to say, in spite of his hard-bitten, cynical exterior and characteristics that verged sometimes on actual brutality, deep, deep down in his complex soul Ellis Benton hid an almost womanish tenderness, coupled with a sensitive artistic temperament that few were aware of or would have credited. In figure he was splendidly proportioned. Not overly tall, but with the lean, wiry flanks, broad, square shoulders, and slim waist of the trained athlete that denoted great activity, and the possession of immense concentrated strength whenever he chose to use it. The Stetson hat, tipped back, exposed slightly graying, closely cropped brown hair. But the young-looking face dispelled at once the first impression of age, for Ellis was only thirty-eight.

His well-fitting uniform, consisting of a stable jacket of the regulation brown duck, on which were noticeable the Distinguished Conduct, and the King’s and Queen’s South African campaign ribbons, riding-breeches, boots and spurs, was thickly covered with dust, for he had ridden into the Post from his detachment which lay many weary miles to the south.

Well, he remarked to the Orderly-room Sergeant and, with significant emphasis, what’s doin’ now?

For the most part he spoke lazily in the slipshod, drawling vernacular acquired from long residence in the West, though when occasion arose he could revert naturally and easily to the educated speech of his early upbringing.

Dudley did not reply at first but shot a warning, almost imperceptible, sidelong glance towards the crowd, enjoining silence. Obeying the other’s gesture, the detachment sergeant held his peace awhile, and presently the two men, moving away from the bar, seated themselves at one of the small tables and began to talk together earnestly in low tones.

The clamor around them increased. Out broke the old barrack-room chorus Johnny Green, which, to the tune of the Sailor’s Hornpipe goes, as all Service men are aware:

"Oh, say, Johnny Green! did you ever see the Queen?

Did you ever catch a Blue-jacket lovin’ a Marine?

May the Rock of Gibraltar take a runnin’ jump at Malta

If I ever see a nigger with a white—rum-tum."

"So that, concluded the Orderly-room Sergeant, is what the old man’s got you in for. Did you make a good job of it?"

Benton’s pale, deeply set eyes began to glow with their peculiar baleful light.

Did I? he echoed mirthlessly. Well, I should smile!... An’ I’ll make a better one still when I go back. I’ll bash that —— till he spits blood!

He uttered the threat in an even, passionless, unraised voice, as if it were just the merest commonplace remark. A canteen-chant held its own with steady insistence:

Three—men—in-a-boat, inaboat,

Three—men—all-very-dry,

Three—men—ridin’-a-Nannygoat,

Go it you—! you’ve only one eye.

Dudley summarized briefly, in a tense undertone, the thing that Benton need not be, regarding him closely meanwhile with slightly anxious eyes. The bronzed, reckless face—naturally somber when in repose—wore a terribly ruthless expression just then.

Oh, now, forget it, Ben, was his half joking admonition. What the d—l’s the use of you runnin’ amuck again an’ makin’ bad worse?... That won’t help matters one little bit ... an’ you know it.

Ever and anon—above the roar of the Canteen, not unlike the booming note of a bittern amid the croaking and chirping of all the other lesser denizens of some swamp—would rise the mighty brogue of the genial Constable O’Hara, in a general exhortation to:

"Come on! Fwet yure whustles an’ sing-g, ye scutts, with ‘gr-reat gusto.’ For ut was:

Down, down, in swate Counthy Down,

An’ th’ pore ol’ night-watchman was jus’ passin’ roun;

Puts his hand to his nob to feel where he was hit—

Sez he Holy Shmoke! but Oi’m—

The stentorian voice broke off short as the vocalist glanced suspiciously at the empty glass at his elbow which a minute before had been full.

Here, quoth he with some heat; "who was ut dhrunk my beer?... Was ut you, Tabuteau?... Eyah, now! but thot’s a Galway man’s thrick ivry toime!... Fill ut up agin, an’ kape ut filled contihnuous, tu, ye Fenian rapparees, d’ye hear?... else, begob! ye can get some other shtiff tu blow the ‘Pipes av Pan’ for ye!... Come on, now!... fwet yure whustles an’ opin yure thraps an’ sing-g, ye half-baked omadhauns! ... Now, thin! all together! For ut was:

Not las’ night, but th’ night behfure,

Tu tohm-cahts come a-knockin’ at th’ dhure"

Ellis remained very still for some time, staring at his companion with an absent, brooding face.

Just think what it’d mean, pursued Dudley. "As this matter stands just now you have got a reasonable show of getting away with it; but, I tell you flat, old man ... a second edition of it wouldn’t go.... You know what ‘Father’s’ like in Orderly-room. You never know which way he’s going to jump.... You’d be ‘broke’ for a certainty, anyway.... I don’t want to see your name in ‘G.O.’s’ that way.... Come, now! will you be a wise guy an’ listen to your Uncle Dud?"

Thus he pleaded with the man who was to him a comrade and a sincere friend.

Oh, well, responded Benton at last, wearily, with an oath. I guess I’ll let up on that stiff this time. I handed him enough to last for a bit, anyway, so that’s some satisfaction.

He bit off the end of a cigar which the other handed to him, continuing: "Oh, I’ll get away with it all hunkadory ... been up against it before ... lots of times.... Guess I can make the grade—that is, if ‘Father’ does come to Orderly-room in anything like a good temper tomorrow."

Dudley, his point gained, got up and fetched two fresh tankards of beer.

Were you ever at such a howling ‘gaff’ before in all your life? he remarked irritably. I’ll bet ‘Father’ can hear ’em right across the square there. And, as a penetrating Cockney voice then uplifted itself, how’s that for ‘Whitechapel’? ... listen to ‘Tork abaht Tompkins.’

Too ’ard! too ’ard! An’ th’ ol’ duck said,

as she waddled dahn th’ yard

"Oh, I can ’atch a turkey or ’atch a chick

But I’m—if I can ’atch ’arf a brick!

It’s a—bit bit,—bit, bit—bit bit too ’ard!"

His audience, tickled beyond measure at the inimitable coster accent which, for many years has been so famously exploited by Mr. Albert Chevalier, egged this performer on to further efforts. Nothing loath, he complied, and presently the Canteen was shaking with:

Oh, nah I’m goin’ to be a reg’lar torff,

A-drivin’ in me kerridge an’ me pair,

Wiv a top-’at on me ’ead, an’ fevvers in me bed

An’ call meself th’ Dook of Barney-fair.

As-stir-th’-can rahnd th’ collar o’ me coat,

An’ a Piccadilly winder in me eye;

Goblimey! ’ear th’ costers a-shoutin’ in yer lug:

Oh! leave us in yer will afore yer die!

On went the singing, shouting pandemonium. Benton’s face began to clear a little. He had not been in the Post for a long time and the homely racket and the beer combined, gradually had the effect of making him forget his troubles for the time being.

An—d ... the elephant walked round,

And the band began to play,

So all you beggars that cannot sing!

You’d better get out of the way!

A dozen or so of unprintable limericks followed this announcement, contributed in rotation by various members of the community, the elephant chorus walking around solemnly at the conclusion of each one. A particularly ingenious composition just then drew a perfect storm of laughter from the genial crowd, Ellis (sad to relate) guffawing loudly with the rest.

Sacred Billy! he ejaculated, grinning at Dudley, but you’re sure a tough bunch in this old Post.... Did you hear that one?... Well!... this is no place for a parson’s son!

The Orderly-room Sergeant did not answer for a moment, then an expression, which was a mixture of amusement and disgust, slowly overspread his rather refined face, and a snorting, reluctant chuckle escaped him.

Is that so?... ‘Many’s the true word spoken in jest’! he retorted. "Porteous—the young devil who came across with that one, is a ‘parson’s son,’ as it happens, my boy.... His old man’s the Dean of some fat living or another in the South of England.... By George, though!... I’m getting just about fed up with that stuff, night after night.... Tip us a stave, Ben!... start in now and sing us something decent for a change."

He got up suddenly from the table and, lifting his tankard high as if for a toast, bawled Order! A slight lull followed, taking advantage of which, he called out:

Say, you fellows!... I propose we call on Sergeant Benton, here, for a song!

A vociferous assent greeted his suggestion immediately, and all eyes were turned on Ellis, with encouraging shouts of: You bet!... That’s the talk! Come, on, Sergeant! please!... Order, there!... Shut your traps for a bit! For, they all knew that when in the mood he could sing.

Benton did not move for a minute, then: Doggone you! he remarked, with a resigned sigh to Dudley, "you’ve let me in for this!... An’ I just wanted to sit here quiet!"

He quaffed a long draught of beer and got up though presently and, sauntering over to the piano which O’Hara promptly vacated for him, seated himself. A comparative quiet ensued. Even the Monk’s maudlin ribaldry ceased, and that worthy becoming interested, he slewed around on his perch so as to hear the better, unceremoniously shoving off his faithful pup—Kid—in the movement, which sent that canine with a hasty flop to the floor.

With the hard lines of his face momentarily softened with an expression of genial bonhomie, the Sergeant toyed absently with the keys for a space, thinking of something appropriate for that hilarious company; then suddenly, a clear baritone voice of remarkable depth and richness, rang out in the old familiar song of Mandalay:

"Come you back to Mandalay,

Where the old Flotilla lay:

Can’t you ’ear their paddles chunkin’ from

Rangoon to Mandalay?

On the road to Mandalay,

Where the flyin’-fishes play,

An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer

China ’crost the Bay!"

The last verse but one begins, as you know, with the sort of irritable abandon typical of a soldier’s grouse:

"Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,

Where there aren’t no Ten Commandments an’ a man can raise a thirst;

For the temple-bells are callin’, an’ it’s there that I would be—

By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin’ lazy at the sea;"

He finished the rollicking old ballad amid thundering applause and loud shouts of ’Core! ’Core! Give us ‘In Cellar Cool’! Give us ‘Father O’Flynn’! etc. But just then the clear, long-drawn-out, sweet notes of a trumpet-call sounded outside on the square. The Orderly-room Sergeant looked at his watch.

Hello!... Didn’t know it was so late! he ejaculated. Come on, there! Turn out!... ‘First Post’s’ just gone!

And the Canteen gradually emptied as the men departed noisily to their respective barrack-rooms.

CHAPTER II

A man severe he was, and stern to view;

I knew him well, and every truant knew:

Well had the boding tremblers learn’d to trace

The day’s disasters in his morning face;

Full well they laughed with counterfeited glee,

At all his jokes, and many a joke had he;

Full well the busy whisper circling round,

Convey’d the dismal tidings when he frown’d.

—Goldsmith

Captain Richard Bargrave, Superintendent of L Division—better known by the fond appellation of Father—sauntered slowly along the narrow sidewalk leading from his quarters to the orderly-room; the aged black-and-white setter Bob, his constant companion, keeping step behind.

How well many of us can recall that tall, spare, soldierly figure, and the walk with its faint suggestion of old-fashioned cavalry swagger, while the whispers of Look out! here’s Father coming now! sent us all scuttling about our duties. How we used to fume and curse (behind his back) at his numerous erratic bursts of temper and little eccentricities. How his polished sarcasm and fluent adjectives used to curl us up and, incidentally—excite our envy. And yet—how we learned to trust and respect that irascible but kindly old aristocratic face, with its sweeping fair mustache. Aye!—

He passed as a Man in our critical eyes,

Stern, yet kindly—simple, yet wise.

Who’d upheld his rank since his service began

As An Officer, and ... a Gentleman.

"Father’s a rum old beggar but, begad, he’s a gentleman and always gives