Although badly wounded, he was not disabled, and he took advantage of the first pause in the fight to appeal for help to some men of the 38th who occupied the wall behind which he fell.
"You speak English gallows well for a Rooskie," said one of the men, brusquely, but not without sympathy. "What do you want? Water? Are you badly hit?"
"A bullet in my leg and a flesh-wound in my arm."
"Hold hard! Sawbones will be up soon. Meanwhile, let's try and staunch the blood. We'll tear up your shirt for a bandage."
And with rough but real kindness he tore open McKay's old _greggo_ so as to get at his underlinen. This action betrayed the red cloth waistcoat he still wore.
"Why, that's an English staff waistcoat. Quick! How did you come by it, you murdering rogue?"
"Mr. McKay, of the Royal Picts: deputy-assistant-quartermaster-general at headquarters."
"Save us alive! This bangs Bannagher. Wait, honey--wait till I call an officer."
Presently, when the wounds had been rudely but effectively bound up, a captain of the 38th came up, and to him McKay made himself known.
"This is no time or place to ask how you came here. Taken prisoner, I suppose?"
"Eyre's Brigade: of the Third Division. Told off to attack the Creek Battery. We have carried the cemetery, but what else we've done I have not the least idea."
"Haven't you? Well, I'll tell you. You've taken Sebastopol."
"You're well inside the fortress anyway. I can tell you that for certain. Just above is the place in which I was kept a prisoner."
"Is that a fact? By Jove! what tremendous luck!"
"Eyre will. He'll hold on by his eyelids till reinforcements come up, never fear. And the French have promised us support."
"Dear no! The French have gone in at the Malakoff, and our people at the Redan."
"How has it gone--have you any idea?" asked McKay, anxiously.
"No one knows, except the general, perhaps. Here he comes; and he don't look over pleased."
General Eyre, a tall, fierce-looking soldier, strode up with a long step, talking excitedly to a staff-officer, whom McKay recognised as one of Lord Raglan's aides-de-camps.
"Hold our ground!" the general was saying. "Of course we will, to the last. But if the French could only come up in force we might still retrieve the day. You see we are well inside, though I cannot say exactly where."