BROKEN DOWN.
They ran at the top of their speed, but the sound of the horses' feet
grew louder.
"There is a path leading to the river," Ned said; "let us turn down
there; we can hide under the jungle on the bank."
Breathlessly they ran down to the river.
"Hurrah! here is a boat, jump in;" and in another minute they had
pushed off from the bank, just as they heard a body of cavalry--for
that they were troops they knew by the jingling of their
accouterments--pass at a gallop. The stream was strong; and the boys
found that with the rude oars they could make no way whatever.
"We had better land again, and get further from the river," Ned said.
"We will push the boat off, and it will be supposed that we have gone
off in it."
This was soon done, and having regained the road, they crossed it and
struck over the fields.
The moon, which had been hitherto hidden under a passing cloud, was
soon out fully, and for some time they kept across the country,
carefully avoiding all villages. These were here more thinly scattered;
patches of jungle and wood occurred more frequently; and it was evident
that they were getting into a less highly cultivated district. It was
long before daybreak that Rose declared that she was too fatigued to go
further, and they entered a large wood. Here they lay down, and were
soon fast asleep. It was broad daylight when the Warreners woke. Rose
still slept on.
Presently Kate came to her brothers. "I am afraid Rose is going to be
ill. She keeps talking and moaning in her sleep; her face is flushed,
and her hands as hot as fire."
As they were looking sadly at her she opened her eyes.
"Is it time to get up?" she asked. "Oh, my head! it is aching terribly.
Is the trap at the door?"
Then she closed her eyes again, and went on talking incoherently to
herself.
"She has fever," Kate said, "and we must get her under shelter, at
whatever risk."
"I heard a dog bark not far off, just as I went to sleep," Ned said. "I
will go and reconnoiter. Dick, you had better stay here."
Dick nodded, and Ned advanced cautiously to the edge of the wood. There
he saw a farmhouse of a better class than usual. Three peons were just
starting for work, and an elderly man with a long beard was standing at
the door. Then he went in, and after a few minutes reappeared with a
long staff in his hands, and went out into the fields. He did not,
however, follow the direction which the peons had taken, but took a
line parallel with the edge of the wood. "He looks a decent old
fellow," Ned said to himself; "I can but try; at any rate, at the worst
I am more than a match for him."
So saying, he stepped out into the field. The farmer started with
surprise at seeing a young Mussulman appear before him.
"I am English," Ned said at once. "I think you are kind by your face,
and I tell you the truth. There are two English girls in the wood, and
one is ill. We can go no further. Will you give them shelter?"
The old man stood for some time in thought.
"I have no complaint against the Feringhees," he said; "in my fathers
time the country was red with blood, but all my life I have eaten my
bread in peace, and no man has injured me. Where are the English
ladies?"
Ned led the way to the spot where Rose was still lying. The old man
looked at her flushed face, and then at Kate, and said:
"The English ladies have suffered much, and can have done harm to no
one. I will shelter them. My wife and daughter will nurse the sick one.
They will be in the women's chamber, and my servants will not know that
there is a stranger there. I believe that they would be faithful, but
one who knows nothing can tell no tales. On the other side of the wood
there is a shed. It is empty now, and none go near it. The English
sahibs can live there, and each day I will bring them food. When their
sister is well they can go on again."
Ned translated the old man's words, and Kate, who was kneeling by Rose,
caught his hand and kissed it in her gratitude. He patted her head and
said, "Poor child!"
"How are we to carry Rose? I don't think she can walk," Kate asked.
The farmer solved the difficulty by motioning them to stay where they
were. He then went off, and in ten minutes returned, bearing a dried
bullock's skin. On this Rose was laid. The Hindoo took the two ends at
her feet, the boys each one of those by her head, and then, slung as in
a hammock, Rose was carried to the house, where the wife and daughter
of their host, prepared by him for what was coming, received them with
many expressions of pity, and she was at once carried into the inner
room. The farmer then placed before the boys two bowls of milk and some
freshly made chupatties, and then gave them some food for the day. With
an expression of fervent gratitude to him, and a kiss from Kate, who
came out to tell them that Rose would be well nursed and cared for, the
boys started for the hut in the direction the Hindoo pointed out to
them. It was a small building, and had apparently been at some time
used as a cattle shed. The floor was two feet deep in fodder of the
stalks of Indian corn. Above was a sort of rough loft, in which grain
had been stored.
The boys at once agreed that, to prevent suspicion, it was safer to
occupy this, and they soon transferred enough of the fodder from below
to make a comfortable bed. Then, feeling secure from discovery, even if
by chance some passer-by should happen to glance into the shed, they
were soon deep in a sounder sleep than they had enjoyed since they left
Sandynugghur.
The next day, when the old man came to see them, he was accompanied by
Kate. She looked pale and wan.
"How is Rose?" was their first question.
"She is as bad as she can be, dears. She has been delirious all night,
and is so this morning. I did not like to leave her for a moment. But
this kind old man wanted me to go with him, as I think he has something
to say to you."
"Have you any news?" Ned asked him.
"My servants tell me that the Sepoys are searching the whole country,
some of the officers have escaped from Sandynugghur, and also from
Nalgwa, where the troops rose on the same night; some of the residents
have escaped also. There is a reward offered for them alive or dead,
and any one hiding them is to be punished with death. The white lady is
very ill. She is in the hand of God; she may get better, she may die.
If she gets better it will be weeks before she can go through the
hardships of the journey to Meerut. I think it better that you should
go on alone; the white ladies will be as my daughters. I have told my
servants that my daughter is ill, so that if they hear cries and voices
at night they will think that it is she who is in pain. You can do no
good here. If the woods are searched you may be found; if you are found
they will search everywhere closely, and may find them. I will hide
them here safely. The orders are, I hear, that the captives taken are
to be carried to Delhi; but if they should be found I will myself
journey to Meerut to bring you the news. You will give me your names,
and I will find you; then you may get help and rescue them on the way."
Ned translated the old man's opinion and kind offer to his brother and
sister, and said that he was very unwilling to leave the girls--a
sentiment in which Dick heartily joined.
Kate, however, at once expressed her warm approval of the plan.
"It will be weeks, dears, before Rose can walk again, and I shall have
an anxious time with her. It would add greatly to my anxiety if I knew
that you were near, and might at any time be captured and killed. If
dear papa has escaped he will be in a terrible state of anxiety about
us, and you could relieve him if you can join him at Meerut, and tell
him how kindly we are treated here. Altogether, boys, it would be so
much better for you to go; for if the Sepoys do come, you could not
defend us against more than two or three, and they are sure to come in
a stronger party than that."
In spite of their disinclination to leave the girls without such
protection as they could give them, the boys saw that the course
advised was the best to be pursued, and told their Hindoo friend that
they agreed to follow his counsel, thanking him in the warmest terms
for his kindness.
He advised them to leave their Mohammedan dresses behind, and to dress
in the simple costume of Hindoo peons, with which he could supply them.
They would then attract far less attention, and could even by day pass
across the fields without any comment whatever from the natives at work
there, who would naturally suppose that they belonged to some village
near at hand. "Englishmen could not do this," he said; "too much leg,
too much arm, too much width of shoulders; but boys are thinner, and no
one will notice the difference. In half an hour I will come back with
the things." Ned gave him the rest of the berries, which they had
preserved, and asked him to boil them up in a little water, as they
would now have to color their bodies and arms and legs, in addition to
their faces.
It was a sad parting between Kate and her brothers, for all felt that
they might never meet again. Still the course decided upon was, under
the circumstances, evidently the best that could be adopted.
In an hour the Hindoo returned. The boys took off their clothes, and
stained themselves a deep brown from head to foot. The farmer then
produced a razor and a bowl of water and some soap, and said that they
must shave their hair off their heads, up to a level with the top of
the ears, so as to leave only that which could be concealed by their
turban. This, with some laughter--the first time they had smiled since
they left Sandynugghur--they proceeded to do to each other, and the
skin thus exposed they dyed the same color as the rest of the body.
They then each put on a scanty loincloth, and wrapping a large piece of
dark blue cotton stuff first round their waists and then over one
shoulder, their costume was complete, with the exception of a pair of
sandals and a white turban. The old Hindoo surveyed them gravely when
their attire was completed, and expressed his belief that they would
pass without exciting the slightest suspicion. Their pistols were a
trouble. They were determined that, come what might, they would not go
without these, and they were finally slung behind them from a strap
passing round the waist under the loin-cloth; the spare ammunition and
a supply of biscuit were stowed in stout cotton bags, with which their
friend provided them, and which hung by a band passing over one
shoulder. Their money and a box of matches they secured in a corner of
their clothes. A couple of stout staves completed their outfit.
Bidding a grateful farewell to their friendly Hindoo, the boys started
on their journey. The sandals they found so difficult to keep on that
they took them off and carried them, except when they were passing over
stony ground. They kept to bypaths and avoided all villages.
Occasionally they met a native, but either they passed him without
speech, or Ned muttered a salutation in answer to that of the passer.
All day they walked, and far into the night. They had no fear of
missing their way, as the road on one hand and the river on the other
both ran to Meerut; and although these were sometimes ten miles apart,
they served as a fair index as to the line they should take. The
biscuits, eked out with such grain as they could pluck as they crossed
the fields, lasted for two days; but at the end of that time it became
necessary to seek another supply of food.
"I don't know what to ask for, Dick; and those niggers always chatter
so much that I should have to answer, and then I should be found out
directly. I think we must try some quiet huts at a distance from the
road."
The wood in which they that night slept was near three or four
scattered huts. In the morning they waited and watched for a long time
until one of the cottages was, as far as they could judge, deserted,
all its inmates being gone out to work in the fields. They then entered
it boldly. It was empty. On hunting about they found some chupatties
which had apparently been newly baked, a store of rice and of several
other grains. They took the chupatties, five or six pounds of rice, and
a little copper cooking-pot. They placed in a conspicuous position two
rupees, which were more than equivalent to the value of the things they
had taken, and went on their way rejoicing.
At midday they sat down, lit a fire with some dried sticks, and put
their rice in the pot to boil. As Ned was stooping to pick up a stick
he was startled by a simultaneous cry of "Look out!" from Dick, and a
sharp hiss; and looking up, saw, three or four feet ahead of him, a
cobra, with its hood inflated, and its head raised in the very act of
springing. Just as it was darting itself forward Dick's stick came down
with a sharp tap on its head and killed it.
"That was a close shave, Ned," the boy said, laughing; "if you had
stooped he would have bit you on the face. What would have been the
best thing to do if he had bitten you?"
"The best thing is to suck the wound instantly, to take out a knife and
cut deeply in, and then, as we have no vesuvians, I should break up
half a dozen pistol cartridges, put the powder into and on the wound,
and set it alight. I believe that that is what they do in some parts of
Eastern Europe in the case of the bites of mad dogs; and this, if no
time is lost after the bite is given, is almost always effectual in
keeping off hydrophobia."
"Well, Ned, I am very thankful that we had not to put the virtue of the
receipt to a practical test."
"Would you like to eat the snake, Dick? I believe that snake is not at
all bad eating."
"Thank you," Dick said, "I will take it on trust. We have got rice; and
although I am not partial to rice it will do very well. If we could
have got nothing else we might have tried the snake; but as it is, I
had rather not. Two more days, Ned, and we shall be at Meerut. The old
Hindoo said it was a hundred miles, and we go twenty-five a day, even
with all our bends and turns to get out of the way of villages."
"Yes, I should think we do quite that, Dick. We walk from daylight to
sunset, and often two or three hours by moonlight; and though we don't
go very fast, we ought to get over a lot of ground. Listen! There is
music!" Both held their breath. "Yes, there are the regular beats of a
big drum. It is on the highroad, I should say, nearly abreast of us. If
we go to that knoll we shall have a view of them; and there cannot be
the least danger, as they must be fully a mile away."
Upon gaining the rise in question they saw a regiment in scarlet,
winding along the road.
"Are they mutineers, Dick, or British?"
It was more than any one could say. Mounted officers rode at the head
of the regiment; perfect order was to be observed in its marching;
there was nothing that in any way differed from its ordinary aspect.
"Let us go back and get our rice and lota, Dick. We can't afford to
lose that; and if we go at a trot for a couple of miles we can get
round into some trees near the road, where we can see their faces. If
the mounted officers are white it is all right; if not, they are
mutineers."
Half an hour's trot brought them to such a point of vantage as they
desired. Crouched in some bushes at the edge of a clump of trees, not
fifty yards from the road, they awaited the passage of the regiment.
They had not been in their hiding-place five minutes when the head of
the column appeared.
"They march in very good order, Ned; do you think that they would keep
up such discipline as that after they had mutinied?"
"I don't know. Dirk; but they'll want all their discipline when they
come to meet our men. For anything we know we may be the two last white
men left in India; but when the news gets to England there will be such
a cry throughout the land that, if it needed a million men to win back
the country, I believe they would be found and sent out. There! There
are two mounted officers; I can't see their color, but I don't think
they are white."
"No, Ned; I am sure they are not white; then they must be mutineers.
Look! Look! Don't you see they have got three prisoners? There they
are, marching in the middle of that column; they are officers; and oh!
Ned! I do think that the middle one's father." And the excited boy,
with tears of joy running down his cheeks, would have risen and dashed
out had not Ned forcibly detained him.
"Hush! Dick! and keep quiet. Yes! It is father! and Dunlop and Manners.
Thank God!" he said, in deep gratitude.
"Well, let's go to them, Ned; we may as well be all together."
"Keep quiet, Dick," the elder said, holding him down again; "you will
destroy their chance as well as ours. We must rescue them if we can."
"How, Ned, how?"
"I don't know yet, Dick; but we must wait and see; anyhow, we will try.
There goes the bugle for a halt. I expect they have done their day's
march. Come on, Dick; we must get out of this. When they have once
pitched their tents they will scatter about, and, as likely as not,
some will come into this wood. Let us get further back, so as to be
able to see them pitch their tents, and watch, if we can, where they
put the prisoners."
The regiment piled arms, and waited until the bullock-carts came up
with the tents. These were taken out and pitched on the other side of
the road, and facing the wood. The ground being marked out, the men
were told off to their quarters, and the poles of the tents aligned
with as much regularity and exactness as could have been used when the
regiment possessed its white officers.
Near the quarter-guard tent--that is, the tent of the men engaged upon
actual duty--a small square tent was erected; and into this the three
officers, who were handcuffed, were thrust; and two sentries, one in
front, the other at the back of the tent, were placed.
"Now, Dick, we know all about it; let us get further away, and talk
over how it is to be managed."
The task was one of extreme difficulty, and the boys were a long time
arranging the details. Had there been but one sentry, the matter would
have been easy enough: but with two sentries, and with the quarter
guard close at hand, it seemed at first as if no possible scheme could
be hit upon. The sentry at the back of the tent must be the one to be
disposed of, and this must be done so noiselessly as not to alarm the
man in front. Each marched backward and forward some eight paces to the
right, and as much to the left, of the tent, halting occasionally. When
both marched right and left at the same time, they were in sight of
each other except during the time of passing before and behind the
tent; when they walked alternately, the tent hid them altogether from
each other.
"I suppose there is no chance of our being able to gag that fellow,
Ned? It's horrid to think of killing a man in cold blood."
"There is no help for it, Dick. If he were alone, we might gag him; as
it is, he must be killed. These scoundrels are all mutineers and
murderers. This regiment has, no doubt, like the others, killed its
officers, and all the men, women, and children at the station. I would
not kill the man unless it could be helped, but our father's life
depends upon it; and to save him I would, if there were no other way,
cut the throats of the whole regiment while they were asleep! This is
no ordinary war, Dick; it is a struggle for existence; and though I'm
sure I hate the thought of it, I shall not hesitate for an instant."
"I shan't hesitate," the midshipman said; "but I wish the fellow could
make a fight of it. However, as he would kill me if he had a chance, he
mustn't grumble if I do the same for him. Now, Ned, you tell me exactly
what I am to do, and you may rely on my doing it."
Every minute detail of the scheme was discussed and arranged; and then,
as the sun set, the boys lit a fire in a nullah and boiled some rice,
and ate their food with lighter hearts than they had done since they
left Sandynugghur, for the knowledge that their father had escaped
death had lifted a heavy burden from their hearts. As to the danger of
the expedition that they were about to undertake, with the happy
recklessness of boys they thought but little of it.
Across the plain they could see the campfires, but as the evening went
on these gradually died away, and the sounds which had come faintly
across the still night air ceased altogether. As patiently as might be,
they waited until they guessed that it must be about ten o'clock. The
night was, for the country, cold--a favorable circumstance, as the
natives, who are very chilly, would be less likely to leave their tents
if they felt restless. The moon was now half full and shining brightly,
giving a light with which the boys could well have dispensed.
"Now, Dick, old boy, let's be moving. May God help us in our night's
work!"
They made a considerable detour to approach the camp in the rear, where
they rightly judged that the Sepoys, having no fear whatever of any
hostile body being near, would have placed no sentries.
"Listen!" Dick said, as they were pausing to reconnoiter; "that sounded
like a cannon in the far distance."
There was no doubt of it; faintly, but quite distinct, across the air
came the sound of heavy cannon fired at regular intervals.
"Those cannon must be fired as a salute to some great chief newly
arrived at Delhi--we should not fire so late, but I suppose they are
not particular," Ned said; "we calculated it was not more than
twenty-five miles off, and we should hear them at that distance easily.
We had better wait a few minutes to see if any one comes out to listen
to it."
But there was no movement among the white tents. Then they stole
quietly into the camp.
The tents of the Indian native regiments are large, oblong tents, with
two poles, holding thirty men each. They are manufactured at the
government prison at Jubbalpore, and are made of thick cotton canvas,
lined with red or blue cotton. In the daytime they open right along one
side, the wall of the tent being propped outward, with two slight
poles, so as to form a sort of veranda, and shade the inside of the
tent while admitting the air. At night-time, in the cool season, this
flap is let down and the tent closed. In front of the tents the muskets
of the men inside are piled.
Into one of these tents Dick crawled, Ned watching outside. When Dick
first entered it was so dark that he could see nothing; but the
moonlight penetrated dimly through the double cotton, and he was soon
able to discover objects around. The ground was all occupied by
sleeping figures, each wrapped up from head to foot in his blanket,
looking like so many mummies. Their uniforms were folded, and placed
between their heads and the wall of the tent. Six of these, with the
same number of caps, and six ammunition pouches and belts, and a
uniform cloak, taken carefully off one of the sleepers, Dick collected
and passed out through the door of the tent to Ned. Not a sleeper
stirred while he did so, and he crept quietly out, with the first part
of his task accomplished. Gathering the things together, the boys made
all speed back to a clump of trees half a mile in the rear of the camp.
Here Ned put on one of the uniforms and the cloak, and they then
started back again for the camp.
The sentries upon the prisoners' tent were changed at twelve o'clock,
and a few minutes later the sentry at the rear of the tent saw one of
his comrades come out of one of the large tents close to the end of his
beat. He was wrapped in his blanket, and his face was tied up with a
cloth. Coughing violently, he squatted himself in front of his tent,
and rocked himself to and fro, with his hands to his face, uttering
occasional groans. This was all so natural--for the natives of India
suffer much from neuralgia in the cold weather--that the sentry thought
nothing of the matter. He continued to pace his beat, turning back each
time when within a yard or two of the sufferer. The third time he did
so the figure dropped off his blanket, and, with a sudden bound, threw
himself on the sentry's back; at the same moment a Sepoy in uniform
darted out from the tent. One hand of the assailant--in which was a
damp cloth--was pressed tightly over the mouth and nostrils of the
sentry; the other grasped the lock of his musket, so that it could not
be discharged. Thrown backward off his balance, taken utterly by
surprise, the sentry was unable even to struggle, and in an instant the
second antagonist plunged a bayonet twice into his body, and he fell a
lifeless mass on the ground. It was the work of an instant to drag the
body a yard or two into the shadow of the tent, and before the other
sentry appeared from the opposite side of the prisoner's tent the
native was rocking himself as before; the sentry, wrapped in his cloak,
was marching calmly on his beat. The whole affair had lasted but twenty
seconds, and had passed as noiselessly as a dream.
The next time the sentry in front was hidden from view the native
started from his sitting position and stole up behind the tent.
Cautiously and quietly he cut a slit in the canvas and entered. Then he
knelt down by the side of one of the sleepers, and kissed him. He moved
in his sleep, and his disturber, putting his hand on his mouth to
prevent sudden speech, shook him gently. The major opened his eyes.
"Father, it is I--Richard; hush! do not speak."
Then, as the bewildered man gradually understood what was said, his son
fell on his neck, kissing him with passionate delight.
After the first rapturous joy of the recognition was over, "Ned and the
girls?" Major Warrener asked.
"The girls are at present safe," Dick said; "Ned is outside behind. He
is the sentry. Now, father, wake the others, and then let us steal off.
Take off your boots; the men's tents are only ten yards behind; once
there, you are safe. I will let Ned know when you are ready, and he
will occupy the sentry. We can't silence him, because he is within
sight of the sentry of the quarter-guard."
Major Warrener aroused his sleeping companions, and in a few whispered
words told them what had happened. In silence they wrung Dick's hand,
and then taking off their boots, stole one by one out of the tent. As
Ned passed he exchanged a silent embrace with his father. The next time
the sentry in front was passing before the tent, a heavy stone, hurled
by Ned, crashed into a bush upon the other side of the road. The sentry
halted instantly, and, with gun advanced, listened, but he could hear
nothing, for his comrade was at that instant seized with a fit of
coughing.
After standing in a listening attitude for three or four minutes the
Sepoy supposed that the noise must have been caused by some large bird
suddenly disturbed in the foliage.
"Did you hear anything?" he asked Ned, as their path crossed.
"Nothing," Ned answered, continuing his march.
For another quarter of an hour he passed backward and forward, his only
fear being that the sentry might take it into his head to open the tent
and look in to see if the prisoners were safe. In a quarter of an hour
he knew that the fugitives would have gained the trees, and would have
time to put on the Sepoy uniforms before he reached them; and also, by
the aid of a couple of large stones, have got rid of their handcuffs,
lie might therefore be off to join them.
Waiting till the sentry was at the other end of his beat, he slipped
round the tent, stripped off his cloak, lay down his musket and
belt--for Dick had arranged that they should carry off five muskets in
their retreat--threw off the Sepoy jacket, and in light running order,
darted through the tents. He calculated that he should have at least a
couple of minutes start before his absence was discovered, another
minute or two before the sentry was sufficiently sure of it to hail the
quarter-guard and report the circumstance. Then would follow the
discovery of the escape of the prisoners; but by that time he would be
far out on the plain, and even if seen, which was unlikely, he was
confident that he could outrun any native.
His anticipations turned out correct; he was already some distance off
when he heard the call of the sentry to the quarter-guard, followed
almost immediately by a still louder shout, that told that he had
discovered the flight of the prisoners; then came the sound of a musket
shot, a drum beat the alarm, and a babel of sounds rang on the still
air. But by this time Ned was halfway to the clump of trees, and three
minutes later he was in his father's arms. There was no time to talk
then. Another coat was hurried on to him, an ammunition belt and pouch
thrown over his shoulder, and Captain Manners carrying his musket until
he should have quite recovered breath, the five went off at a steady
trot, which after a quarter of an hour broke into a walk--for there was
no fear of pursuit--in the direction in which they knew Delhi to lie.