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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rujub, the Juggler, by G. A. Henty
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Rujub, the Juggler
+
+Author: G. A. Henty
+
+Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7229]
+Posting Date: July 25, 2009
+Last Updated: August 20, 2023
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Martin Robb
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUJUB, THE JUGGLER ***
+
+
+
+
+RUJUB, THE JUGGLER
+
+
+By G. A. Henty.
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHERS’ INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+“Rujub, the Juggler,” is mainly an historical tale for young and old,
+dealing with the Sepoy Mutiny, in India, during the years 1857 to 1859.
+
+This famous mutiny occurred while the reins of British rule in India
+were in the hands of Lord Canning. Chupattees (cakes of flour and water)
+were circulated among the natives, placards protesting against British
+rule were posted at Delhi, and when the Enfield rifle with its greased
+cartridges was introduced among the Sepoy soldiers serving the Queen it
+was rumored that the cartridges were smeared with the forbidden pig’s
+fat, so that the power of the Sepoys might forever be destroyed.
+
+Fanatical to the last degree, the Sepoys were not long in bringing the
+mutiny to a head. The first outbreak occurred at Meerut, where were
+stationed about two thousand English soldiers and three thousand native
+troops. The native troops refused to use the cartridges supplied to them
+and eighty-two were placed under arrest. On the day following the native
+troops rebelled in a body, broke open the guardhouse and released the
+prisoners, and a severe battle followed, and Meerut was given over to
+the flames. The mutineers then marched upon Delhi, thirty-two miles
+away, and took possession. At Bithoor the Rajah had always professed a
+strong friendship for the English, but he secretly plotted against them,
+and, later on, General Wheeler was compelled to surrender to the Rajah
+at Cawnpore, and did so with the understanding that the lives of all
+in the place should be spared. Shortly after the surrender the English
+officers and soldiers were shot down, and all of the women and children
+butchered.
+
+The mutiny was now at its height, and for a while it was feared that
+British rule in India must cease. The Europeans at Lucknow were besieged
+for about three months and were on the point of giving up, when they
+were relieved through the heroic march of General Havelock. Sir Colin
+Campbell followed, and soon the city was once more in the complete
+possession of the British. Oude was speedily reduced to submission,
+many of the rebel leaders were either shot or hanged, and gradually the
+mutiny, which had cost the lives of thousands, was brought to an end.
+
+The tale, however, is not all of war. In its pages are given many true
+to life pictures of life in India, in the barracks of the soldiers and
+elsewhere. A most important part is played by Rujub, the juggler, who is
+a warm friend to the hero of the narrative. Rujub is no common conjuror,
+but one of the higher men of mystery, who perform partly as a religious
+duty and who accept no pay for such performances. The acts of these
+persons are but little understood, even at this late day, and it is
+possible that many of their arts will sooner or later be utterly lost to
+the world at large. That they can do some wonderful things in juggling,
+mind reading, and in second sight, is testified to by thousands of
+people who have witnessed their performances in India; how they do these
+things has never yet been explained.
+
+Strange as it may seem, the hero of the tale is a natural born coward,
+who cannot stand the noise of gunfire. He realizes his shortcomings, and
+they are frequently brought home to him through the taunts of his fellow
+soldiers. A doctor proves that the dread of noise is hereditary, but
+this only adds to the young soldier’s misery. To make himself brave he
+rushes to the front in a most desperate fight, and engages in scout work
+which means almost certain death. In the end he masters his fear, and
+gives a practical lesson of what stern and unbending will power can
+accomplish.
+
+In many respects “Rujub, the Juggler,” will be found one of the
+strongest of Mr. Henty’s works, and this is saying much when one
+considers all of the many stories this well known author has already
+penned for the entertainment of young and old. As a picture of life in
+the English Army in India it is unexcelled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It would be difficult to find a fairer scene. Throughout the gardens
+lanterns of many shapes and devices threw their light down upon the
+paths, which were marked out by lines of little lamps suspended on wires
+a foot above the ground. In a treble row they encircled a large tank or
+pond and studded a little island in its center. Along the terraces were
+festoons and arches of innumerable lamps, while behind was the Palace or
+Castle, for it was called either; the Oriental doors and windows and the
+tracery of its walls lit up below by the soft light, while the outline
+of the upper part could scarce be made out. Eastern as the scene was,
+the actors were for the most part English. Although the crowd that
+promenaded the terrace was composed principally of men, of whom the
+majority were in uniform of one sort or another, the rest in evening
+dress, there were many ladies among them.
+
+At the end of one of the terraces a band of the 103d Bengal Infantry
+was playing, and when they ceased a band of native musicians, at the
+opposite end of the terrace, took up the strains. Within, the palace was
+brilliantly lighted, and at the tables in one of the large apartments
+a few couples were still seated at supper. Among his guests moved
+the Rajah, chatting in fluent English, laughing with the men, paying
+compliments to the ladies, a thoroughly good fellow all round, as his
+guests agreed. The affair had been a great success. There had first been
+a banquet to the officers and civilians at the neighboring station. When
+this was over, the ladies began to arrive, and for their amusement there
+had been a native nautch upon a grand scale, followed by a fine display
+of fireworks, and then by supper, at which the Rajah had made a speech
+expressive of his deep admiration and affection for the British. This he
+had followed up by proposing the health of the ladies in flowery terms.
+Never was there a better fellow than the Rajah. He had English tastes,
+and often dined at one or other of the officers’ messes. He was a good
+shot, and could fairly hold his own at billiards. He had first rate
+English horses in his stables, and his turnout was perfect in all
+respects. He kept a few horses for the races, and was present at every
+ball and entertainment. At Bithoor he kept almost open house. There was
+a billiard room and racquet courts, and once or twice a week there were
+luncheon parties, at which from twelve to twenty officers were generally
+present. In all India there was no Rajah with more pronounced English
+tastes or greater affection for English people. The one regret of his
+life, he often declared, was that his color and his religion prevented
+his entertaining the hope of obtaining an English wife. All this, as
+everyone said, was the more remarkable and praiseworthy, inasmuch as he
+had good grounds of complaint against the British Government.
+
+With the ladies he was an especial favorite; he was always ready to show
+them courtesy. His carriages were at their service. He was ready to
+give his aid and assistance to every gathering. His private band played
+frequently on the promenade, and handsome presents of shawls and jewelry
+were often made to those whom he held in highest favor. At present he
+was talking to General Wheeler and some other officers.
+
+“I warn you that I mean to win the cup at the races,” he said; “I have
+just bought the horse that swept the board on the Bombay side; I have
+set my heart on winning the cup, and so secured this horse. I am ready
+to back it if any of you gentlemen are disposed to wager against it.”
+
+“All in good time, Rajah,” one of the officers laughed; “we don’t know
+what will be entered against it yet, and we must wait to see what the
+betting is, but I doubt whether we have anything that will beat the
+Bombay crack on this side; I fancy you will have to lay odds on.”
+
+“We shall see,” the Rajah said; “I have always been unlucky, but I mean
+to win this time.”
+
+“I don’t think you take your losses much to heart, Rajah,” General
+Wheeler said; “yet there is no doubt that your bets are generally
+somewhat rash ones.”
+
+“I mean to make a coup this time. That is your word for a big thing,
+I think. The Government has treated me so badly I must try to take
+something out of the pockets of its officers.”
+
+“You do pretty well still,” the General laughed; “after this splendid
+entertainment you have given us this evening you can hardly call
+yourself a poor man.”
+
+“I know I am rich. I have enough for my little pleasures--I do not know
+that I could wish for more--still no one is ever quite content.”
+
+By this time the party was breaking up, and for the next half hour the
+Rajah was occupied in bidding goodby to his guests. When the last had
+gone he turned and entered the palace, passed through the great halls,
+and, pushing aside a curtain, entered a small room. The walls and the
+columns were of white marble, inlaid with arabesque work of colored
+stones. Four golden lamps hung from the ceiling, the floor was covered
+with costly carpets, and at one end ran a raised platform a foot in
+height, piled with soft cushions. He took a turn or two up and down the
+room, and then struck a silver bell. An attendant entered.
+
+“Send Khoosheal and Imambux here.”
+
+Two minutes later the men entered. Imambux commanded the Rajah’s troops,
+while Khoosheal was the master of his household.
+
+“All has gone off well,” the Rajah said; “I am pleased with you,
+Khoosheal. One more at most, and we shall have done with them. Little do
+they think what their good friend Nana Sahib is preparing for them. What
+a poor spirited creature they think me to kiss the hand that robbed me,
+to be friends with those who have deprived me of my rights! But the day
+of reckoning is not far off, and then woe to them all! Have any of your
+messengers returned, Imambux?”
+
+“Several have come in this evening, my lord; would you see them now, or
+wait till morning?”
+
+“I will see them now; I will get the memory of these chattering men and
+these women with their bare shoulders out of my mind. Send the men in
+one by one. I have no further occasion for you tonight; two are better
+than three when men talk of matters upon which an empire depends.”
+
+The two officers bowed and retired, and shortly afterwards the attendant
+drew back the curtain again, and a native, in the rags of a mendicant,
+entered, and bowed till his forehead touched the carpet. Then he
+remained kneeling, with his arms crossed over his chest, and his head
+inclined in the attitude of the deepest humility.
+
+“Where have you been?” the Rajah asked.
+
+“My lord’s slave has been for three weeks at Meerut. I have obeyed
+orders. I have distributed chupaties among the native regiments, with
+the words, ‘Watch, the time is coming,’ and have then gone before I
+could be questioned. Then, in another disguise, I have gone through
+the bazaar, and said in talk with many that the Sepoys were unclean and
+outcast, for that they had bitten cartridges anointed with pig’s fat,
+and that the Government had purposely greased the cartridges with this
+fat in order that the caste of all the Sepoys should be destroyed. When
+I had set men talking about this I left; it will be sure to come to the
+Sepoys’ ears.”
+
+The Rajah nodded. “Come again tomorrow at noon; you will have your
+reward then and further orders; but see that you keep silence; a single
+word, and though you hid in the farthest corner of India you would not
+escape my vengeance.”
+
+Man after man entered. Some of them, like the first, were in mendicant’s
+attire, one or two were fakirs, one looked like a well to do merchant.
+With the exception of the last, all had a similar tale to tell; they
+had been visiting the various cantonments of the native army, everywhere
+distributing chupaties and whispering tales of the intention of the
+Government to destroy the caste of the Sepoys by greasing the cartridges
+with pig’s fat. The man dressed like a trader was the last to enter.
+
+“How goes it, Mukdoomee?”
+
+“It is well, my lord; I have traversed all the districts where we dwelt
+of old, before the Feringhee stamped us out and sent scores to death and
+hundreds to prison. Most of the latter whom death has spared are free
+now, and with many of them have I talked. They are most of them old, and
+few would take the road again, but scarce one but has trained up his son
+or grandson to the work; not to practice it,--the hand of the whites was
+too heavy before, and the gains are not large enough to tempt men to run
+the risk--but they teach them for the love of the art. To a worshiper of
+the goddess there is a joy in a cleverly contrived plan and in casting
+the roomal round the neck of the victim, that can never die. Often in
+my young days, when perhaps twelve of us were on the road in a party, we
+made less than we could have done by labor, but none minded.
+
+“We were sworn brothers; we were working for Kali, and so that we sent
+her victims we cared little; and even after fifteen or twenty years
+spent in the Feringhee’s prisons, we love it still; none hate the white
+man as we do; has he not destroyed our profession? We have two things
+to work for; first, for vengeance; second, for the certainty that if the
+white man’s Raj were at an end, once again would the brotherhood follow
+their profession, and reap booty for ourselves and victims for
+Kali; for, assuredly, no native prince would dare to meddle with us.
+Therefore, upon every man who was once a Thug, and upon his sons and
+grandsons, you may depend. I do not say that they would be useful for
+fighting, for we have never been fighters, but the stranglers will be of
+use. You can trust them with missions, and send them where you choose.
+From their fathers’ lips they have learnt all about places and roads;
+they can decoy Feringhee travelers, the Company’s servants or soldiers,
+into quiet places, and slay them. They can creep into compounds and into
+houses, and choose their victims from the sleepers. You can trust them,
+Rajah, for they have learned to hate, and each in his way will, when the
+times comes, aid to stir up men to rise. The past had almost become a
+dream, but I have roused it into life again, and upon the descendants of
+the stranglers throughout India you can count surely.”
+
+“You have not mentioned my name?” the Rajah said suddenly, looking
+closely at the man as he put the question.
+
+“Assuredly not, your highness; I have simply said deliverance is at
+hand; the hour foretold for the end of the Raj of the men from beyond
+the sea will soon strike, and they will disappear from the land like
+fallen leaves; then will the glory of Kali return, then again will the
+brotherhood take to the road and gather in victims. I can promise that
+every one of those whose fathers or grandfathers or other kin died by
+the hand of the Feringhee, or suffered in his prisons, will do his share
+of the good work, and be ready to obey to the death the orders which
+will reach him.”
+
+“It is good,” the Rajah said; “you and your brethren will have a rich
+harvest of victims, and the sacred cord need never be idle. Go; it is
+well nigh morning, and I would sleep.”
+
+But not for some time did the Rajah close his eyes; his brain was busy
+with the schemes which he had long been maturing, but was only now
+beginning to put into action.
+
+“It must succeed,” he said to himself; “all through India the people
+will take up arms when the Sepoys give the signal by rising against
+their officers. The whites are wholly unsuspicious; they even believe
+that I, I whom they have robbed, am their friend. Fools! I hold them in
+the hollow of my hand; they shall trust me to the last, and then I will
+crush them. Not one shall escape me! Would I were as certain of all the
+other stations in India as I am of this. Oude, I know, will rise as
+one man; the Princes of Delhi I have sounded; they will be the leaders,
+though the old King will be the nominal head; but I shall pull the
+strings, and as Peishwa, shall be an independent sovereign, and next in
+dignity to the Emperor. Only nothing must be done until all is ready;
+not a movement must be made until I feel sure that every native regiment
+from Calcutta to the North is ready to rise.”
+
+And so, until the day had fully broken, the Rajah of Bithoor thought
+over his plans--the man who had a few hours before so sumptuously
+entertained the military and civilians of Cawnpore, and the man who was
+universally regarded as the firm friend of the British and one of the
+best fellows going.
+
+The days and weeks passed on, messengers came and went, the storm was
+slowing brewing; and yet to all men it seemed that India was never more
+contented nor the outlook more tranquil and assured.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+A young man in a suit of brown karkee, with a white puggaree wound
+round his pith helmet, was just mounting in front of his bungalow at
+Deennugghur, some forty miles from Cawnpore, when two others came up.
+
+“Which way are you going to ride, Bathurst?”
+
+“I am going out to Narkeet; there is a dispute between the villagers and
+a Talookdar as to their limits. I have got to look into the case. Why do
+you ask, Mr. Hunter?”
+
+“I thought that you might be going that way. You know we have had
+several reports of ravages by a man eater whose headquarters seem to
+be that big jungle you pass through on your way to Narkeet. He has been
+paying visits to several villages in its neighborhood, and has carried
+off two mail runners. I should advise you to keep a sharp lookout.”
+
+“Yes, I have heard plenty about him; it is unfortunate we have no one at
+this station who goes in for tiger hunting. Young Bloxam was speaking
+to me last night; he is very hot about it; but as he knows nothing about
+shooting, and has never fired off a rifle in his life, except at the
+military target, I told him that it was madness to think of it by
+himself, and that he had better ride down to the regiment at Cawnpore,
+and get them to form a party to come up to hunt the beast. I told him
+they need not bring elephants with them; I could get as many as were
+necessary from some of the Talookdars, and there will be no want of
+beaters. He said he would write at once, but he doubted whether any of
+them would be able to get away at present; the general inspection is
+just coming on. However, no doubt they will be able to do so before
+long.”
+
+“Well, if I were you I would put a pair of pistols into my holster,
+Bathurst; it would be awfully awkward if you came across the beast.”
+
+“I never carry firearms,” the young man said shortly; and then more
+lightly, “I am a peaceful man by profession, as you are, Mr. Hunter,
+and I leave firearms to those whose profession it is to use them. I
+have hitherto never met with an occasion when I needed them, and am not
+likely to do so. I always carry this heavy hunting whip, which I find
+useful sometimes, when the village dogs rush out and pretend that they
+are going to attack me; and I fancy that even an Oude swordsman would
+think twice before attacking me when I had it in my hand. But, of
+course, there is no fear about the tiger. I generally ride pretty fast;
+and even if he were lying by the roadside waiting for a meal, I don’t
+think he would be likely to interfere with me.”
+
+So saying, he lightly touched the horse’s flanks with his spurs and
+cantered off.
+
+“He’s a fine young fellow, Garnet,” Mr. Hunter said to his companion;
+“full of energy, and, they say, the very best linguist in Oude.”
+
+“Yes, he is all that,” the other agreed; “but he is a sort of fellow
+one does not quite understand. I like a man who is like other fellows;
+Bathurst isn’t. He doesn’t shoot, he doesn’t ride--I mean he don’t care
+for pig sticking; he never goes in for any fun there may be on hand; he
+just works--nothing else; he does not seem to mix with other people;
+he is the sort of fellow one would say had got some sort of secret
+connected with him.”
+
+“If he has, I am certain it is nothing to his personal disadvantage,”
+ Mr. Hunter said warmly. “I have known him for the last six years--I
+won’t say very well, for I don’t think anyone does that, except,
+perhaps, Doctor Wade. When there was a wing of the regiment up here
+three years ago he and Bathurst took to each other very much--perhaps
+because they were both different from other people. But, anyhow, from
+what I know of Bathurst I believe him to be a very fine character,
+though there is certainly an amount of reserve about him altogether
+unusual. At any rate, the service is a gainer by it. I never knew a
+fellow work so indefatigably. He will take a very high place in the
+service before he has done.”
+
+“I am not so sure of that,” the other said. “He is a man with opinions
+of his own, and all sorts of crotchets and fads. He has been in hot
+water with the Chief Commissioner more than once. When I was over at
+Lucknow last I was chatting with two or three men, and his name happened
+to crop up, and one of them said, ‘Bathurst is a sort of knight errant,
+an official Don Quixote. Perhaps the best officer in the province in
+some respects, but hopelessly impracticable.’”
+
+“Yes, that I can quite understand, Garnet. That sort of man is never
+popular with the higher official, whose likings go to the man who does
+neither too much nor too little, who does his work without questioning,
+and never thinks of making suggestions, and is a mere official machine.
+Men of Bathurst’s type, who go to the bottom of things, protest against
+what they consider unfair decisions, and send in memorandums showing
+that their superiors are hopelessly ignorant and idiotically wrong, are
+always cordially disliked. Still, they generally work their way to the
+front in the long run. Well, I must be off.”
+
+Bathurst rode to Narkeet without drawing rein. His horse at times
+slackened its pace on its own accord, but an almost mechanical motion
+from its rider’s heel soon started it off again at the rapid pace at
+which its rider ordinarily traveled. From the time he left Deennugghur
+to his arrival at Narkeet no thought of the dreaded man eater entered
+Bathurst’s mind. He was deeply meditating on a memorandum he was about
+to draw up, respecting a decision that had been arrived at in a case
+between a Talookdar in his district and the Government, and in which, as
+it appeared to him, a wholly erroneous and unjust view had been taken
+as to the merits of the case; and he only roused himself when the horse
+broke into a walk as it entered the village. Two or three of the head
+men, with many bows and salutations of respect, came out to receive him.
+
+“My lord sahib has seen nothing of the tiger?” the head man said; “our
+hearts were melted with fear, for the evil beast was heard roaring in
+the jungle not far from the road early this morning.”
+
+“I never gave it a thought, one way or the other,” Bathurst said, as he
+dismounted. “I fancy the horse would have let me know if the brute had
+been anywhere near. See that he is tied up in the shed, and has food and
+water, and put a boy to keep the flies from worrying him. And now let us
+get to business. First of all, I must go through the village records
+and documents; after that I will question four or five of the oldest
+inhabitants, and then we must go over the ground. The whole question
+turns, you know, upon whether the irrigation ditch mentioned in the
+Talookdar’s grant is the one that runs across at the foot of the rising
+ground on his side, or whether it is the one that sweeps round on this
+side of the grove with the little temple in it. Unfortunately most of
+the best land lies between those ditches.”
+
+For hours Bathurst listened to the statements of the old people of the
+village, cross questioning them closely, and sparing no efforts to sift
+the truth from their confused and often contradictory evidence. Then he
+spent two hours going over the ground and endeavoring to satisfy himself
+which of the two ditches was the one named in the village records. He
+had two days before taken equal pains in sifting the evidence on the
+other side.
+
+“I trust that my lord sees there can be no doubt as to the justice of
+our claim,” the head man said humbly, as he prepared to mount again.
+
+“According to your point of view, there is no doubt about it, Childee;
+but then there is equally no doubt the other way, according to the
+statements they put forward. But that is generally the way in all these
+land disputes. For good hard swearing your Hindoo cultivator can be
+matched against the world. Unfortunately there is nothing either in your
+grant or in your neighbors’ that specifies unmistakably which of these
+ancient ditches is the one referred to. My present impression is that it
+is essentially a case for a compromise, but you know the final decision
+does not rest on me. I shall be out here again next week, and I shall
+write to the Talookdar to meet me here, and we will go over the ground
+together again, and see if we cannot arrange some line that will be fair
+to both parties. If we can do that, the matter would be settled without
+expense and trouble; whereas, if it goes up to Lucknow it may all have
+to be gone into again; and if the decision is given against you, and as
+far as I can see it is just as likely to be one way as another, it will
+be a serious thing for the village.”
+
+“We are in my lord’s hands,” the native said; “he is the protector of
+the poor, and will do us justice.”
+
+“I will do you justice, Childee, but I must do justice to the other side
+too. Of course, neither of you will be satisfied, but that cannot be
+helped.”
+
+His perfect knowledge of their language, the pains he took to sift all
+matters brought before him to the bottom, had rendered the young officer
+very popular among the natives. They knew they could get justice from
+him direct. There was no necessity to bribe underlings: he had the
+knack of extracting the truth from the mass of lying evidence always
+forthcoming in native cases; and even the defeated party admired the
+manner in which the fabric of falsehood was pulled to pieces. But the
+main reason of his popularity was his sympathy, the real interest which
+he showed in their cases, and the patience with which he listened to
+their stories.
+
+Bathurst himself, as he rode homewards, was still thinking of the
+case. Of course there had been lying on both sides; but to that he was
+accustomed. It was a question of importance--of greater importance, no
+doubt, to the villagers than to their opponent, but still important
+to him--for this tract of land was a valuable one, and of considerable
+extent, and there was really nothing in the documents produced on either
+side to show which ditch was intended by the original grants. Evidently,
+at the time they were made, very many years before, one ditch or the
+other was not in existence; but there was no proof as to which was the
+more recent, although both sides professed that all traditions handed
+down to them asserted the ditch on their side to be the more recent.
+
+He was riding along the road through the great jungle, at his horse’s
+own pace, which happened for the moment to be a gentle trot, when
+a piercing cry rang through the air a hundred yards ahead. Bathurst
+started from his reverie, and spurred his horse sharply; the animal
+dashed forward at a gallop. At a turn in the road he saw, twenty yards
+ahead of him, a tiger, standing with a foot upon a prostrate figure,
+while a man in front of it was gesticulating wildly. The tiger stood as
+if hesitating whether to strike down the figure in front or to content
+itself with that already in its power.
+
+The wild shouts of the man had apparently drowned the sound of the
+horse’s feet upon the soft road, for the animal drew back half a pace as
+it suddenly came into view.
+
+The horse swerved at the sight, and reared high in the air as Bathurst
+drove his spurs into it. As its feet touched the ground again, Bathurst
+sprang off and rushed at the tiger, and brought down the heavy lash
+of his whip with all his force across its head. With a fierce snarl it
+sprang back two paces, but again and again the whip descended upon it,
+and bewildered and amazed at the attack it turned swiftly and sprang
+through the bushes.
+
+Bathurst, knowing that there was no fear of its returning, turned at
+once to the figure on the road. It was, as in even the momentary glance
+he had noticed, a woman, or rather a girl of some fourteen or fifteen
+years of age--the man had dropped on his knees beside her, moaning and
+muttering incoherent words.
+
+“I see no blood,” Bathurst said, and stooping, lifted the light figure.
+“Her heart beats, man; I think she has only fainted. The tiger must have
+knocked her down in its spring without striking her. So far as I can see
+she is unhurt.”
+
+He carried her to the horse, which stood trembling a few yards away,
+took a flask from the holster, and poured a little brandy and water
+between her lips.
+
+Presently there was a faint sigh. “She is coming round,” he said to the
+man, who was still kneeling, looking on with vacant eyes, as though he
+had neither heard nor comprehended what Bathurst was doing. Presently
+the girl moved slightly and opened her eyes. At first there was no
+expression in them; then a vague wonder stole into them at the white
+face looking down upon her.
+
+She closed them again, and then reopened them, and then there was a
+slight struggle to free herself. He allowed her to slip through his arms
+until her feet touched the ground; then her eyes fell on the kneeling
+figure.
+
+“Father!” she exclaimed. With a cry the man leaped to his feet, sprang
+to her and seized her in his arms, and poured out words of endearment.
+Then suddenly he released her and threw himself on the ground before
+Bathurst, with ejaculations of gratitude and thankfulness.
+
+“Get up, man, get up,” the latter said; “your daughter can scarce stand
+alone, and the sooner we get away from this place the better; that
+savage beast is not likely to return, but he may do so; let us be off.”
+
+He mounted his horse again, brought it up to the side of the girl, and
+then, leaning over, took her and swung her into the saddle in front of
+him. The man took up a large box that was lying in the road and hoisted
+it onto his shoulders, and then, at a foot’s pace, they proceeded on
+their way--Bathurst keeping a close watch on the jungle at the side on
+which the tiger had entered it.
+
+“How came you to travel along this road alone?” he asked the man. “The
+natives only venture through in large parties, because of this tiger.”
+
+“I am a stranger,” the man answered; “I heard at the village where we
+slept last night that there was a tiger in this jungle, but I thought
+we should be through it before nightfall, and therefore there was no
+danger. If one heeded all they say about tigers one would never travel
+at all. I am a juggler, and we are on our way down the country through
+Cawnpore and Allahabad. Had it not been for the valor of my lord sahib,
+we should never have got there; for had I lost my Rabda, the light of
+my heart, I should have gone no further, but should have waited for the
+tiger to take me also.”
+
+“There was no particular valor about it,” Bathurst said shortly. “I saw
+the beast with its foot on your daughter, and dismounted to beat it off
+just as if it had been a dog, without thinking whether there was any
+danger in it or not. Men do it with savage beasts in menageries every
+day. They are cowardly brutes after all, and can’t stand the lash. He
+was taken altogether by surprise, too.”
+
+“My lord has saved my daughter’s life, and mine is at his service
+henceforth,” the man said. “The mouse is a small beast, but he may
+warn the lion. The white sahibs are brave and strong. Would one of my
+countrymen have ventured his life to attack a tiger, armed only with a
+whip, for the sake of the life of a poor wayfarer?”
+
+“Yes, I think there are many who would have done so,” Bathurst replied.
+“You do your countrymen injustice. There are plenty of brave men among
+them, and I have heard before now of villagers, armed only with sticks,
+attacking a tiger who has carried off a victim from among them. You
+yourself were standing boldly before it when I came up.”
+
+“My child was under its feet--besides, I never thought of myself. If
+I had had a weapon I should not have drawn it. I had no thought of the
+tiger; I only thought that my child was dead. She works with me, sahib;
+since her mother died, five years ago, we have traveled together over
+the country; she plays while I conjure. She takes round the saucer for
+the money, and she acts with me in the tricks that require two persons;
+it is she who disappears from the basket. We are everything to each
+other, sahib. But what is my lord’s name? Will he tell his servant, that
+he and Rabda may think of him and talk of him as they tramp the roads
+together?”
+
+“My name is Ralph Bathurst. I am District Officer at Deennugghur. How
+far are you going this evening?”
+
+“We shall sleep at the first village we come to, sahib; we have walked
+many hours today, and this box, though its contents are not weighty,
+is heavy to bear. We thought of going down tomorrow to Deennugghur, and
+showing our performances to the sahib logue there.”
+
+“Very well; but there is one thing--what is your name?”
+
+“Rujub.”
+
+“Well, Rujub, if you go on to Deennugghur tomorrow say nothing to anyone
+there about this affair with the tiger; it is nothing to talk about. I
+am not a shikari, but a hard working official, and I don’t want to be
+talked about.”
+
+“The sahib’s wish shall be obeyed,” the man said.
+
+“You can come round to my bungalow and ask for me; I shall be glad to
+hear whether your daughter is any the worse for her scare. How do you
+feel, Rabda?”
+
+“I feel as one in a dream, sahib. I saw a great yellow beast springing
+through the air, and I cried out, and knew nothing more till I saw the
+sahib’s face; and now I have heard him and my father talking, but their
+voices sound to me as if far away, though I know that you are holding
+me.”
+
+“You will be all the better after a night’s rest, child; no wonder you
+feel strange and shaken. Another quarter of an hour and we shall be at
+the village. I suppose, Rujub, you were born a conjurer.”
+
+“Yes, sahib, it is always so; it goes down from father to son. As soon
+as I was able to walk, I began to work with my father, and as I grew
+up he initiated me in the secrets of our craft, which we may never
+divulge.”
+
+“No, I know they are a mystery. Many of your tricks can be done by our
+conjurers at home, but there are some that have never been solved.”
+
+“I have been offered, more than once, large sums by English sahibs to
+tell them how some of the feats were done, but I could not; we are bound
+by terrible oaths, and; in no case has a juggler proved false to them.
+Were one to do so he would be slain without mercy, and his fate in the
+next world would be terrible; forever and forever his soul would pass
+through the bodies of the foulest and lowest creatures, and there would
+be no forgiveness for him. I would give my life for the sahib, but even
+to him I would not divulge our mysteries.”
+
+In a few minutes they came to the first village beyond the jungle. As
+they approached it Bathurst checked his horse and lifted the girl down.
+She took his hand and pressed her forehead to it.
+
+“I shall see you tomorrow, then, Rujub,” he said, and shaking the reins,
+went on at a canter.
+
+“That is a new character for me to come out in,” he said bitterly; “I do
+not know myself--I, of all men. But there was no bravery in it; it never
+occurred to me to be afraid; I just thrashed him off as I should beat
+off a dog who was killing a lamb; there was no noise, and it is noise
+that frightens me; if the brute had roared I should assuredly have run;
+I know it would have been so; I could not have helped it to have saved
+my life. It is an awful curse that I am not as other men, and that I
+tremble and shake like a girl at the sound of firearms. It would have
+been better if I had been killed by the first shot fired in the Punjaub
+eight years ago, or if I had blown my brains out at the end of the day.
+Good Heavens! what have I suffered since. But I will not think of it.
+Thank God, I have got my work; and as long as I keep my thoughts on that
+there is no room for that other;” and then, by a great effort of will,
+Ralph Bathurst put the past behind him, and concentrated his thoughts on
+the work on which he had been that day engaged.
+
+The juggler did not arrive on the following evening as he had expected,
+but late in the afternoon a native boy brought in a message from him,
+saying that his daughter was too shaken and ill to travel, but that they
+would come when she recovered.
+
+A week later, on returning from a long day’s work, Bathurst was told
+that a juggler was in the veranda waiting to see him.
+
+“I told him, sahib,” the servant said, “that you cared not for such
+entertainments, and that he had better go elsewhere; but he insisted
+that you yourself had told him to come, and so I let him wait.”
+
+“Has he a girl with him, Jafur?”
+
+“Yes, sahib.”
+
+Bathurst strolled round to the other side of the bungalow, where Rujub
+was sitting patiently, with Rabda wrapped in her blue cloth beside him.
+They rose to their feet.
+
+“I am glad to see your daughter is better again, Rujub.”
+
+“She is better, sahib; she has had fever, but is restored.”
+
+“I cannot see your juggling tonight, Rujub. I have had a heavy day’s
+work, and am worn out, and have still much to do. You had better go
+round to some of the other bungalows; though I don’t think you will do
+much this evening, for there is a dinner party at the Collector’s, and
+almost everyone will be there. My servants will give you food, and I
+shall be off at seven o’clock in the morning, but shall be glad to see
+you before I start. Are you in want of money?” and he put his hand in
+his pocket.
+
+“No, sahib,” the juggler said. “We have money sufficient for all our
+wants; we are not thinking of performing tonight, for Rabda is not
+equal to it. Before sunrise we shall be on our way again; I must be at
+Cawnpore, and we have delayed too long already. Could you give us but
+half an hour tonight, sahib; we will come at any hour you like. I would
+show you things that few Englishmen have seen. Not mere common tricks,
+sahib, but mysteries such as are known to few even of us. Do not say no,
+sahib.”
+
+“Well, if you wish it, Rujub, I will give you half an hour,” and
+Bathurst looked at his watch. “It is seven now, and I have to dine. I
+have work to do that will take me three hours at least, but at eleven I
+shall have finished. You will see a light in my room; come straight to
+the open window.”
+
+“We will be there, sahib;” and with a salaam the juggler walked off,
+followed by his daughter.
+
+A few minutes before the appointed time Bathurst threw down his pen with
+a little sigh of satisfaction.
+
+The memo he had just finished was a most conclusive one; it seemed
+to him unanswerable, and that the Department would have trouble in
+disputing his facts and figures. He had not since he sat down to his
+work given another thought to the juggler, and he almost started as a
+figure appeared in the veranda at the open window.
+
+“Ah, Rujub, is it you? I have just finished my work. Come in; is Rabda
+with you?”
+
+“She will remain outside until I want her,” the juggler said as he
+entered and squatted himself on the floor. “I am not going to juggle,
+sahib. With us there are two sorts of feats; there are those that are
+performed by sleight of hand or by means of assistance. These are the
+juggler’s tricks we show in the verandas and compounds of the white
+sahibs, and in the streets of the cities. There are others that are
+known only to the higher order among us, that we show only on rare
+occasions. They have come to us from the oldest times, and it is said
+they were brought by wise men from Egypt; but that I know not.”
+
+“I have always been interested in juggling, and have seen many things
+that I cannot understand,” Bathurst said. “I have seen the basket trick
+done on the road in front of the veranda, as well as in other places,
+and I cannot in any way account for it.”
+
+The juggler took from his basket a piece of wood about two feet in
+length and some four inches in diameter.
+
+“You see this?” he said.
+
+Bathurst took it in his hand. “It looks like a bit sawn off a telegraph
+pole,” he said.
+
+“Will you come outside, sahib?”
+
+The night was very dark, but the lamp on the table threw its light
+through the window onto the drive in front of the veranda. Rujub took
+with him a piece of wood about nine inches square, with a soft pad on
+the top. He went out in the drive and placed the piece of pole upright,
+and laid the wood with the cushion on the top.
+
+“Now will you stand in the veranda a while?”
+
+Bathurst stood back by the side of the window so as not to interfere
+with the passage of the light. Rabda stole forward and sat down upon the
+cushion.
+
+“Now watch, sahib.”
+
+Bathurst looked, and saw the block of wood apparently growing. Gradually
+it rose until Rabda passed up beyond the light in the room.
+
+“You may come out,” the juggler said, “but do not touch the pole. If you
+do, it will cause a fall, which would be fatal to my child.”
+
+Bathurst stepped out and looked up. He could but just make out the
+figure of Rabda, seemingly already higher than the top of the bungalow.
+Gradually it became more and more indistinct.
+
+“You are there, Rabda?” her father said.
+
+“I am here, father!” and the voice seemed to come from a considerable
+distance.
+
+Again and again the question was asked, and the answer became fainter
+and fainter, although it sounded as if it was a distant cry in response
+to Rujub’s shout rather than spoken in an ordinary voice.
+
+At last no response was heard.
+
+“Now it shall descend,” the juggler said.
+
+Two or three minutes passed, and then Bathurst, who was staring up into
+the darkness, could make out the end of the pole with the seat upon
+it, but Rabda was no longer there. Rapidly it sank, until it stood its
+original height on the ground.
+
+“Where is Rabda?” Bathurst exclaimed.
+
+“She is here, my lord,” and as he spoke Rabda rose from a sitting
+position on the balcony close to Bathurst.
+
+“It is marvelous!” the latter exclaimed. “I have heard of that feat
+before, but have never seen it. May I take up that piece of wood?”
+
+“Assuredly, sahib.”
+
+Bathurst took it up and carried it to the light. It was undoubtedly,
+as he had before supposed, a piece of solid wood. The juggler had not
+touched it, or he would have supposed he might have substituted for the
+piece he first examined a sort of telescope of thin sheets of steel, but
+even that would not have accounted for Rabda’s disappearance.
+
+“I will show you one other feat, my lord.”
+
+He took a brass dish, placed a few pieces of wood and charcoal in it,
+struck a match, and set the wood on fire, and then fanned it until the
+wood had burned out, and the charcoal was in a glow; then he sprinkled
+some powder upon it, and a dense white smoke rose.
+
+“Now turn out the lamp, sahib.”
+
+Bathurst did so. The glow of the charcoal enabled him still to see the
+light smoke; this seemed to him to become clearer and clearer.
+
+“Now for the past!” Rujub said. The smoke grew brighter and brighter,
+and mixed with flashes of color; presently Bathurst saw clearly an
+Indian scene. A village stood on a crest, jets of smoke darted up
+from between the houses, and then a line of troops in scarlet uniform
+advanced against the village, firing as they went. They paused for a
+moment, and then with a rush went at the village and disappeared in the
+smoke over the crest.
+
+“Good Heavens,” Bathurst muttered, “it is the battle of Chillianwalla!”
+
+“The future!” Rujub said, and the colors on the smoke changed. Bathurst
+saw a wall surrounding a courtyard. On one side was a house. It had
+evidently been besieged, for in the upper part were many ragged holes,
+and two of the windows were knocked into one. On the roof were men
+firing, and there were one or two women among them. He could see their
+faces and features distinctly. In the courtyard wall there was a gap,
+and through this a crowd of Sepoys were making their way, while a
+handful of whites were defending a breastwork. Among them he recognized
+his own figure. He saw himself club his rifle and leap down into the
+middle of the Sepoys, fighting furiously there. The colors faded away,
+and the room was in darkness again. There was the crack of a match, and
+then Rujub said quietly, “If you will lift off the globe again, I will
+light the lamp, sahib.”
+
+Bathurst almost mechanically did as he was told.
+
+“Well, sahib, what do you think of the pictures?”
+
+“The first was true,” Bathurst said quietly, “though, how you knew I was
+with the regiment that stormed the village at Chillianwalla I know not.
+The second is certainly not true.”
+
+“You can never know what the future will be, sahib,” the juggler said
+gravely.
+
+“That is so,” Bathurst said; “but I know enough of myself to say that
+it cannot be true. I do not say that the Sepoys can never be fighting
+against whites, improbable as it seems, but that I was doing what that
+figure did is, I know, impossible.”
+
+“Time will show, sahib,” the juggler said; “the pictures never lie.
+Shall I show you other things?”
+
+“No, Rujub, you have shown me enough; you have astounded me. I want to
+see no more tonight.”
+
+“Then farewell, sahib; we shall meet again, I doubt not, and mayhap I
+may be able to repay the debt I owe you;” and Rujub, lifting his basket,
+went out through the window without another word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Some seven or eight officers were sitting round the table in the
+messroom of the 103d Bengal Infantry at Cawnpore. It had been a guest
+night, but the strangers had left, the lights had been turned out in the
+billiard room overhead, the whist party had broken up, and the players
+had rejoined three officers who had remained at table smoking and
+talking quietly.
+
+Outside, through the open French windows, the ground looked as if
+sprinkled with snow beneath the white light of the full moon. Two or
+three of the mess servants were squatting in the veranda, talking in low
+voices. A sentry walked backwards and forwards by the gate leading into
+the mess house compound; beyond, the maidan stretched away flat and
+level to the low huts of the native lines on the other side.
+
+“So the Doctor comes back tomorrow, Major,” the Adjutant, who had been
+one of the whist party, said. “I shall be very glad to have him back.
+In the first place, he is a capital fellow, and keeps us all alive;
+secondly, he is a good deal better doctor than the station surgeon who
+has been looking after the men since we have been here; and lastly, if
+I had got anything the matter with me myself, I would rather be in his
+hands than those of anyone else I know.”
+
+“Yes, I agree with you, Prothero; the Doctor is as good a fellow as ever
+stepped. There is no doubt about his talent in his profession; and there
+are a good many of us who owed our lives to him when we were down with
+cholera, in that bad attack three years ago. He is good all round; he
+is just as keen a shikari as he was when he joined the regiment,
+twenty years ago; he is a good billiard player, and one of the best
+storytellers I ever came across; but his best point is that he is such a
+thoroughly good fellow--always ready to do a good turn to anyone, and to
+help a lame dog over a stile. I could name a dozen men in India who
+owe their commissions to him. I don’t know what the regiment would do
+without him.”
+
+“He went home on leave just after I joined,” one of the subalterns said.
+“Of course, I know, from all I have heard of him, that he is an awfully
+good fellow, but from the little I saw of him myself, he seemed always
+growling and snapping.”
+
+There was a general laugh from the others.
+
+“Yes, that is his way, Thompson,” the Major said; “he believes himself
+to be one of the most cynical and morose of men.”
+
+“He was married, wasn’t he, Major?”
+
+“Yes, it was a sad business. It was only just after I joined. He is
+three years senior to me in the regiment. He was appointed to it a month
+or two after the Colonel joined. Well, as I say, a month or two after I
+came to it, he went away on leave down to Calcutta, where he was to meet
+a young lady who had been engaged to him before he left home. They were
+married, and he brought her up country. Before she had been with us a
+month we had one of those outbreaks of cholera. It wasn’t a very severe
+one. I think we only lost eight or ten men, and no officer; but the
+Doctor’s young wife was attacked, and in three or four hours she was
+carried off. It regularly broke him down. However, he got over it, as
+we all do, I suppose; and now I think he is married to the regiment. He
+could have had staff appointments a score of times, but he has always
+refused them. His time is up next year, and he could go home on full
+pay, but I don’t suppose he will.”
+
+“And your niece arrives with him tomorrow, Major,” the Adjutant said.
+
+“Yes, I am going to try petticoat government, Prothero. I don’t know how
+the experiment will succeed, but I am tired of an empty bungalow, and I
+have been looking forward for some years to her being old enough to come
+out and take charge. It is ten years since I was home, and she was a
+little chit of eight years old at that time.”
+
+“I think a vote of thanks ought to be passed to you, Major. We have only
+married ladies in the regiment, and it will wake us up and do us good to
+have Miss Hannay among us.”
+
+“There are the Colonel’s daughters,” the Major said, with a smile.
+
+“Yes, there are, Major, but they hardly count; they are scarcely
+conscious of the existence of poor creatures like us; nothing short of a
+Resident or, at any rate, of a full blown Collector, will find favor in
+their eyes.”
+
+“Well, I warn you all fairly,” the Major said, “that I shall set my
+face against all sorts of philandering and love making. I am bringing my
+niece out here as my housekeeper and companion, and not as a prospective
+wife for any of you youngsters. I hope she will turn out to be as plain
+as a pikestaff, and then I may have some hopes of keeping her with me
+for a time. The Doctor, in his letter from Calcutta, says nothing as to
+what she is like, though he was good enough to remark that she seemed to
+have a fair share of common sense, and has given him no more trouble
+on the voyage than was to be expected under the circumstances. And now,
+lads, it is nearly two o’clock, and as there is early parade tomorrow,
+it is high time for you to be all in your beds. What a blessing it would
+be if the sun would forget to shine for a bit on this portion of the
+world, and we could have an Arctic night of seven or eight months with a
+full moon the whole time!”
+
+A few minutes later the messroom was empty, the lights turned out, and
+the servants wrapped up in their blankets had disposed themselves for
+sleep in the veranda.
+
+As soon as morning parade was over Major Hannay went back to his
+bungalow, looked round to see that his bachelor quarters were as bright
+and tidy as possible, then got into a light suit and went down to the
+post house. A quarter of an hour later a cloud of dust along the road
+betokened the approach of the Dak Gharry, and two or three minutes later
+it dashed up at full gallop amid a loud and continuous cracking of the
+driver’s whip. The wiry little horses were drawn up with a sudden jerk.
+
+The Major opened the door. A little man sprang out and grasped him by
+the hand.
+
+“Glad to see you, Major--thoroughly glad to be back again. Here is your
+niece; I deliver her safe and sound into your hands.” And between them
+they helped a girl to alight from the vehicle.
+
+“I am heartily glad to see you, my dear,” the Major said, as he kissed
+her; “though I don’t think I should have known you again.”
+
+“I should think not, uncle,” the girl said. “In the first place, I was
+a little girl in short frocks when I saw you last; and in the second
+place, I am so covered with the dust that you can hardly see what I
+am like. I think I should have known you; your visit made a great
+impression upon us, though I can remember now how disappointed we were
+when you first arrived that you hadn’t a red coat and a sword, as we had
+expected.”
+
+“Well, we may as well be off at once, Isobel; it is only five minutes’
+walk to the bungalow. My man will see to your luggage being brought up.
+Come along, Doctor. Of course you will put up with me until you can look
+round and fix upon quarters. I told Rumzan to bring your things round
+with my niece’s. You have had a very pleasant voyage out, I hope,
+Isobel?” he went on, as they started.
+
+“Very pleasant, uncle, though I got rather tired of it at last.”
+
+“That is generally the way--everyone is pleasant and agreeable at first,
+but before they get to the end they take to quarreling like cats and
+dogs.”
+
+“We were not quite as bad as that,” the girl laughed, “but we certainly
+weren’t as amiable the last month or so as we were during the first
+part of the voyage. Still, it was very pleasant all along, and nobody
+quarreled with me.”
+
+“Present company are always excepted,” the Doctor said. “I stood in loco
+parentis, Major, and the result has been that I shall feel in future
+more charitable towards mothers of marriageable daughters. Still, I am
+bound to say that Miss Hannay has given me as little trouble as could be
+expected.”
+
+“You frighten me, Doctor; if you found her so onerous only for a voyage,
+what have I to look forward to?”
+
+“Well, you can’t say that I didn’t warn you, Major; when you wrote home
+and asked me to take charge of your niece on the way out, I told you
+frankly that my opinion of your good sense was shaken.”
+
+“Yes, you did express yourself with some strength,” the Major laughed;
+“but then one is so accustomed to that, that I did not take it to heart
+as I might otherwise have done.”
+
+“That was before you knew me, Dr. Wade, otherwise I should feel very
+hurt,” the girl put in.
+
+“Yes, it was,” the Doctor said dryly.
+
+“Don’t mind him, my dear,” her uncle said; “we all know the Doctor of
+old. This is my bungalow.”
+
+“It is pretty, with all these flowers and shrubs round it,” she said
+admiringly.
+
+“Yes, we have been doing a good deal of watering the last few weeks, so
+as to get it to look its best. This is your special attendant; she will
+take you up to your room. By the time you have had a bath, your boxes
+will be here. I told them to have a cup of tea ready for you upstairs.
+Breakfast will be on the table by the time you are ready.”
+
+“Well, old friend,” he said to the Doctor, when the girl had gone
+upstairs, “no complications, I hope, on the voyage?”
+
+“No, I think not,” the Doctor said. “Of course, there were lots of young
+puppies on board, and as she was out and out the best looking girl in
+the ship half of them were dancing attendance upon her all the voyage,
+but I am bound to say that she acted like a sensible young woman;
+and though she was pleasant with them all, she didn’t get into any
+flirtation with one more than another. I did my best to look after her,
+but, of course, that would have been of no good if she had been disposed
+to go her own way. I fancy about half of them proposed to her--not that
+she ever said as much to me--but whenever I observed one looking sulky
+and giving himself airs I could guess pretty well what had happened.
+These young puppies are all alike, and we are not without experience of
+the species out here.
+
+“Seriously, Major, I think you are to be congratulated. I consider that
+you ran a tremendous risk in asking a young woman, of whom you knew
+nothing, to come out to you; still it has turned out well. If she had
+been a frivolous, giggling thing, like most of them, I had made up my
+mind to do you a good turn by helping to get her engaged on the voyage,
+and should have seen her married offhand at Calcutta, and have come up
+and told you that you were well out of the scrape. As, contrary to my
+expectations, she turned out to be a sensible young woman, I did my best
+the other way. It is likely enough you may have her on your hands some
+little time, for I don’t think she is likely to be caught by the first
+comer. Well, I must go and have my bath; the dust has been awful coming
+up from Allahabad. That is one advantage, and the only one as far as
+I can see, that they have got in England. They don’t know what dust is
+there.”
+
+When the bell for breakfast rang, and Isobel made her appearance,
+looking fresh and cool, in a light dress, the Major said, “You must
+take the head of the table, my dear, and assume the reins of government
+forthwith.”
+
+“Then I should say, uncle, that if any guidance is required, there will
+be an upset in a very short time. No, that won’t do at all. You must go
+on just as you were before, and I shall look on and learn. As far as I
+can see, everything is perfect just as it is. This is a charming room,
+and I am sure there is no fault to be found with the arrangement of
+these flowers on the table. As for the cooking, everything looks very
+nice, and anyhow, if you have not been able to get them to cook to your
+taste, it is of no use my attempting anything in that way. Besides, I
+suppose I must learn something of the language before I can attempt to
+do anything. No, uncle, I will sit in this chair if you like, and
+make tea and pour it out, but that is the beginning and the end of my
+assumption of the head of the establishment at present.”
+
+“Well, Isobel, I hardly expected that you were going to run the
+establishment just at first; indeed, as far as that goes, one’s butler,
+if he is a good man, has pretty well a free hand. He is generally
+responsible, and is in fact what we should call at home housekeeper--he
+and the cook between them arrange everything. I say to him, ‘Three
+gentlemen are coming to tiffen.’ He nods and says ‘Atcha, sahib,’ which
+means ‘All right, sir,’ and then I know it will be all right. If I have
+a fancy for any special thing, of course I say so. Otherwise, I leave it
+to them, and if the result is not satisfactory, I blow up. Nothing can
+be more simple.”
+
+“But how about bills, uncle?”
+
+“Well, my dear, the butler gives them to me, and I pay them. He has been
+with me a good many years, and will not let the others--that is to
+say, the cook and the syce, the washerman, and so on, cheat me beyond a
+reasonable amount. Do you, Rumzan?”
+
+Rumzan, who was standing behind the Major’s chair, in a white turban and
+dress, with a red and white sash round his waist, smiled.
+
+“Rumzan not let anyone rob his master.”
+
+“Not to any great extent, you know, Rumzan. One doesn’t expect more than
+that.”
+
+“It is just the same here, Miss Hannay, as it is everywhere else,”
+ said the Doctor; “only in big establishments in England they rob you of
+pounds, while here they rob you of annas, which, as I have explained to
+you, are two pence halfpennies. The person who undertakes to put down
+little peculations enters upon a war in which he is sure to get the
+worst of it. He wastes his time, spoils his temper, makes himself and
+everyone around him uncomfortable, and after all he is robbed. Life is
+too short for it, especially in a climate like this. Of course, in time
+you get to understand the language; if you see anything in the bills
+that strikes you as showing waste you can go into the thing, but as a
+rule you trust entirely to your butler; if you cannot trust him, get
+another one. Rumzan has been with your uncle ten years, so you are
+fortunate. If the Major had gone home instead of me, and if you had
+had an entirely fresh establishment of servants to look after, the case
+would have been different; as it is, you will have no trouble that way.”
+
+“Then what are my duties to be, uncle?”
+
+“Your chief duties, my dear, are to look pleasant, which will evidently
+be no trouble to you; to amuse me and keep me in a good temper as far
+as possible; to keep on as good terms as may be with the other ladies of
+the station; and, what will perhaps be the most difficult part of your
+work, to snub and keep in order the young officers of our own and other
+corps.”
+
+Isobel laughed. “That doesn’t sound a very difficult programme, uncle,
+except the last item; I have already had a little experience that way,
+haven’t I, Doctor? I hope I shall have the benefit of your assistance in
+the future, as I had aboard the ship.”
+
+“I will do my best,” the Doctor said grimly; “but the British subaltern
+is pretty well impervious to snubs; he belongs to the pachydermatous
+family of animals; his armor of self conceit renders him invulnerable
+against the milder forms of raillery. However, I think you can be
+trusted to hold your own with him, Miss Hannay, without much assistance
+from the Major or myself. Your real difficulty will lie rather in your
+struggle against the united female forces of the station.”
+
+“But why shall I have to struggle with them?” Isobel asked, in surprise,
+while her uncle broke into a laugh.
+
+“Don’t frighten her, Doctor.”
+
+“She is not so easily frightened, Major; it is just as well that she
+should be prepared. Well, my dear Miss Hannay, Indian society has this
+peculiarity, that the women never grow old. At least,” he continued,
+in reply to the girl’s look of surprise, “they are never conscious
+of growing old. At home a woman’s family grows up about her, and are
+constant reminders that she is becoming a matron. Here the children are
+sent away when they get four or five years old, and do not appear on the
+scene again until they are grown up. Then, too, ladies are greatly in
+the minority, and they are accustomed to be made vastly more of than
+they are at home, and the consequence is that the amount of envy,
+hatred, jealousy, and all uncharitableness is appalling.”
+
+“No, no, Doctor, not as bad as that,” the Major remonstrated.
+
+“Every bit as bad as that,” the Doctor said stoutly. “I am not a woman
+hater, far from it; but I have felt sometimes that if John Company,
+in its beneficence, would pass a decree absolutely excluding the
+importation of white women into India it would be an unmixed blessing.”
+
+“For shame, Doctor,” Isobel Hannay said; “and to think that I should
+have such a high opinion of you up to now.”
+
+“I can’t help it, my dear; my experience is that for ninety-nine out of
+every hundred unpleasantnesses that take place out here, women are in
+one way or another responsible. They get up sets and cliques, and break
+up what might be otherwise pleasant society into sections. Talk about
+caste amongst natives; it is nothing to the caste among women out
+here. The wife of a civilian of high rank looks down upon the wives of
+military men, the general’s wife looks down upon a captain’s, and so
+right through from the top to the bottom.
+
+“It is not so among the men, or at any rate to a very much smaller
+extent. Of course, some men are pompous fools, but, as a rule, if two
+men meet, and both are gentlemen, they care nothing as to what their
+respective ranks may be. A man may be a lord or a doctor, a millionaire
+or a struggling barrister, but they meet on equal terms in society; but
+out here it is certainly not so among the women--they stand upon
+their husband’s dignity in a way that would be pitiable if it were not
+exasperating. Of course, there are plenty of good women among them, as
+there are everywhere--women whom even India can’t spoil; but what with
+exclusiveness, and with the amount of admiration and adulation they get,
+and what with the want of occupation for their thoughts and minds, it is
+very hard for them to avoid getting spoilt.”
+
+“Well, I hope I shan’t get spoilt, Doctor; and I hope, if you see that I
+am getting spoilt, you will make a point of telling me so at once.”
+
+The Doctor grunted. “Theoretically, people are always ready to receive
+good advice, Miss Hannay; practically they are always offended by
+it. However, in your case I will risk it, and I am bound to say that
+hitherto you have proved yourself more amenable in that way than most
+young women I have come across.”
+
+“And now, if we have done, we will go out on the veranda,” the Major
+said. “I am sure the Doctor must be dying for a cheroot.”
+
+“The Doctor has smoked pretty continuously since we left Allahabad,”
+ Isobel said. “He wanted to sit up with the driver, but, of course, I
+would not have that. I had got pretty well accustomed to smoke coming
+out, and even if I had not been I would much rather have been almost
+suffocated than have been in there by myself. I thought a dozen times
+the vehicle was going to upset, and what with the bumping and the
+shouting and the cracking of the whip--especially when the horses
+wouldn’t start, which was generally the case at first--I should have
+been frightened out of my life had I been alone. It seemed to me that
+something dreadful was always going to happen.”
+
+“You can take it easy this morning, Isobel,” the Major said, when they
+were comfortably seated in the bamboo lounges in the veranda. “You want
+have any callers today, as it will be known you traveled all night.
+People will imagine that you want a quiet day before you are on show.”
+
+“What a horrid expression, uncle!”
+
+“Well, my dear, it represents the truth. The arrival of a fresh lady
+from England, especially of a ‘spin,’ which is short for spinster or
+unmarried woman, is an event of some importance in an Indian station.
+Not, of course, so much in a place like this, because this is the center
+of a large district, but in a small station it is an event of the first
+importance. The men are anxious to see what a newcomer is like for
+herself; the women, to look at her dresses and see the latest fashions
+from home, and also to ascertain whether she is likely to turn out a
+formidable rival. However, today you can enjoy quiet; tomorrow you
+must attire yourself in your most becoming costume, and I will trot you
+round.”
+
+“Trot me round, uncle?”
+
+“Yes, my dear. In India the order of procedure is reversed, and
+newcomers call in the first place upon residents.”
+
+“What a very unpleasant custom, uncle; especially as some of the
+residents may not want to know them.”
+
+“Well, everyone must know everyone else in a station, my dear, though
+they may not wish to be intimate. So, about half past one tomorrow we
+will start.”
+
+“What, in the heat of the day, uncle?”
+
+“Yes, my dear. That is another of the inscrutable freaks of Indian
+fashion. The hours for calling are from about half past twelve to half
+past two, just in the hottest hours. I don’t pretend to account for it.”
+
+“How many ladies are there in the regiment?”
+
+“There is the Colonel’s wife, Mrs. Cromarty. She has two grown up red
+headed girls,” replied the Doctor. “She is a distant relation--a second
+cousin--of some Scotch lord or other, and, on the strength of that and
+her husband’s colonelcy, gives herself prodigious airs. Three of the
+captains are married. Mrs. Doolan is a merry little Irish woman. You
+will like her. She has two or three children. She is a general favorite
+in the regiment.
+
+“Mrs. Rintoul--I suppose she is here still, Major, and unchanged? Ah, I
+thought so. She is a washed-out woman, without a spark of energy in her
+composition.-’ She believes that she is a chronic invalid, and sends
+for me on an average once a week. But there is nothing really the matter
+with her, if she would but only believe it. Mrs. Roberts--”
+
+“Don’t be ill natured, Doctor,” the Major broke in. “Mrs. Roberts, my
+dear, is a good-looking woman, and a general flirt. I don’t think there
+is any harm in her whatever. Mrs. Prothero, the Adjutant’s wife, has
+only been out here eighteen months, and is a pretty little woman, and in
+all respects nice.-There is only one other, Mrs. Scarsdale; she came out
+six months ago. She is a quiet young woman, with, I should say, plenty
+of common sense: I should think you will like her. That completes the
+regimental list.”
+
+“Well, that is not so very formidable. Anyhow, it is a. comfort that we
+shall have no one here today.”
+
+“You will have the whole regiment here in a few minutes, Isobel, but
+they will be coming to see the Doctor, not you; if it hadn’t been that
+they knew you were under his charge everyone would have come down to
+meet him when he arrived. But if you feel tired, as I am sure you must
+be after your journey, there is no reason why you shouldn’t go and lie
+down quietly for a few hours.”
+
+“I will stop here, uncle; it will be much less embarrassing to see them
+all for the first time when they come to see Dr. Wade and I am quite a
+secondary consideration, than if they had to come specially to call on
+me.”
+
+“Well, I agree with you there, my dear. Ah! here come Doolan and
+Prothero.”
+
+A light trap drove into the inclosure and drew up in front of the
+veranda, and two officers jumped down,-whilst the syce, who had been
+standing on a step behind, ran to the horse’s head. They hailed the
+Doctor, as he stepped out from the veranda, with a shout.
+
+“Glad to see you back, Doctor. The regiment has not seemed like itself
+without you.”
+
+“We have been just pining without you, Doctor,” Captain Doolan said;
+“and the ladies would have got up a deputation to meet you on your
+arrival, only I told them that it would be too much for your modesty.”
+
+“Well, it is a good thing that someone has a little of that quality in
+the regiment, Doolan,” the Doctor said, as he shook hands heartily with
+them both. “It is very little of it that fell to the share of Ireland
+when it was served out.”
+
+As they dropped the Doctor’s hand the Major said, “Now, gentlemen, let
+me introduce you to my niece.” The introductions were made, and the
+whole party took chairs on the veranda.
+
+“Do you object to smoking, Miss Hannay; perhaps you have not got
+accustomed to it yet? I see the Doctor is-smoking; but then he is a
+privileged person, altogether beyond rule.”
+
+“I rather like it in the open air,” Isobel said. “No doubt I shall get
+accustomed to it indoors before long.”
+
+In a few minutes four or five more of the officers arrived, and Isobel
+sat an amused listener to the talk; taking but little part in it
+herself, but gathering a good deal of information as to the people at
+the station from the answers given to the Doctor’s inquiries. It was
+very much like the conversation on board ship, except that the topics of
+conversation were wider and more numerous, and there was a community
+of interest wanting on board a ship. In half an hour, however, the
+increasing warmth and her sleepless night began to tell upon her, and
+her uncle, seeing that she was beginning to look fagged, said, “The best
+thing that you can do, Isobel, is to go indoors for a bit, and have a
+good nap. At five o’clock I will take you round for a drive, and show
+you the sights of Cawnpore.”
+
+“I do feel sleepy,” she said, “though it sounds rude to say so.”
+
+“Not at all,” the Doctor put in; “if any of these young fellows had made
+the journey out from Allahabad in that wretched gharry, they would have
+turned into bed as soon as they arrived, and would not have got up till
+the first mess bugle sounded, and very likely would have slept on until
+next morning.
+
+“Now,” he went on, when Isobel had disappeared, “we will adjourn with
+you to the mess-house. That young lady would have very small chance of
+getting to sleep with all this racket here. Doolan’s voice alone would
+banish sleep anywhere within a distance of a hundred yards.”
+
+“I will join you there later, Doctor,” the Major said. “I have got a
+couple of hours’ work in the orderly-room. Rumzan, don’t let my niece be
+disturbed, but if she wakes and rings the bell send up a message by the
+woman that I-shall not be back until four.”
+
+The Major walked across to the orderly room, while the rest, mounting
+their buggies, drove to the mess-house, which was a quarter of a mile
+away.
+
+“I should think Miss Hannay will prove a valuable addition to our
+circle, Doctor,” the Adjutant said. “I don’t know why, but I gathered
+from what the Major said that his niece was very young. He spoke of her
+as if she were quite a child.”
+
+“She is a very nice, sensible young woman,” the Doctor said; “clever and
+bright, and, as you can see for your-selves, pretty, and yet no nonsense
+about her. I only hope that she won’t get spoilt here; nineteen out of
+twenty young women do get spoilt within six months of their arrival in
+India, but I think she will be one of the exceptions.”
+
+“I should have liked to have seen the Doctor doing chaperon,” Captain
+Doolan laughed; “he would have been a brave man who would have attempted
+even the faintest flirtation with anyone under his charge.”
+
+“That is your opinion, is it, Doolan?” the Doctor said sharply. “I
+should have thought that even your common sense would have told you that
+anyone who has had the misfortune to see as much of womankind as I have
+would have been aware that any endeavor to check a flirtation for which
+they are inclined would be of all others the way to induce them to go in
+for it headlong. You are a married man yourself, and ought to know that.
+A woman is a good deal like a spirited horse; let her have her head,
+and, though she may for a time make the pace pretty fast, she will go
+straight, and settle down to her collar in time, whereas if you keep a
+tight curb she will fret and fidget, and as likely as not make a
+bolt for it. I can assure you that my duties were of The most nominal
+description. There were the usual number of hollow pated lads on board,
+who buzzed in their usual feeble way round Miss Hannay, and were one
+after another duly snubbed. Miss Hannay has plenty of spirits, and a
+considerable sense of humor, and I think that she enjoyed the voyage
+thoroughly. And now let us talk of something else.”
+
+After an hour’s chat the Doctor started on his round of calls upon the
+ladies; the Major had not come in from the orderly room, and, after the
+Doctor left, Isobel Hannay was again the topic of conversation.
+
+“She is out and out the prettiest girl in the station,” the Adjutant
+said to some of the officers who had not seen her. “She will make quite
+a sensation; and there are five or six ladies in the station, whose
+names I need hardly mention, who will not be very pleased at her coming.
+She is thoroughly in good form, too; nothing in the slightest degree
+fast or noisy about her. She is quiet and self-possessed. I fancy she
+will be able to hold her own against any of them. Clever? I should say
+‘certainly’; but, of course, that is from her face rather than from
+anything she said. I expect half the unmarried men in the station will
+be going wild over her. You need not look so interested, Wilson; the
+matter is of no more personal interest to you than if I were describing
+a new comet. Nothing less than a big civilian is likely to carry off
+such a prize, so I warn you beforehand you had better not be losing your
+heart to her.”
+
+“Well, you know, Prothero, subalterns do manage to get wives sometimes.”
+
+There was a laugh.
+
+“That is true enough, Wilson; but then, you see, I married at home;
+besides, I am adjutant, which sounds a lot better than subaltern.”
+
+“That may go for a good deal in the regiment,” Wilson retorted, “but
+I doubt if there are many women that know the difference between
+an adjutant and a quartermaster. They know about colonels, majors,
+captains, and even subalterns; but if you were to say that you were an
+adjutant they would be simply mystified, though they might understand if
+you said bandmaster. But I fancy sergeant major would sound ever so much
+more imposing.”
+
+“Wilson, if you are disrespectful, I shall discover tomorrow, on parade,
+that No. 3 Company wants a couple of hours’ extra drill badly, and then
+you will feel how grievous a mistake it is to cheek an adjutant.”
+
+The report of those who had called at the Major’s was so favorable that
+curiosity was quite roused as to the new-comer, and when the Major drove
+round with her the next day everyone was at home, and the verdict on
+the part of the ladies was generally favorable, but was by no means so
+unqualified as that of the gentlemen.
+
+Mrs. Cromarty admitted that she was nice looking; but was critical as
+to her carriage and manner. She would be admired by young officers, no
+doubt, but there was too much life and animation about her, and although
+she would not exactly say that she stooped, she was likely to do so in
+time.
+
+“She will be nothing remarkable when her freshness has worn off a
+little.”
+
+In this opinion the Misses Cromarty thoroughly assented. They had never
+been accused of stooping, and, indeed, were almost painfully upright,
+and were certainly not particularly admired by subalterns.
+
+Mrs. Doolan was charmed with her, and told her she hoped that they would
+be great friends.
+
+“This is a very pleasant life out here, my dear,” she said, “if one does
+but take it in the right way. There is a great deal of tittle tattle in
+the Indian stations, and some quarreling; but, you know, it takes two to
+make a quarrel, and I make it a point never to quarrel with anyone. It
+is too hot for it. Then, you see, I have the advantage of being Irish,
+and, for some reason or other that I don’t understand we can say pretty
+nearly what we like. People don’t take us seriously, you know; so I keep
+in with them all.”
+
+Mrs. Rintoul received her visitors on the sofa. “It is quite refreshing
+to see a face straight from England, Miss Hannay. I only hope that you
+may keep your bright color and healthy looks. Some people do. Not their
+color, but their health. Unfortunately I am not one of them. I do not
+know what it is to have a day’s health. The climate completely oppresses
+me, and I am fit for nothing. You would hardly believe that I was as
+strong and healthy as you are when I first came out. You came out with
+Dr. Wade--a clever man--I have a very high opinion of his talent, but my
+case is beyond him. It is a sad annoyance to him that it is so, and
+he is continually trying to make me believe that there is nothing the
+matter with me, as if my looks did not speak for themselves.”
+
+Mrs. Rintoul afterwards told her husband she could hardly say that she
+liked Miss Hannay.
+
+“She is distressingly brisk and healthy, and I should say, my dear, not
+of a sympathetic nature, which is always a pity in a young woman.”
+
+After this somewhat depressing visit, the call upon Mrs. Roberts was a
+refreshing one. She received her very cordially.
+
+“I like you, Miss Hannay,” she said, when, after a quarter of an hour’s
+lively talk, the Major and his niece got up to go. “I always say what I
+think, and it is very good natured of me to say so, for I don’t disguise
+from myself that you will put my nose out of joint.”
+
+“I don’t want to put anyone’s nose out of joint,” Isobel laughed.
+
+“You will do it, whether you want to or not,” Mrs. Roberts said; “my
+husband as much as told me so last night, and I was prepared not to like
+you, but I see that I shall not be able to help doing so. Major Hannay,
+you have dealt me a heavy blow, but I forgive you.”
+
+When the round of visits was finished the Major said, “Well, Isobel,
+what do you think of the ladies of the regiment?”
+
+“I think they are all very nice, uncle. I fancy I shall like Mrs.
+Doolan and Mrs. Scarsdale best; I won’t give any opinion yet about Mrs.
+Cromarty.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The life of Isobel Hannay had not, up to the time when she left England
+to join her uncle, been a very bright one. At the death of her father,
+her mother had been left with an income that enabled her to live, as she
+said, genteelly, at Brighton. She had three children: the eldest a
+girl of twelve; Isobel, who was eight; and a boy of five, who was sadly
+deformed, the result of a fall from the arms of a careless nurse when
+he was an infant. It was at that time that Major Hannay had come home on
+leave, having been left trustee and executor, and seen to all the money
+arrangements, and had established his brother’s widow at Brighton. The
+work had not been altogether pleasant, for Mrs. Hannay was a selfish and
+querulous woman, very difficult to satisfy even in little matters, and
+with a chronic suspicion that everyone with whom she came in contact
+was trying to get the best of her. Her eldest girl was likely, Captain
+Hannay thought, to take after her mother, whose pet she was, while
+Isobel took after her father. He had suggested that both should be sent
+to school, but Mrs. Hannay would not hear of parting from Helena, but
+was willing enough that Isobel should be sent to a boarding school at
+her uncle’s expense.
+
+As the years went by, Helena grew up, as Mrs. Hannay proudly said, the
+image of what she herself had been at her age--tall and fair, indolent
+and selfish, fond of dress and gayety, discontented because their means
+would not permit them to indulge in either to the fullest extent. There
+was nothing in common between her and her sister, who, when at home
+for the holidays, spent her time almost entirely with her brother, who
+received but slight attention from anyone else, his deformity being
+considered as a personal injury and affliction by his mother and elder
+sister.
+
+“You could not care less for him,” Isobel once said, in a fit of
+passion, “if he were a dog. I don’t think you notice him more, not one
+bit. He wanders about the house without anybody to give a thought to
+him. I call it cruel, downright cruel.”
+
+“You are a wicked girl, Isobel,” her mother said angrily, “a wicked,
+violent girl, and I don’t know what will become of you. It is abominable
+of you to talk so, even if you are wicked enough to get into a passion.
+What can we do for him that we don’t do? What is the use of talking to
+him when he never pays attention to what we say, and is always moping. I
+am sure we get everything that we think will please him, and he goes out
+for a walk with us every day; what could possibly be done more for him?”
+
+“A great deal more might be done for him,” Isobel burst out. “You might
+love him, and that would be everything to him. I don’t believe you and
+Helena love him, not one bit, not one tiny scrap.”
+
+“Go up to your room, Isobel, and remain there for the rest of the day.
+You are a very bad girl. I shall write to Miss Virtue about you; there
+must be something very wrong in her management of you, or you would
+never be so passionate and insolent as you are.”
+
+But Isobel had not stopped to hear the last part of the sentence, the
+door had slammed behind her. She was not many minutes alone upstairs,
+for Robert soon followed her up, for when she was at home he rarely left
+her side, watching her every look and gesture with eyes as loving as
+those of a dog, and happy to sit on the ground beside her, with his head
+leaning against her, for hours together.
+
+Mrs. Hannay kept her word and wrote to Miss Virtue, and the evening
+after she returned to school Isobel was summoned to her room.
+
+“I am sorry to say, I have a very bad account of you from your mother.
+She says you are a passionate and wicked girl. How is it, dear; you are
+not passionate here, and I certainly do not think you are wicked?”
+
+“I can’t help it when I am at home, Miss Virtue. I am sure I try to
+be good, but they won’t let me. They don’t like me because I can’t be
+always tidy and what they call prettily behaved, and because I hate
+walking on the parade and being stuck up and unnatural, and they don’t
+like me because I am not pretty, and because I am thin and don’t look,
+as mamma says, a credit to her; but it is not that so much as because
+of Robert. You know he is deformed, Miss Virtue, and they don’t care for
+him, and he has no one to love him but me, and it makes me mad to see
+him treated so. That is what it was she wrote about. I told her they
+treated him like a dog and so they do,” and she burst into tears.
+
+“But that was very naughty, Isobel,” Miss Virtue said gravely. “You are
+only eleven years old, and too young to be a judge of these matters,
+and even if it were as you say, it is not for a child to speak so to her
+mother.”
+
+“I know that, Miss Virtue, but how can I help it? I could cry out with
+pain when I see Robert looking from one to the other just for a kind
+word, which he never gets. It is no use, Miss Virtue; if it was not for
+him I would much rather never go home at all, but stop here through
+the holidays, only what would he do if I didn’t go home? I am the only
+pleasure he has. When I am there he will sit for hours on my knee, and
+lay his head on my shoulder, and stroke my face. It makes me feel as if
+my heart would break.”
+
+“Well, my dear,” Miss Virtue said, somewhat puzzled, “it is sad, if it
+is as you say, but that does not excuse your being disrespectful to your
+mother. It is not for you to judge her.”
+
+“But cannot something be done for Robert, Miss Virtue? Surely they must
+do something for children like him.”
+
+“There are people, my dear, who take a few afflicted children and give
+them special training. Children of that kind have sometimes shown a
+great deal of unusual talent, and, if so, it is cultivated, and they are
+put in a way of earning a livelihood.”
+
+“Are there?” Isobel exclaimed, with eager eyes. “Then I know what I
+will do, Miss Virtue; I will write off at once to Uncle Tom--he is
+our guardian. I know if I were to speak to mamma about Robert going to
+school it would be of no use; but if uncle writes I dare say it would be
+done. I am sure she and Helena would be glad enough. I don’t suppose she
+ever thought of it. It would be a relief to them to get him out of their
+sight.”
+
+Miss Virtue shook her head. “You must not talk so, Isobel. It is not
+right or dutiful, and you are a great deal too young to judge your
+elders, even if they were not related to you; and, pray, if you write to
+your uncle do not write in that spirit--it would shock him greatly, and
+he would form a very bad opinion of you.”
+
+And so Isobel wrote. She was in the habit of writing once every half
+year to her uncle, who had told her that he wished her to do so, and
+that people out abroad had great pleasure in letters from England.
+Hitherto she had only written about her school life, and this letter
+caused her a great deal of trouble.
+
+It answered its purpose. Captain Hannay had no liking either for his
+sister in law or his eldest niece, and had, when he was with them, been
+struck with the neglect with which the little boy was treated. Isobel
+had taken great pains not to say anything that would show she considered
+that Robert was harshly treated; but had simply said that she heard
+there were schools where little boys like him could be taught, and that
+it would be such a great thing for him, as it was very dull for him
+having nothing to do all day. But Captain Hannay read through the lines,
+and felt that it was a protest against her brother’s treatment, and that
+she would not have written to him had she not felt that so only would
+anything be done for him. Accordingly he wrote home to his sister in
+law, saying he thought it was quite time now that the boy should be
+placed with some gentleman who took a few lads unfitted for the rough
+life of an ordinary school. He should take the charges upon himself, and
+had written to his agent in London to find out such an establishment,
+to make arrangements for Robert to go there, and to send down one of his
+clerks to take charge of him on the journey. He also wrote to Isobel,
+telling her what he had done, and blaming himself for not having thought
+of it before, winding up by saying: “I have not mentioned to your mother
+that I heard from you about it--that is a little secret just as well to
+keep to ourselves.”
+
+The next five years were much happier to Isobel, for the thought of her
+brother at home without her had before been constantly on her mind. It
+was a delight to her now to go home and to see the steady improvement
+that took place in Robert. He was brighter in every respect, and
+expressed himself as most happy where he was.
+
+As years went on he grew into a bright and intelligent boy, though his
+health was by no means good, and he looked frail and delicate. He was as
+passionately attached to her as ever, and during the holidays they
+were never separated; they stood quite alone, their mother and sister
+interesting themselves but little in their doings, and they were allowed
+to take long walks together, and to sit in a room by themselves, where
+they talked, drew, painted, and read.
+
+Mrs. Hannay disapproved of Isobel as much as ever. “She is a most
+headstrong girl,” she would lament to her friends, “and is really quite
+beyond my control. I do not at all approve of the school she is at, but
+unfortunately my brother in law, who is her guardian, has, under the
+will of my poor husband, absolute control in the matter. I am sure poor
+John never intended that he should be able to override my wishes; but
+though I have written to him several times about it, he says that he
+sees no valid reason for any change, and that from Isobel’s letters to
+him she seems very happy there, and to be getting on well. She is so
+very unlike dear Helena, and even when at home I see but little of her;
+she is completely wrapped up in her unfortunate brother. Of course I
+don’t blame her for that, but it is not natural that a girl her age
+should care nothing for pleasures or going out or the things natural to
+young people. Yes, she is certainly improving in appearance, and if she
+would but take some little pains about her dress would be really very
+presentable.”
+
+But her mother’s indifference disturbed Isobel but little. She was
+perfectly happy with her brother when at home, and very happy at school,
+where she was a general favorite. She was impulsive, high spirited,
+and occasionally gave Miss Virtue some trouble, but her disposition
+was frank and generous, there was not a tinge of selfishness in her
+disposition, and while she was greatly liked by girls of her own age,
+she was quite adored by little ones. The future that she always pictured
+to herself was a little cottage with a bright garden in the suburbs of
+London, where she and Robert could live together--she would go out as a
+daily governess; Robert, who was learning to play the organ, would,
+she hoped, get a post as organist. Not, of course, for the sake of the
+salary, for her earnings, and the interest of the thousand pounds that
+would be hers when she came of age, would be sufficient for them both,
+but as an amusement for him, and to give him a sense of independence.
+
+But when she was just seventeen, and was looking forward to the time
+when she would begin to carry her plan into effect, a terrible blow
+came. She heard from her mother that Robert was dead.
+
+“It is a sad blow for us all,” Mrs. Hannay wrote, “but, as you know, he
+has never been strong; still, we had no idea that anything serious ailed
+him until we heard a fortnight since he was suffering from a violent
+cough and had lost strength rapidly. A week later we heard that the
+doctors were of opinion it was a case of sudden consumption, and that
+the end was rapidly approaching. I went up to town to see him, and found
+him even worse than I expected, and was in no way surprised when this
+morning I received a letter saying that he had gone. Great as is the
+blow, one cannot but feel that, terribly afflicted as he was, his death
+is, as far as he is concerned, a happy release. I trust you will now
+abandon your wild scheme of teaching and come home.”
+
+But home was less home than ever to Isobel now, and she remained another
+six months at school, when she received an important letter from her
+uncle.
+
+“My Dear Isobel: When you first wrote to me and told me that what you
+were most looking forward to was to make a home for your brother, I own
+that it was a blow to me, for I had long had plans of my own about you;
+however, I thought your desire to help your brother was so natural, and
+would give you such happiness in carrying it into effect, that I at once
+fell in with it and put aside my own plan. But the case is altered now,
+and I can see no reason why I cannot have my own way. When I was in
+England I made up my mind that unless I married, which was a most
+improbable contingency, I would, when you were old enough, have you
+out to keep house for me. I foresaw, even then, that your brother might
+prove an obstacle to this plan. Even in the short time I was with you
+it was easy enough to see that the charge of him would fall on your
+shoulders, and that it would be a labor of love to you.
+
+“If he lived, then, I felt you would not leave him, and that you would
+be right in not doing so, but even then it seemed likely to me that
+he would not grow up to manhood. From time to time I have been in
+correspondence with the clergyman he was with, and learned that the
+doctor who attended them thought but poorly of him. I had him taken
+to two first class physicians in London; they pronounced him to be
+constitutionally weak, and said that beyond strengthening medicines and
+that sort of thing they could do nothing for him.
+
+“Therefore, dear, it was no surprise to me when I received first your
+mother’s letter with the news, and then your own written a few days
+later. When I answered that letter I thought it as well not to say
+anything of my plan, but by the time you receive this, it will be six
+months since your great loss, and you will be able to look at it in a
+fairer light than you could have done then, and I do hope you will agree
+to come out to me. Life here has its advantages and disadvantages, but I
+think that, especially for young people, it is a pleasant one.
+
+“I am getting very tired of a bachelor’s establishment, and it will be a
+very great pleasure indeed to have you here. Ever since I was in England
+I made up my mind to adopt you as my own child. You are very like my
+brother John, and your letters and all I have heard of you show that you
+have grown up just as he would have wished you to do. Your sister Helena
+is your mother’s child, and, without wishing to hurt your feelings, your
+mother and I have nothing in common. I regard you as the only relation
+I have in the world, and whether you come out or whether you do not,
+whatever I leave behind me will be yours. I do hope that you will at any
+rate come out for a time. Later on, if you don’t like the life here, you
+can fall back upon your own plan.
+
+“If you decide to come, write to my agent. I inclose envelope addressed
+to him. Tell him when you can be ready. He will put you in the way of
+the people you had better go to for your outfit, will pay all bills,
+take your passage, and so on.
+
+“Whatever you do, do not stint yourself. The people you go to will know
+a great deal better than you can do what is necessary for a lady out
+here. All you will have to do will be to get measured and to give them
+an idea of your likes and fancies as to colors and so on. They will have
+instructions from my agent to furnish you with a complete outfit, and
+will know exactly how many dozens of everything are required.
+
+“I can see no reason why you should not start within a month after the
+receipt of this letter, and I shall look most anxiously for a letter
+from you saying that you will come, and that you will start by a sailing
+ship in a month at latest from the date of your writing.”
+
+Isobel did not hesitate, as her faith in her uncle was unbounded. Next
+to her meetings with her brother, his letters had been her greatest
+pleasures. He had always taken her part; it was he who, at her request,
+had Robert placed at school, and he had kept her at Miss Virtue’s
+in spite of her mother’s complaints. At home she had never felt
+comfortable; it had always seemed to her that she was in the way;
+her mother disapproved of her; while from Helena she had never had a
+sisterly word. To go out to India to see the wonders she had read of,
+and to be her uncle’s companion, seemed a perfectly delightful prospect.
+Her answer to her uncle was sent off the day after she received his
+letter, and that day month she stepped on board an Indiaman in the
+London Docks.
+
+The intervening time had not been a pleasant one. Mrs. Hannay had heard
+from the Major of his wishes and intentions regarding Isobel, and she
+was greatly displeased thereat.
+
+“Why should he have chosen you instead of Helena?” she said angrily to
+Isobel, on the first day of her arrival home.
+
+“I suppose because he thought I should suit him better, mamma. I really
+don’t see why you should be upset about it; I don’t suppose Helena would
+have liked to go, and I am sure you would not have liked to have had
+me with you instead of her. I should have thought you would have been
+pleased I was off your hands altogether. It doesn’t seem to me that you
+have ever been really glad to have me about you.”
+
+“That has been entirely your own fault,” Mrs. Hannay said. “You have
+always been headstrong and determined to go your own way, you have never
+been fit to be seen when anyone came, you have thwarted me in every
+way.”
+
+“I am very sorry, mamma. I think I might have been better if you had had
+a little more patience with me, but even now if you really wish me to
+stay at home I will do so. I can write again to uncle and tell him that
+I have changed my mind.”
+
+“Certainly not,” Mrs. Hannay said. “Naturally I should wish to have my
+children with me, but I doubt whether your being here would be for the
+happiness of any of us, and besides, I do not wish your uncle’s money
+to go out of the family; he might take it into his head to leave it to
+a hospital for black women. Still, it would have been only right and
+proper that he should at any rate have given Helena the first choice.
+As for your instant acceptance of his offer, without even consulting me,
+nothing can surprise me in that way after your general conduct towards
+me.”
+
+However, although Mrs. Hannay declined to take any interest in Isobel’s
+preparations, and continued to behave as an injured person, neither she
+nor Helena were sorry at heart for the arrangement that had been
+made. They objected very strongly to Isobel’s plan of going out as a
+governess; but upon the other hand, her presence at home would in many
+ways have been an inconvenience. Two can make a better appearance on
+a fixed income than three can, and her presence at home would have
+necessitated many small economies. She was, too, a disturbing element;
+the others understood each other perfectly, and both felt that they in
+no way understood Isobel. Altogether, it was much better that she should
+go.
+
+As to the heirship, Captain Hannay had spoken freely as to his monetary
+affairs when he had been in England after his brother’s death.
+
+“My pay is amply sufficient for all my wants,” he said; “but everything
+is expensive out there, and I have had no occasion to save. I have a
+few hundred pounds laid by, so that if I break down, and am ordered to
+Europe at any time on sick leave, I can live comfortably for that time;
+but, beyond that, there has been no reason why I should lay by. I am
+not likely ever to marry, and when I have served my full time my pension
+will be ample for my wants in England; but I shall do my best to help if
+help is necessary. Fortunately the interest of the thousand apiece the
+girls were left by my aunt will help your income. When it is necessary
+to do anything for Robert, poor lad, I will take that expense on
+myself.”
+
+“I thought all Indians came home with lots of money,” Mrs. Hannay said
+complainingly.
+
+“Not the military. We do the fighting, and get fairly paid for it. The
+civilians get five times as highly paid, and run no risks whatever. Why
+it should be so no one has ever attempted to explain; but there it is,
+sister.”
+
+Mrs. Hannay, therefore, although she complained of the partiality shown
+to Isobel, was well aware that the Major’s savings could amount to no
+very great sum; although, in nine years, with higher rank and better
+pay, he might have added a good bit to the little store of which he had
+spoken to her.
+
+When, a week before the vessel sailed, Dr. Wade appeared with a letter
+he had received from the Major, asking him to take charge of Isobel on
+the voyage, Mrs. Hannay conceived a violent objection to him. He had, in
+fact, been by no means pleased with the commission, and had arrived in
+an unusually aggressive and snappish humor. He cut short Mrs. Hannay’s
+well turned sentences ruthlessly, and aggrieved her by remarking on
+Helena’s want of color, and recommending plenty of walking exercise
+taken at a brisk pace, and more ease and comfort in the matter of dress.
+
+“Your daughter’s lungs have no room to play, madam,” he said; “her
+heart is compressed. No one can expect to be healthy under such
+circumstances.”
+
+“I have my own medical attendant, Dr. Wade,” Mrs. Hannay said decidedly.
+
+“No doubt, madam, no doubt. All I can say is, if his recommendations
+are not the same as mine, he must be a downright fool. Very well, Miss
+Hannay, I think we understand each other; I shall be on board by eleven
+o’clock, and shall keep a sharp lookout for you. Don’t be later than
+twelve; she will warp out of the dock by one at latest, and if you miss
+that your only plan will be to take the train down to Tilbury, and hire
+a boat there.”
+
+“I shall be in time, sir,” Isobel said.
+
+“Well, I hope you will, but my experience of women is pretty extensive,
+and I have scarcely met one who could be relied upon to keep an
+appointment punctually. Don’t laden yourself more than you can help with
+little bags, and parcels, and bundles of all kinds; I expect you will
+be three or four in a cabin, and you will find that there is no room
+for litter. Take the things you will require at first in one or two
+flat trunks which will stow under your berth; once a week or so, if the
+weather is fine, you will be able to get at your things in the hold. Do
+try if possible to pack all the things that you are likely to want to
+get at during the voyage in one trunk, and have a star or any mark
+you like painted on that trunk with your name, then there will be no
+occasion for the sailors to haul twenty boxes upon deck. Be sure you
+send all your trunks on board, except those you want in your cabin, two
+days before she sails. Do you think you can remember all that?”
+
+“I think so, Dr. Wade.”
+
+“Very well then, I’m off,” and the Doctor shook hands with Isobel,
+nodded to Mrs. Hannay and Helena, and hurried away.
+
+“What a perfectly detestable little man!” Mrs. Hannay exclaimed, as the
+door closed over him. “Your uncle must have been out of his senses to
+select such an odious person to look after you on the voyage. I really
+pity you, Isobel.”
+
+“I have no doubt he is very much nicer than he seems, mamma. Uncle said,
+you know, in his letter last week, that he had written to Dr. Wade to
+look after me, if, as he thought probable, he might be coming out in the
+same ship. He said that he was a little brusque in his manner, but that
+he was a general favorite, and one of the kindest hearted of men.”
+
+“A little brusque,” Mrs. Hannay repeated scornfully. “If he is only
+considered a little brusque in India, all I can say is society must be
+in a lamentable state out there.”
+
+“Uncle says he is a great shikari, and has probably killed more tigers
+than any man in India.”
+
+“I really don’t see that that is any recommendation whatever, Isobel,
+although it might be if you were likely to encounter tigers on board
+ship. However, I am not surprised that your opinion differs from mine;
+we very seldom see matters in the same light. I only hope you may be
+right and I may be wrong, for otherwise the journey is not likely to be
+a very pleasant one for you; personally, I would almost as soon have
+a Bengal tiger loose about the ship than such a very rude, unmannerly
+person as Dr. Wade.”
+
+Mrs. Hannay and Helena accompanied Isobel to the docks, and went on
+board ship with her.
+
+The Doctor received them at the gangway. He was in a better temper, for
+the fact that he was on the point of starting for India again had put
+him in high spirits. He escorted the party below and saw that they got
+lunch, showed Isobel which was her cabin, introduced her to two or three
+ladies of his acquaintance, and made himself so generally pleasant that
+even Mrs. Hannay was mollified.
+
+As soon as luncheon was over the bell was rung, and the partings
+were hurriedly got through, as the pilot announced that the tide
+was slackening nearly half an hour before its time, and that it was
+necessary to get the ship out of dock at once.
+
+“Now, Miss Hannay, if you will take my advice,” the Doctor said, as soon
+as the ship was fairly in the stream, “you will go below, get out all
+the things you will want from your boxes, and get matters tidy and
+comfortable. In the first place, it will do you good to be busy; and in
+the second place, there is nothing like getting everything shipshape in
+the cabin the very first thing after starting, then you are ready for
+rough weather or anything else that may occur. I have got you a chair.
+I thought that very likely you would not think of it, and a passenger
+without a chair of her own is a most forlorn creature, I can tell you.
+When you have done down below you will find me somewhere aft; if you
+should not do so, look out for a chair with your own name on it and take
+possession of it, but I think you are sure to see me.”
+
+Before they had been a fortnight at sea Isobel came to like the Doctor
+thoroughly. He knew many of the passengers on board the Byculla, and she
+had soon many acquaintances. She was amused at the description that the
+Doctor gave her of some of the people to whom he introduced her.
+
+“I am going to introduce you to that woman in the severely plain cloak
+and ugly bonnet. She is the wife of the Resident of Rajputana. I knew
+her when her husband was a Collector.”
+
+“A Collector, Dr. Wade; what did he collect?”
+
+“Well, my dear, he didn’t collect taxes or water rates or anything
+of that sort. A Collector is a civil functionary, and frequently
+an important one. I used to attend her at one time when we were in
+cantonments at Bhurtpore, where her husband was stationed at that time.
+I pulled a tooth out for her once, and she halloaed louder than any
+woman I ever heard. I don’t mean to say, my dear, that woman holloa any
+louder than men; on the contrary, they bear pain a good deal better,
+but she was an exception. She was twelve years younger then, and used
+to dress a good deal more than she does now. That cloak and bonnet are
+meant to convey to the rest of the passengers the fact that there is no
+occasion whatever for a person of her importance to attend to such petty
+matters as dress.
+
+“She never mentions her husband’s name without saying, ‘My husband, the
+Resident,’ but for all that she is a kind hearted woman--a very kind
+hearted woman. I pulled a child of hers through who was down with
+fever at Bhurtpore; he had a very close shave of it, and she has never
+forgotten it. She greeted me when she came on board almost with tears
+in her eyes at the thought of that time. I told her I had a young lady
+under my charge, and she said that she would be very pleased to do
+anything she could for you. She is a stanch friend is Mrs. Resident, and
+you will find her useful before you get to the end of the voyage.”
+
+The lady received Isobel with genuine kindness, and took her very much
+under her wing during the voyage, and Isobel received no small advantage
+from her advice and protection.
+
+Her own good sense, however, and the earnest life she had led at school
+and with her brother at home, would have sufficed her even without
+this guardianship and that of the Doctor. There was a straightforward
+frankness about her that kept men from talking nonsense to her. A
+compliment she simply laughed at, an attempt at flattery made her
+angry, and the Doctor afterwards declared to her uncle he would not have
+believed that the guardianship of a girl upon the long Indian voyage
+could possibly have caused him so little trouble and annoyance.
+
+“When I read your letter, Major, my hair stood on end, and if my leave
+had not been up I should have canceled my passage and come by the next
+ship; and indeed when I went down to see her I had still by no means
+made up my mind as to whether I would not take my chance of getting out
+in time by the next vessel. However, I liked her appearance, and, as
+I have said, it turned out excellently, and I should not mind making
+another voyage in charge of her.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Two days after his arrival at Cawnpore Dr. Wade moved into quarters of
+his own.
+
+“I like Dr. Wade very much indeed, you know, uncle, still I am glad to
+have you all to myself and to settle down into regular ways.”
+
+“Yes, we have got to learn to know each other, Isobel.”
+
+“Do you think so, uncle? Why, it seems to me that I know all about you,
+just the same as if we had always been together, and I am sure I always
+told you all about myself, even when I was bad at school and got into
+scrapes, because you said particularly that you liked me to tell you
+everything, and did not want to know only the good side of me.”
+
+“Yes, that is so, my dear, and no doubt I have a fair idea as to what
+are your strong points and what are your weak ones, but neither one or
+the other affect greatly a person’s ordinary everyday character. It
+is the little things, the trifles, the way of talking, the way of
+listening, the amount of sympathy shown, and so on, that make a man
+or woman popular. People do not ask whether he or she may be morally
+sleeping volcanoes, who, if fairly roused, might slay a rival or burn
+a city; they simply look at the surface--is a man or a woman pleasant,
+agreeable, easily pleased, ready to take a share in making things go,
+to show a certain amount of sympathy in other people’s pleasures or
+troubles--in fact, to form a pleasant unit of the society of a station?
+
+“So in the house you might be the most angelic temper in the world, but
+if you wore creaky boots, had a habit of slamming doors, little tricks
+of giggling or fidgeting with your hands or feet, you would be an
+unpleasant companion, for you would be constantly irritating one in
+small matters. Of course, it is just the same thing with your opinion of
+me. You have an idea that I am a good enough sort of fellow, because I
+have done my best to enable you to carry out your plans and wishes, but
+that has nothing to do at all with my character as a man to live with.
+Till we saw each other, when you got out of the gharry, we really knew
+nothing whatever of each other.”
+
+Isobel shook her head decidedly.
+
+“Nothing will persuade me that I didn’t know everything about you,
+uncle. You are just exactly what I knew you would be in look, and voice,
+in manner and ways and everything. Of course, it is partly from what I
+remember, but I really did not see a great deal of you in those days; it
+is from your letters, I think, entirely that I knew all about you, and
+exactly what you were. Do you mean to say that I am not just what you
+thought I should be?”
+
+“Well, not so clearly as all that, Isobel. Of course you were only a
+little child when I saw you, and except that you had big brown eyes, and
+long eyelashes, I confess that it struck me that you were rather a
+plain little thing, and I do not think that your mother’s letters since
+conveyed to my mind the fact that there had been any material change
+since. Therefore I own that you are personally quite different from what
+I had expected to find you. I had expected to find you, I think, rather
+stumpy in figure, and square in build, with a very determined and
+businesslike manner.”
+
+“Nonsense, uncle, you could not have expected that.”
+
+“Well, my dear, I did, and you see I find I was utterly wrong.”
+
+“But you are not discontented, uncle?” Isobel asked, with a smile.
+
+“No, my dear, but perhaps not quite so contented as you may think I
+ought to be.”
+
+“Why is that, uncle?”
+
+“Well, my dear, if you had been what I had pictured you, I might have
+had you four or five years to myself. Possibly you might even have gone
+home with me, to keep house for me in England, when I retire. As it is
+now, I give myself six months at the outside.”
+
+“What nonsense, uncle! You don’t suppose I am going to fall in love with
+the first man who presents himself? Why, everyone says the sea voyage is
+a most trying time, and, you see, I came through that quite scathless.
+
+“Besides, uncle,” and she laughed, “there is safety in multitude, and
+I think that a girl would be far more likely to fall in love in some
+country place, where she only saw one or two men, than where there are
+numbers of them. Besides, it seems to me that in India a girl cannot
+feel that she is chosen, as it were, from among other girls, as she
+would do at home. There are so few girls, and so many men here, there
+must be a sort of feeling that you are only appreciated because there is
+nothing better to be had.
+
+“But, of course, uncle, you can understand that the idea of love making
+and marrying never entered my head at all until I went on board a
+ship. As you know, I always used to think that Robert and I would live
+together, and I am quite sure that I should never have left him if he
+had lived. If I had stopped in England I should have done the work I
+had trained myself to do, and it might have been years and years, and
+perhaps never, before anyone might have taken a fancy to me, or I to
+him. It seems strange, and I really don’t think pleasant, uncle, for
+everyone to take it for granted that because a girl comes out to India
+she is a candidate for marriage. I think it is degrading, uncle.”
+
+“The Doctor was telling me yesterday that you had some idea of that
+sort,” the Major said, with a slight smile, “and I think girls often
+start with that sort of idea. But it is like looking on at a game. You
+don’t feel interested in it until you begin to play at it. Well, the
+longer you entertain those ideas the better I shall be pleased, Isobel.
+I only hope that you may long remain of the same mind, and that when
+your time does come your choice will be a wise one.”
+
+There could be no doubt that the Major’s niece was a great success in
+the regiment. Richards and Wilson, two lads who had joined six months
+before, succumbed at once, and mutual animosity succeeded the close
+friendship they had hitherto entertained for each other. Travers, the
+Senior Captain, a man who had hitherto been noted for his indifference
+to the charms of female society, went so far as to admit that Miss
+Hannay was a very nice, unaffected girl. Mrs. Doolan was quite
+enthusiastic about her.
+
+“It is very lucky, Jim,” she said to her husband, “that you were a sober
+and respected married man before she came out, and that I am installed
+here as your lawful and wedded wife instead of being at Ballycrogin with
+only an engagement ring on my finger. I know your susceptible nature;
+you would have fallen in love with her, and she would not have had you,
+and we should both of us have been miserable.”
+
+“How do you know she wouldn’t have had me, Norah?”
+
+“Because, my dear, she will be able to pick and choose just where she
+likes; and though no one recognizes your virtues more than I do, a
+company in an Indian regiment is hardly as attractive as a Residency or
+Lieutenant Governorship. But seriously, she is a dear girl, and as yet
+does not seem to have the least idea how pretty she is. How cordially
+some of them will hate her! I anticipate great fun in looking on. I am
+out of all that sort of thing myself.”
+
+“That is news to me, Norah; I think you are just as fond of a quiet
+flirtation as you used to be.”
+
+“Just of a very little one, Jim; fortunately not more. So I can look
+on complacently; but even I have suffered. Why, for weeks not a day has
+passed without young Richards dropping in for a chat, and when he came
+in yesterday he could talk about nothing but Miss Hannay, until I shut
+him up by telling him it was extremely bad form to talk to one lady
+about another. The boy colored up till I almost laughed in his face; in
+fact, I believe I did laugh.”
+
+“That I will warrant you did, Norah.”
+
+“I could not help it, especially when he assured me he was perfectly
+serious about Miss Hannay.”
+
+“You did not encourage him, I hope, Norah.”
+
+“No; I told him the Colonel set his face against married subalterns, and
+that he would injure himself seriously in his profession if he were to
+think of such a thing, and as I knew he had nothing but his pay, that
+would be fatal to him.”
+
+Captain Doolan went off into a burst of laughter.
+
+“And he took it all in, Norah? He did not see that you were humbugging
+him altogether?”
+
+“Not a bit of it. They are very amusing, these boys, Jim. I was really
+quite sorry for Richards, but I told him he would get over it in time,
+for as far as I could learn you had been just as bad thirty-three times
+before I finally took pity on you, and that I only did it then because
+you were wearing away with your troubles. I advised him to put the best
+face he could on it, for that Miss Hannay would be the last person to be
+pleased, if he were to be going about with a face as long as if he had
+just come from his aunt’s funeral.”
+
+The race meeting came off three weeks after Miss Hannay arrived at
+Cawnpore. She had been to several dinners and parties by this time, and
+began to know most of the regular residents.
+
+The races served as an excuse for people to come in from all the
+stations round. Men came over from Lucknow, Agra, and Allahabad, and
+from many a little outlying station; every bungalow in the cantonment
+was filled with guests, and tents were erected for the accommodation of
+the overflow.
+
+Several of the officers of the 103d had horses and ponies entered in the
+various races. There was to be a dance at the club on the evening of the
+second day of the races, and a garden party at the General’s on that
+of the first. Richards and Wilson had both ponies entered for the
+race confined to country tats which had never won a race, and both had
+endeavored to find without success what was Isobel’s favorite color.
+
+“But you must have some favorite color?” Wilson urged.
+
+“Why must I, Mr. Wilson? One thing is suitable for one thing and one
+another, and I always like a color that is suitable for the occasion.”
+
+“But what color are you going to wear at the races, Miss Hannay?”
+
+“Well, you see, I have several dresses,” Isobel said gravely, “and I
+cannot say until the morning arrives which I may wear; it will depend a
+good deal how I feel. Besides, I might object to your wearing the same
+color as I do. You remember in the old times, knights, when they entered
+the lists, wore the favors that ladies had given them. Now I have no
+idea of giving you a favor. You have done nothing worthy of it. When
+you have won the Victoria Cross, and distinguished yourself by some
+extraordinarily gallant action, it will be quite time to think about
+it.”
+
+“You see one has to send one’s color in four days beforehand, in time
+for them to print it on the card,” the lad said; “and besides, one has
+to get a jacket and cap made.”
+
+“But you don’t reflect that it is quite possible your pony won’t win
+after all, and supposing that I had colors, I certainly should not like
+to see them come in last in the race. Mr. Richards has been asking me
+just the same thing, and, of course, I gave him the same answer. I can
+only give you the advice I gave him.”
+
+“What was that, Miss Hannay?” Wilson asked eagerly.
+
+“Well, you see, it is not very long since either of you left school, so
+I should think the best thing for you to wear are your school colors,
+whatever they were.”
+
+And with a merry laugh at his look of discomfiture, Isobel turned away
+and joined Mrs. Doolan and two or three other ladies who were sitting
+with her.
+
+“There is one comfort,” Mrs. Doolan was just saying, “in this country,
+when there is anything coming off, there is no occasion to be anxious as
+to the weather; one knows that it will be hot, fine, and dusty. One can
+wear one’s gayest dress without fear. In Ireland one never knew whether
+one wanted muslin or waterproof until the morning came, and even then
+one could not calculate with any certainty how it would be by twelve
+o’clock. This will be your first Indian festivity, Miss Hannay.”
+
+“Do the natives come much?”
+
+“I should think so! All Cawnpore will turn out, and we shall have the
+Lord of Bithoor and any number of Talookdars and Zemindars with their
+suites. A good many of them will have horses entered, and they have some
+good ones if they could but ride them. The Rajah of Bithoor is a most
+important personage. He talks English very well, and gives splendid
+entertainments. He is a most polite gentleman, and is always over here
+if there is anything going on. The general idea is that he has set his
+mind on having an English wife, the only difficulty being our objection
+to polygamy. He has every other advantage, and his wife would have
+jewels that a queen might envy.”
+
+Isobel laughed. “I don’t think jewels would count for much in my ideas
+of happiness.”
+
+“It is not so much the jewels, my dear, in themselves, but the envy they
+would excite in every other woman.”
+
+“I don’t think I can understand that feeling, Mrs. Doolan. I can
+understand that there might be a satisfaction in being envied for being
+the happiest woman, or the most tastefully dressed woman, or even the
+prettiest woman, though that after all is a mere accident, but not for
+having the greatest number of bright stones, however valuable. I don’t
+think the most lovely set of diamonds ever seen would give me as much
+satisfaction as a few choice flowers.”
+
+“Ah, but that is because you are quite young,” Mrs. Doolan said. “Eve
+was tempted by an apple, but Eve had not lived long. You see, an apple
+will tempt a child, and flowers a young girl. Diamonds are the bait of a
+woman.”
+
+“You would not care for diamonds yourself, Mrs. Doolan?”
+
+“I don’t know, my dear; the experiment was never tried--bog oak and
+Irish diamonds have been more in my line. Jim’s pay has never run to
+diamonds, worse luck, but he has promised me that if he ever gets a
+chance of looting the palace of a native prince he will keep a special
+lookout for them for me. So far he has never had the chance. When he was
+an ensign there was some hard fighting with the Sikhs, but nothing of
+that sort fell to his share. I often tell him that he took me under
+false pretenses altogether. I had visions of returning some day and
+astonishing Ballycrogin, as a sort of begum covered with diamonds; but
+as far as I can see the children are the only jewels that I am likely to
+take back.”
+
+“And very nice jewels too,” Isobel said heartily; “they are dear little
+things, Mrs. Doolan, and worth all the diamonds in the world. I hear,
+Mrs. Prothero, that your husband has a good chance of winning the race
+for Arabs; I intend to wager several pairs of gloves on his horse.”
+
+“Yes, Seila is very fast. She won last year. But Nana Sahib has had the
+horse that won the cup at Poona last year, and is considered one of the
+fastest in India, brought across from Bombay. Our only hope is that he
+will put a native up, and in that case we ought to have a fair chance,
+for the natives have no idea of riding a waiting race, but go off at
+full speed, and take it all out of their horse before the end of the
+race.”
+
+“Well, we must hope he will, Mrs. Prothero; that seems, from what I
+hear, the only chance there is of the regiment winning a prize. So all
+our sympathies will be with you.”
+
+“Hunter and his wife and their two girls are coming,” the Major said,
+the next morning, as he opened his letters.
+
+“Very well, uncle, then we will do as we arranged. The Miss Hunters
+shall have my room, and I will take the little passage room.”
+
+“I am afraid it will put you out, Isobel; but they have been here for
+the last two years at the race times and I did not like not asking them
+again.”
+
+“Of course, uncle. It will make no difference to me, and I don’t require
+any very great space to apparel myself.”
+
+“We must have dinners for twelve at least, the day before the races, and
+on the three days of the meeting.”
+
+Isobel looked alarmed. “I hope you don’t rely on me for the
+arrangements, uncle. At each of the four dinners we have been to I have
+done nothing but wonder how it was all done, and have been trembling
+over the thought that it would be our turn presently. It seemed a
+fearful responsibility; and four, one after the other, is an appalling
+prospect.”
+
+“Rumzan will see to it all, my dear. He has always managed very well
+before. I will talk it over with him; besides, these will not be like
+regular set dinner parties. At race meetings everyone keeps pretty
+nearly open house. One does not ask any of the people at the station;
+they have all their own visitors. One trusts to chance to fill up the
+table, and one never finds any difficulty about it. It is lucky I got up
+a regular stock of china, and so on, in anticipation of your coming.
+Of course, as a bachelor, I have not been a dinner giver, except on
+occasions like this, when nobody expects anything like state, and things
+are conducted to a certain extent in picnic fashion. I have paid off my
+dinner obligations by having men to mess or the club. However, I will
+consult Rumzan, and we will have a regular parade of our materials,
+and you shall inspect our resources. If there is anything in the way
+of flower vases or center dishes, or anything of that sort, you think
+requisite, we must get them. Jestonjee has got a good stock of all that
+sort of thing. As to tablecloths and napkins and so on, I had a supply
+with the china, so you will find that all right. Of course you will get
+plenty of flowers; they are the principal things, after all, towards
+making the table look well. You have had no experience in arranging
+them, I suppose?”
+
+“None at all, uncle; I never arranged a vase of flowers in my life.”
+
+“Then I tell you what you had better do, Isobel. You coax the Doctor
+into coming in and undertaking it. He is famous in that way. He always
+has the decoration of the mess table on grand occasions; and when we
+give a dance the flowers and decorations are left to him as a matter of
+course.”
+
+“I will ask him, uncle; but he is the last man in the world I should
+have thought of in connection with flowers and decorations.”
+
+“He is a many sided man, my dear; he paints excellently, and has
+wonderful taste in the way of dress. I can assure you that no lady in
+the regiment is quite satisfied with a new costume until it has received
+the stamp of the Doctor’s approval. When we were stationed at Delhi four
+years ago there was a fancy ball, and people who were judges of that
+sort of thing said that they had never seen so pretty a collection of
+dresses, and I should think fully half of them were manufactured from
+the Doctor’s sketches.”
+
+“I remember now,” Isobel laughed, “that he was very sarcastic on board
+ship as to the dresses of some of the people, but I thought it was only
+his way of grumbling at things in general, though certainly I generally
+agreed with him. He told me one day that my taste evidently inclined to
+the dowdy, but you see I wore half mourning until I arrived out here.”
+
+The Doctor himself dropped in an hour later.
+
+“I shall be glad, Doctor, if you will dine with us as often as you can
+during the four days of the races,” Major Hannay said. “Of course, I
+shall be doing the hospitable to people who come in from out stations,
+and as Isobel won’t know any of them, it will be a little trying to
+her, acting for the first time in the capacity of hostess. As you know
+everybody, you will be able to make things go. I have got Hunter and his
+wife and their two girls coming in to stay. I calculate the table will
+hold fourteen comfortably enough. At any rate, come first night, even if
+you can’t come on the others.”
+
+“Certainly I will, Major, if you will let me bring Bathurst in with me;
+he is going to stay with me for the races.”
+
+“By all means, Doctor; I like what I have seen of him very much.”
+
+“Yes, he has got a lot in him,” the Doctor said, “only he is always head
+over heels in work. He will make a big mark before he has done. He is
+one of the few men out here who has thoroughly mastered the language; he
+can talk to the natives like one of themselves, and understands them so
+thoroughly that they are absolutely afraid to lie to him, which is the
+highest compliment a native can pay to an Indian official. It is very
+seldom he comes in to this sort of thing, but I seized him the other
+day and told him that I could see he would break down if he didn’t give
+himself a holiday, and I fairly worried him into saying he would come
+over and stay for the races. I believe then he would not have come if I
+had not written to him that all the native swells would be here, and
+it would be an excellent opportunity for him to talk to them about
+the establishment of a school for the daughters of the upper class of
+natives; that is one of his fads at present.”
+
+“But it would be a good thing surely, Doctor,” Isobel said.
+
+“No doubt, my dear, no doubt; and so would scores of other things, if
+you could but persuade the natives so. But this is really one of the
+most impracticable schemes possible, simply because the whole of these
+unfortunate children get betrothed when they are two or three years
+old, and are married at twelve. Even if all parties were agreed, the
+husband’s relations and the wife’s relations and everyone else, what are
+you going to teach a child worth knowing before she gets to the age of
+twelve? Just enough to make her discontented with her lot. Once get the
+natives to alter their customs and to marry their women at the age of
+eighteen, and you may do something for them; but as long as they
+stick to this idiotic custom of marrying them off when they are still
+children, the case is hopeless.”
+
+“There is something I wanted to ask you, Doctor,” Isobel said. “You know
+this is the first time I have had anything to do with entertaining, and
+I know nothing about decorating a table. Uncle says that you are a great
+hand at the arrangement of flowers. Would you mind seeing to it for me?”
+
+The Doctor nodded. “With pleasure, Miss Hannay. It is a thing I enjoy.
+There is nothing more lamentable than to see the ignorant, and I may
+almost say brutal, way in which people bunch flowers up into great
+masses and call that decoration. They might just as well bunch up so
+many masses of bright colored rags. The shape of the flower, its manner
+of growth, and its individuality are altogether lost, and the sole
+effect produced is that of a confused mass of color. I will undertake
+that part of the business, and you had better leave the buying of the
+flowers to me.”
+
+“Certainly, Doctor,” the Major said; “I will give you carte blanche.”
+
+“Well, I must see your dinner service, Major, so that I may know about
+its color, and what you have got to put the flowers into.”
+
+“I will have a regular parade tomorrow morning after breakfast, if it
+would be convenient for you to look in then, and at the same time I will
+get you to have a talk with Rumzan and the cook. I am almost as new to
+giving dinner parties as Isobel is. When one has half a dozen men to
+dine with one at the club, one gives the butler notice and chooses
+the wine, and one knows that it will be all right; but it is a
+very different thing when you have to go into the details yourself.
+Ordinarily I leave it entirely to Rumzan and the cook, and I am bound to
+say they do very well, but this is a different matter.”
+
+“We will talk it over with them together, Major. You can seem to consult
+me, but it must come from you to them, or else you will be getting their
+backs up. Thank goodness, Indian servants don’t give themselves the airs
+English ones do; but human nature is a good deal the same everywhere,
+and the first great rule, if you want any domestic arrangements to go
+off well, is to keep the servants in good temper.”
+
+“We none of us like to be interfered with, Doctor.”
+
+“A wise man is always ready to be taught,” the Doctor said
+sententiously.
+
+“Well, there are exceptions, Doctor. I remember, soon after I joined, a
+man blew off two of his fingers. A young surgeon who was here wanted
+to amputate the hand; he was just going to set about it when a staff
+surgeon came in and said that it had better not be done, for that
+natives could not stand amputations. The young surgeon was very much
+annoyed. The staff surgeon went away next day. There was a good deal of
+inflammation, and the young surgeon decided to amputate. The man never
+rallied from the operation, and died next day.”
+
+“I said, Major, that a wise man was always ready to listen to good
+advice. I was not a wise man in those days--I was a pig headed young
+fool. I thought I knew all about it, and I was quite right according
+to my experience in London hospitals. In the case of an Englishman, the
+hand would have been amputated, and the man would have been all right
+three weeks afterwards. But I knew nothing about these soft hearted
+Hindoos, and never dreamt that an operation which would be a trifle to
+an Englishman would be fatal to one of them, and that simply because,
+although they are plucky enough in some respects, they have no more
+heart than a mouse when anything is the matter with them. Yes, if it
+hadn’t been for the old Colonel, who gave me a private hint to say
+nothing about the affair, but merely to put down in my report, ‘Died
+from the effect of a gunshot wound,’ I should have got into a deuce of a
+scrape over that affair. As it was, it only cost me a hundred rupees
+to satisfy the man’s family and send them back to their native village.
+That was for years a standing joke against me, Miss Hannay; except your
+uncle and the Colonel, there is no one left in the regiment who was
+there, but it was a sore subject for a long time. Still, no doubt, it
+was a useful lesson, and my rule has been ever since, never amputate
+except as a forlorn hope, and even then don’t amputate, for if you do
+the relatives of the man, as far as his fourth cousins, will inevitably
+regard you as his murderer. Well, I must be off; I will look in tomorrow
+morning, Major, and make an inspection of your resources.”
+
+“I am glad to see the Hunters are going to bring over their carriage,”
+ the Major said, two days later, as he looked through a letter. “I am
+very glad of that, for I put it off till too late. I have been trying
+everywhere for the last two days to hire one, but they are all engaged,
+and have been so for weeks, I hear. I was wondering what I should do,
+for my buggy will only hold two. I was thinking of asking Mrs. Doolan if
+she could take one of the Miss Hunters, and should have tried to find a
+place for the other. But this settles it all comfortably. They are going
+to send on their own horses halfway the day before, and hire native
+ponies for the first half. They have a good large family vehicle; I
+hoped that they would bring it, but, of course, I could not trust to
+it.”
+
+The Doctor presently dropped in with Captain Doolan. After chatting for
+some time the former said, “I have had the satisfaction this morning,
+Miss Hannay, of relieving Mrs. Cromarty’s mind of a great burden.”
+
+“How was that, Doctor?”
+
+“It was in relation to you, my dear.”
+
+“Me, Doctor! how could I have been a weight on Mrs. Cromarty’s mind?”
+
+“She sent for me under the pretense of being feverish; said she had a
+headache, and so on. Her pulse was all right, and I told her at once I
+did not think there was much the matter with her; but I recommended her
+to keep out of the sun for two days. Then she begun a chat about the
+station. She knows that, somehow or other, I generally hear all that is
+going on. I wondered what was coming, till she said casually, ‘Do you
+know what arrangement Major Hannay has made as to his niece for the
+races?’ I said, of course, that the Hunters were coming over to stay.
+I could see at once that her spirit was instantly relieved of a heavy
+burden, but she only said, ‘Of course, then, that settles the question.
+I had intended to send across to her this morning, to ask if she would
+like a seat in my carriage; having no lady with her, she could not very
+well have gone to the races alone. Naturally, I should have been very
+pleased to have had her with us. However, as Mrs. Hunter will be staying
+at the Major’s, and will act as her chaperon, the matter is settled.’”
+
+“Well, I think it was very kind of her thinking of it,” Isobel said,
+“and I don’t think it is nice of you, Doctor, to say that it was an
+evident relief to her when she found I had someone else to take care of
+me. Why should it have been a relief?”
+
+“I have no doubt it has weighed on her mind for the last fortnight,” the
+Doctor said; “she must have seen that as you were freshly joined, and
+the only unmarried girl in the regiment, except her own daughters, it
+was only the proper thing she should offer you a seat in her carriage.
+No doubt she decided to put it off as late as possible, in hopes that
+you might make some other arrangement. Had you not done so, she might
+have done the heroic thing and invited you, though I am by no means sure
+of it. Of course, now she will say the first time she meets you that she
+was quite disappointed at having heard from me that Mrs. Hunter would
+be with you, as she had hoped to have the pleasure of having you in her
+carriage with her.”
+
+“But why shouldn’t she like it?” Isobel said indignantly. “Surely I am
+not as disagreeable as all that! Come, Doctor!”
+
+Captain Doolan laughed, while the Doctor said, “It is just the contrary,
+my dear; I am quite sure that if you were in Mrs. Cromarty’s place,
+and had two tall, washed out looking daughters, you would not feel the
+slightest desire to place Miss Hannay in the same carriage with them.”
+
+“I call that very disagreeable of you, Doctor,” Isobel said, flushing,
+“and I shall not like you at all if you take such unkind and malicious
+views of people. I don’t suppose such an idea ever entered into Mrs.
+Cromarty’s head, and even if it did, it makes it all the kinder that she
+should think of offering me a seat. I do think most men seem to consider
+that women think of nothing but looks, and that girls are always trying
+to attract men, and mothers always thinking of getting their daughters
+married. It is not at all nice, Doctor, to have such ideas, and I shall
+thank Mrs. Cromarty warmly, when I see her, for her kindness in thinking
+about me.”
+
+Accordingly, that afternoon, when they met at the usual hour, when the
+band was playing, Isobel went up to the Colonel’s wife.
+
+“I want to thank you, Mrs. Cromarty. Dr. Wade has told me that you had
+intended to offer me a seat in your carriage to the races. It was very
+kind and nice of you to think of me, and I am very much obliged to you.
+I should have enjoyed it very much if it hadn’t been that Mrs. Hunter
+is coming to stay with us, and, of course, I shall be under her wing.
+Still, I am just as much obliged to you for having thought of it.”
+
+Mrs. Cromarty was pleased with the girl’s warmth and manner, and
+afterwards mentioned to several of her friends that she thought that
+Miss Hannay seemed a very nice young woman.
+
+“I was not quite favorably impressed at first,” she admitted. “She has
+the misfortune of being a little brusque in her manner, but, of course,
+her position is a difficult one, being alone out here, without any
+lady with her, and no doubt she feels it so. She was quite touchingly
+grateful, only because I offered her a seat in our carriage for the
+races, though she was unable to accept it, as the Major will have the
+Hunters staying with him.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+The clubhouse at Cawnpore was crowded on the evening before the races.
+Up to eleven o’clock it had been comparatively deserted, for there was
+scarcely a bungalow in the station at which dinner parties were not
+going on; but, after eleven, the gentlemen for the most part adjourned
+to the club for a smoke, a rubber, or a game of billiards, or to chat
+over the racing events of the next day.
+
+Loud greetings were exchanged as each fresh contingent arrived, for many
+newcomers had come into the station only that afternoon. Every table in
+the whist room was occupied, black pool was being played in the billiard
+room upstairs, where most of the younger men were gathered, while the
+elders smoked and talked in the rooms below.
+
+“What will you do, Bathurst?” the Doctor asked his guest, after
+the party from the Major’s had been chatting for some little time
+downstairs. “Would you like to cut in at a rubber or take a ball at
+pool?”
+
+“Neither, Doctor; they are both accomplishments beyond me; I have not
+patience for whist, and I can’t play billiards in the least. I have
+tried over and over again, but I am too nervous, I fancy; I break down
+over the easiest stroke--in fact, an easy stroke is harder for me than
+a difficult one. I know I ought to make it, and just for that reason, I
+suppose, I don’t.”
+
+“You don’t give one the idea of a nervous man, either, Bathurst.”
+
+“Well, I am, Doctor, constitutionally, indeed terribly so.”
+
+“Not in business matters, anyhow,” the Doctor said, with a smile. “You
+have the reputation of not minding in the slightest what responsibility
+you take upon yourself, and of carrying out what you undertake in the
+most resolute, I won’t say high handed, manner.”
+
+“No, it doesn’t come in there,” Bathurst laughed. “Morally I am not
+nervous so far as I know, physically I am. I would give a great deal if
+I could get over it, but, as I have said, it is constitutional.”
+
+“Not on your father’s side, Bathurst. I knew him well, and he was a very
+gallant officer.”
+
+“No, it was the other side,” Bathurst said; “I will tell you about it
+some day.”
+
+At this moment another friend of Bathurst’s came up and entered into
+conversation with him.
+
+“Well, I will go upstairs to the billiard room,” the Doctor said; “and
+you will find me there, Bathurst, whenever you feel disposed to go.”
+
+A pool had just finished when the Doctor entered the billiard room.
+
+“That is right, Doctor, you are just in time,” Prothero said, as he
+entered. “Sinclair has given up his cue; he is going to ride tomorrow,
+and is afraid of shaking his nerves; you must come and play for the
+honor of the corps. I am being ruined altogether, and Doolan has retired
+discomfited.”
+
+“I have not touched a cue since I went away,” the Doctor said, “but I
+don’t mind adding to the list of victims. Who are the winners?”
+
+“Messenger and Jarvis have been carrying all before them; there is a
+report they have just sent off two club waiters, with loads of rupees,
+to their quarters. Scarsdale has been pretty well holding his own, but
+the rest of us are nowhere.”
+
+A year’s want of practice, however, told, and the Doctor was added to
+the list of victims: he had no difficulty in getting someone else to
+take his cue after playing for half an hour.
+
+“It shows that practice is required for everything,” he said; “before
+I went away I could have given each of those men a life, now they could
+give me two; I must devote half an hour a day to it till I get it back
+again.”
+
+“And you shall give me a lesson, Doctor,” Captain Doolan, who had also
+retired, said.
+
+“It would be time thrown away by both of us, Doolan. You would never
+make a pool player if you were to practice all your life. It is not the
+eye that is wrong, but the temperament. You can make a very good shot
+now and then, but you are too harum scarum and slap dash altogether.
+The art of playing pool is the art of placing yourself; while, when you
+strike, you have not the faintest idea where your ball is going to,
+and you are just as likely to run in yourself as you are to pot your
+adversary. I should abjure it if I were you, Doolan; it is too expensive
+a luxury for you to indulge in.”
+
+“You are right there, Doctor; only what is a man to do when fellows say,
+‘We want you to make up a pool, Doolan’?”
+
+“I should say the reply would be quite simple. I should answer, ‘I am
+ready enough to play if any of you are ready to pay my losses and take
+my winnings; I am tired of being as good as an annuity to you all,’
+for that is what you have been for the last ten years. Why, it would be
+cheaper for you to send home to England for skittles, and get a ground
+up here.”
+
+“But I don’t play so very badly, Doctor.”
+
+“If you play badly enough always to lose, it doesn’t matter as to the
+precise degree of badness,” the Doctor retorted. “It is not surprising.
+When you came out here, fourteen or fifteen years ago, boys did not
+take to playing billiards, but they do now. Look at that little villain,
+Richards. He has just cleared the table, and done it with all the
+coolness of a professional marker. The young scoundrel ought to have
+been in bed two hours ago, for I hear that tat of his is really a good
+one. Not that it will make any difference to him. That sort of boy would
+play billiards till the first bugle sounds in the morning, and have a
+wash and turn out as fresh as paint, but it won’t last, Doolan, not in
+this climate; his cheeks will have fallen in and he will have crow’s
+feet at the corners of his eyes before another year has gone over. I
+like that other boy, Wilson, better. Of course he is a cub as yet, but
+I should say there is good in him. Just at present I can see he is
+beginning to fancy himself in love with Miss Hannay. That will do him
+good; it is always an advantage to a lad like that to have a good honest
+liking for a nice girl. Of course it comes to nothing, and for a time he
+imagines himself the most unhappy of mortals, but it does him good for
+all that; fellows are far less likely to get into mischief and go to the
+bad after an affair of that sort. It gives him a high ideal, and if he
+is worth anything he will try to make himself worthy of her, and the
+good it does him will continue even after the charm is broken.”
+
+“What a fellow you are, Doctor,” Captain Doolan said, looking down upon
+his companion, “talking away like that in the middle of this racket,
+which would be enough to bother Saint Patrick himself!”
+
+“Well, come along downstairs, Doolan; we will have a final peg and then
+be off; I expect Bathurst is beginning to fidget before now.”
+
+“It will do him good,” Captain Doolan said disdainfully. “I have no
+patience with a man who is forever working himself to death, riding
+about the country as if Old Nick were behind him, and never giving
+himself a minute for diversion of any kind. Faith, I would rather throw
+myself down a well and have done with it, than work ten times as hard as
+a black nigger.”
+
+“Well, I don’t think, Doolan,” the Doctor said dryly, “you are ever
+likely to be driven to suicide by any such cause.”
+
+“You are right there, Doctor,” the other said contentedly. “No man can
+throw it in my teeth that I ever worked when I had no occasion to work.
+If there were a campaign, I expect I could do my share with the best of
+them, but in quiet times I just do what I have to do, and if anyone has
+an anxiety to take my place in the rota for duty, he is as welcome to
+it as the flowers of May. I had my share of it when I was a subaltern;
+there is no better fellow living than the Major, but when he was Captain
+of my company he used to keep me on the run by the hour together, till I
+wished myself back in Connaught, and anyone who liked it might have had
+the whole of India for anything I cared; he was one of the most uneasy
+creatures I ever came across.”
+
+“The Major is a good officer, Doolan, and you were as lazy a youngster,
+and as hard a bargain, as the Company ever got. You ought to thank
+your stars that you had the good luck in having a Captain who knew
+his business, and made you learn yours. Why, if you had had a man like
+Rintoul as your Captain, you would never have been worth your salt.”
+
+“You are not complimentary, Doctor; but then nobody looks for
+compliments from you.”
+
+“I can pay compliments if I have a chance,” the Doctor retorted, “but
+it is very seldom I get one of doing so--at least, without lying. Well,
+Bathurst, are you ready to turn in?”
+
+“Quite ready, Doctor; that is one of the advantages of not caring for
+races; the merits and demerits of the horses that run tomorrow do not in
+the slightest degree affect me, and even the news that all the favorites
+had gone wrong would not deprive me of an hour’s sleep.”
+
+“I think it a good thing to take an interest in racing, Bathurst. Take
+men as a whole: out here they work hard--some of them work tremendously
+hard--and unless they get some change to their thoughts, some sort of
+recreation, nineteen out of twenty will break down sooner or later. If
+they don’t they become mere machines. Every man ought to have some sort
+of hobby; he need not ride it to death, but he wants to take some sort
+of interest in it. I don’t care whether he takes to pig sticking, or
+racing, or shooting, or whether he goes in for what I may call the
+milder kinds of relaxation, such as dining out, billiards, whist, or
+even general philandering. Anything is better than nothing--anything
+that will take his mind off his work. As far as I can see, you don’t do
+anything.”
+
+“Therefore I shall either break down or become a machine, Doctor?”
+
+“One or the other certainly, Bathurst. You may smile, but I mean what I
+say. I have seen other young fellows just as full of work and enthusiasm
+as you are, but I have never seen an exception to the rule, unless, of
+course, they took up something so as to give their minds a rest.”
+
+“The Doctor has just been scolding me because I am not fond enough of
+work,” Captain Doolan laughed.
+
+“You are differently placed, Doolan,” the Doctor said. “You have got
+plenty of enthusiasm in your nature--most Irishmen have--but you have
+had nothing to stir it. Life in a native regiment in India is an easy
+one. Your duties are over in two or three hours out of the twenty-four,
+whereas the work of a civilian in a large district literally never
+ends, unless he puts a resolute stop to it. What with seeing people
+from morning until night, and riding about and listening to complaints,
+every hour of the day is occupied, and then at night there are reports
+to write and documents of all sorts to go through. It is a great pity
+that there cannot be a better division of work, though I own I don’t
+see how it is to be managed.”
+
+By this time they were walking towards the lines.
+
+“I should not mind taking a share of the civil work at the station,”
+Captain Doolan said, “if they would make our pay a little more like
+that of the civilians.”
+
+“There is something in that, Doolan,” the Doctor agreed; “it is just
+as hard work having nothing to do as it is having too much; and I
+have always been of opinion that the tremendous disproportion between
+the pay of a military man and of a civilian of the same age is simply
+monstrous. Well, goodnight, Doolan; I hope you will tell Mrs. Doolan
+that the credit is entirely due to me that you are home at the
+reasonable hour of one o’clock, instead of dropping in just in time to
+change for parade.”
+
+“A good fellow,” the Doctor said, as he walked on with Bathurst; “he
+would never set the Thames on fire; but he is an honest, kindly fellow.
+He would make a capital officer if he were on service. His marriage
+has been an excellent thing for him. He had nothing to do before but
+to pass away his time in the club or mess house, and drink more than
+was good for him. But he has pulled himself round altogether since he
+married. His wife is a bright, clever little woman, and knows how to
+make the house happy for him; if he had married a lackadaisical sort of
+a woman, the betting is he would have gone to the bad altogether.”
+
+“I only met him once or twice before,” Bathurst said. “You see I am not
+here very often, and when I am it is only on business, so I know a very
+few people here except those I have to deal with, and by the time I
+have got through my business I am generally so thoroughly out of temper
+with the pig headed stupidity and obstinacy of people in general, that
+I get into my buggy and drive straight away.”
+
+“I fancy you irritate them as much as they irritate you, Bathurst.
+Well, here we are; now we will have a quiet cheroot and a peg, to quiet
+our nerves after all that din, before we turn in. Let us get off our
+coats and collars, and make ourselves comfortable; it is a proof of the
+bestial stupidity of mankind that they should wear such abominations as
+dress clothes in a climate like this. Here, boy, light the candles and
+bring two sodas and brandies.”
+
+“Well, Bathurst,” he went on, when they had made themselves comfortable
+in two lounging chairs, “what do you thing of Miss Hannay?”
+
+“I was prepared to admire her, Doctor, from what you said; it is not
+very often that you overpraise things; but she is a charming girl, very
+pretty and bright, frank and natural.”
+
+“She is all that,” the Doctor said. “We were four months on the
+voyage out, and I saw enough of her in that time to know her pretty
+thoroughly.”
+
+“What puzzles me about her,” Bathurst said, “is that I seemed to know
+her face. Where I saw her, and under what circumstances, I have been
+puzzling myself half the evening to recall, but I have the strongest
+conviction that I have met her.”
+
+“You are dreaming, man. You have been out here eight years; she was a
+child of ten when you left England! You certainly have not seen her, and
+as I know pretty well every woman who has been in this station for
+the last five or six years, I can answer for it that you have not seen
+anyone in the slightest degree resembling her.”
+
+“That is what I have been saying to myself, Doctor, but that does not in
+the slightest degree shake my conviction about it.”
+
+“Then you must have dreamt it,” the Doctor said decidedly. “Some fool
+of a poet has said, ‘Visions of love cast their shadows before,’ or
+something of that sort, which of course is a lie; still, that is the
+only way that I can account for it.”
+
+Bathurst smiled faintly. “I don’t think the quotation is quite right,
+Doctor; anyhow, I am convinced that the impression is far too vivid to
+have been the result of a dream.”
+
+“By the way, Bathurst,” the Doctor said, suddenly changing his
+conversation, “what do you think of this talk we hear about chupaties
+being sent round among the native troops, and the talk about greased
+cartridges. You see more of the natives than anyone I know; do you think
+there is anything brewing in the air?”
+
+“If there is, Doctor, I am certain it is not known to the natives in
+general. I see no change whatever in their manner, and I am sure I know
+them well enough to notice any change if it existed. I know nothing
+about the Sepoys, but Garnet tells me that the Company at Deennugghur
+give him nothing to complain of, though they don’t obey orders as
+smartly as usual, and they have a. sullen air as they go about their
+work.”
+
+“I don’t like it, Bathurst. I do not understand what the chupaties mean,
+but I know that there is a sort of tradition that the sending of
+them round has always preceded trouble. The Sepoys have no reason for
+discontent, but there has been no active service lately, and idleness
+is always bad for men. I can’t believe there is any widespread
+dissatisfaction among them, but there is no doubt whatever that if there
+is, and it breaks out, the position will be a very serious one. There
+are not half enough white troops in India, and the Sepoys may well think
+that they are masters of the situation. It would be a terrible time for
+everyone in India if they did take it into their heads to rise.”
+
+“I can’t believe they would be mad enough to do that, Doctor; they have
+everything to lose by it, and nothing to gain, that is, individually;
+and we should be sure to win in the long run, even if we had to conquer
+back India foot by foot.”
+
+“That is all very well, Bathurst; we may know that we could do it, but
+they don’t know it. They are ignorant altogether of the forces we could
+put into the field were there a necessity to make the effort. They
+naturally suppose that we can have but a few soldiers, for in all
+the battles we have fought there have always been two or three Sepoy
+regiments to one English. Besides, they consider themselves fully a
+match for us. They have fought by us side by side in every battlefield
+in India, and have done as well as we have. I don’t see what they should
+rise for. I don’t even see whose interest it is to bring a rising about,
+but I do know that if they rise we shall have a terrible time of it.
+Now I think we may as well turn in. You won’t take another peg? Well,
+I shall see you in the morning. I shall be at the hospital by half past
+six, and shall be in at half past eight to breakfast. You have only got
+to shout for my man, and tell him whether you will have tea, coffee, or
+chocolate, any time you wake.”
+
+“I shall be about by six, Doctor; five is my general hour, but as it is
+past one now I dare say I shall be able to sleep on for an hour later,
+especially as there is nothing to do.”
+
+“You can go round the hospital with me, if you like,” the Doctor said,
+“if you will promise not to make a dozen suggestions for the improvement
+of things in general.”
+
+Isobel Hannay came down to breakfast in high spirits upon the morning of
+the races. The dinner had gone off excellently. The dinner table, with
+its softly shaded lamps, and the Doctor’s arrangements of the flowers,
+had been, she thought, perfection, and everything had passed off without
+a hitch. Her duties as a hostess had been much lighter than she had
+anticipated. Mrs. Hunter was a very pleasant, motherly woman, and the
+girls, who had only come out from England four months before, were fresh
+and unaffected, and the other people had all been pleasant and chatty.
+
+Altogether, she felt that her first dinner party had been a great
+success.
+
+She was looking forward now with pleasant anticipation to the day. She
+had seen but little of the natives so far, and she was now to see them
+at their best. Then she had never been present at a race, and everything
+would be new and exciting.
+
+“Well, uncle, what time did you get in?” she asked, as she stepped out
+into the veranda to meet him on his return from early parade. “It was
+too bad of you and Mr. Hunter running off instead of waiting to chat
+things over.”
+
+“I have no doubt you ladies did plenty of that, my dear.”
+
+“Indeed, we didn’t, uncle; you see they had had a very long drive, and
+Mrs. Hunter insisted on the girls going to bed directly you all went
+out, and as I could not sit up by myself, I had to go too.”
+
+“We were in at half past twelve,” the Major said. “I can stand a good
+deal of smoke, but the club atmosphere was too thick for me.”
+
+“Everything went off very well yesterday, didn’t it?” she asked.
+
+“Very well, I thought, my dear, thanks to you and the Doctor and
+Rumzan.”
+
+“I had very little to do with it,” she laughed.
+
+“Well, I don’t think you had much to do with the absolute arrangements,
+Isobel, but I thought you did very well as hostess; it seemed to me that
+there was a good deal of laughing and fun at your end of the table.”
+
+“Yes; you see we had the two Miss Hunters and the Doctor there, and Mr.
+Gregson, who took me in, turned out a very merry old gentleman.”
+
+“He would not be pleased if he heard you call him old, Isobel.”
+
+“Well, of course he is not absolutely old, but being a commissioner, and
+all that sort of thing, gives one the idea of being old; but there are
+the others.”
+
+And they went into the breakfast room.
+
+The first race was set for two o’clock, and at half past one Mrs.
+Hunter’s carriage, with the four ladies, arrived at the inclosure. The
+horses were taken out, and the carriage wheeled into its place, and then
+Isobel and the two Miss Hunters prepared to enjoy the scene.
+
+It was a very gay one. The course was at present covered with a throng
+of natives in their bright colored garments, and mixed with them were
+the scarlet uniforms of the Sepoys of the 103d and other regiments.
+On the opposite side were a number of native vehicles of various
+descriptions, and some elephants with painted faces and gorgeous
+trappings, and with howdahs shaded by pavilions glittering with gilt and
+silver.
+
+On either side of their vehicle a long line of carriages was soon formed
+up, and among these were several occupied by gayly dressed natives,
+whose rank gave them an entrance to the privileged inclosure. The
+carriages were placed three or four yards back from the rail, and the
+intervening space was filled with civilian and military officers, in
+white or light attire, and with pith helmet or puggaree; many others
+were on horseback behind the carriages.
+
+“It is a bright scene, Miss Hannay,” the Doctor said, coming up to the
+carriage.
+
+“Wonderfully pretty, Doctor!”
+
+“An English race course doesn’t do after this, I can tell you. I went
+down to the Derby when I was at home, and such an assembly of riff raff
+I never saw before and never wish to see again.”
+
+“These people are more picturesque, Dr. Wade,” Mrs. Hunter said, “but
+that is merely a question of garment; these people perhaps are no more
+trustworthy than those you met on the racecourse at home.”
+
+“I was speaking of them purely as a spectacle; individually I have no
+doubt one would be safer among the English roughs and betting men than
+among these placid looking natives. The one would pick your pockets of
+every penny you have got if they had the chance, the other would cut
+your throat with just as little compunction.”
+
+“You don’t really mean that, Dr. Wade?” Isobel said.
+
+“I do indeed, Miss Hannay; the Oude men are notorious brawlers and
+fighters, and I should say that the roughs of Cawnpore and Lucknow could
+give long odds to those of any European city, and three out of four of
+those men you see walking about there would not only cut the throat of a
+European to obtain what money he had about him, but would do so without
+that incentive, upon the simple ground that he hated us.”
+
+“But why should he hate us, Doctor? he is none the worse off now than he
+was before we annexed the country.”
+
+“Well, yes, that class of man is worse off. In the old days every noble
+and Zemindar kept up a little army for the purpose of fighting his
+neighbors, just as our Barons used to do in the happy olden times people
+talk of. We have put down private fighting, and the consequence is these
+men’s occupations are gone, and they flock to great towns and there live
+as best they can, ready to commit any crime whatever for the sum of a
+few rupees.
+
+“There is Nana Sahib.”
+
+Isobel looked round and saw a carriage with a magnificent pair of
+horses, in harness almost covered with silver ornaments, drive up to a
+place that had been kept vacant for it. Four natives were sitting in it.
+
+“That is the Rajah,” the Doctor said, “the farther man, with that
+aigrette of diamonds in his turban. He is Oriental today, but sometimes
+he affects English fashions. He is a very cheery fellow, he keeps pretty
+well open house at Bithoor, has a billiard table, and a first rate
+cellar of wine, carriages for the use of guests--in fact, he does the
+thing really handsomely.”
+
+“Here is my opera glass,” Mrs. Hunter said. Isobel looked long and
+fixedly at the Rajah.
+
+“Well, what do you think of him?” the Doctor asked as she lowered it.
+
+“I do not know what to think of him,” she said; “his face does not
+tell me anything, it is like looking at a mask; but you see I am not
+accustomed to read brown men’s characters, they are so different from
+Europeans, their faces all seem so impassive. I suppose it is the way in
+which they are brought up and trained.”
+
+“Ages of tyranny have made them supple and deceitful,” the Doctor
+said, “but of course less so here than among the Bengallies, who, being
+naturally unwarlike and cowardly, have always been the slaves of some
+master or other.
+
+“You evidently don’t like the Nana, Miss Hannay. I am rather glad you
+don’t, for he is no great favorite of mine, though he is so generally
+popular in the station here. I don’t like him because it is not natural
+that he should be so friendly with us. We undoubtedly, according to
+native notions, robbed him of one of the finest positions in India
+by refusing to acknowledge his adoption. We have given him a princely
+revenue, but that, after all, is a mere trifle to what he would have had
+as Peishwa. Whatever virtues the natives of this country possess, the
+forgiving of injuries is not among them, and therefore I consider it
+to be altogether unnatural that he, having been, as he at any rate and
+everyone round him must consider, foully wronged, should go out of his
+way to affect our society and declare the warmest friendship for us.”
+
+The Rajah was laughing and talking with General Wheeler and the group of
+officers round his carriage.
+
+Again Isobel raised the glasses. “You are right, Doctor,” she said, “I
+don’t like him.”
+
+“Well, there is one comfort, it doesn’t matter whether he is sincere
+or not, he is powerless to hurt us. I don’t see any motive for his
+pretending to be friendly if he is not, but I own that I should like him
+better if he sulked and would have nothing to say to us, as would be the
+natural course.”
+
+The bell now began to ring, and the native police cleared the course.
+Major Hannay and Mr. Hunter, who had driven over in the buggy, came up
+and took their places on the box of the carriage.
+
+“Here are cards of the races,” he said. “Now is the time, young ladies,
+to make your bets.”
+
+“I don’t know even the name of anyone in this first race,” Isobel said,
+looking at the card.
+
+“That doesn’t matter in the least, Miss Hannay,” Wilson, who had just
+come up to the side of the carriage, said. “There are six horses in; you
+pick out any one you like, and I will lay you five pairs of gloves to
+one against him.”
+
+“But how am I to pick out when I don’t know anything about them, Mr.
+Wilson? I might pick out one that had no chance at all.”
+
+“Yes; but you might pick out the favorite, Miss Hannay, so that it is
+quite fair.”
+
+“Don’t you bet, Isobel,” her uncle said. “Let us have a sweepstake
+instead.”
+
+“What is a sweepstake, uncle?”
+
+There was a general laugh.
+
+“Well, my dear, we each put in a rupee. There are six of us, and there
+are Wilson and the Doctor. You will go in, Doctor, won’t you?”
+
+“Yes; I don’t mind throwing away a rupee, Major.”
+
+“Very well, that makes eight. We put eight pieces of paper in the hat.
+Six of them have got the names of the horses on, the other two are
+blank. Then we each pull out one. Whoever draws the name of the horse
+that wins takes five rupees, the holder of the second two, and the third
+saves his stake. You shall hold the stakes, Mrs. Hunter. We have all
+confidence in you.”
+
+The slips were drawn.
+
+“My horse is Bruce,” Isobel said.
+
+“There he is, Miss Hannay,” Wilson, who had drawn a blank, said, as
+a horse whose rider had a straw colored jacket and cap came cantering
+along the course. “This is a race for country horses--owners up.
+That means ridden by their owners. That is Pearson of the 13th Native
+Cavalry. He brought the horse over from Lucknow.”
+
+“What chance has he?”
+
+“I have not the least idea, Miss Hannay. I did not hear any betting on
+this race at all.”
+
+“That is a nice horse, uncle,” Isobel said, as one with a rider in black
+jacket, with red cap, came past.
+
+“That is Delhi. Yes, it has good action.”
+
+“That is mine,” the eldest Miss Hunter said.
+
+“The rider is a good looking young fellow,” the Doctor said, “and is
+perfectly conscious of it himself. Who is he, Wilson? I don’t know him.”
+
+“He is a civilian. Belongs to the public works, I think.”
+
+The other horses now came along, and after short preliminary canters the
+start was made. To Isobel’s disappointment her horse was never in the
+race, which Delhi looked like winning until near the post, when a rather
+common looking horse, which had been lying a short distance behind him,
+came up with a rush and won by a length.
+
+“I don’t call that fair,” Miss Hunter said, “when the other was first
+all along. I call that a mean way of winning, don’t you, father?”
+
+“Well, no, my dear. It was easy to see for the last quarter of a mile
+that the other was making what is called ‘a waiting race’ of it, and
+was only biding his time. There is nothing unfair in that, I fancy Delhi
+might have won if he had had a better jockey. His rider never really
+called upon him till it was too late. He was so thoroughly satisfied
+with himself and his position in the race that he was taken completely
+by surprise when Moonshee came suddenly up to him.”
+
+“Well, I think it is very hard upon Delhi, father, after keeping ahead
+all the way and going so nicely. I think everyone ought to do their best
+from the first.”
+
+“I fancy you are thinking, Miss Hunter,” the Doctor said, “quite as much
+that it is hard on you being beaten after your hopes had been raised, as
+it is upon the horse.”
+
+“Perhaps I am, Doctor,” she admitted.
+
+“I think it is much harder on me,” Isobel said. “You have had the
+satisfaction of thinking all along that your horse was going to win,
+while mine never gave me the least bit of hope.”
+
+“The proper expression, Miss Hannay, is, your horse never flattered
+you.”
+
+“Then I think it is a very silly expression, Mr. Wilson, because I don’t
+see that flattery has anything to do with it.”
+
+“Ah, here is Bathurst,” the Doctor said. “Where have you been, Bathurst?
+You slipped away from me just now.”
+
+“I’ve just been talking to the Commissioner, Doctor. I have been trying
+to get him to see--”
+
+“Why, you don’t mean to say,” the Doctor broke in, “that you have been
+trying to cram your theories down his throat on a racecourse?”
+
+
+“It was before the race began,” Bathurst said, “and I don’t think the
+Commissioner has any more interest in racing than I have.”
+
+“Not in racing,” the Doctor agreed, “but I expect he has an interest in
+enjoying himself generally, which is a thing you don’t seem to have the
+most remote idea of. Here we are just getting up a sweepstake for the
+next race; hand over a rupee and try to get up an interest in it. Do try
+and forget your work till the race is over. I have brought you here
+to do you good. I regard you as my patient, and I give you my medical
+orders that you are to enjoy yourself.”
+
+Bathurst laughed.
+
+“I am enjoying myself in my way, Doctor.”
+
+“Who is that very pretty woman standing up in the next carriage but
+one?” Isobel asked.
+
+“She comes from an out station,” the Doctor repeated; “she is the wife
+of the Collector there, but I think she likes Cawnpore better than
+Boorgum; her name is Rose.”
+
+“Is that her husband talking to her?”
+
+“No; that is a man in the Artillery here, I think.”
+
+“Yes,” the Major said, “that is Harrowby, a good looking fellow, and
+quite a ladies’ man.”
+
+“Do you mean a man ladies like, uncle, or who likes the society of
+ladies?”
+
+“Both in his case, I should fancy,” the Major said; “I believe he is
+considered one of the best looking men in the service.”
+
+“I don’t see why he should be liked for that,” Isobel said. “As far as I
+have seen, good looking men are not so pleasant as others. I suppose it
+is because they are conscious of their own good looks, and therefore do
+not take the trouble of being amusing. We had one very good looking
+man on board ship, and he was the dullest man to talk to on board. No,
+Doctor, I won’t have any names mentioned, but I am right, am I not?”
+
+“He was a dull specimen, certainly,” the Doctor said, “but I think you
+are a little too sweeping.”
+
+“I don’t mean all good looking men, of course, but men who what I call
+go in for being good looking. I don’t know whether you know what I mean.
+What are you smiling at, Mr. Wilson?”
+
+“I was thinking of two or three men I know to whom your description
+applies, Miss Hannay; but I must be going--they are just going to start
+the next race, and mine is the one after, so I must go and get ready.
+You wish me success, don’t you?”
+
+“I wish you all the success you deserve. I can’t say more than that, can
+I?”
+
+“I am afraid that is saying very little,” he laughed. “I don’t expect to
+win, but I do hope I shall beat Richards, because he is so cock sure he
+will beat me.”
+
+This wish was not gratified. The first and second horses made a close
+race of it; behind them by ten or twelve lengths came the other horses
+in a clump, Wilson and Richards singling themselves out in the last
+hundred yards and making a desperate race for the third place, for which
+they made a dead heat, amid great laughter from their comrades.
+
+“That is excellent,” Major Hannay said; “you won’t see anything more
+amusing than that today, girls. The third horse simply saved his stake,
+so that as they will of course divide, they will have paid twenty-five
+rupees each for the pleasure of riding, and the point which of their
+tats is the fastest remains unsettled.”
+
+“Well, they beat a good many of them, Major Hannay,” Miss Hunter said;
+“so they did not do so badly after all.”
+
+“Oh, no, they did not do so badly; but it will be a long time before
+they get over the chaff about their desperate struggle for the third
+place.”
+
+The next two races attracted but slight attention from the occupants
+of the carriage. Most of their acquaintances in the station came up one
+after the other for a chat. There were many fresh introductions, and
+there was so much conversation and laughter that the girls had little
+time to attend to what was going on around them. Wilson and Richards
+both sauntered up after changing, and were the subject of much chaff as
+to their brilliant riding at the finish. Both were firm in the belief
+that the judge’s finding was wrong, and each maintained stoutly he had
+beaten the other by a good head.
+
+The race for Arabs turned out a very exciting one; the Rajah of
+Bithoor’s horse was the favorite, on the strength of its performances
+elsewhere; but Prothero’s horse was also well supported, especially in
+the regiment, for the Adjutant was a first class rider, and was in
+great request at all the principal meetings in Oude and the Northwest
+Provinces, while it was known that the Rajah’s horse would be ridden by
+a native. The latter was dressed in strict racing costume, and had at
+the last races at Cawnpore won two or three cups for the Rajah.
+
+But the general opinion among the officers of the station was that
+Prothero’s coolness and nerve would tell. His Arab was certainly a fast
+one, and had won the previous year, both at Cawnpore and Lucknow; but
+the Rajah’s new purchase had gained so high a reputation in the Western
+Presidency as fully to justify the odds of two to one laid on it, while
+four to one were offered against Prothero, and from eight to twenty to
+one against any other competitor.
+
+Prothero had stopped to have a chat at the Hunters’ carriage as he
+walked towards the dressing tent.
+
+“Our hopes are all centered in you, Mr. Prothero,” Mr. Hunter said.
+“Miss Hannay has been wagering gloves in a frightfully reckless way.”
+
+“I should advise you to hedge if you can, Miss Hannay,” he said. “I
+think there is no doubt that Mameluke is a good deal faster than Seila.
+I fancy he is pounds better. I only beat Vincent’s horse by a head last
+year, and Mameluke gave him seven pounds, and beat him by three lengths
+at Poona. So I should strongly advise you to hedge your bets if you
+can.”
+
+“What does he mean by hedge, uncle?”
+
+“To hedge is to bet the other way, so that one bet cancels the other.”
+
+“Oh, I shan’t do that,” she said; “I have enough money to pay my bets if
+I lose.”
+
+“Do you mean to say you mean to pay your bets if you lose, Miss Hannay?”
+ the Doctor asked incredulously.
+
+“Of course I do,” she said indignantly. “You don’t suppose I intend to
+take the gloves if I win, and not to pay if I lose?”
+
+“It is not altogether an uncommon practice among ladies,” the Doctor
+said, “when they bet against gentlemen. I believe that when they wager
+against each other, which they do not often do, they are strictly
+honest, but that otherwise their memories are apt to fail them
+altogether.”
+
+“That is a libel, Mrs. Hunter, is it not?”
+
+“Not altogether, I think. Of course many ladies do pay their bets when
+they lose, but others certainly do not.”
+
+“Then I call it very mean,” Isobel said earnestly. “Why, it is as bad as
+asking anyone to make you a present of so many pairs of gloves in case a
+certain horse wins.”
+
+“It comes a good deal to the same thing,” Mrs. Hunter admitted, “but to
+a certain extent it is a recognized custom; it is a sort of tribute that
+is exacted at race time, just as in France every lady expects a present
+from every gentleman of her acquaintance on New Year’s Day.”
+
+“I wouldn’t bet if I didn’t mean to pay honestly,” Isobel said. “And if
+Mr. Prothero doesn’t win, my debts will all be honorably discharged.”
+
+There was a hush of expectation in the crowd when the ten horses whose
+numbers were up went down to the starting point, a quarter of a mile
+from the stand. They were to pass it, make the circuit, and finish
+there, the race being two miles. The interest of the natives was
+enlisted by the fact that Nana Sahib was running a horse, while the
+hopes of the occupants of the inclosure rested principally on Seila.
+
+The flag fell to a good start; but when the horses came along Isobel saw
+with surprise that the dark blue of the Rajah and the Adjutant’s scarlet
+and white were both in the rear of the group. Soon afterwards the
+scarlet seemed to be making its way through the horses, and was speedily
+leading them.
+
+“Prothero is making the running with a vengeance,” the Major said. “That
+is not like his usual tactics, Doctor.”
+
+“I fancy he knows what he is doing,” the Doctor replied. “He saw that
+Mameluke’s rider was going to make a waiting race of it, and as the
+horse has certainly the turn of speed on him, he is trying other
+tactics. They are passing the mile post now, and Prothero is twelve or
+fourteen lengths ahead. There, Mameluke is going through his horses; his
+rider is beginning to get nervous at the lead Prothero has got, and
+he can’t stand it any longer. He ought to have waited for another half
+mile. You will see, Prothero will win after all. Seila can stay, there
+is no doubt about that.”
+
+A roar of satisfaction rose from the mass of natives on the other side
+of the inclosure as Mameluke was seen to leave the group of horses and
+gradually to gain upon Seila.
+
+“Oh, he will catch him, uncle!” Isobel said, tearing her handkerchief in
+her excitement.
+
+The Major was watching the horses through his field glass.
+
+“Never mind his catching him,” he said; “Prothero is riding quietly and
+steadily. Seila is doing nearly her best, but he is not hurrying her,
+while the fool on Mameluke is bustling the horse as if he had only a
+hundred yards further to go.”
+
+The horses were nearing the point at which they had started, when a
+shout from the crowd proclaimed that the blue jacket had come up to and
+passed the scarlet. Slowly it forged ahead until it was two lengths in
+advance, for a few strides their relative positions remained unaltered,
+then there was a shout from the carriages; scarlet was coming up again.
+Mameluke’s rider glanced over his shoulder, and began to use the whip.
+For a few strides the horse widened the gap again, but Prothero still
+sat quiet and unmoved. Just as they reached the end of the line of
+carriages, Seila again began to close up.
+
+“Seila wins! Seila wins!” the officers shouted.
+
+But it seemed to Isobel that this was well nigh impossible, but foot by
+foot the mare came up, and as they passed the Hunters’ carriage her head
+was in advance.
+
+In spite of the desperate efforts of the rider of Mameluke, another
+hundred yards and they passed the winning post, Seila a length ahead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The exultation of the officers of the 103d over Seila’s victory was
+great. They had all backed her, relying upon Prothero’s riding, but
+although his success was generally popular among the Europeans at
+the station, many had lost considerable sums by their confidence in
+Mameluke’s speed.
+
+Isobel sat down feeling quite faint from the excitement.
+
+“I did not think I could have been so excited over a race between two
+horses,” she said to Mrs. Hunter; “it was not the bets, I never even
+thought about them--it was just because I wanted to see Mr. Prothero’s
+horse win. I never understood before why people should take such an
+interest in horse racing, but I quite understand now.”
+
+“What is your size, Miss Hannay?” Wilson asked.
+
+“Oh, I don’t care anything about the gloves, Mr. Wilson; I am sorry I
+bet now.”
+
+“You needn’t feel any compunction in taking them from me or from any of
+us, Miss Hannay; we have all won over Seila; the regiment will have to
+give a ball on the strength of it. I only put on a hundred rupees, and
+so have won four hundred, but most of them have won ever so much more
+than that; and all I have lost is four pair of gloves to you, and four
+to Mrs. Doolan, and four to Mrs. Prothero--a dozen in all. Which do you
+take, white or cream, and what is your size?”
+
+“Six and a half, cream.”
+
+“All right, Miss Hannay. The Nana must have lost a good lot of money;
+he has been backing his horse with everyone who would lay against
+it. However, it won’t make any difference to him, and it is always a
+satisfaction when the loss comes on someone to whom it doesn’t matter a
+bit. I think the regiment ought to give a dinner to Prothero, Major; it
+was entirely his riding that did it; he hustled that nigger on Mameluke
+splendidly. If the fellow had waited till within half a mile of home he
+would have won to a certainty; I never saw anything better.”
+
+“Well, Miss Hannay, what do you think of a horse race?” Bathurst, who
+had only remained a few minutes at the carriage, asked, as he strolled
+up again. “You said yesterday that you had never seen one.”
+
+“I am a little ashamed to say I was very much excited over it, Mr.
+Bathurst. You have not lost, I hope? You are looking” and she stopped.
+
+“Shaky?” he said. “Yes; I feel shaky. I had not a penny on the race,
+for though the Doctor made me put into a sweep last night at the club,
+I drew a blank; but the shouting and excitement at the finish seemed to
+take my breath away, and I felt quite faint.”
+
+“That is just how I felt; I did not know men felt like that. They don’t
+generally seem to know what nerves are.”
+
+“I wish I didn’t; it is a great nuisance. The Doctor tries to persuade
+me that it is the effect of overwork, but I have always been so from a
+child, and I can’t get over it.”
+
+“You don’t look nervous, Mr. Bathurst.”
+
+“No; when a man is a fair size, and looks bronzed and healthy, no one
+will give him credit for being nervous. I would give a very great deal
+if I could get over it.”
+
+“I don’t see that it matters much one way or the other, Mr. Bathurst.”
+
+“I can assure you that it does. I regard it as being a most serious
+misfortune.”
+
+Isobel was a little surprised at the earnestness with which he spoke.
+
+“I should not have thought that,” she said quietly; “but I can
+understand that it is disagreeable for a man to feel nervous, simply,
+I suppose, because it is regarded as a feminine quality; but I think a
+good many men are nervous. We had several entertainments on board the
+ship coming out, and it was funny to see how many great strong men broke
+down, especially those who had to make speeches.”
+
+“I am not nervous in that way,” Bathurst said, with a laugh. “My pet
+horror is noise; thunder prostrates me completely, and in fact all
+noises, especially any sharp, sudden sound, affect me. I really find
+it a great nuisance. I fancy a woman with nerves considers herself as
+a martyr, and deserving of all pity and sympathy. It is almost a
+fashionable complaint, and she is a little proud of it; but a man ought
+to have his nerves in good order, and as much as that is expected of him
+unless he is a feeble little body. There is the bell for the next race.”
+
+“Are you going to bet on this race again, Miss Hannay?” Wilson said,
+coming up.
+
+“No, Mr. Wilson. I have done my first and last bit of gambling. I
+don’t think it is nice, ladies betting, after all, and if there were a
+hospital here I should order you to send the money the gloves will cost
+you to it as conscience money, and then perhaps you might follow my
+example with your winnings.”
+
+“My conscience is not moved in any way,” he laughed; “when it is I will
+look out for a deserving charity. Well, if you won’t bet I must see if I
+can make a small investment somewhere else.”
+
+“I shall see you at the ball, of course?” Isobel said, turning to Mr.
+Bathurst, as Wilson left the carriage.
+
+“No, I think not. Balls are altogether out of my line, and as there is
+always a superabundance of men at such affairs here, there is no sense
+of duty about it.”
+
+“What is your line, Mr. Bathurst?”
+
+“I am afraid I have none, Miss Hannay. The fact is, there is really
+more work to be done than one can get through. When you get to know the
+natives well you cannot help liking them and longing to do them some
+good if they would but let you, but it is so difficult to get them to
+take up new ideas. Their religion, with all its customs and ceremonies,
+seems designed expressly to bar out all improvements. Except in the case
+of abolishing Suttee, we have scarcely weaned them from one of their
+observances; and even now, in spite of our efforts, widows occasionally
+immolate themselves, and that with the general approval.
+
+“I wish I had an army of ten thousand English ladies all speaking the
+language well to go about among the women and make friends with them;
+there would be more good done in that way than by all the officials in
+India. They might not be able to emancipate themselves from all their
+restrictions, but they might influence their children, and in time pave
+the way for a moral revolution. But it is ridiculous,” he said, breaking
+off suddenly, “my talking like this here, but you see it is what
+you call my line, my hobby, if you like; but when one sees this hard
+working, patient, gentle people making their lot so much harder than it
+need be by their customs and observances one longs to force them even
+against their own will to burst their bonds.”
+
+Dr. Wade came up at this moment and caught the last word or two.
+
+“You are incorrigible, Bathurst. Miss Hannay, I warn you that this
+man is a monomaniac. I drag him away from his work, and here he is
+discoursing with you on reform just as a race is going to start. You
+may imagine, my dear, what a thorn he is in the side of the bigwigs.
+You have heard of Talleyrand’s advice to a young official, ‘Above all
+things, no zeal.’ Go away, Bathurst; Miss Hannay wants to see the race,
+and even if she doesn’t she is powerless to assist you in your crusade.”
+
+Bathurst laughed and drew off.
+
+“That is too bad, Doctor. I was very interested. I like to talk to
+people who can think of something besides races and balls and the gossip
+of the station.”
+
+“Yes, in reason, in reason, my dear; but there is a medium in all
+things. I have no doubt Bathurst will be quite happy some time or other
+to give you his full views on child marriages, and the remarriages of
+widows, and female education, and the land settlement, and a score of
+other questions, but for this a few weeks of perfect leisure will be
+required. Seriously, you know that I think Bathurst one of the finest
+young fellows in the service, but his very earnestness injures both his
+prospects and his utility. The officials have a horror of
+enthusiasm; they like the cut and dried subordinate who does his duty
+conscientiously, and does not trouble his head about anything but
+carrying out the regulations laid down for him.
+
+“Theoretically I agree with most of Bathurst’s views, practically I see
+that a score of officials like him would excite a revolution throughout
+a whole province. In India, of all places in the world, the maxim
+festina lente--go slow--is applicable. You have the prejudices of a
+couple of thousand years against change. The people of all things are
+jealous of the slightest appearance of interference with their customs.
+The change will no doubt come in time, but it must come gradually, and
+must be the work of the natives themselves and not of us. To try to
+hasten that time would be but to defer it. Now, child, there is the
+bell; now just attend to the business in hand.”
+
+“Very well, Doctor, I will obey your orders, but it is only fair to say
+that Mr. Bathurst’s remarks are only in answer to something I said,” and
+Isobel turned to watch the race, but with an interest less ardent than
+she had before felt.
+
+Isobel’s character was an essentially earnest one, and her life up to
+the day of her departure to India had been one of few pleasures. She had
+enjoyed the change and had entered heartily into it, and she was as yet
+by no means tired of it, but she had upon her arrival at Cawnpore been a
+little disappointed that there was no definite work for her to perform,
+and had already begun to feel that a time would come when she would
+want something more than gossip and amusements and the light talk of the
+officers of her acquaintance to fill her life.
+
+She had as yet no distinct interest of her own, and Bathurst’s
+earnestness had struck a cord in her own nature and seemed to open a
+wide area for thought. She put it aside now and chatted gayly with the
+Hunters and those who came up to the carriage, but it came back to her
+as she sat in her room before going to bed.
+
+Up till now she had not heard a remark since she had been in Cawnpore
+that might not have been spoken had the cantonments there been the whole
+of India, except that persons at other stations were mentioned. The
+vast, seething native population were no more alluded to than if they
+were a world apart. Bathurst’s words had for the first time brought home
+to her the reality of their existence, and that around this little group
+of English men and women lay a vast population, with their joys and
+sorrows and sufferings.
+
+At breakfast she surprised Mrs. Hunter by asking a variety of questions
+as to native customs. “I suppose you have often been in the Zenanas,
+Mrs. Hunter?”
+
+“Not often, my dear. I have been in some of them, and very depressing it
+is to see how childish and ignorant the women are.”
+
+“Can nothing be done for them, Mrs. Hunter?”
+
+“Very little. In time I suppose there will be schools for girls, but you
+see they marry so young that it is difficult to get at them.”
+
+“How young do they marry?”
+
+“They are betrothed, although it has all the force of a marriage, as
+infants, and a girl can be a widow at two or three years old; and so,
+poor little thing, she remains to the end of her life in a position
+little better than that of a servant in her husband’s family. Really
+they are married at ten or eleven.”
+
+Isobel looked amazed at this her first insight into native life. Mrs.
+Hunter smiled.
+
+“I heard Mr. Bathurst saying something to you about it yesterday, Miss
+Hannay. He is an enthusiast; we like him very much, but we don’t see
+much of him.”
+
+“You must beware of him, Miss Hannay,” Mr. Hunter said, “or he will
+inoculate you with some of his fads. I do not say that he is not right,
+but he sees the immensity of the need for change, but does not see fully
+the immensity of the difficulty in bringing it about.”
+
+“There is no fear of his inoculating me; that is to say of setting me to
+work, for what could one woman do?”
+
+“Nothing, my dear,” her uncle said; “if all the white women in India
+threw themselves into the work, they could do little. The natives are
+too jealous of what they consider intruders; the Parsees are about the
+only progressive people. While ladies are welcome enough when they pay
+a visit of ceremony to the Zenana of a native, if they were to try to
+teach their wives to be discontented with their lots--for that is
+what it would be--they would be no longer welcome. Schools are being
+established, but at present these are but a drop in the ocean. Still,
+the work does go on, and in time something will be done. It is of no use
+bothering yourself about it, Isobel; it is best to take matters as you
+find them.”
+
+Isobel made no answer, but she was much disappointed when Dr. Wade,
+dropping in to tiffin, said his guest had started two hours before
+for Deennugghur. He had a batch of letters and reports from his native
+clerk, and there was something or other that he said he must see to at
+once.
+
+“He begged me to say, Major, that he was very sorry to go off without
+saying goodby, but he hoped to be in Cawnpore before long. I own that
+that part of the message astonished me, knowing as I do what difficulty
+there is in getting him out of his shell. He and I became great chums
+when I was over at Deennugghur two years ago, and the young fellow is
+not given to making friends. However, as he is not the man to say a
+thing without meaning it, I suppose he intends to come over again. He
+knows there is always a bed for him in my place.”
+
+“We see very little of him,” Mary Hunter said; “he is always away on
+horseback all day. Sometimes he comes in the evening when we are quite
+alone, but he will never stay long. He always excuses himself on the
+ground that he has a report to write or something of that sort. Amy and
+I call him ‘Timon of Athens.’”
+
+“There is nothing of Timon about him,” the Doctor remarked dogmatically.
+“That is the way with you young ladies--you think that a man’s first
+business in life is to be dancing attendance on you. Bathurst looks at
+life seriously, and no wonder, going about as he does among the natives
+and listening to their stories and complaints. He puts his hand to the
+plow, and does not turn to the right or left.”
+
+“Still, Doctor, you must allow,” Mrs. Hunter said gravely, “that Mr.
+Bathurst is not like most other men.”
+
+“Certainly not,” the Doctor remarked. “He takes no interest in sport of
+any kind; he does not care for society; he very rarely goes to the club,
+and never touches a card when he does; and yet he is the sort of man one
+would think would throw himself into what is going on. He is a strong,
+active, healthy man, whom one would expect to excel in all sorts of
+sports; he is certainly good looking; he talks extremely well, and is, I
+should say, very well read and intelligent.”
+
+“He can be very amusing when he likes, Doctor. Once or twice when he has
+been with us he has seemed to forget himself, as it were, and was full
+of fun and life. You must allow that it is a little singular that a man
+like this should altogether avoid society, and night and day be absorbed
+in his work.”
+
+“I have thought sometimes,” Mr. Hunter said, “that Bathurst must have
+had some great trouble in his life. Of what nature I can, of course,
+form no idea. He was little more than twenty when he came out here, so I
+should say that it was hardly a love affair.”
+
+“That is always the way, Hunter. If a man goes his own way, and that way
+does not happen to be the way of the mess, it is supposed that he must
+have had trouble of some sort. As Bathurst is the son of a distinguished
+soldier, and is now the owner of a fine property at home, I don’t see
+what trouble he can have had. He may possibly, for anything I know, have
+had some boyish love affairs, but I don’t think he is the sort of man to
+allow his whole life to be affected by any foolery of that sort. He is
+simply an enthusiast.
+
+“It is good for mankind that there should be some enthusiasts. I grant
+that it would be an unpleasant world if we were all enthusiasts, but
+the sight of a man like him throwing his whole life and energy into his
+work, and wearing himself out trying to lessen the evils he sees
+around him, ought to do good to us all. Look at these boys,” and he
+apostrophized Wilson and Richards, as they appeared together at the
+door. “What do they think of but amusing themselves and shirking their
+duties as far as possible?”
+
+“Oh, I say, Doctor,” Wilson exclaimed, astonished at this sudden attack,
+“what are you pitching into us like that for? That is not fair, is it,
+Major? We amuse ourselves, of course, when there is nothing else to do,
+but I am sure we don’t shirk our work. You don’t want us to spend our
+spare time in reading Greek, I suppose?”
+
+“No; but you might spend some of it very profitably in learning some of
+these native languages,” the Doctor said. “I don’t believe that you know
+above a dozen native words now. You can shout for brandy and water, and
+for a light for your cigars, but I fancy that that is about the extent
+of it.”
+
+“We are going to have a moonshee next week, Doctor,” Wilson said, a
+little crestfallen, “and a horrid nuisance it will be.”
+
+“That is only because you are obliged to pass in the vernacular, Wilson.
+So you need not take any credit to yourself on that account.”
+
+“Doctor, you are in one of your worst possible tempers this morning,”
+ Isobel said. “You snap at us all round. You are quite intolerable this
+morning.”
+
+“I am rather put out by Bathurst running away in this fashion, Miss
+Hannay. I had made up my mind that he would stop three or four days
+longer, and it is pleasant to have someone who can talk and think about
+something besides horses and balls. But I will go away; I don’t want to
+be the disturbing element; and I have no doubt that Richards is burning
+to tell you the odds on some of the horses today.”
+
+“Shall we see you on the racecourse, Doctor?” the Major asked, as the
+Doctor moved towards the door.
+
+“You will not, Major; one day is enough for me. If they would get up a
+donkey race confined strictly to the subalterns of the station, I might
+take the trouble to go and look at it.”
+
+“The Doctor is in great form today,” Wilson said good temperedly, after
+the laugh which followed the Doctor’s exit had subsided; “and I am sure
+we did nothing to provoke him.”
+
+“You got into his line of fire, Wilson,” the Major said; “he is
+explosive this morning, and has been giving it to us all round. However,
+nobody minds what the Doctor says; his bark is very bad, but he has
+no bite. Wait till you are down with the fever, and you will find him
+devote himself to you as if he were your father.”
+
+“He is one of the kindest men in the world,” Isobel agreed warmly,
+thereby effectually silencing Richards, who had just pulled up his shirt
+collar preparatory to a sarcastic utterance respecting him.
+
+Isobel, indeed, was in full sympathy with the Doctor, for she, too, was
+disappointed at Bathurst’s sudden departure. She had looked forward to
+learning a good deal from him about the native customs and ways, and
+had intended to have a long talk with him. She was perhaps, too, more
+interested generally in the man himself than she would have been willing
+to admit.
+
+That evening the party went to an entertainment at Bithoor. Isobel and
+the girls were delighted with the illuminations of the gardens and with
+the palace itself, with its mixture of Eastern splendor and European
+luxury. But Isobel did not altogether enjoy the evening.
+
+“I suppose I ought to congratulate you on your success last night,
+Isobel,” Dr. Wade said, when he dropped in after breakfast. “Everyone
+has been telling me that the Rajah paid you the greatest attention,
+and that there is the fiercest gnashing of teeth among what must now be
+called the ex-queens of the station.”
+
+“I don’t know who told you such nonsense, Doctor,” Isobel replied hotly.
+“The Rajah quite spoilt the evening for me. I have been telling Mrs.
+Hunter so. If we had not been in his own house, I should have told him
+that I should enjoy the evening very much more if he would leave me
+alone and let me go about and look quietly at the place and the gardens,
+which are really beautiful. No doubt he is pleasant enough, and I
+suppose I ought to have felt flattered at his walking about with me and
+so on, but I am sure I did not. What pleasure does he suppose an English
+girl can have in listening to elaborate compliments from a man as yellow
+as a guinea?”
+
+“Think of his wealth, my dear.”
+
+“What difference does his wealth make?” Isobel said. “As far as I have
+seen, I do not think that rich Englishmen are more amusing than others,
+and if he had all the wealth of India, that would not improve Nana Sahib
+in my eyes. There are women, of course, who do think a great deal about
+money, and who will even marry men for it, but even women who would
+do that could not, I should think, care anything about the wealth of a
+Hindoo they cannot marry.”
+
+“Not directly, my dear,” Mrs. Hunter said; “but people may be flattered
+with the notice and admiration of a person of importance and great
+wealth, even if he is a Hindoo.”
+
+“Besides,” the Doctor put in, “the Rajah is considered to be a great
+connoisseur of English beauty, and has frequently expressed his deep
+regret that his religion prevented his marrying an English lady.”
+
+“I should be very sorry for the English girl who would marry him,
+religion or not.”
+
+“I think you are rather hard upon the Nana, Isobel,” the Major said.
+“He is a general favorite; he is open handed and liberal; very fond of
+entertaining; a great admirer of us as a nation. He is a wonderfully
+well read man for a Hindoo, can talk upon almost every subject, and is
+really a pleasant fellow.”
+
+“I don’t like him; I don’t like him at all,” Isobel said positively.
+
+“Ah, that is only because you thought he made you a little more
+conspicuous than you liked by his attentions to you, Isobel.”
+
+“No, indeed, uncle; that was very silly and ridiculous, but I did not
+like the man himself, putting that aside altogether. It was like talking
+to a man with a mask on: it gave me a creepy feeling. It did not seem to
+me that one single word he said was sincere, but that he was acting; and
+over and over again as he was talking I said to myself, ‘What is this
+man really like? I know he is not the least bit in the world what he
+pretends to be. But what is the reality?’ I felt just the same as I
+should if I had one of those great snakes they bring to our veranda
+coiling round me. The creature might look quiet enough, but I should
+know that if it were to tighten it would crush me in a moment.”
+
+The Major and Mrs. Hunter both laughed at her earnestness, but the
+Doctor said gravely, “Is that really how you felt about him when he was
+talking to you, Miss Hannay? I am sorry to hear you say that. I own
+that my opinion has been that of everyone here, that the Rajah is a good
+fellow and a firm friend of the Europeans, and my only doubt has arisen
+from the fact that it was unnatural he should like us when he has
+considerable grounds for grievance against us. We have always relied
+upon his influence, which is great among his countrymen, being thrown
+entirely into the scale on our side if any trouble should ever arise;
+but I own that what you say makes me doubt him. I would always take the
+opinion of a dog or a child about anyone in preference to my own.”
+
+“You are not very complimentary, Doctor,” Isobel laughed.
+
+“Well, my dear, a young girl who has not mixed much in the world and had
+her instincts blunted is in that respect very much like a child. She may
+be deceived, and constantly is deceived where her heart is concerned,
+and is liable to be taken in by any plausible scoundrel; but where her
+heart is not concerned her instincts are true. When I see children and
+dogs stick to a man I am convinced that he is all right, though I may
+not personally have taken to him. When I see a dog put his tail between
+his legs and decline to accept the advances of a man, and when I see
+children slip away from him as soon as they can, I distrust him at once,
+however pleasant a fellow he may be. As the Rajah, from all I heard,
+certainly laid himself out to be agreeable to you last night, and yet in
+spite of that you felt as you say you did about him, I am bound to say
+that without at once admitting that my impressions about him were
+wrong, I consider that there is good ground for thinking the matter over
+again.”
+
+“What nonsense, Doctor,” the Major laughed. “Everyone here has known the
+Rajah for years. He is a most popular man, everyone likes him, among the
+ladies especially he is a great favorite. It is ridiculous to suggest
+that everyone should have been wrong about him, merely because Isobel
+takes a prejudice against him, and that as far as I can see is simply
+because his admiration for her was somewhat marked.”
+
+Isobel gave a little shudder. “Don’t talk about admiration, uncle; that
+is not the word for it; I don’t know what it was like. They say snakes
+fascinate birds before they eat them by fixing their eyes upon them. I
+should say it was something of that sort of look.”
+
+“Well, my dear, he is not going to eat you, that is certain,” the Major
+said; “and I can assure you that his approbation goes for a great
+deal here, and that after this you will go up several pegs in Cawnpore
+society.”
+
+Isobel tossed her head. “Then I am sorry for Cawnpore society; it is
+a matter of entire indifference to me whether I go up or down in its
+opinion.”
+
+A fortnight later the Nana gave another entertainment. A good deal to
+her uncle’s vexation, Isobel refused to go when the time came.
+
+“But what am I to say, my dear?” he asked in some perplexity.
+
+“You can say anything you like, uncle; you can say that I am feeling the
+heat and have got a bad headache, which is true; or you can say that
+I don’t care for gayety, which is also true. I shall be very much more
+comfortable and happy at home by myself.”
+
+The Hunters had by this time returned to Deennugghur, and the Major
+drove over to Bithoor accompanied only by Dr. Wade. He was rather
+surprised when the Doctor said he would go, as it was very seldom that
+he went out to such entertainments.
+
+“I am not going to amuse myself, Major; I want to have a good look at
+the Nana again; I am not comfortable since Isobel gave us her opinion
+of him. He is an important personage, and if there is any truth in these
+rumors about disaffection among the Sepoys his friendship may be of the
+greatest assistance to us.”
+
+So the Doctor was with Major Hannay when the latter made his excuses for
+Isobel’s absence on the ground that she was not feeling very well.
+
+The Nana expressed great regret at the news, and said that with the
+Major’s permission he would call in the morning to inquire after Miss
+Hannay’s health.
+
+“He did not like it,” the Doctor said, when they had strolled away
+together. “He was very civil and polite, but I could see that he was
+savage. I fancy he got up this fete principally in her honor. It is not
+often he has two so close together.”
+
+“Oh, that is nonsense, Doctor.”
+
+“I don’t think so. He has done the same sort of thing several times
+before, when he has been specially taken by some fresh face from
+England.”
+
+Others besides the Doctor remarked that the Rajah was not quite himself
+that evening. He was courteous and polite to his guests, but he was
+irritable with his own people, and something had evidently gone wrong
+with him.
+
+The next day he called at the Major’s. The latter had not told Isobel
+of his intention, for he guessed that had he done so she would have gone
+across to Mrs. Doolan or one of her lady friends, and she was sitting in
+the veranda with him and young Wilson when the carriage drove up.
+
+“I was so sorry to hear that you were unwell, Miss Hannay,” the Nana
+said courteously. “It was a great disappointment to me that you were
+unable to accompany your uncle last night.”
+
+“I have been feeling the heat the last few days,” Isobel said quietly,
+“and, indeed, I do not care much about going out in such hot weather
+as this. I have not been accustomed to much society in England, and the
+crowd and the heat and the lights make my head ache.”
+
+“You look the picture of health, Miss Hannay, but I know that it is
+trying for Englishwomen when they first come into our climate; it is
+always a great pleasure to me to receive English ladies at Bithoor. I
+hope upon the next occasion you will be able to come.”
+
+“I am much obliged to your highness,” she said, “but it would be a truer
+kindness to let me stay quietly at home.”
+
+“But that is selfish of you, Miss Hannay. You should think a little of
+the pleasure of others as well as your own.”
+
+“I am not conceited enough to suppose that it could make any difference
+to other people’s pleasure whether I am at a party or not,” Isobel said.
+“I suppose you mean that as a compliment, Rajah, but I am not accustomed
+to compliments, and don’t like them.”
+
+“You will have to learn to become accustomed to compliments, Miss
+Hannay,” the Rajah said, with a smile; and then turning to the Doctor,
+began to tell him of a tiger that had been doing a great deal of harm
+at a village some thirty miles away, and offered to send some elephants
+over to organize a hunt for him if he liked, an invitation that the
+Doctor promptly accepted.
+
+The visit was but a short one. The Rajah soon took his leave.
+
+“You are wrong altogether, Isobel,” the Doctor said. “I have returned to
+my conviction that the Rajah is a first rate fellow.”
+
+“That is just because he offered you some shooting, Doctor,” Isobel said
+indignantly. “I thought better of you than to suppose that you could be
+bought over so easily as that.”
+
+“She had you there, Doctor,” the Major laughed. “However, I am glad that
+you will no longer be backing her in her fancies.”
+
+“Why did you accept his invitation for us to go over and lunch there,
+uncle?” Isobel asked, in a tone of annoyance.
+
+“Because there was no reason in the world why we should refuse, my dear.
+He very often has luncheon parties, and after that he will show you over
+the place, and exhibit his jewels and curiosities. He said there would
+be other ladies there, and I have no doubt we shall have a very pleasant
+day.”
+
+Even Isobel was obliged to confess that the visit was a pleasant one.
+The Nana had asked Mrs. Cromarty, her daughters, and most of the other
+ladies of the regiment, with their husbands. The lunch was a banquet,
+and after it was over the parties were taken round the place, paid a
+visit to the Zenana, inspected the gardens and stables, and were driven
+through the park. The Nana saw that Isobel objected to be particularly
+noticed, and had the tact to make his attentions so general that even
+she could find no fault with him.
+
+On the drive back she admitted to her uncle that she had enjoyed her
+visit very much, and that the Rajah’s manners were those of a perfect
+gentleman.
+
+“But mind, uncle,” she said, “I do not retract my opinion. What the
+Rajah really is I don’t pretend to know, but I am quite sure that the
+character of a smiling host is not his real one, and that for some
+reason or other he is simply playing a part.”
+
+“I had no idea that you were such a prejudiced little woman,” the Major
+said, somewhat vexed; “but as it is no use arguing with you we had
+better drop the subject.”
+
+For the next month Cawnpore suffered a little from the reaction
+after the gayety of the races, but there was no lack of topics of
+conversation, for the rumors of disaffection among the troops gained in
+strength, and although nothing positive was known, and everyone scoffed
+at the notion of any serious trouble, the subject was so important a
+one that little else was talked of whenever parties of the ladies got
+together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+“I have some bad news, Isobel. At least I suppose you will consider it
+bad news,” the Major said one morning, when he returned from the orderly
+room. “You heard me say that four companies were going to relieve those
+at Deennugghur. Well, I am going with them. It seems that the General is
+of opinion that in the present unsettled state of affairs there ought to
+be a field officer in command there, so I have to go. For myself I don’t
+mind, but you will find it dull in a small station like that, after the
+gayeties of Cawnpore.”
+
+“I don’t mind a bit, uncle, in that respect. I don’t think I care
+much for gayeties, but of course the move will be a trouble. We have
+everything so nice here, it will be horrid having to leave it all. How
+long will it be for?”
+
+“Six months, in the ordinary state of things, though of course something
+may occur to bring us in before that. Still, the change won’t be as much
+trouble as you fancy. When we get there you can stay for two or three
+days with the Hunters till we have got the things to rights. There is
+one thing that you will be pleased about. Wade is going with us, at any
+rate for the present; you are a favorite of his, you know, and I think
+that is the principal reason for his going. At any rate, when he heard I
+was in orders, he told the Colonel that, as there was no illness in the
+regiment, he thought, if he did not object, he would change places for
+a bit with M’Alaster, the assistant surgeon, who has been with the
+detachment at Deennugghur for the last year, so as to give him a turn
+of duty at Cawnpore, and do a little shikaring himself. There is more
+jungle and better shooting round Deennugghur than there is here, and you
+know the Doctor is an enthusiast that way. Of course, the Colonel agreed
+at once.”
+
+“I am very glad of that, uncle; it won’t seem like going to a strange
+place if we have him with us, and the Hunters there, and I suppose three
+or four officers of the regiment. Who are going?”
+
+“Both your boys,” the Major laughed, “and Doolan and Rintoul.”
+
+“When do we go, uncle?”
+
+“Next Monday. I shall get somebody to put us up from Friday, and that
+morning we will get everything dismantled here, and send them off by
+bullock carts with the servants to Deennugghur, so that they will be
+there by Monday morning. I will write to Hunter to pick us out the best
+of the empty bungalows, and see that our fellows get to work to clean
+the place up as soon as they arrive. We shall be two days on the march,
+and things will be pretty forward by the time we get there.”
+
+“And where shall we sleep on the march?”
+
+“In tents, my dear, and very comfortable you will find them. Rumzan will
+go with us, and you will find everything go on as smoothly as if you
+were here. Tent life in India is very pleasant. Next year, in the cool
+season, we will do an excursion somewhere, and I am sure you will find
+it delightful: they don’t know anything about the capabilities of tents
+at home.”
+
+“Then do I quite understand, uncle, that all I have got to do is to make
+a round of calls to say goodby to everyone?”
+
+“That is all. You will find a lot of my cards in one of those pigeon
+holes; you may as well drop one wherever you go. Shall I order a
+carriage from Framjee’s for today?”
+
+“No, I think not, uncle; I will go round to our own bungalows first, and
+hear what Mrs. Doolan and the others think about it.”
+
+At Mrs. Doolan’s Isobel found quite an assembly. Mrs. Rintoul had come
+in almost in tears, and the two young lieutenants had dropped in with
+Captain Doolan, while one or two other officers had come round to
+commiserate with Mrs. Doolan.
+
+“Another victim,” the latter said, as Isobel entered.
+
+“You look too cheerful, Miss Hannay. I find that we are expected to wear
+sad countenances at our approaching banishment.”
+
+“Are we, Mrs. Doolan? It seems to me that it won’t make very much
+difference to us.”
+
+“Not make any difference, Miss Hannay!” Captain Doolan said. “Why,
+Deennugghur is one of the dullest little stations on this side of
+India!”
+
+“What do you mean by dull, Captain Doolan?”
+
+“Why, there are only about six white residents there besides the troops.
+Of course, as four companies are going instead of one, it will make
+a difference; but there will be no gayety, no excitement, and really
+nothing to do.”
+
+“As for the gayety, I am sure I shall not regret it, Captain Doolan;
+besides, our gayeties are pretty well over, except, of course, dinner
+parties, and it is getting very hot for them. We shall get off having to
+go out in the heat of the day to make calls, which seem to me terrible
+afflictions, and I think with a small party it ought to be very sociable
+and pleasant. As for excitement, I hear that there is much better
+shooting there than there is here. Mrs. Hunter was telling me that they
+have had some tigers that have been very troublesome round there, and
+you will all have an opportunity of showing your skill and bravery.
+I know that Mr. Richards and Mr. Wilson are burning to distinguish
+themselves.”
+
+“It would be great fun to shoot a tiger,” Richards said. “When I came
+out to India I thought there was going to be lots of tiger shooting, and
+I bought a rifle on purpose, but I have never had a chance yet. Yes, we
+will certainly get up a tiger hunt, won’t we, Wilson? You will tell us
+how to set about it, won’t you, Doolan?”
+
+“I don’t shoot,” Captain Doolan said; “and if I wanted to, I am not sure
+that my wife would give me leave.”
+
+“Certainly I would not,” Mrs. Doolan said promptly. “Married men have no
+right to run into unnecessary danger.”
+
+“Dr. Wade will be able to put you in the way, Mr. Richards,” Isobel
+said.
+
+“Dr. Wade!” Mrs. Rintoul exclaimed. “You don’t mean to say, Miss Hannay,
+that he is going with us?”
+
+“Yes, he is going for a time, Mrs. Rintoul. My uncle told me that he had
+applied to go with the detachment, and that the surgeon there would come
+back to the regiment while he is away.”
+
+“I do call that hard,” Mrs. Rintoul said. “The only thing I was glad we
+were going for was that we should be under Mr. M’Alaster, who is very
+pleasant, and quite understands my case, while Dr. Wade does not seem to
+understand it at all, and is always so very brusque and unsympathetic.”
+
+There was a general smile.
+
+“Wade is worth a hundred of M’Alaster,” Captain Roberts said. “There is
+not a man out here I would rather trust myself to if I were ill. He is
+an awfully good fellow, too, all round, though he may be, as you say, a
+little brusque in manner.”
+
+“I call him a downright bear,” Mrs. Rintoul said angrily. “Why, only
+last week he told me that if I would get up two hours earlier and go for
+a brisk walk just after sunrise, and give up eating meat at tiffin, and
+confine myself to two or three dishes at dinner, I should be perfectly
+well in the course of a month; just as if I was in the habit of
+overeating myself, when I have scarcely the appetite of a sparrow. I
+told Captain Rintoul afterwards that I must consult someone else, for
+that really I could not bear such rudeness.”
+
+“I am afraid we are all against you, Mrs. Rintoul,” Mrs. Doolan said,
+with a little shake of her head at Isobel, who was, she saw, going to
+speak out strongly. “No one could possibly be kinder than he is when
+anyone is really ill. I mean seriously ill,” she added, as Mrs. Rintoul
+drew herself up indignantly. “I shall never forget how attentive he was
+to the children when they were down with fever just before he went to
+England. He missed his ship and lost a month of his leave because he
+would not go away till they were out of danger, and there are very few
+men who would have done that. I shall never forget his kindness. And now
+let us talk of something else. You will have to establish a little mess
+on your own account, Mr. Wilson, as both the Captains are married men,
+and the Major has also an incumbrance.”
+
+“Yes, it will be horribly dull, Mrs. Doolan. Richards and I have
+quarters together here, and, of course, it will be the same there, and
+I am sure I don’t know what we shall find to talk about when we come to
+have to mess together. Of course, here, there are the messroom and the
+club, and so we get on very well, but to be together always will be
+awful.”
+
+“You will really have to take to reading or something of that sort, Mr.
+Wilson,” Isobel laughed.
+
+“I always do read the Field, Miss Hannay, but that won’t last for a
+whole week, you know; and there is no billiard table, and no racquet
+court, or anything else at Deennugghur, and one cannot always be riding
+about the country.”
+
+“We shall all have to take pity on you as much as we can,” Mrs. Doolan
+said. “I must say that, like Miss Hannay, I shall not object to the
+change.”
+
+“I think it is all very well for you, Mrs. Doolan; you have children.”
+
+“Well, Mr. Richards, I will let you both, as a great treat, take them
+out for a walk sometimes of a morning instead of their going with the
+ayah. That will make a change for you.”
+
+There was a general laugh, but Wilson said manfully, “Very well, Mrs.
+Doolan; I am very fond of youngsters, and I should like to take, anyhow,
+the two eldest out sometimes. I don’t think I should make much hand with
+the other two, but perhaps Richards would like to come in and amuse them
+while we are out; he is just the fellow for young ones.”
+
+There was another laugh, in which Richards joined. “I could carry them
+about on my back, and pretend to be a horse,” he said; “but I don’t know
+that I could amuse them in any other way.”
+
+“You would find that very hot work, Mr. Richards,” Mrs. Doolan said;
+“but I don’t think we shall require such a sacrifice of you. Well, I
+don’t think we shall find it so bad, after all, and I don’t suppose
+it will be for very long; I do not believe in all this talk about
+chupaties, and disaffection, and that sort of thing; I expect in three
+months we shall most of us be back again.”
+
+Ten days later the detachment was settled down in Deennugghur.
+The troops were for the most part under canvas, for there was only
+accommodation for a single company at the station. The two subalterns
+occupied a large square tent, while the other three officers took
+possession of the only three bungalows that were vacant at the station,
+the Doctor having a tent to himself. The Major and Isobel had stayed
+for the first three days with the Hunters, at the end of which time the
+bungalow had been put in perfect order. It was far less commodious than
+that at Cawnpore, but Isobel was well satisfied with it when all their
+belongings had been arranged, and she soon declared that she greatly
+preferred Deennugghur to Cawnpore.
+
+Those at the station heartily welcomed the accession to their numbers,
+and there was an entire absence of the stiffness and formality of a
+large cantonment like Cawnpore, and Isobel was free to run in as she
+chose to spend the morning chatting and working with the Hunters, or
+Mrs. Doolan, or with the other ladies, of whom there were three at the
+station.
+
+A few days after their arrival news came in that the famous man eater,
+which had for a time ceased his ravages and moved off to a different
+part of the country, principally because the natives of the village
+near the jungle had ceased altogether to go out after nightfall, had
+returned, and had carried off herdsmen on two consecutive days.
+
+The Doctor at once prepared for action, and agreed to allow Wilson and
+Richards to accompany him, and the next day the three rode off together
+to Narkeet, to which village the two herdsmen had belonged. Both had
+been killed near the same spot, and the natives had traced the return of
+the tiger to its lair in the jungle with its victims.
+
+The Doctor soon found that the ordinary methods of destroying the tiger
+had been tried again and again without success. Cattle and goats had
+been tied up, and the native shikaris had taken their posts in trees
+close by, and had watched all night; but in vain. Spring traps
+and deadfalls had also been tried, but the tiger seemed absolutely
+indifferent to the attractions of their baits, and always on the lookout
+for snares. The attempts made at a dozen villages near the jungle had
+all been equally unsuccessful.
+
+“It is evident,” the Doctor said, “that the brute cares for nothing but
+human victims. No doubt, if he were very hungry he would take a cow or
+a goat, but we might wait a very long time for that; so the only thing
+that I can see is to act as a bait myself.”
+
+“How will you do that, Doctor?”
+
+“I shall build a sort of cage near the point where the tiger has twice
+entered the jungle. I will take with me in the cage a woman or girl from
+the village. From time to time she shall cry out as if in pain, and
+as the tiger is evidently somewhere in this neighborhood it is likely
+enough he will come out to see about it.
+
+“We must have the cage pretty strong, or I shall never get anyone to sit
+with me; besides, on a dark night, there is no calculating on killing
+to a certainty with the first shot, and it is just as well to be on the
+safe side. In daylight it would be a different matter altogether. I can
+rely upon my weapon when I can see, but on a dark night it is pretty
+well guesswork.”
+
+The villagers were at once engaged to erect a stout cage eight feet
+square and four high, of beams driven into the ground six inches apart,
+and roofed in with strong bars. There was a considerable difficulty in
+getting anyone to consent to sit by the Doctor, but at last the widow
+of one of the men who had been killed agreed for the sum of twenty-five
+rupees to pass the night there, accompanied by her child four years old.
+
+The Doctor’s skill with his rifle was notorious, and it was rather the
+desire of seeing her husband’s death avenged than for the sake of the
+money that she consented to keep watch. There was but one tree suitable
+for the watchers; it stood some forty yards to the right of the cage,
+and it was arranged that both the subalterns should take their station
+in it.
+
+“Now look here, lads,” the Doctor said, “before we start on this
+business, it must be quite settled that you do not fire till you hear
+my rifle. That is the first thing; the second is that you only fire when
+the brute is a fair distance from the cage. If you get excited and blaze
+away anyhow, you are quite as likely to hit me as you are the tiger.
+Now, I object to take any risk whatever on that score. You will have a
+native shikari in the tree with you to point out the tiger, for it is
+twenty to one against your making him out for yourselves. It will be
+quite indistinct, and you have no chance of making out its head or
+anything of that sort, and you have to take a shot at it as best you
+may.
+
+“Remember there must not be a word spoken. If the brute does come,
+it will probably make two or three turns round the cage before it
+approaches it, and may likely enough pass close to you, but in no case
+fire. You can’t make sure of killing it, and if it were only wounded
+it would make off into the jungle, and all our trouble would be thrown
+away. Also remember you must not smoke; the tiger would smell it half
+a mile away, and, besides, the sound of a match striking would be quite
+sufficient to set him on his guard.”
+
+“There is no objection, I hope, Doctor, to our taking up our flasks; we
+shall want something to keep us from going to sleep.”
+
+“No, there is no objection to that,” the Doctor said; “but mind you
+don’t go to sleep, for if you did you might fall off your bough and
+break your neck, to say nothing of the chance of the tiger happening to
+be close at hand at the time.”
+
+Late in the afternoon the Doctor went down to inspect the cage, and
+pronounced it sufficiently strong. Half an hour before nightfall he and
+the woman and child took their places in it, and the two beams in the
+roof that had been left unfastened to allow of their entry were securely
+lashed in their places by the villagers. Wilson and Richards were helped
+up into the tree, and took their places upon two boughs which sprang
+from the trunk close to each other at a height of some twelve feet from
+the ground. The shikari who was to wait with them crawled out, and with
+a hatchet chopped off some of the small boughs and foliage so as to give
+them a clear view of the ground for some distance round the cage, which
+was erected in the center of a patch of brushwood, the lower portion
+of which had been cleared out so that the Doctor should have an
+uninterrupted view round. The boughs and leaves were gathered up by the
+villagers, and carried away by them, and the watch began.
+
+“Confound it,” Richards whispered to his companion after night fell, “it
+is getting as dark as pitch; I can scarcely make out the clump where the
+cage is. I should hardly see an elephant if it were to come, much less a
+brute like a tiger.”
+
+“We shall get accustomed to it presently,” Wilson replied; “at any rate
+make quite sure of the direction in which the cage is in; it is better
+to let twenty tigers go than to run the risk of hitting the Doctor.”
+
+In another hour their eyes had become accustomed to the darkness, and
+they could not only see the clump in which the cage was clearly, but
+could make out the outline of the bush all round the open space in which
+it stood. Both started as a loud and dismal wail rose suddenly in the
+air, followed by a violent crying.
+
+“By Jove, how that woman made me jump!” Wilson said; “it sounded quite
+awful, and she must have pinched that poor little beggar of hers pretty
+sharply to make him yell like that.”
+
+A low “hush!” from the shikari at his elbow warned Wilson that he
+was speaking too loudly. Hours passed by, the cries being raised at
+intervals.
+
+“It is enough to give one the jumps, Richards; each time she yells I
+nearly fall off my branch.”
+
+“Keep on listening, then it won’t startle you.”
+
+“A fellow can’t keep on listening,” Wilson grumbled; “I listen each time
+until my ears begin to sing, and I feel stupid and sleepy, and then she
+goes off again like a steam whistle; that child will be black and blue
+all over in the morning.”
+
+A warning hiss from the shikari again induced Wilson to silence.
+
+“I don’t believe the brute is coming,” he whispered, an hour later. “If
+it wasn’t for this bough being so hard I should drop off to sleep; my
+eyes ache with staring at those bushes.”
+
+As he spoke the shikari touched him on the shoulder and pointed.
+“Tiger,” he whispered; and then did the same to Richards. Grasping their
+rifles, they gazed in the direction in which he pointed, but could for
+some time make out nothing. Then they saw a dim gray mass in front of
+the bushes, directly on the opposite side of the open space; then from
+the cage, lying almost in a direct line between it and them, rose the
+cry of the child. They were neither of them at all certain that the
+object at which they were gazing was the tiger. It seemed shapeless,
+the outline fading away in the bush; but they felt sure that they had
+noticed nothing like it in that direction before.
+
+For two or three minutes they remained in uncertainty, then the outline
+seemed to broaden, and it moved noiselessly. There could be no mistake
+now; the tiger had been attracted by the cries, and as it moved along
+they could see that it was making a circuit of the spot from whence the
+sounds proceeded, to reconnoiter before advancing towards its prey. It
+kept close to the line of bushes, and sometimes passed behind some of
+them. The shikari pressed their shoulders, and a low hiss enforced the
+necessity for absolute silence. The two young fellows almost held
+their breath; they had lost sight of the tiger now, but knew it must be
+approaching them.
+
+For two or three minutes they heard and saw nothing, then the shikari
+pointed beyond them, and they almost started as they saw the tiger
+retreating, and knew that it must have passed almost under them without
+their noticing it. At last it reached the spot at which they had first
+seen it. The child’s cry, but this time low and querulous, again rose.
+With quicker steps than before it moved on, but still not directly
+towards the center, to the great relief of the two subalterns, who had
+feared that it might attack from such a direction that they would not
+dare to fire for fear of hitting the cage. Fortunately it passed that
+point, and, crouching, moved towards the bushes.
+
+Wilson and Richards had their rifles now at their shoulders, but, in the
+feeble and uncertain light, felt by no means sure of hitting their
+mark, though it was but some thirty yards away. Almost breathlessly they
+listened for the Doctor’s rifle, but both started when the flash and
+sharp crack broke on the stillness. There was a sudden snarl of pain,
+the tiger gave a spring in the air, and then fell, rolling over and
+over.
+
+“It is not killed!” the shikari exclaimed. “Fire when it gets up.”
+
+Suddenly it rose to its feet, and with a loud roar sprang towards the
+thicket. The two subalterns fired, but the movements of the dimly seen
+creature were so swift that they felt by no means sure that they had hit
+it. Then came, almost simultaneously, a loud shriek from the woman, of
+a very different character to the long wails she had before uttered,
+followed by a sound of rending and tearing.
+
+“He is breaking down the cage!” Richards exclaimed excitedly, as he and
+Wilson hastened to ram another cartridge down their rifles. “Come, we
+must go and help the Doctor.”
+
+But a moment later came another report of a rifle, and then all was
+silent. Then the Doctor’s voice was heard.
+
+“Don’t get down from the tree yet, lads; I think he is dead, but it is
+best to make sure first.”
+
+There was a pause, and then another rifle shot, followed by the shout
+“All right; he is as dead as a door nail now. Mind your rifles as you
+climb down.”
+
+“Fancy thinking of that,” Wilson said, “when you have just killed a
+tiger! I haven’t capped mine yet; have you, Richards?”
+
+“I have just put it on, but will take it off again. Here, old man, you
+get down first, and we will hand the guns to you.”--this to the shikari.
+
+With some difficulty they scrambled down from the tree.
+
+“Now we may as well cap our rifles,” Richards said; “the brute may not
+be dead after all.”
+
+They approached the bush cautiously.
+
+“You are quite sure he is dead, Doctor?”
+
+“Quite sure; do you think I don’t know when a tiger is dead?”
+
+Still holding their guns in readiness to fire, they approached the
+bushes.
+
+“You can do no good until the villagers come with torches,” the
+Doctor said; “the tiger is dead enough, but it is always as well to be
+prudent.”
+
+The shikari had uttered a loud cry as he sprang down from the tree, and
+this had been answered by shouts from the distance. In a few minutes
+lights were seen through the trees, and a score of men with torches and
+lanterns ran up with shouts of satisfaction.
+
+As soon as they arrived the two young officers advanced to the cage.
+On the top a tiger was lying stretched out as if in sleep; with some
+caution they approached it and flashed a torch in its eyes. There was
+no doubt that it was dead. The body was quickly rolled off the cage, and
+then a dozen hands cut the lashing and lifted the top bars, which was
+deeply scored by the tiger’s claws, and the Doctor emerged.
+
+“I am glad to be out of that,” he said; “six hours in a cage with a
+woman and a crying brat is no joke.”
+
+As soon as the Doctor had got out, the subalterns eagerly examined the
+tiger, upon which the natives were heaping curses and execrations.
+
+“How many wounds has it got?” they asked the Doctor, who repeated the
+question to the shikari in his own language.
+
+“Three, sahib. One full in the chest--it would have been mortal--two
+others in the ribs by the heart.”
+
+“No others?” the subalterns exclaimed in disgust, as the answer was
+translated to them. The Doctor himself examined the tiger.
+
+“No; you both missed, lads, but you need not be ashamed of that; it is
+no easy matter to hit a tiger even at a short distance on a dark night
+like this, when you can scarce make him out, and can’t see the barrel of
+your rifle. I ought to have told you to rub a little phosphorus off the
+head of a match onto the sight. I am so accustomed to do it myself as
+a matter of course that I did not think of telling you. Well, I am
+heartily glad we have killed it, for by all accounts it has done an
+immense deal of damage.”
+
+“It has been a fine tiger in its time, although its skin doesn’t look
+much,” Wilson said; “there are patches of fur off.”
+
+“That is generally the case with man eaters. They are mostly old tigers
+who take, when they get past their strength, to killing men. I don’t
+know whether the flesh doesn’t agree with them, but they are almost
+always mangy.”
+
+“We were afraid for a moment,” Richards said, “that the tiger was going
+to break into your cage; we heard him clawing away at the timber, and as
+you didn’t fire again we were afraid something was the matter.”
+
+“The mother was,” the Doctor said testily. “The moment the tiger sprang,
+the woman threw herself down at full length right on the top of my
+second rifle, and when I went to push her off I think she fancied the
+tiger had got hold of her, for she gave a yell that fairly made me jump.
+I had to push her off by main force, and then lie down on my back, so as
+to get the rifle up to fire. I was sure the first shot was fatal, for I
+knew just where his heart would be, but I dropped a second cartridge in,
+and gave him another bullet so as to make sure. Well, if either of
+you want his head or his claws, you had better say so at once, for the
+natives will be singeing his whiskers off directly; the practice is a
+superstition of theirs.”
+
+“No, I don’t want them,” Wilson said. “If I had put a bullet into the
+brute, so that I could have said I helped to kill him, I should have
+liked the head to get it preserved and sent home to my people, but as it
+is the natives are welcome to it as far as I am concerned.”
+
+Richards was of the same opinion, and so without further delay they
+started back for the village, where, upon their arrival, they were
+greeted with cries of joy by the women, the news having already been
+carried back by a boy.
+
+“Poor beggars!” the Doctor said. “They have been living a life of terror
+for weeks. They must feel as if they had woke from a nightmare. Now,
+lads, we will have some supper. I dare say you are ready for it, and I
+am sure I am.”
+
+“Is there any chance for supper, Doctor?--why, it must be two o’clock in
+the morning.”
+
+“Of course there is,” the Doctor replied. “I gave orders to my man to
+begin to warm up the food as soon as he heard a gun fired, and I will
+guarantee he has got everything ready by this time.”
+
+After a hearty meal and a cigar they lay down for a few hours’ sleep,
+and at daybreak rode back to Deennugghur, the two subalterns rather
+crestfallen at their failure to have taken any active part in killing
+the tiger that had so long been a terror to the district.
+
+“It was an awful sell missing him, Miss Hannay; I wanted to have had the
+claws mounted as a necklace; I thought you would have liked it.”
+
+“I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Wilson, but I would much rather not
+have had them. If the tiger hadn’t been a man eater I should not have
+minded, but I should never have worn as an ornament claws that had
+killed lots of people--women and children too.”
+
+“No, I never thought of that, Miss Hannay; it wouldn’t have been
+pleasant, now one thinks of it; still, I wish I had put a bullet into
+him.”
+
+“No doubt you will do better next time, Mr. Wilson. The Doctor has been
+telling me that it is extremely difficult to hit an animal in the dark
+when you are not accustomed to that sort of shooting. He says he was in
+a great fright all the time he was lying in the cage, and that it was an
+immense relief to him when he heard your rifles go off, and found that
+he wasn’t hit.”
+
+“That is too bad of him, Miss Hannay,” Wilson laughed; “we were not such
+duffers as all that. I don’t believe he really did think so.”
+
+“I am sure he was in earnest, Mr. Wilson. He said he should have felt
+quite safe if it had been daylight, but that in the dark people really
+can’t see which way the rifles are pointed, and that he remembered he
+had not told you to put phosphorus on the sights.”
+
+“It was too bad of him,” Wilson grumbled; “it would have served him
+right if one of the bullets had hit a timber of the cage and given him
+a start; I should like to have seen the Doctor struggling in the dark
+to get his second rifle from under the woman, with the tiger clawing and
+growling two feet above him.”
+
+“The Doctor didn’t tell me about that,” Isobel laughed; “though he said
+he had a woman and child with him to attract the tiger.”
+
+“It would have frightened any decent minded tiger, Miss Hannay, instead
+of attracting it; for such dismal yells as that woman made I never
+listened to. I nearly tumbled off the tree at the first of them, it made
+me jump so, and it gave me a feeling of cold water running down my back.
+As to the child, I don’t know whether she pinched it or the doctor stuck
+pins into it, but the poor little brute howled in the most frightful
+way. I don’t think I shall ever want to go tiger shooting in the dark
+again; I ache all over today as if I had been playing in the first
+football match of the season, from sitting balancing myself on that
+branch; I was almost over half a dozen times.”
+
+“I expect you nearly went off to sleep, Mr. Wilson.”
+
+“I think I should have gone to sleep if it hadn’t been for that woman,
+Miss Hannay. I should not have minded if I could have smoked, but to
+sit there hour after hour and not be able to smoke, and not allowed to
+speak, and staring all the time into the darkness till your eyes ached,
+was trying, I can tell you; and after all that, not to hit the brute was
+too bad.”
+
+The days passed quietly at Deennugghur. They were seldom alone at Major
+Hannay’s bungalow in the evening, for Wilson and Richards generally came
+in to smoke a cigar in the veranda; the Doctor was a regular visitor,
+when he was not away in pursuit of game, and Bathurst was also often one
+of the party.
+
+“Mr. Bathurst is coming out wonderfully, Miss Hannay,” Mrs. Hunter
+said one day, as Isobel sat working with her, while the two girls were
+practicing duets on a piano in the next room. “We used to call him
+the hermit, he was so difficult to get out of his cell. We were quite
+surprised when he accepted our invitation to dinner yesterday.”
+
+“I think Dr. Wade has stirred him up,” Isobel said calmly; “he is a
+great favorite of the Doctor’s.”
+
+Mrs. Hunter smiled over her work. “Perhaps so, my dear; anyhow, I am
+glad he has come out, and I hope he won’t retire into his cell again
+after you have all gone.”
+
+“I suppose it depends a good deal upon his work,” Isobel said.
+
+“My experience of men is that they can always make time if they like, my
+dear. When a man says he is too busy to do this, that, or the other, you
+may always safely put it down that he doesn’t want to do it. Of course,
+it is just the same thing with ourselves. You often hear women say they
+are too busy to attend to all sorts of things that they ought to attend
+to, but the same women can find plenty of time to go to every pleasure
+gathering that comes off. There is no doubt that Mr. Bathurst is really
+fond of work, and that he is an indefatigable civil servant of the
+Company, but that would not prevent him making an hour or two’s time
+of an evening, occasionally, if he wanted to. However, he seems to have
+turned over a new leaf, and I hope it will last. In a small station like
+this, even one man is of importance, especially when he is as pleasant
+as Mr. Bathurst can be when he likes. He was in the army at one time,
+you know.”
+
+“Was he, Mrs. Hunter?”
+
+“Yes. I never heard him say so himself, but I have heard so from several
+people. I think he was only in it for a year or so. I suppose he did not
+care for it, and can quite imagine he would not, so he sold out, and
+a short time afterwards obtained a civil appointment. He has very good
+interest; his father was General Bathurst, who was, you know, a very
+distinguished officer. So he had no difficulty in getting into our
+service, where he is entirely in his element. His father died two
+years ago, and I believe he came into a good property at home. Everyone
+expected he would have thrown up his appointment, but it made no
+difference to him, and he just went on as before, working as if he had
+to depend entirely on the service.”
+
+“I can quite understand that,” Isobel said, “to a really earnest man
+a life of usefulness here must be vastly preferable to living at home
+without anything to do or any object in life.”
+
+“Well, perhaps so, my dear, and in theory that is, no doubt, the case;
+but practically, I fancy you would find nineteen men out of twenty, even
+if they are what you call earnest men, retire from the ranks of hard
+workers if they come into a nice property. By the way, you must come in
+here this evening. There is a juggler in the station, and Mr. Hunter has
+told him to come round. The servants say the man is a very celebrated
+juggler, one of the best in India, and as the girls have never seen
+anything better than the ordinary itinerant conjurers, my husband has
+arranged for him to come in here, and we have been sending notes round
+asking everyone to come in. We have sent one round to your place, but
+you must have come out before the chit arrived.”
+
+“Oh, I should like that very much!” Isobel said. “Two or three men came
+to our bungalow at Cawnpore and did some conjuring, but it was nothing
+particular; but uncle says some of them do wonderful things--things that
+he cannot account for at all. That was one of the things I read about at
+school, and thought I should like to see, more than anything in India.
+When I was at school we went in a body, two or three times, to see
+conjurers when they came to Cheltenham. Of course I did not understand
+the things they did, and they seemed wonderful to me, but I know there
+are people who can explain them, and that they are only tricks; but
+I have read accounts of things done by jugglers in India that seemed
+utterly impossible to explain--really a sort of magic.”
+
+“I have heard a good many arguments about it,” Mrs. Hunter said; “and
+a good many people, especially those who have seen most of them, are
+of opinion that many of the feats of the Indian jugglers cannot be
+explained by any natural laws we know of. I have seen some very curious
+things myself, but the very fact that I did not understand how they were
+done was no proof they could not be explained; certainly two of their
+commonest tricks, the basket trick and the mango, have never been
+explained. Our conjurers at home can do something like them, but then
+that is on a stage, where they can have trapdoors and all sorts of
+things, while these are done anywhere--in a garden, on a road--where
+there could be no possible preparation, and with a crowd of lookers on
+all round; it makes me quite uncomfortable to look at it.”
+
+“Well, I must be off now, Mrs. Hunter; it is nearly time for uncle to be
+back, and he likes me to be in when he returns.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Dr. Wade was sitting in the veranda smoking and reading an English paper
+that had arrived by that morning’s mail, when Isobel returned.
+
+“Good morning, Doctor. Is uncle back?”
+
+“Not yet. He told me he might be half an hour late, and that I was to
+come round and amuse you until he came back.”
+
+“So in my absence you have been amusing yourself, Doctor. I have been
+round at Mrs. Hunter’s; she is going to have a juggler there this
+evening, and we are all to go.”
+
+“Yes, I got a chit from her this morning. I have seen scores of them,
+but I make a point of never missing an exhibition when I get the chance.
+I hate anything I don’t understand, and I go with the faint hope of
+being able to find things out, though I know perfectly well that I shall
+not do so.”
+
+“Then you think it is not all quite natural, Doctor?”
+
+“I don’t say it is not natural, because we don’t know what all the
+natural laws are, but I say that some of the things I have seen
+certainly are not to be accounted for by anything we do know. It is not
+often that the jugglers show their best tricks to the whites--they know
+that, as a rule, we are altogether skeptical; but I have seen at native
+courts more than once the most astounding things--things absolutely
+incomprehensible and inexplicable. I don’t suppose we are going to see
+anything of that sort tonight, though Mrs. Hunter said in her note that
+they had heard from the native servant that this man was a famous one.
+
+“There is a sect of people in India, I don’t mean a caste, but a sort
+of secret society, who, I believe, claim to be able by some sort of
+influence to suspend altogether the laws of nature. I do not say that
+I believe them--as a scientific man, it is my duty not to believe
+them; but I have seen such things done by some of the higher class of
+jugglers, and that under circumstances that did not seem to admit of
+the possibility of deception, that I am obliged to suspend my judgment,
+which, as you may imagine, my dear, is exceedingly annoying to me; but
+some of them do possess to a considerable extent what the Scotch call
+second sight, that is to say, the power of foreseeing events in the
+future. Of that I am morally certain; I have seen proofs of it over and
+over again. For example, once an old fakir, whom I had cured of a badly
+ulcerated limb, came up just as I was starting on a shooting expedition.
+
+“‘Do not go out today,’ he said. ‘I foresee evil for you. I saw you last
+night brought back badly wounded.’
+
+“‘But if I don’t go your dream will come wrong,’ I said.
+
+“He shook his head.
+
+“‘You will go in spite of what I say,’ he said; ‘and you will suffer,
+and others too;’ and he looked at a group of shikaris, who were standing
+together, ready to make a start.
+
+“‘How many men are there?’ he said.
+
+“‘Why, six of course,’ I replied.
+
+“‘I see only three,’ he said, ‘and three dull spots. One of those I
+see is holding his matchlock on his shoulder, another is examining his
+priming, the third is sitting down by the tire. Those three will come
+back at the end of the day; the other three will not return alive.’
+
+“I felt rather uncomfortable, but I wasn’t, as I said to myself--I was a
+good deal younger then, my dear--such a fool as to be deterred from what
+promised to be a good day’s sport by such nonsense as this; and I went.
+
+“We were going after a rogue elephant that had been doing a lot of
+damage among the natives’ plantations. We found him, and a savage brute
+he turned out to be. He moved just as I fired, and though I hit him, it
+was not on the fatal spot, and he charged right down among us. He caught
+the very three men the fakir said were doomed, and dashed the life out
+of them; then he came at me. The bearer had run off with my second gun,
+and he seized me and flung me up in the air.
+
+“I fell in a tree, but broke three of my ribs and one of my arms;
+fortunately, though the beast tried to get at me, I was out of his
+reach, and the tree was too strong for him to knock down. Then another
+man who was with me came up and killed him, and they got me down and
+carried me back, and I was weeks before I was about again. That was
+something more than a coincidence, I think. There were some twenty men
+out with us, and just the four he had pointed out were hurt, and no
+others.
+
+“I have seen scores of other cases in which these predictions have
+come true, especially in cases of disease; though I grant that here the
+predictions often bring about their own fulfilment. If a native is told
+by a fakir, or holy man, that he is going to die, he makes no struggle
+to live. In several cases I have seen natives, whose deaths have been
+predicted, die, without, as far as my science could tell me, any disease
+or ailment whatever that should have been fatal to them. They simply
+sank--died, I should say, from pure fright. But putting aside this
+class, I have seen enough to convince me that some at least among these
+fanatics do possess the power of second sight.”
+
+“That is very extraordinary, Doctor. Of course I have heard of second
+sight among certain old people in Scotland, but I did not believe in
+it.”
+
+“I should not have believed in it if I had not seen the same thing here
+in India. I naturally have been interested in it, and have read pretty
+well everything that has been written about second sight among the
+Highlanders; and some of the incidents are so well authenticated that I
+scarcely see how they can be denied. Of course, there is no accounting
+for it, but it is possible that among what we may call primitive people
+there are certain intuitions or instincts, call them what you like, that
+have been lost by civilized people.
+
+“The power of scent in a dog is something so vastly beyond anything we
+can even imagine possible, that though we put it down to instinct, it is
+really almost inexplicable. Take the case that dogs have been known to
+be taken by railway journeys of many hundred miles and to have found
+their way home again on foot. There is clearly the possession of a power
+which is to us absolutely unaccountable.
+
+“But here comes your uncle; he will think I have been preaching a sermon
+to you if you look so grave.”
+
+But Major Hannay was too occupied with his own thoughts to notice
+Isobel.
+
+“Has anything gone wrong, Major?” the Doctor asked, as he saw his face.
+
+“I have just learnt,” the Major said, “that some more chupaties were
+brought last night. It is most annoying. I have questioned several of
+the native officers, and they profess to have no idea whence they came
+or what is the meaning of them. I wish we could get to the bottom of
+this thing; it keeps the troops in a ferment. If I could get hold of one
+of these messengers, I would get out of him all he knew, even if I had
+to roast him to make him tell.”
+
+“My dear uncle,” Isobel said reprovingly, “I am sure you don’t mean what
+you say.”
+
+“I don’t know,” he said, half laughing; “I should certainly consider
+myself perfectly justified in taking uncommonly strong steps to try
+to get to the bottom of this business. The thing is going on all over
+India, and it must mean something, and it is all the worse if taken in
+connection with this absurd idea about the greased cartridges. I grant
+that it was an act of folly greasing them at all, when we know the
+idiotic prejudices the natives have; still, it could hardly have
+been foreseen that this stir would have been made. The issue of the
+cartridges has been stopped, but when the natives once get an idea into
+their minds it is next to impossible to disabuse them of it. It is a
+tiresome business altogether.”
+
+“Tiffin ready, sahib,” Rumzan interrupted, coming out onto the veranda.
+
+“That is right, Rumzan. Now, Isobel, let us think of more pleasant
+subjects.”
+
+“We are to go into the Hunters’ this evening, uncle,” Isobel said, as
+she sat down. “There is going to be a famous juggler there. There is a
+note for you from Mrs. Hunter on the side table.”
+
+“Very well, my dear; some of these fellows are well worth seeing.
+Bathurst is coming in to dinner. I saw him as he was starting this
+morning, just as he was going down to the lines, and he accepted. He
+said he should be able to get back in time. However, I don’t suppose he
+will mind going round with us. I hope you will come, Doctor, to make up
+the table. I have asked the two boys to come in.”
+
+“I shall have to become a permanent boarder at your establishment,
+Major. It is really useless my keeping a cook when I am in here nearly
+half my time. But I will come. I am off for three days tomorrow. A
+villager came in this morning to beg me to go out to rid them of a
+tiger that has established himself in their neighborhood, and that is an
+invitation I never refuse, if I can possibly manage to make time for it.
+Fortunately everyone is so healthy here at present that I can be very
+well spared.”
+
+At dinner the subject of juggling came up again, and the two subalterns
+expressed their opinion strongly that it was all humbug.
+
+“Dr. Wade believes in it, Mr. Wilson,” Isobel said.
+
+“You don’t say so, Doctor; I should have thought you were the last sort
+of man who would have believed in conjurers.”
+
+“It requires a wise man to believe, Wilson,” the Doctor said; “any fool
+can scoff; the wise man questions. When you have been here as long as
+I have, and if you ever get as much sense as I have, which is doubtful,
+you may be less positive in your ideas, if you can call them ideas.”
+
+“That is one for me,” Wilson said good humoredly, while the others
+laughed.
+
+“Well, I have never seen them, Doctor, except those fellows who come
+around to the veranda, and I have seen conjurers at home do ever so much
+better tricks than they.”
+
+“What do you think of them, Mr. Bathurst?” Isobel asked. “I suppose you
+have seen some of the better sort?”
+
+“I do not know what to think of them, Miss Hannay. I used to be rather
+of Wilson’s opinion, but I have seen things since that I could not
+account for at all. There was a man here two or three months back who
+astounded me.”
+
+“Mrs. Hunter said that the girls had had no opportunity of seeing a good
+conjurer since they came out, Mr. Bathurst. I suppose they did know this
+man you are speaking of being here?”
+
+“He was only here for a few hours, Miss Hannay. I had happened to
+meet him before, and he gave me a private performance, which was quite
+different to anything I have ever seen, though I had often heard of the
+feats he had performed. I was so impressed with them that I can assure
+you that for a few days I had great difficulty in keeping my mind upon
+my work.”
+
+“What did he do, Mr. Bathurst?”
+
+Bathurst related the feat of the disappearing girl.
+
+“She must have jumped down when you were not looking,” Richards said,
+with an air or conviction.
+
+“Possibly,” Bathurst replied quietly; “but as I was within three or
+four yards of the pole, and it was perfectly distinct in the light of my
+lamp, and as I certainly saw her till she was some thirty or forty
+feet up in the air I don’t see how she can have managed it. For, even
+supposing she could have sprung down that distance without being hurt,
+she would not have come down so noiselessly that I should not have heard
+her.”
+
+“Still, if she did not come down that way, how could she have come?”
+ Wilson said.
+
+“That is exactly what I can’t make out,” Bathurst replied. “If it should
+happen to be the same man, and he will do the same thing again, I fancy
+you will be as much puzzled as I was.”
+
+After dinner was over the party walked across to Mr. Hunter’s bungalow,
+where, in a short time, the other officers, their wives, and all the
+other residents at the station were assembled. Chairs were placed in the
+veranda for the ladies, and a number of lamps hung on the wall, so that
+a strong light was thrown upon the ground in front of it. In addition,
+four posts had been driven into the ground some twenty feet from the
+veranda, and lamps had been fastened upon them.
+
+“I don’t know whether the juggler will like that,” Mr. Hunter said, “and
+I shan’t light them if he objects. I don’t think myself it is quite
+fair having a light behind him; still, if he agrees, it will be hardly
+possible for him to make the slightest movement without being seen.”
+
+The juggler, who was sitting round at the other side of the house, was
+now called up. He and the girl, who followed him, salaamed deeply, and
+made an even deeper bow to Bathurst, who was standing behind Isobel’s
+chair.
+
+“You must have paid them well, Bathurst,” Major Hannay said. “They have
+evidently a lively remembrance of past favors. I suppose they are the
+same you were talking about?”
+
+“Yes, they are the same people, Major.” Then he said in the native
+dialect to the juggler, “Mr. Hunter has put some posts with lamps behind
+you, Rujub, but he hasn’t lit them because he did not know whether you
+would object.”
+
+“They can be lighted, sahib. My feats do not depend on darkness. Any
+of the sahibs who like to stand behind us can do so if they do not come
+within the line of those posts.”
+
+“Let us go out there,” Wilson said to Richards, when the answer was
+translated; “we will light the lamps, and we shall see better there than
+we shall see here.”
+
+The two went round to the other side and lit the lamps, and the servants
+stood a short distance off on either side.
+
+The first trick shown was the well known mango tree. The juggler placed
+a seed in the ground, poured some water upon it from a lota, and covered
+it with a cloth. In two or three minutes he lifted this, and a plant
+four or five inches high was seen. He covered this with a tall basket,
+which he first handed round for inspection. On removing this a mango
+tree some three feet high, in full bloom, was seen. It was again
+covered, and when the basket was removed it was seen to be covered with
+ripe fruit, eliciting exclamations of astonishment from those among the
+spectators who had not before seen the trick performed.
+
+“Now, Wilson,” the Doctor said, “perhaps you will be kind enough to
+explain to us all how this was done?”
+
+“I have no more idea than Adam, Doctor.”
+
+“Then we will leave it to Richards. He promised us at dinner to keep his
+eyes well open.”
+
+Richards made no reply.
+
+“How was it done, Mr. Bathurst? It seems almost like a miracle.”
+
+“I am as ignorant as Wilson is, Miss Hannay. I can’t account for it in
+any way, and I have seen it done a score of times. Ah! now he is going
+to do the basket trick. Don’t be alarmed when you hear the girl cry
+out. You may be quite sure that she is not hurt. The father is deeply
+attached to her, and would not hurt a hair of her head.”
+
+Again the usual methods were adopted. The basket was placed on the
+ground and the girl stepped into it, without the pretense of fear
+usually exhibited by the performers.
+
+Before the trick began Major Hannay said to Captain Doolan, “Come round
+with me to the side of those boys. I know the first time I saw it done
+I was nearly throwing myself on the juggler, and Wilson is a hot headed
+boy, and is likely as not to do so. If he did, the man would probably go
+off in a huff and show us nothing more. From what Bathurst said, we are
+likely to see something unusual.”
+
+As soon as the lid was put down, an apparently angry colloquy took place
+between the juggler and the girl inside. Presently the man appeared to
+become enraged, and snatching up a long, straight sword from the ground,
+ran it three or four times through the basket.
+
+A loud shriek followed the first thrust, and then all was silent.
+
+Some of the ladies rose to their feet with a cry of horror, Isobel among
+them. Wilson and Richards both started to rush forward, but were seized
+by the collars by the Major and Captain Doolan.
+
+“Will you open the basket?” the juggler said quietly to Mrs. Hunter. As
+she had seen the trick before she stepped forward without hesitation,
+opened the lid of the basket and said, “It is empty.” The juggler took
+it up, and held it up, bottom upwards.
+
+“What on earth has become of the girl?” Wilson exclaimed.
+
+As he spoke she passed between him and Richards back to her father’s
+side.
+
+“Well, I am dashed,” Wilson murmured. “I would not have believed it
+if fifty people had sworn to me they had seen it.” He was too much
+confounded even to reply, when the Doctor sarcastically said: “We are
+waiting for your explanation, gentlemen.”
+
+“Will you ask him, Major,” Richards said, as he wiped his forehead with
+his pocket handkerchief, “to make sure that she is solid?”
+
+The Major translated the request, and the girl at once came across, and
+Richards touched her with evident doubt as to whether on not she were
+really flesh and blood.
+
+There was much curiosity among those who had seen jugglers before as
+to what would be the next feat, for generally those just seen were the
+closing ones of a performance, but as these were the first it seemed
+that those to follow must be extraordinary indeed.
+
+The next feat was the one shown to Bathurst, and was performed exactly
+as upon that occasion, except that as the girl rose beyond the circle
+of light she remained distinctly visible, a sort of phosphoric light
+playing around her. Those in the veranda had come out now, the juggler
+warning them not to approach within six feet of the pole.
+
+Higher and higher the girl went, until those below judged her to be at
+least a hundred and fifty feet from the ground. Then the light died out,
+and she disappeared from their sight. There was silence for a minute or
+two, and then the end of the pole could be seen descending without
+her. Another minute, and it was reduced to the length it had been at
+starting.
+
+The spectators were silent now; the whole thing was so strange and
+mysterious that they had no words to express their feeling.
+
+The juggler said something which Mr. Hunter translated to be a request
+for all to resume their places.
+
+“That is a wonderful trick,” the Doctor said to Bathurst. “I have never
+seen it done that way before, but I once saw a juggler throw up a rope
+into the air; how high it went I don’t know, for, like this, it was done
+at night, but it stood up perfectly stiff, and the juggler’s attendant
+climbed up. He went higher and higher, and we could hear his voice
+coming down to us. At last it stopped, and then suddenly the rope fell
+in coils on the ground, and the boy walked quietly in, just as that girl
+has done now.”
+
+The girl now placed herself in the center of the open space.
+
+“You will please not to speak while this trick is being performed,” the
+juggler said; “harm might come of it. Watch the ground near her feet.”
+
+A minute later a dark object made its appearance from the ground. It
+rose higher and higher with an undulating movement.
+
+“By Jove, it is a python!” the Doctor whispered in Bathurst’s ear. A
+similar exclamation broke from several of the others, but the juggler
+waved his hand with an authoritative hush. The snake rose until its head
+towered above that of the girl, and then began to twine itself round
+her, continuously rising from the ground until it enveloped her with
+five coils, each thicker than a man’s arm. It raised its head above hers
+and hissed loudly and angrily; then its tail began to descend, gradually
+the coils unwound themselves; lower and lower it descended until it
+disappeared altogether.
+
+It was some time before anyone spoke, so great was the feeling of
+wonder. The Doctor was the first to break the silence.
+
+“I have never seen that before,” he said, “though I have heard of it
+from a native Rajah.”
+
+“Would the sahibs like to see more?” the juggler asked.
+
+The two Miss Hunters, Mrs. Rintoul, and several of the others said they
+had seen enough, but among the men there was expressed a general wish to
+see another feat.
+
+“I would not have missed this for anything,” the Doctor said. “It would
+be simple madness to throw away such a chance.”
+
+The ladies, therefore, with the exception of Mrs. Hunter, Mrs. Doolan,
+and Isobel, retired into the house.
+
+“You must all go on one side now,” the juggler said, “for it is only on
+one side what I am now going to do can be seen.”
+
+He then proceeded to light a fire of charcoal. When he had done this,
+he said, “The lights must now be extinguished and the curtains drawn, so
+that the light will not stream out from the house.”
+
+As soon as this was done he poured a powder over the fire, and by its
+faint light the cloud of white smoke could be seen.
+
+“Now I will show you the past,” he said. “Who speaks?”
+
+There was silence, and then Dr. Wade said, “Show me my past.”
+
+A faint light stole up over the smoke--it grew brighter and brighter;
+and then a picture was clearly seen upon it.
+
+It was the sea, a house standing by itself in a garden, and separated
+from the water only by a road. Presently the figure of a girl appeared
+at the gate, and, stepping out, looked down the road as if waiting for
+someone. They could make out all the details of her dress and see her
+features distinctly. A low exclamation broke from the Doctor, then the
+picture gradually faded away.
+
+“The future!” the juggler said, and gradually an Indian scene appeared
+on the smoke. It was a long, straight road, bordered by a jungle. A
+native was seen approaching; he paused in the foreground.
+
+“That is you, Doctor!” Mr. Hunter exclaimed; “you are got up as a
+native, but it’s you.”
+
+Almost at the same moment two figures came out from the jungle. They
+were also in native dress.
+
+“You and Miss Hannay,” the Doctor said in a low tone to Bathurst,
+“dressed like a native and dyed.” But no one else detected the disguise,
+and the picture again faded away.
+
+“That is enough, Rujub,” Bathurst said, for he felt Isobel lean back
+heavily against the hand which he held at the back of her chair, and
+felt sure that she had fainted.
+
+“Draw back the curtains, someone; I fancy this has been too much for
+Miss Hannay.”
+
+The curtains were thrown back, and Mrs. Hunter, running in, brought out
+a lamp. The Doctor had already taken his place by Isobel’s side.
+
+“Yes, she has fainted,” he said to Bathurst; “carry her in her chair as
+she is, so that she may be in the room when she comes to.”
+
+This was done.
+
+“Now, gentlemen,” the Doctor said, “you had better light the lamps again
+out here, and leave the ladies and me to get Miss Hannay round.”
+
+When the lamps were lit it was evident that the whole of the men were a
+good deal shaken by what they had seen.
+
+“Well,” Mr. Hunter said, “they told me he was a famous juggler, but that
+beat anything I have seen before. I have heard of such things frequently
+from natives, but it is very seldom that Europeans get a chance of
+seeing them.”
+
+“I don’t want to see anything of the sort again,” Major Hannay said;
+“it shakes one’s notions of things in general. I fancy, Hunter, that
+we shall want a strong peg all round to steady our nerves. I own that I
+feel as shaky as a boy who thinks he sees a ghost on his way through a
+churchyard.”
+
+There was a general murmur of agreement and the materials were quickly
+brought.
+
+“Well, Wilson, what do you and Richards think of it?” the Major went on,
+after he had braced himself up with a strong glass of brandy and water.
+“I should imagine you both feel a little less skeptical than you did two
+hours ago.”
+
+“I don’t know what Richards feels, Major, but I know I feel like a fool.
+I am sorry, Bathurst, for what I said at dinner; but it really didn’t
+seem to me to be possible what you told us about the girl going up into
+the air and not coming down again. Well, after I have seen what I have
+seen this evening, I won’t disbelieve anything I hear in future about
+these natives.”
+
+“It was natural enough that you should be incredulous,” Bathurst said.
+“I should have been just as skeptical as you were when I first came out,
+and I have been astonished now, though I have seen some good jugglers
+before.”
+
+At this moment the Doctor came out again.
+
+“Miss Hannay is all right again now, Major. I am not surprised at her
+fainting; old hand as I am at these matters, and I think that I have
+seen as much or more juggling than any man in India. I felt very queer
+myself, specially at the snake business. As I said, I have seen that
+ascension trick before, but how it is done I have no more idea than a
+child. Those smoke scenes, too, are astonishing. Of course they could be
+accounted for as thrown upon a column of white smoke by a magic lantern,
+but there was certainly no magic lantern here. The juggler was standing
+close to me, and the girl was sitting at his feet. I watched them both
+closely, and certainly they had no apparatus about them by which such
+views could be thrown on the smoke.”
+
+“You recognized the first scene, I suppose, Doctor?” Bathurst asked.
+
+“Perfectly. It took me back twenty-five years. It was a cottage near
+Sidmouth, and was correct in every minute detail. The figure was that of
+the young lady I married four years afterwards. Many a time have I seen
+her standing just like that, as I went along the road to meet her from
+the little inn at which I was stopping; the very pattern of her dress,
+which I need hardly say has never been in my mind all these years, was
+recalled to me.
+
+“Had I been thinking of the scene at the time I could have accounted for
+it somehow, upon the theory that in some way or other the juggler was
+conscious of my thought and reflected it upon the smoke--how, I don’t at
+all mean to say; but undoubtedly there exists, to some extent, the power
+of thought reading. It is a mysterious subject, and one of which we know
+absolutely nothing at present, but maybe in upwards of a hundred years
+mankind will have discovered many secrets of nature in that direction.
+But I certainly was not thinking of that scene when I spoke and said the
+‘past.’ I had no doubt that he would show me something of the past,
+but certainly no particular incident passed through my mind before that
+picture appeared on the smoke.”
+
+“The other was almost as curious, Doctor,” Captain Doolan said, “for
+it was certainly you masquerading as a native. I believe the other was
+Bathurst; it struck me so; and he seemed to be running off with some
+native girl. What on earth could that all mean?”
+
+“It is no use puzzling ourselves about it,” the Doctor said. “It may or
+may not come true. I have no inclination to go about dressed out as a
+native at present, but there is no saying what I may come to. There
+is quite enough for us to wonder at in the other things. The mango and
+basket tricks I have seen a dozen times, and am no nearer now than I
+was at first to understanding them. That ascension trick beats me
+altogether, and there was something horribly uncanny about the snake.”
+
+“Do you think it was a real snake, Doctor?”
+
+“That I cannot tell you, Richards. Every movement was perfectly natural.
+I could see the working of the ribs as it wound itself round the girl,
+and the quivering of its tongue as it raised its head above her. At any
+other time I should be ready to take my affidavit that it was a python
+of unusual size, but at the present moment I should not like to give a
+decided opinion about anything connected with the performance.”
+
+“I suppose it is no use asking the juggler any questions, Hunter?” one
+of the other men said.
+
+“Not in the least; they never do answer questions. The higher class of
+jugglers treat their art as a sort of religious mystery, and there is
+no instance known of their opening their lips, although large sums have
+frequently been offered them. In the present case you will certainly ask
+no questions, for the man and girl have both disappeared with the box
+and apparatus and everything connected with them. They must have
+slipped off directly the last trick was over, and before we had the lamp
+lighted. I sent after him at once, but the servant could find no signs
+of him. I am annoyed because I have not paid them.”
+
+“I am not surprised at that,” Dr. Wade said. “It is quite in accordance
+with what I have heard of them. They live by exhibiting what you may
+call their ordinary tricks; but I have heard from natives that when they
+show any what I may call supernatural feats, they do not take money. It
+is done to oblige some powerful Rajah, and as I have said, it is only on
+a very few occasions that Europeans have ever seen them. Well, we may as
+well go in to the ladies. I don’t fancy any of them would be inclined to
+come out onto the veranda again this evening.”
+
+No one was indeed inclined even for talk, and in a very short time the
+party broke up and returned home.
+
+“Come and smoke a pipe with me, Bathurst, before you turn in,” the
+Doctor said, as they went out. “I don’t think either of us will be
+likely to go to sleep for some time. What is your impression of all
+this?”
+
+“My impression, certainly, is that it is entirely unaccountable by any
+laws with which we are acquainted, Doctor.”
+
+“That is just my idea, and always has been since I first saw any
+really good juggling out here. I don’t believe in the least in anything
+supernatural, but I can quite believe that there are many natural laws
+of which at present we are entirely ignorant. I believe the knowledge of
+them at one time existed, but has been entirely lost, at any rate among
+Western peoples. The belief in magic is as old as anything we have
+knowledge of. The magicians at the court of Pharaoh threw down their
+rods and turned them into serpents. The Witch of Endor called up the
+spirit of Samuel. The Greeks, by no means a nation of fools, believed
+implicitly in the Oracles. Coming down to comparatively later times, the
+workers of magic burnt their books before St. Paul. It doesn’t say, mind
+you, that those who pretended to work magic did so; but those who worked
+magic.
+
+“Early travelers in Persia and India have reported things they saw far
+surpassing any we have witnessed this evening, and there is certainly a
+sect in India at present, or rather a body of men, and those, as far as
+I have been able to learn, of an exceptionally intelligent class, who
+believe that they possess an almost absolute mastery over the powers of
+nature. You see, fifty years back, if anyone had talked about traveling
+at fifty miles an hour, or sending a message five thousand miles in a
+minute, he would have been regarded as a madman. There may yet be other
+discoveries as startling to be made.
+
+“When I was in England I heard something of a set of people in America
+who called themselves Spiritualists, some of whom--notably a young man
+named Home--claimed to have the power of raising themselves through
+the air. I am far from saying that such a power exists; it is of course
+contrary to what we know of the laws of nature, but should such a power
+exist it would account for the disappearance of the girl from the top
+of the pole. Highland second sight, carried somewhat farther, and united
+with the power of conveying the impressions to others, would account
+for the pictures on the smoke, that is, supposing them to be true, and
+personally I own that I expect they will prove to be true--unlikely as
+it may seem that you, I, and Miss Hannay will ever be going about in
+native attire.”
+
+By this time they had reached the Doctor’s bungalow, and had comfortably
+seated themselves.
+
+“There is one thing that flashed across me this evening,” Bathurst said.
+“I told you, that first evening I met Miss Hannay, that I had a distinct
+knowledge of her face. You laughed at me at the time, and it certainly
+seemed absurd, but I was convinced I was not wrong. Now I know how it
+was; I told you at dinner today about the feat of the girl going up and
+not coming down again; but I did not tell you--for you can understand it
+is a thing that I should not care to talk much about--that he showed me
+a picture like those we saw tonight.
+
+“It was a house standing in a courtyard, with a high wall round it. I
+did not particularly observe the house. It was of the ordinary native
+type, and might, for anything I know, be the house in the middle of this
+station used as a courthouse by Hunter, and for keeping stores, and
+so on. I don’t say it was that; I did not notice it much. There was a
+breach in the outside wall, and round it there was a fierce fight going
+on. A party of officers and civilians were repelling the assault of a
+body of Sepoys. On the terraced roof of the house others were standing
+firing and looking on, and I think engaged in loading rifles were two or
+three women. One of them I particularly noticed; and, now I recall it,
+her face was that of Miss Hannay; of that I am absolutely certain.”
+
+“It is curious, lad,” the Doctor said, after a pause; “and the picture,
+you see, has so far come true that you have made the acquaintance with
+one of the actors whom you did not previously know.”
+
+“I did not believe in the truth of it, Doctor, and I do not believe in
+it now. There was one feature in the fight which was, as I regret to
+know, impossible.”
+
+“And what was that, Bathurst?”
+
+Bathurst was silent for a time.
+
+“You are an old friend, Doctor, and you will understand my case, and
+make more allowances for it than most people would. When I first came
+out here I dare say you heard some sort of reports as to why I had left
+the army and had afterwards entered the Civil Service.”
+
+“There were some stupid rumors,” the Doctor said, “that you had gone
+home on sick leave just after the battle of Chillianwalla, and had then
+sold out, because you had shown the white feather. I need not say that I
+did not give any credit to it; there is always gossip flying about as to
+the reasons a man leaves the army.”
+
+“It was quite true, Doctor. It is a hideous thing to say, but
+constitutionally I am a coward.”
+
+“I cannot believe it,” the Doctor said warmly. “Now that I know you, you
+are the last man of whom I would credit such a thing.”
+
+“It is the bane of my life,” Bathurst went on. “It is my misfortune,
+for I will not allow it is my fault. In many things I am not a coward.
+I think I could face any danger if the danger were a silent one, but I
+cannot stand noise. The report of a gun makes me tremble all over, even
+when it is a blank cartridge that is fired. When I was born my father
+was in India. A short time before I came into the world my mother had a
+great fright. Her house in the country was broken into by burglars, who
+entered the room and threatened to blow out her brains if she moved;
+but the alarm was given, the men servants came down armed, there was
+a struggle in her room, pistol shots were fired, and the burglars
+were overpowered and captured. My mother fainted and was ill for weeks
+afterwards--in fact, until the time I was born; and she died a few days
+later, never having, the doctor said, recovered from the shock she had
+suffered that night.
+
+“I grew up a weakly, timid boy--the sort of boy that is always bullied
+at school. My father, as you know, was a general officer, and did
+not return home until I was ten years old. He was naturally much
+disappointed in me, and I think that added to my timidity, for it grew
+upon me rather than otherwise. Morally, I was not a coward. At school I
+can say that I never told a lie to avoid punishment, and my readiness to
+speak the truth did not add to my popularity among the other boys, and I
+used to be called a sneak, which was even more hateful than being called
+a coward.
+
+“As I grew up I shook off my delicacy, and grew, as you see, into a
+strong man. I then fought several battles at school; I learnt to ride,
+and came to have confidence in myself, and though I had no particular
+fancy for the army my father’s heart was so set on it that I offered no
+objection. That the sound of a gun was abhorrent to me I knew, for the
+first time my father put a gun in my hand and I fired it, I fainted, and
+nothing would persuade me to try again. Still I thought that this was
+the result of nervousness as to firing it myself, and that I should get
+over it in time.
+
+“A month or two after I was gazetted I went out to India with the
+regiment, and arrived just in time to get up by forced marches to take
+part in the battle of Chillianwalla. The consequence was that up to that
+time I literally had heard no musketry practice.
+
+“Of the events of that battle I have no remembrance whatever; from
+the moment the first gun was fired to the end of the day I was as one
+paralyzed. I saw nothing, I heard nothing, I moved mechanically; but
+happily my will or my instinct kept me in my place in the regiment.
+When all was over, and silence followed the din, I fell to the ground
+insensible. Happily for me the doctors declared I was in a state of high
+fever, and I so remained for a fortnight. As soon as I got better I was
+sent down the country, and I at once sent in my papers and went home. No
+doubt the affair was talked of, and there were whispers as to the real
+cause of my illness. My father was terribly angry when I returned home
+and told him the truth of the matter. That his son should be a coward
+was naturally an awful blow to him. Home was too unhappy to be endured,
+and when an uncle of mine, who was a director on the Company’s Board,
+offered me a berth in the Civil Service, I thankfully accepted it,
+believing that in that capacity I need never hear a gun fired again.
+
+“You will understand, then, the anxiety I am feeling owing to these
+rumors of disaffection among the Sepoys, and the possibility of anything
+like a general mutiny.
+
+“It is not of being killed that I have any fear; upon the contrary, I
+have suffered so much in the last eight years from the consciousness
+that the reason why I left the army was widely known, that I should
+welcome death, if it came to me noiselessly; but the thought that if
+there is trouble I shall assuredly not be able to play my part like a
+man fills me with absolute horror, and now more than ever.
+
+“So you will understand now why the picture I saw, in which I was
+fighting in the middle of the Sepoys, is to me not only improbable, but
+simply impossible. It is a horrible story to have to tell. This is the
+first time I have opened my lips on the subject since I spoke to my
+father, but I know that you, both as a friend and a doctor, will pity
+rather than blame me.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+As Bathurst brought his story to its conclusion the Doctor rose and
+placed his hand kindly on his shoulder.
+
+“I certainly should not think of blaming you, Bathurst. What you tell
+me is indeed a terrible misfortune, situated as we may be soon, though
+I trust and believe that all this talk about the Sepoys is moonshine.
+I own that I am surprised at your story, for I should have said from
+my knowledge of you that though, as I could perceive, of a nervous
+temperament, you were likely to be cool and collected in danger. But
+certainly your failing is no fault of your own.”
+
+“That is but a small consolation to me, Doctor. Men do not ask why
+and wherefore--they simply point the finger of scorn at a coward. The
+misfortune is that I am here. I might have lived a hundred lives in
+England and never once had occasion to face danger, and I thought that I
+should have been equally secure as an Indian civilian. Now this trouble
+is coming upon us.”
+
+“Why don’t you take your leave, lad? You have been out seven years now
+without a day’s relaxation, except indeed, the three days you were over
+with me at Cawnpore. Why not apply for a year’s leave? You have a good
+excuse, too; you did not go home at the death of your father, two years
+ago, and could very well plead urgent family affairs requiring your
+presence in England.”
+
+“No, I will not do that, Doctor; I will not run away from danger again.
+You understand me, I have not the least fear of the danger; I in no way
+hold to my life; I do not think I am afraid of physical pain. It seems
+to me that I could undertake any desperate service; I dread it
+simply because I know that when the din of battle begins my body will
+overmaster my mind, and that I shall be as I was at Chillianwalla,
+completely paralyzed. You wondered tonight why that juggler should have
+exhibited feats seldom, almost never, shown to Europeans? He did it
+to please me. I saved his daughter’s life--this is between ourselves,
+Doctor, and is not to go farther. But, riding in from Narkeet, I heard a
+cry, and, hurrying on, came upon that man eater you shot the other
+day, standing over the girl, with her father half beside himself,
+gesticulating in front of him. I jumped off and attacked the brute
+with my heavy hunting whip, and he was so completely astonished that he
+turned tail and bolted.”
+
+“The deuce he did,” the Doctor exclaimed; “and yet you talk of being a
+coward!”
+
+“No, I do not say that I am a coward generally; as long as I have to
+confront danger without noise I believe I could do as well as most men.”
+
+“But why didn’t you mention this business with the tiger, Bathurst?”
+
+“Because, in the first place, it was the work of a mere passing impulse;
+and in the second, because I should have gained credit for being what I
+am not--a brave man. It will be bad enough when the truth becomes
+known, but it would be all the worse if I had been trading on a false
+reputation; therefore I particularly charged Rujub to say nothing about
+the affair to anyone.”
+
+“Well, putting this for a time aside, Bathurst, what do you think of
+that curious scene, you and I and Miss Hannay disguised as natives?”
+
+“Taking it with the one I saw of the attack of Sepoys upon a house, it
+looks to me, Doctor, as if there would be a mutiny, and that that mutiny
+would be attended with partial success, that a portion of the garrison,
+at any rate, will escape, and that Miss Hannay will be traveling down
+the country, perhaps to Cawnpore, in your charge, while I in some way
+shall be with you, perhaps acting as guide.”
+
+“It may possibly be so,” the Doctor agreed. “It is at any rate very
+curious. I wonder whether Miss Hannay recognized herself in the
+disguise.”
+
+“I should hope not, Doctor; if it all comes true there will be enough
+for her to bear without looking forward to that. I should be glad if the
+detachment were ordered back to Cawnpore.”
+
+“Well, I should not have thought that, Bathurst.”
+
+“I know what you mean, Doctor, but it is for that reason I wish they
+were gone. I believe now that you insisted on my coming down to spend
+those three days with you at Cawnpore specially that I might meet her.”
+
+“That is so, Bathurst. I like her so much that I should be very sorry
+to see her throw herself away upon some empty headed fool. I like her
+greatly, and I was convinced that you were just the man to make her
+happy, and as I knew that you had good prospects in England, I thought
+it would be a capital match for her, although you are but a young
+civilian; and I own that of late I have thought things were going on
+very well.”
+
+“Perhaps it might have been so, Doctor, had it not been for this coming
+trouble, which, if our fears are realized, will entirely put an end even
+to the possibility of what you are talking about. I shall be shown to
+be a coward, and I shall do my best to put myself in the way of being
+killed. I should not like to blow my brains out, but if the worst comes
+to the worst I will do that rather than go on living after I have again
+disgraced myself.”
+
+“You look at it too seriously, Bathurst.”
+
+“Not a bit of it, Doctor, and you know it.”
+
+“But if the Sepoys rise, Bathurst, why should they harm their officers?
+They may be discontented, they may have a grievance against the
+Government, they may refuse to obey orders and may disband; but why on
+earth should they attack men who have always been kind to them, whom
+they have followed in battle, and against whom they have not as much as
+a shadow of complaint?”
+
+“I hope it may be so most sincerely,” Bathurst said; “but one never
+can say. I can hardly bring myself to believe that they will attack
+the officers, much less injure women and children. Still, I have a most
+uneasy foreboding of evil.”
+
+“You have heard nothing from the natives as to any coming trouble?”
+
+“Nothing at all, Doctor, and I am convinced that nothing is known among
+them, or at any rate by the great bulk of them. Only one person has ever
+said a word to me that could indicate a knowledge of coming trouble, and
+that was this juggler we saw tonight. I thought nothing of his words at
+the time. That picture he showed me of the attack by Sepoys first gave
+me an idea that his words might mean something. Since then we have heard
+much more of this discontent, and I am convinced now that the words had
+a meaning. They were simple enough. It was merely his assurance, two or
+three times repeated, that he would be ready to repay the service I had
+rendered him with his life. It might have been a mere phrase, and so I
+thought at the time. But I think now he had before him the possibility
+of some event occurring in which he might be able to repay the service I
+had rendered him.”
+
+“There may have been something in it and there may not,” the Doctor
+said; “but, at any rate, Bathurst, he ought to be a potent ally. There
+doesn’t seem any limit to his powers, and he might, for aught one knows,
+be able to convey you away as he did his daughter.”
+
+The Doctor spoke lightly, and then added, “But seriously, the man might
+be of service. These jugglers go among people of all classes. They are
+like the troubadours of the Middle Ages, welcomed everywhere; and they
+no doubt have every opportunity of learning what is going on, and it may
+be that he will be able to give you timely warning should there be any
+trouble at hand.”
+
+“That is possible enough,” Bathurst agreed. “Well, Doctor, I shall be on
+horseback at six, so it is time for me to turn in,” and taking his hat,
+walked across to his own bungalow.
+
+The Doctor sat for some time smoking before he turned into bed. He had
+as he had said, heard rumors, when Bathurst first came out, that he had
+shown the white feather, but he had paid little attention to it at the
+time. They had been together at the first station to which Bathurst was
+appointed when he came out, and he had come to like him greatly; but
+his evident disinclination to join in any society, his absorption in his
+work, and a certain air of gravity unnatural in a young man of twenty,
+had puzzled him. He had at the time come to the conclusion that he
+must have had some unfortunate love affair, or have got into some very
+serious trouble at home. In time that impression had worn off. A young
+man speedily recovers from such a blow, however heavy, but no change had
+taken place in Bathurst, and the Doctor had in time become so accustomed
+to his manner that he had ceased to wonder over it. Now it was all
+explained. He sat thinking over it deeply for an hour, and then laid
+down his pipe.
+
+“It is a terrible pity he came out here,” he said. “Of course it is not
+his fault in the slightest degree. One might as well blame a man for
+being born a hunchback; but if there should be a row out here it will be
+terrible for him. I can quite understand his feeling about it. If I were
+placed as he is, and were called upon to fight, I should take a dose
+of prussic acid at once. Men talk: about their civilization, but we
+are little better than savages in our instincts. Courage is an almost
+useless virtue in a civilized community, but if it is called for, we
+despise a man in whom it is wanting, just as heartily as our tattooed
+ancestors did. Of course, in him it is a purely constitutional failing,
+and I have no doubt he would be as brave as a lion in any other
+circumstances--in fact, the incident of his attacking the tiger with
+that dog whip of his shows that he is so; and yet, if he should fail
+when the lives of women are at stake it would be a kindness to give him
+that dose of prussic acid, especially as Isobel Hannay will be here.
+That is the hardest part of it to him, I can see.”
+
+Three days later the force at Deennugghur was increased by the arrival
+of a troop of native cavalry, under a Captain Forster, who had just
+returned from leave in England.
+
+“Do you know Captain Forster, Doctor?” Isobel Hannay asked, on the
+afternoon of his arrival. “Uncle tells me he is coming to dinner.”
+
+“Then you must look after your heart, my dear. He is one of the best
+looking fellows out here, a dashing soldier, and a devoted servant of
+the fair sex.”
+
+“You don’t like him, Doctor,” Isobel said quietly.
+
+“I have not said so, my dear--far from it. I think I said a good deal
+for him.”
+
+“Yes, but you don’t like him, Doctor. Why is that?”
+
+“I suppose because he is not my sort of man,” the Doctor said. “I have
+not seen him since his regiment and ours were at Delhi together, and we
+did not see much of each other then. Our tastes did not lie in the same
+direction.”
+
+“Well, I know what your tastes are, Doctor; what are his?”
+
+“I will leave you to find out, my dear. He is all I told you--a very
+handsome man, with, as is perhaps natural, a very good opinion of
+himself, and he distinguished himself more than once in the Punjaub
+by acts of personal gallantry. I have no doubt he thinks it an awful
+nuisance coming to a quiet little station like this, and he will
+probably try to while away his time by making himself very agreeable to
+you. But I don’t think you need quite believe all that he says.”
+
+“I have long ago got over the weakness of believing people’s flattery,
+Doctor. However, now you have forewarned me I am forearmed.”
+
+The Doctor hesitated, and then said gravely, “It is not my habit to
+speak ill of people, my dear. You do me the justice to believe that?”
+
+“I am sure it is not, Doctor.”
+
+“Well, child, in a station like this you must see a good deal of this
+man. He is a man who has won many hearts, and thrown them away. Don’t
+let him win yours. He is not a good man; he has been mixed up in several
+grave scandals; he has been the ruin of more than one young man at cards
+and billiards; he is in all respects a dangerous man. Anatomically I
+suppose he has a heart, morally he has not a vestige of one. Whatever
+you do, child, don’t let him make you like him.”
+
+“I don’t think there is much fear of that, Doctor, after what you have
+said,” she replied, with a quiet smile; “and I am obliged to you indeed
+for warning me.”
+
+“I know I am an old fool for meddling, but you know, my dear, I feel
+a sort of personal relationship to you, after your having been in my
+charge for six months. I don’t know a single man in all India whom I
+would not rather see you fall in love with than with Captain Forster.”
+
+“I thought uncle did not seem particularly pleased: when he came in to
+tiffin, and said there was a new arrival.”
+
+“I should think not,” the Doctor said; “the man in notoriously a
+dangerous fellow; and yet, as he has never actually outstepped what are
+considered the bounds which constitute an officer and a gentleman, he
+has retained his commission, but it has been a pretty close shave once
+or twice. Your uncle must know all about him, everyone does; but I don’t
+suppose the Major will open his mouth to you on the subject--he is one
+of those chivalrous sort of men who never thinks evil of anyone unless
+he is absolutely obliged to; but in a case like this I think he is
+wrong. At any rate, I have done what I consider to be my duty in the
+matter. Now I leave it in your hands. I am glad to see that you are
+looking quite yourself again, and have got over your fainting fit of
+the other night. I quite expected to be sent for professionally the next
+morning.”
+
+“Oh, yes, I have quite got over it, Doctor; I can’t make out how I was
+so silly as to faint. I never did such a thing before, but it was so
+strange and mysterious that I felt quite bewildered, and the picture
+quite frightened me, but I don’t know why. This is the first chance I
+have had since of speaking to you alone. What do you think of it, and
+why should you be dressed up as a native? and why should?” She stopped
+with a heightened color on her cheeks.
+
+“You and Bathurst be dressed up, too? So you noticed your own likeness;
+nobody else but Bathurst and myself recognized the two figures that came
+out of the wood.”
+
+“Oh, you saw it too, Doctor. I thought I might have been mistaken, for,
+besides being stained, the face was all obscured somehow. Neither uncle,
+nor Mrs. Hunter, nor the girls, nor anyone else I have spoken to seem to
+have had an idea it was me, though they all recognized you.. What could
+it mean?”
+
+“I. have not the slightest idea in the world,” the Doctor said; “very
+likely it meant nothing. I certainly should not think any more about it.
+These jugglers’ tricks are curious and unaccountable; but it is no use
+our worrying ourselves about them. Maybe we are all going to get up
+private theatricals some day, and perform an Indian drama. I have never
+taken any part in tomfooleries of that sort so far, but there is no
+saying what I may come to.”
+
+“Are you going to dine here, Doctor?”
+
+“No, my dear; the Major asked me to come in, but I declined. I told him
+frankly that I did not like Forster, and that the less I saw of him the
+better I should be pleased.”
+
+The other guests turned out to be Captain and Mrs. Doolan and Mr.
+Congreave, one of the civilians at the station. The Doolans arrived
+first.
+
+“You have not seen Captain Forster yet, Isobel,” Mrs. Doolan said, as
+they sat down for a chat together. “I met him at Delhi soon after I came
+out. He is quite my beau ideal of a soldier in appearance, but I don’t
+think he is nice, Isobel. I have heard all sorts of stories about him.”
+
+“Is that meant as a warning for me, Mrs. Doolan?” Isobel asked, smiling.
+
+“Well, yes, I think it is, if you don’t mind my giving you one. There
+are some men one can flirt with as much as one likes, and there are some
+men one can’t; he is one of that sort. Privately, my dear, I don’t mind
+telling you that at one time I did flirt with him--I had been accustomed
+to flirt in Ireland; we all flirt there, and mean nothing by it; but I
+had to give it up very suddenly. It wouldn’t do, my dear, at all; his
+ideas of flirtation differed utterly from mine. I found I was playing
+with fire, and was fortunate in getting off without singeing my wings,
+which is more than a good many others would have done.”
+
+“He must be a horrid sort of man,” Isobel said indignantly.
+
+Mrs. Doolan laughed. “I don’t think you will find him so; certainly
+that is not the general opinion of women. However, you will see him for
+yourself in a very few minutes.”
+
+Isobel looked up with some curiosity when Captain Forster was announced,
+and at once admitted to herself that the Doctor’s report as to his
+personal appearance was fully justified. He stood over six feet high,
+with a powerful frame, and an easy careless bearing; his hair was cut
+rather close, he wore a long tawny mustache, his eyes were dark, his
+teeth very white and perfect. A momentary look of surprise came across
+his face as his eyes fell on Isobel.
+
+“I had hardly expected,” he said, as the Major introduced him to her,
+“to find no less than three unmarried ladies at Deennugghur. I had the
+pleasure of being introduced to the Miss Hunters this afternoon. How do
+you do, Mrs. Doolan? I think it is four years since I had the pleasure
+of knowing you in Delhi.”
+
+“I believe that is the number, Captain Forster.”
+
+“It seems a very long time to me,” he said.
+
+“I thought you would say that,” she laughed. “It was quite the proper
+thing to say, Captain Forster; but I have no doubt it does seem longer
+to you than it does to me as you have been home since.”
+
+“We are all here,” the Major broke in. “Captain Forster, will you take
+my niece in?”
+
+“I suppose you find this very dull after Cawnpore, Miss Hannay?” Captain
+Forster asked.
+
+“Indeed I do not,” Isobel said. “I like it better here; everything is
+sociable and pleasant, while at Cawnpore there was much more formality.
+Of course, there were lots of dinner parties, but I don’t care for large
+dinner parties at all; it is so hot, and they last such a time. I think
+six is quite large enough. Then there is a general talk, and everyone
+can join in just as much as they like, while at a large dinner you
+have to rely entirely upon one person, and I think it is very hard work
+having to talk for an hour and a half to a stranger of whom you know
+nothing. Don’t you agree with me?”
+
+“Entirely, Miss Hannay; I am a pretty good hand at talking, but at times
+I have found it very hard work, I can assure you, especially when
+you take down a stranger to the station, so that you have no mutual
+acquaintance to pull to pieces.”
+
+The dinner was bright and pleasant, and when the evening was over Isobel
+said to her uncle, “I think Captain Forster is very amusing, uncle.”
+
+“Yes,” the Major agreed, “he is a good talker, a regular society man; he
+is no great favorite of mine; I think he will be a little too much for
+us in a small station like this.”
+
+“How do you mean too much, uncle?”
+
+The Major hesitated.
+
+“Well, he won’t have much to do with his troop of horse, and time will
+hang heavy on his hands.”
+
+“Well, there is shooting, uncle.”
+
+“Yes, there is shooting, but I don’t think that is much in his line.
+Tiffins and calls, and society generally occupy most of his time, I
+fancy, and I think he is fonder of billiards and cards than is good for
+him or others. Of course, being here by himself, as he is, we must do
+our best to be civil to him, and that sort of thing, but if we were
+at Cawnpore he is a man I should not care about being intimate in the
+house.”
+
+“I understand, uncle; but certainly he is pleasant.”
+
+“Oh, yes, he is very pleasant,” the Major said dryly, in a tone that
+seemed to express that Forster’s power of making himself pleasant was by
+no means a recommendation in his eyes.
+
+But Captain Forster had apparently no idea whatever that his society
+could be anything but welcome, and called the next day after luncheon.
+
+“I have been leaving my pasteboard at all the residents,” he said; “not
+a very large circle. Of course, I knew Mrs. Rintoul at Delhi, as well
+as Mrs. Doolan. I did not know any of the others. They seem pleasant
+people.”
+
+“They are very pleasant,” Isobel said.
+
+“I left one for a man named Bathurst. He was out. Is that the Bathurst,
+Major Hannay, who was in a line regiment--I forget its number--and left
+very suddenly in the middle of the fighting in the Punjaub?”
+
+“Yes; I believe Bathurst was in the army about that time,” the Major
+said; “but I don’t know anything about the circumstances of his
+leaving.”
+
+Had Captain Forster known the Major better he would have been aware that
+what he meant to say was that he did not wish to know, but he did not
+detect the inflection of his voice, and went on--“They say he showed
+the white feather. If it is the same man, I was at school with him, and
+unless he has improved since then, I am sure I have no wish to renew his
+acquaintance.”
+
+“I like him very much,” the Major said shortly; “he is great friends
+with Dr. Wade, who has the very highest opinion of him, and I believe he
+is generally considered to be one of the most rising young officers of
+his grade.”
+
+“Oh, I have nothing to say against him,” Captain Forster said; “but he
+was a poor creature at school, and I do not think that there was any
+love lost between us. Did you know him before you came here?”
+
+“I only met him at the last races in Cawnpore,” the Major said; “he was
+stopping with the Doctor.”
+
+“Quite a character, Wade.”
+
+Isobel’s tongue was untied now.
+
+“I think he is one of the kindest and best gentlemen I ever met,” the
+girl said hotly; “he took care of me coming out here, and no one could
+have been kinder than he was.”
+
+“I have no doubt he is all that,” Captain Forster said gently; “still he
+is a character, Miss Hannay, taking the term character to mean a person
+who differs widely from other people. I believe he is very skillful in
+his profession, but I take it he is a sort of Abernethy, and tells the
+most startling truths to his patients.”
+
+“That I can quite imagine,” Isobel said; “the Doctor hates humbug of
+all sorts, and I don’t think I should like to call him in myself for an
+imaginary ailment.”
+
+“I rather put my foot in it there,” Captain Forster said to himself, as
+he sauntered back to his tent. “The Major didn’t like my saying anything
+against Bathurst, and the girl did not like my remark about the Doctor.
+I wonder whether she objected also to what I said about that fellow
+Bathurst--a sneaking little hound he was, and there is no doubt about
+his showing the white feather in the Punjaub. However, I don’t think
+that young lady is of the sort to care about a coward, and if she asks
+any questions, as I dare say she will, after what I have said, she will
+find that the story is a true one. What a pretty little thing she is!
+I did not see a prettier face all the time I was at home. What with her
+and Mrs. Doolan, time is not likely to hang so heavily here as I had
+expected.”
+
+The Major, afraid that Isobel might ask him some questions about this
+story of Bathurst leaving the army, went off hastily as soon as Captain
+Forster had left. Isobel sat impatiently tapping the floor with her
+foot, awaiting the Doctor, who usually came for half an hour’s chat in
+the afternoon.
+
+“Well, child, how did your dinner go off yesterday, and what did you
+think of your new visitor? I saw him come away from here half an hour
+ago. I suppose he has been calling.”
+
+“I don’t like him at all,” Isobel said decidedly.
+
+“No? Well, then, you are an exception to the general rule.”
+
+“I thought him pleasant enough last night,” Isobel said frankly. “He has
+a deferential sort of way about him when he speaks to one that one can
+hardly help liking. But he made me angry today. In the first place,
+Doctor, he said you were a character.”
+
+The Doctor chuckled. “Well, that is true enough, my dear. There was no
+harm in that.”
+
+“And then he said”--and she broke off--“he said what I feel sure cannot
+be true. He said that Mr. Bathurst left the army because he showed the
+white feather. It is not true, is it? I am sure it can’t be true.”
+
+The Doctor did not reply immediately.
+
+“It is an old story,” he said presently, “and ought not to have been
+brought up again. I don’t suppose Forster or anyone else knows the
+rights of the case. When a man leaves his regiment and retires when it
+is upon active service, there are sure to be spiteful stories getting
+about, often without the slightest foundation. But even if it had been
+true, it would hardly be to Bathurst’s disadvantage now he is no longer
+in the army, and courage is not a vital necessity on the part of a
+civilian.”
+
+“You can’t mean that, Doctor; surely every man ought to be brave. Could
+anyone possibly respect a man who is a coward? I don’t believe it,
+Doctor, for a moment.”
+
+“Courage, my dear, is not a universal endowment--it is a physical as
+much as a moral virtue. Some people are physically brave and
+morally cowards; others are exactly the reverse. Some people are
+constitutionally cowards all round, while in others cowardice shows
+itself only partially. I have known a man who is as brave as a lion in
+battle, but is terrified by a rat. I have known a man brave in other
+respects lose his nerve altogether in a thunderstorm. In neither of
+these cases was it the man’s own fault; it was constitutional, and by no
+effort could he conquer it. I consider Bathurst to be an exceptionally
+noble character. I am sure that he is capable of acts of great bravery
+in some directions, but it is possible that he is, like the man I have
+spoken of, constitutionally weak in others.”
+
+“But the great thing is to be brave in battle, Doctor! You would not
+call a man a coward simply because he was afraid of a rat, but you would
+call a man a coward who was afraid in battle. To be a coward there seems
+to me to be a coward all round. I have always thought the one virtue
+in man I really envied was bravery, and that a coward was the most
+despicable creature living. It might not be his actual fault, but one
+can’t help that. It is not anyone’s fault if he is fearfully ugly or
+born an idiot, for example. But cowardice seems somehow different. Not
+to be brave when he is strong seems to put a man below the level of a
+woman. I feel sure, Doctor, there must be some mistake, and that this
+story cannot be true. I have seen a good deal of Mr. Bathurst since we
+have been here, and you have always spoken so well of him, he is the
+last man I should have thought would be--would be like that.”
+
+“I know the circumstances of the case, child. You can trust me when
+I say that there is nothing in Bathurst’s conduct that diminishes my
+respect for him in the slightest degree, and that in some respects he is
+as brave a man as any I know.”
+
+“Yes, Doctor, all that may be; but you do not answer my question. Did
+Mr. Bathurst leave the army because he showed cowardice? If he did, and
+you know it, why did you invite him here? why did you always praise
+him? why did you not say, ‘In other respects this man may be good and
+estimable, but he is that most despicable thing, a coward’?”
+
+There was such a passion of pain in her voice and face that the Doctor
+only said quietly, “I did not know it, my dear, or I should have told
+you at first that in this one point he was wanting. It is, I consider,
+the duty of those who know things to speak out. But he is certainly not
+what you say.”
+
+Isobel tossed her head impatiently. “We need not discuss it, Doctor. It
+is nothing to me whether Mr. Bathurst is brave or not, only it is not
+quite pleasant to learn that you have been getting on friendly terms
+with a man who--”
+
+“Don’t say any more,” the Doctor broke in. “You might at least remember
+he is a friend of mine. There is no occasion for us to quarrel, my dear,
+and to prevent the possibility of such a thing I will be off at once.”
+
+After he had left Isobel sat down to think over what had been said. He
+had not directly answered her questions, but he had not denied that the
+rumor that Bathurst had retired from the army because he was wanting in
+courage was well founded. Everything he had said, in fact, was an excuse
+rather than a denial. The Doctor was as stanch a friend as he was bitter
+an opponent. Could he have denied it he would have done so strongly and
+indignantly.
+
+It was clear that, much as he liked Bathurst, he believed him wanting in
+physical courage. He had said, indeed, that he believed he was brave in
+some respects, and had asserted that he knew of one exceptional act of
+courage that he had performed; but what was that if a man had had to
+leave the army because he was a coward? To Isobel it seemed that of all
+things it was most dreadful that a man should be wanting in courage.
+Tales of daring and bravery had always been her special delight, and,
+being full of life and spirit herself, it had not seemed even possible
+to her that a gentleman could be a coward, and that Bathurst could be so
+was to her well nigh incredible.
+
+It might, as the Doctor had urged, be in no way his fault, but this did
+not affect the fact. He might be more to be pitied than to be blamed;
+but pity of that kind, so far from being akin to love, was destructive
+of it.
+
+Unconsciously she had raised Bathurst on a lofty pinnacle. The Doctor
+had spoken very highly of him. She had admired the energy with which,
+instead of caring, as others did, for pleasure, he devoted himself to
+his work. Older men than himself listened to his opinions. His quiet and
+somewhat restrained manner was in contrast to the careless fun and good
+humor of most of those with whom she came in contact. It had seemed to
+her that he was a strong man, one who could be relied upon implicitly at
+all times, and she had come in the few weeks she had been at Deennugghur
+to rely upon his opinion, and to look forward to his visits, and even to
+acknowledge to herself that he approached her ideal of what a man should
+be more than anyone else she had met.
+
+And now this was all shattered at a blow. He was wanting in man’s first
+attribute. He had left the army, if not in disgrace, at least under
+a cloud and even his warm friend, the Doctor, could not deny that the
+accusation of cowardice was well founded. The pain of the discovery
+opened her eyes to the fact which she had not before, even remotely,
+admitted to herself, that she was beginning to love him, and the
+discovery was a bitter one.
+
+“I may thank Captain Forster for that, at least,” she said to herself,
+as she angrily wiped a tear from her cheek; “he has opened my eyes in
+time. What should I have felt if I had found too late that I had come
+to love a man who was a coward--who had left the army because he was
+afraid? I should have despised myself as much as I should despise him.
+Well, that is my first lesson. I shall not trust in appearances again.
+Why, I would rather marry a man like Captain Forster, even if everything
+they say about him is true, than a man who is a coward. At least he is
+brave, and has shown himself so.”
+
+The Doctor had gone away in a state of extreme irritation.
+
+“Confound the meddling scoundrel!” he said to himself, as he surprised
+the horse with a sharp cut of the whip. “Just when things were going
+on as I wished. I had quite set my mind on it, and though I am sure
+Bathurst would never have spoken to her till he had told her himself
+about that unfortunate failing of his, it would have been altogether
+different coming from his own lips just as he told it to me. Of course,
+my lips were sealed and I could not put the case in the right light. I
+would give three months’ pay for the satisfaction of horsewhipping that
+fellow Forster. Still, I can’t say he did it maliciously, for he could
+not have known Bathurst was intimate there, or that there was anything
+between them. The question is, am I to tell Bathurst that she has heard
+about it? I suppose I had better. Ah, here is the Major,” and he drew up
+his horse.
+
+“Anything new, Major? You look put out.”
+
+“Yes, there is very bad news, Doctor. A Sowar has just brought a letter
+to me from the Colonel saying that the General has got a telegram
+that the 19th Native Infantry at Berhampore have refused to use the
+cartridges served out to them, and that yesterday a Sepoy of the 34th
+at Barrackpore raised seditious cries in front of the lines, and when
+Baugh, the adjutant, and the sergeant major attempted to seize him he
+wounded them both, while the regiment stood by and refused to aid them.
+The 19th are to be disbanded, and no doubt the 34th will be, too.”
+
+“That is bad news indeed, Major, and looks as if this talk about general
+disaffection were true. Had there been trouble but at one station it
+might have been the effect of some local grievance, but happening at
+two places, it looks as if it were part of a general plot. Well, we must
+hope it will go no farther.”
+
+“It is very bad,” said the Major, “but at any rate we may hope we shall
+have no troubles here; the regiment has always behaved well, and I am
+sure they have no reason to complain of their treatment. If the Colonel
+has a fault, it is that of over leniency with the men.”
+
+“That is so,” the Doctor agreed; “but the fact is, Major, we know
+really very little about the Hindoo mind. We can say with some sort of
+certainty what Europeans will do under given circumstances, but though
+I know the natives, I think, pretty nearly as well as most men, I feel
+that I really know nothing about them. They appear mild and submissive,
+and have certainly proved faithful on a hundred battlefields, but we
+don’t know whether that is their real character. Their own history,
+before we stepped in and altered its current, shows them as faithless,
+bloodthirsty and cruel; whether they have changed their nature under our
+rule, or simply disguised it, Heaven only knows.”
+
+“At any rate,” the Major said, “they have always shown themselves
+attached to their English officers. There are numberless instances where
+they have displayed the utmost devotion for them, and although some
+scheming intriguers may have sown the seeds of discontent among them,
+and these lies about the cartridges may have excited their religious
+prejudices, and may even lead them to mutiny, I cannot believe for an
+instant that the Sepoys will lift their hands against their officers.”
+
+“I hope not,” the Doctor said gravely. “A tiger’s cub, when tamed, is
+one of the prettiest of playthings, but when it once tastes blood it is
+as savage a beast as its mother was before it. Of course, I hope for the
+best, but if the Sepoys once break loose I would not answer for anything
+they might do. They have been pretty well spoilt, Major, till they have
+come to believe that it is they who conquered India and not we.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+That evening, after dining alone, the Doctor went in to Bathurst’s.
+The latter had already heard the news, and they talked it over for some
+time. Then the Doctor said, “Have you seen Forster, Bathurst, since he
+arrived?”
+
+“No, I was out when he left his card. I was at school with him.. I heard
+when I was in England that he was out here in the native cavalry, but I
+have never run across him before, and I own I had no wish to do so. He
+was about two years older than I was, and was considered the cock of the
+school. He was one of my chief tormentors. I don’t know that he was
+a bully generally--fellows who are really plucky seldom are; but he
+disliked me heartily, and I hated him.
+
+“I had the habit of telling the truth when questioned, and he narrowly
+escaped expulsion owing to my refusing to tell a lie about his being
+quietly in bed when, in fact, he and two or three other fellows had been
+out at a public house. He never forgave me for it, for he himself would
+have told a lie without hesitation to screen himself, or, to do him
+justice, to screen anyone else; and the mere fact that I myself had
+been involved in the matter, having been sent out by one of the bigger
+fellows, and, therefore, having got myself a flogging by my admission,
+was no mitigation in his eyes of my offense of what he called sneaking.
+
+“So you may imagine I have no particular desire to meet him again.
+Unless he has greatly changed, he would do me a bad turn if he had the
+chance.”
+
+“I don’t think he has greatly changed,” the Doctor said. “That was
+really what I came in here for this evening rather than to talk about
+this Sepoy business. I am sorry to say, Bathurst, that when he was in
+at the Major’s today your name happened to be mentioned, and he said
+at once, ‘Is that the Bathurst who they say showed the white feather at
+Chillianwalla and left the army in consequence?’”
+
+Bathurst’s face grew pale and his fingers closed. He remained silent a
+minute, and then said, “It does not matter; she would have been sure to
+hear it sooner or later, and I should have told her myself if he had not
+done so; besides, if, as I am afraid, this Berhampore business is the
+beginning of trouble, and of such trouble as we have never had since we
+set foot in India, it is likely that everyone will know what she knows
+now. Has she spoken to you about it? I suppose she has, or you would not
+have known that he mentioned it.”
+
+“Yes, she was most indignant about it, and did not believe it.”
+
+“And what did you say, Doctor?” he asked indifferently.
+
+“Well, I was sorry I could not tell her exactly what you told me. It
+would have been better if I could have done so. I simply said there were
+many sorts of courage, and that I was sure that you possessed many sorts
+in a very high degree, but I could not, of course, deny; although I did
+not admit, the truth of the report he had mentioned.”
+
+“I don’t think it makes much difference one way or the other,” Bathurst
+said wearily. “I have known all along that Isobel Hannay would not marry
+a coward, only I have gone on living in a fool’s paradise. However, it
+is over now--the sooner it is all over the better.”
+
+“My dear fellow,” the Doctor said earnestly, “don’t take this thing too
+much to heart. I don’t wish to try and persuade you that it is not a
+grave misfortune, but even suppose this trouble takes the very worst
+form possible, I do not think you will come so very badly out of it as
+you anticipate. Even assuming that you are unable to do your part in
+absolute fighting, there may be other opportunities, and most likely
+will, in which you may be able to show that although unable to control
+your nerves in the din of battle, you possess in other respects coolness
+and courage. That feat of yours of attacking the tiger with the dog whip
+shows conclusively that under many circumstances you are capable of most
+daring deeds.”
+
+Bathurst sat looking down for some minutes. “God grant that it may
+be so,” he said at last; “but it is no use talking about it any more,
+Doctor. I suppose Major Hannay will keep a sharp lookout over the men?”
+
+“Yes; there was a meeting of the officers this afternoon. It was agreed
+to make no outward change, and to give the troops no cause whatever to
+believe that they are suspected. They all feel confident of the goodwill
+of the men; at the same time they will watch them closely, and if the
+news comes of further trouble, they will prepare the courthouse as a
+place of refuge.”
+
+“That is a very good plan; but of course everything depends upon
+whether, if the troops do rise in mutiny, the people of Oude should join
+them. They are a fighting race, and if they should throw in their lot
+against us the position would be a desperate one.”
+
+“Well, there is no doubt,” the Doctor said, “that the Rajah of Bithoor
+would be with us; that will make Cawnpore safe, and will largely
+influence all the great Zemindars, though there is no doubt that a
+good many of them have been sulky ever since the disarmament order was
+issued. I believe there are few of them who have not got cannon hidden
+away or buried, and as for the people, the number of arms given up was
+as nothing to what we know they possessed. In other parts of India I
+believe the bulk of the people will be with us; but here in Oude, our
+last annexation, I fear that they will side against us, unless all the
+great landowners range themselves on our side.”
+
+“As far as I can see,” Bathurst said, “the people are contented with the
+change. I don’t say what I may call the professional fighting class,
+the crowd of retainers kept by the great landowners, who were constantly
+fighting against each other. Annexation has put a stop to all that, and
+the towns are crowded with these fighting men, who hate us bitterly; but
+the peasants, the tillers of the soil, have benefited greatly. They
+are no longer exposed to raids by their powerful neighbors, and
+can cultivate their fields in peace and quiet. Unfortunately their
+friendship, such as it is, will not weigh in the slightest degree in
+the event of a struggle. At any rate, I am sure they are not behind the
+scenes, and know nothing whatever of any coming trouble. Going as I
+do among them, and talking to them as one of themselves, I should have
+noticed it had there been any change in them; and of late naturally I
+have paid special notice to their manner. Well, if it is to come I hope
+it will come soon, for anything is better than suspense.”
+
+Two days later Major Hannay read out to the men on parade an official
+document, assuring them that there was no truth whatever in the
+statements that had been made that the cartridges served out to them had
+been greased with pigs’ fat. They were precisely the same as those that
+they had used for years, and the men were warned against listening to
+seditious persons who might try to poison their minds and shake their
+loyalty to the Government. He then told them that he was sorry to say
+that at one or two stations the men had been foolish enough to listen
+to disloyal counsels, and that in consequence the regiments had been
+disbanded and the men had forfeited all the advantages in the way of pay
+and pension they had earned by many years of good conduct. He said that
+he had no fear whatever of any such trouble arising with them, as they
+knew that they had been well treated, that any legitimate complaint
+they might make had always been attended to, and that their officers had
+their welfare thoroughly at heart.
+
+When he had finished, the senior native officer stepped forward, and in
+the name of the detachment assured the Major that the men were perfectly
+contented, and would in all cases follow their officers, even if they
+ordered them to march against their countrymen. At the conclusion of his
+speech he called upon the troops to give three cheers for the Major and
+officers, and this was responded to with a show of great enthusiasm.
+
+This demonstration was deemed very satisfactory, and the uneasiness
+among the residents abated considerably, while the Major and his
+officers felt convinced that, whatever happened at other stations, there
+would at least be no trouble at Deennugghur.
+
+“Well, even you are satisfied, Doctor, I suppose?” the Major said, as
+a party of them who had been dining with Dr. Wade were smoking in the
+veranda.
+
+“I was hopeful before, Major, and I am hopeful now; but I can’t say that
+today’s parade has influenced me in the slightest. Whatever virtues
+the Hindoo may have, he has certainly that of knowing how to wait. I
+believe, from what took place, that they have no intention of breaking
+out at present; whether they are waiting to see what is done at other
+stations, or until they receive a signal, is more than I can say; but
+their assurances do not weigh with me to the slightest extent. Their
+history is full of cases of perfidious massacre. I should say, ‘Trust
+them as long as you can, but don’t relax your watch.’”
+
+“You are a confirmed croaker,” Captain Rintoul said.
+
+“I do not think so, Rintoul. I know the men I am talking about, and I
+know the Hindoos generally. They are mere children, and can be molded
+like clay. As long as we had the molding, all went well; but if
+they fall into the hands of designing men they can be led in another
+direction just as easily as we have led them in ours. I own that I don’t
+see who can be sufficiently interested in the matter to conceive and
+carry out a great conspiracy of this kind. The King of Oude is a captive
+in our hands, the King of Delhi is too old to play such a part. Scindia
+and Holkar may possibly long for the powers their fathers possessed,
+but they are not likely to act together, and may be regarded as rivals
+rather than friends, and yet if it is not one of these who has been
+brewing this storm. I own I don’t see who can be at the bottom of it,
+unless it has really originated from some ambitious spirits among
+the Sepoys, who look in the event of success to being masters of the
+destinies of India. It is a pity we did not get a few more views from
+that juggler; we might have known a little more of it then.”
+
+“Don’t talk about him, Doctor,” Wilson said; “it gives me the cold
+shivers to think of that fellow and what he did; I have hardly slept
+since then. It was the most creepy thing I ever saw. Richards and I have
+talked it over every evening we have been alone together, and we can’t
+make head or tail of the affair. Richards thinks it wasn’t the girl at
+all who went up on that pole, but a sort of balloon in her shape. But
+then, as I say, there was the girl standing among us before she took her
+place on the pole. We saw her sit down and settle herself on the cushion
+so that she was balanced right. So it could not have been a balloon
+then, and if it were a balloon afterwards, when did she change? At any
+rate the light below was sufficient to see well until she was forty or
+fifty feet up, and after that she shone out, and we never lost sight of
+her until she was ever so high. I can understand the pictures, because
+there might have been a magic lantern somewhere, but that girl trick,
+and the basket trick, and that great snake are altogether beyond me.”
+
+“So I should imagine, Wilson,” the Doctor said dryly; “and if I were you
+I would not bother my head about it.. Nobody has succeeded in finding
+out any of them yet, and all the wondering in the world is not likely to
+get you any nearer to it.”
+
+“That is what I feel, Doctor, but it is very riling to see things that
+you can’t account for anyhow. I wish he had sent up Richards on the pole
+instead of the girl. I would not have minded going up myself if he had
+asked me, though I expect I should have jumped off before it got up very
+far, even at the risk of breaking my neck.”
+
+“I should not mind risking that,” the Doctor said, “though I doubt
+whether I should have known any more about it when I came down; but
+these jugglers always bring a girl or a boy with them instead of calling
+somebody out from the audience, as they do at home. Well, if things are
+quiet we will organize another hunt, Wilson. I have heard of a tiger
+fifteen miles away from where we killed our last, and you and Richards
+shall go with me if you like.”
+
+“I should like it of all things, Doctor, provided it comes off by day.
+I don’t think I care about sitting through another night on a tree, and
+then not getting anything like a fair shot at the beast after all.”
+
+“We will go by day,” the Doctor said. “Bathurst has promised to get some
+elephants from one of the Zemindars; we will have a regular party this
+time. I have half promised Miss Hannay she shall have a seat in a howdah
+with me if the Major will give her leave, and in that case we will send
+out tents and make a regular party of it. What do you say, Major?”
+
+“I am perfectly willing, Doctor, and have certainly no objection to
+trusting Isobel to your care. I know you are not likely to miss.”
+
+“No, I am not likely to miss, certainly; and besides, there will be
+Wilson and Richards to give him the coup de grace if I don’t finish
+him.”
+
+There was a general laugh, for the two subalterns had been chaffed a
+good deal at both missing the tiger on the previous occasion.
+
+“Well, when shall it be, Major?”
+
+“Not just at present, at any rate,” the Major said. “We must see how
+things are going on. I certainly should not think of going outside the
+station now, nor could I give leave to any officer to do so; but if
+things settle down, and we hear no more of this cartridge business for
+the next ten days or a fortnight, we will see about it.”
+
+But although no news of any outbreak similar to that at Barrackpore
+was received for some days, the report that came showed a widespread
+restlessness. At various stations, all over India, fires, believed to be
+the work of incendiaries, took place, and there was little abatement of
+the uneasiness. It become known, too, that a native officer had before
+the rising of Berhampore given warning of the mutiny, and had stated
+that there was a widespread plot throughout the native regiments to
+rise, kill their officers, and then march to Delhi, where they were all
+to gather.
+
+The story was generally disbelieved, although the actual rising had
+shown that, to some extent, the report was well founded; still men could
+not bring themselves to believe that the troops among whom they had
+lived so long, and who had fought so well for us, could meditate such
+gross treachery, without having, as far as could be seen, any real cause
+for complaint.
+
+The conduct of the troops at Deennugghur was excellent, and the Colonel
+wrote that at Cawnpore there were no signs whatever of disaffection, and
+that the Rajah of Bithoor had offered to come down at the head of his
+own troops should there be any symptoms of mutiny among the Sepoys.
+Altogether things looked better, and a feeling of confidence that there
+would be no serious trouble spread through the station.
+
+The weather had set in very hot, and there was no stirring out now for
+the ladies between eleven o’clock and five or six in the afternoon.
+Isobel, however, generally went in for a chat, the first thing after
+early breakfast, with Mrs. Doolan, whose children were fractious with
+prickly heat.
+
+“I only wish we had some big, high mountain, my dear, somewhere within
+reach, where we could establish the children through the summer and run
+away ourselves occasionally to look after them. We are very badly off
+here in Oude for that. You are looking very pale yourself the last few
+days.”
+
+“I suppose I feel it a little,” Isobel said, “and of course this anxiety
+everyone has been feeling worries one. Everyone seems to agree that
+there is no fear of trouble with the Sepoys here; still, as nothing else
+is talked about, one cannot help feeling nervous about it. However, as
+things seem settling down now, I hope we shall soon get something else
+to talk about.”
+
+“I have not seen Mr. Bathurst lately,” Mrs. Doolan said presently.
+
+“Nor have we,” Isobel said quietly; “it is quite ten days since we saw
+him last.”
+
+“I suppose he is falling back into his hermit ways,” Mrs. Doolan said
+carelessly, shooting a keen glance at Isobel, who was leaning over one
+of the children.
+
+“He quite emerged from his shell for a bit. Mrs. Hunter was saying she
+never saw such a change in a man, but I suppose he has got tired of it.
+Captain Forster arrived just in time to fill up the gap. How do you like
+him, Isobel?”
+
+“He is amusing,” the girl said quietly; “I have never seen anyone quite
+like him before; he talks in an easy, pleasant sort of way, and tells
+most amusing stories. Then, when he sits down by one he has the knack of
+dropping his voice and talking in a confidential sort of way, even when
+it is only about the weather. I am always asking myself how much of it
+is real, and what there is under the surface.”
+
+Mrs. Doolan nodded approval.
+
+“I don’t think there is much under the surface, dear, and what there is
+is just as well left alone; but there is no doubt he can be delightful
+when he chooses, and very few women would not feel flattered by the
+attentions of a man who is said to be the handsomest officer in the
+Indian army, and who has besides distinguished himself several times as
+a particularly dashing officer.”
+
+“I don’t think handsomeness goes for much in a man,” Isobel said
+shortly.
+
+Mrs. Doolan laughed.
+
+“Why should it not go for as much as prettiness in a woman? It is no use
+being cynical, Isobel; it is part of our nature to admire pretty things,
+and as far as I can see an exceptionally handsome man is as legitimate
+an object of admiration as a lovely woman.”
+
+“Yes, to admire, Mrs. Doolan, but not to like.”
+
+“Well, my dear, I don’t want to be hurrying you away, but I think you
+had better get back before the sun gets any higher. You may say you
+don’t feel the heat much, but you are looking pale and fagged, and the
+less you are out in the sun the better.”
+
+Isobel had indeed been having a hard time during those ten days. At
+first she had thought of little but what she should do when Bathurst
+called. It seemed impossible that she could be exactly the same with him
+as she had been before, that was quite out of the question, and yet how
+was she to be different?
+
+Ten days had passed without his coming. This was so unusual that an
+idea came into her mind which terrified her, and the first time when the
+Doctor came in and found her alone she said, “Of course, Dr. Wade, you
+have not mentioned to Mr. Bathurst the conversation we had, but it is
+curious his not having been here since.”
+
+“Certainly I mentioned it,” the Doctor said calmly; “how could I do
+otherwise? It was evident to me that he would not be welcomed here as he
+was before, and I could not do otherwise than warn him of the change he
+might expect to find, and to give him the reason for it.”
+
+Isobel stood the picture of dismay. “I don’t think you had any right
+to do so, Doctor,” she said. “You have placed me in a most painful
+position.”
+
+“In not so painful a one as it would have been, my dear, if he had
+noticed the change himself, as he must have done, and asked for the
+cause of it.”
+
+Isobel stood twisting her fingers over each other before her nervously.
+
+“But what am I to do?” she asked.
+
+“I do not see that there is anything more for you to do,” the Doctor
+said. “Mr. Bathurst may not be perfect in all respects, but he is
+certainly too much of a gentleman to force his visits where they are
+not wanted. I do not say he will not come here at all, for not to do so
+after being here so much would create comment and talk in the station,
+which would be as painful to you as to him, but he certainly will not
+come here more often than is necessary to keep up appearances.”
+
+“I don’t think you ought to have told him,” Isobel repeated, much
+distressed.
+
+“I could not help it, my dear. You would force me to admit there was
+some truth in the story Captain Forster told you, and I was, therefore,
+obliged to acquaint him with the fact or he would have had just cause
+to reproach me. Besides, you spoke of despising a man who was not
+physically brave.”
+
+“You never told him that, Doctor; surely you never told him that?”
+
+“I only told what it was necessary he should know, my dear, namely, that
+you had heard the story, that you had questioned me, and that I, knowing
+the facts from his lips, admitted that there was some foundation for the
+story, while asserting that I was convinced that he was morally a brave
+man. He did not ask how you took the news, nor did I volunteer any
+information whatever on the subject, but he understood, I think,
+perfectly the light in which you would view a coward.”
+
+“But what am I to do when we meet, Doctor?” she asked piteously.
+
+“I should say that you will meet just as ordinary acquaintances do meet,
+Miss Hannay. People are civil to others they are thrown with, however
+much they may distrust them at heart. You may be sure that Mr. Bathurst
+will make no allusion whatever to the matter. I think I can answer for
+it that you will see no shade of difference in his manner. This has
+always been a heavy burden for him, as even the most careless observer
+may see in his manner. I do not say that this is not a large addition to
+it, but I dare say he will pull through; and now I must be off.”
+
+“You are very unkind, Doctor, and I never knew you unkind before.”
+
+“Unkind!” the Doctor repeated, with an air of surprise. “In what way?
+I love this young fellow. I had cherished hopes for him that he hardly
+perhaps ventured to cherish for himself. I quite agree with you that
+what has passed has annihilated those hopes. You despise a man who is
+a coward. I am not surprised at that. Bathurst is the last man in the
+world who would force himself upon a woman who despised him. I have done
+my best to save you from being obliged to make a personal declaration of
+your sentiments. I repudiate altogether the accusation as being unkind.
+I don’t blame you in the slightest. I think that your view is the one
+that a young woman of spirit would naturally take. I acquiesce in it
+entirely. I will go farther, I consider it a most fortunate occurrence
+for you both that you found it out in time.”
+
+Isobel’s cheeks had flushed and paled several times while he was
+speaking; then she pressed her lips tightly together, and as he finished
+she said, “I think, Doctor, it will be just as well not to discuss the
+matter further.”
+
+“I am quite of your opinion,” he said. “We will agree not to allude to
+it again. Goodby.”
+
+And then Isobel had retired to her room and cried passionately, while
+the Doctor had gone off chuckling to himself as if he were perfectly
+satisfied with the state of affairs.
+
+During the week that had since elapsed the Major had wondered and
+grumbled several times at Bathurst’s absence.
+
+“I expect,” he said one day, when a note of refusal had come from him,
+“that he doesn’t care about meeting Forster. You remember Forster said
+they had been at school together, and from the tone in which he spoke
+it is evident that they disliked each other there. No doubt he has heard
+from the Doctor that Forster is frequently in here,” and the Major spoke
+rather irritably, for it seemed to him that Isobel showed more pleasure
+in the Captain’s society than she should have done after what he had
+said to her about him; indeed, Isobel, especially when the Doctor was
+present, appeared by no means to object to Captain Forster’s attentions.
+
+Upon the evening, however, of the day when Isobel had spoken to Mrs.
+Doolan, Bathurst came in, rather late in the evening.
+
+“How are you, Bathurst?” the Major said cordially. “Why, you have become
+quite a stranger. We haven’t seen you for over a fortnight. Do you know
+Captain Forster?”
+
+“We were at school together formerly, I believe,” Bathurst said
+quietly. “We have not met since, and I fancy we are both changed beyond
+recognition.”
+
+Captain Forster looked with surprise at the strong, well knit figure. He
+had not before seen Bathurst, and had pictured him to himself as a weak,
+puny man.
+
+“I certainly should not have known Mr. Bathurst,” he said. “I have
+changed a great deal, no doubt, but he has certainly changed more.”
+
+There was no attempt on the part of either to shake hands. As they moved
+apart Isobel came into the room.
+
+A quick flash of color spread over her face when, upon entering, she saw
+Bathurst talking to her uncle. Then she advanced, shook hands with
+him as usual, and said, “It is quite a time since you were here, Mr.
+Bathurst. If everyone was as full of business as you are, we should get
+on badly.”
+
+Then she moved on without waiting for a reply and sat down, and was soon
+engaged in a lively conversation with. Captain Forster, whilst Bathurst,
+a few minutes later, pleading that as he had been in the saddle all day
+he must go and make up for lost time, took his leave.
+
+Captain Forster had noticed the flush on Isobel’s cheeks when she saw
+Bathurst, and had drawn his own conclusions.
+
+“There has been a flirtation between them,” he said to himself; “but I
+fancy I have put a spoke in his wheel. She gave him the cold shoulder
+unmistakably.”
+
+April passed, and as matters seemed to be quieting down, there being no
+fresh trouble at any of the stations, the Major told Dr. Wade that he
+really saw no reason why the projected tiger hunt should not take place.
+The Doctor at once took the matter in hand, and drove out the next
+morning to the village from which he had received news about the tiger,
+had a long talk with the shikaris of the place, took a general view of
+the country, settled the line in which the beat should take place,
+and arranged for a large body of beaters to be on the spot at the time
+agreed on.
+
+Bathurst undertook to obtain the elephants from two Zemindars in the
+neighborhood, who promised to furnish six, all of which were more or
+less accustomed to the sport; while the Major and Mr. Hunter, who had
+been a keen sportsman, although he had of late given up the pursuit of
+large game, arranged for a number of bullock carts for the transport of
+tents and stores.
+
+Bathurst himself declined to be one of the party, which was to consist
+of Mr. Hunter and his eldest daughter, the Major and Isobel, the Doctor,
+the two subalterns, and Captain Forster. Captain Doolan said frankly
+that he was no shot, and more likely to hit one of the party than the
+tiger. Captain Rintoul at first accepted, but his wife shed such floods
+of tears at the idea of his leaving her and going into danger, that for
+the sake of peace he agreed to remain at home.
+
+Wilson and Richards were greatly excited over the prospect, and talked
+of nothing else; they were burning to wipe out the disgrace of having
+missed on the previous occasion. Each of them interviewed the Doctor
+privately, and implored him to put them in a position where they were
+likely to have the first shot. Both used the same arguments, namely,
+that the Doctor had killed so many tigers that one more or less could
+make no difference to him, and if they missed, which they modestly
+admitted was possible, he could still bring the animal down.
+
+As the Doctor was always in a good temper when there was a prospect of
+sport, he promised each of them to do all that he could for them, at the
+same time pointing out that it was always quite a lottery which way the
+tiger might break out.
+
+Isobel was less excited than she would have thought possible over the
+prospect of taking part in a tiger hunt. She had many consultations
+to hold with Mrs. Hunter, the Doctor, and Rumzan as to the food to be
+taken, and the things that would be absolutely necessary for camping
+out; for, as it was possible that the first day’s beat would be
+unsuccessful, they were to be prepared for at least two days’ absence
+from home. Two tents were to be taken, one for the gentlemen, the other
+for Isobel and Mary Hunter. These, with bedding and camp furniture,
+cooking utensils and provisions, were to be sent off at daybreak, while
+the party were to start as soon as the heat of the day was over.
+
+“I wish Bathurst had been coming,” Major Hannay said, as, with Isobel by
+his side, he drove out of the cantonment. “He seems to have slipped away
+from us altogether; he has only been in once for the last three or four
+weeks. You haven’t had a tiff with him about anything, have you, Isobel?
+It seems strange his ceasing so suddenly to come after our seeing so
+much of him.”
+
+“No, uncle, I have not seen him except when you have. What put such an
+idea into your mind?”
+
+“I don’t know, my dear; young people do have tiffs sometimes about all
+sorts of trifles, though I should not have thought that Bathurst was
+the sort of man to do anything of that sort. I don’t think that he likes
+Forster, and does not care to meet him. I fancy that is at the bottom of
+it.”
+
+“Very likely,” Isobel said innocently, and changed the subject.
+
+It was dark when they reached the appointed spot, and indeed from the
+point where they left the road a native with a torch had run ahead to
+show them the way. The tents looked bright; two or three large fires
+were burning round them, and the lamps had already been lighted within.
+
+“These tents do look cozy,” Mary Hunter said, as she and Isobel entered
+the one prepared for them. “I do wish one always lived under canvas
+during the hot weather.”
+
+“They look cool,” Isobel said, “but I don’t suppose they are really as
+cool as the bungalows; but they do make them comfortable. Here is the
+bathroom all ready, and I am sure we want it after that dusty drive.
+Will you have one first, or shall I? We must make haste, for Rumzan said
+dinner would be ready in half an hour. Fortunately we shan’t be expected
+to do much in the way of dressing.”
+
+The dinner was a cheerful meal, and everyone was in high spirits.
+
+The tiger had killed a cow the day before, and the villagers were
+certain that he had retired to a deep nullah round which a careful watch
+had been kept all day. Probably he would steal out by night to make a
+meal from the carcass of the cow, but it had been arranged that he was
+to do this undisturbed, and that the hunt was to take place by daylight.
+
+“It is wonderful how the servants manage everything,” Isobel said. “The
+table is just as well arranged as it is at home. People would hardly
+believe in England, if they could see us sitting here, that we were only
+out on a two days’ picnic. They would be quite content there to rough
+it and take their meals sitting on the ground, or anyway they could get
+them. It really seems ridiculous having everything like this.”
+
+“There is nothing like making yourself comfortable,” the Doctor said;
+“and as the servants have an easy time of it generally, it does them
+good to bestir themselves now and then. The expense of one or two extra
+bullock carts is nothing, and it makes all the difference in comfort.”
+
+“How far is the nullah from here, Doctor?” Wilson, who could think of
+nothing else but the tiger, asked.
+
+“About two miles. It is just as well not to go any nearer. Not that he
+would be likely to pay us a visit, but he might take the alarm and shift
+his quarters. No, no more wine, Major; we shall want our blood cool in
+the morning. Now we will go out to look at the elephants and have a talk
+with the mahouts, and find out which of the animals can be most trusted
+to stand steady. It is astonishing what a dread most elephants have of
+tigers. I was on one once that I was assured would face anything, and
+the brute bolted and went through some trees, and I was swept off the
+pad and was half an hour before I opened my eyes. It was a mercy I had
+not every rib broken. Fortunately I was a lightweight, or I might have
+been killed. And I have seen the same sort of thing happen a dozen
+times, so we must choose a couple of steady ones, anyhow, for the
+ladies.”
+
+For the next hour they strolled about outside. The Doctor cross
+questioned the mahouts and told off the elephants for the party; then
+there was a talk with the native shikaris and arrangements made for the
+beat, and at an early hour all retired to rest. The morning was just
+breaking when they were called. Twenty minutes later they assembled to
+take a cup of coffee before starting. The elephants were arranged in
+front of the tents, and they were just about to mount when a horse was
+heard coming at a gallop.
+
+“Wait a moment,” the Major said; “it may be a message of some sort from
+the station.” A minute later Bathurst rode in and reined up his horse in
+front of the tent.
+
+“Why, Bathurst, what brings you here? Changed your mind at the last
+moment, and found you could get away? That’s right; you shall come on
+the pad with me.”
+
+“No, I have not come for that, Major; I have brought a dispatch that
+arrived at two o’clock this morning. Doolan opened it and came to me,
+and asked me to bring it on to you, as I knew the way and where your
+camp was to be pitched.”
+
+“Nothing serious, I hope, Bathurst,” the Major said, struck with the
+gravity with which Bathurst spoke. “It must be something important, or
+Doolan would never have routed you off like that.”
+
+“It is very serious, Major,” Bathurst said, in a low voice. “May I
+suggest you had better go into the tent to read it? Some of the servants
+understand English.”
+
+“Come in with me,” the Major said, and led the way into the tent, where
+the lamps were still burning on the breakfast table, although the light
+had broadened out over the sky outside. It was with grave anticipation
+of evil that the Major took the paper from its envelope, but his worst
+fears were more than verified by the contents.
+
+“My Dear Major: The General has just received a telegram with terrible
+news from Meerut. ‘Native troops mutinied, murdered officers, women, and
+children, opened jails and burned cantonments, and marched to Delhi.’ It
+is reported that there has been a general rising there and the massacre
+of all Europeans. Although this is not confirmed, the news is considered
+probable. We hear also that the native cavalry at Lucknow have mutinied.
+Lawrence telegraphs that he has suppressed it with the European troops
+there, and has disarmed the mutineers. I believe that our regiment
+will be faithful, but none can be trusted now. I should recommend your
+preparing some fortified house to which all Europeans in station can
+retreat in case of trouble. Now that they have taken to massacre as well
+as mutiny, God knows how it will all end.”
+
+“Good Heavens! who could have dreamt of this?” the Major groaned.
+“Massacred their officers, women, and children. All Europeans at Delhi
+supposed to have been massacred, and there must be hundreds of them. Can
+it be true?”
+
+“The telegram as to Meerut is clearly an official one,” Bathurst said.
+“Delhi is as yet but a rumor, but it is too probable that if these
+mutineers and jail birds, flushed with success, reached Delhi before the
+whites were warned, they would have their own way in the place, as, with
+the exception of a few artillerymen at the arsenal, there is not a white
+soldier in the place.”
+
+“But there were white troops at Meerut,” the Major said. “What could
+they have been doing? However, that is not the question now. We must,
+of course, return instantly. Ask the others to come in here, Bathurst.
+Don’t tell the girls what has taken place; it will be time enough for
+that afterwards. All that is necessary to say is that you have brought
+news of troubles at some stations unaffected before, and that I think it
+best to return at once.”
+
+The men were standing in a group, wondering what the news could be which
+was deemed of such importance that Bathurst should carry it out in the
+middle of the night.
+
+“The Major will be glad if you will all go in, gentlemen,” Bathurst
+said, as he joined them.
+
+“Are we to go in, Mr. Bathurst?” Miss Hunter asked.
+
+“No, I think not, Miss Hunter; the fact is there have been some troubles
+at two or three other places, and the Major is going to hold a sort
+of council of war as to whether the hunt had not better be given up. I
+rather fancy that they will decide to go back at once. News flies very
+fast in India. I think the Major would like that he and his officers
+should be back before it is whispered among the Sepoys that the
+discontent has not, as we hoped, everywhere ceased.”
+
+“It must be very serious,” Isobel said, “or uncle would never decide to
+go back, when all the preparations are made.”
+
+“It would never do, you see, Miss Hannay, for the Commandant and four of
+the officers to be away, if the Sepoys should take it into their heads
+to refuse to receive cartridges or anything of that sort.”
+
+“You can’t give us any particulars, then, Mr. Bathurst?”
+
+“The note was a very short one, and was partly made up of unconfirmed
+rumors. As I only saw it in my capacity of a messenger, I don’t think I
+am at liberty to say more than that.”
+
+“What a trouble the Sepoys are,” Mary Hunter said pettishly; “it is too
+bad our losing a tiger hunt when we may never have another chance to see
+one!”
+
+“That is a very minor trouble, Mary.”
+
+“I don’t think so,” the girl said; “just at present it seems to me to be
+very serious.”
+
+At this moment the Doctor put his head out of the tent.
+
+“Will you come in, Bathurst?”
+
+“We have settled, Bathurst,” the Major said, when he entered, “that we
+must, of course, go back at once. The Doctor, however, is of opinion
+that if, after all the preparations were made, we were to put the tiger
+hunt off altogether, it would set the natives talking, and the report
+would go through the country like wildfire that some great disaster had
+happened. We must go back at once, and Mr. Hunter, having a wife and
+daughter there, is anxious to get back, too; but the Doctor urges that
+he should go out and kill this tiger. As it is known that you have just
+arrived, he says that if you are willing to go with him, it will be
+thought that you had come here to join the hunt, and if that comes off,
+and the tiger is killed, it does not matter whether two or sixty of us
+went out.”
+
+“I shall be quite willing to do so,” said Bathurst, “and I really think
+that the Doctor’s advice is good. If, now that you have all arrived upon
+the ground, the preparations were canceled, there can be no doubt that
+the natives would come to the conclusion that something very serious had
+taken place, and it would be all over the place in no time.”
+
+“Thank you, Bathurst. Then we will consider that arranged. Now we will
+get the horses in as soon as possible, and be off at once.”
+
+Ten minutes later the buggies were brought round, and the whole party,
+with the exception of the Doctor and Bathurst, started for Deennugghur.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+“Let us be off at once,” Dr. Wade said to his companion; “we can talk as
+we go along. I have got two rifles with me; I can lend you one.”
+
+“I shall take no rifle,” Bathurst said decidedly, “or rather I will take
+one of the shikaris’ guns for the sake of appearance, and for use I will
+borrow one of their spears.”
+
+“Very well; I will do the shooting, then,” the Doctor agreed.
+
+The two men then took their places on the elephants most used to the
+work, and told the mahouts of the others to follow in case the elephants
+should be required for driving the tiger out of the thick jungle, and
+they then started side by side for the scene of action.
+
+“This is awful news, Bathurst. I could not have believed it possible
+that these fellows who have eaten our salt for years, fought our
+battles, and have seemed the most docile and obedient of soldiers,
+should have done this. That they should have been goaded into mutiny
+by lies about their religion being in danger I could have imagined well
+enough, but that they should go in for wholesale massacre, not only of
+their officers, but of women and children, seems well nigh incredible.
+You and I have always agreed that if they were once roused there was
+no saying what they would do, but I don’t think either of us dreamt of
+anything as bad as this.”
+
+“I don’t know,” Bathurst said quietly; “one has watched this cloud
+gathering, and felt that if it did break it would be something terrible.
+No one can foresee now what it will be. The news that Delhi is in the
+hands of the mutineers, and that these have massacred all Europeans, and
+so placed themselves beyond all hope of pardon, will fly though India
+like a flash of lightning, and there is no guessing how far the matter
+will spread. There is no use disguising it from ourselves, Doctor,
+before a week is over there may not be a white man left alive in
+India, save the garrisons of strong places like Agra, and perhaps the
+presidential towns, where there is always a strong European force.”
+
+“I can’t deny that it is possible, Bathurst. If this revolt spreads
+though the three Presidencies the work of conquering India will have to
+be begun again, and worse than that, for we should have opposed to us a
+vast army drilled and armed by ourselves, and led by the native officers
+we have trained. It seems stupefying that an empire won piecemeal, and
+after as hard fighting as the world has ever seen, should be lost in a
+week.”
+
+The Doctor spoke as if the question was a purely impersonal one.
+
+“Ugly, isn’t it?” he went on; “and to think I have been doctoring up
+these fellows for the last thirty years--saving their lives, sir, by
+wholesale. If I had known what had been coming I would have dosed them
+with arsenic with as little remorse as I should feel in shooting a
+tiger’s whelp. Well, there is one satisfaction, the Major has already
+done something towards turning the courthouse into a fortress, and I
+fancy a good many of the scoundrels will go down before they take it,
+that is, if they don’t fall on us unawares. I have been a noncombatant
+all my life, but if I can shoot a tiger on the spring I fancy I can hit
+a Sepoy. By Jove, Bathurst, that juggler’s picture you told me of is
+likely to come true after all!”
+
+“I wish to Heaven it was!” Bathurst said gloomily; “I could look without
+dread at whatever is coming as far as I am concerned, if I could believe
+it possible that I should be fighting as I saw myself there.”
+
+“Pooh, nonsense, lad!” the Doctor said. “Knowing what I know of you, I
+have no doubt that, though you may feel nervous at first, you will get
+over it in time.”
+
+Bathurst shook his head. “I know myself too well, Doctor, to indulge in
+any such hopes. Now you see we are going out tiger hunting. At present,
+now, as far as I am concerned, I should feel much less nervous if I knew
+I was going to enter the jungle on foot with only this spear, than I do
+at the thought that you are going to fire that rifle a few paces from
+me.”
+
+“You will scarcely notice it in the excitement,” the Doctor said. “In
+cold blood I admit you might feel it, but I don’t think you will when
+you see the tiger spring out from the jungle at us. But here we are.
+That is the nullah in which they say the tiger retires at night. I
+expect the beaters are lying all round in readiness, and as soon as we
+have taken up our station at its mouth they will begin.”
+
+A shikari came up as they approached the spot.
+
+“The tiger went out last night, sahib, and finished the cow; he came
+back before daylight, and the beaters are all in readiness to begin.”
+
+The elephants were soon in position at the mouth of the ravine, which
+was some thirty yards across. At about the same distance in front of
+them the jungle of high, coarse grass and thick bush began.
+
+“If you were going to shoot, Bathurst, we would take post one each side,
+but as you are not going to I will place myself nearly in the center,
+and if you are between me and the rocks the tiger is pretty certain to
+go on the other side, as it will seem the most open to him. Now we are
+ready,” he said to the shikari.
+
+The latter waved a white rag on the top of a long stick, and at the
+signal a tremendous hubbub of gongs and tom toms, mingled with the
+shouts of numbers of the men, arose. The Doctor looked across at
+his companion. His face was white and set, his muscles twitched
+convulsively; he was looking straight in front of him, his teeth set
+hard.
+
+“An interesting case,” the Doctor muttered to himself, “if it had been
+anyone else than Bathurst. I expect the tiger will be some little time
+before it is down. Bathurst,” he said, in a quiet voice. Three times
+he repeated the observation, each time raising his voice higher, before
+Bathurst heard him.
+
+“The sooner it comes the better,” Bathurst said, between his teeth. “I
+would rather face a hundred tigers than this infernal din.”
+
+A quarter of an hour passed, and the Doctor, rifle in hand, was watching
+the bushes in front when he saw a slight movement among the leaves on
+his right, the side on which Bathurst was stationed.
+
+“That’s him, Bathurst; he has headed back; he caught sight of either
+your elephant or mine; he will make a bolt in another minute now unless
+he turns back on the beaters.”
+
+A minute later there was a gleam of tawny yellow among the long grass,
+and quick as thought the Doctor fired. With a sharp snarl the tiger
+leaped out, and with two short bounds sprang onto the head of the
+elephant ridden by Bathurst. The mahout gave a cry of pain, for the
+talons of one of the forepaws were fixed in his leg. Bathurst leaned
+forward and thrust the spear he held deep into the animal’s neck. At
+the same moment the Doctor fired again, and the tiger, shot through the
+head, fell dead, while, with a start, Bathurst lost his balance and fell
+over the elephant’s head onto the body of the tiger.
+
+It was fortunate indeed for him that the ball had passed through the
+tiger’s skull from ear to ear, and that life was extinct before it
+touched the ground. Bathurst sprang to his feet, shaken and bewildered,
+but otherwise unhurt.
+
+“He is as dead as a door nail!” the Doctor shouted, “and lucky for you
+he was so; if he had had a kick left in him you would have been badly
+torn.”
+
+“I should never have fallen off,” Bathurst said angrily, “if you had not
+fired. I could have finished him with the spear.”
+
+“You might or you might not; I could not wait to think about that; the
+tiger had struck its claws into the mahout’s leg, and would have had him
+off the elephant in another moment. That is a first rate animal you were
+riding on, or he would have turned and bolted; if he had done so you and
+the mahout would have both been off to a certainty.”
+
+By this time the shouts of some natives, who had taken their posts in
+trees near at hand, told the beaters that the shots they had heard had
+been successful, and with shouts of satisfaction they came rushing
+down. The Doctor at once dispatched one of them to bring up his trap and
+Bathurst’s horse, and then examined the tiger.
+
+It was a very large one, and the skin was in good condition, which
+showed that he had not taken to man eating long. The Doctor bound up the
+wound on the mahout’s leg, and then superintended the skinning of the
+animal while waiting for the arrival of the trap.
+
+When it came up he said, “You might as well take a seat by my side,
+Bathurst; the syce will sit behind and lead your horse.”
+
+Having distributed money among the beaters, the Doctor took his place
+in his trap, the tiger skin was rolled up and placed under the seat,
+Bathurst mounted beside him, and they started.
+
+“There, you see, Doctor,” Bathurst, who had not opened his lips from the
+time he had remonstrated with the Doctor for firing, said; “you see it
+is of no use. I was not afraid of the tiger, for I knew that you were
+not likely to miss, and that in any case it could not reach me on the
+elephant. I can declare that I had not a shadow of fear of the beast,
+and yet, directly that row began, my nerves gave way altogether. It was
+hideous, and yet, the moment the tiger charged, I felt perfectly cool
+again, for the row ceased as you fired your first shot. I struck it full
+in the chest, and was about to thrust the spear right down, and should,
+I believe, have killed it, if you had not fired again and startled me so
+that I fell from the elephant.”
+
+“I saw that the shouting and noise unnerved you, Bathurst, but I saw too
+that you were perfectly cool and steady when you planted your spear
+into him. If it had not got hold of the mahout’s leg I should not have
+fired.”
+
+“Is there nothing to be done, Doctor? You know now what it is likely we
+shall have to face with the Sepoys and what it will be with me if they
+rise. Is there nothing you can do for me?”
+
+The Doctor shook his head. “I don’t believe in Dutch courage in any
+case, Bathurst; certainly not in yours. There is no saying what the
+effect of spirits might be. I should not recommend them, lad. Of course,
+I can understand your feelings, but I still believe that, even if you do
+badly to begin with, you will pull round in the end. I have no doubt you
+will get a chance to show that it is only nerve and not courage in which
+you are deficient.”
+
+Bathurst was silent, and scarce another word was spoken during the drive
+back to Deennugghur.
+
+The place had its accustomed appearance when they drove up. The Doctor,
+as he drew up before his bungalow, said, “Thank God, they have not begun
+yet! I was half afraid we might have found they had taken advantage of
+most of us being away, and have broken out before we got back.”
+
+“So was I,” Bathurst said. “I have been thinking of nothing else since
+we started.”
+
+“Well, I will go to the Major at once and see what arrangements have
+been made, and whether there is any further news.”
+
+“I shall go off on my rounds,” Bathurst said. “I had arranged yesterday
+to be at Nilpore this morning, and there will be time for me to get
+there now. It is only eleven o’clock yet. I shall go about my work as
+usual until matters come to a head.”
+
+The Doctor found that the Major was over at the tent which served as the
+orderly office, and at once followed him there.
+
+“Nothing fresh, Major?”
+
+“No; we found everything going on as usual. It has been decided to put
+the courthouse as far as we can in a state of defense. I shall have the
+spare ammunition quietly taken over there, with stores of provisions.
+The ladies have undertaken to sew up sacking and make gunny bags for
+holding earth, and, of course, we shall get a store of water there.
+Everything will be done quietly at present, and things will be sent in
+there after dark by such servants as we can thoroughly rely upon. At the
+first signs of trouble the residents will make straight for that point.
+Of course we must be guided by circumstances. If the trouble begins in
+the daytime--that is, if it does begin, for the native officers assure
+us that we can trust implicitly in the loyalty of the men--there will
+probably be time for everyone to gain the courthouse; if it is at night,
+and without warning, as it was at Meerut, I can only say, Doctor, may
+God help us all, for I fear that few, if any, of us would get there
+alive. Certainly not enough to make any efficient defense.”
+
+“I do not see that there is anything else to do, Major. I trust with
+you that the men will prove faithful; if not, it is a black lookout
+whichever way we take it.”
+
+“Did you kill the tiger, Doctor?”
+
+“Yes; at least Bathurst and I did it between us. I wounded him first. It
+then sprang upon Bathurst’s elephant, and he speared it, and I finished
+it with a shot through the head.”
+
+“Speared it!” the Major repeated; “why didn’t he shoot it. What was he
+doing with his spear?”
+
+“He was born, Major, with a constitutional horror of firearms, inherited
+from his mother. I will tell you about it some day. In fact, he cannot
+stand noise of any sort. It has been a source of great trouble to the
+young fellow, who in all other respects has more than a fair share of
+courage. However, we will talk about that when we have more time on our
+hands. There is no special duty you can give me at present?”
+
+“Yes, there is. You are in some respects the most disengaged man in
+the station, and can come and go without attracting any attention. I
+propose, therefore, that you shall take charge of the arrangement of
+matters in the courthouse. I think that it will be an advantage if you
+move from your tent in there at once. There is plenty of room for us
+all: No one can say at what time there may be trouble with the Sepoys,
+and it would be a great advantage to have someone in the courthouse
+who could take the lead if the women, with the servants and so on, come
+flocking in while we were still absent on the parade ground. Besides,
+with your rifle, you could drive any small party off who attempted to
+seize it by surprise. If you were there we would call it the hospital,
+which would be an excuse for sending in stores, bedding, and so on.
+
+“You might mention in the orderly room that it is getting so hot now
+that you think it would be as well to have a room or two fitted up under
+a roof, instead of having the sick in tents, in case there should be an
+outbreak of cholera or anything of that sort this year. I will say that
+I think the idea is a very good one, and that as the courthouse is
+very little used, you had better establish yourself there. The native
+officers who hear what we say will spread the news. I don’t say it will
+be believed, but at least it will serve as an explanation.”
+
+“Yes, I think that that will be a very good plan, Major. Two of the men
+who act as hospital orderlies I can certainly depend upon, and they will
+help to receive the things sent in from the bungalows, and will hold
+their tongues as to what is being done; I shall leave my tent standing,
+and use it occasionally as before, but will make the courthouse my
+headquarters. How are we off for arms?”
+
+“There are five cases of muskets and a considerable stock of ammunition
+in that small magazine in the lines; one of the first things will be to
+get them removed to the courthouse. We have already arranged to do that
+tonight; it will give us four or five muskets apiece.”
+
+“Good, Major; I will load them all myself and keep them locked up in
+a room upstairs facing the gateway, and should there be any trouble I
+fancy I could give a good account of any small body of men who might
+attempt to make an entrance. I am very well content with my position as
+Commandant of the Hospital, as we may call it; the house has not been
+much good to us hitherto, but I suppose when it was bought it was
+intended to make this a more important station; it is fortunate they did
+buy it now, for we can certainly turn it into a small fortress. Still,
+of course, I cannot disguise from myself that though we might get on
+successfully for a time against your Sepoys, there is no hope of holding
+it long if the whole country rises.”
+
+“I quite see that, Doctor,” the Major said gravely; “but I have really
+no fear of that. With the assistance of the Rajah of Bithoor, Cawnpore
+is safe. His example is almost certain to be followed by almost all the
+other great landowners. No; it is quite bad enough that we have to face
+a Sepoy mutiny; I cannot believe that we are likely to have a general
+rising on our hands. If we do--” and he stopped.
+
+“If we do it is all up with us, Major; there is no disguising that.
+However, we need not look at the worst side of things. Well, I will go
+with you to the orderly room, and will talk with you about the hospital
+scheme, mention that there is a rumor of cholera, and so on, and ask
+if I can’t have a part of the courthouse; then we can walk across there
+together, and see what arrangement had best be made.”
+
+The following day brought another dispatch from the Colonel, saying that
+the rumors as to Delhi were confirmed. The regiments there had joined
+the Meerut mutineers, had shot down their officers, and murdered
+every European they could lay hands on; that three officers and six
+noncommissioned officers, who were in charge of the arsenal, had
+defended it desperately, and had finally blown up the magazine with
+hundreds of its assailants. Three of the defenders had reached Meerut
+with the news.
+
+Day by day the gloom thickened. The native regiments in the Punjaub rose
+as soon as the news from Meerut and Delhi reached them, but there were
+white troops there, and they were used energetically and promptly. In
+some places the mutineers were disarmed before they broke out into open
+violence; in other cases mutinous regiments were promptly attacked and
+scattered. Several of the leading chiefs had hastened to assure the
+Government of their fidelity, and had placed their troops and resources
+at its disposal.
+
+But in the Punjaub alone the lookout appeared favorable. In the Daob
+a mutiny had taken place at four of the stations, and the Sepoys had
+marched away to Delhi, but without injuring the Europeans.
+
+After this for a week there was quiet, and then at places widely
+apart--at Hansid and Hissar, to the northwest of Delhi; at Nusserabad,
+in the center of Rajpootana, at Bareilly, and other stations in
+Rohilcund--the Sepoys rose, and in most places massacre was added
+to mutiny. Then three regiments of the Gwalior contingent at Neemuch
+revolted. Then two regiments broke out at Jhansi, and the whole of
+the Europeans, after desperately defending themselves for four days,
+surrendered on promise of their lives, but were instantly murdered.
+
+But before the news of the Jhansi massacre reached Deennugghur they
+heard of other risings nearer to them. On the 30th of May the three
+native regiments at Lucknow rose, but were sharply repulsed by the 300
+European troops under Sir Henry Lawrence. At Seetapoor the Sepoys rose
+on the 3d of June and massacred all the Europeans. On the 4th the Sepoys
+at Mohundee imitated the example of those at Seetapoor, while on the
+8th two regiments rose at Fyzabad, in the southeastern division of the
+province, and massacred all the Europeans.
+
+Up to this time the news from Cawnpore had still been good. The Rajah of
+Bithoor had offered Sir Hugh Wheeler a reinforcement of two guns and
+300 men, and it was believed that, seeing this powerful and influential
+chief had thrown his weight into the scale on the side of the British,
+the four regiments of native troops would remain quiet.
+
+Sir Hugh had but a handful of Europeans with him, but had just received
+a reinforcement of fifty men of the 32d regiment from Lucknow, and he
+had formed an intrenchment within which the Europeans of the station,
+and the fugitives who had come in from the districts around, could take
+refuge.
+
+Several communications passed between Sir Hugh Wheeler and Major Hannay.
+The latter had been offered the choice of moving into Cawnpore with his
+wing of the regiment, or remaining at Deennugghur. He had chosen the
+latter alternative, pointing out that he still believed in the fidelity
+of the troops with him; but that if they went to Cawnpore they would
+doubtless be carried away with other regiments, and would only swell the
+force of mutineers there. He was assured, at any rate, they would not
+rise unless their comrades at Cawnpore did so, but that it was best to
+manifest confidence in them, as not improbably, did they hear that they
+were ordered back to Cawnpore, they might take it as a slur on their
+fidelity, and mutiny at once.
+
+The month had been one of intense anxiety. Gradually stores of
+provisions had been conveyed into the hospital, as it was now called;
+the well inside the yard had been put into working order, and the
+residents had sent in stores of bedding and such portable valuables as
+could be removed.
+
+In but few cases had the outbreaks taken place at night, the mutineers
+almost always breaking out either upon being ordered to parade or upon
+actually falling in; still, it was by no means certain when a crisis
+might come, and the Europeans all lay down to rest in their clothes,
+one person in each house remaining up all night on watch, so that at the
+first alarm all might hurry to the shelter of the hospital.
+
+Its position was a strong one--a lofty wall inclosing a courtyard and
+garden surrounding it. This completely sheltered the lower floor from
+fire; the windows of the upper floor were above the level of the wall,
+and commanded a view over the country, while round the flat terraced
+roof ran a parapet some two feet high.
+
+During the day the ladies of the station generally gathered at Mr.
+Hunter’s, which was the bungalow nearest to the hospital. Here they
+worked at the bags intended to hold earth, and kept up each other’s
+spirits as well as they could. Although all looked pale and worn
+from anxiety and watching, there were, after the first few days, no
+manifestations of fear. Occasionally a tear would drop over their work,
+especially in the case of two of the wives of civilians, whose children
+were in England; but as a whole their conversation was cheerful, each
+trying her best to keep up the spirits of the others. Generally, as soon
+as the meeting was complete, Mrs. Hunter read aloud one of the psalms
+suited to their position and the prayers for those in danger, then the
+work was got out and the needles applied briskly. Even Mrs. Rintoul
+showed a fortitude and courage that would not have been expected from
+her.
+
+“One never knows people,” Mrs. Doolan said to Isobel, as they walked
+back from one of these meetings, “as long as one only sees them under
+ordinary circumstances. I have never had any patience with Mrs. Rintoul,
+with her constant complaining and imaginary ailments. Now that there is
+really something to complain about, she is positively one of the calmest
+and most cheerful among us. It is curious, is it not, how our talk
+always turns upon home? India is hardly ever mentioned. We might be a
+party of intimate friends, sitting in some quiet country place, talking
+of our girlhood. Why, we have learnt more of each other and each other’s
+history in the last fortnight than we should have done if we had lived
+here together for twenty years under ordinary circumstances. Except as
+to your little brother, I think you are the only one, Isobel, who has
+not talked much of home.”
+
+“I suppose it is because my home was not a very happy one,” Isobel said.
+
+“I notice that all the talk is about happy scenes, nothing is ever said
+about disagreeables. I suppose, my dear, it is just as I have heard,
+that starving people talk about the feasts they have eaten, so we talk
+of the pleasant times we have had. It is the contrast that makes them
+dearer. It is funny, too, if anything can be funny in these days, how
+different we are in the evening, when we have the men with us, to what
+we are when we are together alone in the day. Another curious thing is
+that our trouble seems to make us more like each other. Of course we are
+not more like, but we all somehow take the same tone, and seem to have
+given up our own particular ways and fancies.
+
+“Now the men don’t seem like that. Mr. Hunter, for example, whom I used
+to think an even tempered and easygoing sort of man, has become fidgety
+and querulous. The Major is even more genial and kind than usual. The
+Doctor snaps and snarls at everyone and everything. Anyone listening
+to my husband would say that he was in the wildest spirits. Rintoul is
+quieter than usual, and the two lads have grown older and nicer; I don’t
+say they are less full of fun than they were, especially Wilson, but
+they are less boyish in their fun, and they are nice with everyone,
+instead of devoting themselves to two or three of us, you principally.
+Perhaps Richards is the most changed; he thinks less of his collars and
+ties and the polish of his boots than he used to do, and one sees
+that he has some ideas in his head besides those about horses. Captain
+Forster is, perhaps, least changed, but of that you can judge better
+than I can, for you see more of him. As to Mr. Bathurst, I can say
+nothing, for we never see him now. I think he is the only man in the
+station who goes about his work as usual; he starts away the first thing
+in the morning, and comes back late in the evening, and I suppose spends
+the night in writing reports, though what is the use of writing reports
+at the present time I don’t know. Mr. Hunter was saying last night it
+was very foolish of him. What with disbanded soldiers, and what with
+parties of mutineers, it is most dangerous for any European to stir
+outside the station.”
+
+“Uncle was saying the same,” Isobel said quietly.
+
+“Well, here we separate. Of course you will be in as usual this
+evening?” for the Major’s house was the general rendezvous after dinner.
+
+Isobel had her private troubles, although, as she often said angrily
+to herself, when she thought of them, what did it matter now? She was
+discontented with herself for having spoken as strongly as she did as
+to the man’s cowardice. She was very discontented with the Doctor
+for having repeated it. She was angry with Bathurst for staying away
+altogether, although willing to admit that, after he knew what she had
+said, it was impossible that he should meet her as before. Most of all,
+perhaps, she was angry because, at a time when their lives were all in
+deadly peril, she should allow the matter to dwell in her mind a single
+moment.
+
+Late one afternoon Bathurst walked into the Major’s bungalow just as he
+was about to sit down to dinner.
+
+“Major, I want to speak to you for a moment,” he said.
+
+“Sit down and have some dinner, Bathurst. You have become altogether a
+stranger.”
+
+“Thank you, Major, but I have a great deal to do. Can you spare me five
+minutes now? It is of importance.”
+
+Isobel rose to leave the room.
+
+“There is no reason you should not hear, Miss Hannay, but it would be
+better that none of the servants should be present. That is why I wish
+to speak before your uncle goes in to dinner.”
+
+Isobel sat down with an air of indifference.
+
+“For the last week, Major, I have ridden every day five and twenty to
+thirty miles in the direction of Cawnpore; my official work has been
+practically at an end since we heard the news from Meerut. I could be of
+no use here, and thought that I could do no better service than trying
+to obtain the earliest news from Cawnpore; I am sorry to say that this
+afternoon I distinctly heard firing in that direction. What the result
+is, of course, I do not know, but I feel that there is little doubt that
+troubles have begun there. But this is not all. On my return home,
+ten minutes ago, I found this letter on my dressing table. It had no
+direction and is, as you see, in Hindustanee,” and he handed it to the
+Major, who read:
+
+“To the Sahib Bathurst,--Rising at Cawnpore today. Nana Sahib and
+his troops will join the Sepoys. Whites will be destroyed. Rising at
+Deennugghur at daylight tomorrow. Troops, after killing whites, will
+join those at Cawnpore. Be warned in time--this tiger is not to be
+beaten off with a whip.”
+
+“Good Heavens!” the Major exclaimed; “can this be true? Can it be
+possible that the Rajah of Bithoor is going to join the mutineers? It is
+impossible; he could never be such a scoundrel.”
+
+“What is it, uncle?” Isobel asked, leaving her seat and coming up to
+him.
+
+The Major translated the letter.
+
+“It must be a hoax,” he went on; “I cannot believe it. What does this
+stuff about beating a tiger with a whip mean?”
+
+“I am sorry to say, Major Hannay, that part of the letter convinces me
+that the contents can be implicitly relied upon. The writer did not dare
+sign his name, but those words are sufficient to show me, and were no
+doubt intended to show me, who the warning comes from. It is from that
+juggler who performed here some six weeks ago. Traveling about as he
+does, and putting aside altogether those strange powers of his, he
+has no doubt the means of knowing what is going on. As I told you that
+night, I had done him some slight service, and he promised at the time
+that, if the occasion should ever arise, he would risk his life to save
+mine. The fact that he showed, I have no doubt, especially to please me,
+feats that few Europeans have seen before, is, to my mind, a proof of
+his goodwill and that he meant what he said.”
+
+“But how do you know that it is from him. Bathurst? You will excuse
+my pressing the question, but of course everything depends on my being
+assured that this communication is trustworthy.”
+
+“This allusion to the tiger shows me that, Major. It alludes to an
+incident that I believe to be known only to him and his daughter and to
+Dr. Wade, to whom alone I mentioned it.”
+
+As the Major still looked inquiringly, Bathurst went on reluctantly.
+“It was a trifling affair, Major, the result of a passing impulse. I was
+riding home from Narkeet, and while coming along the road through the
+jungle, which was at that time almost deserted by the natives on account
+of the ravages of the man eater whom the Doctor afterwards shot, I heard
+a scream. Galloping forward, I came upon the brute, standing with
+one paw upon a prostrate girl, while a man, the juggler, was standing
+frantically waving his arms. On the impulse of the moment I sprang from
+my horse and lashed the tiger across the head with that heavy dog whip I
+carry, and the brute was so astonished that it bolted in the jungle.
+
+“That was the beginning and end of affairs, except that, although
+fortunately the girl was practically unhurt, she was so unnerved that
+we had to carry her to the next village, where she lay for some time
+ill from the shock and fright. After that they came round here and
+performed, for my amusement, the feats I told you of. So you see I have
+every reason to believe in the good faith of the writer of this letter.”
+
+“By Jove, I should think you had!” the Major said. “Why, my dear
+Bathurst, I had no idea that you could do such a thing!”
+
+“We have all our strong points and our weak ones, Major. That was one of
+my strong ones, I suppose. And now what had best be done, sir? That is
+the important question at present.”
+
+This was so evident, that Major Hannay at once dismissed all other
+thoughts from his mind.
+
+“Of course I and the other officers must remain at our posts until the
+Sepoys actually arrive. The question is as to the others. Now that we
+know the worst, or believe we know it, ought we to send the women and
+children away?”
+
+“That is the question, sir. But where can they be sent? Lucknow is
+besieged; the whites at Cawnpore must have been surrounded by this time;
+the bands of mutineers are ranging the whole country, and at the news
+that Nana Sahib has joined the rebels it is probable that all will
+rise. I should say that it was a matter in which Mr. Hunter and other
+civilians had better be consulted.”
+
+“Yes, we will hold a council,” the Major said.
+
+“I think, Major, it should be done quietly. It is probable that many of
+the servants may know of the intentions of the Sepoys, and if they see
+that anything like a council of the Europeans was being held they
+may take the news to the Sepoys, and the latter, thinking that their
+intention is known, may rise at once.”
+
+“That is quite true. Yes, we must do nothing to arouse suspicion. What
+do you propose, Mr. Bathurst?”
+
+“I will go and have a talk with the Doctor; he can go round to the other
+officers one by one. I will tell Mr. Hunter, and he will tell the other
+residents, so that when they meet here in the evening no explanations
+will be needed, and a very few words as we sit out on the veranda will
+be sufficient.”
+
+“That will be a very good plan. We will sit down to dinner as if nothing
+had happened; if they are watching at all, they will be keeping their
+eyes on us then.”
+
+“Very well; I will be in by nine o’clock, Major;” and with a slight bow
+to Isobel, Bathurst stepped out through the open window, and made his
+way to the Doctor’s.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+The Doctor had just sat down to dinner when Bathurst came in. The two
+subalterns were dining with him.
+
+“That’s good, Bathurst,” the Doctor said, as he entered. “Boy, put a
+chair for Mr. Bathurst. I had begun to think that you had deserted me as
+well as everybody else.”
+
+“I was not thinking of dining,” Bathurst said, as he sat down, “but I
+will do so with pleasure, though I told my man I should be back in half
+an hour;” and as the servant left the room he added, “I have much to
+say, Doctor; get through dinner as quickly as you can, and get the
+servants out of the tent.”
+
+The conversation was at once turned by the Doctor upon shooting and
+hunting, and no allusion was made to passing events until coffee was put
+on the table and the servant retired. The talk, which had been lively
+during dinner, then ceased.
+
+“Well, Bathurst,” the Doctor asked, “I suppose you have something
+serious to tell me?”
+
+“Very serious, Doctor;” and he repeated the news he had given the Major.
+
+“It could not be worse, Bathurst,” the Doctor said quietly, after the
+first shock of the news had passed. “You know I never had any faith in
+the Sepoys since I saw how this madness was spreading from station
+to station. This sort of thing is contagious. It becomes a sort of
+epidemic, and in spite of the assurances of the men I felt sure they
+would go. But this scoundrel of Bithoor turning against us is more than
+I bargained for. There is no disguising the fact that it means a general
+rising through Oude, and in that case God help the women and children.
+As for us, it all comes in the line of business. What does the Major
+say?”
+
+“The only question that seemed to him to be open was whether the women
+and children could be got away.”
+
+“But there does not seem any possible place for them to go to. One or
+two might travel down the country in disguise, but that is out of the
+question for a large party. There is no refuge nearer than Allahabad.
+With every man’s hand against them, I see not the slightest chance of a
+party making their way down.”
+
+“You or I might do it easily enough, Doctor, but for women it seems to
+me out of the question; still, that is a matter for each married man to
+decide for himself. The prospect is dark enough anyway, but, as before,
+it seems to me that everything really depends upon the Zemindars. If we
+hold the courthouse it is possible the Sepoys may be beaten off in their
+first attack, and in their impatience to join the mutineers, who are
+all apparently marching for Delhi, they may go off without throwing away
+their lives by attacking us, for they must see they will not be able
+to take the place without cannon. But if the Zemindars join them with
+cannon, we may defend ourselves till the last, but there can be but one
+end to it.”
+
+The Doctor nodded. “That is the situation exactly, Bathurst.”
+
+“I am glad we know the danger, and shall be able to face it openly,”
+ Wilson said. “For the last month Richards and I have been keeping watch
+alternately, and it has been beastly funky work sitting with one’s
+pistols on the table before one, listening, and knowing any moment there
+might be a yell, and these brown devils come pouring in. Now, at least,
+we are likely to have a fight for it, and to know that some of them will
+go down before we do.”
+
+Richards cordially agreed with his companion.
+
+“Well, now, what are the orders, Bathurst?” said the Doctor.
+
+“There are no orders as yet, Doctor. The Major says you will go round
+to the others, Doolan, Rintoul, and Forster, and tell them. I am to go
+round to Hunter and the other civilians. Then, this evening we are to
+meet at nine o’clock, as usual, at the Major’s. If the others decide
+that the only plan is for all to stop here and fight it out, there will
+be no occasion for anything like a council; it will only have to be
+arranged at what time we all move into the fort, and the best means for
+keeping the news from spreading to the Sepoys. Not that it will make
+much difference after they have once fairly turned in. If there is one
+thing a Hindoo hates more than another, it is getting from under his
+blankets when he has once got himself warm at night. Even if they heard
+at one or two o’clock in the morning that we were moving into the fort I
+don’t think they would turn out till morning.”
+
+“No, I am sure they would not,” the Doctor agreed.
+
+“If there were a few more of us,” Richards said, “I should vote for our
+beginning it. If we were to fall suddenly upon them we might kill a lot
+and scare the rest off.”
+
+“We are too few for that,” the Doctor said. “Besides, although Bathurst
+answers for the good faith of the sender of the warning, there has as
+yet been no act of mutiny that would justify our taking such a step as
+that. It would come to the same thing. We might kill a good many, but in
+the long run three hundred men would be more than a match for a dozen,
+and then the women would be at their mercy. Well, we had better be
+moving, or we shall not have time to go round to the bungalows before
+the people set out for the Major’s.”
+
+It was a painful mission that Bathurst had to perform, for he had to
+tell those he called upon that almost certain death was at hand, but
+the news was everywhere received calmly. The strain had of late been so
+great, that the news that the crisis was at hand was almost welcome. He
+did not stay long anywhere, but, after setting the alternative before
+them, left husband and wife to discuss whether to try to make down to
+Allahabad or to take refuge in the fort.
+
+Soon after nine o’clock all were at Major Hannay’s. There were pale
+faces among them, but no stranger would have supposed that the whole
+party had just received news which was virtually a death warrant. The
+ladies talked together as usual, while the men moved in and out of the
+room, sometimes talking with the Major, sometimes sitting down for a few
+minutes in the veranda outside, or talking there in low tones together.
+
+The Major moved about among them, and soon learned that all had
+resolved to stay and meet together whatever came, preferring that to the
+hardships and unknown dangers of flight.
+
+“I am glad you have all decided so,” he said quietly. “In the state the
+country is, the chances of getting to Allahabad are next to nothing.
+Here we may hold out till Lawrence restores order at Lucknow, and then
+he may be able to send a party to bring us in. Or the mutineers may draw
+off and march to Delhi. I certainly think the chances are best here;
+besides, every rifle we have is of importance, and though if any of
+you had made up your minds to try and escape I should have made no
+objection, I am glad that we shall all stand together here.”
+
+The arrangements were then briefly made for the removal to the
+courthouse. All were to go back and apparently to retire to bed as
+usual. At twelve o’clock the men, armed, were to call up their servants,
+load them up with such things as were most required, and proceed with
+them, the women, and children, at once to the courthouse. Half the men
+were to remain there on guard, while the others would continue with
+the servants to make journeys backwards and forwards to the bungalows,
+bringing in as much as could be carried, the guard to be changed every
+hour. In the morning the servants were all to have the choice given them
+of remaining with their masters or leaving.
+
+Captain Forster was the only dissentient. He was in favor of the whole
+party mounting, placing the women and children in carriages, and making
+off in a body, fighting their way if necessary down to Allahabad. He
+admitted that, in addition to the hundred troopers of his own squadron,
+they might be cut off by the mutinous cavalry from Cawnpore, fall in
+with bodies of rebels or be attacked by villagers, but he maintained
+that there was at least some chance of cutting their way through, while,
+once shut up in the courthouse, escape would be well nigh impossible.
+
+“But you all along agreed to our holding the courthouse, Forster,” the
+Major said.
+
+“Yes; but then I reckoned upon Cawnpore holding out with the assistance
+of Nana Sahib, and upon the country remaining quiet. Now the whole thing
+is changed. I am quite ready to fight in the open, and to take my chance
+of being killed there, but I protest against being shut up like a rat in
+a hole.”
+
+To the rest, however, the proposal appeared desperate. There would be no
+withstanding a single charge of the well trained troopers, especially as
+it would be necessary to guard the vehicles. Had it not been for that,
+the small body of men might possibly have cut their way through the
+cavalry; but even then they would be so hotly pursued that the most of
+them would assuredly be hunted down. But encumbered by the women such
+an enterprise seemed utterly hopeless, and the whole of the others were
+unanimously against it.
+
+The party broke up very early. The strain of maintaining their ordinary
+demeanor was too great to be long endured, and the ladies with children
+were anxious to return as soon as possible to them, lest at the last
+moment the Sepoys should have made some change in their arrangements. By
+ten o’clock the whole party had left.
+
+The two subalterns had no preparations to make; they had already sent
+most of their things into the hospital; and, lighting their pipes, they
+sat down and talked quietly till midnight; then, placing their pistols
+in their belts and wrapping themselves in their cloaks, they went into
+the Doctor’s tent, which was next to theirs.
+
+The Doctor at once roused his servant, who was sleeping in a shelter
+tent pitched by the side of his. The man came in looking surprised at
+being called. “Roshun,” the Doctor said, “you have been with me ten
+years, and I believe you to be faithful.”
+
+“I would lay down my life for the sahib,” the man said quietly.
+
+“You have heard nothing of any trouble with the Sepoys?”
+
+“No, sahib; they know that Roshun is faithful to his master.”
+
+“We have news that they are going to rise in the morning and kill all
+Europeans, so we are going to move at once into the hospital.”
+
+“Good, sahib; what will you take with you?”
+
+“My books and papers have all gone in,” the Doctor said; “that
+portmanteau may as well go. I will carry these two rifles myself; the
+ammunition is all there except that bag in the corner, which I will
+sling round my shoulder.”
+
+“What are in those two cases, Doctor?” Wilson asked.
+
+“Brandy, lad.”
+
+“We may as well each carry one of those, Doctor, if your boy takes the
+portmanteau. It would be a pity to leave good liquor to be wasted by
+those brutes.”
+
+“I agree with you, Wilson; besides, the less liquor they get hold of
+the better for us. Now, if you are all ready, we will start; but we must
+move quietly, or the sentry at the quarter guard may hear us.”
+
+Ten minutes later they reached the hospital, being the last of the party
+to arrive there.
+
+“Now, Major,” the Doctor said cheerily, as soon as he entered, “as this
+place is supposed to be under my special charge I will take command for
+the present. Wilson and Richards will act as my lieutenants. We have
+nothing to do outside, and can devote ourselves to getting things a
+little straight here. The first thing to do is to light lamps in all the
+lower rooms; then we can see what we are doing, and the ladies will be
+able to give us their help, while the men go out with the servants to
+bring things in; and remember the first thing to do is to bring in the
+horses. They may be useful to us. There is a good store of forage piled
+in the corner of the yard, but the syces had best bring in as much
+more as they can carry. Now, ladies, if you will all bring your bundles
+inside the house we will set about arranging things, and at any rate get
+the children into bed as quickly as possible.”
+
+As it had been already settled as to the rooms to be occupied, the
+ladies and their ayahs set to work at once, glad to have something to
+employ them. One of the rooms which had been fitted up with beds had
+been devoted to the purposes of a nursery, and the children, most of
+whom were still asleep, were soon settled there. Two other rooms had
+been fitted up for the use of the ladies, while the men were occupying
+two others, the courtroom being turned into a general meeting and dining
+room.
+
+At first there was not much to do; but as the servants, closely watched
+by their masters, went backwards and forwards bringing in goods of all
+kinds, there was plenty of employment in carrying them down to a large
+underground room, where they were left to be sorted later on.
+
+The Doctor had appointed Isobel Hannay and the two Miss Hunters to the
+work of lighting a fire and getting boiling water ready, and a plentiful
+supply of coffee was presently made, Wilson and Richards drawing the
+water, carrying the heavier loads downstairs, and making themselves
+generally useful.
+
+Captain Forster had not come in. He had undertaken to remain in his tent
+in the lines, where he had quietly saddled and unpicketed his horse,
+tying it up to the tent ropes so that he could mount in an instant. He
+still believed that his own men would stand firm, and declared he would
+at their head charge the mutinous infantry, while if they joined the
+mutineers he would ride into the fort. It was also arranged that he
+should bring in word should the Sepoys obtain news of what was going on
+and rise before morning.
+
+All felt better and more cheerful after having taken some coffee.
+
+“It is difficult to believe, Miss Hannay,” Richards said, “that this
+is all real, and not a sort of picnic, or an early start on a hunting
+expedition.”
+
+“It is indeed, Mr. Richards. I can hardly believe even now that it is
+all true, and have pinched myself two or three times to make sure that I
+am awake.”
+
+“If the villains venture to attack us,” Wilson said, “I feel sure we
+shall beat them off handsomely.”
+
+“I have no doubt we shall, Mr. Wilson, especially as it will be in
+daylight. You know you and Mr. Richards are not famous for night
+shooting.”
+
+The young men both laughed.
+
+“We shall never hear the last of that tiger story, Miss Hannay. I can
+tell you it is no joke shooting when you have been sitting cramped up
+on a tree for about six hours. We are really both pretty good shots.
+Of course, I don’t mean like the Doctor; but we always make good scores
+with the targets. Come, Richards, here is another lot of things; if they
+go on at this rate the Sepoys won’t find much to loot in the bungalows
+tomorrow.”
+
+Just as daylight was breaking the servants were all called together, and
+given the choice of staying or leaving. Only some eight or ten, all of
+whom belonged to the neighborhood, chose to go off to their villages.
+The rest declared they would stay with their masters.
+
+Two of the party by turns had been on watch all night on the terrace
+to listen for any sound of tumult in the lines, but all had gone on
+quietly. Bathurst had been working with the others all night, and
+after seeing that all his papers were carried to the courthouse, he
+had troubled but little about his own belongings, but had assisted the
+others in bringing in their goods.
+
+At daylight the Major and his officers mounted and rode quietly down
+towards the parade ground. Bathurst and Mr. Hunter, with several of the
+servants, took their places at the gates, in readiness to open and close
+them quickly, while the Doctor and the other Europeans went up to the
+roof, where they placed in readiness six muskets for each man, from the
+store in the courthouse. Isobel Hannay and the wives of the two Captains
+were too anxious to remain below, and went up to the roof also. The
+Doctor took his place by them, examining the lines with a field glass.
+
+The officers halted when they reached the parade ground, and sat on
+their horses in a group, waiting for the men to turn out as usual.
+
+“There goes the assembly,” the Doctor said, as the notes of the bugle
+came to their ears. “The men are turning out of their tents. There, I
+can make out Forster; he has just mounted; a plucky fellow that.”
+
+Instead of straggling out onto the parade ground as usual, the Sepoys
+seemed to hang about their tents. The cavalry mounted and formed up in
+their lines. Suddenly a gun was fired, and as if at the signal the whole
+of the infantry rushed forward towards the officers, yelling and
+firing, and the latter at once turned their horses and rode towards the
+courthouse.
+
+“Don’t be alarmed, my dear,” the Doctor said to Isobel; “I don’t suppose
+anyone is hit. The Sepoys are not good shots at the best of times, and
+firing running they would not be able to hit a haystack at a hundred
+yards. The cavalry stand firm, you see,” he said, turning his glass in
+that direction. “Forster is haranguing them. There, three of the native
+officers are riding up to him. Ah! one has fired at him! Missed! Ah!
+that is a better shot,” as the man fell from his horse, from a shot from
+his Captain’s pistol.
+
+The other two rushed at him. One he cut down, and the other shot. Then
+he could be seen again, shouting and waving his sword to the men, but
+their yells could be heard as they rode forward at him.
+
+“Ride, man, ride!” the Doctor shouted, although his voice could not have
+been heard at a quarter of the distance.
+
+But instead of turning Forster rode right at them. There was a confused
+melee for a moment, and then his figure appeared beyond the line,
+through which he had broken. With yells of fury the troopers reined in
+their horses and tried to turn them, but before they could do so the
+officer was upon them again. His revolver cracked in his left hand, and
+his sword flashed in his right. Two or three horses and men were seen to
+roll over, and in a moment he was through them again and riding at full
+speed for the courthouse, under a scattered fire from the infantry,
+while the horsemen, now in a confused mass, galloped behind him.
+
+“Now then,” the Doctor shouted, picking up his rifle; “let them know
+we are within range, but mind you don’t hit Forster. Fire two or three
+shots, and then run down to the gate. He is well mounted, and has a good
+fifty yards’ start of them.”
+
+Then taking deliberate aim he fired. The others followed his example.
+Three of the troopers dropped from their horses. Four times those on the
+terrace fired, and then ran down, each, at the Doctor’s order, taking
+two guns with him. One of these was placed in the hands of each of the
+officers who had just ridden in, and they then gathered round the gate.
+In two minutes Forster rode in at full speed, then fifteen muskets
+flashed out, and several of the pursuers fell from their horses. A
+minute later the gate was closed and barred, and the men all ran up to
+the roof, from which three muskets were fired simultaneously.
+
+“Well done!” the Doctor exclaimed. “That is a good beginning.”
+
+A minute later a brisk fire was opened from the terrace upon the
+cavalry, who at once turned and rode rapidly back to their lines.
+
+Captain Forster had not come scathless through the fray; his cheek had
+been laid open by a sabre cut, and a musket ball had gone through the
+fleshy part of his arm as he rode back.
+
+“This comes of fighting when there is no occasion,” the Doctor growled,
+when he dressed his wounds. “Here you are charging a host like a paladin
+of old, forgetful that we want every man who can lift an arm in defense
+of this place.”
+
+“I think, Doctor, there is someone else wants your services more than I
+do.”
+
+“Yes; is anyone else hit?”
+
+“No, I don’t know that anyone else is hit, Doctor; but as I turned to
+come into the house after the gates were shut, there was that fellow
+Bathurst leaning against the wall as white as a sheet, and shaking all
+over like a leaf. I should say a strong dose of Dutch courage would be
+the best medicine there.”
+
+“You do not do justice to Bathurst, Captain Forster,” the Doctor said
+gravely. “He is a man I esteem most highly. In some respects he is the
+bravest man I know, but he is constitutionally unable to stand
+noise, and the sound of a gun is torture to him. It is an unfortunate
+idiosyncrasy for which he is in no way accountable.”
+
+“Exceedingly unfortunate, I should say,” Forster said, with a dry
+laugh; “especially at times like this. It is rather unlucky for him
+that fighting is generally accompanied by noise. If I had such an
+idiosyncrasy, as you call it, I would blow out my brains.”
+
+“Perhaps Bathurst would do so, too, Captain Forster, if he had not more
+brains to blow out than some people have.”
+
+“That is sharp, Doctor,” Forster laughed good temperedly. “I don’t mind
+a fair hit.”
+
+“Well, I must go,” the Doctor said, somewhat mollified; “there is plenty
+to do, and I expect, after these fellows have held a council of war,
+they will be trying an attack.”
+
+When the Doctor went out he found the whole of the garrison busy. The
+Major had placed four men on the roof, and had ordered everyone else to
+fill the bags that had been prepared for the purpose with earth from
+the garden. It was only an order to the men and male servants, but
+the ladies had all gone out to render their assistance. As fast as the
+natives filled the bags with earth the ladies sewed up the mouths of the
+bags, and the men carried them away and piled them against the gate.
+
+The garrison consisted of the six military officers, the Doctor, seven
+civilians, ten ladies, eight children, thirty-eight male servants, and
+six females. The work, therefore, went on rapidly, and in the course
+of two hours so large a pile of bags was built up against the gate that
+there was no probability whatever of its being forced.
+
+“Now,” the Major said, “we want four dozen bags at least for the
+parapet of the terrace. We need not raise it all, but we must build up a
+breastwork two bags high at each of the angles.”
+
+There was only just time to accomplish this when one of the watch on the
+roof reported that the Sepoys were firing the bungalows. As soon as
+they saw that the Europeans had gained the shelter of the courthouse the
+Sepoys, with yells of triumph, had made for the houses of the Europeans,
+and their disappointment at finding that not only had all the whites
+taken refuge in the courthouse, but that they had removed most of
+their property, vented itself in setting fire to the buildings, after
+stripping them of everything, and then amused themselves by keeping up a
+straggling fire against the courthouse.
+
+As soon as the bags were taken onto the roof, the defenders, keeping as
+much as possible under the shelter of the parapet, carried them to
+the corners of the terrace and piled them two deep, thus forming a
+breastwork four feet high. Eight of the best shots were then chosen, and
+two of them took post at each corner.
+
+“Now,” the Doctor said cheerfully, as he sat behind a small loophole
+that had been left between the bags, “it is our turn, and I don’t fancy
+we shall waste as much lead as they have been doing.”
+
+The fire from the defenders was slow, but it was deadly, and in a very
+short time the Sepoys no longer dared to show themselves in the open,
+but took refuge behind trees, whence they endeavored to reply to the
+fire on the roof; but even this proved so dangerous that it was not long
+before the fire ceased altogether, and they drew off under cover of the
+smoke from the burning bungalows.
+
+Isobel Hannay had met Bathurst as he was carrying a sack of earth to the
+roof.
+
+“I have been wanting to speak to you, Mr. Bathurst, ever since yesterday
+evening, but you have never given me an opportunity. Will you step into
+the storeroom for a few minutes as you come down?”
+
+As he came down he went to the door of the room in which Isobel was
+standing awaiting him.
+
+“I am not coming in, Miss Hannay; I believe I know what you are going
+to say. I saw it in your face last night when I had to tell that tiger
+story. You want to say that you are sorry you said that you despised
+cowards. Do not say it; you were perfectly right; you cannot despise
+me one tenth as much as I despise myself. While you were looking at the
+mutineers from the roof I was leaning against the wall below well nigh
+fainting. What do you think my feelings must be that here, where every
+man is brave, where there are women and children to be defended, I alone
+cannot bear my part. Look at my face; I know there is not a vestige of
+color in it. Look at my hands; they are not steady yet. It is useless
+for you to speak; you may pity me, but you cannot but despise me.
+Believe me, that death when it comes will be to me a happy release
+indeed from the shame and misery I feel.”
+
+Then, turning, he left the girl without another word, and went about
+his work. The Doctor had, just before going up to take his place on the
+roof, come across him.
+
+“Come in here, my dear Bathurst,” he said, seizing his arm and dragging
+him into the room which had been given up to him for his drugs and
+surgical appliances.
+
+“Let me give you a strong dose of ammonia and ginger; you want a pickup
+I can see by your face.”
+
+“I want it, Doctor, but I will not take it,” Bathurst said. “That is
+one thing I have made up my mind to. I will take no spirits to create a
+courage that I do not possess.”
+
+“It is not courage; it has nothing to do with courage,” the Doctor said
+angrily. “It is a simple question of nerves, as I have told you over and
+over again.”
+
+“Call it what you like, Doctor, the result is precisely the same. I do
+not mind taking a strong dose of quinine if you will give it me, for I
+feel as weak as a child, but no spirits.”
+
+With an impatient shrug of the shoulders the Doctor mixed a strong dose
+of quinine and gave it to him.
+
+An hour later a sudden outburst of musketry took place. Not a native
+showed himself on the side of the house facing the maidan, but from the
+gardens on the other three sides a heavy fire was opened.
+
+“Every man to the roof,” the Major said; “four men to each of the rear
+corners, three to the others. Do you think you are fit to fire, Forster?
+Had you not better keep quiet for today; you will have opportunities
+enough.”
+
+“I am all right, Major,” he said carelessly. “I can put my rifle through
+a loophole and fire, though I have one arm in a sling. By Jove!” he
+broke off suddenly; “look at that fellow Bathurst--he looks like a
+ghost.”
+
+The roll of musketry was unabated, and the defenders were already
+beginning to answer it; the bullets sung thickly overhead, and above the
+din could be heard the shouts of the natives. Bathurst’s face was rigid
+and ghastly pale. The Major hurried to him.
+
+“My dear Bathurst,” he said, “I think you had better go below. You will
+find plenty of work to do there.”
+
+“My work is here,” Bathurst said, as if speaking to himself: “it must be
+done.”
+
+The Major could not at the moment pay further attention to him, for a
+roar of fire broke out round the inclosure, as from the ruined bungalows
+and from every bush the Sepoys, who had crept up, now commenced the
+attack in earnest, while the defenders lying behind their parapet
+replied slowly and steadily, aiming at the puffs of smoke as they darted
+out. His attention was suddenly called by a shout from the Doctor.
+
+“Are you mad, Bathurst? Lie down, man; you a throwing away your life.”
+
+Turning round, the Major saw Bathurst standing up--right by the parapet,
+facing the point where the enemy fire was hottest. He held a rifle in
+his hand but did not attempt to fire; his figure swayed slightly to and
+fro.
+
+“Lie down,” the Major shouted, “lie down, sir;” and then as Bathurst
+still stood unmoved he was about to run forward, when the Doctor from
+one side and Captain Forster from the other rushed towards him through a
+storm of bullets, seized him in their arms, and dragged him back to the
+center of the terrace.
+
+“Nobly done, gentlemen,” the Major said, as they laid Bathurst down; “it
+was almost miraculous your not being hit.”
+
+Bathurst had struggled fiercely for a moment, and then his resistance
+had suddenly ceased, and he had been dragged back like a wooden figure.
+His eyes were closed now.
+
+“Has he been hit, Doctor?” the Major asked. “It seems impossible he
+can have escaped. What madness possessed him to put himself there as a
+target?”
+
+“No, I don’t think he is hit,” the Doctor said, as he examined him. “I
+think he has fainted. We had better carry him down to my room. Shake
+hands, Forster; I know you and Bathurst were not good friends, and you
+risked your life to save him.”
+
+“I did not think who it was,” Forster said, with a careless laugh. “I
+saw a man behaving like a madman, and naturally went to pull him down.
+However, I shall think better of him in future, though I doubt whether
+he was in his right senses.”
+
+“He wanted to be killed,” the Doctor said quietly; “and the effort that
+he made to place himself in the way of death must have been greater than
+either you or I can well understand, Forster. I know the circumstances
+of the case. Morally I believe there is no braver man living than he is;
+physically he has the constitution of a timid woman; it is mind against
+body.”
+
+“The distinction is too fine for me, Doctor,” Forster said, as he
+turned to go off to his post by the parapet. “I understand pluck and I
+understand cowardice, but this mysterious mixture you speak of is beyond
+me altogether.”
+
+The Major and Dr. Wade lifted Bathurst and carried him below. Mrs.
+Hunter, who had been appointed chief nurse, met them.
+
+“Is he badly wounded, Doctor?”
+
+“No; he is not wounded at all, Mrs. Hunter. He stood up at the edge of
+the parapet and exposed himself so rashly to the Sepoys’ fire that
+we had to drag him away, and then the reaction, acting on a nervous
+temperament, was too much for him, and he fainted. We shall soon bring
+him round. You can come in with me, but keep the others away.”
+
+The Major at once returned to the terrace.
+
+In spite of the restoratives the Doctor poured through his lips, and
+cold water dashed in his face, Bathurst was some time before he opened
+his eyes. Seeing Mrs. Hunter and the Doctor beside him, he made an
+effort to rise.
+
+“You must lie still, Bathurst,” the Doctor said, pressing his hand on
+his shoulder. “You have done a very foolish thing, a very wrong thing.
+You have tried to throw away your life.”
+
+“No, I did not. I had no thought of throwing away my life,” Bathurst
+said, after a pause. “I was trying to make myself stand fire. I did
+not think whether I should be hit or not. I am not afraid of bullets,
+Doctor; it’s the horrible, fiendish noise that I cannot stand.”
+
+“I know, my boy,” the Doctor said kindly; “but it comes to the same
+thing. You did put yourself in the way of bullets when your doing so was
+of no possible advantage, and it is almost a miracle that you escaped
+unhurt. You must remain here quiet for the present. II shall leave you
+in charge of Mrs. Hunter. There is nothing for you to do on the roof
+at present. This attack is a mere outbreak of rage on the part of the
+Sepoys that we have all escaped them. They know well enough they can’t
+take this house by merely firing away at the roof. When they attack in
+earnest it will be quite time for you to take part in the affair again.
+Now, Mrs. Hunter, my orders are absolute that he is not to be allowed to
+get up.”
+
+On the Doctor leaving the room he found several of the ladies outside;
+the news that Mr. Bathurst had been carried down had spread among them.
+
+“Is he badly hurt, Doctor?”
+
+“No, ladies. Mr. Bathurst is, unfortunately for himself, an extremely
+nervous man, and the noise of firearms has an effect upon him that he
+cannot by any effort of his own overcome. In order, as he says, to try
+and accustom himself to it, he went and stood at the edge of the parapet
+in full sight of the Sepoys, and let them blaze away at him. He must
+have been killed if Forster and I had not dragged him away by main
+force. Then came the natural reaction, and he fainted. That is all there
+is about it. Poor fellow, he is extremely sensitive on the ground of
+personal courage. In other respects I have known him do things requiring
+an amount of pluck that not one man in a hundred possesses, and I wish
+you all to remember that his nervousness at the effect of the noise of
+firearms is a purely constitutional weakness, for which he is in no way
+to be blamed. He has just risked his life in the most reckless manner in
+order to overcome what he considers, and what he knows that some persons
+consider, is cowardice, and it would be as cruel, and I may say as
+contemptible, to despise him for a constitutional failing as it would be
+to despise a person for being born a humpback or a cripple. But I cannot
+stand talking any longer. I shall be of more use on the roof than I am
+here.”
+
+Isobel Hannay was not among those who had gathered near the door of the
+room in which Bathurst was lying, but the Doctor had raised his voice,
+and she heard what he said, and bent over her work of sewing strips of
+linen together for bandages with a paler face than had been caused by
+the outbreak of musketry. Gradually the firing ceased. The Sepoys had
+suffered heavily from the steady fire of the invisible defenders and
+gradually drew off, and in an hour from the commencement of the attack
+all was silent round the building.
+
+“So far so good, ladies,” the Major said cheerily, as the garrison,
+leaving one man on watch, descended from the roof. “We have had no
+casualties, and I think we must have inflicted a good many, and the
+mutineers are not likely to try that game on again, for they must see
+that they are wasting ammunition, and are doing us no harm. Now I hope
+the servants have got tiffin ready for us, for I am sure we have all
+excellent appetites.”
+
+“Tiffin is quite ready, Major,” Mrs. Doolan, who had been appointed
+chief of the commissariat department, said cheerfully. “The servants
+were a little disorganized when the firing began, but they soon became
+accustomed to it, and I think you will find everything in order in the
+hall.”
+
+The meal was really a cheerful one. The fact that the first attack had
+passed over without anyone being hit raised the spirits of the women,
+and all were disposed to look at matters in a cheerful light. The two
+young subalterns were in high spirits, and the party were more lively
+than they had been since the first outbreak of the mutiny. All had felt
+severely the strain of waiting, and the reality of danger was a positive
+relief after the continuous suspense. It was much to them to know that
+the crisis had come at last, that they were still all together and the
+foe were without.
+
+“It is difficult to believe,” Mrs. Doolan said, “that it was only
+yesterday evening we were all gathered at the Major’s. It seems an age
+since then.”
+
+“Yes, indeed,” Mrs. Rintoul agreed; “the night seemed endless. The worst
+time was the waiting till we were to begin to move over. After that I
+did not so much mind, though it seemed more like a week than a night
+while the things were being brought in here.”
+
+“I think the worse time was while we were waiting watching from the roof
+to see whether the troops would come out on parade as usual,” Isobel
+said. “When my uncle and the others were all in, and Captain Forster,
+and the gates were shut, it seemed that our anxieties were over.”
+
+“That was a mad charge of yours, Forster,” the Major said. “It was like
+the Balaclava business--magnificent; but it wasn’t war.”
+
+“I did not think of it one way or the other,” Captain Forster laughed.
+“I was so furious at the insolence off those dogs attacking me, that
+I thought of nothing else, and just went at them; but of course it was
+foolish.”
+
+“It did good,” the Doctor said. “It showed the Sepoys how little we
+thought of them, and how a single white officer was ready to match
+himself against a squadron. It will render them a good deal more careful
+in their attack than they otherwise would have been. It brought them
+under our fire, too, and they suffered pretty heavily; and I am sure the
+infantry must have lost a good many men from our fire just now. I hope
+they will come to the conclusion that the wisest thing they can do is
+to march away to Delhi and leave us severely alone. Now what are your
+orders, Major, for after breakfast?”
+
+“I think the best thing is for everyone to lie down for a few hours,”
+ the Major said. “No one had a wink of sleep last night, and most of us
+have not slept much for some nights past. We must always keep two men on
+the roof, to be relieved every two hours. I will draw up a regular rota
+for duty; but except those two, the rest had better take a good sleep.
+We may be all called upon to be under arms at night.”
+
+“I will go on the first relief, Major,” the Doctor said. “I feel
+particularly wide awake. It is nothing new to me to be up all night. Put
+Bathurst down with me,” he said, in a low tone, as the Major rose from
+the table. “He knows that I understand him, and it will be less painful
+for him to be with me than with anyone else. I will go up at once, and
+send young Harper down to his breakfast. There will be no occasion to
+have Bathurst up this time. The Sepoys are not likely to be trying any
+pranks at present. No doubt they have gone back to their lines to get a
+meal.”
+
+The Doctor had not been long at his post when Isobel Hannay came up
+onto the terrace. They had seen each other alone comparatively little of
+late, as the Doctor had given up his habit of dropping in for a chat in
+the morning since their conversation about Bathurst.
+
+“Well, my dear, what is it?” he asked. “This is no place for you, for
+there are a few fellows still lurking among the trees, and they send a
+shot over the house occasionally.”
+
+“I came up to say that I am sorry, Doctor.”
+
+“That is right, Isobel. Always say you are sorry when you are so,
+although in nine cases out of ten, and this is one of them, the saying
+so is too late to do much good.”
+
+“I think you are rather hard upon me, Doctor. I know you were speaking
+at me today when you were talking to the others, especially in what you
+said at the end.”
+
+“Perhaps I was; but I think you quite deserved it.”
+
+“Yes, I know I did; but it was hard to tell me it was as contemptible to
+despise a man for a physical weakness he could not help, as to despise
+one for being born humpbacked or a cripple, when you know that my
+brother was so.”
+
+“I wanted you to feel that your conduct had been contemptible, Isobel,
+and I put it in the way that was most likely to come home to you. I have
+been disappointed in you. I thought you were more sensible than the run
+of young women, and I found out that you were not. I thought you had
+some confidence in my judgment, but it turned out that you had not.
+If Bathurst had been killed when he was standing up, a target for the
+Sepoys, I should have held you morally responsible for his death.”
+
+“You would have shared the responsibility, anyhow, Doctor, for it was
+you who repeated my words to him.”
+
+“We will not go over that ground again,” said the Doctor quietly. “I
+gave you my reasons for doing so, and those reasons are to my mind
+convincing. Now I will tell you how this constitutional nervousness on
+his part arose. He told me the story; but as at that time there had
+been no occasion for him to show whether he was brave or otherwise, I
+considered my lips sealed. Now that his weakness has been exhibited, I
+consider myself more than justified in explaining its origin.”
+
+And he then repeated the story Bathurst had told him.
+
+“You see,” he said, when he had finished, “it is a constitutional matter
+beyond his control; it is a sort of antipathy. I have known a case of a
+woman courageous in all other respects, who, at the sight of even a
+dead cockroach, would faint away. I have seen one of the most gallant
+officers of my acquaintance turn pale at the sight of a spider.
+Certainly no one would think of calling either one or the other coward;
+and assuredly such a name should not be applied to a man who would face
+a tiger armed only with a whip in defense of a native woman, because his
+nerves go all to pieces at the sound of firearms.”
+
+“If you had told me all this before I should never have spoken as I
+did,” Isobel pleaded.
+
+“I did not go into the full details, but I told you that he was not
+responsible for his want of firmness under fire, and that I knew him
+in other respects to be a brave man,” the Doctor said uncompromisingly.
+“Since then you have by your manner driven him away from you. You have
+flirted--well, you may not call it flirting,” he broke off in answer
+to a gesture of denial, “but it was the same thing--with a man who is
+undoubtedly a gallant soldier--a very paladin, if you like--but who,
+in spite of his handsome face and pleasant manner, is no more to be
+compared with Bathurst in point of moral qualities or mental ability
+than light to dark, and this after I had like an old fool gone out of my
+way to warn you. You have disappointed me altogether, Isobel Hannay.”
+
+Isobel stood motionless before him, with downcast eyes.
+
+“Well, there, my dear,” the Doctor went on hurriedly, as he saw a tear
+glisten in her eyelashes; “don’t let us say anything more about it. In
+the first place, it is no affair of mine; and in the second place, your
+point of view was that most women would take at a time like this; only,
+you know, I expected you would not have done just as other women would.
+We cannot afford to quarrel now, for there is no doubt that, although we
+may put a good face on the matter, our position is one of grave peril,
+and it is of no use troubling over trifles. Now run away, and get a few
+hours’ sleep if you can. You will want all your strength before we are
+through with this business.”
+
+While the Doctor had been talking to Isobel, the men had gathered below
+in a sort of informal council, the subject being Bathurst’s conduct on
+the roof.
+
+“I would not have believed it if I had not seen it,” Captain Rintoul
+said. “The man was absolutely helpless with fright; I never saw such an
+exhibition; and then his fainting afterwards and having to be carried
+away was disgusting; in fact, it is worse than that.”
+
+There was a general murmur of assent.
+
+“It is disgraceful,” one of the civilians said; “I am ashamed that the
+man should belong to our service; the idea of a fellow being helpless by
+fright when there are women and children to be defended--it is downright
+revolting.”
+
+“Well, he did go and stick himself up in front,” Wilson said; “you
+should remember that. He may have been in a blue funk, I don’t say he
+wasn’t; still, you know, he didn’t go away and try to hide himself, but
+he stuck himself up in front for them to fire at. I think we ought to
+take that into consideration.”
+
+“Dr. Wade says Bathurst put himself there to try and accustom himself to
+fire,” Captain Forster said. “Mind, I don’t pretend to like the man. We
+were at school together, and he was a coward then and a sneak, but for
+all that one should look at it fairly. The Doctor asserts that Bathurst
+is morally brave, but that somehow or other his nerves are too much
+for him. I don’t pretend to understand it myself, but there is no
+doubt about the Doctor’s pluck, and I don’t think he would stand up
+for Bathurst as he does unless he really thought he was not altogether
+accountable for showing the white feather. I think, too, from what he
+let drop, that the Major is to some extent of the same opinion. What do
+you think, Doolan?”
+
+“I like Bathurst,” Captain Doolan said; “I have always thought him a
+first rate fellow; but one can’t stick up, you know, for a fellow who
+can’t behave as a gentleman ought to, especially when there are women
+and children in danger.”
+
+“It. is quite impossible that we should associate with him,” Captain
+Rintoul said. “I don’t propose that we should tell him what we think of
+him, but I think we ought to leave him severely alone.”
+
+“I should say that he ought to be sent to Coventry,” Richards said.
+
+“I should not put it in that way,” Mr. Hunter said gravely. “I have
+always esteemed Bathurst. I look upon it as a terribly sad case; but
+I agree with Captain Rintoul that, in the position in which we are now
+placed, a man who proves himself to be a coward must be made to feel
+that he stands apart from us. I should not call it sending him to
+Coventry, or anything of that sort, but I do think that we should
+express by our manner that we don’t wish to have any communication with
+him.”
+
+There was a general expression of assent to this opinion, Wilson alone
+protesting against it.
+
+“You can do as you like,” he said; “but certainly I shall speak to
+Bathurst, and I am sure the Doctor and Major Hannay will do so. I don’t
+want to stand up for a coward, but I believe what the Doctor says. I
+have seen a good deal of Bathurst, and I like him; besides, haven’t you
+heard the story the Doctor has been telling about his attacking a tiger
+with a whip to save a native woman? I don’t care what anyone says, a
+fellow who is a downright coward couldn’t do a thing like that.”
+
+“Who told the Doctor about it?” Farquharson asked. “If he got it from
+Bathurst, I don’t think it goes for much after what we have seen.”
+
+Wilson would have replied angrily, but Captain Doolan put his hand on
+his shoulder.
+
+“Shut up, Wilson,” he said; “this is no time for disputes; we are all in
+one boat here, and must row together like brothers. You go your own
+way about Bathurst, I don’t blame you for it; he is a man everyone has
+liked, a first rate official, and a good fellow all round, except he is
+not one of the sociable kind. At any other time one would not think so
+much of this, but at present for a man to lack courage is for him to
+lack everything. I hope he will come better out of it than it looks at
+present. He will have plenty of chances here, and no one will be more
+glad than I shall to see him pull himself together.”
+
+The Doctor, however, would have quarreled with everyone all round when
+he heard what had been decided upon, had not Major Hannay taken him
+aside and talked to him strongly.
+
+“It will never do, Doctor, to have quarrels here, and as commandant I
+must beg of you not to make this a personal matter. I am very sorry for
+this poor fellow; I accept entirely your view of the matter; but at
+the same time I really can’t blame the others for looking at it from a
+matter of fact point of view. Want of courage is at all times regarded
+by men as the most unpardonable of failings, and at a time like the
+present this feeling is naturally far stronger even than usual. I hope
+with you that Bathurst will retrieve himself yet, but we shall certainly
+do him no good by trying to fight his battle until he does. You and
+I, thinking as we do, will of course make no alteration in our manner
+towards him. I am glad to hear that young Wilson also stands as his
+friend. Let matters go on quietly. I believe they will come right in the
+end.”
+
+The Doctor was obliged to acknowledge that the Major’s counsel was wise,
+and to refrain from either argument or sarcasm; but the effort required
+to check his natural tendency to wordy conflict was almost too great for
+him, and when not engaged in his own special duties he spent hours in
+one of the angles of the terrace keenly watching every tree and bush
+within range, and firing vengefully whenever he caught sight of a
+lurking native. So accurate was his aim that the Sepoys soon learned
+to know and dread the crack of his rifle; and whenever it spoke out the
+ground within its range was speedily clear of foes.
+
+The matter, however, caused a deep if temporary estrangement between
+Wilson and Richards. Although constantly chaffing each other, and
+engaged in verbal strife, they had hitherto been firm friends. Their
+rivalry in the matter of horseflesh had not aroused angry feelings, even
+their mutual adoration of Isobel Hannay had not affected a breach in
+their friendship; but upon the subject of sending Bathurst to
+Coventry they quarreled so hotly, that for a time they broke off all
+communication with each other, and both in their hearts regretted that
+their schoolboy days had passed, and that they could not settle the
+matter in good schoolboy fashion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+But though obliged to defer to Major Hannay’s wishes, and to abstain
+from arguing with the men the question of Bathurst being given the cold
+shoulder, Dr. Wade had already organized the ladies in his favor. During
+the afternoon he had told them the tiger story, and had confidentially
+informed them how it was that Bathurst from his birth had been
+the victim of something like nervous paralysis at all loud sounds,
+especially those of the discharge of firearms.
+
+“His conduct today,” he said, “and his courage in rescuing that native
+girl from the tiger, illustrate his character. He is cool, brave, and
+determined, as might be expected from a man of so well balanced a mind
+as his; and even when his nerves utterly broke down under the din of
+musketry, his will was so far dominant that he forced himself to
+go forward and stand there under fire, an act which was, under the
+circumstances, simply heroic.”
+
+There is little difficulty in persuading women as to the merits of a man
+they like, and Bathurst had, since the troubles began, been much more
+appreciated than before by the ladies of Deennugghur. They had felt
+there was something strengthening and cheering in his presence, for
+while not attempting to minimize the danger, there was a calm confidence
+in his manner that comforted and reassured those he talked to.
+
+In the last twenty-four hours, too, he had unobtrusively performed many
+little kindnesses; had aided in the removals, carried the children,
+looked after the servants, and had been foremost in the arrangement of
+everything that could add to the comfort of the ladies.
+
+“I am glad you have told us all about it, Doctor,” Mrs. Doolan said;
+“and, of course, no one would dream of blaming him. I had heard that
+story about his leaving the army years ago; but although I had only seen
+him once or twice, I did not believe it for a minute. What you tell us
+now, Doctor, explains the whole matter. I pity him sincerely. It must be
+something awful for a man at a time like this not to be able to take his
+part in the defense, especially when there are us women here. Why, it
+would pain me less to see Jim brought in dead, than for him to show the
+white feather. What can we do for the poor fellow?”
+
+“Treat him just as usual. There is nothing else you can do, Mrs. Doolan.
+Any tone of sympathy, still less of pity, would be the worst thing
+possible. He is in the lowest depths at present; but if he finds by your
+tone and manner that you regard him on the same footing as before, he
+will gradually come round, and I hope that before the end of the siege
+he will have opportunities of retrieving himself. Not under fire--that
+is hopeless; but in other ways.”
+
+“You may be sure we will do all we can, Doctor,” Mrs. Doolan said
+warmly; “and there are plenty of ways he will be able to make himself
+most useful. There is somebody wanted to look after all those syces and
+servants, and it would be a comfort to us to have someone to talk to
+occasionally; besides, all the children are fond of him.”
+
+This sentiment was warmly echoed; and thus, when the determination
+at which the men had arrived to cut Bathurst became known, there was
+something like a feminine revolution.
+
+“You may do as you like,” Mrs. Doolan said indignantly; “but if you
+think that we are going to do anything so cruel and unjust, you are
+entirely mistaken, I can tell you.”
+
+Mrs. Rintoul was equally emphatic, and Mrs. Hunter quietly, but with
+as much decision, protested. “I have always regarded Mr. Bathurst as a
+friend,” she said, “and I shall continue to do so. It is very sad for
+him that he cannot take part in the defense, but it is no more fair
+to blame him than it would be to blame us, because we, too, are
+noncombatants.”
+
+Isobel Hannay had taken no part in the first discussion among the
+ladies, nor did she say anything now.
+
+“It is cruel and unjust,” she said to herself, “but they only think as
+I did. I was more cruel and unjust than they, for there was no talk
+of danger then. I expressed my contempt of him because there was a
+suspicion that he had showed cowardice ten years ago, while they have
+seen it shown now when there is fearful peril. If they are cruel and
+unjust, what was I?”
+
+Later on the men gathered together at one end of the room, and talked
+over the situation.
+
+“Dr. Wade,” the Major said quietly, “I shall be obliged if you will go
+and ask Mr. Bathurst to join us. He knows the people round here better
+than any of us, and his opinion will be valuable.”
+
+The Doctor, who had several times been in to see Bathurst, went to his
+room.
+
+“The Major wants you to join us, Bathurst; we are having a talk over
+things, and he wishes to have your opinion. I had better tell you that
+as to yourself the camp is divided into two parties. On one side are the
+Major, Wilson, and myself, and all the ladies, who take, I need not say,
+a common sense view of the matter, and recognize that you have done all
+a man could do to overcome your constitutional nervousness, and that
+there is no discredit whatever attached to you personally. The rest of
+the men, I am sorry to say, at present take another view of the case,
+and are disposed to show you the cold shoulder.”
+
+“That, of course,” Bathurst said quietly; “as to the ladies’ view of it,
+I know that it is only the result of your good offices, Doctor.”
+
+“Then you will come,” the Doctor said, pleased that Bathurst seemed less
+depressed than he had expected.
+
+“Certainly I will come, Doctor,” Bathurst said, rising; “the worst
+is over now--everyone knows that I am a coward--that is what I have
+dreaded. There is nothing else for me to be afraid of, and it is of no
+use hiding myself.”
+
+“We look quite at home here, Mr. Bathurst, don’t we?” Mrs. Doolan said
+cheerfully, as he passed her; “and I think we all feel a great deal more
+comfortable than we did when you gave us your warning last night; the
+anticipation is always worse than the reality.”
+
+“Not always, I think, Mrs. Doolan,” he said quietly; “but you have
+certainly made yourselves wonderfully at home, though your sewing is of
+a more practical kind than that upon which you are ordinarily engaged.”
+
+Then he passed on with the Doctor to the other end of the room. The
+Major nodded as he came up.
+
+“All right again now, Bathurst, I hope? We want your opinion, for you
+know, I think, more of the Zemindars in this part of the country than
+any of us. Of course, the question is, will they take part against us?”
+
+“I am afraid they will, Major. I had hoped otherwise; but if it be
+true that the Nana has gone--and as the other part of the message was
+correct, I have no doubt this is so also--I am afraid they will be
+carried away with the stream.”
+
+“And you think they have guns?”
+
+“I have not the least doubt of it; the number given up was a mere
+fraction of those they were said to have possessed.”
+
+“I had hoped the troops would have marched away after the lesson we gave
+them this morning, but, so far as we can make out, there is no sign of
+movement in their lines. However, they may start at daybreak tomorrow.”
+
+“I will go out to see if you like, Major,” Bathurst said quietly. “I
+can get native clothes from the servants, and I speak the language well
+enough to pass as a native; so if you give me permission I will go out
+to the lines and learn what their intentions are.”
+
+“It would be a very dangerous undertaking,” the Major said gravely.
+
+“I have no fear whatever of danger of that kind, Major; my nerves are
+steady enough, except when there is a noise of firearms, and then, as
+you all saw this morning, I cannot control them, do what I will. Risks
+of any other kind I am quite prepared to undertake, but in this matter
+I think the danger is very slight, the only difficulty being to get
+through the line of sentries they have no doubt posted round the house.
+Once past them, I think there is practically no risk whatever of their
+recognizing me when made up as a native. The Doctor has, no doubt, got
+some iodine in his surgery, and a coat of that will bring me to the
+right color.”
+
+“Well, if you are ready to undertake it, I will not refuse,” the Major
+said. “How would you propose to get out?”
+
+“I noticed yesterday that the branches of one of the trees in the garden
+extended beyond the top of the wall. I will climb up that and lower
+myself on the other side by a rope; that is a very simple matter. The
+spot is close to the edge of Mr. Hunter’s compound, and I shall work my
+way through the shrubbery till I feel sure I am beyond any sentries
+who may be posted there; the chances are that they will not be thick
+anywhere, except opposite the gate. By the way, Captain Forster, before
+I go I must thank you for having risked your life to save mine this
+morning. I heard from Mrs. Hunter that it was you and the Doctor who
+rushed forward and drew me back.”
+
+“It is not worth talking about,” Captain Forster said carelessly. “You
+seemed bent on making a target of yourself; and as the Major’s orders
+were that everyone was to lie down, there was nothing for it but to
+remove you.”
+
+Bathurst turned to Dr. Wade. “Will you superintend my get up, Doctor?”
+
+“Certainly,” the Doctor said, with alacrity. “I will guarantee that,
+with the aid of my boy, I will turn you out so that no one would know
+you even in broad daylight, to say nothing of the dark.”
+
+A quarter of an hour sufficed to metamorphose Bathurst into an Oude
+peasant. He did not return to the room, but, accompanied by the Doctor,
+made his way to the tree he had spoken of.
+
+“By the way, you have taken no arms,” the Doctor said suddenly.
+
+“They would be useless, Doctor; if I am recognized I shall be killed; if
+I am not discovered, and the chances are very slight of my being so, I
+shall get back safely. By the way, we will tie some knots on that rope
+before I let myself down. I used to be able to climb a rope without
+them, but I doubt whether I could do so now.”
+
+“Well, God bless you, lad, and bring you back safely! You may make as
+light of it as you will, but it is a dangerous expedition. However, I
+am glad you have undertaken it, come what may, for it has given you the
+opportunity of showing you are not afraid of danger when it takes any
+other form than that of firearms. There are plenty of men who would
+stand up bravely enough in a fight, who would not like to undertake
+this task of going out alone in the dark into the middle of these
+bloodthirsty scoundrels. How long do you think you will be?”
+
+“A couple of hours at the outside.”
+
+“Well, at the end of an hour I shall be back here again. Don’t be longer
+than you can help, lad, for I shall be very anxious until you return.”
+
+When the Doctor re-entered the house there was a chorus of questions:
+
+“Has Mr. Bathurst started?”
+
+“Why did you not bring him in here before he left? We should all have
+liked to have said goodby to him.”
+
+“Yes, he has gone. I have seen him over the wall; and it was much better
+that he should go without any fuss. He went off just as quietly and
+unconcernedly as if he had been going out for an ordinary evening’s
+walk. Now I am going up onto the roof. I don’t say we should hear any
+hubbub down at the lines if he were discovered there, but we should
+certainly hear a shout if he came across any of the sentries round the
+house.”
+
+“Has he taken any arms, Doctor?” the Major asked.
+
+“None whatever, Major. I asked him if he would not take pistols, but he
+refused.”
+
+“Well, I don’t understand that,” Captain Forster remarked. “If I had
+gone on such a business I would have taken a couple of revolvers. I am
+quite ready to take my chance of being killed fighting, but I should not
+like to be seized and hacked to pieces in cold blood. My theory is a man
+should sell his life as dearly as he can.”
+
+“That is the animal instinct, Forster,” the Doctor said sharply; “though
+I don’t say that I should not feel the same myself; but I question
+whether Bathurst’s is not a higher type of courage.”
+
+“Well, I don’t aspire to Bathurst’s type of courage, Doctor,” Forster
+said, with a short laugh.
+
+But the Doctor did not answer. He had already turned away, and was
+making for the stairs.
+
+“May I go with you, Doctor?” Isobel Hannay said, following him. “It is
+very hot down here.”
+
+“Yes; come along, child; but there is no time to lose, for Bathurst
+must be near where they are likely to have posted their sentries by this
+time.”
+
+“Everything quiet, Wilson?” he asked the young subaltern, who, with
+another, was on guard on the roof.
+
+“Yes; we have heard nothing except a few distant shouts and noises out
+at the lines. Round here there has been nothing moving, except that we
+heard someone go out into the garden just now.”
+
+“I went out with Bathurst,” the Doctor said. “He has gone in the
+disguise of a native to the Sepoy lines, to find out what are their
+intentions.”
+
+“I heard the talk over it, Doctor. I only came up on watch a few minutes
+since. I thought it was most likely him when I heard the steps.”
+
+“I hope he is beyond the sentries,” the Doctor said. “I have come up
+here to listen.”
+
+“I expect he is through them before this,” Wilson said confidently. “I
+wish I could have gone with him; but of course it would not have been
+any good. It is a beautiful night--isn’t it, Miss Hannay?--and there is
+scarcely any dew falling.”
+
+“Now, you go off to your post in the corner, Wilson. Your instructions
+are to listen for the slightest sound, and to assure us against the
+Sepoys creeping up to the walls. We did not come up here to distract you
+from your duties, or to gossip.”
+
+“There are Richards and another posted somewhere in the garden,” Wilson
+said. “Still, I suppose you are right, Doctor; but if you, Miss Hannay,
+have come up to listen, come and sit in my corner; it is the one nearest
+to the lines.”
+
+“You may as well go and sit down, Isobel,” the Doctor said; “that is,
+if you intend to stay up here long;” and they went across with Wilson to
+his post.
+
+“Shall I put one of these sandbags for you to sit on?”
+
+“I would rather stand, thank you;” and they stood for some time silently
+watching the fires in the lines.
+
+“They are drawing pretty heavily on the wood stores,” the Doctor
+growled; “there is a good deal more than the regulation allowance
+blazing in those fires. I can make out a lot of figures moving about
+round them; no doubt numbers of the peasants have come in.”
+
+“Do you think Mr. Bathurst has got beyond the line of sentries?” Isobel
+said, after standing perfectly quiet for some time.
+
+“Oh, yes, a long way; probably he was through by the time we came up
+here. They are not likely to post them more than fifty or sixty yards
+from the wall; and, indeed, it is, as Bathurst pointed out to me,
+probable that they are only thick near the gate. All they want to do is
+to prevent us slipping away. I should think that Bathurst must be out
+near the lines by this time.”
+
+Isobel moved a few paces away from the others, and again stood
+listening.
+
+“I suppose you do not think that there is any chance of an attack
+tonight, Doctor?” Wilson asked, in low tones.
+
+“Not in the least; the natives are not fond of night work. I expect they
+are dividing the spoil and quarreling over it; anyhow, they have had
+enough of it for today. They may intend to march away in the morning, or
+they may have sent to Cawnpore to ask for orders, or they may have heard
+from some of the Zemindars that they are coming in to join them--that is
+what Bathurst has gone out to learn; but anyhow I do not think they will
+attack us again with their present force.”
+
+“I wish there were a few more of us,” Wilson said, “so that we could
+venture on a sortie.”
+
+“So do I, lad; but it is no use thinking about it as it is. We have to
+wait; our fate is not in our own hands.”
+
+“And you think matters look bad, Doctor?”
+
+“I think they could hardly look worse. Unless the mutineers take it into
+their heads to march away, there is, humanly speaking, but one chance
+for us, and that is that Lawrence may thrash the Sepoys so completely
+at Lucknow that he may be able to send out a force to bring us in. The
+chances of that are next to nothing; for in addition to a very large
+Sepoy force he has the population of Lucknow--one of the most turbulent
+in India--on his hands. Ah, what is that?”
+
+Two musket shots in quick succession from the Sepoy lines broke the
+silence of the evening, and a startled exclamation burst from the girl
+standing near them.
+
+The Doctor went over to her.
+
+“Do you think--do you think,” she said in a low, strained voice, “that
+it was Bathurst?”
+
+“Not at all. If they detected him, and I really do not see that there is
+a chance of their doing so, disguised as he was, they would have seized
+him and probably killed him, but there would be no firing. He has gone
+unarmed, you know, and would offer no resistance. Those shots you heard
+were doubtless the result of some drunken quarrel over the loot.”
+
+“Do you really think so, Doctor?”
+
+“I feel quite sure of it. If it had been Forster who had gone out, and
+he had been detected, it would have been natural enough that we should
+hear the sound of something like a battle. In the first place, he would
+have defended himself desperately, and, in the next, he might have made
+his way through them and escaped; but, as I said, with Bathurst there
+would be no occasion for their firing.”
+
+“Why didn’t he come in to say goodby before he went? that is what I
+wanted to ask you, Doctor, and why I came up here. I wanted to have
+spoken to him, if only for a moment, before he started. I tried to catch
+his eye as he went out of the room with you, but he did not even look at
+me. It will be so hard if he never comes back, to know that he went away
+without my having spoken to him again. I did try this morning to tell
+him that I was sorry for what I said, but he would not listen to me.”
+
+“You will have an opportunity of telling him when he comes back, if you
+want to, or of showing him so by your manner, which would be, perhaps,
+less painful to both of you.”
+
+“I don’t care about pain to myself,” the girl said. “I have been unjust,
+and deserve it.”
+
+“I don’t think he considers you unjust. I did, and told you so. He feels
+what he considers the disgrace so much that it seems to him perfectly
+natural he should be despised.”
+
+“Yes, but I want him to see that he is not despised,” she said quickly.
+“You don’t understand, Doctor.”
+
+“I do understand perfectly, my dear; at least, I think--I think I do; I
+see that you want to put yourself straight with him, which is very right
+and proper, especially placed as we all are; but I would not do or say
+anything hastily. You have spoken hastily once, you see, and made a mess
+of it. I should be careful how I did it again, unless, of course,” and
+he stopped.
+
+“Unless what, Doctor?” Isobel asked shyly, after a long pause. But there
+was no reply; and looking round she saw that her companion had moved
+quietly away and had joined Wilson at his post. She stood for a
+few minutes in the same attitude, and then moved quietly across the
+staircase in the center of the terrace, and went down to the party
+below. A short time later the Doctor followed her, and, taking his
+rifle, went out into the garden with Captain Doolan, who assisted him in
+climbing the tree, and handed his gun up to him. The Doctor made his
+way out on the branch to the spot where it extended beyond the wall, and
+there sat, straining his eyes into the darkness. Half an hour passed,
+and then he heard a light footfall on the sandy soil.
+
+“Is that you, Bathurst?” he whispered.
+
+“All right, Doctor;” and a minute later Bathurst sat on the branch
+beside him.
+
+“Well, what’s your news?”
+
+“Very bad, Doctor; they expect the Rajah Por Sing, who, it seems, is the
+leader of the party in this district, and several other Zemindars, to be
+here with guns tomorrow or next day. The news from Cawnpore was true..
+The native troops mutinied and marched away, but were joined by Nana
+Sahib and his force, and he persuaded them to return and attack the
+whites in their intrenchments at Cawnpore, as they would not be well
+received at Delhi unless they had properly accomplished their share of
+the work of rooting out the Feringhees.”
+
+“The infernal scoundrel!” the Doctor exclaimed; “after pretending for
+years to be our best friend. I’m disgusted to think that I have drunk
+his champagne a dozen times. However, that makes little difference to us
+now, your other news is the most important. We could have resisted
+the Sepoys for a month; but if they bring up guns there can be but one
+ending to it.”
+
+“That is so, Doctor. The only hope I can see is that they may find our
+resistance so obstinate as to be glad to grant us terms of surrender.”
+
+“Yes, there is that chance,” the Doctor agreed; “but history shows there
+is but little reliance to be placed upon native oaths.”
+
+Bathurst was silent; his own experience of the natives had taught him
+the same lesson.
+
+“It is a poor hope,” he said, after a while; “but it is the only one, so
+far as I can see.”
+
+Not another word was spoken as they descended the tree and walked across
+to the house.
+
+“Never mind about changing your things, come straight in.”
+
+“Our scout has returned,” the Doctor said, as he entered the room. There
+was a general exclamation of gladness on the part of the ladies who had
+not retired.
+
+“I am very glad to see you safe back, Mr. Bathurst,” Mrs. Hunter said,
+going up to him and taking his hand. “We have all been very anxious
+since you left.”
+
+“The danger was very slight, Mrs. Hunter. I only wish I had brought you
+back the news that the native lines were deserted and the mutineers in
+full march for Delhi and Lucknow.”
+
+“I was afraid you would hardly bring that news, Mr. Bathurst; it was
+almost too good to hope for. However, we are all glad that you are back.
+Are we not, Isobel?”
+
+“We are indeed, Mr. Bathurst, though as yet I can hardly persuade myself
+that it is you in that get up.”
+
+“I think there is no doubt of my identity. Can you tell me where you
+uncle is, Miss Hannay? I have to make my report to him.”
+
+“He is on the roof. There is a sort of general gathering of our
+defenders there.”
+
+Two lamps had been placed in the center of the terrace, and round these
+the little garrison were grouped, some sitting on boxes, others lying on
+mats, almost all smoking. Bathurst was greeted heartily by the Major and
+Wilson as soon as he was recognized.
+
+“I am awfully glad to see you back,” Wilson said, shaking him warmly by
+the hand. “I wish I could have gone with you. Two together does not seem
+so bad, but I should not like to start out by myself as you did.”
+
+There was a hearty cordiality in the young fellow’s voice that was very
+pleasant to Bathurst.
+
+“We have all our gifts, as Hawkeye used to say, as I have no doubt you
+remember, Wilson. Such gifts as I have lay in the way of solitary work,
+I fancy.”
+
+“Now, light a cheroot, Bathurst,” the Major said, “and drink off this
+tumbler of brandy and soda, and then let us hear your story.”
+
+“The story is simple enough, Major. I got through without difficulty.
+The sentries are some distance apart round the garden wall. As soon as I
+discovered by the sound of their footsteps where they were, it was easy
+enough to get through them. Then I made a longish detour, and came down
+on the lines from the other side. There was no occasion for concealment
+then. Numbers of the country people had come in, and were gathered round
+the Sepoys’ fires, and I was able to move about amongst them, and listen
+to the conversation without the smallest hindrance.
+
+“The Sepoys were loudly expressing their dissatisfaction at their
+officers leading them against the house today, when they had no means
+of either battering down the walls or scaling them. Then there was a
+general opinion that treachery was at work; for how else should the
+Europeans have known they were going to rise that morning, and so moved
+during the night into the house? There was much angry recrimination
+and quarreling, and many expressed their regret they had not marched
+straight to Cawnpore after burning the bungalows.
+
+“All this was satisfactory; but I learned that Por Sing and several
+other Zemindars had already sent in assurances that they were wholly
+with them, and would be here, with guns to batter down the walls, some
+time tomorrow.”
+
+“That is bad news, indeed,” the Major said gravely, when he had
+finished. “Of course, when we heard that Nana Sahib had thrown in his
+lot with the mutineers, it was probable that many of the landowners
+would go the same way; but if the Sepoys had marched off they might not
+have attacked us on their own account. Now we know that the Sepoys are
+going to stay, and that they will have guns, it alters our position
+altogether.”
+
+There was a murmur of assent.
+
+“I should tell you before you talk the matter over further,” Bathurst
+went on, “that during the last hour some hundreds of peasants have taken
+up their posts round the house in addition to the Sepoy sentries. I came
+back with one party about a hundred strong. They are posted a couple of
+hundred yards or so in front of the gate. I slipped away from them in
+the dark and made my way here.”
+
+“Well, gentlemen, what do you think we had better do?” the Major said;
+“we are all in the same boat, and I should like to have your opinions.
+We may defend this house successfully for days--possibly we may even
+tire them out--but on the other hand they may prove too strong for
+us. If the wall were breached we could hardly hope to defend it, and,
+indeed, if they constructed plenty of ladders they could scale it at
+night in a score of places. We must, therefore, regard the house as our
+citadel, close up the lower windows and doors with sandbags, and defend
+it to the last. Still, if they are determined, the lookout is not a very
+bright one.”
+
+“I am in favor of our cutting our way out, Major,” Captain Forster
+said; “if we are cooped up here, we must, as you say, in the long run be
+beaten.”
+
+“That would be all very well, Captain Forster, if we were all men,”
+ Mr. Hunter said. “There are sixteen of us and there are in all eighteen
+horses, for I and Farquharson have two each; but there are eight women
+and fourteen children; so all the horses would have to carry double. We
+certainly could not hope to escape from them with our horses so laden;
+and if they came up with us, what fighting could we do with women behind
+our saddles? Moreover, we certainly could not leave the servants, who
+have been true to us, to the mercy of the Sepoys.”
+
+“Besides, where could we go?” the Doctor asked. “The garrison at
+Cawnpore, we know, are besieged by overwhelming numbers. We do not know
+much as to the position at Lucknow, but certainly the Europeans are
+immensely outnumbered there, and I think we may assume that they
+are also besieged. It is a very long distance either to Agra or to
+Allahabad; and with the whole country up in arms against us, and the
+cavalry here at our heels, the prospect seems absolutely hopeless. What
+do you think, Doolan? You and Rintoul have your wives here, and you have
+children. I consider that the question concerns you married men more
+than us.”
+
+“It is a case of the frying pan and the fire, as far as I can see,
+Doctor. At any rate, here we have got walls to light behind, and food
+for weeks, and plenty of ammunition. I am for selling our lives as
+dearly as we can here rather than go outside to be chased like jackals.”
+
+“I agree with you, Doolan,” Captain Rintoul said. “Here we may be able
+to make terms with them, but once outside the walls we should be at the
+scoundrels’ mercy. If it were not for the women and children I should
+agree entirely with Forster that our best plan would be to throw open
+our gates and make a dash for it, keeping together as long as we could,
+and then, if necessary, separating and trying to make our way down to
+Agra or Allahabad as best we could; but with ladies that does not seem
+to be possible.”
+
+The opinion of the married civilians was entirely in accord with that of
+Mr. Hunter.
+
+“But what hope is there of defending this place in the long run?”
+ Captain Forster said. “If I saw any chance at all I should be quite
+willing to wait; but I would infinitely rather sally out at once and
+go for them and be killed than wait here day after day and perhaps week
+after week, seeing one’s fate drawing nearer inch by inch. What do you
+say, Bathurst? We haven’t had your opinion yet.”
+
+“I do not think that the defense is so hopeless as you suppose, although
+I admit that the chances are greatly against us,” Bathurst said quietly.
+“I think there is a hope of tiring the natives out. The Sepoys know well
+enough there can be no great amount of loot here, while they think that
+were they at Cawnpore, at Lucknow, or still more at Delhi, their chances
+of plunder would be much greater. Moreover, I think that men in their
+position, having offended, as it were, without hope of pardon, would
+naturally desire to flock together. There is comfort and encouragement
+in numbers. Therefore, I am sure they will very speedily become
+impatient if they do not meet with success, and would be inclined to
+grant terms rather than waste time here.
+
+“It is the same thing with the native gentry. They will want to be off
+to Lucknow or Delhi, where they will know more how things are going,
+and where, no doubt, they reckon upon obtaining posts of importance and
+increased possessions under the new order of things. Therefore, I think,
+they, as well as the Sepoys, are likely, if they find the task longer
+and more difficult than they expect, to be ready to grant terms. I have
+no great faith in native oaths. Still they might be kept.
+
+“Captain Forster’s proposal I regard as altogether impracticable. We are
+something like two hundred and fifty miles from the nearest British post
+where we could hope to find refuge, and with the horses carrying double,
+the troopers at our heels directly we start, and the country hostile,
+I see no chance whatever, not a vestige of one, of our getting safely
+away.
+
+“But there is a third alternative by which some might escape; it is,
+that we should make our way out on foot, break up into parties of twos
+and threes; steal or fight our way through the sentries, and then for
+each party to shift for itself, making its way as best it can, traveling
+by night and lying up in woods or plantations by day; getting food at
+times from friendly natives, and subsisting, for the most part, upon
+what might be gathered in the fields. In that way some might escape,
+but the suffering and hardships of the women and children would be
+terrible.”
+
+“I agree with you,” Mr. Hunter said; “such a journey would be frightful
+to contemplate, and I don’t think, in our case, that my wife could
+possibly perform such a journey; still, some might do so. At any rate, I
+think the chances are better than they would be were we to ride out in
+a body. I should suggest, Major, when the crisis seems to be
+approaching--that is, when it is clear that we can’t defend ourselves
+much longer--it would be fair that each should be at liberty to try to
+get out and make down the country.”
+
+“Certainly,” the Major agreed; “we are in a position of men on board a
+sinking ship with the boats gone; we should try to the end to save the
+ship, but when all hope of doing that is over, each may try to get to
+shore as he best can. As long as the house can be defended, all must
+remain and bear their share in the struggle, but when we decide that it
+is but a question of hours, all who choose will be at liberty to try to
+escape.”
+
+“It will be vastly more difficult then than now,” Captain Forster said;
+“Bathurst made his way out tonight without difficulty, but they will
+be a great deal more vigilant when they know we cannot hold out much
+longer. I don’t see how it would be possible for women and children to
+get through them.”
+
+“We might then adopt your scheme, to a certain extent, Forster,” Major
+Hannay said. “We could mount, sally out suddenly, break through their
+pickets, and as soon as we are beyond them scatter; those who like can
+try to make their way down on horseback, those who prefer it try to do
+so on foot. That would at least give us an alternative should the siege
+be pushed on to the last, and we find ourselves unable to make terms.”
+
+There was general assent to the Major’s proposal, which seemed to offer
+better chances than any. There was the hope that the mutineers might
+tire of the siege and march away; that if they pressed it, terms might
+be at last obtained from them, and that, failing everything else, the
+garrison might yet make their way down country.
+
+“As there is evidently no chance of an attack during the night,” the
+Major said, “we will divide into two watches and relieve each other
+every four hours; that will give two as lookouts on the roof and six
+in the inclosure. As you are senior officer next to myself, Doolan, you
+will take charge of one watch; I shall myself take charge of the other.
+Forster and Wilson be with me, Rintoul and Richards with you. Mr. Hardy,
+will you and the other gentlemen divide your numbers into two watches?
+Dr. Wade counts as a combatant until his hospital begins to fill.”
+
+“I fancy he may be counted as a combatant all through,” the Doctor
+muttered.
+
+“Tomorrow morning,” the Major went on, “we will continue the work of
+filling sandbags. There are still a large number of empty bags on hand.
+We shall want them for all the lower windows and doors, and the
+more there are of them the better; and we must also keep a supply in
+readiness to make a retrenchment if they should breach the wall. Now,
+Mr. Hunter, as soon as you have made out your list my watch can go on
+duty, and I should advise the others to turn in without delay.”
+
+When the ladies were informed that half the men were going on watch,
+Mrs. Doolan said, “I have an amendment to propose, Major. Women’s ears
+are just as keen as men’s, and I propose that we supply the sentries on
+the roof. I will volunteer for one.”
+
+The whole of the ladies at once volunteered.
+
+“There is no occasion for so many,” Mrs. Doolan said; “and I propose
+that tonight, at any rate, I should take the first watch with one of the
+Miss Hunters, and that Miss Hannay and the other should take the
+second. That will leave all the gentlemen available for the watch in the
+inclosure.”
+
+The proposal was agreed to, and in a short time the first watch had
+taken their station, and the rest of the garrison lay down to rest.
+
+The night passed off quietly. The first work at which the Major set the
+garrison in the morning was to form six wooden stages against the wall.
+One by the gate, one against the wall at the other end, and two at each
+of the long sides of the inclosure. They were twelve feet in height,
+which enabled those upon them to stand head and shoulders above the
+level of the wall.
+
+When these were completed the whole of the garrison, including the
+ladies and native servants, again set to work filling sandbags with
+earth. As fast as they were finished they were carried in and piled two
+deep against the lower windows, and three deep against the doors, only
+one small door being left undefended, so as to allow a passage in and
+out of the house. Bags were piled in readiness for closing this also in
+case of necessity.
+
+Mrs. Rintoul and another lady had volunteered for a third watch on the
+roof, so that each watch would go on duty once every twelve hours. The
+whole of the men, therefore, were available for work below.
+
+A scattered fire was opened at the house soon after daybreak, and
+was kept up without intermission from bushes and other cover; but the
+watchers on the roof, seated behind the sandbags at opposite angles,
+were well under shelter, peering out occasionally through the crevices
+between the bags to see that no general movement was taking place among
+the enemy.
+
+About midday there was a desultory discharge of firearms from the native
+lines; and the Major, on ascending to the roof, saw a procession of
+elephants and men approaching the camp.
+
+“I expect there are guns there,” he muttered, “and they are going to
+begin in earnest. Ladies, you are relieved of duty at present. I expect
+we shall be hearing from those fellows soon, and we must have someone up
+here who can talk back to them.”
+
+Accordingly the Doctor and Mr. Farquharson, who was the best shot among
+the civilians, took the places of the ladies on the roof. Half an hour
+later the Major went up again.
+
+“They have four cannon,” the Doctor said. “There they are, on that
+slight rise to the left of the lines. I should fancy they are about
+eight hundred yards away. Do you see, there is a crowd gathering behind
+them? Our rifles will carry that distance easily enough, I think. You
+might as well let us have three or four more up here.. The two lads are
+both fair shots, and Hunter was considered a good shikari some years
+ago. We can drive their cannon off that rise; the farther we make them
+take up their post the better, but even at that distance their shooting
+will be wild. The guns are no doubt old ones, and, as likely as not, the
+shot won’t fit. At any rate, though they may trouble us, they will do no
+serious harm till they establish a battery at pretty close quarters.”
+
+The Major went down, and the two subalterns and Mr. Hunter joined the
+Doctor on the roof.
+
+Ten minutes later the boom of four guns in quick succession was heard,
+and the party below stopped for a moment at their work as they heard the
+sound of shot rushing through the air overhead; then came five shots in
+answer from the parapet. Again and again the rifles spoke out, and then
+the Doctor shouted down to those in the courtyard, “They have had enough
+of it already, and are bringing up the elephants to move the cannon
+back. Now, boys,” he said to the subalterns, “an elephant is an easier
+mark than a tiger; aim carefully, and blaze away as quickly as you
+like.”
+
+For five minutes a rapid fire was kept up; then Wilson went below.
+
+“The Doctor asked me to tell you, sir,” he said to the Major, “that
+the guns have been removed. There has been great confusion among the
+natives, and we can see with our glasses eight or ten bodies left on the
+ground. One of the elephants turned and went off at full speed among the
+crowd, and we fancy some of the others were hit. There was great trouble
+in getting them to come up to the guns. The Doctor says it is all over
+for the present.”
+
+Two other large parties with elephants were seen to come up to the
+native lines in the course of the afternoon. The defenders of the roof
+had now turned their attention to their foes in the gardens around, and
+the fire thence was gradually suppressed, until by evening everything
+was quiet.
+
+By this time the work of filling the sandbags was completed; the doors
+and windows had been barricaded, and a large pile of bags lay in the
+inclosure ready for erection at any threatened point.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+When the party met at dinner they were for a time somewhat silent, for
+all were exhausted by their hard work under a blazing sun, but their
+spirits rose under their surroundings.
+
+The native servants had laid the table with as scrupulous care as
+usual; and, except that there was no display of flowers, no change was
+observable.
+
+All had dressed after the work was over, and the men were in white
+drill, and the ladies had, from custom, put on light evening gowns.
+
+The cook had prepared an excellent dinner, and as the champagne went
+round no stranger would have supposed that the party had met under
+unusual circumstances. The Doctor and the two subalterns were
+unaffectedly gay, and as the rest all made an effort to be cheerful, the
+languor that had marked the commencement of the dinner soon wore off.
+
+“Wilson and Richards are becoming quite sportsmen,” the Doctor said.
+“They have tried their hands at tigers but could hardly have expected
+to take part in elephant shooting. They can’t quite settle between
+themselves as to which it was who sent the Rajah’s elephant flying among
+the crowd. Both declare they aimed at that special beast. So, as there
+is no deciding the point, we must consider the honor as divided.”
+
+“It was rather hard on us,” Isobel said, “to be kept working below
+instead of being up there seeing what was going on. But I consider we
+quite did our full share towards the defense today. My hands are quite
+sore with sewing up the mouths of those rough bags. I think the chief
+honors that way lie with Mrs. Rintoul. I am sure she sewed more
+bags than any of us. I had no idea that you were such a worker, Mrs.
+Rintoul.”
+
+“I used to be a quick worker, Miss Hannay, till lately. I have not
+touched a needle since I came out to India.”
+
+“I should recommend you to keep it up. Mrs. Rintoul,” the Doctor said.
+“It has done you more good than all my medicines. I don’t believe I have
+prescribed for you for the last month, and I haven’t seen you looking so
+well since you came out.”
+
+“I suppose I have not had time to feel ill, Doctor,” Mrs. Rintoul said,
+with a slight smile; “all this has been a sort of tonic.”
+
+“And a very useful one, Mrs. Rintoul. We are all of us the better for a
+little stirring up sometimes.”
+
+Captain Forster had, as usual, secured a place next to Isobel Hannay. He
+had been near her all day, carrying the bags as he filled them to her to
+sew up. Bathurst was sitting at the other end of the table, joining but
+little in the conversation.
+
+“I thought Bathurst was going to faint again when the firing began, Miss
+Hannay,” Captain Forster said, in a low voice. “It was quite funny to
+see him give a little start each shot that was fired, and his face was
+as white as my jacket. I never saw such a nervous fellow.”
+
+“You know he cannot help it, Captain Forster,” Isobel said indignantly.
+“I don’t think it is right to make fun of him for what is a great
+misfortune.”
+
+“I am not making fun of him, Miss Hannay. I am pitying him.”
+
+“It did not sound like it,” Isobel said. “I don’t think you can
+understand it, Captain Forster; it must be terrible to be like that.”
+
+“I quite agree with you there. I know I should drown myself or put a
+bullet through my head if I could not show ordinary courage with a lot
+of ladies going on working quietly round me.”
+
+“You must remember that Mr. Bathurst showed plenty of courage in going
+out among the mutineers last night.”
+
+“Yes, he did that very well; but you see, he talks the language so
+thoroughly that, as he said himself, there was very little risk in it.”
+
+“I don’t like you to talk so, Captain Forster,” Isobel said quietly. “I
+do not see much of Mr. Bathurst. I have not spoken to him half a dozen
+times in the last month; but both my uncle and Dr. Wade have a high
+opinion of him, and do not consider that he should be personally blamed
+for being nervous under fire. I feel very sorry for him, and would much
+rather that you did not make remarks like that about him. We have all
+our weak points, and, no doubt, many of them are a good deal worse than
+a mere want of nerve.”
+
+“Your commands shall be obeyed, Miss Hannay. I did not know that
+Bathurst was a protege of the Major’s as well as of the estimable
+Doctor, or I would have said nothing against him.”
+
+“I don’t think Mr. Bathurst is the sort of man to be anyone’s protege,
+Captain Forster,” Isobel said coldly. “However, I think we had better
+change the subject.”
+
+This Captain Forster did easily and adroitly. He had no special feeling
+against Bathurst save a contempt for his weakness; and as he had met him
+but once or twice at the Major’s since he came to the station, he had
+not thought of him in the light of a rival.
+
+Just as dinner was over Richards and one of the civilians came down from
+the terrace.
+
+“I think that there is something up, Major. I can hear noises somewhere
+near where Mr. Hunter’s bungalow was.”
+
+“What sort of noises, Richards?”
+
+“There is a sort of murmur, as if there were a good many men there.”
+
+“Well, gentlemen, we had better go to our posts,” the Major said.
+“Doolan, please place your watch on the platforms by the wall. I will
+take my party up onto the terrace. Doctor, will you bring up some of
+those rockets you made the other day? We must try and find out what they
+are doing.”
+
+As soon as he gained the terrace with his party, the Major requested
+everyone to remain perfectly still, and going forward to the parapet
+listened intently. In three or four minutes he returned to the others.
+
+“There is a considerable body of men at work there,” he said. “I can
+hear muffled sounds like digging, and once or twice a sharp click, as
+if a spade struck a stone. I am very much afraid they are throwing up a
+battery there. I was in hopes they would have begun in the open, because
+we could have commanded the approaches; but if they begin among the
+trees, they can come in and out without our seeing them, and bring up
+their guns by the road without our being able to interfere with them.
+Mr. Bathurst, will you take down word to Captain Doolan to put his men
+on the platforms on that side. Tell him that I am going to throw up a
+rocket, as I believe they are erecting a battery near Hunter’s bungalow,
+and that his men are to be ready to give them a volley if they can
+make them out. Tell them not to expose themselves too much; for if they
+really are at work there no doubt they have numbers of men posted in the
+shrubs all about to keep down our fire. Now, gentlemen, we will all lie
+down by the parapet. Take those spare rifles, and fire as quickly as you
+can while the light of the rocket lasts. Now, Mr. Wilson, we will get
+you to send them up. The rest of you had better get in the corner and
+stoop down behind the sandbags; you can lay your rifles on them, so as
+to be able to fire as soon as you have lit the second rocket.”
+
+The Doctor soon came up with the rockets; he had made three dozen the
+week before, and a number of blue lights, for the special purpose of
+detecting any movement that the enemy might make at night.
+
+“I will fire them myself,” he said, as Wilson offered to take them. “I
+have had charge of the fireworks in a score of fetes and that sort of
+thing, and am a pretty good hand at it. There, we will lean them against
+the sandbags. That is about it. Now, are you all ready, Major?”
+
+“All ready!” replied the Major.
+
+The Doctor placed the end of his lighted cheroot against the touch
+paper, there was a momentary pause, then a rushing sound, and the rocket
+soared high in the air, and then burst, throwing out four or five white
+fireballs, which lit up clearly the spot they were watching.
+
+“There they are!” the Major exclaimed; “just to the right of the
+bungalow; there are scores of them.”
+
+The rifles, both from the terrace and the platforms below, cracked out
+in rapid succession, and another rocket flew up into the air and burst.
+Before its light had faded out, each of the defenders had fired his four
+shots. Shouts and cries from the direction in which they fired showed
+that many of the bullets had told, whilst almost immediately a sharp
+fire broke out from the bushes round them.
+
+“Don’t mind the fellows in the shrubs,” the Major said, “but keep up
+your fire on the battery. We know its exact position now, though we
+cannot actually make them out.”
+
+“Let them wait while I go down and get a bit of phosphorus,” the Doctor
+said. “I have some in the surgery. They will only throw away their fire
+in the dark without it.”
+
+He soon returned, and when all the fore and back sights had been rubbed
+by the phosphorus the firing recommenced, and the Doctor sent Wilson
+down with the phosphorus to the men on the platforms facing the
+threatened point.
+
+Bathurst was returning, after having given the message to Captain
+Doolan, when Mrs. Hunter met him in the passage. She put her hand kindly
+on his shoulder.
+
+“Now, Mr. Bathurst, if you will take my advice you will remain quietly
+here. The Doctor tells me they are going to open fire, and it is not the
+least use your going there exposing yourself to be shot when you know
+that you will be of no use. You showed us yesterday that you could be
+of use in other ways, and I have no doubt you will have opportunities of
+doing so again. I can assure you none of us will think any the worse
+of you for not being able to struggle against a nervous affliction that
+gives you infinite pain. If they were attacking it would be different; I
+know you would be wanting to take your share then.”
+
+“Thank you, Mrs. Hunter,” he said, “but I must go up. I grant that I
+shall be of no use, but at least I will take any chance that the others
+run of being shot. A man does not flinch from a painful operation, and,
+whatever the pain, it has to be faced. I may get used to it in time; but
+whether I do or not I must go through it, though I do not say it doesn’t
+hurt.”
+
+At this moment the rattle of musketry broke out above. Bathurst gave a
+violent start, and a low cry as of pain; then he rushed past Mrs. Hunter
+and up the staircase to the terrace, when he staggered rather than
+walked forward to the parapet, and threw himself down beside two figures
+who were in the act of firing.
+
+“Is that you, Bathurst?” the Major’s voice asked. “Mind, man, don’t lift
+your head above the sandbags in that way. There, you had best lie quiet;
+the natives have no idea of attacking, and it is of no use throwing away
+valuable ammunition by firing unless your hand is steady.”
+
+But Bathurst did not hear, and remained with his head above the line
+of sandbags until the Major put his hand on his shoulder and forced him
+down. He might have put his hands over his ears to deaden the sound--for
+in the darkness no one would have seen the action--but he would not do
+so, but with clenched teeth and quivering nerves lay there until the
+Major said, “I fancy we have stopped them working. Now, Doctor, do you,
+Hunter, Bathurst, and Farquharson go and lie down for four hours, when I
+will send for you to take our places. Before you lie down will you tell
+Doolan to send half his party in? Of course you will lie down in your
+clothes, ready to fall in at your posts at a moment’s notice.”
+
+“Let me send another rocket up first, Major, to see what they are doing.
+We can sleep tomorrow in the daytime; they won’t dare to work under our
+fire then. Now, get ready, gentlemen, and don’t throw away a shot, if
+they are still working there.”
+
+The light of the rocket showed that there were now no natives at the
+spot where they had been seen at work.
+
+“I thought it would be too hot for them, Major, at such close quarters
+as these. We must have played the mischief with them.”
+
+“All the better, Doctor; we will send a few shots there occasionally to
+show them we have not forgotten them. But the principal thing will be
+to keep our ears open to see that they don’t bring up ladders and try a
+rush.”
+
+“I think there is no fear of that tonight, Major. They would not have
+set to work at the battery if they had any idea of trying to scale the
+wall with ladders. That will come later on; but I don’t think you will
+be troubled any more tonight, except by these fellows firing away from
+the bushes, and I should think they would get tired of wasting their
+ammunition soon. It is fortunate we brought all the spare ammunition in
+here.”
+
+“Yes, they only had ten rounds of ball cartridge, and that must be
+nearly used up by this time. They will have to make up their cartridges
+in future, and cast their bullets, unless they can get a supply from
+some of the other mutineers.”
+
+“Well, you will send for us in four hours, Major?”
+
+“You need not be afraid of my forgetting.”
+
+Dawn was just breaking when the relief were called up; the firing had
+died away, and all was quiet.
+
+“You will take command here, Rintoul,” the Major said. “I should keep
+Farquharson up here, if I were you, and leave the Doctor and Bathurst to
+look after things in general. I think, Doctor, it would be as well if we
+appointed Bathurst in charge of the general arrangements of the house.
+We have a good amount of stores, but the servants will waste them if
+they are not looked after. I should put them on rations, Bathurst; and
+there might be regular rations of things served out for us too; then
+it would fall in your province to see that the syces water and feed the
+horses. You will examine the well regularly, and note whether there is
+any change in the look of the water. I think you will find plenty to
+do.”
+
+“Thank you, Major,” Bathurst said. “I appreciate your kindness, and
+for the present, at any rate, will gladly undertake the work of looking
+after the stores and servants; but there is one thing I have been
+thinking of, and which I should like to speak to you about at once, if
+you could spare a minute or two before you turn in.”
+
+“What is that, Bathurst?”
+
+“I think that we are agreed, Major, that though we may hold this place
+for a time, sooner or later we must either surrender or the place be
+carried by storm.”
+
+Major Hannay nodded.
+
+“That is what it must come to, Bathurst. If they will at last grant
+us terms, well and good; if not, we must either try to escape or die
+fighting.”
+
+“It is about the escape I have been thinking, Major; as our position
+grows more and more desperate they will close round us, and although we
+might have possibly got through last night, our chances of doing so when
+they have once broken into the inclosure and begin to attack the house
+itself are very slight. A few of us who can speak the language well
+might possibly in disguise get away, but it would be impossible for the
+bulk of us to do so.”
+
+“I quite see that, Bathurst.”
+
+“My proposal is, Major, that we should begin at once to mine; that is,
+to drive a gallery from the cellar, and to carry it on steadily as far
+as we can. I should say that we have ten days or a fortnight before us
+before matters get to an extremity, and in that time we ought to be able
+to get, working night and day, from fifty to a hundred yards beyond the
+wall, aiming at a clump of bushes. There is a large one in Farquharson’s
+compound, about a hundred yards off. Then, when things get to the worst,
+we can work upwards, and come out on a dark night. We might leave a long
+fuse burning in the magazine, so that there should be an explosion an
+hour or two after we had left. There is enough powder there to bring the
+house down, and the Sepoys might suppose that we had all been buried in
+the ruins.”
+
+“I think the idea is a very good one, Bathurst. What do you think,
+Doctor?”
+
+“Capital,” the Doctor said. “It is a light sandy soil, and we should
+be able to get through it at a pretty good rate. How many can work
+together, do you think, Bathurst?”
+
+“I should say two of us in each shift, to drive, and, if necessary, prop
+the roof, with some of the natives to carry out the earth. If we have
+three shifts, each shift would go on twice in the twenty-four hours;
+that would be four hours on and eight hours off.”
+
+“Will you take charge of the operation, Bathurst?”
+
+“With pleasure, Major.”
+
+“Very well then. You shall have with you Wilson and Richards and the
+three youngest of the civilians, Saunderson, Austin, and Herbert. You
+six will be relieved from other duty except when the enemy threaten an
+attack. I will put down Saunderson and Austin together. Which of the
+others would you like to have with you?”
+
+“I will take Wilson, sir.”
+
+“Very well, then, Richards and Herbert will make the third party. After
+breakfast we can pick out the twelve strongest of the natives. I will
+tell them that they have to work, but that they will be each paid half
+a rupee a day in addition to their ordinary wages. Then you will give a
+general supervision to the work, Bathurst, in addition to your own share
+in it?”
+
+“Certainly, Major, I will take general charge of it.”
+
+So at breakfast the Major explained the plan agreed upon. The five men
+chosen at once expressed their willingness to undertake the work, and
+the offer of half a rupee extra a day was sufficient to induce twelve of
+the servants to volunteer for it. The Major went down to the cellars
+and fixed upon the spot at which the work should begin; and Bathurst and
+Wilson, taking some of the intrenching tools from the storeroom, began
+to break through the wall without delay.
+
+“I like this,” Wilson said. “It is a thousand times better than sitting
+up there waiting till they choose to make an attack. How wide shall we
+make it?”
+
+“As narrow as we can for one to pass along at a time,” Bathurst said.
+“The narrower it is, the less trouble we shall have with the roof.”
+
+“But only one will be able to work at a time in that case.”
+
+“That will be quite enough,”. Bathurst said. “It will be hot work and
+hard. We will relieve each other every five minutes or so.”
+
+A very short time sufficed to break through the wall.
+
+“Thank goodness, it is earth,” Wilson said, thrusting a crowbar through
+the opening as soon as it was made.
+
+“I had no fear of its being rock, Wilson. If it had been, they would not
+have taken the trouble to have walled the sides of the cellar. The soil
+is very deep all over here. The natives have to line their wells thirty
+or forty feet down.”
+
+The enemy were quiet all day, but the garrison thought it likely that,
+warned by the lesson of the night before, they were erecting a battery
+some distance farther back, masked by the trees, and that until it was
+ready to open fire they would know nothing about it.
+
+“So you have turned miner, Mr. Wilson?” Isobel Hannay said to him as,
+after a change and a bath, he came in to get his lunch.
+
+“I calculate I have lost half a stone in weight, Miss Hannay. If I were
+to go on at this for a month or two there would be nothing left of me.”
+
+“And how far did you drive the hole?”
+
+“Gallery, Miss Hannay; please call it a gallery, it sounds so much
+better. We got in five yards. I should hardly have believed it possible,
+but Bathurst is a tremendous fellow to work. He uses a pick as if he had
+been a sapper all his life. We kept the men pretty hard at work, I can
+tell you, carrying up the earth. Richards is at work now, and I bet him
+five rupees that he and Herbert don’t drive as far as we did.”
+
+“There is not much use in betting now, Mr. Wilson,” Isobel said sadly.
+
+“No, I suppose not, Miss Hannay; but it gives a sort of interest to
+one’s work. I have blistered my hands horribly, but I suppose they will
+get hard in a day or two.”
+
+“I wish we could work at something,” Isobel said. “Now that we have
+finished with the bags and bandages, the time seems very long; the only
+thing there is to do is to play with the children and try to keep them
+good; it is fortunate there is a bit of garden for them to play in.”
+
+“It is not much of a garden, Miss Hannay. We had something like a garden
+when I was a boy at home; the governor’s is a jolly old rectory, with a
+splendid garden. What fun we used to have there when I was a young one!
+I wonder what the dear old governor and mater would say if they knew the
+fix we were in here. You know, sometimes I think that Forster’s plan
+was the best, and that it would be better to try and make a dash through
+them.”
+
+“We are in your way, Mr. Wilson; you wouldn’t be able to do much
+fighting if you had one of us clinging to you.”
+
+“I don’t know, Miss Hannay,” Wilson said quietly, “what my fighting
+powers are, but I fancy if you were clinging to me I could cut my way
+through a good deal.”
+
+“I am sure you would do anything that anyone could do,” the girl said
+kindly; “but whatever you might feel, having another person behind
+you could not but hamper you awfully. I would infinitely rather try to
+escape on foot, for then I should be relying on myself, while if I was
+riding behind anyone, and we were pursued or attacked, I should feel all
+the time I was destroying his chances, and that if it were not for me
+he would get away. That would be terrible. I don’t know whether we were
+wise to stay here instead of trying to escape at once; but as uncle and
+Mr. Hunter and the others all thought it wiser to stay, I have no doubt
+it was; but I am quite sure that it could not have been a good plan to
+go off like that on horseback.”
+
+Another day passed quietly, and then during the night the watch heard
+the sounds of blows with axes, and of falling trees.
+
+“They are clearing the ground in front of their battery,” the Major,
+who was on the watch with his party, said; “it will begin in earnest
+tomorrow morning. The sound came from just where we expected. It is
+about in the same line as where they made their first attempt, but a
+hundred yards or so further back.”
+
+At daylight they saw that the trees and bushes had been leveled, and a
+battery, with embrazures for six guns, erected at a distance of about
+four hundred yards from the house. More sandbags were at once brought up
+from below, and the parapet, on the side facing the battery, raised two
+feet and doubled in thickness. The garrison were not disturbed while so
+engaged.
+
+“Why the deuce don’t the fellows begin?” Captain Forster said
+impatiently, as he stood looking over the parapet when the work was
+finished.
+
+“I expect they are waiting for the Rajah and some of the principal
+Zemindars to come down,” replied the Major; “the guns are theirs, you
+see, and will most likely be worked by their own followers. No doubt
+they think they will knock the place to pieces in a few minutes.
+
+“Listen! there is music; they are coming in grand state. Rintoul, will
+you tell the workers in the mine to come up. By the way, who are at work
+now?”
+
+“Bathurst and Wilson, sir.”
+
+“Then tell Wilson to come up, and request Bathurst to go on with the
+gallery. Tell him I want that pushed forward as fast as possible, and
+that one gun will not make much difference here. Request the ladies and
+children to go down into the storeroom for the present. I don’t think
+the balls will go through the wall, but it is as well to be on the safe
+side.”
+
+Captain Rintoul delivered his message to the ladies. They had already
+heard that the battery had been unmasked and was ready to open fire, and
+lamps had been placed in the storeroom in readiness for them. There
+were pale faces among them, but their thoughts were of those on the roof
+rather than of themselves.
+
+Mrs. Hunter took up the Bible she had been reading, and said, “Tell
+them, Captain Rintoul, we shall be praying for them.” The ladies went
+into the room that served as a nursery, and with the ayahs and other
+female servants carried the children down into the storeroom.
+
+“I would much rather be up there,” Isobel said to Mrs. Doolan; “we could
+load the muskets for them, and I don’t think it would be anything
+like so bad if we could see what was going on as being cooped up below
+fancying the worst all the time.”
+
+“I quite agree with you, but men never will get to understand women.
+Perhaps before we are done they will recognize the fact that we are no
+more afraid than they are.”
+
+The music was heard approaching along the road where the bungalows had
+stood. Presently a number of flags were raised in the battery amid a
+great beating of drums. On the previous day a flagstaff had been erected
+on the roof, and a Union Jack was run up in answer to the enemy’s
+demonstration.
+
+“A cheer for the old flag, lads,” the Major said; and a hearty cheer
+broke from the little party on the roof, where, with the exception of
+Bathurst, all the garrison were assembled. The cheer was answered by a
+yell from the natives not only in the battery, but from the gardens and
+inclosures round the house.
+
+“Pay no attention to the fellows in the gardens,” the Major said; “fire
+at their guns--they must expose themselves to load.”
+
+The men were kneeling behind the parapet, where the sandbags had been
+so arranged that they could see through between those on the upper line,
+and thus fire without raising their heads above it.
+
+“Shall we wait for them or fire first, Major?” the Doctor asked.
+
+“I expect the guns are loaded and laid, Doctor; but if you see a head
+looking along them, by all means take a shot at it. I wish we could see
+down into the battery itself, but it is too high for that.”
+
+The Doctor lay looking along his rifle. Presently he fired, and as if
+it had been the signal five cannon boomed out almost at the same moment,
+the other being fired a quarter of a minute later. Three of the shot
+struck the house below the parapet, the others went overhead.
+
+“I hit my man,” the Doctor said, as he thrust another rifle through the
+loophole. “Now, we will see if we can keep them from loading.”
+
+Simultaneously with the roar of the cannon a rattle of musketry broke
+out on three sides of the house, and a hail of bullets whistled over the
+heads of the defenders, who opened a steady fire at the embrasures of
+the guns. These had been run in, and the natives could be seen loading
+them. The Major examined the work through a pair of field glasses.
+
+“You are doing well,” he said presently; “I have seen several of them
+fall, and there is a lot of confusion among them; they will soon get
+tired of that game.”
+
+Slowly and irregularly the guns were run out again, and the fire of the
+defenders was redoubled to prevent them from taking aim. Only one shot
+hit the house this time, the others all going overhead. The fire of the
+enemy became slower and more irregular, and at the end of an hour ceased
+almost entirely.
+
+“Doctor,” the Major said, “I will get you and Farquharson to turn your
+attention to some fellows there are in that high tree over there. They
+command us completely, and many of their bullets have struck on the
+terrace behind us. It would not be safe to move across to the stairs
+now. I think we have pretty well silenced the battery for the present.
+Here are my glasses. With them you can easily make out the fellows among
+the leaves.”
+
+“I see them,” the Doctor said, handing the glasses to Farquharson; “we
+will soon get them out of that. Now, Farquharson, you take that fellow
+out on the lower branch to the right; I will take the one close to the
+trunk on the same branch.”
+
+Laying their rifles on the upper row of sandbags, the two men took a
+steady aim. They fired almost together, and two bodies were seen to fall
+from the tree.
+
+“Well shot!” the Major exclaimed. “There are something like a dozen of
+them up there; but they will soon clear out if you keep that up.”
+
+“They are not more than two hundred yards away,” the Doctor said, “and
+firing from a rest we certainly ought not to miss them at that distance.
+Give me the glasses again.”
+
+A similar success attended the next two shots, and then a number of
+figures were seen hastily climbing down.
+
+“Give them a volley, gentlemen,” the Major said.
+
+A dozen guns were fired, and three more men dropped, and an angry yell
+from the natives answered the shout of triumph from the garrison.
+
+“Will you go down, Mr. Hunter, and tell the ladies that we have silenced
+the guns for the present, and that no one has received a scratch? Now,
+let us see what damage their balls have effected.”
+
+This was found to be trifling. The stonework of the house was strong,
+and the guns were light. The stonework of one of the windows was broken,
+and two or three stones in the wall cracked. One ball had entered a
+window, torn its way through two inner walls, and lay against the back
+wall.
+
+“It is a four pound ball,” the Major said, taking it up. “I fancy the
+guns are seven pounders. They have evidently no balls to fit, which
+accounts for the badness of their firing and the little damage they did;
+with so much windage the balls can have had but small velocity. Well,
+that is a satisfactory beginning, gentlemen; they will take a long time
+to knock the place about our ears at this rate. Now we will see if we
+cannot clear them out of the gardens. Captain Doolan, will you take the
+glasses and watch the battery; if you see any movement about the guns,
+the fire will be reopened at once; until then all will devote their
+attention to those fellows among the bushes; it is important to teach
+them that they are not safe there, for a chance ball might come in
+between the sandbags. Each of you pick out a particular bush, and watch
+it till you see the exact position in which anyone firing from it must
+be in, and then try to silence him. Don’t throw away a shot if you can
+help it. We have a good stock of ammunition, but it is as well not to
+waste it. I will leave you in command at present, Doolan.”
+
+Major Hannay then went down to the storeroom.
+
+“I have come to relieve you from your confinement, ladies,” he said. “I
+am glad to say that we find their balls will not penetrate the walls
+of the house alone, and there is therefore no fear whatever of their
+passing through them and the garden wall together; therefore, as long
+as the wall is intact, there is no reason whatever why you should not
+remain on the floor above.”
+
+There was a general exclamation of pleasure.
+
+“That will be vastly better, uncle,” Isobel said; “it is hateful being
+hidden away down here when we have nothing to do but to listen to the
+firing; we don’t see why some of us should not go up on the terrace to
+load the rifles for you.”
+
+“Not at present, Isobel; we are not pressed yet. When it comes to a real
+attack it will be time to consider about that. I don’t think any of us
+would shoot straighter if there were women right up among us in danger.”
+
+“I don’t at all see why it should be worse our being in danger than for
+you men, Major,” Mrs. Doolan said; “we have just as much at stake, and
+more; and I warn you I shall organize a female mutiny if we are not
+allowed to help.”
+
+The Major laughed.
+
+“Well, Mrs. Doolan, I shall have to convert this storeroom into a
+prison, and all who defy my authority will be immured here, so now you
+know the consequence of disobedience.”
+
+“And has no one been hurt with all that firing, Major Hannay?” Mary
+Hunter asked.
+
+“A good many people have been hurt, Miss Hunter, but no one on our side.
+I fancy we must have made it very hot for those at the guns, and the
+Doctor and Mr. Farquharson have been teaching them not to climb trees.
+At present that firing you hear is against those who are hiding in the
+gardens.”
+
+An hour later the firing ceased altogether, the natives finding the fire
+of the defenders so deadly that they no longer dared, by discharging a
+rifle, to show where they were hiding. They had drawn off from the more
+distant clumps and bushes, but dared not try and crawl from those nearer
+the house until after nightfall.
+
+The next morning it was found that during the night the enemy had closed
+up their embrasures, leaving only openings sufficiently large for the
+muzzles of the guns to be thrust through, and soon after daybreak they
+renewed their fire. The Doctor and Mr. Farquharson alone remained on
+the roof, and throughout the day they kept up a steady fire at these
+openings whenever the guns were withdrawn. Several of the sandbags were
+knocked off the parapet during the course of the day, and a few shot
+found their way through the walls of the upper story, but beyond this
+no damage was done. The mining was kept up with great vigor, and the
+gallery advanced rapidly, the servants finding it very hard work to
+remove the earth as fast as the miners brought it down.
+
+Captain Forster offered to go out with three others at night to try
+and get into the battery and spike the guns, but Major Hannay would not
+permit the attempt to be made.
+
+“We know they have several other guns,” he said, “and the risk would be
+altogether too great, for there would be practically no chance of your
+getting back and being drawn up over the wall before you were overtaken,
+even if you succeeded in spiking the guns. There are probably a hundred
+men sleeping in the battery, and it is likely they would have sentries
+out in front of it. The loss of four men would seriously weaken the
+garrison.”
+
+The next morning another battery to the left was unmasked, and on
+the following day three guns were planted, under cover, so as to play
+against the gate. The first battery now concentrated its fire upon the
+outer wall, the new battery played upon the upper part of the house, and
+the three guns kept up a steady fire at the gate.
+
+There was little rest for the besieged now. It was a constant duel
+between their rifles and the guns, varied by their occasionally turning
+their attention to men who climbed trees, or who, from the roofs of some
+buildings still standing, endeavored to keep down their fire.
+
+Wilson had been released from his labors in the gallery, Bathurst
+undertaking to get down the earth single handed as fast as the servants
+could remove it.
+
+“I never saw such a fellow to work, Miss Hannay,” Wilson said one day,
+when he was off duty, and happened to find her working alone at some
+bandages. “I know you don’t like him, but he is a first rate fellow if
+there ever was one. It is unlucky for him being so nervous at the guns;
+but that is no fault of his, after all, and I am sure in other things he
+is as cool as possible. Yesterday I was standing close to him, shoving
+the earth back to the men as he got it down. Suddenly he shouted, ‘Run,
+Wilson, the roof is coming down!’ I could not help bolting a few yards,
+for the earth came pattering down as he spoke; then I looked round and
+saw him standing there, by the light of the lamp, like those figures
+you see holding up pillars; I forget what they call them--catydigs, or
+something of that sort.”
+
+“Caryatides,” Isobel put in.
+
+“Yes, that is the name. Some timber had given way above him, and he was
+holding it up with his arms. I should say that there must have been
+half a ton of it, and he said, as quietly as possible, ‘Get two of those
+short poles, Wilson, and put up one on each side of me. I can hold it a
+bit, but don’t be longer than you can help about it.’ I managed to shove
+up the timber, so that he could slip out before it came down. It would
+have crushed us both to a certainty if he had not held it up.”
+
+“Why do you say you know I don’t like Mr. Bathurst?”
+
+“I don’t exactly know, Miss Hannay, but I have noticed you are the only
+lady who does not chat with him. I don’t think I have seen you speak
+to him since we have come in here. I am sorry, because I like him very
+much, and I don’t care for Forster at all.”
+
+“What has Captain Forster to do with it?” Isobel asked, somewhat
+indignantly.
+
+“Oh, nothing at all, Miss Hannay, only, you know, Bathurst used to be
+a good deal at the Major’s before Forster came, and then after that I
+never met him there except on that evening before he came in here. Now
+you know, Miss Hannay,” he went on earnestly, “what I think about you. I
+have not been such an ass as to suppose I ever had a chance, though you
+know I would lay down my life for you willingly; but I did not seem to
+mind Bathurst. I know he is an awfully good fellow, and would have
+made you very happy; but I don’t feel like that with Forster. There is
+nothing in the world that I should like better than to punch his head;
+and when I see that a fellow like that has cut Bathurst out altogether
+it makes me so savage sometimes that I have to go and smoke a pipe
+outside so as not to break out and have a row with him.”
+
+“You ought not to talk so, Mr. Wilson. It is very wrong. You have
+no right to say that anyone has cut anyone else out as far as I am
+concerned. I know you are all fond of me in a brotherly sort of way,
+and I like you very much; but that gives you no right to say such
+things about other people. Mr. Bathurst ceased his visits not because of
+Captain Forster but from another reason altogether; and certainly I
+have neither said nor done anything that would justify your saying that
+Captain Forster had cut Mr. Bathurst out. Even if I had, you ought not
+to have alluded to such a thing. I am not angry with you,” she said,
+seeing how downcast he looked; “but you must not talk like that any
+more; it would be wrong at any time; it is specially so now, when we are
+all shut up here together, and none can say what will happen to us.”
+
+“It seemed to me that was just the reason why I could speak about it,
+Miss Hannay. We may none of us get out of this fix we are in, and I
+do think we ought all to be friends together now. Richards and I both
+agreed that as it was certain neither of us had a chance of winning you,
+the next best thing was to see you and Bathurst come together. Well, now
+all that’s over, of course, but is it wrong for me to ask, how is it you
+have come to dislike him?”
+
+“But I don’t dislike him, Mr. Wilson.”
+
+“Well, then, why do you go on as if you didn’t like him?”
+
+Isobel hesitated. From most men she would have considered the question
+impertinent, and would have resented it, but this frank faced boy meant
+no impertinence; he loved her in his honest way, and only wanted to see
+her happy.
+
+“I can’t speak to him if he doesn’t speak to me,” she said desperately.
+
+“No, of course not,” he agreed; “but why shouldn’t he speak to you? You
+can’t have done anything to offend him except taking up with Forster.”
+
+“It is nothing to do with Captain Forster at all, Mr. Wilson; I--” and
+she hesitated. “I said something at which he had the right to feel hurt
+and offended, and he has never given me any opportunity since of saying
+that I was sorry.”
+
+“I am sure you would not have said anything that he should have been
+offended about, Miss Hannay; it is not your nature, and I would not
+believe it whoever told me, not even yourself; so he must be in fault,
+and, of course, I have nothing more to say about it.”
+
+“He wasn’t in fault at all, Mr. Wilson. I can’t tell you what I said,
+but it was very wrong and thoughtless on my part, and I have been sorry
+for it ever since; and he has a perfect right to be hurt and not to
+come near me, especially as”--and she hesitated--“as I have acted badly
+since, and he has no reason for supposing that I am sorry. And now you
+must not ask me any more about it; I don’t know why I have said as much
+to you as I have, only I know I can trust you, and I like you very much,
+though I could never like you in the sort of way you would want me to. I
+wish you didn’t like me like that.”
+
+“Oh, never mind me,” he said earnestly. “I am all right, Miss Hannay; I
+never expected anything, you know, so I am not disappointed, and it has
+been awfully good of you talking to me as you have, and not getting
+mad with me for interfering. But I can hear them coming down from the
+terrace, and I must be off. I am on duty there, you know, now. Bathurst
+has undertaken double work in that hole. I didn’t like it, really; it
+seemed mean to be getting out of the work and letting him do it all, but
+he said that he liked work, and I really think he does. I am sure he is
+always worrying himself because he can’t take his share in the firing on
+the roof; and when he is working he hasn’t time to think about it. When
+he told me that in future he would drive the tunnel our shift himself,
+he said, ‘That will enable you to take your place on the roof, Wilson,
+and you must remember you are firing for both of us, so don’t throw
+away a shot.’ It is awfully rough on him, isn’t it? Well, goodby, Miss
+Hannay,” and Wilson hurried off to the roof.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+The next four days made a great alteration in the position of the
+defenders in the fortified house.
+
+The upper story was now riddled by balls, the parapet round the terrace
+had been knocked away in several places, the gate was in splinters; but
+as the earth from the tunnel had been all emptied against the sandbags,
+it had grown to such a thickness that the defense was still good here.
+But in the wall, against which one of the new batteries had steadily
+directed its fire, there was a yawning gap, which was hourly increasing
+in size, and would ere long be practicable for assault. Many of the
+shots passing through this had struck the house itself. Some of these
+had penetrated, and the room in the line of fire could no longer be
+used.
+
+There had been several casualties. The young civilian Herbert had
+been killed by a shot that struck the parapet just where he was lying.
+Captain Rintoul had been seriously wounded, two of the natives had been
+killed by the first shot which penetrated the lower room. Mr. Hunter
+was prostrate with fever, the result of exposure to the sun, and several
+others had received wounds more or less severe from fragments of stone;
+but the fire of the defenders was as steady as at first, and the loss of
+the natives working the guns was severe, and they no longer ventured to
+fire from the gardens and shrubberies round the walls.
+
+Fatigue, watching, still more the heat on the terrace, was telling
+heavily upon the strength of the garrison. The ladies went about
+their work quietly and almost silently. The constant anxiety and the
+confinement in the darkened rooms were telling upon them too. Several of
+the children were ill; and when not employed in other things, there
+were fresh sandbags to be made by the women, to take the place of those
+damaged by the enemy’s shot.
+
+When, of an evening, a portion of the defenders came off duty, there was
+more talk and conversation, as all endeavored to keep up a good face and
+assume a confidence they were far from feeling. The Doctor was perhaps
+the most cheery of the party. During the daytime he was always on the
+roof, and his rifle seldom cracked in vain. In the evening he attended
+to his patients, talked cheerily to the ladies, and laughed and joked
+over the events of the day.
+
+None among the ladies showed greater calmness and courage than Mrs.
+Rintoul, and not a word was ever heard from the time the siege began
+of her ailments or inconveniences. She was Mrs. Hunter’s best assistant
+with the sick children. Even after her husband was wounded, and her
+attention night and day was given to him, she still kept on patiently
+and firmly.
+
+“I don’t know how to admire Mrs. Rintoul enough,” Mrs. Hunter said to
+Isobel Hannay one day; “formerly I had no patience with her, she was
+always querulous and grumbling; now she has turned out a really noble
+woman. One never knows people, my dear, till one sees them in trouble.”
+
+“Everyone is nice,” Isobel said. “I have hardly heard a word of
+complaint about anything since we came here, and everyone seems to help
+others and do little kindnesses.”
+
+The enemy’s fire had been very heavy all that day, and the breach in
+the wall had been widened, and the garrison felt certain that the enemy
+would attack on the following morning.
+
+“You and Farquharson, Doctor, must stop on the roof,” the Major said.
+“In the first place, it is possible they may try to attack by ladders at
+some other point, and we shall want two good shots up there to keep them
+back; and in the second, if they do force the breach, we shall want you
+to cover our retreat into the house. I will get a dozen rifles for each
+of you loaded and in readiness. Isobel and Mary Hunter, who have both
+volunteered over and over again, shall go up to load; they have both
+practiced, and can load quickly. Of course if you see that the enemy
+are not attacking at any other point, you will help us at the breach
+by keeping up a steady fire on them, but always keep six guns each in
+reserve. I shall blow my whistle as a signal for us to retire to the
+house if I find we can hold the breach no longer, so when you hear that
+blaze away at them as fast as you can. Your twelve shots will check them
+long enough to give us time to get in and fasten the door. We shall
+be round the corner of the house before they can get fairly over the
+breastwork. We will set to work to raise that as soon as it gets dark.”
+
+A breastwork of sandbags had already been erected behind the breach, in
+case the enemy should make a sudden rush, and a couple of hours’ labor
+transformed this into a strong work; for the bags were already filled,
+and only needed placing in position. When completed, it extended in a
+horseshoe shape, some fifteen feet across, behind the gap in the wall.
+For nine feet from the ground it was composed of sandbags three deep,
+and a single line was then laid along the edge to serve as a parapet.
+
+“I don’t think they will get over that,” the Major said, when the work
+was finished. “I doubt if they will be disposed even to try when they
+reach the breach.”
+
+Before beginning their work they had cleared away all the fallen
+brickwork from behind the breach, and a number of bricks were laid on
+the top of the sandbags to be used as missiles.
+
+“A brick is as good as a musket ball at this distance,” the Major said;
+“and when our guns are empty we can take to them; there are enough spare
+rifles for us to have five each, and, with those and our revolvers and
+the bricks, we ought to be able to account for an army. There are some
+of the servants and syces who can be trusted to load. They can stand
+down behind us, and we can pass our guns down to them as we empty them.”
+
+Each man had his place on the work assigned to him. Bathurst, who had
+before told the Major that when the time came for an assault to be
+delivered he was determined to take his place in the breach, was placed
+at one end of the horseshoe where it touched the wall.
+
+“I don’t promise to be of much use, Major,” he said quietly. “I know
+myself too well; but at least I can run my chance of being killed.”
+
+The Major had put Wilson next to him.
+
+“I don’t think there is much chance of their storming the work, Wilson;
+but if they do, you catch hold of Bathurst’s arm, and drag him away
+when you hear me whistle; the chances are a hundred to one against his
+hearing it, or remembering what it means if he does hear it.”
+
+“All right, Major, I will look to him.”
+
+Four men remained on guard at the breach all night, and at the first
+gleam of daylight the garrison took up their posts.
+
+“Now mind, my dears,” the Doctor said, as he and Farquharson went up on
+the terrace with Isobel and Mary Hunter; “you must do exactly as you are
+told, or you will be doing more harm than good, for Farquharson and I
+would not be able to pay attention to our shooting. You must lie down
+and remain perfectly quiet till we begin to fire, then keep behind us
+just so far that you can reach the guns as we hand them back to you
+after firing; and you must load them either kneeling or sitting down,
+so that you don’t expose your heads above the thickest part of the
+breastwork. When you have loaded, push the guns back well to the right
+of us, but so that we can reach them. Then, if one of them goes off,
+there won’t be any chance of our being hit. The garrison can’t afford to
+throw away a life at present. You will, of course, only half cock them;
+still, it is as well to provide against accidents.”
+
+Both the girls were pale, but they were quiet and steady. The Doctor saw
+they were not likely to break down.
+
+“That is a rum looking weapon you have got there, Bathurst,” Wilson
+said, as, after carrying down the spare guns and placing them ready for
+firing, they lay down in their positions on the sandbags. The weapon
+was a native one, and was a short mace, composed of a bar of iron about
+fifteen inches long, with a knob of the same metal, studded with spikes.
+The bar was covered with leather to break the jar, and had a loop to put
+the hand through at the end.
+
+“Yes,” Bathurst said quietly; “I picked it up at one of the native shops
+in Cawnpore the last time I was there. I had no idea then that I might
+ever have to use it, and bought it rather as a curiosity; but I have
+kept it within reach of my bedside since these troubles began, and I
+don’t think one could want a better weapon at close quarters.”
+
+“No, it is a tremendous thing; and after the way I have seen you using
+that pick I should not like to be within reach of your arm with that
+mace in it. I don’t think there is much chance of your wanting that. I
+have no fear of the natives getting over here this time.”
+
+“I have no fear of the natives at all,” Bathurst said.
+
+“I am only afraid of myself. At present I am just as cool as if there
+was not a native within a thousand miles, and I am sure that my pulse is
+not going a beat faster than usual. I can think of the whole thing and
+calculate the chances as calmly as if it were an affair in which I was
+in no way concerned. It is not danger that I fear in the slightest, it
+is that horrible noise. I know well enough that the moment the firing
+begins I shall be paralyzed. My only hope is that at the last moment, if
+it comes to hand to hand fighting, I shall get my nerve.”
+
+“I have no doubt you will,” Wilson said warmly; “and when you do I would
+back you at long odds against any of us. Ah, they are beginning.”
+
+As he spoke there was a salvo of all the guns on the three Sepoy
+batteries. Then a roar of musketry broke out round the house, and above
+it could be heard loud shouts.
+
+“They are coming, Major,” the Doctor shouted down from the roof; “the
+Sepoys are leading, and there is a crowd of natives behind them.”
+
+Those lying in the middle of the curve of the horseshoe soon caught
+sight of the enemy advancing tumultuously towards the breach. The Major
+had ordered that not a shot was to be fired until they reached it, and
+it was evident that the silence of the besieged awed the assailants with
+a sense of unknown danger, for their pace slackened, and when they got
+to within fifty yards of the breach they paused and opened fire. Then,
+urged forward by their officers and encouraged by their own noise, they
+again rushed forward. Two of their officers led the way; and as these
+mounted the little heap of rubbish at the foot of the breach, two rifles
+cracked out from the terrace, and both fell dead.
+
+There was a yell of fury from the Sepoys, and then they poured in
+through the breach. Those in front tried to stop as they saw the trap
+into which they were entering, but pressed on by those behind they were
+forced forward.
+
+And now a crackling fire of musketry broke out from the rifles
+projecting between the sandbags into the crowded mass. Every shot told.
+Wild shrieks, yells, and curses rose from the assailants. Some tried
+madly to climb up the sandbags, some to force their way back through
+the crowd behind; some threw themselves down; others discharged their
+muskets at their invisible foe. From the roof the Doctor and his
+companion kept up a rapid fire upon the crowd struggling to enter the
+breach. As fast as the defenders’ muskets were discharged they handed
+them down to the servants behind to be reloaded, and when each had fired
+his spare muskets he betook himself to his revolver.
+
+Wilson, while discharging his rifle, kept his eyes upon Bathurst. The
+latter had not fired a shot, but lay rigid and still, save for a sort of
+convulsive shuddering. Presently there was a little lull in the firing
+as the weapons were emptied, and the defenders seizing the bricks hurled
+them down into the mass.
+
+“Look out!” the Major shouted; “keep your heads low--I am going to throw
+the canisters.”
+
+A number of these had been prepared, filled to the mouth with powder and
+bullets, and with a short fuse attached, ropes being fastened round them
+to enable them to be slung some distance. The Major half rose to throw
+one of these missiles when his attention was called by a shout from
+Wilson.
+
+The latter was so occupied that he had not noticed Bathurst, who had
+suddenly risen to his feet, and just as Wilson was about to grasp him
+and pull him down, leaped over the sandbag in front of him down among
+the mutineers. The Major gave a swing to the canister, of which the fuse
+was already lighted, and hurled it through the breach among the crowd,
+who, ignorant of what was going on inside, were still struggling to
+enter.
+
+“Look out,” he shouted to the others; “mind how you throw. Bathurst is
+down in the middle of them. Hand up all the muskets you have loaded,” he
+cried to the servants.
+
+As he spoke he swung another canister through the breach, and almost
+immediately two heavy explosions followed, one close upon the other.
+
+“Give them a volley at the breach,” he shouted; “never mind those
+below.”
+
+The muskets were fired as soon as received.
+
+“Now to your feet,” the Major cried, “and give them the brickbats,” and
+as he stood up he hurled two more canisters among the crowd behind the
+breach. The others sprang up with a cheer. The inclosure below them was
+shallower now from the number that had fallen, and was filled with a
+confused mass of struggling men. In their midst was Bathurst fighting
+desperately with his short weapon, and bringing down a man at every
+blow, the mutineers being too crowded together to use their unfixed
+bayonets against him. In a moment Captain Forster leaped down, sword in
+hand, and joined Bathurst in the fight.
+
+“Stand steady,” the Major shouted; “don’t let another man move.”
+
+But the missiles still rained down with an occasional shot, as the
+rifles were handed up by the natives, while the Doctor and Farquharson
+kept up an almost continuous fire from the terrace. Then the two last
+canisters thrown by the Major exploded. The first two had carried havoc
+among the crowd behind the breach, these completed their confusion, and
+they turned and fled; while those in the retrenchment, relieved of the
+pressure from behind, at once turned, and flying through the breach,
+followed their companions.
+
+A loud cheer broke from the garrison, and the Major looking round saw
+the Doctor standing by the parapet waving his hat, while Isobel stood
+beside him looking down at the scene of conflict.
+
+“Lie down, Isobel,” he shouted; “they will be opening fire again
+directly.”
+
+The girl disappeared, and almost at the same moment the batteries spoke
+out again, and a crackle of the musketry began from the gardens. The
+Major turned round. Bathurst was leaning against the wall breathing
+heavily after his exertions, Forster was coolly wiping his sword on the
+tunic of one of the fallen Sepoys.
+
+“Are either of you hurt?” he asked.
+
+“I am not hurt to speak of,” Forster said; “I got a rip with a bayonet
+as I jumped down, but I don’t think it is of any consequence.”
+
+“How are you, Bathurst?” the Major repeated. “What on earth possessed
+you to jump down like that?”
+
+“I don’t know, Major; I had to do something, and when you stopped firing
+I felt it was time for me to do my share.”
+
+“You have done more than your share, I should say,” the Major said; “for
+they went down like ninepins before you. Now, Wilson, you take one of
+his hands, and I will take the other, and help him up.”
+
+It needed considerable exertion to get him up, for the reaction had now
+come, and he was scarce able to stand.
+
+“You had better go up to the house and get a glass of wine,” the Major
+said. “Now, is anyone else hurt?”
+
+“I am hit, Major,” Richards said quietly; “a ball came in between the
+sandbags just as I fired my first shot, and smashed my right shoulder. I
+think I have not been much good since, though I have been firing from my
+left as well as I could. I think I will go up and get the Doctor to look
+at it.”
+
+But almost as he spoke the young fellow tottered, and would have fallen,
+had not the Major caught him.
+
+“Lend me a hand, Doolan,” the latter said; “we will carry him in; I am
+afraid he is very hard hit.”
+
+The ladies gathered round the Major and Captain Doolan as they entered
+with their burden. Mary Hunter had already run down and told them that
+the attack had been repulsed and the enemy had retreated.
+
+“Nobody else is hit,” the Major said, as he entered; “at least, not
+seriously. The enemy have been handsomely beaten with such loss that
+they won’t be in a hurry to try again. Will one of you run up and bring
+the Doctor down?”
+
+Richards was carried into the hospital room, where he was left to the
+care of the Doctor, Mrs. Hunter, and Mrs. Rintoul. The Major returned to
+the general room.
+
+“Boy, bring half a dozen bottles of champagne and open them as quickly
+as you can,” he said; “we have got enough to last us for weeks, and this
+is an occasion to celebrate, and I think we have all earned it.”
+
+The others were by this time coming in, for there was no chance of the
+enemy renewing the attack at present. Farquharson was on the roof on the
+lookout. Quiet greetings were exchanged between wives and husbands.
+
+“It didn’t last long,” Wilson said; “not above five minutes, I should
+say, from the time when we opened fire.”
+
+“It seemed to us an age,” Amy Hunter replied; “it was dreadful not to be
+able to see what was going on; it seemed to me everyone must be killed
+with all that firing.”
+
+“It was sharp while it lasted,” the Major said; “but we were all snug
+enough except against a stray bullet, such as that which hit poor young
+Richards. He behaved very gallantly, and none of us knew he was hit till
+it was all over.”
+
+“But how did Captain Forster get his bayonet wound?” Mrs. Doolan asked.
+“I saw him go in just now into the surgery; it seemed to me he had a
+very serious wound, for his jacket was cut from the breast up to the
+shoulder, and he was bleeding terribly, though he made light of it.”
+
+“He jumped down into the middle of them,” the Major said. “Bathurst
+jumped down first, and was fighting like a madman with a mace he has
+got. We could do nothing, for we were afraid of hitting him, and Forster
+jumped down to help him, and, as he did so, got that rip with the
+bayonet; it is a nasty cut, no doubt, but it is only a flesh wound.”
+
+“Where is Mr. Bathurst?” Mrs. Doolan asked; “is he hurt, too? Why did he
+jump down? I should not have thought,” and she stopped.
+
+“I fancy a sort of fury seized him,” the Major said; “but whatever it
+was, he fought like a giant. He is a powerful man, and that iron mace is
+just the thing for such work. The natives went down like ninepins before
+him. No, I don’t think he is hurt.”
+
+“I will go out and see,” Mrs. Doolan said; and taking a mug half full of
+champagne from the table, she went out.
+
+Bathurst was sitting on the ground leaning against the wall of the
+house.
+
+“You are not hurt, Mr. Bathurst, I hope,” Mrs. Doolan said, as she came
+up. “No, don’t try to get up, drink a little of this; we are celebrating
+our victory by opening a case of champagne. The Major tells us you have
+been distinguishing yourself greatly.”
+
+Bathurst drank some of the wine before he replied.
+
+“In a way, Mrs. Doolan, I scarcely know what I did do. I wanted to do
+something, even if it was only to get killed.”
+
+“You must not talk like that,” she said kindly; “your life is as
+valuable as any here, and you know that we all like and esteem you; and,
+at any rate, you have shown today that you have plenty of courage.”
+
+“The courage of a Malay running amuck, Mrs. Doolan; that is not courage,
+it is madness. You cannot tell--no one can tell--what I have suffered
+since the siege began. The humiliation of knowing that I alone of the
+men here am unable to take my part in the defense, and that while others
+are fighting I am useful only to work as a miner.”
+
+“But you are as useful in that way as you would be in the other,” she
+said. “I don’t feel humiliated because I can only help in nursing the
+sick while the others are fighting for us. We have all of us our gifts.
+Few men have more than you. You have courage and coolness in other ways,
+and you are wrong to care nothing for your life because of the failing,
+for which you are not accountable, of your nerves to stand the sound of
+firearms.. I can understand your feelings and sympathize with you, but
+it is of no use to exaggerate the importance of such a matter. You might
+live a thousand lives without being again in a position when such a
+failing would be of the slightest importance, one way or the other. Now
+come in with me. Certainly this is not the moment for you to give way
+about it; for whatever your feelings may have been, or whatever may have
+impelled you to the act, you have on this occasion fought nobly.”
+
+“Not nobly, Mrs. Doolan,” he said, rising to his feet; “desperately, or
+madly, if you like.”
+
+At this moment Wilson came out. “Halloa, Bathurst, what are doing here?
+Breakfast is just ready, and everyone is asking for you. I am sure
+you must want something after your exertions. You should have seen him
+laying about him with that iron mace, Mrs. Doolan.. I have seen him
+using the pick, and knew how strong he was, but I was astonished, I
+can tell you. It was a sort of Coeur de Lion business. He used to use a
+mace, you know, and once rode through the Saracens and smashed them up,
+till at last, when he had done, he couldn’t open his hand. Bring him in,
+Mrs. Doolan. If he won’t come, I will go in and send the Doctor out
+to him. Bad business, poor Richards being hurt, isn’t it? Awfully good
+fellow, Richards. Can’t think why he was the one to be hit.”
+
+So keeping up a string of talk, the young subaltern led Bathurst into
+the house.
+
+After breakfast a white flag was waved from the roof, and in a short
+time two Sepoy officers came up with a similar flag. The Major and
+Captain Doolan went out to meet them, and it was agreed that hostilities
+should be suspended until noon, in order that the wounded and dead might
+be carried off.
+
+While this was being done the garrison remained under arms behind their
+work at the breach lest any treacherous attempt should be made. The
+mutineers, however, who were evidently much depressed by the
+failure, carried the bodies off quietly, and at twelve o’clock firing
+recommenced.
+
+That evening, after it was dark, the men gathered on the terrace.
+
+“Well, gentlemen,” the Major said, “we have beaten them off today, and
+we may do it again, but there is no doubt how it must all end. You see,
+this afternoon their guns have all been firing at a fresh place in the
+wall; and if they make another breach or two, and attack at them all
+together, it will be hopeless to try to defend them. You see, now that
+we have several sick and wounded, the notion of making our escape is
+almost knocked on the head. At the last moment each may try to save his
+life, but there must be no desertion of the sick and wounded as long as
+there is a cartridge to be fired. Our best hope is in getting assistance
+from somewhere, but we know nothing of what is going on outside. I think
+the best plan will be for one of our number to try to make his way out,
+and go either to Lucknow, Agra, or Allahabad, and try and get help.
+If they could spare a troop of cavalry it might be sufficient; the
+mutineers have suffered very heavily; there were over a hundred and
+fifty bodies carried out today, and if attacked suddenly I don’t think
+they would make any great resistance. We may hold out for a week or ten
+days, but I think that is the outside; and if rescue does not arrive by
+that time we must either surrender or try to escape by that passage.”
+
+There was a general assent.
+
+“Bathurst would be the man to do it,” the Doctor said. “Once through
+their lines he could pass without exciting the slightest suspicion;
+he could buy a horse then, and could be at any of the stations in two
+days.”
+
+“Yes, there is no doubt that he is the man to do it,” the Major said.
+“Where is he now?”
+
+“At work as usual, Major; shall I go and speak to him? But I tell you
+fairly I don’t think he will undertake it.”
+
+“Why not, Doctor? It is a dangerous mission, but no more dangerous than
+remaining here.”
+
+“Well, we shall see,” the Doctor said, as he left the group.
+
+Nothing was said for a few minutes, the men sitting or lying about
+smoking. Presently the Doctor returned.
+
+“Bathurst refuses absolutely,” he said. “He admits that he does not
+think there would be much difficulty for him to get through, but he is
+convinced that the mission would be a useless one, and that could help
+have been spared it would have come to us before now.”
+
+“But in that case he would have made his escape,” the Major said.
+
+“That is just why he won’t go, Major; he says that come what will he
+will share the fate of the rest, and that he will not live to be pointed
+to as the one man who made his escape of the garrison of Deennugghur.”
+
+“Whom can we send?” the Major said. “You are the only other man who
+speaks the language well enough to pass as a native, Doctor.”
+
+“I speak it fairly, but not well enough for that; besides, I am too old
+to bear the fatigue of riding night and day; and, moreover, my services
+are wanted here both as a doctor and as a rifle shot.”
+
+“I will go, if you will send me, Major,” Captain Forster said suddenly;
+“not in disguise, but in uniform, and on my horse’s back. Of course I
+should run the gauntlet of their sentries. Once through, I doubt if they
+have a horse that could overtake mine.”
+
+There was a general silence of surprise. Forster’s reckless courage was
+notorious, and he had been conspicuous for the manner in which he had
+chosen the most dangerous points during the siege; and this offer to
+undertake what, although a dangerous enterprise in itself, still offered
+a far better chance of life than that of remaining behind, surprised
+everyone. It had been noticed that, since the rejection of his plan to
+sally out in a body and cut their way through the enemy, he had been
+moody and silent, except only when the fire was heavy and the danger
+considerable; then he laughed and joked and seemed absolutely to enjoy
+the excitement; but he was the last man whom any of them would have
+expected to volunteer for a service that, dangerous as it might be, had
+just been refused by Bathurst on the ground that it offered a chance of
+escape from the common lot.
+
+The Major was the first to speak.
+
+“Well, Captain Forster, as we have just agreed that our only chance
+is to obtain aid from one of the stations, and as you are the only
+volunteer for the service, I do not see that I can decline to accept
+your offer. At which station do you think you would be most likely to
+find a force that could help us?”
+
+“I should say Lucknow, Major. If help is to be obtained anywhere, I
+should say it was there.”
+
+“Yes, I think that is the most hopeful. You will start at once; I
+suppose the sooner the better.”
+
+“As soon as they are fairly asleep; say twelve o’clock.”
+
+“Very well. I will go and write a dispatch for you to carry, giving an
+account of the fix we are in here. How will you sally out?”
+
+“I should think the easiest plan would be to make a gap in the sandbags
+in the breach, lead the horse till fairly outside, and then mount.”
+
+“I think you had better take a spare horse with you,” the Doctor said;
+“it will make a difference if you are chased, if you can change from one
+to the other. Bathurst told me to say whoever went could have his horse,
+which is a long way the best in the station. I should fancy as good as
+your own.”
+
+“I don’t know,” Forster said; “led horses are a nuisance; still, as you
+say, it might come in useful, if it is only to loose and turn down a
+side road, and so puzzle anyone who may be after you in the dark.”
+
+The Major and Forster left the roof together.
+
+“Well, that is a rum go,” Wilson said. “If it had been anyone but
+Forster I should have said that he funked and was taking the opportunity
+to get out of it, but everyone knows that he has any amount of pluck;
+look how he charged those Sepoys single handed.”
+
+“There are two sorts of pluck, Wilson,” the Doctor said dryly. “There is
+the pluck that will carry a man through a desperate action and lead him
+to do deeds that are the talk of an army. Forster possesses that kind of
+pluck in an unusual degree. He is almost an ideal cavalryman--dashing,
+reckless; riding with a smile on his lips into the thickest of the fray,
+absolutely careless of life when his blood is up.
+
+“There is another sort of courage, that which supports men under long
+continued strain, and enables them, patiently and steadfastly, to face
+death when they see it approaching step by step. I doubt whether Forster
+possesses that passive sort of courage. He would ride up to a cannon’s
+mouth, but would grow impatient in a. square of infantry condemned to
+remain inactive under a heavy artillery fire.
+
+“No one has changed more since this siege began than he has. Except when
+engaged under a heavy fire he has been either silent, or impatient and
+short tempered, shirking conversation even with women when his turn
+of duty was over. Mind, I don’t say for a moment that I suspect him of
+being afraid of death; when the end came he would fight as bravely
+as ever, and no one could fight more bravely. But he cannot stand the
+waiting; he is always pulling his mustache moodily and muttering to
+himself; he is good to do but not to suffer; he would make a shockingly
+bad patient in a long illness.
+
+“Well, if any of you have letters you want to write to friends in
+England I should advise you to take the opportunity; mind, I don’t think
+they will ever get them. Forster may get through, but I consider the
+chances strongly against it. For a ride of ten miles through a country
+swarming with foes I could choose no messenger I would rather trust, but
+for a ride like this, that requires patience and caution and resource,
+he is not the man I should select. Bathurst would have succeeded almost
+certainly if he had once got out. The two men are as different as light
+to dark; one possesses just the points the other fails in. I have no one
+at home I want to write to, so I will undertake the watch here.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+The men on descending from the roof found all the ladies engaged in
+writing, the Major having told them that there was a chance of their
+letters being taken out. Scarce one looked up as they entered; their
+thoughts at the moment were at home with those to whom they were writing
+what might well be their last farewells. Stifled sobs were heard in the
+quiet room; mournful letters were blurred with tears even from eyes that
+had not before been dimmed since the siege began.
+
+Isobel Hannay was the first to finish, for her letter to her mother was
+but a short one. As she closed it she looked up. Captain Forster was
+standing at the other side of the table with his eyes fixed on her,
+and he made a slight gesture to her that he wished to speak to her. She
+hesitated a moment, and then rose and quietly left the room. A moment
+later he joined her outside.
+
+“Come outside,” he said, “I must speak to you;” and together they went
+out through the passage into the courtyard.
+
+“Isobel,” he began, “I need not tell you that I love you; till lately
+I have not known how much, but I feel now that I could not live without
+you.”
+
+“Why are you going away then, Captain Forster?” she asked quietly.
+
+“I don’t want to go alone,” he said; “I cannot go alone--I want you to
+go with me. Your uncle would surely consent; it is the only chance of
+saving your life. We all know that it is next to hopeless that a force
+sufficient to rescue us can be sent; there is just a chance, but that is
+all that can be said. We could be married at Allahabad. I would make for
+that town instead of Lucknow if you will go with me, and I could leave
+you there in safety till these troubles are over; I am going to take
+another horse as well as my own, and two would be as likely to escape as
+one.”
+
+“Thank you for the offer, Captain Forster,” she said coldly, “but I
+decline it. My place is here with my uncle and the others.”
+
+“Why is it?” he asked passionately. “If you love me, your place is
+surely with me; and you do love me, Isobel, do you not? Surely I have
+not been mistaken.”
+
+Isobel was silent for a moment.
+
+“You were mistaken, Captain Forster,” she said, after a pause. “You paid
+me attentions such as I had heard you paid to many others, and it was
+pleasant. That you were serious I did not think. I believed you were
+simply flirting with me; that you meant no more by it than you had meant
+before; and being forewarned, and therefore having no fear that I should
+hurt myself more than you would, I entered into it in the same spirit.
+Where there was so much to be anxious about, it was a pleasure and
+relief. Had I met you elsewhere, and under different circumstances, I
+think I should have come to love you. A girl almost without experience
+and new to the world, as I am, could hardly have helped doing so,
+I think. Had I thought you were in earnest I should have acted
+differently; and if I have deceived you by my manner I am sorry; but
+even had I loved you I would not have consented to do the thing you ask
+me. You are going on duty. You are going in the hope of obtaining aid
+for us. I should be simply escaping while others stay, and I should
+despise myself for the action. Besides; I do not think that even in that
+case my uncle would have consented to my going with you.”
+
+“I am sure that he would,” Forster broke in. “He would never be mad
+enough to refuse you the chance of escape from such a fate as may now
+await you.”
+
+“We need not discuss the question,” she said. “Even if I loved you, I
+would not go with you; and I do not love you.”
+
+“They have prejudiced you against me,” he said angrily.
+
+“They warned me, and they were right in doing so. Ask yourself if they
+were not. Would you see a sister of yours running the risk of breaking
+her heart without warning her? Do not be angry,” she went on, putting
+her hand on his arm. “We have been good friends, Captain Forster, and I
+like you very much. We may never meet again; it is most likely we never
+shall do so. I am grateful to you for the many pleasant hours you have
+given me. Let us part thus.”
+
+“Can you not give some hope that in the distance, when these troubles
+are over, should we both be spared, you may--”
+
+“No, Captain Forster, I am sure it could never be so; if we ever meet
+again, we will meet as we part now--as friends. And now I can stay no
+longer; they will be missing me,” and, turning, she entered the house
+before he could speak again.
+
+It was some minutes before he followed her. He had not really thought
+that she would go with him; perhaps he had hardly wished it, for on
+such an expedition a woman would necessarily add to the difficulty and
+danger; but he had thought that she would have told him that his love
+was returned, and for perhaps the first time in his life he was serious
+in his protestation of it.
+
+“What does it matter?” he said at last, as he turned; “’tis ten thousand
+to one against our meeting again; if we do, I can take it up where it
+breaks off now. She has acknowledged that she would have liked me if she
+had been sure that I was in earnest. Next time I shall be so. She was
+right. I was but amusing myself with her at first, and had no more
+thought of marrying her than I had of flying. But there, it is no use
+talking about the future; the thing now is to get out of this trap. I
+have felt like a rat in a cage with a terrier watching me for the last
+month, and long to be on horseback again, with the chance of making a
+fight for my life. What a fool Bathurst was to throw away the chance!”
+
+Bathurst, his work done, had looked into the hall where the others were
+gathered, and hearing that the Doctor was alone on watch had gone up to
+him.
+
+“I was just thinking, Bathurst,” the Doctor said, as he joined him,
+“about that fight today. It seems to me that whatever comes of this
+business, you and I are not likely to be among those who go down when
+the place is taken.”
+
+“How is that, Doctor? Why is our chance better than the rest? I have no
+hope myself that any will be spared.”
+
+“I put my faith in the juggler, Bathurst. Has it not struck you that the
+first picture you saw has come true?”
+
+“I have never given it a thought for weeks,” Bathurst said; “certainly
+I have not thought of it today. Yes, now you speak of it, it has come
+true. How strange! I put it aside as a clever trick--one that I could
+not understand any more than I did the others, but, knowing myself,
+it seemed beyond the bounds of possibility that it could come true.
+Anything but that I would have believed, but, as I told you, whatever
+might happen in the future, I should not be found fighting desperately
+as I saw myself doing there. It is true that I did so, but it was only a
+sort of a frenzy. I did not fire a shot, as Wilson may have told you.
+I strove like a man in a nightmare to break the spell that seemed to
+render me powerless to move, but when, for a moment, the firing ceased,
+a weight seemed to fall off me, and I was seized with a sort of passion
+to kill. I have no distinct remembrance of anything until it was all
+over. It was still the nightmare, but one of a different kind, and I
+was no more myself then than I was when I was lying helpless on the
+sandbags. Still, as you say, the picture was complete; at least, if Miss
+Hannay was standing up here.”
+
+“Yes, she rose to her feet in the excitement of the fight. I believe we
+all did so. The picture was true in all its details as you described it
+to me. And that being so, I believe that other picture, the one we saw
+together, you and I and Isobel Hannay in native disguises, will also
+come true.”
+
+Bathurst was silent for two or three minutes.
+
+“It may be so, Doctor--Heaven only knows. I trust for your sake and hers
+it may be so, though I care but little about myself; but that picture
+wasn’t a final one, and we don’t know what may follow it.”
+
+“That is so, Bathurst. But I think that you and I, once fairly away in
+disguise, might be trusted to make our way down the country. You see,
+we have a complete confirmation of that juggler’s powers. He showed me a
+scene in the past--a scene which had not been in my mind for years, and
+was certainly not in my thoughts at the time. He showed you a scene in
+the future, which, unlikely as it appeared, has actually taken place. I
+believe he will be equally right in this other picture. You have heard
+that Forster is going?”
+
+“Yes; Wilson came down and told me while I was at work. Wilson seemed
+rather disgusted at his volunteering. I don’t know that I am surprised
+myself, for, as I told you, I knew him at school, and he had no moral
+courage, though plenty of physical. Still, under the circumstances, I
+should not have thought he would have gone.”
+
+“You mean because of Miss Hannay, Bathurst?”
+
+“Yes, that is what I mean.”
+
+“That sort of thing might weigh with you or me, Bathurst, but not with
+him. He has loved and ridden away many times before this, but in this
+case, fortunately, I don’t think he will leave an aching heart behind
+him.”
+
+“You don’t mean to say, Doctor, that you don’t think she cares for him?”
+
+“I have not asked her the question,” the Doctor said dryly. “I dare say
+she likes him; in fact, I am ready to admit that there has been what you
+may call a strong case of flirtation; but when a young woman is
+thrown with an uncommonly good looking man, who lays himself out to be
+agreeable to her, my experience is that a flirtation generally comes
+of it, especially when the young woman has no one else to make herself
+agreeable to, and is, moreover, a little sore with the world in general.
+I own that at one time I was rather inclined to think that out of sheer
+perverseness the girl was going to make a fool of herself with that good
+looking scamp, but since we have been shut up here I have felt easy in
+my mind about it. And now, if you will take my rifle for ten minutes,
+I will go down and get a cup of tea; I volunteered to take sentry work,
+but I didn’t bargain for keeping it all night without relief. By the
+way, I told Forster of your offer of your horse, and I think he is going
+to take it.”
+
+“He is welcome to it,” Bathurst said carelessly; “it will be of no use
+to me.”
+
+“Now, look here,” the Doctor said shortly; “just put Miss Hannay out of
+your head for the present, and attend to the business on hand. I do not
+think there is much chance of their trying it on again tonight, but they
+may do so, so please to keep a sharp lookout while I am below.”
+
+“I will be careful, Doctor,” Bathurst said, with a laugh; but the Doctor
+had so little faith in his watchfulness that as soon as he went below he
+sent up Wilson to share his guard.
+
+At twelve o’clock the sandbags were removed sufficiently to allow a
+horse to pass through, and Forster’s and Bathurst’s animals were led
+out through the breach, their feet having been muffled with blankets to
+prevent their striking a stone and arousing the attention of the enemy’s
+sentinels. Once fairly out the mufflings were removed and Forster sprang
+into his saddle.
+
+“Goodby, Major,” he said; “I hope I may be back again in eight or nine
+days with a squadron of cavalry.”
+
+“Goodby, Forster; I hope it may be so. May God protect you!”
+
+The gap in the defenses was closed the instant the horses passed
+through, and the men stood in the breach of the wall listening as
+Forster rode off. He went at a walk, but before he had gone fifty paces
+there was a sharp challenge, followed almost instantly by a rifle shot,
+then came the crack of a revolver and the rapid beat of galloping hoofs.
+Loud shouts were heard, and musket shots fired in rapid succession.
+
+“They are not likely to have hit him in the dark,” the Major said, as
+he climbed back over the sandbags; “but they may hit his horses, which
+would be just as fatal.”
+
+Leaving two sentries--the one just outside the breach near the wall,
+the other on the sandbags--the rest of the party hurried up on the
+roof. Shots were still being fired, and there was a confused sound of
+shouting; then a cavalry trumpet rang out sharply, and presently three
+shots fired in quick succession came upon the air.
+
+“That is the signal agreed on,” the Major said: “he is safely beyond
+their lines. Now it is a question of riding; some of the cavalry will be
+in pursuit of him before many minutes are over.”
+
+Forster’s adieus had been brief. He had busied himself up to the last
+moment in looking to the saddling of the two horses, and had only gone
+into the house and said goodby to the ladies just when it was time to
+start. He had said a few hopeful words as to the success of the mission,
+but it had evidently needed an effort for him to do so. He had no
+opportunity of speaking a word apart with Isobel, and he shook her hand
+silently when it came to her turn.
+
+“I should not have given him credit for so much feeling,” Mrs. Doolan
+whispered to Isobel, as he went out; “he was really sorry to leave us,
+and I didn’t think he was a man to be sorry for anything that didn’t
+affect himself. I think he had absolutely the grace to feel a little
+ashamed of leaving us.”
+
+“I don’t think that is fair,” Isobel said warmly, “when he is going away
+to fetch assistance for us.”
+
+“He is deserting us as rats desert a sinking ship,” Mrs. Doolan said
+positively; “and I am only surprised that he has the grace to feel a
+little ashamed of the action. As for caring, there is only one person in
+the world he cares for--himself. I was reading ‘David Copperfield’
+just before we came in here, and Steerforth’s character might have been
+sketched from Forster. He is a man without either heart or conscience;
+a man who would sacrifice everything to his own pleasures; and yet even
+when one knows him to be what he is, one can hardly help liking him. I
+wonder how it is, my dear, that scamps are generally more pleasant than
+good men?”
+
+“I never thought about it, Mrs. Doolan,” Isobel said, roused to a smile
+by the earnestness with which Mrs. Doolan propounded the problem; “and
+can give no reason except that we are attracted by natures the reverse
+of our own.”
+
+Mrs. Doolan laughed.
+
+“So you think we are better than men, Isobel? I don’t--not one bit. We
+are cramped in our opportunities; but given equal opportunities I don’t
+think there would be anything to choose between us. But we mustn’t stay
+talking here any longer; we both go on duty in the sick ward at four
+o’clock.”
+
+The enemy’s batteries opened on the following morning more violently
+than before. More guns had been placed in position during the night, and
+a rain of missiles was poured upon the house. For the next six days the
+position of the besieged became hourly worse. Several breaches had been
+made in the wall, and the shots now struck the house, and the inmates
+passed the greater part of their time in the basement.
+
+The heat was terrible, and, as the firing was kept up night and
+day, sleep was almost impossible. The number of the besiegers had
+considerably increased, large numbers of the country people taking part
+in the siege, while a regiment of Sepoys from Cawnpore had taken the
+place of the detachment of the 103d Bengal Infantry, of whom, indeed,
+but few now remained.
+
+The garrison no longer held the courtyard. Several times masses of the
+enemy had surged up and poured through the breaches, but a large number
+of hand grenades of various sizes had been constructed by the defenders,
+and the effects of these thrown down from the roof among the crowded
+masses were so terrible that the natives each time fell back. The horses
+had all been turned out through the breach on the day after Captain
+Forster’s departure, in order to save their lives. A plague of flies
+was not the least of the defenders’ troubles. After the repulse of the
+assaults the defenders went out at night and carried the bodies of the
+natives who had fallen in the courtyard beyond the wall. Nevertheless,
+the odor of blood attracted such countless swarms of flies that the
+ground was black with them, and they pervaded the house in legions.
+
+The number of the defenders decreased daily. Six only were able now to
+carry arms. Mr. Hunter, Captain Rintoul, and Richards had died of fever.
+Farquharson had been killed by a cannon ball; two civilians had been
+badly wounded; several of the children had succumbed; Amy Hunter had
+been killed by a shell that passed through the sandbag protection of the
+grating that gave light to the room in the basement used as a sick
+ward. The other ladies were all utterly worn out with exhaustion,
+sleeplessness, and anxiety. Still there had been no word spoken of
+surrender. Had the men been alone they would have sallied out and
+died fighting, but this would have left the women at the mercy of the
+assailants.
+
+The work at the gallery had been discontinued for some time. It had been
+carried upwards until a number of roots in the earth showed that they
+were near the surface, and, as they believed, under a clump of bushes
+growing a hundred and fifty yards beyond the walls; but of late there
+had been no talk of using this. Flight, which even at first had seemed
+almost hopeless, was wholly beyond them in their present weakened
+condition.
+
+On the last of these six days Major Hannay was severely wounded. At
+night the enemy’s fire relaxed a little, and the ladies took advantage
+of it to go up onto the terrace for air, while the men gathered for a
+council round the Major’s bed.
+
+“Well, Doctor, the end is pretty near,” he said; “it is clear we cannot
+hold out many hours longer. We must look the matter in the face now. We
+have agreed all along that when we could no longer resist we would offer
+to surrender on the terms that our lives should be spared, and that we
+should be given safe conduct down the country, and that if those terms
+were refused we were to resist to the end, and then blow up the house
+and all in it. I think the time has come for raising the white flag.”
+
+“I think so,” the Doctor said: “we have done everything men could do.
+I have little hope that they will grant us terms of surrender; for from
+the native servants who have deserted us they must have a fair idea of
+our condition. What do you think, Bathurst?”
+
+“I think it probable there are divisions among them,” he replied; “the
+Talookdars may have risen against us, but I do not think they can have
+the same deadly enmity the Sepoys have shown. They must be heartily sick
+of this prolonged siege, and they have lost large numbers of their men.
+I should say they would be willing enough to give terms, but probably
+they are overruled by the Sepoys, and perhaps by orders from Nana Sahib.
+I know several of them personally, and I think I could influence Por
+Sing, who is certainly the most powerful of the Zemindars of this
+neighborhood, and is probably looked upon as their natural leader; if
+you approve of it, Major, I will go out in disguise, and endeavor to
+obtain an interview with him. He is an honorable man; and if he will
+give his guarantee for our safety, I would trust him. At any rate, I can
+but try. If I do not return, you will know that I am dead, and that no
+terms can be obtained, and can then decide when to end it all.”
+
+“It is worth the attempt anyhow,” the Major said. “I say nothing about
+the danger you will run, for no danger can be greater than that which
+hangs over us all now.”
+
+“Very well, Major, then I will do it at once, but you must not expect me
+back until tomorrow night. I can hardly hope to obtain an interview with
+Por Sing tonight.”
+
+“How will you go out, Bathurst?”
+
+“I will go down at once and break in the roof of the gallery,” he said;
+“we know they are close round the wall, and I could not hope to get out
+through any of the breaches.”
+
+“I suppose you are quite convinced that there is no hope of relief from
+Lucknow?”
+
+“Quite convinced. I never had any real hope of it; but had there been a
+force disposable, it would have started at once if Forster arrived there
+with his message, and might have been here by this time.”
+
+“At any rate, we can wait no longer.”
+
+“Then we will begin at once,” Bathurst said, and, taking a crowbar and
+pick from the place where the tools were kept, he lighted the lamp and
+went along the gallery, accompanied by the Doctor, who carried two light
+bamboo ladders.
+
+“Do you think you will succeed, Bathurst?”
+
+“I am pretty sure of it,” he said confidently. “I believe I have a
+friend there.”
+
+“A friend!” the Doctor repeated in surprise.
+
+“Yes; I am convinced that the juggler is there. Not once, but half a
+dozen times during the last two nights when I have been on watch on the
+terrace, I have distinctly heard the words whispered in my ear, ‘Meet me
+at your bungalow.’ You may think I dozed off and was dreaming, but I
+was as wide awake then as I am now. I cannot say that I recognized the
+voice, but the words were in the dialect he speaks. At any rate, as soon
+as I am out I shall make my way there, and shall wait there all night
+on the chance of his coming. After what we know of the man’s strange
+powers, there seems nothing unreasonable to me in his being able to
+impress upon my mind the fact that he wants to see me.”
+
+“I quite agree with you there, and his aid might be invaluable. You are
+not the sort of man to have delusions, Bathurst, and I quite believe
+what you say. I feel more hopeful now than I have done for some time.”
+
+An hour’s hard work, and a hole was made through the soil, which was but
+three feet thick. Bathurst climbed up the ladder and looked out.
+
+“It is as we thought, Doctor; we are in the middle of that thicket. Now
+I will go and dress if you will keep guard here with your rifle.”
+
+At the end of the gallery a figure was standing; it was Isobel Hannay.
+
+“I have heard you are going out again, Mr. Bathurst.”
+
+“Yes, I am going to see what I can do in the way of making terms for
+us.”
+
+“You may not come back again,” she said nervously.
+
+“That is, of course, possible, Miss Hannay, but I do not think the risk
+is greater than that run by those who stay here.”
+
+“I want to speak to you before you go,” she said; “I have wanted to
+speak so long, but you have never given me an opportunity. We may never
+meet again, and I must tell you how sorry I am--how sorry I have been
+ever since for what I said. I spoke as a foolish girl, but I know better
+now. Have I not seen how calm you have been through all our troubles,
+how you have devoted yourself to us and the children, how you have kept
+up all our spirits, how cheerfully you have worked, and as our trouble
+increased we have all come to look up to you and lean upon you. Do say,
+Mr. Bathurst, that you forgive me, and that if you return we can be
+friends as we were before.”
+
+“Certainly I forgive you if there is anything to forgive, Miss Hannay,”
+ he said gravely. “Nothing that you or anyone can say can relieve me of
+the pain of knowing that I have been unable to take any active part in
+your defense, that I have been forced to play the part of a woman rather
+than a man; but assuredly, if I return, I shall be glad to be again your
+friend, which, indeed. I have never ceased to be at heart.”
+
+Perhaps she expected something more, but it did not come. He spoke
+cordially, but yet as one who felt that there was an impassible barrier
+between them. She stood irresolute for a moment, and then held out her
+hand. “Goodby, then,” she said.
+
+He held it a moment. “Goodby, Miss Hannay. May God keep you and guard
+you.”
+
+Then gently he led her to the door, and they passed out together. A
+quarter of an hour later he rejoined the Doctor, having brought with him
+a few short lengths of bamboo.
+
+“I will put these across the hole when I get out,” he said, “lay some
+sods over them, and cover them up with leaves, in case anyone should
+enter the bushes tomorrow. It is not likely, but it is as well to take
+the precaution. One of you had better stay on guard until I come back.
+It would not do to trust any of the natives; those that remain are all
+utterly disheartened and broken down, and might take the opportunity
+of purchasing their lives by going out and informing the enemy of the
+opening into the gallery. They must already know of its existence from
+the men who have deserted. But, fortunately, I don’t think any of them
+are aware of its exact direction; if they had been, we should have had
+them countermining before this.”
+
+Having carefully closed up the opening, Bathurst went to the edge of the
+bushes and listened. He could hear voices between him and the house,
+but all was quiet near at hand, and he began to move noiselessly along
+through the garden. He had no great fear of meeting with anyone here.
+The natives had formed a cordon round the wall, and behind that there
+would be no one on watch, and as the batteries were silent, all were
+doubtless asleep there. In ten minutes he stood before the charred
+stumps that marked the site of his bungalow. As he did so, a figure
+advanced to meet him.
+
+“It is you, sahib. I was expecting you. I knew that you would come this
+evening.”
+
+“I don’t know how you knew it but I am heartily glad to see you.”
+
+“You want to see Por Sing? Come along with me and I will take you to
+him; but there is no time to lose;” and without another word he walked
+rapidly away, followed by Bathurst.
+
+When they got into the open the latter could see that his companion was
+dressed in an altogether different garb to that in which he had before
+seen him, being attired as a person of some rank and importance. He
+stopped presently for Bathurst to come up with him.
+
+“I have done what I could to prepare the way for you,” he said. “Openly
+I could for certain reasons do nothing, but I have said enough to make
+him feel uncomfortable about the future, and to render him anxious to
+find a way of escape for himself if your people should ever again get
+the mastery.”
+
+“How are things going, Rujub? We have heard nothing for three weeks. How
+is it at Cawnpore?”
+
+“Cawnpore has been taken by the Nana. They surrendered on his solemn
+oath that all should be allowed to depart in safety. He broke his oath,
+and there are not ten of its defenders alive. The women are all in
+captivity.”
+
+Bathurst groaned. He had hardly hoped that the handful of defenders
+could have maintained themselves against such overpowering numbers, but
+the certainty as to their fate was a heavy blow.
+
+“And Lucknow?” he asked.
+
+“The Residency holds out at present, but men say that it must soon
+fall.”
+
+“And what do you say?”
+
+“I say nothing,” the man said; “we cannot use our art in matters which
+concern ourselves.”
+
+“And Delhi?”
+
+“There is a little force of whites in front of Delhi; there are tens of
+thousands of Sepoys in the town, but as yet the whites have maintained
+themselves. The chiefs of the Punjaub have proved faithless to their
+country, and there the British rule is maintained.”
+
+“Thank God for that!” Bathurst exclaimed; “as long as the Punjaub holds
+out the tables may be turned. And the other Presidencies?”
+
+“Nothing as yet,” Rujub said, in a tone of discontent.
+
+“Then you are against us, Rujub?”
+
+The man stopped.
+
+“Sahib, I know not what I wish now. I have been brought up to hate the
+whites. Two of my father’s brothers were hung as Thugs, and my father
+taught me to hate the men who did it. For years I have worked quietly
+against you, as have most of those of my craft. We have reason to hate
+you. In the old times we were honored in the land--honored and feared;
+for even the great ones knew that we had powers such as no other men
+have. But the whites treat us as if we were mere buffoons, who play
+for their amusement; they make no distinction between the wandering
+conjurer, with his tricks of dexterity, and the masters, who have powers
+that have been handed down from father to son for thousands of years,
+who can communicate with each other though separated by the length of
+India; who can, as you have seen, make men invisible; who can read
+the past and the future. They see these things, and though they cannot
+explain them, they persist in treating us all as if we were mere
+jugglers.
+
+“They prefer to deny the evidence of their own senses rather than admit
+that we have powers such as they have not; and so, even in the eyes of
+our own countrymen, we have lost our old standing and position, while
+the whites would bribe us with money to divulge the secrets in which
+they profess to disbelieve. No wonder that we hate you, and that we
+long for the return of the old days, when even princes were glad to ask
+favors at our hands. It is seldom that we show our powers now. Those who
+aid us, and whose servants we are, are not to be insulted by the powers
+they bestow upon us being used for the amusement of men who believe in
+nothing.
+
+“The Europeans who first came to India have left records of the strange
+things they saw at the courts of the native princes. But such things are
+no longer done for the amusement of our white masters. Thus, then, for
+years I have worked against you; and just as I saw that our work was
+successful, just as all was prepared for the blow that was to sweep the
+white men out of India, you saved my daughter; then my work seemed to
+come to an end. Would any of my countrymen, armed only with a whip, have
+thrown themselves in the way of a tiger to save a woman--a stranger--one
+altogether beneath him in rank--one, as it were, dust beneath his feet?
+That I should be ready to give my life for yours was a matter of course;
+I should have been an ungrateful wretch otherwise. But this was not
+enough. At one blow the work I had devoted myself to for years was
+brought to nothing. Everything seemed to me new; and as I sat by my
+daughter’s bedside, when she lay sick with the fever, I had to think it
+all out again. Then I saw things in another light. I saw that, though
+the white men were masterful and often hard, though they had little
+regard for our customs, and viewed our beliefs as superstitious,
+and scoffed at the notion of there being powers of which they had no
+knowledge, yet that they were a great people. Other conquerors, many
+of them, India has had, but none who have made it their first object to
+care for the welfare of the people at large. The Feringhees have wrung
+nothing from the poor to be spent in pomp and display; they permit no
+tyranny or ill doing; under them the poorest peasant tills his fields in
+peace.
+
+“I have been obliged to see all this, and I feel now that their
+destruction would be a frightful misfortune. We should be ruled by our
+native lords; but as soon as the white man was gone the old quarrels
+would break out, and the country would be red with blood. I did not see
+this before, because I had only looked at it with the eyes of my own
+caste; now I see it with the eyes of one whose daughter has been saved
+from a tiger by a white man. I cannot love those I have been taught to
+hate, but I can see the benefit their rule has given to India.
+
+“But what can I do now? I am in the stream, and I must go with it. I
+know not what I wish or what I would do. Six months ago I felt certain.
+Now I doubt. It seemed to me that in a day the English Raj would be
+swept away. How could it be otherwise when the whole army that had
+conquered India for them were against them? I knew they were brave, but
+we have never lacked bravery. How could I tell that they would fight one
+against a hundred?
+
+“But come, let us go on. Por Sing is expecting you. I told him that
+I knew that one from the garrison would come out to treat with him
+privately tonight, and he is expecting you, though he does not know who
+may come.”
+
+Ten minutes walking, and they approached a large tent surrounded by
+several smaller ones. A sentry challenged when they approached, but
+on Rujub giving his name, he at once resumed his walk up and down, and
+Rujub, followed by Bathurst, advanced and entered the tent. The Zemindar
+was seated on a divan smoking a hookah. Rujub bowed, but not with the
+deep reverence of one approaching his superior.
+
+“He is here,” he said.
+
+“Then you were not mistaken, Rujub?”
+
+“How could I be when I knew?” Rujub said. “I have done what I said, and
+have brought him straight to you. That was all I had to do with it; the
+rest is for your highness.”
+
+“I would rather that you should be present,” Por Sing said, as Rujub
+turned to withdraw.
+
+“No,” the latter replied; “in this matter it is for you to decide.
+I know not the Nana’s wishes, and your highness must take the
+responsibility. I have brought him to you rather than to the commander
+of the Sepoys, because your authority should be the greater; it is you
+and the other Oude chiefs who have borne the weight of this siege, and
+it is only right that it is you who should decide the conditions of
+surrender. The Sepoys are not our masters, and it is well they are
+not so; the Nana and the Oude chiefs have not taken up arms to free
+themselves from the English Raj to be ruled over by the men who have
+been the servants of the English.”
+
+“That is so,” the Zemindar said, stroking his beard; “well, I will talk
+with this person.”
+
+Rujub left the tent. “You do not know me, Por Sing?” Bathurst said,
+stepping forward from the entrance where he had hitherto stood; “I am
+the Sahib Bathurst.”
+
+“Is it so?” the Zemindar said, laying aside his pipe and rising to his
+feet; “none could come to me whom I would rather see. You have always
+proved yourself a just officer, and I have no complaint against you. We
+have often broken bread together, and it has grieved me to know that you
+were in yonder house. Do you come to me on your own account, or from the
+sahib who commands?”
+
+“I come on my own account,” Bathurst said; “when I come as a messenger
+from him, I must come openly. I. know you to be an honorable man, and
+that I could say what I have to say to you and depart in safety. I
+regard you as one who has been misled, and regret for your sake that you
+should have been induced to take part with these mutineers against us.
+Believe me, chief, you have been terribly misled. You have been told
+that it needed but an effort to overthrow the British Raj. Those who
+told you so lied. It might have seemed easy to destroy the handful of
+Europeans scattered throughout India, but you have not succeeded in
+doing it. Even had you done so, you would not have so much as begun
+the work. There are but few white soldiers here. Why? Because England
+trusted in the fidelity of her native troops, and thought it necessary
+to keep only a handful of soldiers in India, but if need be, for every
+soldier now here she could send a hundred, and she will send a hundred
+if required to reconquer India. Already you may be sure that ships are
+on the sea laden with troops; and if you find it so hard to overcome the
+few soldiers now here, what would you do against the great armies that
+will pour in ere long? Why, all the efforts of the Sepoys gathered
+at Delhi are insufficient to defeat the four or five thousand British
+troops who hold their posts outside the town, waiting only till the
+succor arrives from England to take a terrible vengeance. Woe be then
+to those who have taken part against us; still more to those whose hands
+are stained with British blood.”
+
+“It is too late now,” the native said gloomily, “the die is cast; but
+since I have seen how a score of men could defend that shattered house
+against thousands, do you think I have not seen that I have been wrong?
+Who would have thought that men could do such a thing? But it is too
+late now.”
+
+“It is not too late,” Bathurst said; “it is too late, indeed, to undo
+the mischief that has been done, but not too late for you to secure
+yourself against some of the consequences. The English are just; and
+when they shall have stamped out this mutiny, as assuredly they will do,
+they will draw a distinction between mutinous soldiers who were false
+to their salt, and native chiefs who fought, as they believed, for the
+independence of their country. But one thing they will not forgive,
+whether in Sepoy or in prince, the murder of man, woman, or child in
+cold blood: for that there will be no pardon.
+
+“But it is not upon that ground that I came to appeal to you, but as
+a noble of Oude--a man who is a brave enemy, but who could never be a
+butcher. We have fought against each other fairly and evenly; the time
+has come when we can fight no longer, and I demand of you, confidently,
+that, if we surrender, the lives of all within those walls shall be
+respected, and a safe conduct be granted them down the country. I know
+that such conditions were granted to the garrison at Cawnpore, and that
+they were shamelessly violated; for that act Nana Sahib will never be
+forgiven. He will be hunted down like a dog and hung when he is caught,
+just as if he had been the poorest peasant. But I have not so bad an
+opinion of the people of India as to believe them base enough to follow
+such an example, and I am confident that if you grant us those terms,
+you will see that the conditions are observed.”
+
+“I have received orders from Nana Sahib to send all prisoners down to
+him,” Por Sing said, in a hesitating voice.
+
+“You will never send down prisoners from here,” Bathurst replied firmly.
+“You may attack us again, and after the loss of the lives of scores more
+of your followers you may be successful, but you will take no prisoners,
+for at the last moment we will blow the house and all in it into the
+air. Besides, who made Nana Sahib your master? He is not the lord of
+Oude; and though doubtless he dreams of sovereignty, it is a rope, not
+a throne, that awaits him. Why should you nobles of Oude obey the orders
+of this peasant boy, though he was adopted by the Peishwa? The Peishwa
+himself was never your lord, and why should you obey this traitor, this
+butcher, this disgrace to India, when he orders you to hand over to him
+the prisoners your sword has made?”
+
+“That is true,” Por Sing said gloomily; “but the Sepoys will not agree
+to the terms.”
+
+“The Sepoys are not your masters,” Bathurst said; “we do not surrender
+to them, but to you. We place no confidence in their word, but we have
+every faith in the honor of the nobles of Oude. If you and your friends
+grant us the terms we ask, the Sepoys may clamor, but they will not
+venture to do more. Neither they nor Nana Sahib dare at this moment
+affront the people of Oude.
+
+“There are Sepoys round Lucknow, but it is the men of Oude who are
+really pressing the siege. If you are firm, they will not dare to break
+with you on such a question as the lives of a score of Europeans. If you
+will give me your word and your honor that all shall be spared, I will
+come out in the morning with a flag of truce to treat with you. If not,
+we will defend ourselves to the last, and then blow ourselves into the
+air.”
+
+“And you think,” Por Sing said doubtfully, “that if I agreed to this, it
+would be taken into consideration should the British Raj be restored.”
+
+“I can promise you that it will,” Bathurst said. “It will be properly
+represented that it is to you that the defenders of Deennugghur, and the
+women and children with them, owe their lives, and you may be sure that
+this will go a very long way towards wiping out the part you have taken
+in the attack on the station. When the day of reckoning comes, the
+British Government will know as well how to reward those who rendered
+them service in these days, as to punish those who have been our foes.”
+
+“I will do it,” Por Sing said firmly. “Do not come out until the
+afternoon. In the morning I will talk with the other Zemindars, and
+bring them over to agree that there shall be no more bloodshed. There is
+not one of us but is heartily sick of this business, and eager to put an
+end to it. Rujub may report what he likes to the Nana, I will do what is
+right.”
+
+After a hearty expression of thanks, Bathurst left the tent. Rujub was
+awaiting him outside.
+
+“You have succeeded?” he asked.
+
+“Yes; he will guarantee the lives of all the garrison, but he seemed to
+be afraid of what you might report to Nana Sahib.”
+
+“I am the Nana’s agent here,” Rujub said; “I have been working with
+him for months. I would I could undo it all now. I was away when they
+surrendered at Cawnpore. Had I not been, that massacre would never have
+taken place, for I am one of the few who have influence with him. He is
+fully cognizant of my power, and fears it.”
+
+They made their way back without interruption to the clump of bushes
+near the house.
+
+“When shall I see you again?” Bathurst asked.
+
+“I do not know,” replied Rujub, “but be sure that I shall be at hand to
+aid you if possible should danger arise.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+As soon as Bathurst began to remove the covering of the hole, a voice
+came from below.
+
+“Is that you, Bathurst?”
+
+“All right, Doctor.”
+
+“Heaven be praised! You are back sooner than I expected, by a long way.
+I heard voices talking, so I doubted whether it was you.”
+
+“The ladder is still there, I suppose, Doctor?”
+
+“Yes; it is just as you got off it. What are you going to do about the
+hole?”
+
+“Rujub is here; he will cover it up after me.”
+
+“Then you were right,” the Doctor said, as Bathurst stepped down beside
+him; “and you found the juggler really waiting for you?”
+
+“At the bungalow, Doctor, as I expected.”
+
+“And what have you done? You can hardly have seen Por Sing; it is not
+much over an hour since you left.”
+
+“I have seen him, Doctor; and what is more, he has pledged his word for
+our safety.”
+
+“Thank God for that, lad; it is more than I expected. This will be news
+indeed for the poor women. And do you think he will be strong enough to
+keep his pledge?”
+
+“I think so; he asked me to wait until tomorrow afternoon before going
+out with a flag of truce, and said that by that time he would get the
+other Zemindars to stand by him, and would make terms whether the Sepoys
+liked it or not.”
+
+“Well, you shall tell us all about it afterwards, Bathurst; let us take
+the news in to them at once; it is long since they had good tidings
+of any kind; it would be cruel to keep them in suspense, even for five
+minutes.”
+
+There was no noisy outburst of joy when the news was told. Three weeks
+before it would have been received with the liveliest satisfaction, but
+now the bitterness of death was well nigh past; half the children lay
+in their graves in the garden, scarce one of the ladies but had lost
+husband or child, and while women murmured “Thank God!” as they clasped
+their children to them, the tears ran down as they thought how different
+it would have been had the news come sooner. The men, although equally
+quiet, yet showed more outward satisfaction than the women. Warm grasps
+of the hands were exchanged by those who had fought side by side
+during these terrible days, and a load seemed lifted at once off their
+shoulders.
+
+Bathurst stayed but a moment in the room after this news was told, but
+went in with Dr. Wade to the Major, and reported to him in full the
+conversation that had taken place between himself and Por Sing.
+
+“I think you are right, Bathurst; if the Oude men hold together, the
+Sepoys will scarcely risk a breach with them. Whether he will be able to
+secure our safety afterwards is another thing.”
+
+“I quite see that, Major; but it seems to me that we have no option but
+to accept his offer and hope for the best.”
+
+“That is it,” the Doctor agreed. “It is certain death if we don’t
+surrender; there is a chance that he will be able to protect us if we
+do. At any rate, we can be no worse off than we are here.”
+
+Isobel had been in with Mrs. Doolan nursing the sick children when
+Bathurst arrived, but they presently came out. Isobel shook hands with
+him without speaking.
+
+“We are all heavily indebted to you, Mr. Bathurst,” Mrs. Doolan said.
+“If we escape from this, it will be to you that we humanly owe our
+lives.”
+
+She spoke in a voice that all in the room could hear.
+
+“Your are right, Mrs. Doolan,” the Doctor said; “and I think that there
+are some who must regret now the manner in which they have behaved to
+Bathurst since this siege began.”
+
+“I do for one,” Captain Doolan said, coming forward.
+
+“I have regretted it for some time, though I have not had the manliness
+to say so. I am heartily sorry. I have done you a great and cruel
+injustice. I ought to have known that the Doctor, who knew you vastly
+better than I did, was not likely to be mistaken. Putting that aside,
+I ought to have seen, and I did see, though I would not acknowledge
+it even to myself, that no man has borne himself more calmly and
+steadfastly through this siege than you have, and that by twice
+venturing out among the enemy you gave proof that you possessed as much
+courage as any of us. I do hope that you will give me your hand.”
+
+All the others who had held aloof from Bathurst came forward and
+expressed their deep regret for what had occurred.
+
+Bathurst heard them in silence.
+
+“I do not feel that there is anything to forgive,” he said quietly. “I
+am glad to hear what you say, and I know you mean it, and I accept
+the hands you offer, but what you felt towards me has affected me
+but little, for your contempt for me was as nothing to my contempt of
+myself. Nothing can alter the fact that here, where every man’s hand was
+wanted to defend the ladies and children, my hand was paralyzed;
+that whatever I may be at other times, in the hour of battle I
+fail hopelessly; nothing that I can do can wipe out, from my own
+consciousness, that disgrace.”
+
+“You exaggerate it altogether, Bathurst,” Wilson broke in hotly. “It is
+nonsense your talking like that, after the way you jumped down into the
+middle of them with that mace of yours. It was splendid.”
+
+“More than that, Mr. Bathurst,” Mrs. Doolan said, “I think we women know
+what true courage is; and there is not one of us but has, since this
+siege began, been helped and strengthened by your calmness--not one but
+has reason to be grateful for your kindness to our children during this
+terrible time. I won’t hear even you speak against yourself.”
+
+“Then I will not do so, Mrs. Doolan,” he said, with a grave smile. “And
+now I will go and sit with the Major for a time. Things are quieter
+tonight than they have been for some time past, and I trust he will get
+some sleep.”
+
+So saying, he quietly left the room.
+
+“I don’t believe he has slept two hours at a time since the siege
+began,” Mrs. Doolan said, with tears in her eyes. “We have all
+suffered--God only knows what we have suffered!--but I am sure that he
+has suffered more than any of us. As for you men, you may well say you
+are sorry and ashamed of your treatment of him. Coward, indeed! Mr.
+Bathurst may be nervous, but I am sure he has as much courage as anyone
+here. Come, Isobel, you were up all last night, and it’s past two
+o’clock now. We must try to get a little sleep before morning, and I
+should advise everyone else off duty to do the same.”
+
+At daybreak firing commenced, and was kept up energetically all the
+morning. At two o’clock a white flag was hoisted from the terrace, and
+its appearance was greeted with shouts of triumph by the assailants. The
+firing at once ceased, and in a few minutes a native officer carrying a
+white flag advanced towards the walls.
+
+“We wish to see the Zemindar Por Sing,” Bathurst said, “to treat with
+him upon the subject of our surrender.”
+
+The officer withdrew, and returned in half an hour saying that he would
+conduct the officer in command to the presence of the chief of the
+besieging force. Captain Doolan, therefore, accompanied by Bathurst and
+Dr. Wade, went out. They were conducted to the great tent where all
+the Zemindars and the principal officers of the Sepoys were assembled.
+Bathurst acted as spokesman.
+
+“Por Sing,” he said, “and you Zemindars of Oude, Major Hannay being
+disabled, Captain Doolan, who is now in command of the garrison,
+has come to represent him and to offer to surrender to you under the
+condition that the lives of all British and natives within the walls be
+respected, and that you pledge us your faith and honor that we shall be
+permitted to go down the country without molestation. It is to you, Por
+Sing, and you nobles of Oude, that we surrender, and not to those who,
+being sworn soldiers, have mutinied against their officers, and have in
+many cases treacherously murdered them. With such men Major Hannay will
+have no dealings, and it is to you that we surrender. Major Hannay bids
+me say that if this offer is refused, we can for a long time prolong our
+resistance. We are amply supplied with provisions and munitions of war,
+and many as are the numbers of our assailants who have fallen already,
+yet more will die before you obtain possession of the house. More than
+that, in no case will we be taken prisoners, for one and all have firmly
+resolved to fire the magazine when resistance is no longer possible, and
+to bury ourselves and our assailants in the ruins.”
+
+When Bathurst ceased, a hubbub of voices arose, the Sepoy officers
+protesting that the surrender should be made to them. It was some
+minutes before anything like quietness was restored, and then one of the
+officers said, “Here is Rujub; he speaks in the name of Nana. What does
+he say to this?”
+
+Rujub, who was handsomely attired, stepped forward.
+
+“I have no orders from his highness on this subject,” he said. “He
+certainly said that the prisoners were to be sent to him, but at present
+there are no prisoners, nor, if the siege continues, and the English
+carry out their threat, will there be any prisoners. I cannot think that
+Nana Sahib would wish to see some hundreds more of his countrymen
+slain or blown up, only that he may have these few men and women in his
+power.”
+
+“We have come here to take them and kill them,” one of the officers said
+defiantly; “and we will do so.”
+
+Por Sing, who had been speaking with the Talookdars round him, rose from
+his seat.
+
+“It seems to me that it is for us to decide this matter,” he said. “It
+is upon us that the losses of this siege have fallen. At the order of
+Nana Sahib we collected our retainers, abandoned our homes, and have for
+three weeks supported the dangers of this siege. We follow the Nana, but
+we are not his vassals, nor do we even know what his wishes are in
+this matter, but it seems to us that we have done enough and more than
+enough. Numbers of our retainers and kinsmen have fallen, and to prolong
+the siege would cause greater loss, and what should we gain by it? The
+possession of a heap of stones. Therefore, we are all of opinion that
+this offer of surrender should be accepted. We war for the freedom of
+our country, and have no thirst for the blood of these English sahibs,
+still less for that of their wives and children.”
+
+Some of the officers angrily protested, but Por Sing stood firm, and
+the other chiefs were equally determined. Seeing this, the officers
+consulted together, and the highest in rank then said to the Talookdars,
+“We protest against these conditions being given, but since you are
+resolved, we stand aside, and are ready to agree for ourselves and our
+men to what you may decide.”
+
+“What pledges do you require?” Por Sing asked Bathurst.
+
+“We are content, Rajah, with your personal oath that the lives of all
+within the house shall be respected, and your undertaking that they
+shall be allowed to go unharmed down the country. We have absolute faith
+in the honor of the nobles of Oude, and can desire no better guarantee.”
+
+“I will give it,” Por Sing said, “and all my friends will join me in
+it. Tonight I will have boats collected on the river; I will furnish you
+with an escort of my troops, and will myself accompany you and see you
+safely on board. I will then not only give you a safe conduct, praying
+all to let you pass unharmed, but my son with ten men shall accompany
+you in the boats to inform all that my honor is concerned in your
+safety, and that I have given my personal pledge that no molestation
+shall be offered to you. I will take my oath, and my friends will do the
+same, and I doubt not that the commander of the Sepoy troops will join
+me in it.”
+
+Bathurst translated what had been said to Captain Doolan.
+
+“It is impossible for him to do more than that,” he concluded; “I do not
+think there is the least question as to his good faith.”
+
+“He is a fine old heathen,” Captain Doolan said; “tell him that we
+accept his terms.”
+
+Bathurst at once signified this, and the Rajah then took a solemn oath
+to fulfill the conditions of the agreement, the other Talookdars
+doing the same, and the commander of the Sepoys also doing so without
+hesitation. Por Sing then promised that some carts should be collected
+before morning, to carry the ladies, the sick and wounded, down to the
+river, which was eight miles distant.
+
+“You can sleep in quiet tonight,” he added; “I will place a guard of my
+own men round the house, and see that none trouble you in any way.”
+
+A few other points were settled, and then the party returned to the
+house, to which they were followed a few minutes later by the son of Por
+Sing and three lads, sons of other Zemindars. Bathurst went down to meet
+them when their approach was noticed by the lookout on the roof.
+
+“We have come to place ourselves in your hands as hostages, sahib,” Por
+Sing’s son said. “My father thought it likely that the Sepoys or
+others might make trouble, and he said that if we were in your hands as
+hostages, all our people would see that the agreement must be kept, and
+would oppose themselves more vigorously to the Sepoys.”
+
+“It was thoughtful and kind of your father,” Bathurst said. “As far as
+accommodation is concerned, we can do little to make you comfortable,
+but in other respects we are not badly provided.”
+
+Some of the native servants were at once told off to erect an awning
+over a portion of the terrace. Tables and couches were placed here, and
+Bathurst undertook the work of entertaining the visitors.
+
+He was glad of the precaution that had been taken in sending them, for
+with the glass he could make out that there was much disturbance in
+the Sepoy lines, men gathering in large groups, with much shouting and
+noise. Muskets were discharged in the direction of the house, and it was
+evident that the mutineers were very discontented with the decision that
+had been arrived at.
+
+In a short time, however, a body, several hundred strong, of the Oude
+fighting men moved down and surrounded the house; and when a number of
+the Sepoys approached with excited and menacing gestures, one of the
+Zemindars went out to meet them, and Bathurst, watching the conference,
+could see by his pointing to the roof of the house that he was
+informing them that hostages had been given to the Europeans for the due
+observance of the treaty, and doubted not he was telling them that
+their lives would be endangered by any movement. Then he pointed to the
+batteries, as if threatening that if any attack was made the guns would
+be turned upon them. At any rate, after a time they moved away, and
+gradually the Sepoys could be seen returning to their lines.
+
+There were but few preparations to be made by the garrison for their
+journey. It had been settled that they might take their personal effects
+with them, but it was at once agreed to take as little as possible,
+as there would probably be but little room in the boats, and the fewer
+things they carried the less there would be to tempt the cupidity of the
+natives.
+
+“Well, Bathurst, what do you think of the outlook?” the Doctor asked,
+as late in the evening they sat together on some sandbags in a corner of
+the terrace.
+
+“I think that if we get past Cawnpore in safety there is not much to
+fear. There is no other large place on the river, and the lower we get
+down the less likely the natives are to disturb us, knowing, as they are
+almost sure to do, that a force is gathering at Allahabad.”
+
+“After what you heard of the massacre of the prisoners at Cawnpore, whom
+the Nana and his officers had all sworn to allow to depart in safety,
+there is little hope that this scoundrel will respect the arrangements
+made here.”
+
+“We must pass the place at night, and trust to drifting down
+unobserved--the river is wide there--and keeping near the opposite
+shore, we may get past in the darkness without being perceived; and even
+if they do make us out, the chances are they will not hit us. There are
+so few of us that there is no reason why they should trouble greatly
+about us.”
+
+“I am sorry to say, Bathurst, that I don’t like the appearance of the
+Major’s wound. Everything has been against him; the heat, the close air,
+and his anxiety of mind have all told on him, he seems very low, and I
+have great doubts whether he will ever see Allahabad.”
+
+“I hope you are wrong, Doctor, but I thought myself there was a change
+for the worse when I saw him an hour ago; there was a drawn look about
+his face I did not like. He is a splendid fellow; nothing could have
+been kinder than he has been to me. I wish I could change places with
+him.”
+
+The Doctor grunted. “Well, as none of us may see Allahabad, Bathurst,
+you need not trouble yourself on that score. I wonder what has become
+of your friend the conjurer. I thought he might have been in to see you
+this afternoon.”
+
+“I did not expect him,” Bathurst said; “I expect he went as far as he
+dared in what he said at the Durbar today. Probably he is doing all he
+can to keep matters quiet. Of course he may have gone down to Cawnpore
+to see Nana Sahib, but I should think it more probable that he would
+remain here until he knows we are safe on board the boats.”
+
+“Ah, here is Wilson,” said the Doctor; “he is a fine young fellow, and I
+am very glad he has gone through it safely.”
+
+“So am I,” Bathurst said warmly; “here we are, Wilson.”
+
+“I thought I would find you both smoking here,” Wilson said, as he
+seated himself; “it is awfully hot below, and the ladies are all at
+work picking out the things they are going to take with them and packing
+them, and as I could not be of any use at that, I thought I would come
+up for a little fresh air, if one can call it fresh; but, in fact, I
+would rather sit over an open drain, for the stench is horrible. How
+quiet everything seems tonight! After crouching here for the last three
+weeks listening to the boom of their cannon and the rush of their balls
+overhead, or the crash as they hit something, it seems quite unnatural;
+one can’t help thinking that something is going to happen. I don’t
+believe I shall be able to sleep a wink tonight; while generally, in
+spite of the row, it has been as much as I could do to keep my eyes
+open. I suppose I shall get accustomed to it in time. At present it
+seems too unnatural to enjoy it.”
+
+“You had better get a good night’s sleep, if you can, Wilson,” the
+Doctor said. “There won’t be much sleep for us in the boats till we see
+the walls of Allahabad.”
+
+“I suppose not, Doctor. I expect we shall be horribly cramped up. I long
+to be there. I hope to get attached to one of the regiments coming up,
+so as to help in giving the thrashing to these scoundrels that they
+deserve. I would give a year’s pay to get that villain, Nana Sahib,
+within reach of my sword. It is awful to think of the news you brought
+in, Bathurst, and that there are hundreds of women and children in his
+power now. What a day it will be when we march into Cawnpore!”
+
+“Don’t count your chickens too soon, Wilson,” the Doctor said, “The time
+I am looking forward to is when we shall have safely passed Cawnpore on
+our way down; that is quite enough for me to hope for at present.”
+
+“Yes, I was thinking of that myself,” Wilson replied. “If the Nana
+could not be bound by the oath he had taken himself, he is not likely to
+respect the agreement made here.”
+
+“We must pass the place at night,” Bathurst said, “and trust to not
+being seen. Even if they do make us out, we shan’t be under fire long
+unless they follow us down the bank; but if the night is dark, they may
+not make us out at all. Fortunately there is no moon, and boats are
+not very large marks even by daylight, and at night it would only be a
+chance shot that would hit us.”
+
+“Yes, we should be as difficult to hit as a tiger,” the Doctor put in.
+
+Wilson laughed.
+
+“I have gained a lot of experience since then, Doctor. What ages that
+seems back! Years almost.”
+
+“It does indeed,” the Doctor agreed; “we count time by incidents and not
+by days. Well, I think I shall turn in.. Are you coming, Bathurst?”
+
+“No, I could not sleep,” Bathurst said; “I shall watch till morning. I
+feel sure it is all safe, but the mutineers might attempt something.”
+
+The night, however, passed off quietly, and soon after daybreak eight
+bullock carts were seen approaching, with a strong body of Oude men.
+Half an hour later the luggage was packed, and the sick and wounded laid
+on straw in the wagons. Several of the ladies took their places with
+them, but Mrs. Doolan, Isobel, and Mary Hunter said they would walk for
+a while. It had been arranged that the men might carry out their arms
+with them, and each of the ten able to walk took their rifles, while
+all, even the women, had pistols about them. Just as they were ready,
+Por Sing and several of the Zemindars rode up on horseback.
+
+“We shall see you to the boats,” he said. “Have you taken provisions for
+your voyage? It would be better not to stop to buy anything on the way.”
+
+This precaution had been taken, and as soon as all was ready they set
+out, guarded by four hundred Oude matchlock men. The Sepoys had gathered
+near the house, and as soon as they left it there was a rush made to
+secure the plunder.
+
+“I should have liked to have emptied the contents of some of my bottles
+into the wine,” the Doctor growled; “it would not have been strictly
+professional, perhaps, but it would have been a good action.”
+
+“I am sure you would not have given them poison, Doctor,” Wilson
+laughed; “but a reasonable dose of ipecacuanha might hardly have gone
+against your conscience.”
+
+“My conscience has nothing to do with it,” the Doctor said. “These
+fellows came from Cawnpore, and I have no doubt took part in the
+massacre there. My conscience wouldn’t have troubled me if I could
+have poisoned the whole of the scoundrels, or put a slow match in
+the magazine and blown them all into the air, but under the present
+conditions it would hardly have been politic, as one couldn’t be sure of
+annihilating the whole of them. Well, Miss Hannay, what are you thinking
+of?”
+
+“I am thinking that my uncle looks worse this morning, Doctor; does it
+not strike you so too?”
+
+“We must hope that the fresh air will do him good. One could not expect
+anyone to get better in that place; it was enough to kill a healthy man,
+to say nothing of a sick one.”
+
+Isobel was walking by the side of the cart in which her uncle was lying,
+and it was not long before she took her place beside him.
+
+The Doctor shook his head.
+
+“Can you do nothing, Doctor?” Bathurst said, in a low tone.
+
+“Nothing; he is weaker this morning, still the change of air may help
+him, and he may have strength to fight through; the wound itself is a
+serious one, but he would under other circumstances have got over it.
+As it is, I think his chance a very poor one, though I would not say as
+much to her.”
+
+After three hours’ travel they reached the river. Here two large native
+boats were lying by the bank. The baggage and sick were soon placed
+on board, and the Europeans with the native servants were then divided
+between them, and the Rajah’s son and six of the retainers took their
+places in one of the boats. The Doctor and Captain Doolan had settled
+how the party should be divided. The Major and the other sick men were
+all placed in one boat, and in this were the Doctor, Bathurst, and four
+civilians, with Isobel Hannay, Mrs. Hunter, and her daughter. Captain
+Doolan, his wife, Mrs. Rintoul, and the other three ladies, with the six
+children who had alone survived, and the rest of the party, were in the
+other boat.
+
+Por Sing and his companions were thanked heartily for the protection
+they had given, and Bathurst handed them a document which had been
+signed by all the party, testifying to the service they had rendered.
+
+“If we don’t get down to Allahabad,” Bathurst said, as he handed it to
+him, “this will insure you good treatment when the British troops come
+up. If we get there, we will represent your conduct in such a light that
+I think I can promise you that the part you took in the siege will be
+forgiven.”
+
+Then the boats pushed off and started on their way down the stream.
+
+The distance by water to Cawnpore was over forty miles. It was already
+eleven o’clock, and slow progress only could be made with the heavy
+boats, but it was thought that they would be able to pass the town
+before daylight began to break next morning, and they therefore pushed
+on as rapidly as they could, the boatmen being encouraged to use their
+utmost efforts by the promise of a large reward upon their arrival at
+Allahabad.
+
+There was but little talk in the boats. Now that the strain was over,
+all felt its effects severely. The Doctor attended to his patients;
+Isobel sat by the side of her uncle, giving him some broth that they had
+brought with them, from time to time, or moistening his lips with weak
+brandy and water. He spoke only occasionally.
+
+“I don’t much think I shall get down to Allahabad, Isobel,” he said. “If
+I don’t, go down to Calcutta, and go straight to Jamieson and Son; they
+are my agents, and they will supply you with money to take you home;
+they have a copy of my will; my agents in London have another copy. I
+had two made in case of accident.”
+
+“Oh, uncle, you will get better now you are out of that terrible place.”
+
+“I am afraid it is too late, my dear, though I should like to live for
+your sake. But I think I see happiness before you, if you choose to
+take it; he is a noble fellow, Isobel, in spite of that unfortunate
+weakness.”
+
+Isobel made no answer, but a slight pressure of the hand she was holding
+showed that she understood what he meant. It was no use to tell her
+uncle that she felt that what might have been was over now. Bathurst had
+chatted with her several times the evening before and during the march
+that morning, but she felt the difference between his tone and that in
+which he had addressed her in the old times before the troubles began.
+It was a subtle difference that she could hardly have explained even
+to herself, but she knew that it was as a friend, and as a friend only,
+that he would treat her in the future, and that the past was a closed
+book, which he was determined not to reopen.
+
+Bathurst talked to Mrs. Hunter and her daughter, both of whom were mere
+shadows, worn out with grief, anxiety, and watching. At times he went
+forward to talk to the young noble, who had taken his seat there. Both
+boats had been arched in with a canopy of boughs to serve alike as a
+protection from the sun and to screen those within from the sight of
+natives in boats or on the banks.
+
+“You don’t look yourself, Bathurst,” the Doctor said to him late in the
+afternoon. “Everything seems going on well. No boats have passed us, and
+the boatmen all say that we shall pass Cawnpore about one o’clock, at
+the rate at which we are going.”
+
+“I feel nervous, Doctor; more anxious than I have been ever since this
+began. There is an apprehension of danger weighing over me that I can’t
+account for. As you say, everything seems going on well, and yet I feel
+that it is not so. I am afraid I am getting superstitious, but I feel
+as if Rujub knows of some danger impending, and that he is somehow
+conveying that impression to me. I know that there is nothing to be
+done, and that we are doing the only thing that we can do, unless we
+were to land and try and make our way down on foot, which would be sheer
+madness. That the man can in some way impress my mind at a distance
+is evident from that summons he gave me to meet him at the ruins of my
+bungalow, but I do not feel the same clear distinct perception of
+his wishes now as I did then. Perhaps he himself is not aware of the
+particulars of the danger that threatens, or, knowing them, he can see
+no way of escape out of them. It may be that at night, when everything
+is quiet, one’s mind is more open to such impressions than it is when we
+are surrounded by other people and have other things to think of, but I
+feel an actual consciousness of danger.”
+
+“I don’t think there can be any danger until we get down near Cawnpore.
+They may possibly be on the lookout for us there, and may even have
+boats out on the stream. It is possible that the Sepoys may have sent
+down word yesterday afternoon to Nana Sahib that we had surrendered, and
+should be starting by boat this morning, but I don’t think there can
+be any danger till we get there. Should we meet native boats and be
+stopped, Por Sing’s son will be able to induce them to let us pass.
+Certainly none of the villagers about here would be likely to disobey
+him. Once beyond Cawnpore, I believe that he would have sufficient
+influence, speaking, as he does, in the name, not only of his father,
+but of other powerful landowners, to induce any of these Oude people to
+let us pass. No, I regard Cawnpore as our one danger, and I believe it
+to be a very real one. I have been thinking, indeed, that it would be a
+good thing when we get within a couple of miles of the place for all who
+are able to walk, to land on the opposite bank, and make their way along
+past Cawnpore, and take to the boats again a mile below the town.”
+
+“That would be an excellent plan, Doctor; but if the boats were stopped
+and they found the sick, they would kill them to a certainty. I don’t
+think we could leave them. I am quite sure Miss Hannay would not leave
+her uncle.”
+
+“I think we might get over even that, Bathurst. There are only the Major
+and the other two men, and Mrs. Forsyth and three children, too ill to
+walk. There are eight of the native servants, ourselves, and the young
+Rajah’s retainers. We ought to have no difficulty in carrying the
+wounded. As to the luggage, that must be sacrificed, so that the boatmen
+can go down with empty benches. It must be pitched overboard. The loss
+would be of no real consequence; everyone could manage with what they
+have on until we get to Allahabad. There would be no difficulty in
+getting what we require there.”
+
+“I think the plan is an excellent one, Doctor. I will ask the young
+chief if his men will help us to carry the sick. If he says yes, we will
+go alongside the other boat and explain our plan to Doolan.”
+
+The young Rajah at once assented, and the boat being rowed up to the
+other, the plan was explained and approved of. No objection was raised
+by anyone, even to the proposal for getting rid of all the luggage;
+and as soon as the matter was arranged, a general disposition towards
+cheerfulness was manifested. Everyone had felt that the danger of
+passing Cawnpore would be immense, and this plan for avoiding it seemed
+to lift a load from their minds.
+
+It was settled they should land at some spot where the river was
+bordered by bushes and young trees; that stout poles should be cut, and
+blankets fastened between them, so as to form stretchers on which the
+sick could be carried.
+
+As far as possible the boats were kept on the left side of the river,
+but at times shallows rendered it necessary to keep over by the right
+bank. Whenever they were near the shore, silence was observed, lest the
+foreign tongue should be noticed by anyone near the bank.
+
+Night fell, and they still continued their course. An hour after sunset
+they were rowing near the right bank--the Major had fallen into a sort
+of doze, and Isobel was sitting next to Bathurst, and they were talking
+in low tones together--when suddenly there was a hail from the shore,
+not fifty yards away.
+
+“What boats are those?”
+
+“Fishing boats going down the river,” one of the boatmen answered.
+
+“Row alongside, we must examine you.”
+
+There was a moment’s pause, and then the Doctor said in the native
+language, “Row on, men,” and the oars of both boats again dipped into
+the water.
+
+“We are pressed for time,” the young Zemindar shouted, and then,
+dropping his voice, urged the men to row at the top of their speed.
+
+“Stop, or we fire,” came from the shore.
+
+No answer was returned from the boats; they were now nearly opposite the
+speaker. Then came the word--“Fire.” Six cannon loaded with grape were
+discharged, and a crackle of musketry at the same moment broke out. The
+shot tore through the boats, killing and disabling many, and bringing
+down the arbor of boughs upon them.
+
+A terrible cry arose, and all was confusion. Most of the rowers were
+killed, and the boats drifted helplessly amid the storm of rifle
+bullets.
+
+As the cannon flashed out and the grape swept the boats Bathurst, with
+a sharp cry, sprang to his feet, and leaped overboard, as did several
+others from both boats. Diving, he kept under water for some distance,
+and then swam desperately till he reached shallow water on the other
+side of the river, and then fell head foremost on the sand. Eight or
+ten others also gained the shore in a body, and were running towards the
+bank, when the guns were again fired, and all but three were swept away
+by the iron hail. A few straggling musket shots were fired, then orders
+were shouted, and the splashing of an oar was heard, as one of the
+native boatmen rowed one of the two boats toward the shore. Bathurst
+rose to his feet and ran, stumbling like a drunken man, towards the
+bushes, and just as he reached them, fell heavily forward, and lay there
+insensible. Three men came out from the jungle and dragged him in. As
+they did so loud screams arose from the other bank, then half a dozen
+muskets were fired, and all was quiet.
+
+It was not for a quarter of an hour that Bathurst was conscious of what
+was going on around him. Someone was rubbing his chest and hands.
+
+“Who is it?” he asked.
+
+“Oh, it is you, Bathurst!” he heard Wilson’s voice exclaim. “I thought
+it was you, but it is so dark now we are off that white sand that I
+could not see. Where are you hit?”
+
+“I don’t know,” Bathurst said. “I felt a sort of shock as I got out of
+the water, but I don’t know that I am hurt at all.”
+
+“Oh, you must be hit somewhere. Try and move your arms and legs.”
+
+Bathurst moved.
+
+“No, I don’t think I am hit; if I am, it is on the head. I feel
+something warm round the back of my neck.”
+
+“By Jove, yes!” Wilson said; “here is where it is; there is a cut all
+along the top of your head; the bullet seems to have hit you at the
+back, and gone right along over the top. It can’t have gone in, or else
+you would not be able to talk.”
+
+“Help me up,” Bathurst said, and he was soon on his feet. He felt giddy
+and confused. “Who have you with you?” he asked.
+
+“Two natives. I think one is the young chief, and the other is one of
+his followers.”
+
+Bathurst spoke to them in their native language, and found that Wilson
+was not mistaken. As soon as he found that he was understood, the young
+chief poured out a volley of curses upon those who had attacked them.
+
+Bathurst stopped him. “We shall have time for that afterwards, Murad,”
+ he said; “the first thing is to see what had best be done. What has
+happened since I landed, Wilson?”
+
+“Our boat was pretty nearly cut in two,” Wilson said, “and was sinking
+when I jumped over; the other boat has been rowed ashore.”
+
+“What did you hear, Wilson?”
+
+“I heard the women scream,” Wilson said reluctantly, “and five or six
+shots were fired. There has been no sound since then.”
+
+Bathurst stood silent for a minute.
+
+“I do not think they will have killed the women,” he said; “they did not
+do so at Cawnpore. They will take them there. No doubt they killed the
+men. Let me think for a moment. Now,” he said after a long pause, “we
+must be doing. Murad, your father and friends have given their word for
+the safety of those you took prisoners; that they have been massacred
+is no fault of your father or of you. This gentleman and myself are the
+only ones saved, as far as we know. Are you sure that none others came
+ashore?”
+
+“The others were all killed, we alone remaining,” Murad said. “I will go
+back to my father, and he will go to Cawnpore and demand vengeance.”
+
+“You can do that afterwards, Murad; the first thing is to fulfill
+your promise, and I charge you to take this sahib in safety down to
+Allahabad. You must push on at once, for they may be sending out from
+Cawnpore at daylight to search the bushes here to see if any have
+escaped. You must go on with him tonight as far as you can, and in the
+morning enter some village, buy native clothes, and disguise him, and
+then journey on to Allahabad.”
+
+“I will do that,” the young Rajah said; “but what about yourself?”
+
+“I shall go into Cawnpore and try to rescue any they may have taken.
+I have a native cloth round me under my other clothes, as I thought it
+might be necessary for me to land before we got to Cawnpore to see if
+danger threatened us. So I have everything I want for a disguise about
+me.”
+
+“What are you saying, Bathurst?” Wilson asked.
+
+“I am arranging for Murad and his follower to take you down to
+Allahabad, Wilson. I shall stop at Cawnpore.”
+
+“Stop at Cawnpore! Are you mad, Bathurst?”
+
+“No, I am not mad. I shall stop to see if any of the ladies have been
+taken prisoners, and if so, try to rescue them. Rujub, the juggler, is
+there, and I am confident he will help me.”
+
+“But if you can stay, I can, Bathurst. If Miss Hannay has been made
+prisoner, I would willingly be killed to rescue her.”
+
+“I know you would, Wilson, but you would be killed without being able to
+rescue her; and as I should share your fate, you would render her rescue
+impossible. I can speak the native language perfectly, and know native
+ways. I can move about among them without fear of exciting their
+suspicion. If you were with me this would be impossible; the first time
+you were addressed by a native you would be detected; your presence
+would add to my difficulties a hundredfold. It is not now a question of
+fighting. Were it only that, I should be delighted to have you with me.
+As it is, the thing is impossible. If anything is done, I must do it
+alone. If I ever reach Miss Hannay, she shall know that you were ready
+to run all risks to save her. No, no, you must go on to Allahabad, and
+if you cannot save her now, you will be with the force that will save
+her, if I should fail to do so, and which will avenge us both if it
+should arrive too late to rescue her. Now I must get you to bandage my
+head, for I feel faint with loss of blood. I will take off my shirt and
+tear it in strips. I have got a native disguise next to the skin. We may
+as well leave my clothes behind me here.”
+
+As soon as Wilson, with the assistance of Murad, had bandaged the wound,
+the party struck off from the river, and after four hours’ walking came
+down upon it again two miles below Cawnpore. Here Bathurst said he would
+stop, stain his skin, and complete his disguise.
+
+“I hate leaving you,” Wilson said, in a broken voice. “There are only
+you and I left of all our party at Deennugghur. It is awful to think
+they have all gone--the good old chief, the Doctor, and Richards, and
+the ladies. There are only we two left. It does seem such a dirty,
+cowardly thing for me to be making off and leaving you here alone.”
+
+“It is not cowardly, Wilson, for I know you would willingly stay if you
+could be of the slightest use; but, as, on the contrary, you would only
+add to the danger, it must be as I have arranged. Goodby, lad; don’t
+stay; it has to be done. God bless you! Goodby, Murad. Tell your father
+when you see him that I know no shadow of broken faith rests on him.”
+
+So saying, he turned and went into a clump of bushes, while Wilson,
+too overpowered to speak, started on his way down country with the two
+natives.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+Now alone, Bathurst threw himself down among the bushes in an attitude
+of utter depression.
+
+“Why wasn’t I killed with the others?” he groaned. “Why was I not killed
+when I sat there by her side?”
+
+So he lay for an hour, and then slowly rose and looked round. There was
+a faint light in the sky.
+
+“It will be light in another hour,” he said to himself, and he again sat
+down. Suddenly he started. Had someone spoken, or had he fancied it?
+
+“Wait till I come.”
+
+He seemed to hear the words plainly, just as he had heard Rujub’s
+summons before.
+
+“That’s it; it is Rujub. How is it that he can make me hear in this way?
+I am sure it was his voice. Anyhow, I will wait. It shows he is thinking
+of me, and I am sure he will help me. I know well enough I could do
+nothing by myself.”
+
+Bathurst assumed with unquestioning faith that Isobel Hannay was alive.
+He had no reason for his confidence. That first shower of grape might
+have killed her as it killed others, but he would not admit the doubt
+in his mind. Wilson’s description of what had happened while he was
+insensible was one of the grounds of this confidence.
+
+He had heard women scream. Mrs. Hunter and her daughter were the only
+other women in the boat. Isobel would not have screamed had those
+muskets been pointed at her, nor did he think the others would have done
+so. They screamed when they saw the natives about to murder those who
+were with them. The three women were sitting together, and if one had
+fallen by the grape shot all would probably have been killed. He felt
+confident, therefore, that she had escaped; he believed he would have
+known it had she been killed.
+
+“If I can be influenced by this juggler, surely I should have felt it
+had Isobel died,” he argued, and was satisfied that she was still alive.
+
+What, however, more than anything else gave him hope was the picture
+on the smoke. “Everything else has come true,” he said to himself; “why
+should not that? Wilson spoke of the Doctor as dead. I will not believe
+it; for if he is dead, the picture is false. Why should that thing of
+all others have been shown to me unless it had been true? What seemed
+impossible to me--that I should be fighting like a brave man--has
+been verified. Why should not this? I should have laughed at such
+superstition six months ago; now I cling to it as my one ground for
+hope. Well, I will wait if I have to stay here until tomorrow night.”
+
+Noiselessly he moved about in the little wood, going to the edge and
+looking out, pacing to and fro with quick steps, his face set in
+a frown, occasionally muttering to himself. He was in a fever of
+impatience. He longed to be doing something, even if that something led
+to his detention and death. He said to himself that he should not care
+so that Isobel Hannay did but know that he had died in trying to rescue
+her.
+
+The sun rose, and he saw the peasants in the fields, and caught the note
+of a bugle sounding from the lines at Cawnpore. At last--it had seemed
+to him an age, but the sun had been up only an hour--he saw a figure
+coming along the river bank. As it approached he told himself that it
+was the juggler; if so, he had laid aside the garments in which he last
+saw him, and was now attired as when they first met. When he saw him
+turn off from the river bank and advance straight towards the wood, he
+had no doubt that it was the man he expected.
+
+“Thanks be to the holy ones that you have escaped, sahib,” Rujub said,
+as soon as he came within speaking distance of Bathurst. “I was in
+an agony last night. I was with you in thought, and saw the boats
+approaching the ambuscade. I saw you leap over and swim to shore. I saw
+you fall, and I cried out. For a moment I thought you were killed. Then
+I saw you go on and fall again, and saw your friends carry you in. I
+watched you recover and come on here, and then I willed it that you
+should wait here till I came for you. I have brought you a disguise, for
+I did not know that you had one with you. But, first of all, sit down
+and let me dress your wound afresh. I have brought all that is necessary
+for it.”
+
+“You are a true fried, Rujub. I relied upon you for aid; do you know why
+I waited here instead of going down with the others?”
+
+“I know, sahib. I can tell your thoughts as easily when you are away
+from me as I can when we are together.”
+
+“Can you do this with all people?”
+
+“No, my lord; to be able to read another’s thoughts it is necessary
+there should be a mystic relation established between them. As I walked
+beside your horse when you carried my daughter before you after saving
+her life, I felt that this relation had commenced, and that henceforward
+our fates were connected. It was necessary that you should have
+confidence in me, and it was for that reason that I showed you some of
+the feats that we rarely exhibit, and proved to you that I possessed
+powers with which you were unacquainted. But in thought reading my
+daughter has greater powers than I have, and it was she who last night
+followed you on your journey, sitting with her hand in mine, so that my
+mind followed hers.”
+
+“Do you know all that happened last night, Rujub?” Bathurst said,
+summoning up courage to ask the question that had been on his lips from
+the first.
+
+“I only know, my lord, that the party was destroyed, save three white
+women, who were brought in just as the sun rose this morning. One
+was the lady behind whose chair you stood the night I performed at
+Deennugghur, the lady about whom you are thinking. I do not know the
+other two; one was getting on in life, the other was a young one.”
+
+The relief was so great that Bathurst turned away, unable for a while to
+continue the conversation. When he resumed the talk, he asked, “Did you
+see them yourself, Rujub?”
+
+“I saw them, sahib; they were brought in on a gun carriage.”
+
+“How did they look, Rujub?”
+
+“The old one looked calm and sad. She did not seem to hear the shouts of
+the budmashes as they passed along. She held the young one close to
+her. That one seemed worn out with grief and terror. Your memsahib sat
+upright; she was very pale and changed from the time I saw her that
+evening, but she held her head high, and looked almost scornfully at the
+men who shook their fists and cried at her.”
+
+“And they put them with the other women that they have taken prisoners?”
+
+Rujub hesitated.
+
+“They have put the other two there, sahib, but her they took to
+Bithoor.”
+
+Bathurst started, and an exclamation of horror and rage burst from him.
+
+“To the Rajah’s!” he exclaimed. “To that scoundrel! Come, let us go. Why
+are we staying here?”
+
+“We can do nothing for the moment. Before I started I sent off my
+daughter to Bithoor; she knows many there, and will find out what is
+being done and bring us word, for I dare not show myself there. The
+Rajah is furious with me because I did not support the Sepoys, and
+suffered conditions to be made with your people, but now that all has
+turned out as he wished, I will in a short time present myself before
+him again, but for the moment it was better that my daughter should go,
+as I had to come to you. But first you had better put on the disguise I
+have brought you. You are too big and strong to pass without notice in
+that peasant’s dress. The one I have brought you is such as is worn
+by the rough people; the budmashes of Cawnpore. I can procure others
+afterwards when we see what had best be done. It will be easy enough to
+enter Bithoor, for all is confusion there, and men come and go as they
+choose, but it will be well nigh impossible for you to penetrate where
+the memsahib will be placed. Even for me, known as I am to all the
+Rajah’s officers, it would be impossible to do so; it is my daughter in
+whom we shall have to trust.”
+
+Bathurst rapidly put on the clothes that Rujub had brought with him, and
+thrust a sword, two daggers, and a brace of long barreled pistols into
+the sash round his waist.
+
+“Your color is not dark enough, sahib. I have brought dye with me; but
+first I must dress the wound on your head, and bandage it more neatly,
+so that the blood stained swathings will not show below the folds of
+your turban.”
+
+Bathurst submitted himself impatiently to Rujub’s hands. The latter cut
+off all the hair that would show under the turban, dyed the skin
+the same color as the other parts, and finally, after darkening his
+eyebrows, eyelashes, and mustache, pronounced that he would pass
+anywhere without attracting attention. Then they started at a quick walk
+along the river, crossed by the ferryboat to Cawnpore, and made their
+way to a quiet street in the native town.
+
+“This is my house for the present,” Rujub said, producing a key and
+unlocking a door. He shouted as he closed the door behind him, and an
+old woman appeared.
+
+“Is the meal prepared?” he asked.
+
+“It is ready,” she said.
+
+“That is right. Tell Rhuman to put the pony into the cart.”
+
+He then led the way into a comfortably furnished apartment where a meal
+was laid.
+
+“Eat, my lord,” he said; “you need it, and will require your strength.”
+
+Bathurst, who, during his walk, had felt the effects of the loss of
+blood and anxiety, at once seated himself at the table and ate, at first
+languidly, but as appetite came, more heartily, and felt still more
+benefited by a bottle of excellent wine Rujub had placed beside him. The
+latter returned to the room just as he had finished. He was now attired
+as he had been when Bathurst last met him at Deennugghur.
+
+“I feel another man, Rujub, and fit for anything.”
+
+“The cart is ready,” Rujub said. “I have already taken my meal; we do
+not eat meat, and live entirely on vegetables. Meat clouds the senses,
+and simple food, and little of it, is necessary for those who would
+enter the inner brotherhood.”
+
+At the door a small native cart was standing with a pony in the shafts.
+
+“You will go with us, Rhuman,” Rujub said, as he and Bathurst took their
+seats in the cart.
+
+The boy squatted down at Rujub’s feet, taking the reins and whip, and
+the pony started off at a brisk pace. Upon the way Rujub talked of
+various matters, of the reports of the force that was gathering at
+Allahabad, and the madness of the British in supposing that two or three
+thousand men could withstand the forces of the Nana.
+
+“They would be eaten up,” he said; “the troops will go out to meet them;
+they will never arrive within sight of Cawnpore.”
+
+As Bathurst saw that he was talking for the boy to hear, rather than to
+himself, he agreed loudly with all that he said, and boasted that even
+without the Nana’s troops and the Sepoys, the people of Cawnpore could
+cut the English dogs to pieces.
+
+The drive was not a long one, and the road was full of parties going
+to or returning from Bithoor--groups of Sepoy officers, parties of
+budmashes from Cawnpore, mounted messengers, landowners with their
+retainers, and others. Arriving within a quarter of a mile of the
+palace, Rujub ordered the boy to draw aside.
+
+“Take the horse down that road,” he said, “and wait there until we
+return. We may be some time. If we are not back by the time the sun
+sets, you will return home.”
+
+As they approached the palace Bathurst scanned every window, as if he
+hoped to see Isobel’s face at one of them. Entering the garden, they
+avoided the terrace in front of the house, and sauntering through the
+groups of people who had gathered discussing the latest news, they took
+their seat in a secluded corner.
+
+Bathurst thought of the last time he had been there, when there had been
+a fete given by the Rajah to the residents of Cawnpore, and contrasted
+the present with the past. Then the gardens were lighted up, and a crowd
+of officers and civilians with ladies in white dresses had strolled
+along the terrace to the sound of gay music, while their host moved
+about among them, courteous, pleasant, and smiling. Now the greater
+portion of the men were dead, the women were prisoners in the hands of
+the native who had professed such friendship for them.
+
+“Tell me, Rujub,” he said presently, “more about this force at
+Allahabad. What is its strength likely to be?”
+
+“They say there is one British regiment of the line, one of the plumed
+regiments with bare legs, and one of the white Madras regiments; they
+have a few guns, a very few horsemen; that is all, while there are
+twenty thousand troops here. How can they hope to win?”
+
+“You will see they will win,” Bathurst said sternly. “They have often
+fought well, but they will fight now as they never fought before; every
+man will feel himself an avenger of the foul treachery and the brutal
+massacres that have been committed. Were it but one regiment that is
+coming up instead of three, I would back it against the blood stained
+wretches.”
+
+“They are fighting for freedom,” Rujub said.
+
+“They are fighting for nothing of the sort,” Bathurst replied hotly;
+“they are fighting for they know not what--change of masters, for
+license to plunder, and because they are ignorant and have been led
+away. I doubt not that at present, confident as they may be of victory,
+most of them in their hearts regret what they have done. They have
+forfeited their pensions, they have thrown away the benefits of their
+years of service, they have been faithless to their salt, and false
+to their oaths. It is true that they know they are fighting with ropes
+round their necks, but even that won’t avail against the discipline and
+the fury of our troops. I feel as certain, Rujub, that, in spite of the
+odds against them, the English will triumph, as if I saw their column
+marching into the town. I don’t profess to see the future as you do, but
+I know enough to tell you that ere long that palace you can see through
+the trees will be leveled to the ground, that it is as assuredly doomed
+as if fire had already been applied to its gilded beams.”
+
+Rujub nodded. “I know the palace is doomed. While I have looked at it
+it has seemed hidden by a cloud of smoke, but I did not think it was the
+work of the British--I thought of an accident.”
+
+“The Rajah may fire it with his own hands,” Bathurst said; “but if he
+does not, it will be done for him.”
+
+“I have not told you yet, sahib,” Rujub said, changing the subject, “how
+it was that I could neither prevent the attack on the boats nor warn you
+that it was coming. I knew at Deennugghur that news had been sent of
+the surrender to the Nana. I remained till I knew you were safely in the
+boats, and then rode to Cawnpore. My daughter was at the house when
+I arrived, and told me that the Nana was furious with me, and that it
+would not be safe for me to go near the palace. Thus, although I feared
+that an attack was intended, I thought it would not be until the boats
+passed the town. It was late before I learnt that a battery of artillery
+and some infantry had set out that afternoon. Then I tried to warn you,
+but I felt that I failed. You were not in a mood when my mind could
+communicate itself to yours.”
+
+“I felt very uneasy and restless,” Bathurst said, “but I had not
+the same feeling that you were speaking to me I had that night at
+Deennugghur; but even had I known of the danger, there would have been
+no avoiding it. Had we landed, we must have been overtaken, and it would
+have come to the same thing. Tell me, Rujub, had you any idea when I saw
+you at Deennugghur that if we were taken prisoners Miss Hannay was to be
+brought here instead of being placed with the other ladies?”
+
+“Yes, I knew it, sahib; the orders he gave to the Sepoys were that every
+man was to be killed, and that the women and children were to be taken
+to Cawnpore, except Miss Hannay, who was to be carried here at once. The
+Rajah had noticed her more than once when she was at Cawnpore, and had
+made up his mind that she should go to his zenana.”
+
+“Why did you not tell me when you were at Deennugghur?”
+
+“What would have been the use, sahib? I hoped to save you all; besides,
+it was not until we saw her taken past this morning that we knew that
+the Miss Hannay who was to be taken to Bithoor was the lady whom my
+daughter, when she saw her with you that night, said at once that you
+loved. But had we known it, what good would it have done to have told
+you of the Rajah’s orders? You could not have done more than you have
+done. But now we know, we will aid you to save her.”
+
+“How long will your daughter be before she comes? It is horrible waiting
+here.”
+
+“You must have patience, sahib. It will be no easy work to get the lady
+away. There will be guards and women to look after her. A lady is not to
+be stolen out of a zenana as a young bird is taken from its nest.”
+
+“It is all very well to say ‘Be patient,’” Bathurst said, getting up and
+walking up and down with quick angry strides. “It is maddening to sit
+here doing nothing. If it were not that I had confidence in your power
+and will to aid me, I would go into the palace and stab Nana Sahib to
+the heart, though I were cut to pieces for it the moment afterwards.”
+
+“That would do no good to the lady, sahib,” Rujub said calmly. “She
+would only be left without a friend, and the Nana’s death might be
+the signal for the murder of every white prisoner. Ah, here comes my
+daughter.”
+
+Rabda came up quickly, and stopped before Bathurst with her head bowed
+and her arms crossed in an attitude of humility. She was dressed in the
+attire worn by the principal servants in attendance upon the zenana of a
+Hindoo prince.
+
+“Well, what news, Rabda?” Bathurst asked eagerly.
+
+“The light of my lord’s heart is sick. She bore up till she arrived here
+and was handed over to the women. Then her strength failed her, and she
+fainted. She recovered, but she is lying weak and exhausted with all
+that she has gone through and suffered.”
+
+“Where is she now?”
+
+“She is in the zenana, looking out into the women’s court, that no men
+are ever allowed to enter.”
+
+“Has the Rajah seen her?”
+
+“No, sahib. He was told the state that she was in, and the chief lady
+of the zenana sent him word that for the present she must have quiet and
+rest, but that in two or three days she might be fit to see him.”
+
+“That is something,” Bathurst said thankfully. “Now we shall have time
+to think of some scheme for getting her out.”
+
+“You have been in the zenana yourself, Rabda?” Rujub asked.
+
+“Yes, father; the mistress of the zenana saw me directly an attendant
+told her I was there. She has always been kind to me. I said that you
+were going on a journey, and asked her if I might stay with her and act
+as an attendant until you returned, and she at once assented. She asked
+if I should see you before you left, and when I said yes, she asked if
+you could not give her some spell that would turn the Rajah’s thoughts
+from this white girl. She fears that if she should become first favorite
+in the zenana, she might take things in her hands as English women do,
+and make all sorts of changes. I told her that, doubtless, the English
+girl would do this, and that I thought she was wise to ask your
+assistance.”
+
+“You are mad, Rabda,” her father said angrily; “what have I to do with
+spells and love philters?”
+
+“No, father, I knew well enough you would not believe in such things,
+but I thought in this way I might see the lady, and communicate with
+her.”
+
+“A very good idea, Rabda,” Bathurst said. “Is there nothing you can do,
+Rujub, to make her odious to the Nana?”
+
+“Nothing, sahib. I could act upon some people’s minds, and make them
+think that the young lady was afflicted by some loathsome disease, but
+not with the Nana. I have many times tried to influence him, but without
+success: his mind is too deep for mine to master, and between us there
+is no sympathy. Could I be present with him and the girl I might do
+something--that is, if the powers that aid me would act against him; but
+this I do not think.”
+
+“Rujub,” Bathurst said suddenly, “there must have been medical stores
+taken when the camp was captured--drugs and things of that sort. Can you
+find out who has become possessed of them?”
+
+“I might find out, sahib. Doubtless the men who looted the camp will
+have sold the drugs to the native shops, for English drugs are highly
+prized. Are there medicines that can act as the mistress of the zenana
+wishes?”
+
+“No; but there are drugs that when applied externally would give the
+appearance of a terrible disease. There are acids whose touch would burn
+and blister the skin, and turn a beautiful face into a dreadful mask.”
+
+“But would it recover its fairness, sahib?”
+
+“The traces might last for a long time, even for life, if too much were
+used, but I am sure Miss Hannay would not hesitate for a moment on that
+account.”
+
+“But you, sahib--would you risk her being disfigured?”
+
+“What does it matter to me?” Bathurst asked sternly. “Do you think love
+is skin deep, and that ’tis only for a fair complexion that we choose
+our wives? Find me the drugs, and let Rabda take them into her with
+a line from me. One of them you can certainly get, for it is used, I
+believe, by gold and silver smiths. It is nitric acid; the other is
+caustic potash, or, as it is sometimes labeled, lunar caustic. It is in
+little sticks; but if you find out anyone who has bought drugs or cases
+of medicines, I will go with you and pick them out.”
+
+“There will be no difficulty about finding out where the English drugs
+are. They are certain to be at one of the shops where the native doctors
+buy their medicines.”
+
+“Let us go at once, then,” Bathurst said. “You can prepare some harmless
+drink, and Rabda will tell the mistress of the zenana it will bring out
+a disfiguring eruption. We can be back here again this evening. Will
+you be here, Rabda, at sunset, and wait until we come? You can tell the
+woman that you have seen your father, and that he will supply her with
+what she requires. Make some excuse, if you can, to see the prisoner.
+Say you are curious to see the white woman who has bewitched the Nana,
+and if you get the opportunity whisper in her ear these words, ‘Do not
+despair, friends are working for you.’”
+
+Rabda repeated the English words several times over until she had them
+perfect; then she made her way back to the palace, while Bathurst and
+his companion proceeded at once to the spot where they had left their
+vehicle.
+
+They had but little difficulty in finding what they required. Many of
+the shops displayed garments, weapons, jewelry, and other things, the
+plunder of the intrenchments of Cawnpore. Rujub entered several shops
+where drugs were sold, and finally one of the traders said, “I have a
+large black box full of drugs which I bought from a Sepoy for a rupee,
+but now that I have got it I do not know what to do with it. Some of the
+bottles doubtless contain poisons. I will sell it you for two rupees,
+which is the value of the box, which, as you see, is very strong and
+bound with iron. The contents I place no price upon.”
+
+“I will take it,” Rujub said. “I know some of the English medicines, and
+may find a use for them.”
+
+He paid the money, called in a coolie, and bade him take up the chest
+and follow him, and they soon arrived at the juggler’s house.
+
+The box, which was a hospital medical chest, was filled with drugs of
+all kinds. Bathurst put a stick of caustic into a small vial, and half
+filled another, which had a glass stopper, with nitric acid, filled it
+up with water, and tried the effect of rubbing a few drops on his arm.
+
+“That is strong enough for anything,” he said, with a slight exclamation
+at the sharp pain. “And now give me a piece of paper and pen and ink.”
+
+Then sitting down he wrote:
+
+“My Dear Miss Hannay: Rujub, the juggler, and I will do what we can to
+rescue you. We are powerless to effect anything as long as you remain
+where you are. The bearer, Rujub’s daughter, will give you the bottles,
+one containing lunar caustic, the other nitric acid. The mistress of
+the zenana, who wants to get rid of you, as she fears you might obtain
+influence over the Nana, has asked the girl to obtain from her father a
+philter which will make you odious to him. The large bottle is perfectly
+harmless, and you can drink its contents without fear. The caustic is
+for applying to your lips; it will be painful, but I am sure you will
+not mind that, and the injury will be only of a temporary nature.
+I cannot promise as much for the nitric acid; pray apply it very
+carefully, merely moistening the glass stopper and applying it with
+that. I should use it principally round the lips. It will burn and
+blister the skin. The Nana will be told that you have a fever, which is
+causing a terrible and disfiguring eruption. I should apply it also to
+the neck and hands. Pray be very careful with the stuff; for, besides
+the application being exceedingly painful, the scars may possibly remain
+permanently. Keep the two small bottles carefully hidden, in order to
+renew the application if absolutely necessary. At any rate, this will
+give us time, and, from what I hear, our troops are likely to be here
+in another ten days’ time. You will be, I know, glad to hear that Wilson
+has also escaped.
+
+“Yours,
+
+“R. Bathurst.”
+
+A large bottle was next filled with elder flower water. The trap was
+brought around, and they drove back to Bithoor. Rabda was punctual to
+her appointment.
+
+“I have seen her,” she said, “and have given her the message. I could
+see that she understood it, but as there were other women round, she
+made no sign. I told the mistress of the zenana that you had given me
+some magic words that I was to whisper to her to prepare the way for the
+philter, so she let me in without difficulty, and I was allowed to go
+close up to her and repeat your message. I put my hands on her before
+I did so, and I think she felt that it was the touch of a friend. She
+hushed up when I spoke to her. The mistress, who was standing close by,
+thought that this was a sign of the power of the words I had spoken to
+her. I did not stay more than a minute. I was afraid she might try to
+speak to me in your tongue, and that would have been dangerous.”
+
+“There are the bottles,”’ Bathurst said; “this large one is for her to
+take, the other two and this note are to be given to her separately.
+You had better tell the woman that the philter must be given by your own
+hands, and that you must then watch alone by her side for half an hour.
+Say that after you leave her she will soon go off to sleep; and must
+then be left absolutely alone till daybreak tomorrow, and it will then
+be found that the philter has acted. She must at once tell the Nana
+that the lady is in a high fever, and has been seized with some terrible
+disease that has altogether disfigured her, and that he can see for
+himself the state she is in.”
+
+Rabda’s whisper had given new life and hope to Isobel Hannay. Previous
+to that her fate had seemed to her to be sealed, and she had only prayed
+for death; the long strain of the siege had told upon her; the scene in
+the boat seemed a species of horrible nightmare, culminating in a
+number of Sepoys leaping on board the boat as it touched the bank, and
+bayoneting her uncle and all on board except herself, Mrs. Hunter, and
+her daughter, who were seized and carried ashore. Then followed a night
+of dull despairing pain, while she and her companions crouched together,
+with two Sepoys standing on guard over them, while the others, after
+lighting fires, talked and laughed long into the night over the success
+of their attack.
+
+At daybreak they had been placed upon a limber and driven into Cawnpore.
+Her spirit had risen as they were assailed by insults and imprecations
+by the roughs of the town, and she had borne up bravely till, upon their
+arrival at the entrance to what she supposed was the prison, she was
+roughly dragged from the limber, placed in a close carriage, and driven
+off. In her despair she had endeavored to open the door in order to
+throw herself under the wheels, but a soldier stood on each step and
+prevented her from doing so.
+
+Outside of the town she soon saw that she was on the road to Bithoor,
+and the fate for which she was reserved flashed upon her. She remembered
+now the oily compliments of Nana Sahib, and the unpleasant thrill she
+had felt when his eyes were fixed upon her; and had she possessed a
+weapon of any kind she would have put an end to her life. But her pistol
+had been taken from her when she landed, and in helpless despair she
+crouched in a corner of the carriage until they reached Bithoor.
+
+As soon as the carriage stopped a cloth was thrown over her head. She
+was lifted out and carried into the palace, through long passages and
+up stairs; then those who carried her set her on her feet and retired.
+Other hands took her and led her forward till the cloth was taken off
+her head, and she found herself surrounded, by women, who regarded her
+with glances of mixed curiosity and hostility. Then everything seemed to
+swim round, and she fainted.
+
+When she recovered consciousness all strength seemed to have left her,
+and she lay in a sort of apathy for hours, taking listlessly the drink
+that was offered to her, but paying no attention to what was passing
+around, until there was a gentle pressure on her arm, the grasp
+tightening with a slight caressing motion that seemed to show sympathy;
+then came the English words softly whispered into her ear, while the
+hand again pressed her arm firmly, as if in warning.
+
+It was with difficulty that she refrained from uttering an exclamation,
+and she felt the blood crimson her cheeks, but she mastered the impulse
+and lay perfectly quiet, glancing up into the face bent down close to
+hers--it was not familiar to her, and yet it seemed to her that she had
+seen it somewhere; another minute and it was gone.
+
+But though to all appearances Isobel’s attitude was unchanged, her mind
+was active now. Who could have sent her this message? Who could this
+native girl be who had spoken in English to her? Where had she seen the
+face?
+
+Her thoughts traveled backwards, and she ran over in her mind all
+those with whom she had come in contact since her arrival in India; her
+servants and those of her acquaintances passed before her eyes. She
+had scarcely spoken to another native woman since she had landed. After
+thinking over all she had known in Cawnpore, she thought of Deennugghur.
+Whom had she met there?
+
+Suddenly came the remembrance of the exhibition by the juggler, and
+she recalled the face and figure of his daughter, as, seated, upon the
+growing pole, she had gone up foot by foot in the light of the lamps and
+up into the darkness above. The mystery was solved; that was the face
+that had just leaned over her.
+
+But how could she be interested in her fate? Then she remembered that
+this was the girl whom Bathurst had saved from the tiger. If they
+were interested in her, it must be through Bathurst. Could he too have
+survived the attack of the night before? She had thought of him, as of
+all of them, as dead, but possibly he might have escaped. Even during
+the long night’s waiting, a captive to the Sepoys, the thought that he
+had instantly sprung from beside her and leaped overboard had been
+an added pang to all her misery. She had no after remembrance of him;
+perhaps he had swum to shore and got off in safety. In that case he must
+be lingering in Cawnpore, had learned what had become of her, and was
+trying to rescue her. It was to the juggler he would naturally have gone
+to obtain assistance. If so, he was risking his life now to save hers;
+and this was the man whom she despised as a coward.
+
+But what could he do? At Bithoor, in the power of this treacherous
+Rajah, secure in the zenana, where no man save its master ever
+penetrated, how could he possibly help her? Yet the thought that he was
+trying to do so was a happy one, and the tears that flowed between her
+closed lids were not painful ones. She blamed herself now for having
+felt for a moment hurt at Bathurst’s desertion of her. To have remained
+in the boat would have been certain death, while he could have been of
+no assistance to her or anyone else. That he should escape, then, if he
+could, now seemed to her a perfectly natural action; she hoped that
+some of the others had done the same, and that Bathurst was not working
+alone.
+
+It did not occur to her that there could be any possibility of the
+scheme for her rescue succeeding; as to that she felt no more hopeful
+than before, but it seemed to take away the sense of utter loneliness
+that she before felt that someone should be interesting himself in her
+fate. Perhaps there would be more than a mere verbal message next time;
+how long would it be before she heard again? How long a respite had she
+before that wretch came to see her? Doubtless he had heard that she was
+ill. She would remain so. She would starve herself. Her weakness seemed
+to her her best protection.
+
+As she lay apparently helpless upon the couch she watched the women move
+about the room. The girl who had spoken to her was not among them. The
+women were not unkind; they brought her cooling drinks, and tried to
+tempt her to eat something; but she shook her head as if utterly unable
+to do so, and after a time feigned to be asleep.
+
+Darkness came on gradually; some lamps were lighted in the room. Not for
+a moment had she been left alone since she was brought in--never less
+than two females remaining with her.
+
+Presently the woman who was evidently the chief of the establishment
+came in accompanied by a girl, whom Isobel recognized at once as the
+juggler’s daughter. The latter brought with her a tray, on which were
+some cakes and a silver goblet. These she set down on an oak table by
+the couch. The girl then handed her the goblet, which, keeping up the
+appearance of extreme feebleness, she took languidly. She placed it to
+her lips, but at once took it away. It was not cool and refreshing like
+those she had tasted before, it had but little flavor, but had a faint
+odor, which struck her as not unfamiliar. It was a drug of some sort
+they wished her to drink.
+
+She looked up in the girl’s face. Rabda made a reassuring gesture, and
+said in a low whisper, as she bent forward, “Bathurst Sahib.”
+
+This was sufficient; whatever it was it would do her no harm, and she
+raised the cup to her lips and emptied it. Then the elder woman said
+something to the other two, and they all left the room together, leaving
+her alone with Rabda.
+
+The latter went to the door quietly and drew the hangings across it,
+then she returned to the couch, and from the folds of her dress produced
+two vials and a tiny note. Then, noiselessly, she placed a lamp on the
+table, and withdrew to a short distance while Isobel opened and read the
+note.
+
+Twice she read it through, and then, laying it down, burst into tears of
+relief. Rabda came and knelt down beside the couch, and, taking one
+of her hands, pressed it to her lips. Isobel threw her arms round the
+girl’s neck, drew her close to her, and kissed her warmly.--Rabda then
+drew a piece of paper and a pencil from her dress and handed them to
+her. She wrote:
+
+“Thanks a thousand times, dear friend; I will follow your instructions.
+Please send me if you can some quick and deadly poison, that I may take
+in the last extremity. Do not fear that I will flinch from applying the
+things you have sent me. I would not hesitate to swallow them were there
+no other hope of escape. I rejoice so much to know that you have escaped
+from that terrible attack last night. Did Wilson alone get away? Do you
+know they murdered my uncle and all the others in the boat, except Mrs.
+Hunter and Mary? Pray do not run any risks to try and rescue me. I think
+that I am safe now, and will make myself so hideous that if the wretch
+once sees me he will never want to see me again. As to death, I have no
+fear of it. If we do not meet again, God bless you.
+
+“Yours most gratefully,
+
+“Isobel.”
+
+Rabda concealed the note in her garment, and then motioned to Isobel
+that she should close her eyes and pretend to be asleep. Then she gently
+drew back the curtains and seated herself at a distance from the couch.
+
+Half an hour later the mistress of the zenana came in. Rabda rose and
+put her finger to her lips and left the room, accompanied by the woman.
+
+“She is asleep,” she said; “do not be afraid, the potion will do its
+work. Leave her alone all night. When she wakes in the morning she will
+be wild with fever, and you need have no fear that the Rajah will seek
+to make her the queen of his zenana.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+Prepared as the mistress of the zenana was to find a great change in the
+captive’s appearance, she was startled when, soon after daybreak, she
+went in to see her. The lower part of her face was greatly swollen, her
+lips were covered with white blotches. There were great red scars
+round the mouth and on her forehead, and the skin seemed to have been
+completely eaten away. There were even larger and deeper marks on her
+neck and shoulders, which were partly uncovered, as if by her restless
+tossing. Her hands and arms were similarly marked. She took no notice
+of her entrance, but talked to herself as she tossed restlessly on the
+couch.
+
+There was but little acting in this, for Isobel was suffering an agony
+of pain. She had used the acid much more freely than she had been
+instructed to do, determined that the disfigurement should be complete.
+All night she had been in a state of high fever, and had for a time been
+almost delirious. She was but slightly more easy now, and had difficulty
+in preventing herself from crying out from the torture she was
+suffering.
+
+There was no tinge of pity in the face of the woman who looked at her,
+but a smile of satisfaction at the manner in which the potion had done
+its work.
+
+“The Nana can see her now,” she said to herself; “there will be no
+change in the arrangements here.”
+
+She at once sent out word that as soon as the Rajah was up he was to be
+told that she begged him to come at once.
+
+An hour later he came to the door of the zenana.
+
+“What is it, Poomba?” he asked; “nothing the matter with Miss Hannay, I
+hope?”
+
+“I grieve to say, your highness, that she has been seized with some
+terrible disease. I know not what it is, for never did I see a woman so
+smitten. It must be an illness contracted from confinement and bad air
+during the siege, some illness that the Europeans have, for never did I
+see aught like it. She is in a high state of fever, and her face is in a
+terrible state. It must be a sort of plague.”
+
+“You have been poisoning her,” the Nana said roughly; “if so, beware,
+for your life shall be the forfeit. I will see her for myself.”
+
+“She has had no poison since she came here, though I know not but what
+she may have had poison about her, and may have taken it after she was
+captured.”
+
+“Take me to her,” the Rajah said. “I will see for myself.”
+
+“It may be a contagious disease, your highness. It were best that you
+should not go near her.”
+
+The Rajah made an impatient gesture, and the woman, without another
+word, led him into the room where Isobel was lying. The Nana was
+prepared for some disfigurement of the face he had so admired, but he
+shrank back from the reality.
+
+“It is horrible,” he said, in a low voice. “What have you been doing to
+her?” he asked, turning furiously to the woman.
+
+“I have done nothing, your highness. All day yesterday she lay in a
+torpor, as I told you in the evening when you inquired about her, and I
+thought then she was going to be ill. I have watched her all night.
+She has been restless and disturbed, but I thought it better not to go
+nearer lest I should wake her, and it was not until this morning, when
+the day broke, that I perceived this terrible change. What shall we do
+with her? If the disease is contagious, everyone in the palace may catch
+it.”
+
+“Have a closed palanquin brought to the door, wrap her up, and have
+her carried down to the Subada Ke Kothee. Let her give it to the women
+there. Burn all the things in this room, and everything that has been
+worn by those who have entered it. I will inquire into this matter later
+on, and should I find that there has been any foul play, those concerned
+in it shall wish they had never been born.”
+
+As soon as he had left the woman called Rabda in.
+
+“All has gone well,” she said; “your father’s philter is powerful
+indeed. Tell him whenever he needs any service I can render he has but
+to ask it. Look at her; did you ever see one so disfigured? The Rajah
+has seen her, and is filled with loathing. She is to be sent to the
+Subada Ke Kothee. Are you sure that the malady is not contagious? I have
+persuaded the Rajah that it is; that is why he is sending her away.”
+
+“I am sure it is not,” Rabda said; “it is the result of the drugs. It is
+terrible to see her; give me some cooling ointment.”
+
+“What does it matter about her now that she is harmless?” Poomba said
+scornfully. Being, however, desirous of pleasing Rabda, she went away
+and brought a pot of ointment, which the girl applied to the sores, the
+tears falling down her cheeks as she did so.
+
+The salve at once afforded relief from the burning pain, and Isobel
+gratefully took a drink prepared from fresh limes.
+
+She had only removed her gown when she had lain down, having done this
+in order that it should not be burned by the acid, and that her neck
+and shoulders might be seen, and the belief induced that this strange
+eruption was all over her. Rabda made signs for her to put it on again,
+and pointing in the direction of Cawnpore, repeated the word several
+times, and Isobel felt with a thrill of intense thankfulness that the
+stratagem had succeeded, and that she was to be sent away at once,
+probably to the place where the other prisoners were confined. Presently
+the woman returned.
+
+“Rabda, you had best go with her. It were well that you should leave
+for the present. The Rajah is suspicious; he may come back again and ask
+questions; and as he knows you by sight, and as you told me your father
+was in disfavor with him at present, he might suspect that you were in
+some way concerned in the matter.”
+
+“I will go,” Rabda said. “I am sorry she has suffered so much. I did not
+think the potion would have been so strong. Give me a netful of fresh
+limes and some cooling lotion, that I may leave with her there.”
+
+In a few minutes a woman came up to say that the palanquin was in
+readiness at the gate of the zenana garden. A large cushion was taken
+off a divan, and Isobel was laid upon it and covered with a light
+shawl. Six of the female attendants lifted it and carried it downstairs,
+accompanied by Rabda and the mistress off the zenana, both closely
+veiled. Outside the gate was a large palanquin, with its bearers and
+four soldiers and an officer. The cushion was lifted and placed in the
+palanquin, and Rabda also took her place there.
+
+“Then you will not return today,” the woman said to her, in a voice loud
+enough to be heard by the officers “You will remain with her for a time,
+and afterwards go to see your friends in the town. I will send for you
+when I hear that you wish to return.”
+
+The curtains of the palanquin were drawn down; the bearers lifted it and
+started at once for Cawnpore.
+
+On arrival at the large building known as the Subada Ke Kothee the
+gates were opened at once at the order of the Nana’s officer, and the
+palanquin was carried across the courtyard to the door of the building
+which was used as a prison for the white women and children. It was
+taken into the great arched room and set down. Rabda stepped out, and
+the bearers lifted out the cushion upon which Isobel lay.
+
+“You will not be wanted any more,” Rabda said, in a tone of authority.
+“You can return to Bithoor at once!”
+
+As the door closed behind them several of the ladies came round to
+see this fresh arrival. Rabda looked round till her eye fell upon Mrs.
+Hunter, who was occupied in trying to hush a fractious child. She put
+her hand on her arm and motioned to her to come along. Surprised at the
+summons, Mrs. Hunter followed her. When they reached the cushion Rabda
+lifted the shawl from Isobel’s face. For a moment Mrs. Hunter failed to
+recognize her, but as Isobel opened her eyes and held out her hand she
+knew her, and with a cry of pity she dropped on her knees beside her.
+
+“My poor child, what have these fiends been doing to you?”
+
+“They have been doing nothing, Mrs. Hunter,” she whispered. “I am not
+so bad as I seem, though I have suffered a great deal of pain. I was
+carried away to Bithoor, to Nana Sahib’s zenana, and I have burnt my
+face with caustic and acid; they think I have some terrible disease, and
+have sent me here.”
+
+“Bravely done, girl! Bravely and nobly done! We had best keep the secret
+to ourselves; there are constantly men looking through the bars of the
+window, and some of them may understand English.”
+
+Then she looked up and said, “It is Miss Hannay, she was captured with
+us in the boats; please help me to carry her over to the wall there, and
+my daughter and I will nurse her; it looks as if she had been terribly
+burnt, somehow.”
+
+Many of the ladies had met Isobel in the happy days before the troubles
+began, and great was the pity expressed at her appearance. She was
+carried to the side of the wall, where Mary and Mrs. Hunter at once made
+her as comfortable as they could. Rabda, who had now thrown back her
+veil, produced from under her dress the net containing some fifty small
+limes, and handed to Mrs. Hunter the pot of ointment and the lotion.
+
+“She has saved me,” Isobel said; “it is the daughter of the juggler who
+performed at your house, Mrs. Hunter; do thank her for me, and tell her
+how grateful I am.”
+
+Mrs. Hunter took Rabda’s hand, and in her own language thanked her for
+her kindness to Isobel.
+
+“I have done as I was told,” Rabda said simply; “the Sahib Bathurst
+saved my life, and when he said the lady must be rescued from the hands
+of the Nana, it was only right that I should do so, even at the risk of
+my life.”
+
+“So Bathurst has escaped,” Mrs. Hunter said, turning to Isobel. “I am
+glad of that, dear; I was afraid that all were gone.”
+
+“Yes, I had a note from him; it is by his means that I got away from
+Bithoor. He sent me the caustic and acid to burn my face. He told me
+Mr. Wilson had also escaped, and perhaps some others may have got away,
+though he did not seem to know it.”
+
+“But surely there could be no occasion to burn yourself as badly as you
+have done, Isobel.”
+
+“I am afraid I did put on too much acid,” she said. “I was so afraid
+of not burning it enough; but it does not matter, it does not pain me
+nearly so much since I put on that ointment; it will soon get well.”
+
+Mrs. Hunter shook her head regretfully.
+
+“I am afraid it will leave marks for a long time.”
+
+“That is of no consequence at all, Mrs. Hunter; I am so thankful at
+being here with you, that I should mind very little if I knew that it
+was always to be as bad as it is now. What does it matter?”
+
+“It does not matter at all at present, my dear; but if you ever get out
+of this horrible place, some day you may think differently about it.”
+
+“I must go now,” Rabda said. “Has the lady any message to send to the
+sahib?” and she again handed a paper and pencil to Isobel.
+
+The girl took them, hesitating a little before writing:
+
+“Thank God you have saved me. Some day, perhaps, I may be able to tell
+you how grateful I am; but, if not, you will know that if the worst
+happens to us, I shall die blessing you for what you have done for me.
+Pray do not linger longer in Cawnpore. You may be discovered, and if I
+am spared, it would embitter my life always to know that it had cost you
+yours. God bless you always.
+
+“Yours gratefully,
+
+“Isobel.”
+
+She folded up the paper and gave it to Rabda, who took her hand and
+kissed it; and then, drawing her veil again over her face, went to the
+door, which stood open for the moment.
+
+Some men were bringing in a large cauldron of rice. The sentries offered
+no opposition to her passing out, as the officer with the palanquin
+had told them that a lady of the Rajah’s zenana would leave shortly.
+A similar message had been given to the officer at the main gate, who,
+however, requested to see her hand and arm to satisfy him that all was
+right. This was sufficient to assure him that it was not a white woman
+passing out in disguise, and Rabda at once proceeded to her father’s
+house.
+
+As she expected, he and Bathurst were away, for she had arranged to meet
+them at eight o’clock in the garden. They did not return until eleven,
+having waited two hours for her, and returning home in much anxiety at
+her non-appearance.
+
+“What has happened? Why did you not meet us, Rabda?” her father
+exclaimed, as he entered.
+
+Rabda rapidly repeated the incidents that had happened since she had
+parted from him the evening before, and handed to Bathurst the two notes
+she had received from Isobel.
+
+“Then she is in safety with the others!” he exclaimed in delight. “Thank
+God for that, and thank you, Rabda, indeed, for what you have done.”
+
+“My life is my lord’s,” the girl said quietly. “What I have done is
+nothing.”
+
+“If we had but known, Rujub, that she would be moved at once, we might
+have rescued her on the way.”
+
+Rujub shook his head.
+
+“There are far too many people along the road, sahib; it could not have
+been done. But, of course, there was no knowing that she would be sent
+off directly after the Nana had seen her.”
+
+“Is she much disfigured, Rabda?” Bathurst asked.
+
+“Dreadfully;” the girl said sorrowfully. “The acid must have been too
+strong.”
+
+“It was strong, no doubt,” Bathurst said; “but if she had put it on as I
+instructed her it could only have burnt the surface of the skin.”
+
+“It has burnt her dreadfully, sahib; even I should hardly have known
+her. She must be brave indeed to have done it. She must have suffered
+dreadfully; but I obtained some ointment for her, and she was better
+when I left her. She is with the wife of the Sahib Hunter.”
+
+“Now, Rabda, see if the meal is prepared,” Rujub said. “We are both
+hungry, and you can have eaten nothing this morning.”
+
+He then left the room, leaving Bathurst to read the letters which he
+still held in his hand, feeling that they were too precious to be looked
+at until he was alone.
+
+It was some time before Rabda brought in his breakfast, and, glancing at
+him, she saw how deeply he had been moved by the letters. She went up to
+him and placed her hand on his shoulder.
+
+“We will get her for you, sahib. We have been successful so far, be
+assured that we shall succeed again. What we have done is more difficult
+than what we have to do. It is easier to get twenty prisoners from a
+jail than one from a rajah’s zenana.”
+
+“That is true enough, Rabda. At the moment I was not thinking of that,
+but of other things.”
+
+He longed for sympathy, but the girl would not have understood him had
+he told her his feelings. To her he was a hero, and it would have seemed
+to her folly had he said that he felt himself altogether unworthy of
+Isobel Hannay. After he had finished his breakfast Rujub again came in.
+
+“What does the sahib intend to do now?” he asked.
+
+“As far as I can see there is nothing to do at present, Rujub,” he said.
+“When the white troops come up she will be delivered.”
+
+“Then will my lord go down to Allahabad?”
+
+“Certainly not. There is no saying what may happen.”
+
+“That is so,” Rujub agreed. “The white women are safe at present, but
+if, as the Sahib thinks, the white soldiers should beat the troops of
+the Nana, who can say what will happen? The people will be wild with
+rage, the Nana will be furious--he is a tiger who, having once laid his
+paw on a victim, will not allow it to be torn from him.”
+
+“He can never allow them to be injured,” Bathurst said. “It is possible
+that as our troops advance he may carry them all off as hostages, and by
+the threat of killing them may make terms for his own life, but he would
+never venture to carry out his threats. You think he would?” he asked.
+
+Rujub remained silent for a minute.
+
+“I think so, sahib; the Nana is an ambitious man; he has wealth and
+everything most men would desire to make life happy, but he wanted more:
+he thought that when the British Raj was destroyed he would rule over
+the territories of the Peishwa, and be one of the greatest lords of the
+land. He has staked everything on that; if he loses, he has lost all. He
+knows that after the breach of his oath and the massacre here, there is
+no pardon for him. He is a tiger--and a wounded tiger is most dangerous.
+If he is, as you believe he will be, defeated, I believe his one thought
+will be of revenge. Every day brings news of fresh risings. Scindia’s
+army will join us; Holkar’s will probably follow. All Oude is rising in
+arms. A large army is gathering at Delhi. Even if the Nana is defeated
+here all will not be lost. He has twenty thousand men; there are well
+nigh two hundred thousand in arms round Lucknow alone. My belief is
+that if beaten his first thought will be to take revenge at once on the
+Feringhees, and to make his name terrible, and that he will then go off
+with his army to Lucknow or Delhi, where he would be received as one who
+has dared more than all others to defy the whites, who has no hope of
+pardon, and can, therefore, be relied upon above all others to fight to
+the last.”
+
+“It may be so, Rujub, though I can scarce believe that there exists a
+monster who would give orders for the murder of hundreds of women and
+children in cold blood; but, at any rate, I will remain and watch.
+We will decide upon what will be the best plan to rescue her from the
+prison, if we hear that evil is intended; but, if not, I can remain
+patiently until our troops arrive. I know the Subada Ke Kothee; it is,
+if I remember right, a large quadrangle with no windows on the outside.”
+
+“That is so, sahib; it is a strong place, and difficult indeed to get
+into or out of. There is only the main gate, which is guarded at night
+by two sentries outside and there is doubtless a strong guard within.”
+
+“I would learn whether the same regiment always furnishes the guard; if
+so, it might be possible to bribe them.”
+
+“I am afraid it would be too dangerous to try. There are scores of men
+in Cawnpore who would cut a throat for a rupee, but when it comes to
+breaking open a prison to carry off one of these white women whom they
+hate it would be too dangerous to try.”
+
+“Could you not do something with your art, Rujub?”
+
+“If there were only the outside sentries it would be easy enough, sahib.
+I could send them to sleep with a wave of my hand, but I could not
+affect the men inside whom I do not know even by sight. Besides, in
+addition to the soldiers who guard the gate, there will be the men who
+have been told off to look after the prisoners. It will require a great
+deal of thinking over, sahib, but I believe we shall manage it. I shall
+go tomorrow to Bithoor and show myself boldly to the Nana. He knows that
+I have done good service to him, and his anger will have cooled down by
+this time, and he will listen to what I have to say. It will be useful
+to us for me to be able to go in and out of the palace at will, and so
+learn the first news from those about him. It is most important that we
+should know if he has evil intentions towards the captives, so that we
+may have time to carry out our plans.”
+
+“Very well, Rujub. You do not expect me to remain indoors, I hope, for I
+should wear myself out if I were obliged to wait here doing nothing.”
+
+“No, sahib; it will be perfectly safe for you to go about just as you
+are, and I can get you any other disguise you like. You will gather what
+is said in the town, can listen to the Sepoys, and examine the Subada Ke
+Kothee. If you like I will go there with you now. My daughter shall come
+with us; she may be useful, and will be glad to be doing something.”
+
+They went out from the city towards the prison house, which stood in
+an open space round which were several other buildings, some of them
+surrounded with gardens and walls.
+
+The Subada Ke Kothee was a large building, forming three sides of a
+square, a strong high wall forming the fourth side. It was low, with a
+flat roof. There were no windows or openings in the outside wall, the
+chambers all facing the courtyard. Two sentries were at the gate. They
+were in the red Sepoy uniform, and Bathurst saw at once how much the
+bonds of discipline had been relaxed. Both had leaned their muskets
+against the wall; one was squatted on the ground beside his firearm, and
+the other was talking with two or three natives of his acquaintance. The
+gates were closed.
+
+As they watched, a native officer came up. He stood for a minute
+talking with the soldiers. By his gesticulations it could be seen he was
+exceedingly angry, and the men took their muskets and began to walk up
+and down. Then the officer knocked at the gate. Instead of its being
+opened, a man appeared at a loophole in the gate tower, and the officer
+handed to him a paper. A minute later the gate was opened sufficiently
+for him to pass in, and was then closed behind him.
+
+“They are evidently pretty strict,” Bathurst said. “I don’t think,
+Rujub, there is much chance of our doing anything there.”
+
+Rujub shook his head. “No, sahib, it is clear they have strict orders
+about opening and shutting the gate.”
+
+“It would not be very difficult to scale the wall of the house,”
+ Bathurst said, “with a rope and a hook at its end; but that is only the
+first step. The real difficulty lies in getting the prison room open in
+the first place--for no doubt they are locked up at night--and in the
+second getting her out of it, and the building.”
+
+“You could lower her down from the top of the wall, sahib.”
+
+“Yes, if one could get her out of the room they are confined in without
+making the slightest stir, but it is almost too much to hope that one
+could be able to do that. The men in charge of them are likely to keep
+a close watch, for they know that their heads would pay for any captive
+they allowed to escape.”
+
+“I don’t think they will watch much, sahib; they will not believe that
+any of the women, broken down as they must be by trouble, would attempt
+such a thing, for even if they got out of the prison itself and then
+made their escape from the building, they would be caught before they
+could go far.”
+
+“Where does the prison house lie, Rabda?” Bathurst asked.
+
+“It is on the left hand side as you enter the gate; it is the farthest
+door. Along that side most of the buildings--which have been used for
+storehouses, I should say, or perhaps for the guards when the place
+was a palace--have two floors, one above the other. But this is a large
+vaulted room extending from the ground to the roof; it has windows with
+iron gratings; the door is very strong and heavy.”
+
+“And now, sahib, we can do nothing more,” Rujub said. “I will return
+home with Rabda, and then go over to Bithoor.”
+
+“Very well, Rujub, I will stay here, and hear what people are talking
+about.”
+
+There were indeed a considerable number of people near the building:
+the fact that the white prisoners were within seemed to exercise a
+fascination, and even women brought their children and sat on the
+banks which marked where gardens had once been, and talked of the
+white captives. Bathurst strolled about among the groups of Sepoys and
+townspeople. The former talked in loud tones of the little force that
+had already started from Allahabad, and boasted how easily they would
+eat up the Feringhees. It seemed, however, to Bathurst that a good deal
+of this confidence was assumed, and that among some, at least, there was
+an undercurrent of doubt and uneasiness, though they talked as loudly
+and boldly as their companions.
+
+The townspeople were of two classes: there were the budmashes or roughs
+of the place, who uttered brutal and ferocious jokes as to the probable
+fate of the white women. There were others who kept in groups apart and
+talked in low voices. These were the traders, to whom the events that
+had taken place foreboded ruin. Already most of the shops had been
+sacked, and many of the principal inhabitants murdered by the mob.
+Those who had so far escaped, thanks in some instances to the protection
+afforded them by Sepoy officers, saw that their trade was ruined, their
+best customers killed, and themselves virtually at the mercy of the mob,
+who might again break out upon the occasion of any excitement. These
+were silent when Bathurst approached them. His attire, and the arms so
+ostentatiously displayed in his sash, marked him as one of the dangerous
+class, perhaps a prisoner from the jail whose doors had been thrown open
+on the first night of the Sepoy rising.
+
+For hours Bathurst remained in the neighborhood of the prison. The sun
+set, and the night came on. Then a small party of soldiers came up and
+relieved the sentries. This time the number of the sentries at the gate
+was doubled, and three men were posted, one on each of the other sides
+of the building. After seeing this done he returned to the house. After
+he had finished his evening meal Rujub and Rabda came into the room.
+
+“Now, sahib,” the former said, “I think that we can tell you how the
+lady is. Rabda has seen her, spoken to her, and touched her; there is
+sympathy between them.”
+
+He seated Rabda in a chair, placed his hand on her forehead, and then
+drew the tips of his fingers several times slowly down her face. Her
+eyes closed. He took up her hand, and let it fall again. It was limp and
+impassive. Then he said authoritatively, “Go to the prison.” He paused a
+moment.
+
+“Are you there?”
+
+“I am there,” she said.
+
+“Are you in the room where the ladies are?”
+
+“I am there,” she repeated.
+
+“Do you see the lady Hannay?”
+
+“I see her.”
+
+“How is she?”
+
+“She is lying quiet. The other young lady is sitting beside her. The
+lower part of her face is bandaged up, but I can see that she is not
+suffering as she was this morning. She looks quiet and happy.”
+
+“Try and speak to her. Say, ‘Keep up your courage, we are doing what we
+can.’ Speak, I order you.”
+
+“I have spoken.”
+
+“Did she hear you?”
+
+“Yes. She has raised herself on her arm; she is looking round; she has
+asked the other young lady if she heard anything. The other shakes her
+head. She heard my words, but does not understand them.”
+
+Rujub looked at Bathurst, who mechanically repeated the message in
+English.
+
+“Speak to her again. Tell her these words,” and Rujub repeated the
+message in English.
+
+“Does she hear you?”
+
+“She hears me. She has clasped her hands, and is looking round
+bewildered.”
+
+“That will do. Now go outside into the yard; what do you see there?”
+
+“I see eight men sitting round a fire. One gets up and walks to one of
+the grated windows, and looks in at the prisoners.”
+
+“Is the door locked?”
+
+“It is locked.”
+
+“Where is the key?”
+
+She was silent for some time.
+
+“Where is the key?” he repeated.
+
+“In the lock,” she said.
+
+“How many soldiers are there in the guardroom by the gate?”
+
+“There are no soldiers there. There are an officer and four men outside,
+but none inside.”
+
+“That will do,” and he passed his hand lightly across her forehead.
+
+“Is it all true?” Bathurst asked, as the juggler turned to him.
+
+“Assuredly it is true, sahib. Had I had my daughter with me at
+Deennugghur, I could have sent you a message as easily; as it was, I had
+to trust only to the power of my mind upon yours. The information is of
+use, sahib.”
+
+“It is indeed. It is a great thing to know that the key is left in the
+lock, and also that at night there are the prison keepers only inside
+the building.”
+
+“Does she know what she has been doing?” he asked, as Rabda languidly
+rose from her chair.
+
+“No, sahib, she knows nothing after she has recovered from these
+trances.”
+
+“I will watch tomorrow night,” Bathurst said, “and see at what hour the
+sentries are relieved. It is evident that the Sepoys are not trusted
+to enter the prison, which is left entirely to the warders, the outside
+posts being furnished by some regiment in the lines. It is important to
+know the exact hour at which the changes are made, and perhaps you
+could find out tomorrow, Rujub, who these warders are; whether they are
+permanently on duty, or are relieved once a day.”
+
+“I will do that, sahib; if they are changed we may be able to get at
+some of them.”
+
+“I have no money,” Bathurst said; “but--”
+
+“I have money, sahib, and if they can be bribed, will do it; our
+caste is a rich one. We sometimes receive large presents, and we are
+everywhere made welcome. We have little need of money. I am wealthy, and
+practice my art more because I love it than for gain. There are few in
+the land that know the secrets that I do. Men die without having sons
+to pass down their knowledge; thus it is the number of those who possess
+the secrets of the ancient grows smaller every day. There are hundreds
+of jugglers, but very few who know, as I do, the secrets of nature, and
+can control the spirits of the air. Did I need greater wealth than I
+have, Rabda could discover for me all the hidden treasures of India;
+and I could obtain them, guarded though they may be by djins and evil
+spirits.”
+
+“Have you a son to come after you, Rujub?”
+
+“Yes; he is traveling in Persia, to confer with one or two of the great
+ones there who still possess the knowledge of the ancient magicians.”
+
+“By the way, Rujub, I have not asked you how you got on with the Nana.”
+
+“It was easy enough,” the juggler said. “He had lost all interest in
+the affairs of Deennugghur, and greeted me at first as if I had just
+returned from a journey. Then he remembered and asked me suddenly why I
+had disobeyed his orders and given my voice for terms being granted to
+the Feringhees. I said that I had obeyed his orders; I understood that
+what he principally desired was to have the women here as prisoners, and
+that had the siege continued the Feringhees would have blown themselves
+into the air. Therefore the only plan was to make terms with them, which
+would, in fact, place them all in his power, as he would not be bound
+by the conditions granted by the Oude men. He was satisfied, and said no
+more about it, and I am restored to my position in his favor. Henceforth
+we shall not have to trust to the gossip of the bazaars, but I shall
+know what news is received and what is going to be done.
+
+“Your people at Delhi have beaten back the Sepoys several times, and at
+Lucknow they resist stoutly. The Nana is very angry that the place has
+not been taken, but from what I hear the intrenchments there are much
+stronger than they were here, and even here they were not taken by the
+sword, but because the whites had no shelter from the guns, and could
+not go to the well without exposing themselves to the fire. At Lucknow
+they have some strong houses in the intrenchments, and no want of
+anything, so they can only be captured by fighting. Everyone says they
+cannot hold out many days longer, but that I do not know. It does not
+seem to me that there is any hope of rescue for them, for even if, as
+you think, the white troops should beat Nana Sahib’s men, they
+never could force their way through the streets of Lucknow to the
+intrenchments there.”
+
+“We shall see, Rujub. Deennugghur was defended by a mere handful, and
+at Lucknow they have half a regiment of white soldiers. They may, for
+anything I know, have to yield to starvation, but I doubt whether the
+mutineers and Oude men, however numerous they may be, will carry the
+place by assault. Is there any news elsewhere?”
+
+“None, sahib, save that the Feringhees are bringing down regiments from
+the Punjaub to aid those at Delhi.”
+
+“The tide is beginning to turn, Rujub; the mutineers have done their
+worst, and have failed to overthrow the English Raj. Now you will see
+that every day they will lose ground. Fresh troops will pour up the
+country, and step by step the mutiny will be crushed out; it is a
+question of time only. If you could call up a picture on smoke of what
+will be happening a year hence, you would see the British triumphant
+everywhere.”
+
+“I cannot do that, sahib; I do not know what would appear on the smoke,
+and were I to try, misfortune would surely come upon me. When a picture
+of the past is shown on the smoke, it is not a past I know of, but which
+one of those present knows. I cannot always say which among them may
+know it; it is always a scene that has made a strong impression on the
+mind, but more than that I do not know. As to those of the future, I
+know even less; it is the work of the power of the air, whose name I
+whisper to myself when I pour out the incense, and to whom I pray. It
+is seldom that I show these pictures; he gets angry if called upon too
+often. I never do it unless I feel that he is propitious.”
+
+“It is beyond me altogether, Rujub; I can understand your power of
+sending messages, and of your daughter seeing at a distance. I
+have heard of such things at home; they are called mesmerism and
+clairvoyance. It is an obscure art; but that some men do possess the
+power of influencing others at a distance seems to be undoubted, still
+it is certainly never carried to such perfection as I see it in your
+case.”
+
+“It could not be,” Rujub said; “white men eat too much, and it needs
+long fasting and mortification to fit a man to become a mystic; the
+spirit gains power as the body weakens. The Feringhees can make arms
+that shoot long distances, and carriages that travel faster than the
+fastest horse, and great ships and machines. They can do many great and
+useful things, but they cannot do the things that have been done for
+thousands of years in the East. They are tied too fast to the earth
+to have aught to do with the spirits that dwell in the air. A learned
+Brahmin, who had studied your holy books, told me that your Great
+Teacher said that if you had faith you could move mountains. We could
+well nigh do that if it were of use to mankind; but were we to do so
+merely to show our power, we should be struck dead. It is wrong even to
+tell you these things; I must say no more.”
+
+Four days passed. Rujub went every day for some hours to Bithoor, and
+told Bathurst that he heard that the British force, of about fourteen
+hundred whites and five hundred Sikhs, was pushing forward rapidly,
+making double marches each day.
+
+“The first fight will be near Futtehpore,” he said; “there are fifteen
+hundred Sepoys, as many Oude tribesmen, and five hundred cavalry with
+twelve guns, and they are in a very strong position, which the British
+can only reach by passing along the road through a swamp. It is a
+position that the officers say a thousand men could hold against ten
+thousand.”
+
+“You will see that it will not delay our troops an hour,” Bathurst said.
+“Do they imagine they are going to beat us, when the numbers are but
+two to one in their favor? If so, they will soon learn that they are
+mistaken.”
+
+The next afternoon, when Rujub returned, he said, “You were right,
+sahib; your people took Futtehpore after only half an hour’s fighting.
+The accounts say that the Feringhees came on like demons, and that they
+did not seem to mind our firing in the slightest. The Nana is furious,
+but they still feel confident that they will succeed in stopping the
+Feringhees at Dong. They lost their twelve guns at Futtehpore, but they
+have two heavy ones at the Pandoo Bridge, which sweep the straight road
+leading to it for a mile; and the bridge has been mined, and will be
+blown up if the Feringhees reach it. But, nevertheless, the Nana swears
+that he will be revenged on the captives. If you are to rescue the lady
+it must be done tonight, for tomorrow it may be too late.”
+
+“You surely do not think he will give orders for the murder of the women
+and children?”
+
+“I fear he will do so,” Rujub answered gloomily.
+
+Each day Bathurst had learned in the same manner as before what
+was doing in the prison. Isobel was no longer being nursed; she was
+assisting to nurse Mary Hunter, who had, the day after Isobel was
+transferred to the prison, been attacked by fever, and was the next
+day delirious. Rabda’s report of the next two days left little doubt in
+Bathurst’s mind that she was rapidly sinking. All the prisoners suffered
+greatly from the close confinement; many had died, and the girl’s
+description of the scenes she witnessed was often interrupted by her
+sobs and tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+While Bathurst was busying himself completing his preparations for the
+attempt, Rabda came in with her father.
+
+“My lord,” she said, “I tremble at the thought of your venturing your
+life. My life is of no importance, and it belongs to you. What I would
+propose is this. My father will go to Bithoor, and will obtain an order
+from one of the Nana’s officers for a lady of the zenana to visit the
+prisoners. I will go in veiled, as I was on the day I went there. I will
+change garments with the lady, and she can come out veiled, and meet you
+outside.”
+
+“I would not dream of such a thing, Rabda. You would be killed to a
+certainty when they discovered the trick. Even if I would consent to the
+sacrifice, Miss Hannay would not do so. I am deeply grateful to you for
+proposing it, but it is impossible. You will see that, with the aid of
+your father, I shall succeed.”
+
+“I told her that would be your answer, sahib,” Rujub said, “but she
+insisted on making the offer.”
+
+It was arranged that they were to start at nine o’clock, as it was safer
+to make the attempt before everything became quiet. Before starting,
+Rabda was again placed in a trance. In reply to her father’s questions
+she said that Mary Hunter was dead, and that Isobel was lying down. She
+was told to tell her that in an hour she was to be at the window next to
+the door.
+
+Rujub had found that the men inside the prison were those who had been
+employed as warders at the jail before the troubles began, and he had
+procured for Bathurst a dress similar to that which they wore, which
+was a sort of uniform. He had offered, if the attempt was successful,
+to conceal Isobel in his house until the troops reached Cawnpore, but
+Bathurst preferred to take her down the country, upon the ground that
+every house might be searched, and that possibly before the British
+entered the town there might be a general sack of the place by the mob,
+and even if this did not take place there might be desperate house to
+house fighting when the troops arrived. Rujub acknowledged the danger,
+and said that he and his daughter would accompany them on their way down
+country, as it would greatly lessen their risk if two of the party were
+really natives. Bathurst gratefully accepted the offer, as it would make
+the journey far more tolerable for Isobel if she had Rabda with her.
+
+She was to wait a short distance from the prison while Bathurst made the
+attempt, and was left in a clump of bushes two or three hundred yards
+away from the prison. Rujub accompanied Bathurst. They went along
+quietly until within fifty yards of the sentry in the rear of the
+house, and then stopped. The man was walking briskly up and down.
+Rujub stretched out his arms in front of him with the fingers extended.
+Bathurst, who had taken his place behind him, saw his muscles stiffen,
+while there was a tremulous motion of his fingers. In a minute or two
+the sentry’s walk became slower. In a little time it ceased altogether,
+and he leaned against the wall as if drowsy; then he slid down in a
+sitting position, his musket falling to the ground.
+
+“You can come along now,” Rujub said; “he is fast asleep, and there is
+no fear of his waking. He will sleep till I bid him wake.”
+
+They at once moved forward to the wall of the house. Bathurst threw up
+a knotted rope, to which was attached a large hook, carefully wrapped in
+flannel to prevent noise. After three or four attempts it caught on the
+parapet. Bathurst at once climbed up. As soon as he had gained the flat
+terrace, Rujub followed him; they then pulled up the rope, to the lower
+end of which a rope ladder was attached, and fastened this securely;
+then they went to the inner side of the terrace and looked down onto
+the courtyard. Two men were standing at one of the grated windows of the
+prison room, apparently looking in; six others were seated round a fire
+in the center of the court.
+
+Bathurst was about to turn away when Rujub touched him and pointed to
+the two men at the window, and then stretched out his arms towards them.
+Presently they turned and left the window, and in a leisurely way walked
+across the court and entered a room where a light was burning close to
+the grate. For two or three minutes Rujub stood in the same position,
+then his arms dropped.
+
+“They have gone into the guard room to sleep,” he said; “there are two
+less to trouble you.”
+
+Then he turned towards the group of men by the fire and fixed his gaze
+upon them. In a short time one of them wrapped himself in his cloth and
+lay down. In five minutes two others had followed his example. Another
+ten minutes passed, and then Rujub turned to Bathurst and said, “I
+cannot affect the other three; we cannot influence everyone.”
+
+“That will do, Rujub, it is my turn now.”
+
+After a short search they found stairs leading down from the terrace,
+and after passing through some empty rooms reached a door opening into
+the courtyard.
+
+“Do you stay here, Rujub,” Bathurst said. “They will take me for one of
+themselves. If I succeed without noise, I shall come this way; if not,
+we will go out through the gate, and you had best leave by the way we
+came.”
+
+The door was standing open, and Bathurst, grasping a heavy tulwar, went
+out into the courtyard. Keeping close to the house, he sauntered along
+until he reached the grated windows of the prison room. Three lamps were
+burning within, to enable the guard outside to watch the prisoners. He
+passed the two first windows; at the third a figure was standing. She
+shrank back as Bathurst stopped before it.
+
+“It is I, Miss Hannay--Bathurst. Danger threatens you, and you must
+escape at once. Rabda is waiting for you outside. Please go to the door
+and stand there until I open it. I have no doubt that I shall succeed,
+but if anything should go wrong, go and lie down again at once.”
+
+Without waiting for an answer, he moved towards the fire.
+
+“Is that you, Ahmed?” one of the warders said. “We all seem sleepy this
+evening, there is something in the air; I felt half inclined to go off
+myself.”
+
+“It is very hot tonight,” Bathurst replied.
+
+There was something in his voice unfamiliar to the man, and with an
+exclamation, “Who is it?” he sprang to his feet. But Bathurst was now
+but three paces away, and with a bound was upon him, bringing the tulwar
+down with such force upon his head that the man fell lifeless without a
+groan. The other two leaped up with shouts of “Treachery!” but Bathurst
+was upon them, and, aided by the surprise, cut both down after a sharp
+fight of half a minute. Then he ran to the prison door, turned the key
+in the lock, and opened it.
+
+“Come!” he exclaimed, “there is no time to be lost, the guards outside
+have taken the alarm,” for, by this time, there was a furious knocking
+at the gate. “Wrap yourself up in this native robe.”
+
+“But the others, Mr. Bathurst, can’t you save them too?”
+
+“Impossible,” he said. “Even if they got out, they would be overtaken
+and killed at once. Come!” And taking her hand, he led her to the gate.
+
+“Stand back here so that the gate will open on you,” he said. Then he
+undid the bar, shouting, “Treachery; the prisoners are escaping!”
+
+As he undid the last bolt the gate opened and the soldiers rushed in,
+firing at random as they did so. Bathurst had stepped behind the gate
+as it opened, and as the soldiers ran up the yard he took Isobel’s hand,
+and, passing through the gate, ran with her round the building until he
+reached the spot where Rabda was awaiting them. Half a minute later her
+father joined them.
+
+“Let us go at once, there is no time for talking,” he said. “We must be
+cautious, the firing will wake the whole quarter;” for by this time
+loud shouts were being raised, and men, hearing the muskets fired,
+were running towards the gate. Taking advantage of the shelter of the
+shrubbery as much as they could, they hurried on until they issued into
+the open country.
+
+“Do you feel strong enough to walk far?” Bathurst asked, speaking for
+the first time since they left the gate.
+
+“I think so,” she said; “I am not sure whether I am awake or dreaming.”
+
+“You are awake, Miss Hannay; you are safe out of that terrible prison.”
+
+“I am not sure,” the girl said, speaking slowly; “I have been strange
+since I went there. I have seemed to hear voices speaking to me, though
+no one was there, and no one else heard them; and I am not sure whether
+all this is not fancy now.”
+
+“It is reality, Miss Hannay. Take my hand and you will see that it
+is solid. The voices you heard were similar to those I heard at
+Deennugghur; they were messages I sent you by means of Rujub and his
+daughter.”
+
+“I did think of what you told me and about the juggler, but it seemed
+so strange. I thought that my brain was turning with trouble; it was
+bad enough at Deennugghur, but nothing to what it has been since that
+dreadful day at Bithoor. There did not seem much hope at Deennugghur.
+But somehow we all kept up, and, desperate as it seemed, I don’t think
+we ever quite despaired. You see, we all knew each other; besides, no
+one could give way while the men were fighting and working so hard for
+us; but at Cawnpore there seemed no hope. There was not one woman there
+but had lost husband or father. Most of them were indifferent to life,
+scarcely ever speaking, and seeming to move in a dream, while others
+with children sat holding them close to them as if they dreaded a
+separation at any moment. There were a few who were different, who moved
+about and nursed the children and sick, and tried to comfort the others,
+just as Mrs. Hunter did at Deennugghur. There was no crying and no
+lamenting. It would have been a relief if anyone had cried, it was the
+stillness that was so trying; when people talked to each other they did
+it in a whisper, as they do in a room where someone is lying dead.
+
+“You know Mary Hunter died yesterday? Well, Mrs. Hunter quite put aside
+her own grief and tried to cheer others. I told her the last message I
+received, and asked her to go with me if it should be true. She said,
+‘No, Isobel; I don’t know whether this message is a dream, or whether
+God has opened a way of escape for you--if so, may He be thanked; but
+you must go alone--one might escape where two could not. As for me, I
+shall wait here for whatever fate God may send me. My husband and
+my children have gone before me. I may do some good among these poor
+creatures, and here I shall stay. You are young and full of life, and
+have many happy days in store for you. My race is nearly run--even did
+I wish for life, I would not cumber you and your friends; there will be
+perils to encounter and fatigues to be undergone. Had not Mary left us I
+would have sent her with you, but God did not will it so. Go, therefore,
+to the window, dear, as you were told by this message you think you have
+received, but do not be disappointed if no one comes. If it turns out
+true, and there is a chance of escape, take it, dear, and may God be
+with you.’ As I stood at the window, I could not go at once, as you told
+me, to the door; I had to stand there; I saw it all till you turned and
+ran to the door, and then I came to meet you.”
+
+“It was a pity you saw it,” he said gently.
+
+“Why? Do you think that, after what I have gone through, I was shocked
+at seeing you kill three of those wretches? Two months ago I suppose I
+should have thought it dreadful, but those two months have changed us
+altogether. Think of what we were then and what we are now. There remain
+only you, Mrs. Hunter, myself, and your letter said, Mr. Wilson. Is he
+the only one?”
+
+“Yes, so far as we know.”
+
+“Only we four, and all the others gone--Uncle and Mary and Amy and the
+Doolans and the dear Doctor, all the children. Why, if the door had been
+open, and I had had a weapon, I would have rushed out to help you kill.
+I shudder at myself sometimes.”
+
+After a pause she went on. “Then none of those in the other boat came to
+shore, Mr. Bathurst, except Mr. Wilson?”
+
+“I fear not. The other boat sank directly. Wilson told me it was sinking
+as he sprang over. You had better not talk any more, Miss Hannay, for
+you are out of breath now, and will need all your strength.”
+
+“Yes, but tell me why you have taken me away; you said there was great
+danger?”
+
+“Our troops are coming up,” he said, “and I had reason to fear that when
+the rebels are defeated the mob may break open the prison.”
+
+“They surely could not murder women and children who have done them no
+harm!”
+
+“There is no saying what they might do, Miss Hannay, but that was the
+reason why I dared not leave you where you were. I will tell you more
+about it afterwards. Now, please take my arm, we must be miles away from
+here before morning. They will find out then that you have escaped, and
+will no doubt scour the country.”
+
+They had left the road and were passing through the fields. Isobel’s
+strength failed rapidly, as soon as the excitement that had at first
+kept her up subsided. Rujub several times urged Bathurst to go faster,
+but the girl hung more and more heavily on his arm.
+
+“I can’t go any farther,” she said at last; “it is so long since I
+walked, and I suppose I have got weak. I have tried very hard, but I can
+scarcely drag my feet along. You had better leave me; you have done all
+you could to save me. I thank you so much. Only please leave a pistol
+with me. I am not at all afraid of dying, but I will not fall into their
+hands again.”
+
+“We must carry her, Rujub,” Bathurst said; “she is utterly exhausted and
+worn out, and no wonder. If we could make a sort of stretcher, it would
+be easy enough.”
+
+Rujub took the cloth from his shoulders, and laid it on the ground by
+the side of Isobel, who had now sunk down and was lying helpless.
+
+“Lift her onto this, sahib, then we will take the four corners and carry
+her; it will be no weight.”
+
+Bathurst lifted Isobel, in spite of her feeble protest, and laid her on
+the cloth.
+
+“I will take the two corners by her head,” Bathurst said, “if you will
+each take one of the others.”
+
+“No, sahib, the weight is all at the head; you take one corner, and I
+will take the other. Rabda can take the two corners at the feet. We can
+change about when we like.”
+
+Isobel had lost greatly in weight since the siege of Deennugghur began,
+and she was but a light burden for her three bearers, who started with
+her at a speed considerably greater than that at which she had walked.
+
+“Which way are you taking us, Rujub?” Bathurst asked presently; “I have
+lost my bearings altogether.”
+
+“I am keeping near the river, sahib. I know the country well. We cannot
+follow the road, for there the Rajah’s troops and the Sepoys and the
+Oude men are gathered to oppose your people. They will fight tomorrow
+at Dong, as I told you, but the main body is not far from here. We must
+keep far away from them, and if your people take Dong we can then join
+them if we like. This road keeps near the river all the way, and we are
+not likely to meet Sepoys here, as it is by the other road the white
+troops are coming up.”
+
+After four hours’ walking, Rujub said, “There is a large wood just
+ahead. We will go in there. We are far enough off Cawnpore to be safe
+from any parties they may send out to search. If your people take
+Dong tomorrow, they will have enough to think of in Cawnpore without
+troubling about an escaped prisoner. Besides,” he added, “if the Rajah’s
+orders are carried out, at daybreak they will not know that a prisoner
+has escaped; they will not trouble to count.”
+
+“I cannot believe it possible they will carry out such a butchery,
+Rujub.”
+
+“We shall see, sahib. I did not tell you all I knew lest we should fail
+to carry off the lady, but I know the orders that have been given. Word
+has been sent round to the butchers of the town, and tomorrow morning
+soon after daybreak it will be done.”
+
+Bathurst gave an exclamation of horror, for until now he had hardly
+believed it was possible that even Nana Sahib could perpetrate so
+atrocious a massacre. Not another word was spoken until they entered the
+wood.
+
+“Where is the river, Rujub?”
+
+“A few hundred yards to the left, sahib; the road is half a mile to the
+right. We shall be quite safe here.”
+
+They made their way for some little distance into the wood, and then
+laid down their burden.
+
+They had taken to the spot where Rabda remained when the others went
+forward towards the prison a basket containing food and three bottles of
+wine, and this Rujub had carried since they started together. As soon as
+the hammock was lowered to the ground, Isobel moved and sat up.
+
+“I am rested now. Oh, how good you have all been! I was just going to
+tell you that I could walk again. I am quite ready to go on now.”
+
+“We are going to halt here till tomorrow evening, Miss Hannay; Rujub
+thinks we are quite beyond any risk of pursuit now. You must first
+eat and drink something, and then sleep as long as you can. Rabda has
+brought a native dress for you and dye for staining your skin, but there
+is no occasion for doing that till tomorrow; the river is only a short
+distance away, and in the morning you will be able to enjoy a wash.”
+
+The neck was knocked off a bottle. Rabda had brought in the basket a
+small silver cup, and Isobel, after drinking some wine and eating a few
+mouthfuls of food, lay down by her and was soon fast asleep. Bathurst
+ate a much more hearty meal. Rujub and his daughter said that they did
+not want anything before morning.
+
+The sun was high before Bathurst woke. Rujub had lighted a fire, and was
+boiling some rice in a lota.
+
+“Where is Miss Hannay?” Bathurst asked, as he sat up.
+
+“She has gone down to the river with Rabda. The trees hang down well
+over the water, and they can wash without fear of being seen on the
+opposite shore. I was going to wake you when the lady got up, but she
+made signs that you were to be allowed to sleep on.”
+
+In half an hour the two girls returned. Isobel was attired in a native
+dress, and her face, neck, arms, feet, and ankles had been stained to
+the same color as Rabda’s. She came forward a little timidly, for she
+felt strange and uncomfortable in her scanty attire. Bathurst gave an
+exclamation of pain as he saw her face.
+
+“How dreadfully, you have burnt yourself, Miss Hannay; surely you cannot
+have followed the instructions I gave you.”
+
+“No; it is not your fault at all, Mr. Bathurst; I put a great deal more
+on than you said, but I was so anxious to disfigure myself that I was
+determined to do it thoroughly; but it is nothing to what it was. As you
+see, my lips are getting all right again, and the sores are a good deal
+better than they were; I suppose they will leave scars, but that won’t
+trouble me.”
+
+“It is the pain you must have suffered that I am thinking of,” he
+replied. “As to the scars, I hope they will wear out in time; you must
+indeed have suffered horribly.”
+
+“They burnt dreadfully for a time,” the girl answered; “but for the last
+two or three days I have hardly felt it, though, of course, it is very
+sore still.”
+
+“Do you feel ready for breakfast, Miss Hannay?”
+
+“Quite ready, and for a walk as long as you like afterwards. I feel
+quite another creature after my dip. That was one of the worst things
+in the prison. We had scarcely water enough to drink, and none to wash
+with, and, of course, no combs nor anything.”
+
+They sat down together and ate the cold food they had brought, while
+Rabda and her father made their breakfast of rice.
+
+“What has become of Mr. Wilson?” Isobel asked suddenly. “I wondered
+about him as I was being carried along last night, but I was too tired
+to talk afterwards.”
+
+“I hope he is either safe at Allahabad by this time, or is with the
+troops marching up. The Zemindar’s son, who came down with us as an
+escort, and one of his men got safely to shore also, and they went on
+with Wilson. When he found I was going to stay at Cawnpore to try and
+rescue you, he pleaded very hard that I should keep him with me in order
+that he might share in the attempt, but his ignorance of the language
+might have been fatal, and his being with me would have greatly added
+to the difficulty, so I was obliged to refuse him. It was only because
+I told him that instead of adding to, he would lessen your chance of
+escape, that he consented to go, for I am sure he would willingly have
+laid down his life to save yours.”
+
+“I am very glad he is safe; he is very kind hearted and nice, Mr.
+Bathurst, and a thoroughly natural, unaffected young fellow, very loyal
+and stanch. I am quite sure he would have done anything he could, even
+at the risk of his life.”
+
+“I like him very much, too, Miss Hannay. Before the siege I thought him
+a careless, happy go lucky lad, but as I got to know him well, I found
+he was much more than that, and he will make a good man and an excellent
+officer one of these days if he is spared. He is thoroughly brave
+without the slightest brag--an excellent specimen of the best class of
+public school boy.”
+
+“And who are the troops coming up, Mr. Bathurst? How strong are they? I
+have heard nothing about them.”
+
+“About twelve hundred white troops and four or five hundred Sikhs; at
+least that is what the natives put them at.”
+
+“But surely they will never be able to fight their way to Cawnpore,
+where there are the mutineers and Nana Sahib’s troops and the Oude men
+and the people of the town. Why, there must be ten to one against them.”
+
+“Not far short of that, I think, but I feel sure our men will do it.
+They know of the treachery of the Nana, they know of the massacre by the
+river, and they know that the women and children are prisoners in his
+hands, and do you think that men who know these things can be beaten?
+The Sepoys met them in superior force and in a strong position at
+Futtehpore, and they drove them before them like chaff. They will have
+harder work next time, but I have no shadow of fear of the result.”
+
+Then their talk went back to Deennugghur and of their friends there--the
+Doolans, the Hunters, the Rintouls, and others--and Isobel wept freely
+over their fate.
+
+“Next to my uncle I shall miss the Doctor,” she said.
+
+“He was an awfully good fellow,” Bathurst said, “and was the only real
+friend I have had since I came to India, I would have done anything for
+him.”
+
+“When shall we start?” Isobel asked presently.
+
+“Directly the sun goes down a little. You would find it terribly hot
+now. I have been talking it over with Rujub, and he says it is better
+not to make a long journey today. We are not more than twenty miles from
+Dong, and it would not do to move in that direction until we know how
+things have gone; therefore, if we start at three o’clock and walk till
+seven or eight, it will be quite far enough.”
+
+“He seems a wonderful man,” said Isobel. “You remember that talk we had
+at dinner, before we went to see him at the Hunters!”
+
+“Yes,” he said. “As you know, I was a believer then, and so was the
+Doctor. I need not say that I believe still more now that these men do
+wholly unaccountable feats. He put the sentry outside the walls of your
+prison and five out of your eight warders so sound asleep that they did
+not wake during the struggle I had with the others. That, of course,
+was mesmerism. His messages to you were actually sent by means of his
+daughter. She was put in a sort of trance, in which she saw you and told
+us what you were doing, and communicated the message her father gave her
+to you. He could not send you a message nor tell me about you when you
+were first at Bithoor, because he said Rabda was not in sympathy with
+you, but after she had seen you and touched you and you had kissed her,
+she was able to do so. There does not appear to me to be anything beyond
+the powers of nature in that, though doubtless powers were called into
+play of which at present we know nothing. But we do know that minds act
+upon each other. Possibly certain persons in sympathy with each other
+may be able to act upon each other from a distance, especially when
+thrown into the sort of trance which is known as the clairvoyant state.
+I always used to look upon that as humbug, but I need hardly say I shall
+in future be ready to believe almost anything. He professes to have
+other and even greater powers than what we have seen. At any rate, he
+can have no motive in deceiving me when he has risked his life to help
+me. Do you know, Rabda offered to go into the prison--her father could
+have got her an order to pass in--and then to let you go out in her
+dress while she remained in your stead. I could not accept the sacrifice
+even to save you, and I was sure had I done so you yourself would have
+refused to leave.”
+
+“Of course. But how good of her. Please tell her that you have told me,
+and how grateful I am for her offer.”
+
+Bathurst called Rabda, who was sitting a short distance away.
+
+She took the hand that Isobel held out to her and placed it against her
+forehead.
+
+“My life is yours, sahib,” she said simply to Bathurst. “It was right
+that I should give it for this lady you love.”
+
+“What does she say?” Isobel asked.
+
+“She says that she owed me her life for that tiger business, you know,
+and was ready to give it for you because I had set my mind on saving
+you.”
+
+“Is that what she really said, Mr. Bathurst?” Isobel asked quietly, for
+he had hesitated a little in changing its wording.
+
+“That was the sense of it, I can assure you. Not only was she ready
+to make the sacrifice, but her father consented to her doing so. These
+Hindoos are capable of gratitude, you see. There are not many English
+who would be ready thus to sacrifice themselves for a man who had
+accidentally, as I may say, saved their lives.”
+
+“Not accidentally, Mr. Bathurst. Why do you always try to run yourself
+down? I suppose you will say next you saved my life by an accident.”
+
+“The saving of your life is due chiefly to these natives.”
+
+“But they were only your instruments, Mr. Bathurst; they had no interest
+in saving me. You had bought their services at the risk of your life,
+and in saving me they were paying that debt to you.”
+
+At three o’clock they prepared for the start. Bathurst had exchanged the
+warder’s dress for one of a peasant, which they had brought with them.
+The woods were of no great width, and Rujub said they had better follow
+the road now.
+
+“No one will suspect us of being anything but what we seem,” he said.
+“Should we meet any peasants, their talk will be with you and me. They
+will ask no questions about the women; but if there is a woman among
+them, and she speaks, Rabda will answer her.”
+
+For hours they had heard dull sounds in the air, which Bathurst had
+recognized at once as distant artillery, showing that the fight was
+going on near Dong.
+
+“The Sepoys are making a stout resistance, or the firing would not last
+so long,” he said to Rujub, as they walked through the wood towards the
+road.
+
+“They have two positions to defend, sahib. The Nana’s men will fight
+first at a strong village two miles beyond Dong; if they are beaten
+there, they will fight again at the bridge I told you of.”
+
+“That would partly account for it; but the Sepoys must be fighting much
+better than they did at Futtehpore, for there, as you said, the white
+troops swept the Sepoys before them.”
+
+When they reached the edge of the wood Bathurst said, “I will see that
+the road is clear before we go out. If anyone saw us issuing out of the
+wood they might wonder what we had been after.”
+
+He went to the edge of the bushes and looked down the long straight
+road. There was only a solitary figure in sight. It seemed to be an old
+man walking lame with a stick. Bathurst was about to turn and tell the
+others to come out, when he saw the man stop suddenly, turn round to
+look back along the road, stand with his head bent as if listening, then
+run across the road with much more agility than he had before seemed to
+possess, and plunge in among the trees.
+
+“Wait,” he said to those behind him, “something is going on. A peasant I
+saw in the road has suddenly dived into the wood as if he was afraid of
+being pursued. Ah!” he exclaimed a minute later, “there is a party of
+horsemen coming along at a gallop--get farther back into the wood.”
+
+Presently they heard the rapid trampling of horses, and looking through
+the bushes they saw some twenty sowars of one of the native cavalry
+regiments dash past.
+
+Bathurst went to the edge of the wood again, and looked out. Then he
+turned suddenly to Isobel.
+
+“You remember those pictures on the smoke?” he said excitedly.
+
+“No, I do not remember them,” she said, in surprise. “I have often
+wondered at it, but I have never been able to recollect what they were
+since that evening. I have often thought they were just like dreams,
+where one sees everything just as plainly as if it were a reality, and
+then go out of your mind altogether as soon as you are awake.”
+
+“It has been just the same with me,” replied Bathurst, “except that once
+or twice they have come back for a moment quite vividly. One of them
+I have not thought of for some days, but now I see it again. Don’t you
+remember there was a wood, and a Hindoo man and woman stepped out of it,
+and a third native came up to them?”
+
+“Yes, I remember now,” she said eagerly; “it was just as we are here;
+but what of that, Mr. Bathurst?”
+
+“Did you recognize any of them?”
+
+“Yes, yes, it all comes back to me now. It was you and the Doctor,
+certainly, and I thought the woman was myself. I spoke to the Doctor
+next day about it, but he laughed at it all, and I have never thought of
+it since.”
+
+“The Doctor and I agreed, when we talked it over that evening, that the
+Hindoo who stepped out of the wood was myself, and thought that you were
+the Hindoo girl, but of that we were not so sure, for your face seemed
+not only darkened, but blotched and altered--it was just as you are
+now--and the third native was the Doctor himself; we both felt certain
+of that. It has come true, and I feel absolutely certain that the native
+I saw along the road will turn out to be the Doctor.”
+
+“Oh, I hope so, I hope so!” the girl cried, and pressed forward with
+Bathurst to the edge of the wood.
+
+The old native was coming along on the road again. As he approached, his
+eye fell on the two figures, and with a Hindoo salutation he was passing
+on, when Isobel cried, “It is the Doctor!” and rushing forward she threw
+her arms round his neck.
+
+“Isobel Hannay!” he cried in delight and amazement; “my dear little
+girl, my dear little girl, thank God you are saved; but what have you
+been doing with yourself, and who is this with you?”
+
+“You knew me when you saw me in the picture on the smoke, Doctor,”
+ Bathurst said, grasping his hand, “though you do not know me in life.”
+
+“You, too, Bathurst!” the Doctor exclaimed, as he wrung his hand; “thank
+God for that, my dear boy; to think that both of you should have been
+saved--it seems a miracle. The picture on the smoke? Yes, we were
+speaking of it that last night at Deennugghur, and I never have thought
+of it since. Is there anyone else?”
+
+“My friend the juggler and his daughter are with us, Doctor.”
+
+“Then I can understand the miracle,” the Doctor said, “for I believe
+that fellow could take you through the air and carry you through stone
+walls with a wave of his hand.”
+
+“Well, he has not exactly done that, but he and his daughter have
+rendered us immense service. I could have done nothing without them.”
+
+The two natives, seeing through the bushes the recognition that had
+taken place, had now stepped forward and salaamed as the Doctor spoke a
+few hearty words to them.
+
+“But where have you sprung from, Doctor? How were you saved?”
+
+“I jumped overboard when those scoundrels opened fire,” the Doctor said.
+“I kept my wits about me, and said to myself that if I were to swim for
+the opposite shore the chances were that I should get shot down, so I
+made a long dive, came up for air, and then went down again, and came up
+the next time under some bushes by the bank; there I remained all night.
+The villains were only a few yards away, and I could hear every word
+they said. I heard the boat come ashore, and although I could have done
+no good by rushing out, I think I should have done so if I had had any
+weapon about me, and have tried to kill one or two of them before I went
+down. As it was, I waited until morning. Then I heard the rumble of the
+guns and the wagons, and knew that they were off. I waited for another
+hour to make sure, and then stepped ashore. I went to the boat lying
+by the bank. When I saw that Isobel and the other two ladies were not
+there, I knew that they must have been carried off into Cawnpore. I
+waited there until night, and then made my way to a peasant’s house
+a mile out of the town. I had operated upon him for elephantiasis two
+years ago, and the man had shown himself grateful, and had occasionally
+sent me in little presents of fowls and so on. He received me well, gave
+me food, which I wanted horribly, stained my skin, and rigged me out in
+this disguise. The next morning I went into the town, and for the last
+four or five days have wandered about there. There was nothing I could
+do, and yet I felt that I could not go away, but must stay within sight
+of the prison where you were all confined till our column arrived.
+But this morning I determined to come down to join our people who are
+fighting their way up, little thinking that I should light upon you by
+the way.”
+
+“We were just going to push on, Doctor; but as you have had a good long
+tramp already, we will stop here until tomorrow morning, if you like.”
+
+“No, no, let us go on, Bathurst. I would rather be on the move, and you
+can tell me your story as we go.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+Bathurst knew the Doctor well, and perceived that glad as he was to have
+met them, he was yet profoundly depressed in spirits. This, added to the
+fact that he had left Cawnpore that morning, instead of waiting as he
+had intended, convinced Bathurst that what he dreaded had taken place.
+He waited until Isobel stopped for a moment, that Rabda might rearrange
+the cloth folded round her in its proper draping. Then he said quickly,
+“I heard yesterday what was intended, Doctor. Is it possible that it has
+been done?”
+
+“It was done this morning.”
+
+“What, all? Surely not all, Doctor?”
+
+“Every soul--every woman and child. Think of it--the fiends! the devils!
+The native brought me the news. If I had heard it in the streets of
+Cawnpore I should have gone mad and seized a sword and run amuck. As it
+was, I was well nigh out of mind. I could not stay there. The man would
+have sheltered me until the troops came up, but I was obliged to be
+moving, so I started down. Hush! here comes Isobel; we must keep it from
+her.”
+
+“Now, Isobel,” he went on, as the girl joined them, and they all started
+along the road, “tell me how it is I find you here.”
+
+“Mr. Bathurst must tell you, Doctor; I cannot talk about it yet--I can
+hardly think about it.”
+
+“Well, Bathurst, let us hear it from you.”
+
+“It is a painful story for me to have to tell.”
+
+Isobel looked up in surprise.
+
+“Painful, Mr. Bathurst? I should have thought--” and she stopped.
+
+“Not all painful, Miss Hannay, but in parts. I would rather tell
+you, Doctor, when we have finished our journey this evening, if your
+curiosity will allow you to wait so long.”
+
+“I will try to wait,” the Doctor replied, “though I own it is a trial.
+Now, Isobel, you have not told me yet what has happened to your face.
+Let me look at it closer, child. I see your arms are bad, too. What on
+earth has happened to you?”
+
+
+“I burnt myself with acid, Doctor. Mr. Bathurst will tell you all about
+it.”
+
+“Bless me, mystery seems to thicken. Well, you have got yourself into a
+pretty pickle. Why, child, burns of that sort leave scars as bad as if
+you had been burnt by fire. You ought to be in a dark room with your
+face and hands bandaged, instead of tramping along here in the sun.”
+
+“I have some lotions and some ointment, Doctor. I have used them
+regularly since it was done, and the places don’t hurt me much now.”
+
+“No, they look healthy enough,” he said, examining them closely.
+“Granulation is going on nicely; but I warn you you will be disfigured
+for months, and it may be years before you get rid of the scars. I
+doubt, indeed, if you will ever get rid of them altogether. Well, well,
+what shall we talk about?”
+
+“I will take pity on you, Doctor. I will walk on ahead with Rabda and
+her father, and Mr. Bathurst can then tell you his story.”
+
+“That will be the best plan, my dear. Now then, Bathurst, fire away,” he
+said, when the others had gone on thirty or forty yards ahead.
+
+“Well, Doctor, you remember that you were forward talking to the young
+Zemindar, and I was sitting aft by the side of Miss Hannay, when they
+opened fire?”
+
+“I should think I do remember it,” the Doctor said, “and I am not likely
+to forget it if I live to be a hundred. Well, what about that?”
+
+“I jumped overboard,” Bathurst said, laying his hand impressively
+upon the Doctor’s shoulder. “I gave a cry, I know I did, and I jumped
+overboard.”
+
+The Doctor looked at him in astonishment.
+
+“Well, so did I, like a shot. But what do you say it in that tone for?
+Of course you jumped overboard. If you hadn’t you would not be here
+now.”
+
+“You don’t understand me, Doctor,” Bathurst said gloomily. “I was
+sitting there next to Isobel Hannay--the woman I loved. We were talking
+in low tones, and I don’t know why, but at that moment the mad thought
+was coming into my mind that, after all, she cared for me, that in spite
+of the disgrace I had brought upon myself, in spite of being a coward,
+she might still be mine; and as I was thinking this there came the
+crash of a cannon. Can it be imagined possible that I jumped up like
+a frightened hare, and without a thought of her, without a thought of
+anything in my mad terror, jumped overboard and left her behind to her
+fate? If it had not been that as soon as I recovered my senses--I was
+hit on the head just as I landed, and knew nothing of what happened
+until I found myself in the bushes with young Wilson by my side--the
+thought occurred to me that I would rescue her or die in the attempt, I
+would have blown out my brains.”
+
+“But, bless my heart, Bathurst,” the Doctor said earnestly, “what else
+could you have done? Why, I jumped overboard without stopping to think,
+and so did everyone else who had power to do so, no doubt. What good
+could you have done if you had stayed? What good would it have done to
+the girl if you had been killed? Why, if you had been killed, she would
+now be lying mangled and dead with the others in that ghastly prison.
+You take too morbid a view of this matter altogether.”
+
+“There was no reason why you should not have jumped overboard, Doctor,
+nor the others. Don’t you see I was with the woman I loved? I might have
+seized her in my arms and jumped overboard with her, and swam ashore
+with her, or I might have stayed and died with her. I thought of my own
+wretched life, and I deserted her.”
+
+“My dear Bathurst, you did not think of your life. I don’t think any
+of us stopped to think of anything; but, constituted as you are, the
+impulse must have been overpowering. It is nonsense your taking this
+matter to heart. Why, man, if you had stopped, you would have been
+murdered when the boat touched the shore, and do you think it would have
+made her happier to have seen you killed before her eyes? If you had
+swam ashore with her, the chances are she would have been killed by that
+volley of grape, for I saw eight or ten bodies lying on the sands, and
+you yourself were, you say, hit. You acted upon impulse, I grant, but
+it was upon a wise impulse. You did the very best thing that could have
+been done, and your doing so made it possible that Isobel Hannay should
+be rescued from what would otherwise have been certain death.”
+
+“It has turned out so, Doctor,” Bathurst said gloomily, “and I thank God
+that she is saved. But that does not alter the fact that I, an English
+gentleman by birth, thought only of myself, and left the woman I loved,
+who was sitting by my side, to perish. But do not let us talk any more
+about it. It is done and over. There is an end of it. Now I will tell
+you the story.”
+
+The Doctor listened silently until he heard of Isobel’s being taken to
+Bithoor. “The atrocious villain!” he exclaimed. “I have been lamenting
+the last month that I never poisoned the fellow, and now--but go on, go
+on. How on earth did you get her away?”
+
+Bathurst told the whole story, interrupted by many exclamations of
+approval by the Doctor; especially when he learned why Isobel disfigured
+herself.
+
+“Well done!” he exclaimed; “I always knew that she was a plucky girl,
+and it needed courage, I can tell you, to burn herself as she has
+done, to say nothing of risking spoiling her beauty for life. No slight
+sacrifice for a woman.”
+
+Bathurst passed lightly over his fight in the courtyard, but the Doctor
+questioned him as to the exact facts.
+
+“Not so bad for a coward, Bathurst,” he said dryly.
+
+“There was no noise,” Bathurst said; “if they had had pistols, and had
+used them, it might have been different. Heaven knows, but I don’t think
+that then, with her life at stake, I should have flinched; I had made
+up my mind they would have pistols, but I hope--I think that my nerves
+would not have given way then.”
+
+“I am sure they wouldn’t, Bathurst. Well, go on with your story.”
+
+“Well, how did you feel then?” he asked, when Bathurst described how the
+guard rushed in through the gate firing, “for it is the noise, and not
+the danger, that upsets you?”
+
+“I did not even think of it,” Bathurst said, in some surprise. “Now you
+mention it, I am astonished that I was not for a minute paralyzed, as
+I always am, but I did not feel anything of the sort; they rushed in
+firing as I told you, and directly they had gone I took her hand and we
+ran out together.”
+
+“I think it quite possible, Bathurst, that your nervousness may have
+gone forever. Now that once you have heard guns fired close to you
+without your nerves giving way as usual, it is quite possible that
+you might do so again. I don’t say that you would, but it is possible,
+indeed it seems to me to be probable. It may be that the sudden shock
+when you jumped into the water, acting upon your nerves when in a state
+of extreme tension, may have set them right, and that bullet graze
+along the top of the skull may have aided the effect of the shock. Men
+frequently lose their nerve after a heavy fall from a horse, or a sudden
+attack by a tiger, or any other unexpected shock. It may be that with
+you it has had the reverse consequence.”
+
+“I hope to God that it may be so, Doctor,” Bathurst said, with deep
+earnestness. “It is certainly extraordinary I should not have felt
+it when they fired within a few feet of my head. If we get down to
+Allahabad I will try. I will place myself near a gun when it is going to
+be fired; and if I stand that I will come up again and join this column
+as a volunteer, and take part in the work of vengeance. If I can but
+once bear my part as a man, they are welcome to kill me in the next
+engagement.”
+
+“Pooh! pooh! man. You are not born to be killed in battle. After making
+yourself a target on the roof at Deennugghur, and jumping down in the
+middle of the Sepoys in the breach, and getting through that attack in
+the boats, I don’t think you are fated to meet your end with a bullet.
+Well, now let us walk on, and join the others. Isobel must be wondering
+how much longer we are going to talk together. She cannot exchange a
+word with the natives; it must be dull work for her. She is a great
+deal thinner than she was before these troubles came on. You see how
+differently she walks. She has quite lost that elastic step of hers, but
+I dare say that is a good deal due to her walking with bare feet instead
+of in English boots--boots have a good deal to do with a walk. Look at
+the difference between the walk of a gentleman who has always worn well
+fitting boots and that of a countryman who has gone about in thick iron
+shod boots all his life. Breeding goes for something, no doubt, and
+alters a man’s walk just as it alters a horse’s gait.”
+
+Bathurst could not help laughing at the Doctor dropping into his usual
+style of discussing things.
+
+“Are your feet feeling tender, Isobel?” the latter asked cheerfully, as
+he overtook those in front.
+
+“No, Doctor,” she said, with a smile; “I don’t know that I was ever
+thankful for dust before, but I am now; it is so soft that it is like
+walking on a carpet, but, of course, it feels very strange.”
+
+“You have only to fancy, my dear, that you are by the seaside, walking
+down from your bathing machine across the sands; once get that in your
+mind and you will get perfectly comfortable.”
+
+“It requires too great a stretch of the imagination, Doctor, to think
+for a moment, in this sweltering heat, that I am enjoying a sea breeze
+on our English coast. It is silly, of course, to give it even a thought,
+when one is accustomed to see almost every woman without shoes. I think
+I should mind it more than I do if my feet were not stained. I don’t
+know why, but I should. But please don’t talk about it. I try to forget
+it, and to fancy that I am really a native.”
+
+They met but few people on the road. Those they did meet passed them
+with the usual salutation. There was nothing strange in a party of
+peasants passing along the road. They might have been at work at
+Cawnpore, and be now returning to their native village to get away from
+the troubles there. After it became dark they went into a clump of trees
+half a mile distant from a village they could see along the road.
+
+“I will go in,” Rujub said, “and bring some grain, and hear what the
+news is.”
+
+He returned in an hour. “The English have taken Dong,” he said; “the
+news came in two hours ago. There has been some hard fighting; the
+Sepoys resisted stoutly at the village, even advancing beyond the
+inclosures to meet the British. They were driven back by the artillery
+and rifle fire, but held the village for some time before they were
+turned out. There was a stand made at the Pandoo Bridge, but it was a
+short one. The force massed there fell back at once when the British
+infantry came near enough to rush forward at the charge, and in their
+hurry they failed to blow up the bridge.”
+
+A consultation was held as to whether they should try to join the
+British, but it was decided that as the road down to Allahabad would be
+rendered safe by their advance, it would be better to keep straight on.
+
+The next day they proceeded on their journey, walking in the early
+morning, halting as soon as the sun had gained much power, and going on
+again in the cool of the evening. After three days’ walking they reached
+the fort of Allahabad. It was crowded with ladies who had come in from
+the country round. Most of the men were doing duty with the garrison,
+but some thirty had gone up with Havelock’s column as volunteer cavalry,
+his force being entirely deficient in that arm.
+
+As soon as the Doctor explained who they were, they were received with
+the greatest kindness, and Isobel was at once carried off by the ladies,
+while Bathurst and the Doctor were surrounded by an eager group anxious
+to hear the state of affairs at Cawnpore, and how they had escaped. The
+news of the fighting at Dong was already known; for on the evening of
+the day of the fight Havelock had sent down a mounted messenger to say
+the resistance was proving so severe that he begged some more troops
+might be sent up. As all was quiet now at Allahabad, where there had at
+first been some fierce fighting, General Neil, who was in command there,
+had placed two hundred and thirty men of the 84th Regiment in bullock
+vans, and had himself gone on with them.
+
+The Doctor had decided to keep the news of the massacre to himself.
+
+“They will know it before many hours are over, Bathurst,” he said; “and
+were I to tell them, half of them wouldn’t believe me, and the other
+half would pester my life out with questions. There is never any
+occasion to hurry in telling bad news.”
+
+The first inquiry of Bathurst and his friends had been for Wilson, and
+they found to their great pleasure that he had arrived in safety, and
+had gone up with the little body of cavalry. Captain Forster, whom they
+next asked for, had not reached Allahabad, and no news had been heard of
+him.
+
+“What are you going to do, Rujub?” Bathurst asked the native next
+morning.
+
+“I shall go to Patna,” he said. “I have friends there, and I shall
+remain in the city until these troubles are over. I believe now that you
+were right, sahib, although I did not think so when you spoke, and that
+the British Raj will be restored. I thought, as did the Sepoys, that
+they were a match for the British troops. I see now that I was wrong.
+But there is a tremendous task before them. There is all Oude and the
+Northwest to conquer, and fully two hundred thousand men in arms against
+them, but I believe that they will do it. They are a great people, and
+now I do not wish it otherwise. This afternoon I shall start.”
+
+The Doctor, who had found many acquaintances in Allahabad, had no
+difficulty in obtaining money from the garrison treasury, and Bathurst
+and Isobel purchased the two handsomest bracelets they could obtain from
+the ladies in the fort as a souvenir for Rabda, and gave them to her
+with the heartiest expressions of their deep gratitude to her and her
+father.
+
+“I shall think of you always, Rabda,” Isobel said, “and shall be
+grateful to the end of my life for the kindness that you have done us.
+Your father has given us your address at Patna, and I shall write to you
+often.”
+
+“I shall never forget you, lady; and even the black water will not quite
+separate us. As I knew how you were in prison, so I shall know how you
+are in your home in England. What we have done is little. Did not the
+sahib risk his life for me? My father and I will never forget what we
+owe him. I am glad to know that you will make him happy.”
+
+This was said in the room that had been allotted to Isobel, an ayah of
+one of the ladies in the fort acting as interpreter. The girl had woke
+up in the morning flushed and feverish, and the Doctor, when sent for,
+told her she must keep absolutely quiet.
+
+“I am afraid I am going to have her on my hands for a bit,” he said to
+Bathurst. “She has borne the strain well, but she looks to me as if she
+was going to have a smart attack of fever. It is well that we got her
+here before it showed itself. You need not look scared; it is just the
+reaction. If it had been going to be brain fever or anything of that
+sort, I should have expected her to break down directly you got her out.
+No, I don’t anticipate anything serious, and I am sure I hope that it
+won’t be so. I have put my name down to go up with the next batch of
+volunteers. Doctors will be wanted at the front, and I hope to have a
+chance of wiping out my score with some of those scoundrels. However,
+though I think she is going to be laid up, I don’t fancy it will last
+many days.”
+
+That afternoon a messenger from Havelock brought down the terrible news
+that they had fought their way to Cawnpore, only to find that the whole
+of the ladies and children in the Subada Ke Kothee had been massacred,
+and their bodies thrown down a well. The grief and indignation caused by
+the news were terrible; scarce one but had friends among the prisoners.
+Women wept; men walked up and down, wild with fury at being unable to do
+aught at present to avenge the massacre.
+
+“What are you going to do, Bathurst?” the Doctor asked that evening. “I
+suppose you have some sort of plan?”
+
+“I do not know yet. In the first place, I want to try whether what you
+said the other day is correct, and if I can stand the noise of firing
+without flinching.”
+
+“We can’t try here in the fort,” the Doctor said, full of interest
+in the experiment; “a musket shot would throw the whole garrison into
+confusion, and at present no one can go far from the gate; however,
+there may be a row before long, and then you will have an opportunity
+of trying. If there is not, we will go out together half a mile or so as
+soon as some more troops get up. You said, when we were talking about it
+at Deennugghur, you should resign your appointment and go home, but if
+you find your nerves are all right you may change your mind about that.
+How about the young lady in there?”
+
+“Well, Doctor, I should say that you, as her father’s friend, are the
+person to make arrangements for her. Just at present travel is not very
+safe, but I suppose that directly things quiet down a little many of the
+ladies will be going down to the coast, and no doubt some of them would
+take charge of Miss Hannay back to England.”
+
+“And you mean to have nothing to say in the matter?”
+
+“Nothing at all,” he said firmly. “I have already told you my views on
+the subject.”
+
+“Well, then,” the Doctor said hotly, “I regard you as an ass.” And
+without another word he walked off in great anger.
+
+For the next four or five days Isobel was in a high state of fever; it
+passed off as the Doctor had predicted it would do, but left her very
+weak and languid. Another week and she was about again.
+
+“What is Mr. Bathurst going to do?” she asked the Doctor the first day
+she was up on a couch.
+
+“I don’t know what he is going to do, my dear,” he said irritably; “my
+opinion of Bathurst is that he is a fool.”
+
+“Oh, Doctor, how can you say so!” she exclaimed in astonishment; “why,
+what has he done?”
+
+“It isn’t what he has done, but what he won’t do, my dear. Here he is in
+love with a young woman in every way suitable, and who is ready to say
+yes whenever he asks her, and he won’t ask, and is not going to ask,
+because of a ridiculous crotchet he has got in his head.”
+
+Isobel flushed and then grew pale.
+
+“What is the crotchet?” she asked, in a low tone, after being silent for
+some time.
+
+“What do you think, my dear? He is more disgusted with himself than
+ever.”
+
+“Not about that nervousness, surely,” Isobel said, “after all he has
+done and the way he has risked his life? Surely that cannot be troubling
+him?”
+
+“It is, my dear; not so much on the general as on a particular ground.
+He insists that by jumping out of the boat when that fire began, he has
+done for himself altogether.”
+
+“But what could he have done, Doctor?”
+
+“That’s what I ask him, my dear. He insists that he ought to either have
+seized you and jumped overboard with you, in which case you would both
+probably have been killed, as I pointed out to him, or else stayed
+quietly with you by your side, in which case, as I also pointed out
+to him, you would have had the satisfaction of seeing him murdered. He
+could not deny that this would have been so, but that in no way alters
+his opinion of his own conduct. I also ventured to point out to him that
+if he had been killed, you would at this moment be either in the power
+of that villainous Nana, or be with hundreds of others in that ghastly
+well at Cawnpore. I also observed to him that I, who do not regard
+myself as a coward, also jumped overboard from your boat, and that
+Wilson, who is certainly a plucky young fellow, and a number of others,
+jumped over from the other boat; but I might as well have talked to a
+post.”
+
+Isobel sat for some time silent, her fingers playing nervously with each
+other.
+
+“Of course it seems foolish of him to think of it so strongly, but I
+don’t think it is unnatural he should feel as he does.”
+
+“May I ask why?” the Doctor said sarcastically.
+
+“I mean, Doctor, it would be foolish of other people, but I don’t think
+it is foolish of him. Of course he could have done no good staying in
+the boat--he would have simply thrown away his life; and yet I think,
+I feel sure, that there are many men who would have thrown away their
+lives in such a case. Even at that moment of terror I felt a pang, when,
+without a word, he sprang overboard. I thought of it many times that
+long night, in spite of my grief for my uncle and the others, and my
+horror of being a prisoner in the hands of the Sepoys. I did not blame
+him, because I knew how he must have felt, and that it was done in a
+moment of panic. I was not so sorry for myself as for him, for I knew
+that if he escaped, the thought of that moment would be terrible for
+him. I need not say that in my mind the feeling that he should not
+have left me so has been wiped out a thousand times by what he did
+afterwards, by the risk he ran for me, and the infinite service he
+rendered me by saving me from a fate worse than death. But I can enter
+into his feelings. Most men would have jumped over just as he did, and
+would never have blamed themselves even if they had at once started away
+down the country to save their own lives, much less if they had stopped
+to save mine as he has done.
+
+“But who can wonder that he is more sensitive than others? Did he not
+hear from you that I said that a coward was contemptible? Did not all
+the men except you and my uncle turn their backs upon him and treat him
+with contempt, in spite of his effort to meet his death by standing up
+on the roof? Think how awfully he must have suffered, and then, when it
+seemed that his intervention, which saved our lives, had to some extent
+won him back the esteem of the men around him, that he should so fail
+again, as he considers, and that with me beside him. No wonder that he
+takes the view he does, and that he refuses to consider that even the
+devotion and courage he afterwards showed can redeem what he considers
+is a disgrace. You always said that he was brave, Doctor, and I believe
+now there is no braver man living; but that makes it so much the worse
+for him. A coward would be more than satisfied with himself for what he
+did afterwards, and would regard it as having completely wiped out any
+failing, while he magnifies the failing, such as it was, and places but
+small weight on what he afterwards did. I like him all the better for
+it. I know the fault, if fault it was, and I thought it so at the time,
+was one for which he was not responsible, and yet I like him all the
+better that he feels it so deeply.”
+
+“Well, my dear, you had better tell him so,” the Doctor said dryly. “I
+really agree with what you say, and you make an excellent advocate. I
+cannot do better than leave the matter in your hands. You know, child,”
+ he said, changing his tone, “I have from the first wished for Bathurst
+and you to come together, and if you don’t do so I shall say you are
+the most wrong headed young people I ever met. He loves you, and I don’t
+think there is any question about your feelings, and you ought to make
+matters right somehow. Unfortunately, he is a singularly pig headed man
+when he gets an idea in his mind. However, I hope that it will come all
+right. By the way, he asked were you well enough to see him today?”
+
+“I would rather not see him till tomorrow,” the girl said.
+
+“And I think too that you had better not see him until tomorrow, Isobel.
+Your cheeks are flushed now, and your hands are trembling, and I do not
+want you laid up again, so I order you to keep yourself perfectly quiet
+for the rest of the day.”
+
+But it was not till two days later that Bathurst came up to see her.
+
+The spies brought in, late that evening, the news that a small party of
+the Sepoy cavalry, with two guns, were at a village three miles on the
+other side of the town, and were in communication with the disaffected.
+It was decided at once by the officer who had succeeded General Neil
+in the command of the fort that a small party of fifty infantry,
+accompanied by ten or twelve mounted volunteers, should go out and
+attack them. Bathurst sent in his name to form one of the party as soon
+as he learned the news, borrowing the horse of an officer who was laid
+up ill.
+
+The expedition started two hours before daybreak, and, making a long
+detour, fell upon the Sepoys at seven o’clock. The latter, who had
+received news half an hour before of their approach, made a stand,
+relying on their cannon. The infantry, however, moved forward in
+skirmishing order, their fire quickly silenced the guns, and they then
+rushed forward while the little troop of volunteers charged.
+
+The fight lasted but a few minutes, at the end of which time the enemy
+galloped off in all directions, leaving their guns in the hands of the
+victors. Four of the infantry had been killed by the explosion of a well
+aimed shell, and five of the volunteers were wounded in the hand to hand
+fight with the sowars. The Sepoys’ guns and artillery horses had been
+captured.
+
+The party at once set out on their return. On their way they had some
+skirmishing with the rabble of the town, who had heard the firing, but
+they were beaten off without much difficulty, and the victors re-entered
+the fort in triumph. The Doctor was at the gate as they came in.
+Bathurst sprang from his horse and held out his hand. His radiant face
+told its own story.
+
+“Thank God, Doctor, it has passed. I don’t think my pulse went a beat
+faster when the guns opened on us, and the crackle of our own musketry
+had no more effect. I think it has gone forever.”
+
+“I am glad indeed, Bathurst,” the Doctor said, warmly grasping his hand.
+“I hoped that it might be so.”
+
+“No words can express how grateful I feel,” Bathurst said. “The cloud
+that shadowed my life seems lifted, and henceforth I shall be able to
+look a man in the face.”
+
+“You are wounded, I see,” the Doctor said.
+
+“Yes, I had a pistol ball through my left arm. I fancy the bone is
+broken, but that is of no consequence.”
+
+“A broken arm is no trifle,” the Doctor said, “especially in a climate
+like this. Come into the hospital at once and let me see to it.”
+
+One of the bones of the forearm was indeed broken, and the Doctor,
+having applied splints and bandages, peremptorily ordered him to lie
+down. Bathurst protested that he was perfectly able to get up with his
+arm in a sling.
+
+“I know you are able,” the Doctor said testily; “but if you were to go
+about in this oven, we should very likely have you in a high fever by
+tomorrow morning. Keep yourself perfectly quiet for today; by tomorrow,
+if you have no signs of fever, and the wound is doing well, we will see
+about it.”
+
+Upon leaving him Dr. Wade went out and heard the details of the fight.
+
+“Your friend Bathurst particularly distinguished himself,” the officer
+who commanded the volunteers said. “He cut down the ressaldar who
+commanded the Sepoys, and was in the thick of it. I saw him run one
+sowar through and shoot another. I am not surprised at his fighting
+so well after what you have gone through in Deennugghur and in that
+Cawnpore business.”
+
+The Doctor then went up to see Isobel. She looked flushed and excited.
+
+“Is it true, Doctor, that Mr. Bathurst went out with the volunteers, and
+that he is wounded?”
+
+“Both items are true, my dear. Fortunately the wound is not serious. A
+ball has broken the small bone of the left forearm, but I don’t think it
+will lay him up for long; in fact, he objects strongly to go to bed.”
+
+“But how did he--how is it he went out to fight, Doctor? I could hardly
+believe it when I was told, though of course I did not say so.”
+
+“My dear, it was an experiment. He told me that he did not feel at all
+nervous when the Sepoys rushed in at the gate firing when he was walking
+off with you, and it struck me that possibly the sudden shock and the
+jump into the water when they attacked the boats, and that rap on the
+head with a musket ball, might have affected his nervous system, and
+that he was altogether cured, so he was determined on the first occasion
+to try.”
+
+“And did it, Doctor?” Isobel asked eagerly. “I don’t care, you know, one
+bit whether he is nervous when there is a noise or not, but for his sake
+I should be glad to know that he has got over it; it has made him so
+unhappy.”
+
+“He has got over it, my dear; he went through the fight without feeling
+the least nervous, and distinguished himself very much in the charge, as
+the officer who commanded his troop has just told me.”
+
+“Oh, I am glad--I am thankful, Doctor; no words can say how pleased I
+am; I know that it would have made his whole life unhappy, and I should
+have always had the thought that he remembered those hateful words of
+mine.”
+
+“I am as glad as you are, Isobel, though I fancy it will change our
+plans.”
+
+“How change our plans, Doctor? I did not know that I had any plans.”
+
+“I think you had, child, though you might not acknowledge them even
+to yourself. My plan was that you should somehow convince him that, in
+spite of what you said, and in spite of his leaving you in that boat,
+you were quite content to take him for better or for worse.”
+
+“How could I tell him that?” the girl said, coloring.
+
+“Well, I think you would have had to do so somehow, my dear, but that is
+not the question now. My plan was that when you had succeeded in doing
+this you should marry him and go home with him.”
+
+“But why, Doctor,” she asked, coloring even more hotly than before, “is
+the plan changed?”
+
+“Because, my dear, I don’t think Bathurst will go home with you.”
+
+“Why not, Doctor?” she asked, in surprise.
+
+“Because, my dear, he will want, in the first place, to rehabilitate
+himself.”
+
+“But no one knows, Doctor, about the siege and what happened there,
+except you and me and Mr. Wilson; all the rest have gone.”
+
+“That is true, my dear, but he will want to rehabilitate himself in his
+own eyes; and besides, that former affair which first set you against
+him, might crop up at any time. Other civilians, many of them, have
+volunteered in the service, and no man of courage would like to go away
+as long as things are in their present state. You will see Bathurst will
+stay.”
+
+Isobel was silent.
+
+“I think he will be right,” she said at last gravely; “if he wishes to
+do so, I should not try to dissuade him; it would be very hard to know
+that he is in danger, but no harder for me than for others.”
+
+“That is right, my dear,” the Doctor said affectionately; “I should not
+wish my little girl--and now the Major has gone I feel that you are my
+little girl--to think otherwise. I think,” he went on, smiling, “that
+the first part of that plan we spoke of will not be as difficult as
+I fancied it would be; the sting has gone, and he will get rid of his
+morbid fancies.”
+
+“When shall I be able to see him?”
+
+“Well, if I had any authority over him you would not see him for a week;
+as I have not, I think it likely enough that you will see him tomorrow.”
+
+“I would rather wait if it would do him any harm, Doctor.”
+
+“I don’t think it will do him any harm. Beyond the fact that he will
+have to carry his arm in a sling for the next fortnight, I don’t think
+he will have any trouble with it.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+The next morning Bathurst found Isobel Hannay sitting in a shady court
+that had been converted into a sort of general room for the ladies in
+the fort.
+
+“How are you, Miss Hannay? I am glad to see you down.”
+
+“I might repeat your words, Mr. Bathurst, for you see we have changed
+places. You are the invalid, and not I.”
+
+“There is very little of the invalid about me,” he said. “I am glad to
+see that your face is much better than it was.”
+
+“Yes, it is healing fast. I am a dreadful figure still; and the Doctor
+says that there will be red scars for months, and that probably my face
+will be always marked.”
+
+“The Doctor is a croaker, Miss Hannay; there is no occasion to trust
+him too implicitly. I predict that there will not be any serious scars
+left.”
+
+He took a seat beside her. There were two or three others in the court,
+but these were upon the other side, quite out of hearing.
+
+“I congratulate you, Mr. Bathurst,” she said quietly, “on yesterday. The
+Doctor has, of course, told me all about it. It can make no difference
+to us who knew you, but I am heartily glad for your sake. I can
+understand how great a difference it must make to you.”
+
+“It has made all the difference in the world,” he replied. “No one can
+tell the load it has lifted from my mind. I only wish it had taken place
+earlier.”
+
+“I know what you mean, Mr. Bathurst; the Doctor has told me about that
+too. You may wish that you had remained in the boat, but it was well for
+me that you did not. You would have lost your life without benefiting
+me. I should be now in the well of Cawnpore, or worse, at Bithoor.”
+
+“That may be,” he said gravely, “but it does not alter the fact.”
+
+“I have no reason to know why you consider you should have stopped in
+the boat, Mr. Bathurst,” she went on quietly, but with a slight flush
+on her cheek. “I can perhaps guess by what you afterwards did for me, by
+the risks you ran to save me; but I cannot go by guesses, I think I have
+a right to know.”
+
+“You are making me say what I did not mean to say,” he exclaimed
+passionately, “at least not now; but you do more than guess, you
+know--you know that I love you.”
+
+“And what do you know?” she asked softly.
+
+“I know that you ought not to love me.” he said. “No woman should love a
+coward.”
+
+“I quite agree with you, but then I know that you are not a coward.”
+
+“Not when I jumped over and left you alone? It was the act of a cur.”
+
+“It was an act for which you were not really responsible. Had you been
+able to think, you would not have done so. I do not take the view the
+Doctor does, and I agree with you that a man loving a woman should first
+of all think of her and of her safety. So you thought when you could
+think, but you were no more responsible for your action than a madman
+for a murder committed when in a state of frenzy. It was an impulse
+you could not control. Had you, after the impulse had passed, come down
+here, believing, as you might well have believed, that it was absolutely
+impossible to rescue me from my fate, it would have been different. But
+the moment you came to yourself you deliberately took every risk
+and showed how brave you were when master of yourself. I am speaking
+plainly, perhaps more plainly than I ought to. But I should despise
+myself had I not the courage to speak out now when so much is at stake,
+and after all you have done for me.
+
+“You love me?”
+
+“You know that I love you.”
+
+“And I love you,” the girl said; “more than that, I honor and esteem
+you. I am proud of your love. I am jealous for your honor as for my own,
+and I hold that honor to be spotless. Even now, even with my happiness
+at stake, I could not speak so plainly had I not spoken so cruelly and
+wrongly before. I did not know you then as I know you now, but having
+said what I thought then, I am bound to say what I think now, if only as
+a penance. Did I hesitate to do so, I should be less grateful than that
+poor Indian girl who was ready as she said, to give her life for the
+life you had saved.”
+
+“Had you spoken so bravely but two days since,” Bathurst said, taking
+her hand, “I would have said. ‘I love you too well, Isobel, to link
+your fate to that of a disgraced man.’ but now I have it in my power to
+retrieve myself, to wipe out the unhappy memory of my first failure,
+and still more, to restore the self respect which I have lost during
+the last month. But to do so I must stay here: I must bear part in the
+terrible struggle there will be before this mutiny is put down, India
+conquered, and Cawnpore revenged.”
+
+“I will not try to prevent you,” Isobel said. “I feel it would be wrong
+to do so. I could not honor you as I do, if for my sake you turned away
+now. Even though I knew I should never see you again, I would that you
+had died so, than lived with even the shadow of dishonor on your name.
+I shall suffer, but there are hundreds of other women whose husbands,
+lovers, or sons are in the fray, and I shall not flinch more than they
+do from giving my dearest to the work of avenging our murdered friends
+and winning back India.”
+
+So quietly had they been talking that no thought of how momentous
+their conversation had been had entered the minds of the ladies sitting
+working but a few paces away. One, indeed, had remarked to another, “I
+thought when Dr. Wade was telling us how Mr. Bathurst had rescued that
+unfortunate girl with the disfigured face at Cawnpore, that there was
+a romance in the case, but I don’t see any signs of it. They are goods
+friends, of course, but there is nothing lover-like in their way of
+talking.”
+
+So thought Dr. Wade when he came in and saw them sitting there, and gave
+vent to his feeling in a grunt of dissatisfaction.
+
+“It is like driving two pigs to market,” he muttered; “they won’t go the
+way I want them to, out of pure contrariness.”
+
+“It is all settled, Doctor,” Bathurst said, rising. “Come, shake hands;
+it is to you I owe my happiness chiefly.”
+
+“Isobel, my dear, give me a kiss,” the Doctor exclaimed. “I am glad,
+my dear, I am glad with all my heart. And what have you settled besides
+that?”
+
+“We have settled that I am to go home as soon as I can go down country,
+and he is going up with you and the others to Cawnpore.”
+
+“That is right,” the Doctor said heartily. “I told you that was what
+he would decide upon; it is right that he should do so. No man ought
+to turn his face to the coast till Lucknow is relieved and Delhi is
+captured. I thank God it has all come right at last. I began to be
+afraid that Bathurst’s wrong headedness was going to mar both your
+lives.”
+
+The news had already come down that Havelock had found that it would be
+absolutely impossible with the small force at his command to fight his
+way into Lucknow through the multitude of foes that surrounded it, and
+that he must wait until reinforcements arrived. There was, therefore, no
+urgent hurry, and it was not until ten days later that a second troop
+of volunteer horse, composed of civilians unable to resume their duties,
+and officers whose regiments had mutinied, started for Cawnpore.
+
+Half an hour before they mounted, Isobel Hannay and Ralph Bathurst were
+married by the chaplain in the fort. This was at Bathurst’s earnest
+wish.
+
+“I may not return, Isobel,” he had urged: “it is of no use to blink the
+fact that we have desperate fighting before us, and I should go into
+battle with my mind much more easy in the knowledge that, come what
+might, you were provided for. The Doctor tells me that he considers you
+his adopted daughter, and that he has already drawn up a will leaving
+his savings to you; but I should like your future to come from me, dear,
+even if I am not to share it with you. As you know, I have a fine estate
+at home, and I should like to think of you as its mistress.”
+
+And Isobel of course had given way, though not without protest.
+
+“You don’t know what I may be like yet,” she said, half laughing, half
+in earnest. “I may carry these red blotches to my grave.”
+
+“They are honorable scars, dear, as honorable as any gained in battle. I
+hope, for your sake, that they will get better in time, but it makes
+no difference to me. I know what you were, and how you sacrificed your
+beauty. I suppose if I came back short of an arm or leg you would not
+make that an excuse for throwing me over?”
+
+“You ought to be ashamed of even thinking of such a thing, Ralph.”
+
+“Well, dear, I don’t know that I did think it, but I am only putting a
+parallel case to your own. No, you must consent: it is in all ways best.
+We will be married on the morning I start, so as just to give time for
+our wedding breakfast before I mount.”
+
+“It shall be as you wish,” she said softly. “You know the estate without
+you would be nothing to me, but I should like to bear your name, and
+should you never come back to me, Ralph, to mourn for you all my life
+as my husband. But I believe you will return to me. I think I am getting
+superstitious, and believe in all sorts of things since so many strange
+events have happened. Those pictures on the smoke that came true, Rujub
+sending you messages at Deennugghur, and Rabda making me hear her voice
+and giving me hope in prison. I do not feel so miserable at the thought
+of your going into danger as I should do, if I had not a sort of
+conviction that we shall meet again. People believe in presentiments of
+evil, why should they not believe in presentiments of good? At any rate,
+it is a comfort to me that I do feel so, and I mean to go on believing
+it.”
+
+“Do so, Isobel. Of course there will be danger, but the danger will
+be nothing to that we have passed through together. The Sepoys will
+no doubt fight hard, but already they must have begun to doubt; their
+confidence in victory must be shaken, and they begin to fear retribution
+for their crimes. The fighting will, I think, be less severe as the
+struggle goes on, and at any rate the danger to us, fighting as the
+assailants, is as nothing to that run when we were little groups
+surrounded by a country in arms.
+
+“The news that has come through from Lucknow is that, for some time at
+any rate, the garrison are confident they can hold out, while at
+Delhi we know that our position is becoming stronger every day; the
+reinforcements are beginning to arrive from England, and though the
+work may be slow at first, our army will grow, while their strength will
+diminish, until we sweep them before us. I need not stop until the
+end, only till the peril is over, till Lucknow is relieved, and Delhi
+captured.
+
+“As we agreed, I have already sent in my resignation in the service,
+and shall fight as a volunteer only. If we have to fight our way into
+Lucknow, cavalry will be useless, and I shall apply to be attached to
+one of the infantry regiments; having served before, there will be no
+difficulty about that. I think there are sure to be plenty of vacancies.
+Six months will assuredly see the backbone of the rebellion altogether
+broken. No doubt it will take much longer crushing it out altogether,
+for they will break up into scattered bodies, and it may be a long work
+before these are all hunted down; but when the strength of the rebellion
+is broken, I can leave with honor.”
+
+There were but few preparations to be made for the wedding. Great
+interest was felt in the fort in the event, for Isobel’s rescue from
+Bithoor and Cawnpore, when all others who had fallen into the power of
+the Nana had perished, had been the one bright spot in the gloom; and
+there would have been a general feeling of disappointment had not the
+romance had the usual termination.
+
+Isobel’s presents were numerous and of a most useful character, for they
+took the form of articles of clothing, and her trousseau was a varied
+and extensive one.
+
+The Doctor said to her the evening before the event, “You ought to have
+a certificate from the authorities, Isobel, saying how you came into
+possession of your wardrobe, otherwise when you get back to England you
+will very soon come to be looked upon as a most suspicious character.”
+
+“How do you mean, Doctor?”
+
+“Well, my dear, if the washerwoman to whom you send your assortment
+at the end of the voyage is an honest woman, she will probably give
+information to the police that you must be a receiver of stolen
+property, as your garments are all marked with different names.”
+
+“It will look suspicious, Doctor, but I must run the risk of that till
+I can remark them again. I can do a good deal that way before I sail. It
+is likely we shall be another fortnight at least before we can start
+for Calcutta. I don’t mean to take the old names out, but shall mark my
+initials over them and the word ‘from.’ Then they will always serve as
+mementoes of the kindness of everyone here.”
+
+Early on the morning of the wedding a native presented himself at the
+gate of the fort, and on being allowed to enter with a letter for Miss
+Hannay of which he was the bearer, handed her a parcel, which proved
+to contain a very handsome and valuable set of jewelry, with a slip of
+paper on which were the words, “From Rabda.”
+
+The Doctor was in high spirits at the breakfast to which everybody sat
+down directly after the wedding. In the first place, his greatest wish
+was gratified; and, in the second, he was about to start to take part in
+the work of retribution.
+
+“One would think you were just starting on a pleasure party, Doctor,”
+ Isobel said.
+
+“It is worth all the pleasure parties in the world, my dear. I have
+always been a hunter, and this time it is human ‘tigers’ I am going in
+pursuit of--besides which,” he said, in a quieter tone, “I hope I am
+going to cure as well as kill. I shall only be a soldier when I am not
+wanted as a doctor. A man who really loves his profession, as I do, is
+always glad to exercise it, and I fear I shall have ample opportunities
+that way; besides, dear there is nothing like being cheerful upon an
+occasion of this kind. The longer we laugh, the less time there is for
+tears.”
+
+And so the party did not break up until it was nearly time for the
+little troop to start. Then there was a brief passionate parting, and
+the volunteer horse rode away to Cawnpore. Almost the first person they
+met as they rode into the British lines was Wilson, who gave a shout of
+joy at seeing the Doctor and Bathurst.
+
+“My dear Bathurst!” he exclaimed. “Then you got safely down. Did you
+rescue Miss Hannay?”
+
+“I had that good fortune, Wilson.”
+
+“I am glad. I am glad,” the young fellow said, shaking his hand
+violently, while the tears stood in his eyes. “I know you were right
+in sending me away, but I have regretted it ever since. I know I should
+have been no good, but it seemed such a mean thing for me to go off by
+myself. Well, Doctor, and so you got off too,” he went on, turning from
+Bathurst and wringing the Doctor’s hand; “I never even hoped that you
+escaped. I made sure that it was only we two. I have had an awful time
+of it since we heard the news, on the way up, of the massacre of the
+women. I had great faith in Bathurst, and knew that if anything could be
+done he would do it, but when I saw the place they had been shut up in,
+it did not seem really possible that he could have got anyone out of
+such a hole. And where did you leave Miss Hannay?”
+
+“We have not left her at all,” the Doctor said gravely; “there is no
+longer a Miss Hannay. There, man, don’t look so shocked. She changed her
+name on the morning we came away.”
+
+“What!” Wilson exclaimed. “Is she Mrs. Bathurst? I am glad, Bathurst.
+Shake hands again; I felt sure that if you did rescue her that was what
+would come of it. I was almost certain by her way when I talked to
+her about you one day that she liked you. I was awfully spoony on her
+myself, you know, but I knew it was no use, and I would rather by a lot
+that she married you than anyone else I know. But come along into my
+tent; you know your troop and ours are going to be joined. We have
+lost pretty near half our fellows, either in the fights coming up or by
+sunstroke or fever since we came here. I got hold of some fizz in the
+bazaar yesterday, and I am sure you must be thirsty. This is a splendid
+business; I don’t know that I ever felt so glad of anything in my life,”
+ and he dragged them away to his tent.
+
+Bathurst found, to his disappointment, that intense as was the desire to
+push forward to Lucknow, the general opinion was that the General would
+not venture to risk his little force in an operation that, with the
+means at his disposal, seemed well nigh impossible. Cholera had made
+considerable ravages, and he had but fifteen hundred bayonets at his
+disposal. All that could be done pending the arrival of reinforcements
+was to prepare the way for an advance, and show so bold a front that the
+enemy would be forced to draw a large force from Lucknow to oppose his
+advance.
+
+A bridge of boats was thrown across the Ganges, and the force crossed
+the river and advanced to Onao, eight miles on the road to Lucknow. Here
+the enemy, strongly posted, barred the way; but they were attacked,
+and, after hard fighting, defeated, with a loss of three hundred men and
+fifteen guns.
+
+In this fight the volunteer horse, who had been formed into a single
+troop, did good service. One of their two officers was killed; and as
+the party last up from Allahabad were all full of Bathurst’s rescue
+of Miss Hannay from Cawnpore, and Wilson and the Doctor influenced the
+others, he was chosen to fill the vacancy.
+
+There were two other fierce fights out at Busserutgunge, and then
+Bathurst had the satisfaction of advancing with the column against
+Bithoor. Here again the enemy fought sturdily, but were defeated with
+great slaughter, and the Nana’s palace was destroyed.
+
+When, after the arrival of Outram with reinforcements, the column set
+out for Lucknow, the volunteers did not accompany them, as they would
+have been useless in street fighting, and were, therefore, detailed
+to form part of the little force left at Cawnpore to hold the city and
+check the rebels, parties of whom were swarming round it.
+
+The officer in command of the troop died of cholera a few days after
+Havelock’s column started up, and Bathurst succeeded him. The work was
+very arduous, the men being almost constantly in their saddles,
+and having frequent encounters with the enemy. They were again much
+disappointed at being left behind when Sir Colin Campbell advanced to
+the relief of Havelock and the garrison, but did more than their share
+of fighting in the desperate struggle when the mutineers of the Gwallior
+contingent attacked the force at Cawnpore during the absence of the
+relieving column. Here they were almost annihilated in a desperate
+charge which saved the 64th from being cut to pieces at the most
+critical moment of the fight.
+
+Wilson came out of the struggle with the loss of his left arm, and two
+or three serious wounds. He had been cut off, and surrounded, and was
+falling from his horse when Bathurst cut his way to his rescue, and,
+lifting him into his saddle before him, succeeded after desperate
+fighting in carrying him off, himself receiving several wounds, none of
+which, however, were severe. The action had been noticed, and Bathurst’s
+name was sent in for the Victoria Cross. As the troop had dwindled to a
+dozen sabers, he applied to Sir Colin Campbell, whose column had arrived
+in time to save the force at Cawnpore and to defeat the enemy, to be
+attached to a regiment as a volunteer. The General, however, at once
+offered him a post as an extra aide de camp to himself, as his perfect
+knowledge of the language would render him of great use; and he gladly
+accepted the offer.
+
+With the column returning from Lucknow was the Doctor.
+
+“By the way, Bathurst,” he said on the evening of his return, “I met an
+old acquaintance in Lucknow; you would never guess who it was--Forster.”
+
+“You don’t say so; Doctor.”
+
+“Yes; it seems he was hotly pursued, but managed to shake the sowars
+off. At that time the garrison was not so closely besieged as it
+afterwards was. He knew the country well, and made his way across
+it until within sight of Lucknow. At night he rode right through the
+rebels, swam the river, and gained the Residency. He distinguished
+himself greatly through the siege, but had been desperately wounded the
+day before we marched in. He was in a ward that was handed over to me
+directly I got there, and I at once saw that his case was a hopeless
+one. The poor fellow was heartily glad to see me. Of course he knew
+nothing of what had taken place at Deennugghur after he had left, and
+was very much cut up when he heard the fate of almost all the garrison.
+He listened quietly when I told how you had rescued Isobel and of your
+marriage. He was silent, and then said, ‘I am glad to hear it, Doctor.
+I can’t say how pleased I am she escaped. Bathurst has fairly won her.
+I never dreamt that she cared for him. Well, it seems he wasn’t a
+coward after all. And you say he has resigned and come up as a volunteer
+instead of going home with her? That is plucky, anyhow. Well, I am
+pleased. I should not have been so if I hadn’t been like this, Doctor,
+but now I am out of the running for good, it makes no odds to me either
+way. If ever you see him again, you tell him I said I was glad. I expect
+he will make her a deucedly better husband than I should have done. I
+never liked Bathurst, but I expect it was because he was a better fellow
+than most of us--that was at school, you know--and of course I did not
+take to him at Deennugghur. No one could have taken to a man there who
+could not stand fire. But you say he has got over that, so that is all
+right. Anyhow, I have no doubt he will make her happy. Tell her I am
+glad, Doctor. I thought at one time--but that is no odds now. I am glad
+you are out of it, too.’
+
+“And then he rambled on about shooting Sepoys, and did not say anything
+more coherently until late that night. I was sitting by him; he had been
+unconscious for some time, and he opened his eyes suddenly and said,
+‘Tell them both I am glad,’ and those were the last words he spoke.”
+
+“He was a brave soldier, a fine fellow in many ways,” Bathurst said; “if
+he had been brought up differently he would, with all his gifts, have
+been a grand fellow, but I fancy he never got any home training. Well,
+I am glad he didn’t die as we supposed, without a friend beside him, on
+his way to Lucknow, and that he fell after doing his duty to the women
+and children there.”
+
+Wilson refused to go home after the loss of his arm, and as soon as he
+recovered was appointed to one of the Sikh regiments, and took part in
+the final conquest of Lucknow two months after the fight at Cawnpore.
+A fortnight after the conclusion of that terrible struggle Sir Colin
+Campbell announced to Bathurst that amongst the dispatches that he
+had received from home that morning was a Gazette, in which his name
+appeared among those to whom the Victoria Cross had been granted.
+
+“I congratulate you heartily, Mr. Bathurst,” the old officer said: “I
+have had the pleasure of speaking in the highest terms of the bravery
+you displayed in carrying my message through heavy fire a score of times
+during the late operations.”
+
+Great as the honor of the Victoria Cross always is, to Bathurst it was
+much more than to other men. It was his rehabilitation. He need never
+fear now that his courage would be questioned, and the report that he
+had before left the army because he lacked courage would be forever
+silenced now that he could write V. C. after his name. The pleasure
+of Dr. Wade and Wilson was scarcely less than his own. The latter’s
+regiment had suffered very heavily in the struggle at Lucknow, and he
+came out of it a captain, having escaped without a wound.
+
+A week later Bathurst resigned his appointment. There was still much to
+be done, and months of marching and fighting before the rebellion was
+quite stamped out; but there had now arrived a force ample to overcome
+all opposition, and there was no longer a necessity for the service of
+civilians. As he had already left the service of the Company, he was his
+own master, and therefore started at once for Calcutta..
+
+“I shall not be long before I follow you,” the Doctor said, as they
+spent their last evening together. “I shall wait and see this out, and
+then retire. I should have liked to have gone home with you, but it is
+out of the question. Our hands are full, and likely to be so for some
+time, so I must stop.”
+
+Bathurst stopped for a day at Patna to see Rujub and his daughter. He
+was received as an expected guest, and after spending a few hours with
+them he continued his journey. At Calcutta he found a letter awaiting
+him from Isobel, saying that she had arrived safely in England, and
+should stay with her mother until his arrival, and there he found her.
+
+“I expected you today,” she said, after the first rapturous greeting
+was over. “Six weeks ago I woke in the middle of the night, and heard
+Rabda’s voice distinctly say: ‘He has been with us today: he is safe and
+well; he is on his way to you.’ As I knew how long you would take
+going down from Patna, I went the next day to the office and found what
+steamer you would catch, and when she would arrive. My mother and sister
+both regarded me as a little out of my mind when I said you would be
+back this week. They have not the slightest belief in what I told them
+about Rujub, and insist that it was all a sort of hallucination brought
+on by my sufferings. Perhaps they will believe now.”
+
+“Your face is wonderfully better,” he said presently. “The marks seem
+dying out, and you look almost your old self.”
+
+“Yes,” she said; “I have been to one of the great doctors, and he says
+he thinks the scars will quite disappear in time.”
+
+Isobel Bathurst has never again received any distinct message from
+Rabda, but from time to time she has the consciousness, when sitting
+quietly alone, that the girl is with her in thought. Every year letters
+and presents are exchanged, and to the end of their lives she and her
+husband will feel that their happiness is chiefly due to her and her
+father--Rujub, the Juggler.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUJUB, THE JUGGLER ***
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+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
+<head>
+    <meta charset="UTF-8">
+    <title>
+      Rujub, the Juggler | Project Gutenberg
+    </title>
+    <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover">
+    <style>
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+    .center {text-align: center;}
+
+.big {font-size: 1.3em;}
+.p2 {margin-top: 2em;}
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+  
+  <div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Rujub, the Juggler, by G. A. Henty</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Rujub, the Juggler</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: G. A. Henty</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: July 25, 2009 [EBook #7229]<br>
+Last Updated: March 11, 2018<br>
+[Most recently updated: August 20, 2023]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Martin Robb, and David Widger</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUJUB, THE JUGGLER ***</div>
+
+
+
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      RUJUB, THE JUGGLER
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br><br>
+    </p>
+    <p class="center p2 big">
+      By G. A. Henty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br> <br>
+    </p>
+    <hr>
+    <p>
+      <br> <br>
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc big">
+        <b>CONTENTS</b>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br> <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> PUBLISHERS' INTRODUCTION. </a> <br><br><br>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII. </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br> <br>
+    </p>
+    <hr>
+    <p>
+      <br> <br> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PUBLISHERS' INTRODUCTION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rujub, the Juggler,&rdquo; is mainly an historical tale for young and old,
+      dealing with the Sepoy Mutiny, in India, during the years 1857 to 1859.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This famous mutiny occurred while the reins of British rule in India were
+      in the hands of Lord Canning. Chupattees (cakes of flour and water) were
+      circulated among the natives, placards protesting against British rule
+      were posted at Delhi, and when the Enfield rifle with its greased
+      cartridges was introduced among the Sepoy soldiers serving the Queen it
+      was rumored that the cartridges were smeared with the forbidden pig's fat,
+      so that the power of the Sepoys might forever be destroyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fanatical to the last degree, the Sepoys were not long in bringing the
+      mutiny to a head. The first outbreak occurred at Meerut, where were
+      stationed about two thousand English soldiers and three thousand native
+      troops. The native troops refused to use the cartridges supplied to them
+      and eighty-two were placed under arrest. On the day following the native
+      troops rebelled in a body, broke open the guardhouse and released the
+      prisoners, and a severe battle followed, and Meerut was given over to the
+      flames. The mutineers then marched upon Delhi, thirty-two miles away, and
+      took possession. At Bithoor the Rajah had always professed a strong
+      friendship for the English, but he secretly plotted against them, and,
+      later on, General Wheeler was compelled to surrender to the Rajah at
+      Cawnpore, and did so with the understanding that the lives of all in the
+      place should be spared. Shortly after the surrender the English officers
+      and soldiers were shot down, and all of the women and children butchered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mutiny was now at its height, and for a while it was feared that
+      British rule in India must cease. The Europeans at Lucknow were besieged
+      for about three months and were on the point of giving up, when they were
+      relieved through the heroic march of General Havelock. Sir Colin Campbell
+      followed, and soon the city was once more in the complete possession of
+      the British. Oude was speedily reduced to submission, many of the rebel
+      leaders were either shot or hanged, and gradually the mutiny, which had
+      cost the lives of thousands, was brought to an end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tale, however, is not all of war. In its pages are given many true to
+      life pictures of life in India, in the barracks of the soldiers and
+      elsewhere. A most important part is played by Rujub, the juggler, who is a
+      warm friend to the hero of the narrative. Rujub is no common conjuror, but
+      one of the higher men of mystery, who perform partly as a religious duty
+      and who accept no pay for such performances. The acts of these persons are
+      but little understood, even at this late day, and it is possible that many
+      of their arts will sooner or later be utterly lost to the world at large.
+      That they can do some wonderful things in juggling, mind reading, and in
+      second sight, is testified to by thousands of people who have witnessed
+      their performances in India; how they do these things has never yet been
+      explained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Strange as it may seem, the hero of the tale is a natural born coward, who
+      cannot stand the noise of gunfire. He realizes his shortcomings, and they
+      are frequently brought home to him through the taunts of his fellow
+      soldiers. A doctor proves that the dread of noise is hereditary, but this
+      only adds to the young soldier's misery. To make himself brave he rushes
+      to the front in a most desperate fight, and engages in scout work which
+      means almost certain death. In the end he masters his fear, and gives a
+      practical lesson of what stern and unbending will power can accomplish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In many respects &ldquo;Rujub, the Juggler,&rdquo; will be found one of the strongest
+      of Mr. Henty's works, and this is saying much when one considers all of
+      the many stories this well known author has already penned for the
+      entertainment of young and old. As a picture of life in the English Army
+      in India it is unexcelled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It would be difficult to find a fairer scene. Throughout the gardens
+      lanterns of many shapes and devices threw their light down upon the paths,
+      which were marked out by lines of little lamps suspended on wires a foot
+      above the ground. In a treble row they encircled a large tank or pond and
+      studded a little island in its center. Along the terraces were festoons
+      and arches of innumerable lamps, while behind was the Palace or Castle,
+      for it was called either; the Oriental doors and windows and the tracery
+      of its walls lit up below by the soft light, while the outline of the
+      upper part could scarce be made out. Eastern as the scene was, the actors
+      were for the most part English. Although the crowd that promenaded the
+      terrace was composed principally of men, of whom the majority were in
+      uniform of one sort or another, the rest in evening dress, there were many
+      ladies among them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of one of the terraces a band of the 103d Bengal Infantry was
+      playing, and when they ceased a band of native musicians, at the opposite
+      end of the terrace, took up the strains. Within, the palace was
+      brilliantly lighted, and at the tables in one of the large apartments a
+      few couples were still seated at supper. Among his guests moved the Rajah,
+      chatting in fluent English, laughing with the men, paying compliments to
+      the ladies, a thoroughly good fellow all round, as his guests agreed. The
+      affair had been a great success. There had first been a banquet to the
+      officers and civilians at the neighboring station. When this was over, the
+      ladies began to arrive, and for their amusement there had been a native
+      nautch upon a grand scale, followed by a fine display of fireworks, and
+      then by supper, at which the Rajah had made a speech expressive of his
+      deep admiration and affection for the British. This he had followed up by
+      proposing the health of the ladies in flowery terms. Never was there a
+      better fellow than the Rajah. He had English tastes, and often dined at
+      one or other of the officers' messes. He was a good shot, and could fairly
+      hold his own at billiards. He had first rate English horses in his
+      stables, and his turnout was perfect in all respects. He kept a few horses
+      for the races, and was present at every ball and entertainment. At Bithoor
+      he kept almost open house. There was a billiard room and racquet courts,
+      and once or twice a week there were luncheon parties, at which from twelve
+      to twenty officers were generally present. In all India there was no Rajah
+      with more pronounced English tastes or greater affection for English
+      people. The one regret of his life, he often declared, was that his color
+      and his religion prevented his entertaining the hope of obtaining an
+      English wife. All this, as everyone said, was the more remarkable and
+      praiseworthy, inasmuch as he had good grounds of complaint against the
+      British Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the ladies he was an especial favorite; he was always ready to show
+      them courtesy. His carriages were at their service. He was ready to give
+      his aid and assistance to every gathering. His private band played
+      frequently on the promenade, and handsome presents of shawls and jewelry
+      were often made to those whom he held in highest favor. At present he was
+      talking to General Wheeler and some other officers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I warn you that I mean to win the cup at the races,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;I have
+      just bought the horse that swept the board on the Bombay side; I have set
+      my heart on winning the cup, and so secured this horse. I am ready to back
+      it if any of you gentlemen are disposed to wager against it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All in good time, Rajah,&rdquo; one of the officers laughed; &ldquo;we don't know
+      what will be entered against it yet, and we must wait to see what the
+      betting is, but I doubt whether we have anything that will beat the Bombay
+      crack on this side; I fancy you will have to lay odds on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall see,&rdquo; the Rajah said; &ldquo;I have always been unlucky, but I mean to
+      win this time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think you take your losses much to heart, Rajah,&rdquo; General Wheeler
+      said; &ldquo;yet there is no doubt that your bets are generally somewhat rash
+      ones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean to make a coup this time. That is your word for a big thing, I
+      think. The Government has treated me so badly I must try to take something
+      out of the pockets of its officers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do pretty well still,&rdquo; the General laughed; &ldquo;after this splendid
+      entertainment you have given us this evening you can hardly call yourself
+      a poor man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know I am rich. I have enough for my little pleasures&mdash;I do not
+      know that I could wish for more&mdash;still no one is ever quite content.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the party was breaking up, and for the next half hour the
+      Rajah was occupied in bidding goodby to his guests. When the last had gone
+      he turned and entered the palace, passed through the great halls, and,
+      pushing aside a curtain, entered a small room. The walls and the columns
+      were of white marble, inlaid with arabesque work of colored stones. Four
+      golden lamps hung from the ceiling, the floor was covered with costly
+      carpets, and at one end ran a raised platform a foot in height, piled with
+      soft cushions. He took a turn or two up and down the room, and then struck
+      a silver bell. An attendant entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Send Khoosheal and Imambux here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Two minutes later the men entered. Imambux commanded the Rajah's troops,
+      while Khoosheal was the master of his household.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All has gone off well,&rdquo; the Rajah said; &ldquo;I am pleased with you,
+      Khoosheal. One more at most, and we shall have done with them. Little do
+      they think what their good friend Nana Sahib is preparing for them. What a
+      poor spirited creature they think me to kiss the hand that robbed me, to
+      be friends with those who have deprived me of my rights! But the day of
+      reckoning is not far off, and then woe to them all! Have any of your
+      messengers returned, Imambux?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Several have come in this evening, my lord; would you see them now, or
+      wait till morning?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will see them now; I will get the memory of these chattering men and
+      these women with their bare shoulders out of my mind. Send the men in one
+      by one. I have no further occasion for you tonight; two are better than
+      three when men talk of matters upon which an empire depends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two officers bowed and retired, and shortly afterwards the attendant
+      drew back the curtain again, and a native, in the rags of a mendicant,
+      entered, and bowed till his forehead touched the carpet. Then he remained
+      kneeling, with his arms crossed over his chest, and his head inclined in
+      the attitude of the deepest humility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you been?&rdquo; the Rajah asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord's slave has been for three weeks at Meerut. I have obeyed orders.
+      I have distributed chupaties among the native regiments, with the words,
+      'Watch, the time is coming,' and have then gone before I could be
+      questioned. Then, in another disguise, I have gone through the bazaar, and
+      said in talk with many that the Sepoys were unclean and outcast, for that
+      they had bitten cartridges anointed with pig's fat, and that the
+      Government had purposely greased the cartridges with this fat in order
+      that the caste of all the Sepoys should be destroyed. When I had set men
+      talking about this I left; it will be sure to come to the Sepoys' ears.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rajah nodded. &ldquo;Come again tomorrow at noon; you will have your reward
+      then and further orders; but see that you keep silence; a single word, and
+      though you hid in the farthest corner of India you would not escape my
+      vengeance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Man after man entered. Some of them, like the first, were in mendicant's
+      attire, one or two were fakirs, one looked like a well to do merchant.
+      With the exception of the last, all had a similar tale to tell; they had
+      been visiting the various cantonments of the native army, everywhere
+      distributing chupaties and whispering tales of the intention of the
+      Government to destroy the caste of the Sepoys by greasing the cartridges
+      with pig's fat. The man dressed like a trader was the last to enter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How goes it, Mukdoomee?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is well, my lord; I have traversed all the districts where we dwelt of
+      old, before the Feringhee stamped us out and sent scores to death and
+      hundreds to prison. Most of the latter whom death has spared are free now,
+      and with many of them have I talked. They are most of them old, and few
+      would take the road again, but scarce one but has trained up his son or
+      grandson to the work; not to practice it,&mdash;the hand of the whites was
+      too heavy before, and the gains are not large enough to tempt men to run
+      the risk&mdash;but they teach them for the love of the art. To a worshiper
+      of the goddess there is a joy in a cleverly contrived plan and in casting
+      the roomal round the neck of the victim, that can never die. Often in my
+      young days, when perhaps twelve of us were on the road in a party, we made
+      less than we could have done by labor, but none minded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were sworn brothers; we were working for Kali, and so that we sent her
+      victims we cared little; and even after fifteen or twenty years spent in
+      the Feringhee's prisons, we love it still; none hate the white man as we
+      do; has he not destroyed our profession? We have two things to work for;
+      first, for vengeance; second, for the certainty that if the white man's
+      Raj were at an end, once again would the brotherhood follow their
+      profession, and reap booty for ourselves and victims for Kali; for,
+      assuredly, no native prince would dare to meddle with us. Therefore, upon
+      every man who was once a Thug, and upon his sons and grandsons, you may
+      depend. I do not say that they would be useful for fighting, for we have
+      never been fighters, but the stranglers will be of use. You can trust them
+      with missions, and send them where you choose. From their fathers' lips
+      they have learnt all about places and roads; they can decoy Feringhee
+      travelers, the Company's servants or soldiers, into quiet places, and slay
+      them. They can creep into compounds and into houses, and choose their
+      victims from the sleepers. You can trust them, Rajah, for they have
+      learned to hate, and each in his way will, when the times comes, aid to
+      stir up men to rise. The past had almost become a dream, but I have roused
+      it into life again, and upon the descendants of the stranglers throughout
+      India you can count surely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have not mentioned my name?&rdquo; the Rajah said suddenly, looking closely
+      at the man as he put the question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Assuredly not, your highness; I have simply said deliverance is at hand;
+      the hour foretold for the end of the Raj of the men from beyond the sea
+      will soon strike, and they will disappear from the land like fallen
+      leaves; then will the glory of Kali return, then again will the
+      brotherhood take to the road and gather in victims. I can promise that
+      every one of those whose fathers or grandfathers or other kin died by the
+      hand of the Feringhee, or suffered in his prisons, will do his share of
+      the good work, and be ready to obey to the death the orders which will
+      reach him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is good,&rdquo; the Rajah said; &ldquo;you and your brethren will have a rich
+      harvest of victims, and the sacred cord need never be idle. Go; it is well
+      nigh morning, and I would sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But not for some time did the Rajah close his eyes; his brain was busy
+      with the schemes which he had long been maturing, but was only now
+      beginning to put into action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must succeed,&rdquo; he said to himself; &ldquo;all through India the people will
+      take up arms when the Sepoys give the signal by rising against their
+      officers. The whites are wholly unsuspicious; they even believe that I, I
+      whom they have robbed, am their friend. Fools! I hold them in the hollow
+      of my hand; they shall trust me to the last, and then I will crush them.
+      Not one shall escape me! Would I were as certain of all the other stations
+      in India as I am of this. Oude, I know, will rise as one man; the Princes
+      of Delhi I have sounded; they will be the leaders, though the old King
+      will be the nominal head; but I shall pull the strings, and as Peishwa,
+      shall be an independent sovereign, and next in dignity to the Emperor.
+      Only nothing must be done until all is ready; not a movement must be made
+      until I feel sure that every native regiment from Calcutta to the North is
+      ready to rise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so, until the day had fully broken, the Rajah of Bithoor thought over
+      his plans&mdash;the man who had a few hours before so sumptuously
+      entertained the military and civilians of Cawnpore, and the man who was
+      universally regarded as the firm friend of the British and one of the best
+      fellows going.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The days and weeks passed on, messengers came and went, the storm was
+      slowing brewing; and yet to all men it seemed that India was never more
+      contented nor the outlook more tranquil and assured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A young man in a suit of brown karkee, with a white puggaree wound round
+      his pith helmet, was just mounting in front of his bungalow at
+      Deennugghur, some forty miles from Cawnpore, when two others came up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which way are you going to ride, Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going out to Narkeet; there is a dispute between the villagers and a
+      Talookdar as to their limits. I have got to look into the case. Why do you
+      ask, Mr. Hunter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought that you might be going that way. You know we have had several
+      reports of ravages by a man eater whose headquarters seem to be that big
+      jungle you pass through on your way to Narkeet. He has been paying visits
+      to several villages in its neighborhood, and has carried off two mail
+      runners. I should advise you to keep a sharp lookout.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I have heard plenty about him; it is unfortunate we have no one at
+      this station who goes in for tiger hunting. Young Bloxam was speaking to
+      me last night; he is very hot about it; but as he knows nothing about
+      shooting, and has never fired off a rifle in his life, except at the
+      military target, I told him that it was madness to think of it by himself,
+      and that he had better ride down to the regiment at Cawnpore, and get them
+      to form a party to come up to hunt the beast. I told him they need not
+      bring elephants with them; I could get as many as were necessary from some
+      of the Talookdars, and there will be no want of beaters. He said he would
+      write at once, but he doubted whether any of them would be able to get
+      away at present; the general inspection is just coming on. However, no
+      doubt they will be able to do so before long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, if I were you I would put a pair of pistols into my holster,
+      Bathurst; it would be awfully awkward if you came across the beast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never carry firearms,&rdquo; the young man said shortly; and then more
+      lightly, &ldquo;I am a peaceful man by profession, as you are, Mr. Hunter, and I
+      leave firearms to those whose profession it is to use them. I have
+      hitherto never met with an occasion when I needed them, and am not likely
+      to do so. I always carry this heavy hunting whip, which I find useful
+      sometimes, when the village dogs rush out and pretend that they are going
+      to attack me; and I fancy that even an Oude swordsman would think twice
+      before attacking me when I had it in my hand. But, of course, there is no
+      fear about the tiger. I generally ride pretty fast; and even if he were
+      lying by the roadside waiting for a meal, I don't think he would be likely
+      to interfere with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he lightly touched the horse's flanks with his spurs and
+      cantered off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a fine young fellow, Garnet,&rdquo; Mr. Hunter said to his companion;
+      &ldquo;full of energy, and, they say, the very best linguist in Oude.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he is all that,&rdquo; the other agreed; &ldquo;but he is a sort of fellow one
+      does not quite understand. I like a man who is like other fellows;
+      Bathurst isn't. He doesn't shoot, he doesn't ride&mdash;I mean he don't
+      care for pig sticking; he never goes in for any fun there may be on hand;
+      he just works&mdash;nothing else; he does not seem to mix with other
+      people; he is the sort of fellow one would say had got some sort of secret
+      connected with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he has, I am certain it is nothing to his personal disadvantage,&rdquo; Mr.
+      Hunter said warmly. &ldquo;I have known him for the last six years&mdash;I won't
+      say very well, for I don't think anyone does that, except, perhaps, Doctor
+      Wade. When there was a wing of the regiment up here three years ago he and
+      Bathurst took to each other very much&mdash;perhaps because they were both
+      different from other people. But, anyhow, from what I know of Bathurst I
+      believe him to be a very fine character, though there is certainly an
+      amount of reserve about him altogether unusual. At any rate, the service
+      is a gainer by it. I never knew a fellow work so indefatigably. He will
+      take a very high place in the service before he has done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not so sure of that,&rdquo; the other said. &ldquo;He is a man with opinions of
+      his own, and all sorts of crotchets and fads. He has been in hot water
+      with the Chief Commissioner more than once. When I was over at Lucknow
+      last I was chatting with two or three men, and his name happened to crop
+      up, and one of them said, 'Bathurst is a sort of knight errant, an
+      official Don Quixote. Perhaps the best officer in the province in some
+      respects, but hopelessly impracticable.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that I can quite understand, Garnet. That sort of man is never
+      popular with the higher official, whose likings go to the man who does
+      neither too much nor too little, who does his work without questioning,
+      and never thinks of making suggestions, and is a mere official machine.
+      Men of Bathurst's type, who go to the bottom of things, protest against
+      what they consider unfair decisions, and send in memorandums showing that
+      their superiors are hopelessly ignorant and idiotically wrong, are always
+      cordially disliked. Still, they generally work their way to the front in
+      the long run. Well, I must be off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst rode to Narkeet without drawing rein. His horse at times
+      slackened its pace on its own accord, but an almost mechanical motion from
+      its rider's heel soon started it off again at the rapid pace at which its
+      rider ordinarily traveled. From the time he left Deennugghur to his
+      arrival at Narkeet no thought of the dreaded man eater entered Bathurst's
+      mind. He was deeply meditating on a memorandum he was about to draw up,
+      respecting a decision that had been arrived at in a case between a
+      Talookdar in his district and the Government, and in which, as it appeared
+      to him, a wholly erroneous and unjust view had been taken as to the merits
+      of the case; and he only roused himself when the horse broke into a walk
+      as it entered the village. Two or three of the head men, with many bows
+      and salutations of respect, came out to receive him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord sahib has seen nothing of the tiger?&rdquo; the head man said; &ldquo;our
+      hearts were melted with fear, for the evil beast was heard roaring in the
+      jungle not far from the road early this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never gave it a thought, one way or the other,&rdquo; Bathurst said, as he
+      dismounted. &ldquo;I fancy the horse would have let me know if the brute had
+      been anywhere near. See that he is tied up in the shed, and has food and
+      water, and put a boy to keep the flies from worrying him. And now let us
+      get to business. First of all, I must go through the village records and
+      documents; after that I will question four or five of the oldest
+      inhabitants, and then we must go over the ground. The whole question
+      turns, you know, upon whether the irrigation ditch mentioned in the
+      Talookdar's grant is the one that runs across at the foot of the rising
+      ground on his side, or whether it is the one that sweeps round on this
+      side of the grove with the little temple in it. Unfortunately most of the
+      best land lies between those ditches.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For hours Bathurst listened to the statements of the old people of the
+      village, cross questioning them closely, and sparing no efforts to sift
+      the truth from their confused and often contradictory evidence. Then he
+      spent two hours going over the ground and endeavoring to satisfy himself
+      which of the two ditches was the one named in the village records. He had
+      two days before taken equal pains in sifting the evidence on the other
+      side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I trust that my lord sees there can be no doubt as to the justice of our
+      claim,&rdquo; the head man said humbly, as he prepared to mount again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;According to your point of view, there is no doubt about it, Childee; but
+      then there is equally no doubt the other way, according to the statements
+      they put forward. But that is generally the way in all these land
+      disputes. For good hard swearing your Hindoo cultivator can be matched
+      against the world. Unfortunately there is nothing either in your grant or
+      in your neighbors' that specifies unmistakably which of these ancient
+      ditches is the one referred to. My present impression is that it is
+      essentially a case for a compromise, but you know the final decision does
+      not rest on me. I shall be out here again next week, and I shall write to
+      the Talookdar to meet me here, and we will go over the ground together
+      again, and see if we cannot arrange some line that will be fair to both
+      parties. If we can do that, the matter would be settled without expense
+      and trouble; whereas, if it goes up to Lucknow it may all have to be gone
+      into again; and if the decision is given against you, and as far as I can
+      see it is just as likely to be one way as another, it will be a serious
+      thing for the village.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are in my lord's hands,&rdquo; the native said; &ldquo;he is the protector of the
+      poor, and will do us justice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will do you justice, Childee, but I must do justice to the other side
+      too. Of course, neither of you will be satisfied, but that cannot be
+      helped.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His perfect knowledge of their language, the pains he took to sift all
+      matters brought before him to the bottom, had rendered the young officer
+      very popular among the natives. They knew they could get justice from him
+      direct. There was no necessity to bribe underlings: he had the knack of
+      extracting the truth from the mass of lying evidence always forthcoming in
+      native cases; and even the defeated party admired the manner in which the
+      fabric of falsehood was pulled to pieces. But the main reason of his
+      popularity was his sympathy, the real interest which he showed in their
+      cases, and the patience with which he listened to their stories.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst himself, as he rode homewards, was still thinking of the case. Of
+      course there had been lying on both sides; but to that he was accustomed.
+      It was a question of importance&mdash;of greater importance, no doubt, to
+      the villagers than to their opponent, but still important to him&mdash;for
+      this tract of land was a valuable one, and of considerable extent, and
+      there was really nothing in the documents produced on either side to show
+      which ditch was intended by the original grants. Evidently, at the time
+      they were made, very many years before, one ditch or the other was not in
+      existence; but there was no proof as to which was the more recent,
+      although both sides professed that all traditions handed down to them
+      asserted the ditch on their side to be the more recent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was riding along the road through the great jungle, at his horse's own
+      pace, which happened for the moment to be a gentle trot, when a piercing
+      cry rang through the air a hundred yards ahead. Bathurst started from his
+      reverie, and spurred his horse sharply; the animal dashed forward at a
+      gallop. At a turn in the road he saw, twenty yards ahead of him, a tiger,
+      standing with a foot upon a prostrate figure, while a man in front of it
+      was gesticulating wildly. The tiger stood as if hesitating whether to
+      strike down the figure in front or to content itself with that already in
+      its power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wild shouts of the man had apparently drowned the sound of the horse's
+      feet upon the soft road, for the animal drew back half a pace as it
+      suddenly came into view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The horse swerved at the sight, and reared high in the air as Bathurst
+      drove his spurs into it. As its feet touched the ground again, Bathurst
+      sprang off and rushed at the tiger, and brought down the heavy lash of his
+      whip with all his force across its head. With a fierce snarl it sprang
+      back two paces, but again and again the whip descended upon it, and
+      bewildered and amazed at the attack it turned swiftly and sprang through
+      the bushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst, knowing that there was no fear of its returning, turned at once
+      to the figure on the road. It was, as in even the momentary glance he had
+      noticed, a woman, or rather a girl of some fourteen or fifteen years of
+      age&mdash;the man had dropped on his knees beside her, moaning and
+      muttering incoherent words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see no blood,&rdquo; Bathurst said, and stooping, lifted the light figure.
+      &ldquo;Her heart beats, man; I think she has only fainted. The tiger must have
+      knocked her down in its spring without striking her. So far as I can see
+      she is unhurt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He carried her to the horse, which stood trembling a few yards away, took
+      a flask from the holster, and poured a little brandy and water between her
+      lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently there was a faint sigh. &ldquo;She is coming round,&rdquo; he said to the
+      man, who was still kneeling, looking on with vacant eyes, as though he had
+      neither heard nor comprehended what Bathurst was doing. Presently the girl
+      moved slightly and opened her eyes. At first there was no expression in
+      them; then a vague wonder stole into them at the white face looking down
+      upon her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She closed them again, and then reopened them, and then there was a slight
+      struggle to free herself. He allowed her to slip through his arms until
+      her feet touched the ground; then her eyes fell on the kneeling figure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Father!&rdquo; she exclaimed. With a cry the man leaped to his feet, sprang to
+      her and seized her in his arms, and poured out words of endearment. Then
+      suddenly he released her and threw himself on the ground before Bathurst,
+      with ejaculations of gratitude and thankfulness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get up, man, get up,&rdquo; the latter said; &ldquo;your daughter can scarce stand
+      alone, and the sooner we get away from this place the better; that savage
+      beast is not likely to return, but he may do so; let us be off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He mounted his horse again, brought it up to the side of the girl, and
+      then, leaning over, took her and swung her into the saddle in front of
+      him. The man took up a large box that was lying in the road and hoisted it
+      onto his shoulders, and then, at a foot's pace, they proceeded on their
+      way&mdash;Bathurst keeping a close watch on the jungle at the side on
+      which the tiger had entered it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How came you to travel along this road alone?&rdquo; he asked the man. &ldquo;The
+      natives only venture through in large parties, because of this tiger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a stranger,&rdquo; the man answered; &ldquo;I heard at the village where we
+      slept last night that there was a tiger in this jungle, but I thought we
+      should be through it before nightfall, and therefore there was no danger.
+      If one heeded all they say about tigers one would never travel at all. I
+      am a juggler, and we are on our way down the country through Cawnpore and
+      Allahabad. Had it not been for the valor of my lord sahib, we should never
+      have got there; for had I lost my Rabda, the light of my heart, I should
+      have gone no further, but should have waited for the tiger to take me
+      also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was no particular valor about it,&rdquo; Bathurst said shortly. &ldquo;I saw
+      the beast with its foot on your daughter, and dismounted to beat it off
+      just as if it had been a dog, without thinking whether there was any
+      danger in it or not. Men do it with savage beasts in menageries every day.
+      They are cowardly brutes after all, and can't stand the lash. He was taken
+      altogether by surprise, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord has saved my daughter's life, and mine is at his service
+      henceforth,&rdquo; the man said. &ldquo;The mouse is a small beast, but he may warn
+      the lion. The white sahibs are brave and strong. Would one of my
+      countrymen have ventured his life to attack a tiger, armed only with a
+      whip, for the sake of the life of a poor wayfarer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I think there are many who would have done so,&rdquo; Bathurst replied.
+      &ldquo;You do your countrymen injustice. There are plenty of brave men among
+      them, and I have heard before now of villagers, armed only with sticks,
+      attacking a tiger who has carried off a victim from among them. You
+      yourself were standing boldly before it when I came up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My child was under its feet&mdash;besides, I never thought of myself. If
+      I had had a weapon I should not have drawn it. I had no thought of the
+      tiger; I only thought that my child was dead. She works with me, sahib;
+      since her mother died, five years ago, we have traveled together over the
+      country; she plays while I conjure. She takes round the saucer for the
+      money, and she acts with me in the tricks that require two persons; it is
+      she who disappears from the basket. We are everything to each other,
+      sahib. But what is my lord's name? Will he tell his servant, that he and
+      Rabda may think of him and talk of him as they tramp the roads together?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name is Ralph Bathurst. I am District Officer at Deennugghur. How far
+      are you going this evening?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall sleep at the first village we come to, sahib; we have walked
+      many hours today, and this box, though its contents are not weighty, is
+      heavy to bear. We thought of going down tomorrow to Deennugghur, and
+      showing our performances to the sahib logue there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well; but there is one thing&mdash;what is your name?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rujub.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Rujub, if you go on to Deennugghur tomorrow say nothing to anyone
+      there about this affair with the tiger; it is nothing to talk about. I am
+      not a shikari, but a hard working official, and I don't want to be talked
+      about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sahib's wish shall be obeyed,&rdquo; the man said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can come round to my bungalow and ask for me; I shall be glad to hear
+      whether your daughter is any the worse for her scare. How do you feel,
+      Rabda?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feel as one in a dream, sahib. I saw a great yellow beast springing
+      through the air, and I cried out, and knew nothing more till I saw the
+      sahib's face; and now I have heard him and my father talking, but their
+      voices sound to me as if far away, though I know that you are holding me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will be all the better after a night's rest, child; no wonder you
+      feel strange and shaken. Another quarter of an hour and we shall be at the
+      village. I suppose, Rujub, you were born a conjurer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sahib, it is always so; it goes down from father to son. As soon as
+      I was able to walk, I began to work with my father, and as I grew up he
+      initiated me in the secrets of our craft, which we may never divulge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I know they are a mystery. Many of your tricks can be done by our
+      conjurers at home, but there are some that have never been solved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been offered, more than once, large sums by English sahibs to tell
+      them how some of the feats were done, but I could not; we are bound by
+      terrible oaths, and; in no case has a juggler proved false to them. Were
+      one to do so he would be slain without mercy, and his fate in the next
+      world would be terrible; forever and forever his soul would pass through
+      the bodies of the foulest and lowest creatures, and there would be no
+      forgiveness for him. I would give my life for the sahib, but even to him I
+      would not divulge our mysteries.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes they came to the first village beyond the jungle. As they
+      approached it Bathurst checked his horse and lifted the girl down. She
+      took his hand and pressed her forehead to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall see you tomorrow, then, Rujub,&rdquo; he said, and shaking the reins,
+      went on at a canter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a new character for me to come out in,&rdquo; he said bitterly; &ldquo;I do
+      not know myself&mdash;I, of all men. But there was no bravery in it; it
+      never occurred to me to be afraid; I just thrashed him off as I should
+      beat off a dog who was killing a lamb; there was no noise, and it is noise
+      that frightens me; if the brute had roared I should assuredly have run; I
+      know it would have been so; I could not have helped it to have saved my
+      life. It is an awful curse that I am not as other men, and that I tremble
+      and shake like a girl at the sound of firearms. It would have been better
+      if I had been killed by the first shot fired in the Punjaub eight years
+      ago, or if I had blown my brains out at the end of the day. Good Heavens!
+      what have I suffered since. But I will not think of it. Thank God, I have
+      got my work; and as long as I keep my thoughts on that there is no room
+      for that other;&rdquo; and then, by a great effort of will, Ralph Bathurst put
+      the past behind him, and concentrated his thoughts on the work on which he
+      had been that day engaged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The juggler did not arrive on the following evening as he had expected,
+      but late in the afternoon a native boy brought in a message from him,
+      saying that his daughter was too shaken and ill to travel, but that they
+      would come when she recovered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A week later, on returning from a long day's work, Bathurst was told that
+      a juggler was in the veranda waiting to see him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told him, sahib,&rdquo; the servant said, &ldquo;that you cared not for such
+      entertainments, and that he had better go elsewhere; but he insisted that
+      you yourself had told him to come, and so I let him wait.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has he a girl with him, Jafur?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sahib.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst strolled round to the other side of the bungalow, where Rujub was
+      sitting patiently, with Rabda wrapped in her blue cloth beside him. They
+      rose to their feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad to see your daughter is better again, Rujub.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is better, sahib; she has had fever, but is restored.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot see your juggling tonight, Rujub. I have had a heavy day's work,
+      and am worn out, and have still much to do. You had better go round to
+      some of the other bungalows; though I don't think you will do much this
+      evening, for there is a dinner party at the Collector's, and almost
+      everyone will be there. My servants will give you food, and I shall be off
+      at seven o'clock in the morning, but shall be glad to see you before I
+      start. Are you in want of money?&rdquo; and he put his hand in his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sahib,&rdquo; the juggler said. &ldquo;We have money sufficient for all our
+      wants; we are not thinking of performing tonight, for Rabda is not equal
+      to it. Before sunrise we shall be on our way again; I must be at Cawnpore,
+      and we have delayed too long already. Could you give us but half an hour
+      tonight, sahib; we will come at any hour you like. I would show you things
+      that few Englishmen have seen. Not mere common tricks, sahib, but
+      mysteries such as are known to few even of us. Do not say no, sahib.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, if you wish it, Rujub, I will give you half an hour,&rdquo; and Bathurst
+      looked at his watch. &ldquo;It is seven now, and I have to dine. I have work to
+      do that will take me three hours at least, but at eleven I shall have
+      finished. You will see a light in my room; come straight to the open
+      window.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will be there, sahib;&rdquo; and with a salaam the juggler walked off,
+      followed by his daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes before the appointed time Bathurst threw down his pen with a
+      little sigh of satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The memo he had just finished was a most conclusive one; it seemed to him
+      unanswerable, and that the Department would have trouble in disputing his
+      facts and figures. He had not since he sat down to his work given another
+      thought to the juggler, and he almost started as a figure appeared in the
+      veranda at the open window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, Rujub, is it you? I have just finished my work. Come in; is Rabda
+      with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She will remain outside until I want her,&rdquo; the juggler said as he entered
+      and squatted himself on the floor. &ldquo;I am not going to juggle, sahib. With
+      us there are two sorts of feats; there are those that are performed by
+      sleight of hand or by means of assistance. These are the juggler's tricks
+      we show in the verandas and compounds of the white sahibs, and in the
+      streets of the cities. There are others that are known only to the higher
+      order among us, that we show only on rare occasions. They have come to us
+      from the oldest times, and it is said they were brought by wise men from
+      Egypt; but that I know not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have always been interested in juggling, and have seen many things that
+      I cannot understand,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;I have seen the basket trick done on
+      the road in front of the veranda, as well as in other places, and I cannot
+      in any way account for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The juggler took from his basket a piece of wood about two feet in length
+      and some four inches in diameter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see this?&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst took it in his hand. &ldquo;It looks like a bit sawn off a telegraph
+      pole,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you come outside, sahib?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The night was very dark, but the lamp on the table threw its light through
+      the window onto the drive in front of the veranda. Rujub took with him a
+      piece of wood about nine inches square, with a soft pad on the top. He
+      went out in the drive and placed the piece of pole upright, and laid the
+      wood with the cushion on the top.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now will you stand in the veranda a while?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst stood back by the side of the window so as not to interfere with
+      the passage of the light. Rabda stole forward and sat down upon the
+      cushion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now watch, sahib.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst looked, and saw the block of wood apparently growing. Gradually
+      it rose until Rabda passed up beyond the light in the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may come out,&rdquo; the juggler said, &ldquo;but do not touch the pole. If you
+      do, it will cause a fall, which would be fatal to my child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst stepped out and looked up. He could but just make out the figure
+      of Rabda, seemingly already higher than the top of the bungalow. Gradually
+      it became more and more indistinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are there, Rabda?&rdquo; her father said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am here, father!&rdquo; and the voice seemed to come from a considerable
+      distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again and again the question was asked, and the answer became fainter and
+      fainter, although it sounded as if it was a distant cry in response to
+      Rujub's shout rather than spoken in an ordinary voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last no response was heard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now it shall descend,&rdquo; the juggler said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two or three minutes passed, and then Bathurst, who was staring up into
+      the darkness, could make out the end of the pole with the seat upon it,
+      but Rabda was no longer there. Rapidly it sank, until it stood its
+      original height on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is Rabda?&rdquo; Bathurst exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is here, my lord,&rdquo; and as he spoke Rabda rose from a sitting position
+      on the balcony close to Bathurst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is marvelous!&rdquo; the latter exclaimed. &ldquo;I have heard of that feat
+      before, but have never seen it. May I take up that piece of wood?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Assuredly, sahib.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst took it up and carried it to the light. It was undoubtedly, as he
+      had before supposed, a piece of solid wood. The juggler had not touched
+      it, or he would have supposed he might have substituted for the piece he
+      first examined a sort of telescope of thin sheets of steel, but even that
+      would not have accounted for Rabda's disappearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will show you one other feat, my lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He took a brass dish, placed a few pieces of wood and charcoal in it,
+      struck a match, and set the wood on fire, and then fanned it until the
+      wood had burned out, and the charcoal was in a glow; then he sprinkled
+      some powder upon it, and a dense white smoke rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now turn out the lamp, sahib.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst did so. The glow of the charcoal enabled him still to see the
+      light smoke; this seemed to him to become clearer and clearer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now for the past!&rdquo; Rujub said. The smoke grew brighter and brighter, and
+      mixed with flashes of color; presently Bathurst saw clearly an Indian
+      scene. A village stood on a crest, jets of smoke darted up from between
+      the houses, and then a line of troops in scarlet uniform advanced against
+      the village, firing as they went. They paused for a moment, and then with
+      a rush went at the village and disappeared in the smoke over the crest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good Heavens,&rdquo; Bathurst muttered, &ldquo;it is the battle of Chillianwalla!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The future!&rdquo; Rujub said, and the colors on the smoke changed. Bathurst
+      saw a wall surrounding a courtyard. On one side was a house. It had
+      evidently been besieged, for in the upper part were many ragged holes, and
+      two of the windows were knocked into one. On the roof were men firing, and
+      there were one or two women among them. He could see their faces and
+      features distinctly. In the courtyard wall there was a gap, and through
+      this a crowd of Sepoys were making their way, while a handful of whites
+      were defending a breastwork. Among them he recognized his own figure. He
+      saw himself club his rifle and leap down into the middle of the Sepoys,
+      fighting furiously there. The colors faded away, and the room was in
+      darkness again. There was the crack of a match, and then Rujub said
+      quietly, &ldquo;If you will lift off the globe again, I will light the lamp,
+      sahib.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst almost mechanically did as he was told.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sahib, what do you think of the pictures?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The first was true,&rdquo; Bathurst said quietly, &ldquo;though, how you knew I was
+      with the regiment that stormed the village at Chillianwalla I know not.
+      The second is certainly not true.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can never know what the future will be, sahib,&rdquo; the juggler said
+      gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is so,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;but I know enough of myself to say that it
+      cannot be true. I do not say that the Sepoys can never be fighting against
+      whites, improbable as it seems, but that I was doing what that figure did
+      is, I know, impossible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Time will show, sahib,&rdquo; the juggler said; &ldquo;the pictures never lie. Shall
+      I show you other things?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Rujub, you have shown me enough; you have astounded me. I want to see
+      no more tonight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then farewell, sahib; we shall meet again, I doubt not, and mayhap I may
+      be able to repay the debt I owe you;&rdquo; and Rujub, lifting his basket, went
+      out through the window without another word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Some seven or eight officers were sitting round the table in the messroom
+      of the 103d Bengal Infantry at Cawnpore. It had been a guest night, but
+      the strangers had left, the lights had been turned out in the billiard
+      room overhead, the whist party had broken up, and the players had rejoined
+      three officers who had remained at table smoking and talking quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Outside, through the open French windows, the ground looked as if
+      sprinkled with snow beneath the white light of the full moon. Two or three
+      of the mess servants were squatting in the veranda, talking in low voices.
+      A sentry walked backwards and forwards by the gate leading into the mess
+      house compound; beyond, the maidan stretched away flat and level to the
+      low huts of the native lines on the other side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So the Doctor comes back tomorrow, Major,&rdquo; the Adjutant, who had been one
+      of the whist party, said. &ldquo;I shall be very glad to have him back. In the
+      first place, he is a capital fellow, and keeps us all alive; secondly, he
+      is a good deal better doctor than the station surgeon who has been looking
+      after the men since we have been here; and lastly, if I had got anything
+      the matter with me myself, I would rather be in his hands than those of
+      anyone else I know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I agree with you, Prothero; the Doctor is as good a fellow as ever
+      stepped. There is no doubt about his talent in his profession; and there
+      are a good many of us who owed our lives to him when we were down with
+      cholera, in that bad attack three years ago. He is good all round; he is
+      just as keen a shikari as he was when he joined the regiment, twenty years
+      ago; he is a good billiard player, and one of the best storytellers I ever
+      came across; but his best point is that he is such a thoroughly good
+      fellow&mdash;always ready to do a good turn to anyone, and to help a lame
+      dog over a stile. I could name a dozen men in India who owe their
+      commissions to him. I don't know what the regiment would do without him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He went home on leave just after I joined,&rdquo; one of the subalterns said.
+      &ldquo;Of course, I know, from all I have heard of him, that he is an awfully
+      good fellow, but from the little I saw of him myself, he seemed always
+      growling and snapping.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general laugh from the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that is his way, Thompson,&rdquo; the Major said; &ldquo;he believes himself to
+      be one of the most cynical and morose of men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was married, wasn't he, Major?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it was a sad business. It was only just after I joined. He is three
+      years senior to me in the regiment. He was appointed to it a month or two
+      after the Colonel joined. Well, as I say, a month or two after I came to
+      it, he went away on leave down to Calcutta, where he was to meet a young
+      lady who had been engaged to him before he left home. They were married,
+      and he brought her up country. Before she had been with us a month we had
+      one of those outbreaks of cholera. It wasn't a very severe one. I think we
+      only lost eight or ten men, and no officer; but the Doctor's young wife
+      was attacked, and in three or four hours she was carried off. It regularly
+      broke him down. However, he got over it, as we all do, I suppose; and now
+      I think he is married to the regiment. He could have had staff
+      appointments a score of times, but he has always refused them. His time is
+      up next year, and he could go home on full pay, but I don't suppose he
+      will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And your niece arrives with him tomorrow, Major,&rdquo; the Adjutant said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I am going to try petticoat government, Prothero. I don't know how
+      the experiment will succeed, but I am tired of an empty bungalow, and I
+      have been looking forward for some years to her being old enough to come
+      out and take charge. It is ten years since I was home, and she was a
+      little chit of eight years old at that time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think a vote of thanks ought to be passed to you, Major. We have only
+      married ladies in the regiment, and it will wake us up and do us good to
+      have Miss Hannay among us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are the Colonel's daughters,&rdquo; the Major said, with a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, there are, Major, but they hardly count; they are scarcely conscious
+      of the existence of poor creatures like us; nothing short of a Resident
+      or, at any rate, of a full blown Collector, will find favor in their
+      eyes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I warn you all fairly,&rdquo; the Major said, &ldquo;that I shall set my face
+      against all sorts of philandering and love making. I am bringing my niece
+      out here as my housekeeper and companion, and not as a prospective wife
+      for any of you youngsters. I hope she will turn out to be as plain as a
+      pikestaff, and then I may have some hopes of keeping her with me for a
+      time. The Doctor, in his letter from Calcutta, says nothing as to what she
+      is like, though he was good enough to remark that she seemed to have a
+      fair share of common sense, and has given him no more trouble on the
+      voyage than was to be expected under the circumstances. And now, lads, it
+      is nearly two o'clock, and as there is early parade tomorrow, it is high
+      time for you to be all in your beds. What a blessing it would be if the
+      sun would forget to shine for a bit on this portion of the world, and we
+      could have an Arctic night of seven or eight months with a full moon the
+      whole time!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes later the messroom was empty, the lights turned out, and the
+      servants wrapped up in their blankets had disposed themselves for sleep in
+      the veranda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as morning parade was over Major Hannay went back to his bungalow,
+      looked round to see that his bachelor quarters were as bright and tidy as
+      possible, then got into a light suit and went down to the post house. A
+      quarter of an hour later a cloud of dust along the road betokened the
+      approach of the Dak Gharry, and two or three minutes later it dashed up at
+      full gallop amid a loud and continuous cracking of the driver's whip. The
+      wiry little horses were drawn up with a sudden jerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major opened the door. A little man sprang out and grasped him by the
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad to see you, Major&mdash;thoroughly glad to be back again. Here is
+      your niece; I deliver her safe and sound into your hands.&rdquo; And between
+      them they helped a girl to alight from the vehicle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am heartily glad to see you, my dear,&rdquo; the Major said, as he kissed
+      her; &ldquo;though I don't think I should have known you again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should think not, uncle,&rdquo; the girl said. &ldquo;In the first place, I was a
+      little girl in short frocks when I saw you last; and in the second place,
+      I am so covered with the dust that you can hardly see what I am like. I
+      think I should have known you; your visit made a great impression upon us,
+      though I can remember now how disappointed we were when you first arrived
+      that you hadn't a red coat and a sword, as we had expected.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, we may as well be off at once, Isobel; it is only five minutes'
+      walk to the bungalow. My man will see to your luggage being brought up.
+      Come along, Doctor. Of course you will put up with me until you can look
+      round and fix upon quarters. I told Rumzan to bring your things round with
+      my niece's. You have had a very pleasant voyage out, I hope, Isobel?&rdquo; he
+      went on, as they started.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very pleasant, uncle, though I got rather tired of it at last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is generally the way&mdash;everyone is pleasant and agreeable at
+      first, but before they get to the end they take to quarreling like cats
+      and dogs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were not quite as bad as that,&rdquo; the girl laughed, &ldquo;but we certainly
+      weren't as amiable the last month or so as we were during the first part
+      of the voyage. Still, it was very pleasant all along, and nobody quarreled
+      with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Present company are always excepted,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;I stood in loco
+      parentis, Major, and the result has been that I shall feel in future more
+      charitable towards mothers of marriageable daughters. Still, I am bound to
+      say that Miss Hannay has given me as little trouble as could be expected.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You frighten me, Doctor; if you found her so onerous only for a voyage,
+      what have I to look forward to?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you can't say that I didn't warn you, Major; when you wrote home
+      and asked me to take charge of your niece on the way out, I told you
+      frankly that my opinion of your good sense was shaken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you did express yourself with some strength,&rdquo; the Major laughed;
+      &ldquo;but then one is so accustomed to that, that I did not take it to heart as
+      I might otherwise have done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was before you knew me, Dr. Wade, otherwise I should feel very
+      hurt,&rdquo; the girl put in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it was,&rdquo; the Doctor said dryly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't mind him, my dear,&rdquo; her uncle said; &ldquo;we all know the Doctor of old.
+      This is my bungalow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is pretty, with all these flowers and shrubs round it,&rdquo; she said
+      admiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, we have been doing a good deal of watering the last few weeks, so as
+      to get it to look its best. This is your special attendant; she will take
+      you up to your room. By the time you have had a bath, your boxes will be
+      here. I told them to have a cup of tea ready for you upstairs. Breakfast
+      will be on the table by the time you are ready.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, old friend,&rdquo; he said to the Doctor, when the girl had gone
+      upstairs, &ldquo;no complications, I hope, on the voyage?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I think not,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;Of course, there were lots of young
+      puppies on board, and as she was out and out the best looking girl in the
+      ship half of them were dancing attendance upon her all the voyage, but I
+      am bound to say that she acted like a sensible young woman; and though she
+      was pleasant with them all, she didn't get into any flirtation with one
+      more than another. I did my best to look after her, but, of course, that
+      would have been of no good if she had been disposed to go her own way. I
+      fancy about half of them proposed to her&mdash;not that she ever said as
+      much to me&mdash;but whenever I observed one looking sulky and giving
+      himself airs I could guess pretty well what had happened. These young
+      puppies are all alike, and we are not without experience of the species
+      out here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seriously, Major, I think you are to be congratulated. I consider that
+      you ran a tremendous risk in asking a young woman, of whom you knew
+      nothing, to come out to you; still it has turned out well. If she had been
+      a frivolous, giggling thing, like most of them, I had made up my mind to
+      do you a good turn by helping to get her engaged on the voyage, and should
+      have seen her married offhand at Calcutta, and have come up and told you
+      that you were well out of the scrape. As, contrary to my expectations, she
+      turned out to be a sensible young woman, I did my best the other way. It
+      is likely enough you may have her on your hands some little time, for I
+      don't think she is likely to be caught by the first comer. Well, I must go
+      and have my bath; the dust has been awful coming up from Allahabad. That
+      is one advantage, and the only one as far as I can see, that they have got
+      in England. They don't know what dust is there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the bell for breakfast rang, and Isobel made her appearance, looking
+      fresh and cool, in a light dress, the Major said, &ldquo;You must take the head
+      of the table, my dear, and assume the reins of government forthwith.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I should say, uncle, that if any guidance is required, there will be
+      an upset in a very short time. No, that won't do at all. You must go on
+      just as you were before, and I shall look on and learn. As far as I can
+      see, everything is perfect just as it is. This is a charming room, and I
+      am sure there is no fault to be found with the arrangement of these
+      flowers on the table. As for the cooking, everything looks very nice, and
+      anyhow, if you have not been able to get them to cook to your taste, it is
+      of no use my attempting anything in that way. Besides, I suppose I must
+      learn something of the language before I can attempt to do anything. No,
+      uncle, I will sit in this chair if you like, and make tea and pour it out,
+      but that is the beginning and the end of my assumption of the head of the
+      establishment at present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Isobel, I hardly expected that you were going to run the
+      establishment just at first; indeed, as far as that goes, one's butler, if
+      he is a good man, has pretty well a free hand. He is generally
+      responsible, and is in fact what we should call at home housekeeper&mdash;he
+      and the cook between them arrange everything. I say to him, 'Three
+      gentlemen are coming to tiffen.' He nods and says 'Atcha, sahib,' which
+      means 'All right, sir,' and then I know it will be all right. If I have a
+      fancy for any special thing, of course I say so. Otherwise, I leave it to
+      them, and if the result is not satisfactory, I blow up. Nothing can be
+      more simple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how about bills, uncle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear, the butler gives them to me, and I pay them. He has been
+      with me a good many years, and will not let the others&mdash;that is to
+      say, the cook and the syce, the washerman, and so on, cheat me beyond a
+      reasonable amount. Do you, Rumzan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rumzan, who was standing behind the Major's chair, in a white turban and
+      dress, with a red and white sash round his waist, smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rumzan not let anyone rob his master.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not to any great extent, you know, Rumzan. One doesn't expect more than
+      that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is just the same here, Miss Hannay, as it is everywhere else,&rdquo; said
+      the Doctor; &ldquo;only in big establishments in England they rob you of pounds,
+      while here they rob you of annas, which, as I have explained to you, are
+      two pence halfpennies. The person who undertakes to put down little
+      peculations enters upon a war in which he is sure to get the worst of it.
+      He wastes his time, spoils his temper, makes himself and everyone around
+      him uncomfortable, and after all he is robbed. Life is too short for it,
+      especially in a climate like this. Of course, in time you get to
+      understand the language; if you see anything in the bills that strikes you
+      as showing waste you can go into the thing, but as a rule you trust
+      entirely to your butler; if you cannot trust him, get another one. Rumzan
+      has been with your uncle ten years, so you are fortunate. If the Major had
+      gone home instead of me, and if you had had an entirely fresh
+      establishment of servants to look after, the case would have been
+      different; as it is, you will have no trouble that way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what are my duties to be, uncle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your chief duties, my dear, are to look pleasant, which will evidently be
+      no trouble to you; to amuse me and keep me in a good temper as far as
+      possible; to keep on as good terms as may be with the other ladies of the
+      station; and, what will perhaps be the most difficult part of your work,
+      to snub and keep in order the young officers of our own and other corps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel laughed. &ldquo;That doesn't sound a very difficult programme, uncle,
+      except the last item; I have already had a little experience that way,
+      haven't I, Doctor? I hope I shall have the benefit of your assistance in
+      the future, as I had aboard the ship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will do my best,&rdquo; the Doctor said grimly; &ldquo;but the British subaltern is
+      pretty well impervious to snubs; he belongs to the pachydermatous family
+      of animals; his armor of self conceit renders him invulnerable against the
+      milder forms of raillery. However, I think you can be trusted to hold your
+      own with him, Miss Hannay, without much assistance from the Major or
+      myself. Your real difficulty will lie rather in your struggle against the
+      united female forces of the station.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why shall I have to struggle with them?&rdquo; Isobel asked, in surprise,
+      while her uncle broke into a laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't frighten her, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is not so easily frightened, Major; it is just as well that she
+      should be prepared. Well, my dear Miss Hannay, Indian society has this
+      peculiarity, that the women never grow old. At least,&rdquo; he continued, in
+      reply to the girl's look of surprise, &ldquo;they are never conscious of growing
+      old. At home a woman's family grows up about her, and are constant
+      reminders that she is becoming a matron. Here the children are sent away
+      when they get four or five years old, and do not appear on the scene again
+      until they are grown up. Then, too, ladies are greatly in the minority,
+      and they are accustomed to be made vastly more of than they are at home,
+      and the consequence is that the amount of envy, hatred, jealousy, and all
+      uncharitableness is appalling.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Doctor, not as bad as that,&rdquo; the Major remonstrated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every bit as bad as that,&rdquo; the Doctor said stoutly. &ldquo;I am not a woman
+      hater, far from it; but I have felt sometimes that if John Company, in its
+      beneficence, would pass a decree absolutely excluding the importation of
+      white women into India it would be an unmixed blessing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For shame, Doctor,&rdquo; Isobel Hannay said; &ldquo;and to think that I should have
+      such a high opinion of you up to now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't help it, my dear; my experience is that for ninety-nine out of
+      every hundred unpleasantnesses that take place out here, women are in one
+      way or another responsible. They get up sets and cliques, and break up
+      what might be otherwise pleasant society into sections. Talk about caste
+      amongst natives; it is nothing to the caste among women out here. The wife
+      of a civilian of high rank looks down upon the wives of military men, the
+      general's wife looks down upon a captain's, and so right through from the
+      top to the bottom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not so among the men, or at any rate to a very much smaller extent.
+      Of course, some men are pompous fools, but, as a rule, if two men meet,
+      and both are gentlemen, they care nothing as to what their respective
+      ranks may be. A man may be a lord or a doctor, a millionaire or a
+      struggling barrister, but they meet on equal terms in society; but out
+      here it is certainly not so among the women&mdash;they stand upon their
+      husband's dignity in a way that would be pitiable if it were not
+      exasperating. Of course, there are plenty of good women among them, as
+      there are everywhere&mdash;women whom even India can't spoil; but what
+      with exclusiveness, and with the amount of admiration and adulation they
+      get, and what with the want of occupation for their thoughts and minds, it
+      is very hard for them to avoid getting spoilt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I hope I shan't get spoilt, Doctor; and I hope, if you see that I
+      am getting spoilt, you will make a point of telling me so at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor grunted. &ldquo;Theoretically, people are always ready to receive
+      good advice, Miss Hannay; practically they are always offended by it.
+      However, in your case I will risk it, and I am bound to say that hitherto
+      you have proved yourself more amenable in that way than most young women I
+      have come across.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, if we have done, we will go out on the veranda,&rdquo; the Major said.
+      &ldquo;I am sure the Doctor must be dying for a cheroot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Doctor has smoked pretty continuously since we left Allahabad,&rdquo;
+       Isobel said. &ldquo;He wanted to sit up with the driver, but, of course, I would
+      not have that. I had got pretty well accustomed to smoke coming out, and
+      even if I had not been I would much rather have been almost suffocated
+      than have been in there by myself. I thought a dozen times the vehicle was
+      going to upset, and what with the bumping and the shouting and the
+      cracking of the whip&mdash;especially when the horses wouldn't start,
+      which was generally the case at first&mdash;I should have been frightened
+      out of my life had I been alone. It seemed to me that something dreadful
+      was always going to happen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can take it easy this morning, Isobel,&rdquo; the Major said, when they
+      were comfortably seated in the bamboo lounges in the veranda. &ldquo;You want
+      have any callers today, as it will be known you traveled all night. People
+      will imagine that you want a quiet day before you are on show.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a horrid expression, uncle!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear, it represents the truth. The arrival of a fresh lady from
+      England, especially of a 'spin,' which is short for spinster or unmarried
+      woman, is an event of some importance in an Indian station. Not, of
+      course, so much in a place like this, because this is the center of a
+      large district, but in a small station it is an event of the first
+      importance. The men are anxious to see what a newcomer is like for
+      herself; the women, to look at her dresses and see the latest fashions
+      from home, and also to ascertain whether she is likely to turn out a
+      formidable rival. However, today you can enjoy quiet; tomorrow you must
+      attire yourself in your most becoming costume, and I will trot you round.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trot me round, uncle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my dear. In India the order of procedure is reversed, and newcomers
+      call in the first place upon residents.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a very unpleasant custom, uncle; especially as some of the residents
+      may not want to know them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, everyone must know everyone else in a station, my dear, though they
+      may not wish to be intimate. So, about half past one tomorrow we will
+      start.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, in the heat of the day, uncle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my dear. That is another of the inscrutable freaks of Indian
+      fashion. The hours for calling are from about half past twelve to half
+      past two, just in the hottest hours. I don't pretend to account for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How many ladies are there in the regiment?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is the Colonel's wife, Mrs. Cromarty. She has two grown up red
+      headed girls,&rdquo; replied the Doctor. &ldquo;She is a distant relation&mdash;a
+      second cousin&mdash;of some Scotch lord or other, and, on the strength of
+      that and her husband's colonelcy, gives herself prodigious airs. Three of
+      the captains are married. Mrs. Doolan is a merry little Irish woman. You
+      will like her. She has two or three children. She is a general favorite in
+      the regiment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mrs. Rintoul&mdash;I suppose she is here still, Major, and unchanged? Ah,
+      I thought so. She is a washed-out woman, without a spark of energy in her
+      composition.-' She believes that she is a chronic invalid, and sends for
+      me on an average once a week. But there is nothing really the matter with
+      her, if she would but only believe it. Mrs. Roberts&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't be ill natured, Doctor,&rdquo; the Major broke in. &ldquo;Mrs. Roberts, my
+      dear, is a good-looking woman, and a general flirt. I don't think there is
+      any harm in her whatever. Mrs. Prothero, the Adjutant's wife, has only
+      been out here eighteen months, and is a pretty little woman, and in all
+      respects nice.-There is only one other, Mrs. Scarsdale; she came out six
+      months ago. She is a quiet young woman, with, I should say, plenty of
+      common sense: I should think you will like her. That completes the
+      regimental list.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that is not so very formidable. Anyhow, it is a. comfort that we
+      shall have no one here today.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will have the whole regiment here in a few minutes, Isobel, but they
+      will be coming to see the Doctor, not you; if it hadn't been that they
+      knew you were under his charge everyone would have come down to meet him
+      when he arrived. But if you feel tired, as I am sure you must be after
+      your journey, there is no reason why you shouldn't go and lie down quietly
+      for a few hours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will stop here, uncle; it will be much less embarrassing to see them
+      all for the first time when they come to see Dr. Wade and I am quite a
+      secondary consideration, than if they had to come specially to call on
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I agree with you there, my dear. Ah! here come Doolan and
+      Prothero.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A light trap drove into the inclosure and drew up in front of the veranda,
+      and two officers jumped down,-whilst the syce, who had been standing on a
+      step behind, ran to the horse's head. They hailed the Doctor, as he
+      stepped out from the veranda, with a shout.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad to see you back, Doctor. The regiment has not seemed like itself
+      without you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have been just pining without you, Doctor,&rdquo; Captain Doolan said; &ldquo;and
+      the ladies would have got up a deputation to meet you on your arrival,
+      only I told them that it would be too much for your modesty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it is a good thing that someone has a little of that quality in the
+      regiment, Doolan,&rdquo; the Doctor said, as he shook hands heartily with them
+      both. &ldquo;It is very little of it that fell to the share of Ireland when it
+      was served out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As they dropped the Doctor's hand the Major said, &ldquo;Now, gentlemen, let me
+      introduce you to my niece.&rdquo; The introductions were made, and the whole
+      party took chairs on the veranda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you object to smoking, Miss Hannay; perhaps you have not got
+      accustomed to it yet? I see the Doctor is-smoking; but then he is a
+      privileged person, altogether beyond rule.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I rather like it in the open air,&rdquo; Isobel said. &ldquo;No doubt I shall get
+      accustomed to it indoors before long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes four or five more of the officers arrived, and Isobel sat
+      an amused listener to the talk; taking but little part in it herself, but
+      gathering a good deal of information as to the people at the station from
+      the answers given to the Doctor's inquiries. It was very much like the
+      conversation on board ship, except that the topics of conversation were
+      wider and more numerous, and there was a community of interest wanting on
+      board a ship. In half an hour, however, the increasing warmth and her
+      sleepless night began to tell upon her, and her uncle, seeing that she was
+      beginning to look fagged, said, &ldquo;The best thing that you can do, Isobel,
+      is to go indoors for a bit, and have a good nap. At five o'clock I will
+      take you round for a drive, and show you the sights of Cawnpore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do feel sleepy,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;though it sounds rude to say so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all,&rdquo; the Doctor put in; &ldquo;if any of these young fellows had made
+      the journey out from Allahabad in that wretched gharry, they would have
+      turned into bed as soon as they arrived, and would not have got up till
+      the first mess bugle sounded, and very likely would have slept on until
+      next morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; he went on, when Isobel had disappeared, &ldquo;we will adjourn with you
+      to the mess-house. That young lady would have very small chance of getting
+      to sleep with all this racket here. Doolan's voice alone would banish
+      sleep anywhere within a distance of a hundred yards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will join you there later, Doctor,&rdquo; the Major said. &ldquo;I have got a
+      couple of hours' work in the orderly-room. Rumzan, don't let my niece be
+      disturbed, but if she wakes and rings the bell send up a message by the
+      woman that I-shall not be back until four.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major walked across to the orderly room, while the rest, mounting
+      their buggies, drove to the mess-house, which was a quarter of a mile
+      away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should think Miss Hannay will prove a valuable addition to our circle,
+      Doctor,&rdquo; the Adjutant said. &ldquo;I don't know why, but I gathered from what
+      the Major said that his niece was very young. He spoke of her as if she
+      were quite a child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is a very nice, sensible young woman,&rdquo; the Doctor said; &ldquo;clever and
+      bright, and, as you can see for your-selves, pretty, and yet no nonsense
+      about her. I only hope that she won't get spoilt here; nineteen out of
+      twenty young women do get spoilt within six months of their arrival in
+      India, but I think she will be one of the exceptions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should have liked to have seen the Doctor doing chaperon,&rdquo; Captain
+      Doolan laughed; &ldquo;he would have been a brave man who would have attempted
+      even the faintest flirtation with anyone under his charge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is your opinion, is it, Doolan?&rdquo; the Doctor said sharply. &ldquo;I should
+      have thought that even your common sense would have told you that anyone
+      who has had the misfortune to see as much of womankind as I have would
+      have been aware that any endeavor to check a flirtation for which they are
+      inclined would be of all others the way to induce them to go in for it
+      headlong. You are a married man yourself, and ought to know that. A woman
+      is a good deal like a spirited horse; let her have her head, and, though
+      she may for a time make the pace pretty fast, she will go straight, and
+      settle down to her collar in time, whereas if you keep a tight curb she
+      will fret and fidget, and as likely as not make a bolt for it. I can
+      assure you that my duties were of The most nominal description. There were
+      the usual number of hollow pated lads on board, who buzzed in their usual
+      feeble way round Miss Hannay, and were one after another duly snubbed.
+      Miss Hannay has plenty of spirits, and a considerable sense of humor, and
+      I think that she enjoyed the voyage thoroughly. And now let us talk of
+      something else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After an hour's chat the Doctor started on his round of calls upon the
+      ladies; the Major had not come in from the orderly room, and, after the
+      Doctor left, Isobel Hannay was again the topic of conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is out and out the prettiest girl in the station,&rdquo; the Adjutant said
+      to some of the officers who had not seen her. &ldquo;She will make quite a
+      sensation; and there are five or six ladies in the station, whose names I
+      need hardly mention, who will not be very pleased at her coming. She is
+      thoroughly in good form, too; nothing in the slightest degree fast or
+      noisy about her. She is quiet and self-possessed. I fancy she will be able
+      to hold her own against any of them. Clever? I should say 'certainly';
+      but, of course, that is from her face rather than from anything she said.
+      I expect half the unmarried men in the station will be going wild over
+      her. You need not look so interested, Wilson; the matter is of no more
+      personal interest to you than if I were describing a new comet. Nothing
+      less than a big civilian is likely to carry off such a prize, so I warn
+      you beforehand you had better not be losing your heart to her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you know, Prothero, subalterns do manage to get wives sometimes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is true enough, Wilson; but then, you see, I married at home;
+      besides, I am adjutant, which sounds a lot better than subaltern.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That may go for a good deal in the regiment,&rdquo; Wilson retorted, &ldquo;but I
+      doubt if there are many women that know the difference between an adjutant
+      and a quartermaster. They know about colonels, majors, captains, and even
+      subalterns; but if you were to say that you were an adjutant they would be
+      simply mystified, though they might understand if you said bandmaster. But
+      I fancy sergeant major would sound ever so much more imposing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wilson, if you are disrespectful, I shall discover tomorrow, on parade,
+      that No. 3 Company wants a couple of hours' extra drill badly, and then
+      you will feel how grievous a mistake it is to cheek an adjutant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The report of those who had called at the Major's was so favorable that
+      curiosity was quite roused as to the new-comer, and when the Major drove
+      round with her the next day everyone was at home, and the verdict on the
+      part of the ladies was generally favorable, but was by no means so
+      unqualified as that of the gentlemen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Cromarty admitted that she was nice looking; but was critical as to
+      her carriage and manner. She would be admired by young officers, no doubt,
+      but there was too much life and animation about her, and although she
+      would not exactly say that she stooped, she was likely to do so in time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She will be nothing remarkable when her freshness has worn off a little.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In this opinion the Misses Cromarty thoroughly assented. They had never
+      been accused of stooping, and, indeed, were almost painfully upright, and
+      were certainly not particularly admired by subalterns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Doolan was charmed with her, and told her she hoped that they would
+      be great friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a very pleasant life out here, my dear,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;if one does
+      but take it in the right way. There is a great deal of tittle tattle in
+      the Indian stations, and some quarreling; but, you know, it takes two to
+      make a quarrel, and I make it a point never to quarrel with anyone. It is
+      too hot for it. Then, you see, I have the advantage of being Irish, and,
+      for some reason or other that I don't understand we can say pretty nearly
+      what we like. People don't take us seriously, you know; so I keep in with
+      them all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Rintoul received her visitors on the sofa. &ldquo;It is quite refreshing to
+      see a face straight from England, Miss Hannay. I only hope that you may
+      keep your bright color and healthy looks. Some people do. Not their color,
+      but their health. Unfortunately I am not one of them. I do not know what
+      it is to have a day's health. The climate completely oppresses me, and I
+      am fit for nothing. You would hardly believe that I was as strong and
+      healthy as you are when I first came out. You came out with Dr. Wade&mdash;a
+      clever man&mdash;I have a very high opinion of his talent, but my case is
+      beyond him. It is a sad annoyance to him that it is so, and he is
+      continually trying to make me believe that there is nothing the matter
+      with me, as if my looks did not speak for themselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Rintoul afterwards told her husband she could hardly say that she
+      liked Miss Hannay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is distressingly brisk and healthy, and I should say, my dear, not of
+      a sympathetic nature, which is always a pity in a young woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After this somewhat depressing visit, the call upon Mrs. Roberts was a
+      refreshing one. She received her very cordially.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I like you, Miss Hannay,&rdquo; she said, when, after a quarter of an hour's
+      lively talk, the Major and his niece got up to go. &ldquo;I always say what I
+      think, and it is very good natured of me to say so, for I don't disguise
+      from myself that you will put my nose out of joint.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want to put anyone's nose out of joint,&rdquo; Isobel laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will do it, whether you want to or not,&rdquo; Mrs. Roberts said; &ldquo;my
+      husband as much as told me so last night, and I was prepared not to like
+      you, but I see that I shall not be able to help doing so. Major Hannay,
+      you have dealt me a heavy blow, but I forgive you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the round of visits was finished the Major said, &ldquo;Well, Isobel, what
+      do you think of the ladies of the regiment?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think they are all very nice, uncle. I fancy I shall like Mrs. Doolan
+      and Mrs. Scarsdale best; I won't give any opinion yet about Mrs.
+      Cromarty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The life of Isobel Hannay had not, up to the time when she left England to
+      join her uncle, been a very bright one. At the death of her father, her
+      mother had been left with an income that enabled her to live, as she said,
+      genteelly, at Brighton. She had three children: the eldest a girl of
+      twelve; Isobel, who was eight; and a boy of five, who was sadly deformed,
+      the result of a fall from the arms of a careless nurse when he was an
+      infant. It was at that time that Major Hannay had come home on leave,
+      having been left trustee and executor, and seen to all the money
+      arrangements, and had established his brother's widow at Brighton. The
+      work had not been altogether pleasant, for Mrs. Hannay was a selfish and
+      querulous woman, very difficult to satisfy even in little matters, and
+      with a chronic suspicion that everyone with whom she came in contact was
+      trying to get the best of her. Her eldest girl was likely, Captain Hannay
+      thought, to take after her mother, whose pet she was, while Isobel took
+      after her father. He had suggested that both should be sent to school, but
+      Mrs. Hannay would not hear of parting from Helena, but was willing enough
+      that Isobel should be sent to a boarding school at her uncle's expense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the years went by, Helena grew up, as Mrs. Hannay proudly said, the
+      image of what she herself had been at her age&mdash;tall and fair,
+      indolent and selfish, fond of dress and gayety, discontented because their
+      means would not permit them to indulge in either to the fullest extent.
+      There was nothing in common between her and her sister, who, when at home
+      for the holidays, spent her time almost entirely with her brother, who
+      received but slight attention from anyone else, his deformity being
+      considered as a personal injury and affliction by his mother and elder
+      sister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You could not care less for him,&rdquo; Isobel once said, in a fit of passion,
+      &ldquo;if he were a dog. I don't think you notice him more, not one bit. He
+      wanders about the house without anybody to give a thought to him. I call
+      it cruel, downright cruel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a wicked girl, Isobel,&rdquo; her mother said angrily, &ldquo;a wicked,
+      violent girl, and I don't know what will become of you. It is abominable
+      of you to talk so, even if you are wicked enough to get into a passion.
+      What can we do for him that we don't do? What is the use of talking to him
+      when he never pays attention to what we say, and is always moping. I am
+      sure we get everything that we think will please him, and he goes out for
+      a walk with us every day; what could possibly be done more for him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A great deal more might be done for him,&rdquo; Isobel burst out. &ldquo;You might
+      love him, and that would be everything to him. I don't believe you and
+      Helena love him, not one bit, not one tiny scrap.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go up to your room, Isobel, and remain there for the rest of the day. You
+      are a very bad girl. I shall write to Miss Virtue about you; there must be
+      something very wrong in her management of you, or you would never be so
+      passionate and insolent as you are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Isobel had not stopped to hear the last part of the sentence, the door
+      had slammed behind her. She was not many minutes alone upstairs, for
+      Robert soon followed her up, for when she was at home he rarely left her
+      side, watching her every look and gesture with eyes as loving as those of
+      a dog, and happy to sit on the ground beside her, with his head leaning
+      against her, for hours together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hannay kept her word and wrote to Miss Virtue, and the evening after
+      she returned to school Isobel was summoned to her room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry to say, I have a very bad account of you from your mother. She
+      says you are a passionate and wicked girl. How is it, dear; you are not
+      passionate here, and I certainly do not think you are wicked?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't help it when I am at home, Miss Virtue. I am sure I try to be
+      good, but they won't let me. They don't like me because I can't be always
+      tidy and what they call prettily behaved, and because I hate walking on
+      the parade and being stuck up and unnatural, and they don't like me
+      because I am not pretty, and because I am thin and don't look, as mamma
+      says, a credit to her; but it is not that so much as because of Robert.
+      You know he is deformed, Miss Virtue, and they don't care for him, and he
+      has no one to love him but me, and it makes me mad to see him treated so.
+      That is what it was she wrote about. I told her they treated him like a
+      dog and so they do,&rdquo; and she burst into tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But that was very naughty, Isobel,&rdquo; Miss Virtue said gravely. &ldquo;You are
+      only eleven years old, and too young to be a judge of these matters, and
+      even if it were as you say, it is not for a child to speak so to her
+      mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know that, Miss Virtue, but how can I help it? I could cry out with
+      pain when I see Robert looking from one to the other just for a kind word,
+      which he never gets. It is no use, Miss Virtue; if it was not for him I
+      would much rather never go home at all, but stop here through the
+      holidays, only what would he do if I didn't go home? I am the only
+      pleasure he has. When I am there he will sit for hours on my knee, and lay
+      his head on my shoulder, and stroke my face. It makes me feel as if my
+      heart would break.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear,&rdquo; Miss Virtue said, somewhat puzzled, &ldquo;it is sad, if it is
+      as you say, but that does not excuse your being disrespectful to your
+      mother. It is not for you to judge her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But cannot something be done for Robert, Miss Virtue? Surely they must do
+      something for children like him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are people, my dear, who take a few afflicted children and give
+      them special training. Children of that kind have sometimes shown a great
+      deal of unusual talent, and, if so, it is cultivated, and they are put in
+      a way of earning a livelihood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there?&rdquo; Isobel exclaimed, with eager eyes. &ldquo;Then I know what I will
+      do, Miss Virtue; I will write off at once to Uncle Tom&mdash;he is our
+      guardian. I know if I were to speak to mamma about Robert going to school
+      it would be of no use; but if uncle writes I dare say it would be done. I
+      am sure she and Helena would be glad enough. I don't suppose she ever
+      thought of it. It would be a relief to them to get him out of their
+      sight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Virtue shook her head. &ldquo;You must not talk so, Isobel. It is not right
+      or dutiful, and you are a great deal too young to judge your elders, even
+      if they were not related to you; and, pray, if you write to your uncle do
+      not write in that spirit&mdash;it would shock him greatly, and he would
+      form a very bad opinion of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so Isobel wrote. She was in the habit of writing once every half year
+      to her uncle, who had told her that he wished her to do so, and that
+      people out abroad had great pleasure in letters from England. Hitherto she
+      had only written about her school life, and this letter caused her a great
+      deal of trouble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It answered its purpose. Captain Hannay had no liking either for his
+      sister in law or his eldest niece, and had, when he was with them, been
+      struck with the neglect with which the little boy was treated. Isobel had
+      taken great pains not to say anything that would show she considered that
+      Robert was harshly treated; but had simply said that she heard there were
+      schools where little boys like him could be taught, and that it would be
+      such a great thing for him, as it was very dull for him having nothing to
+      do all day. But Captain Hannay read through the lines, and felt that it
+      was a protest against her brother's treatment, and that she would not have
+      written to him had she not felt that so only would anything be done for
+      him. Accordingly he wrote home to his sister in law, saying he thought it
+      was quite time now that the boy should be placed with some gentleman who
+      took a few lads unfitted for the rough life of an ordinary school. He
+      should take the charges upon himself, and had written to his agent in
+      London to find out such an establishment, to make arrangements for Robert
+      to go there, and to send down one of his clerks to take charge of him on
+      the journey. He also wrote to Isobel, telling her what he had done, and
+      blaming himself for not having thought of it before, winding up by saying:
+      &ldquo;I have not mentioned to your mother that I heard from you about it&mdash;that
+      is a little secret just as well to keep to ourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next five years were much happier to Isobel, for the thought of her
+      brother at home without her had before been constantly on her mind. It was
+      a delight to her now to go home and to see the steady improvement that
+      took place in Robert. He was brighter in every respect, and expressed
+      himself as most happy where he was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As years went on he grew into a bright and intelligent boy, though his
+      health was by no means good, and he looked frail and delicate. He was as
+      passionately attached to her as ever, and during the holidays they were
+      never separated; they stood quite alone, their mother and sister
+      interesting themselves but little in their doings, and they were allowed
+      to take long walks together, and to sit in a room by themselves, where
+      they talked, drew, painted, and read.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hannay disapproved of Isobel as much as ever. &ldquo;She is a most
+      headstrong girl,&rdquo; she would lament to her friends, &ldquo;and is really quite
+      beyond my control. I do not at all approve of the school she is at, but
+      unfortunately my brother in law, who is her guardian, has, under the will
+      of my poor husband, absolute control in the matter. I am sure poor John
+      never intended that he should be able to override my wishes; but though I
+      have written to him several times about it, he says that he sees no valid
+      reason for any change, and that from Isobel's letters to him she seems
+      very happy there, and to be getting on well. She is so very unlike dear
+      Helena, and even when at home I see but little of her; she is completely
+      wrapped up in her unfortunate brother. Of course I don't blame her for
+      that, but it is not natural that a girl her age should care nothing for
+      pleasures or going out or the things natural to young people. Yes, she is
+      certainly improving in appearance, and if she would but take some little
+      pains about her dress would be really very presentable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But her mother's indifference disturbed Isobel but little. She was
+      perfectly happy with her brother when at home, and very happy at school,
+      where she was a general favorite. She was impulsive, high spirited, and
+      occasionally gave Miss Virtue some trouble, but her disposition was frank
+      and generous, there was not a tinge of selfishness in her disposition, and
+      while she was greatly liked by girls of her own age, she was quite adored
+      by little ones. The future that she always pictured to herself was a
+      little cottage with a bright garden in the suburbs of London, where she
+      and Robert could live together&mdash;she would go out as a daily
+      governess; Robert, who was learning to play the organ, would, she hoped,
+      get a post as organist. Not, of course, for the sake of the salary, for
+      her earnings, and the interest of the thousand pounds that would be hers
+      when she came of age, would be sufficient for them both, but as an
+      amusement for him, and to give him a sense of independence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when she was just seventeen, and was looking forward to the time when
+      she would begin to carry her plan into effect, a terrible blow came. She
+      heard from her mother that Robert was dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a sad blow for us all,&rdquo; Mrs. Hannay wrote, &ldquo;but, as you know, he
+      has never been strong; still, we had no idea that anything serious ailed
+      him until we heard a fortnight since he was suffering from a violent cough
+      and had lost strength rapidly. A week later we heard that the doctors were
+      of opinion it was a case of sudden consumption, and that the end was
+      rapidly approaching. I went up to town to see him, and found him even
+      worse than I expected, and was in no way surprised when this morning I
+      received a letter saying that he had gone. Great as is the blow, one
+      cannot but feel that, terribly afflicted as he was, his death is, as far
+      as he is concerned, a happy release. I trust you will now abandon your
+      wild scheme of teaching and come home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But home was less home than ever to Isobel now, and she remained another
+      six months at school, when she received an important letter from her
+      uncle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Dear Isobel: When you first wrote to me and told me that what you were
+      most looking forward to was to make a home for your brother, I own that it
+      was a blow to me, for I had long had plans of my own about you; however, I
+      thought your desire to help your brother was so natural, and would give
+      you such happiness in carrying it into effect, that I at once fell in with
+      it and put aside my own plan. But the case is altered now, and I can see
+      no reason why I cannot have my own way. When I was in England I made up my
+      mind that unless I married, which was a most improbable contingency, I
+      would, when you were old enough, have you out to keep house for me. I
+      foresaw, even then, that your brother might prove an obstacle to this
+      plan. Even in the short time I was with you it was easy enough to see that
+      the charge of him would fall on your shoulders, and that it would be a
+      labor of love to you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he lived, then, I felt you would not leave him, and that you would be
+      right in not doing so, but even then it seemed likely to me that he would
+      not grow up to manhood. From time to time I have been in correspondence
+      with the clergyman he was with, and learned that the doctor who attended
+      them thought but poorly of him. I had him taken to two first class
+      physicians in London; they pronounced him to be constitutionally weak, and
+      said that beyond strengthening medicines and that sort of thing they could
+      do nothing for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Therefore, dear, it was no surprise to me when I received first your
+      mother's letter with the news, and then your own written a few days later.
+      When I answered that letter I thought it as well not to say anything of my
+      plan, but by the time you receive this, it will be six months since your
+      great loss, and you will be able to look at it in a fairer light than you
+      could have done then, and I do hope you will agree to come out to me. Life
+      here has its advantages and disadvantages, but I think that, especially
+      for young people, it is a pleasant one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am getting very tired of a bachelor's establishment, and it will be a
+      very great pleasure indeed to have you here. Ever since I was in England I
+      made up my mind to adopt you as my own child. You are very like my brother
+      John, and your letters and all I have heard of you show that you have
+      grown up just as he would have wished you to do. Your sister Helena is
+      your mother's child, and, without wishing to hurt your feelings, your
+      mother and I have nothing in common. I regard you as the only relation I
+      have in the world, and whether you come out or whether you do not,
+      whatever I leave behind me will be yours. I do hope that you will at any
+      rate come out for a time. Later on, if you don't like the life here, you
+      can fall back upon your own plan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you decide to come, write to my agent. I inclose envelope addressed to
+      him. Tell him when you can be ready. He will put you in the way of the
+      people you had better go to for your outfit, will pay all bills, take your
+      passage, and so on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whatever you do, do not stint yourself. The people you go to will know a
+      great deal better than you can do what is necessary for a lady out here.
+      All you will have to do will be to get measured and to give them an idea
+      of your likes and fancies as to colors and so on. They will have
+      instructions from my agent to furnish you with a complete outfit, and will
+      know exactly how many dozens of everything are required.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can see no reason why you should not start within a month after the
+      receipt of this letter, and I shall look most anxiously for a letter from
+      you saying that you will come, and that you will start by a sailing ship
+      in a month at latest from the date of your writing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel did not hesitate, as her faith in her uncle was unbounded. Next to
+      her meetings with her brother, his letters had been her greatest
+      pleasures. He had always taken her part; it was he who, at her request,
+      had Robert placed at school, and he had kept her at Miss Virtue's in spite
+      of her mother's complaints. At home she had never felt comfortable; it had
+      always seemed to her that she was in the way; her mother disapproved of
+      her; while from Helena she had never had a sisterly word. To go out to
+      India to see the wonders she had read of, and to be her uncle's companion,
+      seemed a perfectly delightful prospect. Her answer to her uncle was sent
+      off the day after she received his letter, and that day month she stepped
+      on board an Indiaman in the London Docks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The intervening time had not been a pleasant one. Mrs. Hannay had heard
+      from the Major of his wishes and intentions regarding Isobel, and she was
+      greatly displeased thereat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should he have chosen you instead of Helena?&rdquo; she said angrily to
+      Isobel, on the first day of her arrival home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose because he thought I should suit him better, mamma. I really
+      don't see why you should be upset about it; I don't suppose Helena would
+      have liked to go, and I am sure you would not have liked to have had me
+      with you instead of her. I should have thought you would have been pleased
+      I was off your hands altogether. It doesn't seem to me that you have ever
+      been really glad to have me about you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That has been entirely your own fault,&rdquo; Mrs. Hannay said. &ldquo;You have
+      always been headstrong and determined to go your own way, you have never
+      been fit to be seen when anyone came, you have thwarted me in every way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am very sorry, mamma. I think I might have been better if you had had a
+      little more patience with me, but even now if you really wish me to stay
+      at home I will do so. I can write again to uncle and tell him that I have
+      changed my mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not,&rdquo; Mrs. Hannay said. &ldquo;Naturally I should wish to have my
+      children with me, but I doubt whether your being here would be for the
+      happiness of any of us, and besides, I do not wish your uncle's money to
+      go out of the family; he might take it into his head to leave it to a
+      hospital for black women. Still, it would have been only right and proper
+      that he should at any rate have given Helena the first choice. As for your
+      instant acceptance of his offer, without even consulting me, nothing can
+      surprise me in that way after your general conduct towards me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      However, although Mrs. Hannay declined to take any interest in Isobel's
+      preparations, and continued to behave as an injured person, neither she
+      nor Helena were sorry at heart for the arrangement that had been made.
+      They objected very strongly to Isobel's plan of going out as a governess;
+      but upon the other hand, her presence at home would in many ways have been
+      an inconvenience. Two can make a better appearance on a fixed income than
+      three can, and her presence at home would have necessitated many small
+      economies. She was, too, a disturbing element; the others understood each
+      other perfectly, and both felt that they in no way understood Isobel.
+      Altogether, it was much better that she should go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to the heirship, Captain Hannay had spoken freely as to his monetary
+      affairs when he had been in England after his brother's death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My pay is amply sufficient for all my wants,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;but everything is
+      expensive out there, and I have had no occasion to save. I have a few
+      hundred pounds laid by, so that if I break down, and am ordered to Europe
+      at any time on sick leave, I can live comfortably for that time; but,
+      beyond that, there has been no reason why I should lay by. I am not likely
+      ever to marry, and when I have served my full time my pension will be
+      ample for my wants in England; but I shall do my best to help if help is
+      necessary. Fortunately the interest of the thousand apiece the girls were
+      left by my aunt will help your income. When it is necessary to do anything
+      for Robert, poor lad, I will take that expense on myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought all Indians came home with lots of money,&rdquo; Mrs. Hannay said
+      complainingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not the military. We do the fighting, and get fairly paid for it. The
+      civilians get five times as highly paid, and run no risks whatever. Why it
+      should be so no one has ever attempted to explain; but there it is,
+      sister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hannay, therefore, although she complained of the partiality shown to
+      Isobel, was well aware that the Major's savings could amount to no very
+      great sum; although, in nine years, with higher rank and better pay, he
+      might have added a good bit to the little store of which he had spoken to
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When, a week before the vessel sailed, Dr. Wade appeared with a letter he
+      had received from the Major, asking him to take charge of Isobel on the
+      voyage, Mrs. Hannay conceived a violent objection to him. He had, in fact,
+      been by no means pleased with the commission, and had arrived in an
+      unusually aggressive and snappish humor. He cut short Mrs. Hannay's well
+      turned sentences ruthlessly, and aggrieved her by remarking on Helena's
+      want of color, and recommending plenty of walking exercise taken at a
+      brisk pace, and more ease and comfort in the matter of dress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your daughter's lungs have no room to play, madam,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;her heart
+      is compressed. No one can expect to be healthy under such circumstances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have my own medical attendant, Dr. Wade,&rdquo; Mrs. Hannay said decidedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt, madam, no doubt. All I can say is, if his recommendations are
+      not the same as mine, he must be a downright fool. Very well, Miss Hannay,
+      I think we understand each other; I shall be on board by eleven o'clock,
+      and shall keep a sharp lookout for you. Don't be later than twelve; she
+      will warp out of the dock by one at latest, and if you miss that your only
+      plan will be to take the train down to Tilbury, and hire a boat there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall be in time, sir,&rdquo; Isobel said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I hope you will, but my experience of women is pretty extensive,
+      and I have scarcely met one who could be relied upon to keep an
+      appointment punctually. Don't laden yourself more than you can help with
+      little bags, and parcels, and bundles of all kinds; I expect you will be
+      three or four in a cabin, and you will find that there is no room for
+      litter. Take the things you will require at first in one or two flat
+      trunks which will stow under your berth; once a week or so, if the weather
+      is fine, you will be able to get at your things in the hold. Do try if
+      possible to pack all the things that you are likely to want to get at
+      during the voyage in one trunk, and have a star or any mark you like
+      painted on that trunk with your name, then there will be no occasion for
+      the sailors to haul twenty boxes upon deck. Be sure you send all your
+      trunks on board, except those you want in your cabin, two days before she
+      sails. Do you think you can remember all that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think so, Dr. Wade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well then, I'm off,&rdquo; and the Doctor shook hands with Isobel, nodded
+      to Mrs. Hannay and Helena, and hurried away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a perfectly detestable little man!&rdquo; Mrs. Hannay exclaimed, as the
+      door closed over him. &ldquo;Your uncle must have been out of his senses to
+      select such an odious person to look after you on the voyage. I really
+      pity you, Isobel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no doubt he is very much nicer than he seems, mamma. Uncle said,
+      you know, in his letter last week, that he had written to Dr. Wade to look
+      after me, if, as he thought probable, he might be coming out in the same
+      ship. He said that he was a little brusque in his manner, but that he was
+      a general favorite, and one of the kindest hearted of men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A little brusque,&rdquo; Mrs. Hannay repeated scornfully. &ldquo;If he is only
+      considered a little brusque in India, all I can say is society must be in
+      a lamentable state out there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Uncle says he is a great shikari, and has probably killed more tigers
+      than any man in India.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I really don't see that that is any recommendation whatever, Isobel,
+      although it might be if you were likely to encounter tigers on board ship.
+      However, I am not surprised that your opinion differs from mine; we very
+      seldom see matters in the same light. I only hope you may be right and I
+      may be wrong, for otherwise the journey is not likely to be a very
+      pleasant one for you; personally, I would almost as soon have a Bengal
+      tiger loose about the ship than such a very rude, unmannerly person as Dr.
+      Wade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hannay and Helena accompanied Isobel to the docks, and went on board
+      ship with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor received them at the gangway. He was in a better temper, for
+      the fact that he was on the point of starting for India again had put him
+      in high spirits. He escorted the party below and saw that they got lunch,
+      showed Isobel which was her cabin, introduced her to two or three ladies
+      of his acquaintance, and made himself so generally pleasant that even Mrs.
+      Hannay was mollified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as luncheon was over the bell was rung, and the partings were
+      hurriedly got through, as the pilot announced that the tide was slackening
+      nearly half an hour before its time, and that it was necessary to get the
+      ship out of dock at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Miss Hannay, if you will take my advice,&rdquo; the Doctor said, as soon
+      as the ship was fairly in the stream, &ldquo;you will go below, get out all the
+      things you will want from your boxes, and get matters tidy and
+      comfortable. In the first place, it will do you good to be busy; and in
+      the second place, there is nothing like getting everything shipshape in
+      the cabin the very first thing after starting, then you are ready for
+      rough weather or anything else that may occur. I have got you a chair. I
+      thought that very likely you would not think of it, and a passenger
+      without a chair of her own is a most forlorn creature, I can tell you.
+      When you have done down below you will find me somewhere aft; if you
+      should not do so, look out for a chair with your own name on it and take
+      possession of it, but I think you are sure to see me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Before they had been a fortnight at sea Isobel came to like the Doctor
+      thoroughly. He knew many of the passengers on board the Byculla, and she
+      had soon many acquaintances. She was amused at the description that the
+      Doctor gave her of some of the people to whom he introduced her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going to introduce you to that woman in the severely plain cloak and
+      ugly bonnet. She is the wife of the Resident of Rajputana. I knew her when
+      her husband was a Collector.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Collector, Dr. Wade; what did he collect?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear, he didn't collect taxes or water rates or anything of that
+      sort. A Collector is a civil functionary, and frequently an important one.
+      I used to attend her at one time when we were in cantonments at Bhurtpore,
+      where her husband was stationed at that time. I pulled a tooth out for her
+      once, and she halloaed louder than any woman I ever heard. I don't mean to
+      say, my dear, that woman holloa any louder than men; on the contrary, they
+      bear pain a good deal better, but she was an exception. She was twelve
+      years younger then, and used to dress a good deal more than she does now.
+      That cloak and bonnet are meant to convey to the rest of the passengers
+      the fact that there is no occasion whatever for a person of her importance
+      to attend to such petty matters as dress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She never mentions her husband's name without saying, 'My husband, the
+      Resident,' but for all that she is a kind hearted woman&mdash;a very kind
+      hearted woman. I pulled a child of hers through who was down with fever at
+      Bhurtpore; he had a very close shave of it, and she has never forgotten
+      it. She greeted me when she came on board almost with tears in her eyes at
+      the thought of that time. I told her I had a young lady under my charge,
+      and she said that she would be very pleased to do anything she could for
+      you. She is a stanch friend is Mrs. Resident, and you will find her useful
+      before you get to the end of the voyage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lady received Isobel with genuine kindness, and took her very much
+      under her wing during the voyage, and Isobel received no small advantage
+      from her advice and protection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her own good sense, however, and the earnest life she had led at school
+      and with her brother at home, would have sufficed her even without this
+      guardianship and that of the Doctor. There was a straightforward frankness
+      about her that kept men from talking nonsense to her. A compliment she
+      simply laughed at, an attempt at flattery made her angry, and the Doctor
+      afterwards declared to her uncle he would not have believed that the
+      guardianship of a girl upon the long Indian voyage could possibly have
+      caused him so little trouble and annoyance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I read your letter, Major, my hair stood on end, and if my leave had
+      not been up I should have canceled my passage and come by the next ship;
+      and indeed when I went down to see her I had still by no means made up my
+      mind as to whether I would not take my chance of getting out in time by
+      the next vessel. However, I liked her appearance, and, as I have said, it
+      turned out excellently, and I should not mind making another voyage in
+      charge of her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Two days after his arrival at Cawnpore Dr. Wade moved into quarters of his
+      own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I like Dr. Wade very much indeed, you know, uncle, still I am glad to
+      have you all to myself and to settle down into regular ways.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, we have got to learn to know each other, Isobel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think so, uncle? Why, it seems to me that I know all about you,
+      just the same as if we had always been together, and I am sure I always
+      told you all about myself, even when I was bad at school and got into
+      scrapes, because you said particularly that you liked me to tell you
+      everything, and did not want to know only the good side of me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that is so, my dear, and no doubt I have a fair idea as to what are
+      your strong points and what are your weak ones, but neither one or the
+      other affect greatly a person's ordinary everyday character. It is the
+      little things, the trifles, the way of talking, the way of listening, the
+      amount of sympathy shown, and so on, that make a man or woman popular.
+      People do not ask whether he or she may be morally sleeping volcanoes,
+      who, if fairly roused, might slay a rival or burn a city; they simply look
+      at the surface&mdash;is a man or a woman pleasant, agreeable, easily
+      pleased, ready to take a share in making things go, to show a certain
+      amount of sympathy in other people's pleasures or troubles&mdash;in fact,
+      to form a pleasant unit of the society of a station?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So in the house you might be the most angelic temper in the world, but if
+      you wore creaky boots, had a habit of slamming doors, little tricks of
+      giggling or fidgeting with your hands or feet, you would be an unpleasant
+      companion, for you would be constantly irritating one in small matters. Of
+      course, it is just the same thing with your opinion of me. You have an
+      idea that I am a good enough sort of fellow, because I have done my best
+      to enable you to carry out your plans and wishes, but that has nothing to
+      do at all with my character as a man to live with. Till we saw each other,
+      when you got out of the gharry, we really knew nothing whatever of each
+      other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel shook her head decidedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing will persuade me that I didn't know everything about you, uncle.
+      You are just exactly what I knew you would be in look, and voice, in
+      manner and ways and everything. Of course, it is partly from what I
+      remember, but I really did not see a great deal of you in those days; it
+      is from your letters, I think, entirely that I knew all about you, and
+      exactly what you were. Do you mean to say that I am not just what you
+      thought I should be?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, not so clearly as all that, Isobel. Of course you were only a
+      little child when I saw you, and except that you had big brown eyes, and
+      long eyelashes, I confess that it struck me that you were rather a plain
+      little thing, and I do not think that your mother's letters since conveyed
+      to my mind the fact that there had been any material change since.
+      Therefore I own that you are personally quite different from what I had
+      expected to find you. I had expected to find you, I think, rather stumpy
+      in figure, and square in build, with a very determined and businesslike
+      manner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense, uncle, you could not have expected that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear, I did, and you see I find I was utterly wrong.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you are not discontented, uncle?&rdquo; Isobel asked, with a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, my dear, but perhaps not quite so contented as you may think I ought
+      to be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why is that, uncle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear, if you had been what I had pictured you, I might have had
+      you four or five years to myself. Possibly you might even have gone home
+      with me, to keep house for me in England, when I retire. As it is now, I
+      give myself six months at the outside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What nonsense, uncle! You don't suppose I am going to fall in love with
+      the first man who presents himself? Why, everyone says the sea voyage is a
+      most trying time, and, you see, I came through that quite scathless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Besides, uncle,&rdquo; and she laughed, &ldquo;there is safety in multitude, and I
+      think that a girl would be far more likely to fall in love in some country
+      place, where she only saw one or two men, than where there are numbers of
+      them. Besides, it seems to me that in India a girl cannot feel that she is
+      chosen, as it were, from among other girls, as she would do at home. There
+      are so few girls, and so many men here, there must be a sort of feeling
+      that you are only appreciated because there is nothing better to be had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, of course, uncle, you can understand that the idea of love making
+      and marrying never entered my head at all until I went on board a ship. As
+      you know, I always used to think that Robert and I would live together,
+      and I am quite sure that I should never have left him if he had lived. If
+      I had stopped in England I should have done the work I had trained myself
+      to do, and it might have been years and years, and perhaps never, before
+      anyone might have taken a fancy to me, or I to him. It seems strange, and
+      I really don't think pleasant, uncle, for everyone to take it for granted
+      that because a girl comes out to India she is a candidate for marriage. I
+      think it is degrading, uncle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Doctor was telling me yesterday that you had some idea of that sort,&rdquo;
+       the Major said, with a slight smile, &ldquo;and I think girls often start with
+      that sort of idea. But it is like looking on at a game. You don't feel
+      interested in it until you begin to play at it. Well, the longer you
+      entertain those ideas the better I shall be pleased, Isobel. I only hope
+      that you may long remain of the same mind, and that when your time does
+      come your choice will be a wise one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There could be no doubt that the Major's niece was a great success in the
+      regiment. Richards and Wilson, two lads who had joined six months before,
+      succumbed at once, and mutual animosity succeeded the close friendship
+      they had hitherto entertained for each other. Travers, the Senior Captain,
+      a man who had hitherto been noted for his indifference to the charms of
+      female society, went so far as to admit that Miss Hannay was a very nice,
+      unaffected girl. Mrs. Doolan was quite enthusiastic about her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is very lucky, Jim,&rdquo; she said to her husband, &ldquo;that you were a sober
+      and respected married man before she came out, and that I am installed
+      here as your lawful and wedded wife instead of being at Ballycrogin with
+      only an engagement ring on my finger. I know your susceptible nature; you
+      would have fallen in love with her, and she would not have had you, and we
+      should both of us have been miserable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know she wouldn't have had me, Norah?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, my dear, she will be able to pick and choose just where she
+      likes; and though no one recognizes your virtues more than I do, a company
+      in an Indian regiment is hardly as attractive as a Residency or Lieutenant
+      Governorship. But seriously, she is a dear girl, and as yet does not seem
+      to have the least idea how pretty she is. How cordially some of them will
+      hate her! I anticipate great fun in looking on. I am out of all that sort
+      of thing myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is news to me, Norah; I think you are just as fond of a quiet
+      flirtation as you used to be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just of a very little one, Jim; fortunately not more. So I can look on
+      complacently; but even I have suffered. Why, for weeks not a day has
+      passed without young Richards dropping in for a chat, and when he came in
+      yesterday he could talk about nothing but Miss Hannay, until I shut him up
+      by telling him it was extremely bad form to talk to one lady about
+      another. The boy colored up till I almost laughed in his face; in fact, I
+      believe I did laugh.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I will warrant you did, Norah.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I could not help it, especially when he assured me he was perfectly
+      serious about Miss Hannay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You did not encourage him, I hope, Norah.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; I told him the Colonel set his face against married subalterns, and
+      that he would injure himself seriously in his profession if he were to
+      think of such a thing, and as I knew he had nothing but his pay, that
+      would be fatal to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Doolan went off into a burst of laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he took it all in, Norah? He did not see that you were humbugging him
+      altogether?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bit of it. They are very amusing, these boys, Jim. I was really
+      quite sorry for Richards, but I told him he would get over it in time, for
+      as far as I could learn you had been just as bad thirty-three times before
+      I finally took pity on you, and that I only did it then because you were
+      wearing away with your troubles. I advised him to put the best face he
+      could on it, for that Miss Hannay would be the last person to be pleased,
+      if he were to be going about with a face as long as if he had just come
+      from his aunt's funeral.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The race meeting came off three weeks after Miss Hannay arrived at
+      Cawnpore. She had been to several dinners and parties by this time, and
+      began to know most of the regular residents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The races served as an excuse for people to come in from all the stations
+      round. Men came over from Lucknow, Agra, and Allahabad, and from many a
+      little outlying station; every bungalow in the cantonment was filled with
+      guests, and tents were erected for the accommodation of the overflow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several of the officers of the 103d had horses and ponies entered in the
+      various races. There was to be a dance at the club on the evening of the
+      second day of the races, and a garden party at the General's on that of
+      the first. Richards and Wilson had both ponies entered for the race
+      confined to country tats which had never won a race, and both had
+      endeavored to find without success what was Isobel's favorite color.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you must have some favorite color?&rdquo; Wilson urged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why must I, Mr. Wilson? One thing is suitable for one thing and one
+      another, and I always like a color that is suitable for the occasion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what color are you going to wear at the races, Miss Hannay?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you see, I have several dresses,&rdquo; Isobel said gravely, &ldquo;and I
+      cannot say until the morning arrives which I may wear; it will depend a
+      good deal how I feel. Besides, I might object to your wearing the same
+      color as I do. You remember in the old times, knights, when they entered
+      the lists, wore the favors that ladies had given them. Now I have no idea
+      of giving you a favor. You have done nothing worthy of it. When you have
+      won the Victoria Cross, and distinguished yourself by some extraordinarily
+      gallant action, it will be quite time to think about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see one has to send one's color in four days beforehand, in time for
+      them to print it on the card,&rdquo; the lad said; &ldquo;and besides, one has to get
+      a jacket and cap made.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you don't reflect that it is quite possible your pony won't win after
+      all, and supposing that I had colors, I certainly should not like to see
+      them come in last in the race. Mr. Richards has been asking me just the
+      same thing, and, of course, I gave him the same answer. I can only give
+      you the advice I gave him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was that, Miss Hannay?&rdquo; Wilson asked eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you see, it is not very long since either of you left school, so I
+      should think the best thing for you to wear are your school colors,
+      whatever they were.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And with a merry laugh at his look of discomfiture, Isobel turned away and
+      joined Mrs. Doolan and two or three other ladies who were sitting with
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is one comfort,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan was just saying, &ldquo;in this country,
+      when there is anything coming off, there is no occasion to be anxious as
+      to the weather; one knows that it will be hot, fine, and dusty. One can
+      wear one's gayest dress without fear. In Ireland one never knew whether
+      one wanted muslin or waterproof until the morning came, and even then one
+      could not calculate with any certainty how it would be by twelve o'clock.
+      This will be your first Indian festivity, Miss Hannay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do the natives come much?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should think so! All Cawnpore will turn out, and we shall have the Lord
+      of Bithoor and any number of Talookdars and Zemindars with their suites. A
+      good many of them will have horses entered, and they have some good ones
+      if they could but ride them. The Rajah of Bithoor is a most important
+      personage. He talks English very well, and gives splendid entertainments.
+      He is a most polite gentleman, and is always over here if there is
+      anything going on. The general idea is that he has set his mind on having
+      an English wife, the only difficulty being our objection to polygamy. He
+      has every other advantage, and his wife would have jewels that a queen
+      might envy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel laughed. &ldquo;I don't think jewels would count for much in my ideas of
+      happiness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not so much the jewels, my dear, in themselves, but the envy they
+      would excite in every other woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think I can understand that feeling, Mrs. Doolan. I can
+      understand that there might be a satisfaction in being envied for being
+      the happiest woman, or the most tastefully dressed woman, or even the
+      prettiest woman, though that after all is a mere accident, but not for
+      having the greatest number of bright stones, however valuable. I don't
+      think the most lovely set of diamonds ever seen would give me as much
+      satisfaction as a few choice flowers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, but that is because you are quite young,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said. &ldquo;Eve was
+      tempted by an apple, but Eve had not lived long. You see, an apple will
+      tempt a child, and flowers a young girl. Diamonds are the bait of a
+      woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would not care for diamonds yourself, Mrs. Doolan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know, my dear; the experiment was never tried&mdash;bog oak and
+      Irish diamonds have been more in my line. Jim's pay has never run to
+      diamonds, worse luck, but he has promised me that if he ever gets a chance
+      of looting the palace of a native prince he will keep a special lookout
+      for them for me. So far he has never had the chance. When he was an ensign
+      there was some hard fighting with the Sikhs, but nothing of that sort fell
+      to his share. I often tell him that he took me under false pretenses
+      altogether. I had visions of returning some day and astonishing
+      Ballycrogin, as a sort of begum covered with diamonds; but as far as I can
+      see the children are the only jewels that I am likely to take back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And very nice jewels too,&rdquo; Isobel said heartily; &ldquo;they are dear little
+      things, Mrs. Doolan, and worth all the diamonds in the world. I hear, Mrs.
+      Prothero, that your husband has a good chance of winning the race for
+      Arabs; I intend to wager several pairs of gloves on his horse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Seila is very fast. She won last year. But Nana Sahib has had the
+      horse that won the cup at Poona last year, and is considered one of the
+      fastest in India, brought across from Bombay. Our only hope is that he
+      will put a native up, and in that case we ought to have a fair chance, for
+      the natives have no idea of riding a waiting race, but go off at full
+      speed, and take it all out of their horse before the end of the race.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, we must hope he will, Mrs. Prothero; that seems, from what I hear,
+      the only chance there is of the regiment winning a prize. So all our
+      sympathies will be with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hunter and his wife and their two girls are coming,&rdquo; the Major said, the
+      next morning, as he opened his letters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, uncle, then we will do as we arranged. The Miss Hunters shall
+      have my room, and I will take the little passage room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid it will put you out, Isobel; but they have been here for the
+      last two years at the race times and I did not like not asking them
+      again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, uncle. It will make no difference to me, and I don't require
+      any very great space to apparel myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must have dinners for twelve at least, the day before the races, and
+      on the three days of the meeting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel looked alarmed. &ldquo;I hope you don't rely on me for the arrangements,
+      uncle. At each of the four dinners we have been to I have done nothing but
+      wonder how it was all done, and have been trembling over the thought that
+      it would be our turn presently. It seemed a fearful responsibility; and
+      four, one after the other, is an appalling prospect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rumzan will see to it all, my dear. He has always managed very well
+      before. I will talk it over with him; besides, these will not be like
+      regular set dinner parties. At race meetings everyone keeps pretty nearly
+      open house. One does not ask any of the people at the station; they have
+      all their own visitors. One trusts to chance to fill up the table, and one
+      never finds any difficulty about it. It is lucky I got up a regular stock
+      of china, and so on, in anticipation of your coming. Of course, as a
+      bachelor, I have not been a dinner giver, except on occasions like this,
+      when nobody expects anything like state, and things are conducted to a
+      certain extent in picnic fashion. I have paid off my dinner obligations by
+      having men to mess or the club. However, I will consult Rumzan, and we
+      will have a regular parade of our materials, and you shall inspect our
+      resources. If there is anything in the way of flower vases or center
+      dishes, or anything of that sort, you think requisite, we must get them.
+      Jestonjee has got a good stock of all that sort of thing. As to
+      tablecloths and napkins and so on, I had a supply with the china, so you
+      will find that all right. Of course you will get plenty of flowers; they
+      are the principal things, after all, towards making the table look well.
+      You have had no experience in arranging them, I suppose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None at all, uncle; I never arranged a vase of flowers in my life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I tell you what you had better do, Isobel. You coax the Doctor into
+      coming in and undertaking it. He is famous in that way. He always has the
+      decoration of the mess table on grand occasions; and when we give a dance
+      the flowers and decorations are left to him as a matter of course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will ask him, uncle; but he is the last man in the world I should have
+      thought of in connection with flowers and decorations.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a many sided man, my dear; he paints excellently, and has wonderful
+      taste in the way of dress. I can assure you that no lady in the regiment
+      is quite satisfied with a new costume until it has received the stamp of
+      the Doctor's approval. When we were stationed at Delhi four years ago
+      there was a fancy ball, and people who were judges of that sort of thing
+      said that they had never seen so pretty a collection of dresses, and I
+      should think fully half of them were manufactured from the Doctor's
+      sketches.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember now,&rdquo; Isobel laughed, &ldquo;that he was very sarcastic on board
+      ship as to the dresses of some of the people, but I thought it was only
+      his way of grumbling at things in general, though certainly I generally
+      agreed with him. He told me one day that my taste evidently inclined to
+      the dowdy, but you see I wore half mourning until I arrived out here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor himself dropped in an hour later.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall be glad, Doctor, if you will dine with us as often as you can
+      during the four days of the races,&rdquo; Major Hannay said. &ldquo;Of course, I shall
+      be doing the hospitable to people who come in from out stations, and as
+      Isobel won't know any of them, it will be a little trying to her, acting
+      for the first time in the capacity of hostess. As you know everybody, you
+      will be able to make things go. I have got Hunter and his wife and their
+      two girls coming in to stay. I calculate the table will hold fourteen
+      comfortably enough. At any rate, come first night, even if you can't come
+      on the others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly I will, Major, if you will let me bring Bathurst in with me; he
+      is going to stay with me for the races.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By all means, Doctor; I like what I have seen of him very much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he has got a lot in him,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;only he is always head
+      over heels in work. He will make a big mark before he has done. He is one
+      of the few men out here who has thoroughly mastered the language; he can
+      talk to the natives like one of themselves, and understands them so
+      thoroughly that they are absolutely afraid to lie to him, which is the
+      highest compliment a native can pay to an Indian official. It is very
+      seldom he comes in to this sort of thing, but I seized him the other day
+      and told him that I could see he would break down if he didn't give
+      himself a holiday, and I fairly worried him into saying he would come over
+      and stay for the races. I believe then he would not have come if I had not
+      written to him that all the native swells would be here, and it would be
+      an excellent opportunity for him to talk to them about the establishment
+      of a school for the daughters of the upper class of natives; that is one
+      of his fads at present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it would be a good thing surely, Doctor,&rdquo; Isobel said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt, my dear, no doubt; and so would scores of other things, if you
+      could but persuade the natives so. But this is really one of the most
+      impracticable schemes possible, simply because the whole of these
+      unfortunate children get betrothed when they are two or three years old,
+      and are married at twelve. Even if all parties were agreed, the husband's
+      relations and the wife's relations and everyone else, what are you going
+      to teach a child worth knowing before she gets to the age of twelve? Just
+      enough to make her discontented with her lot. Once get the natives to
+      alter their customs and to marry their women at the age of eighteen, and
+      you may do something for them; but as long as they stick to this idiotic
+      custom of marrying them off when they are still children, the case is
+      hopeless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is something I wanted to ask you, Doctor,&rdquo; Isobel said. &ldquo;You know
+      this is the first time I have had anything to do with entertaining, and I
+      know nothing about decorating a table. Uncle says that you are a great
+      hand at the arrangement of flowers. Would you mind seeing to it for me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor nodded. &ldquo;With pleasure, Miss Hannay. It is a thing I enjoy.
+      There is nothing more lamentable than to see the ignorant, and I may
+      almost say brutal, way in which people bunch flowers up into great masses
+      and call that decoration. They might just as well bunch up so many masses
+      of bright colored rags. The shape of the flower, its manner of growth, and
+      its individuality are altogether lost, and the sole effect produced is
+      that of a confused mass of color. I will undertake that part of the
+      business, and you had better leave the buying of the flowers to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly, Doctor,&rdquo; the Major said; &ldquo;I will give you carte blanche.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I must see your dinner service, Major, so that I may know about its
+      color, and what you have got to put the flowers into.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will have a regular parade tomorrow morning after breakfast, if it
+      would be convenient for you to look in then, and at the same time I will
+      get you to have a talk with Rumzan and the cook. I am almost as new to
+      giving dinner parties as Isobel is. When one has half a dozen men to dine
+      with one at the club, one gives the butler notice and chooses the wine,
+      and one knows that it will be all right; but it is a very different thing
+      when you have to go into the details yourself. Ordinarily I leave it
+      entirely to Rumzan and the cook, and I am bound to say they do very well,
+      but this is a different matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will talk it over with them together, Major. You can seem to consult
+      me, but it must come from you to them, or else you will be getting their
+      backs up. Thank goodness, Indian servants don't give themselves the airs
+      English ones do; but human nature is a good deal the same everywhere, and
+      the first great rule, if you want any domestic arrangements to go off
+      well, is to keep the servants in good temper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We none of us like to be interfered with, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A wise man is always ready to be taught,&rdquo; the Doctor said sententiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there are exceptions, Doctor. I remember, soon after I joined, a
+      man blew off two of his fingers. A young surgeon who was here wanted to
+      amputate the hand; he was just going to set about it when a staff surgeon
+      came in and said that it had better not be done, for that natives could
+      not stand amputations. The young surgeon was very much annoyed. The staff
+      surgeon went away next day. There was a good deal of inflammation, and the
+      young surgeon decided to amputate. The man never rallied from the
+      operation, and died next day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said, Major, that a wise man was always ready to listen to good advice.
+      I was not a wise man in those days&mdash;I was a pig headed young fool. I
+      thought I knew all about it, and I was quite right according to my
+      experience in London hospitals. In the case of an Englishman, the hand
+      would have been amputated, and the man would have been all right three
+      weeks afterwards. But I knew nothing about these soft hearted Hindoos, and
+      never dreamt that an operation which would be a trifle to an Englishman
+      would be fatal to one of them, and that simply because, although they are
+      plucky enough in some respects, they have no more heart than a mouse when
+      anything is the matter with them. Yes, if it hadn't been for the old
+      Colonel, who gave me a private hint to say nothing about the affair, but
+      merely to put down in my report, 'Died from the effect of a gunshot
+      wound,' I should have got into a deuce of a scrape over that affair. As it
+      was, it only cost me a hundred rupees to satisfy the man's family and send
+      them back to their native village. That was for years a standing joke
+      against me, Miss Hannay; except your uncle and the Colonel, there is no
+      one left in the regiment who was there, but it was a sore subject for a
+      long time. Still, no doubt, it was a useful lesson, and my rule has been
+      ever since, never amputate except as a forlorn hope, and even then don't
+      amputate, for if you do the relatives of the man, as far as his fourth
+      cousins, will inevitably regard you as his murderer. Well, I must be off;
+      I will look in tomorrow morning, Major, and make an inspection of your
+      resources.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad to see the Hunters are going to bring over their carriage,&rdquo; the
+      Major said, two days later, as he looked through a letter. &ldquo;I am very glad
+      of that, for I put it off till too late. I have been trying everywhere for
+      the last two days to hire one, but they are all engaged, and have been so
+      for weeks, I hear. I was wondering what I should do, for my buggy will
+      only hold two. I was thinking of asking Mrs. Doolan if she could take one
+      of the Miss Hunters, and should have tried to find a place for the other.
+      But this settles it all comfortably. They are going to send on their own
+      horses halfway the day before, and hire native ponies for the first half.
+      They have a good large family vehicle; I hoped that they would bring it,
+      but, of course, I could not trust to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor presently dropped in with Captain Doolan. After chatting for
+      some time the former said, &ldquo;I have had the satisfaction this morning, Miss
+      Hannay, of relieving Mrs. Cromarty's mind of a great burden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How was that, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was in relation to you, my dear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Me, Doctor! how could I have been a weight on Mrs. Cromarty's mind?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She sent for me under the pretense of being feverish; said she had a
+      headache, and so on. Her pulse was all right, and I told her at once I did
+      not think there was much the matter with her; but I recommended her to
+      keep out of the sun for two days. Then she begun a chat about the station.
+      She knows that, somehow or other, I generally hear all that is going on. I
+      wondered what was coming, till she said casually, 'Do you know what
+      arrangement Major Hannay has made as to his niece for the races?' I said,
+      of course, that the Hunters were coming over to stay. I could see at once
+      that her spirit was instantly relieved of a heavy burden, but she only
+      said, 'Of course, then, that settles the question. I had intended to send
+      across to her this morning, to ask if she would like a seat in my
+      carriage; having no lady with her, she could not very well have gone to
+      the races alone. Naturally, I should have been very pleased to have had
+      her with us. However, as Mrs. Hunter will be staying at the Major's, and
+      will act as her chaperon, the matter is settled.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I think it was very kind of her thinking of it,&rdquo; Isobel said, &ldquo;and
+      I don't think it is nice of you, Doctor, to say that it was an evident
+      relief to her when she found I had someone else to take care of me. Why
+      should it have been a relief?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no doubt it has weighed on her mind for the last fortnight,&rdquo; the
+      Doctor said; &ldquo;she must have seen that as you were freshly joined, and the
+      only unmarried girl in the regiment, except her own daughters, it was only
+      the proper thing she should offer you a seat in her carriage. No doubt she
+      decided to put it off as late as possible, in hopes that you might make
+      some other arrangement. Had you not done so, she might have done the
+      heroic thing and invited you, though I am by no means sure of it. Of
+      course, now she will say the first time she meets you that she was quite
+      disappointed at having heard from me that Mrs. Hunter would be with you,
+      as she had hoped to have the pleasure of having you in her carriage with
+      her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why shouldn't she like it?&rdquo; Isobel said indignantly. &ldquo;Surely I am not
+      as disagreeable as all that! Come, Doctor!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Doolan laughed, while the Doctor said, &ldquo;It is just the contrary,
+      my dear; I am quite sure that if you were in Mrs. Cromarty's place, and
+      had two tall, washed out looking daughters, you would not feel the
+      slightest desire to place Miss Hannay in the same carriage with them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I call that very disagreeable of you, Doctor,&rdquo; Isobel said, flushing,
+      &ldquo;and I shall not like you at all if you take such unkind and malicious
+      views of people. I don't suppose such an idea ever entered into Mrs.
+      Cromarty's head, and even if it did, it makes it all the kinder that she
+      should think of offering me a seat. I do think most men seem to consider
+      that women think of nothing but looks, and that girls are always trying to
+      attract men, and mothers always thinking of getting their daughters
+      married. It is not at all nice, Doctor, to have such ideas, and I shall
+      thank Mrs. Cromarty warmly, when I see her, for her kindness in thinking
+      about me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, that afternoon, when they met at the usual hour, when the
+      band was playing, Isobel went up to the Colonel's wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to thank you, Mrs. Cromarty. Dr. Wade has told me that you had
+      intended to offer me a seat in your carriage to the races. It was very
+      kind and nice of you to think of me, and I am very much obliged to you. I
+      should have enjoyed it very much if it hadn't been that Mrs. Hunter is
+      coming to stay with us, and, of course, I shall be under her wing. Still,
+      I am just as much obliged to you for having thought of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Cromarty was pleased with the girl's warmth and manner, and
+      afterwards mentioned to several of her friends that she thought that Miss
+      Hannay seemed a very nice young woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was not quite favorably impressed at first,&rdquo; she admitted. &ldquo;She has the
+      misfortune of being a little brusque in her manner, but, of course, her
+      position is a difficult one, being alone out here, without any lady with
+      her, and no doubt she feels it so. She was quite touchingly grateful, only
+      because I offered her a seat in our carriage for the races, though she was
+      unable to accept it, as the Major will have the Hunters staying with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The clubhouse at Cawnpore was crowded on the evening before the races. Up
+      to eleven o'clock it had been comparatively deserted, for there was
+      scarcely a bungalow in the station at which dinner parties were not going
+      on; but, after eleven, the gentlemen for the most part adjourned to the
+      club for a smoke, a rubber, or a game of billiards, or to chat over the
+      racing events of the next day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Loud greetings were exchanged as each fresh contingent arrived, for many
+      newcomers had come into the station only that afternoon. Every table in
+      the whist room was occupied, black pool was being played in the billiard
+      room upstairs, where most of the younger men were gathered, while the
+      elders smoked and talked in the rooms below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What will you do, Bathurst?&rdquo; the Doctor asked his guest, after the party
+      from the Major's had been chatting for some little time downstairs. &ldquo;Would
+      you like to cut in at a rubber or take a ball at pool?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither, Doctor; they are both accomplishments beyond me; I have not
+      patience for whist, and I can't play billiards in the least. I have tried
+      over and over again, but I am too nervous, I fancy; I break down over the
+      easiest stroke&mdash;in fact, an easy stroke is harder for me than a
+      difficult one. I know I ought to make it, and just for that reason, I
+      suppose, I don't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't give one the idea of a nervous man, either, Bathurst.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I am, Doctor, constitutionally, indeed terribly so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in business matters, anyhow,&rdquo; the Doctor said, with a smile. &ldquo;You
+      have the reputation of not minding in the slightest what responsibility
+      you take upon yourself, and of carrying out what you undertake in the most
+      resolute, I won't say high handed, manner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it doesn't come in there,&rdquo; Bathurst laughed. &ldquo;Morally I am not
+      nervous so far as I know, physically I am. I would give a great deal if I
+      could get over it, but, as I have said, it is constitutional.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not on your father's side, Bathurst. I knew him well, and he was a very
+      gallant officer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it was the other side,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;I will tell you about it some
+      day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment another friend of Bathurst's came up and entered into
+      conversation with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I will go upstairs to the billiard room,&rdquo; the Doctor said; &ldquo;and you
+      will find me there, Bathurst, whenever you feel disposed to go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A pool had just finished when the Doctor entered the billiard room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is right, Doctor, you are just in time,&rdquo; Prothero said, as he
+      entered. &ldquo;Sinclair has given up his cue; he is going to ride tomorrow, and
+      is afraid of shaking his nerves; you must come and play for the honor of
+      the corps. I am being ruined altogether, and Doolan has retired
+      discomfited.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not touched a cue since I went away,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;but I
+      don't mind adding to the list of victims. Who are the winners?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Messenger and Jarvis have been carrying all before them; there is a
+      report they have just sent off two club waiters, with loads of rupees, to
+      their quarters. Scarsdale has been pretty well holding his own, but the
+      rest of us are nowhere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A year's want of practice, however, told, and the Doctor was added to the
+      list of victims: he had no difficulty in getting someone else to take his
+      cue after playing for half an hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It shows that practice is required for everything,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;before I
+      went away I could have given each of those men a life, now they could give
+      me two; I must devote half an hour a day to it till I get it back again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you shall give me a lesson, Doctor,&rdquo; Captain Doolan, who had also
+      retired, said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be time thrown away by both of us, Doolan. You would never make
+      a pool player if you were to practice all your life. It is not the eye
+      that is wrong, but the temperament. You can make a very good shot now and
+      then, but you are too harum scarum and slap dash altogether. The art of
+      playing pool is the art of placing yourself; while, when you strike, you
+      have not the faintest idea where your ball is going to, and you are just
+      as likely to run in yourself as you are to pot your adversary. I should
+      abjure it if I were you, Doolan; it is too expensive a luxury for you to
+      indulge in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are right there, Doctor; only what is a man to do when fellows say,
+      'We want you to make up a pool, Doolan'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should say the reply would be quite simple. I should answer, 'I am
+      ready enough to play if any of you are ready to pay my losses and take my
+      winnings; I am tired of being as good as an annuity to you all,' for that
+      is what you have been for the last ten years. Why, it would be cheaper for
+      you to send home to England for skittles, and get a ground up here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I don't play so very badly, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you play badly enough always to lose, it doesn't matter as to the
+      precise degree of badness,&rdquo; the Doctor retorted. &ldquo;It is not surprising.
+      When you came out here, fourteen or fifteen years ago, boys did not take
+      to playing billiards, but they do now. Look at that little villain,
+      Richards. He has just cleared the table, and done it with all the coolness
+      of a professional marker. The young scoundrel ought to have been in bed
+      two hours ago, for I hear that tat of his is really a good one. Not that
+      it will make any difference to him. That sort of boy would play billiards
+      till the first bugle sounds in the morning, and have a wash and turn out
+      as fresh as paint, but it won't last, Doolan, not in this climate; his
+      cheeks will have fallen in and he will have crow's feet at the corners of
+      his eyes before another year has gone over. I like that other boy, Wilson,
+      better. Of course he is a cub as yet, but I should say there is good in
+      him. Just at present I can see he is beginning to fancy himself in love
+      with Miss Hannay. That will do him good; it is always an advantage to a
+      lad like that to have a good honest liking for a nice girl. Of course it
+      comes to nothing, and for a time he imagines himself the most unhappy of
+      mortals, but it does him good for all that; fellows are far less likely to
+      get into mischief and go to the bad after an affair of that sort. It gives
+      him a high ideal, and if he is worth anything he will try to make himself
+      worthy of her, and the good it does him will continue even after the charm
+      is broken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a fellow you are, Doctor,&rdquo; Captain Doolan said, looking down upon
+      his companion, &ldquo;talking away like that in the middle of this racket, which
+      would be enough to bother Saint Patrick himself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, come along downstairs, Doolan; we will have a final peg and then be
+      off; I expect Bathurst is beginning to fidget before now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will do him good,&rdquo; Captain Doolan said disdainfully. &ldquo;I have no
+      patience with a man who is forever working himself to death, riding about
+      the country as if Old Nick were behind him, and never giving himself a
+      minute for diversion of any kind. Faith, I would rather throw myself down
+      a well and have done with it, than work ten times as hard as a black
+      nigger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I don't think, Doolan,&rdquo; the Doctor said dryly, &ldquo;you are ever likely
+      to be driven to suicide by any such cause.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are right there, Doctor,&rdquo; the other said contentedly. &ldquo;No man can
+      throw it in my teeth that I ever worked when I had no occasion to work. If
+      there were a campaign, I expect I could do my share with the best of them,
+      but in quiet times I just do what I have to do, and if anyone has an
+      anxiety to take my place in the rota for duty, he is as welcome to it as
+      the flowers of May. I had my share of it when I was a subaltern; there is
+      no better fellow living than the Major, but when he was Captain of my
+      company he used to keep me on the run by the hour together, till I wished
+      myself back in Connaught, and anyone who liked it might have had the whole
+      of India for anything I cared; he was one of the most uneasy creatures I
+      ever came across.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Major is a good officer, Doolan, and you were as lazy a youngster,
+      and as hard a bargain, as the Company ever got. You ought to thank your
+      stars that you had the good luck in having a Captain who knew his
+      business, and made you learn yours. Why, if you had had a man like Rintoul
+      as your Captain, you would never have been worth your salt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not complimentary, Doctor; but then nobody looks for compliments
+      from you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can pay compliments if I have a chance,&rdquo; the Doctor retorted, &ldquo;but it
+      is very seldom I get one of doing so&mdash;at least, without lying. Well,
+      Bathurst, are you ready to turn in?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite ready, Doctor; that is one of the advantages of not caring for
+      races; the merits and demerits of the horses that run tomorrow do not in
+      the slightest degree affect me, and even the news that all the favorites
+      had gone wrong would not deprive me of an hour's sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think it a good thing to take an interest in racing, Bathurst. Take men
+      as a whole: out here they work hard&mdash;some of them work tremendously
+      hard&mdash;and unless they get some change to their thoughts, some sort of
+      recreation, nineteen out of twenty will break down sooner or later. If
+      they don't they become mere machines. Every man ought to have some sort of
+      hobby; he need not ride it to death, but he wants to take some sort of
+      interest in it. I don't care whether he takes to pig sticking, or racing,
+      or shooting, or whether he goes in for what I may call the milder kinds of
+      relaxation, such as dining out, billiards, whist, or even general
+      philandering. Anything is better than nothing&mdash;anything that will
+      take his mind off his work. As far as I can see, you don't do anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Therefore I shall either break down or become a machine, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One or the other certainly, Bathurst. You may smile, but I mean what I
+      say. I have seen other young fellows just as full of work and enthusiasm
+      as you are, but I have never seen an exception to the rule, unless, of
+      course, they took up something so as to give their minds a rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Doctor has just been scolding me because I am not fond enough of
+      work,&rdquo; Captain Doolan laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are differently placed, Doolan,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;You have got
+      plenty of enthusiasm in your nature&mdash;most Irishmen have&mdash;but you
+      have had nothing to stir it. Life in a native regiment in India is an easy
+      one. Your duties are over in two or three hours out of the twenty-four,
+      whereas the work of a civilian in a large district literally never ends,
+      unless he puts a resolute stop to it. What with seeing people from morning
+      until night, and riding about and listening to complaints, every hour of
+      the day is occupied, and then at night there are reports to write and
+      documents of all sorts to go through. It is a great pity that there cannot
+      be a better division of work, though I own I don't see how it is to be
+      managed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time they were walking towards the lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should not mind taking a share of the civil work at the station,&rdquo;
+       Captain Doolan said, &ldquo;if they would make our pay a little more like that
+      of the civilians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is something in that, Doolan,&rdquo; the Doctor agreed; &ldquo;it is just as
+      hard work having nothing to do as it is having too much; and I have always
+      been of opinion that the tremendous disproportion between the pay of a
+      military man and of a civilian of the same age is simply monstrous. Well,
+      goodnight, Doolan; I hope you will tell Mrs. Doolan that the credit is
+      entirely due to me that you are home at the reasonable hour of one
+      o'clock, instead of dropping in just in time to change for parade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A good fellow,&rdquo; the Doctor said, as he walked on with Bathurst; &ldquo;he would
+      never set the Thames on fire; but he is an honest, kindly fellow. He would
+      make a capital officer if he were on service. His marriage has been an
+      excellent thing for him. He had nothing to do before but to pass away his
+      time in the club or mess house, and drink more than was good for him. But
+      he has pulled himself round altogether since he married. His wife is a
+      bright, clever little woman, and knows how to make the house happy for
+      him; if he had married a lackadaisical sort of a woman, the betting is he
+      would have gone to the bad altogether.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only met him once or twice before,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;You see I am not
+      here very often, and when I am it is only on business, so I know a very
+      few people here except those I have to deal with, and by the time I have
+      got through my business I am generally so thoroughly out of temper with
+      the pig headed stupidity and obstinacy of people in general, that I get
+      into my buggy and drive straight away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy you irritate them as much as they irritate you, Bathurst. Well,
+      here we are; now we will have a quiet cheroot and a peg, to quiet our
+      nerves after all that din, before we turn in. Let us get off our coats and
+      collars, and make ourselves comfortable; it is a proof of the bestial
+      stupidity of mankind that they should wear such abominations as dress
+      clothes in a climate like this. Here, boy, light the candles and bring two
+      sodas and brandies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Bathurst,&rdquo; he went on, when they had made themselves comfortable in
+      two lounging chairs, &ldquo;what do you thing of Miss Hannay?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was prepared to admire her, Doctor, from what you said; it is not very
+      often that you overpraise things; but she is a charming girl, very pretty
+      and bright, frank and natural.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is all that,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;We were four months on the voyage
+      out, and I saw enough of her in that time to know her pretty thoroughly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What puzzles me about her,&rdquo; Bathurst said, &ldquo;is that I seemed to know her
+      face. Where I saw her, and under what circumstances, I have been puzzling
+      myself half the evening to recall, but I have the strongest conviction
+      that I have met her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are dreaming, man. You have been out here eight years; she was a
+      child of ten when you left England! You certainly have not seen her, and
+      as I know pretty well every woman who has been in this station for the
+      last five or six years, I can answer for it that you have not seen anyone
+      in the slightest degree resembling her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is what I have been saying to myself, Doctor, but that does not in
+      the slightest degree shake my conviction about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you must have dreamt it,&rdquo; the Doctor said decidedly. &ldquo;Some fool of a
+      poet has said, 'Visions of love cast their shadows before,' or something
+      of that sort, which of course is a lie; still, that is the only way that I
+      can account for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst smiled faintly. &ldquo;I don't think the quotation is quite right,
+      Doctor; anyhow, I am convinced that the impression is far too vivid to
+      have been the result of a dream.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the way, Bathurst,&rdquo; the Doctor said, suddenly changing his
+      conversation, &ldquo;what do you think of this talk we hear about chupaties
+      being sent round among the native troops, and the talk about greased
+      cartridges. You see more of the natives than anyone I know; do you think
+      there is anything brewing in the air?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If there is, Doctor, I am certain it is not known to the natives in
+      general. I see no change whatever in their manner, and I am sure I know
+      them well enough to notice any change if it existed. I know nothing about
+      the Sepoys, but Garnet tells me that the Company at Deennugghur give him
+      nothing to complain of, though they don't obey orders as smartly as usual,
+      and they have a. sullen air as they go about their work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't like it, Bathurst. I do not understand what the chupaties mean,
+      but I know that there is a sort of tradition that the sending of them
+      round has always preceded trouble. The Sepoys have no reason for
+      discontent, but there has been no active service lately, and idleness is
+      always bad for men. I can't believe there is any widespread
+      dissatisfaction among them, but there is no doubt whatever that if there
+      is, and it breaks out, the position will be a very serious one. There are
+      not half enough white troops in India, and the Sepoys may well think that
+      they are masters of the situation. It would be a terrible time for
+      everyone in India if they did take it into their heads to rise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't believe they would be mad enough to do that, Doctor; they have
+      everything to lose by it, and nothing to gain, that is, individually; and
+      we should be sure to win in the long run, even if we had to conquer back
+      India foot by foot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is all very well, Bathurst; we may know that we could do it, but
+      they don't know it. They are ignorant altogether of the forces we could
+      put into the field were there a necessity to make the effort. They
+      naturally suppose that we can have but a few soldiers, for in all the
+      battles we have fought there have always been two or three Sepoy regiments
+      to one English. Besides, they consider themselves fully a match for us.
+      They have fought by us side by side in every battlefield in India, and
+      have done as well as we have. I don't see what they should rise for. I
+      don't even see whose interest it is to bring a rising about, but I do know
+      that if they rise we shall have a terrible time of it. Now I think we may
+      as well turn in. You won't take another peg? Well, I shall see you in the
+      morning. I shall be at the hospital by half past six, and shall be in at
+      half past eight to breakfast. You have only got to shout for my man, and
+      tell him whether you will have tea, coffee, or chocolate, any time you
+      wake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall be about by six, Doctor; five is my general hour, but as it is
+      past one now I dare say I shall be able to sleep on for an hour later,
+      especially as there is nothing to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can go round the hospital with me, if you like,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;if
+      you will promise not to make a dozen suggestions for the improvement of
+      things in general.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel Hannay came down to breakfast in high spirits upon the morning of
+      the races. The dinner had gone off excellently. The dinner table, with its
+      softly shaded lamps, and the Doctor's arrangements of the flowers, had
+      been, she thought, perfection, and everything had passed off without a
+      hitch. Her duties as a hostess had been much lighter than she had
+      anticipated. Mrs. Hunter was a very pleasant, motherly woman, and the
+      girls, who had only come out from England four months before, were fresh
+      and unaffected, and the other people had all been pleasant and chatty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Altogether, she felt that her first dinner party had been a great success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was looking forward now with pleasant anticipation to the day. She had
+      seen but little of the natives so far, and she was now to see them at
+      their best. Then she had never been present at a race, and everything
+      would be new and exciting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, uncle, what time did you get in?&rdquo; she asked, as she stepped out
+      into the veranda to meet him on his return from early parade. &ldquo;It was too
+      bad of you and Mr. Hunter running off instead of waiting to chat things
+      over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no doubt you ladies did plenty of that, my dear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, we didn't, uncle; you see they had had a very long drive, and
+      Mrs. Hunter insisted on the girls going to bed directly you all went out,
+      and as I could not sit up by myself, I had to go too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were in at half past twelve,&rdquo; the Major said. &ldquo;I can stand a good deal
+      of smoke, but the club atmosphere was too thick for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everything went off very well yesterday, didn't it?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, I thought, my dear, thanks to you and the Doctor and Rumzan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had very little to do with it,&rdquo; she laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I don't think you had much to do with the absolute arrangements,
+      Isobel, but I thought you did very well as hostess; it seemed to me that
+      there was a good deal of laughing and fun at your end of the table.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; you see we had the two Miss Hunters and the Doctor there, and Mr.
+      Gregson, who took me in, turned out a very merry old gentleman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He would not be pleased if he heard you call him old, Isobel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, of course he is not absolutely old, but being a commissioner, and
+      all that sort of thing, gives one the idea of being old; but there are the
+      others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And they went into the breakfast room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first race was set for two o'clock, and at half past one Mrs. Hunter's
+      carriage, with the four ladies, arrived at the inclosure. The horses were
+      taken out, and the carriage wheeled into its place, and then Isobel and
+      the two Miss Hunters prepared to enjoy the scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a very gay one. The course was at present covered with a throng of
+      natives in their bright colored garments, and mixed with them were the
+      scarlet uniforms of the Sepoys of the 103d and other regiments. On the
+      opposite side were a number of native vehicles of various descriptions,
+      and some elephants with painted faces and gorgeous trappings, and with
+      howdahs shaded by pavilions glittering with gilt and silver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On either side of their vehicle a long line of carriages was soon formed
+      up, and among these were several occupied by gayly dressed natives, whose
+      rank gave them an entrance to the privileged inclosure. The carriages were
+      placed three or four yards back from the rail, and the intervening space
+      was filled with civilian and military officers, in white or light attire,
+      and with pith helmet or puggaree; many others were on horseback behind the
+      carriages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a bright scene, Miss Hannay,&rdquo; the Doctor said, coming up to the
+      carriage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wonderfully pretty, Doctor!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An English race course doesn't do after this, I can tell you. I went down
+      to the Derby when I was at home, and such an assembly of riff raff I never
+      saw before and never wish to see again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These people are more picturesque, Dr. Wade,&rdquo; Mrs. Hunter said, &ldquo;but that
+      is merely a question of garment; these people perhaps are no more
+      trustworthy than those you met on the racecourse at home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was speaking of them purely as a spectacle; individually I have no
+      doubt one would be safer among the English roughs and betting men than
+      among these placid looking natives. The one would pick your pockets of
+      every penny you have got if they had the chance, the other would cut your
+      throat with just as little compunction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't really mean that, Dr. Wade?&rdquo; Isobel said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do indeed, Miss Hannay; the Oude men are notorious brawlers and
+      fighters, and I should say that the roughs of Cawnpore and Lucknow could
+      give long odds to those of any European city, and three out of four of
+      those men you see walking about there would not only cut the throat of a
+      European to obtain what money he had about him, but would do so without
+      that incentive, upon the simple ground that he hated us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why should he hate us, Doctor? he is none the worse off now than he
+      was before we annexed the country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, yes, that class of man is worse off. In the old days every noble
+      and Zemindar kept up a little army for the purpose of fighting his
+      neighbors, just as our Barons used to do in the happy olden times people
+      talk of. We have put down private fighting, and the consequence is these
+      men's occupations are gone, and they flock to great towns and there live
+      as best they can, ready to commit any crime whatever for the sum of a few
+      rupees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is Nana Sahib.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel looked round and saw a carriage with a magnificent pair of horses,
+      in harness almost covered with silver ornaments, drive up to a place that
+      had been kept vacant for it. Four natives were sitting in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the Rajah,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;the farther man, with that aigrette
+      of diamonds in his turban. He is Oriental today, but sometimes he affects
+      English fashions. He is a very cheery fellow, he keeps pretty well open
+      house at Bithoor, has a billiard table, and a first rate cellar of wine,
+      carriages for the use of guests&mdash;in fact, he does the thing really
+      handsomely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is my opera glass,&rdquo; Mrs. Hunter said. Isobel looked long and fixedly
+      at the Rajah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what do you think of him?&rdquo; the Doctor asked as she lowered it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know what to think of him,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;his face does not tell me
+      anything, it is like looking at a mask; but you see I am not accustomed to
+      read brown men's characters, they are so different from Europeans, their
+      faces all seem so impassive. I suppose it is the way in which they are
+      brought up and trained.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ages of tyranny have made them supple and deceitful,&rdquo; the Doctor said,
+      &ldquo;but of course less so here than among the Bengallies, who, being
+      naturally unwarlike and cowardly, have always been the slaves of some
+      master or other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You evidently don't like the Nana, Miss Hannay. I am rather glad you
+      don't, for he is no great favorite of mine, though he is so generally
+      popular in the station here. I don't like him because it is not natural
+      that he should be so friendly with us. We undoubtedly, according to native
+      notions, robbed him of one of the finest positions in India by refusing to
+      acknowledge his adoption. We have given him a princely revenue, but that,
+      after all, is a mere trifle to what he would have had as Peishwa. Whatever
+      virtues the natives of this country possess, the forgiving of injuries is
+      not among them, and therefore I consider it to be altogether unnatural
+      that he, having been, as he at any rate and everyone round him must
+      consider, foully wronged, should go out of his way to affect our society
+      and declare the warmest friendship for us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rajah was laughing and talking with General Wheeler and the group of
+      officers round his carriage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again Isobel raised the glasses. &ldquo;You are right, Doctor,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I
+      don't like him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there is one comfort, it doesn't matter whether he is sincere or
+      not, he is powerless to hurt us. I don't see any motive for his pretending
+      to be friendly if he is not, but I own that I should like him better if he
+      sulked and would have nothing to say to us, as would be the natural
+      course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bell now began to ring, and the native police cleared the course.
+      Major Hannay and Mr. Hunter, who had driven over in the buggy, came up and
+      took their places on the box of the carriage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here are cards of the races,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now is the time, young ladies, to
+      make your bets.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know even the name of anyone in this first race,&rdquo; Isobel said,
+      looking at the card.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That doesn't matter in the least, Miss Hannay,&rdquo; Wilson, who had just come
+      up to the side of the carriage, said. &ldquo;There are six horses in; you pick
+      out any one you like, and I will lay you five pairs of gloves to one
+      against him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how am I to pick out when I don't know anything about them, Mr.
+      Wilson? I might pick out one that had no chance at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; but you might pick out the favorite, Miss Hannay, so that it is
+      quite fair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you bet, Isobel,&rdquo; her uncle said. &ldquo;Let us have a sweepstake
+      instead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is a sweepstake, uncle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear, we each put in a rupee. There are six of us, and there are
+      Wilson and the Doctor. You will go in, Doctor, won't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; I don't mind throwing away a rupee, Major.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, that makes eight. We put eight pieces of paper in the hat. Six
+      of them have got the names of the horses on, the other two are blank. Then
+      we each pull out one. Whoever draws the name of the horse that wins takes
+      five rupees, the holder of the second two, and the third saves his stake.
+      You shall hold the stakes, Mrs. Hunter. We have all confidence in you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The slips were drawn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My horse is Bruce,&rdquo; Isobel said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There he is, Miss Hannay,&rdquo; Wilson, who had drawn a blank, said, as a
+      horse whose rider had a straw colored jacket and cap came cantering along
+      the course. &ldquo;This is a race for country horses&mdash;owners up. That means
+      ridden by their owners. That is Pearson of the 13th Native Cavalry. He
+      brought the horse over from Lucknow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What chance has he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not the least idea, Miss Hannay. I did not hear any betting on
+      this race at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a nice horse, uncle,&rdquo; Isobel said, as one with a rider in black
+      jacket, with red cap, came past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is Delhi. Yes, it has good action.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is mine,&rdquo; the eldest Miss Hunter said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The rider is a good looking young fellow,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;and is
+      perfectly conscious of it himself. Who is he, Wilson? I don't know him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a civilian. Belongs to the public works, I think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The other horses now came along, and after short preliminary canters the
+      start was made. To Isobel's disappointment her horse was never in the
+      race, which Delhi looked like winning until near the post, when a rather
+      common looking horse, which had been lying a short distance behind him,
+      came up with a rush and won by a length.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't call that fair,&rdquo; Miss Hunter said, &ldquo;when the other was first all
+      along. I call that a mean way of winning, don't you, father?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, no, my dear. It was easy to see for the last quarter of a mile that
+      the other was making what is called 'a waiting race' of it, and was only
+      biding his time. There is nothing unfair in that, I fancy Delhi might have
+      won if he had had a better jockey. His rider never really called upon him
+      till it was too late. He was so thoroughly satisfied with himself and his
+      position in the race that he was taken completely by surprise when
+      Moonshee came suddenly up to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I think it is very hard upon Delhi, father, after keeping ahead all
+      the way and going so nicely. I think everyone ought to do their best from
+      the first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy you are thinking, Miss Hunter,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;quite as much
+      that it is hard on you being beaten after your hopes had been raised, as
+      it is upon the horse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I am, Doctor,&rdquo; she admitted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think it is much harder on me,&rdquo; Isobel said. &ldquo;You have had the
+      satisfaction of thinking all along that your horse was going to win, while
+      mine never gave me the least bit of hope.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The proper expression, Miss Hannay, is, your horse never flattered you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I think it is a very silly expression, Mr. Wilson, because I don't
+      see that flattery has anything to do with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, here is Bathurst,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;Where have you been, Bathurst?
+      You slipped away from me just now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've just been talking to the Commissioner, Doctor. I have been trying to
+      get him to see&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, you don't mean to say,&rdquo; the Doctor broke in, &ldquo;that you have been
+      trying to cram your theories down his throat on a racecourse?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was before the race began,&rdquo; Bathurst said, &ldquo;and I don't think the
+      Commissioner has any more interest in racing than I have.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in racing,&rdquo; the Doctor agreed, &ldquo;but I expect he has an interest in
+      enjoying himself generally, which is a thing you don't seem to have the
+      most remote idea of. Here we are just getting up a sweepstake for the next
+      race; hand over a rupee and try to get up an interest in it. Do try and
+      forget your work till the race is over. I have brought you here to do you
+      good. I regard you as my patient, and I give you my medical orders that
+      you are to enjoy yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am enjoying myself in my way, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is that very pretty woman standing up in the next carriage but one?&rdquo;
+       Isobel asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She comes from an out station,&rdquo; the Doctor repeated; &ldquo;she is the wife of
+      the Collector there, but I think she likes Cawnpore better than Boorgum;
+      her name is Rose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that her husband talking to her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; that is a man in the Artillery here, I think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; the Major said, &ldquo;that is Harrowby, a good looking fellow, and quite
+      a ladies' man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean a man ladies like, uncle, or who likes the society of
+      ladies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Both in his case, I should fancy,&rdquo; the Major said; &ldquo;I believe he is
+      considered one of the best looking men in the service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't see why he should be liked for that,&rdquo; Isobel said. &ldquo;As far as I
+      have seen, good looking men are not so pleasant as others. I suppose it is
+      because they are conscious of their own good looks, and therefore do not
+      take the trouble of being amusing. We had one very good looking man on
+      board ship, and he was the dullest man to talk to on board. No, Doctor, I
+      won't have any names mentioned, but I am right, am I not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was a dull specimen, certainly,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;but I think you are
+      a little too sweeping.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't mean all good looking men, of course, but men who what I call go
+      in for being good looking. I don't know whether you know what I mean. What
+      are you smiling at, Mr. Wilson?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was thinking of two or three men I know to whom your description
+      applies, Miss Hannay; but I must be going&mdash;they are just going to
+      start the next race, and mine is the one after, so I must go and get
+      ready. You wish me success, don't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you all the success you deserve. I can't say more than that, can
+      I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid that is saying very little,&rdquo; he laughed. &ldquo;I don't expect to
+      win, but I do hope I shall beat Richards, because he is so cock sure he
+      will beat me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This wish was not gratified. The first and second horses made a close race
+      of it; behind them by ten or twelve lengths came the other horses in a
+      clump, Wilson and Richards singling themselves out in the last hundred
+      yards and making a desperate race for the third place, for which they made
+      a dead heat, amid great laughter from their comrades.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is excellent,&rdquo; Major Hannay said; &ldquo;you won't see anything more
+      amusing than that today, girls. The third horse simply saved his stake, so
+      that as they will of course divide, they will have paid twenty-five rupees
+      each for the pleasure of riding, and the point which of their tats is the
+      fastest remains unsettled.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, they beat a good many of them, Major Hannay,&rdquo; Miss Hunter said; &ldquo;so
+      they did not do so badly after all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no, they did not do so badly; but it will be a long time before they
+      get over the chaff about their desperate struggle for the third place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next two races attracted but slight attention from the occupants of
+      the carriage. Most of their acquaintances in the station came up one after
+      the other for a chat. There were many fresh introductions, and there was
+      so much conversation and laughter that the girls had little time to attend
+      to what was going on around them. Wilson and Richards both sauntered up
+      after changing, and were the subject of much chaff as to their brilliant
+      riding at the finish. Both were firm in the belief that the judge's
+      finding was wrong, and each maintained stoutly he had beaten the other by
+      a good head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The race for Arabs turned out a very exciting one; the Rajah of Bithoor's
+      horse was the favorite, on the strength of its performances elsewhere; but
+      Prothero's horse was also well supported, especially in the regiment, for
+      the Adjutant was a first class rider, and was in great request at all the
+      principal meetings in Oude and the Northwest Provinces, while it was known
+      that the Rajah's horse would be ridden by a native. The latter was dressed
+      in strict racing costume, and had at the last races at Cawnpore won two or
+      three cups for the Rajah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the general opinion among the officers of the station was that
+      Prothero's coolness and nerve would tell. His Arab was certainly a fast
+      one, and had won the previous year, both at Cawnpore and Lucknow; but the
+      Rajah's new purchase had gained so high a reputation in the Western
+      Presidency as fully to justify the odds of two to one laid on it, while
+      four to one were offered against Prothero, and from eight to twenty to one
+      against any other competitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Prothero had stopped to have a chat at the Hunters' carriage as he walked
+      towards the dressing tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our hopes are all centered in you, Mr. Prothero,&rdquo; Mr. Hunter said. &ldquo;Miss
+      Hannay has been wagering gloves in a frightfully reckless way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should advise you to hedge if you can, Miss Hannay,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think
+      there is no doubt that Mameluke is a good deal faster than Seila. I fancy
+      he is pounds better. I only beat Vincent's horse by a head last year, and
+      Mameluke gave him seven pounds, and beat him by three lengths at Poona. So
+      I should strongly advise you to hedge your bets if you can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does he mean by hedge, uncle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To hedge is to bet the other way, so that one bet cancels the other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I shan't do that,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;I have enough money to pay my bets if I
+      lose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean to say you mean to pay your bets if you lose, Miss Hannay?&rdquo;
+       the Doctor asked incredulously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I do,&rdquo; she said indignantly. &ldquo;You don't suppose I intend to
+      take the gloves if I win, and not to pay if I lose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not altogether an uncommon practice among ladies,&rdquo; the Doctor said,
+      &ldquo;when they bet against gentlemen. I believe that when they wager against
+      each other, which they do not often do, they are strictly honest, but that
+      otherwise their memories are apt to fail them altogether.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a libel, Mrs. Hunter, is it not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not altogether, I think. Of course many ladies do pay their bets when
+      they lose, but others certainly do not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I call it very mean,&rdquo; Isobel said earnestly. &ldquo;Why, it is as bad as
+      asking anyone to make you a present of so many pairs of gloves in case a
+      certain horse wins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It comes a good deal to the same thing,&rdquo; Mrs. Hunter admitted, &ldquo;but to a
+      certain extent it is a recognized custom; it is a sort of tribute that is
+      exacted at race time, just as in France every lady expects a present from
+      every gentleman of her acquaintance on New Year's Day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wouldn't bet if I didn't mean to pay honestly,&rdquo; Isobel said. &ldquo;And if
+      Mr. Prothero doesn't win, my debts will all be honorably discharged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a hush of expectation in the crowd when the ten horses whose
+      numbers were up went down to the starting point, a quarter of a mile from
+      the stand. They were to pass it, make the circuit, and finish there, the
+      race being two miles. The interest of the natives was enlisted by the fact
+      that Nana Sahib was running a horse, while the hopes of the occupants of
+      the inclosure rested principally on Seila.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The flag fell to a good start; but when the horses came along Isobel saw
+      with surprise that the dark blue of the Rajah and the Adjutant's scarlet
+      and white were both in the rear of the group. Soon afterwards the scarlet
+      seemed to be making its way through the horses, and was speedily leading
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prothero is making the running with a vengeance,&rdquo; the Major said. &ldquo;That
+      is not like his usual tactics, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy he knows what he is doing,&rdquo; the Doctor replied. &ldquo;He saw that
+      Mameluke's rider was going to make a waiting race of it, and as the horse
+      has certainly the turn of speed on him, he is trying other tactics. They
+      are passing the mile post now, and Prothero is twelve or fourteen lengths
+      ahead. There, Mameluke is going through his horses; his rider is beginning
+      to get nervous at the lead Prothero has got, and he can't stand it any
+      longer. He ought to have waited for another half mile. You will see,
+      Prothero will win after all. Seila can stay, there is no doubt about
+      that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A roar of satisfaction rose from the mass of natives on the other side of
+      the inclosure as Mameluke was seen to leave the group of horses and
+      gradually to gain upon Seila.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, he will catch him, uncle!&rdquo; Isobel said, tearing her handkerchief in
+      her excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major was watching the horses through his field glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind his catching him,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;Prothero is riding quietly and
+      steadily. Seila is doing nearly her best, but he is not hurrying her,
+      while the fool on Mameluke is bustling the horse as if he had only a
+      hundred yards further to go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The horses were nearing the point at which they had started, when a shout
+      from the crowd proclaimed that the blue jacket had come up to and passed
+      the scarlet. Slowly it forged ahead until it was two lengths in advance,
+      for a few strides their relative positions remained unaltered, then there
+      was a shout from the carriages; scarlet was coming up again. Mameluke's
+      rider glanced over his shoulder, and began to use the whip. For a few
+      strides the horse widened the gap again, but Prothero still sat quiet and
+      unmoved. Just as they reached the end of the line of carriages, Seila
+      again began to close up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seila wins! Seila wins!&rdquo; the officers shouted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it seemed to Isobel that this was well nigh impossible, but foot by
+      foot the mare came up, and as they passed the Hunters' carriage her head
+      was in advance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of the desperate efforts of the rider of Mameluke, another
+      hundred yards and they passed the winning post, Seila a length ahead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The exultation of the officers of the 103d over Seila's victory was great.
+      They had all backed her, relying upon Prothero's riding, but although his
+      success was generally popular among the Europeans at the station, many had
+      lost considerable sums by their confidence in Mameluke's speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel sat down feeling quite faint from the excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not think I could have been so excited over a race between two
+      horses,&rdquo; she said to Mrs. Hunter; &ldquo;it was not the bets, I never even
+      thought about them&mdash;it was just because I wanted to see Mr.
+      Prothero's horse win. I never understood before why people should take
+      such an interest in horse racing, but I quite understand now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your size, Miss Hannay?&rdquo; Wilson asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I don't care anything about the gloves, Mr. Wilson; I am sorry I bet
+      now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn't feel any compunction in taking them from me or from any of
+      us, Miss Hannay; we have all won over Seila; the regiment will have to
+      give a ball on the strength of it. I only put on a hundred rupees, and so
+      have won four hundred, but most of them have won ever so much more than
+      that; and all I have lost is four pair of gloves to you, and four to Mrs.
+      Doolan, and four to Mrs. Prothero&mdash;a dozen in all. Which do you take,
+      white or cream, and what is your size?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Six and a half, cream.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, Miss Hannay. The Nana must have lost a good lot of money; he
+      has been backing his horse with everyone who would lay against it.
+      However, it won't make any difference to him, and it is always a
+      satisfaction when the loss comes on someone to whom it doesn't matter a
+      bit. I think the regiment ought to give a dinner to Prothero, Major; it
+      was entirely his riding that did it; he hustled that nigger on Mameluke
+      splendidly. If the fellow had waited till within half a mile of home he
+      would have won to a certainty; I never saw anything better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Miss Hannay, what do you think of a horse race?&rdquo; Bathurst, who had
+      only remained a few minutes at the carriage, asked, as he strolled up
+      again. &ldquo;You said yesterday that you had never seen one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a little ashamed to say I was very much excited over it, Mr.
+      Bathurst. You have not lost, I hope? You are looking&rdquo; and she stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shaky?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Yes; I feel shaky. I had not a penny on the race, for
+      though the Doctor made me put into a sweep last night at the club, I drew
+      a blank; but the shouting and excitement at the finish seemed to take my
+      breath away, and I felt quite faint.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is just how I felt; I did not know men felt like that. They don't
+      generally seem to know what nerves are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I didn't; it is a great nuisance. The Doctor tries to persuade me
+      that it is the effect of overwork, but I have always been so from a child,
+      and I can't get over it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't look nervous, Mr. Bathurst.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; when a man is a fair size, and looks bronzed and healthy, no one will
+      give him credit for being nervous. I would give a very great deal if I
+      could get over it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't see that it matters much one way or the other, Mr. Bathurst.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can assure you that it does. I regard it as being a most serious
+      misfortune.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel was a little surprised at the earnestness with which he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should not have thought that,&rdquo; she said quietly; &ldquo;but I can understand
+      that it is disagreeable for a man to feel nervous, simply, I suppose,
+      because it is regarded as a feminine quality; but I think a good many men
+      are nervous. We had several entertainments on board the ship coming out,
+      and it was funny to see how many great strong men broke down, especially
+      those who had to make speeches.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not nervous in that way,&rdquo; Bathurst said, with a laugh. &ldquo;My pet
+      horror is noise; thunder prostrates me completely, and in fact all noises,
+      especially any sharp, sudden sound, affect me. I really find it a great
+      nuisance. I fancy a woman with nerves considers herself as a martyr, and
+      deserving of all pity and sympathy. It is almost a fashionable complaint,
+      and she is a little proud of it; but a man ought to have his nerves in
+      good order, and as much as that is expected of him unless he is a feeble
+      little body. There is the bell for the next race.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you going to bet on this race again, Miss Hannay?&rdquo; Wilson said,
+      coming up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Mr. Wilson. I have done my first and last bit of gambling. I don't
+      think it is nice, ladies betting, after all, and if there were a hospital
+      here I should order you to send the money the gloves will cost you to it
+      as conscience money, and then perhaps you might follow my example with
+      your winnings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My conscience is not moved in any way,&rdquo; he laughed; &ldquo;when it is I will
+      look out for a deserving charity. Well, if you won't bet I must see if I
+      can make a small investment somewhere else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall see you at the ball, of course?&rdquo; Isobel said, turning to Mr.
+      Bathurst, as Wilson left the carriage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I think not. Balls are altogether out of my line, and as there is
+      always a superabundance of men at such affairs here, there is no sense of
+      duty about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your line, Mr. Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid I have none, Miss Hannay. The fact is, there is really more
+      work to be done than one can get through. When you get to know the natives
+      well you cannot help liking them and longing to do them some good if they
+      would but let you, but it is so difficult to get them to take up new
+      ideas. Their religion, with all its customs and ceremonies, seems designed
+      expressly to bar out all improvements. Except in the case of abolishing
+      Suttee, we have scarcely weaned them from one of their observances; and
+      even now, in spite of our efforts, widows occasionally immolate
+      themselves, and that with the general approval.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I had an army of ten thousand English ladies all speaking the
+      language well to go about among the women and make friends with them;
+      there would be more good done in that way than by all the officials in
+      India. They might not be able to emancipate themselves from all their
+      restrictions, but they might influence their children, and in time pave
+      the way for a moral revolution. But it is ridiculous,&rdquo; he said, breaking
+      off suddenly, &ldquo;my talking like this here, but you see it is what you call
+      my line, my hobby, if you like; but when one sees this hard working,
+      patient, gentle people making their lot so much harder than it need be by
+      their customs and observances one longs to force them even against their
+      own will to burst their bonds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Wade came up at this moment and caught the last word or two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are incorrigible, Bathurst. Miss Hannay, I warn you that this man is
+      a monomaniac. I drag him away from his work, and here he is discoursing
+      with you on reform just as a race is going to start. You may imagine, my
+      dear, what a thorn he is in the side of the bigwigs. You have heard of
+      Talleyrand's advice to a young official, 'Above all things, no zeal.' Go
+      away, Bathurst; Miss Hannay wants to see the race, and even if she doesn't
+      she is powerless to assist you in your crusade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst laughed and drew off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is too bad, Doctor. I was very interested. I like to talk to people
+      who can think of something besides races and balls and the gossip of the
+      station.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, in reason, in reason, my dear; but there is a medium in all things.
+      I have no doubt Bathurst will be quite happy some time or other to give
+      you his full views on child marriages, and the remarriages of widows, and
+      female education, and the land settlement, and a score of other questions,
+      but for this a few weeks of perfect leisure will be required. Seriously,
+      you know that I think Bathurst one of the finest young fellows in the
+      service, but his very earnestness injures both his prospects and his
+      utility. The officials have a horror of enthusiasm; they like the cut and
+      dried subordinate who does his duty conscientiously, and does not trouble
+      his head about anything but carrying out the regulations laid down for
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Theoretically I agree with most of Bathurst's views, practically I see
+      that a score of officials like him would excite a revolution throughout a
+      whole province. In India, of all places in the world, the maxim festina
+      lente&mdash;go slow&mdash;is applicable. You have the prejudices of a
+      couple of thousand years against change. The people of all things are
+      jealous of the slightest appearance of interference with their customs.
+      The change will no doubt come in time, but it must come gradually, and
+      must be the work of the natives themselves and not of us. To try to hasten
+      that time would be but to defer it. Now, child, there is the bell; now
+      just attend to the business in hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Doctor, I will obey your orders, but it is only fair to say
+      that Mr. Bathurst's remarks are only in answer to something I said,&rdquo; and
+      Isobel turned to watch the race, but with an interest less ardent than she
+      had before felt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel's character was an essentially earnest one, and her life up to the
+      day of her departure to India had been one of few pleasures. She had
+      enjoyed the change and had entered heartily into it, and she was as yet by
+      no means tired of it, but she had upon her arrival at Cawnpore been a
+      little disappointed that there was no definite work for her to perform,
+      and had already begun to feel that a time would come when she would want
+      something more than gossip and amusements and the light talk of the
+      officers of her acquaintance to fill her life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had as yet no distinct interest of her own, and Bathurst's earnestness
+      had struck a cord in her own nature and seemed to open a wide area for
+      thought. She put it aside now and chatted gayly with the Hunters and those
+      who came up to the carriage, but it came back to her as she sat in her
+      room before going to bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Up till now she had not heard a remark since she had been in Cawnpore that
+      might not have been spoken had the cantonments there been the whole of
+      India, except that persons at other stations were mentioned. The vast,
+      seething native population were no more alluded to than if they were a
+      world apart. Bathurst's words had for the first time brought home to her
+      the reality of their existence, and that around this little group of
+      English men and women lay a vast population, with their joys and sorrows
+      and sufferings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At breakfast she surprised Mrs. Hunter by asking a variety of questions as
+      to native customs. &ldquo;I suppose you have often been in the Zenanas, Mrs.
+      Hunter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not often, my dear. I have been in some of them, and very depressing it
+      is to see how childish and ignorant the women are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can nothing be done for them, Mrs. Hunter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very little. In time I suppose there will be schools for girls, but you
+      see they marry so young that it is difficult to get at them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How young do they marry?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are betrothed, although it has all the force of a marriage, as
+      infants, and a girl can be a widow at two or three years old; and so, poor
+      little thing, she remains to the end of her life in a position little
+      better than that of a servant in her husband's family. Really they are
+      married at ten or eleven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel looked amazed at this her first insight into native life. Mrs.
+      Hunter smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard Mr. Bathurst saying something to you about it yesterday, Miss
+      Hannay. He is an enthusiast; we like him very much, but we don't see much
+      of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must beware of him, Miss Hannay,&rdquo; Mr. Hunter said, &ldquo;or he will
+      inoculate you with some of his fads. I do not say that he is not right,
+      but he sees the immensity of the need for change, but does not see fully
+      the immensity of the difficulty in bringing it about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no fear of his inoculating me; that is to say of setting me to
+      work, for what could one woman do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing, my dear,&rdquo; her uncle said; &ldquo;if all the white women in India threw
+      themselves into the work, they could do little. The natives are too
+      jealous of what they consider intruders; the Parsees are about the only
+      progressive people. While ladies are welcome enough when they pay a visit
+      of ceremony to the Zenana of a native, if they were to try to teach their
+      wives to be discontented with their lots&mdash;for that is what it would
+      be&mdash;they would be no longer welcome. Schools are being established,
+      but at present these are but a drop in the ocean. Still, the work does go
+      on, and in time something will be done. It is of no use bothering yourself
+      about it, Isobel; it is best to take matters as you find them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel made no answer, but she was much disappointed when Dr. Wade,
+      dropping in to tiffin, said his guest had started two hours before for
+      Deennugghur. He had a batch of letters and reports from his native clerk,
+      and there was something or other that he said he must see to at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He begged me to say, Major, that he was very sorry to go off without
+      saying goodby, but he hoped to be in Cawnpore before long. I own that that
+      part of the message astonished me, knowing as I do what difficulty there
+      is in getting him out of his shell. He and I became great chums when I was
+      over at Deennugghur two years ago, and the young fellow is not given to
+      making friends. However, as he is not the man to say a thing without
+      meaning it, I suppose he intends to come over again. He knows there is
+      always a bed for him in my place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We see very little of him,&rdquo; Mary Hunter said; &ldquo;he is always away on
+      horseback all day. Sometimes he comes in the evening when we are quite
+      alone, but he will never stay long. He always excuses himself on the
+      ground that he has a report to write or something of that sort. Amy and I
+      call him 'Timon of Athens.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing of Timon about him,&rdquo; the Doctor remarked dogmatically.
+      &ldquo;That is the way with you young ladies&mdash;you think that a man's first
+      business in life is to be dancing attendance on you. Bathurst looks at
+      life seriously, and no wonder, going about as he does among the natives
+      and listening to their stories and complaints. He puts his hand to the
+      plow, and does not turn to the right or left.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, Doctor, you must allow,&rdquo; Mrs. Hunter said gravely, &ldquo;that Mr.
+      Bathurst is not like most other men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not,&rdquo; the Doctor remarked. &ldquo;He takes no interest in sport of
+      any kind; he does not care for society; he very rarely goes to the club,
+      and never touches a card when he does; and yet he is the sort of man one
+      would think would throw himself into what is going on. He is a strong,
+      active, healthy man, whom one would expect to excel in all sorts of
+      sports; he is certainly good looking; he talks extremely well, and is, I
+      should say, very well read and intelligent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He can be very amusing when he likes, Doctor. Once or twice when he has
+      been with us he has seemed to forget himself, as it were, and was full of
+      fun and life. You must allow that it is a little singular that a man like
+      this should altogether avoid society, and night and day be absorbed in his
+      work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have thought sometimes,&rdquo; Mr. Hunter said, &ldquo;that Bathurst must have had
+      some great trouble in his life. Of what nature I can, of course, form no
+      idea. He was little more than twenty when he came out here, so I should
+      say that it was hardly a love affair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is always the way, Hunter. If a man goes his own way, and that way
+      does not happen to be the way of the mess, it is supposed that he must
+      have had trouble of some sort. As Bathurst is the son of a distinguished
+      soldier, and is now the owner of a fine property at home, I don't see what
+      trouble he can have had. He may possibly, for anything I know, have had
+      some boyish love affairs, but I don't think he is the sort of man to allow
+      his whole life to be affected by any foolery of that sort. He is simply an
+      enthusiast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is good for mankind that there should be some enthusiasts. I grant
+      that it would be an unpleasant world if we were all enthusiasts, but the
+      sight of a man like him throwing his whole life and energy into his work,
+      and wearing himself out trying to lessen the evils he sees around him,
+      ought to do good to us all. Look at these boys,&rdquo; and he apostrophized
+      Wilson and Richards, as they appeared together at the door. &ldquo;What do they
+      think of but amusing themselves and shirking their duties as far as
+      possible?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I say, Doctor,&rdquo; Wilson exclaimed, astonished at this sudden attack,
+      &ldquo;what are you pitching into us like that for? That is not fair, is it,
+      Major? We amuse ourselves, of course, when there is nothing else to do,
+      but I am sure we don't shirk our work. You don't want us to spend our
+      spare time in reading Greek, I suppose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; but you might spend some of it very profitably in learning some of
+      these native languages,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;I don't believe that you know
+      above a dozen native words now. You can shout for brandy and water, and
+      for a light for your cigars, but I fancy that that is about the extent of
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are going to have a moonshee next week, Doctor,&rdquo; Wilson said, a little
+      crestfallen, &ldquo;and a horrid nuisance it will be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is only because you are obliged to pass in the vernacular, Wilson.
+      So you need not take any credit to yourself on that account.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doctor, you are in one of your worst possible tempers this morning,&rdquo;
+       Isobel said. &ldquo;You snap at us all round. You are quite intolerable this
+      morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am rather put out by Bathurst running away in this fashion, Miss
+      Hannay. I had made up my mind that he would stop three or four days
+      longer, and it is pleasant to have someone who can talk and think about
+      something besides horses and balls. But I will go away; I don't want to be
+      the disturbing element; and I have no doubt that Richards is burning to
+      tell you the odds on some of the horses today.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we see you on the racecourse, Doctor?&rdquo; the Major asked, as the
+      Doctor moved towards the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will not, Major; one day is enough for me. If they would get up a
+      donkey race confined strictly to the subalterns of the station, I might
+      take the trouble to go and look at it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Doctor is in great form today,&rdquo; Wilson said good temperedly, after
+      the laugh which followed the Doctor's exit had subsided; &ldquo;and I am sure we
+      did nothing to provoke him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You got into his line of fire, Wilson,&rdquo; the Major said; &ldquo;he is explosive
+      this morning, and has been giving it to us all round. However, nobody
+      minds what the Doctor says; his bark is very bad, but he has no bite. Wait
+      till you are down with the fever, and you will find him devote himself to
+      you as if he were your father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is one of the kindest men in the world,&rdquo; Isobel agreed warmly, thereby
+      effectually silencing Richards, who had just pulled up his shirt collar
+      preparatory to a sarcastic utterance respecting him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel, indeed, was in full sympathy with the Doctor, for she, too, was
+      disappointed at Bathurst's sudden departure. She had looked forward to
+      learning a good deal from him about the native customs and ways, and had
+      intended to have a long talk with him. She was perhaps, too, more
+      interested generally in the man himself than she would have been willing
+      to admit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening the party went to an entertainment at Bithoor. Isobel and the
+      girls were delighted with the illuminations of the gardens and with the
+      palace itself, with its mixture of Eastern splendor and European luxury.
+      But Isobel did not altogether enjoy the evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose I ought to congratulate you on your success last night,
+      Isobel,&rdquo; Dr. Wade said, when he dropped in after breakfast. &ldquo;Everyone has
+      been telling me that the Rajah paid you the greatest attention, and that
+      there is the fiercest gnashing of teeth among what must now be called the
+      ex-queens of the station.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know who told you such nonsense, Doctor,&rdquo; Isobel replied hotly.
+      &ldquo;The Rajah quite spoilt the evening for me. I have been telling Mrs.
+      Hunter so. If we had not been in his own house, I should have told him
+      that I should enjoy the evening very much more if he would leave me alone
+      and let me go about and look quietly at the place and the gardens, which
+      are really beautiful. No doubt he is pleasant enough, and I suppose I
+      ought to have felt flattered at his walking about with me and so on, but I
+      am sure I did not. What pleasure does he suppose an English girl can have
+      in listening to elaborate compliments from a man as yellow as a guinea?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think of his wealth, my dear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What difference does his wealth make?&rdquo; Isobel said. &ldquo;As far as I have
+      seen, I do not think that rich Englishmen are more amusing than others,
+      and if he had all the wealth of India, that would not improve Nana Sahib
+      in my eyes. There are women, of course, who do think a great deal about
+      money, and who will even marry men for it, but even women who would do
+      that could not, I should think, care anything about the wealth of a Hindoo
+      they cannot marry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not directly, my dear,&rdquo; Mrs. Hunter said; &ldquo;but people may be flattered
+      with the notice and admiration of a person of importance and great wealth,
+      even if he is a Hindoo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Besides,&rdquo; the Doctor put in, &ldquo;the Rajah is considered to be a great
+      connoisseur of English beauty, and has frequently expressed his deep
+      regret that his religion prevented his marrying an English lady.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should be very sorry for the English girl who would marry him, religion
+      or not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you are rather hard upon the Nana, Isobel,&rdquo; the Major said. &ldquo;He
+      is a general favorite; he is open handed and liberal; very fond of
+      entertaining; a great admirer of us as a nation. He is a wonderfully well
+      read man for a Hindoo, can talk upon almost every subject, and is really a
+      pleasant fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't like him; I don't like him at all,&rdquo; Isobel said positively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, that is only because you thought he made you a little more
+      conspicuous than you liked by his attentions to you, Isobel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, indeed, uncle; that was very silly and ridiculous, but I did not like
+      the man himself, putting that aside altogether. It was like talking to a
+      man with a mask on: it gave me a creepy feeling. It did not seem to me
+      that one single word he said was sincere, but that he was acting; and over
+      and over again as he was talking I said to myself, 'What is this man
+      really like? I know he is not the least bit in the world what he pretends
+      to be. But what is the reality?' I felt just the same as I should if I had
+      one of those great snakes they bring to our veranda coiling round me. The
+      creature might look quiet enough, but I should know that if it were to
+      tighten it would crush me in a moment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major and Mrs. Hunter both laughed at her earnestness, but the Doctor
+      said gravely, &ldquo;Is that really how you felt about him when he was talking
+      to you, Miss Hannay? I am sorry to hear you say that. I own that my
+      opinion has been that of everyone here, that the Rajah is a good fellow
+      and a firm friend of the Europeans, and my only doubt has arisen from the
+      fact that it was unnatural he should like us when he has considerable
+      grounds for grievance against us. We have always relied upon his
+      influence, which is great among his countrymen, being thrown entirely into
+      the scale on our side if any trouble should ever arise; but I own that
+      what you say makes me doubt him. I would always take the opinion of a dog
+      or a child about anyone in preference to my own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not very complimentary, Doctor,&rdquo; Isobel laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear, a young girl who has not mixed much in the world and had
+      her instincts blunted is in that respect very much like a child. She may
+      be deceived, and constantly is deceived where her heart is concerned, and
+      is liable to be taken in by any plausible scoundrel; but where her heart
+      is not concerned her instincts are true. When I see children and dogs
+      stick to a man I am convinced that he is all right, though I may not
+      personally have taken to him. When I see a dog put his tail between his
+      legs and decline to accept the advances of a man, and when I see children
+      slip away from him as soon as they can, I distrust him at once, however
+      pleasant a fellow he may be. As the Rajah, from all I heard, certainly
+      laid himself out to be agreeable to you last night, and yet in spite of
+      that you felt as you say you did about him, I am bound to say that without
+      at once admitting that my impressions about him were wrong, I consider
+      that there is good ground for thinking the matter over again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What nonsense, Doctor,&rdquo; the Major laughed. &ldquo;Everyone here has known the
+      Rajah for years. He is a most popular man, everyone likes him, among the
+      ladies especially he is a great favorite. It is ridiculous to suggest that
+      everyone should have been wrong about him, merely because Isobel takes a
+      prejudice against him, and that as far as I can see is simply because his
+      admiration for her was somewhat marked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel gave a little shudder. &ldquo;Don't talk about admiration, uncle; that is
+      not the word for it; I don't know what it was like. They say snakes
+      fascinate birds before they eat them by fixing their eyes upon them. I
+      should say it was something of that sort of look.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear, he is not going to eat you, that is certain,&rdquo; the Major
+      said; &ldquo;and I can assure you that his approbation goes for a great deal
+      here, and that after this you will go up several pegs in Cawnpore
+      society.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel tossed her head. &ldquo;Then I am sorry for Cawnpore society; it is a
+      matter of entire indifference to me whether I go up or down in its
+      opinion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A fortnight later the Nana gave another entertainment. A good deal to her
+      uncle's vexation, Isobel refused to go when the time came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what am I to say, my dear?&rdquo; he asked in some perplexity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can say anything you like, uncle; you can say that I am feeling the
+      heat and have got a bad headache, which is true; or you can say that I
+      don't care for gayety, which is also true. I shall be very much more
+      comfortable and happy at home by myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hunters had by this time returned to Deennugghur, and the Major drove
+      over to Bithoor accompanied only by Dr. Wade. He was rather surprised when
+      the Doctor said he would go, as it was very seldom that he went out to
+      such entertainments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not going to amuse myself, Major; I want to have a good look at the
+      Nana again; I am not comfortable since Isobel gave us her opinion of him.
+      He is an important personage, and if there is any truth in these rumors
+      about disaffection among the Sepoys his friendship may be of the greatest
+      assistance to us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the Doctor was with Major Hannay when the latter made his excuses for
+      Isobel's absence on the ground that she was not feeling very well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nana expressed great regret at the news, and said that with the
+      Major's permission he would call in the morning to inquire after Miss
+      Hannay's health.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He did not like it,&rdquo; the Doctor said, when they had strolled away
+      together. &ldquo;He was very civil and polite, but I could see that he was
+      savage. I fancy he got up this fete principally in her honor. It is not
+      often he has two so close together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, that is nonsense, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think so. He has done the same sort of thing several times
+      before, when he has been specially taken by some fresh face from England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Others besides the Doctor remarked that the Rajah was not quite himself
+      that evening. He was courteous and polite to his guests, but he was
+      irritable with his own people, and something had evidently gone wrong with
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day he called at the Major's. The latter had not told Isobel of
+      his intention, for he guessed that had he done so she would have gone
+      across to Mrs. Doolan or one of her lady friends, and she was sitting in
+      the veranda with him and young Wilson when the carriage drove up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was so sorry to hear that you were unwell, Miss Hannay,&rdquo; the Nana said
+      courteously. &ldquo;It was a great disappointment to me that you were unable to
+      accompany your uncle last night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been feeling the heat the last few days,&rdquo; Isobel said quietly,
+      &ldquo;and, indeed, I do not care much about going out in such hot weather as
+      this. I have not been accustomed to much society in England, and the crowd
+      and the heat and the lights make my head ache.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You look the picture of health, Miss Hannay, but I know that it is trying
+      for Englishwomen when they first come into our climate; it is always a
+      great pleasure to me to receive English ladies at Bithoor. I hope upon the
+      next occasion you will be able to come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am much obliged to your highness,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but it would be a truer
+      kindness to let me stay quietly at home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But that is selfish of you, Miss Hannay. You should think a little of the
+      pleasure of others as well as your own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not conceited enough to suppose that it could make any difference to
+      other people's pleasure whether I am at a party or not,&rdquo; Isobel said. &ldquo;I
+      suppose you mean that as a compliment, Rajah, but I am not accustomed to
+      compliments, and don't like them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will have to learn to become accustomed to compliments, Miss Hannay,&rdquo;
+       the Rajah said, with a smile; and then turning to the Doctor, began to
+      tell him of a tiger that had been doing a great deal of harm at a village
+      some thirty miles away, and offered to send some elephants over to
+      organize a hunt for him if he liked, an invitation that the Doctor
+      promptly accepted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The visit was but a short one. The Rajah soon took his leave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are wrong altogether, Isobel,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;I have returned to
+      my conviction that the Rajah is a first rate fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is just because he offered you some shooting, Doctor,&rdquo; Isobel said
+      indignantly. &ldquo;I thought better of you than to suppose that you could be
+      bought over so easily as that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She had you there, Doctor,&rdquo; the Major laughed. &ldquo;However, I am glad that
+      you will no longer be backing her in her fancies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why did you accept his invitation for us to go over and lunch there,
+      uncle?&rdquo; Isobel asked, in a tone of annoyance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because there was no reason in the world why we should refuse, my dear.
+      He very often has luncheon parties, and after that he will show you over
+      the place, and exhibit his jewels and curiosities. He said there would be
+      other ladies there, and I have no doubt we shall have a very pleasant
+      day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Isobel was obliged to confess that the visit was a pleasant one. The
+      Nana had asked Mrs. Cromarty, her daughters, and most of the other ladies
+      of the regiment, with their husbands. The lunch was a banquet, and after
+      it was over the parties were taken round the place, paid a visit to the
+      Zenana, inspected the gardens and stables, and were driven through the
+      park. The Nana saw that Isobel objected to be particularly noticed, and
+      had the tact to make his attentions so general that even she could find no
+      fault with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the drive back she admitted to her uncle that she had enjoyed her visit
+      very much, and that the Rajah's manners were those of a perfect gentleman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But mind, uncle,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I do not retract my opinion. What the Rajah
+      really is I don't pretend to know, but I am quite sure that the character
+      of a smiling host is not his real one, and that for some reason or other
+      he is simply playing a part.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had no idea that you were such a prejudiced little woman,&rdquo; the Major
+      said, somewhat vexed; &ldquo;but as it is no use arguing with you we had better
+      drop the subject.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For the next month Cawnpore suffered a little from the reaction after the
+      gayety of the races, but there was no lack of topics of conversation, for
+      the rumors of disaffection among the troops gained in strength, and
+      although nothing positive was known, and everyone scoffed at the notion of
+      any serious trouble, the subject was so important a one that little else
+      was talked of whenever parties of the ladies got together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have some bad news, Isobel. At least I suppose you will consider it bad
+      news,&rdquo; the Major said one morning, when he returned from the orderly room.
+      &ldquo;You heard me say that four companies were going to relieve those at
+      Deennugghur. Well, I am going with them. It seems that the General is of
+      opinion that in the present unsettled state of affairs there ought to be a
+      field officer in command there, so I have to go. For myself I don't mind,
+      but you will find it dull in a small station like that, after the gayeties
+      of Cawnpore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't mind a bit, uncle, in that respect. I don't think I care much for
+      gayeties, but of course the move will be a trouble. We have everything so
+      nice here, it will be horrid having to leave it all. How long will it be
+      for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Six months, in the ordinary state of things, though of course something
+      may occur to bring us in before that. Still, the change won't be as much
+      trouble as you fancy. When we get there you can stay for two or three days
+      with the Hunters till we have got the things to rights. There is one thing
+      that you will be pleased about. Wade is going with us, at any rate for the
+      present; you are a favorite of his, you know, and I think that is the
+      principal reason for his going. At any rate, when he heard I was in
+      orders, he told the Colonel that, as there was no illness in the regiment,
+      he thought, if he did not object, he would change places for a bit with
+      M'Alaster, the assistant surgeon, who has been with the detachment at
+      Deennugghur for the last year, so as to give him a turn of duty at
+      Cawnpore, and do a little shikaring himself. There is more jungle and
+      better shooting round Deennugghur than there is here, and you know the
+      Doctor is an enthusiast that way. Of course, the Colonel agreed at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am very glad of that, uncle; it won't seem like going to a strange
+      place if we have him with us, and the Hunters there, and I suppose three
+      or four officers of the regiment. Who are going?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Both your boys,&rdquo; the Major laughed, &ldquo;and Doolan and Rintoul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When do we go, uncle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Next Monday. I shall get somebody to put us up from Friday, and that
+      morning we will get everything dismantled here, and send them off by
+      bullock carts with the servants to Deennugghur, so that they will be there
+      by Monday morning. I will write to Hunter to pick us out the best of the
+      empty bungalows, and see that our fellows get to work to clean the place
+      up as soon as they arrive. We shall be two days on the march, and things
+      will be pretty forward by the time we get there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where shall we sleep on the march?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In tents, my dear, and very comfortable you will find them. Rumzan will
+      go with us, and you will find everything go on as smoothly as if you were
+      here. Tent life in India is very pleasant. Next year, in the cool season,
+      we will do an excursion somewhere, and I am sure you will find it
+      delightful: they don't know anything about the capabilities of tents at
+      home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then do I quite understand, uncle, that all I have got to do is to make a
+      round of calls to say goodby to everyone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is all. You will find a lot of my cards in one of those pigeon
+      holes; you may as well drop one wherever you go. Shall I order a carriage
+      from Framjee's for today?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I think not, uncle; I will go round to our own bungalows first, and
+      hear what Mrs. Doolan and the others think about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At Mrs. Doolan's Isobel found quite an assembly. Mrs. Rintoul had come in
+      almost in tears, and the two young lieutenants had dropped in with Captain
+      Doolan, while one or two other officers had come round to commiserate with
+      Mrs. Doolan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another victim,&rdquo; the latter said, as Isobel entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You look too cheerful, Miss Hannay. I find that we are expected to wear
+      sad countenances at our approaching banishment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we, Mrs. Doolan? It seems to me that it won't make very much
+      difference to us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not make any difference, Miss Hannay!&rdquo; Captain Doolan said. &ldquo;Why,
+      Deennugghur is one of the dullest little stations on this side of India!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean by dull, Captain Doolan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, there are only about six white residents there besides the troops.
+      Of course, as four companies are going instead of one, it will make a
+      difference; but there will be no gayety, no excitement, and really nothing
+      to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As for the gayety, I am sure I shall not regret it, Captain Doolan;
+      besides, our gayeties are pretty well over, except, of course, dinner
+      parties, and it is getting very hot for them. We shall get off having to
+      go out in the heat of the day to make calls, which seem to me terrible
+      afflictions, and I think with a small party it ought to be very sociable
+      and pleasant. As for excitement, I hear that there is much better shooting
+      there than there is here. Mrs. Hunter was telling me that they have had
+      some tigers that have been very troublesome round there, and you will all
+      have an opportunity of showing your skill and bravery. I know that Mr.
+      Richards and Mr. Wilson are burning to distinguish themselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be great fun to shoot a tiger,&rdquo; Richards said. &ldquo;When I came out
+      to India I thought there was going to be lots of tiger shooting, and I
+      bought a rifle on purpose, but I have never had a chance yet. Yes, we will
+      certainly get up a tiger hunt, won't we, Wilson? You will tell us how to
+      set about it, won't you, Doolan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't shoot,&rdquo; Captain Doolan said; &ldquo;and if I wanted to, I am not sure
+      that my wife would give me leave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly I would not,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said promptly. &ldquo;Married men have no
+      right to run into unnecessary danger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dr. Wade will be able to put you in the way, Mr. Richards,&rdquo; Isobel said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dr. Wade!&rdquo; Mrs. Rintoul exclaimed. &ldquo;You don't mean to say, Miss Hannay,
+      that he is going with us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he is going for a time, Mrs. Rintoul. My uncle told me that he had
+      applied to go with the detachment, and that the surgeon there would come
+      back to the regiment while he is away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do call that hard,&rdquo; Mrs. Rintoul said. &ldquo;The only thing I was glad we
+      were going for was that we should be under Mr. M'Alaster, who is very
+      pleasant, and quite understands my case, while Dr. Wade does not seem to
+      understand it at all, and is always so very brusque and unsympathetic.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wade is worth a hundred of M'Alaster,&rdquo; Captain Roberts said. &ldquo;There is
+      not a man out here I would rather trust myself to if I were ill. He is an
+      awfully good fellow, too, all round, though he may be, as you say, a
+      little brusque in manner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I call him a downright bear,&rdquo; Mrs. Rintoul said angrily. &ldquo;Why, only last
+      week he told me that if I would get up two hours earlier and go for a
+      brisk walk just after sunrise, and give up eating meat at tiffin, and
+      confine myself to two or three dishes at dinner, I should be perfectly
+      well in the course of a month; just as if I was in the habit of overeating
+      myself, when I have scarcely the appetite of a sparrow. I told Captain
+      Rintoul afterwards that I must consult someone else, for that really I
+      could not bear such rudeness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid we are all against you, Mrs. Rintoul,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said, with
+      a little shake of her head at Isobel, who was, she saw, going to speak out
+      strongly. &ldquo;No one could possibly be kinder than he is when anyone is
+      really ill. I mean seriously ill,&rdquo; she added, as Mrs. Rintoul drew herself
+      up indignantly. &ldquo;I shall never forget how attentive he was to the children
+      when they were down with fever just before he went to England. He missed
+      his ship and lost a month of his leave because he would not go away till
+      they were out of danger, and there are very few men who would have done
+      that. I shall never forget his kindness. And now let us talk of something
+      else. You will have to establish a little mess on your own account, Mr.
+      Wilson, as both the Captains are married men, and the Major has also an
+      incumbrance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it will be horribly dull, Mrs. Doolan. Richards and I have quarters
+      together here, and, of course, it will be the same there, and I am sure I
+      don't know what we shall find to talk about when we come to have to mess
+      together. Of course, here, there are the messroom and the club, and so we
+      get on very well, but to be together always will be awful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will really have to take to reading or something of that sort, Mr.
+      Wilson,&rdquo; Isobel laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I always do read the Field, Miss Hannay, but that won't last for a whole
+      week, you know; and there is no billiard table, and no racquet court, or
+      anything else at Deennugghur, and one cannot always be riding about the
+      country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall all have to take pity on you as much as we can,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan
+      said. &ldquo;I must say that, like Miss Hannay, I shall not object to the
+      change.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think it is all very well for you, Mrs. Doolan; you have children.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Mr. Richards, I will let you both, as a great treat, take them out
+      for a walk sometimes of a morning instead of their going with the ayah.
+      That will make a change for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general laugh, but Wilson said manfully, &ldquo;Very well, Mrs.
+      Doolan; I am very fond of youngsters, and I should like to take, anyhow,
+      the two eldest out sometimes. I don't think I should make much hand with
+      the other two, but perhaps Richards would like to come in and amuse them
+      while we are out; he is just the fellow for young ones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was another laugh, in which Richards joined. &ldquo;I could carry them
+      about on my back, and pretend to be a horse,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;but I don't know
+      that I could amuse them in any other way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would find that very hot work, Mr. Richards,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said; &ldquo;but
+      I don't think we shall require such a sacrifice of you. Well, I don't
+      think we shall find it so bad, after all, and I don't suppose it will be
+      for very long; I do not believe in all this talk about chupaties, and
+      disaffection, and that sort of thing; I expect in three months we shall
+      most of us be back again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten days later the detachment was settled down in Deennugghur. The troops
+      were for the most part under canvas, for there was only accommodation for
+      a single company at the station. The two subalterns occupied a large
+      square tent, while the other three officers took possession of the only
+      three bungalows that were vacant at the station, the Doctor having a tent
+      to himself. The Major and Isobel had stayed for the first three days with
+      the Hunters, at the end of which time the bungalow had been put in perfect
+      order. It was far less commodious than that at Cawnpore, but Isobel was
+      well satisfied with it when all their belongings had been arranged, and
+      she soon declared that she greatly preferred Deennugghur to Cawnpore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those at the station heartily welcomed the accession to their numbers, and
+      there was an entire absence of the stiffness and formality of a large
+      cantonment like Cawnpore, and Isobel was free to run in as she chose to
+      spend the morning chatting and working with the Hunters, or Mrs. Doolan,
+      or with the other ladies, of whom there were three at the station.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days after their arrival news came in that the famous man eater,
+      which had for a time ceased his ravages and moved off to a different part
+      of the country, principally because the natives of the village near the
+      jungle had ceased altogether to go out after nightfall, had returned, and
+      had carried off herdsmen on two consecutive days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor at once prepared for action, and agreed to allow Wilson and
+      Richards to accompany him, and the next day the three rode off together to
+      Narkeet, to which village the two herdsmen had belonged. Both had been
+      killed near the same spot, and the natives had traced the return of the
+      tiger to its lair in the jungle with its victims.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor soon found that the ordinary methods of destroying the tiger
+      had been tried again and again without success. Cattle and goats had been
+      tied up, and the native shikaris had taken their posts in trees close by,
+      and had watched all night; but in vain. Spring traps and deadfalls had
+      also been tried, but the tiger seemed absolutely indifferent to the
+      attractions of their baits, and always on the lookout for snares. The
+      attempts made at a dozen villages near the jungle had all been equally
+      unsuccessful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is evident,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;that the brute cares for nothing but
+      human victims. No doubt, if he were very hungry he would take a cow or a
+      goat, but we might wait a very long time for that; so the only thing that
+      I can see is to act as a bait myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How will you do that, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall build a sort of cage near the point where the tiger has twice
+      entered the jungle. I will take with me in the cage a woman or girl from
+      the village. From time to time she shall cry out as if in pain, and as the
+      tiger is evidently somewhere in this neighborhood it is likely enough he
+      will come out to see about it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must have the cage pretty strong, or I shall never get anyone to sit
+      with me; besides, on a dark night, there is no calculating on killing to a
+      certainty with the first shot, and it is just as well to be on the safe
+      side. In daylight it would be a different matter altogether. I can rely
+      upon my weapon when I can see, but on a dark night it is pretty well
+      guesswork.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The villagers were at once engaged to erect a stout cage eight feet square
+      and four high, of beams driven into the ground six inches apart, and
+      roofed in with strong bars. There was a considerable difficulty in getting
+      anyone to consent to sit by the Doctor, but at last the widow of one of
+      the men who had been killed agreed for the sum of twenty-five rupees to
+      pass the night there, accompanied by her child four years old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor's skill with his rifle was notorious, and it was rather the
+      desire of seeing her husband's death avenged than for the sake of the
+      money that she consented to keep watch. There was but one tree suitable
+      for the watchers; it stood some forty yards to the right of the cage, and
+      it was arranged that both the subalterns should take their station in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now look here, lads,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;before we start on this business,
+      it must be quite settled that you do not fire till you hear my rifle. That
+      is the first thing; the second is that you only fire when the brute is a
+      fair distance from the cage. If you get excited and blaze away anyhow, you
+      are quite as likely to hit me as you are the tiger. Now, I object to take
+      any risk whatever on that score. You will have a native shikari in the
+      tree with you to point out the tiger, for it is twenty to one against your
+      making him out for yourselves. It will be quite indistinct, and you have
+      no chance of making out its head or anything of that sort, and you have to
+      take a shot at it as best you may.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Remember there must not be a word spoken. If the brute does come, it will
+      probably make two or three turns round the cage before it approaches it,
+      and may likely enough pass close to you, but in no case fire. You can't
+      make sure of killing it, and if it were only wounded it would make off
+      into the jungle, and all our trouble would be thrown away. Also remember
+      you must not smoke; the tiger would smell it half a mile away, and,
+      besides, the sound of a match striking would be quite sufficient to set
+      him on his guard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no objection, I hope, Doctor, to our taking up our flasks; we
+      shall want something to keep us from going to sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, there is no objection to that,&rdquo; the Doctor said; &ldquo;but mind you don't
+      go to sleep, for if you did you might fall off your bough and break your
+      neck, to say nothing of the chance of the tiger happening to be close at
+      hand at the time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Late in the afternoon the Doctor went down to inspect the cage, and
+      pronounced it sufficiently strong. Half an hour before nightfall he and
+      the woman and child took their places in it, and the two beams in the roof
+      that had been left unfastened to allow of their entry were securely lashed
+      in their places by the villagers. Wilson and Richards were helped up into
+      the tree, and took their places upon two boughs which sprang from the
+      trunk close to each other at a height of some twelve feet from the ground.
+      The shikari who was to wait with them crawled out, and with a hatchet
+      chopped off some of the small boughs and foliage so as to give them a
+      clear view of the ground for some distance round the cage, which was
+      erected in the center of a patch of brushwood, the lower portion of which
+      had been cleared out so that the Doctor should have an uninterrupted view
+      round. The boughs and leaves were gathered up by the villagers, and
+      carried away by them, and the watch began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Confound it,&rdquo; Richards whispered to his companion after night fell, &ldquo;it
+      is getting as dark as pitch; I can scarcely make out the clump where the
+      cage is. I should hardly see an elephant if it were to come, much less a
+      brute like a tiger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall get accustomed to it presently,&rdquo; Wilson replied; &ldquo;at any rate
+      make quite sure of the direction in which the cage is in; it is better to
+      let twenty tigers go than to run the risk of hitting the Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In another hour their eyes had become accustomed to the darkness, and they
+      could not only see the clump in which the cage was clearly, but could make
+      out the outline of the bush all round the open space in which it stood.
+      Both started as a loud and dismal wail rose suddenly in the air, followed
+      by a violent crying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Jove, how that woman made me jump!&rdquo; Wilson said; &ldquo;it sounded quite
+      awful, and she must have pinched that poor little beggar of hers pretty
+      sharply to make him yell like that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A low &ldquo;hush!&rdquo; from the shikari at his elbow warned Wilson that he was
+      speaking too loudly. Hours passed by, the cries being raised at intervals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is enough to give one the jumps, Richards; each time she yells I
+      nearly fall off my branch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep on listening, then it won't startle you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A fellow can't keep on listening,&rdquo; Wilson grumbled; &ldquo;I listen each time
+      until my ears begin to sing, and I feel stupid and sleepy, and then she
+      goes off again like a steam whistle; that child will be black and blue all
+      over in the morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A warning hiss from the shikari again induced Wilson to silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't believe the brute is coming,&rdquo; he whispered, an hour later. &ldquo;If it
+      wasn't for this bough being so hard I should drop off to sleep; my eyes
+      ache with staring at those bushes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke the shikari touched him on the shoulder and pointed. &ldquo;Tiger,&rdquo;
+       he whispered; and then did the same to Richards. Grasping their rifles,
+      they gazed in the direction in which he pointed, but could for some time
+      make out nothing. Then they saw a dim gray mass in front of the bushes,
+      directly on the opposite side of the open space; then from the cage, lying
+      almost in a direct line between it and them, rose the cry of the child.
+      They were neither of them at all certain that the object at which they
+      were gazing was the tiger. It seemed shapeless, the outline fading away in
+      the bush; but they felt sure that they had noticed nothing like it in that
+      direction before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For two or three minutes they remained in uncertainty, then the outline
+      seemed to broaden, and it moved noiselessly. There could be no mistake
+      now; the tiger had been attracted by the cries, and as it moved along they
+      could see that it was making a circuit of the spot from whence the sounds
+      proceeded, to reconnoiter before advancing towards its prey. It kept close
+      to the line of bushes, and sometimes passed behind some of them. The
+      shikari pressed their shoulders, and a low hiss enforced the necessity for
+      absolute silence. The two young fellows almost held their breath; they had
+      lost sight of the tiger now, but knew it must be approaching them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For two or three minutes they heard and saw nothing, then the shikari
+      pointed beyond them, and they almost started as they saw the tiger
+      retreating, and knew that it must have passed almost under them without
+      their noticing it. At last it reached the spot at which they had first
+      seen it. The child's cry, but this time low and querulous, again rose.
+      With quicker steps than before it moved on, but still not directly towards
+      the center, to the great relief of the two subalterns, who had feared that
+      it might attack from such a direction that they would not dare to fire for
+      fear of hitting the cage. Fortunately it passed that point, and,
+      crouching, moved towards the bushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wilson and Richards had their rifles now at their shoulders, but, in the
+      feeble and uncertain light, felt by no means sure of hitting their mark,
+      though it was but some thirty yards away. Almost breathlessly they
+      listened for the Doctor's rifle, but both started when the flash and sharp
+      crack broke on the stillness. There was a sudden snarl of pain, the tiger
+      gave a spring in the air, and then fell, rolling over and over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not killed!&rdquo; the shikari exclaimed. &ldquo;Fire when it gets up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly it rose to its feet, and with a loud roar sprang towards the
+      thicket. The two subalterns fired, but the movements of the dimly seen
+      creature were so swift that they felt by no means sure that they had hit
+      it. Then came, almost simultaneously, a loud shriek from the woman, of a
+      very different character to the long wails she had before uttered,
+      followed by a sound of rending and tearing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is breaking down the cage!&rdquo; Richards exclaimed excitedly, as he and
+      Wilson hastened to ram another cartridge down their rifles. &ldquo;Come, we must
+      go and help the Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But a moment later came another report of a rifle, and then all was
+      silent. Then the Doctor's voice was heard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't get down from the tree yet, lads; I think he is dead, but it is
+      best to make sure first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a pause, and then another rifle shot, followed by the shout &ldquo;All
+      right; he is as dead as a door nail now. Mind your rifles as you climb
+      down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fancy thinking of that,&rdquo; Wilson said, &ldquo;when you have just killed a tiger!
+      I haven't capped mine yet; have you, Richards?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have just put it on, but will take it off again. Here, old man, you get
+      down first, and we will hand the guns to you.&rdquo;&mdash;this to the shikari.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With some difficulty they scrambled down from the tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now we may as well cap our rifles,&rdquo; Richards said; &ldquo;the brute may not be
+      dead after all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They approached the bush cautiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are quite sure he is dead, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite sure; do you think I don't know when a tiger is dead?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Still holding their guns in readiness to fire, they approached the bushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can do no good until the villagers come with torches,&rdquo; the Doctor
+      said; &ldquo;the tiger is dead enough, but it is always as well to be prudent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The shikari had uttered a loud cry as he sprang down from the tree, and
+      this had been answered by shouts from the distance. In a few minutes
+      lights were seen through the trees, and a score of men with torches and
+      lanterns ran up with shouts of satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as they arrived the two young officers advanced to the cage. On
+      the top a tiger was lying stretched out as if in sleep; with some caution
+      they approached it and flashed a torch in its eyes. There was no doubt
+      that it was dead. The body was quickly rolled off the cage, and then a
+      dozen hands cut the lashing and lifted the top bars, which was deeply
+      scored by the tiger's claws, and the Doctor emerged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad to be out of that,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;six hours in a cage with a woman
+      and a crying brat is no joke.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the Doctor had got out, the subalterns eagerly examined the
+      tiger, upon which the natives were heaping curses and execrations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How many wounds has it got?&rdquo; they asked the Doctor, who repeated the
+      question to the shikari in his own language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three, sahib. One full in the chest&mdash;it would have been mortal&mdash;two
+      others in the ribs by the heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No others?&rdquo; the subalterns exclaimed in disgust, as the answer was
+      translated to them. The Doctor himself examined the tiger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; you both missed, lads, but you need not be ashamed of that; it is no
+      easy matter to hit a tiger even at a short distance on a dark night like
+      this, when you can scarce make him out, and can't see the barrel of your
+      rifle. I ought to have told you to rub a little phosphorus off the head of
+      a match onto the sight. I am so accustomed to do it myself as a matter of
+      course that I did not think of telling you. Well, I am heartily glad we
+      have killed it, for by all accounts it has done an immense deal of
+      damage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has been a fine tiger in its time, although its skin doesn't look
+      much,&rdquo; Wilson said; &ldquo;there are patches of fur off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is generally the case with man eaters. They are mostly old tigers
+      who take, when they get past their strength, to killing men. I don't know
+      whether the flesh doesn't agree with them, but they are almost always
+      mangy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were afraid for a moment,&rdquo; Richards said, &ldquo;that the tiger was going to
+      break into your cage; we heard him clawing away at the timber, and as you
+      didn't fire again we were afraid something was the matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The mother was,&rdquo; the Doctor said testily. &ldquo;The moment the tiger sprang,
+      the woman threw herself down at full length right on the top of my second
+      rifle, and when I went to push her off I think she fancied the tiger had
+      got hold of her, for she gave a yell that fairly made me jump. I had to
+      push her off by main force, and then lie down on my back, so as to get the
+      rifle up to fire. I was sure the first shot was fatal, for I knew just
+      where his heart would be, but I dropped a second cartridge in, and gave
+      him another bullet so as to make sure. Well, if either of you want his
+      head or his claws, you had better say so at once, for the natives will be
+      singeing his whiskers off directly; the practice is a superstition of
+      theirs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don't want them,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;If I had put a bullet into the
+      brute, so that I could have said I helped to kill him, I should have liked
+      the head to get it preserved and sent home to my people, but as it is the
+      natives are welcome to it as far as I am concerned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richards was of the same opinion, and so without further delay they
+      started back for the village, where, upon their arrival, they were greeted
+      with cries of joy by the women, the news having already been carried back
+      by a boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor beggars!&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;They have been living a life of terror
+      for weeks. They must feel as if they had woke from a nightmare. Now, lads,
+      we will have some supper. I dare say you are ready for it, and I am sure I
+      am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there any chance for supper, Doctor?&mdash;why, it must be two o'clock
+      in the morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course there is,&rdquo; the Doctor replied. &ldquo;I gave orders to my man to
+      begin to warm up the food as soon as he heard a gun fired, and I will
+      guarantee he has got everything ready by this time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After a hearty meal and a cigar they lay down for a few hours' sleep, and
+      at daybreak rode back to Deennugghur, the two subalterns rather
+      crestfallen at their failure to have taken any active part in killing the
+      tiger that had so long been a terror to the district.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was an awful sell missing him, Miss Hannay; I wanted to have had the
+      claws mounted as a necklace; I thought you would have liked it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Wilson, but I would much rather not
+      have had them. If the tiger hadn't been a man eater I should not have
+      minded, but I should never have worn as an ornament claws that had killed
+      lots of people&mdash;women and children too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I never thought of that, Miss Hannay; it wouldn't have been pleasant,
+      now one thinks of it; still, I wish I had put a bullet into him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt you will do better next time, Mr. Wilson. The Doctor has been
+      telling me that it is extremely difficult to hit an animal in the dark
+      when you are not accustomed to that sort of shooting. He says he was in a
+      great fright all the time he was lying in the cage, and that it was an
+      immense relief to him when he heard your rifles go off, and found that he
+      wasn't hit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is too bad of him, Miss Hannay,&rdquo; Wilson laughed; &ldquo;we were not such
+      duffers as all that. I don't believe he really did think so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure he was in earnest, Mr. Wilson. He said he should have felt
+      quite safe if it had been daylight, but that in the dark people really
+      can't see which way the rifles are pointed, and that he remembered he had
+      not told you to put phosphorus on the sights.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was too bad of him,&rdquo; Wilson grumbled; &ldquo;it would have served him right
+      if one of the bullets had hit a timber of the cage and given him a start;
+      I should like to have seen the Doctor struggling in the dark to get his
+      second rifle from under the woman, with the tiger clawing and growling two
+      feet above him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Doctor didn't tell me about that,&rdquo; Isobel laughed; &ldquo;though he said he
+      had a woman and child with him to attract the tiger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would have frightened any decent minded tiger, Miss Hannay, instead of
+      attracting it; for such dismal yells as that woman made I never listened
+      to. I nearly tumbled off the tree at the first of them, it made me jump
+      so, and it gave me a feeling of cold water running down my back. As to the
+      child, I don't know whether she pinched it or the doctor stuck pins into
+      it, but the poor little brute howled in the most frightful way. I don't
+      think I shall ever want to go tiger shooting in the dark again; I ache all
+      over today as if I had been playing in the first football match of the
+      season, from sitting balancing myself on that branch; I was almost over
+      half a dozen times.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect you nearly went off to sleep, Mr. Wilson.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think I should have gone to sleep if it hadn't been for that woman,
+      Miss Hannay. I should not have minded if I could have smoked, but to sit
+      there hour after hour and not be able to smoke, and not allowed to speak,
+      and staring all the time into the darkness till your eyes ached, was
+      trying, I can tell you; and after all that, not to hit the brute was too
+      bad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The days passed quietly at Deennugghur. They were seldom alone at Major
+      Hannay's bungalow in the evening, for Wilson and Richards generally came
+      in to smoke a cigar in the veranda; the Doctor was a regular visitor, when
+      he was not away in pursuit of game, and Bathurst was also often one of the
+      party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Bathurst is coming out wonderfully, Miss Hannay,&rdquo; Mrs. Hunter said
+      one day, as Isobel sat working with her, while the two girls were
+      practicing duets on a piano in the next room. &ldquo;We used to call him the
+      hermit, he was so difficult to get out of his cell. We were quite
+      surprised when he accepted our invitation to dinner yesterday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think Dr. Wade has stirred him up,&rdquo; Isobel said calmly; &ldquo;he is a great
+      favorite of the Doctor's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hunter smiled over her work. &ldquo;Perhaps so, my dear; anyhow, I am glad
+      he has come out, and I hope he won't retire into his cell again after you
+      have all gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose it depends a good deal upon his work,&rdquo; Isobel said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My experience of men is that they can always make time if they like, my
+      dear. When a man says he is too busy to do this, that, or the other, you
+      may always safely put it down that he doesn't want to do it. Of course, it
+      is just the same thing with ourselves. You often hear women say they are
+      too busy to attend to all sorts of things that they ought to attend to,
+      but the same women can find plenty of time to go to every pleasure
+      gathering that comes off. There is no doubt that Mr. Bathurst is really
+      fond of work, and that he is an indefatigable civil servant of the
+      Company, but that would not prevent him making an hour or two's time of an
+      evening, occasionally, if he wanted to. However, he seems to have turned
+      over a new leaf, and I hope it will last. In a small station like this,
+      even one man is of importance, especially when he is as pleasant as Mr.
+      Bathurst can be when he likes. He was in the army at one time, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was he, Mrs. Hunter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I never heard him say so himself, but I have heard so from several
+      people. I think he was only in it for a year or so. I suppose he did not
+      care for it, and can quite imagine he would not, so he sold out, and a
+      short time afterwards obtained a civil appointment. He has very good
+      interest; his father was General Bathurst, who was, you know, a very
+      distinguished officer. So he had no difficulty in getting into our
+      service, where he is entirely in his element. His father died two years
+      ago, and I believe he came into a good property at home. Everyone expected
+      he would have thrown up his appointment, but it made no difference to him,
+      and he just went on as before, working as if he had to depend entirely on
+      the service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can quite understand that,&rdquo; Isobel said, &ldquo;to a really earnest man a
+      life of usefulness here must be vastly preferable to living at home
+      without anything to do or any object in life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, perhaps so, my dear, and in theory that is, no doubt, the case; but
+      practically, I fancy you would find nineteen men out of twenty, even if
+      they are what you call earnest men, retire from the ranks of hard workers
+      if they come into a nice property. By the way, you must come in here this
+      evening. There is a juggler in the station, and Mr. Hunter has told him to
+      come round. The servants say the man is a very celebrated juggler, one of
+      the best in India, and as the girls have never seen anything better than
+      the ordinary itinerant conjurers, my husband has arranged for him to come
+      in here, and we have been sending notes round asking everyone to come in.
+      We have sent one round to your place, but you must have come out before
+      the chit arrived.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I should like that very much!&rdquo; Isobel said. &ldquo;Two or three men came to
+      our bungalow at Cawnpore and did some conjuring, but it was nothing
+      particular; but uncle says some of them do wonderful things&mdash;things
+      that he cannot account for at all. That was one of the things I read about
+      at school, and thought I should like to see, more than anything in India.
+      When I was at school we went in a body, two or three times, to see
+      conjurers when they came to Cheltenham. Of course I did not understand the
+      things they did, and they seemed wonderful to me, but I know there are
+      people who can explain them, and that they are only tricks; but I have
+      read accounts of things done by jugglers in India that seemed utterly
+      impossible to explain&mdash;really a sort of magic.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard a good many arguments about it,&rdquo; Mrs. Hunter said; &ldquo;and a
+      good many people, especially those who have seen most of them, are of
+      opinion that many of the feats of the Indian jugglers cannot be explained
+      by any natural laws we know of. I have seen some very curious things
+      myself, but the very fact that I did not understand how they were done was
+      no proof they could not be explained; certainly two of their commonest
+      tricks, the basket trick and the mango, have never been explained. Our
+      conjurers at home can do something like them, but then that is on a stage,
+      where they can have trapdoors and all sorts of things, while these are
+      done anywhere&mdash;in a garden, on a road&mdash;where there could be no
+      possible preparation, and with a crowd of lookers on all round; it makes
+      me quite uncomfortable to look at it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I must be off now, Mrs. Hunter; it is nearly time for uncle to be
+      back, and he likes me to be in when he returns.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Wade was sitting in the veranda smoking and reading an English paper
+      that had arrived by that morning's mail, when Isobel returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good morning, Doctor. Is uncle back?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not yet. He told me he might be half an hour late, and that I was to come
+      round and amuse you until he came back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So in my absence you have been amusing yourself, Doctor. I have been
+      round at Mrs. Hunter's; she is going to have a juggler there this evening,
+      and we are all to go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I got a chit from her this morning. I have seen scores of them, but
+      I make a point of never missing an exhibition when I get the chance. I
+      hate anything I don't understand, and I go with the faint hope of being
+      able to find things out, though I know perfectly well that I shall not do
+      so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you think it is not all quite natural, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't say it is not natural, because we don't know what all the natural
+      laws are, but I say that some of the things I have seen certainly are not
+      to be accounted for by anything we do know. It is not often that the
+      jugglers show their best tricks to the whites&mdash;they know that, as a
+      rule, we are altogether skeptical; but I have seen at native courts more
+      than once the most astounding things&mdash;things absolutely
+      incomprehensible and inexplicable. I don't suppose we are going to see
+      anything of that sort tonight, though Mrs. Hunter said in her note that
+      they had heard from the native servant that this man was a famous one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a sect of people in India, I don't mean a caste, but a sort of
+      secret society, who, I believe, claim to be able by some sort of influence
+      to suspend altogether the laws of nature. I do not say that I believe them&mdash;as
+      a scientific man, it is my duty not to believe them; but I have seen such
+      things done by some of the higher class of jugglers, and that under
+      circumstances that did not seem to admit of the possibility of deception,
+      that I am obliged to suspend my judgment, which, as you may imagine, my
+      dear, is exceedingly annoying to me; but some of them do possess to a
+      considerable extent what the Scotch call second sight, that is to say, the
+      power of foreseeing events in the future. Of that I am morally certain; I
+      have seen proofs of it over and over again. For example, once an old
+      fakir, whom I had cured of a badly ulcerated limb, came up just as I was
+      starting on a shooting expedition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Do not go out today,' he said. 'I foresee evil for you. I saw you last
+      night brought back badly wounded.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'But if I don't go your dream will come wrong,' I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'You will go in spite of what I say,' he said; 'and you will suffer, and
+      others too;' and he looked at a group of shikaris, who were standing
+      together, ready to make a start.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'How many men are there?' he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Why, six of course,' I replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'I see only three,' he said, 'and three dull spots. One of those I see is
+      holding his matchlock on his shoulder, another is examining his priming,
+      the third is sitting down by the tire. Those three will come back at the
+      end of the day; the other three will not return alive.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I felt rather uncomfortable, but I wasn't, as I said to myself&mdash;I
+      was a good deal younger then, my dear&mdash;such a fool as to be deterred
+      from what promised to be a good day's sport by such nonsense as this; and
+      I went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were going after a rogue elephant that had been doing a lot of damage
+      among the natives' plantations. We found him, and a savage brute he turned
+      out to be. He moved just as I fired, and though I hit him, it was not on
+      the fatal spot, and he charged right down among us. He caught the very
+      three men the fakir said were doomed, and dashed the life out of them;
+      then he came at me. The bearer had run off with my second gun, and he
+      seized me and flung me up in the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fell in a tree, but broke three of my ribs and one of my arms;
+      fortunately, though the beast tried to get at me, I was out of his reach,
+      and the tree was too strong for him to knock down. Then another man who
+      was with me came up and killed him, and they got me down and carried me
+      back, and I was weeks before I was about again. That was something more
+      than a coincidence, I think. There were some twenty men out with us, and
+      just the four he had pointed out were hurt, and no others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have seen scores of other cases in which these predictions have come
+      true, especially in cases of disease; though I grant that here the
+      predictions often bring about their own fulfilment. If a native is told by
+      a fakir, or holy man, that he is going to die, he makes no struggle to
+      live. In several cases I have seen natives, whose deaths have been
+      predicted, die, without, as far as my science could tell me, any disease
+      or ailment whatever that should have been fatal to them. They simply sank&mdash;died,
+      I should say, from pure fright. But putting aside this class, I have seen
+      enough to convince me that some at least among these fanatics do possess
+      the power of second sight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is very extraordinary, Doctor. Of course I have heard of second
+      sight among certain old people in Scotland, but I did not believe in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should not have believed in it if I had not seen the same thing here in
+      India. I naturally have been interested in it, and have read pretty well
+      everything that has been written about second sight among the Highlanders;
+      and some of the incidents are so well authenticated that I scarcely see
+      how they can be denied. Of course, there is no accounting for it, but it
+      is possible that among what we may call primitive people there are certain
+      intuitions or instincts, call them what you like, that have been lost by
+      civilized people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The power of scent in a dog is something so vastly beyond anything we can
+      even imagine possible, that though we put it down to instinct, it is
+      really almost inexplicable. Take the case that dogs have been known to be
+      taken by railway journeys of many hundred miles and to have found their
+      way home again on foot. There is clearly the possession of a power which
+      is to us absolutely unaccountable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But here comes your uncle; he will think I have been preaching a sermon
+      to you if you look so grave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Major Hannay was too occupied with his own thoughts to notice Isobel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has anything gone wrong, Major?&rdquo; the Doctor asked, as he saw his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have just learnt,&rdquo; the Major said, &ldquo;that some more chupaties were
+      brought last night. It is most annoying. I have questioned several of the
+      native officers, and they profess to have no idea whence they came or what
+      is the meaning of them. I wish we could get to the bottom of this thing;
+      it keeps the troops in a ferment. If I could get hold of one of these
+      messengers, I would get out of him all he knew, even if I had to roast him
+      to make him tell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear uncle,&rdquo; Isobel said reprovingly, &ldquo;I am sure you don't mean what
+      you say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; he said, half laughing; &ldquo;I should certainly consider
+      myself perfectly justified in taking uncommonly strong steps to try to get
+      to the bottom of this business. The thing is going on all over India, and
+      it must mean something, and it is all the worse if taken in connection
+      with this absurd idea about the greased cartridges. I grant that it was an
+      act of folly greasing them at all, when we know the idiotic prejudices the
+      natives have; still, it could hardly have been foreseen that this stir
+      would have been made. The issue of the cartridges has been stopped, but
+      when the natives once get an idea into their minds it is next to
+      impossible to disabuse them of it. It is a tiresome business altogether.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tiffin ready, sahib,&rdquo; Rumzan interrupted, coming out onto the veranda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is right, Rumzan. Now, Isobel, let us think of more pleasant
+      subjects.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are to go into the Hunters' this evening, uncle,&rdquo; Isobel said, as she
+      sat down. &ldquo;There is going to be a famous juggler there. There is a note
+      for you from Mrs. Hunter on the side table.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, my dear; some of these fellows are well worth seeing. Bathurst
+      is coming in to dinner. I saw him as he was starting this morning, just as
+      he was going down to the lines, and he accepted. He said he should be able
+      to get back in time. However, I don't suppose he will mind going round
+      with us. I hope you will come, Doctor, to make up the table. I have asked
+      the two boys to come in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall have to become a permanent boarder at your establishment, Major.
+      It is really useless my keeping a cook when I am in here nearly half my
+      time. But I will come. I am off for three days tomorrow. A villager came
+      in this morning to beg me to go out to rid them of a tiger that has
+      established himself in their neighborhood, and that is an invitation I
+      never refuse, if I can possibly manage to make time for it. Fortunately
+      everyone is so healthy here at present that I can be very well spared.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At dinner the subject of juggling came up again, and the two subalterns
+      expressed their opinion strongly that it was all humbug.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dr. Wade believes in it, Mr. Wilson,&rdquo; Isobel said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't say so, Doctor; I should have thought you were the last sort of
+      man who would have believed in conjurers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It requires a wise man to believe, Wilson,&rdquo; the Doctor said; &ldquo;any fool
+      can scoff; the wise man questions. When you have been here as long as I
+      have, and if you ever get as much sense as I have, which is doubtful, you
+      may be less positive in your ideas, if you can call them ideas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is one for me,&rdquo; Wilson said good humoredly, while the others
+      laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I have never seen them, Doctor, except those fellows who come
+      around to the veranda, and I have seen conjurers at home do ever so much
+      better tricks than they.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you think of them, Mr. Bathurst?&rdquo; Isobel asked. &ldquo;I suppose you
+      have seen some of the better sort?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know what to think of them, Miss Hannay. I used to be rather of
+      Wilson's opinion, but I have seen things since that I could not account
+      for at all. There was a man here two or three months back who astounded
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mrs. Hunter said that the girls had had no opportunity of seeing a good
+      conjurer since they came out, Mr. Bathurst. I suppose they did know this
+      man you are speaking of being here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was only here for a few hours, Miss Hannay. I had happened to meet him
+      before, and he gave me a private performance, which was quite different to
+      anything I have ever seen, though I had often heard of the feats he had
+      performed. I was so impressed with them that I can assure you that for a
+      few days I had great difficulty in keeping my mind upon my work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did he do, Mr. Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst related the feat of the disappearing girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She must have jumped down when you were not looking,&rdquo; Richards said, with
+      an air or conviction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly,&rdquo; Bathurst replied quietly; &ldquo;but as I was within three or four
+      yards of the pole, and it was perfectly distinct in the light of my lamp,
+      and as I certainly saw her till she was some thirty or forty feet up in
+      the air I don't see how she can have managed it. For, even supposing she
+      could have sprung down that distance without being hurt, she would not
+      have come down so noiselessly that I should not have heard her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, if she did not come down that way, how could she have come?&rdquo;
+       Wilson said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is exactly what I can't make out,&rdquo; Bathurst replied. &ldquo;If it should
+      happen to be the same man, and he will do the same thing again, I fancy
+      you will be as much puzzled as I was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After dinner was over the party walked across to Mr. Hunter's bungalow,
+      where, in a short time, the other officers, their wives, and all the other
+      residents at the station were assembled. Chairs were placed in the veranda
+      for the ladies, and a number of lamps hung on the wall, so that a strong
+      light was thrown upon the ground in front of it. In addition, four posts
+      had been driven into the ground some twenty feet from the veranda, and
+      lamps had been fastened upon them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know whether the juggler will like that,&rdquo; Mr. Hunter said, &ldquo;and I
+      shan't light them if he objects. I don't think myself it is quite fair
+      having a light behind him; still, if he agrees, it will be hardly possible
+      for him to make the slightest movement without being seen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The juggler, who was sitting round at the other side of the house, was now
+      called up. He and the girl, who followed him, salaamed deeply, and made an
+      even deeper bow to Bathurst, who was standing behind Isobel's chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must have paid them well, Bathurst,&rdquo; Major Hannay said. &ldquo;They have
+      evidently a lively remembrance of past favors. I suppose they are the same
+      you were talking about?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, they are the same people, Major.&rdquo; Then he said in the native dialect
+      to the juggler, &ldquo;Mr. Hunter has put some posts with lamps behind you,
+      Rujub, but he hasn't lit them because he did not know whether you would
+      object.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They can be lighted, sahib. My feats do not depend on darkness. Any of
+      the sahibs who like to stand behind us can do so if they do not come
+      within the line of those posts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us go out there,&rdquo; Wilson said to Richards, when the answer was
+      translated; &ldquo;we will light the lamps, and we shall see better there than
+      we shall see here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two went round to the other side and lit the lamps, and the servants
+      stood a short distance off on either side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first trick shown was the well known mango tree. The juggler placed a
+      seed in the ground, poured some water upon it from a lota, and covered it
+      with a cloth. In two or three minutes he lifted this, and a plant four or
+      five inches high was seen. He covered this with a tall basket, which he
+      first handed round for inspection. On removing this a mango tree some
+      three feet high, in full bloom, was seen. It was again covered, and when
+      the basket was removed it was seen to be covered with ripe fruit,
+      eliciting exclamations of astonishment from those among the spectators who
+      had not before seen the trick performed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Wilson,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;perhaps you will be kind enough to
+      explain to us all how this was done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no more idea than Adam, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we will leave it to Richards. He promised us at dinner to keep his
+      eyes well open.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richards made no reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How was it done, Mr. Bathurst? It seems almost like a miracle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am as ignorant as Wilson is, Miss Hannay. I can't account for it in any
+      way, and I have seen it done a score of times. Ah! now he is going to do
+      the basket trick. Don't be alarmed when you hear the girl cry out. You may
+      be quite sure that she is not hurt. The father is deeply attached to her,
+      and would not hurt a hair of her head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the usual methods were adopted. The basket was placed on the ground
+      and the girl stepped into it, without the pretense of fear usually
+      exhibited by the performers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before the trick began Major Hannay said to Captain Doolan, &ldquo;Come round
+      with me to the side of those boys. I know the first time I saw it done I
+      was nearly throwing myself on the juggler, and Wilson is a hot headed boy,
+      and is likely as not to do so. If he did, the man would probably go off in
+      a huff and show us nothing more. From what Bathurst said, we are likely to
+      see something unusual.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the lid was put down, an apparently angry colloquy took place
+      between the juggler and the girl inside. Presently the man appeared to
+      become enraged, and snatching up a long, straight sword from the ground,
+      ran it three or four times through the basket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A loud shriek followed the first thrust, and then all was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of the ladies rose to their feet with a cry of horror, Isobel among
+      them. Wilson and Richards both started to rush forward, but were seized by
+      the collars by the Major and Captain Doolan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you open the basket?&rdquo; the juggler said quietly to Mrs. Hunter. As
+      she had seen the trick before she stepped forward without hesitation,
+      opened the lid of the basket and said, &ldquo;It is empty.&rdquo; The juggler took it
+      up, and held it up, bottom upwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What on earth has become of the girl?&rdquo; Wilson exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke she passed between him and Richards back to her father's side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I am dashed,&rdquo; Wilson murmured. &ldquo;I would not have believed it if
+      fifty people had sworn to me they had seen it.&rdquo; He was too much confounded
+      even to reply, when the Doctor sarcastically said: &ldquo;We are waiting for
+      your explanation, gentlemen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you ask him, Major,&rdquo; Richards said, as he wiped his forehead with
+      his pocket handkerchief, &ldquo;to make sure that she is solid?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major translated the request, and the girl at once came across, and
+      Richards touched her with evident doubt as to whether on not she were
+      really flesh and blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was much curiosity among those who had seen jugglers before as to
+      what would be the next feat, for generally those just seen were the
+      closing ones of a performance, but as these were the first it seemed that
+      those to follow must be extraordinary indeed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next feat was the one shown to Bathurst, and was performed exactly as
+      upon that occasion, except that as the girl rose beyond the circle of
+      light she remained distinctly visible, a sort of phosphoric light playing
+      around her. Those in the veranda had come out now, the juggler warning
+      them not to approach within six feet of the pole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Higher and higher the girl went, until those below judged her to be at
+      least a hundred and fifty feet from the ground. Then the light died out,
+      and she disappeared from their sight. There was silence for a minute or
+      two, and then the end of the pole could be seen descending without her.
+      Another minute, and it was reduced to the length it had been at starting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spectators were silent now; the whole thing was so strange and
+      mysterious that they had no words to express their feeling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The juggler said something which Mr. Hunter translated to be a request for
+      all to resume their places.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a wonderful trick,&rdquo; the Doctor said to Bathurst. &ldquo;I have never
+      seen it done that way before, but I once saw a juggler throw up a rope
+      into the air; how high it went I don't know, for, like this, it was done
+      at night, but it stood up perfectly stiff, and the juggler's attendant
+      climbed up. He went higher and higher, and we could hear his voice coming
+      down to us. At last it stopped, and then suddenly the rope fell in coils
+      on the ground, and the boy walked quietly in, just as that girl has done
+      now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl now placed herself in the center of the open space.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will please not to speak while this trick is being performed,&rdquo; the
+      juggler said; &ldquo;harm might come of it. Watch the ground near her feet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A minute later a dark object made its appearance from the ground. It rose
+      higher and higher with an undulating movement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Jove, it is a python!&rdquo; the Doctor whispered in Bathurst's ear. A
+      similar exclamation broke from several of the others, but the juggler
+      waved his hand with an authoritative hush. The snake rose until its head
+      towered above that of the girl, and then began to twine itself round her,
+      continuously rising from the ground until it enveloped her with five
+      coils, each thicker than a man's arm. It raised its head above hers and
+      hissed loudly and angrily; then its tail began to descend, gradually the
+      coils unwound themselves; lower and lower it descended until it
+      disappeared altogether.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was some time before anyone spoke, so great was the feeling of wonder.
+      The Doctor was the first to break the silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have never seen that before,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;though I have heard of it from
+      a native Rajah.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would the sahibs like to see more?&rdquo; the juggler asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two Miss Hunters, Mrs. Rintoul, and several of the others said they
+      had seen enough, but among the men there was expressed a general wish to
+      see another feat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would not have missed this for anything,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;It would be
+      simple madness to throw away such a chance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies, therefore, with the exception of Mrs. Hunter, Mrs. Doolan, and
+      Isobel, retired into the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must all go on one side now,&rdquo; the juggler said, &ldquo;for it is only on
+      one side what I am now going to do can be seen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He then proceeded to light a fire of charcoal. When he had done this, he
+      said, &ldquo;The lights must now be extinguished and the curtains drawn, so that
+      the light will not stream out from the house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as this was done he poured a powder over the fire, and by its
+      faint light the cloud of white smoke could be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I will show you the past,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Who speaks?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was silence, and then Dr. Wade said, &ldquo;Show me my past.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A faint light stole up over the smoke&mdash;it grew brighter and brighter;
+      and then a picture was clearly seen upon it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the sea, a house standing by itself in a garden, and separated from
+      the water only by a road. Presently the figure of a girl appeared at the
+      gate, and, stepping out, looked down the road as if waiting for someone.
+      They could make out all the details of her dress and see her features
+      distinctly. A low exclamation broke from the Doctor, then the picture
+      gradually faded away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The future!&rdquo; the juggler said, and gradually an Indian scene appeared on
+      the smoke. It was a long, straight road, bordered by a jungle. A native
+      was seen approaching; he paused in the foreground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is you, Doctor!&rdquo; Mr. Hunter exclaimed; &ldquo;you are got up as a native,
+      but it's you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost at the same moment two figures came out from the jungle. They were
+      also in native dress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You and Miss Hannay,&rdquo; the Doctor said in a low tone to Bathurst, &ldquo;dressed
+      like a native and dyed.&rdquo; But no one else detected the disguise, and the
+      picture again faded away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is enough, Rujub,&rdquo; Bathurst said, for he felt Isobel lean back
+      heavily against the hand which he held at the back of her chair, and felt
+      sure that she had fainted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Draw back the curtains, someone; I fancy this has been too much for Miss
+      Hannay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The curtains were thrown back, and Mrs. Hunter, running in, brought out a
+      lamp. The Doctor had already taken his place by Isobel's side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, she has fainted,&rdquo; he said to Bathurst; &ldquo;carry her in her chair as
+      she is, so that she may be in the room when she comes to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, gentlemen,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;you had better light the lamps again
+      out here, and leave the ladies and me to get Miss Hannay round.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the lamps were lit it was evident that the whole of the men were a
+      good deal shaken by what they had seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; Mr. Hunter said, &ldquo;they told me he was a famous juggler, but that
+      beat anything I have seen before. I have heard of such things frequently
+      from natives, but it is very seldom that Europeans get a chance of seeing
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want to see anything of the sort again,&rdquo; Major Hannay said; &ldquo;it
+      shakes one's notions of things in general. I fancy, Hunter, that we shall
+      want a strong peg all round to steady our nerves. I own that I feel as
+      shaky as a boy who thinks he sees a ghost on his way through a
+      churchyard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general murmur of agreement and the materials were quickly
+      brought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Wilson, what do you and Richards think of it?&rdquo; the Major went on,
+      after he had braced himself up with a strong glass of brandy and water. &ldquo;I
+      should imagine you both feel a little less skeptical than you did two
+      hours ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know what Richards feels, Major, but I know I feel like a fool. I
+      am sorry, Bathurst, for what I said at dinner; but it really didn't seem
+      to me to be possible what you told us about the girl going up into the air
+      and not coming down again. Well, after I have seen what I have seen this
+      evening, I won't disbelieve anything I hear in future about these
+      natives.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was natural enough that you should be incredulous,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;I
+      should have been just as skeptical as you were when I first came out, and
+      I have been astonished now, though I have seen some good jugglers before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment the Doctor came out again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Hannay is all right again now, Major. I am not surprised at her
+      fainting; old hand as I am at these matters, and I think that I have seen
+      as much or more juggling than any man in India. I felt very queer myself,
+      specially at the snake business. As I said, I have seen that ascension
+      trick before, but how it is done I have no more idea than a child. Those
+      smoke scenes, too, are astonishing. Of course they could be accounted for
+      as thrown upon a column of white smoke by a magic lantern, but there was
+      certainly no magic lantern here. The juggler was standing close to me, and
+      the girl was sitting at his feet. I watched them both closely, and
+      certainly they had no apparatus about them by which such views could be
+      thrown on the smoke.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You recognized the first scene, I suppose, Doctor?&rdquo; Bathurst asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perfectly. It took me back twenty-five years. It was a cottage near
+      Sidmouth, and was correct in every minute detail. The figure was that of
+      the young lady I married four years afterwards. Many a time have I seen
+      her standing just like that, as I went along the road to meet her from the
+      little inn at which I was stopping; the very pattern of her dress, which I
+      need hardly say has never been in my mind all these years, was recalled to
+      me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had I been thinking of the scene at the time I could have accounted for
+      it somehow, upon the theory that in some way or other the juggler was
+      conscious of my thought and reflected it upon the smoke&mdash;how, I don't
+      at all mean to say; but undoubtedly there exists, to some extent, the
+      power of thought reading. It is a mysterious subject, and one of which we
+      know absolutely nothing at present, but maybe in upwards of a hundred
+      years mankind will have discovered many secrets of nature in that
+      direction. But I certainly was not thinking of that scene when I spoke and
+      said the 'past.' I had no doubt that he would show me something of the
+      past, but certainly no particular incident passed through my mind before
+      that picture appeared on the smoke.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The other was almost as curious, Doctor,&rdquo; Captain Doolan said, &ldquo;for it
+      was certainly you masquerading as a native. I believe the other was
+      Bathurst; it struck me so; and he seemed to be running off with some
+      native girl. What on earth could that all mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is no use puzzling ourselves about it,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;It may or
+      may not come true. I have no inclination to go about dressed out as a
+      native at present, but there is no saying what I may come to. There is
+      quite enough for us to wonder at in the other things. The mango and basket
+      tricks I have seen a dozen times, and am no nearer now than I was at first
+      to understanding them. That ascension trick beats me altogether, and there
+      was something horribly uncanny about the snake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think it was a real snake, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I cannot tell you, Richards. Every movement was perfectly natural. I
+      could see the working of the ribs as it wound itself round the girl, and
+      the quivering of its tongue as it raised its head above her. At any other
+      time I should be ready to take my affidavit that it was a python of
+      unusual size, but at the present moment I should not like to give a
+      decided opinion about anything connected with the performance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose it is no use asking the juggler any questions, Hunter?&rdquo; one of
+      the other men said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in the least; they never do answer questions. The higher class of
+      jugglers treat their art as a sort of religious mystery, and there is no
+      instance known of their opening their lips, although large sums have
+      frequently been offered them. In the present case you will certainly ask
+      no questions, for the man and girl have both disappeared with the box and
+      apparatus and everything connected with them. They must have slipped off
+      directly the last trick was over, and before we had the lamp lighted. I
+      sent after him at once, but the servant could find no signs of him. I am
+      annoyed because I have not paid them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not surprised at that,&rdquo; Dr. Wade said. &ldquo;It is quite in accordance
+      with what I have heard of them. They live by exhibiting what you may call
+      their ordinary tricks; but I have heard from natives that when they show
+      any what I may call supernatural feats, they do not take money. It is done
+      to oblige some powerful Rajah, and as I have said, it is only on a very
+      few occasions that Europeans have ever seen them. Well, we may as well go
+      in to the ladies. I don't fancy any of them would be inclined to come out
+      onto the veranda again this evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No one was indeed inclined even for talk, and in a very short time the
+      party broke up and returned home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come and smoke a pipe with me, Bathurst, before you turn in,&rdquo; the Doctor
+      said, as they went out. &ldquo;I don't think either of us will be likely to go
+      to sleep for some time. What is your impression of all this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My impression, certainly, is that it is entirely unaccountable by any
+      laws with which we are acquainted, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is just my idea, and always has been since I first saw any really
+      good juggling out here. I don't believe in the least in anything
+      supernatural, but I can quite believe that there are many natural laws of
+      which at present we are entirely ignorant. I believe the knowledge of them
+      at one time existed, but has been entirely lost, at any rate among Western
+      peoples. The belief in magic is as old as anything we have knowledge of.
+      The magicians at the court of Pharaoh threw down their rods and turned
+      them into serpents. The Witch of Endor called up the spirit of Samuel. The
+      Greeks, by no means a nation of fools, believed implicitly in the Oracles.
+      Coming down to comparatively later times, the workers of magic burnt their
+      books before St. Paul. It doesn't say, mind you, that those who pretended
+      to work magic did so; but those who worked magic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Early travelers in Persia and India have reported things they saw far
+      surpassing any we have witnessed this evening, and there is certainly a
+      sect in India at present, or rather a body of men, and those, as far as I
+      have been able to learn, of an exceptionally intelligent class, who
+      believe that they possess an almost absolute mastery over the powers of
+      nature. You see, fifty years back, if anyone had talked about traveling at
+      fifty miles an hour, or sending a message five thousand miles in a minute,
+      he would have been regarded as a madman. There may yet be other
+      discoveries as startling to be made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I was in England I heard something of a set of people in America who
+      called themselves Spiritualists, some of whom&mdash;notably a young man
+      named Home&mdash;claimed to have the power of raising themselves through
+      the air. I am far from saying that such a power exists; it is of course
+      contrary to what we know of the laws of nature, but should such a power
+      exist it would account for the disappearance of the girl from the top of
+      the pole. Highland second sight, carried somewhat farther, and united with
+      the power of conveying the impressions to others, would account for the
+      pictures on the smoke, that is, supposing them to be true, and personally
+      I own that I expect they will prove to be true&mdash;unlikely as it may
+      seem that you, I, and Miss Hannay will ever be going about in native
+      attire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time they had reached the Doctor's bungalow, and had comfortably
+      seated themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is one thing that flashed across me this evening,&rdquo; Bathurst said.
+      &ldquo;I told you, that first evening I met Miss Hannay, that I had a distinct
+      knowledge of her face. You laughed at me at the time, and it certainly
+      seemed absurd, but I was convinced I was not wrong. Now I know how it was;
+      I told you at dinner today about the feat of the girl going up and not
+      coming down again; but I did not tell you&mdash;for you can understand it
+      is a thing that I should not care to talk much about&mdash;that he showed
+      me a picture like those we saw tonight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a house standing in a courtyard, with a high wall round it. I did
+      not particularly observe the house. It was of the ordinary native type,
+      and might, for anything I know, be the house in the middle of this station
+      used as a courthouse by Hunter, and for keeping stores, and so on. I don't
+      say it was that; I did not notice it much. There was a breach in the
+      outside wall, and round it there was a fierce fight going on. A party of
+      officers and civilians were repelling the assault of a body of Sepoys. On
+      the terraced roof of the house others were standing firing and looking on,
+      and I think engaged in loading rifles were two or three women. One of them
+      I particularly noticed; and, now I recall it, her face was that of Miss
+      Hannay; of that I am absolutely certain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is curious, lad,&rdquo; the Doctor said, after a pause; &ldquo;and the picture,
+      you see, has so far come true that you have made the acquaintance with one
+      of the actors whom you did not previously know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not believe in the truth of it, Doctor, and I do not believe in it
+      now. There was one feature in the fight which was, as I regret to know,
+      impossible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what was that, Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst was silent for a time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are an old friend, Doctor, and you will understand my case, and make
+      more allowances for it than most people would. When I first came out here
+      I dare say you heard some sort of reports as to why I had left the army
+      and had afterwards entered the Civil Service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There were some stupid rumors,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;that you had gone home
+      on sick leave just after the battle of Chillianwalla, and had then sold
+      out, because you had shown the white feather. I need not say that I did
+      not give any credit to it; there is always gossip flying about as to the
+      reasons a man leaves the army.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was quite true, Doctor. It is a hideous thing to say, but
+      constitutionally I am a coward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot believe it,&rdquo; the Doctor said warmly. &ldquo;Now that I know you, you
+      are the last man of whom I would credit such a thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the bane of my life,&rdquo; Bathurst went on. &ldquo;It is my misfortune, for I
+      will not allow it is my fault. In many things I am not a coward. I think I
+      could face any danger if the danger were a silent one, but I cannot stand
+      noise. The report of a gun makes me tremble all over, even when it is a
+      blank cartridge that is fired. When I was born my father was in India. A
+      short time before I came into the world my mother had a great fright. Her
+      house in the country was broken into by burglars, who entered the room and
+      threatened to blow out her brains if she moved; but the alarm was given,
+      the men servants came down armed, there was a struggle in her room, pistol
+      shots were fired, and the burglars were overpowered and captured. My
+      mother fainted and was ill for weeks afterwards&mdash;in fact, until the
+      time I was born; and she died a few days later, never having, the doctor
+      said, recovered from the shock she had suffered that night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I grew up a weakly, timid boy&mdash;the sort of boy that is always
+      bullied at school. My father, as you know, was a general officer, and did
+      not return home until I was ten years old. He was naturally much
+      disappointed in me, and I think that added to my timidity, for it grew
+      upon me rather than otherwise. Morally, I was not a coward. At school I
+      can say that I never told a lie to avoid punishment, and my readiness to
+      speak the truth did not add to my popularity among the other boys, and I
+      used to be called a sneak, which was even more hateful than being called a
+      coward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I grew up I shook off my delicacy, and grew, as you see, into a strong
+      man. I then fought several battles at school; I learnt to ride, and came
+      to have confidence in myself, and though I had no particular fancy for the
+      army my father's heart was so set on it that I offered no objection. That
+      the sound of a gun was abhorrent to me I knew, for the first time my
+      father put a gun in my hand and I fired it, I fainted, and nothing would
+      persuade me to try again. Still I thought that this was the result of
+      nervousness as to firing it myself, and that I should get over it in time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A month or two after I was gazetted I went out to India with the
+      regiment, and arrived just in time to get up by forced marches to take
+      part in the battle of Chillianwalla. The consequence was that up to that
+      time I literally had heard no musketry practice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of the events of that battle I have no remembrance whatever; from the
+      moment the first gun was fired to the end of the day I was as one
+      paralyzed. I saw nothing, I heard nothing, I moved mechanically; but
+      happily my will or my instinct kept me in my place in the regiment. When
+      all was over, and silence followed the din, I fell to the ground
+      insensible. Happily for me the doctors declared I was in a state of high
+      fever, and I so remained for a fortnight. As soon as I got better I was
+      sent down the country, and I at once sent in my papers and went home. No
+      doubt the affair was talked of, and there were whispers as to the real
+      cause of my illness. My father was terribly angry when I returned home and
+      told him the truth of the matter. That his son should be a coward was
+      naturally an awful blow to him. Home was too unhappy to be endured, and
+      when an uncle of mine, who was a director on the Company's Board, offered
+      me a berth in the Civil Service, I thankfully accepted it, believing that
+      in that capacity I need never hear a gun fired again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will understand, then, the anxiety I am feeling owing to these rumors
+      of disaffection among the Sepoys, and the possibility of anything like a
+      general mutiny.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not of being killed that I have any fear; upon the contrary, I have
+      suffered so much in the last eight years from the consciousness that the
+      reason why I left the army was widely known, that I should welcome death,
+      if it came to me noiselessly; but the thought that if there is trouble I
+      shall assuredly not be able to play my part like a man fills me with
+      absolute horror, and now more than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you will understand now why the picture I saw, in which I was fighting
+      in the middle of the Sepoys, is to me not only improbable, but simply
+      impossible. It is a horrible story to have to tell. This is the first time
+      I have opened my lips on the subject since I spoke to my father, but I
+      know that you, both as a friend and a doctor, will pity rather than blame
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      As Bathurst brought his story to its conclusion the Doctor rose and placed
+      his hand kindly on his shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I certainly should not think of blaming you, Bathurst. What you tell me
+      is indeed a terrible misfortune, situated as we may be soon, though I
+      trust and believe that all this talk about the Sepoys is moonshine. I own
+      that I am surprised at your story, for I should have said from my
+      knowledge of you that though, as I could perceive, of a nervous
+      temperament, you were likely to be cool and collected in danger. But
+      certainly your failing is no fault of your own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is but a small consolation to me, Doctor. Men do not ask why and
+      wherefore&mdash;they simply point the finger of scorn at a coward. The
+      misfortune is that I am here. I might have lived a hundred lives in
+      England and never once had occasion to face danger, and I thought that I
+      should have been equally secure as an Indian civilian. Now this trouble is
+      coming upon us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don't you take your leave, lad? You have been out seven years now
+      without a day's relaxation, except indeed, the three days you were over
+      with me at Cawnpore. Why not apply for a year's leave? You have a good
+      excuse, too; you did not go home at the death of your father, two years
+      ago, and could very well plead urgent family affairs requiring your
+      presence in England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I will not do that, Doctor; I will not run away from danger again.
+      You understand me, I have not the least fear of the danger; I in no way
+      hold to my life; I do not think I am afraid of physical pain. It seems to
+      me that I could undertake any desperate service; I dread it simply because
+      I know that when the din of battle begins my body will overmaster my mind,
+      and that I shall be as I was at Chillianwalla, completely paralyzed. You
+      wondered tonight why that juggler should have exhibited feats seldom,
+      almost never, shown to Europeans? He did it to please me. I saved his
+      daughter's life&mdash;this is between ourselves, Doctor, and is not to go
+      farther. But, riding in from Narkeet, I heard a cry, and, hurrying on,
+      came upon that man eater you shot the other day, standing over the girl,
+      with her father half beside himself, gesticulating in front of him. I
+      jumped off and attacked the brute with my heavy hunting whip, and he was
+      so completely astonished that he turned tail and bolted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The deuce he did,&rdquo; the Doctor exclaimed; &ldquo;and yet you talk of being a
+      coward!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I do not say that I am a coward generally; as long as I have to
+      confront danger without noise I believe I could do as well as most men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why didn't you mention this business with the tiger, Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, in the first place, it was the work of a mere passing impulse;
+      and in the second, because I should have gained credit for being what I am
+      not&mdash;a brave man. It will be bad enough when the truth becomes known,
+      but it would be all the worse if I had been trading on a false reputation;
+      therefore I particularly charged Rujub to say nothing about the affair to
+      anyone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, putting this for a time aside, Bathurst, what do you think of that
+      curious scene, you and I and Miss Hannay disguised as natives?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Taking it with the one I saw of the attack of Sepoys upon a house, it
+      looks to me, Doctor, as if there would be a mutiny, and that that mutiny
+      would be attended with partial success, that a portion of the garrison, at
+      any rate, will escape, and that Miss Hannay will be traveling down the
+      country, perhaps to Cawnpore, in your charge, while I in some way shall be
+      with you, perhaps acting as guide.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may possibly be so,&rdquo; the Doctor agreed. &ldquo;It is at any rate very
+      curious. I wonder whether Miss Hannay recognized herself in the disguise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should hope not, Doctor; if it all comes true there will be enough for
+      her to bear without looking forward to that. I should be glad if the
+      detachment were ordered back to Cawnpore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I should not have thought that, Bathurst.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know what you mean, Doctor, but it is for that reason I wish they were
+      gone. I believe now that you insisted on my coming down to spend those
+      three days with you at Cawnpore specially that I might meet her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is so, Bathurst. I like her so much that I should be very sorry to
+      see her throw herself away upon some empty headed fool. I like her
+      greatly, and I was convinced that you were just the man to make her happy,
+      and as I knew that you had good prospects in England, I thought it would
+      be a capital match for her, although you are but a young civilian; and I
+      own that of late I have thought things were going on very well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it might have been so, Doctor, had it not been for this coming
+      trouble, which, if our fears are realized, will entirely put an end even
+      to the possibility of what you are talking about. I shall be shown to be a
+      coward, and I shall do my best to put myself in the way of being killed. I
+      should not like to blow my brains out, but if the worst comes to the worst
+      I will do that rather than go on living after I have again disgraced
+      myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You look at it too seriously, Bathurst.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bit of it, Doctor, and you know it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if the Sepoys rise, Bathurst, why should they harm their officers?
+      They may be discontented, they may have a grievance against the
+      Government, they may refuse to obey orders and may disband; but why on
+      earth should they attack men who have always been kind to them, whom they
+      have followed in battle, and against whom they have not as much as a
+      shadow of complaint?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope it may be so most sincerely,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;but one never can
+      say. I can hardly bring myself to believe that they will attack the
+      officers, much less injure women and children. Still, I have a most uneasy
+      foreboding of evil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have heard nothing from the natives as to any coming trouble?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing at all, Doctor, and I am convinced that nothing is known among
+      them, or at any rate by the great bulk of them. Only one person has ever
+      said a word to me that could indicate a knowledge of coming trouble, and
+      that was this juggler we saw tonight. I thought nothing of his words at
+      the time. That picture he showed me of the attack by Sepoys first gave me
+      an idea that his words might mean something. Since then we have heard much
+      more of this discontent, and I am convinced now that the words had a
+      meaning. They were simple enough. It was merely his assurance, two or
+      three times repeated, that he would be ready to repay the service I had
+      rendered him with his life. It might have been a mere phrase, and so I
+      thought at the time. But I think now he had before him the possibility of
+      some event occurring in which he might be able to repay the service I had
+      rendered him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There may have been something in it and there may not,&rdquo; the Doctor said;
+      &ldquo;but, at any rate, Bathurst, he ought to be a potent ally. There doesn't
+      seem any limit to his powers, and he might, for aught one knows, be able
+      to convey you away as he did his daughter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor spoke lightly, and then added, &ldquo;But seriously, the man might be
+      of service. These jugglers go among people of all classes. They are like
+      the troubadours of the Middle Ages, welcomed everywhere; and they no doubt
+      have every opportunity of learning what is going on, and it may be that he
+      will be able to give you timely warning should there be any trouble at
+      hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is possible enough,&rdquo; Bathurst agreed. &ldquo;Well, Doctor, I shall be on
+      horseback at six, so it is time for me to turn in,&rdquo; and taking his hat,
+      walked across to his own bungalow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor sat for some time smoking before he turned into bed. He had as
+      he had said, heard rumors, when Bathurst first came out, that he had shown
+      the white feather, but he had paid little attention to it at the time.
+      They had been together at the first station to which Bathurst was
+      appointed when he came out, and he had come to like him greatly; but his
+      evident disinclination to join in any society, his absorption in his work,
+      and a certain air of gravity unnatural in a young man of twenty, had
+      puzzled him. He had at the time come to the conclusion that he must have
+      had some unfortunate love affair, or have got into some very serious
+      trouble at home. In time that impression had worn off. A young man
+      speedily recovers from such a blow, however heavy, but no change had taken
+      place in Bathurst, and the Doctor had in time become so accustomed to his
+      manner that he had ceased to wonder over it. Now it was all explained. He
+      sat thinking over it deeply for an hour, and then laid down his pipe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a terrible pity he came out here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Of course it is not
+      his fault in the slightest degree. One might as well blame a man for being
+      born a hunchback; but if there should be a row out here it will be
+      terrible for him. I can quite understand his feeling about it. If I were
+      placed as he is, and were called upon to fight, I should take a dose of
+      prussic acid at once. Men talk: about their civilization, but we are
+      little better than savages in our instincts. Courage is an almost useless
+      virtue in a civilized community, but if it is called for, we despise a man
+      in whom it is wanting, just as heartily as our tattooed ancestors did. Of
+      course, in him it is a purely constitutional failing, and I have no doubt
+      he would be as brave as a lion in any other circumstances&mdash;in fact,
+      the incident of his attacking the tiger with that dog whip of his shows
+      that he is so; and yet, if he should fail when the lives of women are at
+      stake it would be a kindness to give him that dose of prussic acid,
+      especially as Isobel Hannay will be here. That is the hardest part of it
+      to him, I can see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Three days later the force at Deennugghur was increased by the arrival of
+      a troop of native cavalry, under a Captain Forster, who had just returned
+      from leave in England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know Captain Forster, Doctor?&rdquo; Isobel Hannay asked, on the
+      afternoon of his arrival. &ldquo;Uncle tells me he is coming to dinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you must look after your heart, my dear. He is one of the best
+      looking fellows out here, a dashing soldier, and a devoted servant of the
+      fair sex.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't like him, Doctor,&rdquo; Isobel said quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not said so, my dear&mdash;far from it. I think I said a good deal
+      for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but you don't like him, Doctor. Why is that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose because he is not my sort of man,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;I have not
+      seen him since his regiment and ours were at Delhi together, and we did
+      not see much of each other then. Our tastes did not lie in the same
+      direction.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I know what your tastes are, Doctor; what are his?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will leave you to find out, my dear. He is all I told you&mdash;a very
+      handsome man, with, as is perhaps natural, a very good opinion of himself,
+      and he distinguished himself more than once in the Punjaub by acts of
+      personal gallantry. I have no doubt he thinks it an awful nuisance coming
+      to a quiet little station like this, and he will probably try to while
+      away his time by making himself very agreeable to you. But I don't think
+      you need quite believe all that he says.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have long ago got over the weakness of believing people's flattery,
+      Doctor. However, now you have forewarned me I am forearmed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor hesitated, and then said gravely, &ldquo;It is not my habit to speak
+      ill of people, my dear. You do me the justice to believe that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure it is not, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, child, in a station like this you must see a good deal of this man.
+      He is a man who has won many hearts, and thrown them away. Don't let him
+      win yours. He is not a good man; he has been mixed up in several grave
+      scandals; he has been the ruin of more than one young man at cards and
+      billiards; he is in all respects a dangerous man. Anatomically I suppose
+      he has a heart, morally he has not a vestige of one. Whatever you do,
+      child, don't let him make you like him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think there is much fear of that, Doctor, after what you have
+      said,&rdquo; she replied, with a quiet smile; &ldquo;and I am obliged to you indeed
+      for warning me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know I am an old fool for meddling, but you know, my dear, I feel a
+      sort of personal relationship to you, after your having been in my charge
+      for six months. I don't know a single man in all India whom I would not
+      rather see you fall in love with than with Captain Forster.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought uncle did not seem particularly pleased: when he came in to
+      tiffin, and said there was a new arrival.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should think not,&rdquo; the Doctor said; &ldquo;the man in notoriously a dangerous
+      fellow; and yet, as he has never actually outstepped what are considered
+      the bounds which constitute an officer and a gentleman, he has retained
+      his commission, but it has been a pretty close shave once or twice. Your
+      uncle must know all about him, everyone does; but I don't suppose the
+      Major will open his mouth to you on the subject&mdash;he is one of those
+      chivalrous sort of men who never thinks evil of anyone unless he is
+      absolutely obliged to; but in a case like this I think he is wrong. At any
+      rate, I have done what I consider to be my duty in the matter. Now I leave
+      it in your hands. I am glad to see that you are looking quite yourself
+      again, and have got over your fainting fit of the other night. I quite
+      expected to be sent for professionally the next morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, I have quite got over it, Doctor; I can't make out how I was so
+      silly as to faint. I never did such a thing before, but it was so strange
+      and mysterious that I felt quite bewildered, and the picture quite
+      frightened me, but I don't know why. This is the first chance I have had
+      since of speaking to you alone. What do you think of it, and why should
+      you be dressed up as a native? and why should?&rdquo; She stopped with a
+      heightened color on her cheeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You and Bathurst be dressed up, too? So you noticed your own likeness;
+      nobody else but Bathurst and myself recognized the two figures that came
+      out of the wood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you saw it too, Doctor. I thought I might have been mistaken, for,
+      besides being stained, the face was all obscured somehow. Neither uncle,
+      nor Mrs. Hunter, nor the girls, nor anyone else I have spoken to seem to
+      have had an idea it was me, though they all recognized you.. What could it
+      mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I. have not the slightest idea in the world,&rdquo; the Doctor said; &ldquo;very
+      likely it meant nothing. I certainly should not think any more about it.
+      These jugglers' tricks are curious and unaccountable; but it is no use our
+      worrying ourselves about them. Maybe we are all going to get up private
+      theatricals some day, and perform an Indian drama. I have never taken any
+      part in tomfooleries of that sort so far, but there is no saying what I
+      may come to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you going to dine here, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, my dear; the Major asked me to come in, but I declined. I told him
+      frankly that I did not like Forster, and that the less I saw of him the
+      better I should be pleased.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The other guests turned out to be Captain and Mrs. Doolan and Mr.
+      Congreave, one of the civilians at the station. The Doolans arrived first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have not seen Captain Forster yet, Isobel,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said, as they
+      sat down for a chat together. &ldquo;I met him at Delhi soon after I came out.
+      He is quite my beau ideal of a soldier in appearance, but I don't think he
+      is nice, Isobel. I have heard all sorts of stories about him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that meant as a warning for me, Mrs. Doolan?&rdquo; Isobel asked, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, yes, I think it is, if you don't mind my giving you one. There are
+      some men one can flirt with as much as one likes, and there are some men
+      one can't; he is one of that sort. Privately, my dear, I don't mind
+      telling you that at one time I did flirt with him&mdash;I had been
+      accustomed to flirt in Ireland; we all flirt there, and mean nothing by
+      it; but I had to give it up very suddenly. It wouldn't do, my dear, at
+      all; his ideas of flirtation differed utterly from mine. I found I was
+      playing with fire, and was fortunate in getting off without singeing my
+      wings, which is more than a good many others would have done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must be a horrid sort of man,&rdquo; Isobel said indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Doolan laughed. &ldquo;I don't think you will find him so; certainly that
+      is not the general opinion of women. However, you will see him for
+      yourself in a very few minutes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel looked up with some curiosity when Captain Forster was announced,
+      and at once admitted to herself that the Doctor's report as to his
+      personal appearance was fully justified. He stood over six feet high, with
+      a powerful frame, and an easy careless bearing; his hair was cut rather
+      close, he wore a long tawny mustache, his eyes were dark, his teeth very
+      white and perfect. A momentary look of surprise came across his face as
+      his eyes fell on Isobel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had hardly expected,&rdquo; he said, as the Major introduced him to her, &ldquo;to
+      find no less than three unmarried ladies at Deennugghur. I had the
+      pleasure of being introduced to the Miss Hunters this afternoon. How do
+      you do, Mrs. Doolan? I think it is four years since I had the pleasure of
+      knowing you in Delhi.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe that is the number, Captain Forster.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems a very long time to me,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought you would say that,&rdquo; she laughed. &ldquo;It was quite the proper
+      thing to say, Captain Forster; but I have no doubt it does seem longer to
+      you than it does to me as you have been home since.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are all here,&rdquo; the Major broke in. &ldquo;Captain Forster, will you take my
+      niece in?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose you find this very dull after Cawnpore, Miss Hannay?&rdquo; Captain
+      Forster asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed I do not,&rdquo; Isobel said. &ldquo;I like it better here; everything is
+      sociable and pleasant, while at Cawnpore there was much more formality. Of
+      course, there were lots of dinner parties, but I don't care for large
+      dinner parties at all; it is so hot, and they last such a time. I think
+      six is quite large enough. Then there is a general talk, and everyone can
+      join in just as much as they like, while at a large dinner you have to
+      rely entirely upon one person, and I think it is very hard work having to
+      talk for an hour and a half to a stranger of whom you know nothing. Don't
+      you agree with me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Entirely, Miss Hannay; I am a pretty good hand at talking, but at times I
+      have found it very hard work, I can assure you, especially when you take
+      down a stranger to the station, so that you have no mutual acquaintance to
+      pull to pieces.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dinner was bright and pleasant, and when the evening was over Isobel
+      said to her uncle, &ldquo;I think Captain Forster is very amusing, uncle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; the Major agreed, &ldquo;he is a good talker, a regular society man; he
+      is no great favorite of mine; I think he will be a little too much for us
+      in a small station like this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you mean too much, uncle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, he won't have much to do with his troop of horse, and time will
+      hang heavy on his hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there is shooting, uncle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, there is shooting, but I don't think that is much in his line.
+      Tiffins and calls, and society generally occupy most of his time, I fancy,
+      and I think he is fonder of billiards and cards than is good for him or
+      others. Of course, being here by himself, as he is, we must do our best to
+      be civil to him, and that sort of thing, but if we were at Cawnpore he is
+      a man I should not care about being intimate in the house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand, uncle; but certainly he is pleasant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, he is very pleasant,&rdquo; the Major said dryly, in a tone that
+      seemed to express that Forster's power of making himself pleasant was by
+      no means a recommendation in his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Captain Forster had apparently no idea whatever that his society could
+      be anything but welcome, and called the next day after luncheon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been leaving my pasteboard at all the residents,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;not a
+      very large circle. Of course, I knew Mrs. Rintoul at Delhi, as well as
+      Mrs. Doolan. I did not know any of the others. They seem pleasant people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are very pleasant,&rdquo; Isobel said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I left one for a man named Bathurst. He was out. Is that the Bathurst,
+      Major Hannay, who was in a line regiment&mdash;I forget its number&mdash;and
+      left very suddenly in the middle of the fighting in the Punjaub?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; I believe Bathurst was in the army about that time,&rdquo; the Major said;
+      &ldquo;but I don't know anything about the circumstances of his leaving.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Had Captain Forster known the Major better he would have been aware that
+      what he meant to say was that he did not wish to know, but he did not
+      detect the inflection of his voice, and went on&mdash;&ldquo;They say he showed
+      the white feather. If it is the same man, I was at school with him, and
+      unless he has improved since then, I am sure I have no wish to renew his
+      acquaintance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I like him very much,&rdquo; the Major said shortly; &ldquo;he is great friends with
+      Dr. Wade, who has the very highest opinion of him, and I believe he is
+      generally considered to be one of the most rising young officers of his
+      grade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I have nothing to say against him,&rdquo; Captain Forster said; &ldquo;but he was
+      a poor creature at school, and I do not think that there was any love lost
+      between us. Did you know him before you came here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only met him at the last races in Cawnpore,&rdquo; the Major said; &ldquo;he was
+      stopping with the Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite a character, Wade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel's tongue was untied now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think he is one of the kindest and best gentlemen I ever met,&rdquo; the girl
+      said hotly; &ldquo;he took care of me coming out here, and no one could have
+      been kinder than he was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no doubt he is all that,&rdquo; Captain Forster said gently; &ldquo;still he
+      is a character, Miss Hannay, taking the term character to mean a person
+      who differs widely from other people. I believe he is very skillful in his
+      profession, but I take it he is a sort of Abernethy, and tells the most
+      startling truths to his patients.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I can quite imagine,&rdquo; Isobel said; &ldquo;the Doctor hates humbug of all
+      sorts, and I don't think I should like to call him in myself for an
+      imaginary ailment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I rather put my foot in it there,&rdquo; Captain Forster said to himself, as he
+      sauntered back to his tent. &ldquo;The Major didn't like my saying anything
+      against Bathurst, and the girl did not like my remark about the Doctor. I
+      wonder whether she objected also to what I said about that fellow Bathurst&mdash;a
+      sneaking little hound he was, and there is no doubt about his showing the
+      white feather in the Punjaub. However, I don't think that young lady is of
+      the sort to care about a coward, and if she asks any questions, as I dare
+      say she will, after what I have said, she will find that the story is a
+      true one. What a pretty little thing she is! I did not see a prettier face
+      all the time I was at home. What with her and Mrs. Doolan, time is not
+      likely to hang so heavily here as I had expected.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major, afraid that Isobel might ask him some questions about this
+      story of Bathurst leaving the army, went off hastily as soon as Captain
+      Forster had left. Isobel sat impatiently tapping the floor with her foot,
+      awaiting the Doctor, who usually came for half an hour's chat in the
+      afternoon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, child, how did your dinner go off yesterday, and what did you think
+      of your new visitor? I saw him come away from here half an hour ago. I
+      suppose he has been calling.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't like him at all,&rdquo; Isobel said decidedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No? Well, then, you are an exception to the general rule.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought him pleasant enough last night,&rdquo; Isobel said frankly. &ldquo;He has a
+      deferential sort of way about him when he speaks to one that one can
+      hardly help liking. But he made me angry today. In the first place,
+      Doctor, he said you were a character.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor chuckled. &ldquo;Well, that is true enough, my dear. There was no
+      harm in that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then he said&rdquo;&mdash;and she broke off&mdash;&ldquo;he said what I feel sure
+      cannot be true. He said that Mr. Bathurst left the army because he showed
+      the white feather. It is not true, is it? I am sure it can't be true.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor did not reply immediately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is an old story,&rdquo; he said presently, &ldquo;and ought not to have been
+      brought up again. I don't suppose Forster or anyone else knows the rights
+      of the case. When a man leaves his regiment and retires when it is upon
+      active service, there are sure to be spiteful stories getting about, often
+      without the slightest foundation. But even if it had been true, it would
+      hardly be to Bathurst's disadvantage now he is no longer in the army, and
+      courage is not a vital necessity on the part of a civilian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can't mean that, Doctor; surely every man ought to be brave. Could
+      anyone possibly respect a man who is a coward? I don't believe it, Doctor,
+      for a moment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Courage, my dear, is not a universal endowment&mdash;it is a physical as
+      much as a moral virtue. Some people are physically brave and morally
+      cowards; others are exactly the reverse. Some people are constitutionally
+      cowards all round, while in others cowardice shows itself only partially.
+      I have known a man who is as brave as a lion in battle, but is terrified
+      by a rat. I have known a man brave in other respects lose his nerve
+      altogether in a thunderstorm. In neither of these cases was it the man's
+      own fault; it was constitutional, and by no effort could he conquer it. I
+      consider Bathurst to be an exceptionally noble character. I am sure that
+      he is capable of acts of great bravery in some directions, but it is
+      possible that he is, like the man I have spoken of, constitutionally weak
+      in others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the great thing is to be brave in battle, Doctor! You would not call
+      a man a coward simply because he was afraid of a rat, but you would call a
+      man a coward who was afraid in battle. To be a coward there seems to me to
+      be a coward all round. I have always thought the one virtue in man I
+      really envied was bravery, and that a coward was the most despicable
+      creature living. It might not be his actual fault, but one can't help
+      that. It is not anyone's fault if he is fearfully ugly or born an idiot,
+      for example. But cowardice seems somehow different. Not to be brave when
+      he is strong seems to put a man below the level of a woman. I feel sure,
+      Doctor, there must be some mistake, and that this story cannot be true. I
+      have seen a good deal of Mr. Bathurst since we have been here, and you
+      have always spoken so well of him, he is the last man I should have
+      thought would be&mdash;would be like that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know the circumstances of the case, child. You can trust me when I say
+      that there is nothing in Bathurst's conduct that diminishes my respect for
+      him in the slightest degree, and that in some respects he is as brave a
+      man as any I know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Doctor, all that may be; but you do not answer my question. Did Mr.
+      Bathurst leave the army because he showed cowardice? If he did, and you
+      know it, why did you invite him here? why did you always praise him? why
+      did you not say, 'In other respects this man may be good and estimable,
+      but he is that most despicable thing, a coward'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was such a passion of pain in her voice and face that the Doctor
+      only said quietly, &ldquo;I did not know it, my dear, or I should have told you
+      at first that in this one point he was wanting. It is, I consider, the
+      duty of those who know things to speak out. But he is certainly not what
+      you say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel tossed her head impatiently. &ldquo;We need not discuss it, Doctor. It is
+      nothing to me whether Mr. Bathurst is brave or not, only it is not quite
+      pleasant to learn that you have been getting on friendly terms with a man
+      who&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't say any more,&rdquo; the Doctor broke in. &ldquo;You might at least remember he
+      is a friend of mine. There is no occasion for us to quarrel, my dear, and
+      to prevent the possibility of such a thing I will be off at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After he had left Isobel sat down to think over what had been said. He had
+      not directly answered her questions, but he had not denied that the rumor
+      that Bathurst had retired from the army because he was wanting in courage
+      was well founded. Everything he had said, in fact, was an excuse rather
+      than a denial. The Doctor was as stanch a friend as he was bitter an
+      opponent. Could he have denied it he would have done so strongly and
+      indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was clear that, much as he liked Bathurst, he believed him wanting in
+      physical courage. He had said, indeed, that he believed he was brave in
+      some respects, and had asserted that he knew of one exceptional act of
+      courage that he had performed; but what was that if a man had had to leave
+      the army because he was a coward? To Isobel it seemed that of all things
+      it was most dreadful that a man should be wanting in courage. Tales of
+      daring and bravery had always been her special delight, and, being full of
+      life and spirit herself, it had not seemed even possible to her that a
+      gentleman could be a coward, and that Bathurst could be so was to her well
+      nigh incredible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It might, as the Doctor had urged, be in no way his fault, but this did
+      not affect the fact. He might be more to be pitied than to be blamed; but
+      pity of that kind, so far from being akin to love, was destructive of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Unconsciously she had raised Bathurst on a lofty pinnacle. The Doctor had
+      spoken very highly of him. She had admired the energy with which, instead
+      of caring, as others did, for pleasure, he devoted himself to his work.
+      Older men than himself listened to his opinions. His quiet and somewhat
+      restrained manner was in contrast to the careless fun and good humor of
+      most of those with whom she came in contact. It had seemed to her that he
+      was a strong man, one who could be relied upon implicitly at all times,
+      and she had come in the few weeks she had been at Deennugghur to rely upon
+      his opinion, and to look forward to his visits, and even to acknowledge to
+      herself that he approached her ideal of what a man should be more than
+      anyone else she had met.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now this was all shattered at a blow. He was wanting in man's first
+      attribute. He had left the army, if not in disgrace, at least under a
+      cloud and even his warm friend, the Doctor, could not deny that the
+      accusation of cowardice was well founded. The pain of the discovery opened
+      her eyes to the fact which she had not before, even remotely, admitted to
+      herself, that she was beginning to love him, and the discovery was a
+      bitter one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I may thank Captain Forster for that, at least,&rdquo; she said to herself, as
+      she angrily wiped a tear from her cheek; &ldquo;he has opened my eyes in time.
+      What should I have felt if I had found too late that I had come to love a
+      man who was a coward&mdash;who had left the army because he was afraid? I
+      should have despised myself as much as I should despise him. Well, that is
+      my first lesson. I shall not trust in appearances again. Why, I would
+      rather marry a man like Captain Forster, even if everything they say about
+      him is true, than a man who is a coward. At least he is brave, and has
+      shown himself so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor had gone away in a state of extreme irritation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Confound the meddling scoundrel!&rdquo; he said to himself, as he surprised the
+      horse with a sharp cut of the whip. &ldquo;Just when things were going on as I
+      wished. I had quite set my mind on it, and though I am sure Bathurst would
+      never have spoken to her till he had told her himself about that
+      unfortunate failing of his, it would have been altogether different coming
+      from his own lips just as he told it to me. Of course, my lips were sealed
+      and I could not put the case in the right light. I would give three
+      months' pay for the satisfaction of horsewhipping that fellow Forster.
+      Still, I can't say he did it maliciously, for he could not have known
+      Bathurst was intimate there, or that there was anything between them. The
+      question is, am I to tell Bathurst that she has heard about it? I suppose
+      I had better. Ah, here is the Major,&rdquo; and he drew up his horse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anything new, Major? You look put out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, there is very bad news, Doctor. A Sowar has just brought a letter to
+      me from the Colonel saying that the General has got a telegram that the
+      19th Native Infantry at Berhampore have refused to use the cartridges
+      served out to them, and that yesterday a Sepoy of the 34th at Barrackpore
+      raised seditious cries in front of the lines, and when Baugh, the
+      adjutant, and the sergeant major attempted to seize him he wounded them
+      both, while the regiment stood by and refused to aid them. The 19th are to
+      be disbanded, and no doubt the 34th will be, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is bad news indeed, Major, and looks as if this talk about general
+      disaffection were true. Had there been trouble but at one station it might
+      have been the effect of some local grievance, but happening at two places,
+      it looks as if it were part of a general plot. Well, we must hope it will
+      go no farther.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is very bad,&rdquo; said the Major, &ldquo;but at any rate we may hope we shall
+      have no troubles here; the regiment has always behaved well, and I am sure
+      they have no reason to complain of their treatment. If the Colonel has a
+      fault, it is that of over leniency with the men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is so,&rdquo; the Doctor agreed; &ldquo;but the fact is, Major, we know really
+      very little about the Hindoo mind. We can say with some sort of certainty
+      what Europeans will do under given circumstances, but though I know the
+      natives, I think, pretty nearly as well as most men, I feel that I really
+      know nothing about them. They appear mild and submissive, and have
+      certainly proved faithful on a hundred battlefields, but we don't know
+      whether that is their real character. Their own history, before we stepped
+      in and altered its current, shows them as faithless, bloodthirsty and
+      cruel; whether they have changed their nature under our rule, or simply
+      disguised it, Heaven only knows.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At any rate,&rdquo; the Major said, &ldquo;they have always shown themselves attached
+      to their English officers. There are numberless instances where they have
+      displayed the utmost devotion for them, and although some scheming
+      intriguers may have sown the seeds of discontent among them, and these
+      lies about the cartridges may have excited their religious prejudices, and
+      may even lead them to mutiny, I cannot believe for an instant that the
+      Sepoys will lift their hands against their officers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope not,&rdquo; the Doctor said gravely. &ldquo;A tiger's cub, when tamed, is one
+      of the prettiest of playthings, but when it once tastes blood it is as
+      savage a beast as its mother was before it. Of course, I hope for the
+      best, but if the Sepoys once break loose I would not answer for anything
+      they might do. They have been pretty well spoilt, Major, till they have
+      come to believe that it is they who conquered India and not we.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      That evening, after dining alone, the Doctor went in to Bathurst's. The
+      latter had already heard the news, and they talked it over for some time.
+      Then the Doctor said, &ldquo;Have you seen Forster, Bathurst, since he arrived?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I was out when he left his card. I was at school with him.. I heard
+      when I was in England that he was out here in the native cavalry, but I
+      have never run across him before, and I own I had no wish to do so. He was
+      about two years older than I was, and was considered the cock of the
+      school. He was one of my chief tormentors. I don't know that he was a
+      bully generally&mdash;fellows who are really plucky seldom are; but he
+      disliked me heartily, and I hated him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had the habit of telling the truth when questioned, and he narrowly
+      escaped expulsion owing to my refusing to tell a lie about his being
+      quietly in bed when, in fact, he and two or three other fellows had been
+      out at a public house. He never forgave me for it, for he himself would
+      have told a lie without hesitation to screen himself, or, to do him
+      justice, to screen anyone else; and the mere fact that I myself had been
+      involved in the matter, having been sent out by one of the bigger fellows,
+      and, therefore, having got myself a flogging by my admission, was no
+      mitigation in his eyes of my offense of what he called sneaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you may imagine I have no particular desire to meet him again. Unless
+      he has greatly changed, he would do me a bad turn if he had the chance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think he has greatly changed,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;That was really
+      what I came in here for this evening rather than to talk about this Sepoy
+      business. I am sorry to say, Bathurst, that when he was in at the Major's
+      today your name happened to be mentioned, and he said at once, 'Is that
+      the Bathurst who they say showed the white feather at Chillianwalla and
+      left the army in consequence?'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst's face grew pale and his fingers closed. He remained silent a
+      minute, and then said, &ldquo;It does not matter; she would have been sure to
+      hear it sooner or later, and I should have told her myself if he had not
+      done so; besides, if, as I am afraid, this Berhampore business is the
+      beginning of trouble, and of such trouble as we have never had since we
+      set foot in India, it is likely that everyone will know what she knows
+      now. Has she spoken to you about it? I suppose she has, or you would not
+      have known that he mentioned it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, she was most indignant about it, and did not believe it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what did you say, Doctor?&rdquo; he asked indifferently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I was sorry I could not tell her exactly what you told me. It would
+      have been better if I could have done so. I simply said there were many
+      sorts of courage, and that I was sure that you possessed many sorts in a
+      very high degree, but I could not, of course, deny; although I did not
+      admit, the truth of the report he had mentioned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think it makes much difference one way or the other,&rdquo; Bathurst
+      said wearily. &ldquo;I have known all along that Isobel Hannay would not marry a
+      coward, only I have gone on living in a fool's paradise. However, it is
+      over now&mdash;the sooner it is all over the better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear fellow,&rdquo; the Doctor said earnestly, &ldquo;don't take this thing too
+      much to heart. I don't wish to try and persuade you that it is not a grave
+      misfortune, but even suppose this trouble takes the very worst form
+      possible, I do not think you will come so very badly out of it as you
+      anticipate. Even assuming that you are unable to do your part in absolute
+      fighting, there may be other opportunities, and most likely will, in which
+      you may be able to show that although unable to control your nerves in the
+      din of battle, you possess in other respects coolness and courage. That
+      feat of yours of attacking the tiger with the dog whip shows conclusively
+      that under many circumstances you are capable of most daring deeds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst sat looking down for some minutes. &ldquo;God grant that it may be so,&rdquo;
+       he said at last; &ldquo;but it is no use talking about it any more, Doctor. I
+      suppose Major Hannay will keep a sharp lookout over the men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; there was a meeting of the officers this afternoon. It was agreed to
+      make no outward change, and to give the troops no cause whatever to
+      believe that they are suspected. They all feel confident of the goodwill
+      of the men; at the same time they will watch them closely, and if the news
+      comes of further trouble, they will prepare the courthouse as a place of
+      refuge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a very good plan; but of course everything depends upon whether,
+      if the troops do rise in mutiny, the people of Oude should join them. They
+      are a fighting race, and if they should throw in their lot against us the
+      position would be a desperate one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there is no doubt,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;that the Rajah of Bithoor
+      would be with us; that will make Cawnpore safe, and will largely influence
+      all the great Zemindars, though there is no doubt that a good many of them
+      have been sulky ever since the disarmament order was issued. I believe
+      there are few of them who have not got cannon hidden away or buried, and
+      as for the people, the number of arms given up was as nothing to what we
+      know they possessed. In other parts of India I believe the bulk of the
+      people will be with us; but here in Oude, our last annexation, I fear that
+      they will side against us, unless all the great landowners range
+      themselves on our side.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As far as I can see,&rdquo; Bathurst said, &ldquo;the people are contented with the
+      change. I don't say what I may call the professional fighting class, the
+      crowd of retainers kept by the great landowners, who were constantly
+      fighting against each other. Annexation has put a stop to all that, and
+      the towns are crowded with these fighting men, who hate us bitterly; but
+      the peasants, the tillers of the soil, have benefited greatly. They are no
+      longer exposed to raids by their powerful neighbors, and can cultivate
+      their fields in peace and quiet. Unfortunately their friendship, such as
+      it is, will not weigh in the slightest degree in the event of a struggle.
+      At any rate, I am sure they are not behind the scenes, and know nothing
+      whatever of any coming trouble. Going as I do among them, and talking to
+      them as one of themselves, I should have noticed it had there been any
+      change in them; and of late naturally I have paid special notice to their
+      manner. Well, if it is to come I hope it will come soon, for anything is
+      better than suspense.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Two days later Major Hannay read out to the men on parade an official
+      document, assuring them that there was no truth whatever in the statements
+      that had been made that the cartridges served out to them had been greased
+      with pigs' fat. They were precisely the same as those that they had used
+      for years, and the men were warned against listening to seditious persons
+      who might try to poison their minds and shake their loyalty to the
+      Government. He then told them that he was sorry to say that at one or two
+      stations the men had been foolish enough to listen to disloyal counsels,
+      and that in consequence the regiments had been disbanded and the men had
+      forfeited all the advantages in the way of pay and pension they had earned
+      by many years of good conduct. He said that he had no fear whatever of any
+      such trouble arising with them, as they knew that they had been well
+      treated, that any legitimate complaint they might make had always been
+      attended to, and that their officers had their welfare thoroughly at
+      heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had finished, the senior native officer stepped forward, and in
+      the name of the detachment assured the Major that the men were perfectly
+      contented, and would in all cases follow their officers, even if they
+      ordered them to march against their countrymen. At the conclusion of his
+      speech he called upon the troops to give three cheers for the Major and
+      officers, and this was responded to with a show of great enthusiasm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This demonstration was deemed very satisfactory, and the uneasiness among
+      the residents abated considerably, while the Major and his officers felt
+      convinced that, whatever happened at other stations, there would at least
+      be no trouble at Deennugghur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, even you are satisfied, Doctor, I suppose?&rdquo; the Major said, as a
+      party of them who had been dining with Dr. Wade were smoking in the
+      veranda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was hopeful before, Major, and I am hopeful now; but I can't say that
+      today's parade has influenced me in the slightest. Whatever virtues the
+      Hindoo may have, he has certainly that of knowing how to wait. I believe,
+      from what took place, that they have no intention of breaking out at
+      present; whether they are waiting to see what is done at other stations,
+      or until they receive a signal, is more than I can say; but their
+      assurances do not weigh with me to the slightest extent. Their history is
+      full of cases of perfidious massacre. I should say, 'Trust them as long as
+      you can, but don't relax your watch.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a confirmed croaker,&rdquo; Captain Rintoul said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not think so, Rintoul. I know the men I am talking about, and I know
+      the Hindoos generally. They are mere children, and can be molded like
+      clay. As long as we had the molding, all went well; but if they fall into
+      the hands of designing men they can be led in another direction just as
+      easily as we have led them in ours. I own that I don't see who can be
+      sufficiently interested in the matter to conceive and carry out a great
+      conspiracy of this kind. The King of Oude is a captive in our hands, the
+      King of Delhi is too old to play such a part. Scindia and Holkar may
+      possibly long for the powers their fathers possessed, but they are not
+      likely to act together, and may be regarded as rivals rather than friends,
+      and yet if it is not one of these who has been brewing this storm. I own I
+      don't see who can be at the bottom of it, unless it has really originated
+      from some ambitious spirits among the Sepoys, who look in the event of
+      success to being masters of the destinies of India. It is a pity we did
+      not get a few more views from that juggler; we might have known a little
+      more of it then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't talk about him, Doctor,&rdquo; Wilson said; &ldquo;it gives me the cold shivers
+      to think of that fellow and what he did; I have hardly slept since then.
+      It was the most creepy thing I ever saw. Richards and I have talked it
+      over every evening we have been alone together, and we can't make head or
+      tail of the affair. Richards thinks it wasn't the girl at all who went up
+      on that pole, but a sort of balloon in her shape. But then, as I say,
+      there was the girl standing among us before she took her place on the
+      pole. We saw her sit down and settle herself on the cushion so that she
+      was balanced right. So it could not have been a balloon then, and if it
+      were a balloon afterwards, when did she change? At any rate the light
+      below was sufficient to see well until she was forty or fifty feet up, and
+      after that she shone out, and we never lost sight of her until she was
+      ever so high. I can understand the pictures, because there might have been
+      a magic lantern somewhere, but that girl trick, and the basket trick, and
+      that great snake are altogether beyond me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I should imagine, Wilson,&rdquo; the Doctor said dryly; &ldquo;and if I were you I
+      would not bother my head about it.. Nobody has succeeded in finding out
+      any of them yet, and all the wondering in the world is not likely to get
+      you any nearer to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is what I feel, Doctor, but it is very riling to see things that you
+      can't account for anyhow. I wish he had sent up Richards on the pole
+      instead of the girl. I would not have minded going up myself if he had
+      asked me, though I expect I should have jumped off before it got up very
+      far, even at the risk of breaking my neck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should not mind risking that,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;though I doubt whether
+      I should have known any more about it when I came down; but these jugglers
+      always bring a girl or a boy with them instead of calling somebody out
+      from the audience, as they do at home. Well, if things are quiet we will
+      organize another hunt, Wilson. I have heard of a tiger fifteen miles away
+      from where we killed our last, and you and Richards shall go with me if
+      you like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should like it of all things, Doctor, provided it comes off by day. I
+      don't think I care about sitting through another night on a tree, and then
+      not getting anything like a fair shot at the beast after all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will go by day,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;Bathurst has promised to get some
+      elephants from one of the Zemindars; we will have a regular party this
+      time. I have half promised Miss Hannay she shall have a seat in a howdah
+      with me if the Major will give her leave, and in that case we will send
+      out tents and make a regular party of it. What do you say, Major?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am perfectly willing, Doctor, and have certainly no objection to
+      trusting Isobel to your care. I know you are not likely to miss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I am not likely to miss, certainly; and besides, there will be Wilson
+      and Richards to give him the coup de grace if I don't finish him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general laugh, for the two subalterns had been chaffed a good
+      deal at both missing the tiger on the previous occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, when shall it be, Major?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not just at present, at any rate,&rdquo; the Major said. &ldquo;We must see how
+      things are going on. I certainly should not think of going outside the
+      station now, nor could I give leave to any officer to do so; but if things
+      settle down, and we hear no more of this cartridge business for the next
+      ten days or a fortnight, we will see about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But although no news of any outbreak similar to that at Barrackpore was
+      received for some days, the report that came showed a widespread
+      restlessness. At various stations, all over India, fires, believed to be
+      the work of incendiaries, took place, and there was little abatement of
+      the uneasiness. It become known, too, that a native officer had before the
+      rising of Berhampore given warning of the mutiny, and had stated that
+      there was a widespread plot throughout the native regiments to rise, kill
+      their officers, and then march to Delhi, where they were all to gather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The story was generally disbelieved, although the actual rising had shown
+      that, to some extent, the report was well founded; still men could not
+      bring themselves to believe that the troops among whom they had lived so
+      long, and who had fought so well for us, could meditate such gross
+      treachery, without having, as far as could be seen, any real cause for
+      complaint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conduct of the troops at Deennugghur was excellent, and the Colonel
+      wrote that at Cawnpore there were no signs whatever of disaffection, and
+      that the Rajah of Bithoor had offered to come down at the head of his own
+      troops should there be any symptoms of mutiny among the Sepoys. Altogether
+      things looked better, and a feeling of confidence that there would be no
+      serious trouble spread through the station.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The weather had set in very hot, and there was no stirring out now for the
+      ladies between eleven o'clock and five or six in the afternoon. Isobel,
+      however, generally went in for a chat, the first thing after early
+      breakfast, with Mrs. Doolan, whose children were fractious with prickly
+      heat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only wish we had some big, high mountain, my dear, somewhere within
+      reach, where we could establish the children through the summer and run
+      away ourselves occasionally to look after them. We are very badly off here
+      in Oude for that. You are looking very pale yourself the last few days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose I feel it a little,&rdquo; Isobel said, &ldquo;and of course this anxiety
+      everyone has been feeling worries one. Everyone seems to agree that there
+      is no fear of trouble with the Sepoys here; still, as nothing else is
+      talked about, one cannot help feeling nervous about it. However, as things
+      seem settling down now, I hope we shall soon get something else to talk
+      about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not seen Mr. Bathurst lately,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor have we,&rdquo; Isobel said quietly; &ldquo;it is quite ten days since we saw him
+      last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose he is falling back into his hermit ways,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said
+      carelessly, shooting a keen glance at Isobel, who was leaning over one of
+      the children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He quite emerged from his shell for a bit. Mrs. Hunter was saying she
+      never saw such a change in a man, but I suppose he has got tired of it.
+      Captain Forster arrived just in time to fill up the gap. How do you like
+      him, Isobel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is amusing,&rdquo; the girl said quietly; &ldquo;I have never seen anyone quite
+      like him before; he talks in an easy, pleasant sort of way, and tells most
+      amusing stories. Then, when he sits down by one he has the knack of
+      dropping his voice and talking in a confidential sort of way, even when it
+      is only about the weather. I am always asking myself how much of it is
+      real, and what there is under the surface.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Doolan nodded approval.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think there is much under the surface, dear, and what there is is
+      just as well left alone; but there is no doubt he can be delightful when
+      he chooses, and very few women would not feel flattered by the attentions
+      of a man who is said to be the handsomest officer in the Indian army, and
+      who has besides distinguished himself several times as a particularly
+      dashing officer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think handsomeness goes for much in a man,&rdquo; Isobel said shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Doolan laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should it not go for as much as prettiness in a woman? It is no use
+      being cynical, Isobel; it is part of our nature to admire pretty things,
+      and as far as I can see an exceptionally handsome man is as legitimate an
+      object of admiration as a lovely woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, to admire, Mrs. Doolan, but not to like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear, I don't want to be hurrying you away, but I think you had
+      better get back before the sun gets any higher. You may say you don't feel
+      the heat much, but you are looking pale and fagged, and the less you are
+      out in the sun the better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel had indeed been having a hard time during those ten days. At first
+      she had thought of little but what she should do when Bathurst called. It
+      seemed impossible that she could be exactly the same with him as she had
+      been before, that was quite out of the question, and yet how was she to be
+      different?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten days had passed without his coming. This was so unusual that an idea
+      came into her mind which terrified her, and the first time when the Doctor
+      came in and found her alone she said, &ldquo;Of course, Dr. Wade, you have not
+      mentioned to Mr. Bathurst the conversation we had, but it is curious his
+      not having been here since.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly I mentioned it,&rdquo; the Doctor said calmly; &ldquo;how could I do
+      otherwise? It was evident to me that he would not be welcomed here as he
+      was before, and I could not do otherwise than warn him of the change he
+      might expect to find, and to give him the reason for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel stood the picture of dismay. &ldquo;I don't think you had any right to do
+      so, Doctor,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;You have placed me in a most painful position.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In not so painful a one as it would have been, my dear, if he had noticed
+      the change himself, as he must have done, and asked for the cause of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel stood twisting her fingers over each other before her nervously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what am I to do?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not see that there is anything more for you to do,&rdquo; the Doctor said.
+      &ldquo;Mr. Bathurst may not be perfect in all respects, but he is certainly too
+      much of a gentleman to force his visits where they are not wanted. I do
+      not say he will not come here at all, for not to do so after being here so
+      much would create comment and talk in the station, which would be as
+      painful to you as to him, but he certainly will not come here more often
+      than is necessary to keep up appearances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think you ought to have told him,&rdquo; Isobel repeated, much
+      distressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I could not help it, my dear. You would force me to admit there was some
+      truth in the story Captain Forster told you, and I was, therefore, obliged
+      to acquaint him with the fact or he would have had just cause to reproach
+      me. Besides, you spoke of despising a man who was not physically brave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You never told him that, Doctor; surely you never told him that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only told what it was necessary he should know, my dear, namely, that
+      you had heard the story, that you had questioned me, and that I, knowing
+      the facts from his lips, admitted that there was some foundation for the
+      story, while asserting that I was convinced that he was morally a brave
+      man. He did not ask how you took the news, nor did I volunteer any
+      information whatever on the subject, but he understood, I think, perfectly
+      the light in which you would view a coward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what am I to do when we meet, Doctor?&rdquo; she asked piteously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should say that you will meet just as ordinary acquaintances do meet,
+      Miss Hannay. People are civil to others they are thrown with, however much
+      they may distrust them at heart. You may be sure that Mr. Bathurst will
+      make no allusion whatever to the matter. I think I can answer for it that
+      you will see no shade of difference in his manner. This has always been a
+      heavy burden for him, as even the most careless observer may see in his
+      manner. I do not say that this is not a large addition to it, but I dare
+      say he will pull through; and now I must be off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very unkind, Doctor, and I never knew you unkind before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unkind!&rdquo; the Doctor repeated, with an air of surprise. &ldquo;In what way? I
+      love this young fellow. I had cherished hopes for him that he hardly
+      perhaps ventured to cherish for himself. I quite agree with you that what
+      has passed has annihilated those hopes. You despise a man who is a coward.
+      I am not surprised at that. Bathurst is the last man in the world who
+      would force himself upon a woman who despised him. I have done my best to
+      save you from being obliged to make a personal declaration of your
+      sentiments. I repudiate altogether the accusation as being unkind. I don't
+      blame you in the slightest. I think that your view is the one that a young
+      woman of spirit would naturally take. I acquiesce in it entirely. I will
+      go farther, I consider it a most fortunate occurrence for you both that
+      you found it out in time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel's cheeks had flushed and paled several times while he was speaking;
+      then she pressed her lips tightly together, and as he finished she said,
+      &ldquo;I think, Doctor, it will be just as well not to discuss the matter
+      further.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am quite of your opinion,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We will agree not to allude to it
+      again. Goodby.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then Isobel had retired to her room and cried passionately, while the
+      Doctor had gone off chuckling to himself as if he were perfectly satisfied
+      with the state of affairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the week that had since elapsed the Major had wondered and grumbled
+      several times at Bathurst's absence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect,&rdquo; he said one day, when a note of refusal had come from him,
+      &ldquo;that he doesn't care about meeting Forster. You remember Forster said
+      they had been at school together, and from the tone in which he spoke it
+      is evident that they disliked each other there. No doubt he has heard from
+      the Doctor that Forster is frequently in here,&rdquo; and the Major spoke rather
+      irritably, for it seemed to him that Isobel showed more pleasure in the
+      Captain's society than she should have done after what he had said to her
+      about him; indeed, Isobel, especially when the Doctor was present,
+      appeared by no means to object to Captain Forster's attentions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon the evening, however, of the day when Isobel had spoken to Mrs.
+      Doolan, Bathurst came in, rather late in the evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How are you, Bathurst?&rdquo; the Major said cordially. &ldquo;Why, you have become
+      quite a stranger. We haven't seen you for over a fortnight. Do you know
+      Captain Forster?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were at school together formerly, I believe,&rdquo; Bathurst said quietly.
+      &ldquo;We have not met since, and I fancy we are both changed beyond
+      recognition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Forster looked with surprise at the strong, well knit figure. He
+      had not before seen Bathurst, and had pictured him to himself as a weak,
+      puny man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I certainly should not have known Mr. Bathurst,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have changed
+      a great deal, no doubt, but he has certainly changed more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no attempt on the part of either to shake hands. As they moved
+      apart Isobel came into the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A quick flash of color spread over her face when, upon entering, she saw
+      Bathurst talking to her uncle. Then she advanced, shook hands with him as
+      usual, and said, &ldquo;It is quite a time since you were here, Mr. Bathurst. If
+      everyone was as full of business as you are, we should get on badly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she moved on without waiting for a reply and sat down, and was soon
+      engaged in a lively conversation with. Captain Forster, whilst Bathurst, a
+      few minutes later, pleading that as he had been in the saddle all day he
+      must go and make up for lost time, took his leave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Forster had noticed the flush on Isobel's cheeks when she saw
+      Bathurst, and had drawn his own conclusions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There has been a flirtation between them,&rdquo; he said to himself; &ldquo;but I
+      fancy I have put a spoke in his wheel. She gave him the cold shoulder
+      unmistakably.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      April passed, and as matters seemed to be quieting down, there being no
+      fresh trouble at any of the stations, the Major told Dr. Wade that he
+      really saw no reason why the projected tiger hunt should not take place.
+      The Doctor at once took the matter in hand, and drove out the next morning
+      to the village from which he had received news about the tiger, had a long
+      talk with the shikaris of the place, took a general view of the country,
+      settled the line in which the beat should take place, and arranged for a
+      large body of beaters to be on the spot at the time agreed on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst undertook to obtain the elephants from two Zemindars in the
+      neighborhood, who promised to furnish six, all of which were more or less
+      accustomed to the sport; while the Major and Mr. Hunter, who had been a
+      keen sportsman, although he had of late given up the pursuit of large
+      game, arranged for a number of bullock carts for the transport of tents
+      and stores.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst himself declined to be one of the party, which was to consist of
+      Mr. Hunter and his eldest daughter, the Major and Isobel, the Doctor, the
+      two subalterns, and Captain Forster. Captain Doolan said frankly that he
+      was no shot, and more likely to hit one of the party than the tiger.
+      Captain Rintoul at first accepted, but his wife shed such floods of tears
+      at the idea of his leaving her and going into danger, that for the sake of
+      peace he agreed to remain at home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wilson and Richards were greatly excited over the prospect, and talked of
+      nothing else; they were burning to wipe out the disgrace of having missed
+      on the previous occasion. Each of them interviewed the Doctor privately,
+      and implored him to put them in a position where they were likely to have
+      the first shot. Both used the same arguments, namely, that the Doctor had
+      killed so many tigers that one more or less could make no difference to
+      him, and if they missed, which they modestly admitted was possible, he
+      could still bring the animal down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Doctor was always in a good temper when there was a prospect of
+      sport, he promised each of them to do all that he could for them, at the
+      same time pointing out that it was always quite a lottery which way the
+      tiger might break out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel was less excited than she would have thought possible over the
+      prospect of taking part in a tiger hunt. She had many consultations to
+      hold with Mrs. Hunter, the Doctor, and Rumzan as to the food to be taken,
+      and the things that would be absolutely necessary for camping out; for, as
+      it was possible that the first day's beat would be unsuccessful, they were
+      to be prepared for at least two days' absence from home. Two tents were to
+      be taken, one for the gentlemen, the other for Isobel and Mary Hunter.
+      These, with bedding and camp furniture, cooking utensils and provisions,
+      were to be sent off at daybreak, while the party were to start as soon as
+      the heat of the day was over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish Bathurst had been coming,&rdquo; Major Hannay said, as, with Isobel by
+      his side, he drove out of the cantonment. &ldquo;He seems to have slipped away
+      from us altogether; he has only been in once for the last three or four
+      weeks. You haven't had a tiff with him about anything, have you, Isobel?
+      It seems strange his ceasing so suddenly to come after our seeing so much
+      of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, uncle, I have not seen him except when you have. What put such an
+      idea into your mind?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know, my dear; young people do have tiffs sometimes about all
+      sorts of trifles, though I should not have thought that Bathurst was the
+      sort of man to do anything of that sort. I don't think that he likes
+      Forster, and does not care to meet him. I fancy that is at the bottom of
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very likely,&rdquo; Isobel said innocently, and changed the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was dark when they reached the appointed spot, and indeed from the
+      point where they left the road a native with a torch had run ahead to show
+      them the way. The tents looked bright; two or three large fires were
+      burning round them, and the lamps had already been lighted within.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These tents do look cozy,&rdquo; Mary Hunter said, as she and Isobel entered
+      the one prepared for them. &ldquo;I do wish one always lived under canvas during
+      the hot weather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They look cool,&rdquo; Isobel said, &ldquo;but I don't suppose they are really as
+      cool as the bungalows; but they do make them comfortable. Here is the
+      bathroom all ready, and I am sure we want it after that dusty drive. Will
+      you have one first, or shall I? We must make haste, for Rumzan said dinner
+      would be ready in half an hour. Fortunately we shan't be expected to do
+      much in the way of dressing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dinner was a cheerful meal, and everyone was in high spirits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tiger had killed a cow the day before, and the villagers were certain
+      that he had retired to a deep nullah round which a careful watch had been
+      kept all day. Probably he would steal out by night to make a meal from the
+      carcass of the cow, but it had been arranged that he was to do this
+      undisturbed, and that the hunt was to take place by daylight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is wonderful how the servants manage everything,&rdquo; Isobel said. &ldquo;The
+      table is just as well arranged as it is at home. People would hardly
+      believe in England, if they could see us sitting here, that we were only
+      out on a two days' picnic. They would be quite content there to rough it
+      and take their meals sitting on the ground, or anyway they could get them.
+      It really seems ridiculous having everything like this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing like making yourself comfortable,&rdquo; the Doctor said; &ldquo;and
+      as the servants have an easy time of it generally, it does them good to
+      bestir themselves now and then. The expense of one or two extra bullock
+      carts is nothing, and it makes all the difference in comfort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How far is the nullah from here, Doctor?&rdquo; Wilson, who could think of
+      nothing else but the tiger, asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About two miles. It is just as well not to go any nearer. Not that he
+      would be likely to pay us a visit, but he might take the alarm and shift
+      his quarters. No, no more wine, Major; we shall want our blood cool in the
+      morning. Now we will go out to look at the elephants and have a talk with
+      the mahouts, and find out which of the animals can be most trusted to
+      stand steady. It is astonishing what a dread most elephants have of
+      tigers. I was on one once that I was assured would face anything, and the
+      brute bolted and went through some trees, and I was swept off the pad and
+      was half an hour before I opened my eyes. It was a mercy I had not every
+      rib broken. Fortunately I was a lightweight, or I might have been killed.
+      And I have seen the same sort of thing happen a dozen times, so we must
+      choose a couple of steady ones, anyhow, for the ladies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For the next hour they strolled about outside. The Doctor cross questioned
+      the mahouts and told off the elephants for the party; then there was a
+      talk with the native shikaris and arrangements made for the beat, and at
+      an early hour all retired to rest. The morning was just breaking when they
+      were called. Twenty minutes later they assembled to take a cup of coffee
+      before starting. The elephants were arranged in front of the tents, and
+      they were just about to mount when a horse was heard coming at a gallop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a moment,&rdquo; the Major said; &ldquo;it may be a message of some sort from
+      the station.&rdquo; A minute later Bathurst rode in and reined up his horse in
+      front of the tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Bathurst, what brings you here? Changed your mind at the last
+      moment, and found you could get away? That's right; you shall come on the
+      pad with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I have not come for that, Major; I have brought a dispatch that
+      arrived at two o'clock this morning. Doolan opened it and came to me, and
+      asked me to bring it on to you, as I knew the way and where your camp was
+      to be pitched.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing serious, I hope, Bathurst,&rdquo; the Major said, struck with the
+      gravity with which Bathurst spoke. &ldquo;It must be something important, or
+      Doolan would never have routed you off like that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is very serious, Major,&rdquo; Bathurst said, in a low voice. &ldquo;May I suggest
+      you had better go into the tent to read it? Some of the servants
+      understand English.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in with me,&rdquo; the Major said, and led the way into the tent, where
+      the lamps were still burning on the breakfast table, although the light
+      had broadened out over the sky outside. It was with grave anticipation of
+      evil that the Major took the paper from its envelope, but his worst fears
+      were more than verified by the contents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Dear Major: The General has just received a telegram with terrible
+      news from Meerut. 'Native troops mutinied, murdered officers, women, and
+      children, opened jails and burned cantonments, and marched to Delhi.' It
+      is reported that there has been a general rising there and the massacre of
+      all Europeans. Although this is not confirmed, the news is considered
+      probable. We hear also that the native cavalry at Lucknow have mutinied.
+      Lawrence telegraphs that he has suppressed it with the European troops
+      there, and has disarmed the mutineers. I believe that our regiment will be
+      faithful, but none can be trusted now. I should recommend your preparing
+      some fortified house to which all Europeans in station can retreat in case
+      of trouble. Now that they have taken to massacre as well as mutiny, God
+      knows how it will all end.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good Heavens! who could have dreamt of this?&rdquo; the Major groaned.
+      &ldquo;Massacred their officers, women, and children. All Europeans at Delhi
+      supposed to have been massacred, and there must be hundreds of them. Can
+      it be true?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The telegram as to Meerut is clearly an official one,&rdquo; Bathurst said.
+      &ldquo;Delhi is as yet but a rumor, but it is too probable that if these
+      mutineers and jail birds, flushed with success, reached Delhi before the
+      whites were warned, they would have their own way in the place, as, with
+      the exception of a few artillerymen at the arsenal, there is not a white
+      soldier in the place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But there were white troops at Meerut,&rdquo; the Major said. &ldquo;What could they
+      have been doing? However, that is not the question now. We must, of
+      course, return instantly. Ask the others to come in here, Bathurst. Don't
+      tell the girls what has taken place; it will be time enough for that
+      afterwards. All that is necessary to say is that you have brought news of
+      troubles at some stations unaffected before, and that I think it best to
+      return at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The men were standing in a group, wondering what the news could be which
+      was deemed of such importance that Bathurst should carry it out in the
+      middle of the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Major will be glad if you will all go in, gentlemen,&rdquo; Bathurst said,
+      as he joined them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we to go in, Mr. Bathurst?&rdquo; Miss Hunter asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I think not, Miss Hunter; the fact is there have been some troubles
+      at two or three other places, and the Major is going to hold a sort of
+      council of war as to whether the hunt had not better be given up. I rather
+      fancy that they will decide to go back at once. News flies very fast in
+      India. I think the Major would like that he and his officers should be
+      back before it is whispered among the Sepoys that the discontent has not,
+      as we hoped, everywhere ceased.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be very serious,&rdquo; Isobel said, &ldquo;or uncle would never decide to go
+      back, when all the preparations are made.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would never do, you see, Miss Hannay, for the Commandant and four of
+      the officers to be away, if the Sepoys should take it into their heads to
+      refuse to receive cartridges or anything of that sort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can't give us any particulars, then, Mr. Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The note was a very short one, and was partly made up of unconfirmed
+      rumors. As I only saw it in my capacity of a messenger, I don't think I am
+      at liberty to say more than that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a trouble the Sepoys are,&rdquo; Mary Hunter said pettishly; &ldquo;it is too
+      bad our losing a tiger hunt when we may never have another chance to see
+      one!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a very minor trouble, Mary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think so,&rdquo; the girl said; &ldquo;just at present it seems to me to be
+      very serious.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment the Doctor put his head out of the tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you come in, Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have settled, Bathurst,&rdquo; the Major said, when he entered, &ldquo;that we
+      must, of course, go back at once. The Doctor, however, is of opinion that
+      if, after all the preparations were made, we were to put the tiger hunt
+      off altogether, it would set the natives talking, and the report would go
+      through the country like wildfire that some great disaster had happened.
+      We must go back at once, and Mr. Hunter, having a wife and daughter there,
+      is anxious to get back, too; but the Doctor urges that he should go out
+      and kill this tiger. As it is known that you have just arrived, he says
+      that if you are willing to go with him, it will be thought that you had
+      come here to join the hunt, and if that comes off, and the tiger is
+      killed, it does not matter whether two or sixty of us went out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall be quite willing to do so,&rdquo; said Bathurst, &ldquo;and I really think
+      that the Doctor's advice is good. If, now that you have all arrived upon
+      the ground, the preparations were canceled, there can be no doubt that the
+      natives would come to the conclusion that something very serious had taken
+      place, and it would be all over the place in no time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, Bathurst. Then we will consider that arranged. Now we will get
+      the horses in as soon as possible, and be off at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten minutes later the buggies were brought round, and the whole party,
+      with the exception of the Doctor and Bathurst, started for Deennugghur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us be off at once,&rdquo; Dr. Wade said to his companion; &ldquo;we can talk as
+      we go along. I have got two rifles with me; I can lend you one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall take no rifle,&rdquo; Bathurst said decidedly, &ldquo;or rather I will take
+      one of the shikaris' guns for the sake of appearance, and for use I will
+      borrow one of their spears.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well; I will do the shooting, then,&rdquo; the Doctor agreed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men then took their places on the elephants most used to the work,
+      and told the mahouts of the others to follow in case the elephants should
+      be required for driving the tiger out of the thick jungle, and they then
+      started side by side for the scene of action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is awful news, Bathurst. I could not have believed it possible that
+      these fellows who have eaten our salt for years, fought our battles, and
+      have seemed the most docile and obedient of soldiers, should have done
+      this. That they should have been goaded into mutiny by lies about their
+      religion being in danger I could have imagined well enough, but that they
+      should go in for wholesale massacre, not only of their officers, but of
+      women and children, seems well nigh incredible. You and I have always
+      agreed that if they were once roused there was no saying what they would
+      do, but I don't think either of us dreamt of anything as bad as this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; Bathurst said quietly; &ldquo;one has watched this cloud
+      gathering, and felt that if it did break it would be something terrible.
+      No one can foresee now what it will be. The news that Delhi is in the
+      hands of the mutineers, and that these have massacred all Europeans, and
+      so placed themselves beyond all hope of pardon, will fly though India like
+      a flash of lightning, and there is no guessing how far the matter will
+      spread. There is no use disguising it from ourselves, Doctor, before a
+      week is over there may not be a white man left alive in India, save the
+      garrisons of strong places like Agra, and perhaps the presidential towns,
+      where there is always a strong European force.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't deny that it is possible, Bathurst. If this revolt spreads though
+      the three Presidencies the work of conquering India will have to be begun
+      again, and worse than that, for we should have opposed to us a vast army
+      drilled and armed by ourselves, and led by the native officers we have
+      trained. It seems stupefying that an empire won piecemeal, and after as
+      hard fighting as the world has ever seen, should be lost in a week.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor spoke as if the question was a purely impersonal one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugly, isn't it?&rdquo; he went on; &ldquo;and to think I have been doctoring up these
+      fellows for the last thirty years&mdash;saving their lives, sir, by
+      wholesale. If I had known what had been coming I would have dosed them
+      with arsenic with as little remorse as I should feel in shooting a tiger's
+      whelp. Well, there is one satisfaction, the Major has already done
+      something towards turning the courthouse into a fortress, and I fancy a
+      good many of the scoundrels will go down before they take it, that is, if
+      they don't fall on us unawares. I have been a noncombatant all my life,
+      but if I can shoot a tiger on the spring I fancy I can hit a Sepoy. By
+      Jove, Bathurst, that juggler's picture you told me of is likely to come
+      true after all!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish to Heaven it was!&rdquo; Bathurst said gloomily; &ldquo;I could look without
+      dread at whatever is coming as far as I am concerned, if I could believe
+      it possible that I should be fighting as I saw myself there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pooh, nonsense, lad!&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;Knowing what I know of you, I
+      have no doubt that, though you may feel nervous at first, you will get
+      over it in time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst shook his head. &ldquo;I know myself too well, Doctor, to indulge in
+      any such hopes. Now you see we are going out tiger hunting. At present,
+      now, as far as I am concerned, I should feel much less nervous if I knew I
+      was going to enter the jungle on foot with only this spear, than I do at
+      the thought that you are going to fire that rifle a few paces from me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will scarcely notice it in the excitement,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;In cold
+      blood I admit you might feel it, but I don't think you will when you see
+      the tiger spring out from the jungle at us. But here we are. That is the
+      nullah in which they say the tiger retires at night. I expect the beaters
+      are lying all round in readiness, and as soon as we have taken up our
+      station at its mouth they will begin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A shikari came up as they approached the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The tiger went out last night, sahib, and finished the cow; he came back
+      before daylight, and the beaters are all in readiness to begin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The elephants were soon in position at the mouth of the ravine, which was
+      some thirty yards across. At about the same distance in front of them the
+      jungle of high, coarse grass and thick bush began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you were going to shoot, Bathurst, we would take post one each side,
+      but as you are not going to I will place myself nearly in the center, and
+      if you are between me and the rocks the tiger is pretty certain to go on
+      the other side, as it will seem the most open to him. Now we are ready,&rdquo;
+       he said to the shikari.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter waved a white rag on the top of a long stick, and at the signal
+      a tremendous hubbub of gongs and tom toms, mingled with the shouts of
+      numbers of the men, arose. The Doctor looked across at his companion. His
+      face was white and set, his muscles twitched convulsively; he was looking
+      straight in front of him, his teeth set hard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An interesting case,&rdquo; the Doctor muttered to himself, &ldquo;if it had been
+      anyone else than Bathurst. I expect the tiger will be some little time
+      before it is down. Bathurst,&rdquo; he said, in a quiet voice. Three times he
+      repeated the observation, each time raising his voice higher, before
+      Bathurst heard him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sooner it comes the better,&rdquo; Bathurst said, between his teeth. &ldquo;I
+      would rather face a hundred tigers than this infernal din.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A quarter of an hour passed, and the Doctor, rifle in hand, was watching
+      the bushes in front when he saw a slight movement among the leaves on his
+      right, the side on which Bathurst was stationed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's him, Bathurst; he has headed back; he caught sight of either your
+      elephant or mine; he will make a bolt in another minute now unless he
+      turns back on the beaters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A minute later there was a gleam of tawny yellow among the long grass, and
+      quick as thought the Doctor fired. With a sharp snarl the tiger leaped
+      out, and with two short bounds sprang onto the head of the elephant ridden
+      by Bathurst. The mahout gave a cry of pain, for the talons of one of the
+      forepaws were fixed in his leg. Bathurst leaned forward and thrust the
+      spear he held deep into the animal's neck. At the same moment the Doctor
+      fired again, and the tiger, shot through the head, fell dead, while, with
+      a start, Bathurst lost his balance and fell over the elephant's head onto
+      the body of the tiger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was fortunate indeed for him that the ball had passed through the
+      tiger's skull from ear to ear, and that life was extinct before it touched
+      the ground. Bathurst sprang to his feet, shaken and bewildered, but
+      otherwise unhurt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is as dead as a door nail!&rdquo; the Doctor shouted, &ldquo;and lucky for you he
+      was so; if he had had a kick left in him you would have been badly torn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should never have fallen off,&rdquo; Bathurst said angrily, &ldquo;if you had not
+      fired. I could have finished him with the spear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You might or you might not; I could not wait to think about that; the
+      tiger had struck its claws into the mahout's leg, and would have had him
+      off the elephant in another moment. That is a first rate animal you were
+      riding on, or he would have turned and bolted; if he had done so you and
+      the mahout would have both been off to a certainty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the shouts of some natives, who had taken their posts in
+      trees near at hand, told the beaters that the shots they had heard had
+      been successful, and with shouts of satisfaction they came rushing down.
+      The Doctor at once dispatched one of them to bring up his trap and
+      Bathurst's horse, and then examined the tiger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a very large one, and the skin was in good condition, which showed
+      that he had not taken to man eating long. The Doctor bound up the wound on
+      the mahout's leg, and then superintended the skinning of the animal while
+      waiting for the arrival of the trap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When it came up he said, &ldquo;You might as well take a seat by my side,
+      Bathurst; the syce will sit behind and lead your horse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Having distributed money among the beaters, the Doctor took his place in
+      his trap, the tiger skin was rolled up and placed under the seat, Bathurst
+      mounted beside him, and they started.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, you see, Doctor,&rdquo; Bathurst, who had not opened his lips from the
+      time he had remonstrated with the Doctor for firing, said; &ldquo;you see it is
+      of no use. I was not afraid of the tiger, for I knew that you were not
+      likely to miss, and that in any case it could not reach me on the
+      elephant. I can declare that I had not a shadow of fear of the beast, and
+      yet, directly that row began, my nerves gave way altogether. It was
+      hideous, and yet, the moment the tiger charged, I felt perfectly cool
+      again, for the row ceased as you fired your first shot. I struck it full
+      in the chest, and was about to thrust the spear right down, and should, I
+      believe, have killed it, if you had not fired again and startled me so
+      that I fell from the elephant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw that the shouting and noise unnerved you, Bathurst, but I saw too
+      that you were perfectly cool and steady when you planted your spear into
+      him. If it had not got hold of the mahout's leg I should not have fired.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there nothing to be done, Doctor? You know now what it is likely we
+      shall have to face with the Sepoys and what it will be with me if they
+      rise. Is there nothing you can do for me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor shook his head. &ldquo;I don't believe in Dutch courage in any case,
+      Bathurst; certainly not in yours. There is no saying what the effect of
+      spirits might be. I should not recommend them, lad. Of course, I can
+      understand your feelings, but I still believe that, even if you do badly
+      to begin with, you will pull round in the end. I have no doubt you will
+      get a chance to show that it is only nerve and not courage in which you
+      are deficient.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst was silent, and scarce another word was spoken during the drive
+      back to Deennugghur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The place had its accustomed appearance when they drove up. The Doctor, as
+      he drew up before his bungalow, said, &ldquo;Thank God, they have not begun yet!
+      I was half afraid we might have found they had taken advantage of most of
+      us being away, and have broken out before we got back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So was I,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;I have been thinking of nothing else since we
+      started.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I will go to the Major at once and see what arrangements have been
+      made, and whether there is any further news.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall go off on my rounds,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;I had arranged yesterday to
+      be at Nilpore this morning, and there will be time for me to get there
+      now. It is only eleven o'clock yet. I shall go about my work as usual
+      until matters come to a head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor found that the Major was over at the tent which served as the
+      orderly office, and at once followed him there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing fresh, Major?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; we found everything going on as usual. It has been decided to put the
+      courthouse as far as we can in a state of defense. I shall have the spare
+      ammunition quietly taken over there, with stores of provisions. The ladies
+      have undertaken to sew up sacking and make gunny bags for holding earth,
+      and, of course, we shall get a store of water there. Everything will be
+      done quietly at present, and things will be sent in there after dark by
+      such servants as we can thoroughly rely upon. At the first signs of
+      trouble the residents will make straight for that point. Of course we must
+      be guided by circumstances. If the trouble begins in the daytime&mdash;that
+      is, if it does begin, for the native officers assure us that we can trust
+      implicitly in the loyalty of the men&mdash;there will probably be time for
+      everyone to gain the courthouse; if it is at night, and without warning,
+      as it was at Meerut, I can only say, Doctor, may God help us all, for I
+      fear that few, if any, of us would get there alive. Certainly not enough
+      to make any efficient defense.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not see that there is anything else to do, Major. I trust with you
+      that the men will prove faithful; if not, it is a black lookout whichever
+      way we take it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you kill the tiger, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; at least Bathurst and I did it between us. I wounded him first. It
+      then sprang upon Bathurst's elephant, and he speared it, and I finished it
+      with a shot through the head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speared it!&rdquo; the Major repeated; &ldquo;why didn't he shoot it. What was he
+      doing with his spear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was born, Major, with a constitutional horror of firearms, inherited
+      from his mother. I will tell you about it some day. In fact, he cannot
+      stand noise of any sort. It has been a source of great trouble to the
+      young fellow, who in all other respects has more than a fair share of
+      courage. However, we will talk about that when we have more time on our
+      hands. There is no special duty you can give me at present?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, there is. You are in some respects the most disengaged man in the
+      station, and can come and go without attracting any attention. I propose,
+      therefore, that you shall take charge of the arrangement of matters in the
+      courthouse. I think that it will be an advantage if you move from your
+      tent in there at once. There is plenty of room for us all: No one can say
+      at what time there may be trouble with the Sepoys, and it would be a great
+      advantage to have someone in the courthouse who could take the lead if the
+      women, with the servants and so on, come flocking in while we were still
+      absent on the parade ground. Besides, with your rifle, you could drive any
+      small party off who attempted to seize it by surprise. If you were there
+      we would call it the hospital, which would be an excuse for sending in
+      stores, bedding, and so on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You might mention in the orderly room that it is getting so hot now that
+      you think it would be as well to have a room or two fitted up under a
+      roof, instead of having the sick in tents, in case there should be an
+      outbreak of cholera or anything of that sort this year. I will say that I
+      think the idea is a very good one, and that as the courthouse is very
+      little used, you had better establish yourself there. The native officers
+      who hear what we say will spread the news. I don't say it will be
+      believed, but at least it will serve as an explanation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I think that that will be a very good plan, Major. Two of the men
+      who act as hospital orderlies I can certainly depend upon, and they will
+      help to receive the things sent in from the bungalows, and will hold their
+      tongues as to what is being done; I shall leave my tent standing, and use
+      it occasionally as before, but will make the courthouse my headquarters.
+      How are we off for arms?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are five cases of muskets and a considerable stock of ammunition in
+      that small magazine in the lines; one of the first things will be to get
+      them removed to the courthouse. We have already arranged to do that
+      tonight; it will give us four or five muskets apiece.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good, Major; I will load them all myself and keep them locked up in a
+      room upstairs facing the gateway, and should there be any trouble I fancy
+      I could give a good account of any small body of men who might attempt to
+      make an entrance. I am very well content with my position as Commandant of
+      the Hospital, as we may call it; the house has not been much good to us
+      hitherto, but I suppose when it was bought it was intended to make this a
+      more important station; it is fortunate they did buy it now, for we can
+      certainly turn it into a small fortress. Still, of course, I cannot
+      disguise from myself that though we might get on successfully for a time
+      against your Sepoys, there is no hope of holding it long if the whole
+      country rises.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I quite see that, Doctor,&rdquo; the Major said gravely; &ldquo;but I have really no
+      fear of that. With the assistance of the Rajah of Bithoor, Cawnpore is
+      safe. His example is almost certain to be followed by almost all the other
+      great landowners. No; it is quite bad enough that we have to face a Sepoy
+      mutiny; I cannot believe that we are likely to have a general rising on
+      our hands. If we do&mdash;&rdquo; and he stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If we do it is all up with us, Major; there is no disguising that.
+      However, we need not look at the worst side of things. Well, I will go
+      with you to the orderly room, and will talk with you about the hospital
+      scheme, mention that there is a rumor of cholera, and so on, and ask if I
+      can't have a part of the courthouse; then we can walk across there
+      together, and see what arrangement had best be made.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The following day brought another dispatch from the Colonel, saying that
+      the rumors as to Delhi were confirmed. The regiments there had joined the
+      Meerut mutineers, had shot down their officers, and murdered every
+      European they could lay hands on; that three officers and six
+      noncommissioned officers, who were in charge of the arsenal, had defended
+      it desperately, and had finally blown up the magazine with hundreds of its
+      assailants. Three of the defenders had reached Meerut with the news.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Day by day the gloom thickened. The native regiments in the Punjaub rose
+      as soon as the news from Meerut and Delhi reached them, but there were
+      white troops there, and they were used energetically and promptly. In some
+      places the mutineers were disarmed before they broke out into open
+      violence; in other cases mutinous regiments were promptly attacked and
+      scattered. Several of the leading chiefs had hastened to assure the
+      Government of their fidelity, and had placed their troops and resources at
+      its disposal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in the Punjaub alone the lookout appeared favorable. In the Daob a
+      mutiny had taken place at four of the stations, and the Sepoys had marched
+      away to Delhi, but without injuring the Europeans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this for a week there was quiet, and then at places widely apart&mdash;at
+      Hansid and Hissar, to the northwest of Delhi; at Nusserabad, in the center
+      of Rajpootana, at Bareilly, and other stations in Rohilcund&mdash;the
+      Sepoys rose, and in most places massacre was added to mutiny. Then three
+      regiments of the Gwalior contingent at Neemuch revolted. Then two
+      regiments broke out at Jhansi, and the whole of the Europeans, after
+      desperately defending themselves for four days, surrendered on promise of
+      their lives, but were instantly murdered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But before the news of the Jhansi massacre reached Deennugghur they heard
+      of other risings nearer to them. On the 30th of May the three native
+      regiments at Lucknow rose, but were sharply repulsed by the 300 European
+      troops under Sir Henry Lawrence. At Seetapoor the Sepoys rose on the 3d of
+      June and massacred all the Europeans. On the 4th the Sepoys at Mohundee
+      imitated the example of those at Seetapoor, while on the 8th two regiments
+      rose at Fyzabad, in the southeastern division of the province, and
+      massacred all the Europeans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Up to this time the news from Cawnpore had still been good. The Rajah of
+      Bithoor had offered Sir Hugh Wheeler a reinforcement of two guns and 300
+      men, and it was believed that, seeing this powerful and influential chief
+      had thrown his weight into the scale on the side of the British, the four
+      regiments of native troops would remain quiet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Hugh had but a handful of Europeans with him, but had just received a
+      reinforcement of fifty men of the 32d regiment from Lucknow, and he had
+      formed an intrenchment within which the Europeans of the station, and the
+      fugitives who had come in from the districts around, could take refuge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several communications passed between Sir Hugh Wheeler and Major Hannay.
+      The latter had been offered the choice of moving into Cawnpore with his
+      wing of the regiment, or remaining at Deennugghur. He had chosen the
+      latter alternative, pointing out that he still believed in the fidelity of
+      the troops with him; but that if they went to Cawnpore they would
+      doubtless be carried away with other regiments, and would only swell the
+      force of mutineers there. He was assured, at any rate, they would not rise
+      unless their comrades at Cawnpore did so, but that it was best to manifest
+      confidence in them, as not improbably, did they hear that they were
+      ordered back to Cawnpore, they might take it as a slur on their fidelity,
+      and mutiny at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The month had been one of intense anxiety. Gradually stores of provisions
+      had been conveyed into the hospital, as it was now called; the well inside
+      the yard had been put into working order, and the residents had sent in
+      stores of bedding and such portable valuables as could be removed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In but few cases had the outbreaks taken place at night, the mutineers
+      almost always breaking out either upon being ordered to parade or upon
+      actually falling in; still, it was by no means certain when a crisis might
+      come, and the Europeans all lay down to rest in their clothes, one person
+      in each house remaining up all night on watch, so that at the first alarm
+      all might hurry to the shelter of the hospital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Its position was a strong one&mdash;a lofty wall inclosing a courtyard and
+      garden surrounding it. This completely sheltered the lower floor from
+      fire; the windows of the upper floor were above the level of the wall, and
+      commanded a view over the country, while round the flat terraced roof ran
+      a parapet some two feet high.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the day the ladies of the station generally gathered at Mr.
+      Hunter's, which was the bungalow nearest to the hospital. Here they worked
+      at the bags intended to hold earth, and kept up each other's spirits as
+      well as they could. Although all looked pale and worn from anxiety and
+      watching, there were, after the first few days, no manifestations of fear.
+      Occasionally a tear would drop over their work, especially in the case of
+      two of the wives of civilians, whose children were in England; but as a
+      whole their conversation was cheerful, each trying her best to keep up the
+      spirits of the others. Generally, as soon as the meeting was complete,
+      Mrs. Hunter read aloud one of the psalms suited to their position and the
+      prayers for those in danger, then the work was got out and the needles
+      applied briskly. Even Mrs. Rintoul showed a fortitude and courage that
+      would not have been expected from her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One never knows people,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said to Isobel, as they walked back
+      from one of these meetings, &ldquo;as long as one only sees them under ordinary
+      circumstances. I have never had any patience with Mrs. Rintoul, with her
+      constant complaining and imaginary ailments. Now that there is really
+      something to complain about, she is positively one of the calmest and most
+      cheerful among us. It is curious, is it not, how our talk always turns
+      upon home? India is hardly ever mentioned. We might be a party of intimate
+      friends, sitting in some quiet country place, talking of our girlhood.
+      Why, we have learnt more of each other and each other's history in the
+      last fortnight than we should have done if we had lived here together for
+      twenty years under ordinary circumstances. Except as to your little
+      brother, I think you are the only one, Isobel, who has not talked much of
+      home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose it is because my home was not a very happy one,&rdquo; Isobel said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I notice that all the talk is about happy scenes, nothing is ever said
+      about disagreeables. I suppose, my dear, it is just as I have heard, that
+      starving people talk about the feasts they have eaten, so we talk of the
+      pleasant times we have had. It is the contrast that makes them dearer. It
+      is funny, too, if anything can be funny in these days, how different we
+      are in the evening, when we have the men with us, to what we are when we
+      are together alone in the day. Another curious thing is that our trouble
+      seems to make us more like each other. Of course we are not more like, but
+      we all somehow take the same tone, and seem to have given up our own
+      particular ways and fancies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now the men don't seem like that. Mr. Hunter, for example, whom I used to
+      think an even tempered and easygoing sort of man, has become fidgety and
+      querulous. The Major is even more genial and kind than usual. The Doctor
+      snaps and snarls at everyone and everything. Anyone listening to my
+      husband would say that he was in the wildest spirits. Rintoul is quieter
+      than usual, and the two lads have grown older and nicer; I don't say they
+      are less full of fun than they were, especially Wilson, but they are less
+      boyish in their fun, and they are nice with everyone, instead of devoting
+      themselves to two or three of us, you principally. Perhaps Richards is the
+      most changed; he thinks less of his collars and ties and the polish of his
+      boots than he used to do, and one sees that he has some ideas in his head
+      besides those about horses. Captain Forster is, perhaps, least changed,
+      but of that you can judge better than I can, for you see more of him. As
+      to Mr. Bathurst, I can say nothing, for we never see him now. I think he
+      is the only man in the station who goes about his work as usual; he starts
+      away the first thing in the morning, and comes back late in the evening,
+      and I suppose spends the night in writing reports, though what is the use
+      of writing reports at the present time I don't know. Mr. Hunter was saying
+      last night it was very foolish of him. What with disbanded soldiers, and
+      what with parties of mutineers, it is most dangerous for any European to
+      stir outside the station.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Uncle was saying the same,&rdquo; Isobel said quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, here we separate. Of course you will be in as usual this evening?&rdquo;
+       for the Major's house was the general rendezvous after dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel had her private troubles, although, as she often said angrily to
+      herself, when she thought of them, what did it matter now? She was
+      discontented with herself for having spoken as strongly as she did as to
+      the man's cowardice. She was very discontented with the Doctor for having
+      repeated it. She was angry with Bathurst for staying away altogether,
+      although willing to admit that, after he knew what she had said, it was
+      impossible that he should meet her as before. Most of all, perhaps, she
+      was angry because, at a time when their lives were all in deadly peril,
+      she should allow the matter to dwell in her mind a single moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Late one afternoon Bathurst walked into the Major's bungalow just as he
+      was about to sit down to dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Major, I want to speak to you for a moment,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sit down and have some dinner, Bathurst. You have become altogether a
+      stranger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, Major, but I have a great deal to do. Can you spare me five
+      minutes now? It is of importance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel rose to leave the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no reason you should not hear, Miss Hannay, but it would be
+      better that none of the servants should be present. That is why I wish to
+      speak before your uncle goes in to dinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel sat down with an air of indifference.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the last week, Major, I have ridden every day five and twenty to
+      thirty miles in the direction of Cawnpore; my official work has been
+      practically at an end since we heard the news from Meerut. I could be of
+      no use here, and thought that I could do no better service than trying to
+      obtain the earliest news from Cawnpore; I am sorry to say that this
+      afternoon I distinctly heard firing in that direction. What the result is,
+      of course, I do not know, but I feel that there is little doubt that
+      troubles have begun there. But this is not all. On my return home, ten
+      minutes ago, I found this letter on my dressing table. It had no direction
+      and is, as you see, in Hindustanee,&rdquo; and he handed it to the Major, who
+      read:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To the Sahib Bathurst,&mdash;Rising at Cawnpore today. Nana Sahib and his
+      troops will join the Sepoys. Whites will be destroyed. Rising at
+      Deennugghur at daylight tomorrow. Troops, after killing whites, will join
+      those at Cawnpore. Be warned in time&mdash;this tiger is not to be beaten
+      off with a whip.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good Heavens!&rdquo; the Major exclaimed; &ldquo;can this be true? Can it be possible
+      that the Rajah of Bithoor is going to join the mutineers? It is
+      impossible; he could never be such a scoundrel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, uncle?&rdquo; Isobel asked, leaving her seat and coming up to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major translated the letter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be a hoax,&rdquo; he went on; &ldquo;I cannot believe it. What does this
+      stuff about beating a tiger with a whip mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry to say, Major Hannay, that part of the letter convinces me
+      that the contents can be implicitly relied upon. The writer did not dare
+      sign his name, but those words are sufficient to show me, and were no
+      doubt intended to show me, who the warning comes from. It is from that
+      juggler who performed here some six weeks ago. Traveling about as he does,
+      and putting aside altogether those strange powers of his, he has no doubt
+      the means of knowing what is going on. As I told you that night, I had
+      done him some slight service, and he promised at the time that, if the
+      occasion should ever arise, he would risk his life to save mine. The fact
+      that he showed, I have no doubt, especially to please me, feats that few
+      Europeans have seen before, is, to my mind, a proof of his goodwill and
+      that he meant what he said.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how do you know that it is from him. Bathurst? You will excuse my
+      pressing the question, but of course everything depends on my being
+      assured that this communication is trustworthy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This allusion to the tiger shows me that, Major. It alludes to an
+      incident that I believe to be known only to him and his daughter and to
+      Dr. Wade, to whom alone I mentioned it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Major still looked inquiringly, Bathurst went on reluctantly. &ldquo;It
+      was a trifling affair, Major, the result of a passing impulse. I was
+      riding home from Narkeet, and while coming along the road through the
+      jungle, which was at that time almost deserted by the natives on account
+      of the ravages of the man eater whom the Doctor afterwards shot, I heard a
+      scream. Galloping forward, I came upon the brute, standing with one paw
+      upon a prostrate girl, while a man, the juggler, was standing frantically
+      waving his arms. On the impulse of the moment I sprang from my horse and
+      lashed the tiger across the head with that heavy dog whip I carry, and the
+      brute was so astonished that it bolted in the jungle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was the beginning and end of affairs, except that, although
+      fortunately the girl was practically unhurt, she was so unnerved that we
+      had to carry her to the next village, where she lay for some time ill from
+      the shock and fright. After that they came round here and performed, for
+      my amusement, the feats I told you of. So you see I have every reason to
+      believe in the good faith of the writer of this letter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Jove, I should think you had!&rdquo; the Major said. &ldquo;Why, my dear Bathurst,
+      I had no idea that you could do such a thing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have all our strong points and our weak ones, Major. That was one of
+      my strong ones, I suppose. And now what had best be done, sir? That is the
+      important question at present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was so evident, that Major Hannay at once dismissed all other
+      thoughts from his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I and the other officers must remain at our posts until the
+      Sepoys actually arrive. The question is as to the others. Now that we know
+      the worst, or believe we know it, ought we to send the women and children
+      away?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the question, sir. But where can they be sent? Lucknow is
+      besieged; the whites at Cawnpore must have been surrounded by this time;
+      the bands of mutineers are ranging the whole country, and at the news that
+      Nana Sahib has joined the rebels it is probable that all will rise. I
+      should say that it was a matter in which Mr. Hunter and other civilians
+      had better be consulted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, we will hold a council,&rdquo; the Major said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think, Major, it should be done quietly. It is probable that many of
+      the servants may know of the intentions of the Sepoys, and if they see
+      that anything like a council of the Europeans was being held they may take
+      the news to the Sepoys, and the latter, thinking that their intention is
+      known, may rise at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is quite true. Yes, we must do nothing to arouse suspicion. What do
+      you propose, Mr. Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go and have a talk with the Doctor; he can go round to the other
+      officers one by one. I will tell Mr. Hunter, and he will tell the other
+      residents, so that when they meet here in the evening no explanations will
+      be needed, and a very few words as we sit out on the veranda will be
+      sufficient.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will be a very good plan. We will sit down to dinner as if nothing
+      had happened; if they are watching at all, they will be keeping their eyes
+      on us then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well; I will be in by nine o'clock, Major;&rdquo; and with a slight bow to
+      Isobel, Bathurst stepped out through the open window, and made his way to
+      the Doctor's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor had just sat down to dinner when Bathurst came in. The two
+      subalterns were dining with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's good, Bathurst,&rdquo; the Doctor said, as he entered. &ldquo;Boy, put a chair
+      for Mr. Bathurst. I had begun to think that you had deserted me as well as
+      everybody else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was not thinking of dining,&rdquo; Bathurst said, as he sat down, &ldquo;but I will
+      do so with pleasure, though I told my man I should be back in half an
+      hour;&rdquo; and as the servant left the room he added, &ldquo;I have much to say,
+      Doctor; get through dinner as quickly as you can, and get the servants out
+      of the tent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation was at once turned by the Doctor upon shooting and
+      hunting, and no allusion was made to passing events until coffee was put
+      on the table and the servant retired. The talk, which had been lively
+      during dinner, then ceased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Bathurst,&rdquo; the Doctor asked, &ldquo;I suppose you have something serious
+      to tell me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very serious, Doctor;&rdquo; and he repeated the news he had given the Major.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It could not be worse, Bathurst,&rdquo; the Doctor said quietly, after the
+      first shock of the news had passed. &ldquo;You know I never had any faith in the
+      Sepoys since I saw how this madness was spreading from station to station.
+      This sort of thing is contagious. It becomes a sort of epidemic, and in
+      spite of the assurances of the men I felt sure they would go. But this
+      scoundrel of Bithoor turning against us is more than I bargained for.
+      There is no disguising the fact that it means a general rising through
+      Oude, and in that case God help the women and children. As for us, it all
+      comes in the line of business. What does the Major say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The only question that seemed to him to be open was whether the women and
+      children could be got away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But there does not seem any possible place for them to go to. One or two
+      might travel down the country in disguise, but that is out of the question
+      for a large party. There is no refuge nearer than Allahabad. With every
+      man's hand against them, I see not the slightest chance of a party making
+      their way down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You or I might do it easily enough, Doctor, but for women it seems to me
+      out of the question; still, that is a matter for each married man to
+      decide for himself. The prospect is dark enough anyway, but, as before, it
+      seems to me that everything really depends upon the Zemindars. If we hold
+      the courthouse it is possible the Sepoys may be beaten off in their first
+      attack, and in their impatience to join the mutineers, who are all
+      apparently marching for Delhi, they may go off without throwing away their
+      lives by attacking us, for they must see they will not be able to take the
+      place without cannon. But if the Zemindars join them with cannon, we may
+      defend ourselves till the last, but there can be but one end to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor nodded. &ldquo;That is the situation exactly, Bathurst.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad we know the danger, and shall be able to face it openly,&rdquo;
+       Wilson said. &ldquo;For the last month Richards and I have been keeping watch
+      alternately, and it has been beastly funky work sitting with one's pistols
+      on the table before one, listening, and knowing any moment there might be
+      a yell, and these brown devils come pouring in. Now, at least, we are
+      likely to have a fight for it, and to know that some of them will go down
+      before we do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richards cordially agreed with his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, now, what are the orders, Bathurst?&rdquo; said the Doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are no orders as yet, Doctor. The Major says you will go round to
+      the others, Doolan, Rintoul, and Forster, and tell them. I am to go round
+      to Hunter and the other civilians. Then, this evening we are to meet at
+      nine o'clock, as usual, at the Major's. If the others decide that the only
+      plan is for all to stop here and fight it out, there will be no occasion
+      for anything like a council; it will only have to be arranged at what time
+      we all move into the fort, and the best means for keeping the news from
+      spreading to the Sepoys. Not that it will make much difference after they
+      have once fairly turned in. If there is one thing a Hindoo hates more than
+      another, it is getting from under his blankets when he has once got
+      himself warm at night. Even if they heard at one or two o'clock in the
+      morning that we were moving into the fort I don't think they would turn
+      out till morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I am sure they would not,&rdquo; the Doctor agreed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If there were a few more of us,&rdquo; Richards said, &ldquo;I should vote for our
+      beginning it. If we were to fall suddenly upon them we might kill a lot
+      and scare the rest off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are too few for that,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;Besides, although Bathurst
+      answers for the good faith of the sender of the warning, there has as yet
+      been no act of mutiny that would justify our taking such a step as that.
+      It would come to the same thing. We might kill a good many, but in the
+      long run three hundred men would be more than a match for a dozen, and
+      then the women would be at their mercy. Well, we had better be moving, or
+      we shall not have time to go round to the bungalows before the people set
+      out for the Major's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a painful mission that Bathurst had to perform, for he had to tell
+      those he called upon that almost certain death was at hand, but the news
+      was everywhere received calmly. The strain had of late been so great, that
+      the news that the crisis was at hand was almost welcome. He did not stay
+      long anywhere, but, after setting the alternative before them, left
+      husband and wife to discuss whether to try to make down to Allahabad or to
+      take refuge in the fort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after nine o'clock all were at Major Hannay's. There were pale faces
+      among them, but no stranger would have supposed that the whole party had
+      just received news which was virtually a death warrant. The ladies talked
+      together as usual, while the men moved in and out of the room, sometimes
+      talking with the Major, sometimes sitting down for a few minutes in the
+      veranda outside, or talking there in low tones together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major moved about among them, and soon learned that all had resolved
+      to stay and meet together whatever came, preferring that to the hardships
+      and unknown dangers of flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad you have all decided so,&rdquo; he said quietly. &ldquo;In the state the
+      country is, the chances of getting to Allahabad are next to nothing. Here
+      we may hold out till Lawrence restores order at Lucknow, and then he may
+      be able to send a party to bring us in. Or the mutineers may draw off and
+      march to Delhi. I certainly think the chances are best here; besides,
+      every rifle we have is of importance, and though if any of you had made up
+      your minds to try and escape I should have made no objection, I am glad
+      that we shall all stand together here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The arrangements were then briefly made for the removal to the courthouse.
+      All were to go back and apparently to retire to bed as usual. At twelve
+      o'clock the men, armed, were to call up their servants, load them up with
+      such things as were most required, and proceed with them, the women, and
+      children, at once to the courthouse. Half the men were to remain there on
+      guard, while the others would continue with the servants to make journeys
+      backwards and forwards to the bungalows, bringing in as much as could be
+      carried, the guard to be changed every hour. In the morning the servants
+      were all to have the choice given them of remaining with their masters or
+      leaving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Forster was the only dissentient. He was in favor of the whole
+      party mounting, placing the women and children in carriages, and making
+      off in a body, fighting their way if necessary down to Allahabad. He
+      admitted that, in addition to the hundred troopers of his own squadron,
+      they might be cut off by the mutinous cavalry from Cawnpore, fall in with
+      bodies of rebels or be attacked by villagers, but he maintained that there
+      was at least some chance of cutting their way through, while, once shut up
+      in the courthouse, escape would be well nigh impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you all along agreed to our holding the courthouse, Forster,&rdquo; the
+      Major said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; but then I reckoned upon Cawnpore holding out with the assistance of
+      Nana Sahib, and upon the country remaining quiet. Now the whole thing is
+      changed. I am quite ready to fight in the open, and to take my chance of
+      being killed there, but I protest against being shut up like a rat in a
+      hole.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To the rest, however, the proposal appeared desperate. There would be no
+      withstanding a single charge of the well trained troopers, especially as
+      it would be necessary to guard the vehicles. Had it not been for that, the
+      small body of men might possibly have cut their way through the cavalry;
+      but even then they would be so hotly pursued that the most of them would
+      assuredly be hunted down. But encumbered by the women such an enterprise
+      seemed utterly hopeless, and the whole of the others were unanimously
+      against it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The party broke up very early. The strain of maintaining their ordinary
+      demeanor was too great to be long endured, and the ladies with children
+      were anxious to return as soon as possible to them, lest at the last
+      moment the Sepoys should have made some change in their arrangements. By
+      ten o'clock the whole party had left.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two subalterns had no preparations to make; they had already sent most
+      of their things into the hospital; and, lighting their pipes, they sat
+      down and talked quietly till midnight; then, placing their pistols in
+      their belts and wrapping themselves in their cloaks, they went into the
+      Doctor's tent, which was next to theirs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor at once roused his servant, who was sleeping in a shelter tent
+      pitched by the side of his. The man came in looking surprised at being
+      called. &ldquo;Roshun,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;you have been with me ten years, and I
+      believe you to be faithful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would lay down my life for the sahib,&rdquo; the man said quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have heard nothing of any trouble with the Sepoys?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sahib; they know that Roshun is faithful to his master.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have news that they are going to rise in the morning and kill all
+      Europeans, so we are going to move at once into the hospital.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good, sahib; what will you take with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My books and papers have all gone in,&rdquo; the Doctor said; &ldquo;that portmanteau
+      may as well go. I will carry these two rifles myself; the ammunition is
+      all there except that bag in the corner, which I will sling round my
+      shoulder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are in those two cases, Doctor?&rdquo; Wilson asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brandy, lad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We may as well each carry one of those, Doctor, if your boy takes the
+      portmanteau. It would be a pity to leave good liquor to be wasted by those
+      brutes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I agree with you, Wilson; besides, the less liquor they get hold of the
+      better for us. Now, if you are all ready, we will start; but we must move
+      quietly, or the sentry at the quarter guard may hear us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten minutes later they reached the hospital, being the last of the party
+      to arrive there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Major,&rdquo; the Doctor said cheerily, as soon as he entered, &ldquo;as this
+      place is supposed to be under my special charge I will take command for
+      the present. Wilson and Richards will act as my lieutenants. We have
+      nothing to do outside, and can devote ourselves to getting things a little
+      straight here. The first thing to do is to light lamps in all the lower
+      rooms; then we can see what we are doing, and the ladies will be able to
+      give us their help, while the men go out with the servants to bring things
+      in; and remember the first thing to do is to bring in the horses. They may
+      be useful to us. There is a good store of forage piled in the corner of
+      the yard, but the syces had best bring in as much more as they can carry.
+      Now, ladies, if you will all bring your bundles inside the house we will
+      set about arranging things, and at any rate get the children into bed as
+      quickly as possible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As it had been already settled as to the rooms to be occupied, the ladies
+      and their ayahs set to work at once, glad to have something to employ
+      them. One of the rooms which had been fitted up with beds had been devoted
+      to the purposes of a nursery, and the children, most of whom were still
+      asleep, were soon settled there. Two other rooms had been fitted up for
+      the use of the ladies, while the men were occupying two others, the
+      courtroom being turned into a general meeting and dining room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first there was not much to do; but as the servants, closely watched by
+      their masters, went backwards and forwards bringing in goods of all kinds,
+      there was plenty of employment in carrying them down to a large
+      underground room, where they were left to be sorted later on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor had appointed Isobel Hannay and the two Miss Hunters to the
+      work of lighting a fire and getting boiling water ready, and a plentiful
+      supply of coffee was presently made, Wilson and Richards drawing the
+      water, carrying the heavier loads downstairs, and making themselves
+      generally useful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Forster had not come in. He had undertaken to remain in his tent
+      in the lines, where he had quietly saddled and unpicketed his horse, tying
+      it up to the tent ropes so that he could mount in an instant. He still
+      believed that his own men would stand firm, and declared he would at their
+      head charge the mutinous infantry, while if they joined the mutineers he
+      would ride into the fort. It was also arranged that he should bring in
+      word should the Sepoys obtain news of what was going on and rise before
+      morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All felt better and more cheerful after having taken some coffee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is difficult to believe, Miss Hannay,&rdquo; Richards said, &ldquo;that this is
+      all real, and not a sort of picnic, or an early start on a hunting
+      expedition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is indeed, Mr. Richards. I can hardly believe even now that it is all
+      true, and have pinched myself two or three times to make sure that I am
+      awake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If the villains venture to attack us,&rdquo; Wilson said, &ldquo;I feel sure we shall
+      beat them off handsomely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no doubt we shall, Mr. Wilson, especially as it will be in
+      daylight. You know you and Mr. Richards are not famous for night
+      shooting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young men both laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall never hear the last of that tiger story, Miss Hannay. I can tell
+      you it is no joke shooting when you have been sitting cramped up on a tree
+      for about six hours. We are really both pretty good shots. Of course, I
+      don't mean like the Doctor; but we always make good scores with the
+      targets. Come, Richards, here is another lot of things; if they go on at
+      this rate the Sepoys won't find much to loot in the bungalows tomorrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as daylight was breaking the servants were all called together, and
+      given the choice of staying or leaving. Only some eight or ten, all of
+      whom belonged to the neighborhood, chose to go off to their villages. The
+      rest declared they would stay with their masters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two of the party by turns had been on watch all night on the terrace to
+      listen for any sound of tumult in the lines, but all had gone on quietly.
+      Bathurst had been working with the others all night, and after seeing that
+      all his papers were carried to the courthouse, he had troubled but little
+      about his own belongings, but had assisted the others in bringing in their
+      goods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At daylight the Major and his officers mounted and rode quietly down
+      towards the parade ground. Bathurst and Mr. Hunter, with several of the
+      servants, took their places at the gates, in readiness to open and close
+      them quickly, while the Doctor and the other Europeans went up to the
+      roof, where they placed in readiness six muskets for each man, from the
+      store in the courthouse. Isobel Hannay and the wives of the two Captains
+      were too anxious to remain below, and went up to the roof also. The Doctor
+      took his place by them, examining the lines with a field glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The officers halted when they reached the parade ground, and sat on their
+      horses in a group, waiting for the men to turn out as usual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There goes the assembly,&rdquo; the Doctor said, as the notes of the bugle came
+      to their ears. &ldquo;The men are turning out of their tents. There, I can make
+      out Forster; he has just mounted; a plucky fellow that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead of straggling out onto the parade ground as usual, the Sepoys
+      seemed to hang about their tents. The cavalry mounted and formed up in
+      their lines. Suddenly a gun was fired, and as if at the signal the whole
+      of the infantry rushed forward towards the officers, yelling and firing,
+      and the latter at once turned their horses and rode towards the
+      courthouse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't be alarmed, my dear,&rdquo; the Doctor said to Isobel; &ldquo;I don't suppose
+      anyone is hit. The Sepoys are not good shots at the best of times, and
+      firing running they would not be able to hit a haystack at a hundred
+      yards. The cavalry stand firm, you see,&rdquo; he said, turning his glass in
+      that direction. &ldquo;Forster is haranguing them. There, three of the native
+      officers are riding up to him. Ah! one has fired at him! Missed! Ah! that
+      is a better shot,&rdquo; as the man fell from his horse, from a shot from his
+      Captain's pistol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other two rushed at him. One he cut down, and the other shot. Then he
+      could be seen again, shouting and waving his sword to the men, but their
+      yells could be heard as they rode forward at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ride, man, ride!&rdquo; the Doctor shouted, although his voice could not have
+      been heard at a quarter of the distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But instead of turning Forster rode right at them. There was a confused
+      melee for a moment, and then his figure appeared beyond the line, through
+      which he had broken. With yells of fury the troopers reined in their
+      horses and tried to turn them, but before they could do so the officer was
+      upon them again. His revolver cracked in his left hand, and his sword
+      flashed in his right. Two or three horses and men were seen to roll over,
+      and in a moment he was through them again and riding at full speed for the
+      courthouse, under a scattered fire from the infantry, while the horsemen,
+      now in a confused mass, galloped behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now then,&rdquo; the Doctor shouted, picking up his rifle; &ldquo;let them know we
+      are within range, but mind you don't hit Forster. Fire two or three shots,
+      and then run down to the gate. He is well mounted, and has a good fifty
+      yards' start of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then taking deliberate aim he fired. The others followed his example.
+      Three of the troopers dropped from their horses. Four times those on the
+      terrace fired, and then ran down, each, at the Doctor's order, taking two
+      guns with him. One of these was placed in the hands of each of the
+      officers who had just ridden in, and they then gathered round the gate. In
+      two minutes Forster rode in at full speed, then fifteen muskets flashed
+      out, and several of the pursuers fell from their horses. A minute later
+      the gate was closed and barred, and the men all ran up to the roof, from
+      which three muskets were fired simultaneously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well done!&rdquo; the Doctor exclaimed. &ldquo;That is a good beginning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A minute later a brisk fire was opened from the terrace upon the cavalry,
+      who at once turned and rode rapidly back to their lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Forster had not come scathless through the fray; his cheek had
+      been laid open by a sabre cut, and a musket ball had gone through the
+      fleshy part of his arm as he rode back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This comes of fighting when there is no occasion,&rdquo; the Doctor growled,
+      when he dressed his wounds. &ldquo;Here you are charging a host like a paladin
+      of old, forgetful that we want every man who can lift an arm in defense of
+      this place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think, Doctor, there is someone else wants your services more than I
+      do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; is anyone else hit?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don't know that anyone else is hit, Doctor; but as I turned to come
+      into the house after the gates were shut, there was that fellow Bathurst
+      leaning against the wall as white as a sheet, and shaking all over like a
+      leaf. I should say a strong dose of Dutch courage would be the best
+      medicine there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not do justice to Bathurst, Captain Forster,&rdquo; the Doctor said
+      gravely. &ldquo;He is a man I esteem most highly. In some respects he is the
+      bravest man I know, but he is constitutionally unable to stand noise, and
+      the sound of a gun is torture to him. It is an unfortunate idiosyncrasy
+      for which he is in no way accountable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exceedingly unfortunate, I should say,&rdquo; Forster said, with a dry laugh;
+      &ldquo;especially at times like this. It is rather unlucky for him that fighting
+      is generally accompanied by noise. If I had such an idiosyncrasy, as you
+      call it, I would blow out my brains.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps Bathurst would do so, too, Captain Forster, if he had not more
+      brains to blow out than some people have.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is sharp, Doctor,&rdquo; Forster laughed good temperedly. &ldquo;I don't mind a
+      fair hit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I must go,&rdquo; the Doctor said, somewhat mollified; &ldquo;there is plenty
+      to do, and I expect, after these fellows have held a council of war, they
+      will be trying an attack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Doctor went out he found the whole of the garrison busy. The
+      Major had placed four men on the roof, and had ordered everyone else to
+      fill the bags that had been prepared for the purpose with earth from the
+      garden. It was only an order to the men and male servants, but the ladies
+      had all gone out to render their assistance. As fast as the natives filled
+      the bags with earth the ladies sewed up the mouths of the bags, and the
+      men carried them away and piled them against the gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The garrison consisted of the six military officers, the Doctor, seven
+      civilians, ten ladies, eight children, thirty-eight male servants, and six
+      females. The work, therefore, went on rapidly, and in the course of two
+      hours so large a pile of bags was built up against the gate that there was
+      no probability whatever of its being forced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; the Major said, &ldquo;we want four dozen bags at least for the parapet
+      of the terrace. We need not raise it all, but we must build up a
+      breastwork two bags high at each of the angles.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was only just time to accomplish this when one of the watch on the
+      roof reported that the Sepoys were firing the bungalows. As soon as they
+      saw that the Europeans had gained the shelter of the courthouse the
+      Sepoys, with yells of triumph, had made for the houses of the Europeans,
+      and their disappointment at finding that not only had all the whites taken
+      refuge in the courthouse, but that they had removed most of their
+      property, vented itself in setting fire to the buildings, after stripping
+      them of everything, and then amused themselves by keeping up a straggling
+      fire against the courthouse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the bags were taken onto the roof, the defenders, keeping as
+      much as possible under the shelter of the parapet, carried them to the
+      corners of the terrace and piled them two deep, thus forming a breastwork
+      four feet high. Eight of the best shots were then chosen, and two of them
+      took post at each corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; the Doctor said cheerfully, as he sat behind a small loophole that
+      had been left between the bags, &ldquo;it is our turn, and I don't fancy we
+      shall waste as much lead as they have been doing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fire from the defenders was slow, but it was deadly, and in a very
+      short time the Sepoys no longer dared to show themselves in the open, but
+      took refuge behind trees, whence they endeavored to reply to the fire on
+      the roof; but even this proved so dangerous that it was not long before
+      the fire ceased altogether, and they drew off under cover of the smoke
+      from the burning bungalows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel Hannay had met Bathurst as he was carrying a sack of earth to the
+      roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been wanting to speak to you, Mr. Bathurst, ever since yesterday
+      evening, but you have never given me an opportunity. Will you step into
+      the storeroom for a few minutes as you come down?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he came down he went to the door of the room in which Isobel was
+      standing awaiting him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not coming in, Miss Hannay; I believe I know what you are going to
+      say. I saw it in your face last night when I had to tell that tiger story.
+      You want to say that you are sorry you said that you despised cowards. Do
+      not say it; you were perfectly right; you cannot despise me one tenth as
+      much as I despise myself. While you were looking at the mutineers from the
+      roof I was leaning against the wall below well nigh fainting. What do you
+      think my feelings must be that here, where every man is brave, where there
+      are women and children to be defended, I alone cannot bear my part. Look
+      at my face; I know there is not a vestige of color in it. Look at my
+      hands; they are not steady yet. It is useless for you to speak; you may
+      pity me, but you cannot but despise me. Believe me, that death when it
+      comes will be to me a happy release indeed from the shame and misery I
+      feel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, turning, he left the girl without another word, and went about his
+      work. The Doctor had, just before going up to take his place on the roof,
+      come across him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in here, my dear Bathurst,&rdquo; he said, seizing his arm and dragging
+      him into the room which had been given up to him for his drugs and
+      surgical appliances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me give you a strong dose of ammonia and ginger; you want a pickup I
+      can see by your face.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want it, Doctor, but I will not take it,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;That is one
+      thing I have made up my mind to. I will take no spirits to create a
+      courage that I do not possess.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not courage; it has nothing to do with courage,&rdquo; the Doctor said
+      angrily. &ldquo;It is a simple question of nerves, as I have told you over and
+      over again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call it what you like, Doctor, the result is precisely the same. I do not
+      mind taking a strong dose of quinine if you will give it me, for I feel as
+      weak as a child, but no spirits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With an impatient shrug of the shoulders the Doctor mixed a strong dose of
+      quinine and gave it to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour later a sudden outburst of musketry took place. Not a native
+      showed himself on the side of the house facing the maidan, but from the
+      gardens on the other three sides a heavy fire was opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every man to the roof,&rdquo; the Major said; &ldquo;four men to each of the rear
+      corners, three to the others. Do you think you are fit to fire, Forster?
+      Had you not better keep quiet for today; you will have opportunities
+      enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am all right, Major,&rdquo; he said carelessly. &ldquo;I can put my rifle through a
+      loophole and fire, though I have one arm in a sling. By Jove!&rdquo; he broke
+      off suddenly; &ldquo;look at that fellow Bathurst&mdash;he looks like a ghost.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The roll of musketry was unabated, and the defenders were already
+      beginning to answer it; the bullets sung thickly overhead, and above the
+      din could be heard the shouts of the natives. Bathurst's face was rigid
+      and ghastly pale. The Major hurried to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Bathurst,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I think you had better go below. You will
+      find plenty of work to do there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My work is here,&rdquo; Bathurst said, as if speaking to himself: &ldquo;it must be
+      done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major could not at the moment pay further attention to him, for a roar
+      of fire broke out round the inclosure, as from the ruined bungalows and
+      from every bush the Sepoys, who had crept up, now commenced the attack in
+      earnest, while the defenders lying behind their parapet replied slowly and
+      steadily, aiming at the puffs of smoke as they darted out. His attention
+      was suddenly called by a shout from the Doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you mad, Bathurst? Lie down, man; you a throwing away your life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Turning round, the Major saw Bathurst standing up&mdash;right by the
+      parapet, facing the point where the enemy fire was hottest. He held a
+      rifle in his hand but did not attempt to fire; his figure swayed slightly
+      to and fro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lie down,&rdquo; the Major shouted, &ldquo;lie down, sir;&rdquo; and then as Bathurst still
+      stood unmoved he was about to run forward, when the Doctor from one side
+      and Captain Forster from the other rushed towards him through a storm of
+      bullets, seized him in their arms, and dragged him back to the center of
+      the terrace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nobly done, gentlemen,&rdquo; the Major said, as they laid Bathurst down; &ldquo;it
+      was almost miraculous your not being hit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst had struggled fiercely for a moment, and then his resistance had
+      suddenly ceased, and he had been dragged back like a wooden figure. His
+      eyes were closed now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has he been hit, Doctor?&rdquo; the Major asked. &ldquo;It seems impossible he can
+      have escaped. What madness possessed him to put himself there as a
+      target?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don't think he is hit,&rdquo; the Doctor said, as he examined him. &ldquo;I
+      think he has fainted. We had better carry him down to my room. Shake
+      hands, Forster; I know you and Bathurst were not good friends, and you
+      risked your life to save him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not think who it was,&rdquo; Forster said, with a careless laugh. &ldquo;I saw
+      a man behaving like a madman, and naturally went to pull him down.
+      However, I shall think better of him in future, though I doubt whether he
+      was in his right senses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He wanted to be killed,&rdquo; the Doctor said quietly; &ldquo;and the effort that he
+      made to place himself in the way of death must have been greater than
+      either you or I can well understand, Forster. I know the circumstances of
+      the case. Morally I believe there is no braver man living than he is;
+      physically he has the constitution of a timid woman; it is mind against
+      body.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The distinction is too fine for me, Doctor,&rdquo; Forster said, as he turned
+      to go off to his post by the parapet. &ldquo;I understand pluck and I understand
+      cowardice, but this mysterious mixture you speak of is beyond me
+      altogether.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major and Dr. Wade lifted Bathurst and carried him below. Mrs. Hunter,
+      who had been appointed chief nurse, met them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he badly wounded, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; he is not wounded at all, Mrs. Hunter. He stood up at the edge of the
+      parapet and exposed himself so rashly to the Sepoys' fire that we had to
+      drag him away, and then the reaction, acting on a nervous temperament, was
+      too much for him, and he fainted. We shall soon bring him round. You can
+      come in with me, but keep the others away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major at once returned to the terrace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of the restoratives the Doctor poured through his lips, and cold
+      water dashed in his face, Bathurst was some time before he opened his
+      eyes. Seeing Mrs. Hunter and the Doctor beside him, he made an effort to
+      rise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must lie still, Bathurst,&rdquo; the Doctor said, pressing his hand on his
+      shoulder. &ldquo;You have done a very foolish thing, a very wrong thing. You
+      have tried to throw away your life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I did not. I had no thought of throwing away my life,&rdquo; Bathurst said,
+      after a pause. &ldquo;I was trying to make myself stand fire. I did not think
+      whether I should be hit or not. I am not afraid of bullets, Doctor; it's
+      the horrible, fiendish noise that I cannot stand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know, my boy,&rdquo; the Doctor said kindly; &ldquo;but it comes to the same thing.
+      You did put yourself in the way of bullets when your doing so was of no
+      possible advantage, and it is almost a miracle that you escaped unhurt.
+      You must remain here quiet for the present. II shall leave you in charge
+      of Mrs. Hunter. There is nothing for you to do on the roof at present.
+      This attack is a mere outbreak of rage on the part of the Sepoys that we
+      have all escaped them. They know well enough they can't take this house by
+      merely firing away at the roof. When they attack in earnest it will be
+      quite time for you to take part in the affair again. Now, Mrs. Hunter, my
+      orders are absolute that he is not to be allowed to get up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On the Doctor leaving the room he found several of the ladies outside; the
+      news that Mr. Bathurst had been carried down had spread among them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he badly hurt, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, ladies. Mr. Bathurst is, unfortunately for himself, an extremely
+      nervous man, and the noise of firearms has an effect upon him that he
+      cannot by any effort of his own overcome. In order, as he says, to try and
+      accustom himself to it, he went and stood at the edge of the parapet in
+      full sight of the Sepoys, and let them blaze away at him. He must have
+      been killed if Forster and I had not dragged him away by main force. Then
+      came the natural reaction, and he fainted. That is all there is about it.
+      Poor fellow, he is extremely sensitive on the ground of personal courage.
+      In other respects I have known him do things requiring an amount of pluck
+      that not one man in a hundred possesses, and I wish you all to remember
+      that his nervousness at the effect of the noise of firearms is a purely
+      constitutional weakness, for which he is in no way to be blamed. He has
+      just risked his life in the most reckless manner in order to overcome what
+      he considers, and what he knows that some persons consider, is cowardice,
+      and it would be as cruel, and I may say as contemptible, to despise him
+      for a constitutional failing as it would be to despise a person for being
+      born a humpback or a cripple. But I cannot stand talking any longer. I
+      shall be of more use on the roof than I am here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel Hannay was not among those who had gathered near the door of the
+      room in which Bathurst was lying, but the Doctor had raised his voice, and
+      she heard what he said, and bent over her work of sewing strips of linen
+      together for bandages with a paler face than had been caused by the
+      outbreak of musketry. Gradually the firing ceased. The Sepoys had suffered
+      heavily from the steady fire of the invisible defenders and gradually drew
+      off, and in an hour from the commencement of the attack all was silent
+      round the building.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So far so good, ladies,&rdquo; the Major said cheerily, as the garrison,
+      leaving one man on watch, descended from the roof. &ldquo;We have had no
+      casualties, and I think we must have inflicted a good many, and the
+      mutineers are not likely to try that game on again, for they must see that
+      they are wasting ammunition, and are doing us no harm. Now I hope the
+      servants have got tiffin ready for us, for I am sure we have all excellent
+      appetites.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tiffin is quite ready, Major,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan, who had been appointed chief
+      of the commissariat department, said cheerfully. &ldquo;The servants were a
+      little disorganized when the firing began, but they soon became accustomed
+      to it, and I think you will find everything in order in the hall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The meal was really a cheerful one. The fact that the first attack had
+      passed over without anyone being hit raised the spirits of the women, and
+      all were disposed to look at matters in a cheerful light. The two young
+      subalterns were in high spirits, and the party were more lively than they
+      had been since the first outbreak of the mutiny. All had felt severely the
+      strain of waiting, and the reality of danger was a positive relief after
+      the continuous suspense. It was much to them to know that the crisis had
+      come at last, that they were still all together and the foe were without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is difficult to believe,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said, &ldquo;that it was only
+      yesterday evening we were all gathered at the Major's. It seems an age
+      since then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, indeed,&rdquo; Mrs. Rintoul agreed; &ldquo;the night seemed endless. The worst
+      time was the waiting till we were to begin to move over. After that I did
+      not so much mind, though it seemed more like a week than a night while the
+      things were being brought in here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think the worse time was while we were waiting watching from the roof
+      to see whether the troops would come out on parade as usual,&rdquo; Isobel said.
+      &ldquo;When my uncle and the others were all in, and Captain Forster, and the
+      gates were shut, it seemed that our anxieties were over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was a mad charge of yours, Forster,&rdquo; the Major said. &ldquo;It was like
+      the Balaclava business&mdash;magnificent; but it wasn't war.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not think of it one way or the other,&rdquo; Captain Forster laughed. &ldquo;I
+      was so furious at the insolence off those dogs attacking me, that I
+      thought of nothing else, and just went at them; but of course it was
+      foolish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It did good,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;It showed the Sepoys how little we
+      thought of them, and how a single white officer was ready to match himself
+      against a squadron. It will render them a good deal more careful in their
+      attack than they otherwise would have been. It brought them under our
+      fire, too, and they suffered pretty heavily; and I am sure the infantry
+      must have lost a good many men from our fire just now. I hope they will
+      come to the conclusion that the wisest thing they can do is to march away
+      to Delhi and leave us severely alone. Now what are your orders, Major, for
+      after breakfast?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think the best thing is for everyone to lie down for a few hours,&rdquo; the
+      Major said. &ldquo;No one had a wink of sleep last night, and most of us have
+      not slept much for some nights past. We must always keep two men on the
+      roof, to be relieved every two hours. I will draw up a regular rota for
+      duty; but except those two, the rest had better take a good sleep. We may
+      be all called upon to be under arms at night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go on the first relief, Major,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;I feel
+      particularly wide awake. It is nothing new to me to be up all night. Put
+      Bathurst down with me,&rdquo; he said, in a low tone, as the Major rose from the
+      table. &ldquo;He knows that I understand him, and it will be less painful for
+      him to be with me than with anyone else. I will go up at once, and send
+      young Harper down to his breakfast. There will be no occasion to have
+      Bathurst up this time. The Sepoys are not likely to be trying any pranks
+      at present. No doubt they have gone back to their lines to get a meal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor had not been long at his post when Isobel Hannay came up onto
+      the terrace. They had seen each other alone comparatively little of late,
+      as the Doctor had given up his habit of dropping in for a chat in the
+      morning since their conversation about Bathurst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear, what is it?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;This is no place for you, for
+      there are a few fellows still lurking among the trees, and they send a
+      shot over the house occasionally.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came up to say that I am sorry, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is right, Isobel. Always say you are sorry when you are so, although
+      in nine cases out of ten, and this is one of them, the saying so is too
+      late to do much good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you are rather hard upon me, Doctor. I know you were speaking at
+      me today when you were talking to the others, especially in what you said
+      at the end.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I was; but I think you quite deserved it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I know I did; but it was hard to tell me it was as contemptible to
+      despise a man for a physical weakness he could not help, as to despise one
+      for being born humpbacked or a cripple, when you know that my brother was
+      so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wanted you to feel that your conduct had been contemptible, Isobel, and
+      I put it in the way that was most likely to come home to you. I have been
+      disappointed in you. I thought you were more sensible than the run of
+      young women, and I found out that you were not. I thought you had some
+      confidence in my judgment, but it turned out that you had not. If Bathurst
+      had been killed when he was standing up, a target for the Sepoys, I should
+      have held you morally responsible for his death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would have shared the responsibility, anyhow, Doctor, for it was you
+      who repeated my words to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will not go over that ground again,&rdquo; said the Doctor quietly. &ldquo;I gave
+      you my reasons for doing so, and those reasons are to my mind convincing.
+      Now I will tell you how this constitutional nervousness on his part arose.
+      He told me the story; but as at that time there had been no occasion for
+      him to show whether he was brave or otherwise, I considered my lips
+      sealed. Now that his weakness has been exhibited, I consider myself more
+      than justified in explaining its origin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he then repeated the story Bathurst had told him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see,&rdquo; he said, when he had finished, &ldquo;it is a constitutional matter
+      beyond his control; it is a sort of antipathy. I have known a case of a
+      woman courageous in all other respects, who, at the sight of even a dead
+      cockroach, would faint away. I have seen one of the most gallant officers
+      of my acquaintance turn pale at the sight of a spider. Certainly no one
+      would think of calling either one or the other coward; and assuredly such
+      a name should not be applied to a man who would face a tiger armed only
+      with a whip in defense of a native woman, because his nerves go all to
+      pieces at the sound of firearms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you had told me all this before I should never have spoken as I did,&rdquo;
+       Isobel pleaded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not go into the full details, but I told you that he was not
+      responsible for his want of firmness under fire, and that I knew him in
+      other respects to be a brave man,&rdquo; the Doctor said uncompromisingly.
+      &ldquo;Since then you have by your manner driven him away from you. You have
+      flirted&mdash;well, you may not call it flirting,&rdquo; he broke off in answer
+      to a gesture of denial, &ldquo;but it was the same thing&mdash;with a man who is
+      undoubtedly a gallant soldier&mdash;a very paladin, if you like&mdash;but
+      who, in spite of his handsome face and pleasant manner, is no more to be
+      compared with Bathurst in point of moral qualities or mental ability than
+      light to dark, and this after I had like an old fool gone out of my way to
+      warn you. You have disappointed me altogether, Isobel Hannay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel stood motionless before him, with downcast eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there, my dear,&rdquo; the Doctor went on hurriedly, as he saw a tear
+      glisten in her eyelashes; &ldquo;don't let us say anything more about it. In the
+      first place, it is no affair of mine; and in the second place, your point
+      of view was that most women would take at a time like this; only, you
+      know, I expected you would not have done just as other women would. We
+      cannot afford to quarrel now, for there is no doubt that, although we may
+      put a good face on the matter, our position is one of grave peril, and it
+      is of no use troubling over trifles. Now run away, and get a few hours'
+      sleep if you can. You will want all your strength before we are through
+      with this business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While the Doctor had been talking to Isobel, the men had gathered below in
+      a sort of informal council, the subject being Bathurst's conduct on the
+      roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would not have believed it if I had not seen it,&rdquo; Captain Rintoul said.
+      &ldquo;The man was absolutely helpless with fright; I never saw such an
+      exhibition; and then his fainting afterwards and having to be carried away
+      was disgusting; in fact, it is worse than that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general murmur of assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is disgraceful,&rdquo; one of the civilians said; &ldquo;I am ashamed that the man
+      should belong to our service; the idea of a fellow being helpless by
+      fright when there are women and children to be defended&mdash;it is
+      downright revolting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, he did go and stick himself up in front,&rdquo; Wilson said; &ldquo;you should
+      remember that. He may have been in a blue funk, I don't say he wasn't;
+      still, you know, he didn't go away and try to hide himself, but he stuck
+      himself up in front for them to fire at. I think we ought to take that
+      into consideration.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dr. Wade says Bathurst put himself there to try and accustom himself to
+      fire,&rdquo; Captain Forster said. &ldquo;Mind, I don't pretend to like the man. We
+      were at school together, and he was a coward then and a sneak, but for all
+      that one should look at it fairly. The Doctor asserts that Bathurst is
+      morally brave, but that somehow or other his nerves are too much for him.
+      I don't pretend to understand it myself, but there is no doubt about the
+      Doctor's pluck, and I don't think he would stand up for Bathurst as he
+      does unless he really thought he was not altogether accountable for
+      showing the white feather. I think, too, from what he let drop, that the
+      Major is to some extent of the same opinion. What do you think, Doolan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I like Bathurst,&rdquo; Captain Doolan said; &ldquo;I have always thought him a first
+      rate fellow; but one can't stick up, you know, for a fellow who can't
+      behave as a gentleman ought to, especially when there are women and
+      children in danger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It. is quite impossible that we should associate with him,&rdquo; Captain
+      Rintoul said. &ldquo;I don't propose that we should tell him what we think of
+      him, but I think we ought to leave him severely alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should say that he ought to be sent to Coventry,&rdquo; Richards said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should not put it in that way,&rdquo; Mr. Hunter said gravely. &ldquo;I have always
+      esteemed Bathurst. I look upon it as a terribly sad case; but I agree with
+      Captain Rintoul that, in the position in which we are now placed, a man
+      who proves himself to be a coward must be made to feel that he stands
+      apart from us. I should not call it sending him to Coventry, or anything
+      of that sort, but I do think that we should express by our manner that we
+      don't wish to have any communication with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general expression of assent to this opinion, Wilson alone
+      protesting against it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can do as you like,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;but certainly I shall speak to
+      Bathurst, and I am sure the Doctor and Major Hannay will do so. I don't
+      want to stand up for a coward, but I believe what the Doctor says. I have
+      seen a good deal of Bathurst, and I like him; besides, haven't you heard
+      the story the Doctor has been telling about his attacking a tiger with a
+      whip to save a native woman? I don't care what anyone says, a fellow who
+      is a downright coward couldn't do a thing like that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who told the Doctor about it?&rdquo; Farquharson asked. &ldquo;If he got it from
+      Bathurst, I don't think it goes for much after what we have seen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Wilson would have replied angrily, but Captain Doolan put his hand on his
+      shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shut up, Wilson,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;this is no time for disputes; we are all in
+      one boat here, and must row together like brothers. You go your own way
+      about Bathurst, I don't blame you for it; he is a man everyone has liked,
+      a first rate official, and a good fellow all round, except he is not one
+      of the sociable kind. At any other time one would not think so much of
+      this, but at present for a man to lack courage is for him to lack
+      everything. I hope he will come better out of it than it looks at present.
+      He will have plenty of chances here, and no one will be more glad than I
+      shall to see him pull himself together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor, however, would have quarreled with everyone all round when he
+      heard what had been decided upon, had not Major Hannay taken him aside and
+      talked to him strongly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will never do, Doctor, to have quarrels here, and as commandant I must
+      beg of you not to make this a personal matter. I am very sorry for this
+      poor fellow; I accept entirely your view of the matter; but at the same
+      time I really can't blame the others for looking at it from a matter of
+      fact point of view. Want of courage is at all times regarded by men as the
+      most unpardonable of failings, and at a time like the present this feeling
+      is naturally far stronger even than usual. I hope with you that Bathurst
+      will retrieve himself yet, but we shall certainly do him no good by trying
+      to fight his battle until he does. You and I, thinking as we do, will of
+      course make no alteration in our manner towards him. I am glad to hear
+      that young Wilson also stands as his friend. Let matters go on quietly. I
+      believe they will come right in the end.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor was obliged to acknowledge that the Major's counsel was wise,
+      and to refrain from either argument or sarcasm; but the effort required to
+      check his natural tendency to wordy conflict was almost too great for him,
+      and when not engaged in his own special duties he spent hours in one of
+      the angles of the terrace keenly watching every tree and bush within
+      range, and firing vengefully whenever he caught sight of a lurking native.
+      So accurate was his aim that the Sepoys soon learned to know and dread the
+      crack of his rifle; and whenever it spoke out the ground within its range
+      was speedily clear of foes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The matter, however, caused a deep if temporary estrangement between
+      Wilson and Richards. Although constantly chaffing each other, and engaged
+      in verbal strife, they had hitherto been firm friends. Their rivalry in
+      the matter of horseflesh had not aroused angry feelings, even their mutual
+      adoration of Isobel Hannay had not affected a breach in their friendship;
+      but upon the subject of sending Bathurst to Coventry they quarreled so
+      hotly, that for a time they broke off all communication with each other,
+      and both in their hearts regretted that their schoolboy days had passed,
+      and that they could not settle the matter in good schoolboy fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      But though obliged to defer to Major Hannay's wishes, and to abstain from
+      arguing with the men the question of Bathurst being given the cold
+      shoulder, Dr. Wade had already organized the ladies in his favor. During
+      the afternoon he had told them the tiger story, and had confidentially
+      informed them how it was that Bathurst from his birth had been the victim
+      of something like nervous paralysis at all loud sounds, especially those
+      of the discharge of firearms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His conduct today,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and his courage in rescuing that native
+      girl from the tiger, illustrate his character. He is cool, brave, and
+      determined, as might be expected from a man of so well balanced a mind as
+      his; and even when his nerves utterly broke down under the din of
+      musketry, his will was so far dominant that he forced himself to go
+      forward and stand there under fire, an act which was, under the
+      circumstances, simply heroic.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There is little difficulty in persuading women as to the merits of a man
+      they like, and Bathurst had, since the troubles began, been much more
+      appreciated than before by the ladies of Deennugghur. They had felt there
+      was something strengthening and cheering in his presence, for while not
+      attempting to minimize the danger, there was a calm confidence in his
+      manner that comforted and reassured those he talked to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the last twenty-four hours, too, he had unobtrusively performed many
+      little kindnesses; had aided in the removals, carried the children, looked
+      after the servants, and had been foremost in the arrangement of everything
+      that could add to the comfort of the ladies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad you have told us all about it, Doctor,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said; &ldquo;and,
+      of course, no one would dream of blaming him. I had heard that story about
+      his leaving the army years ago; but although I had only seen him once or
+      twice, I did not believe it for a minute. What you tell us now, Doctor,
+      explains the whole matter. I pity him sincerely. It must be something
+      awful for a man at a time like this not to be able to take his part in the
+      defense, especially when there are us women here. Why, it would pain me
+      less to see Jim brought in dead, than for him to show the white feather.
+      What can we do for the poor fellow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Treat him just as usual. There is nothing else you can do, Mrs. Doolan.
+      Any tone of sympathy, still less of pity, would be the worst thing
+      possible. He is in the lowest depths at present; but if he finds by your
+      tone and manner that you regard him on the same footing as before, he will
+      gradually come round, and I hope that before the end of the siege he will
+      have opportunities of retrieving himself. Not under fire&mdash;that is
+      hopeless; but in other ways.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may be sure we will do all we can, Doctor,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said warmly;
+      &ldquo;and there are plenty of ways he will be able to make himself most useful.
+      There is somebody wanted to look after all those syces and servants, and
+      it would be a comfort to us to have someone to talk to occasionally;
+      besides, all the children are fond of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This sentiment was warmly echoed; and thus, when the determination at
+      which the men had arrived to cut Bathurst became known, there was
+      something like a feminine revolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may do as you like,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said indignantly; &ldquo;but if you think
+      that we are going to do anything so cruel and unjust, you are entirely
+      mistaken, I can tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Rintoul was equally emphatic, and Mrs. Hunter quietly, but with as
+      much decision, protested. &ldquo;I have always regarded Mr. Bathurst as a
+      friend,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and I shall continue to do so. It is very sad for him
+      that he cannot take part in the defense, but it is no more fair to blame
+      him than it would be to blame us, because we, too, are noncombatants.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel Hannay had taken no part in the first discussion among the ladies,
+      nor did she say anything now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is cruel and unjust,&rdquo; she said to herself, &ldquo;but they only think as I
+      did. I was more cruel and unjust than they, for there was no talk of
+      danger then. I expressed my contempt of him because there was a suspicion
+      that he had showed cowardice ten years ago, while they have seen it shown
+      now when there is fearful peril. If they are cruel and unjust, what was
+      I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Later on the men gathered together at one end of the room, and talked over
+      the situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dr. Wade,&rdquo; the Major said quietly, &ldquo;I shall be obliged if you will go and
+      ask Mr. Bathurst to join us. He knows the people round here better than
+      any of us, and his opinion will be valuable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor, who had several times been in to see Bathurst, went to his
+      room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Major wants you to join us, Bathurst; we are having a talk over
+      things, and he wishes to have your opinion. I had better tell you that as
+      to yourself the camp is divided into two parties. On one side are the
+      Major, Wilson, and myself, and all the ladies, who take, I need not say, a
+      common sense view of the matter, and recognize that you have done all a
+      man could do to overcome your constitutional nervousness, and that there
+      is no discredit whatever attached to you personally. The rest of the men,
+      I am sorry to say, at present take another view of the case, and are
+      disposed to show you the cold shoulder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That, of course,&rdquo; Bathurst said quietly; &ldquo;as to the ladies' view of it, I
+      know that it is only the result of your good offices, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you will come,&rdquo; the Doctor said, pleased that Bathurst seemed less
+      depressed than he had expected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly I will come, Doctor,&rdquo; Bathurst said, rising; &ldquo;the worst is over
+      now&mdash;everyone knows that I am a coward&mdash;that is what I have
+      dreaded. There is nothing else for me to be afraid of, and it is of no use
+      hiding myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We look quite at home here, Mr. Bathurst, don't we?&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said
+      cheerfully, as he passed her; &ldquo;and I think we all feel a great deal more
+      comfortable than we did when you gave us your warning last night; the
+      anticipation is always worse than the reality.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not always, I think, Mrs. Doolan,&rdquo; he said quietly; &ldquo;but you have
+      certainly made yourselves wonderfully at home, though your sewing is of a
+      more practical kind than that upon which you are ordinarily engaged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he passed on with the Doctor to the other end of the room. The Major
+      nodded as he came up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right again now, Bathurst, I hope? We want your opinion, for you
+      know, I think, more of the Zemindars in this part of the country than any
+      of us. Of course, the question is, will they take part against us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid they will, Major. I had hoped otherwise; but if it be true
+      that the Nana has gone&mdash;and as the other part of the message was
+      correct, I have no doubt this is so also&mdash;I am afraid they will be
+      carried away with the stream.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you think they have guns?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not the least doubt of it; the number given up was a mere fraction
+      of those they were said to have possessed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had hoped the troops would have marched away after the lesson we gave
+      them this morning, but, so far as we can make out, there is no sign of
+      movement in their lines. However, they may start at daybreak tomorrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go out to see if you like, Major,&rdquo; Bathurst said quietly. &ldquo;I can
+      get native clothes from the servants, and I speak the language well enough
+      to pass as a native; so if you give me permission I will go out to the
+      lines and learn what their intentions are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be a very dangerous undertaking,&rdquo; the Major said gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no fear whatever of danger of that kind, Major; my nerves are
+      steady enough, except when there is a noise of firearms, and then, as you
+      all saw this morning, I cannot control them, do what I will. Risks of any
+      other kind I am quite prepared to undertake, but in this matter I think
+      the danger is very slight, the only difficulty being to get through the
+      line of sentries they have no doubt posted round the house. Once past
+      them, I think there is practically no risk whatever of their recognizing
+      me when made up as a native. The Doctor has, no doubt, got some iodine in
+      his surgery, and a coat of that will bring me to the right color.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, if you are ready to undertake it, I will not refuse,&rdquo; the Major
+      said. &ldquo;How would you propose to get out?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I noticed yesterday that the branches of one of the trees in the garden
+      extended beyond the top of the wall. I will climb up that and lower myself
+      on the other side by a rope; that is a very simple matter. The spot is
+      close to the edge of Mr. Hunter's compound, and I shall work my way
+      through the shrubbery till I feel sure I am beyond any sentries who may be
+      posted there; the chances are that they will not be thick anywhere, except
+      opposite the gate. By the way, Captain Forster, before I go I must thank
+      you for having risked your life to save mine this morning. I heard from
+      Mrs. Hunter that it was you and the Doctor who rushed forward and drew me
+      back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not worth talking about,&rdquo; Captain Forster said carelessly. &ldquo;You
+      seemed bent on making a target of yourself; and as the Major's orders were
+      that everyone was to lie down, there was nothing for it but to remove
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst turned to Dr. Wade. &ldquo;Will you superintend my get up, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; the Doctor said, with alacrity. &ldquo;I will guarantee that, with
+      the aid of my boy, I will turn you out so that no one would know you even
+      in broad daylight, to say nothing of the dark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A quarter of an hour sufficed to metamorphose Bathurst into an Oude
+      peasant. He did not return to the room, but, accompanied by the Doctor,
+      made his way to the tree he had spoken of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the way, you have taken no arms,&rdquo; the Doctor said suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They would be useless, Doctor; if I am recognized I shall be killed; if I
+      am not discovered, and the chances are very slight of my being so, I shall
+      get back safely. By the way, we will tie some knots on that rope before I
+      let myself down. I used to be able to climb a rope without them, but I
+      doubt whether I could do so now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, God bless you, lad, and bring you back safely! You may make as
+      light of it as you will, but it is a dangerous expedition. However, I am
+      glad you have undertaken it, come what may, for it has given you the
+      opportunity of showing you are not afraid of danger when it takes any
+      other form than that of firearms. There are plenty of men who would stand
+      up bravely enough in a fight, who would not like to undertake this task of
+      going out alone in the dark into the middle of these bloodthirsty
+      scoundrels. How long do you think you will be?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A couple of hours at the outside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, at the end of an hour I shall be back here again. Don't be longer
+      than you can help, lad, for I shall be very anxious until you return.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the Doctor re-entered the house there was a chorus of questions:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has Mr. Bathurst started?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why did you not bring him in here before he left? We should all have
+      liked to have said goodby to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he has gone. I have seen him over the wall; and it was much better
+      that he should go without any fuss. He went off just as quietly and
+      unconcernedly as if he had been going out for an ordinary evening's walk.
+      Now I am going up onto the roof. I don't say we should hear any hubbub
+      down at the lines if he were discovered there, but we should certainly
+      hear a shout if he came across any of the sentries round the house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has he taken any arms, Doctor?&rdquo; the Major asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None whatever, Major. I asked him if he would not take pistols, but he
+      refused.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I don't understand that,&rdquo; Captain Forster remarked. &ldquo;If I had gone
+      on such a business I would have taken a couple of revolvers. I am quite
+      ready to take my chance of being killed fighting, but I should not like to
+      be seized and hacked to pieces in cold blood. My theory is a man should
+      sell his life as dearly as he can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the animal instinct, Forster,&rdquo; the Doctor said sharply; &ldquo;though I
+      don't say that I should not feel the same myself; but I question whether
+      Bathurst's is not a higher type of courage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I don't aspire to Bathurst's type of courage, Doctor,&rdquo; Forster
+      said, with a short laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Doctor did not answer. He had already turned away, and was making
+      for the stairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I go with you, Doctor?&rdquo; Isobel Hannay said, following him. &ldquo;It is
+      very hot down here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; come along, child; but there is no time to lose, for Bathurst must
+      be near where they are likely to have posted their sentries by this time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everything quiet, Wilson?&rdquo; he asked the young subaltern, who, with
+      another, was on guard on the roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; we have heard nothing except a few distant shouts and noises out at
+      the lines. Round here there has been nothing moving, except that we heard
+      someone go out into the garden just now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I went out with Bathurst,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;He has gone in the disguise
+      of a native to the Sepoy lines, to find out what are their intentions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard the talk over it, Doctor. I only came up on watch a few minutes
+      since. I thought it was most likely him when I heard the steps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope he is beyond the sentries,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;I have come up here
+      to listen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect he is through them before this,&rdquo; Wilson said confidently. &ldquo;I
+      wish I could have gone with him; but of course it would not have been any
+      good. It is a beautiful night&mdash;isn't it, Miss Hannay?&mdash;and there
+      is scarcely any dew falling.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, you go off to your post in the corner, Wilson. Your instructions are
+      to listen for the slightest sound, and to assure us against the Sepoys
+      creeping up to the walls. We did not come up here to distract you from
+      your duties, or to gossip.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are Richards and another posted somewhere in the garden,&rdquo; Wilson
+      said. &ldquo;Still, I suppose you are right, Doctor; but if you, Miss Hannay,
+      have come up to listen, come and sit in my corner; it is the one nearest
+      to the lines.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may as well go and sit down, Isobel,&rdquo; the Doctor said; &ldquo;that is, if
+      you intend to stay up here long;&rdquo; and they went across with Wilson to his
+      post.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I put one of these sandbags for you to sit on?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would rather stand, thank you;&rdquo; and they stood for some time silently
+      watching the fires in the lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are drawing pretty heavily on the wood stores,&rdquo; the Doctor growled;
+      &ldquo;there is a good deal more than the regulation allowance blazing in those
+      fires. I can make out a lot of figures moving about round them; no doubt
+      numbers of the peasants have come in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think Mr. Bathurst has got beyond the line of sentries?&rdquo; Isobel
+      said, after standing perfectly quiet for some time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, a long way; probably he was through by the time we came up here.
+      They are not likely to post them more than fifty or sixty yards from the
+      wall; and, indeed, it is, as Bathurst pointed out to me, probable that
+      they are only thick near the gate. All they want to do is to prevent us
+      slipping away. I should think that Bathurst must be out near the lines by
+      this time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel moved a few paces away from the others, and again stood listening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose you do not think that there is any chance of an attack tonight,
+      Doctor?&rdquo; Wilson asked, in low tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in the least; the natives are not fond of night work. I expect they
+      are dividing the spoil and quarreling over it; anyhow, they have had
+      enough of it for today. They may intend to march away in the morning, or
+      they may have sent to Cawnpore to ask for orders, or they may have heard
+      from some of the Zemindars that they are coming in to join them&mdash;that
+      is what Bathurst has gone out to learn; but anyhow I do not think they
+      will attack us again with their present force.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish there were a few more of us,&rdquo; Wilson said, &ldquo;so that we could
+      venture on a sortie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So do I, lad; but it is no use thinking about it as it is. We have to
+      wait; our fate is not in our own hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you think matters look bad, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think they could hardly look worse. Unless the mutineers take it into
+      their heads to march away, there is, humanly speaking, but one chance for
+      us, and that is that Lawrence may thrash the Sepoys so completely at
+      Lucknow that he may be able to send out a force to bring us in. The
+      chances of that are next to nothing; for in addition to a very large Sepoy
+      force he has the population of Lucknow&mdash;one of the most turbulent in
+      India&mdash;on his hands. Ah, what is that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Two musket shots in quick succession from the Sepoy lines broke the
+      silence of the evening, and a startled exclamation burst from the girl
+      standing near them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor went over to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think&mdash;do you think,&rdquo; she said in a low, strained voice,
+      &ldquo;that it was Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all. If they detected him, and I really do not see that there is a
+      chance of their doing so, disguised as he was, they would have seized him
+      and probably killed him, but there would be no firing. He has gone
+      unarmed, you know, and would offer no resistance. Those shots you heard
+      were doubtless the result of some drunken quarrel over the loot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you really think so, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feel quite sure of it. If it had been Forster who had gone out, and he
+      had been detected, it would have been natural enough that we should hear
+      the sound of something like a battle. In the first place, he would have
+      defended himself desperately, and, in the next, he might have made his way
+      through them and escaped; but, as I said, with Bathurst there would be no
+      occasion for their firing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why didn't he come in to say goodby before he went? that is what I wanted
+      to ask you, Doctor, and why I came up here. I wanted to have spoken to
+      him, if only for a moment, before he started. I tried to catch his eye as
+      he went out of the room with you, but he did not even look at me. It will
+      be so hard if he never comes back, to know that he went away without my
+      having spoken to him again. I did try this morning to tell him that I was
+      sorry for what I said, but he would not listen to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will have an opportunity of telling him when he comes back, if you
+      want to, or of showing him so by your manner, which would be, perhaps,
+      less painful to both of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't care about pain to myself,&rdquo; the girl said. &ldquo;I have been unjust,
+      and deserve it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think he considers you unjust. I did, and told you so. He feels
+      what he considers the disgrace so much that it seems to him perfectly
+      natural he should be despised.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but I want him to see that he is not despised,&rdquo; she said quickly.
+      &ldquo;You don't understand, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do understand perfectly, my dear; at least, I think&mdash;I think I do;
+      I see that you want to put yourself straight with him, which is very right
+      and proper, especially placed as we all are; but I would not do or say
+      anything hastily. You have spoken hastily once, you see, and made a mess
+      of it. I should be careful how I did it again, unless, of course,&rdquo; and he
+      stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unless what, Doctor?&rdquo; Isobel asked shyly, after a long pause. But there
+      was no reply; and looking round she saw that her companion had moved
+      quietly away and had joined Wilson at his post. She stood for a few
+      minutes in the same attitude, and then moved quietly across the staircase
+      in the center of the terrace, and went down to the party below. A short
+      time later the Doctor followed her, and, taking his rifle, went out into
+      the garden with Captain Doolan, who assisted him in climbing the tree, and
+      handed his gun up to him. The Doctor made his way out on the branch to the
+      spot where it extended beyond the wall, and there sat, straining his eyes
+      into the darkness. Half an hour passed, and then he heard a light footfall
+      on the sandy soil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that you, Bathurst?&rdquo; he whispered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, Doctor;&rdquo; and a minute later Bathurst sat on the branch beside
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what's your news?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very bad, Doctor; they expect the Rajah Por Sing, who, it seems, is the
+      leader of the party in this district, and several other Zemindars, to be
+      here with guns tomorrow or next day. The news from Cawnpore was true.. The
+      native troops mutinied and marched away, but were joined by Nana Sahib and
+      his force, and he persuaded them to return and attack the whites in their
+      intrenchments at Cawnpore, as they would not be well received at Delhi
+      unless they had properly accomplished their share of the work of rooting
+      out the Feringhees.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The infernal scoundrel!&rdquo; the Doctor exclaimed; &ldquo;after pretending for
+      years to be our best friend. I'm disgusted to think that I have drunk his
+      champagne a dozen times. However, that makes little difference to us now,
+      your other news is the most important. We could have resisted the Sepoys
+      for a month; but if they bring up guns there can be but one ending to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is so, Doctor. The only hope I can see is that they may find our
+      resistance so obstinate as to be glad to grant us terms of surrender.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, there is that chance,&rdquo; the Doctor agreed; &ldquo;but history shows there
+      is but little reliance to be placed upon native oaths.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst was silent; his own experience of the natives had taught him the
+      same lesson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a poor hope,&rdquo; he said, after a while; &ldquo;but it is the only one, so
+      far as I can see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Not another word was spoken as they descended the tree and walked across
+      to the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind about changing your things, come straight in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our scout has returned,&rdquo; the Doctor said, as he entered the room. There
+      was a general exclamation of gladness on the part of the ladies who had
+      not retired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am very glad to see you safe back, Mr. Bathurst,&rdquo; Mrs. Hunter said,
+      going up to him and taking his hand. &ldquo;We have all been very anxious since
+      you left.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The danger was very slight, Mrs. Hunter. I only wish I had brought you
+      back the news that the native lines were deserted and the mutineers in
+      full march for Delhi and Lucknow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was afraid you would hardly bring that news, Mr. Bathurst; it was
+      almost too good to hope for. However, we are all glad that you are back.
+      Are we not, Isobel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are indeed, Mr. Bathurst, though as yet I can hardly persuade myself
+      that it is you in that get up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think there is no doubt of my identity. Can you tell me where you uncle
+      is, Miss Hannay? I have to make my report to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is on the roof. There is a sort of general gathering of our defenders
+      there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Two lamps had been placed in the center of the terrace, and round these
+      the little garrison were grouped, some sitting on boxes, others lying on
+      mats, almost all smoking. Bathurst was greeted heartily by the Major and
+      Wilson as soon as he was recognized.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am awfully glad to see you back,&rdquo; Wilson said, shaking him warmly by
+      the hand. &ldquo;I wish I could have gone with you. Two together does not seem
+      so bad, but I should not like to start out by myself as you did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a hearty cordiality in the young fellow's voice that was very
+      pleasant to Bathurst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have all our gifts, as Hawkeye used to say, as I have no doubt you
+      remember, Wilson. Such gifts as I have lay in the way of solitary work, I
+      fancy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, light a cheroot, Bathurst,&rdquo; the Major said, &ldquo;and drink off this
+      tumbler of brandy and soda, and then let us hear your story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The story is simple enough, Major. I got through without difficulty. The
+      sentries are some distance apart round the garden wall. As soon as I
+      discovered by the sound of their footsteps where they were, it was easy
+      enough to get through them. Then I made a longish detour, and came down on
+      the lines from the other side. There was no occasion for concealment then.
+      Numbers of the country people had come in, and were gathered round the
+      Sepoys' fires, and I was able to move about amongst them, and listen to
+      the conversation without the smallest hindrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Sepoys were loudly expressing their dissatisfaction at their officers
+      leading them against the house today, when they had no means of either
+      battering down the walls or scaling them. Then there was a general opinion
+      that treachery was at work; for how else should the Europeans have known
+      they were going to rise that morning, and so moved during the night into
+      the house? There was much angry recrimination and quarreling, and many
+      expressed their regret they had not marched straight to Cawnpore after
+      burning the bungalows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All this was satisfactory; but I learned that Por Sing and several other
+      Zemindars had already sent in assurances that they were wholly with them,
+      and would be here, with guns to batter down the walls, some time
+      tomorrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is bad news, indeed,&rdquo; the Major said gravely, when he had finished.
+      &ldquo;Of course, when we heard that Nana Sahib had thrown in his lot with the
+      mutineers, it was probable that many of the landowners would go the same
+      way; but if the Sepoys had marched off they might not have attacked us on
+      their own account. Now we know that the Sepoys are going to stay, and that
+      they will have guns, it alters our position altogether.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a murmur of assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should tell you before you talk the matter over further,&rdquo; Bathurst went
+      on, &ldquo;that during the last hour some hundreds of peasants have taken up
+      their posts round the house in addition to the Sepoy sentries. I came back
+      with one party about a hundred strong. They are posted a couple of hundred
+      yards or so in front of the gate. I slipped away from them in the dark and
+      made my way here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, gentlemen, what do you think we had better do?&rdquo; the Major said; &ldquo;we
+      are all in the same boat, and I should like to have your opinions. We may
+      defend this house successfully for days&mdash;possibly we may even tire
+      them out&mdash;but on the other hand they may prove too strong for us. If
+      the wall were breached we could hardly hope to defend it, and, indeed, if
+      they constructed plenty of ladders they could scale it at night in a score
+      of places. We must, therefore, regard the house as our citadel, close up
+      the lower windows and doors with sandbags, and defend it to the last.
+      Still, if they are determined, the lookout is not a very bright one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am in favor of our cutting our way out, Major,&rdquo; Captain Forster said;
+      &ldquo;if we are cooped up here, we must, as you say, in the long run be
+      beaten.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would be all very well, Captain Forster, if we were all men,&rdquo; Mr.
+      Hunter said. &ldquo;There are sixteen of us and there are in all eighteen
+      horses, for I and Farquharson have two each; but there are eight women and
+      fourteen children; so all the horses would have to carry double. We
+      certainly could not hope to escape from them with our horses so laden; and
+      if they came up with us, what fighting could we do with women behind our
+      saddles? Moreover, we certainly could not leave the servants, who have
+      been true to us, to the mercy of the Sepoys.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Besides, where could we go?&rdquo; the Doctor asked. &ldquo;The garrison at Cawnpore,
+      we know, are besieged by overwhelming numbers. We do not know much as to
+      the position at Lucknow, but certainly the Europeans are immensely
+      outnumbered there, and I think we may assume that they are also besieged.
+      It is a very long distance either to Agra or to Allahabad; and with the
+      whole country up in arms against us, and the cavalry here at our heels,
+      the prospect seems absolutely hopeless. What do you think, Doolan? You and
+      Rintoul have your wives here, and you have children. I consider that the
+      question concerns you married men more than us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a case of the frying pan and the fire, as far as I can see, Doctor.
+      At any rate, here we have got walls to light behind, and food for weeks,
+      and plenty of ammunition. I am for selling our lives as dearly as we can
+      here rather than go outside to be chased like jackals.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I agree with you, Doolan,&rdquo; Captain Rintoul said. &ldquo;Here we may be able to
+      make terms with them, but once outside the walls we should be at the
+      scoundrels' mercy. If it were not for the women and children I should
+      agree entirely with Forster that our best plan would be to throw open our
+      gates and make a dash for it, keeping together as long as we could, and
+      then, if necessary, separating and trying to make our way down to Agra or
+      Allahabad as best we could; but with ladies that does not seem to be
+      possible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The opinion of the married civilians was entirely in accord with that of
+      Mr. Hunter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what hope is there of defending this place in the long run?&rdquo; Captain
+      Forster said. &ldquo;If I saw any chance at all I should be quite willing to
+      wait; but I would infinitely rather sally out at once and go for them and
+      be killed than wait here day after day and perhaps week after week, seeing
+      one's fate drawing nearer inch by inch. What do you say, Bathurst? We
+      haven't had your opinion yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not think that the defense is so hopeless as you suppose, although I
+      admit that the chances are greatly against us,&rdquo; Bathurst said quietly. &ldquo;I
+      think there is a hope of tiring the natives out. The Sepoys know well
+      enough there can be no great amount of loot here, while they think that
+      were they at Cawnpore, at Lucknow, or still more at Delhi, their chances
+      of plunder would be much greater. Moreover, I think that men in their
+      position, having offended, as it were, without hope of pardon, would
+      naturally desire to flock together. There is comfort and encouragement in
+      numbers. Therefore, I am sure they will very speedily become impatient if
+      they do not meet with success, and would be inclined to grant terms rather
+      than waste time here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the same thing with the native gentry. They will want to be off to
+      Lucknow or Delhi, where they will know more how things are going, and
+      where, no doubt, they reckon upon obtaining posts of importance and
+      increased possessions under the new order of things. Therefore, I think,
+      they, as well as the Sepoys, are likely, if they find the task longer and
+      more difficult than they expect, to be ready to grant terms. I have no
+      great faith in native oaths. Still they might be kept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Forster's proposal I regard as altogether impracticable. We are
+      something like two hundred and fifty miles from the nearest British post
+      where we could hope to find refuge, and with the horses carrying double,
+      the troopers at our heels directly we start, and the country hostile, I
+      see no chance whatever, not a vestige of one, of our getting safely away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But there is a third alternative by which some might escape; it is, that
+      we should make our way out on foot, break up into parties of twos and
+      threes; steal or fight our way through the sentries, and then for each
+      party to shift for itself, making its way as best it can, traveling by
+      night and lying up in woods or plantations by day; getting food at times
+      from friendly natives, and subsisting, for the most part, upon what might
+      be gathered in the fields. In that way some might escape, but the
+      suffering and hardships of the women and children would be terrible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I agree with you,&rdquo; Mr. Hunter said; &ldquo;such a journey would be frightful to
+      contemplate, and I don't think, in our case, that my wife could possibly
+      perform such a journey; still, some might do so. At any rate, I think the
+      chances are better than they would be were we to ride out in a body. I
+      should suggest, Major, when the crisis seems to be approaching&mdash;that
+      is, when it is clear that we can't defend ourselves much longer&mdash;it
+      would be fair that each should be at liberty to try to get out and make
+      down the country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; the Major agreed; &ldquo;we are in a position of men on board a
+      sinking ship with the boats gone; we should try to the end to save the
+      ship, but when all hope of doing that is over, each may try to get to
+      shore as he best can. As long as the house can be defended, all must
+      remain and bear their share in the struggle, but when we decide that it is
+      but a question of hours, all who choose will be at liberty to try to
+      escape.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will be vastly more difficult then than now,&rdquo; Captain Forster said;
+      &ldquo;Bathurst made his way out tonight without difficulty, but they will be a
+      great deal more vigilant when they know we cannot hold out much longer. I
+      don't see how it would be possible for women and children to get through
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We might then adopt your scheme, to a certain extent, Forster,&rdquo; Major
+      Hannay said. &ldquo;We could mount, sally out suddenly, break through their
+      pickets, and as soon as we are beyond them scatter; those who like can try
+      to make their way down on horseback, those who prefer it try to do so on
+      foot. That would at least give us an alternative should the siege be
+      pushed on to the last, and we find ourselves unable to make terms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was general assent to the Major's proposal, which seemed to offer
+      better chances than any. There was the hope that the mutineers might tire
+      of the siege and march away; that if they pressed it, terms might be at
+      last obtained from them, and that, failing everything else, the garrison
+      might yet make their way down country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As there is evidently no chance of an attack during the night,&rdquo; the Major
+      said, &ldquo;we will divide into two watches and relieve each other every four
+      hours; that will give two as lookouts on the roof and six in the
+      inclosure. As you are senior officer next to myself, Doolan, you will take
+      charge of one watch; I shall myself take charge of the other. Forster and
+      Wilson be with me, Rintoul and Richards with you. Mr. Hardy, will you and
+      the other gentlemen divide your numbers into two watches? Dr. Wade counts
+      as a combatant until his hospital begins to fill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy he may be counted as a combatant all through,&rdquo; the Doctor
+      muttered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tomorrow morning,&rdquo; the Major went on, &ldquo;we will continue the work of
+      filling sandbags. There are still a large number of empty bags on hand. We
+      shall want them for all the lower windows and doors, and the more there
+      are of them the better; and we must also keep a supply in readiness to
+      make a retrenchment if they should breach the wall. Now, Mr. Hunter, as
+      soon as you have made out your list my watch can go on duty, and I should
+      advise the others to turn in without delay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the ladies were informed that half the men were going on watch, Mrs.
+      Doolan said, &ldquo;I have an amendment to propose, Major. Women's ears are just
+      as keen as men's, and I propose that we supply the sentries on the roof. I
+      will volunteer for one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole of the ladies at once volunteered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no occasion for so many,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said; &ldquo;and I propose that
+      tonight, at any rate, I should take the first watch with one of the Miss
+      Hunters, and that Miss Hannay and the other should take the second. That
+      will leave all the gentlemen available for the watch in the inclosure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The proposal was agreed to, and in a short time the first watch had taken
+      their station, and the rest of the garrison lay down to rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night passed off quietly. The first work at which the Major set the
+      garrison in the morning was to form six wooden stages against the wall.
+      One by the gate, one against the wall at the other end, and two at each of
+      the long sides of the inclosure. They were twelve feet in height, which
+      enabled those upon them to stand head and shoulders above the level of the
+      wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When these were completed the whole of the garrison, including the ladies
+      and native servants, again set to work filling sandbags with earth. As
+      fast as they were finished they were carried in and piled two deep against
+      the lower windows, and three deep against the doors, only one small door
+      being left undefended, so as to allow a passage in and out of the house.
+      Bags were piled in readiness for closing this also in case of necessity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Rintoul and another lady had volunteered for a third watch on the
+      roof, so that each watch would go on duty once every twelve hours. The
+      whole of the men, therefore, were available for work below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A scattered fire was opened at the house soon after daybreak, and was kept
+      up without intermission from bushes and other cover; but the watchers on
+      the roof, seated behind the sandbags at opposite angles, were well under
+      shelter, peering out occasionally through the crevices between the bags to
+      see that no general movement was taking place among the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About midday there was a desultory discharge of firearms from the native
+      lines; and the Major, on ascending to the roof, saw a procession of
+      elephants and men approaching the camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect there are guns there,&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;and they are going to begin
+      in earnest. Ladies, you are relieved of duty at present. I expect we shall
+      be hearing from those fellows soon, and we must have someone up here who
+      can talk back to them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly the Doctor and Mr. Farquharson, who was the best shot among
+      the civilians, took the places of the ladies on the roof. Half an hour
+      later the Major went up again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have four cannon,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;There they are, on that slight
+      rise to the left of the lines. I should fancy they are about eight hundred
+      yards away. Do you see, there is a crowd gathering behind them? Our rifles
+      will carry that distance easily enough, I think. You might as well let us
+      have three or four more up here.. The two lads are both fair shots, and
+      Hunter was considered a good shikari some years ago. We can drive their
+      cannon off that rise; the farther we make them take up their post the
+      better, but even at that distance their shooting will be wild. The guns
+      are no doubt old ones, and, as likely as not, the shot won't fit. At any
+      rate, though they may trouble us, they will do no serious harm till they
+      establish a battery at pretty close quarters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major went down, and the two subalterns and Mr. Hunter joined the
+      Doctor on the roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten minutes later the boom of four guns in quick succession was heard, and
+      the party below stopped for a moment at their work as they heard the sound
+      of shot rushing through the air overhead; then came five shots in answer
+      from the parapet. Again and again the rifles spoke out, and then the
+      Doctor shouted down to those in the courtyard, &ldquo;They have had enough of it
+      already, and are bringing up the elephants to move the cannon back. Now,
+      boys,&rdquo; he said to the subalterns, &ldquo;an elephant is an easier mark than a
+      tiger; aim carefully, and blaze away as quickly as you like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For five minutes a rapid fire was kept up; then Wilson went below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Doctor asked me to tell you, sir,&rdquo; he said to the Major, &ldquo;that the
+      guns have been removed. There has been great confusion among the natives,
+      and we can see with our glasses eight or ten bodies left on the ground.
+      One of the elephants turned and went off at full speed among the crowd,
+      and we fancy some of the others were hit. There was great trouble in
+      getting them to come up to the guns. The Doctor says it is all over for
+      the present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Two other large parties with elephants were seen to come up to the native
+      lines in the course of the afternoon. The defenders of the roof had now
+      turned their attention to their foes in the gardens around, and the fire
+      thence was gradually suppressed, until by evening everything was quiet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the work of filling the sandbags was completed; the doors and
+      windows had been barricaded, and a large pile of bags lay in the inclosure
+      ready for erection at any threatened point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When the party met at dinner they were for a time somewhat silent, for all
+      were exhausted by their hard work under a blazing sun, but their spirits
+      rose under their surroundings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The native servants had laid the table with as scrupulous care as usual;
+      and, except that there was no display of flowers, no change was
+      observable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All had dressed after the work was over, and the men were in white drill,
+      and the ladies had, from custom, put on light evening gowns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cook had prepared an excellent dinner, and as the champagne went round
+      no stranger would have supposed that the party had met under unusual
+      circumstances. The Doctor and the two subalterns were unaffectedly gay,
+      and as the rest all made an effort to be cheerful, the languor that had
+      marked the commencement of the dinner soon wore off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wilson and Richards are becoming quite sportsmen,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;They
+      have tried their hands at tigers but could hardly have expected to take
+      part in elephant shooting. They can't quite settle between themselves as
+      to which it was who sent the Rajah's elephant flying among the crowd. Both
+      declare they aimed at that special beast. So, as there is no deciding the
+      point, we must consider the honor as divided.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was rather hard on us,&rdquo; Isobel said, &ldquo;to be kept working below instead
+      of being up there seeing what was going on. But I consider we quite did
+      our full share towards the defense today. My hands are quite sore with
+      sewing up the mouths of those rough bags. I think the chief honors that
+      way lie with Mrs. Rintoul. I am sure she sewed more bags than any of us. I
+      had no idea that you were such a worker, Mrs. Rintoul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I used to be a quick worker, Miss Hannay, till lately. I have not touched
+      a needle since I came out to India.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should recommend you to keep it up. Mrs. Rintoul,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;It
+      has done you more good than all my medicines. I don't believe I have
+      prescribed for you for the last month, and I haven't seen you looking so
+      well since you came out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose I have not had time to feel ill, Doctor,&rdquo; Mrs. Rintoul said,
+      with a slight smile; &ldquo;all this has been a sort of tonic.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And a very useful one, Mrs. Rintoul. We are all of us the better for a
+      little stirring up sometimes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Forster had, as usual, secured a place next to Isobel Hannay. He
+      had been near her all day, carrying the bags as he filled them to her to
+      sew up. Bathurst was sitting at the other end of the table, joining but
+      little in the conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought Bathurst was going to faint again when the firing began, Miss
+      Hannay,&rdquo; Captain Forster said, in a low voice. &ldquo;It was quite funny to see
+      him give a little start each shot that was fired, and his face was as
+      white as my jacket. I never saw such a nervous fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know he cannot help it, Captain Forster,&rdquo; Isobel said indignantly. &ldquo;I
+      don't think it is right to make fun of him for what is a great
+      misfortune.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not making fun of him, Miss Hannay. I am pitying him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It did not sound like it,&rdquo; Isobel said. &ldquo;I don't think you can understand
+      it, Captain Forster; it must be terrible to be like that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I quite agree with you there. I know I should drown myself or put a
+      bullet through my head if I could not show ordinary courage with a lot of
+      ladies going on working quietly round me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must remember that Mr. Bathurst showed plenty of courage in going out
+      among the mutineers last night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he did that very well; but you see, he talks the language so
+      thoroughly that, as he said himself, there was very little risk in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't like you to talk so, Captain Forster,&rdquo; Isobel said quietly. &ldquo;I do
+      not see much of Mr. Bathurst. I have not spoken to him half a dozen times
+      in the last month; but both my uncle and Dr. Wade have a high opinion of
+      him, and do not consider that he should be personally blamed for being
+      nervous under fire. I feel very sorry for him, and would much rather that
+      you did not make remarks like that about him. We have all our weak points,
+      and, no doubt, many of them are a good deal worse than a mere want of
+      nerve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your commands shall be obeyed, Miss Hannay. I did not know that Bathurst
+      was a protege of the Major's as well as of the estimable Doctor, or I
+      would have said nothing against him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think Mr. Bathurst is the sort of man to be anyone's protege,
+      Captain Forster,&rdquo; Isobel said coldly. &ldquo;However, I think we had better
+      change the subject.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This Captain Forster did easily and adroitly. He had no special feeling
+      against Bathurst save a contempt for his weakness; and as he had met him
+      but once or twice at the Major's since he came to the station, he had not
+      thought of him in the light of a rival.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as dinner was over Richards and one of the civilians came down from
+      the terrace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think that there is something up, Major. I can hear noises somewhere
+      near where Mr. Hunter's bungalow was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What sort of noises, Richards?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a sort of murmur, as if there were a good many men there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, gentlemen, we had better go to our posts,&rdquo; the Major said. &ldquo;Doolan,
+      please place your watch on the platforms by the wall. I will take my party
+      up onto the terrace. Doctor, will you bring up some of those rockets you
+      made the other day? We must try and find out what they are doing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he gained the terrace with his party, the Major requested
+      everyone to remain perfectly still, and going forward to the parapet
+      listened intently. In three or four minutes he returned to the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a considerable body of men at work there,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can hear
+      muffled sounds like digging, and once or twice a sharp click, as if a
+      spade struck a stone. I am very much afraid they are throwing up a battery
+      there. I was in hopes they would have begun in the open, because we could
+      have commanded the approaches; but if they begin among the trees, they can
+      come in and out without our seeing them, and bring up their guns by the
+      road without our being able to interfere with them. Mr. Bathurst, will you
+      take down word to Captain Doolan to put his men on the platforms on that
+      side. Tell him that I am going to throw up a rocket, as I believe they are
+      erecting a battery near Hunter's bungalow, and that his men are to be
+      ready to give them a volley if they can make them out. Tell them not to
+      expose themselves too much; for if they really are at work there no doubt
+      they have numbers of men posted in the shrubs all about to keep down our
+      fire. Now, gentlemen, we will all lie down by the parapet. Take those
+      spare rifles, and fire as quickly as you can while the light of the rocket
+      lasts. Now, Mr. Wilson, we will get you to send them up. The rest of you
+      had better get in the corner and stoop down behind the sandbags; you can
+      lay your rifles on them, so as to be able to fire as soon as you have lit
+      the second rocket.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor soon came up with the rockets; he had made three dozen the week
+      before, and a number of blue lights, for the special purpose of detecting
+      any movement that the enemy might make at night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will fire them myself,&rdquo; he said, as Wilson offered to take them. &ldquo;I
+      have had charge of the fireworks in a score of fetes and that sort of
+      thing, and am a pretty good hand at it. There, we will lean them against
+      the sandbags. That is about it. Now, are you all ready, Major?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All ready!&rdquo; replied the Major.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor placed the end of his lighted cheroot against the touch paper,
+      there was a momentary pause, then a rushing sound, and the rocket soared
+      high in the air, and then burst, throwing out four or five white
+      fireballs, which lit up clearly the spot they were watching.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There they are!&rdquo; the Major exclaimed; &ldquo;just to the right of the bungalow;
+      there are scores of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The rifles, both from the terrace and the platforms below, cracked out in
+      rapid succession, and another rocket flew up into the air and burst.
+      Before its light had faded out, each of the defenders had fired his four
+      shots. Shouts and cries from the direction in which they fired showed that
+      many of the bullets had told, whilst almost immediately a sharp fire broke
+      out from the bushes round them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't mind the fellows in the shrubs,&rdquo; the Major said, &ldquo;but keep up your
+      fire on the battery. We know its exact position now, though we cannot
+      actually make them out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let them wait while I go down and get a bit of phosphorus,&rdquo; the Doctor
+      said. &ldquo;I have some in the surgery. They will only throw away their fire in
+      the dark without it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He soon returned, and when all the fore and back sights had been rubbed by
+      the phosphorus the firing recommenced, and the Doctor sent Wilson down
+      with the phosphorus to the men on the platforms facing the threatened
+      point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst was returning, after having given the message to Captain Doolan,
+      when Mrs. Hunter met him in the passage. She put her hand kindly on his
+      shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Mr. Bathurst, if you will take my advice you will remain quietly
+      here. The Doctor tells me they are going to open fire, and it is not the
+      least use your going there exposing yourself to be shot when you know that
+      you will be of no use. You showed us yesterday that you could be of use in
+      other ways, and I have no doubt you will have opportunities of doing so
+      again. I can assure you none of us will think any the worse of you for not
+      being able to struggle against a nervous affliction that gives you
+      infinite pain. If they were attacking it would be different; I know you
+      would be wanting to take your share then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, Mrs. Hunter,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I must go up. I grant that I shall
+      be of no use, but at least I will take any chance that the others run of
+      being shot. A man does not flinch from a painful operation, and, whatever
+      the pain, it has to be faced. I may get used to it in time; but whether I
+      do or not I must go through it, though I do not say it doesn't hurt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment the rattle of musketry broke out above. Bathurst gave a
+      violent start, and a low cry as of pain; then he rushed past Mrs. Hunter
+      and up the staircase to the terrace, when he staggered rather than walked
+      forward to the parapet, and threw himself down beside two figures who were
+      in the act of firing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that you, Bathurst?&rdquo; the Major's voice asked. &ldquo;Mind, man, don't lift
+      your head above the sandbags in that way. There, you had best lie quiet;
+      the natives have no idea of attacking, and it is of no use throwing away
+      valuable ammunition by firing unless your hand is steady.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Bathurst did not hear, and remained with his head above the line of
+      sandbags until the Major put his hand on his shoulder and forced him down.
+      He might have put his hands over his ears to deaden the sound&mdash;for in
+      the darkness no one would have seen the action&mdash;but he would not do
+      so, but with clenched teeth and quivering nerves lay there until the Major
+      said, &ldquo;I fancy we have stopped them working. Now, Doctor, do you, Hunter,
+      Bathurst, and Farquharson go and lie down for four hours, when I will send
+      for you to take our places. Before you lie down will you tell Doolan to
+      send half his party in? Of course you will lie down in your clothes, ready
+      to fall in at your posts at a moment's notice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me send another rocket up first, Major, to see what they are doing.
+      We can sleep tomorrow in the daytime; they won't dare to work under our
+      fire then. Now, get ready, gentlemen, and don't throw away a shot, if they
+      are still working there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The light of the rocket showed that there were now no natives at the spot
+      where they had been seen at work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought it would be too hot for them, Major, at such close quarters as
+      these. We must have played the mischief with them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All the better, Doctor; we will send a few shots there occasionally to
+      show them we have not forgotten them. But the principal thing will be to
+      keep our ears open to see that they don't bring up ladders and try a
+      rush.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think there is no fear of that tonight, Major. They would not have set
+      to work at the battery if they had any idea of trying to scale the wall
+      with ladders. That will come later on; but I don't think you will be
+      troubled any more tonight, except by these fellows firing away from the
+      bushes, and I should think they would get tired of wasting their
+      ammunition soon. It is fortunate we brought all the spare ammunition in
+      here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, they only had ten rounds of ball cartridge, and that must be nearly
+      used up by this time. They will have to make up their cartridges in
+      future, and cast their bullets, unless they can get a supply from some of
+      the other mutineers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you will send for us in four hours, Major?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need not be afraid of my forgetting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dawn was just breaking when the relief were called up; the firing had died
+      away, and all was quiet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will take command here, Rintoul,&rdquo; the Major said. &ldquo;I should keep
+      Farquharson up here, if I were you, and leave the Doctor and Bathurst to
+      look after things in general. I think, Doctor, it would be as well if we
+      appointed Bathurst in charge of the general arrangements of the house. We
+      have a good amount of stores, but the servants will waste them if they are
+      not looked after. I should put them on rations, Bathurst; and there might
+      be regular rations of things served out for us too; then it would fall in
+      your province to see that the syces water and feed the horses. You will
+      examine the well regularly, and note whether there is any change in the
+      look of the water. I think you will find plenty to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, Major,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;I appreciate your kindness, and for
+      the present, at any rate, will gladly undertake the work of looking after
+      the stores and servants; but there is one thing I have been thinking of,
+      and which I should like to speak to you about at once, if you could spare
+      a minute or two before you turn in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that, Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think that we are agreed, Major, that though we may hold this place for
+      a time, sooner or later we must either surrender or the place be carried
+      by storm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Major Hannay nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is what it must come to, Bathurst. If they will at last grant us
+      terms, well and good; if not, we must either try to escape or die
+      fighting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is about the escape I have been thinking, Major; as our position grows
+      more and more desperate they will close round us, and although we might
+      have possibly got through last night, our chances of doing so when they
+      have once broken into the inclosure and begin to attack the house itself
+      are very slight. A few of us who can speak the language well might
+      possibly in disguise get away, but it would be impossible for the bulk of
+      us to do so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I quite see that, Bathurst.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My proposal is, Major, that we should begin at once to mine; that is, to
+      drive a gallery from the cellar, and to carry it on steadily as far as we
+      can. I should say that we have ten days or a fortnight before us before
+      matters get to an extremity, and in that time we ought to be able to get,
+      working night and day, from fifty to a hundred yards beyond the wall,
+      aiming at a clump of bushes. There is a large one in Farquharson's
+      compound, about a hundred yards off. Then, when things get to the worst,
+      we can work upwards, and come out on a dark night. We might leave a long
+      fuse burning in the magazine, so that there should be an explosion an hour
+      or two after we had left. There is enough powder there to bring the house
+      down, and the Sepoys might suppose that we had all been buried in the
+      ruins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think the idea is a very good one, Bathurst. What do you think,
+      Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Capital,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;It is a light sandy soil, and we should be
+      able to get through it at a pretty good rate. How many can work together,
+      do you think, Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should say two of us in each shift, to drive, and, if necessary, prop
+      the roof, with some of the natives to carry out the earth. If we have
+      three shifts, each shift would go on twice in the twenty-four hours; that
+      would be four hours on and eight hours off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you take charge of the operation, Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With pleasure, Major.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well then. You shall have with you Wilson and Richards and the three
+      youngest of the civilians, Saunderson, Austin, and Herbert. You six will
+      be relieved from other duty except when the enemy threaten an attack. I
+      will put down Saunderson and Austin together. Which of the others would
+      you like to have with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will take Wilson, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, then, Richards and Herbert will make the third party. After
+      breakfast we can pick out the twelve strongest of the natives. I will tell
+      them that they have to work, but that they will be each paid half a rupee
+      a day in addition to their ordinary wages. Then you will give a general
+      supervision to the work, Bathurst, in addition to your own share in it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly, Major, I will take general charge of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So at breakfast the Major explained the plan agreed upon. The five men
+      chosen at once expressed their willingness to undertake the work, and the
+      offer of half a rupee extra a day was sufficient to induce twelve of the
+      servants to volunteer for it. The Major went down to the cellars and fixed
+      upon the spot at which the work should begin; and Bathurst and Wilson,
+      taking some of the intrenching tools from the storeroom, began to break
+      through the wall without delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I like this,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;It is a thousand times better than sitting up
+      there waiting till they choose to make an attack. How wide shall we make
+      it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As narrow as we can for one to pass along at a time,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;The
+      narrower it is, the less trouble we shall have with the roof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But only one will be able to work at a time in that case.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will be quite enough,&rdquo;. Bathurst said. &ldquo;It will be hot work and
+      hard. We will relieve each other every five minutes or so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A very short time sufficed to break through the wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank goodness, it is earth,&rdquo; Wilson said, thrusting a crowbar through
+      the opening as soon as it was made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had no fear of its being rock, Wilson. If it had been, they would not
+      have taken the trouble to have walled the sides of the cellar. The soil is
+      very deep all over here. The natives have to line their wells thirty or
+      forty feet down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The enemy were quiet all day, but the garrison thought it likely that,
+      warned by the lesson of the night before, they were erecting a battery
+      some distance farther back, masked by the trees, and that until it was
+      ready to open fire they would know nothing about it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you have turned miner, Mr. Wilson?&rdquo; Isobel Hannay said to him as,
+      after a change and a bath, he came in to get his lunch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I calculate I have lost half a stone in weight, Miss Hannay. If I were to
+      go on at this for a month or two there would be nothing left of me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how far did you drive the hole?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gallery, Miss Hannay; please call it a gallery, it sounds so much better.
+      We got in five yards. I should hardly have believed it possible, but
+      Bathurst is a tremendous fellow to work. He uses a pick as if he had been
+      a sapper all his life. We kept the men pretty hard at work, I can tell
+      you, carrying up the earth. Richards is at work now, and I bet him five
+      rupees that he and Herbert don't drive as far as we did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is not much use in betting now, Mr. Wilson,&rdquo; Isobel said sadly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I suppose not, Miss Hannay; but it gives a sort of interest to one's
+      work. I have blistered my hands horribly, but I suppose they will get hard
+      in a day or two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish we could work at something,&rdquo; Isobel said. &ldquo;Now that we have
+      finished with the bags and bandages, the time seems very long; the only
+      thing there is to do is to play with the children and try to keep them
+      good; it is fortunate there is a bit of garden for them to play in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not much of a garden, Miss Hannay. We had something like a garden
+      when I was a boy at home; the governor's is a jolly old rectory, with a
+      splendid garden. What fun we used to have there when I was a young one! I
+      wonder what the dear old governor and mater would say if they knew the fix
+      we were in here. You know, sometimes I think that Forster's plan was the
+      best, and that it would be better to try and make a dash through them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are in your way, Mr. Wilson; you wouldn't be able to do much fighting
+      if you had one of us clinging to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know, Miss Hannay,&rdquo; Wilson said quietly, &ldquo;what my fighting powers
+      are, but I fancy if you were clinging to me I could cut my way through a
+      good deal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure you would do anything that anyone could do,&rdquo; the girl said
+      kindly; &ldquo;but whatever you might feel, having another person behind you
+      could not but hamper you awfully. I would infinitely rather try to escape
+      on foot, for then I should be relying on myself, while if I was riding
+      behind anyone, and we were pursued or attacked, I should feel all the time
+      I was destroying his chances, and that if it were not for me he would get
+      away. That would be terrible. I don't know whether we were wise to stay
+      here instead of trying to escape at once; but as uncle and Mr. Hunter and
+      the others all thought it wiser to stay, I have no doubt it was; but I am
+      quite sure that it could not have been a good plan to go off like that on
+      horseback.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another day passed quietly, and then during the night the watch heard the
+      sounds of blows with axes, and of falling trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are clearing the ground in front of their battery,&rdquo; the Major, who
+      was on the watch with his party, said; &ldquo;it will begin in earnest tomorrow
+      morning. The sound came from just where we expected. It is about in the
+      same line as where they made their first attempt, but a hundred yards or
+      so further back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At daylight they saw that the trees and bushes had been leveled, and a
+      battery, with embrazures for six guns, erected at a distance of about four
+      hundred yards from the house. More sandbags were at once brought up from
+      below, and the parapet, on the side facing the battery, raised two feet
+      and doubled in thickness. The garrison were not disturbed while so
+      engaged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why the deuce don't the fellows begin?&rdquo; Captain Forster said impatiently,
+      as he stood looking over the parapet when the work was finished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect they are waiting for the Rajah and some of the principal
+      Zemindars to come down,&rdquo; replied the Major; &ldquo;the guns are theirs, you see,
+      and will most likely be worked by their own followers. No doubt they think
+      they will knock the place to pieces in a few minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen! there is music; they are coming in grand state. Rintoul, will you
+      tell the workers in the mine to come up. By the way, who are at work now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bathurst and Wilson, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then tell Wilson to come up, and request Bathurst to go on with the
+      gallery. Tell him I want that pushed forward as fast as possible, and that
+      one gun will not make much difference here. Request the ladies and
+      children to go down into the storeroom for the present. I don't think the
+      balls will go through the wall, but it is as well to be on the safe side.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Rintoul delivered his message to the ladies. They had already
+      heard that the battery had been unmasked and was ready to open fire, and
+      lamps had been placed in the storeroom in readiness for them. There were
+      pale faces among them, but their thoughts were of those on the roof rather
+      than of themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hunter took up the Bible she had been reading, and said, &ldquo;Tell them,
+      Captain Rintoul, we shall be praying for them.&rdquo; The ladies went into the
+      room that served as a nursery, and with the ayahs and other female
+      servants carried the children down into the storeroom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would much rather be up there,&rdquo; Isobel said to Mrs. Doolan; &ldquo;we could
+      load the muskets for them, and I don't think it would be anything like so
+      bad if we could see what was going on as being cooped up below fancying
+      the worst all the time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I quite agree with you, but men never will get to understand women.
+      Perhaps before we are done they will recognize the fact that we are no
+      more afraid than they are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The music was heard approaching along the road where the bungalows had
+      stood. Presently a number of flags were raised in the battery amid a great
+      beating of drums. On the previous day a flagstaff had been erected on the
+      roof, and a Union Jack was run up in answer to the enemy's demonstration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A cheer for the old flag, lads,&rdquo; the Major said; and a hearty cheer broke
+      from the little party on the roof, where, with the exception of Bathurst,
+      all the garrison were assembled. The cheer was answered by a yell from the
+      natives not only in the battery, but from the gardens and inclosures round
+      the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pay no attention to the fellows in the gardens,&rdquo; the Major said; &ldquo;fire at
+      their guns&mdash;they must expose themselves to load.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The men were kneeling behind the parapet, where the sandbags had been so
+      arranged that they could see through between those on the upper line, and
+      thus fire without raising their heads above it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we wait for them or fire first, Major?&rdquo; the Doctor asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect the guns are loaded and laid, Doctor; but if you see a head
+      looking along them, by all means take a shot at it. I wish we could see
+      down into the battery itself, but it is too high for that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor lay looking along his rifle. Presently he fired, and as if it
+      had been the signal five cannon boomed out almost at the same moment, the
+      other being fired a quarter of a minute later. Three of the shot struck
+      the house below the parapet, the others went overhead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hit my man,&rdquo; the Doctor said, as he thrust another rifle through the
+      loophole. &ldquo;Now, we will see if we can keep them from loading.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Simultaneously with the roar of the cannon a rattle of musketry broke out
+      on three sides of the house, and a hail of bullets whistled over the heads
+      of the defenders, who opened a steady fire at the embrasures of the guns.
+      These had been run in, and the natives could be seen loading them. The
+      Major examined the work through a pair of field glasses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are doing well,&rdquo; he said presently; &ldquo;I have seen several of them
+      fall, and there is a lot of confusion among them; they will soon get tired
+      of that game.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Slowly and irregularly the guns were run out again, and the fire of the
+      defenders was redoubled to prevent them from taking aim. Only one shot hit
+      the house this time, the others all going overhead. The fire of the enemy
+      became slower and more irregular, and at the end of an hour ceased almost
+      entirely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doctor,&rdquo; the Major said, &ldquo;I will get you and Farquharson to turn your
+      attention to some fellows there are in that high tree over there. They
+      command us completely, and many of their bullets have struck on the
+      terrace behind us. It would not be safe to move across to the stairs now.
+      I think we have pretty well silenced the battery for the present. Here are
+      my glasses. With them you can easily make out the fellows among the
+      leaves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see them,&rdquo; the Doctor said, handing the glasses to Farquharson; &ldquo;we
+      will soon get them out of that. Now, Farquharson, you take that fellow out
+      on the lower branch to the right; I will take the one close to the trunk
+      on the same branch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Laying their rifles on the upper row of sandbags, the two men took a
+      steady aim. They fired almost together, and two bodies were seen to fall
+      from the tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well shot!&rdquo; the Major exclaimed. &ldquo;There are something like a dozen of
+      them up there; but they will soon clear out if you keep that up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are not more than two hundred yards away,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;and
+      firing from a rest we certainly ought not to miss them at that distance.
+      Give me the glasses again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A similar success attended the next two shots, and then a number of
+      figures were seen hastily climbing down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give them a volley, gentlemen,&rdquo; the Major said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A dozen guns were fired, and three more men dropped, and an angry yell
+      from the natives answered the shout of triumph from the garrison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you go down, Mr. Hunter, and tell the ladies that we have silenced
+      the guns for the present, and that no one has received a scratch? Now, let
+      us see what damage their balls have effected.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was found to be trifling. The stonework of the house was strong, and
+      the guns were light. The stonework of one of the windows was broken, and
+      two or three stones in the wall cracked. One ball had entered a window,
+      torn its way through two inner walls, and lay against the back wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a four pound ball,&rdquo; the Major said, taking it up. &ldquo;I fancy the guns
+      are seven pounders. They have evidently no balls to fit, which accounts
+      for the badness of their firing and the little damage they did; with so
+      much windage the balls can have had but small velocity. Well, that is a
+      satisfactory beginning, gentlemen; they will take a long time to knock the
+      place about our ears at this rate. Now we will see if we cannot clear them
+      out of the gardens. Captain Doolan, will you take the glasses and watch
+      the battery; if you see any movement about the guns, the fire will be
+      reopened at once; until then all will devote their attention to those
+      fellows among the bushes; it is important to teach them that they are not
+      safe there, for a chance ball might come in between the sandbags. Each of
+      you pick out a particular bush, and watch it till you see the exact
+      position in which anyone firing from it must be in, and then try to
+      silence him. Don't throw away a shot if you can help it. We have a good
+      stock of ammunition, but it is as well not to waste it. I will leave you
+      in command at present, Doolan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Major Hannay then went down to the storeroom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have come to relieve you from your confinement, ladies,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I am
+      glad to say that we find their balls will not penetrate the walls of the
+      house alone, and there is therefore no fear whatever of their passing
+      through them and the garden wall together; therefore, as long as the wall
+      is intact, there is no reason whatever why you should not remain on the
+      floor above.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general exclamation of pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will be vastly better, uncle,&rdquo; Isobel said; &ldquo;it is hateful being
+      hidden away down here when we have nothing to do but to listen to the
+      firing; we don't see why some of us should not go up on the terrace to
+      load the rifles for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at present, Isobel; we are not pressed yet. When it comes to a real
+      attack it will be time to consider about that. I don't think any of us
+      would shoot straighter if there were women right up among us in danger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't at all see why it should be worse our being in danger than for
+      you men, Major,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said; &ldquo;we have just as much at stake, and
+      more; and I warn you I shall organize a female mutiny if we are not
+      allowed to help.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Mrs. Doolan, I shall have to convert this storeroom into a prison,
+      and all who defy my authority will be immured here, so now you know the
+      consequence of disobedience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And has no one been hurt with all that firing, Major Hannay?&rdquo; Mary Hunter
+      asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A good many people have been hurt, Miss Hunter, but no one on our side. I
+      fancy we must have made it very hot for those at the guns, and the Doctor
+      and Mr. Farquharson have been teaching them not to climb trees. At present
+      that firing you hear is against those who are hiding in the gardens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour later the firing ceased altogether, the natives finding the fire
+      of the defenders so deadly that they no longer dared, by discharging a
+      rifle, to show where they were hiding. They had drawn off from the more
+      distant clumps and bushes, but dared not try and crawl from those nearer
+      the house until after nightfall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning it was found that during the night the enemy had closed
+      up their embrasures, leaving only openings sufficiently large for the
+      muzzles of the guns to be thrust through, and soon after daybreak they
+      renewed their fire. The Doctor and Mr. Farquharson alone remained on the
+      roof, and throughout the day they kept up a steady fire at these openings
+      whenever the guns were withdrawn. Several of the sandbags were knocked off
+      the parapet during the course of the day, and a few shot found their way
+      through the walls of the upper story, but beyond this no damage was done.
+      The mining was kept up with great vigor, and the gallery advanced rapidly,
+      the servants finding it very hard work to remove the earth as fast as the
+      miners brought it down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Forster offered to go out with three others at night to try and
+      get into the battery and spike the guns, but Major Hannay would not permit
+      the attempt to be made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We know they have several other guns,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and the risk would be
+      altogether too great, for there would be practically no chance of your
+      getting back and being drawn up over the wall before you were overtaken,
+      even if you succeeded in spiking the guns. There are probably a hundred
+      men sleeping in the battery, and it is likely they would have sentries out
+      in front of it. The loss of four men would seriously weaken the garrison.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning another battery to the left was unmasked, and on the
+      following day three guns were planted, under cover, so as to play against
+      the gate. The first battery now concentrated its fire upon the outer wall,
+      the new battery played upon the upper part of the house, and the three
+      guns kept up a steady fire at the gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was little rest for the besieged now. It was a constant duel between
+      their rifles and the guns, varied by their occasionally turning their
+      attention to men who climbed trees, or who, from the roofs of some
+      buildings still standing, endeavored to keep down their fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wilson had been released from his labors in the gallery, Bathurst
+      undertaking to get down the earth single handed as fast as the servants
+      could remove it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never saw such a fellow to work, Miss Hannay,&rdquo; Wilson said one day,
+      when he was off duty, and happened to find her working alone at some
+      bandages. &ldquo;I know you don't like him, but he is a first rate fellow if
+      there ever was one. It is unlucky for him being so nervous at the guns;
+      but that is no fault of his, after all, and I am sure in other things he
+      is as cool as possible. Yesterday I was standing close to him, shoving the
+      earth back to the men as he got it down. Suddenly he shouted, 'Run,
+      Wilson, the roof is coming down!' I could not help bolting a few yards,
+      for the earth came pattering down as he spoke; then I looked round and saw
+      him standing there, by the light of the lamp, like those figures you see
+      holding up pillars; I forget what they call them&mdash;catydigs, or
+      something of that sort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Caryatides,&rdquo; Isobel put in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that is the name. Some timber had given way above him, and he was
+      holding it up with his arms. I should say that there must have been half a
+      ton of it, and he said, as quietly as possible, 'Get two of those short
+      poles, Wilson, and put up one on each side of me. I can hold it a bit, but
+      don't be longer than you can help about it.' I managed to shove up the
+      timber, so that he could slip out before it came down. It would have
+      crushed us both to a certainty if he had not held it up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you say you know I don't like Mr. Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't exactly know, Miss Hannay, but I have noticed you are the only
+      lady who does not chat with him. I don't think I have seen you speak to
+      him since we have come in here. I am sorry, because I like him very much,
+      and I don't care for Forster at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has Captain Forster to do with it?&rdquo; Isobel asked, somewhat
+      indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, nothing at all, Miss Hannay, only, you know, Bathurst used to be a
+      good deal at the Major's before Forster came, and then after that I never
+      met him there except on that evening before he came in here. Now you know,
+      Miss Hannay,&rdquo; he went on earnestly, &ldquo;what I think about you. I have not
+      been such an ass as to suppose I ever had a chance, though you know I
+      would lay down my life for you willingly; but I did not seem to mind
+      Bathurst. I know he is an awfully good fellow, and would have made you
+      very happy; but I don't feel like that with Forster. There is nothing in
+      the world that I should like better than to punch his head; and when I see
+      that a fellow like that has cut Bathurst out altogether it makes me so
+      savage sometimes that I have to go and smoke a pipe outside so as not to
+      break out and have a row with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You ought not to talk so, Mr. Wilson. It is very wrong. You have no right
+      to say that anyone has cut anyone else out as far as I am concerned. I
+      know you are all fond of me in a brotherly sort of way, and I like you
+      very much; but that gives you no right to say such things about other
+      people. Mr. Bathurst ceased his visits not because of Captain Forster but
+      from another reason altogether; and certainly I have neither said nor done
+      anything that would justify your saying that Captain Forster had cut Mr.
+      Bathurst out. Even if I had, you ought not to have alluded to such a
+      thing. I am not angry with you,&rdquo; she said, seeing how downcast he looked;
+      &ldquo;but you must not talk like that any more; it would be wrong at any time;
+      it is specially so now, when we are all shut up here together, and none
+      can say what will happen to us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seemed to me that was just the reason why I could speak about it, Miss
+      Hannay. We may none of us get out of this fix we are in, and I do think we
+      ought all to be friends together now. Richards and I both agreed that as
+      it was certain neither of us had a chance of winning you, the next best
+      thing was to see you and Bathurst come together. Well, now all that's
+      over, of course, but is it wrong for me to ask, how is it you have come to
+      dislike him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I don't dislike him, Mr. Wilson.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, why do you go on as if you didn't like him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel hesitated. From most men she would have considered the question
+      impertinent, and would have resented it, but this frank faced boy meant no
+      impertinence; he loved her in his honest way, and only wanted to see her
+      happy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't speak to him if he doesn't speak to me,&rdquo; she said desperately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, of course not,&rdquo; he agreed; &ldquo;but why shouldn't he speak to you? You
+      can't have done anything to offend him except taking up with Forster.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is nothing to do with Captain Forster at all, Mr. Wilson; I&mdash;&rdquo;
+       and she hesitated. &ldquo;I said something at which he had the right to feel
+      hurt and offended, and he has never given me any opportunity since of
+      saying that I was sorry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure you would not have said anything that he should have been
+      offended about, Miss Hannay; it is not your nature, and I would not
+      believe it whoever told me, not even yourself; so he must be in fault,
+      and, of course, I have nothing more to say about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He wasn't in fault at all, Mr. Wilson. I can't tell you what I said, but
+      it was very wrong and thoughtless on my part, and I have been sorry for it
+      ever since; and he has a perfect right to be hurt and not to come near me,
+      especially as&rdquo;&mdash;and she hesitated&mdash;&ldquo;as I have acted badly since,
+      and he has no reason for supposing that I am sorry. And now you must not
+      ask me any more about it; I don't know why I have said as much to you as I
+      have, only I know I can trust you, and I like you very much, though I
+      could never like you in the sort of way you would want me to. I wish you
+      didn't like me like that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, never mind me,&rdquo; he said earnestly. &ldquo;I am all right, Miss Hannay; I
+      never expected anything, you know, so I am not disappointed, and it has
+      been awfully good of you talking to me as you have, and not getting mad
+      with me for interfering. But I can hear them coming down from the terrace,
+      and I must be off. I am on duty there, you know, now. Bathurst has
+      undertaken double work in that hole. I didn't like it, really; it seemed
+      mean to be getting out of the work and letting him do it all, but he said
+      that he liked work, and I really think he does. I am sure he is always
+      worrying himself because he can't take his share in the firing on the
+      roof; and when he is working he hasn't time to think about it. When he
+      told me that in future he would drive the tunnel our shift himself, he
+      said, 'That will enable you to take your place on the roof, Wilson, and
+      you must remember you are firing for both of us, so don't throw away a
+      shot.' It is awfully rough on him, isn't it? Well, goodby, Miss Hannay,&rdquo;
+       and Wilson hurried off to the roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The next four days made a great alteration in the position of the
+      defenders in the fortified house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The upper story was now riddled by balls, the parapet round the terrace
+      had been knocked away in several places, the gate was in splinters; but as
+      the earth from the tunnel had been all emptied against the sandbags, it
+      had grown to such a thickness that the defense was still good here. But in
+      the wall, against which one of the new batteries had steadily directed its
+      fire, there was a yawning gap, which was hourly increasing in size, and
+      would ere long be practicable for assault. Many of the shots passing
+      through this had struck the house itself. Some of these had penetrated,
+      and the room in the line of fire could no longer be used.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There had been several casualties. The young civilian Herbert had been
+      killed by a shot that struck the parapet just where he was lying. Captain
+      Rintoul had been seriously wounded, two of the natives had been killed by
+      the first shot which penetrated the lower room. Mr. Hunter was prostrate
+      with fever, the result of exposure to the sun, and several others had
+      received wounds more or less severe from fragments of stone; but the fire
+      of the defenders was as steady as at first, and the loss of the natives
+      working the guns was severe, and they no longer ventured to fire from the
+      gardens and shrubberies round the walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fatigue, watching, still more the heat on the terrace, was telling heavily
+      upon the strength of the garrison. The ladies went about their work
+      quietly and almost silently. The constant anxiety and the confinement in
+      the darkened rooms were telling upon them too. Several of the children
+      were ill; and when not employed in other things, there were fresh sandbags
+      to be made by the women, to take the place of those damaged by the enemy's
+      shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When, of an evening, a portion of the defenders came off duty, there was
+      more talk and conversation, as all endeavored to keep up a good face and
+      assume a confidence they were far from feeling. The Doctor was perhaps the
+      most cheery of the party. During the daytime he was always on the roof,
+      and his rifle seldom cracked in vain. In the evening he attended to his
+      patients, talked cheerily to the ladies, and laughed and joked over the
+      events of the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      None among the ladies showed greater calmness and courage than Mrs.
+      Rintoul, and not a word was ever heard from the time the siege began of
+      her ailments or inconveniences. She was Mrs. Hunter's best assistant with
+      the sick children. Even after her husband was wounded, and her attention
+      night and day was given to him, she still kept on patiently and firmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know how to admire Mrs. Rintoul enough,&rdquo; Mrs. Hunter said to
+      Isobel Hannay one day; &ldquo;formerly I had no patience with her, she was
+      always querulous and grumbling; now she has turned out a really noble
+      woman. One never knows people, my dear, till one sees them in trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everyone is nice,&rdquo; Isobel said. &ldquo;I have hardly heard a word of complaint
+      about anything since we came here, and everyone seems to help others and
+      do little kindnesses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The enemy's fire had been very heavy all that day, and the breach in the
+      wall had been widened, and the garrison felt certain that the enemy would
+      attack on the following morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You and Farquharson, Doctor, must stop on the roof,&rdquo; the Major said. &ldquo;In
+      the first place, it is possible they may try to attack by ladders at some
+      other point, and we shall want two good shots up there to keep them back;
+      and in the second, if they do force the breach, we shall want you to cover
+      our retreat into the house. I will get a dozen rifles for each of you
+      loaded and in readiness. Isobel and Mary Hunter, who have both volunteered
+      over and over again, shall go up to load; they have both practiced, and
+      can load quickly. Of course if you see that the enemy are not attacking at
+      any other point, you will help us at the breach by keeping up a steady
+      fire on them, but always keep six guns each in reserve. I shall blow my
+      whistle as a signal for us to retire to the house if I find we can hold
+      the breach no longer, so when you hear that blaze away at them as fast as
+      you can. Your twelve shots will check them long enough to give us time to
+      get in and fasten the door. We shall be round the corner of the house
+      before they can get fairly over the breastwork. We will set to work to
+      raise that as soon as it gets dark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A breastwork of sandbags had already been erected behind the breach, in
+      case the enemy should make a sudden rush, and a couple of hours' labor
+      transformed this into a strong work; for the bags were already filled, and
+      only needed placing in position. When completed, it extended in a
+      horseshoe shape, some fifteen feet across, behind the gap in the wall. For
+      nine feet from the ground it was composed of sandbags three deep, and a
+      single line was then laid along the edge to serve as a parapet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think they will get over that,&rdquo; the Major said, when the work was
+      finished. &ldquo;I doubt if they will be disposed even to try when they reach
+      the breach.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Before beginning their work they had cleared away all the fallen brickwork
+      from behind the breach, and a number of bricks were laid on the top of the
+      sandbags to be used as missiles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A brick is as good as a musket ball at this distance,&rdquo; the Major said;
+      &ldquo;and when our guns are empty we can take to them; there are enough spare
+      rifles for us to have five each, and, with those and our revolvers and the
+      bricks, we ought to be able to account for an army. There are some of the
+      servants and syces who can be trusted to load. They can stand down behind
+      us, and we can pass our guns down to them as we empty them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Each man had his place on the work assigned to him. Bathurst, who had
+      before told the Major that when the time came for an assault to be
+      delivered he was determined to take his place in the breach, was placed at
+      one end of the horseshoe where it touched the wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't promise to be of much use, Major,&rdquo; he said quietly. &ldquo;I know
+      myself too well; but at least I can run my chance of being killed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major had put Wilson next to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think there is much chance of their storming the work, Wilson;
+      but if they do, you catch hold of Bathurst's arm, and drag him away when
+      you hear me whistle; the chances are a hundred to one against his hearing
+      it, or remembering what it means if he does hear it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, Major, I will look to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Four men remained on guard at the breach all night, and at the first gleam
+      of daylight the garrison took up their posts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now mind, my dears,&rdquo; the Doctor said, as he and Farquharson went up on
+      the terrace with Isobel and Mary Hunter; &ldquo;you must do exactly as you are
+      told, or you will be doing more harm than good, for Farquharson and I
+      would not be able to pay attention to our shooting. You must lie down and
+      remain perfectly quiet till we begin to fire, then keep behind us just so
+      far that you can reach the guns as we hand them back to you after firing;
+      and you must load them either kneeling or sitting down, so that you don't
+      expose your heads above the thickest part of the breastwork. When you have
+      loaded, push the guns back well to the right of us, but so that we can
+      reach them. Then, if one of them goes off, there won't be any chance of
+      our being hit. The garrison can't afford to throw away a life at present.
+      You will, of course, only half cock them; still, it is as well to provide
+      against accidents.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Both the girls were pale, but they were quiet and steady. The Doctor saw
+      they were not likely to break down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a rum looking weapon you have got there, Bathurst,&rdquo; Wilson said,
+      as, after carrying down the spare guns and placing them ready for firing,
+      they lay down in their positions on the sandbags. The weapon was a native
+      one, and was a short mace, composed of a bar of iron about fifteen inches
+      long, with a knob of the same metal, studded with spikes. The bar was
+      covered with leather to break the jar, and had a loop to put the hand
+      through at the end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; Bathurst said quietly; &ldquo;I picked it up at one of the native shops
+      in Cawnpore the last time I was there. I had no idea then that I might
+      ever have to use it, and bought it rather as a curiosity; but I have kept
+      it within reach of my bedside since these troubles began, and I don't
+      think one could want a better weapon at close quarters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it is a tremendous thing; and after the way I have seen you using
+      that pick I should not like to be within reach of your arm with that mace
+      in it. I don't think there is much chance of your wanting that. I have no
+      fear of the natives getting over here this time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no fear of the natives at all,&rdquo; Bathurst said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am only afraid of myself. At present I am just as cool as if there was
+      not a native within a thousand miles, and I am sure that my pulse is not
+      going a beat faster than usual. I can think of the whole thing and
+      calculate the chances as calmly as if it were an affair in which I was in
+      no way concerned. It is not danger that I fear in the slightest, it is
+      that horrible noise. I know well enough that the moment the firing begins
+      I shall be paralyzed. My only hope is that at the last moment, if it comes
+      to hand to hand fighting, I shall get my nerve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no doubt you will,&rdquo; Wilson said warmly; &ldquo;and when you do I would
+      back you at long odds against any of us. Ah, they are beginning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke there was a salvo of all the guns on the three Sepoy
+      batteries. Then a roar of musketry broke out round the house, and above it
+      could be heard loud shouts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are coming, Major,&rdquo; the Doctor shouted down from the roof; &ldquo;the
+      Sepoys are leading, and there is a crowd of natives behind them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Those lying in the middle of the curve of the horseshoe soon caught sight
+      of the enemy advancing tumultuously towards the breach. The Major had
+      ordered that not a shot was to be fired until they reached it, and it was
+      evident that the silence of the besieged awed the assailants with a sense
+      of unknown danger, for their pace slackened, and when they got to within
+      fifty yards of the breach they paused and opened fire. Then, urged forward
+      by their officers and encouraged by their own noise, they again rushed
+      forward. Two of their officers led the way; and as these mounted the
+      little heap of rubbish at the foot of the breach, two rifles cracked out
+      from the terrace, and both fell dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a yell of fury from the Sepoys, and then they poured in through
+      the breach. Those in front tried to stop as they saw the trap into which
+      they were entering, but pressed on by those behind they were forced
+      forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now a crackling fire of musketry broke out from the rifles projecting
+      between the sandbags into the crowded mass. Every shot told. Wild shrieks,
+      yells, and curses rose from the assailants. Some tried madly to climb up
+      the sandbags, some to force their way back through the crowd behind; some
+      threw themselves down; others discharged their muskets at their invisible
+      foe. From the roof the Doctor and his companion kept up a rapid fire upon
+      the crowd struggling to enter the breach. As fast as the defenders'
+      muskets were discharged they handed them down to the servants behind to be
+      reloaded, and when each had fired his spare muskets he betook himself to
+      his revolver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wilson, while discharging his rifle, kept his eyes upon Bathurst. The
+      latter had not fired a shot, but lay rigid and still, save for a sort of
+      convulsive shuddering. Presently there was a little lull in the firing as
+      the weapons were emptied, and the defenders seizing the bricks hurled them
+      down into the mass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look out!&rdquo; the Major shouted; &ldquo;keep your heads low&mdash;I am going to
+      throw the canisters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A number of these had been prepared, filled to the mouth with powder and
+      bullets, and with a short fuse attached, ropes being fastened round them
+      to enable them to be slung some distance. The Major half rose to throw one
+      of these missiles when his attention was called by a shout from Wilson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter was so occupied that he had not noticed Bathurst, who had
+      suddenly risen to his feet, and just as Wilson was about to grasp him and
+      pull him down, leaped over the sandbag in front of him down among the
+      mutineers. The Major gave a swing to the canister, of which the fuse was
+      already lighted, and hurled it through the breach among the crowd, who,
+      ignorant of what was going on inside, were still struggling to enter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look out,&rdquo; he shouted to the others; &ldquo;mind how you throw. Bathurst is
+      down in the middle of them. Hand up all the muskets you have loaded,&rdquo; he
+      cried to the servants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke he swung another canister through the breach, and almost
+      immediately two heavy explosions followed, one close upon the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give them a volley at the breach,&rdquo; he shouted; &ldquo;never mind those below.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The muskets were fired as soon as received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now to your feet,&rdquo; the Major cried, &ldquo;and give them the brickbats,&rdquo; and as
+      he stood up he hurled two more canisters among the crowd behind the
+      breach. The others sprang up with a cheer. The inclosure below them was
+      shallower now from the number that had fallen, and was filled with a
+      confused mass of struggling men. In their midst was Bathurst fighting
+      desperately with his short weapon, and bringing down a man at every blow,
+      the mutineers being too crowded together to use their unfixed bayonets
+      against him. In a moment Captain Forster leaped down, sword in hand, and
+      joined Bathurst in the fight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand steady,&rdquo; the Major shouted; &ldquo;don't let another man move.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the missiles still rained down with an occasional shot, as the rifles
+      were handed up by the natives, while the Doctor and Farquharson kept up an
+      almost continuous fire from the terrace. Then the two last canisters
+      thrown by the Major exploded. The first two had carried havoc among the
+      crowd behind the breach, these completed their confusion, and they turned
+      and fled; while those in the retrenchment, relieved of the pressure from
+      behind, at once turned, and flying through the breach, followed their
+      companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A loud cheer broke from the garrison, and the Major looking round saw the
+      Doctor standing by the parapet waving his hat, while Isobel stood beside
+      him looking down at the scene of conflict.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lie down, Isobel,&rdquo; he shouted; &ldquo;they will be opening fire again
+      directly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl disappeared, and almost at the same moment the batteries spoke
+      out again, and a crackle of the musketry began from the gardens. The Major
+      turned round. Bathurst was leaning against the wall breathing heavily
+      after his exertions, Forster was coolly wiping his sword on the tunic of
+      one of the fallen Sepoys.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are either of you hurt?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not hurt to speak of,&rdquo; Forster said; &ldquo;I got a rip with a bayonet as
+      I jumped down, but I don't think it is of any consequence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How are you, Bathurst?&rdquo; the Major repeated. &ldquo;What on earth possessed you
+      to jump down like that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know, Major; I had to do something, and when you stopped firing I
+      felt it was time for me to do my share.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have done more than your share, I should say,&rdquo; the Major said; &ldquo;for
+      they went down like ninepins before you. Now, Wilson, you take one of his
+      hands, and I will take the other, and help him up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It needed considerable exertion to get him up, for the reaction had now
+      come, and he was scarce able to stand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You had better go up to the house and get a glass of wine,&rdquo; the Major
+      said. &ldquo;Now, is anyone else hurt?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am hit, Major,&rdquo; Richards said quietly; &ldquo;a ball came in between the
+      sandbags just as I fired my first shot, and smashed my right shoulder. I
+      think I have not been much good since, though I have been firing from my
+      left as well as I could. I think I will go up and get the Doctor to look
+      at it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But almost as he spoke the young fellow tottered, and would have fallen,
+      had not the Major caught him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lend me a hand, Doolan,&rdquo; the latter said; &ldquo;we will carry him in; I am
+      afraid he is very hard hit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies gathered round the Major and Captain Doolan as they entered
+      with their burden. Mary Hunter had already run down and told them that the
+      attack had been repulsed and the enemy had retreated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nobody else is hit,&rdquo; the Major said, as he entered; &ldquo;at least, not
+      seriously. The enemy have been handsomely beaten with such loss that they
+      won't be in a hurry to try again. Will one of you run up and bring the
+      Doctor down?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Richards was carried into the hospital room, where he was left to the care
+      of the Doctor, Mrs. Hunter, and Mrs. Rintoul. The Major returned to the
+      general room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Boy, bring half a dozen bottles of champagne and open them as quickly as
+      you can,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;we have got enough to last us for weeks, and this is
+      an occasion to celebrate, and I think we have all earned it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The others were by this time coming in, for there was no chance of the
+      enemy renewing the attack at present. Farquharson was on the roof on the
+      lookout. Quiet greetings were exchanged between wives and husbands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It didn't last long,&rdquo; Wilson said; &ldquo;not above five minutes, I should say,
+      from the time when we opened fire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seemed to us an age,&rdquo; Amy Hunter replied; &ldquo;it was dreadful not to be
+      able to see what was going on; it seemed to me everyone must be killed
+      with all that firing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was sharp while it lasted,&rdquo; the Major said; &ldquo;but we were all snug
+      enough except against a stray bullet, such as that which hit poor young
+      Richards. He behaved very gallantly, and none of us knew he was hit till
+      it was all over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how did Captain Forster get his bayonet wound?&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan asked. &ldquo;I
+      saw him go in just now into the surgery; it seemed to me he had a very
+      serious wound, for his jacket was cut from the breast up to the shoulder,
+      and he was bleeding terribly, though he made light of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He jumped down into the middle of them,&rdquo; the Major said. &ldquo;Bathurst jumped
+      down first, and was fighting like a madman with a mace he has got. We
+      could do nothing, for we were afraid of hitting him, and Forster jumped
+      down to help him, and, as he did so, got that rip with the bayonet; it is
+      a nasty cut, no doubt, but it is only a flesh wound.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is Mr. Bathurst?&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan asked; &ldquo;is he hurt, too? Why did he
+      jump down? I should not have thought,&rdquo; and she stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy a sort of fury seized him,&rdquo; the Major said; &ldquo;but whatever it was,
+      he fought like a giant. He is a powerful man, and that iron mace is just
+      the thing for such work. The natives went down like ninepins before him.
+      No, I don't think he is hurt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go out and see,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said; and taking a mug half full of
+      champagne from the table, she went out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst was sitting on the ground leaning against the wall of the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not hurt, Mr. Bathurst, I hope,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said, as she came
+      up. &ldquo;No, don't try to get up, drink a little of this; we are celebrating
+      our victory by opening a case of champagne. The Major tells us you have
+      been distinguishing yourself greatly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst drank some of the wine before he replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a way, Mrs. Doolan, I scarcely know what I did do. I wanted to do
+      something, even if it was only to get killed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must not talk like that,&rdquo; she said kindly; &ldquo;your life is as valuable
+      as any here, and you know that we all like and esteem you; and, at any
+      rate, you have shown today that you have plenty of courage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The courage of a Malay running amuck, Mrs. Doolan; that is not courage,
+      it is madness. You cannot tell&mdash;no one can tell&mdash;what I have
+      suffered since the siege began. The humiliation of knowing that I alone of
+      the men here am unable to take my part in the defense, and that while
+      others are fighting I am useful only to work as a miner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you are as useful in that way as you would be in the other,&rdquo; she
+      said. &ldquo;I don't feel humiliated because I can only help in nursing the sick
+      while the others are fighting for us. We have all of us our gifts. Few men
+      have more than you. You have courage and coolness in other ways, and you
+      are wrong to care nothing for your life because of the failing, for which
+      you are not accountable, of your nerves to stand the sound of firearms.. I
+      can understand your feelings and sympathize with you, but it is of no use
+      to exaggerate the importance of such a matter. You might live a thousand
+      lives without being again in a position when such a failing would be of
+      the slightest importance, one way or the other. Now come in with me.
+      Certainly this is not the moment for you to give way about it; for
+      whatever your feelings may have been, or whatever may have impelled you to
+      the act, you have on this occasion fought nobly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not nobly, Mrs. Doolan,&rdquo; he said, rising to his feet; &ldquo;desperately, or
+      madly, if you like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment Wilson came out. &ldquo;Halloa, Bathurst, what are doing here?
+      Breakfast is just ready, and everyone is asking for you. I am sure you
+      must want something after your exertions. You should have seen him laying
+      about him with that iron mace, Mrs. Doolan.. I have seen him using the
+      pick, and knew how strong he was, but I was astonished, I can tell you. It
+      was a sort of Coeur de Lion business. He used to use a mace, you know, and
+      once rode through the Saracens and smashed them up, till at last, when he
+      had done, he couldn't open his hand. Bring him in, Mrs. Doolan. If he
+      won't come, I will go in and send the Doctor out to him. Bad business,
+      poor Richards being hurt, isn't it? Awfully good fellow, Richards. Can't
+      think why he was the one to be hit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So keeping up a string of talk, the young subaltern led Bathurst into the
+      house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After breakfast a white flag was waved from the roof, and in a short time
+      two Sepoy officers came up with a similar flag. The Major and Captain
+      Doolan went out to meet them, and it was agreed that hostilities should be
+      suspended until noon, in order that the wounded and dead might be carried
+      off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While this was being done the garrison remained under arms behind their
+      work at the breach lest any treacherous attempt should be made. The
+      mutineers, however, who were evidently much depressed by the failure,
+      carried the bodies off quietly, and at twelve o'clock firing recommenced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening, after it was dark, the men gathered on the terrace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, gentlemen,&rdquo; the Major said, &ldquo;we have beaten them off today, and we
+      may do it again, but there is no doubt how it must all end. You see, this
+      afternoon their guns have all been firing at a fresh place in the wall;
+      and if they make another breach or two, and attack at them all together,
+      it will be hopeless to try to defend them. You see, now that we have
+      several sick and wounded, the notion of making our escape is almost
+      knocked on the head. At the last moment each may try to save his life, but
+      there must be no desertion of the sick and wounded as long as there is a
+      cartridge to be fired. Our best hope is in getting assistance from
+      somewhere, but we know nothing of what is going on outside. I think the
+      best plan will be for one of our number to try to make his way out, and go
+      either to Lucknow, Agra, or Allahabad, and try and get help. If they could
+      spare a troop of cavalry it might be sufficient; the mutineers have
+      suffered very heavily; there were over a hundred and fifty bodies carried
+      out today, and if attacked suddenly I don't think they would make any
+      great resistance. We may hold out for a week or ten days, but I think that
+      is the outside; and if rescue does not arrive by that time we must either
+      surrender or try to escape by that passage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bathurst would be the man to do it,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;Once through their
+      lines he could pass without exciting the slightest suspicion; he could buy
+      a horse then, and could be at any of the stations in two days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, there is no doubt that he is the man to do it,&rdquo; the Major said.
+      &ldquo;Where is he now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At work as usual, Major; shall I go and speak to him? But I tell you
+      fairly I don't think he will undertake it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not, Doctor? It is a dangerous mission, but no more dangerous than
+      remaining here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, we shall see,&rdquo; the Doctor said, as he left the group.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing was said for a few minutes, the men sitting or lying about
+      smoking. Presently the Doctor returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bathurst refuses absolutely,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He admits that he does not think
+      there would be much difficulty for him to get through, but he is convinced
+      that the mission would be a useless one, and that could help have been
+      spared it would have come to us before now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But in that case he would have made his escape,&rdquo; the Major said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is just why he won't go, Major; he says that come what will he will
+      share the fate of the rest, and that he will not live to be pointed to as
+      the one man who made his escape of the garrison of Deennugghur.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whom can we send?&rdquo; the Major said. &ldquo;You are the only other man who speaks
+      the language well enough to pass as a native, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I speak it fairly, but not well enough for that; besides, I am too old to
+      bear the fatigue of riding night and day; and, moreover, my services are
+      wanted here both as a doctor and as a rifle shot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go, if you will send me, Major,&rdquo; Captain Forster said suddenly;
+      &ldquo;not in disguise, but in uniform, and on my horse's back. Of course I
+      should run the gauntlet of their sentries. Once through, I doubt if they
+      have a horse that could overtake mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a general silence of surprise. Forster's reckless courage was
+      notorious, and he had been conspicuous for the manner in which he had
+      chosen the most dangerous points during the siege; and this offer to
+      undertake what, although a dangerous enterprise in itself, still offered a
+      far better chance of life than that of remaining behind, surprised
+      everyone. It had been noticed that, since the rejection of his plan to
+      sally out in a body and cut their way through the enemy, he had been moody
+      and silent, except only when the fire was heavy and the danger
+      considerable; then he laughed and joked and seemed absolutely to enjoy the
+      excitement; but he was the last man whom any of them would have expected
+      to volunteer for a service that, dangerous as it might be, had just been
+      refused by Bathurst on the ground that it offered a chance of escape from
+      the common lot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major was the first to speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Captain Forster, as we have just agreed that our only chance is to
+      obtain aid from one of the stations, and as you are the only volunteer for
+      the service, I do not see that I can decline to accept your offer. At
+      which station do you think you would be most likely to find a force that
+      could help us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should say Lucknow, Major. If help is to be obtained anywhere, I should
+      say it was there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I think that is the most hopeful. You will start at once; I suppose
+      the sooner the better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As soon as they are fairly asleep; say twelve o'clock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well. I will go and write a dispatch for you to carry, giving an
+      account of the fix we are in here. How will you sally out?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should think the easiest plan would be to make a gap in the sandbags in
+      the breach, lead the horse till fairly outside, and then mount.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you had better take a spare horse with you,&rdquo; the Doctor said; &ldquo;it
+      will make a difference if you are chased, if you can change from one to
+      the other. Bathurst told me to say whoever went could have his horse,
+      which is a long way the best in the station. I should fancy as good as
+      your own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; Forster said; &ldquo;led horses are a nuisance; still, as you
+      say, it might come in useful, if it is only to loose and turn down a side
+      road, and so puzzle anyone who may be after you in the dark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Major and Forster left the roof together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that is a rum go,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;If it had been anyone but Forster
+      I should have said that he funked and was taking the opportunity to get
+      out of it, but everyone knows that he has any amount of pluck; look how he
+      charged those Sepoys single handed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are two sorts of pluck, Wilson,&rdquo; the Doctor said dryly. &ldquo;There is
+      the pluck that will carry a man through a desperate action and lead him to
+      do deeds that are the talk of an army. Forster possesses that kind of
+      pluck in an unusual degree. He is almost an ideal cavalryman&mdash;dashing,
+      reckless; riding with a smile on his lips into the thickest of the fray,
+      absolutely careless of life when his blood is up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is another sort of courage, that which supports men under long
+      continued strain, and enables them, patiently and steadfastly, to face
+      death when they see it approaching step by step. I doubt whether Forster
+      possesses that passive sort of courage. He would ride up to a cannon's
+      mouth, but would grow impatient in a. square of infantry condemned to
+      remain inactive under a heavy artillery fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one has changed more since this siege began than he has. Except when
+      engaged under a heavy fire he has been either silent, or impatient and
+      short tempered, shirking conversation even with women when his turn of
+      duty was over. Mind, I don't say for a moment that I suspect him of being
+      afraid of death; when the end came he would fight as bravely as ever, and
+      no one could fight more bravely. But he cannot stand the waiting; he is
+      always pulling his mustache moodily and muttering to himself; he is good
+      to do but not to suffer; he would make a shockingly bad patient in a long
+      illness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, if any of you have letters you want to write to friends in England
+      I should advise you to take the opportunity; mind, I don't think they will
+      ever get them. Forster may get through, but I consider the chances
+      strongly against it. For a ride of ten miles through a country swarming
+      with foes I could choose no messenger I would rather trust, but for a ride
+      like this, that requires patience and caution and resource, he is not the
+      man I should select. Bathurst would have succeeded almost certainly if he
+      had once got out. The two men are as different as light to dark; one
+      possesses just the points the other fails in. I have no one at home I want
+      to write to, so I will undertake the watch here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The men on descending from the roof found all the ladies engaged in
+      writing, the Major having told them that there was a chance of their
+      letters being taken out. Scarce one looked up as they entered; their
+      thoughts at the moment were at home with those to whom they were writing
+      what might well be their last farewells. Stifled sobs were heard in the
+      quiet room; mournful letters were blurred with tears even from eyes that
+      had not before been dimmed since the siege began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel Hannay was the first to finish, for her letter to her mother was
+      but a short one. As she closed it she looked up. Captain Forster was
+      standing at the other side of the table with his eyes fixed on her, and he
+      made a slight gesture to her that he wished to speak to her. She hesitated
+      a moment, and then rose and quietly left the room. A moment later he
+      joined her outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come outside,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I must speak to you;&rdquo; and together they went out
+      through the passage into the courtyard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isobel,&rdquo; he began, &ldquo;I need not tell you that I love you; till lately I
+      have not known how much, but I feel now that I could not live without
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why are you going away then, Captain Forster?&rdquo; she asked quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want to go alone,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;I cannot go alone&mdash;I want you
+      to go with me. Your uncle would surely consent; it is the only chance of
+      saving your life. We all know that it is next to hopeless that a force
+      sufficient to rescue us can be sent; there is just a chance, but that is
+      all that can be said. We could be married at Allahabad. I would make for
+      that town instead of Lucknow if you will go with me, and I could leave you
+      there in safety till these troubles are over; I am going to take another
+      horse as well as my own, and two would be as likely to escape as one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you for the offer, Captain Forster,&rdquo; she said coldly, &ldquo;but I
+      decline it. My place is here with my uncle and the others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why is it?&rdquo; he asked passionately. &ldquo;If you love me, your place is surely
+      with me; and you do love me, Isobel, do you not? Surely I have not been
+      mistaken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel was silent for a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were mistaken, Captain Forster,&rdquo; she said, after a pause. &ldquo;You paid
+      me attentions such as I had heard you paid to many others, and it was
+      pleasant. That you were serious I did not think. I believed you were
+      simply flirting with me; that you meant no more by it than you had meant
+      before; and being forewarned, and therefore having no fear that I should
+      hurt myself more than you would, I entered into it in the same spirit.
+      Where there was so much to be anxious about, it was a pleasure and relief.
+      Had I met you elsewhere, and under different circumstances, I think I
+      should have come to love you. A girl almost without experience and new to
+      the world, as I am, could hardly have helped doing so, I think. Had I
+      thought you were in earnest I should have acted differently; and if I have
+      deceived you by my manner I am sorry; but even had I loved you I would not
+      have consented to do the thing you ask me. You are going on duty. You are
+      going in the hope of obtaining aid for us. I should be simply escaping
+      while others stay, and I should despise myself for the action. Besides; I
+      do not think that even in that case my uncle would have consented to my
+      going with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure that he would,&rdquo; Forster broke in. &ldquo;He would never be mad enough
+      to refuse you the chance of escape from such a fate as may now await you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We need not discuss the question,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Even if I loved you, I
+      would not go with you; and I do not love you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have prejudiced you against me,&rdquo; he said angrily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They warned me, and they were right in doing so. Ask yourself if they
+      were not. Would you see a sister of yours running the risk of breaking her
+      heart without warning her? Do not be angry,&rdquo; she went on, putting her hand
+      on his arm. &ldquo;We have been good friends, Captain Forster, and I like you
+      very much. We may never meet again; it is most likely we never shall do
+      so. I am grateful to you for the many pleasant hours you have given me.
+      Let us part thus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you not give some hope that in the distance, when these troubles are
+      over, should we both be spared, you may&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Captain Forster, I am sure it could never be so; if we ever meet
+      again, we will meet as we part now&mdash;as friends. And now I can stay no
+      longer; they will be missing me,&rdquo; and, turning, she entered the house
+      before he could speak again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was some minutes before he followed her. He had not really thought that
+      she would go with him; perhaps he had hardly wished it, for on such an
+      expedition a woman would necessarily add to the difficulty and danger; but
+      he had thought that she would have told him that his love was returned,
+      and for perhaps the first time in his life he was serious in his
+      protestation of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does it matter?&rdquo; he said at last, as he turned; &ldquo;'tis ten thousand
+      to one against our meeting again; if we do, I can take it up where it
+      breaks off now. She has acknowledged that she would have liked me if she
+      had been sure that I was in earnest. Next time I shall be so. She was
+      right. I was but amusing myself with her at first, and had no more thought
+      of marrying her than I had of flying. But there, it is no use talking
+      about the future; the thing now is to get out of this trap. I have felt
+      like a rat in a cage with a terrier watching me for the last month, and
+      long to be on horseback again, with the chance of making a fight for my
+      life. What a fool Bathurst was to throw away the chance!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst, his work done, had looked into the hall where the others were
+      gathered, and hearing that the Doctor was alone on watch had gone up to
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was just thinking, Bathurst,&rdquo; the Doctor said, as he joined him, &ldquo;about
+      that fight today. It seems to me that whatever comes of this business, you
+      and I are not likely to be among those who go down when the place is
+      taken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is that, Doctor? Why is our chance better than the rest? I have no
+      hope myself that any will be spared.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I put my faith in the juggler, Bathurst. Has it not struck you that the
+      first picture you saw has come true?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have never given it a thought for weeks,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;certainly I
+      have not thought of it today. Yes, now you speak of it, it has come true.
+      How strange! I put it aside as a clever trick&mdash;one that I could not
+      understand any more than I did the others, but, knowing myself, it seemed
+      beyond the bounds of possibility that it could come true. Anything but
+      that I would have believed, but, as I told you, whatever might happen in
+      the future, I should not be found fighting desperately as I saw myself
+      doing there. It is true that I did so, but it was only a sort of a frenzy.
+      I did not fire a shot, as Wilson may have told you. I strove like a man in
+      a nightmare to break the spell that seemed to render me powerless to move,
+      but when, for a moment, the firing ceased, a weight seemed to fall off me,
+      and I was seized with a sort of passion to kill. I have no distinct
+      remembrance of anything until it was all over. It was still the nightmare,
+      but one of a different kind, and I was no more myself then than I was when
+      I was lying helpless on the sandbags. Still, as you say, the picture was
+      complete; at least, if Miss Hannay was standing up here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, she rose to her feet in the excitement of the fight. I believe we
+      all did so. The picture was true in all its details as you described it to
+      me. And that being so, I believe that other picture, the one we saw
+      together, you and I and Isobel Hannay in native disguises, will also come
+      true.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst was silent for two or three minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be so, Doctor&mdash;Heaven only knows. I trust for your sake and
+      hers it may be so, though I care but little about myself; but that picture
+      wasn't a final one, and we don't know what may follow it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is so, Bathurst. But I think that you and I, once fairly away in
+      disguise, might be trusted to make our way down the country. You see, we
+      have a complete confirmation of that juggler's powers. He showed me a
+      scene in the past&mdash;a scene which had not been in my mind for years,
+      and was certainly not in my thoughts at the time. He showed you a scene in
+      the future, which, unlikely as it appeared, has actually taken place. I
+      believe he will be equally right in this other picture. You have heard
+      that Forster is going?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; Wilson came down and told me while I was at work. Wilson seemed
+      rather disgusted at his volunteering. I don't know that I am surprised
+      myself, for, as I told you, I knew him at school, and he had no moral
+      courage, though plenty of physical. Still, under the circumstances, I
+      should not have thought he would have gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean because of Miss Hannay, Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that is what I mean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That sort of thing might weigh with you or me, Bathurst, but not with
+      him. He has loved and ridden away many times before this, but in this
+      case, fortunately, I don't think he will leave an aching heart behind
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't mean to say, Doctor, that you don't think she cares for him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not asked her the question,&rdquo; the Doctor said dryly. &ldquo;I dare say
+      she likes him; in fact, I am ready to admit that there has been what you
+      may call a strong case of flirtation; but when a young woman is thrown
+      with an uncommonly good looking man, who lays himself out to be agreeable
+      to her, my experience is that a flirtation generally comes of it,
+      especially when the young woman has no one else to make herself agreeable
+      to, and is, moreover, a little sore with the world in general. I own that
+      at one time I was rather inclined to think that out of sheer perverseness
+      the girl was going to make a fool of herself with that good looking scamp,
+      but since we have been shut up here I have felt easy in my mind about it.
+      And now, if you will take my rifle for ten minutes, I will go down and get
+      a cup of tea; I volunteered to take sentry work, but I didn't bargain for
+      keeping it all night without relief. By the way, I told Forster of your
+      offer of your horse, and I think he is going to take it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is welcome to it,&rdquo; Bathurst said carelessly; &ldquo;it will be of no use to
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, look here,&rdquo; the Doctor said shortly; &ldquo;just put Miss Hannay out of
+      your head for the present, and attend to the business on hand. I do not
+      think there is much chance of their trying it on again tonight, but they
+      may do so, so please to keep a sharp lookout while I am below.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will be careful, Doctor,&rdquo; Bathurst said, with a laugh; but the Doctor
+      had so little faith in his watchfulness that as soon as he went below he
+      sent up Wilson to share his guard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At twelve o'clock the sandbags were removed sufficiently to allow a horse
+      to pass through, and Forster's and Bathurst's animals were led out through
+      the breach, their feet having been muffled with blankets to prevent their
+      striking a stone and arousing the attention of the enemy's sentinels. Once
+      fairly out the mufflings were removed and Forster sprang into his saddle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Goodby, Major,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;I hope I may be back again in eight or nine
+      days with a squadron of cavalry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Goodby, Forster; I hope it may be so. May God protect you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The gap in the defenses was closed the instant the horses passed through,
+      and the men stood in the breach of the wall listening as Forster rode off.
+      He went at a walk, but before he had gone fifty paces there was a sharp
+      challenge, followed almost instantly by a rifle shot, then came the crack
+      of a revolver and the rapid beat of galloping hoofs. Loud shouts were
+      heard, and musket shots fired in rapid succession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are not likely to have hit him in the dark,&rdquo; the Major said, as he
+      climbed back over the sandbags; &ldquo;but they may hit his horses, which would
+      be just as fatal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Leaving two sentries&mdash;the one just outside the breach near the wall,
+      the other on the sandbags&mdash;the rest of the party hurried up on the
+      roof. Shots were still being fired, and there was a confused sound of
+      shouting; then a cavalry trumpet rang out sharply, and presently three
+      shots fired in quick succession came upon the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the signal agreed on,&rdquo; the Major said: &ldquo;he is safely beyond their
+      lines. Now it is a question of riding; some of the cavalry will be in
+      pursuit of him before many minutes are over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Forster's adieus had been brief. He had busied himself up to the last
+      moment in looking to the saddling of the two horses, and had only gone
+      into the house and said goodby to the ladies just when it was time to
+      start. He had said a few hopeful words as to the success of the mission,
+      but it had evidently needed an effort for him to do so. He had no
+      opportunity of speaking a word apart with Isobel, and he shook her hand
+      silently when it came to her turn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should not have given him credit for so much feeling,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan
+      whispered to Isobel, as he went out; &ldquo;he was really sorry to leave us, and
+      I didn't think he was a man to be sorry for anything that didn't affect
+      himself. I think he had absolutely the grace to feel a little ashamed of
+      leaving us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think that is fair,&rdquo; Isobel said warmly, &ldquo;when he is going away
+      to fetch assistance for us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is deserting us as rats desert a sinking ship,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said
+      positively; &ldquo;and I am only surprised that he has the grace to feel a
+      little ashamed of the action. As for caring, there is only one person in
+      the world he cares for&mdash;himself. I was reading 'David Copperfield'
+      just before we came in here, and Steerforth's character might have been
+      sketched from Forster. He is a man without either heart or conscience; a
+      man who would sacrifice everything to his own pleasures; and yet even when
+      one knows him to be what he is, one can hardly help liking him. I wonder
+      how it is, my dear, that scamps are generally more pleasant than good
+      men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never thought about it, Mrs. Doolan,&rdquo; Isobel said, roused to a smile by
+      the earnestness with which Mrs. Doolan propounded the problem; &ldquo;and can
+      give no reason except that we are attracted by natures the reverse of our
+      own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Doolan laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you think we are better than men, Isobel? I don't&mdash;not one bit.
+      We are cramped in our opportunities; but given equal opportunities I don't
+      think there would be anything to choose between us. But we mustn't stay
+      talking here any longer; we both go on duty in the sick ward at four
+      o'clock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The enemy's batteries opened on the following morning more violently than
+      before. More guns had been placed in position during the night, and a rain
+      of missiles was poured upon the house. For the next six days the position
+      of the besieged became hourly worse. Several breaches had been made in the
+      wall, and the shots now struck the house, and the inmates passed the
+      greater part of their time in the basement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The heat was terrible, and, as the firing was kept up night and day, sleep
+      was almost impossible. The number of the besiegers had considerably
+      increased, large numbers of the country people taking part in the siege,
+      while a regiment of Sepoys from Cawnpore had taken the place of the
+      detachment of the 103d Bengal Infantry, of whom, indeed, but few now
+      remained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The garrison no longer held the courtyard. Several times masses of the
+      enemy had surged up and poured through the breaches, but a large number of
+      hand grenades of various sizes had been constructed by the defenders, and
+      the effects of these thrown down from the roof among the crowded masses
+      were so terrible that the natives each time fell back. The horses had all
+      been turned out through the breach on the day after Captain Forster's
+      departure, in order to save their lives. A plague of flies was not the
+      least of the defenders' troubles. After the repulse of the assaults the
+      defenders went out at night and carried the bodies of the natives who had
+      fallen in the courtyard beyond the wall. Nevertheless, the odor of blood
+      attracted such countless swarms of flies that the ground was black with
+      them, and they pervaded the house in legions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The number of the defenders decreased daily. Six only were able now to
+      carry arms. Mr. Hunter, Captain Rintoul, and Richards had died of fever.
+      Farquharson had been killed by a cannon ball; two civilians had been badly
+      wounded; several of the children had succumbed; Amy Hunter had been killed
+      by a shell that passed through the sandbag protection of the grating that
+      gave light to the room in the basement used as a sick ward. The other
+      ladies were all utterly worn out with exhaustion, sleeplessness, and
+      anxiety. Still there had been no word spoken of surrender. Had the men
+      been alone they would have sallied out and died fighting, but this would
+      have left the women at the mercy of the assailants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The work at the gallery had been discontinued for some time. It had been
+      carried upwards until a number of roots in the earth showed that they were
+      near the surface, and, as they believed, under a clump of bushes growing a
+      hundred and fifty yards beyond the walls; but of late there had been no
+      talk of using this. Flight, which even at first had seemed almost
+      hopeless, was wholly beyond them in their present weakened condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the last of these six days Major Hannay was severely wounded. At night
+      the enemy's fire relaxed a little, and the ladies took advantage of it to
+      go up onto the terrace for air, while the men gathered for a council round
+      the Major's bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Doctor, the end is pretty near,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;it is clear we cannot
+      hold out many hours longer. We must look the matter in the face now. We
+      have agreed all along that when we could no longer resist we would offer
+      to surrender on the terms that our lives should be spared, and that we
+      should be given safe conduct down the country, and that if those terms
+      were refused we were to resist to the end, and then blow up the house and
+      all in it. I think the time has come for raising the white flag.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think so,&rdquo; the Doctor said: &ldquo;we have done everything men could do. I
+      have little hope that they will grant us terms of surrender; for from the
+      native servants who have deserted us they must have a fair idea of our
+      condition. What do you think, Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think it probable there are divisions among them,&rdquo; he replied; &ldquo;the
+      Talookdars may have risen against us, but I do not think they can have the
+      same deadly enmity the Sepoys have shown. They must be heartily sick of
+      this prolonged siege, and they have lost large numbers of their men. I
+      should say they would be willing enough to give terms, but probably they
+      are overruled by the Sepoys, and perhaps by orders from Nana Sahib. I know
+      several of them personally, and I think I could influence Por Sing, who is
+      certainly the most powerful of the Zemindars of this neighborhood, and is
+      probably looked upon as their natural leader; if you approve of it, Major,
+      I will go out in disguise, and endeavor to obtain an interview with him.
+      He is an honorable man; and if he will give his guarantee for our safety,
+      I would trust him. At any rate, I can but try. If I do not return, you
+      will know that I am dead, and that no terms can be obtained, and can then
+      decide when to end it all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is worth the attempt anyhow,&rdquo; the Major said. &ldquo;I say nothing about the
+      danger you will run, for no danger can be greater than that which hangs
+      over us all now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Major, then I will do it at once, but you must not expect me
+      back until tomorrow night. I can hardly hope to obtain an interview with
+      Por Sing tonight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How will you go out, Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go down at once and break in the roof of the gallery,&rdquo; he said;
+      &ldquo;we know they are close round the wall, and I could not hope to get out
+      through any of the breaches.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose you are quite convinced that there is no hope of relief from
+      Lucknow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite convinced. I never had any real hope of it; but had there been a
+      force disposable, it would have started at once if Forster arrived there
+      with his message, and might have been here by this time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At any rate, we can wait no longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we will begin at once,&rdquo; Bathurst said, and, taking a crowbar and
+      pick from the place where the tools were kept, he lighted the lamp and
+      went along the gallery, accompanied by the Doctor, who carried two light
+      bamboo ladders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think you will succeed, Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am pretty sure of it,&rdquo; he said confidently. &ldquo;I believe I have a friend
+      there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A friend!&rdquo; the Doctor repeated in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; I am convinced that the juggler is there. Not once, but half a dozen
+      times during the last two nights when I have been on watch on the terrace,
+      I have distinctly heard the words whispered in my ear, 'Meet me at your
+      bungalow.' You may think I dozed off and was dreaming, but I was as wide
+      awake then as I am now. I cannot say that I recognized the voice, but the
+      words were in the dialect he speaks. At any rate, as soon as I am out I
+      shall make my way there, and shall wait there all night on the chance of
+      his coming. After what we know of the man's strange powers, there seems
+      nothing unreasonable to me in his being able to impress upon my mind the
+      fact that he wants to see me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I quite agree with you there, and his aid might be invaluable. You are
+      not the sort of man to have delusions, Bathurst, and I quite believe what
+      you say. I feel more hopeful now than I have done for some time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour's hard work, and a hole was made through the soil, which was but
+      three feet thick. Bathurst climbed up the ladder and looked out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is as we thought, Doctor; we are in the middle of that thicket. Now I
+      will go and dress if you will keep guard here with your rifle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of the gallery a figure was standing; it was Isobel Hannay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard you are going out again, Mr. Bathurst.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I am going to see what I can do in the way of making terms for us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may not come back again,&rdquo; she said nervously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is, of course, possible, Miss Hannay, but I do not think the risk is
+      greater than that run by those who stay here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to speak to you before you go,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;I have wanted to speak
+      so long, but you have never given me an opportunity. We may never meet
+      again, and I must tell you how sorry I am&mdash;how sorry I have been ever
+      since for what I said. I spoke as a foolish girl, but I know better now.
+      Have I not seen how calm you have been through all our troubles, how you
+      have devoted yourself to us and the children, how you have kept up all our
+      spirits, how cheerfully you have worked, and as our trouble increased we
+      have all come to look up to you and lean upon you. Do say, Mr. Bathurst,
+      that you forgive me, and that if you return we can be friends as we were
+      before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly I forgive you if there is anything to forgive, Miss Hannay,&rdquo; he
+      said gravely. &ldquo;Nothing that you or anyone can say can relieve me of the
+      pain of knowing that I have been unable to take any active part in your
+      defense, that I have been forced to play the part of a woman rather than a
+      man; but assuredly, if I return, I shall be glad to be again your friend,
+      which, indeed. I have never ceased to be at heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps she expected something more, but it did not come. He spoke
+      cordially, but yet as one who felt that there was an impassible barrier
+      between them. She stood irresolute for a moment, and then held out her
+      hand. &ldquo;Goodby, then,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He held it a moment. &ldquo;Goodby, Miss Hannay. May God keep you and guard
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then gently he led her to the door, and they passed out together. A
+      quarter of an hour later he rejoined the Doctor, having brought with him a
+      few short lengths of bamboo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will put these across the hole when I get out,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;lay some sods
+      over them, and cover them up with leaves, in case anyone should enter the
+      bushes tomorrow. It is not likely, but it is as well to take the
+      precaution. One of you had better stay on guard until I come back. It
+      would not do to trust any of the natives; those that remain are all
+      utterly disheartened and broken down, and might take the opportunity of
+      purchasing their lives by going out and informing the enemy of the opening
+      into the gallery. They must already know of its existence from the men who
+      have deserted. But, fortunately, I don't think any of them are aware of
+      its exact direction; if they had been, we should have had them
+      countermining before this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Having carefully closed up the opening, Bathurst went to the edge of the
+      bushes and listened. He could hear voices between him and the house, but
+      all was quiet near at hand, and he began to move noiselessly along through
+      the garden. He had no great fear of meeting with anyone here. The natives
+      had formed a cordon round the wall, and behind that there would be no one
+      on watch, and as the batteries were silent, all were doubtless asleep
+      there. In ten minutes he stood before the charred stumps that marked the
+      site of his bungalow. As he did so, a figure advanced to meet him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is you, sahib. I was expecting you. I knew that you would come this
+      evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know how you knew it but I am heartily glad to see you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You want to see Por Sing? Come along with me and I will take you to him;
+      but there is no time to lose;&rdquo; and without another word he walked rapidly
+      away, followed by Bathurst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they got into the open the latter could see that his companion was
+      dressed in an altogether different garb to that in which he had before
+      seen him, being attired as a person of some rank and importance. He
+      stopped presently for Bathurst to come up with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have done what I could to prepare the way for you,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Openly I
+      could for certain reasons do nothing, but I have said enough to make him
+      feel uncomfortable about the future, and to render him anxious to find a
+      way of escape for himself if your people should ever again get the
+      mastery.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How are things going, Rujub? We have heard nothing for three weeks. How
+      is it at Cawnpore?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cawnpore has been taken by the Nana. They surrendered on his solemn oath
+      that all should be allowed to depart in safety. He broke his oath, and
+      there are not ten of its defenders alive. The women are all in captivity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst groaned. He had hardly hoped that the handful of defenders could
+      have maintained themselves against such overpowering numbers, but the
+      certainty as to their fate was a heavy blow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Lucknow?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Residency holds out at present, but men say that it must soon fall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what do you say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say nothing,&rdquo; the man said; &ldquo;we cannot use our art in matters which
+      concern ourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Delhi?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a little force of whites in front of Delhi; there are tens of
+      thousands of Sepoys in the town, but as yet the whites have maintained
+      themselves. The chiefs of the Punjaub have proved faithless to their
+      country, and there the British rule is maintained.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank God for that!&rdquo; Bathurst exclaimed; &ldquo;as long as the Punjaub holds
+      out the tables may be turned. And the other Presidencies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing as yet,&rdquo; Rujub said, in a tone of discontent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you are against us, Rujub?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sahib, I know not what I wish now. I have been brought up to hate the
+      whites. Two of my father's brothers were hung as Thugs, and my father
+      taught me to hate the men who did it. For years I have worked quietly
+      against you, as have most of those of my craft. We have reason to hate
+      you. In the old times we were honored in the land&mdash;honored and
+      feared; for even the great ones knew that we had powers such as no other
+      men have. But the whites treat us as if we were mere buffoons, who play
+      for their amusement; they make no distinction between the wandering
+      conjurer, with his tricks of dexterity, and the masters, who have powers
+      that have been handed down from father to son for thousands of years, who
+      can communicate with each other though separated by the length of India;
+      who can, as you have seen, make men invisible; who can read the past and
+      the future. They see these things, and though they cannot explain them,
+      they persist in treating us all as if we were mere jugglers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They prefer to deny the evidence of their own senses rather than admit
+      that we have powers such as they have not; and so, even in the eyes of our
+      own countrymen, we have lost our old standing and position, while the
+      whites would bribe us with money to divulge the secrets in which they
+      profess to disbelieve. No wonder that we hate you, and that we long for
+      the return of the old days, when even princes were glad to ask favors at
+      our hands. It is seldom that we show our powers now. Those who aid us, and
+      whose servants we are, are not to be insulted by the powers they bestow
+      upon us being used for the amusement of men who believe in nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Europeans who first came to India have left records of the strange
+      things they saw at the courts of the native princes. But such things are
+      no longer done for the amusement of our white masters. Thus, then, for
+      years I have worked against you; and just as I saw that our work was
+      successful, just as all was prepared for the blow that was to sweep the
+      white men out of India, you saved my daughter; then my work seemed to come
+      to an end. Would any of my countrymen, armed only with a whip, have thrown
+      themselves in the way of a tiger to save a woman&mdash;a stranger&mdash;one
+      altogether beneath him in rank&mdash;one, as it were, dust beneath his
+      feet? That I should be ready to give my life for yours was a matter of
+      course; I should have been an ungrateful wretch otherwise. But this was
+      not enough. At one blow the work I had devoted myself to for years was
+      brought to nothing. Everything seemed to me new; and as I sat by my
+      daughter's bedside, when she lay sick with the fever, I had to think it
+      all out again. Then I saw things in another light. I saw that, though the
+      white men were masterful and often hard, though they had little regard for
+      our customs, and viewed our beliefs as superstitious, and scoffed at the
+      notion of there being powers of which they had no knowledge, yet that they
+      were a great people. Other conquerors, many of them, India has had, but
+      none who have made it their first object to care for the welfare of the
+      people at large. The Feringhees have wrung nothing from the poor to be
+      spent in pomp and display; they permit no tyranny or ill doing; under them
+      the poorest peasant tills his fields in peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been obliged to see all this, and I feel now that their
+      destruction would be a frightful misfortune. We should be ruled by our
+      native lords; but as soon as the white man was gone the old quarrels would
+      break out, and the country would be red with blood. I did not see this
+      before, because I had only looked at it with the eyes of my own caste; now
+      I see it with the eyes of one whose daughter has been saved from a tiger
+      by a white man. I cannot love those I have been taught to hate, but I can
+      see the benefit their rule has given to India.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what can I do now? I am in the stream, and I must go with it. I know
+      not what I wish or what I would do. Six months ago I felt certain. Now I
+      doubt. It seemed to me that in a day the English Raj would be swept away.
+      How could it be otherwise when the whole army that had conquered India for
+      them were against them? I knew they were brave, but we have never lacked
+      bravery. How could I tell that they would fight one against a hundred?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But come, let us go on. Por Sing is expecting you. I told him that I knew
+      that one from the garrison would come out to treat with him privately
+      tonight, and he is expecting you, though he does not know who may come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten minutes walking, and they approached a large tent surrounded by
+      several smaller ones. A sentry challenged when they approached, but on
+      Rujub giving his name, he at once resumed his walk up and down, and Rujub,
+      followed by Bathurst, advanced and entered the tent. The Zemindar was
+      seated on a divan smoking a hookah. Rujub bowed, but not with the deep
+      reverence of one approaching his superior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is here,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you were not mistaken, Rujub?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How could I be when I knew?&rdquo; Rujub said. &ldquo;I have done what I said, and
+      have brought him straight to you. That was all I had to do with it; the
+      rest is for your highness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would rather that you should be present,&rdquo; Por Sing said, as Rujub
+      turned to withdraw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; the latter replied; &ldquo;in this matter it is for you to decide. I know
+      not the Nana's wishes, and your highness must take the responsibility. I
+      have brought him to you rather than to the commander of the Sepoys,
+      because your authority should be the greater; it is you and the other Oude
+      chiefs who have borne the weight of this siege, and it is only right that
+      it is you who should decide the conditions of surrender. The Sepoys are
+      not our masters, and it is well they are not so; the Nana and the Oude
+      chiefs have not taken up arms to free themselves from the English Raj to
+      be ruled over by the men who have been the servants of the English.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is so,&rdquo; the Zemindar said, stroking his beard; &ldquo;well, I will talk
+      with this person.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rujub left the tent. &ldquo;You do not know me, Por Sing?&rdquo; Bathurst said,
+      stepping forward from the entrance where he had hitherto stood; &ldquo;I am the
+      Sahib Bathurst.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it so?&rdquo; the Zemindar said, laying aside his pipe and rising to his
+      feet; &ldquo;none could come to me whom I would rather see. You have always
+      proved yourself a just officer, and I have no complaint against you. We
+      have often broken bread together, and it has grieved me to know that you
+      were in yonder house. Do you come to me on your own account, or from the
+      sahib who commands?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I come on my own account,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;when I come as a messenger
+      from him, I must come openly. I. know you to be an honorable man, and that
+      I could say what I have to say to you and depart in safety. I regard you
+      as one who has been misled, and regret for your sake that you should have
+      been induced to take part with these mutineers against us. Believe me,
+      chief, you have been terribly misled. You have been told that it needed
+      but an effort to overthrow the British Raj. Those who told you so lied. It
+      might have seemed easy to destroy the handful of Europeans scattered
+      throughout India, but you have not succeeded in doing it. Even had you
+      done so, you would not have so much as begun the work. There are but few
+      white soldiers here. Why? Because England trusted in the fidelity of her
+      native troops, and thought it necessary to keep only a handful of soldiers
+      in India, but if need be, for every soldier now here she could send a
+      hundred, and she will send a hundred if required to reconquer India.
+      Already you may be sure that ships are on the sea laden with troops; and
+      if you find it so hard to overcome the few soldiers now here, what would
+      you do against the great armies that will pour in ere long? Why, all the
+      efforts of the Sepoys gathered at Delhi are insufficient to defeat the
+      four or five thousand British troops who hold their posts outside the
+      town, waiting only till the succor arrives from England to take a terrible
+      vengeance. Woe be then to those who have taken part against us; still more
+      to those whose hands are stained with British blood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is too late now,&rdquo; the native said gloomily, &ldquo;the die is cast; but
+      since I have seen how a score of men could defend that shattered house
+      against thousands, do you think I have not seen that I have been wrong?
+      Who would have thought that men could do such a thing? But it is too late
+      now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not too late,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;it is too late, indeed, to undo the
+      mischief that has been done, but not too late for you to secure yourself
+      against some of the consequences. The English are just; and when they
+      shall have stamped out this mutiny, as assuredly they will do, they will
+      draw a distinction between mutinous soldiers who were false to their salt,
+      and native chiefs who fought, as they believed, for the independence of
+      their country. But one thing they will not forgive, whether in Sepoy or in
+      prince, the murder of man, woman, or child in cold blood: for that there
+      will be no pardon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it is not upon that ground that I came to appeal to you, but as a
+      noble of Oude&mdash;a man who is a brave enemy, but who could never be a
+      butcher. We have fought against each other fairly and evenly; the time has
+      come when we can fight no longer, and I demand of you, confidently, that,
+      if we surrender, the lives of all within those walls shall be respected,
+      and a safe conduct be granted them down the country. I know that such
+      conditions were granted to the garrison at Cawnpore, and that they were
+      shamelessly violated; for that act Nana Sahib will never be forgiven. He
+      will be hunted down like a dog and hung when he is caught, just as if he
+      had been the poorest peasant. But I have not so bad an opinion of the
+      people of India as to believe them base enough to follow such an example,
+      and I am confident that if you grant us those terms, you will see that the
+      conditions are observed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have received orders from Nana Sahib to send all prisoners down to
+      him,&rdquo; Por Sing said, in a hesitating voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will never send down prisoners from here,&rdquo; Bathurst replied firmly.
+      &ldquo;You may attack us again, and after the loss of the lives of scores more
+      of your followers you may be successful, but you will take no prisoners,
+      for at the last moment we will blow the house and all in it into the air.
+      Besides, who made Nana Sahib your master? He is not the lord of Oude; and
+      though doubtless he dreams of sovereignty, it is a rope, not a throne,
+      that awaits him. Why should you nobles of Oude obey the orders of this
+      peasant boy, though he was adopted by the Peishwa? The Peishwa himself was
+      never your lord, and why should you obey this traitor, this butcher, this
+      disgrace to India, when he orders you to hand over to him the prisoners
+      your sword has made?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is true,&rdquo; Por Sing said gloomily; &ldquo;but the Sepoys will not agree to
+      the terms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Sepoys are not your masters,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;we do not surrender to
+      them, but to you. We place no confidence in their word, but we have every
+      faith in the honor of the nobles of Oude. If you and your friends grant us
+      the terms we ask, the Sepoys may clamor, but they will not venture to do
+      more. Neither they nor Nana Sahib dare at this moment affront the people
+      of Oude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are Sepoys round Lucknow, but it is the men of Oude who are really
+      pressing the siege. If you are firm, they will not dare to break with you
+      on such a question as the lives of a score of Europeans. If you will give
+      me your word and your honor that all shall be spared, I will come out in
+      the morning with a flag of truce to treat with you. If not, we will defend
+      ourselves to the last, and then blow ourselves into the air.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you think,&rdquo; Por Sing said doubtfully, &ldquo;that if I agreed to this, it
+      would be taken into consideration should the British Raj be restored.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can promise you that it will,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;It will be properly
+      represented that it is to you that the defenders of Deennugghur, and the
+      women and children with them, owe their lives, and you may be sure that
+      this will go a very long way towards wiping out the part you have taken in
+      the attack on the station. When the day of reckoning comes, the British
+      Government will know as well how to reward those who rendered them service
+      in these days, as to punish those who have been our foes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will do it,&rdquo; Por Sing said firmly. &ldquo;Do not come out until the
+      afternoon. In the morning I will talk with the other Zemindars, and bring
+      them over to agree that there shall be no more bloodshed. There is not one
+      of us but is heartily sick of this business, and eager to put an end to
+      it. Rujub may report what he likes to the Nana, I will do what is right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After a hearty expression of thanks, Bathurst left the tent. Rujub was
+      awaiting him outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have succeeded?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; he will guarantee the lives of all the garrison, but he seemed to be
+      afraid of what you might report to Nana Sahib.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am the Nana's agent here,&rdquo; Rujub said; &ldquo;I have been working with him
+      for months. I would I could undo it all now. I was away when they
+      surrendered at Cawnpore. Had I not been, that massacre would never have
+      taken place, for I am one of the few who have influence with him. He is
+      fully cognizant of my power, and fears it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They made their way back without interruption to the clump of bushes near
+      the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When shall I see you again?&rdquo; Bathurst asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know,&rdquo; replied Rujub, &ldquo;but be sure that I shall be at hand to
+      aid you if possible should danger arise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      As soon as Bathurst began to remove the covering of the hole, a voice came
+      from below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that you, Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heaven be praised! You are back sooner than I expected, by a long way. I
+      heard voices talking, so I doubted whether it was you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The ladder is still there, I suppose, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; it is just as you got off it. What are you going to do about the
+      hole?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rujub is here; he will cover it up after me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you were right,&rdquo; the Doctor said, as Bathurst stepped down beside
+      him; &ldquo;and you found the juggler really waiting for you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At the bungalow, Doctor, as I expected.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what have you done? You can hardly have seen Por Sing; it is not much
+      over an hour since you left.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have seen him, Doctor; and what is more, he has pledged his word for
+      our safety.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank God for that, lad; it is more than I expected. This will be news
+      indeed for the poor women. And do you think he will be strong enough to
+      keep his pledge?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think so; he asked me to wait until tomorrow afternoon before going out
+      with a flag of truce, and said that by that time he would get the other
+      Zemindars to stand by him, and would make terms whether the Sepoys liked
+      it or not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you shall tell us all about it afterwards, Bathurst; let us take
+      the news in to them at once; it is long since they had good tidings of any
+      kind; it would be cruel to keep them in suspense, even for five minutes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no noisy outburst of joy when the news was told. Three weeks
+      before it would have been received with the liveliest satisfaction, but
+      now the bitterness of death was well nigh past; half the children lay in
+      their graves in the garden, scarce one of the ladies but had lost husband
+      or child, and while women murmured &ldquo;Thank God!&rdquo; as they clasped their
+      children to them, the tears ran down as they thought how different it
+      would have been had the news come sooner. The men, although equally quiet,
+      yet showed more outward satisfaction than the women. Warm grasps of the
+      hands were exchanged by those who had fought side by side during these
+      terrible days, and a load seemed lifted at once off their shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst stayed but a moment in the room after this news was told, but
+      went in with Dr. Wade to the Major, and reported to him in full the
+      conversation that had taken place between himself and Por Sing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you are right, Bathurst; if the Oude men hold together, the
+      Sepoys will scarcely risk a breach with them. Whether he will be able to
+      secure our safety afterwards is another thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I quite see that, Major; but it seems to me that we have no option but to
+      accept his offer and hope for the best.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is it,&rdquo; the Doctor agreed. &ldquo;It is certain death if we don't
+      surrender; there is a chance that he will be able to protect us if we do.
+      At any rate, we can be no worse off than we are here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel had been in with Mrs. Doolan nursing the sick children when
+      Bathurst arrived, but they presently came out. Isobel shook hands with him
+      without speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are all heavily indebted to you, Mr. Bathurst,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said. &ldquo;If
+      we escape from this, it will be to you that we humanly owe our lives.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She spoke in a voice that all in the room could hear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your are right, Mrs. Doolan,&rdquo; the Doctor said; &ldquo;and I think that there
+      are some who must regret now the manner in which they have behaved to
+      Bathurst since this siege began.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do for one,&rdquo; Captain Doolan said, coming forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have regretted it for some time, though I have not had the manliness to
+      say so. I am heartily sorry. I have done you a great and cruel injustice.
+      I ought to have known that the Doctor, who knew you vastly better than I
+      did, was not likely to be mistaken. Putting that aside, I ought to have
+      seen, and I did see, though I would not acknowledge it even to myself,
+      that no man has borne himself more calmly and steadfastly through this
+      siege than you have, and that by twice venturing out among the enemy you
+      gave proof that you possessed as much courage as any of us. I do hope that
+      you will give me your hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All the others who had held aloof from Bathurst came forward and expressed
+      their deep regret for what had occurred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst heard them in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not feel that there is anything to forgive,&rdquo; he said quietly. &ldquo;I am
+      glad to hear what you say, and I know you mean it, and I accept the hands
+      you offer, but what you felt towards me has affected me but little, for
+      your contempt for me was as nothing to my contempt of myself. Nothing can
+      alter the fact that here, where every man's hand was wanted to defend the
+      ladies and children, my hand was paralyzed; that whatever I may be at
+      other times, in the hour of battle I fail hopelessly; nothing that I can
+      do can wipe out, from my own consciousness, that disgrace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You exaggerate it altogether, Bathurst,&rdquo; Wilson broke in hotly. &ldquo;It is
+      nonsense your talking like that, after the way you jumped down into the
+      middle of them with that mace of yours. It was splendid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More than that, Mr. Bathurst,&rdquo; Mrs. Doolan said, &ldquo;I think we women know
+      what true courage is; and there is not one of us but has, since this siege
+      began, been helped and strengthened by your calmness&mdash;not one but has
+      reason to be grateful for your kindness to our children during this
+      terrible time. I won't hear even you speak against yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I will not do so, Mrs. Doolan,&rdquo; he said, with a grave smile. &ldquo;And
+      now I will go and sit with the Major for a time. Things are quieter
+      tonight than they have been for some time past, and I trust he will get
+      some sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he quietly left the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't believe he has slept two hours at a time since the siege began,&rdquo;
+       Mrs. Doolan said, with tears in her eyes. &ldquo;We have all suffered&mdash;God
+      only knows what we have suffered!&mdash;but I am sure that he has suffered
+      more than any of us. As for you men, you may well say you are sorry and
+      ashamed of your treatment of him. Coward, indeed! Mr. Bathurst may be
+      nervous, but I am sure he has as much courage as anyone here. Come,
+      Isobel, you were up all last night, and it's past two o'clock now. We must
+      try to get a little sleep before morning, and I should advise everyone
+      else off duty to do the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At daybreak firing commenced, and was kept up energetically all the
+      morning. At two o'clock a white flag was hoisted from the terrace, and its
+      appearance was greeted with shouts of triumph by the assailants. The
+      firing at once ceased, and in a few minutes a native officer carrying a
+      white flag advanced towards the walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We wish to see the Zemindar Por Sing,&rdquo; Bathurst said, &ldquo;to treat with him
+      upon the subject of our surrender.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The officer withdrew, and returned in half an hour saying that he would
+      conduct the officer in command to the presence of the chief of the
+      besieging force. Captain Doolan, therefore, accompanied by Bathurst and
+      Dr. Wade, went out. They were conducted to the great tent where all the
+      Zemindars and the principal officers of the Sepoys were assembled.
+      Bathurst acted as spokesman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Por Sing,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and you Zemindars of Oude, Major Hannay being
+      disabled, Captain Doolan, who is now in command of the garrison, has come
+      to represent him and to offer to surrender to you under the condition that
+      the lives of all British and natives within the walls be respected, and
+      that you pledge us your faith and honor that we shall be permitted to go
+      down the country without molestation. It is to you, Por Sing, and you
+      nobles of Oude, that we surrender, and not to those who, being sworn
+      soldiers, have mutinied against their officers, and have in many cases
+      treacherously murdered them. With such men Major Hannay will have no
+      dealings, and it is to you that we surrender. Major Hannay bids me say
+      that if this offer is refused, we can for a long time prolong our
+      resistance. We are amply supplied with provisions and munitions of war,
+      and many as are the numbers of our assailants who have fallen already, yet
+      more will die before you obtain possession of the house. More than that,
+      in no case will we be taken prisoners, for one and all have firmly
+      resolved to fire the magazine when resistance is no longer possible, and
+      to bury ourselves and our assailants in the ruins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Bathurst ceased, a hubbub of voices arose, the Sepoy officers
+      protesting that the surrender should be made to them. It was some minutes
+      before anything like quietness was restored, and then one of the officers
+      said, &ldquo;Here is Rujub; he speaks in the name of Nana. What does he say to
+      this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rujub, who was handsomely attired, stepped forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no orders from his highness on this subject,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He
+      certainly said that the prisoners were to be sent to him, but at present
+      there are no prisoners, nor, if the siege continues, and the English carry
+      out their threat, will there be any prisoners. I cannot think that Nana
+      Sahib would wish to see some hundreds more of his countrymen slain or
+      blown up, only that he may have these few men and women in his power.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have come here to take them and kill them,&rdquo; one of the officers said
+      defiantly; &ldquo;and we will do so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Por Sing, who had been speaking with the Talookdars round him, rose from
+      his seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems to me that it is for us to decide this matter,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It is
+      upon us that the losses of this siege have fallen. At the order of Nana
+      Sahib we collected our retainers, abandoned our homes, and have for three
+      weeks supported the dangers of this siege. We follow the Nana, but we are
+      not his vassals, nor do we even know what his wishes are in this matter,
+      but it seems to us that we have done enough and more than enough. Numbers
+      of our retainers and kinsmen have fallen, and to prolong the siege would
+      cause greater loss, and what should we gain by it? The possession of a
+      heap of stones. Therefore, we are all of opinion that this offer of
+      surrender should be accepted. We war for the freedom of our country, and
+      have no thirst for the blood of these English sahibs, still less for that
+      of their wives and children.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of the officers angrily protested, but Por Sing stood firm, and the
+      other chiefs were equally determined. Seeing this, the officers consulted
+      together, and the highest in rank then said to the Talookdars, &ldquo;We protest
+      against these conditions being given, but since you are resolved, we stand
+      aside, and are ready to agree for ourselves and our men to what you may
+      decide.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What pledges do you require?&rdquo; Por Sing asked Bathurst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are content, Rajah, with your personal oath that the lives of all
+      within the house shall be respected, and your undertaking that they shall
+      be allowed to go unharmed down the country. We have absolute faith in the
+      honor of the nobles of Oude, and can desire no better guarantee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will give it,&rdquo; Por Sing said, &ldquo;and all my friends will join me in it.
+      Tonight I will have boats collected on the river; I will furnish you with
+      an escort of my troops, and will myself accompany you and see you safely
+      on board. I will then not only give you a safe conduct, praying all to let
+      you pass unharmed, but my son with ten men shall accompany you in the
+      boats to inform all that my honor is concerned in your safety, and that I
+      have given my personal pledge that no molestation shall be offered to you.
+      I will take my oath, and my friends will do the same, and I doubt not that
+      the commander of the Sepoy troops will join me in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst translated what had been said to Captain Doolan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is impossible for him to do more than that,&rdquo; he concluded; &ldquo;I do not
+      think there is the least question as to his good faith.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a fine old heathen,&rdquo; Captain Doolan said; &ldquo;tell him that we accept
+      his terms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst at once signified this, and the Rajah then took a solemn oath to
+      fulfill the conditions of the agreement, the other Talookdars doing the
+      same, and the commander of the Sepoys also doing so without hesitation.
+      Por Sing then promised that some carts should be collected before morning,
+      to carry the ladies, the sick and wounded, down to the river, which was
+      eight miles distant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can sleep in quiet tonight,&rdquo; he added; &ldquo;I will place a guard of my
+      own men round the house, and see that none trouble you in any way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A few other points were settled, and then the party returned to the house,
+      to which they were followed a few minutes later by the son of Por Sing and
+      three lads, sons of other Zemindars. Bathurst went down to meet them when
+      their approach was noticed by the lookout on the roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have come to place ourselves in your hands as hostages, sahib,&rdquo; Por
+      Sing's son said. &ldquo;My father thought it likely that the Sepoys or others
+      might make trouble, and he said that if we were in your hands as hostages,
+      all our people would see that the agreement must be kept, and would oppose
+      themselves more vigorously to the Sepoys.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was thoughtful and kind of your father,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;As far as
+      accommodation is concerned, we can do little to make you comfortable, but
+      in other respects we are not badly provided.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of the native servants were at once told off to erect an awning over
+      a portion of the terrace. Tables and couches were placed here, and
+      Bathurst undertook the work of entertaining the visitors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was glad of the precaution that had been taken in sending them, for
+      with the glass he could make out that there was much disturbance in the
+      Sepoy lines, men gathering in large groups, with much shouting and noise.
+      Muskets were discharged in the direction of the house, and it was evident
+      that the mutineers were very discontented with the decision that had been
+      arrived at.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a short time, however, a body, several hundred strong, of the Oude
+      fighting men moved down and surrounded the house; and when a number of the
+      Sepoys approached with excited and menacing gestures, one of the Zemindars
+      went out to meet them, and Bathurst, watching the conference, could see by
+      his pointing to the roof of the house that he was informing them that
+      hostages had been given to the Europeans for the due observance of the
+      treaty, and doubted not he was telling them that their lives would be
+      endangered by any movement. Then he pointed to the batteries, as if
+      threatening that if any attack was made the guns would be turned upon
+      them. At any rate, after a time they moved away, and gradually the Sepoys
+      could be seen returning to their lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were but few preparations to be made by the garrison for their
+      journey. It had been settled that they might take their personal effects
+      with them, but it was at once agreed to take as little as possible, as
+      there would probably be but little room in the boats, and the fewer things
+      they carried the less there would be to tempt the cupidity of the natives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Bathurst, what do you think of the outlook?&rdquo; the Doctor asked, as
+      late in the evening they sat together on some sandbags in a corner of the
+      terrace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think that if we get past Cawnpore in safety there is not much to fear.
+      There is no other large place on the river, and the lower we get down the
+      less likely the natives are to disturb us, knowing, as they are almost
+      sure to do, that a force is gathering at Allahabad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After what you heard of the massacre of the prisoners at Cawnpore, whom
+      the Nana and his officers had all sworn to allow to depart in safety,
+      there is little hope that this scoundrel will respect the arrangements
+      made here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must pass the place at night, and trust to drifting down unobserved&mdash;the
+      river is wide there&mdash;and keeping near the opposite shore, we may get
+      past in the darkness without being perceived; and even if they do make us
+      out, the chances are they will not hit us. There are so few of us that
+      there is no reason why they should trouble greatly about us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry to say, Bathurst, that I don't like the appearance of the
+      Major's wound. Everything has been against him; the heat, the close air,
+      and his anxiety of mind have all told on him, he seems very low, and I
+      have great doubts whether he will ever see Allahabad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you are wrong, Doctor, but I thought myself there was a change for
+      the worse when I saw him an hour ago; there was a drawn look about his
+      face I did not like. He is a splendid fellow; nothing could have been
+      kinder than he has been to me. I wish I could change places with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor grunted. &ldquo;Well, as none of us may see Allahabad, Bathurst, you
+      need not trouble yourself on that score. I wonder what has become of your
+      friend the conjurer. I thought he might have been in to see you this
+      afternoon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not expect him,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;I expect he went as far as he
+      dared in what he said at the Durbar today. Probably he is doing all he can
+      to keep matters quiet. Of course he may have gone down to Cawnpore to see
+      Nana Sahib, but I should think it more probable that he would remain here
+      until he knows we are safe on board the boats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, here is Wilson,&rdquo; said the Doctor; &ldquo;he is a fine young fellow, and I
+      am very glad he has gone through it safely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So am I,&rdquo; Bathurst said warmly; &ldquo;here we are, Wilson.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought I would find you both smoking here,&rdquo; Wilson said, as he seated
+      himself; &ldquo;it is awfully hot below, and the ladies are all at work picking
+      out the things they are going to take with them and packing them, and as I
+      could not be of any use at that, I thought I would come up for a little
+      fresh air, if one can call it fresh; but, in fact, I would rather sit over
+      an open drain, for the stench is horrible. How quiet everything seems
+      tonight! After crouching here for the last three weeks listening to the
+      boom of their cannon and the rush of their balls overhead, or the crash as
+      they hit something, it seems quite unnatural; one can't help thinking that
+      something is going to happen. I don't believe I shall be able to sleep a
+      wink tonight; while generally, in spite of the row, it has been as much as
+      I could do to keep my eyes open. I suppose I shall get accustomed to it in
+      time. At present it seems too unnatural to enjoy it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You had better get a good night's sleep, if you can, Wilson,&rdquo; the Doctor
+      said. &ldquo;There won't be much sleep for us in the boats till we see the walls
+      of Allahabad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose not, Doctor. I expect we shall be horribly cramped up. I long
+      to be there. I hope to get attached to one of the regiments coming up, so
+      as to help in giving the thrashing to these scoundrels that they deserve.
+      I would give a year's pay to get that villain, Nana Sahib, within reach of
+      my sword. It is awful to think of the news you brought in, Bathurst, and
+      that there are hundreds of women and children in his power now. What a day
+      it will be when we march into Cawnpore!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't count your chickens too soon, Wilson,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;The time I
+      am looking forward to is when we shall have safely passed Cawnpore on our
+      way down; that is quite enough for me to hope for at present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I was thinking of that myself,&rdquo; Wilson replied. &ldquo;If the Nana could
+      not be bound by the oath he had taken himself, he is not likely to respect
+      the agreement made here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must pass the place at night,&rdquo; Bathurst said, &ldquo;and trust to not being
+      seen. Even if they do make us out, we shan't be under fire long unless
+      they follow us down the bank; but if the night is dark, they may not make
+      us out at all. Fortunately there is no moon, and boats are not very large
+      marks even by daylight, and at night it would only be a chance shot that
+      would hit us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, we should be as difficult to hit as a tiger,&rdquo; the Doctor put in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wilson laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have gained a lot of experience since then, Doctor. What ages that
+      seems back! Years almost.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It does indeed,&rdquo; the Doctor agreed; &ldquo;we count time by incidents and not
+      by days. Well, I think I shall turn in.. Are you coming, Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I could not sleep,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;I shall watch till morning. I
+      feel sure it is all safe, but the mutineers might attempt something.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The night, however, passed off quietly, and soon after daybreak eight
+      bullock carts were seen approaching, with a strong body of Oude men. Half
+      an hour later the luggage was packed, and the sick and wounded laid on
+      straw in the wagons. Several of the ladies took their places with them,
+      but Mrs. Doolan, Isobel, and Mary Hunter said they would walk for a while.
+      It had been arranged that the men might carry out their arms with them,
+      and each of the ten able to walk took their rifles, while all, even the
+      women, had pistols about them. Just as they were ready, Por Sing and
+      several of the Zemindars rode up on horseback.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall see you to the boats,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Have you taken provisions for
+      your voyage? It would be better not to stop to buy anything on the way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This precaution had been taken, and as soon as all was ready they set out,
+      guarded by four hundred Oude matchlock men. The Sepoys had gathered near
+      the house, and as soon as they left it there was a rush made to secure the
+      plunder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should have liked to have emptied the contents of some of my bottles
+      into the wine,&rdquo; the Doctor growled; &ldquo;it would not have been strictly
+      professional, perhaps, but it would have been a good action.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure you would not have given them poison, Doctor,&rdquo; Wilson laughed;
+      &ldquo;but a reasonable dose of ipecacuanha might hardly have gone against your
+      conscience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My conscience has nothing to do with it,&rdquo; the Doctor said. &ldquo;These fellows
+      came from Cawnpore, and I have no doubt took part in the massacre there.
+      My conscience wouldn't have troubled me if I could have poisoned the whole
+      of the scoundrels, or put a slow match in the magazine and blown them all
+      into the air, but under the present conditions it would hardly have been
+      politic, as one couldn't be sure of annihilating the whole of them. Well,
+      Miss Hannay, what are you thinking of?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am thinking that my uncle looks worse this morning, Doctor; does it not
+      strike you so too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must hope that the fresh air will do him good. One could not expect
+      anyone to get better in that place; it was enough to kill a healthy man,
+      to say nothing of a sick one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel was walking by the side of the cart in which her uncle was lying,
+      and it was not long before she took her place beside him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you do nothing, Doctor?&rdquo; Bathurst said, in a low tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing; he is weaker this morning, still the change of air may help him,
+      and he may have strength to fight through; the wound itself is a serious
+      one, but he would under other circumstances have got over it. As it is, I
+      think his chance a very poor one, though I would not say as much to her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After three hours' travel they reached the river. Here two large native
+      boats were lying by the bank. The baggage and sick were soon placed on
+      board, and the Europeans with the native servants were then divided
+      between them, and the Rajah's son and six of the retainers took their
+      places in one of the boats. The Doctor and Captain Doolan had settled how
+      the party should be divided. The Major and the other sick men were all
+      placed in one boat, and in this were the Doctor, Bathurst, and four
+      civilians, with Isobel Hannay, Mrs. Hunter, and her daughter. Captain
+      Doolan, his wife, Mrs. Rintoul, and the other three ladies, with the six
+      children who had alone survived, and the rest of the party, were in the
+      other boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Por Sing and his companions were thanked heartily for the protection they
+      had given, and Bathurst handed them a document which had been signed by
+      all the party, testifying to the service they had rendered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If we don't get down to Allahabad,&rdquo; Bathurst said, as he handed it to
+      him, &ldquo;this will insure you good treatment when the British troops come up.
+      If we get there, we will represent your conduct in such a light that I
+      think I can promise you that the part you took in the siege will be
+      forgiven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the boats pushed off and started on their way down the stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The distance by water to Cawnpore was over forty miles. It was already
+      eleven o'clock, and slow progress only could be made with the heavy boats,
+      but it was thought that they would be able to pass the town before
+      daylight began to break next morning, and they therefore pushed on as
+      rapidly as they could, the boatmen being encouraged to use their utmost
+      efforts by the promise of a large reward upon their arrival at Allahabad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was but little talk in the boats. Now that the strain was over, all
+      felt its effects severely. The Doctor attended to his patients; Isobel sat
+      by the side of her uncle, giving him some broth that they had brought with
+      them, from time to time, or moistening his lips with weak brandy and
+      water. He spoke only occasionally.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't much think I shall get down to Allahabad, Isobel,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I
+      don't, go down to Calcutta, and go straight to Jamieson and Son; they are
+      my agents, and they will supply you with money to take you home; they have
+      a copy of my will; my agents in London have another copy. I had two made
+      in case of accident.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, uncle, you will get better now you are out of that terrible place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid it is too late, my dear, though I should like to live for
+      your sake. But I think I see happiness before you, if you choose to take
+      it; he is a noble fellow, Isobel, in spite of that unfortunate weakness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel made no answer, but a slight pressure of the hand she was holding
+      showed that she understood what he meant. It was no use to tell her uncle
+      that she felt that what might have been was over now. Bathurst had chatted
+      with her several times the evening before and during the march that
+      morning, but she felt the difference between his tone and that in which he
+      had addressed her in the old times before the troubles began. It was a
+      subtle difference that she could hardly have explained even to herself,
+      but she knew that it was as a friend, and as a friend only, that he would
+      treat her in the future, and that the past was a closed book, which he was
+      determined not to reopen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst talked to Mrs. Hunter and her daughter, both of whom were mere
+      shadows, worn out with grief, anxiety, and watching. At times he went
+      forward to talk to the young noble, who had taken his seat there. Both
+      boats had been arched in with a canopy of boughs to serve alike as a
+      protection from the sun and to screen those within from the sight of
+      natives in boats or on the banks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't look yourself, Bathurst,&rdquo; the Doctor said to him late in the
+      afternoon. &ldquo;Everything seems going on well. No boats have passed us, and
+      the boatmen all say that we shall pass Cawnpore about one o'clock, at the
+      rate at which we are going.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feel nervous, Doctor; more anxious than I have been ever since this
+      began. There is an apprehension of danger weighing over me that I can't
+      account for. As you say, everything seems going on well, and yet I feel
+      that it is not so. I am afraid I am getting superstitious, but I feel as
+      if Rujub knows of some danger impending, and that he is somehow conveying
+      that impression to me. I know that there is nothing to be done, and that
+      we are doing the only thing that we can do, unless we were to land and try
+      and make our way down on foot, which would be sheer madness. That the man
+      can in some way impress my mind at a distance is evident from that summons
+      he gave me to meet him at the ruins of my bungalow, but I do not feel the
+      same clear distinct perception of his wishes now as I did then. Perhaps he
+      himself is not aware of the particulars of the danger that threatens, or,
+      knowing them, he can see no way of escape out of them. It may be that at
+      night, when everything is quiet, one's mind is more open to such
+      impressions than it is when we are surrounded by other people and have
+      other things to think of, but I feel an actual consciousness of danger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think there can be any danger until we get down near Cawnpore.
+      They may possibly be on the lookout for us there, and may even have boats
+      out on the stream. It is possible that the Sepoys may have sent down word
+      yesterday afternoon to Nana Sahib that we had surrendered, and should be
+      starting by boat this morning, but I don't think there can be any danger
+      till we get there. Should we meet native boats and be stopped, Por Sing's
+      son will be able to induce them to let us pass. Certainly none of the
+      villagers about here would be likely to disobey him. Once beyond Cawnpore,
+      I believe that he would have sufficient influence, speaking, as he does,
+      in the name, not only of his father, but of other powerful landowners, to
+      induce any of these Oude people to let us pass. No, I regard Cawnpore as
+      our one danger, and I believe it to be a very real one. I have been
+      thinking, indeed, that it would be a good thing when we get within a
+      couple of miles of the place for all who are able to walk, to land on the
+      opposite bank, and make their way along past Cawnpore, and take to the
+      boats again a mile below the town.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would be an excellent plan, Doctor; but if the boats were stopped
+      and they found the sick, they would kill them to a certainty. I don't
+      think we could leave them. I am quite sure Miss Hannay would not leave her
+      uncle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think we might get over even that, Bathurst. There are only the Major
+      and the other two men, and Mrs. Forsyth and three children, too ill to
+      walk. There are eight of the native servants, ourselves, and the young
+      Rajah's retainers. We ought to have no difficulty in carrying the wounded.
+      As to the luggage, that must be sacrificed, so that the boatmen can go
+      down with empty benches. It must be pitched overboard. The loss would be
+      of no real consequence; everyone could manage with what they have on until
+      we get to Allahabad. There would be no difficulty in getting what we
+      require there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think the plan is an excellent one, Doctor. I will ask the young chief
+      if his men will help us to carry the sick. If he says yes, we will go
+      alongside the other boat and explain our plan to Doolan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young Rajah at once assented, and the boat being rowed up to the
+      other, the plan was explained and approved of. No objection was raised by
+      anyone, even to the proposal for getting rid of all the luggage; and as
+      soon as the matter was arranged, a general disposition towards
+      cheerfulness was manifested. Everyone had felt that the danger of passing
+      Cawnpore would be immense, and this plan for avoiding it seemed to lift a
+      load from their minds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was settled they should land at some spot where the river was bordered
+      by bushes and young trees; that stout poles should be cut, and blankets
+      fastened between them, so as to form stretchers on which the sick could be
+      carried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As far as possible the boats were kept on the left side of the river, but
+      at times shallows rendered it necessary to keep over by the right bank.
+      Whenever they were near the shore, silence was observed, lest the foreign
+      tongue should be noticed by anyone near the bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Night fell, and they still continued their course. An hour after sunset
+      they were rowing near the right bank&mdash;the Major had fallen into a
+      sort of doze, and Isobel was sitting next to Bathurst, and they were
+      talking in low tones together&mdash;when suddenly there was a hail from
+      the shore, not fifty yards away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What boats are those?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fishing boats going down the river,&rdquo; one of the boatmen answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Row alongside, we must examine you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a moment's pause, and then the Doctor said in the native
+      language, &ldquo;Row on, men,&rdquo; and the oars of both boats again dipped into the
+      water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are pressed for time,&rdquo; the young Zemindar shouted, and then, dropping
+      his voice, urged the men to row at the top of their speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop, or we fire,&rdquo; came from the shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No answer was returned from the boats; they were now nearly opposite the
+      speaker. Then came the word&mdash;&ldquo;Fire.&rdquo; Six cannon loaded with grape
+      were discharged, and a crackle of musketry at the same moment broke out.
+      The shot tore through the boats, killing and disabling many, and bringing
+      down the arbor of boughs upon them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A terrible cry arose, and all was confusion. Most of the rowers were
+      killed, and the boats drifted helplessly amid the storm of rifle bullets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the cannon flashed out and the grape swept the boats Bathurst, with a
+      sharp cry, sprang to his feet, and leaped overboard, as did several others
+      from both boats. Diving, he kept under water for some distance, and then
+      swam desperately till he reached shallow water on the other side of the
+      river, and then fell head foremost on the sand. Eight or ten others also
+      gained the shore in a body, and were running towards the bank, when the
+      guns were again fired, and all but three were swept away by the iron hail.
+      A few straggling musket shots were fired, then orders were shouted, and
+      the splashing of an oar was heard, as one of the native boatmen rowed one
+      of the two boats toward the shore. Bathurst rose to his feet and ran,
+      stumbling like a drunken man, towards the bushes, and just as he reached
+      them, fell heavily forward, and lay there insensible. Three men came out
+      from the jungle and dragged him in. As they did so loud screams arose from
+      the other bank, then half a dozen muskets were fired, and all was quiet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not for a quarter of an hour that Bathurst was conscious of what
+      was going on around him. Someone was rubbing his chest and hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is it?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it is you, Bathurst!&rdquo; he heard Wilson's voice exclaim. &ldquo;I thought it
+      was you, but it is so dark now we are off that white sand that I could not
+      see. Where are you hit?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;I felt a sort of shock as I got out of the
+      water, but I don't know that I am hurt at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you must be hit somewhere. Try and move your arms and legs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst moved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don't think I am hit; if I am, it is on the head. I feel something
+      warm round the back of my neck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Jove, yes!&rdquo; Wilson said; &ldquo;here is where it is; there is a cut all
+      along the top of your head; the bullet seems to have hit you at the back,
+      and gone right along over the top. It can't have gone in, or else you
+      would not be able to talk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Help me up,&rdquo; Bathurst said, and he was soon on his feet. He felt giddy
+      and confused. &ldquo;Who have you with you?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two natives. I think one is the young chief, and the other is one of his
+      followers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst spoke to them in their native language, and found that Wilson was
+      not mistaken. As soon as he found that he was understood, the young chief
+      poured out a volley of curses upon those who had attacked them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst stopped him. &ldquo;We shall have time for that afterwards, Murad,&rdquo; he
+      said; &ldquo;the first thing is to see what had best be done. What has happened
+      since I landed, Wilson?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our boat was pretty nearly cut in two,&rdquo; Wilson said, &ldquo;and was sinking
+      when I jumped over; the other boat has been rowed ashore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did you hear, Wilson?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard the women scream,&rdquo; Wilson said reluctantly, &ldquo;and five or six
+      shots were fired. There has been no sound since then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst stood silent for a minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not think they will have killed the women,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;they did not
+      do so at Cawnpore. They will take them there. No doubt they killed the
+      men. Let me think for a moment. Now,&rdquo; he said after a long pause, &ldquo;we must
+      be doing. Murad, your father and friends have given their word for the
+      safety of those you took prisoners; that they have been massacred is no
+      fault of your father or of you. This gentleman and myself are the only
+      ones saved, as far as we know. Are you sure that none others came ashore?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The others were all killed, we alone remaining,&rdquo; Murad said. &ldquo;I will go
+      back to my father, and he will go to Cawnpore and demand vengeance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can do that afterwards, Murad; the first thing is to fulfill your
+      promise, and I charge you to take this sahib in safety down to Allahabad.
+      You must push on at once, for they may be sending out from Cawnpore at
+      daylight to search the bushes here to see if any have escaped. You must go
+      on with him tonight as far as you can, and in the morning enter some
+      village, buy native clothes, and disguise him, and then journey on to
+      Allahabad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will do that,&rdquo; the young Rajah said; &ldquo;but what about yourself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall go into Cawnpore and try to rescue any they may have taken. I
+      have a native cloth round me under my other clothes, as I thought it might
+      be necessary for me to land before we got to Cawnpore to see if danger
+      threatened us. So I have everything I want for a disguise about me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you saying, Bathurst?&rdquo; Wilson asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am arranging for Murad and his follower to take you down to Allahabad,
+      Wilson. I shall stop at Cawnpore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop at Cawnpore! Are you mad, Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I am not mad. I shall stop to see if any of the ladies have been
+      taken prisoners, and if so, try to rescue them. Rujub, the juggler, is
+      there, and I am confident he will help me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if you can stay, I can, Bathurst. If Miss Hannay has been made
+      prisoner, I would willingly be killed to rescue her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know you would, Wilson, but you would be killed without being able to
+      rescue her; and as I should share your fate, you would render her rescue
+      impossible. I can speak the native language perfectly, and know native
+      ways. I can move about among them without fear of exciting their
+      suspicion. If you were with me this would be impossible; the first time
+      you were addressed by a native you would be detected; your presence would
+      add to my difficulties a hundredfold. It is not now a question of
+      fighting. Were it only that, I should be delighted to have you with me. As
+      it is, the thing is impossible. If anything is done, I must do it alone.
+      If I ever reach Miss Hannay, she shall know that you were ready to run all
+      risks to save her. No, no, you must go on to Allahabad, and if you cannot
+      save her now, you will be with the force that will save her, if I should
+      fail to do so, and which will avenge us both if it should arrive too late
+      to rescue her. Now I must get you to bandage my head, for I feel faint
+      with loss of blood. I will take off my shirt and tear it in strips. I have
+      got a native disguise next to the skin. We may as well leave my clothes
+      behind me here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as Wilson, with the assistance of Murad, had bandaged the wound,
+      the party struck off from the river, and after four hours' walking came
+      down upon it again two miles below Cawnpore. Here Bathurst said he would
+      stop, stain his skin, and complete his disguise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hate leaving you,&rdquo; Wilson said, in a broken voice. &ldquo;There are only you
+      and I left of all our party at Deennugghur. It is awful to think they have
+      all gone&mdash;the good old chief, the Doctor, and Richards, and the
+      ladies. There are only we two left. It does seem such a dirty, cowardly
+      thing for me to be making off and leaving you here alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not cowardly, Wilson, for I know you would willingly stay if you
+      could be of the slightest use; but, as, on the contrary, you would only
+      add to the danger, it must be as I have arranged. Goodby, lad; don't stay;
+      it has to be done. God bless you! Goodby, Murad. Tell your father when you
+      see him that I know no shadow of broken faith rests on him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he turned and went into a clump of bushes, while Wilson, too
+      overpowered to speak, started on his way down country with the two
+      natives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Now alone, Bathurst threw himself down among the bushes in an attitude of
+      utter depression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why wasn't I killed with the others?&rdquo; he groaned. &ldquo;Why was I not killed
+      when I sat there by her side?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So he lay for an hour, and then slowly rose and looked round. There was a
+      faint light in the sky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will be light in another hour,&rdquo; he said to himself, and he again sat
+      down. Suddenly he started. Had someone spoken, or had he fancied it?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait till I come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He seemed to hear the words plainly, just as he had heard Rujub's summons
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's it; it is Rujub. How is it that he can make me hear in this way? I
+      am sure it was his voice. Anyhow, I will wait. It shows he is thinking of
+      me, and I am sure he will help me. I know well enough I could do nothing
+      by myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst assumed with unquestioning faith that Isobel Hannay was alive. He
+      had no reason for his confidence. That first shower of grape might have
+      killed her as it killed others, but he would not admit the doubt in his
+      mind. Wilson's description of what had happened while he was insensible
+      was one of the grounds of this confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had heard women scream. Mrs. Hunter and her daughter were the only
+      other women in the boat. Isobel would not have screamed had those muskets
+      been pointed at her, nor did he think the others would have done so. They
+      screamed when they saw the natives about to murder those who were with
+      them. The three women were sitting together, and if one had fallen by the
+      grape shot all would probably have been killed. He felt confident,
+      therefore, that she had escaped; he believed he would have known it had
+      she been killed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I can be influenced by this juggler, surely I should have felt it had
+      Isobel died,&rdquo; he argued, and was satisfied that she was still alive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What, however, more than anything else gave him hope was the picture on
+      the smoke. &ldquo;Everything else has come true,&rdquo; he said to himself; &ldquo;why
+      should not that? Wilson spoke of the Doctor as dead. I will not believe
+      it; for if he is dead, the picture is false. Why should that thing of all
+      others have been shown to me unless it had been true? What seemed
+      impossible to me&mdash;that I should be fighting like a brave man&mdash;has
+      been verified. Why should not this? I should have laughed at such
+      superstition six months ago; now I cling to it as my one ground for hope.
+      Well, I will wait if I have to stay here until tomorrow night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Noiselessly he moved about in the little wood, going to the edge and
+      looking out, pacing to and fro with quick steps, his face set in a frown,
+      occasionally muttering to himself. He was in a fever of impatience. He
+      longed to be doing something, even if that something led to his detention
+      and death. He said to himself that he should not care so that Isobel
+      Hannay did but know that he had died in trying to rescue her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun rose, and he saw the peasants in the fields, and caught the note
+      of a bugle sounding from the lines at Cawnpore. At last&mdash;it had
+      seemed to him an age, but the sun had been up only an hour&mdash;he saw a
+      figure coming along the river bank. As it approached he told himself that
+      it was the juggler; if so, he had laid aside the garments in which he last
+      saw him, and was now attired as when they first met. When he saw him turn
+      off from the river bank and advance straight towards the wood, he had no
+      doubt that it was the man he expected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks be to the holy ones that you have escaped, sahib,&rdquo; Rujub said, as
+      soon as he came within speaking distance of Bathurst. &ldquo;I was in an agony
+      last night. I was with you in thought, and saw the boats approaching the
+      ambuscade. I saw you leap over and swim to shore. I saw you fall, and I
+      cried out. For a moment I thought you were killed. Then I saw you go on
+      and fall again, and saw your friends carry you in. I watched you recover
+      and come on here, and then I willed it that you should wait here till I
+      came for you. I have brought you a disguise, for I did not know that you
+      had one with you. But, first of all, sit down and let me dress your wound
+      afresh. I have brought all that is necessary for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a true fried, Rujub. I relied upon you for aid; do you know why I
+      waited here instead of going down with the others?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know, sahib. I can tell your thoughts as easily when you are away from
+      me as I can when we are together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you do this with all people?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, my lord; to be able to read another's thoughts it is necessary there
+      should be a mystic relation established between them. As I walked beside
+      your horse when you carried my daughter before you after saving her life,
+      I felt that this relation had commenced, and that henceforward our fates
+      were connected. It was necessary that you should have confidence in me,
+      and it was for that reason that I showed you some of the feats that we
+      rarely exhibit, and proved to you that I possessed powers with which you
+      were unacquainted. But in thought reading my daughter has greater powers
+      than I have, and it was she who last night followed you on your journey,
+      sitting with her hand in mine, so that my mind followed hers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know all that happened last night, Rujub?&rdquo; Bathurst said,
+      summoning up courage to ask the question that had been on his lips from
+      the first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only know, my lord, that the party was destroyed, save three white
+      women, who were brought in just as the sun rose this morning. One was the
+      lady behind whose chair you stood the night I performed at Deennugghur,
+      the lady about whom you are thinking. I do not know the other two; one was
+      getting on in life, the other was a young one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The relief was so great that Bathurst turned away, unable for a while to
+      continue the conversation. When he resumed the talk, he asked, &ldquo;Did you
+      see them yourself, Rujub?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw them, sahib; they were brought in on a gun carriage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did they look, Rujub?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The old one looked calm and sad. She did not seem to hear the shouts of
+      the budmashes as they passed along. She held the young one close to her.
+      That one seemed worn out with grief and terror. Your memsahib sat upright;
+      she was very pale and changed from the time I saw her that evening, but
+      she held her head high, and looked almost scornfully at the men who shook
+      their fists and cried at her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And they put them with the other women that they have taken prisoners?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rujub hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have put the other two there, sahib, but her they took to Bithoor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst started, and an exclamation of horror and rage burst from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To the Rajah's!&rdquo; he exclaimed. &ldquo;To that scoundrel! Come, let us go. Why
+      are we staying here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We can do nothing for the moment. Before I started I sent off my daughter
+      to Bithoor; she knows many there, and will find out what is being done and
+      bring us word, for I dare not show myself there. The Rajah is furious with
+      me because I did not support the Sepoys, and suffered conditions to be
+      made with your people, but now that all has turned out as he wished, I
+      will in a short time present myself before him again, but for the moment
+      it was better that my daughter should go, as I had to come to you. But
+      first you had better put on the disguise I have brought you. You are too
+      big and strong to pass without notice in that peasant's dress. The one I
+      have brought you is such as is worn by the rough people; the budmashes of
+      Cawnpore. I can procure others afterwards when we see what had best be
+      done. It will be easy enough to enter Bithoor, for all is confusion there,
+      and men come and go as they choose, but it will be well nigh impossible
+      for you to penetrate where the memsahib will be placed. Even for me, known
+      as I am to all the Rajah's officers, it would be impossible to do so; it
+      is my daughter in whom we shall have to trust.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst rapidly put on the clothes that Rujub had brought with him, and
+      thrust a sword, two daggers, and a brace of long barreled pistols into the
+      sash round his waist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your color is not dark enough, sahib. I have brought dye with me; but
+      first I must dress the wound on your head, and bandage it more neatly, so
+      that the blood stained swathings will not show below the folds of your
+      turban.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst submitted himself impatiently to Rujub's hands. The latter cut
+      off all the hair that would show under the turban, dyed the skin the same
+      color as the other parts, and finally, after darkening his eyebrows,
+      eyelashes, and mustache, pronounced that he would pass anywhere without
+      attracting attention. Then they started at a quick walk along the river,
+      crossed by the ferryboat to Cawnpore, and made their way to a quiet street
+      in the native town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is my house for the present,&rdquo; Rujub said, producing a key and
+      unlocking a door. He shouted as he closed the door behind him, and an old
+      woman appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the meal prepared?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is ready,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is right. Tell Rhuman to put the pony into the cart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He then led the way into a comfortably furnished apartment where a meal
+      was laid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eat, my lord,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;you need it, and will require your strength.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst, who, during his walk, had felt the effects of the loss of blood
+      and anxiety, at once seated himself at the table and ate, at first
+      languidly, but as appetite came, more heartily, and felt still more
+      benefited by a bottle of excellent wine Rujub had placed beside him. The
+      latter returned to the room just as he had finished. He was now attired as
+      he had been when Bathurst last met him at Deennugghur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feel another man, Rujub, and fit for anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The cart is ready,&rdquo; Rujub said. &ldquo;I have already taken my meal; we do not
+      eat meat, and live entirely on vegetables. Meat clouds the senses, and
+      simple food, and little of it, is necessary for those who would enter the
+      inner brotherhood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the door a small native cart was standing with a pony in the shafts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will go with us, Rhuman,&rdquo; Rujub said, as he and Bathurst took their
+      seats in the cart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy squatted down at Rujub's feet, taking the reins and whip, and the
+      pony started off at a brisk pace. Upon the way Rujub talked of various
+      matters, of the reports of the force that was gathering at Allahabad, and
+      the madness of the British in supposing that two or three thousand men
+      could withstand the forces of the Nana.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They would be eaten up,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;the troops will go out to meet them;
+      they will never arrive within sight of Cawnpore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Bathurst saw that he was talking for the boy to hear, rather than to
+      himself, he agreed loudly with all that he said, and boasted that even
+      without the Nana's troops and the Sepoys, the people of Cawnpore could cut
+      the English dogs to pieces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The drive was not a long one, and the road was full of parties going to or
+      returning from Bithoor&mdash;groups of Sepoy officers, parties of
+      budmashes from Cawnpore, mounted messengers, landowners with their
+      retainers, and others. Arriving within a quarter of a mile of the palace,
+      Rujub ordered the boy to draw aside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take the horse down that road,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and wait there until we return.
+      We may be some time. If we are not back by the time the sun sets, you will
+      return home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As they approached the palace Bathurst scanned every window, as if he
+      hoped to see Isobel's face at one of them. Entering the garden, they
+      avoided the terrace in front of the house, and sauntering through the
+      groups of people who had gathered discussing the latest news, they took
+      their seat in a secluded corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst thought of the last time he had been there, when there had been a
+      fete given by the Rajah to the residents of Cawnpore, and contrasted the
+      present with the past. Then the gardens were lighted up, and a crowd of
+      officers and civilians with ladies in white dresses had strolled along the
+      terrace to the sound of gay music, while their host moved about among
+      them, courteous, pleasant, and smiling. Now the greater portion of the men
+      were dead, the women were prisoners in the hands of the native who had
+      professed such friendship for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me, Rujub,&rdquo; he said presently, &ldquo;more about this force at Allahabad.
+      What is its strength likely to be?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say there is one British regiment of the line, one of the plumed
+      regiments with bare legs, and one of the white Madras regiments; they have
+      a few guns, a very few horsemen; that is all, while there are twenty
+      thousand troops here. How can they hope to win?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will see they will win,&rdquo; Bathurst said sternly. &ldquo;They have often
+      fought well, but they will fight now as they never fought before; every
+      man will feel himself an avenger of the foul treachery and the brutal
+      massacres that have been committed. Were it but one regiment that is
+      coming up instead of three, I would back it against the blood stained
+      wretches.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are fighting for freedom,&rdquo; Rujub said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are fighting for nothing of the sort,&rdquo; Bathurst replied hotly; &ldquo;they
+      are fighting for they know not what&mdash;change of masters, for license
+      to plunder, and because they are ignorant and have been led away. I doubt
+      not that at present, confident as they may be of victory, most of them in
+      their hearts regret what they have done. They have forfeited their
+      pensions, they have thrown away the benefits of their years of service,
+      they have been faithless to their salt, and false to their oaths. It is
+      true that they know they are fighting with ropes round their necks, but
+      even that won't avail against the discipline and the fury of our troops. I
+      feel as certain, Rujub, that, in spite of the odds against them, the
+      English will triumph, as if I saw their column marching into the town. I
+      don't profess to see the future as you do, but I know enough to tell you
+      that ere long that palace you can see through the trees will be leveled to
+      the ground, that it is as assuredly doomed as if fire had already been
+      applied to its gilded beams.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rujub nodded. &ldquo;I know the palace is doomed. While I have looked at it it
+      has seemed hidden by a cloud of smoke, but I did not think it was the work
+      of the British&mdash;I thought of an accident.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Rajah may fire it with his own hands,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;but if he does
+      not, it will be done for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not told you yet, sahib,&rdquo; Rujub said, changing the subject, &ldquo;how
+      it was that I could neither prevent the attack on the boats nor warn you
+      that it was coming. I knew at Deennugghur that news had been sent of the
+      surrender to the Nana. I remained till I knew you were safely in the
+      boats, and then rode to Cawnpore. My daughter was at the house when I
+      arrived, and told me that the Nana was furious with me, and that it would
+      not be safe for me to go near the palace. Thus, although I feared that an
+      attack was intended, I thought it would not be until the boats passed the
+      town. It was late before I learnt that a battery of artillery and some
+      infantry had set out that afternoon. Then I tried to warn you, but I felt
+      that I failed. You were not in a mood when my mind could communicate
+      itself to yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I felt very uneasy and restless,&rdquo; Bathurst said, &ldquo;but I had not the same
+      feeling that you were speaking to me I had that night at Deennugghur; but
+      even had I known of the danger, there would have been no avoiding it. Had
+      we landed, we must have been overtaken, and it would have come to the same
+      thing. Tell me, Rujub, had you any idea when I saw you at Deennugghur that
+      if we were taken prisoners Miss Hannay was to be brought here instead of
+      being placed with the other ladies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I knew it, sahib; the orders he gave to the Sepoys were that every
+      man was to be killed, and that the women and children were to be taken to
+      Cawnpore, except Miss Hannay, who was to be carried here at once. The
+      Rajah had noticed her more than once when she was at Cawnpore, and had
+      made up his mind that she should go to his zenana.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why did you not tell me when you were at Deennugghur?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What would have been the use, sahib? I hoped to save you all; besides, it
+      was not until we saw her taken past this morning that we knew that the
+      Miss Hannay who was to be taken to Bithoor was the lady whom my daughter,
+      when she saw her with you that night, said at once that you loved. But had
+      we known it, what good would it have done to have told you of the Rajah's
+      orders? You could not have done more than you have done. But now we know,
+      we will aid you to save her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long will your daughter be before she comes? It is horrible waiting
+      here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must have patience, sahib. It will be no easy work to get the lady
+      away. There will be guards and women to look after her. A lady is not to
+      be stolen out of a zenana as a young bird is taken from its nest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is all very well to say 'Be patient,'&rdquo; Bathurst said, getting up and
+      walking up and down with quick angry strides. &ldquo;It is maddening to sit here
+      doing nothing. If it were not that I had confidence in your power and will
+      to aid me, I would go into the palace and stab Nana Sahib to the heart,
+      though I were cut to pieces for it the moment afterwards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would do no good to the lady, sahib,&rdquo; Rujub said calmly. &ldquo;She would
+      only be left without a friend, and the Nana's death might be the signal
+      for the murder of every white prisoner. Ah, here comes my daughter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rabda came up quickly, and stopped before Bathurst with her head bowed and
+      her arms crossed in an attitude of humility. She was dressed in the attire
+      worn by the principal servants in attendance upon the zenana of a Hindoo
+      prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what news, Rabda?&rdquo; Bathurst asked eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The light of my lord's heart is sick. She bore up till she arrived here
+      and was handed over to the women. Then her strength failed her, and she
+      fainted. She recovered, but she is lying weak and exhausted with all that
+      she has gone through and suffered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is she now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is in the zenana, looking out into the women's court, that no men are
+      ever allowed to enter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has the Rajah seen her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sahib. He was told the state that she was in, and the chief lady of
+      the zenana sent him word that for the present she must have quiet and
+      rest, but that in two or three days she might be fit to see him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is something,&rdquo; Bathurst said thankfully. &ldquo;Now we shall have time to
+      think of some scheme for getting her out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been in the zenana yourself, Rabda?&rdquo; Rujub asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, father; the mistress of the zenana saw me directly an attendant told
+      her I was there. She has always been kind to me. I said that you were
+      going on a journey, and asked her if I might stay with her and act as an
+      attendant until you returned, and she at once assented. She asked if I
+      should see you before you left, and when I said yes, she asked if you
+      could not give her some spell that would turn the Rajah's thoughts from
+      this white girl. She fears that if she should become first favorite in the
+      zenana, she might take things in her hands as English women do, and make
+      all sorts of changes. I told her that, doubtless, the English girl would
+      do this, and that I thought she was wise to ask your assistance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are mad, Rabda,&rdquo; her father said angrily; &ldquo;what have I to do with
+      spells and love philters?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, father, I knew well enough you would not believe in such things, but
+      I thought in this way I might see the lady, and communicate with her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A very good idea, Rabda,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;Is there nothing you can do,
+      Rujub, to make her odious to the Nana?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing, sahib. I could act upon some people's minds, and make them think
+      that the young lady was afflicted by some loathsome disease, but not with
+      the Nana. I have many times tried to influence him, but without success:
+      his mind is too deep for mine to master, and between us there is no
+      sympathy. Could I be present with him and the girl I might do something&mdash;that
+      is, if the powers that aid me would act against him; but this I do not
+      think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rujub,&rdquo; Bathurst said suddenly, &ldquo;there must have been medical stores
+      taken when the camp was captured&mdash;drugs and things of that sort. Can
+      you find out who has become possessed of them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I might find out, sahib. Doubtless the men who looted the camp will have
+      sold the drugs to the native shops, for English drugs are highly prized.
+      Are there medicines that can act as the mistress of the zenana wishes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; but there are drugs that when applied externally would give the
+      appearance of a terrible disease. There are acids whose touch would burn
+      and blister the skin, and turn a beautiful face into a dreadful mask.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But would it recover its fairness, sahib?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The traces might last for a long time, even for life, if too much were
+      used, but I am sure Miss Hannay would not hesitate for a moment on that
+      account.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you, sahib&mdash;would you risk her being disfigured?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does it matter to me?&rdquo; Bathurst asked sternly. &ldquo;Do you think love is
+      skin deep, and that 'tis only for a fair complexion that we choose our
+      wives? Find me the drugs, and let Rabda take them into her with a line
+      from me. One of them you can certainly get, for it is used, I believe, by
+      gold and silver smiths. It is nitric acid; the other is caustic potash,
+      or, as it is sometimes labeled, lunar caustic. It is in little sticks; but
+      if you find out anyone who has bought drugs or cases of medicines, I will
+      go with you and pick them out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There will be no difficulty about finding out where the English drugs
+      are. They are certain to be at one of the shops where the native doctors
+      buy their medicines.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us go at once, then,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;You can prepare some harmless
+      drink, and Rabda will tell the mistress of the zenana it will bring out a
+      disfiguring eruption. We can be back here again this evening. Will you be
+      here, Rabda, at sunset, and wait until we come? You can tell the woman
+      that you have seen your father, and that he will supply her with what she
+      requires. Make some excuse, if you can, to see the prisoner. Say you are
+      curious to see the white woman who has bewitched the Nana, and if you get
+      the opportunity whisper in her ear these words, 'Do not despair, friends
+      are working for you.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rabda repeated the English words several times over until she had them
+      perfect; then she made her way back to the palace, while Bathurst and his
+      companion proceeded at once to the spot where they had left their vehicle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had but little difficulty in finding what they required. Many of the
+      shops displayed garments, weapons, jewelry, and other things, the plunder
+      of the intrenchments of Cawnpore. Rujub entered several shops where drugs
+      were sold, and finally one of the traders said, &ldquo;I have a large black box
+      full of drugs which I bought from a Sepoy for a rupee, but now that I have
+      got it I do not know what to do with it. Some of the bottles doubtless
+      contain poisons. I will sell it you for two rupees, which is the value of
+      the box, which, as you see, is very strong and bound with iron. The
+      contents I place no price upon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will take it,&rdquo; Rujub said. &ldquo;I know some of the English medicines, and
+      may find a use for them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He paid the money, called in a coolie, and bade him take up the chest and
+      follow him, and they soon arrived at the juggler's house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The box, which was a hospital medical chest, was filled with drugs of all
+      kinds. Bathurst put a stick of caustic into a small vial, and half filled
+      another, which had a glass stopper, with nitric acid, filled it up with
+      water, and tried the effect of rubbing a few drops on his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is strong enough for anything,&rdquo; he said, with a slight exclamation
+      at the sharp pain. &ldquo;And now give me a piece of paper and pen and ink.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then sitting down he wrote:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Dear Miss Hannay: Rujub, the juggler, and I will do what we can to
+      rescue you. We are powerless to effect anything as long as you remain
+      where you are. The bearer, Rujub's daughter, will give you the bottles,
+      one containing lunar caustic, the other nitric acid. The mistress of the
+      zenana, who wants to get rid of you, as she fears you might obtain
+      influence over the Nana, has asked the girl to obtain from her father a
+      philter which will make you odious to him. The large bottle is perfectly
+      harmless, and you can drink its contents without fear. The caustic is for
+      applying to your lips; it will be painful, but I am sure you will not mind
+      that, and the injury will be only of a temporary nature. I cannot promise
+      as much for the nitric acid; pray apply it very carefully, merely
+      moistening the glass stopper and applying it with that. I should use it
+      principally round the lips. It will burn and blister the skin. The Nana
+      will be told that you have a fever, which is causing a terrible and
+      disfiguring eruption. I should apply it also to the neck and hands. Pray
+      be very careful with the stuff; for, besides the application being
+      exceedingly painful, the scars may possibly remain permanently. Keep the
+      two small bottles carefully hidden, in order to renew the application if
+      absolutely necessary. At any rate, this will give us time, and, from what
+      I hear, our troops are likely to be here in another ten days' time. You
+      will be, I know, glad to hear that Wilson has also escaped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yours,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;R. Bathurst.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A large bottle was next filled with elder flower water. The trap was
+      brought around, and they drove back to Bithoor. Rabda was punctual to her
+      appointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have seen her,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and have given her the message. I could see
+      that she understood it, but as there were other women round, she made no
+      sign. I told the mistress of the zenana that you had given me some magic
+      words that I was to whisper to her to prepare the way for the philter, so
+      she let me in without difficulty, and I was allowed to go close up to her
+      and repeat your message. I put my hands on her before I did so, and I
+      think she felt that it was the touch of a friend. She hushed up when I
+      spoke to her. The mistress, who was standing close by, thought that this
+      was a sign of the power of the words I had spoken to her. I did not stay
+      more than a minute. I was afraid she might try to speak to me in your
+      tongue, and that would have been dangerous.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are the bottles,&rdquo;' Bathurst said; &ldquo;this large one is for her to
+      take, the other two and this note are to be given to her separately. You
+      had better tell the woman that the philter must be given by your own
+      hands, and that you must then watch alone by her side for half an hour.
+      Say that after you leave her she will soon go off to sleep; and must then
+      be left absolutely alone till daybreak tomorrow, and it will then be found
+      that the philter has acted. She must at once tell the Nana that the lady
+      is in a high fever, and has been seized with some terrible disease that
+      has altogether disfigured her, and that he can see for himself the state
+      she is in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rabda's whisper had given new life and hope to Isobel Hannay. Previous to
+      that her fate had seemed to her to be sealed, and she had only prayed for
+      death; the long strain of the siege had told upon her; the scene in the
+      boat seemed a species of horrible nightmare, culminating in a number of
+      Sepoys leaping on board the boat as it touched the bank, and bayoneting
+      her uncle and all on board except herself, Mrs. Hunter, and her daughter,
+      who were seized and carried ashore. Then followed a night of dull
+      despairing pain, while she and her companions crouched together, with two
+      Sepoys standing on guard over them, while the others, after lighting
+      fires, talked and laughed long into the night over the success of their
+      attack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At daybreak they had been placed upon a limber and driven into Cawnpore.
+      Her spirit had risen as they were assailed by insults and imprecations by
+      the roughs of the town, and she had borne up bravely till, upon their
+      arrival at the entrance to what she supposed was the prison, she was
+      roughly dragged from the limber, placed in a close carriage, and driven
+      off. In her despair she had endeavored to open the door in order to throw
+      herself under the wheels, but a soldier stood on each step and prevented
+      her from doing so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Outside of the town she soon saw that she was on the road to Bithoor, and
+      the fate for which she was reserved flashed upon her. She remembered now
+      the oily compliments of Nana Sahib, and the unpleasant thrill she had felt
+      when his eyes were fixed upon her; and had she possessed a weapon of any
+      kind she would have put an end to her life. But her pistol had been taken
+      from her when she landed, and in helpless despair she crouched in a corner
+      of the carriage until they reached Bithoor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the carriage stopped a cloth was thrown over her head. She was
+      lifted out and carried into the palace, through long passages and up
+      stairs; then those who carried her set her on her feet and retired. Other
+      hands took her and led her forward till the cloth was taken off her head,
+      and she found herself surrounded, by women, who regarded her with glances
+      of mixed curiosity and hostility. Then everything seemed to swim round,
+      and she fainted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she recovered consciousness all strength seemed to have left her, and
+      she lay in a sort of apathy for hours, taking listlessly the drink that
+      was offered to her, but paying no attention to what was passing around,
+      until there was a gentle pressure on her arm, the grasp tightening with a
+      slight caressing motion that seemed to show sympathy; then came the
+      English words softly whispered into her ear, while the hand again pressed
+      her arm firmly, as if in warning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was with difficulty that she refrained from uttering an exclamation,
+      and she felt the blood crimson her cheeks, but she mastered the impulse
+      and lay perfectly quiet, glancing up into the face bent down close to hers&mdash;it
+      was not familiar to her, and yet it seemed to her that she had seen it
+      somewhere; another minute and it was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But though to all appearances Isobel's attitude was unchanged, her mind
+      was active now. Who could have sent her this message? Who could this
+      native girl be who had spoken in English to her? Where had she seen the
+      face?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her thoughts traveled backwards, and she ran over in her mind all those
+      with whom she had come in contact since her arrival in India; her servants
+      and those of her acquaintances passed before her eyes. She had scarcely
+      spoken to another native woman since she had landed. After thinking over
+      all she had known in Cawnpore, she thought of Deennugghur. Whom had she
+      met there?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly came the remembrance of the exhibition by the juggler, and she
+      recalled the face and figure of his daughter, as, seated, upon the growing
+      pole, she had gone up foot by foot in the light of the lamps and up into
+      the darkness above. The mystery was solved; that was the face that had
+      just leaned over her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But how could she be interested in her fate? Then she remembered that this
+      was the girl whom Bathurst had saved from the tiger. If they were
+      interested in her, it must be through Bathurst. Could he too have survived
+      the attack of the night before? She had thought of him, as of all of them,
+      as dead, but possibly he might have escaped. Even during the long night's
+      waiting, a captive to the Sepoys, the thought that he had instantly sprung
+      from beside her and leaped overboard had been an added pang to all her
+      misery. She had no after remembrance of him; perhaps he had swum to shore
+      and got off in safety. In that case he must be lingering in Cawnpore, had
+      learned what had become of her, and was trying to rescue her. It was to
+      the juggler he would naturally have gone to obtain assistance. If so, he
+      was risking his life now to save hers; and this was the man whom she
+      despised as a coward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what could he do? At Bithoor, in the power of this treacherous Rajah,
+      secure in the zenana, where no man save its master ever penetrated, how
+      could he possibly help her? Yet the thought that he was trying to do so
+      was a happy one, and the tears that flowed between her closed lids were
+      not painful ones. She blamed herself now for having felt for a moment hurt
+      at Bathurst's desertion of her. To have remained in the boat would have
+      been certain death, while he could have been of no assistance to her or
+      anyone else. That he should escape, then, if he could, now seemed to her a
+      perfectly natural action; she hoped that some of the others had done the
+      same, and that Bathurst was not working alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It did not occur to her that there could be any possibility of the scheme
+      for her rescue succeeding; as to that she felt no more hopeful than
+      before, but it seemed to take away the sense of utter loneliness that she
+      before felt that someone should be interesting himself in her fate.
+      Perhaps there would be more than a mere verbal message next time; how long
+      would it be before she heard again? How long a respite had she before that
+      wretch came to see her? Doubtless he had heard that she was ill. She would
+      remain so. She would starve herself. Her weakness seemed to her her best
+      protection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she lay apparently helpless upon the couch she watched the women move
+      about the room. The girl who had spoken to her was not among them. The
+      women were not unkind; they brought her cooling drinks, and tried to tempt
+      her to eat something; but she shook her head as if utterly unable to do
+      so, and after a time feigned to be asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Darkness came on gradually; some lamps were lighted in the room. Not for a
+      moment had she been left alone since she was brought in&mdash;never less
+      than two females remaining with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently the woman who was evidently the chief of the establishment came
+      in accompanied by a girl, whom Isobel recognized at once as the juggler's
+      daughter. The latter brought with her a tray, on which were some cakes and
+      a silver goblet. These she set down on an oak table by the couch. The girl
+      then handed her the goblet, which, keeping up the appearance of extreme
+      feebleness, she took languidly. She placed it to her lips, but at once
+      took it away. It was not cool and refreshing like those she had tasted
+      before, it had but little flavor, but had a faint odor, which struck her
+      as not unfamiliar. It was a drug of some sort they wished her to drink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked up in the girl's face. Rabda made a reassuring gesture, and
+      said in a low whisper, as she bent forward, &ldquo;Bathurst Sahib.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was sufficient; whatever it was it would do her no harm, and she
+      raised the cup to her lips and emptied it. Then the elder woman said
+      something to the other two, and they all left the room together, leaving
+      her alone with Rabda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter went to the door quietly and drew the hangings across it, then
+      she returned to the couch, and from the folds of her dress produced two
+      vials and a tiny note. Then, noiselessly, she placed a lamp on the table,
+      and withdrew to a short distance while Isobel opened and read the note.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Twice she read it through, and then, laying it down, burst into tears of
+      relief. Rabda came and knelt down beside the couch, and, taking one of her
+      hands, pressed it to her lips. Isobel threw her arms round the girl's
+      neck, drew her close to her, and kissed her warmly.&mdash;Rabda then drew
+      a piece of paper and a pencil from her dress and handed them to her. She
+      wrote:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks a thousand times, dear friend; I will follow your instructions.
+      Please send me if you can some quick and deadly poison, that I may take in
+      the last extremity. Do not fear that I will flinch from applying the
+      things you have sent me. I would not hesitate to swallow them were there
+      no other hope of escape. I rejoice so much to know that you have escaped
+      from that terrible attack last night. Did Wilson alone get away? Do you
+      know they murdered my uncle and all the others in the boat, except Mrs.
+      Hunter and Mary? Pray do not run any risks to try and rescue me. I think
+      that I am safe now, and will make myself so hideous that if the wretch
+      once sees me he will never want to see me again. As to death, I have no
+      fear of it. If we do not meet again, God bless you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yours most gratefully,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isobel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rabda concealed the note in her garment, and then motioned to Isobel that
+      she should close her eyes and pretend to be asleep. Then she gently drew
+      back the curtains and seated herself at a distance from the couch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half an hour later the mistress of the zenana came in. Rabda rose and put
+      her finger to her lips and left the room, accompanied by the woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is asleep,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;do not be afraid, the potion will do its work.
+      Leave her alone all night. When she wakes in the morning she will be wild
+      with fever, and you need have no fear that the Rajah will seek to make her
+      the queen of his zenana.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Prepared as the mistress of the zenana was to find a great change in the
+      captive's appearance, she was startled when, soon after daybreak, she went
+      in to see her. The lower part of her face was greatly swollen, her lips
+      were covered with white blotches. There were great red scars round the
+      mouth and on her forehead, and the skin seemed to have been completely
+      eaten away. There were even larger and deeper marks on her neck and
+      shoulders, which were partly uncovered, as if by her restless tossing. Her
+      hands and arms were similarly marked. She took no notice of her entrance,
+      but talked to herself as she tossed restlessly on the couch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was but little acting in this, for Isobel was suffering an agony of
+      pain. She had used the acid much more freely than she had been instructed
+      to do, determined that the disfigurement should be complete. All night she
+      had been in a state of high fever, and had for a time been almost
+      delirious. She was but slightly more easy now, and had difficulty in
+      preventing herself from crying out from the torture she was suffering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no tinge of pity in the face of the woman who looked at her, but
+      a smile of satisfaction at the manner in which the potion had done its
+      work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Nana can see her now,&rdquo; she said to herself; &ldquo;there will be no change
+      in the arrangements here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She at once sent out word that as soon as the Rajah was up he was to be
+      told that she begged him to come at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour later he came to the door of the zenana.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, Poomba?&rdquo; he asked; &ldquo;nothing the matter with Miss Hannay, I
+      hope?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I grieve to say, your highness, that she has been seized with some
+      terrible disease. I know not what it is, for never did I see a woman so
+      smitten. It must be an illness contracted from confinement and bad air
+      during the siege, some illness that the Europeans have, for never did I
+      see aught like it. She is in a high state of fever, and her face is in a
+      terrible state. It must be a sort of plague.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been poisoning her,&rdquo; the Nana said roughly; &ldquo;if so, beware, for
+      your life shall be the forfeit. I will see her for myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has had no poison since she came here, though I know not but what she
+      may have had poison about her, and may have taken it after she was
+      captured.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take me to her,&rdquo; the Rajah said. &ldquo;I will see for myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be a contagious disease, your highness. It were best that you
+      should not go near her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rajah made an impatient gesture, and the woman, without another word,
+      led him into the room where Isobel was lying. The Nana was prepared for
+      some disfigurement of the face he had so admired, but he shrank back from
+      the reality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is horrible,&rdquo; he said, in a low voice. &ldquo;What have you been doing to
+      her?&rdquo; he asked, turning furiously to the woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have done nothing, your highness. All day yesterday she lay in a
+      torpor, as I told you in the evening when you inquired about her, and I
+      thought then she was going to be ill. I have watched her all night. She
+      has been restless and disturbed, but I thought it better not to go nearer
+      lest I should wake her, and it was not until this morning, when the day
+      broke, that I perceived this terrible change. What shall we do with her?
+      If the disease is contagious, everyone in the palace may catch it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have a closed palanquin brought to the door, wrap her up, and have her
+      carried down to the Subada Ke Kothee. Let her give it to the women there.
+      Burn all the things in this room, and everything that has been worn by
+      those who have entered it. I will inquire into this matter later on, and
+      should I find that there has been any foul play, those concerned in it
+      shall wish they had never been born.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he had left the woman called Rabda in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All has gone well,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;your father's philter is powerful indeed.
+      Tell him whenever he needs any service I can render he has but to ask it.
+      Look at her; did you ever see one so disfigured? The Rajah has seen her,
+      and is filled with loathing. She is to be sent to the Subada Ke Kothee.
+      Are you sure that the malady is not contagious? I have persuaded the Rajah
+      that it is; that is why he is sending her away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure it is not,&rdquo; Rabda said; &ldquo;it is the result of the drugs. It is
+      terrible to see her; give me some cooling ointment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does it matter about her now that she is harmless?&rdquo; Poomba said
+      scornfully. Being, however, desirous of pleasing Rabda, she went away and
+      brought a pot of ointment, which the girl applied to the sores, the tears
+      falling down her cheeks as she did so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The salve at once afforded relief from the burning pain, and Isobel
+      gratefully took a drink prepared from fresh limes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had only removed her gown when she had lain down, having done this in
+      order that it should not be burned by the acid, and that her neck and
+      shoulders might be seen, and the belief induced that this strange eruption
+      was all over her. Rabda made signs for her to put it on again, and
+      pointing in the direction of Cawnpore, repeated the word several times,
+      and Isobel felt with a thrill of intense thankfulness that the stratagem
+      had succeeded, and that she was to be sent away at once, probably to the
+      place where the other prisoners were confined. Presently the woman
+      returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rabda, you had best go with her. It were well that you should leave for
+      the present. The Rajah is suspicious; he may come back again and ask
+      questions; and as he knows you by sight, and as you told me your father
+      was in disfavor with him at present, he might suspect that you were in
+      some way concerned in the matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go,&rdquo; Rabda said. &ldquo;I am sorry she has suffered so much. I did not
+      think the potion would have been so strong. Give me a netful of fresh
+      limes and some cooling lotion, that I may leave with her there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes a woman came up to say that the palanquin was in
+      readiness at the gate of the zenana garden. A large cushion was taken off
+      a divan, and Isobel was laid upon it and covered with a light shawl. Six
+      of the female attendants lifted it and carried it downstairs, accompanied
+      by Rabda and the mistress off the zenana, both closely veiled. Outside the
+      gate was a large palanquin, with its bearers and four soldiers and an
+      officer. The cushion was lifted and placed in the palanquin, and Rabda
+      also took her place there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you will not return today,&rdquo; the woman said to her, in a voice loud
+      enough to be heard by the officers &ldquo;You will remain with her for a time,
+      and afterwards go to see your friends in the town. I will send for you
+      when I hear that you wish to return.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The curtains of the palanquin were drawn down; the bearers lifted it and
+      started at once for Cawnpore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On arrival at the large building known as the Subada Ke Kothee the gates
+      were opened at once at the order of the Nana's officer, and the palanquin
+      was carried across the courtyard to the door of the building which was
+      used as a prison for the white women and children. It was taken into the
+      great arched room and set down. Rabda stepped out, and the bearers lifted
+      out the cushion upon which Isobel lay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will not be wanted any more,&rdquo; Rabda said, in a tone of authority.
+      &ldquo;You can return to Bithoor at once!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the door closed behind them several of the ladies came round to see
+      this fresh arrival. Rabda looked round till her eye fell upon Mrs. Hunter,
+      who was occupied in trying to hush a fractious child. She put her hand on
+      her arm and motioned to her to come along. Surprised at the summons, Mrs.
+      Hunter followed her. When they reached the cushion Rabda lifted the shawl
+      from Isobel's face. For a moment Mrs. Hunter failed to recognize her, but
+      as Isobel opened her eyes and held out her hand she knew her, and with a
+      cry of pity she dropped on her knees beside her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My poor child, what have these fiends been doing to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have been doing nothing, Mrs. Hunter,&rdquo; she whispered. &ldquo;I am not so
+      bad as I seem, though I have suffered a great deal of pain. I was carried
+      away to Bithoor, to Nana Sahib's zenana, and I have burnt my face with
+      caustic and acid; they think I have some terrible disease, and have sent
+      me here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bravely done, girl! Bravely and nobly done! We had best keep the secret
+      to ourselves; there are constantly men looking through the bars of the
+      window, and some of them may understand English.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she looked up and said, &ldquo;It is Miss Hannay, she was captured with us
+      in the boats; please help me to carry her over to the wall there, and my
+      daughter and I will nurse her; it looks as if she had been terribly burnt,
+      somehow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Many of the ladies had met Isobel in the happy days before the troubles
+      began, and great was the pity expressed at her appearance. She was carried
+      to the side of the wall, where Mary and Mrs. Hunter at once made her as
+      comfortable as they could. Rabda, who had now thrown back her veil,
+      produced from under her dress the net containing some fifty small limes,
+      and handed to Mrs. Hunter the pot of ointment and the lotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has saved me,&rdquo; Isobel said; &ldquo;it is the daughter of the juggler who
+      performed at your house, Mrs. Hunter; do thank her for me, and tell her
+      how grateful I am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hunter took Rabda's hand, and in her own language thanked her for her
+      kindness to Isobel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have done as I was told,&rdquo; Rabda said simply; &ldquo;the Sahib Bathurst saved
+      my life, and when he said the lady must be rescued from the hands of the
+      Nana, it was only right that I should do so, even at the risk of my life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So Bathurst has escaped,&rdquo; Mrs. Hunter said, turning to Isobel. &ldquo;I am glad
+      of that, dear; I was afraid that all were gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I had a note from him; it is by his means that I got away from
+      Bithoor. He sent me the caustic and acid to burn my face. He told me Mr.
+      Wilson had also escaped, and perhaps some others may have got away, though
+      he did not seem to know it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But surely there could be no occasion to burn yourself as badly as you
+      have done, Isobel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid I did put on too much acid,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I was so afraid of
+      not burning it enough; but it does not matter, it does not pain me nearly
+      so much since I put on that ointment; it will soon get well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Hunter shook her head regretfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid it will leave marks for a long time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is of no consequence at all, Mrs. Hunter; I am so thankful at being
+      here with you, that I should mind very little if I knew that it was always
+      to be as bad as it is now. What does it matter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It does not matter at all at present, my dear; but if you ever get out of
+      this horrible place, some day you may think differently about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must go now,&rdquo; Rabda said. &ldquo;Has the lady any message to send to the
+      sahib?&rdquo; and she again handed a paper and pencil to Isobel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl took them, hesitating a little before writing:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank God you have saved me. Some day, perhaps, I may be able to tell you
+      how grateful I am; but, if not, you will know that if the worst happens to
+      us, I shall die blessing you for what you have done for me. Pray do not
+      linger longer in Cawnpore. You may be discovered, and if I am spared, it
+      would embitter my life always to know that it had cost you yours. God
+      bless you always.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yours gratefully,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isobel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She folded up the paper and gave it to Rabda, who took her hand and kissed
+      it; and then, drawing her veil again over her face, went to the door,
+      which stood open for the moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some men were bringing in a large cauldron of rice. The sentries offered
+      no opposition to her passing out, as the officer with the palanquin had
+      told them that a lady of the Rajah's zenana would leave shortly. A similar
+      message had been given to the officer at the main gate, who, however,
+      requested to see her hand and arm to satisfy him that all was right. This
+      was sufficient to assure him that it was not a white woman passing out in
+      disguise, and Rabda at once proceeded to her father's house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she expected, he and Bathurst were away, for she had arranged to meet
+      them at eight o'clock in the garden. They did not return until eleven,
+      having waited two hours for her, and returning home in much anxiety at her
+      non-appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has happened? Why did you not meet us, Rabda?&rdquo; her father exclaimed,
+      as he entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rabda rapidly repeated the incidents that had happened since she had
+      parted from him the evening before, and handed to Bathurst the two notes
+      she had received from Isobel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then she is in safety with the others!&rdquo; he exclaimed in delight. &ldquo;Thank
+      God for that, and thank you, Rabda, indeed, for what you have done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My life is my lord's,&rdquo; the girl said quietly. &ldquo;What I have done is
+      nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If we had but known, Rujub, that she would be moved at once, we might
+      have rescued her on the way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rujub shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are far too many people along the road, sahib; it could not have
+      been done. But, of course, there was no knowing that she would be sent off
+      directly after the Nana had seen her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is she much disfigured, Rabda?&rdquo; Bathurst asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dreadfully;&rdquo; the girl said sorrowfully. &ldquo;The acid must have been too
+      strong.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was strong, no doubt,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;but if she had put it on as I
+      instructed her it could only have burnt the surface of the skin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has burnt her dreadfully, sahib; even I should hardly have known her.
+      She must be brave indeed to have done it. She must have suffered
+      dreadfully; but I obtained some ointment for her, and she was better when
+      I left her. She is with the wife of the Sahib Hunter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Rabda, see if the meal is prepared,&rdquo; Rujub said. &ldquo;We are both
+      hungry, and you can have eaten nothing this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He then left the room, leaving Bathurst to read the letters which he still
+      held in his hand, feeling that they were too precious to be looked at
+      until he was alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was some time before Rabda brought in his breakfast, and, glancing at
+      him, she saw how deeply he had been moved by the letters. She went up to
+      him and placed her hand on his shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will get her for you, sahib. We have been successful so far, be
+      assured that we shall succeed again. What we have done is more difficult
+      than what we have to do. It is easier to get twenty prisoners from a jail
+      than one from a rajah's zenana.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is true enough, Rabda. At the moment I was not thinking of that, but
+      of other things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He longed for sympathy, but the girl would not have understood him had he
+      told her his feelings. To her he was a hero, and it would have seemed to
+      her folly had he said that he felt himself altogether unworthy of Isobel
+      Hannay. After he had finished his breakfast Rujub again came in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does the sahib intend to do now?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As far as I can see there is nothing to do at present, Rujub,&rdquo; he said.
+      &ldquo;When the white troops come up she will be delivered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then will my lord go down to Allahabad?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not. There is no saying what may happen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is so,&rdquo; Rujub agreed. &ldquo;The white women are safe at present, but if,
+      as the Sahib thinks, the white soldiers should beat the troops of the
+      Nana, who can say what will happen? The people will be wild with rage, the
+      Nana will be furious&mdash;he is a tiger who, having once laid his paw on
+      a victim, will not allow it to be torn from him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He can never allow them to be injured,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;It is possible
+      that as our troops advance he may carry them all off as hostages, and by
+      the threat of killing them may make terms for his own life, but he would
+      never venture to carry out his threats. You think he would?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rujub remained silent for a minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think so, sahib; the Nana is an ambitious man; he has wealth and
+      everything most men would desire to make life happy, but he wanted more:
+      he thought that when the British Raj was destroyed he would rule over the
+      territories of the Peishwa, and be one of the greatest lords of the land.
+      He has staked everything on that; if he loses, he has lost all. He knows
+      that after the breach of his oath and the massacre here, there is no
+      pardon for him. He is a tiger&mdash;and a wounded tiger is most dangerous.
+      If he is, as you believe he will be, defeated, I believe his one thought
+      will be of revenge. Every day brings news of fresh risings. Scindia's army
+      will join us; Holkar's will probably follow. All Oude is rising in arms. A
+      large army is gathering at Delhi. Even if the Nana is defeated here all
+      will not be lost. He has twenty thousand men; there are well nigh two
+      hundred thousand in arms round Lucknow alone. My belief is that if beaten
+      his first thought will be to take revenge at once on the Feringhees, and
+      to make his name terrible, and that he will then go off with his army to
+      Lucknow or Delhi, where he would be received as one who has dared more
+      than all others to defy the whites, who has no hope of pardon, and can,
+      therefore, be relied upon above all others to fight to the last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be so, Rujub, though I can scarce believe that there exists a
+      monster who would give orders for the murder of hundreds of women and
+      children in cold blood; but, at any rate, I will remain and watch. We will
+      decide upon what will be the best plan to rescue her from the prison, if
+      we hear that evil is intended; but, if not, I can remain patiently until
+      our troops arrive. I know the Subada Ke Kothee; it is, if I remember
+      right, a large quadrangle with no windows on the outside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is so, sahib; it is a strong place, and difficult indeed to get into
+      or out of. There is only the main gate, which is guarded at night by two
+      sentries outside and there is doubtless a strong guard within.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would learn whether the same regiment always furnishes the guard; if
+      so, it might be possible to bribe them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid it would be too dangerous to try. There are scores of men in
+      Cawnpore who would cut a throat for a rupee, but when it comes to breaking
+      open a prison to carry off one of these white women whom they hate it
+      would be too dangerous to try.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could you not do something with your art, Rujub?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If there were only the outside sentries it would be easy enough, sahib. I
+      could send them to sleep with a wave of my hand, but I could not affect
+      the men inside whom I do not know even by sight. Besides, in addition to
+      the soldiers who guard the gate, there will be the men who have been told
+      off to look after the prisoners. It will require a great deal of thinking
+      over, sahib, but I believe we shall manage it. I shall go tomorrow to
+      Bithoor and show myself boldly to the Nana. He knows that I have done good
+      service to him, and his anger will have cooled down by this time, and he
+      will listen to what I have to say. It will be useful to us for me to be
+      able to go in and out of the palace at will, and so learn the first news
+      from those about him. It is most important that we should know if he has
+      evil intentions towards the captives, so that we may have time to carry
+      out our plans.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Rujub. You do not expect me to remain indoors, I hope, for I
+      should wear myself out if I were obliged to wait here doing nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sahib; it will be perfectly safe for you to go about just as you are,
+      and I can get you any other disguise you like. You will gather what is
+      said in the town, can listen to the Sepoys, and examine the Subada Ke
+      Kothee. If you like I will go there with you now. My daughter shall come
+      with us; she may be useful, and will be glad to be doing something.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They went out from the city towards the prison house, which stood in an
+      open space round which were several other buildings, some of them
+      surrounded with gardens and walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Subada Ke Kothee was a large building, forming three sides of a
+      square, a strong high wall forming the fourth side. It was low, with a
+      flat roof. There were no windows or openings in the outside wall, the
+      chambers all facing the courtyard. Two sentries were at the gate. They
+      were in the red Sepoy uniform, and Bathurst saw at once how much the bonds
+      of discipline had been relaxed. Both had leaned their muskets against the
+      wall; one was squatted on the ground beside his firearm, and the other was
+      talking with two or three natives of his acquaintance. The gates were
+      closed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they watched, a native officer came up. He stood for a minute talking
+      with the soldiers. By his gesticulations it could be seen he was
+      exceedingly angry, and the men took their muskets and began to walk up and
+      down. Then the officer knocked at the gate. Instead of its being opened, a
+      man appeared at a loophole in the gate tower, and the officer handed to
+      him a paper. A minute later the gate was opened sufficiently for him to
+      pass in, and was then closed behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are evidently pretty strict,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;I don't think, Rujub,
+      there is much chance of our doing anything there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rujub shook his head. &ldquo;No, sahib, it is clear they have strict orders
+      about opening and shutting the gate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would not be very difficult to scale the wall of the house,&rdquo; Bathurst
+      said, &ldquo;with a rope and a hook at its end; but that is only the first step.
+      The real difficulty lies in getting the prison room open in the first
+      place&mdash;for no doubt they are locked up at night&mdash;and in the
+      second getting her out of it, and the building.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You could lower her down from the top of the wall, sahib.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, if one could get her out of the room they are confined in without
+      making the slightest stir, but it is almost too much to hope that one
+      could be able to do that. The men in charge of them are likely to keep a
+      close watch, for they know that their heads would pay for any captive they
+      allowed to escape.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think they will watch much, sahib; they will not believe that any
+      of the women, broken down as they must be by trouble, would attempt such a
+      thing, for even if they got out of the prison itself and then made their
+      escape from the building, they would be caught before they could go far.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where does the prison house lie, Rabda?&rdquo; Bathurst asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is on the left hand side as you enter the gate; it is the farthest
+      door. Along that side most of the buildings&mdash;which have been used for
+      storehouses, I should say, or perhaps for the guards when the place was a
+      palace&mdash;have two floors, one above the other. But this is a large
+      vaulted room extending from the ground to the roof; it has windows with
+      iron gratings; the door is very strong and heavy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, sahib, we can do nothing more,&rdquo; Rujub said. &ldquo;I will return home
+      with Rabda, and then go over to Bithoor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, Rujub, I will stay here, and hear what people are talking
+      about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There were indeed a considerable number of people near the building: the
+      fact that the white prisoners were within seemed to exercise a
+      fascination, and even women brought their children and sat on the banks
+      which marked where gardens had once been, and talked of the white
+      captives. Bathurst strolled about among the groups of Sepoys and
+      townspeople. The former talked in loud tones of the little force that had
+      already started from Allahabad, and boasted how easily they would eat up
+      the Feringhees. It seemed, however, to Bathurst that a good deal of this
+      confidence was assumed, and that among some, at least, there was an
+      undercurrent of doubt and uneasiness, though they talked as loudly and
+      boldly as their companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The townspeople were of two classes: there were the budmashes or roughs of
+      the place, who uttered brutal and ferocious jokes as to the probable fate
+      of the white women. There were others who kept in groups apart and talked
+      in low voices. These were the traders, to whom the events that had taken
+      place foreboded ruin. Already most of the shops had been sacked, and many
+      of the principal inhabitants murdered by the mob. Those who had so far
+      escaped, thanks in some instances to the protection afforded them by Sepoy
+      officers, saw that their trade was ruined, their best customers killed,
+      and themselves virtually at the mercy of the mob, who might again break
+      out upon the occasion of any excitement. These were silent when Bathurst
+      approached them. His attire, and the arms so ostentatiously displayed in
+      his sash, marked him as one of the dangerous class, perhaps a prisoner
+      from the jail whose doors had been thrown open on the first night of the
+      Sepoy rising.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For hours Bathurst remained in the neighborhood of the prison. The sun
+      set, and the night came on. Then a small party of soldiers came up and
+      relieved the sentries. This time the number of the sentries at the gate
+      was doubled, and three men were posted, one on each of the other sides of
+      the building. After seeing this done he returned to the house. After he
+      had finished his evening meal Rujub and Rabda came into the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, sahib,&rdquo; the former said, &ldquo;I think that we can tell you how the lady
+      is. Rabda has seen her, spoken to her, and touched her; there is sympathy
+      between them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He seated Rabda in a chair, placed his hand on her forehead, and then drew
+      the tips of his fingers several times slowly down her face. Her eyes
+      closed. He took up her hand, and let it fall again. It was limp and
+      impassive. Then he said authoritatively, &ldquo;Go to the prison.&rdquo; He paused a
+      moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am there,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you in the room where the ladies are?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am there,&rdquo; she repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you see the lady Hannay?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is she?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is lying quiet. The other young lady is sitting beside her. The lower
+      part of her face is bandaged up, but I can see that she is not suffering
+      as she was this morning. She looks quiet and happy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Try and speak to her. Say, 'Keep up your courage, we are doing what we
+      can.' Speak, I order you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have spoken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did she hear you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. She has raised herself on her arm; she is looking round; she has
+      asked the other young lady if she heard anything. The other shakes her
+      head. She heard my words, but does not understand them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rujub looked at Bathurst, who mechanically repeated the message in
+      English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak to her again. Tell her these words,&rdquo; and Rujub repeated the message
+      in English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does she hear you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She hears me. She has clasped her hands, and is looking round
+      bewildered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will do. Now go outside into the yard; what do you see there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see eight men sitting round a fire. One gets up and walks to one of the
+      grated windows, and looks in at the prisoners.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the door locked?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is locked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is the key?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was silent for some time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is the key?&rdquo; he repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the lock,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How many soldiers are there in the guardroom by the gate?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are no soldiers there. There are an officer and four men outside,
+      but none inside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will do,&rdquo; and he passed his hand lightly across her forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it all true?&rdquo; Bathurst asked, as the juggler turned to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Assuredly it is true, sahib. Had I had my daughter with me at
+      Deennugghur, I could have sent you a message as easily; as it was, I had
+      to trust only to the power of my mind upon yours. The information is of
+      use, sahib.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is indeed. It is a great thing to know that the key is left in the
+      lock, and also that at night there are the prison keepers only inside the
+      building.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does she know what she has been doing?&rdquo; he asked, as Rabda languidly rose
+      from her chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sahib, she knows nothing after she has recovered from these trances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will watch tomorrow night,&rdquo; Bathurst said, &ldquo;and see at what hour the
+      sentries are relieved. It is evident that the Sepoys are not trusted to
+      enter the prison, which is left entirely to the warders, the outside posts
+      being furnished by some regiment in the lines. It is important to know the
+      exact hour at which the changes are made, and perhaps you could find out
+      tomorrow, Rujub, who these warders are; whether they are permanently on
+      duty, or are relieved once a day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will do that, sahib; if they are changed we may be able to get at some
+      of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no money,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have money, sahib, and if they can be bribed, will do it; our caste is
+      a rich one. We sometimes receive large presents, and we are everywhere
+      made welcome. We have little need of money. I am wealthy, and practice my
+      art more because I love it than for gain. There are few in the land that
+      know the secrets that I do. Men die without having sons to pass down their
+      knowledge; thus it is the number of those who possess the secrets of the
+      ancient grows smaller every day. There are hundreds of jugglers, but very
+      few who know, as I do, the secrets of nature, and can control the spirits
+      of the air. Did I need greater wealth than I have, Rabda could discover
+      for me all the hidden treasures of India; and I could obtain them, guarded
+      though they may be by djins and evil spirits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you a son to come after you, Rujub?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; he is traveling in Persia, to confer with one or two of the great
+      ones there who still possess the knowledge of the ancient magicians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the way, Rujub, I have not asked you how you got on with the Nana.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was easy enough,&rdquo; the juggler said. &ldquo;He had lost all interest in the
+      affairs of Deennugghur, and greeted me at first as if I had just returned
+      from a journey. Then he remembered and asked me suddenly why I had
+      disobeyed his orders and given my voice for terms being granted to the
+      Feringhees. I said that I had obeyed his orders; I understood that what he
+      principally desired was to have the women here as prisoners, and that had
+      the siege continued the Feringhees would have blown themselves into the
+      air. Therefore the only plan was to make terms with them, which would, in
+      fact, place them all in his power, as he would not be bound by the
+      conditions granted by the Oude men. He was satisfied, and said no more
+      about it, and I am restored to my position in his favor. Henceforth we
+      shall not have to trust to the gossip of the bazaars, but I shall know
+      what news is received and what is going to be done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your people at Delhi have beaten back the Sepoys several times, and at
+      Lucknow they resist stoutly. The Nana is very angry that the place has not
+      been taken, but from what I hear the intrenchments there are much stronger
+      than they were here, and even here they were not taken by the sword, but
+      because the whites had no shelter from the guns, and could not go to the
+      well without exposing themselves to the fire. At Lucknow they have some
+      strong houses in the intrenchments, and no want of anything, so they can
+      only be captured by fighting. Everyone says they cannot hold out many days
+      longer, but that I do not know. It does not seem to me that there is any
+      hope of rescue for them, for even if, as you think, the white troops
+      should beat Nana Sahib's men, they never could force their way through the
+      streets of Lucknow to the intrenchments there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall see, Rujub. Deennugghur was defended by a mere handful, and at
+      Lucknow they have half a regiment of white soldiers. They may, for
+      anything I know, have to yield to starvation, but I doubt whether the
+      mutineers and Oude men, however numerous they may be, will carry the place
+      by assault. Is there any news elsewhere?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None, sahib, save that the Feringhees are bringing down regiments from
+      the Punjaub to aid those at Delhi.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The tide is beginning to turn, Rujub; the mutineers have done their
+      worst, and have failed to overthrow the English Raj. Now you will see that
+      every day they will lose ground. Fresh troops will pour up the country,
+      and step by step the mutiny will be crushed out; it is a question of time
+      only. If you could call up a picture on smoke of what will be happening a
+      year hence, you would see the British triumphant everywhere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot do that, sahib; I do not know what would appear on the smoke,
+      and were I to try, misfortune would surely come upon me. When a picture of
+      the past is shown on the smoke, it is not a past I know of, but which one
+      of those present knows. I cannot always say which among them may know it;
+      it is always a scene that has made a strong impression on the mind, but
+      more than that I do not know. As to those of the future, I know even less;
+      it is the work of the power of the air, whose name I whisper to myself
+      when I pour out the incense, and to whom I pray. It is seldom that I show
+      these pictures; he gets angry if called upon too often. I never do it
+      unless I feel that he is propitious.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is beyond me altogether, Rujub; I can understand your power of sending
+      messages, and of your daughter seeing at a distance. I have heard of such
+      things at home; they are called mesmerism and clairvoyance. It is an
+      obscure art; but that some men do possess the power of influencing others
+      at a distance seems to be undoubted, still it is certainly never carried
+      to such perfection as I see it in your case.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It could not be,&rdquo; Rujub said; &ldquo;white men eat too much, and it needs long
+      fasting and mortification to fit a man to become a mystic; the spirit
+      gains power as the body weakens. The Feringhees can make arms that shoot
+      long distances, and carriages that travel faster than the fastest horse,
+      and great ships and machines. They can do many great and useful things,
+      but they cannot do the things that have been done for thousands of years
+      in the East. They are tied too fast to the earth to have aught to do with
+      the spirits that dwell in the air. A learned Brahmin, who had studied your
+      holy books, told me that your Great Teacher said that if you had faith you
+      could move mountains. We could well nigh do that if it were of use to
+      mankind; but were we to do so merely to show our power, we should be
+      struck dead. It is wrong even to tell you these things; I must say no
+      more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Four days passed. Rujub went every day for some hours to Bithoor, and told
+      Bathurst that he heard that the British force, of about fourteen hundred
+      whites and five hundred Sikhs, was pushing forward rapidly, making double
+      marches each day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The first fight will be near Futtehpore,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;there are fifteen
+      hundred Sepoys, as many Oude tribesmen, and five hundred cavalry with
+      twelve guns, and they are in a very strong position, which the British can
+      only reach by passing along the road through a swamp. It is a position
+      that the officers say a thousand men could hold against ten thousand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will see that it will not delay our troops an hour,&rdquo; Bathurst said.
+      &ldquo;Do they imagine they are going to beat us, when the numbers are but two
+      to one in their favor? If so, they will soon learn that they are
+      mistaken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next afternoon, when Rujub returned, he said, &ldquo;You were right, sahib;
+      your people took Futtehpore after only half an hour's fighting. The
+      accounts say that the Feringhees came on like demons, and that they did
+      not seem to mind our firing in the slightest. The Nana is furious, but
+      they still feel confident that they will succeed in stopping the
+      Feringhees at Dong. They lost their twelve guns at Futtehpore, but they
+      have two heavy ones at the Pandoo Bridge, which sweep the straight road
+      leading to it for a mile; and the bridge has been mined, and will be blown
+      up if the Feringhees reach it. But, nevertheless, the Nana swears that he
+      will be revenged on the captives. If you are to rescue the lady it must be
+      done tonight, for tomorrow it may be too late.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You surely do not think he will give orders for the murder of the women
+      and children?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear he will do so,&rdquo; Rujub answered gloomily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each day Bathurst had learned in the same manner as before what was doing
+      in the prison. Isobel was no longer being nursed; she was assisting to
+      nurse Mary Hunter, who had, the day after Isobel was transferred to the
+      prison, been attacked by fever, and was the next day delirious. Rabda's
+      report of the next two days left little doubt in Bathurst's mind that she
+      was rapidly sinking. All the prisoners suffered greatly from the close
+      confinement; many had died, and the girl's description of the scenes she
+      witnessed was often interrupted by her sobs and tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      While Bathurst was busying himself completing his preparations for the
+      attempt, Rabda came in with her father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I tremble at the thought of your venturing your
+      life. My life is of no importance, and it belongs to you. What I would
+      propose is this. My father will go to Bithoor, and will obtain an order
+      from one of the Nana's officers for a lady of the zenana to visit the
+      prisoners. I will go in veiled, as I was on the day I went there. I will
+      change garments with the lady, and she can come out veiled, and meet you
+      outside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would not dream of such a thing, Rabda. You would be killed to a
+      certainty when they discovered the trick. Even if I would consent to the
+      sacrifice, Miss Hannay would not do so. I am deeply grateful to you for
+      proposing it, but it is impossible. You will see that, with the aid of
+      your father, I shall succeed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told her that would be your answer, sahib,&rdquo; Rujub said, &ldquo;but she
+      insisted on making the offer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was arranged that they were to start at nine o'clock, as it was safer
+      to make the attempt before everything became quiet. Before starting, Rabda
+      was again placed in a trance. In reply to her father's questions she said
+      that Mary Hunter was dead, and that Isobel was lying down. She was told to
+      tell her that in an hour she was to be at the window next to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rujub had found that the men inside the prison were those who had been
+      employed as warders at the jail before the troubles began, and he had
+      procured for Bathurst a dress similar to that which they wore, which was a
+      sort of uniform. He had offered, if the attempt was successful, to conceal
+      Isobel in his house until the troops reached Cawnpore, but Bathurst
+      preferred to take her down the country, upon the ground that every house
+      might be searched, and that possibly before the British entered the town
+      there might be a general sack of the place by the mob, and even if this
+      did not take place there might be desperate house to house fighting when
+      the troops arrived. Rujub acknowledged the danger, and said that he and
+      his daughter would accompany them on their way down country, as it would
+      greatly lessen their risk if two of the party were really natives.
+      Bathurst gratefully accepted the offer, as it would make the journey far
+      more tolerable for Isobel if she had Rabda with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was to wait a short distance from the prison while Bathurst made the
+      attempt, and was left in a clump of bushes two or three hundred yards away
+      from the prison. Rujub accompanied Bathurst. They went along quietly until
+      within fifty yards of the sentry in the rear of the house, and then
+      stopped. The man was walking briskly up and down. Rujub stretched out his
+      arms in front of him with the fingers extended. Bathurst, who had taken
+      his place behind him, saw his muscles stiffen, while there was a tremulous
+      motion of his fingers. In a minute or two the sentry's walk became slower.
+      In a little time it ceased altogether, and he leaned against the wall as
+      if drowsy; then he slid down in a sitting position, his musket falling to
+      the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can come along now,&rdquo; Rujub said; &ldquo;he is fast asleep, and there is no
+      fear of his waking. He will sleep till I bid him wake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They at once moved forward to the wall of the house. Bathurst threw up a
+      knotted rope, to which was attached a large hook, carefully wrapped in
+      flannel to prevent noise. After three or four attempts it caught on the
+      parapet. Bathurst at once climbed up. As soon as he had gained the flat
+      terrace, Rujub followed him; they then pulled up the rope, to the lower
+      end of which a rope ladder was attached, and fastened this securely; then
+      they went to the inner side of the terrace and looked down onto the
+      courtyard. Two men were standing at one of the grated windows of the
+      prison room, apparently looking in; six others were seated round a fire in
+      the center of the court.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst was about to turn away when Rujub touched him and pointed to the
+      two men at the window, and then stretched out his arms towards them.
+      Presently they turned and left the window, and in a leisurely way walked
+      across the court and entered a room where a light was burning close to the
+      grate. For two or three minutes Rujub stood in the same position, then his
+      arms dropped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have gone into the guard room to sleep,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;there are two
+      less to trouble you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he turned towards the group of men by the fire and fixed his gaze
+      upon them. In a short time one of them wrapped himself in his cloth and
+      lay down. In five minutes two others had followed his example. Another ten
+      minutes passed, and then Rujub turned to Bathurst and said, &ldquo;I cannot
+      affect the other three; we cannot influence everyone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will do, Rujub, it is my turn now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After a short search they found stairs leading down from the terrace, and
+      after passing through some empty rooms reached a door opening into the
+      courtyard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you stay here, Rujub,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;They will take me for one of
+      themselves. If I succeed without noise, I shall come this way; if not, we
+      will go out through the gate, and you had best leave by the way we came.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The door was standing open, and Bathurst, grasping a heavy tulwar, went
+      out into the courtyard. Keeping close to the house, he sauntered along
+      until he reached the grated windows of the prison room. Three lamps were
+      burning within, to enable the guard outside to watch the prisoners. He
+      passed the two first windows; at the third a figure was standing. She
+      shrank back as Bathurst stopped before it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is I, Miss Hannay&mdash;Bathurst. Danger threatens you, and you must
+      escape at once. Rabda is waiting for you outside. Please go to the door
+      and stand there until I open it. I have no doubt that I shall succeed, but
+      if anything should go wrong, go and lie down again at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without waiting for an answer, he moved towards the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that you, Ahmed?&rdquo; one of the warders said. &ldquo;We all seem sleepy this
+      evening, there is something in the air; I felt half inclined to go off
+      myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is very hot tonight,&rdquo; Bathurst replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something in his voice unfamiliar to the man, and with an
+      exclamation, &ldquo;Who is it?&rdquo; he sprang to his feet. But Bathurst was now but
+      three paces away, and with a bound was upon him, bringing the tulwar down
+      with such force upon his head that the man fell lifeless without a groan.
+      The other two leaped up with shouts of &ldquo;Treachery!&rdquo; but Bathurst was upon
+      them, and, aided by the surprise, cut both down after a sharp fight of
+      half a minute. Then he ran to the prison door, turned the key in the lock,
+      and opened it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come!&rdquo; he exclaimed, &ldquo;there is no time to be lost, the guards outside
+      have taken the alarm,&rdquo; for, by this time, there was a furious knocking at
+      the gate. &ldquo;Wrap yourself up in this native robe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the others, Mr. Bathurst, can't you save them too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Even if they got out, they would be overtaken and
+      killed at once. Come!&rdquo; And taking her hand, he led her to the gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand back here so that the gate will open on you,&rdquo; he said. Then he
+      undid the bar, shouting, &ldquo;Treachery; the prisoners are escaping!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he undid the last bolt the gate opened and the soldiers rushed in,
+      firing at random as they did so. Bathurst had stepped behind the gate as
+      it opened, and as the soldiers ran up the yard he took Isobel's hand, and,
+      passing through the gate, ran with her round the building until he reached
+      the spot where Rabda was awaiting them. Half a minute later her father
+      joined them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us go at once, there is no time for talking,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We must be
+      cautious, the firing will wake the whole quarter;&rdquo; for by this time loud
+      shouts were being raised, and men, hearing the muskets fired, were running
+      towards the gate. Taking advantage of the shelter of the shrubbery as much
+      as they could, they hurried on until they issued into the open country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you feel strong enough to walk far?&rdquo; Bathurst asked, speaking for the
+      first time since they left the gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think so,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;I am not sure whether I am awake or dreaming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are awake, Miss Hannay; you are safe out of that terrible prison.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not sure,&rdquo; the girl said, speaking slowly; &ldquo;I have been strange
+      since I went there. I have seemed to hear voices speaking to me, though no
+      one was there, and no one else heard them; and I am not sure whether all
+      this is not fancy now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is reality, Miss Hannay. Take my hand and you will see that it is
+      solid. The voices you heard were similar to those I heard at Deennugghur;
+      they were messages I sent you by means of Rujub and his daughter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did think of what you told me and about the juggler, but it seemed so
+      strange. I thought that my brain was turning with trouble; it was bad
+      enough at Deennugghur, but nothing to what it has been since that dreadful
+      day at Bithoor. There did not seem much hope at Deennugghur. But somehow
+      we all kept up, and, desperate as it seemed, I don't think we ever quite
+      despaired. You see, we all knew each other; besides, no one could give way
+      while the men were fighting and working so hard for us; but at Cawnpore
+      there seemed no hope. There was not one woman there but had lost husband
+      or father. Most of them were indifferent to life, scarcely ever speaking,
+      and seeming to move in a dream, while others with children sat holding
+      them close to them as if they dreaded a separation at any moment. There
+      were a few who were different, who moved about and nursed the children and
+      sick, and tried to comfort the others, just as Mrs. Hunter did at
+      Deennugghur. There was no crying and no lamenting. It would have been a
+      relief if anyone had cried, it was the stillness that was so trying; when
+      people talked to each other they did it in a whisper, as they do in a room
+      where someone is lying dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know Mary Hunter died yesterday? Well, Mrs. Hunter quite put aside
+      her own grief and tried to cheer others. I told her the last message I
+      received, and asked her to go with me if it should be true. She said, 'No,
+      Isobel; I don't know whether this message is a dream, or whether God has
+      opened a way of escape for you&mdash;if so, may He be thanked; but you
+      must go alone&mdash;one might escape where two could not. As for me, I
+      shall wait here for whatever fate God may send me. My husband and my
+      children have gone before me. I may do some good among these poor
+      creatures, and here I shall stay. You are young and full of life, and have
+      many happy days in store for you. My race is nearly run&mdash;even did I
+      wish for life, I would not cumber you and your friends; there will be
+      perils to encounter and fatigues to be undergone. Had not Mary left us I
+      would have sent her with you, but God did not will it so. Go, therefore,
+      to the window, dear, as you were told by this message you think you have
+      received, but do not be disappointed if no one comes. If it turns out
+      true, and there is a chance of escape, take it, dear, and may God be with
+      you.' As I stood at the window, I could not go at once, as you told me, to
+      the door; I had to stand there; I saw it all till you turned and ran to
+      the door, and then I came to meet you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a pity you saw it,&rdquo; he said gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why? Do you think that, after what I have gone through, I was shocked at
+      seeing you kill three of those wretches? Two months ago I suppose I should
+      have thought it dreadful, but those two months have changed us altogether.
+      Think of what we were then and what we are now. There remain only you,
+      Mrs. Hunter, myself, and your letter said, Mr. Wilson. Is he the only
+      one?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, so far as we know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only we four, and all the others gone&mdash;Uncle and Mary and Amy and
+      the Doolans and the dear Doctor, all the children. Why, if the door had
+      been open, and I had had a weapon, I would have rushed out to help you
+      kill. I shudder at myself sometimes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After a pause she went on. &ldquo;Then none of those in the other boat came to
+      shore, Mr. Bathurst, except Mr. Wilson?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear not. The other boat sank directly. Wilson told me it was sinking
+      as he sprang over. You had better not talk any more, Miss Hannay, for you
+      are out of breath now, and will need all your strength.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but tell me why you have taken me away; you said there was great
+      danger?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our troops are coming up,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I had reason to fear that when
+      the rebels are defeated the mob may break open the prison.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They surely could not murder women and children who have done them no
+      harm!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no saying what they might do, Miss Hannay, but that was the
+      reason why I dared not leave you where you were. I will tell you more
+      about it afterwards. Now, please take my arm, we must be miles away from
+      here before morning. They will find out then that you have escaped, and
+      will no doubt scour the country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They had left the road and were passing through the fields. Isobel's
+      strength failed rapidly, as soon as the excitement that had at first kept
+      her up subsided. Rujub several times urged Bathurst to go faster, but the
+      girl hung more and more heavily on his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't go any farther,&rdquo; she said at last; &ldquo;it is so long since I walked,
+      and I suppose I have got weak. I have tried very hard, but I can scarcely
+      drag my feet along. You had better leave me; you have done all you could
+      to save me. I thank you so much. Only please leave a pistol with me. I am
+      not at all afraid of dying, but I will not fall into their hands again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must carry her, Rujub,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;she is utterly exhausted and
+      worn out, and no wonder. If we could make a sort of stretcher, it would be
+      easy enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rujub took the cloth from his shoulders, and laid it on the ground by the
+      side of Isobel, who had now sunk down and was lying helpless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lift her onto this, sahib, then we will take the four corners and carry
+      her; it will be no weight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst lifted Isobel, in spite of her feeble protest, and laid her on
+      the cloth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will take the two corners by her head,&rdquo; Bathurst said, &ldquo;if you will
+      each take one of the others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sahib, the weight is all at the head; you take one corner, and I will
+      take the other. Rabda can take the two corners at the feet. We can change
+      about when we like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel had lost greatly in weight since the siege of Deennugghur began,
+      and she was but a light burden for her three bearers, who started with her
+      at a speed considerably greater than that at which she had walked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which way are you taking us, Rujub?&rdquo; Bathurst asked presently; &ldquo;I have
+      lost my bearings altogether.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am keeping near the river, sahib. I know the country well. We cannot
+      follow the road, for there the Rajah's troops and the Sepoys and the Oude
+      men are gathered to oppose your people. They will fight tomorrow at Dong,
+      as I told you, but the main body is not far from here. We must keep far
+      away from them, and if your people take Dong we can then join them if we
+      like. This road keeps near the river all the way, and we are not likely to
+      meet Sepoys here, as it is by the other road the white troops are coming
+      up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After four hours' walking, Rujub said, &ldquo;There is a large wood just ahead.
+      We will go in there. We are far enough off Cawnpore to be safe from any
+      parties they may send out to search. If your people take Dong tomorrow,
+      they will have enough to think of in Cawnpore without troubling about an
+      escaped prisoner. Besides,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;if the Rajah's orders are carried
+      out, at daybreak they will not know that a prisoner has escaped; they will
+      not trouble to count.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot believe it possible they will carry out such a butchery, Rujub.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall see, sahib. I did not tell you all I knew lest we should fail to
+      carry off the lady, but I know the orders that have been given. Word has
+      been sent round to the butchers of the town, and tomorrow morning soon
+      after daybreak it will be done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst gave an exclamation of horror, for until now he had hardly
+      believed it was possible that even Nana Sahib could perpetrate so
+      atrocious a massacre. Not another word was spoken until they entered the
+      wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is the river, Rujub?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A few hundred yards to the left, sahib; the road is half a mile to the
+      right. We shall be quite safe here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They made their way for some little distance into the wood, and then laid
+      down their burden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had taken to the spot where Rabda remained when the others went
+      forward towards the prison a basket containing food and three bottles of
+      wine, and this Rujub had carried since they started together. As soon as
+      the hammock was lowered to the ground, Isobel moved and sat up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am rested now. Oh, how good you have all been! I was just going to tell
+      you that I could walk again. I am quite ready to go on now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are going to halt here till tomorrow evening, Miss Hannay; Rujub
+      thinks we are quite beyond any risk of pursuit now. You must first eat and
+      drink something, and then sleep as long as you can. Rabda has brought a
+      native dress for you and dye for staining your skin, but there is no
+      occasion for doing that till tomorrow; the river is only a short distance
+      away, and in the morning you will be able to enjoy a wash.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The neck was knocked off a bottle. Rabda had brought in the basket a small
+      silver cup, and Isobel, after drinking some wine and eating a few
+      mouthfuls of food, lay down by her and was soon fast asleep. Bathurst ate
+      a much more hearty meal. Rujub and his daughter said that they did not
+      want anything before morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun was high before Bathurst woke. Rujub had lighted a fire, and was
+      boiling some rice in a lota.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is Miss Hannay?&rdquo; Bathurst asked, as he sat up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has gone down to the river with Rabda. The trees hang down well over
+      the water, and they can wash without fear of being seen on the opposite
+      shore. I was going to wake you when the lady got up, but she made signs
+      that you were to be allowed to sleep on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In half an hour the two girls returned. Isobel was attired in a native
+      dress, and her face, neck, arms, feet, and ankles had been stained to the
+      same color as Rabda's. She came forward a little timidly, for she felt
+      strange and uncomfortable in her scanty attire. Bathurst gave an
+      exclamation of pain as he saw her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How dreadfully, you have burnt yourself, Miss Hannay; surely you cannot
+      have followed the instructions I gave you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; it is not your fault at all, Mr. Bathurst; I put a great deal more on
+      than you said, but I was so anxious to disfigure myself that I was
+      determined to do it thoroughly; but it is nothing to what it was. As you
+      see, my lips are getting all right again, and the sores are a good deal
+      better than they were; I suppose they will leave scars, but that won't
+      trouble me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the pain you must have suffered that I am thinking of,&rdquo; he replied.
+      &ldquo;As to the scars, I hope they will wear out in time; you must indeed have
+      suffered horribly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They burnt dreadfully for a time,&rdquo; the girl answered; &ldquo;but for the last
+      two or three days I have hardly felt it, though, of course, it is very
+      sore still.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you feel ready for breakfast, Miss Hannay?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite ready, and for a walk as long as you like afterwards. I feel quite
+      another creature after my dip. That was one of the worst things in the
+      prison. We had scarcely water enough to drink, and none to wash with, and,
+      of course, no combs nor anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They sat down together and ate the cold food they had brought, while Rabda
+      and her father made their breakfast of rice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has become of Mr. Wilson?&rdquo; Isobel asked suddenly. &ldquo;I wondered about
+      him as I was being carried along last night, but I was too tired to talk
+      afterwards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope he is either safe at Allahabad by this time, or is with the troops
+      marching up. The Zemindar's son, who came down with us as an escort, and
+      one of his men got safely to shore also, and they went on with Wilson.
+      When he found I was going to stay at Cawnpore to try and rescue you, he
+      pleaded very hard that I should keep him with me in order that he might
+      share in the attempt, but his ignorance of the language might have been
+      fatal, and his being with me would have greatly added to the difficulty,
+      so I was obliged to refuse him. It was only because I told him that
+      instead of adding to, he would lessen your chance of escape, that he
+      consented to go, for I am sure he would willingly have laid down his life
+      to save yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am very glad he is safe; he is very kind hearted and nice, Mr.
+      Bathurst, and a thoroughly natural, unaffected young fellow, very loyal
+      and stanch. I am quite sure he would have done anything he could, even at
+      the risk of his life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I like him very much, too, Miss Hannay. Before the siege I thought him a
+      careless, happy go lucky lad, but as I got to know him well, I found he
+      was much more than that, and he will make a good man and an excellent
+      officer one of these days if he is spared. He is thoroughly brave without
+      the slightest brag&mdash;an excellent specimen of the best class of public
+      school boy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who are the troops coming up, Mr. Bathurst? How strong are they? I
+      have heard nothing about them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About twelve hundred white troops and four or five hundred Sikhs; at
+      least that is what the natives put them at.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But surely they will never be able to fight their way to Cawnpore, where
+      there are the mutineers and Nana Sahib's troops and the Oude men and the
+      people of the town. Why, there must be ten to one against them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not far short of that, I think, but I feel sure our men will do it. They
+      know of the treachery of the Nana, they know of the massacre by the river,
+      and they know that the women and children are prisoners in his hands, and
+      do you think that men who know these things can be beaten? The Sepoys met
+      them in superior force and in a strong position at Futtehpore, and they
+      drove them before them like chaff. They will have harder work next time,
+      but I have no shadow of fear of the result.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then their talk went back to Deennugghur and of their friends there&mdash;the
+      Doolans, the Hunters, the Rintouls, and others&mdash;and Isobel wept
+      freely over their fate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Next to my uncle I shall miss the Doctor,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was an awfully good fellow,&rdquo; Bathurst said, &ldquo;and was the only real
+      friend I have had since I came to India, I would have done anything for
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When shall we start?&rdquo; Isobel asked presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Directly the sun goes down a little. You would find it terribly hot now.
+      I have been talking it over with Rujub, and he says it is better not to
+      make a long journey today. We are not more than twenty miles from Dong,
+      and it would not do to move in that direction until we know how things
+      have gone; therefore, if we start at three o'clock and walk till seven or
+      eight, it will be quite far enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He seems a wonderful man,&rdquo; said Isobel. &ldquo;You remember that talk we had at
+      dinner, before we went to see him at the Hunters!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;As you know, I was a believer then, and so was the
+      Doctor. I need not say that I believe still more now that these men do
+      wholly unaccountable feats. He put the sentry outside the walls of your
+      prison and five out of your eight warders so sound asleep that they did
+      not wake during the struggle I had with the others. That, of course, was
+      mesmerism. His messages to you were actually sent by means of his
+      daughter. She was put in a sort of trance, in which she saw you and told
+      us what you were doing, and communicated the message her father gave her
+      to you. He could not send you a message nor tell me about you when you
+      were first at Bithoor, because he said Rabda was not in sympathy with you,
+      but after she had seen you and touched you and you had kissed her, she was
+      able to do so. There does not appear to me to be anything beyond the
+      powers of nature in that, though doubtless powers were called into play of
+      which at present we know nothing. But we do know that minds act upon each
+      other. Possibly certain persons in sympathy with each other may be able to
+      act upon each other from a distance, especially when thrown into the sort
+      of trance which is known as the clairvoyant state. I always used to look
+      upon that as humbug, but I need hardly say I shall in future be ready to
+      believe almost anything. He professes to have other and even greater
+      powers than what we have seen. At any rate, he can have no motive in
+      deceiving me when he has risked his life to help me. Do you know, Rabda
+      offered to go into the prison&mdash;her father could have got her an order
+      to pass in&mdash;and then to let you go out in her dress while she
+      remained in your stead. I could not accept the sacrifice even to save you,
+      and I was sure had I done so you yourself would have refused to leave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course. But how good of her. Please tell her that you have told me,
+      and how grateful I am for her offer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst called Rabda, who was sitting a short distance away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took the hand that Isobel held out to her and placed it against her
+      forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My life is yours, sahib,&rdquo; she said simply to Bathurst. &ldquo;It was right that
+      I should give it for this lady you love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does she say?&rdquo; Isobel asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She says that she owed me her life for that tiger business, you know, and
+      was ready to give it for you because I had set my mind on saving you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that what she really said, Mr. Bathurst?&rdquo; Isobel asked quietly, for he
+      had hesitated a little in changing its wording.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was the sense of it, I can assure you. Not only was she ready to
+      make the sacrifice, but her father consented to her doing so. These
+      Hindoos are capable of gratitude, you see. There are not many English who
+      would be ready thus to sacrifice themselves for a man who had
+      accidentally, as I may say, saved their lives.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not accidentally, Mr. Bathurst. Why do you always try to run yourself
+      down? I suppose you will say next you saved my life by an accident.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The saving of your life is due chiefly to these natives.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But they were only your instruments, Mr. Bathurst; they had no interest
+      in saving me. You had bought their services at the risk of your life, and
+      in saving me they were paying that debt to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At three o'clock they prepared for the start. Bathurst had exchanged the
+      warder's dress for one of a peasant, which they had brought with them. The
+      woods were of no great width, and Rujub said they had better follow the
+      road now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one will suspect us of being anything but what we seem,&rdquo; he said.
+      &ldquo;Should we meet any peasants, their talk will be with you and me. They
+      will ask no questions about the women; but if there is a woman among them,
+      and she speaks, Rabda will answer her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For hours they had heard dull sounds in the air, which Bathurst had
+      recognized at once as distant artillery, showing that the fight was going
+      on near Dong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Sepoys are making a stout resistance, or the firing would not last so
+      long,&rdquo; he said to Rujub, as they walked through the wood towards the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have two positions to defend, sahib. The Nana's men will fight first
+      at a strong village two miles beyond Dong; if they are beaten there, they
+      will fight again at the bridge I told you of.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would partly account for it; but the Sepoys must be fighting much
+      better than they did at Futtehpore, for there, as you said, the white
+      troops swept the Sepoys before them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When they reached the edge of the wood Bathurst said, &ldquo;I will see that the
+      road is clear before we go out. If anyone saw us issuing out of the wood
+      they might wonder what we had been after.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to the edge of the bushes and looked down the long straight road.
+      There was only a solitary figure in sight. It seemed to be an old man
+      walking lame with a stick. Bathurst was about to turn and tell the others
+      to come out, when he saw the man stop suddenly, turn round to look back
+      along the road, stand with his head bent as if listening, then run across
+      the road with much more agility than he had before seemed to possess, and
+      plunge in among the trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait,&rdquo; he said to those behind him, &ldquo;something is going on. A peasant I
+      saw in the road has suddenly dived into the wood as if he was afraid of
+      being pursued. Ah!&rdquo; he exclaimed a minute later, &ldquo;there is a party of
+      horsemen coming along at a gallop&mdash;get farther back into the wood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently they heard the rapid trampling of horses, and looking through
+      the bushes they saw some twenty sowars of one of the native cavalry
+      regiments dash past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst went to the edge of the wood again, and looked out. Then he
+      turned suddenly to Isobel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You remember those pictures on the smoke?&rdquo; he said excitedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I do not remember them,&rdquo; she said, in surprise. &ldquo;I have often
+      wondered at it, but I have never been able to recollect what they were
+      since that evening. I have often thought they were just like dreams, where
+      one sees everything just as plainly as if it were a reality, and then go
+      out of your mind altogether as soon as you are awake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has been just the same with me,&rdquo; replied Bathurst, &ldquo;except that once
+      or twice they have come back for a moment quite vividly. One of them I
+      have not thought of for some days, but now I see it again. Don't you
+      remember there was a wood, and a Hindoo man and woman stepped out of it,
+      and a third native came up to them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I remember now,&rdquo; she said eagerly; &ldquo;it was just as we are here; but
+      what of that, Mr. Bathurst?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you recognize any of them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, it all comes back to me now. It was you and the Doctor,
+      certainly, and I thought the woman was myself. I spoke to the Doctor next
+      day about it, but he laughed at it all, and I have never thought of it
+      since.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Doctor and I agreed, when we talked it over that evening, that the
+      Hindoo who stepped out of the wood was myself, and thought that you were
+      the Hindoo girl, but of that we were not so sure, for your face seemed not
+      only darkened, but blotched and altered&mdash;it was just as you are now&mdash;and
+      the third native was the Doctor himself; we both felt certain of that. It
+      has come true, and I feel absolutely certain that the native I saw along
+      the road will turn out to be the Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I hope so, I hope so!&rdquo; the girl cried, and pressed forward with
+      Bathurst to the edge of the wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old native was coming along on the road again. As he approached, his
+      eye fell on the two figures, and with a Hindoo salutation he was passing
+      on, when Isobel cried, &ldquo;It is the Doctor!&rdquo; and rushing forward she threw
+      her arms round his neck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isobel Hannay!&rdquo; he cried in delight and amazement; &ldquo;my dear little girl,
+      my dear little girl, thank God you are saved; but what have you been doing
+      with yourself, and who is this with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You knew me when you saw me in the picture on the smoke, Doctor,&rdquo;
+       Bathurst said, grasping his hand, &ldquo;though you do not know me in life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You, too, Bathurst!&rdquo; the Doctor exclaimed, as he wrung his hand; &ldquo;thank
+      God for that, my dear boy; to think that both of you should have been
+      saved&mdash;it seems a miracle. The picture on the smoke? Yes, we were
+      speaking of it that last night at Deennugghur, and I never have thought of
+      it since. Is there anyone else?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My friend the juggler and his daughter are with us, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I can understand the miracle,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;for I believe that
+      fellow could take you through the air and carry you through stone walls
+      with a wave of his hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, he has not exactly done that, but he and his daughter have rendered
+      us immense service. I could have done nothing without them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two natives, seeing through the bushes the recognition that had taken
+      place, had now stepped forward and salaamed as the Doctor spoke a few
+      hearty words to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where have you sprung from, Doctor? How were you saved?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I jumped overboard when those scoundrels opened fire,&rdquo; the Doctor said.
+      &ldquo;I kept my wits about me, and said to myself that if I were to swim for
+      the opposite shore the chances were that I should get shot down, so I made
+      a long dive, came up for air, and then went down again, and came up the
+      next time under some bushes by the bank; there I remained all night. The
+      villains were only a few yards away, and I could hear every word they
+      said. I heard the boat come ashore, and although I could have done no good
+      by rushing out, I think I should have done so if I had had any weapon
+      about me, and have tried to kill one or two of them before I went down. As
+      it was, I waited until morning. Then I heard the rumble of the guns and
+      the wagons, and knew that they were off. I waited for another hour to make
+      sure, and then stepped ashore. I went to the boat lying by the bank. When
+      I saw that Isobel and the other two ladies were not there, I knew that
+      they must have been carried off into Cawnpore. I waited there until night,
+      and then made my way to a peasant's house a mile out of the town. I had
+      operated upon him for elephantiasis two years ago, and the man had shown
+      himself grateful, and had occasionally sent me in little presents of fowls
+      and so on. He received me well, gave me food, which I wanted horribly,
+      stained my skin, and rigged me out in this disguise. The next morning I
+      went into the town, and for the last four or five days have wandered about
+      there. There was nothing I could do, and yet I felt that I could not go
+      away, but must stay within sight of the prison where you were all confined
+      till our column arrived. But this morning I determined to come down to
+      join our people who are fighting their way up, little thinking that I
+      should light upon you by the way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were just going to push on, Doctor; but as you have had a good long
+      tramp already, we will stop here until tomorrow morning, if you like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, let us go on, Bathurst. I would rather be on the move, and you
+      can tell me your story as we go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst knew the Doctor well, and perceived that glad as he was to have
+      met them, he was yet profoundly depressed in spirits. This, added to the
+      fact that he had left Cawnpore that morning, instead of waiting as he had
+      intended, convinced Bathurst that what he dreaded had taken place. He
+      waited until Isobel stopped for a moment, that Rabda might rearrange the
+      cloth folded round her in its proper draping. Then he said quickly, &ldquo;I
+      heard yesterday what was intended, Doctor. Is it possible that it has been
+      done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was done this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, all? Surely not all, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every soul&mdash;every woman and child. Think of it&mdash;the fiends! the
+      devils! The native brought me the news. If I had heard it in the streets
+      of Cawnpore I should have gone mad and seized a sword and run amuck. As it
+      was, I was well nigh out of mind. I could not stay there. The man would
+      have sheltered me until the troops came up, but I was obliged to be
+      moving, so I started down. Hush! here comes Isobel; we must keep it from
+      her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Isobel,&rdquo; he went on, as the girl joined them, and they all started
+      along the road, &ldquo;tell me how it is I find you here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Bathurst must tell you, Doctor; I cannot talk about it yet&mdash;I
+      can hardly think about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Bathurst, let us hear it from you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a painful story for me to have to tell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel looked up in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Painful, Mr. Bathurst? I should have thought&mdash;&rdquo; and she stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not all painful, Miss Hannay, but in parts. I would rather tell you,
+      Doctor, when we have finished our journey this evening, if your curiosity
+      will allow you to wait so long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will try to wait,&rdquo; the Doctor replied, &ldquo;though I own it is a trial.
+      Now, Isobel, you have not told me yet what has happened to your face. Let
+      me look at it closer, child. I see your arms are bad, too. What on earth
+      has happened to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I burnt myself with acid, Doctor. Mr. Bathurst will tell you all about
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless me, mystery seems to thicken. Well, you have got yourself into a
+      pretty pickle. Why, child, burns of that sort leave scars as bad as if you
+      had been burnt by fire. You ought to be in a dark room with your face and
+      hands bandaged, instead of tramping along here in the sun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have some lotions and some ointment, Doctor. I have used them regularly
+      since it was done, and the places don't hurt me much now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, they look healthy enough,&rdquo; he said, examining them closely.
+      &ldquo;Granulation is going on nicely; but I warn you you will be disfigured for
+      months, and it may be years before you get rid of the scars. I doubt,
+      indeed, if you will ever get rid of them altogether. Well, well, what
+      shall we talk about?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will take pity on you, Doctor. I will walk on ahead with Rabda and her
+      father, and Mr. Bathurst can then tell you his story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will be the best plan, my dear. Now then, Bathurst, fire away,&rdquo; he
+      said, when the others had gone on thirty or forty yards ahead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Doctor, you remember that you were forward talking to the young
+      Zemindar, and I was sitting aft by the side of Miss Hannay, when they
+      opened fire?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should think I do remember it,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;and I am not likely
+      to forget it if I live to be a hundred. Well, what about that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I jumped overboard,&rdquo; Bathurst said, laying his hand impressively upon the
+      Doctor's shoulder. &ldquo;I gave a cry, I know I did, and I jumped overboard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor looked at him in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, so did I, like a shot. But what do you say it in that tone for? Of
+      course you jumped overboard. If you hadn't you would not be here now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't understand me, Doctor,&rdquo; Bathurst said gloomily. &ldquo;I was sitting
+      there next to Isobel Hannay&mdash;the woman I loved. We were talking in
+      low tones, and I don't know why, but at that moment the mad thought was
+      coming into my mind that, after all, she cared for me, that in spite of
+      the disgrace I had brought upon myself, in spite of being a coward, she
+      might still be mine; and as I was thinking this there came the crash of a
+      cannon. Can it be imagined possible that I jumped up like a frightened
+      hare, and without a thought of her, without a thought of anything in my
+      mad terror, jumped overboard and left her behind to her fate? If it had
+      not been that as soon as I recovered my senses&mdash;I was hit on the head
+      just as I landed, and knew nothing of what happened until I found myself
+      in the bushes with young Wilson by my side&mdash;the thought occurred to
+      me that I would rescue her or die in the attempt, I would have blown out
+      my brains.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, bless my heart, Bathurst,&rdquo; the Doctor said earnestly, &ldquo;what else
+      could you have done? Why, I jumped overboard without stopping to think,
+      and so did everyone else who had power to do so, no doubt. What good could
+      you have done if you had stayed? What good would it have done to the girl
+      if you had been killed? Why, if you had been killed, she would now be
+      lying mangled and dead with the others in that ghastly prison. You take
+      too morbid a view of this matter altogether.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was no reason why you should not have jumped overboard, Doctor, nor
+      the others. Don't you see I was with the woman I loved? I might have
+      seized her in my arms and jumped overboard with her, and swam ashore with
+      her, or I might have stayed and died with her. I thought of my own
+      wretched life, and I deserted her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Bathurst, you did not think of your life. I don't think any of us
+      stopped to think of anything; but, constituted as you are, the impulse
+      must have been overpowering. It is nonsense your taking this matter to
+      heart. Why, man, if you had stopped, you would have been murdered when the
+      boat touched the shore, and do you think it would have made her happier to
+      have seen you killed before her eyes? If you had swam ashore with her, the
+      chances are she would have been killed by that volley of grape, for I saw
+      eight or ten bodies lying on the sands, and you yourself were, you say,
+      hit. You acted upon impulse, I grant, but it was upon a wise impulse. You
+      did the very best thing that could have been done, and your doing so made
+      it possible that Isobel Hannay should be rescued from what would otherwise
+      have been certain death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has turned out so, Doctor,&rdquo; Bathurst said gloomily, &ldquo;and I thank God
+      that she is saved. But that does not alter the fact that I, an English
+      gentleman by birth, thought only of myself, and left the woman I loved,
+      who was sitting by my side, to perish. But do not let us talk any more
+      about it. It is done and over. There is an end of it. Now I will tell you
+      the story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor listened silently until he heard of Isobel's being taken to
+      Bithoor. &ldquo;The atrocious villain!&rdquo; he exclaimed. &ldquo;I have been lamenting the
+      last month that I never poisoned the fellow, and now&mdash;but go on, go
+      on. How on earth did you get her away?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst told the whole story, interrupted by many exclamations of
+      approval by the Doctor; especially when he learned why Isobel disfigured
+      herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well done!&rdquo; he exclaimed; &ldquo;I always knew that she was a plucky girl, and
+      it needed courage, I can tell you, to burn herself as she has done, to say
+      nothing of risking spoiling her beauty for life. No slight sacrifice for a
+      woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst passed lightly over his fight in the courtyard, but the Doctor
+      questioned him as to the exact facts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so bad for a coward, Bathurst,&rdquo; he said dryly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was no noise,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;if they had had pistols, and had
+      used them, it might have been different. Heaven knows, but I don't think
+      that then, with her life at stake, I should have flinched; I had made up
+      my mind they would have pistols, but I hope&mdash;I think that my nerves
+      would not have given way then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sure they wouldn't, Bathurst. Well, go on with your story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, how did you feel then?&rdquo; he asked, when Bathurst described how the
+      guard rushed in through the gate firing, &ldquo;for it is the noise, and not the
+      danger, that upsets you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not even think of it,&rdquo; Bathurst said, in some surprise. &ldquo;Now you
+      mention it, I am astonished that I was not for a minute paralyzed, as I
+      always am, but I did not feel anything of the sort; they rushed in firing
+      as I told you, and directly they had gone I took her hand and we ran out
+      together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think it quite possible, Bathurst, that your nervousness may have gone
+      forever. Now that once you have heard guns fired close to you without your
+      nerves giving way as usual, it is quite possible that you might do so
+      again. I don't say that you would, but it is possible, indeed it seems to
+      me to be probable. It may be that the sudden shock when you jumped into
+      the water, acting upon your nerves when in a state of extreme tension, may
+      have set them right, and that bullet graze along the top of the skull may
+      have aided the effect of the shock. Men frequently lose their nerve after
+      a heavy fall from a horse, or a sudden attack by a tiger, or any other
+      unexpected shock. It may be that with you it has had the reverse
+      consequence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope to God that it may be so, Doctor,&rdquo; Bathurst said, with deep
+      earnestness. &ldquo;It is certainly extraordinary I should not have felt it when
+      they fired within a few feet of my head. If we get down to Allahabad I
+      will try. I will place myself near a gun when it is going to be fired; and
+      if I stand that I will come up again and join this column as a volunteer,
+      and take part in the work of vengeance. If I can but once bear my part as
+      a man, they are welcome to kill me in the next engagement.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pooh! pooh! man. You are not born to be killed in battle. After making
+      yourself a target on the roof at Deennugghur, and jumping down in the
+      middle of the Sepoys in the breach, and getting through that attack in the
+      boats, I don't think you are fated to meet your end with a bullet. Well,
+      now let us walk on, and join the others. Isobel must be wondering how much
+      longer we are going to talk together. She cannot exchange a word with the
+      natives; it must be dull work for her. She is a great deal thinner than
+      she was before these troubles came on. You see how differently she walks.
+      She has quite lost that elastic step of hers, but I dare say that is a
+      good deal due to her walking with bare feet instead of in English boots&mdash;boots
+      have a good deal to do with a walk. Look at the difference between the
+      walk of a gentleman who has always worn well fitting boots and that of a
+      countryman who has gone about in thick iron shod boots all his life.
+      Breeding goes for something, no doubt, and alters a man's walk just as it
+      alters a horse's gait.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst could not help laughing at the Doctor dropping into his usual
+      style of discussing things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are your feet feeling tender, Isobel?&rdquo; the latter asked cheerfully, as he
+      overtook those in front.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Doctor,&rdquo; she said, with a smile; &ldquo;I don't know that I was ever
+      thankful for dust before, but I am now; it is so soft that it is like
+      walking on a carpet, but, of course, it feels very strange.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have only to fancy, my dear, that you are by the seaside, walking
+      down from your bathing machine across the sands; once get that in your
+      mind and you will get perfectly comfortable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It requires too great a stretch of the imagination, Doctor, to think for
+      a moment, in this sweltering heat, that I am enjoying a sea breeze on our
+      English coast. It is silly, of course, to give it even a thought, when one
+      is accustomed to see almost every woman without shoes. I think I should
+      mind it more than I do if my feet were not stained. I don't know why, but
+      I should. But please don't talk about it. I try to forget it, and to fancy
+      that I am really a native.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They met but few people on the road. Those they did meet passed them with
+      the usual salutation. There was nothing strange in a party of peasants
+      passing along the road. They might have been at work at Cawnpore, and be
+      now returning to their native village to get away from the troubles there.
+      After it became dark they went into a clump of trees half a mile distant
+      from a village they could see along the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go in,&rdquo; Rujub said, &ldquo;and bring some grain, and hear what the news
+      is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned in an hour. &ldquo;The English have taken Dong,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;the news
+      came in two hours ago. There has been some hard fighting; the Sepoys
+      resisted stoutly at the village, even advancing beyond the inclosures to
+      meet the British. They were driven back by the artillery and rifle fire,
+      but held the village for some time before they were turned out. There was
+      a stand made at the Pandoo Bridge, but it was a short one. The force
+      massed there fell back at once when the British infantry came near enough
+      to rush forward at the charge, and in their hurry they failed to blow up
+      the bridge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A consultation was held as to whether they should try to join the British,
+      but it was decided that as the road down to Allahabad would be rendered
+      safe by their advance, it would be better to keep straight on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day they proceeded on their journey, walking in the early
+      morning, halting as soon as the sun had gained much power, and going on
+      again in the cool of the evening. After three days' walking they reached
+      the fort of Allahabad. It was crowded with ladies who had come in from the
+      country round. Most of the men were doing duty with the garrison, but some
+      thirty had gone up with Havelock's column as volunteer cavalry, his force
+      being entirely deficient in that arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the Doctor explained who they were, they were received with the
+      greatest kindness, and Isobel was at once carried off by the ladies, while
+      Bathurst and the Doctor were surrounded by an eager group anxious to hear
+      the state of affairs at Cawnpore, and how they had escaped. The news of
+      the fighting at Dong was already known; for on the evening of the day of
+      the fight Havelock had sent down a mounted messenger to say the resistance
+      was proving so severe that he begged some more troops might be sent up. As
+      all was quiet now at Allahabad, where there had at first been some fierce
+      fighting, General Neil, who was in command there, had placed two hundred
+      and thirty men of the 84th Regiment in bullock vans, and had himself gone
+      on with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor had decided to keep the news of the massacre to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They will know it before many hours are over, Bathurst,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;and
+      were I to tell them, half of them wouldn't believe me, and the other half
+      would pester my life out with questions. There is never any occasion to
+      hurry in telling bad news.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The first inquiry of Bathurst and his friends had been for Wilson, and
+      they found to their great pleasure that he had arrived in safety, and had
+      gone up with the little body of cavalry. Captain Forster, whom they next
+      asked for, had not reached Allahabad, and no news had been heard of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you going to do, Rujub?&rdquo; Bathurst asked the native next morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall go to Patna,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have friends there, and I shall remain
+      in the city until these troubles are over. I believe now that you were
+      right, sahib, although I did not think so when you spoke, and that the
+      British Raj will be restored. I thought, as did the Sepoys, that they were
+      a match for the British troops. I see now that I was wrong. But there is a
+      tremendous task before them. There is all Oude and the Northwest to
+      conquer, and fully two hundred thousand men in arms against them, but I
+      believe that they will do it. They are a great people, and now I do not
+      wish it otherwise. This afternoon I shall start.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor, who had found many acquaintances in Allahabad, had no
+      difficulty in obtaining money from the garrison treasury, and Bathurst and
+      Isobel purchased the two handsomest bracelets they could obtain from the
+      ladies in the fort as a souvenir for Rabda, and gave them to her with the
+      heartiest expressions of their deep gratitude to her and her father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall think of you always, Rabda,&rdquo; Isobel said, &ldquo;and shall be grateful
+      to the end of my life for the kindness that you have done us. Your father
+      has given us your address at Patna, and I shall write to you often.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall never forget you, lady; and even the black water will not quite
+      separate us. As I knew how you were in prison, so I shall know how you are
+      in your home in England. What we have done is little. Did not the sahib
+      risk his life for me? My father and I will never forget what we owe him. I
+      am glad to know that you will make him happy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was said in the room that had been allotted to Isobel, an ayah of one
+      of the ladies in the fort acting as interpreter. The girl had woke up in
+      the morning flushed and feverish, and the Doctor, when sent for, told her
+      she must keep absolutely quiet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid I am going to have her on my hands for a bit,&rdquo; he said to
+      Bathurst. &ldquo;She has borne the strain well, but she looks to me as if she
+      was going to have a smart attack of fever. It is well that we got her here
+      before it showed itself. You need not look scared; it is just the
+      reaction. If it had been going to be brain fever or anything of that sort,
+      I should have expected her to break down directly you got her out. No, I
+      don't anticipate anything serious, and I am sure I hope that it won't be
+      so. I have put my name down to go up with the next batch of volunteers.
+      Doctors will be wanted at the front, and I hope to have a chance of wiping
+      out my score with some of those scoundrels. However, though I think she is
+      going to be laid up, I don't fancy it will last many days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That afternoon a messenger from Havelock brought down the terrible news
+      that they had fought their way to Cawnpore, only to find that the whole of
+      the ladies and children in the Subada Ke Kothee had been massacred, and
+      their bodies thrown down a well. The grief and indignation caused by the
+      news were terrible; scarce one but had friends among the prisoners. Women
+      wept; men walked up and down, wild with fury at being unable to do aught
+      at present to avenge the massacre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you going to do, Bathurst?&rdquo; the Doctor asked that evening. &ldquo;I
+      suppose you have some sort of plan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know yet. In the first place, I want to try whether what you
+      said the other day is correct, and if I can stand the noise of firing
+      without flinching.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We can't try here in the fort,&rdquo; the Doctor said, full of interest in the
+      experiment; &ldquo;a musket shot would throw the whole garrison into confusion,
+      and at present no one can go far from the gate; however, there may be a
+      row before long, and then you will have an opportunity of trying. If there
+      is not, we will go out together half a mile or so as soon as some more
+      troops get up. You said, when we were talking about it at Deennugghur, you
+      should resign your appointment and go home, but if you find your nerves
+      are all right you may change your mind about that. How about the young
+      lady in there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Doctor, I should say that you, as her father's friend, are the
+      person to make arrangements for her. Just at present travel is not very
+      safe, but I suppose that directly things quiet down a little many of the
+      ladies will be going down to the coast, and no doubt some of them would
+      take charge of Miss Hannay back to England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you mean to have nothing to say in the matter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing at all,&rdquo; he said firmly. &ldquo;I have already told you my views on the
+      subject.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then,&rdquo; the Doctor said hotly, &ldquo;I regard you as an ass.&rdquo; And without
+      another word he walked off in great anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the next four or five days Isobel was in a high state of fever; it
+      passed off as the Doctor had predicted it would do, but left her very weak
+      and languid. Another week and she was about again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is Mr. Bathurst going to do?&rdquo; she asked the Doctor the first day she
+      was up on a couch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know what he is going to do, my dear,&rdquo; he said irritably; &ldquo;my
+      opinion of Bathurst is that he is a fool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Doctor, how can you say so!&rdquo; she exclaimed in astonishment; &ldquo;why,
+      what has he done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It isn't what he has done, but what he won't do, my dear. Here he is in
+      love with a young woman in every way suitable, and who is ready to say yes
+      whenever he asks her, and he won't ask, and is not going to ask, because
+      of a ridiculous crotchet he has got in his head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel flushed and then grew pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the crotchet?&rdquo; she asked, in a low tone, after being silent for
+      some time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you think, my dear? He is more disgusted with himself than ever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not about that nervousness, surely,&rdquo; Isobel said, &ldquo;after all he has done
+      and the way he has risked his life? Surely that cannot be troubling him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is, my dear; not so much on the general as on a particular ground. He
+      insists that by jumping out of the boat when that fire began, he has done
+      for himself altogether.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what could he have done, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's what I ask him, my dear. He insists that he ought to either have
+      seized you and jumped overboard with you, in which case you would both
+      probably have been killed, as I pointed out to him, or else stayed quietly
+      with you by your side, in which case, as I also pointed out to him, you
+      would have had the satisfaction of seeing him murdered. He could not deny
+      that this would have been so, but that in no way alters his opinion of his
+      own conduct. I also ventured to point out to him that if he had been
+      killed, you would at this moment be either in the power of that villainous
+      Nana, or be with hundreds of others in that ghastly well at Cawnpore. I
+      also observed to him that I, who do not regard myself as a coward, also
+      jumped overboard from your boat, and that Wilson, who is certainly a
+      plucky young fellow, and a number of others, jumped over from the other
+      boat; but I might as well have talked to a post.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel sat for some time silent, her fingers playing nervously with each
+      other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course it seems foolish of him to think of it so strongly, but I don't
+      think it is unnatural he should feel as he does.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I ask why?&rdquo; the Doctor said sarcastically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean, Doctor, it would be foolish of other people, but I don't think it
+      is foolish of him. Of course he could have done no good staying in the
+      boat&mdash;he would have simply thrown away his life; and yet I think, I
+      feel sure, that there are many men who would have thrown away their lives
+      in such a case. Even at that moment of terror I felt a pang, when, without
+      a word, he sprang overboard. I thought of it many times that long night,
+      in spite of my grief for my uncle and the others, and my horror of being a
+      prisoner in the hands of the Sepoys. I did not blame him, because I knew
+      how he must have felt, and that it was done in a moment of panic. I was
+      not so sorry for myself as for him, for I knew that if he escaped, the
+      thought of that moment would be terrible for him. I need not say that in
+      my mind the feeling that he should not have left me so has been wiped out
+      a thousand times by what he did afterwards, by the risk he ran for me, and
+      the infinite service he rendered me by saving me from a fate worse than
+      death. But I can enter into his feelings. Most men would have jumped over
+      just as he did, and would never have blamed themselves even if they had at
+      once started away down the country to save their own lives, much less if
+      they had stopped to save mine as he has done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But who can wonder that he is more sensitive than others? Did he not hear
+      from you that I said that a coward was contemptible? Did not all the men
+      except you and my uncle turn their backs upon him and treat him with
+      contempt, in spite of his effort to meet his death by standing up on the
+      roof? Think how awfully he must have suffered, and then, when it seemed
+      that his intervention, which saved our lives, had to some extent won him
+      back the esteem of the men around him, that he should so fail again, as he
+      considers, and that with me beside him. No wonder that he takes the view
+      he does, and that he refuses to consider that even the devotion and
+      courage he afterwards showed can redeem what he considers is a disgrace.
+      You always said that he was brave, Doctor, and I believe now there is no
+      braver man living; but that makes it so much the worse for him. A coward
+      would be more than satisfied with himself for what he did afterwards, and
+      would regard it as having completely wiped out any failing, while he
+      magnifies the failing, such as it was, and places but small weight on what
+      he afterwards did. I like him all the better for it. I know the fault, if
+      fault it was, and I thought it so at the time, was one for which he was
+      not responsible, and yet I like him all the better that he feels it so
+      deeply.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear, you had better tell him so,&rdquo; the Doctor said dryly. &ldquo;I
+      really agree with what you say, and you make an excellent advocate. I
+      cannot do better than leave the matter in your hands. You know, child,&rdquo; he
+      said, changing his tone, &ldquo;I have from the first wished for Bathurst and
+      you to come together, and if you don't do so I shall say you are the most
+      wrong headed young people I ever met. He loves you, and I don't think
+      there is any question about your feelings, and you ought to make matters
+      right somehow. Unfortunately, he is a singularly pig headed man when he
+      gets an idea in his mind. However, I hope that it will come all right. By
+      the way, he asked were you well enough to see him today?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would rather not see him till tomorrow,&rdquo; the girl said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I think too that you had better not see him until tomorrow, Isobel.
+      Your cheeks are flushed now, and your hands are trembling, and I do not
+      want you laid up again, so I order you to keep yourself perfectly quiet
+      for the rest of the day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was not till two days later that Bathurst came up to see her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spies brought in, late that evening, the news that a small party of
+      the Sepoy cavalry, with two guns, were at a village three miles on the
+      other side of the town, and were in communication with the disaffected. It
+      was decided at once by the officer who had succeeded General Neil in the
+      command of the fort that a small party of fifty infantry, accompanied by
+      ten or twelve mounted volunteers, should go out and attack them. Bathurst
+      sent in his name to form one of the party as soon as he learned the news,
+      borrowing the horse of an officer who was laid up ill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The expedition started two hours before daybreak, and, making a long
+      detour, fell upon the Sepoys at seven o'clock. The latter, who had
+      received news half an hour before of their approach, made a stand, relying
+      on their cannon. The infantry, however, moved forward in skirmishing
+      order, their fire quickly silenced the guns, and they then rushed forward
+      while the little troop of volunteers charged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fight lasted but a few minutes, at the end of which time the enemy
+      galloped off in all directions, leaving their guns in the hands of the
+      victors. Four of the infantry had been killed by the explosion of a well
+      aimed shell, and five of the volunteers were wounded in the hand to hand
+      fight with the sowars. The Sepoys' guns and artillery horses had been
+      captured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The party at once set out on their return. On their way they had some
+      skirmishing with the rabble of the town, who had heard the firing, but
+      they were beaten off without much difficulty, and the victors re-entered
+      the fort in triumph. The Doctor was at the gate as they came in. Bathurst
+      sprang from his horse and held out his hand. His radiant face told its own
+      story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank God, Doctor, it has passed. I don't think my pulse went a beat
+      faster when the guns opened on us, and the crackle of our own musketry had
+      no more effect. I think it has gone forever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad indeed, Bathurst,&rdquo; the Doctor said, warmly grasping his hand.
+      &ldquo;I hoped that it might be so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No words can express how grateful I feel,&rdquo; Bathurst said. &ldquo;The cloud that
+      shadowed my life seems lifted, and henceforth I shall be able to look a
+      man in the face.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are wounded, I see,&rdquo; the Doctor said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I had a pistol ball through my left arm. I fancy the bone is broken,
+      but that is of no consequence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A broken arm is no trifle,&rdquo; the Doctor said, &ldquo;especially in a climate
+      like this. Come into the hospital at once and let me see to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the bones of the forearm was indeed broken, and the Doctor, having
+      applied splints and bandages, peremptorily ordered him to lie down.
+      Bathurst protested that he was perfectly able to get up with his arm in a
+      sling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know you are able,&rdquo; the Doctor said testily; &ldquo;but if you were to go
+      about in this oven, we should very likely have you in a high fever by
+      tomorrow morning. Keep yourself perfectly quiet for today; by tomorrow, if
+      you have no signs of fever, and the wound is doing well, we will see about
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon leaving him Dr. Wade went out and heard the details of the fight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your friend Bathurst particularly distinguished himself,&rdquo; the officer who
+      commanded the volunteers said. &ldquo;He cut down the ressaldar who commanded
+      the Sepoys, and was in the thick of it. I saw him run one sowar through
+      and shoot another. I am not surprised at his fighting so well after what
+      you have gone through in Deennugghur and in that Cawnpore business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor then went up to see Isobel. She looked flushed and excited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it true, Doctor, that Mr. Bathurst went out with the volunteers, and
+      that he is wounded?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Both items are true, my dear. Fortunately the wound is not serious. A
+      ball has broken the small bone of the left forearm, but I don't think it
+      will lay him up for long; in fact, he objects strongly to go to bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how did he&mdash;how is it he went out to fight, Doctor? I could
+      hardly believe it when I was told, though of course I did not say so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear, it was an experiment. He told me that he did not feel at all
+      nervous when the Sepoys rushed in at the gate firing when he was walking
+      off with you, and it struck me that possibly the sudden shock and the jump
+      into the water when they attacked the boats, and that rap on the head with
+      a musket ball, might have affected his nervous system, and that he was
+      altogether cured, so he was determined on the first occasion to try.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And did it, Doctor?&rdquo; Isobel asked eagerly. &ldquo;I don't care, you know, one
+      bit whether he is nervous when there is a noise or not, but for his sake I
+      should be glad to know that he has got over it; it has made him so
+      unhappy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has got over it, my dear; he went through the fight without feeling
+      the least nervous, and distinguished himself very much in the charge, as
+      the officer who commanded his troop has just told me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I am glad&mdash;I am thankful, Doctor; no words can say how pleased I
+      am; I know that it would have made his whole life unhappy, and I should
+      have always had the thought that he remembered those hateful words of
+      mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am as glad as you are, Isobel, though I fancy it will change our
+      plans.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How change our plans, Doctor? I did not know that I had any plans.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you had, child, though you might not acknowledge them even to
+      yourself. My plan was that you should somehow convince him that, in spite
+      of what you said, and in spite of his leaving you in that boat, you were
+      quite content to take him for better or for worse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How could I tell him that?&rdquo; the girl said, coloring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I think you would have had to do so somehow, my dear, but that is
+      not the question now. My plan was that when you had succeeded in doing
+      this you should marry him and go home with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why, Doctor,&rdquo; she asked, coloring even more hotly than before, &ldquo;is
+      the plan changed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, my dear, I don't think Bathurst will go home with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not, Doctor?&rdquo; she asked, in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, my dear, he will want, in the first place, to rehabilitate
+      himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But no one knows, Doctor, about the siege and what happened there, except
+      you and me and Mr. Wilson; all the rest have gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is true, my dear, but he will want to rehabilitate himself in his
+      own eyes; and besides, that former affair which first set you against him,
+      might crop up at any time. Other civilians, many of them, have volunteered
+      in the service, and no man of courage would like to go away as long as
+      things are in their present state. You will see Bathurst will stay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think he will be right,&rdquo; she said at last gravely; &ldquo;if he wishes to do
+      so, I should not try to dissuade him; it would be very hard to know that
+      he is in danger, but no harder for me than for others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is right, my dear,&rdquo; the Doctor said affectionately; &ldquo;I should not
+      wish my little girl&mdash;and now the Major has gone I feel that you are
+      my little girl&mdash;to think otherwise. I think,&rdquo; he went on, smiling,
+      &ldquo;that the first part of that plan we spoke of will not be as difficult as
+      I fancied it would be; the sting has gone, and he will get rid of his
+      morbid fancies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When shall I be able to see him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, if I had any authority over him you would not see him for a week;
+      as I have not, I think it likely enough that you will see him tomorrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would rather wait if it would do him any harm, Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think it will do him any harm. Beyond the fact that he will have
+      to carry his arm in a sling for the next fortnight, I don't think he will
+      have any trouble with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br><br><br><br>
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The next morning Bathurst found Isobel Hannay sitting in a shady court
+      that had been converted into a sort of general room for the ladies in the
+      fort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How are you, Miss Hannay? I am glad to see you down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I might repeat your words, Mr. Bathurst, for you see we have changed
+      places. You are the invalid, and not I.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is very little of the invalid about me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I am glad to see
+      that your face is much better than it was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it is healing fast. I am a dreadful figure still; and the Doctor
+      says that there will be red scars for months, and that probably my face
+      will be always marked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Doctor is a croaker, Miss Hannay; there is no occasion to trust him
+      too implicitly. I predict that there will not be any serious scars left.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He took a seat beside her. There were two or three others in the court,
+      but these were upon the other side, quite out of hearing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I congratulate you, Mr. Bathurst,&rdquo; she said quietly, &ldquo;on yesterday. The
+      Doctor has, of course, told me all about it. It can make no difference to
+      us who knew you, but I am heartily glad for your sake. I can understand
+      how great a difference it must make to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has made all the difference in the world,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;No one can
+      tell the load it has lifted from my mind. I only wish it had taken place
+      earlier.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know what you mean, Mr. Bathurst; the Doctor has told me about that
+      too. You may wish that you had remained in the boat, but it was well for
+      me that you did not. You would have lost your life without benefiting me.
+      I should be now in the well of Cawnpore, or worse, at Bithoor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That may be,&rdquo; he said gravely, &ldquo;but it does not alter the fact.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no reason to know why you consider you should have stopped in the
+      boat, Mr. Bathurst,&rdquo; she went on quietly, but with a slight flush on her
+      cheek. &ldquo;I can perhaps guess by what you afterwards did for me, by the
+      risks you ran to save me; but I cannot go by guesses, I think I have a
+      right to know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are making me say what I did not mean to say,&rdquo; he exclaimed
+      passionately, &ldquo;at least not now; but you do more than guess, you know&mdash;you
+      know that I love you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what do you know?&rdquo; she asked softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know that you ought not to love me.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;No woman should love a
+      coward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I quite agree with you, but then I know that you are not a coward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not when I jumped over and left you alone? It was the act of a cur.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was an act for which you were not really responsible. Had you been
+      able to think, you would not have done so. I do not take the view the
+      Doctor does, and I agree with you that a man loving a woman should first
+      of all think of her and of her safety. So you thought when you could
+      think, but you were no more responsible for your action than a madman for
+      a murder committed when in a state of frenzy. It was an impulse you could
+      not control. Had you, after the impulse had passed, come down here,
+      believing, as you might well have believed, that it was absolutely
+      impossible to rescue me from my fate, it would have been different. But
+      the moment you came to yourself you deliberately took every risk and
+      showed how brave you were when master of yourself. I am speaking plainly,
+      perhaps more plainly than I ought to. But I should despise myself had I
+      not the courage to speak out now when so much is at stake, and after all
+      you have done for me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You love me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know that I love you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I love you,&rdquo; the girl said; &ldquo;more than that, I honor and esteem you.
+      I am proud of your love. I am jealous for your honor as for my own, and I
+      hold that honor to be spotless. Even now, even with my happiness at stake,
+      I could not speak so plainly had I not spoken so cruelly and wrongly
+      before. I did not know you then as I know you now, but having said what I
+      thought then, I am bound to say what I think now, if only as a penance.
+      Did I hesitate to do so, I should be less grateful than that poor Indian
+      girl who was ready as she said, to give her life for the life you had
+      saved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had you spoken so bravely but two days since,&rdquo; Bathurst said, taking her
+      hand, &ldquo;I would have said. 'I love you too well, Isobel, to link your fate
+      to that of a disgraced man.' but now I have it in my power to retrieve
+      myself, to wipe out the unhappy memory of my first failure, and still
+      more, to restore the self respect which I have lost during the last month.
+      But to do so I must stay here: I must bear part in the terrible struggle
+      there will be before this mutiny is put down, India conquered, and
+      Cawnpore revenged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not try to prevent you,&rdquo; Isobel said. &ldquo;I feel it would be wrong to
+      do so. I could not honor you as I do, if for my sake you turned away now.
+      Even though I knew I should never see you again, I would that you had died
+      so, than lived with even the shadow of dishonor on your name. I shall
+      suffer, but there are hundreds of other women whose husbands, lovers, or
+      sons are in the fray, and I shall not flinch more than they do from giving
+      my dearest to the work of avenging our murdered friends and winning back
+      India.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So quietly had they been talking that no thought of how momentous their
+      conversation had been had entered the minds of the ladies sitting working
+      but a few paces away. One, indeed, had remarked to another, &ldquo;I thought
+      when Dr. Wade was telling us how Mr. Bathurst had rescued that unfortunate
+      girl with the disfigured face at Cawnpore, that there was a romance in the
+      case, but I don't see any signs of it. They are goods friends, of course,
+      but there is nothing lover-like in their way of talking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So thought Dr. Wade when he came in and saw them sitting there, and gave
+      vent to his feeling in a grunt of dissatisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is like driving two pigs to market,&rdquo; he muttered; &ldquo;they won't go the
+      way I want them to, out of pure contrariness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is all settled, Doctor,&rdquo; Bathurst said, rising. &ldquo;Come, shake hands; it
+      is to you I owe my happiness chiefly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isobel, my dear, give me a kiss,&rdquo; the Doctor exclaimed. &ldquo;I am glad, my
+      dear, I am glad with all my heart. And what have you settled besides
+      that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have settled that I am to go home as soon as I can go down country,
+      and he is going up with you and the others to Cawnpore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is right,&rdquo; the Doctor said heartily. &ldquo;I told you that was what he
+      would decide upon; it is right that he should do so. No man ought to turn
+      his face to the coast till Lucknow is relieved and Delhi is captured. I
+      thank God it has all come right at last. I began to be afraid that
+      Bathurst's wrong headedness was going to mar both your lives.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The news had already come down that Havelock had found that it would be
+      absolutely impossible with the small force at his command to fight his way
+      into Lucknow through the multitude of foes that surrounded it, and that he
+      must wait until reinforcements arrived. There was, therefore, no urgent
+      hurry, and it was not until ten days later that a second troop of
+      volunteer horse, composed of civilians unable to resume their duties, and
+      officers whose regiments had mutinied, started for Cawnpore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half an hour before they mounted, Isobel Hannay and Ralph Bathurst were
+      married by the chaplain in the fort. This was at Bathurst's earnest wish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I may not return, Isobel,&rdquo; he had urged: &ldquo;it is of no use to blink the
+      fact that we have desperate fighting before us, and I should go into
+      battle with my mind much more easy in the knowledge that, come what might,
+      you were provided for. The Doctor tells me that he considers you his
+      adopted daughter, and that he has already drawn up a will leaving his
+      savings to you; but I should like your future to come from me, dear, even
+      if I am not to share it with you. As you know, I have a fine estate at
+      home, and I should like to think of you as its mistress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Isobel of course had given way, though not without protest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't know what I may be like yet,&rdquo; she said, half laughing, half in
+      earnest. &ldquo;I may carry these red blotches to my grave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are honorable scars, dear, as honorable as any gained in battle. I
+      hope, for your sake, that they will get better in time, but it makes no
+      difference to me. I know what you were, and how you sacrificed your
+      beauty. I suppose if I came back short of an arm or leg you would not make
+      that an excuse for throwing me over?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You ought to be ashamed of even thinking of such a thing, Ralph.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, dear, I don't know that I did think it, but I am only putting a
+      parallel case to your own. No, you must consent: it is in all ways best.
+      We will be married on the morning I start, so as just to give time for our
+      wedding breakfast before I mount.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It shall be as you wish,&rdquo; she said softly. &ldquo;You know the estate without
+      you would be nothing to me, but I should like to bear your name, and
+      should you never come back to me, Ralph, to mourn for you all my life as
+      my husband. But I believe you will return to me. I think I am getting
+      superstitious, and believe in all sorts of things since so many strange
+      events have happened. Those pictures on the smoke that came true, Rujub
+      sending you messages at Deennugghur, and Rabda making me hear her voice
+      and giving me hope in prison. I do not feel so miserable at the thought of
+      your going into danger as I should do, if I had not a sort of conviction
+      that we shall meet again. People believe in presentiments of evil, why
+      should they not believe in presentiments of good? At any rate, it is a
+      comfort to me that I do feel so, and I mean to go on believing it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do so, Isobel. Of course there will be danger, but the danger will be
+      nothing to that we have passed through together. The Sepoys will no doubt
+      fight hard, but already they must have begun to doubt; their confidence in
+      victory must be shaken, and they begin to fear retribution for their
+      crimes. The fighting will, I think, be less severe as the struggle goes
+      on, and at any rate the danger to us, fighting as the assailants, is as
+      nothing to that run when we were little groups surrounded by a country in
+      arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The news that has come through from Lucknow is that, for some time at any
+      rate, the garrison are confident they can hold out, while at Delhi we know
+      that our position is becoming stronger every day; the reinforcements are
+      beginning to arrive from England, and though the work may be slow at
+      first, our army will grow, while their strength will diminish, until we
+      sweep them before us. I need not stop until the end, only till the peril
+      is over, till Lucknow is relieved, and Delhi captured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As we agreed, I have already sent in my resignation in the service, and
+      shall fight as a volunteer only. If we have to fight our way into Lucknow,
+      cavalry will be useless, and I shall apply to be attached to one of the
+      infantry regiments; having served before, there will be no difficulty
+      about that. I think there are sure to be plenty of vacancies. Six months
+      will assuredly see the backbone of the rebellion altogether broken. No
+      doubt it will take much longer crushing it out altogether, for they will
+      break up into scattered bodies, and it may be a long work before these are
+      all hunted down; but when the strength of the rebellion is broken, I can
+      leave with honor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There were but few preparations to be made for the wedding. Great interest
+      was felt in the fort in the event, for Isobel's rescue from Bithoor and
+      Cawnpore, when all others who had fallen into the power of the Nana had
+      perished, had been the one bright spot in the gloom; and there would have
+      been a general feeling of disappointment had not the romance had the usual
+      termination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel's presents were numerous and of a most useful character, for they
+      took the form of articles of clothing, and her trousseau was a varied and
+      extensive one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor said to her the evening before the event, &ldquo;You ought to have a
+      certificate from the authorities, Isobel, saying how you came into
+      possession of your wardrobe, otherwise when you get back to England you
+      will very soon come to be looked upon as a most suspicious character.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you mean, Doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear, if the washerwoman to whom you send your assortment at the
+      end of the voyage is an honest woman, she will probably give information
+      to the police that you must be a receiver of stolen property, as your
+      garments are all marked with different names.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will look suspicious, Doctor, but I must run the risk of that till I
+      can remark them again. I can do a good deal that way before I sail. It is
+      likely we shall be another fortnight at least before we can start for
+      Calcutta. I don't mean to take the old names out, but shall mark my
+      initials over them and the word 'from.' Then they will always serve as
+      mementoes of the kindness of everyone here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Early on the morning of the wedding a native presented himself at the gate
+      of the fort, and on being allowed to enter with a letter for Miss Hannay
+      of which he was the bearer, handed her a parcel, which proved to contain a
+      very handsome and valuable set of jewelry, with a slip of paper on which
+      were the words, &ldquo;From Rabda.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Doctor was in high spirits at the breakfast to which everybody sat
+      down directly after the wedding. In the first place, his greatest wish was
+      gratified; and, in the second, he was about to start to take part in the
+      work of retribution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One would think you were just starting on a pleasure party, Doctor,&rdquo;
+       Isobel said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is worth all the pleasure parties in the world, my dear. I have always
+      been a hunter, and this time it is human 'tigers' I am going in pursuit of&mdash;besides
+      which,&rdquo; he said, in a quieter tone, &ldquo;I hope I am going to cure as well as
+      kill. I shall only be a soldier when I am not wanted as a doctor. A man
+      who really loves his profession, as I do, is always glad to exercise it,
+      and I fear I shall have ample opportunities that way; besides, dear there
+      is nothing like being cheerful upon an occasion of this kind. The longer
+      we laugh, the less time there is for tears.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so the party did not break up until it was nearly time for the little
+      troop to start. Then there was a brief passionate parting, and the
+      volunteer horse rode away to Cawnpore. Almost the first person they met as
+      they rode into the British lines was Wilson, who gave a shout of joy at
+      seeing the Doctor and Bathurst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Bathurst!&rdquo; he exclaimed. &ldquo;Then you got safely down. Did you
+      rescue Miss Hannay?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had that good fortune, Wilson.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad. I am glad,&rdquo; the young fellow said, shaking his hand violently,
+      while the tears stood in his eyes. &ldquo;I know you were right in sending me
+      away, but I have regretted it ever since. I know I should have been no
+      good, but it seemed such a mean thing for me to go off by myself. Well,
+      Doctor, and so you got off too,&rdquo; he went on, turning from Bathurst and
+      wringing the Doctor's hand; &ldquo;I never even hoped that you escaped. I made
+      sure that it was only we two. I have had an awful time of it since we
+      heard the news, on the way up, of the massacre of the women. I had great
+      faith in Bathurst, and knew that if anything could be done he would do it,
+      but when I saw the place they had been shut up in, it did not seem really
+      possible that he could have got anyone out of such a hole. And where did
+      you leave Miss Hannay?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have not left her at all,&rdquo; the Doctor said gravely; &ldquo;there is no
+      longer a Miss Hannay. There, man, don't look so shocked. She changed her
+      name on the morning we came away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What!&rdquo; Wilson exclaimed. &ldquo;Is she Mrs. Bathurst? I am glad, Bathurst.
+      Shake hands again; I felt sure that if you did rescue her that was what
+      would come of it. I was almost certain by her way when I talked to her
+      about you one day that she liked you. I was awfully spoony on her myself,
+      you know, but I knew it was no use, and I would rather by a lot that she
+      married you than anyone else I know. But come along into my tent; you know
+      your troop and ours are going to be joined. We have lost pretty near half
+      our fellows, either in the fights coming up or by sunstroke or fever since
+      we came here. I got hold of some fizz in the bazaar yesterday, and I am
+      sure you must be thirsty. This is a splendid business; I don't know that I
+      ever felt so glad of anything in my life,&rdquo; and he dragged them away to his
+      tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst found, to his disappointment, that intense as was the desire to
+      push forward to Lucknow, the general opinion was that the General would
+      not venture to risk his little force in an operation that, with the means
+      at his disposal, seemed well nigh impossible. Cholera had made
+      considerable ravages, and he had but fifteen hundred bayonets at his
+      disposal. All that could be done pending the arrival of reinforcements was
+      to prepare the way for an advance, and show so bold a front that the enemy
+      would be forced to draw a large force from Lucknow to oppose his advance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A bridge of boats was thrown across the Ganges, and the force crossed the
+      river and advanced to Onao, eight miles on the road to Lucknow. Here the
+      enemy, strongly posted, barred the way; but they were attacked, and, after
+      hard fighting, defeated, with a loss of three hundred men and fifteen
+      guns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this fight the volunteer horse, who had been formed into a single
+      troop, did good service. One of their two officers was killed; and as the
+      party last up from Allahabad were all full of Bathurst's rescue of Miss
+      Hannay from Cawnpore, and Wilson and the Doctor influenced the others, he
+      was chosen to fill the vacancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were two other fierce fights out at Busserutgunge, and then Bathurst
+      had the satisfaction of advancing with the column against Bithoor. Here
+      again the enemy fought sturdily, but were defeated with great slaughter,
+      and the Nana's palace was destroyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When, after the arrival of Outram with reinforcements, the column set out
+      for Lucknow, the volunteers did not accompany them, as they would have
+      been useless in street fighting, and were, therefore, detailed to form
+      part of the little force left at Cawnpore to hold the city and check the
+      rebels, parties of whom were swarming round it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The officer in command of the troop died of cholera a few days after
+      Havelock's column started up, and Bathurst succeeded him. The work was
+      very arduous, the men being almost constantly in their saddles, and having
+      frequent encounters with the enemy. They were again much disappointed at
+      being left behind when Sir Colin Campbell advanced to the relief of
+      Havelock and the garrison, but did more than their share of fighting in
+      the desperate struggle when the mutineers of the Gwallior contingent
+      attacked the force at Cawnpore during the absence of the relieving column.
+      Here they were almost annihilated in a desperate charge which saved the
+      64th from being cut to pieces at the most critical moment of the fight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wilson came out of the struggle with the loss of his left arm, and two or
+      three serious wounds. He had been cut off, and surrounded, and was falling
+      from his horse when Bathurst cut his way to his rescue, and, lifting him
+      into his saddle before him, succeeded after desperate fighting in carrying
+      him off, himself receiving several wounds, none of which, however, were
+      severe. The action had been noticed, and Bathurst's name was sent in for
+      the Victoria Cross. As the troop had dwindled to a dozen sabers, he
+      applied to Sir Colin Campbell, whose column had arrived in time to save
+      the force at Cawnpore and to defeat the enemy, to be attached to a
+      regiment as a volunteer. The General, however, at once offered him a post
+      as an extra aide de camp to himself, as his perfect knowledge of the
+      language would render him of great use; and he gladly accepted the offer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the column returning from Lucknow was the Doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the way, Bathurst,&rdquo; he said on the evening of his return, &ldquo;I met an
+      old acquaintance in Lucknow; you would never guess who it was&mdash;Forster.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't say so; Doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; it seems he was hotly pursued, but managed to shake the sowars off.
+      At that time the garrison was not so closely besieged as it afterwards
+      was. He knew the country well, and made his way across it until within
+      sight of Lucknow. At night he rode right through the rebels, swam the
+      river, and gained the Residency. He distinguished himself greatly through
+      the siege, but had been desperately wounded the day before we marched in.
+      He was in a ward that was handed over to me directly I got there, and I at
+      once saw that his case was a hopeless one. The poor fellow was heartily
+      glad to see me. Of course he knew nothing of what had taken place at
+      Deennugghur after he had left, and was very much cut up when he heard the
+      fate of almost all the garrison. He listened quietly when I told how you
+      had rescued Isobel and of your marriage. He was silent, and then said, 'I
+      am glad to hear it, Doctor. I can't say how pleased I am she escaped.
+      Bathurst has fairly won her. I never dreamt that she cared for him. Well,
+      it seems he wasn't a coward after all. And you say he has resigned and
+      come up as a volunteer instead of going home with her? That is plucky,
+      anyhow. Well, I am pleased. I should not have been so if I hadn't been
+      like this, Doctor, but now I am out of the running for good, it makes no
+      odds to me either way. If ever you see him again, you tell him I said I
+      was glad. I expect he will make her a deucedly better husband than I
+      should have done. I never liked Bathurst, but I expect it was because he
+      was a better fellow than most of us&mdash;that was at school, you know&mdash;and
+      of course I did not take to him at Deennugghur. No one could have taken to
+      a man there who could not stand fire. But you say he has got over that, so
+      that is all right. Anyhow, I have no doubt he will make her happy. Tell
+      her I am glad, Doctor. I thought at one time&mdash;but that is no odds
+      now. I am glad you are out of it, too.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then he rambled on about shooting Sepoys, and did not say anything
+      more coherently until late that night. I was sitting by him; he had been
+      unconscious for some time, and he opened his eyes suddenly and said, 'Tell
+      them both I am glad,' and those were the last words he spoke.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was a brave soldier, a fine fellow in many ways,&rdquo; Bathurst said; &ldquo;if
+      he had been brought up differently he would, with all his gifts, have been
+      a grand fellow, but I fancy he never got any home training. Well, I am
+      glad he didn't die as we supposed, without a friend beside him, on his way
+      to Lucknow, and that he fell after doing his duty to the women and
+      children there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Wilson refused to go home after the loss of his arm, and as soon as he
+      recovered was appointed to one of the Sikh regiments, and took part in the
+      final conquest of Lucknow two months after the fight at Cawnpore. A
+      fortnight after the conclusion of that terrible struggle Sir Colin
+      Campbell announced to Bathurst that amongst the dispatches that he had
+      received from home that morning was a Gazette, in which his name appeared
+      among those to whom the Victoria Cross had been granted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I congratulate you heartily, Mr. Bathurst,&rdquo; the old officer said: &ldquo;I have
+      had the pleasure of speaking in the highest terms of the bravery you
+      displayed in carrying my message through heavy fire a score of times
+      during the late operations.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Great as the honor of the Victoria Cross always is, to Bathurst it was
+      much more than to other men. It was his rehabilitation. He need never fear
+      now that his courage would be questioned, and the report that he had
+      before left the army because he lacked courage would be forever silenced
+      now that he could write V. C. after his name. The pleasure of Dr. Wade and
+      Wilson was scarcely less than his own. The latter's regiment had suffered
+      very heavily in the struggle at Lucknow, and he came out of it a captain,
+      having escaped without a wound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A week later Bathurst resigned his appointment. There was still much to be
+      done, and months of marching and fighting before the rebellion was quite
+      stamped out; but there had now arrived a force ample to overcome all
+      opposition, and there was no longer a necessity for the service of
+      civilians. As he had already left the service of the Company, he was his
+      own master, and therefore started at once for Calcutta..
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall not be long before I follow you,&rdquo; the Doctor said, as they spent
+      their last evening together. &ldquo;I shall wait and see this out, and then
+      retire. I should have liked to have gone home with you, but it is out of
+      the question. Our hands are full, and likely to be so for some time, so I
+      must stop.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bathurst stopped for a day at Patna to see Rujub and his daughter. He was
+      received as an expected guest, and after spending a few hours with them he
+      continued his journey. At Calcutta he found a letter awaiting him from
+      Isobel, saying that she had arrived safely in England, and should stay
+      with her mother until his arrival, and there he found her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expected you today,&rdquo; she said, after the first rapturous greeting was
+      over. &ldquo;Six weeks ago I woke in the middle of the night, and heard Rabda's
+      voice distinctly say: 'He has been with us today: he is safe and well; he
+      is on his way to you.' As I knew how long you would take going down from
+      Patna, I went the next day to the office and found what steamer you would
+      catch, and when she would arrive. My mother and sister both regarded me as
+      a little out of my mind when I said you would be back this week. They have
+      not the slightest belief in what I told them about Rujub, and insist that
+      it was all a sort of hallucination brought on by my sufferings. Perhaps
+      they will believe now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your face is wonderfully better,&rdquo; he said presently. &ldquo;The marks seem
+      dying out, and you look almost your old self.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;I have been to one of the great doctors, and he says he
+      thinks the scars will quite disappear in time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Isobel Bathurst has never again received any distinct message from Rabda,
+      but from time to time she has the consciousness, when sitting quietly
+      alone, that the girl is with her in thought. Every year letters and
+      presents are exchanged, and to the end of their lives she and her husband
+      will feel that their happiness is chiefly due to her and her father&mdash;Rujub,
+      the Juggler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE END. <br> <br>
+    </p>
+    <hr>
+    <p>
+      <br> <br>
+    </p>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUJUB, THE JUGGLER  ***</div>
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #7229 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7229)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rujub, the Juggler, by G. A. Henty
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Rujub, the Juggler
+
+Author: G. A. Henty
+
+Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7229]
+Posting Date: July 25, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUJUB, THE JUGGLER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Robb
+
+
+
+
+
+RUJUB, THE JUGGLER
+
+
+By G. A. Henty.
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHERS' INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+"Rujub, the Juggler," is mainly an historical tale for young and old,
+dealing with the Sepoy Mutiny, in India, during the years 1857 to 1859.
+
+This famous mutiny occurred while the reins of British rule in India
+were in the hands of Lord Canning. Chupattees (cakes of flour and water)
+were circulated among the natives, placards protesting against British
+rule were posted at Delhi, and when the Enfield rifle with its greased
+cartridges was introduced among the Sepoy soldiers serving the Queen it
+was rumored that the cartridges were smeared with the forbidden pig's
+fat, so that the power of the Sepoys might forever be destroyed.
+
+Fanatical to the last degree, the Sepoys were not long in bringing the
+mutiny to a head. The first outbreak occurred at Meerut, where were
+stationed about two thousand English soldiers and three thousand native
+troops. The native troops refused to use the cartridges supplied to them
+and eighty-two were placed under arrest. On the day following the native
+troops rebelled in a body, broke open the guardhouse and released the
+prisoners, and a severe battle followed, and Meerut was given over to
+the flames. The mutineers then marched upon Delhi, thirty-two miles
+away, and took possession. At Bithoor the Rajah had always professed a
+strong friendship for the English, but he secretly plotted against them,
+and, later on, General Wheeler was compelled to surrender to the Rajah
+at Cawnpore, and did so with the understanding that the lives of all
+in the place should be spared. Shortly after the surrender the English
+officers and soldiers were shot down, and all of the women and children
+butchered.
+
+The mutiny was now at its height, and for a while it was feared that
+British rule in India must cease. The Europeans at Lucknow were besieged
+for about three months and were on the point of giving up, when they
+were relieved through the heroic march of General Havelock. Sir Colin
+Campbell followed, and soon the city was once more in the complete
+possession of the British. Oude was speedily reduced to submission,
+many of the rebel leaders were either shot or hanged, and gradually the
+mutiny, which had cost the lives of thousands, was brought to an end.
+
+The tale, however, is not all of war. In its pages are given many true
+to life pictures of life in India, in the barracks of the soldiers and
+elsewhere. A most important part is played by Rujub, the juggler, who is
+a warm friend to the hero of the narrative. Rujub is no common conjuror,
+but one of the higher men of mystery, who perform partly as a religious
+duty and who accept no pay for such performances. The acts of these
+persons are but little understood, even at this late day, and it is
+possible that many of their arts will sooner or later be utterly lost to
+the world at large. That they can do some wonderful things in juggling,
+mind reading, and in second sight, is testified to by thousands of
+people who have witnessed their performances in India; how they do these
+things has never yet been explained.
+
+Strange as it may seem, the hero of the tale is a natural born coward,
+who cannot stand the noise of gunfire. He realizes his shortcomings, and
+they are frequently brought home to him through the taunts of his fellow
+soldiers. A doctor proves that the dread of noise is hereditary, but
+this only adds to the young soldier's misery. To make himself brave he
+rushes to the front in a most desperate fight, and engages in scout work
+which means almost certain death. In the end he masters his fear, and
+gives a practical lesson of what stern and unbending will power can
+accomplish.
+
+In many respects "Rujub, the Juggler," will be found one of the
+strongest of Mr. Henty's works, and this is saying much when one
+considers all of the many stories this well known author has already
+penned for the entertainment of young and old. As a picture of life in
+the English Army in India it is unexcelled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It would be difficult to find a fairer scene. Throughout the gardens
+lanterns of many shapes and devices threw their light down upon the
+paths, which were marked out by lines of little lamps suspended on wires
+a foot above the ground. In a treble row they encircled a large tank or
+pond and studded a little island in its center. Along the terraces were
+festoons and arches of innumerable lamps, while behind was the Palace or
+Castle, for it was called either; the Oriental doors and windows and the
+tracery of its walls lit up below by the soft light, while the outline
+of the upper part could scarce be made out. Eastern as the scene was,
+the actors were for the most part English. Although the crowd that
+promenaded the terrace was composed principally of men, of whom the
+majority were in uniform of one sort or another, the rest in evening
+dress, there were many ladies among them.
+
+At the end of one of the terraces a band of the 103d Bengal Infantry
+was playing, and when they ceased a band of native musicians, at the
+opposite end of the terrace, took up the strains. Within, the palace was
+brilliantly lighted, and at the tables in one of the large apartments
+a few couples were still seated at supper. Among his guests moved
+the Rajah, chatting in fluent English, laughing with the men, paying
+compliments to the ladies, a thoroughly good fellow all round, as his
+guests agreed. The affair had been a great success. There had first been
+a banquet to the officers and civilians at the neighboring station. When
+this was over, the ladies began to arrive, and for their amusement there
+had been a native nautch upon a grand scale, followed by a fine display
+of fireworks, and then by supper, at which the Rajah had made a speech
+expressive of his deep admiration and affection for the British. This he
+had followed up by proposing the health of the ladies in flowery terms.
+Never was there a better fellow than the Rajah. He had English tastes,
+and often dined at one or other of the officers' messes. He was a good
+shot, and could fairly hold his own at billiards. He had first rate
+English horses in his stables, and his turnout was perfect in all
+respects. He kept a few horses for the races, and was present at every
+ball and entertainment. At Bithoor he kept almost open house. There was
+a billiard room and racquet courts, and once or twice a week there were
+luncheon parties, at which from twelve to twenty officers were generally
+present. In all India there was no Rajah with more pronounced English
+tastes or greater affection for English people. The one regret of his
+life, he often declared, was that his color and his religion prevented
+his entertaining the hope of obtaining an English wife. All this, as
+everyone said, was the more remarkable and praiseworthy, inasmuch as he
+had good grounds of complaint against the British Government.
+
+With the ladies he was an especial favorite; he was always ready to show
+them courtesy. His carriages were at their service. He was ready to
+give his aid and assistance to every gathering. His private band played
+frequently on the promenade, and handsome presents of shawls and jewelry
+were often made to those whom he held in highest favor. At present he
+was talking to General Wheeler and some other officers.
+
+"I warn you that I mean to win the cup at the races," he said; "I have
+just bought the horse that swept the board on the Bombay side; I have
+set my heart on winning the cup, and so secured this horse. I am ready
+to back it if any of you gentlemen are disposed to wager against it."
+
+"All in good time, Rajah," one of the officers laughed; "we don't know
+what will be entered against it yet, and we must wait to see what the
+betting is, but I doubt whether we have anything that will beat the
+Bombay crack on this side; I fancy you will have to lay odds on."
+
+"We shall see," the Rajah said; "I have always been unlucky, but I mean
+to win this time."
+
+"I don't think you take your losses much to heart, Rajah," General
+Wheeler said; "yet there is no doubt that your bets are generally
+somewhat rash ones."
+
+"I mean to make a coup this time. That is your word for a big thing,
+I think. The Government has treated me so badly I must try to take
+something out of the pockets of its officers."
+
+"You do pretty well still," the General laughed; "after this splendid
+entertainment you have given us this evening you can hardly call
+yourself a poor man."
+
+"I know I am rich. I have enough for my little pleasures--I do not know
+that I could wish for more--still no one is ever quite content."
+
+By this time the party was breaking up, and for the next half hour the
+Rajah was occupied in bidding goodby to his guests. When the last had
+gone he turned and entered the palace, passed through the great halls,
+and, pushing aside a curtain, entered a small room. The walls and the
+columns were of white marble, inlaid with arabesque work of colored
+stones. Four golden lamps hung from the ceiling, the floor was covered
+with costly carpets, and at one end ran a raised platform a foot in
+height, piled with soft cushions. He took a turn or two up and down the
+room, and then struck a silver bell. An attendant entered.
+
+"Send Khoosheal and Imambux here."
+
+Two minutes later the men entered. Imambux commanded the Rajah's troops,
+while Khoosheal was the master of his household.
+
+"All has gone off well," the Rajah said; "I am pleased with you,
+Khoosheal. One more at most, and we shall have done with them. Little do
+they think what their good friend Nana Sahib is preparing for them. What
+a poor spirited creature they think me to kiss the hand that robbed me,
+to be friends with those who have deprived me of my rights! But the day
+of reckoning is not far off, and then woe to them all! Have any of your
+messengers returned, Imambux?"
+
+"Several have come in this evening, my lord; would you see them now, or
+wait till morning?"
+
+"I will see them now; I will get the memory of these chattering men and
+these women with their bare shoulders out of my mind. Send the men in
+one by one. I have no further occasion for you tonight; two are better
+than three when men talk of matters upon which an empire depends."
+
+The two officers bowed and retired, and shortly afterwards the attendant
+drew back the curtain again, and a native, in the rags of a mendicant,
+entered, and bowed till his forehead touched the carpet. Then he
+remained kneeling, with his arms crossed over his chest, and his head
+inclined in the attitude of the deepest humility.
+
+"Where have you been?" the Rajah asked.
+
+"My lord's slave has been for three weeks at Meerut. I have obeyed
+orders. I have distributed chupaties among the native regiments, with
+the words, 'Watch, the time is coming,' and have then gone before I
+could be questioned. Then, in another disguise, I have gone through
+the bazaar, and said in talk with many that the Sepoys were unclean and
+outcast, for that they had bitten cartridges anointed with pig's fat,
+and that the Government had purposely greased the cartridges with this
+fat in order that the caste of all the Sepoys should be destroyed. When
+I had set men talking about this I left; it will be sure to come to the
+Sepoys' ears."
+
+The Rajah nodded. "Come again tomorrow at noon; you will have your
+reward then and further orders; but see that you keep silence; a single
+word, and though you hid in the farthest corner of India you would not
+escape my vengeance."
+
+Man after man entered. Some of them, like the first, were in mendicant's
+attire, one or two were fakirs, one looked like a well to do merchant.
+With the exception of the last, all had a similar tale to tell; they
+had been visiting the various cantonments of the native army, everywhere
+distributing chupaties and whispering tales of the intention of the
+Government to destroy the caste of the Sepoys by greasing the cartridges
+with pig's fat. The man dressed like a trader was the last to enter.
+
+"How goes it, Mukdoomee?"
+
+"It is well, my lord; I have traversed all the districts where we dwelt
+of old, before the Feringhee stamped us out and sent scores to death and
+hundreds to prison. Most of the latter whom death has spared are free
+now, and with many of them have I talked. They are most of them old, and
+few would take the road again, but scarce one but has trained up his son
+or grandson to the work; not to practice it,--the hand of the whites was
+too heavy before, and the gains are not large enough to tempt men to run
+the risk--but they teach them for the love of the art. To a worshiper of
+the goddess there is a joy in a cleverly contrived plan and in casting
+the roomal round the neck of the victim, that can never die. Often in
+my young days, when perhaps twelve of us were on the road in a party, we
+made less than we could have done by labor, but none minded.
+
+"We were sworn brothers; we were working for Kali, and so that we sent
+her victims we cared little; and even after fifteen or twenty years
+spent in the Feringhee's prisons, we love it still; none hate the white
+man as we do; has he not destroyed our profession? We have two things
+to work for; first, for vengeance; second, for the certainty that if the
+white man's Raj were at an end, once again would the brotherhood follow
+their profession, and reap booty for ourselves and victims for
+Kali; for, assuredly, no native prince would dare to meddle with us.
+Therefore, upon every man who was once a Thug, and upon his sons and
+grandsons, you may depend. I do not say that they would be useful for
+fighting, for we have never been fighters, but the stranglers will be of
+use. You can trust them with missions, and send them where you choose.
+From their fathers' lips they have learnt all about places and roads;
+they can decoy Feringhee travelers, the Company's servants or soldiers,
+into quiet places, and slay them. They can creep into compounds and into
+houses, and choose their victims from the sleepers. You can trust them,
+Rajah, for they have learned to hate, and each in his way will, when the
+times comes, aid to stir up men to rise. The past had almost become a
+dream, but I have roused it into life again, and upon the descendants of
+the stranglers throughout India you can count surely."
+
+"You have not mentioned my name?" the Rajah said suddenly, looking
+closely at the man as he put the question.
+
+"Assuredly not, your highness; I have simply said deliverance is at
+hand; the hour foretold for the end of the Raj of the men from beyond
+the sea will soon strike, and they will disappear from the land like
+fallen leaves; then will the glory of Kali return, then again will the
+brotherhood take to the road and gather in victims. I can promise that
+every one of those whose fathers or grandfathers or other kin died by
+the hand of the Feringhee, or suffered in his prisons, will do his share
+of the good work, and be ready to obey to the death the orders which
+will reach him."
+
+"It is good," the Rajah said; "you and your brethren will have a rich
+harvest of victims, and the sacred cord need never be idle. Go; it is
+well nigh morning, and I would sleep."
+
+But not for some time did the Rajah close his eyes; his brain was busy
+with the schemes which he had long been maturing, but was only now
+beginning to put into action.
+
+"It must succeed," he said to himself; "all through India the people
+will take up arms when the Sepoys give the signal by rising against
+their officers. The whites are wholly unsuspicious; they even believe
+that I, I whom they have robbed, am their friend. Fools! I hold them in
+the hollow of my hand; they shall trust me to the last, and then I will
+crush them. Not one shall escape me! Would I were as certain of all the
+other stations in India as I am of this. Oude, I know, will rise as
+one man; the Princes of Delhi I have sounded; they will be the leaders,
+though the old King will be the nominal head; but I shall pull the
+strings, and as Peishwa, shall be an independent sovereign, and next in
+dignity to the Emperor. Only nothing must be done until all is ready;
+not a movement must be made until I feel sure that every native regiment
+from Calcutta to the North is ready to rise."
+
+And so, until the day had fully broken, the Rajah of Bithoor thought
+over his plans--the man who had a few hours before so sumptuously
+entertained the military and civilians of Cawnpore, and the man who was
+universally regarded as the firm friend of the British and one of the
+best fellows going.
+
+The days and weeks passed on, messengers came and went, the storm was
+slowing brewing; and yet to all men it seemed that India was never more
+contented nor the outlook more tranquil and assured.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+A young man in a suit of brown karkee, with a white puggaree wound
+round his pith helmet, was just mounting in front of his bungalow at
+Deennugghur, some forty miles from Cawnpore, when two others came up.
+
+"Which way are you going to ride, Bathurst?"
+
+"I am going out to Narkeet; there is a dispute between the villagers and
+a Talookdar as to their limits. I have got to look into the case. Why do
+you ask, Mr. Hunter?"
+
+"I thought that you might be going that way. You know we have had
+several reports of ravages by a man eater whose headquarters seem to
+be that big jungle you pass through on your way to Narkeet. He has been
+paying visits to several villages in its neighborhood, and has carried
+off two mail runners. I should advise you to keep a sharp lookout."
+
+"Yes, I have heard plenty about him; it is unfortunate we have no one at
+this station who goes in for tiger hunting. Young Bloxam was speaking
+to me last night; he is very hot about it; but as he knows nothing about
+shooting, and has never fired off a rifle in his life, except at the
+military target, I told him that it was madness to think of it by
+himself, and that he had better ride down to the regiment at Cawnpore,
+and get them to form a party to come up to hunt the beast. I told him
+they need not bring elephants with them; I could get as many as were
+necessary from some of the Talookdars, and there will be no want of
+beaters. He said he would write at once, but he doubted whether any of
+them would be able to get away at present; the general inspection is
+just coming on. However, no doubt they will be able to do so before
+long."
+
+"Well, if I were you I would put a pair of pistols into my holster,
+Bathurst; it would be awfully awkward if you came across the beast."
+
+"I never carry firearms," the young man said shortly; and then more
+lightly, "I am a peaceful man by profession, as you are, Mr. Hunter,
+and I leave firearms to those whose profession it is to use them. I
+have hitherto never met with an occasion when I needed them, and am not
+likely to do so. I always carry this heavy hunting whip, which I find
+useful sometimes, when the village dogs rush out and pretend that they
+are going to attack me; and I fancy that even an Oude swordsman would
+think twice before attacking me when I had it in my hand. But, of
+course, there is no fear about the tiger. I generally ride pretty fast;
+and even if he were lying by the roadside waiting for a meal, I don't
+think he would be likely to interfere with me."
+
+So saying, he lightly touched the horse's flanks with his spurs and
+cantered off.
+
+"He's a fine young fellow, Garnet," Mr. Hunter said to his companion;
+"full of energy, and, they say, the very best linguist in Oude."
+
+"Yes, he is all that," the other agreed; "but he is a sort of fellow
+one does not quite understand. I like a man who is like other fellows;
+Bathurst isn't. He doesn't shoot, he doesn't ride--I mean he don't care
+for pig sticking; he never goes in for any fun there may be on hand; he
+just works--nothing else; he does not seem to mix with other people;
+he is the sort of fellow one would say had got some sort of secret
+connected with him."
+
+"If he has, I am certain it is nothing to his personal disadvantage,"
+Mr. Hunter said warmly. "I have known him for the last six years--I
+won't say very well, for I don't think anyone does that, except,
+perhaps, Doctor Wade. When there was a wing of the regiment up here
+three years ago he and Bathurst took to each other very much--perhaps
+because they were both different from other people. But, anyhow, from
+what I know of Bathurst I believe him to be a very fine character,
+though there is certainly an amount of reserve about him altogether
+unusual. At any rate, the service is a gainer by it. I never knew a
+fellow work so indefatigably. He will take a very high place in the
+service before he has done."
+
+"I am not so sure of that," the other said. "He is a man with opinions
+of his own, and all sorts of crotchets and fads. He has been in hot
+water with the Chief Commissioner more than once. When I was over at
+Lucknow last I was chatting with two or three men, and his name happened
+to crop up, and one of them said, 'Bathurst is a sort of knight errant,
+an official Don Quixote. Perhaps the best officer in the province in
+some respects, but hopelessly impracticable.'"
+
+"Yes, that I can quite understand, Garnet. That sort of man is never
+popular with the higher official, whose likings go to the man who does
+neither too much nor too little, who does his work without questioning,
+and never thinks of making suggestions, and is a mere official machine.
+Men of Bathurst's type, who go to the bottom of things, protest against
+what they consider unfair decisions, and send in memorandums showing
+that their superiors are hopelessly ignorant and idiotically wrong, are
+always cordially disliked. Still, they generally work their way to the
+front in the long run. Well, I must be off."
+
+Bathurst rode to Narkeet without drawing rein. His horse at times
+slackened its pace on its own accord, but an almost mechanical motion
+from its rider's heel soon started it off again at the rapid pace at
+which its rider ordinarily traveled. From the time he left Deennugghur
+to his arrival at Narkeet no thought of the dreaded man eater entered
+Bathurst's mind. He was deeply meditating on a memorandum he was about
+to draw up, respecting a decision that had been arrived at in a case
+between a Talookdar in his district and the Government, and in which, as
+it appeared to him, a wholly erroneous and unjust view had been taken
+as to the merits of the case; and he only roused himself when the horse
+broke into a walk as it entered the village. Two or three of the head
+men, with many bows and salutations of respect, came out to receive him.
+
+"My lord sahib has seen nothing of the tiger?" the head man said; "our
+hearts were melted with fear, for the evil beast was heard roaring in
+the jungle not far from the road early this morning."
+
+"I never gave it a thought, one way or the other," Bathurst said, as he
+dismounted. "I fancy the horse would have let me know if the brute had
+been anywhere near. See that he is tied up in the shed, and has food and
+water, and put a boy to keep the flies from worrying him. And now let us
+get to business. First of all, I must go through the village records
+and documents; after that I will question four or five of the oldest
+inhabitants, and then we must go over the ground. The whole question
+turns, you know, upon whether the irrigation ditch mentioned in the
+Talookdar's grant is the one that runs across at the foot of the rising
+ground on his side, or whether it is the one that sweeps round on this
+side of the grove with the little temple in it. Unfortunately most of
+the best land lies between those ditches."
+
+For hours Bathurst listened to the statements of the old people of the
+village, cross questioning them closely, and sparing no efforts to sift
+the truth from their confused and often contradictory evidence. Then he
+spent two hours going over the ground and endeavoring to satisfy himself
+which of the two ditches was the one named in the village records. He
+had two days before taken equal pains in sifting the evidence on the
+other side.
+
+"I trust that my lord sees there can be no doubt as to the justice of
+our claim," the head man said humbly, as he prepared to mount again.
+
+"According to your point of view, there is no doubt about it, Childee;
+but then there is equally no doubt the other way, according to the
+statements they put forward. But that is generally the way in all these
+land disputes. For good hard swearing your Hindoo cultivator can be
+matched against the world. Unfortunately there is nothing either in your
+grant or in your neighbors' that specifies unmistakably which of these
+ancient ditches is the one referred to. My present impression is that it
+is essentially a case for a compromise, but you know the final decision
+does not rest on me. I shall be out here again next week, and I shall
+write to the Talookdar to meet me here, and we will go over the ground
+together again, and see if we cannot arrange some line that will be fair
+to both parties. If we can do that, the matter would be settled without
+expense and trouble; whereas, if it goes up to Lucknow it may all have
+to be gone into again; and if the decision is given against you, and as
+far as I can see it is just as likely to be one way as another, it will
+be a serious thing for the village."
+
+"We are in my lord's hands," the native said; "he is the protector of
+the poor, and will do us justice."
+
+"I will do you justice, Childee, but I must do justice to the other side
+too. Of course, neither of you will be satisfied, but that cannot be
+helped."
+
+His perfect knowledge of their language, the pains he took to sift all
+matters brought before him to the bottom, had rendered the young officer
+very popular among the natives. They knew they could get justice from
+him direct. There was no necessity to bribe underlings: he had the
+knack of extracting the truth from the mass of lying evidence always
+forthcoming in native cases; and even the defeated party admired the
+manner in which the fabric of falsehood was pulled to pieces. But the
+main reason of his popularity was his sympathy, the real interest which
+he showed in their cases, and the patience with which he listened to
+their stories.
+
+Bathurst himself, as he rode homewards, was still thinking of the
+case. Of course there had been lying on both sides; but to that he was
+accustomed. It was a question of importance--of greater importance, no
+doubt, to the villagers than to their opponent, but still important
+to him--for this tract of land was a valuable one, and of considerable
+extent, and there was really nothing in the documents produced on either
+side to show which ditch was intended by the original grants. Evidently,
+at the time they were made, very many years before, one ditch or the
+other was not in existence; but there was no proof as to which was the
+more recent, although both sides professed that all traditions handed
+down to them asserted the ditch on their side to be the more recent.
+
+He was riding along the road through the great jungle, at his horse's
+own pace, which happened for the moment to be a gentle trot, when
+a piercing cry rang through the air a hundred yards ahead. Bathurst
+started from his reverie, and spurred his horse sharply; the animal
+dashed forward at a gallop. At a turn in the road he saw, twenty yards
+ahead of him, a tiger, standing with a foot upon a prostrate figure,
+while a man in front of it was gesticulating wildly. The tiger stood as
+if hesitating whether to strike down the figure in front or to content
+itself with that already in its power.
+
+The wild shouts of the man had apparently drowned the sound of the
+horse's feet upon the soft road, for the animal drew back half a pace as
+it suddenly came into view.
+
+The horse swerved at the sight, and reared high in the air as Bathurst
+drove his spurs into it. As its feet touched the ground again, Bathurst
+sprang off and rushed at the tiger, and brought down the heavy lash
+of his whip with all his force across its head. With a fierce snarl it
+sprang back two paces, but again and again the whip descended upon it,
+and bewildered and amazed at the attack it turned swiftly and sprang
+through the bushes.
+
+Bathurst, knowing that there was no fear of its returning, turned at
+once to the figure on the road. It was, as in even the momentary glance
+he had noticed, a woman, or rather a girl of some fourteen or fifteen
+years of age--the man had dropped on his knees beside her, moaning and
+muttering incoherent words.
+
+"I see no blood," Bathurst said, and stooping, lifted the light figure.
+"Her heart beats, man; I think she has only fainted. The tiger must have
+knocked her down in its spring without striking her. So far as I can see
+she is unhurt."
+
+He carried her to the horse, which stood trembling a few yards away,
+took a flask from the holster, and poured a little brandy and water
+between her lips.
+
+Presently there was a faint sigh. "She is coming round," he said to the
+man, who was still kneeling, looking on with vacant eyes, as though he
+had neither heard nor comprehended what Bathurst was doing. Presently
+the girl moved slightly and opened her eyes. At first there was no
+expression in them; then a vague wonder stole into them at the white
+face looking down upon her.
+
+She closed them again, and then reopened them, and then there was a
+slight struggle to free herself. He allowed her to slip through his arms
+until her feet touched the ground; then her eyes fell on the kneeling
+figure.
+
+"Father!" she exclaimed. With a cry the man leaped to his feet, sprang
+to her and seized her in his arms, and poured out words of endearment.
+Then suddenly he released her and threw himself on the ground before
+Bathurst, with ejaculations of gratitude and thankfulness.
+
+"Get up, man, get up," the latter said; "your daughter can scarce stand
+alone, and the sooner we get away from this place the better; that
+savage beast is not likely to return, but he may do so; let us be off."
+
+He mounted his horse again, brought it up to the side of the girl, and
+then, leaning over, took her and swung her into the saddle in front of
+him. The man took up a large box that was lying in the road and hoisted
+it onto his shoulders, and then, at a foot's pace, they proceeded on
+their way--Bathurst keeping a close watch on the jungle at the side on
+which the tiger had entered it.
+
+"How came you to travel along this road alone?" he asked the man. "The
+natives only venture through in large parties, because of this tiger."
+
+"I am a stranger," the man answered; "I heard at the village where we
+slept last night that there was a tiger in this jungle, but I thought
+we should be through it before nightfall, and therefore there was no
+danger. If one heeded all they say about tigers one would never travel
+at all. I am a juggler, and we are on our way down the country through
+Cawnpore and Allahabad. Had it not been for the valor of my lord sahib,
+we should never have got there; for had I lost my Rabda, the light of
+my heart, I should have gone no further, but should have waited for the
+tiger to take me also."
+
+"There was no particular valor about it," Bathurst said shortly. "I saw
+the beast with its foot on your daughter, and dismounted to beat it off
+just as if it had been a dog, without thinking whether there was any
+danger in it or not. Men do it with savage beasts in menageries every
+day. They are cowardly brutes after all, and can't stand the lash. He
+was taken altogether by surprise, too."
+
+"My lord has saved my daughter's life, and mine is at his service
+henceforth," the man said. "The mouse is a small beast, but he may
+warn the lion. The white sahibs are brave and strong. Would one of my
+countrymen have ventured his life to attack a tiger, armed only with a
+whip, for the sake of the life of a poor wayfarer?"
+
+"Yes, I think there are many who would have done so," Bathurst replied.
+"You do your countrymen injustice. There are plenty of brave men among
+them, and I have heard before now of villagers, armed only with sticks,
+attacking a tiger who has carried off a victim from among them. You
+yourself were standing boldly before it when I came up."
+
+"My child was under its feet--besides, I never thought of myself. If
+I had had a weapon I should not have drawn it. I had no thought of the
+tiger; I only thought that my child was dead. She works with me, sahib;
+since her mother died, five years ago, we have traveled together over
+the country; she plays while I conjure. She takes round the saucer for
+the money, and she acts with me in the tricks that require two persons;
+it is she who disappears from the basket. We are everything to each
+other, sahib. But what is my lord's name? Will he tell his servant, that
+he and Rabda may think of him and talk of him as they tramp the roads
+together?"
+
+"My name is Ralph Bathurst. I am District Officer at Deennugghur. How
+far are you going this evening?"
+
+"We shall sleep at the first village we come to, sahib; we have walked
+many hours today, and this box, though its contents are not weighty,
+is heavy to bear. We thought of going down tomorrow to Deennugghur, and
+showing our performances to the sahib logue there."
+
+"Very well; but there is one thing--what is your name?"
+
+"Rujub."
+
+"Well, Rujub, if you go on to Deennugghur tomorrow say nothing to anyone
+there about this affair with the tiger; it is nothing to talk about. I
+am not a shikari, but a hard working official, and I don't want to be
+talked about."
+
+"The sahib's wish shall be obeyed," the man said.
+
+"You can come round to my bungalow and ask for me; I shall be glad to
+hear whether your daughter is any the worse for her scare. How do you
+feel, Rabda?"
+
+"I feel as one in a dream, sahib. I saw a great yellow beast springing
+through the air, and I cried out, and knew nothing more till I saw the
+sahib's face; and now I have heard him and my father talking, but their
+voices sound to me as if far away, though I know that you are holding
+me."
+
+"You will be all the better after a night's rest, child; no wonder you
+feel strange and shaken. Another quarter of an hour and we shall be at
+the village. I suppose, Rujub, you were born a conjurer."
+
+"Yes, sahib, it is always so; it goes down from father to son. As soon
+as I was able to walk, I began to work with my father, and as I grew
+up he initiated me in the secrets of our craft, which we may never
+divulge."
+
+"No, I know they are a mystery. Many of your tricks can be done by our
+conjurers at home, but there are some that have never been solved."
+
+"I have been offered, more than once, large sums by English sahibs to
+tell them how some of the feats were done, but I could not; we are bound
+by terrible oaths, and; in no case has a juggler proved false to them.
+Were one to do so he would be slain without mercy, and his fate in the
+next world would be terrible; forever and forever his soul would pass
+through the bodies of the foulest and lowest creatures, and there would
+be no forgiveness for him. I would give my life for the sahib, but even
+to him I would not divulge our mysteries."
+
+In a few minutes they came to the first village beyond the jungle. As
+they approached it Bathurst checked his horse and lifted the girl down.
+She took his hand and pressed her forehead to it.
+
+"I shall see you tomorrow, then, Rujub," he said, and shaking the reins,
+went on at a canter.
+
+"That is a new character for me to come out in," he said bitterly; "I do
+not know myself--I, of all men. But there was no bravery in it; it never
+occurred to me to be afraid; I just thrashed him off as I should beat
+off a dog who was killing a lamb; there was no noise, and it is noise
+that frightens me; if the brute had roared I should assuredly have run;
+I know it would have been so; I could not have helped it to have saved
+my life. It is an awful curse that I am not as other men, and that I
+tremble and shake like a girl at the sound of firearms. It would have
+been better if I had been killed by the first shot fired in the Punjaub
+eight years ago, or if I had blown my brains out at the end of the day.
+Good Heavens! what have I suffered since. But I will not think of it.
+Thank God, I have got my work; and as long as I keep my thoughts on that
+there is no room for that other;" and then, by a great effort of will,
+Ralph Bathurst put the past behind him, and concentrated his thoughts on
+the work on which he had been that day engaged.
+
+The juggler did not arrive on the following evening as he had expected,
+but late in the afternoon a native boy brought in a message from him,
+saying that his daughter was too shaken and ill to travel, but that they
+would come when she recovered.
+
+A week later, on returning from a long day's work, Bathurst was told
+that a juggler was in the veranda waiting to see him.
+
+"I told him, sahib," the servant said, "that you cared not for such
+entertainments, and that he had better go elsewhere; but he insisted
+that you yourself had told him to come, and so I let him wait."
+
+"Has he a girl with him, Jafur?"
+
+"Yes, sahib."
+
+Bathurst strolled round to the other side of the bungalow, where Rujub
+was sitting patiently, with Rabda wrapped in her blue cloth beside him.
+They rose to their feet.
+
+"I am glad to see your daughter is better again, Rujub."
+
+"She is better, sahib; she has had fever, but is restored."
+
+"I cannot see your juggling tonight, Rujub. I have had a heavy day's
+work, and am worn out, and have still much to do. You had better go
+round to some of the other bungalows; though I don't think you will do
+much this evening, for there is a dinner party at the Collector's, and
+almost everyone will be there. My servants will give you food, and I
+shall be off at seven o'clock in the morning, but shall be glad to see
+you before I start. Are you in want of money?" and he put his hand in
+his pocket.
+
+"No, sahib," the juggler said. "We have money sufficient for all our
+wants; we are not thinking of performing tonight, for Rabda is not
+equal to it. Before sunrise we shall be on our way again; I must be at
+Cawnpore, and we have delayed too long already. Could you give us but
+half an hour tonight, sahib; we will come at any hour you like. I would
+show you things that few Englishmen have seen. Not mere common tricks,
+sahib, but mysteries such as are known to few even of us. Do not say no,
+sahib."
+
+"Well, if you wish it, Rujub, I will give you half an hour," and
+Bathurst looked at his watch. "It is seven now, and I have to dine. I
+have work to do that will take me three hours at least, but at eleven I
+shall have finished. You will see a light in my room; come straight to
+the open window."
+
+"We will be there, sahib;" and with a salaam the juggler walked off,
+followed by his daughter.
+
+A few minutes before the appointed time Bathurst threw down his pen with
+a little sigh of satisfaction.
+
+The memo he had just finished was a most conclusive one; it seemed
+to him unanswerable, and that the Department would have trouble in
+disputing his facts and figures. He had not since he sat down to his
+work given another thought to the juggler, and he almost started as a
+figure appeared in the veranda at the open window.
+
+"Ah, Rujub, is it you? I have just finished my work. Come in; is Rabda
+with you?"
+
+"She will remain outside until I want her," the juggler said as he
+entered and squatted himself on the floor. "I am not going to juggle,
+sahib. With us there are two sorts of feats; there are those that are
+performed by sleight of hand or by means of assistance. These are the
+juggler's tricks we show in the verandas and compounds of the white
+sahibs, and in the streets of the cities. There are others that are
+known only to the higher order among us, that we show only on rare
+occasions. They have come to us from the oldest times, and it is said
+they were brought by wise men from Egypt; but that I know not."
+
+"I have always been interested in juggling, and have seen many things
+that I cannot understand," Bathurst said. "I have seen the basket trick
+done on the road in front of the veranda, as well as in other places,
+and I cannot in any way account for it."
+
+The juggler took from his basket a piece of wood about two feet in
+length and some four inches in diameter.
+
+"You see this?" he said.
+
+Bathurst took it in his hand. "It looks like a bit sawn off a telegraph
+pole," he said.
+
+"Will you come outside, sahib?"
+
+The night was very dark, but the lamp on the table threw its light
+through the window onto the drive in front of the veranda. Rujub took
+with him a piece of wood about nine inches square, with a soft pad on
+the top. He went out in the drive and placed the piece of pole upright,
+and laid the wood with the cushion on the top.
+
+"Now will you stand in the veranda a while?"
+
+Bathurst stood back by the side of the window so as not to interfere
+with the passage of the light. Rabda stole forward and sat down upon the
+cushion.
+
+"Now watch, sahib."
+
+Bathurst looked, and saw the block of wood apparently growing. Gradually
+it rose until Rabda passed up beyond the light in the room.
+
+"You may come out," the juggler said, "but do not touch the pole. If you
+do, it will cause a fall, which would be fatal to my child."
+
+Bathurst stepped out and looked up. He could but just make out the
+figure of Rabda, seemingly already higher than the top of the bungalow.
+Gradually it became more and more indistinct.
+
+"You are there, Rabda?" her father said.
+
+"I am here, father!" and the voice seemed to come from a considerable
+distance.
+
+Again and again the question was asked, and the answer became fainter
+and fainter, although it sounded as if it was a distant cry in response
+to Rujub's shout rather than spoken in an ordinary voice.
+
+At last no response was heard.
+
+"Now it shall descend," the juggler said.
+
+Two or three minutes passed, and then Bathurst, who was staring up into
+the darkness, could make out the end of the pole with the seat upon
+it, but Rabda was no longer there. Rapidly it sank, until it stood its
+original height on the ground.
+
+"Where is Rabda?" Bathurst exclaimed.
+
+"She is here, my lord," and as he spoke Rabda rose from a sitting
+position on the balcony close to Bathurst.
+
+"It is marvelous!" the latter exclaimed. "I have heard of that feat
+before, but have never seen it. May I take up that piece of wood?"
+
+"Assuredly, sahib."
+
+Bathurst took it up and carried it to the light. It was undoubtedly,
+as he had before supposed, a piece of solid wood. The juggler had not
+touched it, or he would have supposed he might have substituted for the
+piece he first examined a sort of telescope of thin sheets of steel, but
+even that would not have accounted for Rabda's disappearance.
+
+"I will show you one other feat, my lord."
+
+He took a brass dish, placed a few pieces of wood and charcoal in it,
+struck a match, and set the wood on fire, and then fanned it until the
+wood had burned out, and the charcoal was in a glow; then he sprinkled
+some powder upon it, and a dense white smoke rose.
+
+"Now turn out the lamp, sahib."
+
+Bathurst did so. The glow of the charcoal enabled him still to see the
+light smoke; this seemed to him to become clearer and clearer.
+
+"Now for the past!" Rujub said. The smoke grew brighter and brighter,
+and mixed with flashes of color; presently Bathurst saw clearly an
+Indian scene. A village stood on a crest, jets of smoke darted up
+from between the houses, and then a line of troops in scarlet uniform
+advanced against the village, firing as they went. They paused for a
+moment, and then with a rush went at the village and disappeared in the
+smoke over the crest.
+
+"Good Heavens," Bathurst muttered, "it is the battle of Chillianwalla!"
+
+"The future!" Rujub said, and the colors on the smoke changed. Bathurst
+saw a wall surrounding a courtyard. On one side was a house. It had
+evidently been besieged, for in the upper part were many ragged holes,
+and two of the windows were knocked into one. On the roof were men
+firing, and there were one or two women among them. He could see their
+faces and features distinctly. In the courtyard wall there was a gap,
+and through this a crowd of Sepoys were making their way, while a
+handful of whites were defending a breastwork. Among them he recognized
+his own figure. He saw himself club his rifle and leap down into the
+middle of the Sepoys, fighting furiously there. The colors faded away,
+and the room was in darkness again. There was the crack of a match, and
+then Rujub said quietly, "If you will lift off the globe again, I will
+light the lamp, sahib."
+
+Bathurst almost mechanically did as he was told.
+
+"Well, sahib, what do you think of the pictures?"
+
+"The first was true," Bathurst said quietly, "though, how you knew I was
+with the regiment that stormed the village at Chillianwalla I know not.
+The second is certainly not true."
+
+"You can never know what the future will be, sahib," the juggler said
+gravely.
+
+"That is so," Bathurst said; "but I know enough of myself to say that
+it cannot be true. I do not say that the Sepoys can never be fighting
+against whites, improbable as it seems, but that I was doing what that
+figure did is, I know, impossible."
+
+"Time will show, sahib," the juggler said; "the pictures never lie.
+Shall I show you other things?"
+
+"No, Rujub, you have shown me enough; you have astounded me. I want to
+see no more tonight."
+
+"Then farewell, sahib; we shall meet again, I doubt not, and mayhap I
+may be able to repay the debt I owe you;" and Rujub, lifting his basket,
+went out through the window without another word.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Some seven or eight officers were sitting round the table in the
+messroom of the 103d Bengal Infantry at Cawnpore. It had been a guest
+night, but the strangers had left, the lights had been turned out in the
+billiard room overhead, the whist party had broken up, and the players
+had rejoined three officers who had remained at table smoking and
+talking quietly.
+
+Outside, through the open French windows, the ground looked as if
+sprinkled with snow beneath the white light of the full moon. Two or
+three of the mess servants were squatting in the veranda, talking in low
+voices. A sentry walked backwards and forwards by the gate leading into
+the mess house compound; beyond, the maidan stretched away flat and
+level to the low huts of the native lines on the other side.
+
+"So the Doctor comes back tomorrow, Major," the Adjutant, who had been
+one of the whist party, said. "I shall be very glad to have him back.
+In the first place, he is a capital fellow, and keeps us all alive;
+secondly, he is a good deal better doctor than the station surgeon who
+has been looking after the men since we have been here; and lastly, if
+I had got anything the matter with me myself, I would rather be in his
+hands than those of anyone else I know."
+
+"Yes, I agree with you, Prothero; the Doctor is as good a fellow as ever
+stepped. There is no doubt about his talent in his profession; and there
+are a good many of us who owed our lives to him when we were down with
+cholera, in that bad attack three years ago. He is good all round; he
+is just as keen a shikari as he was when he joined the regiment,
+twenty years ago; he is a good billiard player, and one of the best
+storytellers I ever came across; but his best point is that he is such a
+thoroughly good fellow--always ready to do a good turn to anyone, and to
+help a lame dog over a stile. I could name a dozen men in India who
+owe their commissions to him. I don't know what the regiment would do
+without him."
+
+"He went home on leave just after I joined," one of the subalterns said.
+"Of course, I know, from all I have heard of him, that he is an awfully
+good fellow, but from the little I saw of him myself, he seemed always
+growling and snapping."
+
+There was a general laugh from the others.
+
+"Yes, that is his way, Thompson," the Major said; "he believes himself
+to be one of the most cynical and morose of men."
+
+"He was married, wasn't he, Major?"
+
+"Yes, it was a sad business. It was only just after I joined. He is
+three years senior to me in the regiment. He was appointed to it a month
+or two after the Colonel joined. Well, as I say, a month or two after I
+came to it, he went away on leave down to Calcutta, where he was to meet
+a young lady who had been engaged to him before he left home. They were
+married, and he brought her up country. Before she had been with us a
+month we had one of those outbreaks of cholera. It wasn't a very severe
+one. I think we only lost eight or ten men, and no officer; but the
+Doctor's young wife was attacked, and in three or four hours she was
+carried off. It regularly broke him down. However, he got over it, as
+we all do, I suppose; and now I think he is married to the regiment. He
+could have had staff appointments a score of times, but he has always
+refused them. His time is up next year, and he could go home on full
+pay, but I don't suppose he will."
+
+"And your niece arrives with him tomorrow, Major," the Adjutant said.
+
+"Yes, I am going to try petticoat government, Prothero. I don't know how
+the experiment will succeed, but I am tired of an empty bungalow, and I
+have been looking forward for some years to her being old enough to come
+out and take charge. It is ten years since I was home, and she was a
+little chit of eight years old at that time."
+
+"I think a vote of thanks ought to be passed to you, Major. We have only
+married ladies in the regiment, and it will wake us up and do us good to
+have Miss Hannay among us."
+
+"There are the Colonel's daughters," the Major said, with a smile.
+
+"Yes, there are, Major, but they hardly count; they are scarcely
+conscious of the existence of poor creatures like us; nothing short of a
+Resident or, at any rate, of a full blown Collector, will find favor in
+their eyes."
+
+"Well, I warn you all fairly," the Major said, "that I shall set my
+face against all sorts of philandering and love making. I am bringing my
+niece out here as my housekeeper and companion, and not as a prospective
+wife for any of you youngsters. I hope she will turn out to be as plain
+as a pikestaff, and then I may have some hopes of keeping her with me
+for a time. The Doctor, in his letter from Calcutta, says nothing as to
+what she is like, though he was good enough to remark that she seemed to
+have a fair share of common sense, and has given him no more trouble
+on the voyage than was to be expected under the circumstances. And now,
+lads, it is nearly two o'clock, and as there is early parade tomorrow,
+it is high time for you to be all in your beds. What a blessing it would
+be if the sun would forget to shine for a bit on this portion of the
+world, and we could have an Arctic night of seven or eight months with a
+full moon the whole time!"
+
+A few minutes later the messroom was empty, the lights turned out, and
+the servants wrapped up in their blankets had disposed themselves for
+sleep in the veranda.
+
+As soon as morning parade was over Major Hannay went back to his
+bungalow, looked round to see that his bachelor quarters were as bright
+and tidy as possible, then got into a light suit and went down to the
+post house. A quarter of an hour later a cloud of dust along the road
+betokened the approach of the Dak Gharry, and two or three minutes later
+it dashed up at full gallop amid a loud and continuous cracking of the
+driver's whip. The wiry little horses were drawn up with a sudden jerk.
+
+The Major opened the door. A little man sprang out and grasped him by
+the hand.
+
+"Glad to see you, Major--thoroughly glad to be back again. Here is your
+niece; I deliver her safe and sound into your hands." And between them
+they helped a girl to alight from the vehicle.
+
+"I am heartily glad to see you, my dear," the Major said, as he kissed
+her; "though I don't think I should have known you again."
+
+"I should think not, uncle," the girl said. "In the first place, I was
+a little girl in short frocks when I saw you last; and in the second
+place, I am so covered with the dust that you can hardly see what I
+am like. I think I should have known you; your visit made a great
+impression upon us, though I can remember now how disappointed we were
+when you first arrived that you hadn't a red coat and a sword, as we had
+expected."
+
+"Well, we may as well be off at once, Isobel; it is only five minutes'
+walk to the bungalow. My man will see to your luggage being brought up.
+Come along, Doctor. Of course you will put up with me until you can look
+round and fix upon quarters. I told Rumzan to bring your things round
+with my niece's. You have had a very pleasant voyage out, I hope,
+Isobel?" he went on, as they started.
+
+"Very pleasant, uncle, though I got rather tired of it at last."
+
+"That is generally the way--everyone is pleasant and agreeable at first,
+but before they get to the end they take to quarreling like cats and
+dogs."
+
+"We were not quite as bad as that," the girl laughed, "but we certainly
+weren't as amiable the last month or so as we were during the first
+part of the voyage. Still, it was very pleasant all along, and nobody
+quarreled with me."
+
+"Present company are always excepted," the Doctor said. "I stood in loco
+parentis, Major, and the result has been that I shall feel in future
+more charitable towards mothers of marriageable daughters. Still, I am
+bound to say that Miss Hannay has given me as little trouble as could be
+expected."
+
+"You frighten me, Doctor; if you found her so onerous only for a voyage,
+what have I to look forward to?"
+
+"Well, you can't say that I didn't warn you, Major; when you wrote home
+and asked me to take charge of your niece on the way out, I told you
+frankly that my opinion of your good sense was shaken."
+
+"Yes, you did express yourself with some strength," the Major laughed;
+"but then one is so accustomed to that, that I did not take it to heart
+as I might otherwise have done."
+
+"That was before you knew me, Dr. Wade, otherwise I should feel very
+hurt," the girl put in.
+
+"Yes, it was," the Doctor said dryly.
+
+"Don't mind him, my dear," her uncle said; "we all know the Doctor of
+old. This is my bungalow."
+
+"It is pretty, with all these flowers and shrubs round it," she said
+admiringly.
+
+"Yes, we have been doing a good deal of watering the last few weeks, so
+as to get it to look its best. This is your special attendant; she will
+take you up to your room. By the time you have had a bath, your boxes
+will be here. I told them to have a cup of tea ready for you upstairs.
+Breakfast will be on the table by the time you are ready."
+
+"Well, old friend," he said to the Doctor, when the girl had gone
+upstairs, "no complications, I hope, on the voyage?"
+
+"No, I think not," the Doctor said. "Of course, there were lots of young
+puppies on board, and as she was out and out the best looking girl in
+the ship half of them were dancing attendance upon her all the voyage,
+but I am bound to say that she acted like a sensible young woman;
+and though she was pleasant with them all, she didn't get into any
+flirtation with one more than another. I did my best to look after her,
+but, of course, that would have been of no good if she had been disposed
+to go her own way. I fancy about half of them proposed to her--not that
+she ever said as much to me--but whenever I observed one looking sulky
+and giving himself airs I could guess pretty well what had happened.
+These young puppies are all alike, and we are not without experience of
+the species out here.
+
+"Seriously, Major, I think you are to be congratulated. I consider that
+you ran a tremendous risk in asking a young woman, of whom you knew
+nothing, to come out to you; still it has turned out well. If she had
+been a frivolous, giggling thing, like most of them, I had made up my
+mind to do you a good turn by helping to get her engaged on the voyage,
+and should have seen her married offhand at Calcutta, and have come up
+and told you that you were well out of the scrape. As, contrary to my
+expectations, she turned out to be a sensible young woman, I did my best
+the other way. It is likely enough you may have her on your hands some
+little time, for I don't think she is likely to be caught by the first
+comer. Well, I must go and have my bath; the dust has been awful coming
+up from Allahabad. That is one advantage, and the only one as far as
+I can see, that they have got in England. They don't know what dust is
+there."
+
+When the bell for breakfast rang, and Isobel made her appearance,
+looking fresh and cool, in a light dress, the Major said, "You must
+take the head of the table, my dear, and assume the reins of government
+forthwith."
+
+"Then I should say, uncle, that if any guidance is required, there will
+be an upset in a very short time. No, that won't do at all. You must go
+on just as you were before, and I shall look on and learn. As far as I
+can see, everything is perfect just as it is. This is a charming room,
+and I am sure there is no fault to be found with the arrangement of
+these flowers on the table. As for the cooking, everything looks very
+nice, and anyhow, if you have not been able to get them to cook to your
+taste, it is of no use my attempting anything in that way. Besides, I
+suppose I must learn something of the language before I can attempt to
+do anything. No, uncle, I will sit in this chair if you like, and
+make tea and pour it out, but that is the beginning and the end of my
+assumption of the head of the establishment at present."
+
+"Well, Isobel, I hardly expected that you were going to run the
+establishment just at first; indeed, as far as that goes, one's butler,
+if he is a good man, has pretty well a free hand. He is generally
+responsible, and is in fact what we should call at home housekeeper--he
+and the cook between them arrange everything. I say to him, 'Three
+gentlemen are coming to tiffen.' He nods and says 'Atcha, sahib,' which
+means 'All right, sir,' and then I know it will be all right. If I have
+a fancy for any special thing, of course I say so. Otherwise, I leave it
+to them, and if the result is not satisfactory, I blow up. Nothing can
+be more simple."
+
+"But how about bills, uncle?"
+
+"Well, my dear, the butler gives them to me, and I pay them. He has been
+with me a good many years, and will not let the others--that is to
+say, the cook and the syce, the washerman, and so on, cheat me beyond a
+reasonable amount. Do you, Rumzan?"
+
+Rumzan, who was standing behind the Major's chair, in a white turban and
+dress, with a red and white sash round his waist, smiled.
+
+"Rumzan not let anyone rob his master."
+
+"Not to any great extent, you know, Rumzan. One doesn't expect more than
+that."
+
+"It is just the same here, Miss Hannay, as it is everywhere else,"
+said the Doctor; "only in big establishments in England they rob you of
+pounds, while here they rob you of annas, which, as I have explained to
+you, are two pence halfpennies. The person who undertakes to put down
+little peculations enters upon a war in which he is sure to get the
+worst of it. He wastes his time, spoils his temper, makes himself and
+everyone around him uncomfortable, and after all he is robbed. Life is
+too short for it, especially in a climate like this. Of course, in time
+you get to understand the language; if you see anything in the bills
+that strikes you as showing waste you can go into the thing, but as a
+rule you trust entirely to your butler; if you cannot trust him, get
+another one. Rumzan has been with your uncle ten years, so you are
+fortunate. If the Major had gone home instead of me, and if you had
+had an entirely fresh establishment of servants to look after, the case
+would have been different; as it is, you will have no trouble that way."
+
+"Then what are my duties to be, uncle?"
+
+"Your chief duties, my dear, are to look pleasant, which will evidently
+be no trouble to you; to amuse me and keep me in a good temper as far
+as possible; to keep on as good terms as may be with the other ladies of
+the station; and, what will perhaps be the most difficult part of your
+work, to snub and keep in order the young officers of our own and other
+corps."
+
+Isobel laughed. "That doesn't sound a very difficult programme, uncle,
+except the last item; I have already had a little experience that way,
+haven't I, Doctor? I hope I shall have the benefit of your assistance in
+the future, as I had aboard the ship."
+
+"I will do my best," the Doctor said grimly; "but the British subaltern
+is pretty well impervious to snubs; he belongs to the pachydermatous
+family of animals; his armor of self conceit renders him invulnerable
+against the milder forms of raillery. However, I think you can be
+trusted to hold your own with him, Miss Hannay, without much assistance
+from the Major or myself. Your real difficulty will lie rather in your
+struggle against the united female forces of the station."
+
+"But why shall I have to struggle with them?" Isobel asked, in surprise,
+while her uncle broke into a laugh.
+
+"Don't frighten her, Doctor."
+
+"She is not so easily frightened, Major; it is just as well that she
+should be prepared. Well, my dear Miss Hannay, Indian society has this
+peculiarity, that the women never grow old. At least," he continued,
+in reply to the girl's look of surprise, "they are never conscious
+of growing old. At home a woman's family grows up about her, and are
+constant reminders that she is becoming a matron. Here the children are
+sent away when they get four or five years old, and do not appear on the
+scene again until they are grown up. Then, too, ladies are greatly in
+the minority, and they are accustomed to be made vastly more of than
+they are at home, and the consequence is that the amount of envy,
+hatred, jealousy, and all uncharitableness is appalling."
+
+"No, no, Doctor, not as bad as that," the Major remonstrated.
+
+"Every bit as bad as that," the Doctor said stoutly. "I am not a woman
+hater, far from it; but I have felt sometimes that if John Company,
+in its beneficence, would pass a decree absolutely excluding the
+importation of white women into India it would be an unmixed blessing."
+
+"For shame, Doctor," Isobel Hannay said; "and to think that I should
+have such a high opinion of you up to now."
+
+"I can't help it, my dear; my experience is that for ninety-nine out of
+every hundred unpleasantnesses that take place out here, women are in
+one way or another responsible. They get up sets and cliques, and break
+up what might be otherwise pleasant society into sections. Talk about
+caste amongst natives; it is nothing to the caste among women out
+here. The wife of a civilian of high rank looks down upon the wives of
+military men, the general's wife looks down upon a captain's, and so
+right through from the top to the bottom.
+
+"It is not so among the men, or at any rate to a very much smaller
+extent. Of course, some men are pompous fools, but, as a rule, if two
+men meet, and both are gentlemen, they care nothing as to what their
+respective ranks may be. A man may be a lord or a doctor, a millionaire
+or a struggling barrister, but they meet on equal terms in society; but
+out here it is certainly not so among the women--they stand upon
+their husband's dignity in a way that would be pitiable if it were not
+exasperating. Of course, there are plenty of good women among them, as
+there are everywhere--women whom even India can't spoil; but what with
+exclusiveness, and with the amount of admiration and adulation they get,
+and what with the want of occupation for their thoughts and minds, it is
+very hard for them to avoid getting spoilt."
+
+"Well, I hope I shan't get spoilt, Doctor; and I hope, if you see that I
+am getting spoilt, you will make a point of telling me so at once."
+
+The Doctor grunted. "Theoretically, people are always ready to receive
+good advice, Miss Hannay; practically they are always offended by
+it. However, in your case I will risk it, and I am bound to say that
+hitherto you have proved yourself more amenable in that way than most
+young women I have come across."
+
+"And now, if we have done, we will go out on the veranda," the Major
+said. "I am sure the Doctor must be dying for a cheroot."
+
+"The Doctor has smoked pretty continuously since we left Allahabad,"
+Isobel said. "He wanted to sit up with the driver, but, of course, I
+would not have that. I had got pretty well accustomed to smoke coming
+out, and even if I had not been I would much rather have been almost
+suffocated than have been in there by myself. I thought a dozen times
+the vehicle was going to upset, and what with the bumping and the
+shouting and the cracking of the whip--especially when the horses
+wouldn't start, which was generally the case at first--I should have
+been frightened out of my life had I been alone. It seemed to me that
+something dreadful was always going to happen."
+
+"You can take it easy this morning, Isobel," the Major said, when they
+were comfortably seated in the bamboo lounges in the veranda. "You want
+have any callers today, as it will be known you traveled all night.
+People will imagine that you want a quiet day before you are on show."
+
+"What a horrid expression, uncle!"
+
+"Well, my dear, it represents the truth. The arrival of a fresh lady
+from England, especially of a 'spin,' which is short for spinster or
+unmarried woman, is an event of some importance in an Indian station.
+Not, of course, so much in a place like this, because this is the center
+of a large district, but in a small station it is an event of the first
+importance. The men are anxious to see what a newcomer is like for
+herself; the women, to look at her dresses and see the latest fashions
+from home, and also to ascertain whether she is likely to turn out a
+formidable rival. However, today you can enjoy quiet; tomorrow you
+must attire yourself in your most becoming costume, and I will trot you
+round."
+
+"Trot me round, uncle?"
+
+"Yes, my dear. In India the order of procedure is reversed, and
+newcomers call in the first place upon residents."
+
+"What a very unpleasant custom, uncle; especially as some of the
+residents may not want to know them."
+
+"Well, everyone must know everyone else in a station, my dear, though
+they may not wish to be intimate. So, about half past one tomorrow we
+will start."
+
+"What, in the heat of the day, uncle?"
+
+"Yes, my dear. That is another of the inscrutable freaks of Indian
+fashion. The hours for calling are from about half past twelve to half
+past two, just in the hottest hours. I don't pretend to account for it."
+
+"How many ladies are there in the regiment?"
+
+"There is the Colonel's wife, Mrs. Cromarty. She has two grown up red
+headed girls," replied the Doctor. "She is a distant relation--a second
+cousin--of some Scotch lord or other, and, on the strength of that and
+her husband's colonelcy, gives herself prodigious airs. Three of the
+captains are married. Mrs. Doolan is a merry little Irish woman. You
+will like her. She has two or three children. She is a general favorite
+in the regiment.
+
+"Mrs. Rintoul--I suppose she is here still, Major, and unchanged? Ah, I
+thought so. She is a washed-out woman, without a spark of energy in her
+composition.-' She believes that she is a chronic invalid, and sends
+for me on an average once a week. But there is nothing really the matter
+with her, if she would but only believe it. Mrs. Roberts--"
+
+"Don't be ill natured, Doctor," the Major broke in. "Mrs. Roberts, my
+dear, is a good-looking woman, and a general flirt. I don't think there
+is any harm in her whatever. Mrs. Prothero, the Adjutant's wife, has
+only been out here eighteen months, and is a pretty little woman, and in
+all respects nice.-There is only one other, Mrs. Scarsdale; she came out
+six months ago. She is a quiet young woman, with, I should say, plenty
+of common sense: I should think you will like her. That completes the
+regimental list."
+
+"Well, that is not so very formidable. Anyhow, it is a. comfort that we
+shall have no one here today."
+
+"You will have the whole regiment here in a few minutes, Isobel, but
+they will be coming to see the Doctor, not you; if it hadn't been that
+they knew you were under his charge everyone would have come down to
+meet him when he arrived. But if you feel tired, as I am sure you must
+be after your journey, there is no reason why you shouldn't go and lie
+down quietly for a few hours."
+
+"I will stop here, uncle; it will be much less embarrassing to see them
+all for the first time when they come to see Dr. Wade and I am quite a
+secondary consideration, than if they had to come specially to call on
+me."
+
+"Well, I agree with you there, my dear. Ah! here come Doolan and
+Prothero."
+
+A light trap drove into the inclosure and drew up in front of the
+veranda, and two officers jumped down,-whilst the syce, who had been
+standing on a step behind, ran to the horse's head. They hailed the
+Doctor, as he stepped out from the veranda, with a shout.
+
+"Glad to see you back, Doctor. The regiment has not seemed like itself
+without you."
+
+"We have been just pining without you, Doctor," Captain Doolan said;
+"and the ladies would have got up a deputation to meet you on your
+arrival, only I told them that it would be too much for your modesty."
+
+"Well, it is a good thing that someone has a little of that quality in
+the regiment, Doolan," the Doctor said, as he shook hands heartily with
+them both. "It is very little of it that fell to the share of Ireland
+when it was served out."
+
+As they dropped the Doctor's hand the Major said, "Now, gentlemen, let
+me introduce you to my niece." The introductions were made, and the
+whole party took chairs on the veranda.
+
+"Do you object to smoking, Miss Hannay; perhaps you have not got
+accustomed to it yet? I see the Doctor is-smoking; but then he is a
+privileged person, altogether beyond rule."
+
+"I rather like it in the open air," Isobel said. "No doubt I shall get
+accustomed to it indoors before long."
+
+In a few minutes four or five more of the officers arrived, and Isobel
+sat an amused listener to the talk; taking but little part in it
+herself, but gathering a good deal of information as to the people at
+the station from the answers given to the Doctor's inquiries. It was
+very much like the conversation on board ship, except that the topics of
+conversation were wider and more numerous, and there was a community
+of interest wanting on board a ship. In half an hour, however, the
+increasing warmth and her sleepless night began to tell upon her, and
+her uncle, seeing that she was beginning to look fagged, said, "The best
+thing that you can do, Isobel, is to go indoors for a bit, and have a
+good nap. At five o'clock I will take you round for a drive, and show
+you the sights of Cawnpore."
+
+"I do feel sleepy," she said, "though it sounds rude to say so."
+
+"Not at all," the Doctor put in; "if any of these young fellows had made
+the journey out from Allahabad in that wretched gharry, they would have
+turned into bed as soon as they arrived, and would not have got up till
+the first mess bugle sounded, and very likely would have slept on until
+next morning.
+
+"Now," he went on, when Isobel had disappeared, "we will adjourn with
+you to the mess-house. That young lady would have very small chance of
+getting to sleep with all this racket here. Doolan's voice alone would
+banish sleep anywhere within a distance of a hundred yards."
+
+"I will join you there later, Doctor," the Major said. "I have got a
+couple of hours' work in the orderly-room. Rumzan, don't let my niece be
+disturbed, but if she wakes and rings the bell send up a message by the
+woman that I-shall not be back until four."
+
+The Major walked across to the orderly room, while the rest, mounting
+their buggies, drove to the mess-house, which was a quarter of a mile
+away.
+
+"I should think Miss Hannay will prove a valuable addition to our
+circle, Doctor," the Adjutant said. "I don't know why, but I gathered
+from what the Major said that his niece was very young. He spoke of her
+as if she were quite a child."
+
+"She is a very nice, sensible young woman," the Doctor said; "clever and
+bright, and, as you can see for your-selves, pretty, and yet no nonsense
+about her. I only hope that she won't get spoilt here; nineteen out of
+twenty young women do get spoilt within six months of their arrival in
+India, but I think she will be one of the exceptions."
+
+"I should have liked to have seen the Doctor doing chaperon," Captain
+Doolan laughed; "he would have been a brave man who would have attempted
+even the faintest flirtation with anyone under his charge."
+
+"That is your opinion, is it, Doolan?" the Doctor said sharply. "I
+should have thought that even your common sense would have told you that
+anyone who has had the misfortune to see as much of womankind as I have
+would have been aware that any endeavor to check a flirtation for which
+they are inclined would be of all others the way to induce them to go in
+for it headlong. You are a married man yourself, and ought to know that.
+A woman is a good deal like a spirited horse; let her have her head,
+and, though she may for a time make the pace pretty fast, she will go
+straight, and settle down to her collar in time, whereas if you keep a
+tight curb she will fret and fidget, and as likely as not make a
+bolt for it. I can assure you that my duties were of The most nominal
+description. There were the usual number of hollow pated lads on board,
+who buzzed in their usual feeble way round Miss Hannay, and were one
+after another duly snubbed. Miss Hannay has plenty of spirits, and a
+considerable sense of humor, and I think that she enjoyed the voyage
+thoroughly. And now let us talk of something else."
+
+After an hour's chat the Doctor started on his round of calls upon the
+ladies; the Major had not come in from the orderly room, and, after the
+Doctor left, Isobel Hannay was again the topic of conversation.
+
+"She is out and out the prettiest girl in the station," the Adjutant
+said to some of the officers who had not seen her. "She will make quite
+a sensation; and there are five or six ladies in the station, whose
+names I need hardly mention, who will not be very pleased at her coming.
+She is thoroughly in good form, too; nothing in the slightest degree
+fast or noisy about her. She is quiet and self-possessed. I fancy she
+will be able to hold her own against any of them. Clever? I should say
+'certainly'; but, of course, that is from her face rather than from
+anything she said. I expect half the unmarried men in the station will
+be going wild over her. You need not look so interested, Wilson; the
+matter is of no more personal interest to you than if I were describing
+a new comet. Nothing less than a big civilian is likely to carry off
+such a prize, so I warn you beforehand you had better not be losing your
+heart to her."
+
+"Well, you know, Prothero, subalterns do manage to get wives sometimes."
+
+There was a laugh.
+
+"That is true enough, Wilson; but then, you see, I married at home;
+besides, I am adjutant, which sounds a lot better than subaltern."
+
+"That may go for a good deal in the regiment," Wilson retorted, "but
+I doubt if there are many women that know the difference between
+an adjutant and a quartermaster. They know about colonels, majors,
+captains, and even subalterns; but if you were to say that you were an
+adjutant they would be simply mystified, though they might understand if
+you said bandmaster. But I fancy sergeant major would sound ever so much
+more imposing."
+
+"Wilson, if you are disrespectful, I shall discover tomorrow, on parade,
+that No. 3 Company wants a couple of hours' extra drill badly, and then
+you will feel how grievous a mistake it is to cheek an adjutant."
+
+The report of those who had called at the Major's was so favorable that
+curiosity was quite roused as to the new-comer, and when the Major drove
+round with her the next day everyone was at home, and the verdict on
+the part of the ladies was generally favorable, but was by no means so
+unqualified as that of the gentlemen.
+
+Mrs. Cromarty admitted that she was nice looking; but was critical as
+to her carriage and manner. She would be admired by young officers, no
+doubt, but there was too much life and animation about her, and although
+she would not exactly say that she stooped, she was likely to do so in
+time.
+
+"She will be nothing remarkable when her freshness has worn off a
+little."
+
+In this opinion the Misses Cromarty thoroughly assented. They had never
+been accused of stooping, and, indeed, were almost painfully upright,
+and were certainly not particularly admired by subalterns.
+
+Mrs. Doolan was charmed with her, and told her she hoped that they would
+be great friends.
+
+"This is a very pleasant life out here, my dear," she said, "if one does
+but take it in the right way. There is a great deal of tittle tattle in
+the Indian stations, and some quarreling; but, you know, it takes two to
+make a quarrel, and I make it a point never to quarrel with anyone. It
+is too hot for it. Then, you see, I have the advantage of being Irish,
+and, for some reason or other that I don't understand we can say pretty
+nearly what we like. People don't take us seriously, you know; so I keep
+in with them all."
+
+Mrs. Rintoul received her visitors on the sofa. "It is quite refreshing
+to see a face straight from England, Miss Hannay. I only hope that you
+may keep your bright color and healthy looks. Some people do. Not their
+color, but their health. Unfortunately I am not one of them. I do not
+know what it is to have a day's health. The climate completely oppresses
+me, and I am fit for nothing. You would hardly believe that I was as
+strong and healthy as you are when I first came out. You came out with
+Dr. Wade--a clever man--I have a very high opinion of his talent, but my
+case is beyond him. It is a sad annoyance to him that it is so, and
+he is continually trying to make me believe that there is nothing the
+matter with me, as if my looks did not speak for themselves."
+
+Mrs. Rintoul afterwards told her husband she could hardly say that she
+liked Miss Hannay.
+
+"She is distressingly brisk and healthy, and I should say, my dear, not
+of a sympathetic nature, which is always a pity in a young woman."
+
+After this somewhat depressing visit, the call upon Mrs. Roberts was a
+refreshing one. She received her very cordially.
+
+"I like you, Miss Hannay," she said, when, after a quarter of an hour's
+lively talk, the Major and his niece got up to go. "I always say what I
+think, and it is very good natured of me to say so, for I don't disguise
+from myself that you will put my nose out of joint."
+
+"I don't want to put anyone's nose out of joint," Isobel laughed.
+
+"You will do it, whether you want to or not," Mrs. Roberts said; "my
+husband as much as told me so last night, and I was prepared not to like
+you, but I see that I shall not be able to help doing so. Major Hannay,
+you have dealt me a heavy blow, but I forgive you."
+
+When the round of visits was finished the Major said, "Well, Isobel,
+what do you think of the ladies of the regiment?"
+
+"I think they are all very nice, uncle. I fancy I shall like Mrs.
+Doolan and Mrs. Scarsdale best; I won't give any opinion yet about Mrs.
+Cromarty."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The life of Isobel Hannay had not, up to the time when she left England
+to join her uncle, been a very bright one. At the death of her father,
+her mother had been left with an income that enabled her to live, as she
+said, genteelly, at Brighton. She had three children: the eldest a
+girl of twelve; Isobel, who was eight; and a boy of five, who was sadly
+deformed, the result of a fall from the arms of a careless nurse when
+he was an infant. It was at that time that Major Hannay had come home on
+leave, having been left trustee and executor, and seen to all the money
+arrangements, and had established his brother's widow at Brighton. The
+work had not been altogether pleasant, for Mrs. Hannay was a selfish and
+querulous woman, very difficult to satisfy even in little matters, and
+with a chronic suspicion that everyone with whom she came in contact
+was trying to get the best of her. Her eldest girl was likely, Captain
+Hannay thought, to take after her mother, whose pet she was, while
+Isobel took after her father. He had suggested that both should be sent
+to school, but Mrs. Hannay would not hear of parting from Helena, but
+was willing enough that Isobel should be sent to a boarding school at
+her uncle's expense.
+
+As the years went by, Helena grew up, as Mrs. Hannay proudly said, the
+image of what she herself had been at her age--tall and fair, indolent
+and selfish, fond of dress and gayety, discontented because their means
+would not permit them to indulge in either to the fullest extent. There
+was nothing in common between her and her sister, who, when at home
+for the holidays, spent her time almost entirely with her brother, who
+received but slight attention from anyone else, his deformity being
+considered as a personal injury and affliction by his mother and elder
+sister.
+
+"You could not care less for him," Isobel once said, in a fit of
+passion, "if he were a dog. I don't think you notice him more, not one
+bit. He wanders about the house without anybody to give a thought to
+him. I call it cruel, downright cruel."
+
+"You are a wicked girl, Isobel," her mother said angrily, "a wicked,
+violent girl, and I don't know what will become of you. It is abominable
+of you to talk so, even if you are wicked enough to get into a passion.
+What can we do for him that we don't do? What is the use of talking to
+him when he never pays attention to what we say, and is always moping. I
+am sure we get everything that we think will please him, and he goes out
+for a walk with us every day; what could possibly be done more for him?"
+
+"A great deal more might be done for him," Isobel burst out. "You might
+love him, and that would be everything to him. I don't believe you and
+Helena love him, not one bit, not one tiny scrap."
+
+"Go up to your room, Isobel, and remain there for the rest of the day.
+You are a very bad girl. I shall write to Miss Virtue about you; there
+must be something very wrong in her management of you, or you would
+never be so passionate and insolent as you are."
+
+But Isobel had not stopped to hear the last part of the sentence, the
+door had slammed behind her. She was not many minutes alone upstairs,
+for Robert soon followed her up, for when she was at home he rarely left
+her side, watching her every look and gesture with eyes as loving as
+those of a dog, and happy to sit on the ground beside her, with his head
+leaning against her, for hours together.
+
+Mrs. Hannay kept her word and wrote to Miss Virtue, and the evening
+after she returned to school Isobel was summoned to her room.
+
+"I am sorry to say, I have a very bad account of you from your mother.
+She says you are a passionate and wicked girl. How is it, dear; you are
+not passionate here, and I certainly do not think you are wicked?"
+
+"I can't help it when I am at home, Miss Virtue. I am sure I try to
+be good, but they won't let me. They don't like me because I can't be
+always tidy and what they call prettily behaved, and because I hate
+walking on the parade and being stuck up and unnatural, and they don't
+like me because I am not pretty, and because I am thin and don't look,
+as mamma says, a credit to her; but it is not that so much as because
+of Robert. You know he is deformed, Miss Virtue, and they don't care for
+him, and he has no one to love him but me, and it makes me mad to see
+him treated so. That is what it was she wrote about. I told her they
+treated him like a dog and so they do," and she burst into tears.
+
+"But that was very naughty, Isobel," Miss Virtue said gravely. "You are
+only eleven years old, and too young to be a judge of these matters,
+and even if it were as you say, it is not for a child to speak so to her
+mother."
+
+"I know that, Miss Virtue, but how can I help it? I could cry out with
+pain when I see Robert looking from one to the other just for a kind
+word, which he never gets. It is no use, Miss Virtue; if it was not for
+him I would much rather never go home at all, but stop here through
+the holidays, only what would he do if I didn't go home? I am the only
+pleasure he has. When I am there he will sit for hours on my knee, and
+lay his head on my shoulder, and stroke my face. It makes me feel as if
+my heart would break."
+
+"Well, my dear," Miss Virtue said, somewhat puzzled, "it is sad, if it
+is as you say, but that does not excuse your being disrespectful to your
+mother. It is not for you to judge her."
+
+"But cannot something be done for Robert, Miss Virtue? Surely they must
+do something for children like him."
+
+"There are people, my dear, who take a few afflicted children and give
+them special training. Children of that kind have sometimes shown a
+great deal of unusual talent, and, if so, it is cultivated, and they are
+put in a way of earning a livelihood."
+
+"Are there?" Isobel exclaimed, with eager eyes. "Then I know what I
+will do, Miss Virtue; I will write off at once to Uncle Tom--he is
+our guardian. I know if I were to speak to mamma about Robert going to
+school it would be of no use; but if uncle writes I dare say it would be
+done. I am sure she and Helena would be glad enough. I don't suppose she
+ever thought of it. It would be a relief to them to get him out of their
+sight."
+
+Miss Virtue shook her head. "You must not talk so, Isobel. It is not
+right or dutiful, and you are a great deal too young to judge your
+elders, even if they were not related to you; and, pray, if you write to
+your uncle do not write in that spirit--it would shock him greatly, and
+he would form a very bad opinion of you."
+
+And so Isobel wrote. She was in the habit of writing once every half
+year to her uncle, who had told her that he wished her to do so, and
+that people out abroad had great pleasure in letters from England.
+Hitherto she had only written about her school life, and this letter
+caused her a great deal of trouble.
+
+It answered its purpose. Captain Hannay had no liking either for his
+sister in law or his eldest niece, and had, when he was with them, been
+struck with the neglect with which the little boy was treated. Isobel
+had taken great pains not to say anything that would show she considered
+that Robert was harshly treated; but had simply said that she heard
+there were schools where little boys like him could be taught, and that
+it would be such a great thing for him, as it was very dull for him
+having nothing to do all day. But Captain Hannay read through the lines,
+and felt that it was a protest against her brother's treatment, and that
+she would not have written to him had she not felt that so only would
+anything be done for him. Accordingly he wrote home to his sister in
+law, saying he thought it was quite time now that the boy should be
+placed with some gentleman who took a few lads unfitted for the rough
+life of an ordinary school. He should take the charges upon himself, and
+had written to his agent in London to find out such an establishment,
+to make arrangements for Robert to go there, and to send down one of his
+clerks to take charge of him on the journey. He also wrote to Isobel,
+telling her what he had done, and blaming himself for not having thought
+of it before, winding up by saying: "I have not mentioned to your mother
+that I heard from you about it--that is a little secret just as well to
+keep to ourselves."
+
+The next five years were much happier to Isobel, for the thought of her
+brother at home without her had before been constantly on her mind. It
+was a delight to her now to go home and to see the steady improvement
+that took place in Robert. He was brighter in every respect, and
+expressed himself as most happy where he was.
+
+As years went on he grew into a bright and intelligent boy, though his
+health was by no means good, and he looked frail and delicate. He was as
+passionately attached to her as ever, and during the holidays they
+were never separated; they stood quite alone, their mother and sister
+interesting themselves but little in their doings, and they were allowed
+to take long walks together, and to sit in a room by themselves, where
+they talked, drew, painted, and read.
+
+Mrs. Hannay disapproved of Isobel as much as ever. "She is a most
+headstrong girl," she would lament to her friends, "and is really quite
+beyond my control. I do not at all approve of the school she is at, but
+unfortunately my brother in law, who is her guardian, has, under the
+will of my poor husband, absolute control in the matter. I am sure poor
+John never intended that he should be able to override my wishes; but
+though I have written to him several times about it, he says that he
+sees no valid reason for any change, and that from Isobel's letters to
+him she seems very happy there, and to be getting on well. She is so
+very unlike dear Helena, and even when at home I see but little of her;
+she is completely wrapped up in her unfortunate brother. Of course I
+don't blame her for that, but it is not natural that a girl her age
+should care nothing for pleasures or going out or the things natural to
+young people. Yes, she is certainly improving in appearance, and if she
+would but take some little pains about her dress would be really very
+presentable."
+
+But her mother's indifference disturbed Isobel but little. She was
+perfectly happy with her brother when at home, and very happy at school,
+where she was a general favorite. She was impulsive, high spirited,
+and occasionally gave Miss Virtue some trouble, but her disposition
+was frank and generous, there was not a tinge of selfishness in her
+disposition, and while she was greatly liked by girls of her own age,
+she was quite adored by little ones. The future that she always pictured
+to herself was a little cottage with a bright garden in the suburbs of
+London, where she and Robert could live together--she would go out as a
+daily governess; Robert, who was learning to play the organ, would,
+she hoped, get a post as organist. Not, of course, for the sake of the
+salary, for her earnings, and the interest of the thousand pounds that
+would be hers when she came of age, would be sufficient for them both,
+but as an amusement for him, and to give him a sense of independence.
+
+But when she was just seventeen, and was looking forward to the time
+when she would begin to carry her plan into effect, a terrible blow
+came. She heard from her mother that Robert was dead.
+
+"It is a sad blow for us all," Mrs. Hannay wrote, "but, as you know, he
+has never been strong; still, we had no idea that anything serious ailed
+him until we heard a fortnight since he was suffering from a violent
+cough and had lost strength rapidly. A week later we heard that the
+doctors were of opinion it was a case of sudden consumption, and that
+the end was rapidly approaching. I went up to town to see him, and found
+him even worse than I expected, and was in no way surprised when this
+morning I received a letter saying that he had gone. Great as is the
+blow, one cannot but feel that, terribly afflicted as he was, his death
+is, as far as he is concerned, a happy release. I trust you will now
+abandon your wild scheme of teaching and come home."
+
+But home was less home than ever to Isobel now, and she remained another
+six months at school, when she received an important letter from her
+uncle.
+
+"My Dear Isobel: When you first wrote to me and told me that what you
+were most looking forward to was to make a home for your brother, I own
+that it was a blow to me, for I had long had plans of my own about you;
+however, I thought your desire to help your brother was so natural, and
+would give you such happiness in carrying it into effect, that I at once
+fell in with it and put aside my own plan. But the case is altered now,
+and I can see no reason why I cannot have my own way. When I was in
+England I made up my mind that unless I married, which was a most
+improbable contingency, I would, when you were old enough, have you
+out to keep house for me. I foresaw, even then, that your brother might
+prove an obstacle to this plan. Even in the short time I was with you
+it was easy enough to see that the charge of him would fall on your
+shoulders, and that it would be a labor of love to you.
+
+"If he lived, then, I felt you would not leave him, and that you would
+be right in not doing so, but even then it seemed likely to me that
+he would not grow up to manhood. From time to time I have been in
+correspondence with the clergyman he was with, and learned that the
+doctor who attended them thought but poorly of him. I had him taken
+to two first class physicians in London; they pronounced him to be
+constitutionally weak, and said that beyond strengthening medicines and
+that sort of thing they could do nothing for him.
+
+"Therefore, dear, it was no surprise to me when I received first your
+mother's letter with the news, and then your own written a few days
+later. When I answered that letter I thought it as well not to say
+anything of my plan, but by the time you receive this, it will be six
+months since your great loss, and you will be able to look at it in a
+fairer light than you could have done then, and I do hope you will agree
+to come out to me. Life here has its advantages and disadvantages, but I
+think that, especially for young people, it is a pleasant one.
+
+"I am getting very tired of a bachelor's establishment, and it will be a
+very great pleasure indeed to have you here. Ever since I was in England
+I made up my mind to adopt you as my own child. You are very like my
+brother John, and your letters and all I have heard of you show that you
+have grown up just as he would have wished you to do. Your sister Helena
+is your mother's child, and, without wishing to hurt your feelings, your
+mother and I have nothing in common. I regard you as the only relation
+I have in the world, and whether you come out or whether you do not,
+whatever I leave behind me will be yours. I do hope that you will at any
+rate come out for a time. Later on, if you don't like the life here, you
+can fall back upon your own plan.
+
+"If you decide to come, write to my agent. I inclose envelope addressed
+to him. Tell him when you can be ready. He will put you in the way of
+the people you had better go to for your outfit, will pay all bills,
+take your passage, and so on.
+
+"Whatever you do, do not stint yourself. The people you go to will know
+a great deal better than you can do what is necessary for a lady out
+here. All you will have to do will be to get measured and to give them
+an idea of your likes and fancies as to colors and so on. They will have
+instructions from my agent to furnish you with a complete outfit, and
+will know exactly how many dozens of everything are required.
+
+"I can see no reason why you should not start within a month after the
+receipt of this letter, and I shall look most anxiously for a letter
+from you saying that you will come, and that you will start by a sailing
+ship in a month at latest from the date of your writing."
+
+Isobel did not hesitate, as her faith in her uncle was unbounded. Next
+to her meetings with her brother, his letters had been her greatest
+pleasures. He had always taken her part; it was he who, at her request,
+had Robert placed at school, and he had kept her at Miss Virtue's
+in spite of her mother's complaints. At home she had never felt
+comfortable; it had always seemed to her that she was in the way;
+her mother disapproved of her; while from Helena she had never had a
+sisterly word. To go out to India to see the wonders she had read of,
+and to be her uncle's companion, seemed a perfectly delightful prospect.
+Her answer to her uncle was sent off the day after she received his
+letter, and that day month she stepped on board an Indiaman in the
+London Docks.
+
+The intervening time had not been a pleasant one. Mrs. Hannay had heard
+from the Major of his wishes and intentions regarding Isobel, and she
+was greatly displeased thereat.
+
+"Why should he have chosen you instead of Helena?" she said angrily to
+Isobel, on the first day of her arrival home.
+
+"I suppose because he thought I should suit him better, mamma. I really
+don't see why you should be upset about it; I don't suppose Helena would
+have liked to go, and I am sure you would not have liked to have had
+me with you instead of her. I should have thought you would have been
+pleased I was off your hands altogether. It doesn't seem to me that you
+have ever been really glad to have me about you."
+
+"That has been entirely your own fault," Mrs. Hannay said. "You have
+always been headstrong and determined to go your own way, you have never
+been fit to be seen when anyone came, you have thwarted me in every
+way."
+
+"I am very sorry, mamma. I think I might have been better if you had had
+a little more patience with me, but even now if you really wish me to
+stay at home I will do so. I can write again to uncle and tell him that
+I have changed my mind."
+
+"Certainly not," Mrs. Hannay said. "Naturally I should wish to have my
+children with me, but I doubt whether your being here would be for the
+happiness of any of us, and besides, I do not wish your uncle's money
+to go out of the family; he might take it into his head to leave it to
+a hospital for black women. Still, it would have been only right and
+proper that he should at any rate have given Helena the first choice.
+As for your instant acceptance of his offer, without even consulting me,
+nothing can surprise me in that way after your general conduct towards
+me."
+
+However, although Mrs. Hannay declined to take any interest in Isobel's
+preparations, and continued to behave as an injured person, neither she
+nor Helena were sorry at heart for the arrangement that had been
+made. They objected very strongly to Isobel's plan of going out as a
+governess; but upon the other hand, her presence at home would in many
+ways have been an inconvenience. Two can make a better appearance on
+a fixed income than three can, and her presence at home would have
+necessitated many small economies. She was, too, a disturbing element;
+the others understood each other perfectly, and both felt that they in
+no way understood Isobel. Altogether, it was much better that she should
+go.
+
+As to the heirship, Captain Hannay had spoken freely as to his monetary
+affairs when he had been in England after his brother's death.
+
+"My pay is amply sufficient for all my wants," he said; "but everything
+is expensive out there, and I have had no occasion to save. I have a
+few hundred pounds laid by, so that if I break down, and am ordered to
+Europe at any time on sick leave, I can live comfortably for that time;
+but, beyond that, there has been no reason why I should lay by. I am
+not likely ever to marry, and when I have served my full time my pension
+will be ample for my wants in England; but I shall do my best to help if
+help is necessary. Fortunately the interest of the thousand apiece the
+girls were left by my aunt will help your income. When it is necessary
+to do anything for Robert, poor lad, I will take that expense on
+myself."
+
+"I thought all Indians came home with lots of money," Mrs. Hannay said
+complainingly.
+
+"Not the military. We do the fighting, and get fairly paid for it. The
+civilians get five times as highly paid, and run no risks whatever. Why
+it should be so no one has ever attempted to explain; but there it is,
+sister."
+
+Mrs. Hannay, therefore, although she complained of the partiality shown
+to Isobel, was well aware that the Major's savings could amount to no
+very great sum; although, in nine years, with higher rank and better
+pay, he might have added a good bit to the little store of which he had
+spoken to her.
+
+When, a week before the vessel sailed, Dr. Wade appeared with a letter
+he had received from the Major, asking him to take charge of Isobel on
+the voyage, Mrs. Hannay conceived a violent objection to him. He had, in
+fact, been by no means pleased with the commission, and had arrived in
+an unusually aggressive and snappish humor. He cut short Mrs. Hannay's
+well turned sentences ruthlessly, and aggrieved her by remarking on
+Helena's want of color, and recommending plenty of walking exercise
+taken at a brisk pace, and more ease and comfort in the matter of dress.
+
+"Your daughter's lungs have no room to play, madam," he said; "her
+heart is compressed. No one can expect to be healthy under such
+circumstances."
+
+"I have my own medical attendant, Dr. Wade," Mrs. Hannay said decidedly.
+
+"No doubt, madam, no doubt. All I can say is, if his recommendations
+are not the same as mine, he must be a downright fool. Very well, Miss
+Hannay, I think we understand each other; I shall be on board by eleven
+o'clock, and shall keep a sharp lookout for you. Don't be later than
+twelve; she will warp out of the dock by one at latest, and if you miss
+that your only plan will be to take the train down to Tilbury, and hire
+a boat there."
+
+"I shall be in time, sir," Isobel said.
+
+"Well, I hope you will, but my experience of women is pretty extensive,
+and I have scarcely met one who could be relied upon to keep an
+appointment punctually. Don't laden yourself more than you can help with
+little bags, and parcels, and bundles of all kinds; I expect you will
+be three or four in a cabin, and you will find that there is no room
+for litter. Take the things you will require at first in one or two
+flat trunks which will stow under your berth; once a week or so, if the
+weather is fine, you will be able to get at your things in the hold. Do
+try if possible to pack all the things that you are likely to want to
+get at during the voyage in one trunk, and have a star or any mark
+you like painted on that trunk with your name, then there will be no
+occasion for the sailors to haul twenty boxes upon deck. Be sure you
+send all your trunks on board, except those you want in your cabin, two
+days before she sails. Do you think you can remember all that?"
+
+"I think so, Dr. Wade."
+
+"Very well then, I'm off," and the Doctor shook hands with Isobel,
+nodded to Mrs. Hannay and Helena, and hurried away.
+
+"What a perfectly detestable little man!" Mrs. Hannay exclaimed, as the
+door closed over him. "Your uncle must have been out of his senses to
+select such an odious person to look after you on the voyage. I really
+pity you, Isobel."
+
+"I have no doubt he is very much nicer than he seems, mamma. Uncle said,
+you know, in his letter last week, that he had written to Dr. Wade to
+look after me, if, as he thought probable, he might be coming out in the
+same ship. He said that he was a little brusque in his manner, but that
+he was a general favorite, and one of the kindest hearted of men."
+
+"A little brusque," Mrs. Hannay repeated scornfully. "If he is only
+considered a little brusque in India, all I can say is society must be
+in a lamentable state out there."
+
+"Uncle says he is a great shikari, and has probably killed more tigers
+than any man in India."
+
+"I really don't see that that is any recommendation whatever, Isobel,
+although it might be if you were likely to encounter tigers on board
+ship. However, I am not surprised that your opinion differs from mine;
+we very seldom see matters in the same light. I only hope you may be
+right and I may be wrong, for otherwise the journey is not likely to be
+a very pleasant one for you; personally, I would almost as soon have
+a Bengal tiger loose about the ship than such a very rude, unmannerly
+person as Dr. Wade."
+
+Mrs. Hannay and Helena accompanied Isobel to the docks, and went on
+board ship with her.
+
+The Doctor received them at the gangway. He was in a better temper, for
+the fact that he was on the point of starting for India again had put
+him in high spirits. He escorted the party below and saw that they got
+lunch, showed Isobel which was her cabin, introduced her to two or three
+ladies of his acquaintance, and made himself so generally pleasant that
+even Mrs. Hannay was mollified.
+
+As soon as luncheon was over the bell was rung, and the partings
+were hurriedly got through, as the pilot announced that the tide
+was slackening nearly half an hour before its time, and that it was
+necessary to get the ship out of dock at once.
+
+"Now, Miss Hannay, if you will take my advice," the Doctor said, as soon
+as the ship was fairly in the stream, "you will go below, get out all
+the things you will want from your boxes, and get matters tidy and
+comfortable. In the first place, it will do you good to be busy; and in
+the second place, there is nothing like getting everything shipshape in
+the cabin the very first thing after starting, then you are ready for
+rough weather or anything else that may occur. I have got you a chair.
+I thought that very likely you would not think of it, and a passenger
+without a chair of her own is a most forlorn creature, I can tell you.
+When you have done down below you will find me somewhere aft; if you
+should not do so, look out for a chair with your own name on it and take
+possession of it, but I think you are sure to see me."
+
+Before they had been a fortnight at sea Isobel came to like the Doctor
+thoroughly. He knew many of the passengers on board the Byculla, and she
+had soon many acquaintances. She was amused at the description that the
+Doctor gave her of some of the people to whom he introduced her.
+
+"I am going to introduce you to that woman in the severely plain cloak
+and ugly bonnet. She is the wife of the Resident of Rajputana. I knew
+her when her husband was a Collector."
+
+"A Collector, Dr. Wade; what did he collect?"
+
+"Well, my dear, he didn't collect taxes or water rates or anything
+of that sort. A Collector is a civil functionary, and frequently
+an important one. I used to attend her at one time when we were in
+cantonments at Bhurtpore, where her husband was stationed at that time.
+I pulled a tooth out for her once, and she halloaed louder than any
+woman I ever heard. I don't mean to say, my dear, that woman holloa any
+louder than men; on the contrary, they bear pain a good deal better,
+but she was an exception. She was twelve years younger then, and used
+to dress a good deal more than she does now. That cloak and bonnet are
+meant to convey to the rest of the passengers the fact that there is no
+occasion whatever for a person of her importance to attend to such petty
+matters as dress.
+
+"She never mentions her husband's name without saying, 'My husband, the
+Resident,' but for all that she is a kind hearted woman--a very kind
+hearted woman. I pulled a child of hers through who was down with
+fever at Bhurtpore; he had a very close shave of it, and she has never
+forgotten it. She greeted me when she came on board almost with tears
+in her eyes at the thought of that time. I told her I had a young lady
+under my charge, and she said that she would be very pleased to do
+anything she could for you. She is a stanch friend is Mrs. Resident, and
+you will find her useful before you get to the end of the voyage."
+
+The lady received Isobel with genuine kindness, and took her very much
+under her wing during the voyage, and Isobel received no small advantage
+from her advice and protection.
+
+Her own good sense, however, and the earnest life she had led at school
+and with her brother at home, would have sufficed her even without
+this guardianship and that of the Doctor. There was a straightforward
+frankness about her that kept men from talking nonsense to her. A
+compliment she simply laughed at, an attempt at flattery made her
+angry, and the Doctor afterwards declared to her uncle he would not have
+believed that the guardianship of a girl upon the long Indian voyage
+could possibly have caused him so little trouble and annoyance.
+
+"When I read your letter, Major, my hair stood on end, and if my leave
+had not been up I should have canceled my passage and come by the next
+ship; and indeed when I went down to see her I had still by no means
+made up my mind as to whether I would not take my chance of getting out
+in time by the next vessel. However, I liked her appearance, and, as
+I have said, it turned out excellently, and I should not mind making
+another voyage in charge of her."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Two days after his arrival at Cawnpore Dr. Wade moved into quarters of
+his own.
+
+"I like Dr. Wade very much indeed, you know, uncle, still I am glad to
+have you all to myself and to settle down into regular ways."
+
+"Yes, we have got to learn to know each other, Isobel."
+
+"Do you think so, uncle? Why, it seems to me that I know all about you,
+just the same as if we had always been together, and I am sure I always
+told you all about myself, even when I was bad at school and got into
+scrapes, because you said particularly that you liked me to tell you
+everything, and did not want to know only the good side of me."
+
+"Yes, that is so, my dear, and no doubt I have a fair idea as to what
+are your strong points and what are your weak ones, but neither one or
+the other affect greatly a person's ordinary everyday character. It
+is the little things, the trifles, the way of talking, the way of
+listening, the amount of sympathy shown, and so on, that make a man
+or woman popular. People do not ask whether he or she may be morally
+sleeping volcanoes, who, if fairly roused, might slay a rival or burn
+a city; they simply look at the surface--is a man or a woman pleasant,
+agreeable, easily pleased, ready to take a share in making things go,
+to show a certain amount of sympathy in other people's pleasures or
+troubles--in fact, to form a pleasant unit of the society of a station?
+
+"So in the house you might be the most angelic temper in the world, but
+if you wore creaky boots, had a habit of slamming doors, little tricks
+of giggling or fidgeting with your hands or feet, you would be an
+unpleasant companion, for you would be constantly irritating one in
+small matters. Of course, it is just the same thing with your opinion of
+me. You have an idea that I am a good enough sort of fellow, because I
+have done my best to enable you to carry out your plans and wishes, but
+that has nothing to do at all with my character as a man to live with.
+Till we saw each other, when you got out of the gharry, we really knew
+nothing whatever of each other."
+
+Isobel shook her head decidedly.
+
+"Nothing will persuade me that I didn't know everything about you,
+uncle. You are just exactly what I knew you would be in look, and voice,
+in manner and ways and everything. Of course, it is partly from what I
+remember, but I really did not see a great deal of you in those days; it
+is from your letters, I think, entirely that I knew all about you, and
+exactly what you were. Do you mean to say that I am not just what you
+thought I should be?"
+
+"Well, not so clearly as all that, Isobel. Of course you were only a
+little child when I saw you, and except that you had big brown eyes, and
+long eyelashes, I confess that it struck me that you were rather a
+plain little thing, and I do not think that your mother's letters since
+conveyed to my mind the fact that there had been any material change
+since. Therefore I own that you are personally quite different from what
+I had expected to find you. I had expected to find you, I think, rather
+stumpy in figure, and square in build, with a very determined and
+businesslike manner."
+
+"Nonsense, uncle, you could not have expected that."
+
+"Well, my dear, I did, and you see I find I was utterly wrong."
+
+"But you are not discontented, uncle?" Isobel asked, with a smile.
+
+"No, my dear, but perhaps not quite so contented as you may think I
+ought to be."
+
+"Why is that, uncle?"
+
+"Well, my dear, if you had been what I had pictured you, I might have
+had you four or five years to myself. Possibly you might even have gone
+home with me, to keep house for me in England, when I retire. As it is
+now, I give myself six months at the outside."
+
+"What nonsense, uncle! You don't suppose I am going to fall in love with
+the first man who presents himself? Why, everyone says the sea voyage is
+a most trying time, and, you see, I came through that quite scathless.
+
+"Besides, uncle," and she laughed, "there is safety in multitude, and
+I think that a girl would be far more likely to fall in love in some
+country place, where she only saw one or two men, than where there are
+numbers of them. Besides, it seems to me that in India a girl cannot
+feel that she is chosen, as it were, from among other girls, as she
+would do at home. There are so few girls, and so many men here, there
+must be a sort of feeling that you are only appreciated because there is
+nothing better to be had.
+
+"But, of course, uncle, you can understand that the idea of love making
+and marrying never entered my head at all until I went on board a
+ship. As you know, I always used to think that Robert and I would live
+together, and I am quite sure that I should never have left him if he
+had lived. If I had stopped in England I should have done the work I
+had trained myself to do, and it might have been years and years, and
+perhaps never, before anyone might have taken a fancy to me, or I to
+him. It seems strange, and I really don't think pleasant, uncle, for
+everyone to take it for granted that because a girl comes out to India
+she is a candidate for marriage. I think it is degrading, uncle."
+
+"The Doctor was telling me yesterday that you had some idea of that
+sort," the Major said, with a slight smile, "and I think girls often
+start with that sort of idea. But it is like looking on at a game. You
+don't feel interested in it until you begin to play at it. Well, the
+longer you entertain those ideas the better I shall be pleased, Isobel.
+I only hope that you may long remain of the same mind, and that when
+your time does come your choice will be a wise one."
+
+There could be no doubt that the Major's niece was a great success in
+the regiment. Richards and Wilson, two lads who had joined six months
+before, succumbed at once, and mutual animosity succeeded the close
+friendship they had hitherto entertained for each other. Travers, the
+Senior Captain, a man who had hitherto been noted for his indifference
+to the charms of female society, went so far as to admit that Miss
+Hannay was a very nice, unaffected girl. Mrs. Doolan was quite
+enthusiastic about her.
+
+"It is very lucky, Jim," she said to her husband, "that you were a sober
+and respected married man before she came out, and that I am installed
+here as your lawful and wedded wife instead of being at Ballycrogin with
+only an engagement ring on my finger. I know your susceptible nature;
+you would have fallen in love with her, and she would not have had you,
+and we should both of us have been miserable."
+
+"How do you know she wouldn't have had me, Norah?"
+
+"Because, my dear, she will be able to pick and choose just where she
+likes; and though no one recognizes your virtues more than I do, a
+company in an Indian regiment is hardly as attractive as a Residency or
+Lieutenant Governorship. But seriously, she is a dear girl, and as yet
+does not seem to have the least idea how pretty she is. How cordially
+some of them will hate her! I anticipate great fun in looking on. I am
+out of all that sort of thing myself."
+
+"That is news to me, Norah; I think you are just as fond of a quiet
+flirtation as you used to be."
+
+"Just of a very little one, Jim; fortunately not more. So I can look
+on complacently; but even I have suffered. Why, for weeks not a day has
+passed without young Richards dropping in for a chat, and when he came
+in yesterday he could talk about nothing but Miss Hannay, until I shut
+him up by telling him it was extremely bad form to talk to one lady
+about another. The boy colored up till I almost laughed in his face; in
+fact, I believe I did laugh."
+
+"That I will warrant you did, Norah."
+
+"I could not help it, especially when he assured me he was perfectly
+serious about Miss Hannay."
+
+"You did not encourage him, I hope, Norah."
+
+"No; I told him the Colonel set his face against married subalterns, and
+that he would injure himself seriously in his profession if he were to
+think of such a thing, and as I knew he had nothing but his pay, that
+would be fatal to him."
+
+Captain Doolan went off into a burst of laughter.
+
+"And he took it all in, Norah? He did not see that you were humbugging
+him altogether?"
+
+"Not a bit of it. They are very amusing, these boys, Jim. I was really
+quite sorry for Richards, but I told him he would get over it in time,
+for as far as I could learn you had been just as bad thirty-three times
+before I finally took pity on you, and that I only did it then because
+you were wearing away with your troubles. I advised him to put the best
+face he could on it, for that Miss Hannay would be the last person to be
+pleased, if he were to be going about with a face as long as if he had
+just come from his aunt's funeral."
+
+The race meeting came off three weeks after Miss Hannay arrived at
+Cawnpore. She had been to several dinners and parties by this time, and
+began to know most of the regular residents.
+
+The races served as an excuse for people to come in from all the
+stations round. Men came over from Lucknow, Agra, and Allahabad, and
+from many a little outlying station; every bungalow in the cantonment
+was filled with guests, and tents were erected for the accommodation of
+the overflow.
+
+Several of the officers of the 103d had horses and ponies entered in the
+various races. There was to be a dance at the club on the evening of the
+second day of the races, and a garden party at the General's on that
+of the first. Richards and Wilson had both ponies entered for the
+race confined to country tats which had never won a race, and both had
+endeavored to find without success what was Isobel's favorite color.
+
+"But you must have some favorite color?" Wilson urged.
+
+"Why must I, Mr. Wilson? One thing is suitable for one thing and one
+another, and I always like a color that is suitable for the occasion."
+
+"But what color are you going to wear at the races, Miss Hannay?"
+
+"Well, you see, I have several dresses," Isobel said gravely, "and I
+cannot say until the morning arrives which I may wear; it will depend a
+good deal how I feel. Besides, I might object to your wearing the same
+color as I do. You remember in the old times, knights, when they entered
+the lists, wore the favors that ladies had given them. Now I have no
+idea of giving you a favor. You have done nothing worthy of it. When
+you have won the Victoria Cross, and distinguished yourself by some
+extraordinarily gallant action, it will be quite time to think about
+it."
+
+"You see one has to send one's color in four days beforehand, in time
+for them to print it on the card," the lad said; "and besides, one has
+to get a jacket and cap made."
+
+"But you don't reflect that it is quite possible your pony won't win
+after all, and supposing that I had colors, I certainly should not like
+to see them come in last in the race. Mr. Richards has been asking me
+just the same thing, and, of course, I gave him the same answer. I can
+only give you the advice I gave him."
+
+"What was that, Miss Hannay?" Wilson asked eagerly.
+
+"Well, you see, it is not very long since either of you left school, so
+I should think the best thing for you to wear are your school colors,
+whatever they were."
+
+And with a merry laugh at his look of discomfiture, Isobel turned away
+and joined Mrs. Doolan and two or three other ladies who were sitting
+with her.
+
+"There is one comfort," Mrs. Doolan was just saying, "in this country,
+when there is anything coming off, there is no occasion to be anxious as
+to the weather; one knows that it will be hot, fine, and dusty. One can
+wear one's gayest dress without fear. In Ireland one never knew whether
+one wanted muslin or waterproof until the morning came, and even then
+one could not calculate with any certainty how it would be by twelve
+o'clock. This will be your first Indian festivity, Miss Hannay."
+
+"Do the natives come much?"
+
+"I should think so! All Cawnpore will turn out, and we shall have the
+Lord of Bithoor and any number of Talookdars and Zemindars with their
+suites. A good many of them will have horses entered, and they have some
+good ones if they could but ride them. The Rajah of Bithoor is a most
+important personage. He talks English very well, and gives splendid
+entertainments. He is a most polite gentleman, and is always over here
+if there is anything going on. The general idea is that he has set his
+mind on having an English wife, the only difficulty being our objection
+to polygamy. He has every other advantage, and his wife would have
+jewels that a queen might envy."
+
+Isobel laughed. "I don't think jewels would count for much in my ideas
+of happiness."
+
+"It is not so much the jewels, my dear, in themselves, but the envy they
+would excite in every other woman."
+
+"I don't think I can understand that feeling, Mrs. Doolan. I can
+understand that there might be a satisfaction in being envied for being
+the happiest woman, or the most tastefully dressed woman, or even the
+prettiest woman, though that after all is a mere accident, but not for
+having the greatest number of bright stones, however valuable. I don't
+think the most lovely set of diamonds ever seen would give me as much
+satisfaction as a few choice flowers."
+
+"Ah, but that is because you are quite young," Mrs. Doolan said. "Eve
+was tempted by an apple, but Eve had not lived long. You see, an apple
+will tempt a child, and flowers a young girl. Diamonds are the bait of a
+woman."
+
+"You would not care for diamonds yourself, Mrs. Doolan?"
+
+"I don't know, my dear; the experiment was never tried--bog oak and
+Irish diamonds have been more in my line. Jim's pay has never run to
+diamonds, worse luck, but he has promised me that if he ever gets a
+chance of looting the palace of a native prince he will keep a special
+lookout for them for me. So far he has never had the chance. When he was
+an ensign there was some hard fighting with the Sikhs, but nothing of
+that sort fell to his share. I often tell him that he took me under
+false pretenses altogether. I had visions of returning some day and
+astonishing Ballycrogin, as a sort of begum covered with diamonds; but
+as far as I can see the children are the only jewels that I am likely to
+take back."
+
+"And very nice jewels too," Isobel said heartily; "they are dear little
+things, Mrs. Doolan, and worth all the diamonds in the world. I hear,
+Mrs. Prothero, that your husband has a good chance of winning the race
+for Arabs; I intend to wager several pairs of gloves on his horse."
+
+"Yes, Seila is very fast. She won last year. But Nana Sahib has had the
+horse that won the cup at Poona last year, and is considered one of the
+fastest in India, brought across from Bombay. Our only hope is that he
+will put a native up, and in that case we ought to have a fair chance,
+for the natives have no idea of riding a waiting race, but go off at
+full speed, and take it all out of their horse before the end of the
+race."
+
+"Well, we must hope he will, Mrs. Prothero; that seems, from what I
+hear, the only chance there is of the regiment winning a prize. So all
+our sympathies will be with you."
+
+"Hunter and his wife and their two girls are coming," the Major said,
+the next morning, as he opened his letters.
+
+"Very well, uncle, then we will do as we arranged. The Miss Hunters
+shall have my room, and I will take the little passage room."
+
+"I am afraid it will put you out, Isobel; but they have been here for
+the last two years at the race times and I did not like not asking them
+again."
+
+"Of course, uncle. It will make no difference to me, and I don't require
+any very great space to apparel myself."
+
+"We must have dinners for twelve at least, the day before the races, and
+on the three days of the meeting."
+
+Isobel looked alarmed. "I hope you don't rely on me for the
+arrangements, uncle. At each of the four dinners we have been to I have
+done nothing but wonder how it was all done, and have been trembling
+over the thought that it would be our turn presently. It seemed a
+fearful responsibility; and four, one after the other, is an appalling
+prospect."
+
+"Rumzan will see to it all, my dear. He has always managed very well
+before. I will talk it over with him; besides, these will not be like
+regular set dinner parties. At race meetings everyone keeps pretty
+nearly open house. One does not ask any of the people at the station;
+they have all their own visitors. One trusts to chance to fill up the
+table, and one never finds any difficulty about it. It is lucky I got up
+a regular stock of china, and so on, in anticipation of your coming.
+Of course, as a bachelor, I have not been a dinner giver, except on
+occasions like this, when nobody expects anything like state, and things
+are conducted to a certain extent in picnic fashion. I have paid off my
+dinner obligations by having men to mess or the club. However, I will
+consult Rumzan, and we will have a regular parade of our materials,
+and you shall inspect our resources. If there is anything in the way
+of flower vases or center dishes, or anything of that sort, you think
+requisite, we must get them. Jestonjee has got a good stock of all that
+sort of thing. As to tablecloths and napkins and so on, I had a supply
+with the china, so you will find that all right. Of course you will get
+plenty of flowers; they are the principal things, after all, towards
+making the table look well. You have had no experience in arranging
+them, I suppose?"
+
+"None at all, uncle; I never arranged a vase of flowers in my life."
+
+"Then I tell you what you had better do, Isobel. You coax the Doctor
+into coming in and undertaking it. He is famous in that way. He always
+has the decoration of the mess table on grand occasions; and when we
+give a dance the flowers and decorations are left to him as a matter of
+course."
+
+"I will ask him, uncle; but he is the last man in the world I should
+have thought of in connection with flowers and decorations."
+
+"He is a many sided man, my dear; he paints excellently, and has
+wonderful taste in the way of dress. I can assure you that no lady in
+the regiment is quite satisfied with a new costume until it has received
+the stamp of the Doctor's approval. When we were stationed at Delhi four
+years ago there was a fancy ball, and people who were judges of that
+sort of thing said that they had never seen so pretty a collection of
+dresses, and I should think fully half of them were manufactured from
+the Doctor's sketches."
+
+"I remember now," Isobel laughed, "that he was very sarcastic on board
+ship as to the dresses of some of the people, but I thought it was only
+his way of grumbling at things in general, though certainly I generally
+agreed with him. He told me one day that my taste evidently inclined to
+the dowdy, but you see I wore half mourning until I arrived out here."
+
+The Doctor himself dropped in an hour later.
+
+"I shall be glad, Doctor, if you will dine with us as often as you can
+during the four days of the races," Major Hannay said. "Of course, I
+shall be doing the hospitable to people who come in from out stations,
+and as Isobel won't know any of them, it will be a little trying to
+her, acting for the first time in the capacity of hostess. As you know
+everybody, you will be able to make things go. I have got Hunter and his
+wife and their two girls coming in to stay. I calculate the table will
+hold fourteen comfortably enough. At any rate, come first night, even if
+you can't come on the others."
+
+"Certainly I will, Major, if you will let me bring Bathurst in with me;
+he is going to stay with me for the races."
+
+"By all means, Doctor; I like what I have seen of him very much."
+
+"Yes, he has got a lot in him," the Doctor said, "only he is always head
+over heels in work. He will make a big mark before he has done. He is
+one of the few men out here who has thoroughly mastered the language; he
+can talk to the natives like one of themselves, and understands them so
+thoroughly that they are absolutely afraid to lie to him, which is the
+highest compliment a native can pay to an Indian official. It is very
+seldom he comes in to this sort of thing, but I seized him the other
+day and told him that I could see he would break down if he didn't give
+himself a holiday, and I fairly worried him into saying he would come
+over and stay for the races. I believe then he would not have come if I
+had not written to him that all the native swells would be here, and
+it would be an excellent opportunity for him to talk to them about
+the establishment of a school for the daughters of the upper class of
+natives; that is one of his fads at present."
+
+"But it would be a good thing surely, Doctor," Isobel said.
+
+"No doubt, my dear, no doubt; and so would scores of other things, if
+you could but persuade the natives so. But this is really one of the
+most impracticable schemes possible, simply because the whole of these
+unfortunate children get betrothed when they are two or three years
+old, and are married at twelve. Even if all parties were agreed, the
+husband's relations and the wife's relations and everyone else, what are
+you going to teach a child worth knowing before she gets to the age of
+twelve? Just enough to make her discontented with her lot. Once get the
+natives to alter their customs and to marry their women at the age of
+eighteen, and you may do something for them; but as long as they
+stick to this idiotic custom of marrying them off when they are still
+children, the case is hopeless."
+
+"There is something I wanted to ask you, Doctor," Isobel said. "You know
+this is the first time I have had anything to do with entertaining, and
+I know nothing about decorating a table. Uncle says that you are a great
+hand at the arrangement of flowers. Would you mind seeing to it for me?"
+
+The Doctor nodded. "With pleasure, Miss Hannay. It is a thing I enjoy.
+There is nothing more lamentable than to see the ignorant, and I may
+almost say brutal, way in which people bunch flowers up into great
+masses and call that decoration. They might just as well bunch up so
+many masses of bright colored rags. The shape of the flower, its manner
+of growth, and its individuality are altogether lost, and the sole
+effect produced is that of a confused mass of color. I will undertake
+that part of the business, and you had better leave the buying of the
+flowers to me."
+
+"Certainly, Doctor," the Major said; "I will give you carte blanche."
+
+"Well, I must see your dinner service, Major, so that I may know about
+its color, and what you have got to put the flowers into."
+
+"I will have a regular parade tomorrow morning after breakfast, if it
+would be convenient for you to look in then, and at the same time I will
+get you to have a talk with Rumzan and the cook. I am almost as new to
+giving dinner parties as Isobel is. When one has half a dozen men to
+dine with one at the club, one gives the butler notice and chooses
+the wine, and one knows that it will be all right; but it is a
+very different thing when you have to go into the details yourself.
+Ordinarily I leave it entirely to Rumzan and the cook, and I am bound to
+say they do very well, but this is a different matter."
+
+"We will talk it over with them together, Major. You can seem to consult
+me, but it must come from you to them, or else you will be getting their
+backs up. Thank goodness, Indian servants don't give themselves the airs
+English ones do; but human nature is a good deal the same everywhere,
+and the first great rule, if you want any domestic arrangements to go
+off well, is to keep the servants in good temper."
+
+"We none of us like to be interfered with, Doctor."
+
+"A wise man is always ready to be taught," the Doctor said
+sententiously.
+
+"Well, there are exceptions, Doctor. I remember, soon after I joined, a
+man blew off two of his fingers. A young surgeon who was here wanted
+to amputate the hand; he was just going to set about it when a staff
+surgeon came in and said that it had better not be done, for that
+natives could not stand amputations. The young surgeon was very much
+annoyed. The staff surgeon went away next day. There was a good deal of
+inflammation, and the young surgeon decided to amputate. The man never
+rallied from the operation, and died next day."
+
+"I said, Major, that a wise man was always ready to listen to good
+advice. I was not a wise man in those days--I was a pig headed young
+fool. I thought I knew all about it, and I was quite right according
+to my experience in London hospitals. In the case of an Englishman, the
+hand would have been amputated, and the man would have been all right
+three weeks afterwards. But I knew nothing about these soft hearted
+Hindoos, and never dreamt that an operation which would be a trifle to
+an Englishman would be fatal to one of them, and that simply because,
+although they are plucky enough in some respects, they have no more
+heart than a mouse when anything is the matter with them. Yes, if it
+hadn't been for the old Colonel, who gave me a private hint to say
+nothing about the affair, but merely to put down in my report, 'Died
+from the effect of a gunshot wound,' I should have got into a deuce of a
+scrape over that affair. As it was, it only cost me a hundred rupees
+to satisfy the man's family and send them back to their native village.
+That was for years a standing joke against me, Miss Hannay; except your
+uncle and the Colonel, there is no one left in the regiment who was
+there, but it was a sore subject for a long time. Still, no doubt, it
+was a useful lesson, and my rule has been ever since, never amputate
+except as a forlorn hope, and even then don't amputate, for if you do
+the relatives of the man, as far as his fourth cousins, will inevitably
+regard you as his murderer. Well, I must be off; I will look in tomorrow
+morning, Major, and make an inspection of your resources."
+
+"I am glad to see the Hunters are going to bring over their carriage,"
+the Major said, two days later, as he looked through a letter. "I am
+very glad of that, for I put it off till too late. I have been trying
+everywhere for the last two days to hire one, but they are all engaged,
+and have been so for weeks, I hear. I was wondering what I should do,
+for my buggy will only hold two. I was thinking of asking Mrs. Doolan if
+she could take one of the Miss Hunters, and should have tried to find a
+place for the other. But this settles it all comfortably. They are going
+to send on their own horses halfway the day before, and hire native
+ponies for the first half. They have a good large family vehicle; I
+hoped that they would bring it, but, of course, I could not trust to
+it."
+
+The Doctor presently dropped in with Captain Doolan. After chatting for
+some time the former said, "I have had the satisfaction this morning,
+Miss Hannay, of relieving Mrs. Cromarty's mind of a great burden."
+
+"How was that, Doctor?"
+
+"It was in relation to you, my dear."
+
+"Me, Doctor! how could I have been a weight on Mrs. Cromarty's mind?"
+
+"She sent for me under the pretense of being feverish; said she had a
+headache, and so on. Her pulse was all right, and I told her at once I
+did not think there was much the matter with her; but I recommended her
+to keep out of the sun for two days. Then she begun a chat about the
+station. She knows that, somehow or other, I generally hear all that is
+going on. I wondered what was coming, till she said casually, 'Do you
+know what arrangement Major Hannay has made as to his niece for the
+races?' I said, of course, that the Hunters were coming over to stay.
+I could see at once that her spirit was instantly relieved of a heavy
+burden, but she only said, 'Of course, then, that settles the question.
+I had intended to send across to her this morning, to ask if she would
+like a seat in my carriage; having no lady with her, she could not very
+well have gone to the races alone. Naturally, I should have been very
+pleased to have had her with us. However, as Mrs. Hunter will be staying
+at the Major's, and will act as her chaperon, the matter is settled.'"
+
+"Well, I think it was very kind of her thinking of it," Isobel said,
+"and I don't think it is nice of you, Doctor, to say that it was an
+evident relief to her when she found I had someone else to take care of
+me. Why should it have been a relief?"
+
+"I have no doubt it has weighed on her mind for the last fortnight," the
+Doctor said; "she must have seen that as you were freshly joined, and
+the only unmarried girl in the regiment, except her own daughters, it
+was only the proper thing she should offer you a seat in her carriage.
+No doubt she decided to put it off as late as possible, in hopes that
+you might make some other arrangement. Had you not done so, she might
+have done the heroic thing and invited you, though I am by no means sure
+of it. Of course, now she will say the first time she meets you that she
+was quite disappointed at having heard from me that Mrs. Hunter would
+be with you, as she had hoped to have the pleasure of having you in her
+carriage with her."
+
+"But why shouldn't she like it?" Isobel said indignantly. "Surely I am
+not as disagreeable as all that! Come, Doctor!"
+
+Captain Doolan laughed, while the Doctor said, "It is just the contrary,
+my dear; I am quite sure that if you were in Mrs. Cromarty's place,
+and had two tall, washed out looking daughters, you would not feel the
+slightest desire to place Miss Hannay in the same carriage with them."
+
+"I call that very disagreeable of you, Doctor," Isobel said, flushing,
+"and I shall not like you at all if you take such unkind and malicious
+views of people. I don't suppose such an idea ever entered into Mrs.
+Cromarty's head, and even if it did, it makes it all the kinder that she
+should think of offering me a seat. I do think most men seem to consider
+that women think of nothing but looks, and that girls are always trying
+to attract men, and mothers always thinking of getting their daughters
+married. It is not at all nice, Doctor, to have such ideas, and I shall
+thank Mrs. Cromarty warmly, when I see her, for her kindness in thinking
+about me."
+
+Accordingly, that afternoon, when they met at the usual hour, when the
+band was playing, Isobel went up to the Colonel's wife.
+
+"I want to thank you, Mrs. Cromarty. Dr. Wade has told me that you had
+intended to offer me a seat in your carriage to the races. It was very
+kind and nice of you to think of me, and I am very much obliged to you.
+I should have enjoyed it very much if it hadn't been that Mrs. Hunter
+is coming to stay with us, and, of course, I shall be under her wing.
+Still, I am just as much obliged to you for having thought of it."
+
+Mrs. Cromarty was pleased with the girl's warmth and manner, and
+afterwards mentioned to several of her friends that she thought that
+Miss Hannay seemed a very nice young woman.
+
+"I was not quite favorably impressed at first," she admitted. "She has
+the misfortune of being a little brusque in her manner, but, of course,
+her position is a difficult one, being alone out here, without any
+lady with her, and no doubt she feels it so. She was quite touchingly
+grateful, only because I offered her a seat in our carriage for the
+races, though she was unable to accept it, as the Major will have the
+Hunters staying with him."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+The clubhouse at Cawnpore was crowded on the evening before the races.
+Up to eleven o'clock it had been comparatively deserted, for there was
+scarcely a bungalow in the station at which dinner parties were not
+going on; but, after eleven, the gentlemen for the most part adjourned
+to the club for a smoke, a rubber, or a game of billiards, or to chat
+over the racing events of the next day.
+
+Loud greetings were exchanged as each fresh contingent arrived, for many
+newcomers had come into the station only that afternoon. Every table in
+the whist room was occupied, black pool was being played in the billiard
+room upstairs, where most of the younger men were gathered, while the
+elders smoked and talked in the rooms below.
+
+"What will you do, Bathurst?" the Doctor asked his guest, after
+the party from the Major's had been chatting for some little time
+downstairs. "Would you like to cut in at a rubber or take a ball at
+pool?"
+
+"Neither, Doctor; they are both accomplishments beyond me; I have not
+patience for whist, and I can't play billiards in the least. I have
+tried over and over again, but I am too nervous, I fancy; I break down
+over the easiest stroke--in fact, an easy stroke is harder for me than
+a difficult one. I know I ought to make it, and just for that reason, I
+suppose, I don't."
+
+"You don't give one the idea of a nervous man, either, Bathurst."
+
+"Well, I am, Doctor, constitutionally, indeed terribly so."
+
+"Not in business matters, anyhow," the Doctor said, with a smile. "You
+have the reputation of not minding in the slightest what responsibility
+you take upon yourself, and of carrying out what you undertake in the
+most resolute, I won't say high handed, manner."
+
+"No, it doesn't come in there," Bathurst laughed. "Morally I am not
+nervous so far as I know, physically I am. I would give a great deal if
+I could get over it, but, as I have said, it is constitutional."
+
+"Not on your father's side, Bathurst. I knew him well, and he was a very
+gallant officer."
+
+"No, it was the other side," Bathurst said; "I will tell you about it
+some day."
+
+At this moment another friend of Bathurst's came up and entered into
+conversation with him.
+
+"Well, I will go upstairs to the billiard room," the Doctor said; "and
+you will find me there, Bathurst, whenever you feel disposed to go."
+
+A pool had just finished when the Doctor entered the billiard room.
+
+"That is right, Doctor, you are just in time," Prothero said, as he
+entered. "Sinclair has given up his cue; he is going to ride tomorrow,
+and is afraid of shaking his nerves; you must come and play for the
+honor of the corps. I am being ruined altogether, and Doolan has retired
+discomfited."
+
+"I have not touched a cue since I went away," the Doctor said, "but I
+don't mind adding to the list of victims. Who are the winners?"
+
+"Messenger and Jarvis have been carrying all before them; there is a
+report they have just sent off two club waiters, with loads of rupees,
+to their quarters. Scarsdale has been pretty well holding his own, but
+the rest of us are nowhere."
+
+A year's want of practice, however, told, and the Doctor was added to
+the list of victims: he had no difficulty in getting someone else to
+take his cue after playing for half an hour.
+
+"It shows that practice is required for everything," he said; "before
+I went away I could have given each of those men a life, now they could
+give me two; I must devote half an hour a day to it till I get it back
+again."
+
+"And you shall give me a lesson, Doctor," Captain Doolan, who had also
+retired, said.
+
+"It would be time thrown away by both of us, Doolan. You would never
+make a pool player if you were to practice all your life. It is not the
+eye that is wrong, but the temperament. You can make a very good shot
+now and then, but you are too harum scarum and slap dash altogether.
+The art of playing pool is the art of placing yourself; while, when you
+strike, you have not the faintest idea where your ball is going to,
+and you are just as likely to run in yourself as you are to pot your
+adversary. I should abjure it if I were you, Doolan; it is too expensive
+a luxury for you to indulge in."
+
+"You are right there, Doctor; only what is a man to do when fellows say,
+'We want you to make up a pool, Doolan'?"
+
+"I should say the reply would be quite simple. I should answer, 'I am
+ready enough to play if any of you are ready to pay my losses and take
+my winnings; I am tired of being as good as an annuity to you all,'
+for that is what you have been for the last ten years. Why, it would be
+cheaper for you to send home to England for skittles, and get a ground
+up here."
+
+"But I don't play so very badly, Doctor."
+
+"If you play badly enough always to lose, it doesn't matter as to the
+precise degree of badness," the Doctor retorted. "It is not surprising.
+When you came out here, fourteen or fifteen years ago, boys did not
+take to playing billiards, but they do now. Look at that little villain,
+Richards. He has just cleared the table, and done it with all the
+coolness of a professional marker. The young scoundrel ought to have
+been in bed two hours ago, for I hear that tat of his is really a good
+one. Not that it will make any difference to him. That sort of boy would
+play billiards till the first bugle sounds in the morning, and have a
+wash and turn out as fresh as paint, but it won't last, Doolan, not in
+this climate; his cheeks will have fallen in and he will have crow's
+feet at the corners of his eyes before another year has gone over. I
+like that other boy, Wilson, better. Of course he is a cub as yet, but
+I should say there is good in him. Just at present I can see he is
+beginning to fancy himself in love with Miss Hannay. That will do him
+good; it is always an advantage to a lad like that to have a good honest
+liking for a nice girl. Of course it comes to nothing, and for a time he
+imagines himself the most unhappy of mortals, but it does him good for
+all that; fellows are far less likely to get into mischief and go to the
+bad after an affair of that sort. It gives him a high ideal, and if he
+is worth anything he will try to make himself worthy of her, and the
+good it does him will continue even after the charm is broken."
+
+"What a fellow you are, Doctor," Captain Doolan said, looking down upon
+his companion, "talking away like that in the middle of this racket,
+which would be enough to bother Saint Patrick himself!"
+
+"Well, come along downstairs, Doolan; we will have a final peg and then
+be off; I expect Bathurst is beginning to fidget before now."
+
+"It will do him good," Captain Doolan said disdainfully. "I have no
+patience with a man who is forever working himself to death, riding
+about the country as if Old Nick were behind him, and never giving
+himself a minute for diversion of any kind. Faith, I would rather throw
+myself down a well and have done with it, than work ten times as hard as
+a black nigger."
+
+"Well, I don't think, Doolan," the Doctor said dryly, "you are ever
+likely to be driven to suicide by any such cause."
+
+"You are right there, Doctor," the other said contentedly. "No man can
+throw it in my teeth that I ever worked when I had no occasion to work.
+If there were a campaign, I expect I could do my share with the best of
+them, but in quiet times I just do what I have to do, and if anyone has
+an anxiety to take my place in the rota for duty, he is as welcome to
+it as the flowers of May. I had my share of it when I was a subaltern;
+there is no better fellow living than the Major, but when he was Captain
+of my company he used to keep me on the run by the hour together, till I
+wished myself back in Connaught, and anyone who liked it might have had
+the whole of India for anything I cared; he was one of the most uneasy
+creatures I ever came across."
+
+"The Major is a good officer, Doolan, and you were as lazy a youngster,
+and as hard a bargain, as the Company ever got. You ought to thank
+your stars that you had the good luck in having a Captain who knew
+his business, and made you learn yours. Why, if you had had a man like
+Rintoul as your Captain, you would never have been worth your salt."
+
+"You are not complimentary, Doctor; but then nobody looks for
+compliments from you."
+
+"I can pay compliments if I have a chance," the Doctor retorted, "but
+it is very seldom I get one of doing so--at least, without lying. Well,
+Bathurst, are you ready to turn in?"
+
+"Quite ready, Doctor; that is one of the advantages of not caring for
+races; the merits and demerits of the horses that run tomorrow do not in
+the slightest degree affect me, and even the news that all the favorites
+had gone wrong would not deprive me of an hour's sleep."
+
+"I think it a good thing to take an interest in racing, Bathurst. Take
+men as a whole: out here they work hard--some of them work tremendously
+hard--and unless they get some change to their thoughts, some sort of
+recreation, nineteen out of twenty will break down sooner or later. If
+they don't they become mere machines. Every man ought to have some sort
+of hobby; he need not ride it to death, but he wants to take some sort
+of interest in it. I don't care whether he takes to pig sticking, or
+racing, or shooting, or whether he goes in for what I may call the
+milder kinds of relaxation, such as dining out, billiards, whist, or
+even general philandering. Anything is better than nothing--anything
+that will take his mind off his work. As far as I can see, you don't do
+anything."
+
+"Therefore I shall either break down or become a machine, Doctor?"
+
+"One or the other certainly, Bathurst. You may smile, but I mean what I
+say. I have seen other young fellows just as full of work and enthusiasm
+as you are, but I have never seen an exception to the rule, unless, of
+course, they took up something so as to give their minds a rest."
+
+"The Doctor has just been scolding me because I am not fond enough of
+work," Captain Doolan laughed.
+
+"You are differently placed, Doolan," the Doctor said. "You have got
+plenty of enthusiasm in your nature--most Irishmen have--but you have
+had nothing to stir it. Life in a native regiment in India is an easy
+one. Your duties are over in two or three hours out of the twenty-four,
+whereas the work of a civilian in a large district literally never
+ends, unless he puts a resolute stop to it. What with seeing people from
+morning until night, and riding about and listening to complaints, every
+hour of the day is occupied, and then at night there are reports to
+write and documents of all sorts to go through. It is a great pity that
+there cannot be a better division of work, though I own I don't see how
+it is to be managed."
+
+By this time they were walking towards the lines.
+
+"I should not mind taking a share of the civil work at the station,"
+Captain Doolan said, "if they would make our pay a little more like that
+of the civilians."
+
+"There is something in that, Doolan," the Doctor agreed; "it is just
+as hard work having nothing to do as it is having too much; and I have
+always been of opinion that the tremendous disproportion between the pay
+of a military man and of a civilian of the same age is simply monstrous.
+Well, goodnight, Doolan; I hope you will tell Mrs. Doolan that the
+credit is entirely due to me that you are home at the reasonable hour of
+one o'clock, instead of dropping in just in time to change for parade."
+
+"A good fellow," the Doctor said, as he walked on with Bathurst; "he
+would never set the Thames on fire; but he is an honest, kindly fellow.
+He would make a capital officer if he were on service. His marriage has
+been an excellent thing for him. He had nothing to do before but to pass
+away his time in the club or mess house, and drink more than was good
+for him. But he has pulled himself round altogether since he married.
+His wife is a bright, clever little woman, and knows how to make the
+house happy for him; if he had married a lackadaisical sort of a woman,
+the betting is he would have gone to the bad altogether."
+
+"I only met him once or twice before," Bathurst said. "You see I am not
+here very often, and when I am it is only on business, so I know a very
+few people here except those I have to deal with, and by the time I have
+got through my business I am generally so thoroughly out of temper with
+the pig headed stupidity and obstinacy of people in general, that I get
+into my buggy and drive straight away."
+
+"I fancy you irritate them as much as they irritate you, Bathurst. Well,
+here we are; now we will have a quiet cheroot and a peg, to quiet our
+nerves after all that din, before we turn in. Let us get off our coats
+and collars, and make ourselves comfortable; it is a proof of the
+bestial stupidity of mankind that they should wear such abominations as
+dress clothes in a climate like this. Here, boy, light the candles and
+bring two sodas and brandies."
+
+"Well, Bathurst," he went on, when they had made themselves comfortable
+in two lounging chairs, "what do you thing of Miss Hannay?"
+
+"I was prepared to admire her, Doctor, from what you said; it is not
+very often that you overpraise things; but she is a charming girl, very
+pretty and bright, frank and natural."
+
+"She is all that," the Doctor said. "We were four months on the
+voyage out, and I saw enough of her in that time to know her pretty
+thoroughly."
+
+"What puzzles me about her," Bathurst said, "is that I seemed to know
+her face. Where I saw her, and under what circumstances, I have been
+puzzling myself half the evening to recall, but I have the strongest
+conviction that I have met her."
+
+"You are dreaming, man. You have been out here eight years; she was a
+child of ten when you left England! You certainly have not seen her, and
+as I know pretty well every woman who has been in this station for
+the last five or six years, I can answer for it that you have not seen
+anyone in the slightest degree resembling her."
+
+"That is what I have been saying to myself, Doctor, but that does not in
+the slightest degree shake my conviction about it."
+
+"Then you must have dreamt it," the Doctor said decidedly. "Some fool
+of a poet has said, 'Visions of love cast their shadows before,' or
+something of that sort, which of course is a lie; still, that is the
+only way that I can account for it."
+
+Bathurst smiled faintly. "I don't think the quotation is quite right,
+Doctor; anyhow, I am convinced that the impression is far too vivid to
+have been the result of a dream."
+
+"By the way, Bathurst," the Doctor said, suddenly changing his
+conversation, "what do you think of this talk we hear about chupaties
+being sent round among the native troops, and the talk about greased
+cartridges. You see more of the natives than anyone I know; do you think
+there is anything brewing in the air?"
+
+"If there is, Doctor, I am certain it is not known to the natives in
+general. I see no change whatever in their manner, and I am sure I know
+them well enough to notice any change if it existed. I know nothing
+about the Sepoys, but Garnet tells me that the Company at Deennugghur
+give him nothing to complain of, though they don't obey orders as
+smartly as usual, and they have a. sullen air as they go about their
+work."
+
+"I don't like it, Bathurst. I do not understand what the chupaties mean,
+but I know that there is a sort of tradition that the sending of
+them round has always preceded trouble. The Sepoys have no reason for
+discontent, but there has been no active service lately, and idleness
+is always bad for men. I can't believe there is any widespread
+dissatisfaction among them, but there is no doubt whatever that if there
+is, and it breaks out, the position will be a very serious one. There
+are not half enough white troops in India, and the Sepoys may well think
+that they are masters of the situation. It would be a terrible time for
+everyone in India if they did take it into their heads to rise."
+
+"I can't believe they would be mad enough to do that, Doctor; they have
+everything to lose by it, and nothing to gain, that is, individually;
+and we should be sure to win in the long run, even if we had to conquer
+back India foot by foot."
+
+"That is all very well, Bathurst; we may know that we could do it, but
+they don't know it. They are ignorant altogether of the forces we could
+put into the field were there a necessity to make the effort. They
+naturally suppose that we can have but a few soldiers, for in all
+the battles we have fought there have always been two or three Sepoy
+regiments to one English. Besides, they consider themselves fully a
+match for us. They have fought by us side by side in every battlefield
+in India, and have done as well as we have. I don't see what they should
+rise for. I don't even see whose interest it is to bring a rising about,
+but I do know that if they rise we shall have a terrible time of it.
+Now I think we may as well turn in. You won't take another peg? Well,
+I shall see you in the morning. I shall be at the hospital by half past
+six, and shall be in at half past eight to breakfast. You have only got
+to shout for my man, and tell him whether you will have tea, coffee, or
+chocolate, any time you wake."
+
+"I shall be about by six, Doctor; five is my general hour, but as it is
+past one now I dare say I shall be able to sleep on for an hour later,
+especially as there is nothing to do."
+
+"You can go round the hospital with me, if you like," the Doctor said,
+"if you will promise not to make a dozen suggestions for the improvement
+of things in general."
+
+Isobel Hannay came down to breakfast in high spirits upon the morning of
+the races. The dinner had gone off excellently. The dinner table, with
+its softly shaded lamps, and the Doctor's arrangements of the flowers,
+had been, she thought, perfection, and everything had passed off without
+a hitch. Her duties as a hostess had been much lighter than she had
+anticipated. Mrs. Hunter was a very pleasant, motherly woman, and the
+girls, who had only come out from England four months before, were fresh
+and unaffected, and the other people had all been pleasant and chatty.
+
+Altogether, she felt that her first dinner party had been a great
+success.
+
+She was looking forward now with pleasant anticipation to the day. She
+had seen but little of the natives so far, and she was now to see them
+at their best. Then she had never been present at a race, and everything
+would be new and exciting.
+
+"Well, uncle, what time did you get in?" she asked, as she stepped out
+into the veranda to meet him on his return from early parade. "It was
+too bad of you and Mr. Hunter running off instead of waiting to chat
+things over."
+
+"I have no doubt you ladies did plenty of that, my dear."
+
+"Indeed, we didn't, uncle; you see they had had a very long drive, and
+Mrs. Hunter insisted on the girls going to bed directly you all went
+out, and as I could not sit up by myself, I had to go too."
+
+"We were in at half past twelve," the Major said. "I can stand a good
+deal of smoke, but the club atmosphere was too thick for me."
+
+"Everything went off very well yesterday, didn't it?" she asked.
+
+"Very well, I thought, my dear, thanks to you and the Doctor and
+Rumzan."
+
+"I had very little to do with it," she laughed.
+
+"Well, I don't think you had much to do with the absolute arrangements,
+Isobel, but I thought you did very well as hostess; it seemed to me that
+there was a good deal of laughing and fun at your end of the table."
+
+"Yes; you see we had the two Miss Hunters and the Doctor there, and Mr.
+Gregson, who took me in, turned out a very merry old gentleman."
+
+"He would not be pleased if he heard you call him old, Isobel."
+
+"Well, of course he is not absolutely old, but being a commissioner, and
+all that sort of thing, gives one the idea of being old; but there are
+the others."
+
+And they went into the breakfast room.
+
+The first race was set for two o'clock, and at half past one Mrs.
+Hunter's carriage, with the four ladies, arrived at the inclosure. The
+horses were taken out, and the carriage wheeled into its place, and then
+Isobel and the two Miss Hunters prepared to enjoy the scene.
+
+It was a very gay one. The course was at present covered with a throng
+of natives in their bright colored garments, and mixed with them were
+the scarlet uniforms of the Sepoys of the 103d and other regiments.
+On the opposite side were a number of native vehicles of various
+descriptions, and some elephants with painted faces and gorgeous
+trappings, and with howdahs shaded by pavilions glittering with gilt and
+silver.
+
+On either side of their vehicle a long line of carriages was soon formed
+up, and among these were several occupied by gayly dressed natives,
+whose rank gave them an entrance to the privileged inclosure. The
+carriages were placed three or four yards back from the rail, and the
+intervening space was filled with civilian and military officers, in
+white or light attire, and with pith helmet or puggaree; many others
+were on horseback behind the carriages.
+
+"It is a bright scene, Miss Hannay," the Doctor said, coming up to the
+carriage.
+
+"Wonderfully pretty, Doctor!"
+
+"An English race course doesn't do after this, I can tell you. I went
+down to the Derby when I was at home, and such an assembly of riff raff
+I never saw before and never wish to see again."
+
+"These people are more picturesque, Dr. Wade," Mrs. Hunter said, "but
+that is merely a question of garment; these people perhaps are no more
+trustworthy than those you met on the racecourse at home."
+
+"I was speaking of them purely as a spectacle; individually I have no
+doubt one would be safer among the English roughs and betting men than
+among these placid looking natives. The one would pick your pockets of
+every penny you have got if they had the chance, the other would cut
+your throat with just as little compunction."
+
+"You don't really mean that, Dr. Wade?" Isobel said.
+
+"I do indeed, Miss Hannay; the Oude men are notorious brawlers and
+fighters, and I should say that the roughs of Cawnpore and Lucknow could
+give long odds to those of any European city, and three out of four of
+those men you see walking about there would not only cut the throat of a
+European to obtain what money he had about him, but would do so without
+that incentive, upon the simple ground that he hated us."
+
+"But why should he hate us, Doctor? he is none the worse off now than he
+was before we annexed the country."
+
+"Well, yes, that class of man is worse off. In the old days every noble
+and Zemindar kept up a little army for the purpose of fighting his
+neighbors, just as our Barons used to do in the happy olden times people
+talk of. We have put down private fighting, and the consequence is these
+men's occupations are gone, and they flock to great towns and there live
+as best they can, ready to commit any crime whatever for the sum of a
+few rupees.
+
+"There is Nana Sahib."
+
+Isobel looked round and saw a carriage with a magnificent pair of
+horses, in harness almost covered with silver ornaments, drive up to a
+place that had been kept vacant for it. Four natives were sitting in it.
+
+"That is the Rajah," the Doctor said, "the farther man, with that
+aigrette of diamonds in his turban. He is Oriental today, but sometimes
+he affects English fashions. He is a very cheery fellow, he keeps pretty
+well open house at Bithoor, has a billiard table, and a first rate
+cellar of wine, carriages for the use of guests--in fact, he does the
+thing really handsomely."
+
+"Here is my opera glass," Mrs. Hunter said. Isobel looked long and
+fixedly at the Rajah.
+
+"Well, what do you think of him?" the Doctor asked as she lowered it.
+
+"I do not know what to think of him," she said; "his face does not
+tell me anything, it is like looking at a mask; but you see I am not
+accustomed to read brown men's characters, they are so different from
+Europeans, their faces all seem so impassive. I suppose it is the way in
+which they are brought up and trained."
+
+"Ages of tyranny have made them supple and deceitful," the Doctor
+said, "but of course less so here than among the Bengallies, who, being
+naturally unwarlike and cowardly, have always been the slaves of some
+master or other.
+
+"You evidently don't like the Nana, Miss Hannay. I am rather glad you
+don't, for he is no great favorite of mine, though he is so generally
+popular in the station here. I don't like him because it is not natural
+that he should be so friendly with us. We undoubtedly, according to
+native notions, robbed him of one of the finest positions in India
+by refusing to acknowledge his adoption. We have given him a princely
+revenue, but that, after all, is a mere trifle to what he would have had
+as Peishwa. Whatever virtues the natives of this country possess, the
+forgiving of injuries is not among them, and therefore I consider it
+to be altogether unnatural that he, having been, as he at any rate and
+everyone round him must consider, foully wronged, should go out of his
+way to affect our society and declare the warmest friendship for us."
+
+The Rajah was laughing and talking with General Wheeler and the group of
+officers round his carriage.
+
+Again Isobel raised the glasses. "You are right, Doctor," she said, "I
+don't like him."
+
+"Well, there is one comfort, it doesn't matter whether he is sincere
+or not, he is powerless to hurt us. I don't see any motive for his
+pretending to be friendly if he is not, but I own that I should like him
+better if he sulked and would have nothing to say to us, as would be the
+natural course."
+
+The bell now began to ring, and the native police cleared the course.
+Major Hannay and Mr. Hunter, who had driven over in the buggy, came up
+and took their places on the box of the carriage.
+
+"Here are cards of the races," he said. "Now is the time, young ladies,
+to make your bets."
+
+"I don't know even the name of anyone in this first race," Isobel said,
+looking at the card.
+
+"That doesn't matter in the least, Miss Hannay," Wilson, who had just
+come up to the side of the carriage, said. "There are six horses in; you
+pick out any one you like, and I will lay you five pairs of gloves to
+one against him."
+
+"But how am I to pick out when I don't know anything about them, Mr.
+Wilson? I might pick out one that had no chance at all."
+
+"Yes; but you might pick out the favorite, Miss Hannay, so that it is
+quite fair."
+
+"Don't you bet, Isobel," her uncle said. "Let us have a sweepstake
+instead."
+
+"What is a sweepstake, uncle?"
+
+There was a general laugh.
+
+"Well, my dear, we each put in a rupee. There are six of us, and there
+are Wilson and the Doctor. You will go in, Doctor, won't you?"
+
+"Yes; I don't mind throwing away a rupee, Major."
+
+"Very well, that makes eight. We put eight pieces of paper in the hat.
+Six of them have got the names of the horses on, the other two are
+blank. Then we each pull out one. Whoever draws the name of the horse
+that wins takes five rupees, the holder of the second two, and the third
+saves his stake. You shall hold the stakes, Mrs. Hunter. We have all
+confidence in you."
+
+The slips were drawn.
+
+"My horse is Bruce," Isobel said.
+
+"There he is, Miss Hannay," Wilson, who had drawn a blank, said, as
+a horse whose rider had a straw colored jacket and cap came cantering
+along the course. "This is a race for country horses--owners up.
+That means ridden by their owners. That is Pearson of the 13th Native
+Cavalry. He brought the horse over from Lucknow."
+
+"What chance has he?"
+
+"I have not the least idea, Miss Hannay. I did not hear any betting on
+this race at all."
+
+"That is a nice horse, uncle," Isobel said, as one with a rider in black
+jacket, with red cap, came past.
+
+"That is Delhi. Yes, it has good action."
+
+"That is mine," the eldest Miss Hunter said.
+
+"The rider is a good looking young fellow," the Doctor said, "and is
+perfectly conscious of it himself. Who is he, Wilson? I don't know him."
+
+"He is a civilian. Belongs to the public works, I think."
+
+The other horses now came along, and after short preliminary canters the
+start was made. To Isobel's disappointment her horse was never in the
+race, which Delhi looked like winning until near the post, when a rather
+common looking horse, which had been lying a short distance behind him,
+came up with a rush and won by a length.
+
+"I don't call that fair," Miss Hunter said, "when the other was first
+all along. I call that a mean way of winning, don't you, father?"
+
+"Well, no, my dear. It was easy to see for the last quarter of a mile
+that the other was making what is called 'a waiting race' of it, and
+was only biding his time. There is nothing unfair in that, I fancy Delhi
+might have won if he had had a better jockey. His rider never really
+called upon him till it was too late. He was so thoroughly satisfied
+with himself and his position in the race that he was taken completely
+by surprise when Moonshee came suddenly up to him."
+
+"Well, I think it is very hard upon Delhi, father, after keeping ahead
+all the way and going so nicely. I think everyone ought to do their best
+from the first."
+
+"I fancy you are thinking, Miss Hunter," the Doctor said, "quite as much
+that it is hard on you being beaten after your hopes had been raised, as
+it is upon the horse."
+
+"Perhaps I am, Doctor," she admitted.
+
+"I think it is much harder on me," Isobel said. "You have had the
+satisfaction of thinking all along that your horse was going to win,
+while mine never gave me the least bit of hope."
+
+"The proper expression, Miss Hannay, is, your horse never flattered
+you."
+
+"Then I think it is a very silly expression, Mr. Wilson, because I don't
+see that flattery has anything to do with it."
+
+"Ah, here is Bathurst," the Doctor said. "Where have you been, Bathurst?
+You slipped away from me just now."
+
+"I've just been talking to the Commissioner, Doctor. I have been trying
+to get him to see--"
+
+"Why, you don't mean to say," the Doctor broke in, "that you have been
+trying to cram your theories down his throat on a racecourse?"
+
+
+"It was before the race began," Bathurst said, "and I don't think the
+Commissioner has any more interest in racing than I have."
+
+"Not in racing," the Doctor agreed, "but I expect he has an interest in
+enjoying himself generally, which is a thing you don't seem to have the
+most remote idea of. Here we are just getting up a sweepstake for the
+next race; hand over a rupee and try to get up an interest in it. Do try
+and forget your work till the race is over. I have brought you here
+to do you good. I regard you as my patient, and I give you my medical
+orders that you are to enjoy yourself."
+
+Bathurst laughed.
+
+"I am enjoying myself in my way, Doctor."
+
+"Who is that very pretty woman standing up in the next carriage but
+one?" Isobel asked.
+
+"She comes from an out station," the Doctor repeated; "she is the wife
+of the Collector there, but I think she likes Cawnpore better than
+Boorgum; her name is Rose."
+
+"Is that her husband talking to her?"
+
+"No; that is a man in the Artillery here, I think."
+
+"Yes," the Major said, "that is Harrowby, a good looking fellow, and
+quite a ladies' man."
+
+"Do you mean a man ladies like, uncle, or who likes the society of
+ladies?"
+
+"Both in his case, I should fancy," the Major said; "I believe he is
+considered one of the best looking men in the service."
+
+"I don't see why he should be liked for that," Isobel said. "As far as I
+have seen, good looking men are not so pleasant as others. I suppose it
+is because they are conscious of their own good looks, and therefore do
+not take the trouble of being amusing. We had one very good looking
+man on board ship, and he was the dullest man to talk to on board. No,
+Doctor, I won't have any names mentioned, but I am right, am I not?"
+
+"He was a dull specimen, certainly," the Doctor said, "but I think you
+are a little too sweeping."
+
+"I don't mean all good looking men, of course, but men who what I call
+go in for being good looking. I don't know whether you know what I mean.
+What are you smiling at, Mr. Wilson?"
+
+"I was thinking of two or three men I know to whom your description
+applies, Miss Hannay; but I must be going--they are just going to start
+the next race, and mine is the one after, so I must go and get ready.
+You wish me success, don't you?"
+
+"I wish you all the success you deserve. I can't say more than that, can
+I?"
+
+"I am afraid that is saying very little," he laughed. "I don't expect to
+win, but I do hope I shall beat Richards, because he is so cock sure he
+will beat me."
+
+This wish was not gratified. The first and second horses made a close
+race of it; behind them by ten or twelve lengths came the other horses
+in a clump, Wilson and Richards singling themselves out in the last
+hundred yards and making a desperate race for the third place, for which
+they made a dead heat, amid great laughter from their comrades.
+
+"That is excellent," Major Hannay said; "you won't see anything more
+amusing than that today, girls. The third horse simply saved his stake,
+so that as they will of course divide, they will have paid twenty-five
+rupees each for the pleasure of riding, and the point which of their
+tats is the fastest remains unsettled."
+
+"Well, they beat a good many of them, Major Hannay," Miss Hunter said;
+"so they did not do so badly after all."
+
+"Oh, no, they did not do so badly; but it will be a long time before
+they get over the chaff about their desperate struggle for the third
+place."
+
+The next two races attracted but slight attention from the occupants
+of the carriage. Most of their acquaintances in the station came up one
+after the other for a chat. There were many fresh introductions, and
+there was so much conversation and laughter that the girls had little
+time to attend to what was going on around them. Wilson and Richards
+both sauntered up after changing, and were the subject of much chaff as
+to their brilliant riding at the finish. Both were firm in the belief
+that the judge's finding was wrong, and each maintained stoutly he had
+beaten the other by a good head.
+
+The race for Arabs turned out a very exciting one; the Rajah of
+Bithoor's horse was the favorite, on the strength of its performances
+elsewhere; but Prothero's horse was also well supported, especially in
+the regiment, for the Adjutant was a first class rider, and was in
+great request at all the principal meetings in Oude and the Northwest
+Provinces, while it was known that the Rajah's horse would be ridden by
+a native. The latter was dressed in strict racing costume, and had at
+the last races at Cawnpore won two or three cups for the Rajah.
+
+But the general opinion among the officers of the station was that
+Prothero's coolness and nerve would tell. His Arab was certainly a fast
+one, and had won the previous year, both at Cawnpore and Lucknow; but
+the Rajah's new purchase had gained so high a reputation in the Western
+Presidency as fully to justify the odds of two to one laid on it, while
+four to one were offered against Prothero, and from eight to twenty to
+one against any other competitor.
+
+Prothero had stopped to have a chat at the Hunters' carriage as he
+walked towards the dressing tent.
+
+"Our hopes are all centered in you, Mr. Prothero," Mr. Hunter said.
+"Miss Hannay has been wagering gloves in a frightfully reckless way."
+
+"I should advise you to hedge if you can, Miss Hannay," he said. "I
+think there is no doubt that Mameluke is a good deal faster than Seila.
+I fancy he is pounds better. I only beat Vincent's horse by a head last
+year, and Mameluke gave him seven pounds, and beat him by three lengths
+at Poona. So I should strongly advise you to hedge your bets if you
+can."
+
+"What does he mean by hedge, uncle?"
+
+"To hedge is to bet the other way, so that one bet cancels the other."
+
+"Oh, I shan't do that," she said; "I have enough money to pay my bets if
+I lose."
+
+"Do you mean to say you mean to pay your bets if you lose, Miss Hannay?"
+the Doctor asked incredulously.
+
+"Of course I do," she said indignantly. "You don't suppose I intend to
+take the gloves if I win, and not to pay if I lose?"
+
+"It is not altogether an uncommon practice among ladies," the Doctor
+said, "when they bet against gentlemen. I believe that when they wager
+against each other, which they do not often do, they are strictly
+honest, but that otherwise their memories are apt to fail them
+altogether."
+
+"That is a libel, Mrs. Hunter, is it not?"
+
+"Not altogether, I think. Of course many ladies do pay their bets when
+they lose, but others certainly do not."
+
+"Then I call it very mean," Isobel said earnestly. "Why, it is as bad as
+asking anyone to make you a present of so many pairs of gloves in case a
+certain horse wins."
+
+"It comes a good deal to the same thing," Mrs. Hunter admitted, "but to
+a certain extent it is a recognized custom; it is a sort of tribute that
+is exacted at race time, just as in France every lady expects a present
+from every gentleman of her acquaintance on New Year's Day."
+
+"I wouldn't bet if I didn't mean to pay honestly," Isobel said. "And if
+Mr. Prothero doesn't win, my debts will all be honorably discharged."
+
+There was a hush of expectation in the crowd when the ten horses whose
+numbers were up went down to the starting point, a quarter of a mile
+from the stand. They were to pass it, make the circuit, and finish
+there, the race being two miles. The interest of the natives was
+enlisted by the fact that Nana Sahib was running a horse, while the
+hopes of the occupants of the inclosure rested principally on Seila.
+
+The flag fell to a good start; but when the horses came along Isobel saw
+with surprise that the dark blue of the Rajah and the Adjutant's scarlet
+and white were both in the rear of the group. Soon afterwards the
+scarlet seemed to be making its way through the horses, and was speedily
+leading them.
+
+"Prothero is making the running with a vengeance," the Major said. "That
+is not like his usual tactics, Doctor."
+
+"I fancy he knows what he is doing," the Doctor replied. "He saw that
+Mameluke's rider was going to make a waiting race of it, and as the
+horse has certainly the turn of speed on him, he is trying other
+tactics. They are passing the mile post now, and Prothero is twelve or
+fourteen lengths ahead. There, Mameluke is going through his horses; his
+rider is beginning to get nervous at the lead Prothero has got, and
+he can't stand it any longer. He ought to have waited for another half
+mile. You will see, Prothero will win after all. Seila can stay, there
+is no doubt about that."
+
+A roar of satisfaction rose from the mass of natives on the other side
+of the inclosure as Mameluke was seen to leave the group of horses and
+gradually to gain upon Seila.
+
+"Oh, he will catch him, uncle!" Isobel said, tearing her handkerchief in
+her excitement.
+
+The Major was watching the horses through his field glass.
+
+"Never mind his catching him," he said; "Prothero is riding quietly and
+steadily. Seila is doing nearly her best, but he is not hurrying her,
+while the fool on Mameluke is bustling the horse as if he had only a
+hundred yards further to go."
+
+The horses were nearing the point at which they had started, when a
+shout from the crowd proclaimed that the blue jacket had come up to and
+passed the scarlet. Slowly it forged ahead until it was two lengths in
+advance, for a few strides their relative positions remained unaltered,
+then there was a shout from the carriages; scarlet was coming up again.
+Mameluke's rider glanced over his shoulder, and began to use the whip.
+For a few strides the horse widened the gap again, but Prothero still
+sat quiet and unmoved. Just as they reached the end of the line of
+carriages, Seila again began to close up.
+
+"Seila wins! Seila wins!" the officers shouted.
+
+But it seemed to Isobel that this was well nigh impossible, but foot by
+foot the mare came up, and as they passed the Hunters' carriage her head
+was in advance.
+
+In spite of the desperate efforts of the rider of Mameluke, another
+hundred yards and they passed the winning post, Seila a length ahead.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The exultation of the officers of the 103d over Seila's victory was
+great. They had all backed her, relying upon Prothero's riding, but
+although his success was generally popular among the Europeans at
+the station, many had lost considerable sums by their confidence in
+Mameluke's speed.
+
+Isobel sat down feeling quite faint from the excitement.
+
+"I did not think I could have been so excited over a race between two
+horses," she said to Mrs. Hunter; "it was not the bets, I never even
+thought about them--it was just because I wanted to see Mr. Prothero's
+horse win. I never understood before why people should take such an
+interest in horse racing, but I quite understand now."
+
+"What is your size, Miss Hannay?" Wilson asked.
+
+"Oh, I don't care anything about the gloves, Mr. Wilson; I am sorry I
+bet now."
+
+"You needn't feel any compunction in taking them from me or from any of
+us, Miss Hannay; we have all won over Seila; the regiment will have to
+give a ball on the strength of it. I only put on a hundred rupees, and
+so have won four hundred, but most of them have won ever so much more
+than that; and all I have lost is four pair of gloves to you, and four
+to Mrs. Doolan, and four to Mrs. Prothero--a dozen in all. Which do you
+take, white or cream, and what is your size?"
+
+"Six and a half, cream."
+
+"All right, Miss Hannay. The Nana must have lost a good lot of money;
+he has been backing his horse with everyone who would lay against
+it. However, it won't make any difference to him, and it is always a
+satisfaction when the loss comes on someone to whom it doesn't matter a
+bit. I think the regiment ought to give a dinner to Prothero, Major; it
+was entirely his riding that did it; he hustled that nigger on Mameluke
+splendidly. If the fellow had waited till within half a mile of home he
+would have won to a certainty; I never saw anything better."
+
+"Well, Miss Hannay, what do you think of a horse race?" Bathurst, who
+had only remained a few minutes at the carriage, asked, as he strolled
+up again. "You said yesterday that you had never seen one."
+
+"I am a little ashamed to say I was very much excited over it, Mr.
+Bathurst. You have not lost, I hope? You are looking" and she stopped.
+
+"Shaky?" he said. "Yes; I feel shaky. I had not a penny on the race,
+for though the Doctor made me put into a sweep last night at the club,
+I drew a blank; but the shouting and excitement at the finish seemed to
+take my breath away, and I felt quite faint."
+
+"That is just how I felt; I did not know men felt like that. They don't
+generally seem to know what nerves are."
+
+"I wish I didn't; it is a great nuisance. The Doctor tries to persuade
+me that it is the effect of overwork, but I have always been so from a
+child, and I can't get over it."
+
+"You don't look nervous, Mr. Bathurst."
+
+"No; when a man is a fair size, and looks bronzed and healthy, no one
+will give him credit for being nervous. I would give a very great deal
+if I could get over it."
+
+"I don't see that it matters much one way or the other, Mr. Bathurst."
+
+"I can assure you that it does. I regard it as being a most serious
+misfortune."
+
+Isobel was a little surprised at the earnestness with which he spoke.
+
+"I should not have thought that," she said quietly; "but I can
+understand that it is disagreeable for a man to feel nervous, simply,
+I suppose, because it is regarded as a feminine quality; but I think a
+good many men are nervous. We had several entertainments on board the
+ship coming out, and it was funny to see how many great strong men broke
+down, especially those who had to make speeches."
+
+"I am not nervous in that way," Bathurst said, with a laugh. "My pet
+horror is noise; thunder prostrates me completely, and in fact all
+noises, especially any sharp, sudden sound, affect me. I really find
+it a great nuisance. I fancy a woman with nerves considers herself as
+a martyr, and deserving of all pity and sympathy. It is almost a
+fashionable complaint, and she is a little proud of it; but a man ought
+to have his nerves in good order, and as much as that is expected of him
+unless he is a feeble little body. There is the bell for the next race."
+
+"Are you going to bet on this race again, Miss Hannay?" Wilson said,
+coming up.
+
+"No, Mr. Wilson. I have done my first and last bit of gambling. I
+don't think it is nice, ladies betting, after all, and if there were a
+hospital here I should order you to send the money the gloves will cost
+you to it as conscience money, and then perhaps you might follow my
+example with your winnings."
+
+"My conscience is not moved in any way," he laughed; "when it is I will
+look out for a deserving charity. Well, if you won't bet I must see if I
+can make a small investment somewhere else."
+
+"I shall see you at the ball, of course?" Isobel said, turning to Mr.
+Bathurst, as Wilson left the carriage.
+
+"No, I think not. Balls are altogether out of my line, and as there is
+always a superabundance of men at such affairs here, there is no sense
+of duty about it."
+
+"What is your line, Mr. Bathurst?"
+
+"I am afraid I have none, Miss Hannay. The fact is, there is really
+more work to be done than one can get through. When you get to know the
+natives well you cannot help liking them and longing to do them some
+good if they would but let you, but it is so difficult to get them to
+take up new ideas. Their religion, with all its customs and ceremonies,
+seems designed expressly to bar out all improvements. Except in the case
+of abolishing Suttee, we have scarcely weaned them from one of their
+observances; and even now, in spite of our efforts, widows occasionally
+immolate themselves, and that with the general approval.
+
+"I wish I had an army of ten thousand English ladies all speaking the
+language well to go about among the women and make friends with them;
+there would be more good done in that way than by all the officials in
+India. They might not be able to emancipate themselves from all their
+restrictions, but they might influence their children, and in time pave
+the way for a moral revolution. But it is ridiculous," he said, breaking
+off suddenly, "my talking like this here, but you see it is what
+you call my line, my hobby, if you like; but when one sees this hard
+working, patient, gentle people making their lot so much harder than it
+need be by their customs and observances one longs to force them even
+against their own will to burst their bonds."
+
+Dr. Wade came up at this moment and caught the last word or two.
+
+"You are incorrigible, Bathurst. Miss Hannay, I warn you that this
+man is a monomaniac. I drag him away from his work, and here he is
+discoursing with you on reform just as a race is going to start. You
+may imagine, my dear, what a thorn he is in the side of the bigwigs.
+You have heard of Talleyrand's advice to a young official, 'Above all
+things, no zeal.' Go away, Bathurst; Miss Hannay wants to see the race,
+and even if she doesn't she is powerless to assist you in your crusade."
+
+Bathurst laughed and drew off.
+
+"That is too bad, Doctor. I was very interested. I like to talk to
+people who can think of something besides races and balls and the gossip
+of the station."
+
+"Yes, in reason, in reason, my dear; but there is a medium in all
+things. I have no doubt Bathurst will be quite happy some time or other
+to give you his full views on child marriages, and the remarriages of
+widows, and female education, and the land settlement, and a score of
+other questions, but for this a few weeks of perfect leisure will be
+required. Seriously, you know that I think Bathurst one of the finest
+young fellows in the service, but his very earnestness injures both his
+prospects and his utility. The officials have a horror of
+enthusiasm; they like the cut and dried subordinate who does his duty
+conscientiously, and does not trouble his head about anything but
+carrying out the regulations laid down for him.
+
+"Theoretically I agree with most of Bathurst's views, practically I see
+that a score of officials like him would excite a revolution throughout
+a whole province. In India, of all places in the world, the maxim
+festina lente--go slow--is applicable. You have the prejudices of a
+couple of thousand years against change. The people of all things are
+jealous of the slightest appearance of interference with their customs.
+The change will no doubt come in time, but it must come gradually, and
+must be the work of the natives themselves and not of us. To try to
+hasten that time would be but to defer it. Now, child, there is the
+bell; now just attend to the business in hand."
+
+"Very well, Doctor, I will obey your orders, but it is only fair to say
+that Mr. Bathurst's remarks are only in answer to something I said," and
+Isobel turned to watch the race, but with an interest less ardent than
+she had before felt.
+
+Isobel's character was an essentially earnest one, and her life up to
+the day of her departure to India had been one of few pleasures. She had
+enjoyed the change and had entered heartily into it, and she was as yet
+by no means tired of it, but she had upon her arrival at Cawnpore been a
+little disappointed that there was no definite work for her to perform,
+and had already begun to feel that a time would come when she would
+want something more than gossip and amusements and the light talk of the
+officers of her acquaintance to fill her life.
+
+She had as yet no distinct interest of her own, and Bathurst's
+earnestness had struck a cord in her own nature and seemed to open a
+wide area for thought. She put it aside now and chatted gayly with the
+Hunters and those who came up to the carriage, but it came back to her
+as she sat in her room before going to bed.
+
+Up till now she had not heard a remark since she had been in Cawnpore
+that might not have been spoken had the cantonments there been the whole
+of India, except that persons at other stations were mentioned. The
+vast, seething native population were no more alluded to than if they
+were a world apart. Bathurst's words had for the first time brought home
+to her the reality of their existence, and that around this little group
+of English men and women lay a vast population, with their joys and
+sorrows and sufferings.
+
+At breakfast she surprised Mrs. Hunter by asking a variety of questions
+as to native customs. "I suppose you have often been in the Zenanas,
+Mrs. Hunter?"
+
+"Not often, my dear. I have been in some of them, and very depressing it
+is to see how childish and ignorant the women are."
+
+"Can nothing be done for them, Mrs. Hunter?"
+
+"Very little. In time I suppose there will be schools for girls, but you
+see they marry so young that it is difficult to get at them."
+
+"How young do they marry?"
+
+"They are betrothed, although it has all the force of a marriage, as
+infants, and a girl can be a widow at two or three years old; and so,
+poor little thing, she remains to the end of her life in a position
+little better than that of a servant in her husband's family. Really
+they are married at ten or eleven."
+
+Isobel looked amazed at this her first insight into native life. Mrs.
+Hunter smiled.
+
+"I heard Mr. Bathurst saying something to you about it yesterday, Miss
+Hannay. He is an enthusiast; we like him very much, but we don't see
+much of him."
+
+"You must beware of him, Miss Hannay," Mr. Hunter said, "or he will
+inoculate you with some of his fads. I do not say that he is not right,
+but he sees the immensity of the need for change, but does not see fully
+the immensity of the difficulty in bringing it about."
+
+"There is no fear of his inoculating me; that is to say of setting me to
+work, for what could one woman do?"
+
+"Nothing, my dear," her uncle said; "if all the white women in India
+threw themselves into the work, they could do little. The natives are
+too jealous of what they consider intruders; the Parsees are about the
+only progressive people. While ladies are welcome enough when they pay
+a visit of ceremony to the Zenana of a native, if they were to try to
+teach their wives to be discontented with their lots--for that is
+what it would be--they would be no longer welcome. Schools are being
+established, but at present these are but a drop in the ocean. Still,
+the work does go on, and in time something will be done. It is of no use
+bothering yourself about it, Isobel; it is best to take matters as you
+find them."
+
+Isobel made no answer, but she was much disappointed when Dr. Wade,
+dropping in to tiffin, said his guest had started two hours before
+for Deennugghur. He had a batch of letters and reports from his native
+clerk, and there was something or other that he said he must see to at
+once.
+
+"He begged me to say, Major, that he was very sorry to go off without
+saying goodby, but he hoped to be in Cawnpore before long. I own that
+that part of the message astonished me, knowing as I do what difficulty
+there is in getting him out of his shell. He and I became great chums
+when I was over at Deennugghur two years ago, and the young fellow is
+not given to making friends. However, as he is not the man to say a
+thing without meaning it, I suppose he intends to come over again. He
+knows there is always a bed for him in my place."
+
+"We see very little of him," Mary Hunter said; "he is always away on
+horseback all day. Sometimes he comes in the evening when we are quite
+alone, but he will never stay long. He always excuses himself on the
+ground that he has a report to write or something of that sort. Amy and
+I call him 'Timon of Athens.'"
+
+"There is nothing of Timon about him," the Doctor remarked dogmatically.
+"That is the way with you young ladies--you think that a man's first
+business in life is to be dancing attendance on you. Bathurst looks at
+life seriously, and no wonder, going about as he does among the natives
+and listening to their stories and complaints. He puts his hand to the
+plow, and does not turn to the right or left."
+
+"Still, Doctor, you must allow," Mrs. Hunter said gravely, "that Mr.
+Bathurst is not like most other men."
+
+"Certainly not," the Doctor remarked. "He takes no interest in sport of
+any kind; he does not care for society; he very rarely goes to the club,
+and never touches a card when he does; and yet he is the sort of man one
+would think would throw himself into what is going on. He is a strong,
+active, healthy man, whom one would expect to excel in all sorts of
+sports; he is certainly good looking; he talks extremely well, and is, I
+should say, very well read and intelligent."
+
+"He can be very amusing when he likes, Doctor. Once or twice when he has
+been with us he has seemed to forget himself, as it were, and was full
+of fun and life. You must allow that it is a little singular that a man
+like this should altogether avoid society, and night and day be absorbed
+in his work."
+
+"I have thought sometimes," Mr. Hunter said, "that Bathurst must have
+had some great trouble in his life. Of what nature I can, of course,
+form no idea. He was little more than twenty when he came out here, so I
+should say that it was hardly a love affair."
+
+"That is always the way, Hunter. If a man goes his own way, and that way
+does not happen to be the way of the mess, it is supposed that he must
+have had trouble of some sort. As Bathurst is the son of a distinguished
+soldier, and is now the owner of a fine property at home, I don't see
+what trouble he can have had. He may possibly, for anything I know, have
+had some boyish love affairs, but I don't think he is the sort of man to
+allow his whole life to be affected by any foolery of that sort. He is
+simply an enthusiast.
+
+"It is good for mankind that there should be some enthusiasts. I grant
+that it would be an unpleasant world if we were all enthusiasts, but
+the sight of a man like him throwing his whole life and energy into his
+work, and wearing himself out trying to lessen the evils he sees
+around him, ought to do good to us all. Look at these boys," and he
+apostrophized Wilson and Richards, as they appeared together at the
+door. "What do they think of but amusing themselves and shirking their
+duties as far as possible?"
+
+"Oh, I say, Doctor," Wilson exclaimed, astonished at this sudden attack,
+"what are you pitching into us like that for? That is not fair, is it,
+Major? We amuse ourselves, of course, when there is nothing else to do,
+but I am sure we don't shirk our work. You don't want us to spend our
+spare time in reading Greek, I suppose?"
+
+"No; but you might spend some of it very profitably in learning some of
+these native languages," the Doctor said. "I don't believe that you know
+above a dozen native words now. You can shout for brandy and water, and
+for a light for your cigars, but I fancy that that is about the extent
+of it."
+
+"We are going to have a moonshee next week, Doctor," Wilson said, a
+little crestfallen, "and a horrid nuisance it will be."
+
+"That is only because you are obliged to pass in the vernacular, Wilson.
+So you need not take any credit to yourself on that account."
+
+"Doctor, you are in one of your worst possible tempers this morning,"
+Isobel said. "You snap at us all round. You are quite intolerable this
+morning."
+
+"I am rather put out by Bathurst running away in this fashion, Miss
+Hannay. I had made up my mind that he would stop three or four days
+longer, and it is pleasant to have someone who can talk and think about
+something besides horses and balls. But I will go away; I don't want to
+be the disturbing element; and I have no doubt that Richards is burning
+to tell you the odds on some of the horses today."
+
+"Shall we see you on the racecourse, Doctor?" the Major asked, as the
+Doctor moved towards the door.
+
+"You will not, Major; one day is enough for me. If they would get up a
+donkey race confined strictly to the subalterns of the station, I might
+take the trouble to go and look at it."
+
+"The Doctor is in great form today," Wilson said good temperedly, after
+the laugh which followed the Doctor's exit had subsided; "and I am sure
+we did nothing to provoke him."
+
+"You got into his line of fire, Wilson," the Major said; "he is
+explosive this morning, and has been giving it to us all round. However,
+nobody minds what the Doctor says; his bark is very bad, but he has
+no bite. Wait till you are down with the fever, and you will find him
+devote himself to you as if he were your father."
+
+"He is one of the kindest men in the world," Isobel agreed warmly,
+thereby effectually silencing Richards, who had just pulled up his shirt
+collar preparatory to a sarcastic utterance respecting him.
+
+Isobel, indeed, was in full sympathy with the Doctor, for she, too, was
+disappointed at Bathurst's sudden departure. She had looked forward to
+learning a good deal from him about the native customs and ways, and
+had intended to have a long talk with him. She was perhaps, too, more
+interested generally in the man himself than she would have been willing
+to admit.
+
+That evening the party went to an entertainment at Bithoor. Isobel and
+the girls were delighted with the illuminations of the gardens and with
+the palace itself, with its mixture of Eastern splendor and European
+luxury. But Isobel did not altogether enjoy the evening.
+
+"I suppose I ought to congratulate you on your success last night,
+Isobel," Dr. Wade said, when he dropped in after breakfast. "Everyone
+has been telling me that the Rajah paid you the greatest attention,
+and that there is the fiercest gnashing of teeth among what must now be
+called the ex-queens of the station."
+
+"I don't know who told you such nonsense, Doctor," Isobel replied hotly.
+"The Rajah quite spoilt the evening for me. I have been telling Mrs.
+Hunter so. If we had not been in his own house, I should have told him
+that I should enjoy the evening very much more if he would leave me
+alone and let me go about and look quietly at the place and the gardens,
+which are really beautiful. No doubt he is pleasant enough, and I
+suppose I ought to have felt flattered at his walking about with me and
+so on, but I am sure I did not. What pleasure does he suppose an English
+girl can have in listening to elaborate compliments from a man as yellow
+as a guinea?"
+
+"Think of his wealth, my dear."
+
+"What difference does his wealth make?" Isobel said. "As far as I have
+seen, I do not think that rich Englishmen are more amusing than others,
+and if he had all the wealth of India, that would not improve Nana Sahib
+in my eyes. There are women, of course, who do think a great deal about
+money, and who will even marry men for it, but even women who would
+do that could not, I should think, care anything about the wealth of a
+Hindoo they cannot marry."
+
+"Not directly, my dear," Mrs. Hunter said; "but people may be flattered
+with the notice and admiration of a person of importance and great
+wealth, even if he is a Hindoo."
+
+"Besides," the Doctor put in, "the Rajah is considered to be a great
+connoisseur of English beauty, and has frequently expressed his deep
+regret that his religion prevented his marrying an English lady."
+
+"I should be very sorry for the English girl who would marry him,
+religion or not."
+
+"I think you are rather hard upon the Nana, Isobel," the Major said.
+"He is a general favorite; he is open handed and liberal; very fond of
+entertaining; a great admirer of us as a nation. He is a wonderfully
+well read man for a Hindoo, can talk upon almost every subject, and is
+really a pleasant fellow."
+
+"I don't like him; I don't like him at all," Isobel said positively.
+
+"Ah, that is only because you thought he made you a little more
+conspicuous than you liked by his attentions to you, Isobel."
+
+"No, indeed, uncle; that was very silly and ridiculous, but I did not
+like the man himself, putting that aside altogether. It was like talking
+to a man with a mask on: it gave me a creepy feeling. It did not seem to
+me that one single word he said was sincere, but that he was acting; and
+over and over again as he was talking I said to myself, 'What is this
+man really like? I know he is not the least bit in the world what he
+pretends to be. But what is the reality?' I felt just the same as I
+should if I had one of those great snakes they bring to our veranda
+coiling round me. The creature might look quiet enough, but I should
+know that if it were to tighten it would crush me in a moment."
+
+The Major and Mrs. Hunter both laughed at her earnestness, but the
+Doctor said gravely, "Is that really how you felt about him when he was
+talking to you, Miss Hannay? I am sorry to hear you say that. I own
+that my opinion has been that of everyone here, that the Rajah is a good
+fellow and a firm friend of the Europeans, and my only doubt has arisen
+from the fact that it was unnatural he should like us when he has
+considerable grounds for grievance against us. We have always relied
+upon his influence, which is great among his countrymen, being thrown
+entirely into the scale on our side if any trouble should ever arise;
+but I own that what you say makes me doubt him. I would always take the
+opinion of a dog or a child about anyone in preference to my own."
+
+"You are not very complimentary, Doctor," Isobel laughed.
+
+"Well, my dear, a young girl who has not mixed much in the world and had
+her instincts blunted is in that respect very much like a child. She may
+be deceived, and constantly is deceived where her heart is concerned,
+and is liable to be taken in by any plausible scoundrel; but where her
+heart is not concerned her instincts are true. When I see children and
+dogs stick to a man I am convinced that he is all right, though I may
+not personally have taken to him. When I see a dog put his tail between
+his legs and decline to accept the advances of a man, and when I see
+children slip away from him as soon as they can, I distrust him at once,
+however pleasant a fellow he may be. As the Rajah, from all I heard,
+certainly laid himself out to be agreeable to you last night, and yet in
+spite of that you felt as you say you did about him, I am bound to say
+that without at once admitting that my impressions about him were
+wrong, I consider that there is good ground for thinking the matter over
+again."
+
+"What nonsense, Doctor," the Major laughed. "Everyone here has known the
+Rajah for years. He is a most popular man, everyone likes him, among the
+ladies especially he is a great favorite. It is ridiculous to suggest
+that everyone should have been wrong about him, merely because Isobel
+takes a prejudice against him, and that as far as I can see is simply
+because his admiration for her was somewhat marked."
+
+Isobel gave a little shudder. "Don't talk about admiration, uncle; that
+is not the word for it; I don't know what it was like. They say snakes
+fascinate birds before they eat them by fixing their eyes upon them. I
+should say it was something of that sort of look."
+
+"Well, my dear, he is not going to eat you, that is certain," the Major
+said; "and I can assure you that his approbation goes for a great
+deal here, and that after this you will go up several pegs in Cawnpore
+society."
+
+Isobel tossed her head. "Then I am sorry for Cawnpore society; it is
+a matter of entire indifference to me whether I go up or down in its
+opinion."
+
+A fortnight later the Nana gave another entertainment. A good deal to
+her uncle's vexation, Isobel refused to go when the time came.
+
+"But what am I to say, my dear?" he asked in some perplexity.
+
+"You can say anything you like, uncle; you can say that I am feeling the
+heat and have got a bad headache, which is true; or you can say that
+I don't care for gayety, which is also true. I shall be very much more
+comfortable and happy at home by myself."
+
+The Hunters had by this time returned to Deennugghur, and the Major
+drove over to Bithoor accompanied only by Dr. Wade. He was rather
+surprised when the Doctor said he would go, as it was very seldom that
+he went out to such entertainments.
+
+"I am not going to amuse myself, Major; I want to have a good look at
+the Nana again; I am not comfortable since Isobel gave us her opinion
+of him. He is an important personage, and if there is any truth in these
+rumors about disaffection among the Sepoys his friendship may be of the
+greatest assistance to us."
+
+So the Doctor was with Major Hannay when the latter made his excuses for
+Isobel's absence on the ground that she was not feeling very well.
+
+The Nana expressed great regret at the news, and said that with the
+Major's permission he would call in the morning to inquire after Miss
+Hannay's health.
+
+"He did not like it," the Doctor said, when they had strolled away
+together. "He was very civil and polite, but I could see that he was
+savage. I fancy he got up this fete principally in her honor. It is not
+often he has two so close together."
+
+"Oh, that is nonsense, Doctor."
+
+"I don't think so. He has done the same sort of thing several times
+before, when he has been specially taken by some fresh face from
+England."
+
+Others besides the Doctor remarked that the Rajah was not quite himself
+that evening. He was courteous and polite to his guests, but he was
+irritable with his own people, and something had evidently gone wrong
+with him.
+
+The next day he called at the Major's. The latter had not told Isobel
+of his intention, for he guessed that had he done so she would have gone
+across to Mrs. Doolan or one of her lady friends, and she was sitting in
+the veranda with him and young Wilson when the carriage drove up.
+
+"I was so sorry to hear that you were unwell, Miss Hannay," the Nana
+said courteously. "It was a great disappointment to me that you were
+unable to accompany your uncle last night."
+
+"I have been feeling the heat the last few days," Isobel said quietly,
+"and, indeed, I do not care much about going out in such hot weather
+as this. I have not been accustomed to much society in England, and the
+crowd and the heat and the lights make my head ache."
+
+"You look the picture of health, Miss Hannay, but I know that it is
+trying for Englishwomen when they first come into our climate; it is
+always a great pleasure to me to receive English ladies at Bithoor. I
+hope upon the next occasion you will be able to come."
+
+"I am much obliged to your highness," she said, "but it would be a truer
+kindness to let me stay quietly at home."
+
+"But that is selfish of you, Miss Hannay. You should think a little of
+the pleasure of others as well as your own."
+
+"I am not conceited enough to suppose that it could make any difference
+to other people's pleasure whether I am at a party or not," Isobel said.
+"I suppose you mean that as a compliment, Rajah, but I am not accustomed
+to compliments, and don't like them."
+
+"You will have to learn to become accustomed to compliments, Miss
+Hannay," the Rajah said, with a smile; and then turning to the Doctor,
+began to tell him of a tiger that had been doing a great deal of harm
+at a village some thirty miles away, and offered to send some elephants
+over to organize a hunt for him if he liked, an invitation that the
+Doctor promptly accepted.
+
+The visit was but a short one. The Rajah soon took his leave.
+
+"You are wrong altogether, Isobel," the Doctor said. "I have returned to
+my conviction that the Rajah is a first rate fellow."
+
+"That is just because he offered you some shooting, Doctor," Isobel said
+indignantly. "I thought better of you than to suppose that you could be
+bought over so easily as that."
+
+"She had you there, Doctor," the Major laughed. "However, I am glad that
+you will no longer be backing her in her fancies."
+
+"Why did you accept his invitation for us to go over and lunch there,
+uncle?" Isobel asked, in a tone of annoyance.
+
+"Because there was no reason in the world why we should refuse, my dear.
+He very often has luncheon parties, and after that he will show you over
+the place, and exhibit his jewels and curiosities. He said there would
+be other ladies there, and I have no doubt we shall have a very pleasant
+day."
+
+Even Isobel was obliged to confess that the visit was a pleasant one.
+The Nana had asked Mrs. Cromarty, her daughters, and most of the other
+ladies of the regiment, with their husbands. The lunch was a banquet,
+and after it was over the parties were taken round the place, paid a
+visit to the Zenana, inspected the gardens and stables, and were driven
+through the park. The Nana saw that Isobel objected to be particularly
+noticed, and had the tact to make his attentions so general that even
+she could find no fault with him.
+
+On the drive back she admitted to her uncle that she had enjoyed her
+visit very much, and that the Rajah's manners were those of a perfect
+gentleman.
+
+"But mind, uncle," she said, "I do not retract my opinion. What the
+Rajah really is I don't pretend to know, but I am quite sure that the
+character of a smiling host is not his real one, and that for some
+reason or other he is simply playing a part."
+
+"I had no idea that you were such a prejudiced little woman," the Major
+said, somewhat vexed; "but as it is no use arguing with you we had
+better drop the subject."
+
+For the next month Cawnpore suffered a little from the reaction
+after the gayety of the races, but there was no lack of topics of
+conversation, for the rumors of disaffection among the troops gained in
+strength, and although nothing positive was known, and everyone scoffed
+at the notion of any serious trouble, the subject was so important a
+one that little else was talked of whenever parties of the ladies got
+together.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+"I have some bad news, Isobel. At least I suppose you will consider it
+bad news," the Major said one morning, when he returned from the orderly
+room. "You heard me say that four companies were going to relieve those
+at Deennugghur. Well, I am going with them. It seems that the General is
+of opinion that in the present unsettled state of affairs there ought to
+be a field officer in command there, so I have to go. For myself I don't
+mind, but you will find it dull in a small station like that, after the
+gayeties of Cawnpore."
+
+"I don't mind a bit, uncle, in that respect. I don't think I care
+much for gayeties, but of course the move will be a trouble. We have
+everything so nice here, it will be horrid having to leave it all. How
+long will it be for?"
+
+"Six months, in the ordinary state of things, though of course something
+may occur to bring us in before that. Still, the change won't be as much
+trouble as you fancy. When we get there you can stay for two or three
+days with the Hunters till we have got the things to rights. There is
+one thing that you will be pleased about. Wade is going with us, at any
+rate for the present; you are a favorite of his, you know, and I think
+that is the principal reason for his going. At any rate, when he heard I
+was in orders, he told the Colonel that, as there was no illness in the
+regiment, he thought, if he did not object, he would change places for
+a bit with M'Alaster, the assistant surgeon, who has been with the
+detachment at Deennugghur for the last year, so as to give him a turn
+of duty at Cawnpore, and do a little shikaring himself. There is more
+jungle and better shooting round Deennugghur than there is here, and you
+know the Doctor is an enthusiast that way. Of course, the Colonel agreed
+at once."
+
+"I am very glad of that, uncle; it won't seem like going to a strange
+place if we have him with us, and the Hunters there, and I suppose three
+or four officers of the regiment. Who are going?"
+
+"Both your boys," the Major laughed, "and Doolan and Rintoul."
+
+"When do we go, uncle?"
+
+"Next Monday. I shall get somebody to put us up from Friday, and that
+morning we will get everything dismantled here, and send them off by
+bullock carts with the servants to Deennugghur, so that they will be
+there by Monday morning. I will write to Hunter to pick us out the best
+of the empty bungalows, and see that our fellows get to work to clean
+the place up as soon as they arrive. We shall be two days on the march,
+and things will be pretty forward by the time we get there."
+
+"And where shall we sleep on the march?"
+
+"In tents, my dear, and very comfortable you will find them. Rumzan will
+go with us, and you will find everything go on as smoothly as if you
+were here. Tent life in India is very pleasant. Next year, in the cool
+season, we will do an excursion somewhere, and I am sure you will find
+it delightful: they don't know anything about the capabilities of tents
+at home."
+
+"Then do I quite understand, uncle, that all I have got to do is to make
+a round of calls to say goodby to everyone?"
+
+"That is all. You will find a lot of my cards in one of those pigeon
+holes; you may as well drop one wherever you go. Shall I order a
+carriage from Framjee's for today?"
+
+"No, I think not, uncle; I will go round to our own bungalows first, and
+hear what Mrs. Doolan and the others think about it."
+
+At Mrs. Doolan's Isobel found quite an assembly. Mrs. Rintoul had come
+in almost in tears, and the two young lieutenants had dropped in with
+Captain Doolan, while one or two other officers had come round to
+commiserate with Mrs. Doolan.
+
+"Another victim," the latter said, as Isobel entered.
+
+"You look too cheerful, Miss Hannay. I find that we are expected to wear
+sad countenances at our approaching banishment."
+
+"Are we, Mrs. Doolan? It seems to me that it won't make very much
+difference to us."
+
+"Not make any difference, Miss Hannay!" Captain Doolan said. "Why,
+Deennugghur is one of the dullest little stations on this side of
+India!"
+
+"What do you mean by dull, Captain Doolan?"
+
+"Why, there are only about six white residents there besides the troops.
+Of course, as four companies are going instead of one, it will make
+a difference; but there will be no gayety, no excitement, and really
+nothing to do."
+
+"As for the gayety, I am sure I shall not regret it, Captain Doolan;
+besides, our gayeties are pretty well over, except, of course, dinner
+parties, and it is getting very hot for them. We shall get off having to
+go out in the heat of the day to make calls, which seem to me terrible
+afflictions, and I think with a small party it ought to be very sociable
+and pleasant. As for excitement, I hear that there is much better
+shooting there than there is here. Mrs. Hunter was telling me that they
+have had some tigers that have been very troublesome round there, and
+you will all have an opportunity of showing your skill and bravery.
+I know that Mr. Richards and Mr. Wilson are burning to distinguish
+themselves."
+
+"It would be great fun to shoot a tiger," Richards said. "When I came
+out to India I thought there was going to be lots of tiger shooting, and
+I bought a rifle on purpose, but I have never had a chance yet. Yes, we
+will certainly get up a tiger hunt, won't we, Wilson? You will tell us
+how to set about it, won't you, Doolan?"
+
+"I don't shoot," Captain Doolan said; "and if I wanted to, I am not sure
+that my wife would give me leave."
+
+"Certainly I would not," Mrs. Doolan said promptly. "Married men have no
+right to run into unnecessary danger."
+
+"Dr. Wade will be able to put you in the way, Mr. Richards," Isobel
+said.
+
+"Dr. Wade!" Mrs. Rintoul exclaimed. "You don't mean to say, Miss Hannay,
+that he is going with us?"
+
+"Yes, he is going for a time, Mrs. Rintoul. My uncle told me that he had
+applied to go with the detachment, and that the surgeon there would come
+back to the regiment while he is away."
+
+"I do call that hard," Mrs. Rintoul said. "The only thing I was glad we
+were going for was that we should be under Mr. M'Alaster, who is very
+pleasant, and quite understands my case, while Dr. Wade does not seem to
+understand it at all, and is always so very brusque and unsympathetic."
+
+There was a general smile.
+
+"Wade is worth a hundred of M'Alaster," Captain Roberts said. "There is
+not a man out here I would rather trust myself to if I were ill. He is
+an awfully good fellow, too, all round, though he may be, as you say, a
+little brusque in manner."
+
+"I call him a downright bear," Mrs. Rintoul said angrily. "Why, only
+last week he told me that if I would get up two hours earlier and go for
+a brisk walk just after sunrise, and give up eating meat at tiffin, and
+confine myself to two or three dishes at dinner, I should be perfectly
+well in the course of a month; just as if I was in the habit of
+overeating myself, when I have scarcely the appetite of a sparrow. I
+told Captain Rintoul afterwards that I must consult someone else, for
+that really I could not bear such rudeness."
+
+"I am afraid we are all against you, Mrs. Rintoul," Mrs. Doolan said,
+with a little shake of her head at Isobel, who was, she saw, going to
+speak out strongly. "No one could possibly be kinder than he is when
+anyone is really ill. I mean seriously ill," she added, as Mrs. Rintoul
+drew herself up indignantly. "I shall never forget how attentive he was
+to the children when they were down with fever just before he went to
+England. He missed his ship and lost a month of his leave because he
+would not go away till they were out of danger, and there are very few
+men who would have done that. I shall never forget his kindness. And now
+let us talk of something else. You will have to establish a little mess
+on your own account, Mr. Wilson, as both the Captains are married men,
+and the Major has also an incumbrance."
+
+"Yes, it will be horribly dull, Mrs. Doolan. Richards and I have
+quarters together here, and, of course, it will be the same there, and
+I am sure I don't know what we shall find to talk about when we come to
+have to mess together. Of course, here, there are the messroom and the
+club, and so we get on very well, but to be together always will be
+awful."
+
+"You will really have to take to reading or something of that sort, Mr.
+Wilson," Isobel laughed.
+
+"I always do read the Field, Miss Hannay, but that won't last for a
+whole week, you know; and there is no billiard table, and no racquet
+court, or anything else at Deennugghur, and one cannot always be riding
+about the country."
+
+"We shall all have to take pity on you as much as we can," Mrs. Doolan
+said. "I must say that, like Miss Hannay, I shall not object to the
+change."
+
+"I think it is all very well for you, Mrs. Doolan; you have children."
+
+"Well, Mr. Richards, I will let you both, as a great treat, take them
+out for a walk sometimes of a morning instead of their going with the
+ayah. That will make a change for you."
+
+There was a general laugh, but Wilson said manfully, "Very well, Mrs.
+Doolan; I am very fond of youngsters, and I should like to take, anyhow,
+the two eldest out sometimes. I don't think I should make much hand with
+the other two, but perhaps Richards would like to come in and amuse them
+while we are out; he is just the fellow for young ones."
+
+There was another laugh, in which Richards joined. "I could carry them
+about on my back, and pretend to be a horse," he said; "but I don't know
+that I could amuse them in any other way."
+
+"You would find that very hot work, Mr. Richards," Mrs. Doolan said;
+"but I don't think we shall require such a sacrifice of you. Well, I
+don't think we shall find it so bad, after all, and I don't suppose
+it will be for very long; I do not believe in all this talk about
+chupaties, and disaffection, and that sort of thing; I expect in three
+months we shall most of us be back again."
+
+Ten days later the detachment was settled down in Deennugghur.
+The troops were for the most part under canvas, for there was only
+accommodation for a single company at the station. The two subalterns
+occupied a large square tent, while the other three officers took
+possession of the only three bungalows that were vacant at the station,
+the Doctor having a tent to himself. The Major and Isobel had stayed
+for the first three days with the Hunters, at the end of which time the
+bungalow had been put in perfect order. It was far less commodious than
+that at Cawnpore, but Isobel was well satisfied with it when all their
+belongings had been arranged, and she soon declared that she greatly
+preferred Deennugghur to Cawnpore.
+
+Those at the station heartily welcomed the accession to their numbers,
+and there was an entire absence of the stiffness and formality of a
+large cantonment like Cawnpore, and Isobel was free to run in as she
+chose to spend the morning chatting and working with the Hunters, or
+Mrs. Doolan, or with the other ladies, of whom there were three at the
+station.
+
+A few days after their arrival news came in that the famous man eater,
+which had for a time ceased his ravages and moved off to a different
+part of the country, principally because the natives of the village
+near the jungle had ceased altogether to go out after nightfall, had
+returned, and had carried off herdsmen on two consecutive days.
+
+The Doctor at once prepared for action, and agreed to allow Wilson and
+Richards to accompany him, and the next day the three rode off together
+to Narkeet, to which village the two herdsmen had belonged. Both had
+been killed near the same spot, and the natives had traced the return of
+the tiger to its lair in the jungle with its victims.
+
+The Doctor soon found that the ordinary methods of destroying the tiger
+had been tried again and again without success. Cattle and goats had
+been tied up, and the native shikaris had taken their posts in trees
+close by, and had watched all night; but in vain. Spring traps
+and deadfalls had also been tried, but the tiger seemed absolutely
+indifferent to the attractions of their baits, and always on the lookout
+for snares. The attempts made at a dozen villages near the jungle had
+all been equally unsuccessful.
+
+"It is evident," the Doctor said, "that the brute cares for nothing but
+human victims. No doubt, if he were very hungry he would take a cow or
+a goat, but we might wait a very long time for that; so the only thing
+that I can see is to act as a bait myself."
+
+"How will you do that, Doctor?"
+
+"I shall build a sort of cage near the point where the tiger has twice
+entered the jungle. I will take with me in the cage a woman or girl from
+the village. From time to time she shall cry out as if in pain, and
+as the tiger is evidently somewhere in this neighborhood it is likely
+enough he will come out to see about it.
+
+"We must have the cage pretty strong, or I shall never get anyone to sit
+with me; besides, on a dark night, there is no calculating on killing
+to a certainty with the first shot, and it is just as well to be on the
+safe side. In daylight it would be a different matter altogether. I can
+rely upon my weapon when I can see, but on a dark night it is pretty
+well guesswork."
+
+The villagers were at once engaged to erect a stout cage eight feet
+square and four high, of beams driven into the ground six inches apart,
+and roofed in with strong bars. There was a considerable difficulty in
+getting anyone to consent to sit by the Doctor, but at last the widow
+of one of the men who had been killed agreed for the sum of twenty-five
+rupees to pass the night there, accompanied by her child four years old.
+
+The Doctor's skill with his rifle was notorious, and it was rather the
+desire of seeing her husband's death avenged than for the sake of the
+money that she consented to keep watch. There was but one tree suitable
+for the watchers; it stood some forty yards to the right of the cage,
+and it was arranged that both the subalterns should take their station
+in it.
+
+"Now look here, lads," the Doctor said, "before we start on this
+business, it must be quite settled that you do not fire till you hear
+my rifle. That is the first thing; the second is that you only fire when
+the brute is a fair distance from the cage. If you get excited and blaze
+away anyhow, you are quite as likely to hit me as you are the tiger.
+Now, I object to take any risk whatever on that score. You will have a
+native shikari in the tree with you to point out the tiger, for it is
+twenty to one against your making him out for yourselves. It will be
+quite indistinct, and you have no chance of making out its head or
+anything of that sort, and you have to take a shot at it as best you
+may.
+
+"Remember there must not be a word spoken. If the brute does come,
+it will probably make two or three turns round the cage before it
+approaches it, and may likely enough pass close to you, but in no case
+fire. You can't make sure of killing it, and if it were only wounded
+it would make off into the jungle, and all our trouble would be thrown
+away. Also remember you must not smoke; the tiger would smell it half
+a mile away, and, besides, the sound of a match striking would be quite
+sufficient to set him on his guard."
+
+"There is no objection, I hope, Doctor, to our taking up our flasks; we
+shall want something to keep us from going to sleep."
+
+"No, there is no objection to that," the Doctor said; "but mind you
+don't go to sleep, for if you did you might fall off your bough and
+break your neck, to say nothing of the chance of the tiger happening to
+be close at hand at the time."
+
+Late in the afternoon the Doctor went down to inspect the cage, and
+pronounced it sufficiently strong. Half an hour before nightfall he and
+the woman and child took their places in it, and the two beams in the
+roof that had been left unfastened to allow of their entry were securely
+lashed in their places by the villagers. Wilson and Richards were helped
+up into the tree, and took their places upon two boughs which sprang
+from the trunk close to each other at a height of some twelve feet from
+the ground. The shikari who was to wait with them crawled out, and with
+a hatchet chopped off some of the small boughs and foliage so as to give
+them a clear view of the ground for some distance round the cage, which
+was erected in the center of a patch of brushwood, the lower portion
+of which had been cleared out so that the Doctor should have an
+uninterrupted view round. The boughs and leaves were gathered up by the
+villagers, and carried away by them, and the watch began.
+
+"Confound it," Richards whispered to his companion after night fell, "it
+is getting as dark as pitch; I can scarcely make out the clump where the
+cage is. I should hardly see an elephant if it were to come, much less a
+brute like a tiger."
+
+"We shall get accustomed to it presently," Wilson replied; "at any rate
+make quite sure of the direction in which the cage is in; it is better
+to let twenty tigers go than to run the risk of hitting the Doctor."
+
+In another hour their eyes had become accustomed to the darkness, and
+they could not only see the clump in which the cage was clearly, but
+could make out the outline of the bush all round the open space in which
+it stood. Both started as a loud and dismal wail rose suddenly in the
+air, followed by a violent crying.
+
+"By Jove, how that woman made me jump!" Wilson said; "it sounded quite
+awful, and she must have pinched that poor little beggar of hers pretty
+sharply to make him yell like that."
+
+A low "hush!" from the shikari at his elbow warned Wilson that he
+was speaking too loudly. Hours passed by, the cries being raised at
+intervals.
+
+"It is enough to give one the jumps, Richards; each time she yells I
+nearly fall off my branch."
+
+"Keep on listening, then it won't startle you."
+
+"A fellow can't keep on listening," Wilson grumbled; "I listen each time
+until my ears begin to sing, and I feel stupid and sleepy, and then she
+goes off again like a steam whistle; that child will be black and blue
+all over in the morning."
+
+A warning hiss from the shikari again induced Wilson to silence.
+
+"I don't believe the brute is coming," he whispered, an hour later. "If
+it wasn't for this bough being so hard I should drop off to sleep; my
+eyes ache with staring at those bushes."
+
+As he spoke the shikari touched him on the shoulder and pointed.
+"Tiger," he whispered; and then did the same to Richards. Grasping their
+rifles, they gazed in the direction in which he pointed, but could for
+some time make out nothing. Then they saw a dim gray mass in front of
+the bushes, directly on the opposite side of the open space; then from
+the cage, lying almost in a direct line between it and them, rose the
+cry of the child. They were neither of them at all certain that the
+object at which they were gazing was the tiger. It seemed shapeless,
+the outline fading away in the bush; but they felt sure that they had
+noticed nothing like it in that direction before.
+
+For two or three minutes they remained in uncertainty, then the outline
+seemed to broaden, and it moved noiselessly. There could be no mistake
+now; the tiger had been attracted by the cries, and as it moved along
+they could see that it was making a circuit of the spot from whence the
+sounds proceeded, to reconnoiter before advancing towards its prey. It
+kept close to the line of bushes, and sometimes passed behind some of
+them. The shikari pressed their shoulders, and a low hiss enforced the
+necessity for absolute silence. The two young fellows almost held
+their breath; they had lost sight of the tiger now, but knew it must be
+approaching them.
+
+For two or three minutes they heard and saw nothing, then the shikari
+pointed beyond them, and they almost started as they saw the tiger
+retreating, and knew that it must have passed almost under them without
+their noticing it. At last it reached the spot at which they had first
+seen it. The child's cry, but this time low and querulous, again rose.
+With quicker steps than before it moved on, but still not directly
+towards the center, to the great relief of the two subalterns, who had
+feared that it might attack from such a direction that they would not
+dare to fire for fear of hitting the cage. Fortunately it passed that
+point, and, crouching, moved towards the bushes.
+
+Wilson and Richards had their rifles now at their shoulders, but, in the
+feeble and uncertain light, felt by no means sure of hitting their
+mark, though it was but some thirty yards away. Almost breathlessly they
+listened for the Doctor's rifle, but both started when the flash and
+sharp crack broke on the stillness. There was a sudden snarl of pain,
+the tiger gave a spring in the air, and then fell, rolling over and
+over.
+
+"It is not killed!" the shikari exclaimed. "Fire when it gets up."
+
+Suddenly it rose to its feet, and with a loud roar sprang towards the
+thicket. The two subalterns fired, but the movements of the dimly seen
+creature were so swift that they felt by no means sure that they had hit
+it. Then came, almost simultaneously, a loud shriek from the woman, of
+a very different character to the long wails she had before uttered,
+followed by a sound of rending and tearing.
+
+"He is breaking down the cage!" Richards exclaimed excitedly, as he and
+Wilson hastened to ram another cartridge down their rifles. "Come, we
+must go and help the Doctor."
+
+But a moment later came another report of a rifle, and then all was
+silent. Then the Doctor's voice was heard.
+
+"Don't get down from the tree yet, lads; I think he is dead, but it is
+best to make sure first."
+
+There was a pause, and then another rifle shot, followed by the shout
+"All right; he is as dead as a door nail now. Mind your rifles as you
+climb down."
+
+"Fancy thinking of that," Wilson said, "when you have just killed a
+tiger! I haven't capped mine yet; have you, Richards?"
+
+"I have just put it on, but will take it off again. Here, old man, you
+get down first, and we will hand the guns to you."--this to the shikari.
+
+With some difficulty they scrambled down from the tree.
+
+"Now we may as well cap our rifles," Richards said; "the brute may not
+be dead after all."
+
+They approached the bush cautiously.
+
+"You are quite sure he is dead, Doctor?"
+
+"Quite sure; do you think I don't know when a tiger is dead?"
+
+Still holding their guns in readiness to fire, they approached the
+bushes.
+
+"You can do no good until the villagers come with torches," the
+Doctor said; "the tiger is dead enough, but it is always as well to be
+prudent."
+
+The shikari had uttered a loud cry as he sprang down from the tree, and
+this had been answered by shouts from the distance. In a few minutes
+lights were seen through the trees, and a score of men with torches and
+lanterns ran up with shouts of satisfaction.
+
+As soon as they arrived the two young officers advanced to the cage.
+On the top a tiger was lying stretched out as if in sleep; with some
+caution they approached it and flashed a torch in its eyes. There was
+no doubt that it was dead. The body was quickly rolled off the cage, and
+then a dozen hands cut the lashing and lifted the top bars, which was
+deeply scored by the tiger's claws, and the Doctor emerged.
+
+"I am glad to be out of that," he said; "six hours in a cage with a
+woman and a crying brat is no joke."
+
+As soon as the Doctor had got out, the subalterns eagerly examined the
+tiger, upon which the natives were heaping curses and execrations.
+
+"How many wounds has it got?" they asked the Doctor, who repeated the
+question to the shikari in his own language.
+
+"Three, sahib. One full in the chest--it would have been mortal--two
+others in the ribs by the heart."
+
+"No others?" the subalterns exclaimed in disgust, as the answer was
+translated to them. The Doctor himself examined the tiger.
+
+"No; you both missed, lads, but you need not be ashamed of that; it is
+no easy matter to hit a tiger even at a short distance on a dark night
+like this, when you can scarce make him out, and can't see the barrel of
+your rifle. I ought to have told you to rub a little phosphorus off the
+head of a match onto the sight. I am so accustomed to do it myself as
+a matter of course that I did not think of telling you. Well, I am
+heartily glad we have killed it, for by all accounts it has done an
+immense deal of damage."
+
+"It has been a fine tiger in its time, although its skin doesn't look
+much," Wilson said; "there are patches of fur off."
+
+"That is generally the case with man eaters. They are mostly old tigers
+who take, when they get past their strength, to killing men. I don't
+know whether the flesh doesn't agree with them, but they are almost
+always mangy."
+
+"We were afraid for a moment," Richards said, "that the tiger was going
+to break into your cage; we heard him clawing away at the timber, and as
+you didn't fire again we were afraid something was the matter."
+
+"The mother was," the Doctor said testily. "The moment the tiger sprang,
+the woman threw herself down at full length right on the top of my
+second rifle, and when I went to push her off I think she fancied the
+tiger had got hold of her, for she gave a yell that fairly made me jump.
+I had to push her off by main force, and then lie down on my back, so as
+to get the rifle up to fire. I was sure the first shot was fatal, for I
+knew just where his heart would be, but I dropped a second cartridge in,
+and gave him another bullet so as to make sure. Well, if either of
+you want his head or his claws, you had better say so at once, for the
+natives will be singeing his whiskers off directly; the practice is a
+superstition of theirs."
+
+"No, I don't want them," Wilson said. "If I had put a bullet into the
+brute, so that I could have said I helped to kill him, I should have
+liked the head to get it preserved and sent home to my people, but as it
+is the natives are welcome to it as far as I am concerned."
+
+Richards was of the same opinion, and so without further delay they
+started back for the village, where, upon their arrival, they were
+greeted with cries of joy by the women, the news having already been
+carried back by a boy.
+
+"Poor beggars!" the Doctor said. "They have been living a life of terror
+for weeks. They must feel as if they had woke from a nightmare. Now,
+lads, we will have some supper. I dare say you are ready for it, and I
+am sure I am."
+
+"Is there any chance for supper, Doctor?--why, it must be two o'clock in
+the morning."
+
+"Of course there is," the Doctor replied. "I gave orders to my man to
+begin to warm up the food as soon as he heard a gun fired, and I will
+guarantee he has got everything ready by this time."
+
+After a hearty meal and a cigar they lay down for a few hours' sleep,
+and at daybreak rode back to Deennugghur, the two subalterns rather
+crestfallen at their failure to have taken any active part in killing
+the tiger that had so long been a terror to the district.
+
+"It was an awful sell missing him, Miss Hannay; I wanted to have had the
+claws mounted as a necklace; I thought you would have liked it."
+
+"I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Wilson, but I would much rather not
+have had them. If the tiger hadn't been a man eater I should not have
+minded, but I should never have worn as an ornament claws that had
+killed lots of people--women and children too."
+
+"No, I never thought of that, Miss Hannay; it wouldn't have been
+pleasant, now one thinks of it; still, I wish I had put a bullet into
+him."
+
+"No doubt you will do better next time, Mr. Wilson. The Doctor has been
+telling me that it is extremely difficult to hit an animal in the dark
+when you are not accustomed to that sort of shooting. He says he was in
+a great fright all the time he was lying in the cage, and that it was an
+immense relief to him when he heard your rifles go off, and found that
+he wasn't hit."
+
+"That is too bad of him, Miss Hannay," Wilson laughed; "we were not such
+duffers as all that. I don't believe he really did think so."
+
+"I am sure he was in earnest, Mr. Wilson. He said he should have felt
+quite safe if it had been daylight, but that in the dark people really
+can't see which way the rifles are pointed, and that he remembered he
+had not told you to put phosphorus on the sights."
+
+"It was too bad of him," Wilson grumbled; "it would have served him
+right if one of the bullets had hit a timber of the cage and given him
+a start; I should like to have seen the Doctor struggling in the dark
+to get his second rifle from under the woman, with the tiger clawing and
+growling two feet above him."
+
+"The Doctor didn't tell me about that," Isobel laughed; "though he said
+he had a woman and child with him to attract the tiger."
+
+"It would have frightened any decent minded tiger, Miss Hannay, instead
+of attracting it; for such dismal yells as that woman made I never
+listened to. I nearly tumbled off the tree at the first of them, it made
+me jump so, and it gave me a feeling of cold water running down my back.
+As to the child, I don't know whether she pinched it or the doctor stuck
+pins into it, but the poor little brute howled in the most frightful
+way. I don't think I shall ever want to go tiger shooting in the dark
+again; I ache all over today as if I had been playing in the first
+football match of the season, from sitting balancing myself on that
+branch; I was almost over half a dozen times."
+
+"I expect you nearly went off to sleep, Mr. Wilson."
+
+"I think I should have gone to sleep if it hadn't been for that woman,
+Miss Hannay. I should not have minded if I could have smoked, but to
+sit there hour after hour and not be able to smoke, and not allowed to
+speak, and staring all the time into the darkness till your eyes ached,
+was trying, I can tell you; and after all that, not to hit the brute was
+too bad."
+
+The days passed quietly at Deennugghur. They were seldom alone at Major
+Hannay's bungalow in the evening, for Wilson and Richards generally came
+in to smoke a cigar in the veranda; the Doctor was a regular visitor,
+when he was not away in pursuit of game, and Bathurst was also often one
+of the party.
+
+"Mr. Bathurst is coming out wonderfully, Miss Hannay," Mrs. Hunter
+said one day, as Isobel sat working with her, while the two girls were
+practicing duets on a piano in the next room. "We used to call him
+the hermit, he was so difficult to get out of his cell. We were quite
+surprised when he accepted our invitation to dinner yesterday."
+
+"I think Dr. Wade has stirred him up," Isobel said calmly; "he is a
+great favorite of the Doctor's."
+
+Mrs. Hunter smiled over her work. "Perhaps so, my dear; anyhow, I am
+glad he has come out, and I hope he won't retire into his cell again
+after you have all gone."
+
+"I suppose it depends a good deal upon his work," Isobel said.
+
+"My experience of men is that they can always make time if they like, my
+dear. When a man says he is too busy to do this, that, or the other, you
+may always safely put it down that he doesn't want to do it. Of course,
+it is just the same thing with ourselves. You often hear women say they
+are too busy to attend to all sorts of things that they ought to attend
+to, but the same women can find plenty of time to go to every pleasure
+gathering that comes off. There is no doubt that Mr. Bathurst is really
+fond of work, and that he is an indefatigable civil servant of the
+Company, but that would not prevent him making an hour or two's time
+of an evening, occasionally, if he wanted to. However, he seems to have
+turned over a new leaf, and I hope it will last. In a small station like
+this, even one man is of importance, especially when he is as pleasant
+as Mr. Bathurst can be when he likes. He was in the army at one time,
+you know."
+
+"Was he, Mrs. Hunter?"
+
+"Yes. I never heard him say so himself, but I have heard so from several
+people. I think he was only in it for a year or so. I suppose he did not
+care for it, and can quite imagine he would not, so he sold out, and
+a short time afterwards obtained a civil appointment. He has very good
+interest; his father was General Bathurst, who was, you know, a very
+distinguished officer. So he had no difficulty in getting into our
+service, where he is entirely in his element. His father died two
+years ago, and I believe he came into a good property at home. Everyone
+expected he would have thrown up his appointment, but it made no
+difference to him, and he just went on as before, working as if he had
+to depend entirely on the service."
+
+"I can quite understand that," Isobel said, "to a really earnest man
+a life of usefulness here must be vastly preferable to living at home
+without anything to do or any object in life."
+
+"Well, perhaps so, my dear, and in theory that is, no doubt, the case;
+but practically, I fancy you would find nineteen men out of twenty, even
+if they are what you call earnest men, retire from the ranks of hard
+workers if they come into a nice property. By the way, you must come in
+here this evening. There is a juggler in the station, and Mr. Hunter has
+told him to come round. The servants say the man is a very celebrated
+juggler, one of the best in India, and as the girls have never seen
+anything better than the ordinary itinerant conjurers, my husband has
+arranged for him to come in here, and we have been sending notes round
+asking everyone to come in. We have sent one round to your place, but
+you must have come out before the chit arrived."
+
+"Oh, I should like that very much!" Isobel said. "Two or three men came
+to our bungalow at Cawnpore and did some conjuring, but it was nothing
+particular; but uncle says some of them do wonderful things--things that
+he cannot account for at all. That was one of the things I read about at
+school, and thought I should like to see, more than anything in India.
+When I was at school we went in a body, two or three times, to see
+conjurers when they came to Cheltenham. Of course I did not understand
+the things they did, and they seemed wonderful to me, but I know there
+are people who can explain them, and that they are only tricks; but
+I have read accounts of things done by jugglers in India that seemed
+utterly impossible to explain--really a sort of magic."
+
+"I have heard a good many arguments about it," Mrs. Hunter said; "and
+a good many people, especially those who have seen most of them, are
+of opinion that many of the feats of the Indian jugglers cannot be
+explained by any natural laws we know of. I have seen some very curious
+things myself, but the very fact that I did not understand how they were
+done was no proof they could not be explained; certainly two of their
+commonest tricks, the basket trick and the mango, have never been
+explained. Our conjurers at home can do something like them, but then
+that is on a stage, where they can have trapdoors and all sorts of
+things, while these are done anywhere--in a garden, on a road--where
+there could be no possible preparation, and with a crowd of lookers on
+all round; it makes me quite uncomfortable to look at it."
+
+"Well, I must be off now, Mrs. Hunter; it is nearly time for uncle to be
+back, and he likes me to be in when he returns."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Dr. Wade was sitting in the veranda smoking and reading an English paper
+that had arrived by that morning's mail, when Isobel returned.
+
+"Good morning, Doctor. Is uncle back?"
+
+"Not yet. He told me he might be half an hour late, and that I was to
+come round and amuse you until he came back."
+
+"So in my absence you have been amusing yourself, Doctor. I have been
+round at Mrs. Hunter's; she is going to have a juggler there this
+evening, and we are all to go."
+
+"Yes, I got a chit from her this morning. I have seen scores of them,
+but I make a point of never missing an exhibition when I get the chance.
+I hate anything I don't understand, and I go with the faint hope of
+being able to find things out, though I know perfectly well that I shall
+not do so."
+
+"Then you think it is not all quite natural, Doctor?"
+
+"I don't say it is not natural, because we don't know what all the
+natural laws are, but I say that some of the things I have seen
+certainly are not to be accounted for by anything we do know. It is not
+often that the jugglers show their best tricks to the whites--they know
+that, as a rule, we are altogether skeptical; but I have seen at native
+courts more than once the most astounding things--things absolutely
+incomprehensible and inexplicable. I don't suppose we are going to see
+anything of that sort tonight, though Mrs. Hunter said in her note that
+they had heard from the native servant that this man was a famous one.
+
+"There is a sect of people in India, I don't mean a caste, but a sort
+of secret society, who, I believe, claim to be able by some sort of
+influence to suspend altogether the laws of nature. I do not say that
+I believe them--as a scientific man, it is my duty not to believe
+them; but I have seen such things done by some of the higher class of
+jugglers, and that under circumstances that did not seem to admit of
+the possibility of deception, that I am obliged to suspend my judgment,
+which, as you may imagine, my dear, is exceedingly annoying to me; but
+some of them do possess to a considerable extent what the Scotch call
+second sight, that is to say, the power of foreseeing events in the
+future. Of that I am morally certain; I have seen proofs of it over and
+over again. For example, once an old fakir, whom I had cured of a badly
+ulcerated limb, came up just as I was starting on a shooting expedition.
+
+"'Do not go out today,' he said. 'I foresee evil for you. I saw you last
+night brought back badly wounded.'
+
+"'But if I don't go your dream will come wrong,' I said.
+
+"He shook his head.
+
+"'You will go in spite of what I say,' he said; 'and you will suffer,
+and others too;' and he looked at a group of shikaris, who were standing
+together, ready to make a start.
+
+"'How many men are there?' he said.
+
+"'Why, six of course,' I replied.
+
+"'I see only three,' he said, 'and three dull spots. One of those I
+see is holding his matchlock on his shoulder, another is examining his
+priming, the third is sitting down by the tire. Those three will come
+back at the end of the day; the other three will not return alive.'
+
+"I felt rather uncomfortable, but I wasn't, as I said to myself--I was a
+good deal younger then, my dear--such a fool as to be deterred from what
+promised to be a good day's sport by such nonsense as this; and I went.
+
+"We were going after a rogue elephant that had been doing a lot of
+damage among the natives' plantations. We found him, and a savage brute
+he turned out to be. He moved just as I fired, and though I hit him, it
+was not on the fatal spot, and he charged right down among us. He caught
+the very three men the fakir said were doomed, and dashed the life out
+of them; then he came at me. The bearer had run off with my second gun,
+and he seized me and flung me up in the air.
+
+"I fell in a tree, but broke three of my ribs and one of my arms;
+fortunately, though the beast tried to get at me, I was out of his
+reach, and the tree was too strong for him to knock down. Then another
+man who was with me came up and killed him, and they got me down and
+carried me back, and I was weeks before I was about again. That was
+something more than a coincidence, I think. There were some twenty men
+out with us, and just the four he had pointed out were hurt, and no
+others.
+
+"I have seen scores of other cases in which these predictions have
+come true, especially in cases of disease; though I grant that here the
+predictions often bring about their own fulfilment. If a native is told
+by a fakir, or holy man, that he is going to die, he makes no struggle
+to live. In several cases I have seen natives, whose deaths have been
+predicted, die, without, as far as my science could tell me, any disease
+or ailment whatever that should have been fatal to them. They simply
+sank--died, I should say, from pure fright. But putting aside this
+class, I have seen enough to convince me that some at least among these
+fanatics do possess the power of second sight."
+
+"That is very extraordinary, Doctor. Of course I have heard of second
+sight among certain old people in Scotland, but I did not believe in
+it."
+
+"I should not have believed in it if I had not seen the same thing here
+in India. I naturally have been interested in it, and have read pretty
+well everything that has been written about second sight among the
+Highlanders; and some of the incidents are so well authenticated that I
+scarcely see how they can be denied. Of course, there is no accounting
+for it, but it is possible that among what we may call primitive people
+there are certain intuitions or instincts, call them what you like, that
+have been lost by civilized people.
+
+"The power of scent in a dog is something so vastly beyond anything we
+can even imagine possible, that though we put it down to instinct, it is
+really almost inexplicable. Take the case that dogs have been known to
+be taken by railway journeys of many hundred miles and to have found
+their way home again on foot. There is clearly the possession of a power
+which is to us absolutely unaccountable.
+
+"But here comes your uncle; he will think I have been preaching a sermon
+to you if you look so grave."
+
+But Major Hannay was too occupied with his own thoughts to notice
+Isobel.
+
+"Has anything gone wrong, Major?" the Doctor asked, as he saw his face.
+
+"I have just learnt," the Major said, "that some more chupaties were
+brought last night. It is most annoying. I have questioned several of
+the native officers, and they profess to have no idea whence they came
+or what is the meaning of them. I wish we could get to the bottom of
+this thing; it keeps the troops in a ferment. If I could get hold of one
+of these messengers, I would get out of him all he knew, even if I had
+to roast him to make him tell."
+
+"My dear uncle," Isobel said reprovingly, "I am sure you don't mean what
+you say."
+
+"I don't know," he said, half laughing; "I should certainly consider
+myself perfectly justified in taking uncommonly strong steps to try
+to get to the bottom of this business. The thing is going on all over
+India, and it must mean something, and it is all the worse if taken in
+connection with this absurd idea about the greased cartridges. I grant
+that it was an act of folly greasing them at all, when we know the
+idiotic prejudices the natives have; still, it could hardly have
+been foreseen that this stir would have been made. The issue of the
+cartridges has been stopped, but when the natives once get an idea into
+their minds it is next to impossible to disabuse them of it. It is a
+tiresome business altogether."
+
+"Tiffin ready, sahib," Rumzan interrupted, coming out onto the veranda.
+
+"That is right, Rumzan. Now, Isobel, let us think of more pleasant
+subjects."
+
+"We are to go into the Hunters' this evening, uncle," Isobel said, as
+she sat down. "There is going to be a famous juggler there. There is a
+note for you from Mrs. Hunter on the side table."
+
+"Very well, my dear; some of these fellows are well worth seeing.
+Bathurst is coming in to dinner. I saw him as he was starting this
+morning, just as he was going down to the lines, and he accepted. He
+said he should be able to get back in time. However, I don't suppose he
+will mind going round with us. I hope you will come, Doctor, to make up
+the table. I have asked the two boys to come in."
+
+"I shall have to become a permanent boarder at your establishment,
+Major. It is really useless my keeping a cook when I am in here nearly
+half my time. But I will come. I am off for three days tomorrow. A
+villager came in this morning to beg me to go out to rid them of a
+tiger that has established himself in their neighborhood, and that is an
+invitation I never refuse, if I can possibly manage to make time for it.
+Fortunately everyone is so healthy here at present that I can be very
+well spared."
+
+At dinner the subject of juggling came up again, and the two subalterns
+expressed their opinion strongly that it was all humbug.
+
+"Dr. Wade believes in it, Mr. Wilson," Isobel said.
+
+"You don't say so, Doctor; I should have thought you were the last sort
+of man who would have believed in conjurers."
+
+"It requires a wise man to believe, Wilson," the Doctor said; "any fool
+can scoff; the wise man questions. When you have been here as long as
+I have, and if you ever get as much sense as I have, which is doubtful,
+you may be less positive in your ideas, if you can call them ideas."
+
+"That is one for me," Wilson said good humoredly, while the others
+laughed.
+
+"Well, I have never seen them, Doctor, except those fellows who come
+around to the veranda, and I have seen conjurers at home do ever so much
+better tricks than they."
+
+"What do you think of them, Mr. Bathurst?" Isobel asked. "I suppose you
+have seen some of the better sort?"
+
+"I do not know what to think of them, Miss Hannay. I used to be rather
+of Wilson's opinion, but I have seen things since that I could not
+account for at all. There was a man here two or three months back who
+astounded me."
+
+"Mrs. Hunter said that the girls had had no opportunity of seeing a good
+conjurer since they came out, Mr. Bathurst. I suppose they did know this
+man you are speaking of being here?"
+
+"He was only here for a few hours, Miss Hannay. I had happened to
+meet him before, and he gave me a private performance, which was quite
+different to anything I have ever seen, though I had often heard of the
+feats he had performed. I was so impressed with them that I can assure
+you that for a few days I had great difficulty in keeping my mind upon
+my work."
+
+"What did he do, Mr. Bathurst?"
+
+Bathurst related the feat of the disappearing girl.
+
+"She must have jumped down when you were not looking," Richards said,
+with an air or conviction.
+
+"Possibly," Bathurst replied quietly; "but as I was within three or
+four yards of the pole, and it was perfectly distinct in the light of my
+lamp, and as I certainly saw her till she was some thirty or forty
+feet up in the air I don't see how she can have managed it. For, even
+supposing she could have sprung down that distance without being hurt,
+she would not have come down so noiselessly that I should not have heard
+her."
+
+"Still, if she did not come down that way, how could she have come?"
+Wilson said.
+
+"That is exactly what I can't make out," Bathurst replied. "If it should
+happen to be the same man, and he will do the same thing again, I fancy
+you will be as much puzzled as I was."
+
+After dinner was over the party walked across to Mr. Hunter's bungalow,
+where, in a short time, the other officers, their wives, and all the
+other residents at the station were assembled. Chairs were placed in the
+veranda for the ladies, and a number of lamps hung on the wall, so that
+a strong light was thrown upon the ground in front of it. In addition,
+four posts had been driven into the ground some twenty feet from the
+veranda, and lamps had been fastened upon them.
+
+"I don't know whether the juggler will like that," Mr. Hunter said, "and
+I shan't light them if he objects. I don't think myself it is quite
+fair having a light behind him; still, if he agrees, it will be hardly
+possible for him to make the slightest movement without being seen."
+
+The juggler, who was sitting round at the other side of the house, was
+now called up. He and the girl, who followed him, salaamed deeply, and
+made an even deeper bow to Bathurst, who was standing behind Isobel's
+chair.
+
+"You must have paid them well, Bathurst," Major Hannay said. "They have
+evidently a lively remembrance of past favors. I suppose they are the
+same you were talking about?"
+
+"Yes, they are the same people, Major." Then he said in the native
+dialect to the juggler, "Mr. Hunter has put some posts with lamps behind
+you, Rujub, but he hasn't lit them because he did not know whether you
+would object."
+
+"They can be lighted, sahib. My feats do not depend on darkness. Any
+of the sahibs who like to stand behind us can do so if they do not come
+within the line of those posts."
+
+"Let us go out there," Wilson said to Richards, when the answer was
+translated; "we will light the lamps, and we shall see better there than
+we shall see here."
+
+The two went round to the other side and lit the lamps, and the servants
+stood a short distance off on either side.
+
+The first trick shown was the well known mango tree. The juggler placed
+a seed in the ground, poured some water upon it from a lota, and covered
+it with a cloth. In two or three minutes he lifted this, and a plant
+four or five inches high was seen. He covered this with a tall basket,
+which he first handed round for inspection. On removing this a mango
+tree some three feet high, in full bloom, was seen. It was again
+covered, and when the basket was removed it was seen to be covered with
+ripe fruit, eliciting exclamations of astonishment from those among the
+spectators who had not before seen the trick performed.
+
+"Now, Wilson," the Doctor said, "perhaps you will be kind enough to
+explain to us all how this was done?"
+
+"I have no more idea than Adam, Doctor."
+
+"Then we will leave it to Richards. He promised us at dinner to keep his
+eyes well open."
+
+Richards made no reply.
+
+"How was it done, Mr. Bathurst? It seems almost like a miracle."
+
+"I am as ignorant as Wilson is, Miss Hannay. I can't account for it in
+any way, and I have seen it done a score of times. Ah! now he is going
+to do the basket trick. Don't be alarmed when you hear the girl cry
+out. You may be quite sure that she is not hurt. The father is deeply
+attached to her, and would not hurt a hair of her head."
+
+Again the usual methods were adopted. The basket was placed on the
+ground and the girl stepped into it, without the pretense of fear
+usually exhibited by the performers.
+
+Before the trick began Major Hannay said to Captain Doolan, "Come round
+with me to the side of those boys. I know the first time I saw it done
+I was nearly throwing myself on the juggler, and Wilson is a hot headed
+boy, and is likely as not to do so. If he did, the man would probably go
+off in a huff and show us nothing more. From what Bathurst said, we are
+likely to see something unusual."
+
+As soon as the lid was put down, an apparently angry colloquy took place
+between the juggler and the girl inside. Presently the man appeared to
+become enraged, and snatching up a long, straight sword from the ground,
+ran it three or four times through the basket.
+
+A loud shriek followed the first thrust, and then all was silent.
+
+Some of the ladies rose to their feet with a cry of horror, Isobel among
+them. Wilson and Richards both started to rush forward, but were seized
+by the collars by the Major and Captain Doolan.
+
+"Will you open the basket?" the juggler said quietly to Mrs. Hunter. As
+she had seen the trick before she stepped forward without hesitation,
+opened the lid of the basket and said, "It is empty." The juggler took
+it up, and held it up, bottom upwards.
+
+"What on earth has become of the girl?" Wilson exclaimed.
+
+As he spoke she passed between him and Richards back to her father's
+side.
+
+"Well, I am dashed," Wilson murmured. "I would not have believed it
+if fifty people had sworn to me they had seen it." He was too much
+confounded even to reply, when the Doctor sarcastically said: "We are
+waiting for your explanation, gentlemen."
+
+"Will you ask him, Major," Richards said, as he wiped his forehead with
+his pocket handkerchief, "to make sure that she is solid?"
+
+The Major translated the request, and the girl at once came across, and
+Richards touched her with evident doubt as to whether on not she were
+really flesh and blood.
+
+There was much curiosity among those who had seen jugglers before as
+to what would be the next feat, for generally those just seen were the
+closing ones of a performance, but as these were the first it seemed
+that those to follow must be extraordinary indeed.
+
+The next feat was the one shown to Bathurst, and was performed exactly
+as upon that occasion, except that as the girl rose beyond the circle
+of light she remained distinctly visible, a sort of phosphoric light
+playing around her. Those in the veranda had come out now, the juggler
+warning them not to approach within six feet of the pole.
+
+Higher and higher the girl went, until those below judged her to be at
+least a hundred and fifty feet from the ground. Then the light died out,
+and she disappeared from their sight. There was silence for a minute or
+two, and then the end of the pole could be seen descending without
+her. Another minute, and it was reduced to the length it had been at
+starting.
+
+The spectators were silent now; the whole thing was so strange and
+mysterious that they had no words to express their feeling.
+
+The juggler said something which Mr. Hunter translated to be a request
+for all to resume their places.
+
+"That is a wonderful trick," the Doctor said to Bathurst. "I have never
+seen it done that way before, but I once saw a juggler throw up a rope
+into the air; how high it went I don't know, for, like this, it was done
+at night, but it stood up perfectly stiff, and the juggler's attendant
+climbed up. He went higher and higher, and we could hear his voice
+coming down to us. At last it stopped, and then suddenly the rope fell
+in coils on the ground, and the boy walked quietly in, just as that girl
+has done now."
+
+The girl now placed herself in the center of the open space.
+
+"You will please not to speak while this trick is being performed," the
+juggler said; "harm might come of it. Watch the ground near her feet."
+
+A minute later a dark object made its appearance from the ground. It
+rose higher and higher with an undulating movement.
+
+"By Jove, it is a python!" the Doctor whispered in Bathurst's ear. A
+similar exclamation broke from several of the others, but the juggler
+waved his hand with an authoritative hush. The snake rose until its head
+towered above that of the girl, and then began to twine itself round
+her, continuously rising from the ground until it enveloped her with
+five coils, each thicker than a man's arm. It raised its head above hers
+and hissed loudly and angrily; then its tail began to descend, gradually
+the coils unwound themselves; lower and lower it descended until it
+disappeared altogether.
+
+It was some time before anyone spoke, so great was the feeling of
+wonder. The Doctor was the first to break the silence.
+
+"I have never seen that before," he said, "though I have heard of it
+from a native Rajah."
+
+"Would the sahibs like to see more?" the juggler asked.
+
+The two Miss Hunters, Mrs. Rintoul, and several of the others said they
+had seen enough, but among the men there was expressed a general wish to
+see another feat.
+
+"I would not have missed this for anything," the Doctor said. "It would
+be simple madness to throw away such a chance."
+
+The ladies, therefore, with the exception of Mrs. Hunter, Mrs. Doolan,
+and Isobel, retired into the house.
+
+"You must all go on one side now," the juggler said, "for it is only on
+one side what I am now going to do can be seen."
+
+He then proceeded to light a fire of charcoal. When he had done this,
+he said, "The lights must now be extinguished and the curtains drawn, so
+that the light will not stream out from the house."
+
+As soon as this was done he poured a powder over the fire, and by its
+faint light the cloud of white smoke could be seen.
+
+"Now I will show you the past," he said. "Who speaks?"
+
+There was silence, and then Dr. Wade said, "Show me my past."
+
+A faint light stole up over the smoke--it grew brighter and brighter;
+and then a picture was clearly seen upon it.
+
+It was the sea, a house standing by itself in a garden, and separated
+from the water only by a road. Presently the figure of a girl appeared
+at the gate, and, stepping out, looked down the road as if waiting for
+someone. They could make out all the details of her dress and see her
+features distinctly. A low exclamation broke from the Doctor, then the
+picture gradually faded away.
+
+"The future!" the juggler said, and gradually an Indian scene appeared
+on the smoke. It was a long, straight road, bordered by a jungle. A
+native was seen approaching; he paused in the foreground.
+
+"That is you, Doctor!" Mr. Hunter exclaimed; "you are got up as a
+native, but it's you."
+
+Almost at the same moment two figures came out from the jungle. They
+were also in native dress.
+
+"You and Miss Hannay," the Doctor said in a low tone to Bathurst,
+"dressed like a native and dyed." But no one else detected the disguise,
+and the picture again faded away.
+
+"That is enough, Rujub," Bathurst said, for he felt Isobel lean back
+heavily against the hand which he held at the back of her chair, and
+felt sure that she had fainted.
+
+"Draw back the curtains, someone; I fancy this has been too much for
+Miss Hannay."
+
+The curtains were thrown back, and Mrs. Hunter, running in, brought out
+a lamp. The Doctor had already taken his place by Isobel's side.
+
+"Yes, she has fainted," he said to Bathurst; "carry her in her chair as
+she is, so that she may be in the room when she comes to."
+
+This was done.
+
+"Now, gentlemen," the Doctor said, "you had better light the lamps again
+out here, and leave the ladies and me to get Miss Hannay round."
+
+When the lamps were lit it was evident that the whole of the men were a
+good deal shaken by what they had seen.
+
+"Well," Mr. Hunter said, "they told me he was a famous juggler, but that
+beat anything I have seen before. I have heard of such things frequently
+from natives, but it is very seldom that Europeans get a chance of
+seeing them."
+
+"I don't want to see anything of the sort again," Major Hannay said;
+"it shakes one's notions of things in general. I fancy, Hunter, that
+we shall want a strong peg all round to steady our nerves. I own that I
+feel as shaky as a boy who thinks he sees a ghost on his way through a
+churchyard."
+
+There was a general murmur of agreement and the materials were quickly
+brought.
+
+"Well, Wilson, what do you and Richards think of it?" the Major went on,
+after he had braced himself up with a strong glass of brandy and water.
+"I should imagine you both feel a little less skeptical than you did two
+hours ago."
+
+"I don't know what Richards feels, Major, but I know I feel like a fool.
+I am sorry, Bathurst, for what I said at dinner; but it really didn't
+seem to me to be possible what you told us about the girl going up into
+the air and not coming down again. Well, after I have seen what I have
+seen this evening, I won't disbelieve anything I hear in future about
+these natives."
+
+"It was natural enough that you should be incredulous," Bathurst said.
+"I should have been just as skeptical as you were when I first came out,
+and I have been astonished now, though I have seen some good jugglers
+before."
+
+At this moment the Doctor came out again.
+
+"Miss Hannay is all right again now, Major. I am not surprised at her
+fainting; old hand as I am at these matters, and I think that I have
+seen as much or more juggling than any man in India. I felt very queer
+myself, specially at the snake business. As I said, I have seen that
+ascension trick before, but how it is done I have no more idea than a
+child. Those smoke scenes, too, are astonishing. Of course they could be
+accounted for as thrown upon a column of white smoke by a magic lantern,
+but there was certainly no magic lantern here. The juggler was standing
+close to me, and the girl was sitting at his feet. I watched them both
+closely, and certainly they had no apparatus about them by which such
+views could be thrown on the smoke."
+
+"You recognized the first scene, I suppose, Doctor?" Bathurst asked.
+
+"Perfectly. It took me back twenty-five years. It was a cottage near
+Sidmouth, and was correct in every minute detail. The figure was that of
+the young lady I married four years afterwards. Many a time have I seen
+her standing just like that, as I went along the road to meet her from
+the little inn at which I was stopping; the very pattern of her dress,
+which I need hardly say has never been in my mind all these years, was
+recalled to me.
+
+"Had I been thinking of the scene at the time I could have accounted for
+it somehow, upon the theory that in some way or other the juggler was
+conscious of my thought and reflected it upon the smoke--how, I don't at
+all mean to say; but undoubtedly there exists, to some extent, the power
+of thought reading. It is a mysterious subject, and one of which we know
+absolutely nothing at present, but maybe in upwards of a hundred years
+mankind will have discovered many secrets of nature in that direction.
+But I certainly was not thinking of that scene when I spoke and said the
+'past.' I had no doubt that he would show me something of the past,
+but certainly no particular incident passed through my mind before that
+picture appeared on the smoke."
+
+"The other was almost as curious, Doctor," Captain Doolan said, "for
+it was certainly you masquerading as a native. I believe the other was
+Bathurst; it struck me so; and he seemed to be running off with some
+native girl. What on earth could that all mean?"
+
+"It is no use puzzling ourselves about it," the Doctor said. "It may or
+may not come true. I have no inclination to go about dressed out as a
+native at present, but there is no saying what I may come to. There
+is quite enough for us to wonder at in the other things. The mango and
+basket tricks I have seen a dozen times, and am no nearer now than I
+was at first to understanding them. That ascension trick beats me
+altogether, and there was something horribly uncanny about the snake."
+
+"Do you think it was a real snake, Doctor?"
+
+"That I cannot tell you, Richards. Every movement was perfectly natural.
+I could see the working of the ribs as it wound itself round the girl,
+and the quivering of its tongue as it raised its head above her. At any
+other time I should be ready to take my affidavit that it was a python
+of unusual size, but at the present moment I should not like to give a
+decided opinion about anything connected with the performance."
+
+"I suppose it is no use asking the juggler any questions, Hunter?" one
+of the other men said.
+
+"Not in the least; they never do answer questions. The higher class of
+jugglers treat their art as a sort of religious mystery, and there is
+no instance known of their opening their lips, although large sums have
+frequently been offered them. In the present case you will certainly ask
+no questions, for the man and girl have both disappeared with the box
+and apparatus and everything connected with them. They must have
+slipped off directly the last trick was over, and before we had the lamp
+lighted. I sent after him at once, but the servant could find no signs
+of him. I am annoyed because I have not paid them."
+
+"I am not surprised at that," Dr. Wade said. "It is quite in accordance
+with what I have heard of them. They live by exhibiting what you may
+call their ordinary tricks; but I have heard from natives that when they
+show any what I may call supernatural feats, they do not take money. It
+is done to oblige some powerful Rajah, and as I have said, it is only on
+a very few occasions that Europeans have ever seen them. Well, we may as
+well go in to the ladies. I don't fancy any of them would be inclined to
+come out onto the veranda again this evening."
+
+No one was indeed inclined even for talk, and in a very short time the
+party broke up and returned home.
+
+"Come and smoke a pipe with me, Bathurst, before you turn in," the
+Doctor said, as they went out. "I don't think either of us will be
+likely to go to sleep for some time. What is your impression of all
+this?"
+
+"My impression, certainly, is that it is entirely unaccountable by any
+laws with which we are acquainted, Doctor."
+
+"That is just my idea, and always has been since I first saw any
+really good juggling out here. I don't believe in the least in anything
+supernatural, but I can quite believe that there are many natural laws
+of which at present we are entirely ignorant. I believe the knowledge of
+them at one time existed, but has been entirely lost, at any rate among
+Western peoples. The belief in magic is as old as anything we have
+knowledge of. The magicians at the court of Pharaoh threw down their
+rods and turned them into serpents. The Witch of Endor called up the
+spirit of Samuel. The Greeks, by no means a nation of fools, believed
+implicitly in the Oracles. Coming down to comparatively later times, the
+workers of magic burnt their books before St. Paul. It doesn't say, mind
+you, that those who pretended to work magic did so; but those who worked
+magic.
+
+"Early travelers in Persia and India have reported things they saw far
+surpassing any we have witnessed this evening, and there is certainly a
+sect in India at present, or rather a body of men, and those, as far as
+I have been able to learn, of an exceptionally intelligent class, who
+believe that they possess an almost absolute mastery over the powers of
+nature. You see, fifty years back, if anyone had talked about traveling
+at fifty miles an hour, or sending a message five thousand miles in a
+minute, he would have been regarded as a madman. There may yet be other
+discoveries as startling to be made.
+
+"When I was in England I heard something of a set of people in America
+who called themselves Spiritualists, some of whom--notably a young man
+named Home--claimed to have the power of raising themselves through
+the air. I am far from saying that such a power exists; it is of course
+contrary to what we know of the laws of nature, but should such a power
+exist it would account for the disappearance of the girl from the top
+of the pole. Highland second sight, carried somewhat farther, and united
+with the power of conveying the impressions to others, would account
+for the pictures on the smoke, that is, supposing them to be true, and
+personally I own that I expect they will prove to be true--unlikely as
+it may seem that you, I, and Miss Hannay will ever be going about in
+native attire."
+
+By this time they had reached the Doctor's bungalow, and had comfortably
+seated themselves.
+
+"There is one thing that flashed across me this evening," Bathurst said.
+"I told you, that first evening I met Miss Hannay, that I had a distinct
+knowledge of her face. You laughed at me at the time, and it certainly
+seemed absurd, but I was convinced I was not wrong. Now I know how it
+was; I told you at dinner today about the feat of the girl going up and
+not coming down again; but I did not tell you--for you can understand it
+is a thing that I should not care to talk much about--that he showed me
+a picture like those we saw tonight.
+
+"It was a house standing in a courtyard, with a high wall round it. I
+did not particularly observe the house. It was of the ordinary native
+type, and might, for anything I know, be the house in the middle of this
+station used as a courthouse by Hunter, and for keeping stores, and
+so on. I don't say it was that; I did not notice it much. There was a
+breach in the outside wall, and round it there was a fierce fight going
+on. A party of officers and civilians were repelling the assault of a
+body of Sepoys. On the terraced roof of the house others were standing
+firing and looking on, and I think engaged in loading rifles were two or
+three women. One of them I particularly noticed; and, now I recall it,
+her face was that of Miss Hannay; of that I am absolutely certain."
+
+"It is curious, lad," the Doctor said, after a pause; "and the picture,
+you see, has so far come true that you have made the acquaintance with
+one of the actors whom you did not previously know."
+
+"I did not believe in the truth of it, Doctor, and I do not believe in
+it now. There was one feature in the fight which was, as I regret to
+know, impossible."
+
+"And what was that, Bathurst?"
+
+Bathurst was silent for a time.
+
+"You are an old friend, Doctor, and you will understand my case, and
+make more allowances for it than most people would. When I first came
+out here I dare say you heard some sort of reports as to why I had left
+the army and had afterwards entered the Civil Service."
+
+"There were some stupid rumors," the Doctor said, "that you had gone
+home on sick leave just after the battle of Chillianwalla, and had then
+sold out, because you had shown the white feather. I need not say that I
+did not give any credit to it; there is always gossip flying about as to
+the reasons a man leaves the army."
+
+"It was quite true, Doctor. It is a hideous thing to say, but
+constitutionally I am a coward."
+
+"I cannot believe it," the Doctor said warmly. "Now that I know you, you
+are the last man of whom I would credit such a thing."
+
+"It is the bane of my life," Bathurst went on. "It is my misfortune,
+for I will not allow it is my fault. In many things I am not a coward.
+I think I could face any danger if the danger were a silent one, but I
+cannot stand noise. The report of a gun makes me tremble all over, even
+when it is a blank cartridge that is fired. When I was born my father
+was in India. A short time before I came into the world my mother had a
+great fright. Her house in the country was broken into by burglars, who
+entered the room and threatened to blow out her brains if she moved;
+but the alarm was given, the men servants came down armed, there was
+a struggle in her room, pistol shots were fired, and the burglars
+were overpowered and captured. My mother fainted and was ill for weeks
+afterwards--in fact, until the time I was born; and she died a few days
+later, never having, the doctor said, recovered from the shock she had
+suffered that night.
+
+"I grew up a weakly, timid boy--the sort of boy that is always bullied
+at school. My father, as you know, was a general officer, and did
+not return home until I was ten years old. He was naturally much
+disappointed in me, and I think that added to my timidity, for it grew
+upon me rather than otherwise. Morally, I was not a coward. At school I
+can say that I never told a lie to avoid punishment, and my readiness to
+speak the truth did not add to my popularity among the other boys, and I
+used to be called a sneak, which was even more hateful than being called
+a coward.
+
+"As I grew up I shook off my delicacy, and grew, as you see, into a
+strong man. I then fought several battles at school; I learnt to ride,
+and came to have confidence in myself, and though I had no particular
+fancy for the army my father's heart was so set on it that I offered no
+objection. That the sound of a gun was abhorrent to me I knew, for the
+first time my father put a gun in my hand and I fired it, I fainted, and
+nothing would persuade me to try again. Still I thought that this was
+the result of nervousness as to firing it myself, and that I should get
+over it in time.
+
+"A month or two after I was gazetted I went out to India with the
+regiment, and arrived just in time to get up by forced marches to take
+part in the battle of Chillianwalla. The consequence was that up to that
+time I literally had heard no musketry practice.
+
+"Of the events of that battle I have no remembrance whatever; from
+the moment the first gun was fired to the end of the day I was as one
+paralyzed. I saw nothing, I heard nothing, I moved mechanically; but
+happily my will or my instinct kept me in my place in the regiment.
+When all was over, and silence followed the din, I fell to the ground
+insensible. Happily for me the doctors declared I was in a state of high
+fever, and I so remained for a fortnight. As soon as I got better I was
+sent down the country, and I at once sent in my papers and went home. No
+doubt the affair was talked of, and there were whispers as to the real
+cause of my illness. My father was terribly angry when I returned home
+and told him the truth of the matter. That his son should be a coward
+was naturally an awful blow to him. Home was too unhappy to be endured,
+and when an uncle of mine, who was a director on the Company's Board,
+offered me a berth in the Civil Service, I thankfully accepted it,
+believing that in that capacity I need never hear a gun fired again.
+
+"You will understand, then, the anxiety I am feeling owing to these
+rumors of disaffection among the Sepoys, and the possibility of anything
+like a general mutiny.
+
+"It is not of being killed that I have any fear; upon the contrary, I
+have suffered so much in the last eight years from the consciousness
+that the reason why I left the army was widely known, that I should
+welcome death, if it came to me noiselessly; but the thought that if
+there is trouble I shall assuredly not be able to play my part like a
+man fills me with absolute horror, and now more than ever.
+
+"So you will understand now why the picture I saw, in which I was
+fighting in the middle of the Sepoys, is to me not only improbable, but
+simply impossible. It is a horrible story to have to tell. This is the
+first time I have opened my lips on the subject since I spoke to my
+father, but I know that you, both as a friend and a doctor, will pity
+rather than blame me."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+As Bathurst brought his story to its conclusion the Doctor rose and
+placed his hand kindly on his shoulder.
+
+"I certainly should not think of blaming you, Bathurst. What you tell
+me is indeed a terrible misfortune, situated as we may be soon, though
+I trust and believe that all this talk about the Sepoys is moonshine.
+I own that I am surprised at your story, for I should have said from
+my knowledge of you that though, as I could perceive, of a nervous
+temperament, you were likely to be cool and collected in danger. But
+certainly your failing is no fault of your own."
+
+"That is but a small consolation to me, Doctor. Men do not ask why
+and wherefore--they simply point the finger of scorn at a coward. The
+misfortune is that I am here. I might have lived a hundred lives in
+England and never once had occasion to face danger, and I thought that I
+should have been equally secure as an Indian civilian. Now this trouble
+is coming upon us."
+
+"Why don't you take your leave, lad? You have been out seven years now
+without a day's relaxation, except indeed, the three days you were over
+with me at Cawnpore. Why not apply for a year's leave? You have a good
+excuse, too; you did not go home at the death of your father, two years
+ago, and could very well plead urgent family affairs requiring your
+presence in England."
+
+"No, I will not do that, Doctor; I will not run away from danger again.
+You understand me, I have not the least fear of the danger; I in no way
+hold to my life; I do not think I am afraid of physical pain. It seems
+to me that I could undertake any desperate service; I dread it
+simply because I know that when the din of battle begins my body will
+overmaster my mind, and that I shall be as I was at Chillianwalla,
+completely paralyzed. You wondered tonight why that juggler should have
+exhibited feats seldom, almost never, shown to Europeans? He did it
+to please me. I saved his daughter's life--this is between ourselves,
+Doctor, and is not to go farther. But, riding in from Narkeet, I heard a
+cry, and, hurrying on, came upon that man eater you shot the other
+day, standing over the girl, with her father half beside himself,
+gesticulating in front of him. I jumped off and attacked the brute
+with my heavy hunting whip, and he was so completely astonished that he
+turned tail and bolted."
+
+"The deuce he did," the Doctor exclaimed; "and yet you talk of being a
+coward!"
+
+"No, I do not say that I am a coward generally; as long as I have to
+confront danger without noise I believe I could do as well as most men."
+
+"But why didn't you mention this business with the tiger, Bathurst?"
+
+"Because, in the first place, it was the work of a mere passing impulse;
+and in the second, because I should have gained credit for being what I
+am not--a brave man. It will be bad enough when the truth becomes
+known, but it would be all the worse if I had been trading on a false
+reputation; therefore I particularly charged Rujub to say nothing about
+the affair to anyone."
+
+"Well, putting this for a time aside, Bathurst, what do you think of
+that curious scene, you and I and Miss Hannay disguised as natives?"
+
+"Taking it with the one I saw of the attack of Sepoys upon a house, it
+looks to me, Doctor, as if there would be a mutiny, and that that mutiny
+would be attended with partial success, that a portion of the garrison,
+at any rate, will escape, and that Miss Hannay will be traveling down
+the country, perhaps to Cawnpore, in your charge, while I in some way
+shall be with you, perhaps acting as guide."
+
+"It may possibly be so," the Doctor agreed. "It is at any rate very
+curious. I wonder whether Miss Hannay recognized herself in the
+disguise."
+
+"I should hope not, Doctor; if it all comes true there will be enough
+for her to bear without looking forward to that. I should be glad if the
+detachment were ordered back to Cawnpore."
+
+"Well, I should not have thought that, Bathurst."
+
+"I know what you mean, Doctor, but it is for that reason I wish they
+were gone. I believe now that you insisted on my coming down to spend
+those three days with you at Cawnpore specially that I might meet her."
+
+"That is so, Bathurst. I like her so much that I should be very sorry
+to see her throw herself away upon some empty headed fool. I like her
+greatly, and I was convinced that you were just the man to make her
+happy, and as I knew that you had good prospects in England, I thought
+it would be a capital match for her, although you are but a young
+civilian; and I own that of late I have thought things were going on
+very well."
+
+"Perhaps it might have been so, Doctor, had it not been for this coming
+trouble, which, if our fears are realized, will entirely put an end even
+to the possibility of what you are talking about. I shall be shown to
+be a coward, and I shall do my best to put myself in the way of being
+killed. I should not like to blow my brains out, but if the worst comes
+to the worst I will do that rather than go on living after I have again
+disgraced myself."
+
+"You look at it too seriously, Bathurst."
+
+"Not a bit of it, Doctor, and you know it."
+
+"But if the Sepoys rise, Bathurst, why should they harm their officers?
+They may be discontented, they may have a grievance against the
+Government, they may refuse to obey orders and may disband; but why on
+earth should they attack men who have always been kind to them, whom
+they have followed in battle, and against whom they have not as much as
+a shadow of complaint?"
+
+"I hope it may be so most sincerely," Bathurst said; "but one never
+can say. I can hardly bring myself to believe that they will attack
+the officers, much less injure women and children. Still, I have a most
+uneasy foreboding of evil."
+
+"You have heard nothing from the natives as to any coming trouble?"
+
+"Nothing at all, Doctor, and I am convinced that nothing is known among
+them, or at any rate by the great bulk of them. Only one person has ever
+said a word to me that could indicate a knowledge of coming trouble, and
+that was this juggler we saw tonight. I thought nothing of his words at
+the time. That picture he showed me of the attack by Sepoys first gave
+me an idea that his words might mean something. Since then we have heard
+much more of this discontent, and I am convinced now that the words had
+a meaning. They were simple enough. It was merely his assurance, two or
+three times repeated, that he would be ready to repay the service I had
+rendered him with his life. It might have been a mere phrase, and so I
+thought at the time. But I think now he had before him the possibility
+of some event occurring in which he might be able to repay the service I
+had rendered him."
+
+"There may have been something in it and there may not," the Doctor
+said; "but, at any rate, Bathurst, he ought to be a potent ally. There
+doesn't seem any limit to his powers, and he might, for aught one knows,
+be able to convey you away as he did his daughter."
+
+The Doctor spoke lightly, and then added, "But seriously, the man might
+be of service. These jugglers go among people of all classes. They are
+like the troubadours of the Middle Ages, welcomed everywhere; and they
+no doubt have every opportunity of learning what is going on, and it may
+be that he will be able to give you timely warning should there be any
+trouble at hand."
+
+"That is possible enough," Bathurst agreed. "Well, Doctor, I shall be on
+horseback at six, so it is time for me to turn in," and taking his hat,
+walked across to his own bungalow.
+
+The Doctor sat for some time smoking before he turned into bed. He had
+as he had said, heard rumors, when Bathurst first came out, that he had
+shown the white feather, but he had paid little attention to it at the
+time. They had been together at the first station to which Bathurst was
+appointed when he came out, and he had come to like him greatly; but
+his evident disinclination to join in any society, his absorption in his
+work, and a certain air of gravity unnatural in a young man of twenty,
+had puzzled him. He had at the time come to the conclusion that he
+must have had some unfortunate love affair, or have got into some very
+serious trouble at home. In time that impression had worn off. A young
+man speedily recovers from such a blow, however heavy, but no change had
+taken place in Bathurst, and the Doctor had in time become so accustomed
+to his manner that he had ceased to wonder over it. Now it was all
+explained. He sat thinking over it deeply for an hour, and then laid
+down his pipe.
+
+"It is a terrible pity he came out here," he said. "Of course it is not
+his fault in the slightest degree. One might as well blame a man for
+being born a hunchback; but if there should be a row out here it will be
+terrible for him. I can quite understand his feeling about it. If I were
+placed as he is, and were called upon to fight, I should take a dose
+of prussic acid at once. Men talk: about their civilization, but we
+are little better than savages in our instincts. Courage is an almost
+useless virtue in a civilized community, but if it is called for, we
+despise a man in whom it is wanting, just as heartily as our tattooed
+ancestors did. Of course, in him it is a purely constitutional failing,
+and I have no doubt he would be as brave as a lion in any other
+circumstances--in fact, the incident of his attacking the tiger with
+that dog whip of his shows that he is so; and yet, if he should fail
+when the lives of women are at stake it would be a kindness to give him
+that dose of prussic acid, especially as Isobel Hannay will be here.
+That is the hardest part of it to him, I can see."
+
+Three days later the force at Deennugghur was increased by the arrival
+of a troop of native cavalry, under a Captain Forster, who had just
+returned from leave in England.
+
+"Do you know Captain Forster, Doctor?" Isobel Hannay asked, on the
+afternoon of his arrival. "Uncle tells me he is coming to dinner."
+
+"Then you must look after your heart, my dear. He is one of the best
+looking fellows out here, a dashing soldier, and a devoted servant of
+the fair sex."
+
+"You don't like him, Doctor," Isobel said quietly.
+
+"I have not said so, my dear--far from it. I think I said a good deal
+for him."
+
+"Yes, but you don't like him, Doctor. Why is that?"
+
+"I suppose because he is not my sort of man," the Doctor said. "I have
+not seen him since his regiment and ours were at Delhi together, and we
+did not see much of each other then. Our tastes did not lie in the same
+direction."
+
+"Well, I know what your tastes are, Doctor; what are his?"
+
+"I will leave you to find out, my dear. He is all I told you--a very
+handsome man, with, as is perhaps natural, a very good opinion of
+himself, and he distinguished himself more than once in the Punjaub
+by acts of personal gallantry. I have no doubt he thinks it an awful
+nuisance coming to a quiet little station like this, and he will
+probably try to while away his time by making himself very agreeable to
+you. But I don't think you need quite believe all that he says."
+
+"I have long ago got over the weakness of believing people's flattery,
+Doctor. However, now you have forewarned me I am forearmed."
+
+The Doctor hesitated, and then said gravely, "It is not my habit to
+speak ill of people, my dear. You do me the justice to believe that?"
+
+"I am sure it is not, Doctor."
+
+"Well, child, in a station like this you must see a good deal of this
+man. He is a man who has won many hearts, and thrown them away. Don't
+let him win yours. He is not a good man; he has been mixed up in several
+grave scandals; he has been the ruin of more than one young man at cards
+and billiards; he is in all respects a dangerous man. Anatomically I
+suppose he has a heart, morally he has not a vestige of one. Whatever
+you do, child, don't let him make you like him."
+
+"I don't think there is much fear of that, Doctor, after what you have
+said," she replied, with a quiet smile; "and I am obliged to you indeed
+for warning me."
+
+"I know I am an old fool for meddling, but you know, my dear, I feel
+a sort of personal relationship to you, after your having been in my
+charge for six months. I don't know a single man in all India whom I
+would not rather see you fall in love with than with Captain Forster."
+
+"I thought uncle did not seem particularly pleased: when he came in to
+tiffin, and said there was a new arrival."
+
+"I should think not," the Doctor said; "the man in notoriously a
+dangerous fellow; and yet, as he has never actually outstepped what are
+considered the bounds which constitute an officer and a gentleman, he
+has retained his commission, but it has been a pretty close shave once
+or twice. Your uncle must know all about him, everyone does; but I don't
+suppose the Major will open his mouth to you on the subject--he is one
+of those chivalrous sort of men who never thinks evil of anyone unless
+he is absolutely obliged to; but in a case like this I think he is
+wrong. At any rate, I have done what I consider to be my duty in the
+matter. Now I leave it in your hands. I am glad to see that you are
+looking quite yourself again, and have got over your fainting fit of
+the other night. I quite expected to be sent for professionally the next
+morning."
+
+"Oh, yes, I have quite got over it, Doctor; I can't make out how I was
+so silly as to faint. I never did such a thing before, but it was so
+strange and mysterious that I felt quite bewildered, and the picture
+quite frightened me, but I don't know why. This is the first chance I
+have had since of speaking to you alone. What do you think of it, and
+why should you be dressed up as a native? and why should?" She stopped
+with a heightened color on her cheeks.
+
+"You and Bathurst be dressed up, too? So you noticed your own likeness;
+nobody else but Bathurst and myself recognized the two figures that came
+out of the wood."
+
+"Oh, you saw it too, Doctor. I thought I might have been mistaken, for,
+besides being stained, the face was all obscured somehow. Neither uncle,
+nor Mrs. Hunter, nor the girls, nor anyone else I have spoken to seem to
+have had an idea it was me, though they all recognized you.. What could
+it mean?"
+
+"I. have not the slightest idea in the world," the Doctor said; "very
+likely it meant nothing. I certainly should not think any more about it.
+These jugglers' tricks are curious and unaccountable; but it is no use
+our worrying ourselves about them. Maybe we are all going to get up
+private theatricals some day, and perform an Indian drama. I have never
+taken any part in tomfooleries of that sort so far, but there is no
+saying what I may come to."
+
+"Are you going to dine here, Doctor?"
+
+"No, my dear; the Major asked me to come in, but I declined. I told him
+frankly that I did not like Forster, and that the less I saw of him the
+better I should be pleased."
+
+The other guests turned out to be Captain and Mrs. Doolan and Mr.
+Congreave, one of the civilians at the station. The Doolans arrived
+first.
+
+"You have not seen Captain Forster yet, Isobel," Mrs. Doolan said, as
+they sat down for a chat together. "I met him at Delhi soon after I came
+out. He is quite my beau ideal of a soldier in appearance, but I don't
+think he is nice, Isobel. I have heard all sorts of stories about him."
+
+"Is that meant as a warning for me, Mrs. Doolan?" Isobel asked, smiling.
+
+"Well, yes, I think it is, if you don't mind my giving you one. There
+are some men one can flirt with as much as one likes, and there are some
+men one can't; he is one of that sort. Privately, my dear, I don't mind
+telling you that at one time I did flirt with him--I had been accustomed
+to flirt in Ireland; we all flirt there, and mean nothing by it; but I
+had to give it up very suddenly. It wouldn't do, my dear, at all; his
+ideas of flirtation differed utterly from mine. I found I was playing
+with fire, and was fortunate in getting off without singeing my wings,
+which is more than a good many others would have done."
+
+"He must be a horrid sort of man," Isobel said indignantly.
+
+Mrs. Doolan laughed. "I don't think you will find him so; certainly
+that is not the general opinion of women. However, you will see him for
+yourself in a very few minutes."
+
+Isobel looked up with some curiosity when Captain Forster was announced,
+and at once admitted to herself that the Doctor's report as to his
+personal appearance was fully justified. He stood over six feet high,
+with a powerful frame, and an easy careless bearing; his hair was cut
+rather close, he wore a long tawny mustache, his eyes were dark, his
+teeth very white and perfect. A momentary look of surprise came across
+his face as his eyes fell on Isobel.
+
+"I had hardly expected," he said, as the Major introduced him to her,
+"to find no less than three unmarried ladies at Deennugghur. I had the
+pleasure of being introduced to the Miss Hunters this afternoon. How do
+you do, Mrs. Doolan? I think it is four years since I had the pleasure
+of knowing you in Delhi."
+
+"I believe that is the number, Captain Forster."
+
+"It seems a very long time to me," he said.
+
+"I thought you would say that," she laughed. "It was quite the proper
+thing to say, Captain Forster; but I have no doubt it does seem longer
+to you than it does to me as you have been home since."
+
+"We are all here," the Major broke in. "Captain Forster, will you take
+my niece in?"
+
+"I suppose you find this very dull after Cawnpore, Miss Hannay?" Captain
+Forster asked.
+
+"Indeed I do not," Isobel said. "I like it better here; everything is
+sociable and pleasant, while at Cawnpore there was much more formality.
+Of course, there were lots of dinner parties, but I don't care for large
+dinner parties at all; it is so hot, and they last such a time. I think
+six is quite large enough. Then there is a general talk, and everyone
+can join in just as much as they like, while at a large dinner you
+have to rely entirely upon one person, and I think it is very hard work
+having to talk for an hour and a half to a stranger of whom you know
+nothing. Don't you agree with me?"
+
+"Entirely, Miss Hannay; I am a pretty good hand at talking, but at times
+I have found it very hard work, I can assure you, especially when
+you take down a stranger to the station, so that you have no mutual
+acquaintance to pull to pieces."
+
+The dinner was bright and pleasant, and when the evening was over Isobel
+said to her uncle, "I think Captain Forster is very amusing, uncle."
+
+"Yes," the Major agreed, "he is a good talker, a regular society man; he
+is no great favorite of mine; I think he will be a little too much for
+us in a small station like this."
+
+"How do you mean too much, uncle?"
+
+The Major hesitated.
+
+"Well, he won't have much to do with his troop of horse, and time will
+hang heavy on his hands."
+
+"Well, there is shooting, uncle."
+
+"Yes, there is shooting, but I don't think that is much in his line.
+Tiffins and calls, and society generally occupy most of his time, I
+fancy, and I think he is fonder of billiards and cards than is good for
+him or others. Of course, being here by himself, as he is, we must do
+our best to be civil to him, and that sort of thing, but if we were
+at Cawnpore he is a man I should not care about being intimate in the
+house."
+
+"I understand, uncle; but certainly he is pleasant."
+
+"Oh, yes, he is very pleasant," the Major said dryly, in a tone that
+seemed to express that Forster's power of making himself pleasant was by
+no means a recommendation in his eyes.
+
+But Captain Forster had apparently no idea whatever that his society
+could be anything but welcome, and called the next day after luncheon.
+
+"I have been leaving my pasteboard at all the residents," he said; "not
+a very large circle. Of course, I knew Mrs. Rintoul at Delhi, as well
+as Mrs. Doolan. I did not know any of the others. They seem pleasant
+people."
+
+"They are very pleasant," Isobel said.
+
+"I left one for a man named Bathurst. He was out. Is that the Bathurst,
+Major Hannay, who was in a line regiment--I forget its number--and left
+very suddenly in the middle of the fighting in the Punjaub?"
+
+"Yes; I believe Bathurst was in the army about that time," the Major
+said; "but I don't know anything about the circumstances of his
+leaving."
+
+Had Captain Forster known the Major better he would have been aware that
+what he meant to say was that he did not wish to know, but he did not
+detect the inflection of his voice, and went on--"They say he showed
+the white feather. If it is the same man, I was at school with him, and
+unless he has improved since then, I am sure I have no wish to renew his
+acquaintance."
+
+"I like him very much," the Major said shortly; "he is great friends
+with Dr. Wade, who has the very highest opinion of him, and I believe he
+is generally considered to be one of the most rising young officers of
+his grade."
+
+"Oh, I have nothing to say against him," Captain Forster said; "but he
+was a poor creature at school, and I do not think that there was any
+love lost between us. Did you know him before you came here?"
+
+"I only met him at the last races in Cawnpore," the Major said; "he was
+stopping with the Doctor."
+
+"Quite a character, Wade."
+
+Isobel's tongue was untied now.
+
+"I think he is one of the kindest and best gentlemen I ever met," the
+girl said hotly; "he took care of me coming out here, and no one could
+have been kinder than he was."
+
+"I have no doubt he is all that," Captain Forster said gently; "still he
+is a character, Miss Hannay, taking the term character to mean a person
+who differs widely from other people. I believe he is very skillful in
+his profession, but I take it he is a sort of Abernethy, and tells the
+most startling truths to his patients."
+
+"That I can quite imagine," Isobel said; "the Doctor hates humbug of
+all sorts, and I don't think I should like to call him in myself for an
+imaginary ailment."
+
+"I rather put my foot in it there," Captain Forster said to himself, as
+he sauntered back to his tent. "The Major didn't like my saying anything
+against Bathurst, and the girl did not like my remark about the Doctor.
+I wonder whether she objected also to what I said about that fellow
+Bathurst--a sneaking little hound he was, and there is no doubt about
+his showing the white feather in the Punjaub. However, I don't think
+that young lady is of the sort to care about a coward, and if she asks
+any questions, as I dare say she will, after what I have said, she will
+find that the story is a true one. What a pretty little thing she is!
+I did not see a prettier face all the time I was at home. What with her
+and Mrs. Doolan, time is not likely to hang so heavily here as I had
+expected."
+
+The Major, afraid that Isobel might ask him some questions about this
+story of Bathurst leaving the army, went off hastily as soon as Captain
+Forster had left. Isobel sat impatiently tapping the floor with her
+foot, awaiting the Doctor, who usually came for half an hour's chat in
+the afternoon.
+
+"Well, child, how did your dinner go off yesterday, and what did you
+think of your new visitor? I saw him come away from here half an hour
+ago. I suppose he has been calling."
+
+"I don't like him at all," Isobel said decidedly.
+
+"No? Well, then, you are an exception to the general rule."
+
+"I thought him pleasant enough last night," Isobel said frankly. "He has
+a deferential sort of way about him when he speaks to one that one can
+hardly help liking. But he made me angry today. In the first place,
+Doctor, he said you were a character."
+
+The Doctor chuckled. "Well, that is true enough, my dear. There was no
+harm in that."
+
+"And then he said"--and she broke off--"he said what I feel sure cannot
+be true. He said that Mr. Bathurst left the army because he showed the
+white feather. It is not true, is it? I am sure it can't be true."
+
+The Doctor did not reply immediately.
+
+"It is an old story," he said presently, "and ought not to have been
+brought up again. I don't suppose Forster or anyone else knows the
+rights of the case. When a man leaves his regiment and retires when it
+is upon active service, there are sure to be spiteful stories getting
+about, often without the slightest foundation. But even if it had been
+true, it would hardly be to Bathurst's disadvantage now he is no longer
+in the army, and courage is not a vital necessity on the part of a
+civilian."
+
+"You can't mean that, Doctor; surely every man ought to be brave. Could
+anyone possibly respect a man who is a coward? I don't believe it,
+Doctor, for a moment."
+
+"Courage, my dear, is not a universal endowment--it is a physical as
+much as a moral virtue. Some people are physically brave and
+morally cowards; others are exactly the reverse. Some people are
+constitutionally cowards all round, while in others cowardice shows
+itself only partially. I have known a man who is as brave as a lion in
+battle, but is terrified by a rat. I have known a man brave in other
+respects lose his nerve altogether in a thunderstorm. In neither of
+these cases was it the man's own fault; it was constitutional, and by no
+effort could he conquer it. I consider Bathurst to be an exceptionally
+noble character. I am sure that he is capable of acts of great bravery
+in some directions, but it is possible that he is, like the man I have
+spoken of, constitutionally weak in others."
+
+"But the great thing is to be brave in battle, Doctor! You would not
+call a man a coward simply because he was afraid of a rat, but you would
+call a man a coward who was afraid in battle. To be a coward there seems
+to me to be a coward all round. I have always thought the one virtue
+in man I really envied was bravery, and that a coward was the most
+despicable creature living. It might not be his actual fault, but one
+can't help that. It is not anyone's fault if he is fearfully ugly or
+born an idiot, for example. But cowardice seems somehow different. Not
+to be brave when he is strong seems to put a man below the level of a
+woman. I feel sure, Doctor, there must be some mistake, and that this
+story cannot be true. I have seen a good deal of Mr. Bathurst since we
+have been here, and you have always spoken so well of him, he is the
+last man I should have thought would be--would be like that."
+
+"I know the circumstances of the case, child. You can trust me when
+I say that there is nothing in Bathurst's conduct that diminishes my
+respect for him in the slightest degree, and that in some respects he is
+as brave a man as any I know."
+
+"Yes, Doctor, all that may be; but you do not answer my question. Did
+Mr. Bathurst leave the army because he showed cowardice? If he did, and
+you know it, why did you invite him here? why did you always praise
+him? why did you not say, 'In other respects this man may be good and
+estimable, but he is that most despicable thing, a coward'?"
+
+There was such a passion of pain in her voice and face that the Doctor
+only said quietly, "I did not know it, my dear, or I should have told
+you at first that in this one point he was wanting. It is, I consider,
+the duty of those who know things to speak out. But he is certainly not
+what you say."
+
+Isobel tossed her head impatiently. "We need not discuss it, Doctor. It
+is nothing to me whether Mr. Bathurst is brave or not, only it is not
+quite pleasant to learn that you have been getting on friendly terms
+with a man who--"
+
+"Don't say any more," the Doctor broke in. "You might at least remember
+he is a friend of mine. There is no occasion for us to quarrel, my dear,
+and to prevent the possibility of such a thing I will be off at once."
+
+After he had left Isobel sat down to think over what had been said. He
+had not directly answered her questions, but he had not denied that the
+rumor that Bathurst had retired from the army because he was wanting in
+courage was well founded. Everything he had said, in fact, was an excuse
+rather than a denial. The Doctor was as stanch a friend as he was bitter
+an opponent. Could he have denied it he would have done so strongly and
+indignantly.
+
+It was clear that, much as he liked Bathurst, he believed him wanting in
+physical courage. He had said, indeed, that he believed he was brave in
+some respects, and had asserted that he knew of one exceptional act of
+courage that he had performed; but what was that if a man had had to
+leave the army because he was a coward? To Isobel it seemed that of all
+things it was most dreadful that a man should be wanting in courage.
+Tales of daring and bravery had always been her special delight, and,
+being full of life and spirit herself, it had not seemed even possible
+to her that a gentleman could be a coward, and that Bathurst could be so
+was to her well nigh incredible.
+
+It might, as the Doctor had urged, be in no way his fault, but this did
+not affect the fact. He might be more to be pitied than to be blamed;
+but pity of that kind, so far from being akin to love, was destructive
+of it.
+
+Unconsciously she had raised Bathurst on a lofty pinnacle. The Doctor
+had spoken very highly of him. She had admired the energy with which,
+instead of caring, as others did, for pleasure, he devoted himself to
+his work. Older men than himself listened to his opinions. His quiet and
+somewhat restrained manner was in contrast to the careless fun and good
+humor of most of those with whom she came in contact. It had seemed to
+her that he was a strong man, one who could be relied upon implicitly at
+all times, and she had come in the few weeks she had been at Deennugghur
+to rely upon his opinion, and to look forward to his visits, and even to
+acknowledge to herself that he approached her ideal of what a man should
+be more than anyone else she had met.
+
+And now this was all shattered at a blow. He was wanting in man's first
+attribute. He had left the army, if not in disgrace, at least under
+a cloud and even his warm friend, the Doctor, could not deny that the
+accusation of cowardice was well founded. The pain of the discovery
+opened her eyes to the fact which she had not before, even remotely,
+admitted to herself, that she was beginning to love him, and the
+discovery was a bitter one.
+
+"I may thank Captain Forster for that, at least," she said to herself,
+as she angrily wiped a tear from her cheek; "he has opened my eyes in
+time. What should I have felt if I had found too late that I had come
+to love a man who was a coward--who had left the army because he was
+afraid? I should have despised myself as much as I should despise him.
+Well, that is my first lesson. I shall not trust in appearances again.
+Why, I would rather marry a man like Captain Forster, even if everything
+they say about him is true, than a man who is a coward. At least he is
+brave, and has shown himself so."
+
+The Doctor had gone away in a state of extreme irritation.
+
+"Confound the meddling scoundrel!" he said to himself, as he surprised
+the horse with a sharp cut of the whip. "Just when things were going
+on as I wished. I had quite set my mind on it, and though I am sure
+Bathurst would never have spoken to her till he had told her himself
+about that unfortunate failing of his, it would have been altogether
+different coming from his own lips just as he told it to me. Of course,
+my lips were sealed and I could not put the case in the right light. I
+would give three months' pay for the satisfaction of horsewhipping that
+fellow Forster. Still, I can't say he did it maliciously, for he could
+not have known Bathurst was intimate there, or that there was anything
+between them. The question is, am I to tell Bathurst that she has heard
+about it? I suppose I had better. Ah, here is the Major," and he drew up
+his horse.
+
+"Anything new, Major? You look put out."
+
+"Yes, there is very bad news, Doctor. A Sowar has just brought a letter
+to me from the Colonel saying that the General has got a telegram
+that the 19th Native Infantry at Berhampore have refused to use the
+cartridges served out to them, and that yesterday a Sepoy of the 34th
+at Barrackpore raised seditious cries in front of the lines, and when
+Baugh, the adjutant, and the sergeant major attempted to seize him he
+wounded them both, while the regiment stood by and refused to aid them.
+The 19th are to be disbanded, and no doubt the 34th will be, too."
+
+"That is bad news indeed, Major, and looks as if this talk about general
+disaffection were true. Had there been trouble but at one station it
+might have been the effect of some local grievance, but happening at
+two places, it looks as if it were part of a general plot. Well, we must
+hope it will go no farther."
+
+"It is very bad," said the Major, "but at any rate we may hope we shall
+have no troubles here; the regiment has always behaved well, and I am
+sure they have no reason to complain of their treatment. If the Colonel
+has a fault, it is that of over leniency with the men."
+
+"That is so," the Doctor agreed; "but the fact is, Major, we know
+really very little about the Hindoo mind. We can say with some sort of
+certainty what Europeans will do under given circumstances, but though
+I know the natives, I think, pretty nearly as well as most men, I feel
+that I really know nothing about them. They appear mild and submissive,
+and have certainly proved faithful on a hundred battlefields, but we
+don't know whether that is their real character. Their own history,
+before we stepped in and altered its current, shows them as faithless,
+bloodthirsty and cruel; whether they have changed their nature under our
+rule, or simply disguised it, Heaven only knows."
+
+"At any rate," the Major said, "they have always shown themselves
+attached to their English officers. There are numberless instances where
+they have displayed the utmost devotion for them, and although some
+scheming intriguers may have sown the seeds of discontent among them,
+and these lies about the cartridges may have excited their religious
+prejudices, and may even lead them to mutiny, I cannot believe for an
+instant that the Sepoys will lift their hands against their officers."
+
+"I hope not," the Doctor said gravely. "A tiger's cub, when tamed, is
+one of the prettiest of playthings, but when it once tastes blood it is
+as savage a beast as its mother was before it. Of course, I hope for the
+best, but if the Sepoys once break loose I would not answer for anything
+they might do. They have been pretty well spoilt, Major, till they have
+come to believe that it is they who conquered India and not we."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+That evening, after dining alone, the Doctor went in to Bathurst's.
+The latter had already heard the news, and they talked it over for some
+time. Then the Doctor said, "Have you seen Forster, Bathurst, since he
+arrived?"
+
+"No, I was out when he left his card. I was at school with him.. I heard
+when I was in England that he was out here in the native cavalry, but I
+have never run across him before, and I own I had no wish to do so. He
+was about two years older than I was, and was considered the cock of the
+school. He was one of my chief tormentors. I don't know that he was
+a bully generally--fellows who are really plucky seldom are; but he
+disliked me heartily, and I hated him.
+
+"I had the habit of telling the truth when questioned, and he narrowly
+escaped expulsion owing to my refusing to tell a lie about his being
+quietly in bed when, in fact, he and two or three other fellows had been
+out at a public house. He never forgave me for it, for he himself would
+have told a lie without hesitation to screen himself, or, to do him
+justice, to screen anyone else; and the mere fact that I myself had
+been involved in the matter, having been sent out by one of the bigger
+fellows, and, therefore, having got myself a flogging by my admission,
+was no mitigation in his eyes of my offense of what he called sneaking.
+
+"So you may imagine I have no particular desire to meet him again.
+Unless he has greatly changed, he would do me a bad turn if he had the
+chance."
+
+"I don't think he has greatly changed," the Doctor said. "That was
+really what I came in here for this evening rather than to talk about
+this Sepoy business. I am sorry to say, Bathurst, that when he was in
+at the Major's today your name happened to be mentioned, and he said
+at once, 'Is that the Bathurst who they say showed the white feather at
+Chillianwalla and left the army in consequence?'"
+
+Bathurst's face grew pale and his fingers closed. He remained silent a
+minute, and then said, "It does not matter; she would have been sure to
+hear it sooner or later, and I should have told her myself if he had not
+done so; besides, if, as I am afraid, this Berhampore business is the
+beginning of trouble, and of such trouble as we have never had since we
+set foot in India, it is likely that everyone will know what she knows
+now. Has she spoken to you about it? I suppose she has, or you would not
+have known that he mentioned it."
+
+"Yes, she was most indignant about it, and did not believe it."
+
+"And what did you say, Doctor?" he asked indifferently.
+
+"Well, I was sorry I could not tell her exactly what you told me. It
+would have been better if I could have done so. I simply said there were
+many sorts of courage, and that I was sure that you possessed many sorts
+in a very high degree, but I could not, of course, deny; although I did
+not admit, the truth of the report he had mentioned."
+
+"I don't think it makes much difference one way or the other," Bathurst
+said wearily. "I have known all along that Isobel Hannay would not marry
+a coward, only I have gone on living in a fool's paradise. However, it
+is over now--the sooner it is all over the better."
+
+"My dear fellow," the Doctor said earnestly, "don't take this thing too
+much to heart. I don't wish to try and persuade you that it is not a
+grave misfortune, but even suppose this trouble takes the very worst
+form possible, I do not think you will come so very badly out of it as
+you anticipate. Even assuming that you are unable to do your part in
+absolute fighting, there may be other opportunities, and most likely
+will, in which you may be able to show that although unable to control
+your nerves in the din of battle, you possess in other respects coolness
+and courage. That feat of yours of attacking the tiger with the dog whip
+shows conclusively that under many circumstances you are capable of most
+daring deeds."
+
+Bathurst sat looking down for some minutes. "God grant that it may
+be so," he said at last; "but it is no use talking about it any more,
+Doctor. I suppose Major Hannay will keep a sharp lookout over the men?"
+
+"Yes; there was a meeting of the officers this afternoon. It was agreed
+to make no outward change, and to give the troops no cause whatever to
+believe that they are suspected. They all feel confident of the goodwill
+of the men; at the same time they will watch them closely, and if the
+news comes of further trouble, they will prepare the courthouse as a
+place of refuge."
+
+"That is a very good plan; but of course everything depends upon
+whether, if the troops do rise in mutiny, the people of Oude should join
+them. They are a fighting race, and if they should throw in their lot
+against us the position would be a desperate one."
+
+"Well, there is no doubt," the Doctor said, "that the Rajah of Bithoor
+would be with us; that will make Cawnpore safe, and will largely
+influence all the great Zemindars, though there is no doubt that a
+good many of them have been sulky ever since the disarmament order was
+issued. I believe there are few of them who have not got cannon hidden
+away or buried, and as for the people, the number of arms given up was
+as nothing to what we know they possessed. In other parts of India I
+believe the bulk of the people will be with us; but here in Oude, our
+last annexation, I fear that they will side against us, unless all the
+great landowners range themselves on our side."
+
+"As far as I can see," Bathurst said, "the people are contented with the
+change. I don't say what I may call the professional fighting class,
+the crowd of retainers kept by the great landowners, who were constantly
+fighting against each other. Annexation has put a stop to all that, and
+the towns are crowded with these fighting men, who hate us bitterly; but
+the peasants, the tillers of the soil, have benefited greatly. They
+are no longer exposed to raids by their powerful neighbors, and
+can cultivate their fields in peace and quiet. Unfortunately their
+friendship, such as it is, will not weigh in the slightest degree in
+the event of a struggle. At any rate, I am sure they are not behind the
+scenes, and know nothing whatever of any coming trouble. Going as I
+do among them, and talking to them as one of themselves, I should have
+noticed it had there been any change in them; and of late naturally I
+have paid special notice to their manner. Well, if it is to come I hope
+it will come soon, for anything is better than suspense."
+
+Two days later Major Hannay read out to the men on parade an official
+document, assuring them that there was no truth whatever in the
+statements that had been made that the cartridges served out to them had
+been greased with pigs' fat. They were precisely the same as those that
+they had used for years, and the men were warned against listening to
+seditious persons who might try to poison their minds and shake their
+loyalty to the Government. He then told them that he was sorry to say
+that at one or two stations the men had been foolish enough to listen
+to disloyal counsels, and that in consequence the regiments had been
+disbanded and the men had forfeited all the advantages in the way of pay
+and pension they had earned by many years of good conduct. He said that
+he had no fear whatever of any such trouble arising with them, as they
+knew that they had been well treated, that any legitimate complaint
+they might make had always been attended to, and that their officers had
+their welfare thoroughly at heart.
+
+When he had finished, the senior native officer stepped forward, and in
+the name of the detachment assured the Major that the men were perfectly
+contented, and would in all cases follow their officers, even if they
+ordered them to march against their countrymen. At the conclusion of his
+speech he called upon the troops to give three cheers for the Major and
+officers, and this was responded to with a show of great enthusiasm.
+
+This demonstration was deemed very satisfactory, and the uneasiness
+among the residents abated considerably, while the Major and his
+officers felt convinced that, whatever happened at other stations, there
+would at least be no trouble at Deennugghur.
+
+"Well, even you are satisfied, Doctor, I suppose?" the Major said, as
+a party of them who had been dining with Dr. Wade were smoking in the
+veranda.
+
+"I was hopeful before, Major, and I am hopeful now; but I can't say that
+today's parade has influenced me in the slightest. Whatever virtues
+the Hindoo may have, he has certainly that of knowing how to wait. I
+believe, from what took place, that they have no intention of breaking
+out at present; whether they are waiting to see what is done at other
+stations, or until they receive a signal, is more than I can say; but
+their assurances do not weigh with me to the slightest extent. Their
+history is full of cases of perfidious massacre. I should say, 'Trust
+them as long as you can, but don't relax your watch.'"
+
+"You are a confirmed croaker," Captain Rintoul said.
+
+"I do not think so, Rintoul. I know the men I am talking about, and I
+know the Hindoos generally. They are mere children, and can be molded
+like clay. As long as we had the molding, all went well; but if
+they fall into the hands of designing men they can be led in another
+direction just as easily as we have led them in ours. I own that I don't
+see who can be sufficiently interested in the matter to conceive and
+carry out a great conspiracy of this kind. The King of Oude is a captive
+in our hands, the King of Delhi is too old to play such a part. Scindia
+and Holkar may possibly long for the powers their fathers possessed,
+but they are not likely to act together, and may be regarded as rivals
+rather than friends, and yet if it is not one of these who has been
+brewing this storm. I own I don't see who can be at the bottom of it,
+unless it has really originated from some ambitious spirits among
+the Sepoys, who look in the event of success to being masters of the
+destinies of India. It is a pity we did not get a few more views from
+that juggler; we might have known a little more of it then."
+
+"Don't talk about him, Doctor," Wilson said; "it gives me the cold
+shivers to think of that fellow and what he did; I have hardly slept
+since then. It was the most creepy thing I ever saw. Richards and I have
+talked it over every evening we have been alone together, and we can't
+make head or tail of the affair. Richards thinks it wasn't the girl at
+all who went up on that pole, but a sort of balloon in her shape. But
+then, as I say, there was the girl standing among us before she took her
+place on the pole. We saw her sit down and settle herself on the cushion
+so that she was balanced right. So it could not have been a balloon
+then, and if it were a balloon afterwards, when did she change? At any
+rate the light below was sufficient to see well until she was forty or
+fifty feet up, and after that she shone out, and we never lost sight of
+her until she was ever so high. I can understand the pictures, because
+there might have been a magic lantern somewhere, but that girl trick,
+and the basket trick, and that great snake are altogether beyond me."
+
+"So I should imagine, Wilson," the Doctor said dryly; "and if I were you
+I would not bother my head about it.. Nobody has succeeded in finding
+out any of them yet, and all the wondering in the world is not likely to
+get you any nearer to it."
+
+"That is what I feel, Doctor, but it is very riling to see things that
+you can't account for anyhow. I wish he had sent up Richards on the pole
+instead of the girl. I would not have minded going up myself if he had
+asked me, though I expect I should have jumped off before it got up very
+far, even at the risk of breaking my neck."
+
+"I should not mind risking that," the Doctor said, "though I doubt
+whether I should have known any more about it when I came down; but
+these jugglers always bring a girl or a boy with them instead of calling
+somebody out from the audience, as they do at home. Well, if things are
+quiet we will organize another hunt, Wilson. I have heard of a tiger
+fifteen miles away from where we killed our last, and you and Richards
+shall go with me if you like."
+
+"I should like it of all things, Doctor, provided it comes off by day.
+I don't think I care about sitting through another night on a tree, and
+then not getting anything like a fair shot at the beast after all."
+
+"We will go by day," the Doctor said. "Bathurst has promised to get some
+elephants from one of the Zemindars; we will have a regular party this
+time. I have half promised Miss Hannay she shall have a seat in a howdah
+with me if the Major will give her leave, and in that case we will send
+out tents and make a regular party of it. What do you say, Major?"
+
+"I am perfectly willing, Doctor, and have certainly no objection to
+trusting Isobel to your care. I know you are not likely to miss."
+
+"No, I am not likely to miss, certainly; and besides, there will be
+Wilson and Richards to give him the coup de grace if I don't finish
+him."
+
+There was a general laugh, for the two subalterns had been chaffed a
+good deal at both missing the tiger on the previous occasion.
+
+"Well, when shall it be, Major?"
+
+"Not just at present, at any rate," the Major said. "We must see how
+things are going on. I certainly should not think of going outside the
+station now, nor could I give leave to any officer to do so; but if
+things settle down, and we hear no more of this cartridge business for
+the next ten days or a fortnight, we will see about it."
+
+But although no news of any outbreak similar to that at Barrackpore
+was received for some days, the report that came showed a widespread
+restlessness. At various stations, all over India, fires, believed to be
+the work of incendiaries, took place, and there was little abatement of
+the uneasiness. It become known, too, that a native officer had before
+the rising of Berhampore given warning of the mutiny, and had stated
+that there was a widespread plot throughout the native regiments to
+rise, kill their officers, and then march to Delhi, where they were all
+to gather.
+
+The story was generally disbelieved, although the actual rising had
+shown that, to some extent, the report was well founded; still men could
+not bring themselves to believe that the troops among whom they had
+lived so long, and who had fought so well for us, could meditate such
+gross treachery, without having, as far as could be seen, any real cause
+for complaint.
+
+The conduct of the troops at Deennugghur was excellent, and the Colonel
+wrote that at Cawnpore there were no signs whatever of disaffection, and
+that the Rajah of Bithoor had offered to come down at the head of his
+own troops should there be any symptoms of mutiny among the Sepoys.
+Altogether things looked better, and a feeling of confidence that there
+would be no serious trouble spread through the station.
+
+The weather had set in very hot, and there was no stirring out now for
+the ladies between eleven o'clock and five or six in the afternoon.
+Isobel, however, generally went in for a chat, the first thing after
+early breakfast, with Mrs. Doolan, whose children were fractious with
+prickly heat.
+
+"I only wish we had some big, high mountain, my dear, somewhere within
+reach, where we could establish the children through the summer and run
+away ourselves occasionally to look after them. We are very badly off
+here in Oude for that. You are looking very pale yourself the last few
+days."
+
+"I suppose I feel it a little," Isobel said, "and of course this anxiety
+everyone has been feeling worries one. Everyone seems to agree that
+there is no fear of trouble with the Sepoys here; still, as nothing else
+is talked about, one cannot help feeling nervous about it. However, as
+things seem settling down now, I hope we shall soon get something else
+to talk about."
+
+"I have not seen Mr. Bathurst lately," Mrs. Doolan said presently.
+
+"Nor have we," Isobel said quietly; "it is quite ten days since we saw
+him last."
+
+"I suppose he is falling back into his hermit ways," Mrs. Doolan said
+carelessly, shooting a keen glance at Isobel, who was leaning over one
+of the children.
+
+"He quite emerged from his shell for a bit. Mrs. Hunter was saying she
+never saw such a change in a man, but I suppose he has got tired of it.
+Captain Forster arrived just in time to fill up the gap. How do you like
+him, Isobel?"
+
+"He is amusing," the girl said quietly; "I have never seen anyone quite
+like him before; he talks in an easy, pleasant sort of way, and tells
+most amusing stories. Then, when he sits down by one he has the knack of
+dropping his voice and talking in a confidential sort of way, even when
+it is only about the weather. I am always asking myself how much of it
+is real, and what there is under the surface."
+
+Mrs. Doolan nodded approval.
+
+"I don't think there is much under the surface, dear, and what there is
+is just as well left alone; but there is no doubt he can be delightful
+when he chooses, and very few women would not feel flattered by the
+attentions of a man who is said to be the handsomest officer in the
+Indian army, and who has besides distinguished himself several times as
+a particularly dashing officer."
+
+"I don't think handsomeness goes for much in a man," Isobel said
+shortly.
+
+Mrs. Doolan laughed.
+
+"Why should it not go for as much as prettiness in a woman? It is no use
+being cynical, Isobel; it is part of our nature to admire pretty things,
+and as far as I can see an exceptionally handsome man is as legitimate
+an object of admiration as a lovely woman."
+
+"Yes, to admire, Mrs. Doolan, but not to like."
+
+"Well, my dear, I don't want to be hurrying you away, but I think you
+had better get back before the sun gets any higher. You may say you
+don't feel the heat much, but you are looking pale and fagged, and the
+less you are out in the sun the better."
+
+Isobel had indeed been having a hard time during those ten days. At
+first she had thought of little but what she should do when Bathurst
+called. It seemed impossible that she could be exactly the same with him
+as she had been before, that was quite out of the question, and yet how
+was she to be different?
+
+Ten days had passed without his coming. This was so unusual that an
+idea came into her mind which terrified her, and the first time when the
+Doctor came in and found her alone she said, "Of course, Dr. Wade, you
+have not mentioned to Mr. Bathurst the conversation we had, but it is
+curious his not having been here since."
+
+"Certainly I mentioned it," the Doctor said calmly; "how could I do
+otherwise? It was evident to me that he would not be welcomed here as he
+was before, and I could not do otherwise than warn him of the change he
+might expect to find, and to give him the reason for it."
+
+Isobel stood the picture of dismay. "I don't think you had any right
+to do so, Doctor," she said. "You have placed me in a most painful
+position."
+
+"In not so painful a one as it would have been, my dear, if he had
+noticed the change himself, as he must have done, and asked for the
+cause of it."
+
+Isobel stood twisting her fingers over each other before her nervously.
+
+"But what am I to do?" she asked.
+
+"I do not see that there is anything more for you to do," the Doctor
+said. "Mr. Bathurst may not be perfect in all respects, but he is
+certainly too much of a gentleman to force his visits where they are
+not wanted. I do not say he will not come here at all, for not to do so
+after being here so much would create comment and talk in the station,
+which would be as painful to you as to him, but he certainly will not
+come here more often than is necessary to keep up appearances."
+
+"I don't think you ought to have told him," Isobel repeated, much
+distressed.
+
+"I could not help it, my dear. You would force me to admit there was
+some truth in the story Captain Forster told you, and I was, therefore,
+obliged to acquaint him with the fact or he would have had just cause
+to reproach me. Besides, you spoke of despising a man who was not
+physically brave."
+
+"You never told him that, Doctor; surely you never told him that?"
+
+"I only told what it was necessary he should know, my dear, namely, that
+you had heard the story, that you had questioned me, and that I, knowing
+the facts from his lips, admitted that there was some foundation for the
+story, while asserting that I was convinced that he was morally a brave
+man. He did not ask how you took the news, nor did I volunteer any
+information whatever on the subject, but he understood, I think,
+perfectly the light in which you would view a coward."
+
+"But what am I to do when we meet, Doctor?" she asked piteously.
+
+"I should say that you will meet just as ordinary acquaintances do meet,
+Miss Hannay. People are civil to others they are thrown with, however
+much they may distrust them at heart. You may be sure that Mr. Bathurst
+will make no allusion whatever to the matter. I think I can answer for
+it that you will see no shade of difference in his manner. This has
+always been a heavy burden for him, as even the most careless observer
+may see in his manner. I do not say that this is not a large addition to
+it, but I dare say he will pull through; and now I must be off."
+
+"You are very unkind, Doctor, and I never knew you unkind before."
+
+"Unkind!" the Doctor repeated, with an air of surprise. "In what way?
+I love this young fellow. I had cherished hopes for him that he hardly
+perhaps ventured to cherish for himself. I quite agree with you that
+what has passed has annihilated those hopes. You despise a man who is
+a coward. I am not surprised at that. Bathurst is the last man in the
+world who would force himself upon a woman who despised him. I have done
+my best to save you from being obliged to make a personal declaration of
+your sentiments. I repudiate altogether the accusation as being unkind.
+I don't blame you in the slightest. I think that your view is the one
+that a young woman of spirit would naturally take. I acquiesce in it
+entirely. I will go farther, I consider it a most fortunate occurrence
+for you both that you found it out in time."
+
+Isobel's cheeks had flushed and paled several times while he was
+speaking; then she pressed her lips tightly together, and as he finished
+she said, "I think, Doctor, it will be just as well not to discuss the
+matter further."
+
+"I am quite of your opinion," he said. "We will agree not to allude to
+it again. Goodby."
+
+And then Isobel had retired to her room and cried passionately, while
+the Doctor had gone off chuckling to himself as if he were perfectly
+satisfied with the state of affairs.
+
+During the week that had since elapsed the Major had wondered and
+grumbled several times at Bathurst's absence.
+
+"I expect," he said one day, when a note of refusal had come from him,
+"that he doesn't care about meeting Forster. You remember Forster said
+they had been at school together, and from the tone in which he spoke
+it is evident that they disliked each other there. No doubt he has heard
+from the Doctor that Forster is frequently in here," and the Major spoke
+rather irritably, for it seemed to him that Isobel showed more pleasure
+in the Captain's society than she should have done after what he had
+said to her about him; indeed, Isobel, especially when the Doctor was
+present, appeared by no means to object to Captain Forster's attentions.
+
+Upon the evening, however, of the day when Isobel had spoken to Mrs.
+Doolan, Bathurst came in, rather late in the evening.
+
+"How are you, Bathurst?" the Major said cordially. "Why, you have become
+quite a stranger. We haven't seen you for over a fortnight. Do you know
+Captain Forster?"
+
+"We were at school together formerly, I believe," Bathurst said
+quietly. "We have not met since, and I fancy we are both changed beyond
+recognition."
+
+Captain Forster looked with surprise at the strong, well knit figure. He
+had not before seen Bathurst, and had pictured him to himself as a weak,
+puny man.
+
+"I certainly should not have known Mr. Bathurst," he said. "I have
+changed a great deal, no doubt, but he has certainly changed more."
+
+There was no attempt on the part of either to shake hands. As they moved
+apart Isobel came into the room.
+
+A quick flash of color spread over her face when, upon entering, she saw
+Bathurst talking to her uncle. Then she advanced, shook hands with
+him as usual, and said, "It is quite a time since you were here, Mr.
+Bathurst. If everyone was as full of business as you are, we should get
+on badly."
+
+Then she moved on without waiting for a reply and sat down, and was soon
+engaged in a lively conversation with. Captain Forster, whilst Bathurst,
+a few minutes later, pleading that as he had been in the saddle all day
+he must go and make up for lost time, took his leave.
+
+Captain Forster had noticed the flush on Isobel's cheeks when she saw
+Bathurst, and had drawn his own conclusions.
+
+"There has been a flirtation between them," he said to himself; "but I
+fancy I have put a spoke in his wheel. She gave him the cold shoulder
+unmistakably."
+
+April passed, and as matters seemed to be quieting down, there being no
+fresh trouble at any of the stations, the Major told Dr. Wade that he
+really saw no reason why the projected tiger hunt should not take place.
+The Doctor at once took the matter in hand, and drove out the next
+morning to the village from which he had received news about the tiger,
+had a long talk with the shikaris of the place, took a general view of
+the country, settled the line in which the beat should take place,
+and arranged for a large body of beaters to be on the spot at the time
+agreed on.
+
+Bathurst undertook to obtain the elephants from two Zemindars in the
+neighborhood, who promised to furnish six, all of which were more or
+less accustomed to the sport; while the Major and Mr. Hunter, who had
+been a keen sportsman, although he had of late given up the pursuit of
+large game, arranged for a number of bullock carts for the transport of
+tents and stores.
+
+Bathurst himself declined to be one of the party, which was to consist
+of Mr. Hunter and his eldest daughter, the Major and Isobel, the Doctor,
+the two subalterns, and Captain Forster. Captain Doolan said frankly
+that he was no shot, and more likely to hit one of the party than the
+tiger. Captain Rintoul at first accepted, but his wife shed such floods
+of tears at the idea of his leaving her and going into danger, that for
+the sake of peace he agreed to remain at home.
+
+Wilson and Richards were greatly excited over the prospect, and talked
+of nothing else; they were burning to wipe out the disgrace of having
+missed on the previous occasion. Each of them interviewed the Doctor
+privately, and implored him to put them in a position where they were
+likely to have the first shot. Both used the same arguments, namely,
+that the Doctor had killed so many tigers that one more or less could
+make no difference to him, and if they missed, which they modestly
+admitted was possible, he could still bring the animal down.
+
+As the Doctor was always in a good temper when there was a prospect of
+sport, he promised each of them to do all that he could for them, at the
+same time pointing out that it was always quite a lottery which way the
+tiger might break out.
+
+Isobel was less excited than she would have thought possible over the
+prospect of taking part in a tiger hunt. She had many consultations
+to hold with Mrs. Hunter, the Doctor, and Rumzan as to the food to be
+taken, and the things that would be absolutely necessary for camping
+out; for, as it was possible that the first day's beat would be
+unsuccessful, they were to be prepared for at least two days' absence
+from home. Two tents were to be taken, one for the gentlemen, the other
+for Isobel and Mary Hunter. These, with bedding and camp furniture,
+cooking utensils and provisions, were to be sent off at daybreak, while
+the party were to start as soon as the heat of the day was over.
+
+"I wish Bathurst had been coming," Major Hannay said, as, with Isobel by
+his side, he drove out of the cantonment. "He seems to have slipped away
+from us altogether; he has only been in once for the last three or four
+weeks. You haven't had a tiff with him about anything, have you, Isobel?
+It seems strange his ceasing so suddenly to come after our seeing so
+much of him."
+
+"No, uncle, I have not seen him except when you have. What put such an
+idea into your mind?"
+
+"I don't know, my dear; young people do have tiffs sometimes about all
+sorts of trifles, though I should not have thought that Bathurst was
+the sort of man to do anything of that sort. I don't think that he likes
+Forster, and does not care to meet him. I fancy that is at the bottom of
+it."
+
+"Very likely," Isobel said innocently, and changed the subject.
+
+It was dark when they reached the appointed spot, and indeed from the
+point where they left the road a native with a torch had run ahead to
+show them the way. The tents looked bright; two or three large fires
+were burning round them, and the lamps had already been lighted within.
+
+"These tents do look cozy," Mary Hunter said, as she and Isobel entered
+the one prepared for them. "I do wish one always lived under canvas
+during the hot weather."
+
+"They look cool," Isobel said, "but I don't suppose they are really as
+cool as the bungalows; but they do make them comfortable. Here is the
+bathroom all ready, and I am sure we want it after that dusty drive.
+Will you have one first, or shall I? We must make haste, for Rumzan said
+dinner would be ready in half an hour. Fortunately we shan't be expected
+to do much in the way of dressing."
+
+The dinner was a cheerful meal, and everyone was in high spirits.
+
+The tiger had killed a cow the day before, and the villagers were
+certain that he had retired to a deep nullah round which a careful watch
+had been kept all day. Probably he would steal out by night to make a
+meal from the carcass of the cow, but it had been arranged that he was
+to do this undisturbed, and that the hunt was to take place by daylight.
+
+"It is wonderful how the servants manage everything," Isobel said. "The
+table is just as well arranged as it is at home. People would hardly
+believe in England, if they could see us sitting here, that we were only
+out on a two days' picnic. They would be quite content there to rough
+it and take their meals sitting on the ground, or anyway they could get
+them. It really seems ridiculous having everything like this."
+
+"There is nothing like making yourself comfortable," the Doctor said;
+"and as the servants have an easy time of it generally, it does them
+good to bestir themselves now and then. The expense of one or two extra
+bullock carts is nothing, and it makes all the difference in comfort."
+
+"How far is the nullah from here, Doctor?" Wilson, who could think of
+nothing else but the tiger, asked.
+
+"About two miles. It is just as well not to go any nearer. Not that he
+would be likely to pay us a visit, but he might take the alarm and shift
+his quarters. No, no more wine, Major; we shall want our blood cool in
+the morning. Now we will go out to look at the elephants and have a talk
+with the mahouts, and find out which of the animals can be most trusted
+to stand steady. It is astonishing what a dread most elephants have of
+tigers. I was on one once that I was assured would face anything, and
+the brute bolted and went through some trees, and I was swept off the
+pad and was half an hour before I opened my eyes. It was a mercy I had
+not every rib broken. Fortunately I was a lightweight, or I might have
+been killed. And I have seen the same sort of thing happen a dozen
+times, so we must choose a couple of steady ones, anyhow, for the
+ladies."
+
+For the next hour they strolled about outside. The Doctor cross
+questioned the mahouts and told off the elephants for the party; then
+there was a talk with the native shikaris and arrangements made for the
+beat, and at an early hour all retired to rest. The morning was just
+breaking when they were called. Twenty minutes later they assembled to
+take a cup of coffee before starting. The elephants were arranged in
+front of the tents, and they were just about to mount when a horse was
+heard coming at a gallop.
+
+"Wait a moment," the Major said; "it may be a message of some sort from
+the station." A minute later Bathurst rode in and reined up his horse in
+front of the tent.
+
+"Why, Bathurst, what brings you here? Changed your mind at the last
+moment, and found you could get away? That's right; you shall come on
+the pad with me."
+
+"No, I have not come for that, Major; I have brought a dispatch that
+arrived at two o'clock this morning. Doolan opened it and came to me,
+and asked me to bring it on to you, as I knew the way and where your
+camp was to be pitched."
+
+"Nothing serious, I hope, Bathurst," the Major said, struck with the
+gravity with which Bathurst spoke. "It must be something important, or
+Doolan would never have routed you off like that."
+
+"It is very serious, Major," Bathurst said, in a low voice. "May I
+suggest you had better go into the tent to read it? Some of the servants
+understand English."
+
+"Come in with me," the Major said, and led the way into the tent, where
+the lamps were still burning on the breakfast table, although the light
+had broadened out over the sky outside. It was with grave anticipation
+of evil that the Major took the paper from its envelope, but his worst
+fears were more than verified by the contents.
+
+"My Dear Major: The General has just received a telegram with terrible
+news from Meerut. 'Native troops mutinied, murdered officers, women, and
+children, opened jails and burned cantonments, and marched to Delhi.' It
+is reported that there has been a general rising there and the massacre
+of all Europeans. Although this is not confirmed, the news is considered
+probable. We hear also that the native cavalry at Lucknow have mutinied.
+Lawrence telegraphs that he has suppressed it with the European troops
+there, and has disarmed the mutineers. I believe that our regiment
+will be faithful, but none can be trusted now. I should recommend your
+preparing some fortified house to which all Europeans in station can
+retreat in case of trouble. Now that they have taken to massacre as well
+as mutiny, God knows how it will all end."
+
+"Good Heavens! who could have dreamt of this?" the Major groaned.
+"Massacred their officers, women, and children. All Europeans at Delhi
+supposed to have been massacred, and there must be hundreds of them. Can
+it be true?"
+
+"The telegram as to Meerut is clearly an official one," Bathurst said.
+"Delhi is as yet but a rumor, but it is too probable that if these
+mutineers and jail birds, flushed with success, reached Delhi before the
+whites were warned, they would have their own way in the place, as, with
+the exception of a few artillerymen at the arsenal, there is not a white
+soldier in the place."
+
+"But there were white troops at Meerut," the Major said. "What could
+they have been doing? However, that is not the question now. We must,
+of course, return instantly. Ask the others to come in here, Bathurst.
+Don't tell the girls what has taken place; it will be time enough for
+that afterwards. All that is necessary to say is that you have brought
+news of troubles at some stations unaffected before, and that I think it
+best to return at once."
+
+The men were standing in a group, wondering what the news could be which
+was deemed of such importance that Bathurst should carry it out in the
+middle of the night.
+
+"The Major will be glad if you will all go in, gentlemen," Bathurst
+said, as he joined them.
+
+"Are we to go in, Mr. Bathurst?" Miss Hunter asked.
+
+"No, I think not, Miss Hunter; the fact is there have been some troubles
+at two or three other places, and the Major is going to hold a sort
+of council of war as to whether the hunt had not better be given up. I
+rather fancy that they will decide to go back at once. News flies very
+fast in India. I think the Major would like that he and his officers
+should be back before it is whispered among the Sepoys that the
+discontent has not, as we hoped, everywhere ceased."
+
+"It must be very serious," Isobel said, "or uncle would never decide to
+go back, when all the preparations are made."
+
+"It would never do, you see, Miss Hannay, for the Commandant and four of
+the officers to be away, if the Sepoys should take it into their heads
+to refuse to receive cartridges or anything of that sort."
+
+"You can't give us any particulars, then, Mr. Bathurst?"
+
+"The note was a very short one, and was partly made up of unconfirmed
+rumors. As I only saw it in my capacity of a messenger, I don't think I
+am at liberty to say more than that."
+
+"What a trouble the Sepoys are," Mary Hunter said pettishly; "it is too
+bad our losing a tiger hunt when we may never have another chance to see
+one!"
+
+"That is a very minor trouble, Mary."
+
+"I don't think so," the girl said; "just at present it seems to me to be
+very serious."
+
+At this moment the Doctor put his head out of the tent.
+
+"Will you come in, Bathurst?"
+
+"We have settled, Bathurst," the Major said, when he entered, "that we
+must, of course, go back at once. The Doctor, however, is of opinion
+that if, after all the preparations were made, we were to put the tiger
+hunt off altogether, it would set the natives talking, and the report
+would go through the country like wildfire that some great disaster had
+happened. We must go back at once, and Mr. Hunter, having a wife and
+daughter there, is anxious to get back, too; but the Doctor urges that
+he should go out and kill this tiger. As it is known that you have just
+arrived, he says that if you are willing to go with him, it will be
+thought that you had come here to join the hunt, and if that comes off,
+and the tiger is killed, it does not matter whether two or sixty of us
+went out."
+
+"I shall be quite willing to do so," said Bathurst, "and I really think
+that the Doctor's advice is good. If, now that you have all arrived upon
+the ground, the preparations were canceled, there can be no doubt that
+the natives would come to the conclusion that something very serious had
+taken place, and it would be all over the place in no time."
+
+"Thank you, Bathurst. Then we will consider that arranged. Now we will
+get the horses in as soon as possible, and be off at once."
+
+Ten minutes later the buggies were brought round, and the whole party,
+with the exception of the Doctor and Bathurst, started for Deennugghur.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+"Let us be off at once," Dr. Wade said to his companion; "we can talk as
+we go along. I have got two rifles with me; I can lend you one."
+
+"I shall take no rifle," Bathurst said decidedly, "or rather I will take
+one of the shikaris' guns for the sake of appearance, and for use I will
+borrow one of their spears."
+
+"Very well; I will do the shooting, then," the Doctor agreed.
+
+The two men then took their places on the elephants most used to the
+work, and told the mahouts of the others to follow in case the elephants
+should be required for driving the tiger out of the thick jungle, and
+they then started side by side for the scene of action.
+
+"This is awful news, Bathurst. I could not have believed it possible
+that these fellows who have eaten our salt for years, fought our
+battles, and have seemed the most docile and obedient of soldiers,
+should have done this. That they should have been goaded into mutiny
+by lies about their religion being in danger I could have imagined well
+enough, but that they should go in for wholesale massacre, not only of
+their officers, but of women and children, seems well nigh incredible.
+You and I have always agreed that if they were once roused there was
+no saying what they would do, but I don't think either of us dreamt of
+anything as bad as this."
+
+"I don't know," Bathurst said quietly; "one has watched this cloud
+gathering, and felt that if it did break it would be something terrible.
+No one can foresee now what it will be. The news that Delhi is in the
+hands of the mutineers, and that these have massacred all Europeans, and
+so placed themselves beyond all hope of pardon, will fly though India
+like a flash of lightning, and there is no guessing how far the matter
+will spread. There is no use disguising it from ourselves, Doctor,
+before a week is over there may not be a white man left alive in
+India, save the garrisons of strong places like Agra, and perhaps the
+presidential towns, where there is always a strong European force."
+
+"I can't deny that it is possible, Bathurst. If this revolt spreads
+though the three Presidencies the work of conquering India will have to
+be begun again, and worse than that, for we should have opposed to us a
+vast army drilled and armed by ourselves, and led by the native officers
+we have trained. It seems stupefying that an empire won piecemeal, and
+after as hard fighting as the world has ever seen, should be lost in a
+week."
+
+The Doctor spoke as if the question was a purely impersonal one.
+
+"Ugly, isn't it?" he went on; "and to think I have been doctoring up
+these fellows for the last thirty years--saving their lives, sir, by
+wholesale. If I had known what had been coming I would have dosed them
+with arsenic with as little remorse as I should feel in shooting a
+tiger's whelp. Well, there is one satisfaction, the Major has already
+done something towards turning the courthouse into a fortress, and I
+fancy a good many of the scoundrels will go down before they take it,
+that is, if they don't fall on us unawares. I have been a noncombatant
+all my life, but if I can shoot a tiger on the spring I fancy I can hit
+a Sepoy. By Jove, Bathurst, that juggler's picture you told me of is
+likely to come true after all!"
+
+"I wish to Heaven it was!" Bathurst said gloomily; "I could look without
+dread at whatever is coming as far as I am concerned, if I could believe
+it possible that I should be fighting as I saw myself there."
+
+"Pooh, nonsense, lad!" the Doctor said. "Knowing what I know of you, I
+have no doubt that, though you may feel nervous at first, you will get
+over it in time."
+
+Bathurst shook his head. "I know myself too well, Doctor, to indulge in
+any such hopes. Now you see we are going out tiger hunting. At present,
+now, as far as I am concerned, I should feel much less nervous if I knew
+I was going to enter the jungle on foot with only this spear, than I do
+at the thought that you are going to fire that rifle a few paces from
+me."
+
+"You will scarcely notice it in the excitement," the Doctor said. "In
+cold blood I admit you might feel it, but I don't think you will when
+you see the tiger spring out from the jungle at us. But here we are.
+That is the nullah in which they say the tiger retires at night. I
+expect the beaters are lying all round in readiness, and as soon as we
+have taken up our station at its mouth they will begin."
+
+A shikari came up as they approached the spot.
+
+"The tiger went out last night, sahib, and finished the cow; he came
+back before daylight, and the beaters are all in readiness to begin."
+
+The elephants were soon in position at the mouth of the ravine, which
+was some thirty yards across. At about the same distance in front of
+them the jungle of high, coarse grass and thick bush began.
+
+"If you were going to shoot, Bathurst, we would take post one each side,
+but as you are not going to I will place myself nearly in the center,
+and if you are between me and the rocks the tiger is pretty certain to
+go on the other side, as it will seem the most open to him. Now we are
+ready," he said to the shikari.
+
+The latter waved a white rag on the top of a long stick, and at the
+signal a tremendous hubbub of gongs and tom toms, mingled with the
+shouts of numbers of the men, arose. The Doctor looked across at
+his companion. His face was white and set, his muscles twitched
+convulsively; he was looking straight in front of him, his teeth set
+hard.
+
+"An interesting case," the Doctor muttered to himself, "if it had been
+anyone else than Bathurst. I expect the tiger will be some little time
+before it is down. Bathurst," he said, in a quiet voice. Three times
+he repeated the observation, each time raising his voice higher, before
+Bathurst heard him.
+
+"The sooner it comes the better," Bathurst said, between his teeth. "I
+would rather face a hundred tigers than this infernal din."
+
+A quarter of an hour passed, and the Doctor, rifle in hand, was watching
+the bushes in front when he saw a slight movement among the leaves on
+his right, the side on which Bathurst was stationed.
+
+"That's him, Bathurst; he has headed back; he caught sight of either
+your elephant or mine; he will make a bolt in another minute now unless
+he turns back on the beaters."
+
+A minute later there was a gleam of tawny yellow among the long grass,
+and quick as thought the Doctor fired. With a sharp snarl the tiger
+leaped out, and with two short bounds sprang onto the head of the
+elephant ridden by Bathurst. The mahout gave a cry of pain, for the
+talons of one of the forepaws were fixed in his leg. Bathurst leaned
+forward and thrust the spear he held deep into the animal's neck. At
+the same moment the Doctor fired again, and the tiger, shot through the
+head, fell dead, while, with a start, Bathurst lost his balance and fell
+over the elephant's head onto the body of the tiger.
+
+It was fortunate indeed for him that the ball had passed through the
+tiger's skull from ear to ear, and that life was extinct before it
+touched the ground. Bathurst sprang to his feet, shaken and bewildered,
+but otherwise unhurt.
+
+"He is as dead as a door nail!" the Doctor shouted, "and lucky for you
+he was so; if he had had a kick left in him you would have been badly
+torn."
+
+"I should never have fallen off," Bathurst said angrily, "if you had not
+fired. I could have finished him with the spear."
+
+"You might or you might not; I could not wait to think about that; the
+tiger had struck its claws into the mahout's leg, and would have had him
+off the elephant in another moment. That is a first rate animal you were
+riding on, or he would have turned and bolted; if he had done so you and
+the mahout would have both been off to a certainty."
+
+By this time the shouts of some natives, who had taken their posts in
+trees near at hand, told the beaters that the shots they had heard had
+been successful, and with shouts of satisfaction they came rushing
+down. The Doctor at once dispatched one of them to bring up his trap and
+Bathurst's horse, and then examined the tiger.
+
+It was a very large one, and the skin was in good condition, which
+showed that he had not taken to man eating long. The Doctor bound up the
+wound on the mahout's leg, and then superintended the skinning of the
+animal while waiting for the arrival of the trap.
+
+When it came up he said, "You might as well take a seat by my side,
+Bathurst; the syce will sit behind and lead your horse."
+
+Having distributed money among the beaters, the Doctor took his place
+in his trap, the tiger skin was rolled up and placed under the seat,
+Bathurst mounted beside him, and they started.
+
+"There, you see, Doctor," Bathurst, who had not opened his lips from the
+time he had remonstrated with the Doctor for firing, said; "you see it
+is of no use. I was not afraid of the tiger, for I knew that you were
+not likely to miss, and that in any case it could not reach me on the
+elephant. I can declare that I had not a shadow of fear of the beast,
+and yet, directly that row began, my nerves gave way altogether. It was
+hideous, and yet, the moment the tiger charged, I felt perfectly cool
+again, for the row ceased as you fired your first shot. I struck it full
+in the chest, and was about to thrust the spear right down, and should,
+I believe, have killed it, if you had not fired again and startled me so
+that I fell from the elephant."
+
+"I saw that the shouting and noise unnerved you, Bathurst, but I saw too
+that you were perfectly cool and steady when you planted your spear
+into him. If it had not got hold of the mahout's leg I should not have
+fired."
+
+"Is there nothing to be done, Doctor? You know now what it is likely we
+shall have to face with the Sepoys and what it will be with me if they
+rise. Is there nothing you can do for me?"
+
+The Doctor shook his head. "I don't believe in Dutch courage in any
+case, Bathurst; certainly not in yours. There is no saying what the
+effect of spirits might be. I should not recommend them, lad. Of course,
+I can understand your feelings, but I still believe that, even if you do
+badly to begin with, you will pull round in the end. I have no doubt you
+will get a chance to show that it is only nerve and not courage in which
+you are deficient."
+
+Bathurst was silent, and scarce another word was spoken during the drive
+back to Deennugghur.
+
+The place had its accustomed appearance when they drove up. The Doctor,
+as he drew up before his bungalow, said, "Thank God, they have not begun
+yet! I was half afraid we might have found they had taken advantage of
+most of us being away, and have broken out before we got back."
+
+"So was I," Bathurst said. "I have been thinking of nothing else since
+we started."
+
+"Well, I will go to the Major at once and see what arrangements have
+been made, and whether there is any further news."
+
+"I shall go off on my rounds," Bathurst said. "I had arranged yesterday
+to be at Nilpore this morning, and there will be time for me to get
+there now. It is only eleven o'clock yet. I shall go about my work as
+usual until matters come to a head."
+
+The Doctor found that the Major was over at the tent which served as the
+orderly office, and at once followed him there.
+
+"Nothing fresh, Major?"
+
+"No; we found everything going on as usual. It has been decided to put
+the courthouse as far as we can in a state of defense. I shall have the
+spare ammunition quietly taken over there, with stores of provisions.
+The ladies have undertaken to sew up sacking and make gunny bags for
+holding earth, and, of course, we shall get a store of water there.
+Everything will be done quietly at present, and things will be sent in
+there after dark by such servants as we can thoroughly rely upon. At the
+first signs of trouble the residents will make straight for that point.
+Of course we must be guided by circumstances. If the trouble begins in
+the daytime--that is, if it does begin, for the native officers assure
+us that we can trust implicitly in the loyalty of the men--there will
+probably be time for everyone to gain the courthouse; if it is at night,
+and without warning, as it was at Meerut, I can only say, Doctor, may
+God help us all, for I fear that few, if any, of us would get there
+alive. Certainly not enough to make any efficient defense."
+
+"I do not see that there is anything else to do, Major. I trust with
+you that the men will prove faithful; if not, it is a black lookout
+whichever way we take it."
+
+"Did you kill the tiger, Doctor?"
+
+"Yes; at least Bathurst and I did it between us. I wounded him first. It
+then sprang upon Bathurst's elephant, and he speared it, and I finished
+it with a shot through the head."
+
+"Speared it!" the Major repeated; "why didn't he shoot it. What was he
+doing with his spear?"
+
+"He was born, Major, with a constitutional horror of firearms, inherited
+from his mother. I will tell you about it some day. In fact, he cannot
+stand noise of any sort. It has been a source of great trouble to the
+young fellow, who in all other respects has more than a fair share of
+courage. However, we will talk about that when we have more time on our
+hands. There is no special duty you can give me at present?"
+
+"Yes, there is. You are in some respects the most disengaged man in
+the station, and can come and go without attracting any attention. I
+propose, therefore, that you shall take charge of the arrangement of
+matters in the courthouse. I think that it will be an advantage if you
+move from your tent in there at once. There is plenty of room for us
+all: No one can say at what time there may be trouble with the Sepoys,
+and it would be a great advantage to have someone in the courthouse
+who could take the lead if the women, with the servants and so on, come
+flocking in while we were still absent on the parade ground. Besides,
+with your rifle, you could drive any small party off who attempted to
+seize it by surprise. If you were there we would call it the hospital,
+which would be an excuse for sending in stores, bedding, and so on.
+
+"You might mention in the orderly room that it is getting so hot now
+that you think it would be as well to have a room or two fitted up under
+a roof, instead of having the sick in tents, in case there should be an
+outbreak of cholera or anything of that sort this year. I will say that
+I think the idea is a very good one, and that as the courthouse is
+very little used, you had better establish yourself there. The native
+officers who hear what we say will spread the news. I don't say it will
+be believed, but at least it will serve as an explanation."
+
+"Yes, I think that that will be a very good plan, Major. Two of the men
+who act as hospital orderlies I can certainly depend upon, and they will
+help to receive the things sent in from the bungalows, and will hold
+their tongues as to what is being done; I shall leave my tent standing,
+and use it occasionally as before, but will make the courthouse my
+headquarters. How are we off for arms?"
+
+"There are five cases of muskets and a considerable stock of ammunition
+in that small magazine in the lines; one of the first things will be to
+get them removed to the courthouse. We have already arranged to do that
+tonight; it will give us four or five muskets apiece."
+
+"Good, Major; I will load them all myself and keep them locked up in
+a room upstairs facing the gateway, and should there be any trouble I
+fancy I could give a good account of any small body of men who might
+attempt to make an entrance. I am very well content with my position as
+Commandant of the Hospital, as we may call it; the house has not been
+much good to us hitherto, but I suppose when it was bought it was
+intended to make this a more important station; it is fortunate they did
+buy it now, for we can certainly turn it into a small fortress. Still,
+of course, I cannot disguise from myself that though we might get on
+successfully for a time against your Sepoys, there is no hope of holding
+it long if the whole country rises."
+
+"I quite see that, Doctor," the Major said gravely; "but I have really
+no fear of that. With the assistance of the Rajah of Bithoor, Cawnpore
+is safe. His example is almost certain to be followed by almost all the
+other great landowners. No; it is quite bad enough that we have to face
+a Sepoy mutiny; I cannot believe that we are likely to have a general
+rising on our hands. If we do--" and he stopped.
+
+"If we do it is all up with us, Major; there is no disguising that.
+However, we need not look at the worst side of things. Well, I will go
+with you to the orderly room, and will talk with you about the hospital
+scheme, mention that there is a rumor of cholera, and so on, and ask
+if I can't have a part of the courthouse; then we can walk across there
+together, and see what arrangement had best be made."
+
+The following day brought another dispatch from the Colonel, saying that
+the rumors as to Delhi were confirmed. The regiments there had joined
+the Meerut mutineers, had shot down their officers, and murdered
+every European they could lay hands on; that three officers and six
+noncommissioned officers, who were in charge of the arsenal, had
+defended it desperately, and had finally blown up the magazine with
+hundreds of its assailants. Three of the defenders had reached Meerut
+with the news.
+
+Day by day the gloom thickened. The native regiments in the Punjaub rose
+as soon as the news from Meerut and Delhi reached them, but there were
+white troops there, and they were used energetically and promptly. In
+some places the mutineers were disarmed before they broke out into open
+violence; in other cases mutinous regiments were promptly attacked and
+scattered. Several of the leading chiefs had hastened to assure the
+Government of their fidelity, and had placed their troops and resources
+at its disposal.
+
+But in the Punjaub alone the lookout appeared favorable. In the Daob
+a mutiny had taken place at four of the stations, and the Sepoys had
+marched away to Delhi, but without injuring the Europeans.
+
+After this for a week there was quiet, and then at places widely
+apart--at Hansid and Hissar, to the northwest of Delhi; at Nusserabad,
+in the center of Rajpootana, at Bareilly, and other stations in
+Rohilcund--the Sepoys rose, and in most places massacre was added
+to mutiny. Then three regiments of the Gwalior contingent at Neemuch
+revolted. Then two regiments broke out at Jhansi, and the whole of
+the Europeans, after desperately defending themselves for four days,
+surrendered on promise of their lives, but were instantly murdered.
+
+But before the news of the Jhansi massacre reached Deennugghur they
+heard of other risings nearer to them. On the 30th of May the three
+native regiments at Lucknow rose, but were sharply repulsed by the 300
+European troops under Sir Henry Lawrence. At Seetapoor the Sepoys rose
+on the 3d of June and massacred all the Europeans. On the 4th the Sepoys
+at Mohundee imitated the example of those at Seetapoor, while on the
+8th two regiments rose at Fyzabad, in the southeastern division of the
+province, and massacred all the Europeans.
+
+Up to this time the news from Cawnpore had still been good. The Rajah of
+Bithoor had offered Sir Hugh Wheeler a reinforcement of two guns and
+300 men, and it was believed that, seeing this powerful and influential
+chief had thrown his weight into the scale on the side of the British,
+the four regiments of native troops would remain quiet.
+
+Sir Hugh had but a handful of Europeans with him, but had just received
+a reinforcement of fifty men of the 32d regiment from Lucknow, and he
+had formed an intrenchment within which the Europeans of the station,
+and the fugitives who had come in from the districts around, could take
+refuge.
+
+Several communications passed between Sir Hugh Wheeler and Major Hannay.
+The latter had been offered the choice of moving into Cawnpore with his
+wing of the regiment, or remaining at Deennugghur. He had chosen the
+latter alternative, pointing out that he still believed in the fidelity
+of the troops with him; but that if they went to Cawnpore they would
+doubtless be carried away with other regiments, and would only swell the
+force of mutineers there. He was assured, at any rate, they would not
+rise unless their comrades at Cawnpore did so, but that it was best to
+manifest confidence in them, as not improbably, did they hear that they
+were ordered back to Cawnpore, they might take it as a slur on their
+fidelity, and mutiny at once.
+
+The month had been one of intense anxiety. Gradually stores of
+provisions had been conveyed into the hospital, as it was now called;
+the well inside the yard had been put into working order, and the
+residents had sent in stores of bedding and such portable valuables as
+could be removed.
+
+In but few cases had the outbreaks taken place at night, the mutineers
+almost always breaking out either upon being ordered to parade or upon
+actually falling in; still, it was by no means certain when a crisis
+might come, and the Europeans all lay down to rest in their clothes,
+one person in each house remaining up all night on watch, so that at the
+first alarm all might hurry to the shelter of the hospital.
+
+Its position was a strong one--a lofty wall inclosing a courtyard and
+garden surrounding it. This completely sheltered the lower floor from
+fire; the windows of the upper floor were above the level of the wall,
+and commanded a view over the country, while round the flat terraced
+roof ran a parapet some two feet high.
+
+During the day the ladies of the station generally gathered at Mr.
+Hunter's, which was the bungalow nearest to the hospital. Here they
+worked at the bags intended to hold earth, and kept up each other's
+spirits as well as they could. Although all looked pale and worn
+from anxiety and watching, there were, after the first few days, no
+manifestations of fear. Occasionally a tear would drop over their work,
+especially in the case of two of the wives of civilians, whose children
+were in England; but as a whole their conversation was cheerful, each
+trying her best to keep up the spirits of the others. Generally, as soon
+as the meeting was complete, Mrs. Hunter read aloud one of the psalms
+suited to their position and the prayers for those in danger, then the
+work was got out and the needles applied briskly. Even Mrs. Rintoul
+showed a fortitude and courage that would not have been expected from
+her.
+
+"One never knows people," Mrs. Doolan said to Isobel, as they walked
+back from one of these meetings, "as long as one only sees them under
+ordinary circumstances. I have never had any patience with Mrs. Rintoul,
+with her constant complaining and imaginary ailments. Now that there is
+really something to complain about, she is positively one of the calmest
+and most cheerful among us. It is curious, is it not, how our talk
+always turns upon home? India is hardly ever mentioned. We might be a
+party of intimate friends, sitting in some quiet country place, talking
+of our girlhood. Why, we have learnt more of each other and each other's
+history in the last fortnight than we should have done if we had lived
+here together for twenty years under ordinary circumstances. Except as
+to your little brother, I think you are the only one, Isobel, who has
+not talked much of home."
+
+"I suppose it is because my home was not a very happy one," Isobel said.
+
+"I notice that all the talk is about happy scenes, nothing is ever said
+about disagreeables. I suppose, my dear, it is just as I have heard,
+that starving people talk about the feasts they have eaten, so we talk
+of the pleasant times we have had. It is the contrast that makes them
+dearer. It is funny, too, if anything can be funny in these days, how
+different we are in the evening, when we have the men with us, to what
+we are when we are together alone in the day. Another curious thing is
+that our trouble seems to make us more like each other. Of course we are
+not more like, but we all somehow take the same tone, and seem to have
+given up our own particular ways and fancies.
+
+"Now the men don't seem like that. Mr. Hunter, for example, whom I used
+to think an even tempered and easygoing sort of man, has become fidgety
+and querulous. The Major is even more genial and kind than usual. The
+Doctor snaps and snarls at everyone and everything. Anyone listening
+to my husband would say that he was in the wildest spirits. Rintoul is
+quieter than usual, and the two lads have grown older and nicer; I don't
+say they are less full of fun than they were, especially Wilson, but
+they are less boyish in their fun, and they are nice with everyone,
+instead of devoting themselves to two or three of us, you principally.
+Perhaps Richards is the most changed; he thinks less of his collars and
+ties and the polish of his boots than he used to do, and one sees
+that he has some ideas in his head besides those about horses. Captain
+Forster is, perhaps, least changed, but of that you can judge better
+than I can, for you see more of him. As to Mr. Bathurst, I can say
+nothing, for we never see him now. I think he is the only man in the
+station who goes about his work as usual; he starts away the first thing
+in the morning, and comes back late in the evening, and I suppose spends
+the night in writing reports, though what is the use of writing reports
+at the present time I don't know. Mr. Hunter was saying last night it
+was very foolish of him. What with disbanded soldiers, and what with
+parties of mutineers, it is most dangerous for any European to stir
+outside the station."
+
+"Uncle was saying the same," Isobel said quietly.
+
+"Well, here we separate. Of course you will be in as usual this
+evening?" for the Major's house was the general rendezvous after dinner.
+
+Isobel had her private troubles, although, as she often said angrily
+to herself, when she thought of them, what did it matter now? She was
+discontented with herself for having spoken as strongly as she did as
+to the man's cowardice. She was very discontented with the Doctor
+for having repeated it. She was angry with Bathurst for staying away
+altogether, although willing to admit that, after he knew what she had
+said, it was impossible that he should meet her as before. Most of all,
+perhaps, she was angry because, at a time when their lives were all in
+deadly peril, she should allow the matter to dwell in her mind a single
+moment.
+
+Late one afternoon Bathurst walked into the Major's bungalow just as he
+was about to sit down to dinner.
+
+"Major, I want to speak to you for a moment," he said.
+
+"Sit down and have some dinner, Bathurst. You have become altogether a
+stranger."
+
+"Thank you, Major, but I have a great deal to do. Can you spare me five
+minutes now? It is of importance."
+
+Isobel rose to leave the room.
+
+"There is no reason you should not hear, Miss Hannay, but it would be
+better that none of the servants should be present. That is why I wish
+to speak before your uncle goes in to dinner."
+
+Isobel sat down with an air of indifference.
+
+"For the last week, Major, I have ridden every day five and twenty to
+thirty miles in the direction of Cawnpore; my official work has been
+practically at an end since we heard the news from Meerut. I could be of
+no use here, and thought that I could do no better service than trying
+to obtain the earliest news from Cawnpore; I am sorry to say that this
+afternoon I distinctly heard firing in that direction. What the result
+is, of course, I do not know, but I feel that there is little doubt that
+troubles have begun there. But this is not all. On my return home,
+ten minutes ago, I found this letter on my dressing table. It had no
+direction and is, as you see, in Hindustanee," and he handed it to the
+Major, who read:
+
+"To the Sahib Bathurst,--Rising at Cawnpore today. Nana Sahib and
+his troops will join the Sepoys. Whites will be destroyed. Rising at
+Deennugghur at daylight tomorrow. Troops, after killing whites, will
+join those at Cawnpore. Be warned in time--this tiger is not to be
+beaten off with a whip."
+
+"Good Heavens!" the Major exclaimed; "can this be true? Can it be
+possible that the Rajah of Bithoor is going to join the mutineers? It is
+impossible; he could never be such a scoundrel."
+
+"What is it, uncle?" Isobel asked, leaving her seat and coming up to
+him.
+
+The Major translated the letter.
+
+"It must be a hoax," he went on; "I cannot believe it. What does this
+stuff about beating a tiger with a whip mean?"
+
+"I am sorry to say, Major Hannay, that part of the letter convinces me
+that the contents can be implicitly relied upon. The writer did not dare
+sign his name, but those words are sufficient to show me, and were no
+doubt intended to show me, who the warning comes from. It is from that
+juggler who performed here some six weeks ago. Traveling about as he
+does, and putting aside altogether those strange powers of his, he
+has no doubt the means of knowing what is going on. As I told you that
+night, I had done him some slight service, and he promised at the time
+that, if the occasion should ever arise, he would risk his life to save
+mine. The fact that he showed, I have no doubt, especially to please me,
+feats that few Europeans have seen before, is, to my mind, a proof of
+his goodwill and that he meant what he said."
+
+"But how do you know that it is from him. Bathurst? You will excuse
+my pressing the question, but of course everything depends on my being
+assured that this communication is trustworthy."
+
+"This allusion to the tiger shows me that, Major. It alludes to an
+incident that I believe to be known only to him and his daughter and to
+Dr. Wade, to whom alone I mentioned it."
+
+As the Major still looked inquiringly, Bathurst went on reluctantly.
+"It was a trifling affair, Major, the result of a passing impulse. I was
+riding home from Narkeet, and while coming along the road through the
+jungle, which was at that time almost deserted by the natives on account
+of the ravages of the man eater whom the Doctor afterwards shot, I heard
+a scream. Galloping forward, I came upon the brute, standing with
+one paw upon a prostrate girl, while a man, the juggler, was standing
+frantically waving his arms. On the impulse of the moment I sprang from
+my horse and lashed the tiger across the head with that heavy dog whip I
+carry, and the brute was so astonished that it bolted in the jungle.
+
+"That was the beginning and end of affairs, except that, although
+fortunately the girl was practically unhurt, she was so unnerved that
+we had to carry her to the next village, where she lay for some time
+ill from the shock and fright. After that they came round here and
+performed, for my amusement, the feats I told you of. So you see I have
+every reason to believe in the good faith of the writer of this letter."
+
+"By Jove, I should think you had!" the Major said. "Why, my dear
+Bathurst, I had no idea that you could do such a thing!"
+
+"We have all our strong points and our weak ones, Major. That was one of
+my strong ones, I suppose. And now what had best be done, sir? That is
+the important question at present."
+
+This was so evident, that Major Hannay at once dismissed all other
+thoughts from his mind.
+
+"Of course I and the other officers must remain at our posts until the
+Sepoys actually arrive. The question is as to the others. Now that we
+know the worst, or believe we know it, ought we to send the women and
+children away?"
+
+"That is the question, sir. But where can they be sent? Lucknow is
+besieged; the whites at Cawnpore must have been surrounded by this time;
+the bands of mutineers are ranging the whole country, and at the news
+that Nana Sahib has joined the rebels it is probable that all will
+rise. I should say that it was a matter in which Mr. Hunter and other
+civilians had better be consulted."
+
+"Yes, we will hold a council," the Major said.
+
+"I think, Major, it should be done quietly. It is probable that many of
+the servants may know of the intentions of the Sepoys, and if they see
+that anything like a council of the Europeans was being held they
+may take the news to the Sepoys, and the latter, thinking that their
+intention is known, may rise at once."
+
+"That is quite true. Yes, we must do nothing to arouse suspicion. What
+do you propose, Mr. Bathurst?"
+
+"I will go and have a talk with the Doctor; he can go round to the other
+officers one by one. I will tell Mr. Hunter, and he will tell the other
+residents, so that when they meet here in the evening no explanations
+will be needed, and a very few words as we sit out on the veranda will
+be sufficient."
+
+"That will be a very good plan. We will sit down to dinner as if nothing
+had happened; if they are watching at all, they will be keeping their
+eyes on us then."
+
+"Very well; I will be in by nine o'clock, Major;" and with a slight bow
+to Isobel, Bathurst stepped out through the open window, and made his
+way to the Doctor's.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+The Doctor had just sat down to dinner when Bathurst came in. The two
+subalterns were dining with him.
+
+"That's good, Bathurst," the Doctor said, as he entered. "Boy, put a
+chair for Mr. Bathurst. I had begun to think that you had deserted me as
+well as everybody else."
+
+"I was not thinking of dining," Bathurst said, as he sat down, "but I
+will do so with pleasure, though I told my man I should be back in half
+an hour;" and as the servant left the room he added, "I have much to
+say, Doctor; get through dinner as quickly as you can, and get the
+servants out of the tent."
+
+The conversation was at once turned by the Doctor upon shooting and
+hunting, and no allusion was made to passing events until coffee was put
+on the table and the servant retired. The talk, which had been lively
+during dinner, then ceased.
+
+"Well, Bathurst," the Doctor asked, "I suppose you have something
+serious to tell me?"
+
+"Very serious, Doctor;" and he repeated the news he had given the Major.
+
+"It could not be worse, Bathurst," the Doctor said quietly, after the
+first shock of the news had passed. "You know I never had any faith in
+the Sepoys since I saw how this madness was spreading from station
+to station. This sort of thing is contagious. It becomes a sort of
+epidemic, and in spite of the assurances of the men I felt sure they
+would go. But this scoundrel of Bithoor turning against us is more than
+I bargained for. There is no disguising the fact that it means a general
+rising through Oude, and in that case God help the women and children.
+As for us, it all comes in the line of business. What does the Major
+say?"
+
+"The only question that seemed to him to be open was whether the women
+and children could be got away."
+
+"But there does not seem any possible place for them to go to. One or
+two might travel down the country in disguise, but that is out of the
+question for a large party. There is no refuge nearer than Allahabad.
+With every man's hand against them, I see not the slightest chance of a
+party making their way down."
+
+"You or I might do it easily enough, Doctor, but for women it seems to
+me out of the question; still, that is a matter for each married man to
+decide for himself. The prospect is dark enough anyway, but, as before,
+it seems to me that everything really depends upon the Zemindars. If we
+hold the courthouse it is possible the Sepoys may be beaten off in their
+first attack, and in their impatience to join the mutineers, who are
+all apparently marching for Delhi, they may go off without throwing away
+their lives by attacking us, for they must see they will not be able
+to take the place without cannon. But if the Zemindars join them with
+cannon, we may defend ourselves till the last, but there can be but one
+end to it."
+
+The Doctor nodded. "That is the situation exactly, Bathurst."
+
+"I am glad we know the danger, and shall be able to face it openly,"
+Wilson said. "For the last month Richards and I have been keeping watch
+alternately, and it has been beastly funky work sitting with one's
+pistols on the table before one, listening, and knowing any moment there
+might be a yell, and these brown devils come pouring in. Now, at least,
+we are likely to have a fight for it, and to know that some of them will
+go down before we do."
+
+Richards cordially agreed with his companion.
+
+"Well, now, what are the orders, Bathurst?" said the Doctor.
+
+"There are no orders as yet, Doctor. The Major says you will go round
+to the others, Doolan, Rintoul, and Forster, and tell them. I am to go
+round to Hunter and the other civilians. Then, this evening we are to
+meet at nine o'clock, as usual, at the Major's. If the others decide
+that the only plan is for all to stop here and fight it out, there will
+be no occasion for anything like a council; it will only have to be
+arranged at what time we all move into the fort, and the best means for
+keeping the news from spreading to the Sepoys. Not that it will make
+much difference after they have once fairly turned in. If there is one
+thing a Hindoo hates more than another, it is getting from under his
+blankets when he has once got himself warm at night. Even if they heard
+at one or two o'clock in the morning that we were moving into the fort I
+don't think they would turn out till morning."
+
+"No, I am sure they would not," the Doctor agreed.
+
+"If there were a few more of us," Richards said, "I should vote for our
+beginning it. If we were to fall suddenly upon them we might kill a lot
+and scare the rest off."
+
+"We are too few for that," the Doctor said. "Besides, although Bathurst
+answers for the good faith of the sender of the warning, there has as
+yet been no act of mutiny that would justify our taking such a step as
+that. It would come to the same thing. We might kill a good many, but in
+the long run three hundred men would be more than a match for a dozen,
+and then the women would be at their mercy. Well, we had better be
+moving, or we shall not have time to go round to the bungalows before
+the people set out for the Major's."
+
+It was a painful mission that Bathurst had to perform, for he had to
+tell those he called upon that almost certain death was at hand, but
+the news was everywhere received calmly. The strain had of late been so
+great, that the news that the crisis was at hand was almost welcome. He
+did not stay long anywhere, but, after setting the alternative before
+them, left husband and wife to discuss whether to try to make down to
+Allahabad or to take refuge in the fort.
+
+Soon after nine o'clock all were at Major Hannay's. There were pale
+faces among them, but no stranger would have supposed that the whole
+party had just received news which was virtually a death warrant. The
+ladies talked together as usual, while the men moved in and out of the
+room, sometimes talking with the Major, sometimes sitting down for a few
+minutes in the veranda outside, or talking there in low tones together.
+
+The Major moved about among them, and soon learned that all had
+resolved to stay and meet together whatever came, preferring that to the
+hardships and unknown dangers of flight.
+
+"I am glad you have all decided so," he said quietly. "In the state the
+country is, the chances of getting to Allahabad are next to nothing.
+Here we may hold out till Lawrence restores order at Lucknow, and then
+he may be able to send a party to bring us in. Or the mutineers may draw
+off and march to Delhi. I certainly think the chances are best here;
+besides, every rifle we have is of importance, and though if any of
+you had made up your minds to try and escape I should have made no
+objection, I am glad that we shall all stand together here."
+
+The arrangements were then briefly made for the removal to the
+courthouse. All were to go back and apparently to retire to bed as
+usual. At twelve o'clock the men, armed, were to call up their servants,
+load them up with such things as were most required, and proceed with
+them, the women, and children, at once to the courthouse. Half the men
+were to remain there on guard, while the others would continue with
+the servants to make journeys backwards and forwards to the bungalows,
+bringing in as much as could be carried, the guard to be changed every
+hour. In the morning the servants were all to have the choice given them
+of remaining with their masters or leaving.
+
+Captain Forster was the only dissentient. He was in favor of the whole
+party mounting, placing the women and children in carriages, and making
+off in a body, fighting their way if necessary down to Allahabad. He
+admitted that, in addition to the hundred troopers of his own squadron,
+they might be cut off by the mutinous cavalry from Cawnpore, fall in
+with bodies of rebels or be attacked by villagers, but he maintained
+that there was at least some chance of cutting their way through, while,
+once shut up in the courthouse, escape would be well nigh impossible.
+
+"But you all along agreed to our holding the courthouse, Forster," the
+Major said.
+
+"Yes; but then I reckoned upon Cawnpore holding out with the assistance
+of Nana Sahib, and upon the country remaining quiet. Now the whole thing
+is changed. I am quite ready to fight in the open, and to take my chance
+of being killed there, but I protest against being shut up like a rat in
+a hole."
+
+To the rest, however, the proposal appeared desperate. There would be no
+withstanding a single charge of the well trained troopers, especially as
+it would be necessary to guard the vehicles. Had it not been for that,
+the small body of men might possibly have cut their way through the
+cavalry; but even then they would be so hotly pursued that the most of
+them would assuredly be hunted down. But encumbered by the women such
+an enterprise seemed utterly hopeless, and the whole of the others were
+unanimously against it.
+
+The party broke up very early. The strain of maintaining their ordinary
+demeanor was too great to be long endured, and the ladies with children
+were anxious to return as soon as possible to them, lest at the last
+moment the Sepoys should have made some change in their arrangements. By
+ten o'clock the whole party had left.
+
+The two subalterns had no preparations to make; they had already sent
+most of their things into the hospital; and, lighting their pipes, they
+sat down and talked quietly till midnight; then, placing their pistols
+in their belts and wrapping themselves in their cloaks, they went into
+the Doctor's tent, which was next to theirs.
+
+The Doctor at once roused his servant, who was sleeping in a shelter
+tent pitched by the side of his. The man came in looking surprised at
+being called. "Roshun," the Doctor said, "you have been with me ten
+years, and I believe you to be faithful."
+
+"I would lay down my life for the sahib," the man said quietly.
+
+"You have heard nothing of any trouble with the Sepoys?"
+
+"No, sahib; they know that Roshun is faithful to his master."
+
+"We have news that they are going to rise in the morning and kill all
+Europeans, so we are going to move at once into the hospital."
+
+"Good, sahib; what will you take with you?"
+
+"My books and papers have all gone in," the Doctor said; "that
+portmanteau may as well go. I will carry these two rifles myself; the
+ammunition is all there except that bag in the corner, which I will
+sling round my shoulder."
+
+"What are in those two cases, Doctor?" Wilson asked.
+
+"Brandy, lad."
+
+"We may as well each carry one of those, Doctor, if your boy takes the
+portmanteau. It would be a pity to leave good liquor to be wasted by
+those brutes."
+
+"I agree with you, Wilson; besides, the less liquor they get hold of
+the better for us. Now, if you are all ready, we will start; but we must
+move quietly, or the sentry at the quarter guard may hear us."
+
+Ten minutes later they reached the hospital, being the last of the party
+to arrive there.
+
+"Now, Major," the Doctor said cheerily, as soon as he entered, "as this
+place is supposed to be under my special charge I will take command for
+the present. Wilson and Richards will act as my lieutenants. We have
+nothing to do outside, and can devote ourselves to getting things a
+little straight here. The first thing to do is to light lamps in all the
+lower rooms; then we can see what we are doing, and the ladies will be
+able to give us their help, while the men go out with the servants to
+bring things in; and remember the first thing to do is to bring in the
+horses. They may be useful to us. There is a good store of forage piled
+in the corner of the yard, but the syces had best bring in as much
+more as they can carry. Now, ladies, if you will all bring your bundles
+inside the house we will set about arranging things, and at any rate get
+the children into bed as quickly as possible."
+
+As it had been already settled as to the rooms to be occupied, the
+ladies and their ayahs set to work at once, glad to have something to
+employ them. One of the rooms which had been fitted up with beds had
+been devoted to the purposes of a nursery, and the children, most of
+whom were still asleep, were soon settled there. Two other rooms had
+been fitted up for the use of the ladies, while the men were occupying
+two others, the courtroom being turned into a general meeting and dining
+room.
+
+At first there was not much to do; but as the servants, closely watched
+by their masters, went backwards and forwards bringing in goods of all
+kinds, there was plenty of employment in carrying them down to a large
+underground room, where they were left to be sorted later on.
+
+The Doctor had appointed Isobel Hannay and the two Miss Hunters to the
+work of lighting a fire and getting boiling water ready, and a plentiful
+supply of coffee was presently made, Wilson and Richards drawing the
+water, carrying the heavier loads downstairs, and making themselves
+generally useful.
+
+Captain Forster had not come in. He had undertaken to remain in his tent
+in the lines, where he had quietly saddled and unpicketed his horse,
+tying it up to the tent ropes so that he could mount in an instant. He
+still believed that his own men would stand firm, and declared he would
+at their head charge the mutinous infantry, while if they joined the
+mutineers he would ride into the fort. It was also arranged that he
+should bring in word should the Sepoys obtain news of what was going on
+and rise before morning.
+
+All felt better and more cheerful after having taken some coffee.
+
+"It is difficult to believe, Miss Hannay," Richards said, "that this
+is all real, and not a sort of picnic, or an early start on a hunting
+expedition."
+
+"It is indeed, Mr. Richards. I can hardly believe even now that it is
+all true, and have pinched myself two or three times to make sure that I
+am awake."
+
+"If the villains venture to attack us," Wilson said, "I feel sure we
+shall beat them off handsomely."
+
+"I have no doubt we shall, Mr. Wilson, especially as it will be in
+daylight. You know you and Mr. Richards are not famous for night
+shooting."
+
+The young men both laughed.
+
+"We shall never hear the last of that tiger story, Miss Hannay. I can
+tell you it is no joke shooting when you have been sitting cramped up
+on a tree for about six hours. We are really both pretty good shots.
+Of course, I don't mean like the Doctor; but we always make good scores
+with the targets. Come, Richards, here is another lot of things; if they
+go on at this rate the Sepoys won't find much to loot in the bungalows
+tomorrow."
+
+Just as daylight was breaking the servants were all called together, and
+given the choice of staying or leaving. Only some eight or ten, all of
+whom belonged to the neighborhood, chose to go off to their villages.
+The rest declared they would stay with their masters.
+
+Two of the party by turns had been on watch all night on the terrace
+to listen for any sound of tumult in the lines, but all had gone on
+quietly. Bathurst had been working with the others all night, and
+after seeing that all his papers were carried to the courthouse, he
+had troubled but little about his own belongings, but had assisted the
+others in bringing in their goods.
+
+At daylight the Major and his officers mounted and rode quietly down
+towards the parade ground. Bathurst and Mr. Hunter, with several of the
+servants, took their places at the gates, in readiness to open and close
+them quickly, while the Doctor and the other Europeans went up to the
+roof, where they placed in readiness six muskets for each man, from the
+store in the courthouse. Isobel Hannay and the wives of the two Captains
+were too anxious to remain below, and went up to the roof also. The
+Doctor took his place by them, examining the lines with a field glass.
+
+The officers halted when they reached the parade ground, and sat on
+their horses in a group, waiting for the men to turn out as usual.
+
+"There goes the assembly," the Doctor said, as the notes of the bugle
+came to their ears. "The men are turning out of their tents. There, I
+can make out Forster; he has just mounted; a plucky fellow that."
+
+Instead of straggling out onto the parade ground as usual, the Sepoys
+seemed to hang about their tents. The cavalry mounted and formed up in
+their lines. Suddenly a gun was fired, and as if at the signal the whole
+of the infantry rushed forward towards the officers, yelling and
+firing, and the latter at once turned their horses and rode towards the
+courthouse.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, my dear," the Doctor said to Isobel; "I don't suppose
+anyone is hit. The Sepoys are not good shots at the best of times, and
+firing running they would not be able to hit a haystack at a hundred
+yards. The cavalry stand firm, you see," he said, turning his glass in
+that direction. "Forster is haranguing them. There, three of the native
+officers are riding up to him. Ah! one has fired at him! Missed! Ah!
+that is a better shot," as the man fell from his horse, from a shot from
+his Captain's pistol.
+
+The other two rushed at him. One he cut down, and the other shot. Then
+he could be seen again, shouting and waving his sword to the men, but
+their yells could be heard as they rode forward at him.
+
+"Ride, man, ride!" the Doctor shouted, although his voice could not have
+been heard at a quarter of the distance.
+
+But instead of turning Forster rode right at them. There was a confused
+melee for a moment, and then his figure appeared beyond the line,
+through which he had broken. With yells of fury the troopers reined in
+their horses and tried to turn them, but before they could do so the
+officer was upon them again. His revolver cracked in his left hand, and
+his sword flashed in his right. Two or three horses and men were seen to
+roll over, and in a moment he was through them again and riding at full
+speed for the courthouse, under a scattered fire from the infantry,
+while the horsemen, now in a confused mass, galloped behind him.
+
+"Now then," the Doctor shouted, picking up his rifle; "let them know
+we are within range, but mind you don't hit Forster. Fire two or three
+shots, and then run down to the gate. He is well mounted, and has a good
+fifty yards' start of them."
+
+Then taking deliberate aim he fired. The others followed his example.
+Three of the troopers dropped from their horses. Four times those on the
+terrace fired, and then ran down, each, at the Doctor's order, taking
+two guns with him. One of these was placed in the hands of each of the
+officers who had just ridden in, and they then gathered round the gate.
+In two minutes Forster rode in at full speed, then fifteen muskets
+flashed out, and several of the pursuers fell from their horses. A
+minute later the gate was closed and barred, and the men all ran up to
+the roof, from which three muskets were fired simultaneously.
+
+"Well done!" the Doctor exclaimed. "That is a good beginning."
+
+A minute later a brisk fire was opened from the terrace upon the
+cavalry, who at once turned and rode rapidly back to their lines.
+
+Captain Forster had not come scathless through the fray; his cheek had
+been laid open by a sabre cut, and a musket ball had gone through the
+fleshy part of his arm as he rode back.
+
+"This comes of fighting when there is no occasion," the Doctor growled,
+when he dressed his wounds. "Here you are charging a host like a paladin
+of old, forgetful that we want every man who can lift an arm in defense
+of this place."
+
+"I think, Doctor, there is someone else wants your services more than I
+do."
+
+"Yes; is anyone else hit?"
+
+"No, I don't know that anyone else is hit, Doctor; but as I turned to
+come into the house after the gates were shut, there was that fellow
+Bathurst leaning against the wall as white as a sheet, and shaking all
+over like a leaf. I should say a strong dose of Dutch courage would be
+the best medicine there."
+
+"You do not do justice to Bathurst, Captain Forster," the Doctor said
+gravely. "He is a man I esteem most highly. In some respects he is the
+bravest man I know, but he is constitutionally unable to stand
+noise, and the sound of a gun is torture to him. It is an unfortunate
+idiosyncrasy for which he is in no way accountable."
+
+"Exceedingly unfortunate, I should say," Forster said, with a dry
+laugh; "especially at times like this. It is rather unlucky for him
+that fighting is generally accompanied by noise. If I had such an
+idiosyncrasy, as you call it, I would blow out my brains."
+
+"Perhaps Bathurst would do so, too, Captain Forster, if he had not more
+brains to blow out than some people have."
+
+"That is sharp, Doctor," Forster laughed good temperedly. "I don't mind
+a fair hit."
+
+"Well, I must go," the Doctor said, somewhat mollified; "there is plenty
+to do, and I expect, after these fellows have held a council of war,
+they will be trying an attack."
+
+When the Doctor went out he found the whole of the garrison busy. The
+Major had placed four men on the roof, and had ordered everyone else to
+fill the bags that had been prepared for the purpose with earth from
+the garden. It was only an order to the men and male servants, but
+the ladies had all gone out to render their assistance. As fast as the
+natives filled the bags with earth the ladies sewed up the mouths of the
+bags, and the men carried them away and piled them against the gate.
+
+The garrison consisted of the six military officers, the Doctor, seven
+civilians, ten ladies, eight children, thirty-eight male servants, and
+six females. The work, therefore, went on rapidly, and in the course
+of two hours so large a pile of bags was built up against the gate that
+there was no probability whatever of its being forced.
+
+"Now," the Major said, "we want four dozen bags at least for the
+parapet of the terrace. We need not raise it all, but we must build up a
+breastwork two bags high at each of the angles."
+
+There was only just time to accomplish this when one of the watch on the
+roof reported that the Sepoys were firing the bungalows. As soon as
+they saw that the Europeans had gained the shelter of the courthouse the
+Sepoys, with yells of triumph, had made for the houses of the Europeans,
+and their disappointment at finding that not only had all the whites
+taken refuge in the courthouse, but that they had removed most of
+their property, vented itself in setting fire to the buildings, after
+stripping them of everything, and then amused themselves by keeping up a
+straggling fire against the courthouse.
+
+As soon as the bags were taken onto the roof, the defenders, keeping as
+much as possible under the shelter of the parapet, carried them to
+the corners of the terrace and piled them two deep, thus forming a
+breastwork four feet high. Eight of the best shots were then chosen, and
+two of them took post at each corner.
+
+"Now," the Doctor said cheerfully, as he sat behind a small loophole
+that had been left between the bags, "it is our turn, and I don't fancy
+we shall waste as much lead as they have been doing."
+
+The fire from the defenders was slow, but it was deadly, and in a very
+short time the Sepoys no longer dared to show themselves in the open,
+but took refuge behind trees, whence they endeavored to reply to the
+fire on the roof; but even this proved so dangerous that it was not long
+before the fire ceased altogether, and they drew off under cover of the
+smoke from the burning bungalows.
+
+Isobel Hannay had met Bathurst as he was carrying a sack of earth to the
+roof.
+
+"I have been wanting to speak to you, Mr. Bathurst, ever since yesterday
+evening, but you have never given me an opportunity. Will you step into
+the storeroom for a few minutes as you come down?"
+
+As he came down he went to the door of the room in which Isobel was
+standing awaiting him.
+
+"I am not coming in, Miss Hannay; I believe I know what you are going
+to say. I saw it in your face last night when I had to tell that tiger
+story. You want to say that you are sorry you said that you despised
+cowards. Do not say it; you were perfectly right; you cannot despise
+me one tenth as much as I despise myself. While you were looking at the
+mutineers from the roof I was leaning against the wall below well nigh
+fainting. What do you think my feelings must be that here, where every
+man is brave, where there are women and children to be defended, I alone
+cannot bear my part. Look at my face; I know there is not a vestige of
+color in it. Look at my hands; they are not steady yet. It is useless
+for you to speak; you may pity me, but you cannot but despise me.
+Believe me, that death when it comes will be to me a happy release
+indeed from the shame and misery I feel."
+
+Then, turning, he left the girl without another word, and went about
+his work. The Doctor had, just before going up to take his place on the
+roof, come across him.
+
+"Come in here, my dear Bathurst," he said, seizing his arm and dragging
+him into the room which had been given up to him for his drugs and
+surgical appliances.
+
+"Let me give you a strong dose of ammonia and ginger; you want a pickup
+I can see by your face."
+
+"I want it, Doctor, but I will not take it," Bathurst said. "That is
+one thing I have made up my mind to. I will take no spirits to create a
+courage that I do not possess."
+
+"It is not courage; it has nothing to do with courage," the Doctor said
+angrily. "It is a simple question of nerves, as I have told you over and
+over again."
+
+"Call it what you like, Doctor, the result is precisely the same. I do
+not mind taking a strong dose of quinine if you will give it me, for I
+feel as weak as a child, but no spirits."
+
+With an impatient shrug of the shoulders the Doctor mixed a strong dose
+of quinine and gave it to him.
+
+An hour later a sudden outburst of musketry took place. Not a native
+showed himself on the side of the house facing the maidan, but from the
+gardens on the other three sides a heavy fire was opened.
+
+"Every man to the roof," the Major said; "four men to each of the rear
+corners, three to the others. Do you think you are fit to fire, Forster?
+Had you not better keep quiet for today; you will have opportunities
+enough."
+
+"I am all right, Major," he said carelessly. "I can put my rifle through
+a loophole and fire, though I have one arm in a sling. By Jove!" he
+broke off suddenly; "look at that fellow Bathurst--he looks like a
+ghost."
+
+The roll of musketry was unabated, and the defenders were already
+beginning to answer it; the bullets sung thickly overhead, and above the
+din could be heard the shouts of the natives. Bathurst's face was rigid
+and ghastly pale. The Major hurried to him.
+
+"My dear Bathurst," he said, "I think you had better go below. You will
+find plenty of work to do there."
+
+"My work is here," Bathurst said, as if speaking to himself: "it must be
+done."
+
+The Major could not at the moment pay further attention to him, for a
+roar of fire broke out round the inclosure, as from the ruined bungalows
+and from every bush the Sepoys, who had crept up, now commenced the
+attack in earnest, while the defenders lying behind their parapet
+replied slowly and steadily, aiming at the puffs of smoke as they darted
+out. His attention was suddenly called by a shout from the Doctor.
+
+"Are you mad, Bathurst? Lie down, man; you a throwing away your life."
+
+Turning round, the Major saw Bathurst standing up--right by the parapet,
+facing the point where the enemy fire was hottest. He held a rifle in
+his hand but did not attempt to fire; his figure swayed slightly to and
+fro.
+
+"Lie down," the Major shouted, "lie down, sir;" and then as Bathurst
+still stood unmoved he was about to run forward, when the Doctor from
+one side and Captain Forster from the other rushed towards him through a
+storm of bullets, seized him in their arms, and dragged him back to the
+center of the terrace.
+
+"Nobly done, gentlemen," the Major said, as they laid Bathurst down; "it
+was almost miraculous your not being hit."
+
+Bathurst had struggled fiercely for a moment, and then his resistance
+had suddenly ceased, and he had been dragged back like a wooden figure.
+His eyes were closed now.
+
+"Has he been hit, Doctor?" the Major asked. "It seems impossible he
+can have escaped. What madness possessed him to put himself there as a
+target?"
+
+"No, I don't think he is hit," the Doctor said, as he examined him. "I
+think he has fainted. We had better carry him down to my room. Shake
+hands, Forster; I know you and Bathurst were not good friends, and you
+risked your life to save him."
+
+"I did not think who it was," Forster said, with a careless laugh. "I
+saw a man behaving like a madman, and naturally went to pull him down.
+However, I shall think better of him in future, though I doubt whether
+he was in his right senses."
+
+"He wanted to be killed," the Doctor said quietly; "and the effort that
+he made to place himself in the way of death must have been greater than
+either you or I can well understand, Forster. I know the circumstances
+of the case. Morally I believe there is no braver man living than he is;
+physically he has the constitution of a timid woman; it is mind against
+body."
+
+"The distinction is too fine for me, Doctor," Forster said, as he
+turned to go off to his post by the parapet. "I understand pluck and I
+understand cowardice, but this mysterious mixture you speak of is beyond
+me altogether."
+
+The Major and Dr. Wade lifted Bathurst and carried him below. Mrs.
+Hunter, who had been appointed chief nurse, met them.
+
+"Is he badly wounded, Doctor?"
+
+"No; he is not wounded at all, Mrs. Hunter. He stood up at the edge of
+the parapet and exposed himself so rashly to the Sepoys' fire that
+we had to drag him away, and then the reaction, acting on a nervous
+temperament, was too much for him, and he fainted. We shall soon bring
+him round. You can come in with me, but keep the others away."
+
+The Major at once returned to the terrace.
+
+In spite of the restoratives the Doctor poured through his lips, and
+cold water dashed in his face, Bathurst was some time before he opened
+his eyes. Seeing Mrs. Hunter and the Doctor beside him, he made an
+effort to rise.
+
+"You must lie still, Bathurst," the Doctor said, pressing his hand on
+his shoulder. "You have done a very foolish thing, a very wrong thing.
+You have tried to throw away your life."
+
+"No, I did not. I had no thought of throwing away my life," Bathurst
+said, after a pause. "I was trying to make myself stand fire. I did
+not think whether I should be hit or not. I am not afraid of bullets,
+Doctor; it's the horrible, fiendish noise that I cannot stand."
+
+"I know, my boy," the Doctor said kindly; "but it comes to the same
+thing. You did put yourself in the way of bullets when your doing so was
+of no possible advantage, and it is almost a miracle that you escaped
+unhurt. You must remain here quiet for the present. II shall leave you
+in charge of Mrs. Hunter. There is nothing for you to do on the roof
+at present. This attack is a mere outbreak of rage on the part of the
+Sepoys that we have all escaped them. They know well enough they can't
+take this house by merely firing away at the roof. When they attack in
+earnest it will be quite time for you to take part in the affair again.
+Now, Mrs. Hunter, my orders are absolute that he is not to be allowed to
+get up."
+
+On the Doctor leaving the room he found several of the ladies outside;
+the news that Mr. Bathurst had been carried down had spread among them.
+
+"Is he badly hurt, Doctor?"
+
+"No, ladies. Mr. Bathurst is, unfortunately for himself, an extremely
+nervous man, and the noise of firearms has an effect upon him that he
+cannot by any effort of his own overcome. In order, as he says, to try
+and accustom himself to it, he went and stood at the edge of the parapet
+in full sight of the Sepoys, and let them blaze away at him. He must
+have been killed if Forster and I had not dragged him away by main
+force. Then came the natural reaction, and he fainted. That is all there
+is about it. Poor fellow, he is extremely sensitive on the ground of
+personal courage. In other respects I have known him do things requiring
+an amount of pluck that not one man in a hundred possesses, and I wish
+you all to remember that his nervousness at the effect of the noise of
+firearms is a purely constitutional weakness, for which he is in no way
+to be blamed. He has just risked his life in the most reckless manner in
+order to overcome what he considers, and what he knows that some persons
+consider, is cowardice, and it would be as cruel, and I may say as
+contemptible, to despise him for a constitutional failing as it would be
+to despise a person for being born a humpback or a cripple. But I cannot
+stand talking any longer. I shall be of more use on the roof than I am
+here."
+
+Isobel Hannay was not among those who had gathered near the door of the
+room in which Bathurst was lying, but the Doctor had raised his voice,
+and she heard what he said, and bent over her work of sewing strips of
+linen together for bandages with a paler face than had been caused by
+the outbreak of musketry. Gradually the firing ceased. The Sepoys had
+suffered heavily from the steady fire of the invisible defenders and
+gradually drew off, and in an hour from the commencement of the attack
+all was silent round the building.
+
+"So far so good, ladies," the Major said cheerily, as the garrison,
+leaving one man on watch, descended from the roof. "We have had no
+casualties, and I think we must have inflicted a good many, and the
+mutineers are not likely to try that game on again, for they must see
+that they are wasting ammunition, and are doing us no harm. Now I hope
+the servants have got tiffin ready for us, for I am sure we have all
+excellent appetites."
+
+"Tiffin is quite ready, Major," Mrs. Doolan, who had been appointed
+chief of the commissariat department, said cheerfully. "The servants
+were a little disorganized when the firing began, but they soon became
+accustomed to it, and I think you will find everything in order in the
+hall."
+
+The meal was really a cheerful one. The fact that the first attack had
+passed over without anyone being hit raised the spirits of the women,
+and all were disposed to look at matters in a cheerful light. The two
+young subalterns were in high spirits, and the party were more lively
+than they had been since the first outbreak of the mutiny. All had felt
+severely the strain of waiting, and the reality of danger was a positive
+relief after the continuous suspense. It was much to them to know that
+the crisis had come at last, that they were still all together and the
+foe were without.
+
+"It is difficult to believe," Mrs. Doolan said, "that it was only
+yesterday evening we were all gathered at the Major's. It seems an age
+since then."
+
+"Yes, indeed," Mrs. Rintoul agreed; "the night seemed endless. The worst
+time was the waiting till we were to begin to move over. After that I
+did not so much mind, though it seemed more like a week than a night
+while the things were being brought in here."
+
+"I think the worse time was while we were waiting watching from the roof
+to see whether the troops would come out on parade as usual," Isobel
+said. "When my uncle and the others were all in, and Captain Forster,
+and the gates were shut, it seemed that our anxieties were over."
+
+"That was a mad charge of yours, Forster," the Major said. "It was like
+the Balaclava business--magnificent; but it wasn't war."
+
+"I did not think of it one way or the other," Captain Forster laughed.
+"I was so furious at the insolence off those dogs attacking me, that
+I thought of nothing else, and just went at them; but of course it was
+foolish."
+
+"It did good," the Doctor said. "It showed the Sepoys how little we
+thought of them, and how a single white officer was ready to match
+himself against a squadron. It will render them a good deal more careful
+in their attack than they otherwise would have been. It brought them
+under our fire, too, and they suffered pretty heavily; and I am sure the
+infantry must have lost a good many men from our fire just now. I hope
+they will come to the conclusion that the wisest thing they can do is
+to march away to Delhi and leave us severely alone. Now what are your
+orders, Major, for after breakfast?"
+
+"I think the best thing is for everyone to lie down for a few hours,"
+the Major said. "No one had a wink of sleep last night, and most of us
+have not slept much for some nights past. We must always keep two men on
+the roof, to be relieved every two hours. I will draw up a regular rota
+for duty; but except those two, the rest had better take a good sleep.
+We may be all called upon to be under arms at night."
+
+"I will go on the first relief, Major," the Doctor said. "I feel
+particularly wide awake. It is nothing new to me to be up all night. Put
+Bathurst down with me," he said, in a low tone, as the Major rose from
+the table. "He knows that I understand him, and it will be less painful
+for him to be with me than with anyone else. I will go up at once, and
+send young Harper down to his breakfast. There will be no occasion to
+have Bathurst up this time. The Sepoys are not likely to be trying any
+pranks at present. No doubt they have gone back to their lines to get a
+meal."
+
+The Doctor had not been long at his post when Isobel Hannay came up
+onto the terrace. They had seen each other alone comparatively little of
+late, as the Doctor had given up his habit of dropping in for a chat in
+the morning since their conversation about Bathurst.
+
+"Well, my dear, what is it?" he asked. "This is no place for you, for
+there are a few fellows still lurking among the trees, and they send a
+shot over the house occasionally."
+
+"I came up to say that I am sorry, Doctor."
+
+"That is right, Isobel. Always say you are sorry when you are so,
+although in nine cases out of ten, and this is one of them, the saying
+so is too late to do much good."
+
+"I think you are rather hard upon me, Doctor. I know you were speaking
+at me today when you were talking to the others, especially in what you
+said at the end."
+
+"Perhaps I was; but I think you quite deserved it."
+
+"Yes, I know I did; but it was hard to tell me it was as contemptible to
+despise a man for a physical weakness he could not help, as to despise
+one for being born humpbacked or a cripple, when you know that my
+brother was so."
+
+"I wanted you to feel that your conduct had been contemptible, Isobel,
+and I put it in the way that was most likely to come home to you. I have
+been disappointed in you. I thought you were more sensible than the run
+of young women, and I found out that you were not. I thought you had
+some confidence in my judgment, but it turned out that you had not.
+If Bathurst had been killed when he was standing up, a target for the
+Sepoys, I should have held you morally responsible for his death."
+
+"You would have shared the responsibility, anyhow, Doctor, for it was
+you who repeated my words to him."
+
+"We will not go over that ground again," said the Doctor quietly. "I
+gave you my reasons for doing so, and those reasons are to my mind
+convincing. Now I will tell you how this constitutional nervousness on
+his part arose. He told me the story; but as at that time there had
+been no occasion for him to show whether he was brave or otherwise, I
+considered my lips sealed. Now that his weakness has been exhibited, I
+consider myself more than justified in explaining its origin."
+
+And he then repeated the story Bathurst had told him.
+
+"You see," he said, when he had finished, "it is a constitutional matter
+beyond his control; it is a sort of antipathy. I have known a case of a
+woman courageous in all other respects, who, at the sight of even a
+dead cockroach, would faint away. I have seen one of the most gallant
+officers of my acquaintance turn pale at the sight of a spider.
+Certainly no one would think of calling either one or the other coward;
+and assuredly such a name should not be applied to a man who would face
+a tiger armed only with a whip in defense of a native woman, because his
+nerves go all to pieces at the sound of firearms."
+
+"If you had told me all this before I should never have spoken as I
+did," Isobel pleaded.
+
+"I did not go into the full details, but I told you that he was not
+responsible for his want of firmness under fire, and that I knew him
+in other respects to be a brave man," the Doctor said uncompromisingly.
+"Since then you have by your manner driven him away from you. You have
+flirted--well, you may not call it flirting," he broke off in answer
+to a gesture of denial, "but it was the same thing--with a man who is
+undoubtedly a gallant soldier--a very paladin, if you like--but who,
+in spite of his handsome face and pleasant manner, is no more to be
+compared with Bathurst in point of moral qualities or mental ability
+than light to dark, and this after I had like an old fool gone out of my
+way to warn you. You have disappointed me altogether, Isobel Hannay."
+
+Isobel stood motionless before him, with downcast eyes.
+
+"Well, there, my dear," the Doctor went on hurriedly, as he saw a tear
+glisten in her eyelashes; "don't let us say anything more about it. In
+the first place, it is no affair of mine; and in the second place, your
+point of view was that most women would take at a time like this; only,
+you know, I expected you would not have done just as other women would.
+We cannot afford to quarrel now, for there is no doubt that, although we
+may put a good face on the matter, our position is one of grave peril,
+and it is of no use troubling over trifles. Now run away, and get a few
+hours' sleep if you can. You will want all your strength before we are
+through with this business."
+
+While the Doctor had been talking to Isobel, the men had gathered below
+in a sort of informal council, the subject being Bathurst's conduct on
+the roof.
+
+"I would not have believed it if I had not seen it," Captain Rintoul
+said. "The man was absolutely helpless with fright; I never saw such an
+exhibition; and then his fainting afterwards and having to be carried
+away was disgusting; in fact, it is worse than that."
+
+There was a general murmur of assent.
+
+"It is disgraceful," one of the civilians said; "I am ashamed that the
+man should belong to our service; the idea of a fellow being helpless by
+fright when there are women and children to be defended--it is downright
+revolting."
+
+"Well, he did go and stick himself up in front," Wilson said; "you
+should remember that. He may have been in a blue funk, I don't say he
+wasn't; still, you know, he didn't go away and try to hide himself, but
+he stuck himself up in front for them to fire at. I think we ought to
+take that into consideration."
+
+"Dr. Wade says Bathurst put himself there to try and accustom himself to
+fire," Captain Forster said. "Mind, I don't pretend to like the man. We
+were at school together, and he was a coward then and a sneak, but for
+all that one should look at it fairly. The Doctor asserts that Bathurst
+is morally brave, but that somehow or other his nerves are too much
+for him. I don't pretend to understand it myself, but there is no
+doubt about the Doctor's pluck, and I don't think he would stand up
+for Bathurst as he does unless he really thought he was not altogether
+accountable for showing the white feather. I think, too, from what he
+let drop, that the Major is to some extent of the same opinion. What do
+you think, Doolan?"
+
+"I like Bathurst," Captain Doolan said; "I have always thought him a
+first rate fellow; but one can't stick up, you know, for a fellow who
+can't behave as a gentleman ought to, especially when there are women
+and children in danger."
+
+"It. is quite impossible that we should associate with him," Captain
+Rintoul said. "I don't propose that we should tell him what we think of
+him, but I think we ought to leave him severely alone."
+
+"I should say that he ought to be sent to Coventry," Richards said.
+
+"I should not put it in that way," Mr. Hunter said gravely. "I have
+always esteemed Bathurst. I look upon it as a terribly sad case; but
+I agree with Captain Rintoul that, in the position in which we are now
+placed, a man who proves himself to be a coward must be made to feel
+that he stands apart from us. I should not call it sending him to
+Coventry, or anything of that sort, but I do think that we should
+express by our manner that we don't wish to have any communication with
+him."
+
+There was a general expression of assent to this opinion, Wilson alone
+protesting against it.
+
+"You can do as you like," he said; "but certainly I shall speak to
+Bathurst, and I am sure the Doctor and Major Hannay will do so. I don't
+want to stand up for a coward, but I believe what the Doctor says. I
+have seen a good deal of Bathurst, and I like him; besides, haven't you
+heard the story the Doctor has been telling about his attacking a tiger
+with a whip to save a native woman? I don't care what anyone says, a
+fellow who is a downright coward couldn't do a thing like that."
+
+"Who told the Doctor about it?" Farquharson asked. "If he got it from
+Bathurst, I don't think it goes for much after what we have seen."
+
+Wilson would have replied angrily, but Captain Doolan put his hand on
+his shoulder.
+
+"Shut up, Wilson," he said; "this is no time for disputes; we are all in
+one boat here, and must row together like brothers. You go your own
+way about Bathurst, I don't blame you for it; he is a man everyone has
+liked, a first rate official, and a good fellow all round, except he is
+not one of the sociable kind. At any other time one would not think so
+much of this, but at present for a man to lack courage is for him to
+lack everything. I hope he will come better out of it than it looks at
+present. He will have plenty of chances here, and no one will be more
+glad than I shall to see him pull himself together."
+
+The Doctor, however, would have quarreled with everyone all round when
+he heard what had been decided upon, had not Major Hannay taken him
+aside and talked to him strongly.
+
+"It will never do, Doctor, to have quarrels here, and as commandant I
+must beg of you not to make this a personal matter. I am very sorry for
+this poor fellow; I accept entirely your view of the matter; but at
+the same time I really can't blame the others for looking at it from a
+matter of fact point of view. Want of courage is at all times regarded
+by men as the most unpardonable of failings, and at a time like the
+present this feeling is naturally far stronger even than usual. I hope
+with you that Bathurst will retrieve himself yet, but we shall certainly
+do him no good by trying to fight his battle until he does. You and
+I, thinking as we do, will of course make no alteration in our manner
+towards him. I am glad to hear that young Wilson also stands as his
+friend. Let matters go on quietly. I believe they will come right in the
+end."
+
+The Doctor was obliged to acknowledge that the Major's counsel was wise,
+and to refrain from either argument or sarcasm; but the effort required
+to check his natural tendency to wordy conflict was almost too great for
+him, and when not engaged in his own special duties he spent hours in
+one of the angles of the terrace keenly watching every tree and bush
+within range, and firing vengefully whenever he caught sight of a
+lurking native. So accurate was his aim that the Sepoys soon learned
+to know and dread the crack of his rifle; and whenever it spoke out the
+ground within its range was speedily clear of foes.
+
+The matter, however, caused a deep if temporary estrangement between
+Wilson and Richards. Although constantly chaffing each other, and
+engaged in verbal strife, they had hitherto been firm friends. Their
+rivalry in the matter of horseflesh had not aroused angry feelings, even
+their mutual adoration of Isobel Hannay had not affected a breach in
+their friendship; but upon the subject of sending Bathurst to
+Coventry they quarreled so hotly, that for a time they broke off all
+communication with each other, and both in their hearts regretted that
+their schoolboy days had passed, and that they could not settle the
+matter in good schoolboy fashion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+But though obliged to defer to Major Hannay's wishes, and to abstain
+from arguing with the men the question of Bathurst being given the cold
+shoulder, Dr. Wade had already organized the ladies in his favor. During
+the afternoon he had told them the tiger story, and had confidentially
+informed them how it was that Bathurst from his birth had been
+the victim of something like nervous paralysis at all loud sounds,
+especially those of the discharge of firearms.
+
+"His conduct today," he said, "and his courage in rescuing that native
+girl from the tiger, illustrate his character. He is cool, brave, and
+determined, as might be expected from a man of so well balanced a mind
+as his; and even when his nerves utterly broke down under the din of
+musketry, his will was so far dominant that he forced himself to
+go forward and stand there under fire, an act which was, under the
+circumstances, simply heroic."
+
+There is little difficulty in persuading women as to the merits of a man
+they like, and Bathurst had, since the troubles began, been much more
+appreciated than before by the ladies of Deennugghur. They had felt
+there was something strengthening and cheering in his presence, for
+while not attempting to minimize the danger, there was a calm confidence
+in his manner that comforted and reassured those he talked to.
+
+In the last twenty-four hours, too, he had unobtrusively performed many
+little kindnesses; had aided in the removals, carried the children,
+looked after the servants, and had been foremost in the arrangement of
+everything that could add to the comfort of the ladies.
+
+"I am glad you have told us all about it, Doctor," Mrs. Doolan said;
+"and, of course, no one would dream of blaming him. I had heard that
+story about his leaving the army years ago; but although I had only seen
+him once or twice, I did not believe it for a minute. What you tell us
+now, Doctor, explains the whole matter. I pity him sincerely. It must be
+something awful for a man at a time like this not to be able to take his
+part in the defense, especially when there are us women here. Why, it
+would pain me less to see Jim brought in dead, than for him to show the
+white feather. What can we do for the poor fellow?"
+
+"Treat him just as usual. There is nothing else you can do, Mrs. Doolan.
+Any tone of sympathy, still less of pity, would be the worst thing
+possible. He is in the lowest depths at present; but if he finds by your
+tone and manner that you regard him on the same footing as before, he
+will gradually come round, and I hope that before the end of the siege
+he will have opportunities of retrieving himself. Not under fire--that
+is hopeless; but in other ways."
+
+"You may be sure we will do all we can, Doctor," Mrs. Doolan said
+warmly; "and there are plenty of ways he will be able to make himself
+most useful. There is somebody wanted to look after all those syces and
+servants, and it would be a comfort to us to have someone to talk to
+occasionally; besides, all the children are fond of him."
+
+This sentiment was warmly echoed; and thus, when the determination
+at which the men had arrived to cut Bathurst became known, there was
+something like a feminine revolution.
+
+"You may do as you like," Mrs. Doolan said indignantly; "but if you
+think that we are going to do anything so cruel and unjust, you are
+entirely mistaken, I can tell you."
+
+Mrs. Rintoul was equally emphatic, and Mrs. Hunter quietly, but with
+as much decision, protested. "I have always regarded Mr. Bathurst as a
+friend," she said, "and I shall continue to do so. It is very sad for
+him that he cannot take part in the defense, but it is no more fair
+to blame him than it would be to blame us, because we, too, are
+noncombatants."
+
+Isobel Hannay had taken no part in the first discussion among the
+ladies, nor did she say anything now.
+
+"It is cruel and unjust," she said to herself, "but they only think as
+I did. I was more cruel and unjust than they, for there was no talk
+of danger then. I expressed my contempt of him because there was a
+suspicion that he had showed cowardice ten years ago, while they have
+seen it shown now when there is fearful peril. If they are cruel and
+unjust, what was I?"
+
+Later on the men gathered together at one end of the room, and talked
+over the situation.
+
+"Dr. Wade," the Major said quietly, "I shall be obliged if you will go
+and ask Mr. Bathurst to join us. He knows the people round here better
+than any of us, and his opinion will be valuable."
+
+The Doctor, who had several times been in to see Bathurst, went to his
+room.
+
+"The Major wants you to join us, Bathurst; we are having a talk over
+things, and he wishes to have your opinion. I had better tell you that
+as to yourself the camp is divided into two parties. On one side are the
+Major, Wilson, and myself, and all the ladies, who take, I need not say,
+a common sense view of the matter, and recognize that you have done all
+a man could do to overcome your constitutional nervousness, and that
+there is no discredit whatever attached to you personally. The rest of
+the men, I am sorry to say, at present take another view of the case,
+and are disposed to show you the cold shoulder."
+
+"That, of course," Bathurst said quietly; "as to the ladies' view of it,
+I know that it is only the result of your good offices, Doctor."
+
+"Then you will come," the Doctor said, pleased that Bathurst seemed less
+depressed than he had expected.
+
+"Certainly I will come, Doctor," Bathurst said, rising; "the worst
+is over now--everyone knows that I am a coward--that is what I have
+dreaded. There is nothing else for me to be afraid of, and it is of no
+use hiding myself."
+
+"We look quite at home here, Mr. Bathurst, don't we?" Mrs. Doolan said
+cheerfully, as he passed her; "and I think we all feel a great deal more
+comfortable than we did when you gave us your warning last night; the
+anticipation is always worse than the reality."
+
+"Not always, I think, Mrs. Doolan," he said quietly; "but you have
+certainly made yourselves wonderfully at home, though your sewing is of
+a more practical kind than that upon which you are ordinarily engaged."
+
+Then he passed on with the Doctor to the other end of the room. The
+Major nodded as he came up.
+
+"All right again now, Bathurst, I hope? We want your opinion, for you
+know, I think, more of the Zemindars in this part of the country than
+any of us. Of course, the question is, will they take part against us?"
+
+"I am afraid they will, Major. I had hoped otherwise; but if it be
+true that the Nana has gone--and as the other part of the message was
+correct, I have no doubt this is so also--I am afraid they will be
+carried away with the stream."
+
+"And you think they have guns?"
+
+"I have not the least doubt of it; the number given up was a mere
+fraction of those they were said to have possessed."
+
+"I had hoped the troops would have marched away after the lesson we gave
+them this morning, but, so far as we can make out, there is no sign of
+movement in their lines. However, they may start at daybreak tomorrow."
+
+"I will go out to see if you like, Major," Bathurst said quietly. "I
+can get native clothes from the servants, and I speak the language well
+enough to pass as a native; so if you give me permission I will go out
+to the lines and learn what their intentions are."
+
+"It would be a very dangerous undertaking," the Major said gravely.
+
+"I have no fear whatever of danger of that kind, Major; my nerves are
+steady enough, except when there is a noise of firearms, and then, as
+you all saw this morning, I cannot control them, do what I will. Risks
+of any other kind I am quite prepared to undertake, but in this matter
+I think the danger is very slight, the only difficulty being to get
+through the line of sentries they have no doubt posted round the house.
+Once past them, I think there is practically no risk whatever of their
+recognizing me when made up as a native. The Doctor has, no doubt, got
+some iodine in his surgery, and a coat of that will bring me to the
+right color."
+
+"Well, if you are ready to undertake it, I will not refuse," the Major
+said. "How would you propose to get out?"
+
+"I noticed yesterday that the branches of one of the trees in the garden
+extended beyond the top of the wall. I will climb up that and lower
+myself on the other side by a rope; that is a very simple matter. The
+spot is close to the edge of Mr. Hunter's compound, and I shall work my
+way through the shrubbery till I feel sure I am beyond any sentries
+who may be posted there; the chances are that they will not be thick
+anywhere, except opposite the gate. By the way, Captain Forster, before
+I go I must thank you for having risked your life to save mine this
+morning. I heard from Mrs. Hunter that it was you and the Doctor who
+rushed forward and drew me back."
+
+"It is not worth talking about," Captain Forster said carelessly. "You
+seemed bent on making a target of yourself; and as the Major's orders
+were that everyone was to lie down, there was nothing for it but to
+remove you."
+
+Bathurst turned to Dr. Wade. "Will you superintend my get up, Doctor?"
+
+"Certainly," the Doctor said, with alacrity. "I will guarantee that,
+with the aid of my boy, I will turn you out so that no one would know
+you even in broad daylight, to say nothing of the dark."
+
+A quarter of an hour sufficed to metamorphose Bathurst into an Oude
+peasant. He did not return to the room, but, accompanied by the Doctor,
+made his way to the tree he had spoken of.
+
+"By the way, you have taken no arms," the Doctor said suddenly.
+
+"They would be useless, Doctor; if I am recognized I shall be killed; if
+I am not discovered, and the chances are very slight of my being so, I
+shall get back safely. By the way, we will tie some knots on that rope
+before I let myself down. I used to be able to climb a rope without
+them, but I doubt whether I could do so now."
+
+"Well, God bless you, lad, and bring you back safely! You may make as
+light of it as you will, but it is a dangerous expedition. However, I
+am glad you have undertaken it, come what may, for it has given you the
+opportunity of showing you are not afraid of danger when it takes any
+other form than that of firearms. There are plenty of men who would
+stand up bravely enough in a fight, who would not like to undertake
+this task of going out alone in the dark into the middle of these
+bloodthirsty scoundrels. How long do you think you will be?"
+
+"A couple of hours at the outside."
+
+"Well, at the end of an hour I shall be back here again. Don't be longer
+than you can help, lad, for I shall be very anxious until you return."
+
+When the Doctor re-entered the house there was a chorus of questions:
+
+"Has Mr. Bathurst started?"
+
+"Why did you not bring him in here before he left? We should all have
+liked to have said goodby to him."
+
+"Yes, he has gone. I have seen him over the wall; and it was much better
+that he should go without any fuss. He went off just as quietly and
+unconcernedly as if he had been going out for an ordinary evening's
+walk. Now I am going up onto the roof. I don't say we should hear any
+hubbub down at the lines if he were discovered there, but we should
+certainly hear a shout if he came across any of the sentries round the
+house."
+
+"Has he taken any arms, Doctor?" the Major asked.
+
+"None whatever, Major. I asked him if he would not take pistols, but he
+refused."
+
+"Well, I don't understand that," Captain Forster remarked. "If I had
+gone on such a business I would have taken a couple of revolvers. I am
+quite ready to take my chance of being killed fighting, but I should not
+like to be seized and hacked to pieces in cold blood. My theory is a man
+should sell his life as dearly as he can."
+
+"That is the animal instinct, Forster," the Doctor said sharply; "though
+I don't say that I should not feel the same myself; but I question
+whether Bathurst's is not a higher type of courage."
+
+"Well, I don't aspire to Bathurst's type of courage, Doctor," Forster
+said, with a short laugh.
+
+But the Doctor did not answer. He had already turned away, and was
+making for the stairs.
+
+"May I go with you, Doctor?" Isobel Hannay said, following him. "It is
+very hot down here."
+
+"Yes; come along, child; but there is no time to lose, for Bathurst
+must be near where they are likely to have posted their sentries by this
+time."
+
+"Everything quiet, Wilson?" he asked the young subaltern, who, with
+another, was on guard on the roof.
+
+"Yes; we have heard nothing except a few distant shouts and noises out
+at the lines. Round here there has been nothing moving, except that we
+heard someone go out into the garden just now."
+
+"I went out with Bathurst," the Doctor said. "He has gone in the
+disguise of a native to the Sepoy lines, to find out what are their
+intentions."
+
+"I heard the talk over it, Doctor. I only came up on watch a few minutes
+since. I thought it was most likely him when I heard the steps."
+
+"I hope he is beyond the sentries," the Doctor said. "I have come up
+here to listen."
+
+"I expect he is through them before this," Wilson said confidently. "I
+wish I could have gone with him; but of course it would not have been
+any good. It is a beautiful night--isn't it, Miss Hannay?--and there is
+scarcely any dew falling."
+
+"Now, you go off to your post in the corner, Wilson. Your instructions
+are to listen for the slightest sound, and to assure us against the
+Sepoys creeping up to the walls. We did not come up here to distract you
+from your duties, or to gossip."
+
+"There are Richards and another posted somewhere in the garden," Wilson
+said. "Still, I suppose you are right, Doctor; but if you, Miss Hannay,
+have come up to listen, come and sit in my corner; it is the one nearest
+to the lines."
+
+"You may as well go and sit down, Isobel," the Doctor said; "that is,
+if you intend to stay up here long;" and they went across with Wilson to
+his post.
+
+"Shall I put one of these sandbags for you to sit on?"
+
+"I would rather stand, thank you;" and they stood for some time silently
+watching the fires in the lines.
+
+"They are drawing pretty heavily on the wood stores," the Doctor
+growled; "there is a good deal more than the regulation allowance
+blazing in those fires. I can make out a lot of figures moving about
+round them; no doubt numbers of the peasants have come in."
+
+"Do you think Mr. Bathurst has got beyond the line of sentries?" Isobel
+said, after standing perfectly quiet for some time.
+
+"Oh, yes, a long way; probably he was through by the time we came up
+here. They are not likely to post them more than fifty or sixty yards
+from the wall; and, indeed, it is, as Bathurst pointed out to me,
+probable that they are only thick near the gate. All they want to do is
+to prevent us slipping away. I should think that Bathurst must be out
+near the lines by this time."
+
+Isobel moved a few paces away from the others, and again stood
+listening.
+
+"I suppose you do not think that there is any chance of an attack
+tonight, Doctor?" Wilson asked, in low tones.
+
+"Not in the least; the natives are not fond of night work. I expect they
+are dividing the spoil and quarreling over it; anyhow, they have had
+enough of it for today. They may intend to march away in the morning, or
+they may have sent to Cawnpore to ask for orders, or they may have heard
+from some of the Zemindars that they are coming in to join them--that is
+what Bathurst has gone out to learn; but anyhow I do not think they will
+attack us again with their present force."
+
+"I wish there were a few more of us," Wilson said, "so that we could
+venture on a sortie."
+
+"So do I, lad; but it is no use thinking about it as it is. We have to
+wait; our fate is not in our own hands."
+
+"And you think matters look bad, Doctor?"
+
+"I think they could hardly look worse. Unless the mutineers take it into
+their heads to march away, there is, humanly speaking, but one chance
+for us, and that is that Lawrence may thrash the Sepoys so completely
+at Lucknow that he may be able to send out a force to bring us in. The
+chances of that are next to nothing; for in addition to a very large
+Sepoy force he has the population of Lucknow--one of the most turbulent
+in India--on his hands. Ah, what is that?"
+
+Two musket shots in quick succession from the Sepoy lines broke the
+silence of the evening, and a startled exclamation burst from the girl
+standing near them.
+
+The Doctor went over to her.
+
+"Do you think--do you think," she said in a low, strained voice, "that
+it was Bathurst?"
+
+"Not at all. If they detected him, and I really do not see that there is
+a chance of their doing so, disguised as he was, they would have seized
+him and probably killed him, but there would be no firing. He has gone
+unarmed, you know, and would offer no resistance. Those shots you heard
+were doubtless the result of some drunken quarrel over the loot."
+
+"Do you really think so, Doctor?"
+
+"I feel quite sure of it. If it had been Forster who had gone out, and
+he had been detected, it would have been natural enough that we should
+hear the sound of something like a battle. In the first place, he would
+have defended himself desperately, and, in the next, he might have made
+his way through them and escaped; but, as I said, with Bathurst there
+would be no occasion for their firing."
+
+"Why didn't he come in to say goodby before he went? that is what I
+wanted to ask you, Doctor, and why I came up here. I wanted to have
+spoken to him, if only for a moment, before he started. I tried to catch
+his eye as he went out of the room with you, but he did not even look at
+me. It will be so hard if he never comes back, to know that he went away
+without my having spoken to him again. I did try this morning to tell
+him that I was sorry for what I said, but he would not listen to me."
+
+"You will have an opportunity of telling him when he comes back, if you
+want to, or of showing him so by your manner, which would be, perhaps,
+less painful to both of you."
+
+"I don't care about pain to myself," the girl said. "I have been unjust,
+and deserve it."
+
+"I don't think he considers you unjust. I did, and told you so. He feels
+what he considers the disgrace so much that it seems to him perfectly
+natural he should be despised."
+
+"Yes, but I want him to see that he is not despised," she said quickly.
+"You don't understand, Doctor."
+
+"I do understand perfectly, my dear; at least, I think--I think I do; I
+see that you want to put yourself straight with him, which is very right
+and proper, especially placed as we all are; but I would not do or say
+anything hastily. You have spoken hastily once, you see, and made a mess
+of it. I should be careful how I did it again, unless, of course," and
+he stopped.
+
+"Unless what, Doctor?" Isobel asked shyly, after a long pause. But there
+was no reply; and looking round she saw that her companion had moved
+quietly away and had joined Wilson at his post. She stood for a
+few minutes in the same attitude, and then moved quietly across the
+staircase in the center of the terrace, and went down to the party
+below. A short time later the Doctor followed her, and, taking his
+rifle, went out into the garden with Captain Doolan, who assisted him in
+climbing the tree, and handed his gun up to him. The Doctor made his
+way out on the branch to the spot where it extended beyond the wall, and
+there sat, straining his eyes into the darkness. Half an hour passed,
+and then he heard a light footfall on the sandy soil.
+
+"Is that you, Bathurst?" he whispered.
+
+"All right, Doctor;" and a minute later Bathurst sat on the branch
+beside him.
+
+"Well, what's your news?"
+
+"Very bad, Doctor; they expect the Rajah Por Sing, who, it seems, is the
+leader of the party in this district, and several other Zemindars, to be
+here with guns tomorrow or next day. The news from Cawnpore was true..
+The native troops mutinied and marched away, but were joined by Nana
+Sahib and his force, and he persuaded them to return and attack the
+whites in their intrenchments at Cawnpore, as they would not be well
+received at Delhi unless they had properly accomplished their share of
+the work of rooting out the Feringhees."
+
+"The infernal scoundrel!" the Doctor exclaimed; "after pretending for
+years to be our best friend. I'm disgusted to think that I have drunk
+his champagne a dozen times. However, that makes little difference to us
+now, your other news is the most important. We could have resisted
+the Sepoys for a month; but if they bring up guns there can be but one
+ending to it."
+
+"That is so, Doctor. The only hope I can see is that they may find our
+resistance so obstinate as to be glad to grant us terms of surrender."
+
+"Yes, there is that chance," the Doctor agreed; "but history shows there
+is but little reliance to be placed upon native oaths."
+
+Bathurst was silent; his own experience of the natives had taught him
+the same lesson.
+
+"It is a poor hope," he said, after a while; "but it is the only one, so
+far as I can see."
+
+Not another word was spoken as they descended the tree and walked across
+to the house.
+
+"Never mind about changing your things, come straight in."
+
+"Our scout has returned," the Doctor said, as he entered the room. There
+was a general exclamation of gladness on the part of the ladies who had
+not retired.
+
+"I am very glad to see you safe back, Mr. Bathurst," Mrs. Hunter said,
+going up to him and taking his hand. "We have all been very anxious
+since you left."
+
+"The danger was very slight, Mrs. Hunter. I only wish I had brought you
+back the news that the native lines were deserted and the mutineers in
+full march for Delhi and Lucknow."
+
+"I was afraid you would hardly bring that news, Mr. Bathurst; it was
+almost too good to hope for. However, we are all glad that you are back.
+Are we not, Isobel?"
+
+"We are indeed, Mr. Bathurst, though as yet I can hardly persuade myself
+that it is you in that get up."
+
+"I think there is no doubt of my identity. Can you tell me where you
+uncle is, Miss Hannay? I have to make my report to him."
+
+"He is on the roof. There is a sort of general gathering of our
+defenders there."
+
+Two lamps had been placed in the center of the terrace, and round these
+the little garrison were grouped, some sitting on boxes, others lying on
+mats, almost all smoking. Bathurst was greeted heartily by the Major and
+Wilson as soon as he was recognized.
+
+"I am awfully glad to see you back," Wilson said, shaking him warmly by
+the hand. "I wish I could have gone with you. Two together does not seem
+so bad, but I should not like to start out by myself as you did."
+
+There was a hearty cordiality in the young fellow's voice that was very
+pleasant to Bathurst.
+
+"We have all our gifts, as Hawkeye used to say, as I have no doubt you
+remember, Wilson. Such gifts as I have lay in the way of solitary work,
+I fancy."
+
+"Now, light a cheroot, Bathurst," the Major said, "and drink off this
+tumbler of brandy and soda, and then let us hear your story."
+
+"The story is simple enough, Major. I got through without difficulty.
+The sentries are some distance apart round the garden wall. As soon as I
+discovered by the sound of their footsteps where they were, it was easy
+enough to get through them. Then I made a longish detour, and came down
+on the lines from the other side. There was no occasion for concealment
+then. Numbers of the country people had come in, and were gathered round
+the Sepoys' fires, and I was able to move about amongst them, and listen
+to the conversation without the smallest hindrance.
+
+"The Sepoys were loudly expressing their dissatisfaction at their
+officers leading them against the house today, when they had no means
+of either battering down the walls or scaling them. Then there was a
+general opinion that treachery was at work; for how else should the
+Europeans have known they were going to rise that morning, and so moved
+during the night into the house? There was much angry recrimination
+and quarreling, and many expressed their regret they had not marched
+straight to Cawnpore after burning the bungalows.
+
+"All this was satisfactory; but I learned that Por Sing and several
+other Zemindars had already sent in assurances that they were wholly
+with them, and would be here, with guns to batter down the walls, some
+time tomorrow."
+
+"That is bad news, indeed," the Major said gravely, when he had
+finished. "Of course, when we heard that Nana Sahib had thrown in his
+lot with the mutineers, it was probable that many of the landowners
+would go the same way; but if the Sepoys had marched off they might not
+have attacked us on their own account. Now we know that the Sepoys are
+going to stay, and that they will have guns, it alters our position
+altogether."
+
+There was a murmur of assent.
+
+"I should tell you before you talk the matter over further," Bathurst
+went on, "that during the last hour some hundreds of peasants have taken
+up their posts round the house in addition to the Sepoy sentries. I came
+back with one party about a hundred strong. They are posted a couple of
+hundred yards or so in front of the gate. I slipped away from them in
+the dark and made my way here."
+
+"Well, gentlemen, what do you think we had better do?" the Major said;
+"we are all in the same boat, and I should like to have your opinions.
+We may defend this house successfully for days--possibly we may even
+tire them out--but on the other hand they may prove too strong for
+us. If the wall were breached we could hardly hope to defend it, and,
+indeed, if they constructed plenty of ladders they could scale it at
+night in a score of places. We must, therefore, regard the house as our
+citadel, close up the lower windows and doors with sandbags, and defend
+it to the last. Still, if they are determined, the lookout is not a very
+bright one."
+
+"I am in favor of our cutting our way out, Major," Captain Forster
+said; "if we are cooped up here, we must, as you say, in the long run be
+beaten."
+
+"That would be all very well, Captain Forster, if we were all men,"
+Mr. Hunter said. "There are sixteen of us and there are in all eighteen
+horses, for I and Farquharson have two each; but there are eight women
+and fourteen children; so all the horses would have to carry double. We
+certainly could not hope to escape from them with our horses so laden;
+and if they came up with us, what fighting could we do with women behind
+our saddles? Moreover, we certainly could not leave the servants, who
+have been true to us, to the mercy of the Sepoys."
+
+"Besides, where could we go?" the Doctor asked. "The garrison at
+Cawnpore, we know, are besieged by overwhelming numbers. We do not know
+much as to the position at Lucknow, but certainly the Europeans are
+immensely outnumbered there, and I think we may assume that they
+are also besieged. It is a very long distance either to Agra or to
+Allahabad; and with the whole country up in arms against us, and the
+cavalry here at our heels, the prospect seems absolutely hopeless. What
+do you think, Doolan? You and Rintoul have your wives here, and you have
+children. I consider that the question concerns you married men more
+than us."
+
+"It is a case of the frying pan and the fire, as far as I can see,
+Doctor. At any rate, here we have got walls to light behind, and food
+for weeks, and plenty of ammunition. I am for selling our lives as
+dearly as we can here rather than go outside to be chased like jackals."
+
+"I agree with you, Doolan," Captain Rintoul said. "Here we may be able
+to make terms with them, but once outside the walls we should be at the
+scoundrels' mercy. If it were not for the women and children I should
+agree entirely with Forster that our best plan would be to throw open
+our gates and make a dash for it, keeping together as long as we could,
+and then, if necessary, separating and trying to make our way down to
+Agra or Allahabad as best we could; but with ladies that does not seem
+to be possible."
+
+The opinion of the married civilians was entirely in accord with that of
+Mr. Hunter.
+
+"But what hope is there of defending this place in the long run?"
+Captain Forster said. "If I saw any chance at all I should be quite
+willing to wait; but I would infinitely rather sally out at once and
+go for them and be killed than wait here day after day and perhaps week
+after week, seeing one's fate drawing nearer inch by inch. What do you
+say, Bathurst? We haven't had your opinion yet."
+
+"I do not think that the defense is so hopeless as you suppose, although
+I admit that the chances are greatly against us," Bathurst said quietly.
+"I think there is a hope of tiring the natives out. The Sepoys know well
+enough there can be no great amount of loot here, while they think that
+were they at Cawnpore, at Lucknow, or still more at Delhi, their chances
+of plunder would be much greater. Moreover, I think that men in their
+position, having offended, as it were, without hope of pardon, would
+naturally desire to flock together. There is comfort and encouragement
+in numbers. Therefore, I am sure they will very speedily become
+impatient if they do not meet with success, and would be inclined to
+grant terms rather than waste time here.
+
+"It is the same thing with the native gentry. They will want to be off
+to Lucknow or Delhi, where they will know more how things are going,
+and where, no doubt, they reckon upon obtaining posts of importance and
+increased possessions under the new order of things. Therefore, I think,
+they, as well as the Sepoys, are likely, if they find the task longer
+and more difficult than they expect, to be ready to grant terms. I have
+no great faith in native oaths. Still they might be kept.
+
+"Captain Forster's proposal I regard as altogether impracticable. We are
+something like two hundred and fifty miles from the nearest British post
+where we could hope to find refuge, and with the horses carrying double,
+the troopers at our heels directly we start, and the country hostile,
+I see no chance whatever, not a vestige of one, of our getting safely
+away.
+
+"But there is a third alternative by which some might escape; it is,
+that we should make our way out on foot, break up into parties of twos
+and threes; steal or fight our way through the sentries, and then for
+each party to shift for itself, making its way as best it can, traveling
+by night and lying up in woods or plantations by day; getting food at
+times from friendly natives, and subsisting, for the most part, upon
+what might be gathered in the fields. In that way some might escape,
+but the suffering and hardships of the women and children would be
+terrible."
+
+"I agree with you," Mr. Hunter said; "such a journey would be frightful
+to contemplate, and I don't think, in our case, that my wife could
+possibly perform such a journey; still, some might do so. At any rate, I
+think the chances are better than they would be were we to ride out in
+a body. I should suggest, Major, when the crisis seems to be
+approaching--that is, when it is clear that we can't defend ourselves
+much longer--it would be fair that each should be at liberty to try to
+get out and make down the country."
+
+"Certainly," the Major agreed; "we are in a position of men on board a
+sinking ship with the boats gone; we should try to the end to save the
+ship, but when all hope of doing that is over, each may try to get to
+shore as he best can. As long as the house can be defended, all must
+remain and bear their share in the struggle, but when we decide that it
+is but a question of hours, all who choose will be at liberty to try to
+escape."
+
+"It will be vastly more difficult then than now," Captain Forster said;
+"Bathurst made his way out tonight without difficulty, but they will
+be a great deal more vigilant when they know we cannot hold out much
+longer. I don't see how it would be possible for women and children to
+get through them."
+
+"We might then adopt your scheme, to a certain extent, Forster," Major
+Hannay said. "We could mount, sally out suddenly, break through their
+pickets, and as soon as we are beyond them scatter; those who like can
+try to make their way down on horseback, those who prefer it try to do
+so on foot. That would at least give us an alternative should the siege
+be pushed on to the last, and we find ourselves unable to make terms."
+
+There was general assent to the Major's proposal, which seemed to offer
+better chances than any. There was the hope that the mutineers might
+tire of the siege and march away; that if they pressed it, terms might
+be at last obtained from them, and that, failing everything else, the
+garrison might yet make their way down country.
+
+"As there is evidently no chance of an attack during the night," the
+Major said, "we will divide into two watches and relieve each other
+every four hours; that will give two as lookouts on the roof and six
+in the inclosure. As you are senior officer next to myself, Doolan, you
+will take charge of one watch; I shall myself take charge of the other.
+Forster and Wilson be with me, Rintoul and Richards with you. Mr. Hardy,
+will you and the other gentlemen divide your numbers into two watches?
+Dr. Wade counts as a combatant until his hospital begins to fill."
+
+"I fancy he may be counted as a combatant all through," the Doctor
+muttered.
+
+"Tomorrow morning," the Major went on, "we will continue the work of
+filling sandbags. There are still a large number of empty bags on hand.
+We shall want them for all the lower windows and doors, and the
+more there are of them the better; and we must also keep a supply in
+readiness to make a retrenchment if they should breach the wall. Now,
+Mr. Hunter, as soon as you have made out your list my watch can go on
+duty, and I should advise the others to turn in without delay."
+
+When the ladies were informed that half the men were going on watch,
+Mrs. Doolan said, "I have an amendment to propose, Major. Women's ears
+are just as keen as men's, and I propose that we supply the sentries on
+the roof. I will volunteer for one."
+
+The whole of the ladies at once volunteered.
+
+"There is no occasion for so many," Mrs. Doolan said; "and I propose
+that tonight, at any rate, I should take the first watch with one of the
+Miss Hunters, and that Miss Hannay and the other should take the
+second. That will leave all the gentlemen available for the watch in the
+inclosure."
+
+The proposal was agreed to, and in a short time the first watch had
+taken their station, and the rest of the garrison lay down to rest.
+
+The night passed off quietly. The first work at which the Major set the
+garrison in the morning was to form six wooden stages against the wall.
+One by the gate, one against the wall at the other end, and two at each
+of the long sides of the inclosure. They were twelve feet in height,
+which enabled those upon them to stand head and shoulders above the
+level of the wall.
+
+When these were completed the whole of the garrison, including the
+ladies and native servants, again set to work filling sandbags with
+earth. As fast as they were finished they were carried in and piled two
+deep against the lower windows, and three deep against the doors, only
+one small door being left undefended, so as to allow a passage in and
+out of the house. Bags were piled in readiness for closing this also in
+case of necessity.
+
+Mrs. Rintoul and another lady had volunteered for a third watch on the
+roof, so that each watch would go on duty once every twelve hours. The
+whole of the men, therefore, were available for work below.
+
+A scattered fire was opened at the house soon after daybreak, and
+was kept up without intermission from bushes and other cover; but the
+watchers on the roof, seated behind the sandbags at opposite angles,
+were well under shelter, peering out occasionally through the crevices
+between the bags to see that no general movement was taking place among
+the enemy.
+
+About midday there was a desultory discharge of firearms from the native
+lines; and the Major, on ascending to the roof, saw a procession of
+elephants and men approaching the camp.
+
+"I expect there are guns there," he muttered, "and they are going to
+begin in earnest. Ladies, you are relieved of duty at present. I expect
+we shall be hearing from those fellows soon, and we must have someone up
+here who can talk back to them."
+
+Accordingly the Doctor and Mr. Farquharson, who was the best shot among
+the civilians, took the places of the ladies on the roof. Half an hour
+later the Major went up again.
+
+"They have four cannon," the Doctor said. "There they are, on that
+slight rise to the left of the lines. I should fancy they are about
+eight hundred yards away. Do you see, there is a crowd gathering behind
+them? Our rifles will carry that distance easily enough, I think. You
+might as well let us have three or four more up here.. The two lads are
+both fair shots, and Hunter was considered a good shikari some years
+ago. We can drive their cannon off that rise; the farther we make them
+take up their post the better, but even at that distance their shooting
+will be wild. The guns are no doubt old ones, and, as likely as not, the
+shot won't fit. At any rate, though they may trouble us, they will do no
+serious harm till they establish a battery at pretty close quarters."
+
+The Major went down, and the two subalterns and Mr. Hunter joined the
+Doctor on the roof.
+
+Ten minutes later the boom of four guns in quick succession was heard,
+and the party below stopped for a moment at their work as they heard the
+sound of shot rushing through the air overhead; then came five shots in
+answer from the parapet. Again and again the rifles spoke out, and then
+the Doctor shouted down to those in the courtyard, "They have had enough
+of it already, and are bringing up the elephants to move the cannon
+back. Now, boys," he said to the subalterns, "an elephant is an easier
+mark than a tiger; aim carefully, and blaze away as quickly as you
+like."
+
+For five minutes a rapid fire was kept up; then Wilson went below.
+
+"The Doctor asked me to tell you, sir," he said to the Major, "that
+the guns have been removed. There has been great confusion among the
+natives, and we can see with our glasses eight or ten bodies left on the
+ground. One of the elephants turned and went off at full speed among the
+crowd, and we fancy some of the others were hit. There was great trouble
+in getting them to come up to the guns. The Doctor says it is all over
+for the present."
+
+Two other large parties with elephants were seen to come up to the
+native lines in the course of the afternoon. The defenders of the roof
+had now turned their attention to their foes in the gardens around, and
+the fire thence was gradually suppressed, until by evening everything
+was quiet.
+
+By this time the work of filling the sandbags was completed; the doors
+and windows had been barricaded, and a large pile of bags lay in the
+inclosure ready for erection at any threatened point.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+When the party met at dinner they were for a time somewhat silent, for
+all were exhausted by their hard work under a blazing sun, but their
+spirits rose under their surroundings.
+
+The native servants had laid the table with as scrupulous care as
+usual; and, except that there was no display of flowers, no change was
+observable.
+
+All had dressed after the work was over, and the men were in white
+drill, and the ladies had, from custom, put on light evening gowns.
+
+The cook had prepared an excellent dinner, and as the champagne went
+round no stranger would have supposed that the party had met under
+unusual circumstances. The Doctor and the two subalterns were
+unaffectedly gay, and as the rest all made an effort to be cheerful, the
+languor that had marked the commencement of the dinner soon wore off.
+
+"Wilson and Richards are becoming quite sportsmen," the Doctor said.
+"They have tried their hands at tigers but could hardly have expected
+to take part in elephant shooting. They can't quite settle between
+themselves as to which it was who sent the Rajah's elephant flying among
+the crowd. Both declare they aimed at that special beast. So, as there
+is no deciding the point, we must consider the honor as divided."
+
+"It was rather hard on us," Isobel said, "to be kept working below
+instead of being up there seeing what was going on. But I consider we
+quite did our full share towards the defense today. My hands are quite
+sore with sewing up the mouths of those rough bags. I think the chief
+honors that way lie with Mrs. Rintoul. I am sure she sewed more
+bags than any of us. I had no idea that you were such a worker, Mrs.
+Rintoul."
+
+"I used to be a quick worker, Miss Hannay, till lately. I have not
+touched a needle since I came out to India."
+
+"I should recommend you to keep it up. Mrs. Rintoul," the Doctor said.
+"It has done you more good than all my medicines. I don't believe I have
+prescribed for you for the last month, and I haven't seen you looking so
+well since you came out."
+
+"I suppose I have not had time to feel ill, Doctor," Mrs. Rintoul said,
+with a slight smile; "all this has been a sort of tonic."
+
+"And a very useful one, Mrs. Rintoul. We are all of us the better for a
+little stirring up sometimes."
+
+Captain Forster had, as usual, secured a place next to Isobel Hannay. He
+had been near her all day, carrying the bags as he filled them to her to
+sew up. Bathurst was sitting at the other end of the table, joining but
+little in the conversation.
+
+"I thought Bathurst was going to faint again when the firing began, Miss
+Hannay," Captain Forster said, in a low voice. "It was quite funny to
+see him give a little start each shot that was fired, and his face was
+as white as my jacket. I never saw such a nervous fellow."
+
+"You know he cannot help it, Captain Forster," Isobel said indignantly.
+"I don't think it is right to make fun of him for what is a great
+misfortune."
+
+"I am not making fun of him, Miss Hannay. I am pitying him."
+
+"It did not sound like it," Isobel said. "I don't think you can
+understand it, Captain Forster; it must be terrible to be like that."
+
+"I quite agree with you there. I know I should drown myself or put a
+bullet through my head if I could not show ordinary courage with a lot
+of ladies going on working quietly round me."
+
+"You must remember that Mr. Bathurst showed plenty of courage in going
+out among the mutineers last night."
+
+"Yes, he did that very well; but you see, he talks the language so
+thoroughly that, as he said himself, there was very little risk in it."
+
+"I don't like you to talk so, Captain Forster," Isobel said quietly. "I
+do not see much of Mr. Bathurst. I have not spoken to him half a dozen
+times in the last month; but both my uncle and Dr. Wade have a high
+opinion of him, and do not consider that he should be personally blamed
+for being nervous under fire. I feel very sorry for him, and would much
+rather that you did not make remarks like that about him. We have all
+our weak points, and, no doubt, many of them are a good deal worse than
+a mere want of nerve."
+
+"Your commands shall be obeyed, Miss Hannay. I did not know that
+Bathurst was a protege of the Major's as well as of the estimable
+Doctor, or I would have said nothing against him."
+
+"I don't think Mr. Bathurst is the sort of man to be anyone's protege,
+Captain Forster," Isobel said coldly. "However, I think we had better
+change the subject."
+
+This Captain Forster did easily and adroitly. He had no special feeling
+against Bathurst save a contempt for his weakness; and as he had met him
+but once or twice at the Major's since he came to the station, he had
+not thought of him in the light of a rival.
+
+Just as dinner was over Richards and one of the civilians came down from
+the terrace.
+
+"I think that there is something up, Major. I can hear noises somewhere
+near where Mr. Hunter's bungalow was."
+
+"What sort of noises, Richards?"
+
+"There is a sort of murmur, as if there were a good many men there."
+
+"Well, gentlemen, we had better go to our posts," the Major said.
+"Doolan, please place your watch on the platforms by the wall. I will
+take my party up onto the terrace. Doctor, will you bring up some of
+those rockets you made the other day? We must try and find out what they
+are doing."
+
+As soon as he gained the terrace with his party, the Major requested
+everyone to remain perfectly still, and going forward to the parapet
+listened intently. In three or four minutes he returned to the others.
+
+"There is a considerable body of men at work there," he said. "I can
+hear muffled sounds like digging, and once or twice a sharp click, as
+if a spade struck a stone. I am very much afraid they are throwing up a
+battery there. I was in hopes they would have begun in the open, because
+we could have commanded the approaches; but if they begin among the
+trees, they can come in and out without our seeing them, and bring up
+their guns by the road without our being able to interfere with them.
+Mr. Bathurst, will you take down word to Captain Doolan to put his men
+on the platforms on that side. Tell him that I am going to throw up a
+rocket, as I believe they are erecting a battery near Hunter's bungalow,
+and that his men are to be ready to give them a volley if they can
+make them out. Tell them not to expose themselves too much; for if they
+really are at work there no doubt they have numbers of men posted in the
+shrubs all about to keep down our fire. Now, gentlemen, we will all lie
+down by the parapet. Take those spare rifles, and fire as quickly as you
+can while the light of the rocket lasts. Now, Mr. Wilson, we will get
+you to send them up. The rest of you had better get in the corner and
+stoop down behind the sandbags; you can lay your rifles on them, so as
+to be able to fire as soon as you have lit the second rocket."
+
+The Doctor soon came up with the rockets; he had made three dozen the
+week before, and a number of blue lights, for the special purpose of
+detecting any movement that the enemy might make at night.
+
+"I will fire them myself," he said, as Wilson offered to take them. "I
+have had charge of the fireworks in a score of fetes and that sort of
+thing, and am a pretty good hand at it. There, we will lean them against
+the sandbags. That is about it. Now, are you all ready, Major?"
+
+"All ready!" replied the Major.
+
+The Doctor placed the end of his lighted cheroot against the touch
+paper, there was a momentary pause, then a rushing sound, and the rocket
+soared high in the air, and then burst, throwing out four or five white
+fireballs, which lit up clearly the spot they were watching.
+
+"There they are!" the Major exclaimed; "just to the right of the
+bungalow; there are scores of them."
+
+The rifles, both from the terrace and the platforms below, cracked out
+in rapid succession, and another rocket flew up into the air and burst.
+Before its light had faded out, each of the defenders had fired his four
+shots. Shouts and cries from the direction in which they fired showed
+that many of the bullets had told, whilst almost immediately a sharp
+fire broke out from the bushes round them.
+
+"Don't mind the fellows in the shrubs," the Major said, "but keep up
+your fire on the battery. We know its exact position now, though we
+cannot actually make them out."
+
+"Let them wait while I go down and get a bit of phosphorus," the Doctor
+said. "I have some in the surgery. They will only throw away their fire
+in the dark without it."
+
+He soon returned, and when all the fore and back sights had been rubbed
+by the phosphorus the firing recommenced, and the Doctor sent Wilson
+down with the phosphorus to the men on the platforms facing the
+threatened point.
+
+Bathurst was returning, after having given the message to Captain
+Doolan, when Mrs. Hunter met him in the passage. She put her hand kindly
+on his shoulder.
+
+"Now, Mr. Bathurst, if you will take my advice you will remain quietly
+here. The Doctor tells me they are going to open fire, and it is not the
+least use your going there exposing yourself to be shot when you know
+that you will be of no use. You showed us yesterday that you could be
+of use in other ways, and I have no doubt you will have opportunities of
+doing so again. I can assure you none of us will think any the worse
+of you for not being able to struggle against a nervous affliction that
+gives you infinite pain. If they were attacking it would be different; I
+know you would be wanting to take your share then."
+
+"Thank you, Mrs. Hunter," he said, "but I must go up. I grant that I
+shall be of no use, but at least I will take any chance that the others
+run of being shot. A man does not flinch from a painful operation, and,
+whatever the pain, it has to be faced. I may get used to it in time; but
+whether I do or not I must go through it, though I do not say it doesn't
+hurt."
+
+At this moment the rattle of musketry broke out above. Bathurst gave a
+violent start, and a low cry as of pain; then he rushed past Mrs. Hunter
+and up the staircase to the terrace, when he staggered rather than
+walked forward to the parapet, and threw himself down beside two figures
+who were in the act of firing.
+
+"Is that you, Bathurst?" the Major's voice asked. "Mind, man, don't lift
+your head above the sandbags in that way. There, you had best lie quiet;
+the natives have no idea of attacking, and it is of no use throwing away
+valuable ammunition by firing unless your hand is steady."
+
+But Bathurst did not hear, and remained with his head above the line
+of sandbags until the Major put his hand on his shoulder and forced him
+down. He might have put his hands over his ears to deaden the sound--for
+in the darkness no one would have seen the action--but he would not do
+so, but with clenched teeth and quivering nerves lay there until the
+Major said, "I fancy we have stopped them working. Now, Doctor, do you,
+Hunter, Bathurst, and Farquharson go and lie down for four hours, when I
+will send for you to take our places. Before you lie down will you tell
+Doolan to send half his party in? Of course you will lie down in your
+clothes, ready to fall in at your posts at a moment's notice."
+
+"Let me send another rocket up first, Major, to see what they are doing.
+We can sleep tomorrow in the daytime; they won't dare to work under our
+fire then. Now, get ready, gentlemen, and don't throw away a shot, if
+they are still working there."
+
+The light of the rocket showed that there were now no natives at the
+spot where they had been seen at work.
+
+"I thought it would be too hot for them, Major, at such close quarters
+as these. We must have played the mischief with them."
+
+"All the better, Doctor; we will send a few shots there occasionally to
+show them we have not forgotten them. But the principal thing will be
+to keep our ears open to see that they don't bring up ladders and try a
+rush."
+
+"I think there is no fear of that tonight, Major. They would not have
+set to work at the battery if they had any idea of trying to scale the
+wall with ladders. That will come later on; but I don't think you will
+be troubled any more tonight, except by these fellows firing away from
+the bushes, and I should think they would get tired of wasting their
+ammunition soon. It is fortunate we brought all the spare ammunition in
+here."
+
+"Yes, they only had ten rounds of ball cartridge, and that must be
+nearly used up by this time. They will have to make up their cartridges
+in future, and cast their bullets, unless they can get a supply from
+some of the other mutineers."
+
+"Well, you will send for us in four hours, Major?"
+
+"You need not be afraid of my forgetting."
+
+Dawn was just breaking when the relief were called up; the firing had
+died away, and all was quiet.
+
+"You will take command here, Rintoul," the Major said. "I should keep
+Farquharson up here, if I were you, and leave the Doctor and Bathurst to
+look after things in general. I think, Doctor, it would be as well if we
+appointed Bathurst in charge of the general arrangements of the house.
+We have a good amount of stores, but the servants will waste them if
+they are not looked after. I should put them on rations, Bathurst; and
+there might be regular rations of things served out for us too; then
+it would fall in your province to see that the syces water and feed the
+horses. You will examine the well regularly, and note whether there is
+any change in the look of the water. I think you will find plenty to
+do."
+
+"Thank you, Major," Bathurst said. "I appreciate your kindness, and
+for the present, at any rate, will gladly undertake the work of looking
+after the stores and servants; but there is one thing I have been
+thinking of, and which I should like to speak to you about at once, if
+you could spare a minute or two before you turn in."
+
+"What is that, Bathurst?"
+
+"I think that we are agreed, Major, that though we may hold this place
+for a time, sooner or later we must either surrender or the place be
+carried by storm."
+
+Major Hannay nodded.
+
+"That is what it must come to, Bathurst. If they will at last grant
+us terms, well and good; if not, we must either try to escape or die
+fighting."
+
+"It is about the escape I have been thinking, Major; as our position
+grows more and more desperate they will close round us, and although we
+might have possibly got through last night, our chances of doing so when
+they have once broken into the inclosure and begin to attack the house
+itself are very slight. A few of us who can speak the language well
+might possibly in disguise get away, but it would be impossible for the
+bulk of us to do so."
+
+"I quite see that, Bathurst."
+
+"My proposal is, Major, that we should begin at once to mine; that is,
+to drive a gallery from the cellar, and to carry it on steadily as far
+as we can. I should say that we have ten days or a fortnight before us
+before matters get to an extremity, and in that time we ought to be able
+to get, working night and day, from fifty to a hundred yards beyond the
+wall, aiming at a clump of bushes. There is a large one in Farquharson's
+compound, about a hundred yards off. Then, when things get to the worst,
+we can work upwards, and come out on a dark night. We might leave a long
+fuse burning in the magazine, so that there should be an explosion an
+hour or two after we had left. There is enough powder there to bring the
+house down, and the Sepoys might suppose that we had all been buried in
+the ruins."
+
+"I think the idea is a very good one, Bathurst. What do you think,
+Doctor?"
+
+"Capital," the Doctor said. "It is a light sandy soil, and we should
+be able to get through it at a pretty good rate. How many can work
+together, do you think, Bathurst?"
+
+"I should say two of us in each shift, to drive, and, if necessary, prop
+the roof, with some of the natives to carry out the earth. If we have
+three shifts, each shift would go on twice in the twenty-four hours;
+that would be four hours on and eight hours off."
+
+"Will you take charge of the operation, Bathurst?"
+
+"With pleasure, Major."
+
+"Very well then. You shall have with you Wilson and Richards and the
+three youngest of the civilians, Saunderson, Austin, and Herbert. You
+six will be relieved from other duty except when the enemy threaten an
+attack. I will put down Saunderson and Austin together. Which of the
+others would you like to have with you?"
+
+"I will take Wilson, sir."
+
+"Very well, then, Richards and Herbert will make the third party. After
+breakfast we can pick out the twelve strongest of the natives. I will
+tell them that they have to work, but that they will be each paid half
+a rupee a day in addition to their ordinary wages. Then you will give a
+general supervision to the work, Bathurst, in addition to your own share
+in it?"
+
+"Certainly, Major, I will take general charge of it."
+
+So at breakfast the Major explained the plan agreed upon. The five men
+chosen at once expressed their willingness to undertake the work, and
+the offer of half a rupee extra a day was sufficient to induce twelve of
+the servants to volunteer for it. The Major went down to the cellars
+and fixed upon the spot at which the work should begin; and Bathurst and
+Wilson, taking some of the intrenching tools from the storeroom, began
+to break through the wall without delay.
+
+"I like this," Wilson said. "It is a thousand times better than sitting
+up there waiting till they choose to make an attack. How wide shall we
+make it?"
+
+"As narrow as we can for one to pass along at a time," Bathurst said.
+"The narrower it is, the less trouble we shall have with the roof."
+
+"But only one will be able to work at a time in that case."
+
+"That will be quite enough,". Bathurst said. "It will be hot work and
+hard. We will relieve each other every five minutes or so."
+
+A very short time sufficed to break through the wall.
+
+"Thank goodness, it is earth," Wilson said, thrusting a crowbar through
+the opening as soon as it was made.
+
+"I had no fear of its being rock, Wilson. If it had been, they would not
+have taken the trouble to have walled the sides of the cellar. The soil
+is very deep all over here. The natives have to line their wells thirty
+or forty feet down."
+
+The enemy were quiet all day, but the garrison thought it likely that,
+warned by the lesson of the night before, they were erecting a battery
+some distance farther back, masked by the trees, and that until it was
+ready to open fire they would know nothing about it.
+
+"So you have turned miner, Mr. Wilson?" Isobel Hannay said to him as,
+after a change and a bath, he came in to get his lunch.
+
+"I calculate I have lost half a stone in weight, Miss Hannay. If I were
+to go on at this for a month or two there would be nothing left of me."
+
+"And how far did you drive the hole?"
+
+"Gallery, Miss Hannay; please call it a gallery, it sounds so much
+better. We got in five yards. I should hardly have believed it possible,
+but Bathurst is a tremendous fellow to work. He uses a pick as if he had
+been a sapper all his life. We kept the men pretty hard at work, I can
+tell you, carrying up the earth. Richards is at work now, and I bet him
+five rupees that he and Herbert don't drive as far as we did."
+
+"There is not much use in betting now, Mr. Wilson," Isobel said sadly.
+
+"No, I suppose not, Miss Hannay; but it gives a sort of interest to
+one's work. I have blistered my hands horribly, but I suppose they will
+get hard in a day or two."
+
+"I wish we could work at something," Isobel said. "Now that we have
+finished with the bags and bandages, the time seems very long; the only
+thing there is to do is to play with the children and try to keep them
+good; it is fortunate there is a bit of garden for them to play in."
+
+"It is not much of a garden, Miss Hannay. We had something like a garden
+when I was a boy at home; the governor's is a jolly old rectory, with a
+splendid garden. What fun we used to have there when I was a young one!
+I wonder what the dear old governor and mater would say if they knew the
+fix we were in here. You know, sometimes I think that Forster's plan
+was the best, and that it would be better to try and make a dash through
+them."
+
+"We are in your way, Mr. Wilson; you wouldn't be able to do much
+fighting if you had one of us clinging to you."
+
+"I don't know, Miss Hannay," Wilson said quietly, "what my fighting
+powers are, but I fancy if you were clinging to me I could cut my way
+through a good deal."
+
+"I am sure you would do anything that anyone could do," the girl said
+kindly; "but whatever you might feel, having another person behind
+you could not but hamper you awfully. I would infinitely rather try to
+escape on foot, for then I should be relying on myself, while if I was
+riding behind anyone, and we were pursued or attacked, I should feel all
+the time I was destroying his chances, and that if it were not for me
+he would get away. That would be terrible. I don't know whether we were
+wise to stay here instead of trying to escape at once; but as uncle and
+Mr. Hunter and the others all thought it wiser to stay, I have no doubt
+it was; but I am quite sure that it could not have been a good plan to
+go off like that on horseback."
+
+Another day passed quietly, and then during the night the watch heard
+the sounds of blows with axes, and of falling trees.
+
+"They are clearing the ground in front of their battery," the Major,
+who was on the watch with his party, said; "it will begin in earnest
+tomorrow morning. The sound came from just where we expected. It is
+about in the same line as where they made their first attempt, but a
+hundred yards or so further back."
+
+At daylight they saw that the trees and bushes had been leveled, and a
+battery, with embrazures for six guns, erected at a distance of about
+four hundred yards from the house. More sandbags were at once brought up
+from below, and the parapet, on the side facing the battery, raised two
+feet and doubled in thickness. The garrison were not disturbed while so
+engaged.
+
+"Why the deuce don't the fellows begin?" Captain Forster said
+impatiently, as he stood looking over the parapet when the work was
+finished.
+
+"I expect they are waiting for the Rajah and some of the principal
+Zemindars to come down," replied the Major; "the guns are theirs, you
+see, and will most likely be worked by their own followers. No doubt
+they think they will knock the place to pieces in a few minutes.
+
+"Listen! there is music; they are coming in grand state. Rintoul, will
+you tell the workers in the mine to come up. By the way, who are at work
+now?"
+
+"Bathurst and Wilson, sir."
+
+"Then tell Wilson to come up, and request Bathurst to go on with the
+gallery. Tell him I want that pushed forward as fast as possible, and
+that one gun will not make much difference here. Request the ladies and
+children to go down into the storeroom for the present. I don't think
+the balls will go through the wall, but it is as well to be on the safe
+side."
+
+Captain Rintoul delivered his message to the ladies. They had already
+heard that the battery had been unmasked and was ready to open fire, and
+lamps had been placed in the storeroom in readiness for them. There
+were pale faces among them, but their thoughts were of those on the roof
+rather than of themselves.
+
+Mrs. Hunter took up the Bible she had been reading, and said, "Tell
+them, Captain Rintoul, we shall be praying for them." The ladies went
+into the room that served as a nursery, and with the ayahs and other
+female servants carried the children down into the storeroom.
+
+"I would much rather be up there," Isobel said to Mrs. Doolan; "we could
+load the muskets for them, and I don't think it would be anything
+like so bad if we could see what was going on as being cooped up below
+fancying the worst all the time."
+
+"I quite agree with you, but men never will get to understand women.
+Perhaps before we are done they will recognize the fact that we are no
+more afraid than they are."
+
+The music was heard approaching along the road where the bungalows had
+stood. Presently a number of flags were raised in the battery amid a
+great beating of drums. On the previous day a flagstaff had been erected
+on the roof, and a Union Jack was run up in answer to the enemy's
+demonstration.
+
+"A cheer for the old flag, lads," the Major said; and a hearty cheer
+broke from the little party on the roof, where, with the exception of
+Bathurst, all the garrison were assembled. The cheer was answered by a
+yell from the natives not only in the battery, but from the gardens and
+inclosures round the house.
+
+"Pay no attention to the fellows in the gardens," the Major said; "fire
+at their guns--they must expose themselves to load."
+
+The men were kneeling behind the parapet, where the sandbags had been
+so arranged that they could see through between those on the upper line,
+and thus fire without raising their heads above it.
+
+"Shall we wait for them or fire first, Major?" the Doctor asked.
+
+"I expect the guns are loaded and laid, Doctor; but if you see a head
+looking along them, by all means take a shot at it. I wish we could see
+down into the battery itself, but it is too high for that."
+
+The Doctor lay looking along his rifle. Presently he fired, and as if
+it had been the signal five cannon boomed out almost at the same moment,
+the other being fired a quarter of a minute later. Three of the shot
+struck the house below the parapet, the others went overhead.
+
+"I hit my man," the Doctor said, as he thrust another rifle through the
+loophole. "Now, we will see if we can keep them from loading."
+
+Simultaneously with the roar of the cannon a rattle of musketry broke
+out on three sides of the house, and a hail of bullets whistled over the
+heads of the defenders, who opened a steady fire at the embrasures of
+the guns. These had been run in, and the natives could be seen loading
+them. The Major examined the work through a pair of field glasses.
+
+"You are doing well," he said presently; "I have seen several of them
+fall, and there is a lot of confusion among them; they will soon get
+tired of that game."
+
+Slowly and irregularly the guns were run out again, and the fire of the
+defenders was redoubled to prevent them from taking aim. Only one shot
+hit the house this time, the others all going overhead. The fire of the
+enemy became slower and more irregular, and at the end of an hour ceased
+almost entirely.
+
+"Doctor," the Major said, "I will get you and Farquharson to turn your
+attention to some fellows there are in that high tree over there. They
+command us completely, and many of their bullets have struck on the
+terrace behind us. It would not be safe to move across to the stairs
+now. I think we have pretty well silenced the battery for the present.
+Here are my glasses. With them you can easily make out the fellows among
+the leaves."
+
+"I see them," the Doctor said, handing the glasses to Farquharson; "we
+will soon get them out of that. Now, Farquharson, you take that fellow
+out on the lower branch to the right; I will take the one close to the
+trunk on the same branch."
+
+Laying their rifles on the upper row of sandbags, the two men took a
+steady aim. They fired almost together, and two bodies were seen to fall
+from the tree.
+
+"Well shot!" the Major exclaimed. "There are something like a dozen of
+them up there; but they will soon clear out if you keep that up."
+
+"They are not more than two hundred yards away," the Doctor said, "and
+firing from a rest we certainly ought not to miss them at that distance.
+Give me the glasses again."
+
+A similar success attended the next two shots, and then a number of
+figures were seen hastily climbing down.
+
+"Give them a volley, gentlemen," the Major said.
+
+A dozen guns were fired, and three more men dropped, and an angry yell
+from the natives answered the shout of triumph from the garrison.
+
+"Will you go down, Mr. Hunter, and tell the ladies that we have silenced
+the guns for the present, and that no one has received a scratch? Now,
+let us see what damage their balls have effected."
+
+This was found to be trifling. The stonework of the house was strong,
+and the guns were light. The stonework of one of the windows was broken,
+and two or three stones in the wall cracked. One ball had entered a
+window, torn its way through two inner walls, and lay against the back
+wall.
+
+"It is a four pound ball," the Major said, taking it up. "I fancy the
+guns are seven pounders. They have evidently no balls to fit, which
+accounts for the badness of their firing and the little damage they did;
+with so much windage the balls can have had but small velocity. Well,
+that is a satisfactory beginning, gentlemen; they will take a long time
+to knock the place about our ears at this rate. Now we will see if we
+cannot clear them out of the gardens. Captain Doolan, will you take the
+glasses and watch the battery; if you see any movement about the guns,
+the fire will be reopened at once; until then all will devote their
+attention to those fellows among the bushes; it is important to teach
+them that they are not safe there, for a chance ball might come in
+between the sandbags. Each of you pick out a particular bush, and watch
+it till you see the exact position in which anyone firing from it must
+be in, and then try to silence him. Don't throw away a shot if you can
+help it. We have a good stock of ammunition, but it is as well not to
+waste it. I will leave you in command at present, Doolan."
+
+Major Hannay then went down to the storeroom.
+
+"I have come to relieve you from your confinement, ladies," he said. "I
+am glad to say that we find their balls will not penetrate the walls
+of the house alone, and there is therefore no fear whatever of their
+passing through them and the garden wall together; therefore, as long
+as the wall is intact, there is no reason whatever why you should not
+remain on the floor above."
+
+There was a general exclamation of pleasure.
+
+"That will be vastly better, uncle," Isobel said; "it is hateful being
+hidden away down here when we have nothing to do but to listen to the
+firing; we don't see why some of us should not go up on the terrace to
+load the rifles for you."
+
+"Not at present, Isobel; we are not pressed yet. When it comes to a real
+attack it will be time to consider about that. I don't think any of us
+would shoot straighter if there were women right up among us in danger."
+
+"I don't at all see why it should be worse our being in danger than for
+you men, Major," Mrs. Doolan said; "we have just as much at stake, and
+more; and I warn you I shall organize a female mutiny if we are not
+allowed to help."
+
+The Major laughed.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Doolan, I shall have to convert this storeroom into a
+prison, and all who defy my authority will be immured here, so now you
+know the consequence of disobedience."
+
+"And has no one been hurt with all that firing, Major Hannay?" Mary
+Hunter asked.
+
+"A good many people have been hurt, Miss Hunter, but no one on our side.
+I fancy we must have made it very hot for those at the guns, and the
+Doctor and Mr. Farquharson have been teaching them not to climb trees.
+At present that firing you hear is against those who are hiding in the
+gardens."
+
+An hour later the firing ceased altogether, the natives finding the fire
+of the defenders so deadly that they no longer dared, by discharging a
+rifle, to show where they were hiding. They had drawn off from the more
+distant clumps and bushes, but dared not try and crawl from those nearer
+the house until after nightfall.
+
+The next morning it was found that during the night the enemy had closed
+up their embrasures, leaving only openings sufficiently large for the
+muzzles of the guns to be thrust through, and soon after daybreak they
+renewed their fire. The Doctor and Mr. Farquharson alone remained on
+the roof, and throughout the day they kept up a steady fire at these
+openings whenever the guns were withdrawn. Several of the sandbags were
+knocked off the parapet during the course of the day, and a few shot
+found their way through the walls of the upper story, but beyond this
+no damage was done. The mining was kept up with great vigor, and the
+gallery advanced rapidly, the servants finding it very hard work to
+remove the earth as fast as the miners brought it down.
+
+Captain Forster offered to go out with three others at night to try
+and get into the battery and spike the guns, but Major Hannay would not
+permit the attempt to be made.
+
+"We know they have several other guns," he said, "and the risk would be
+altogether too great, for there would be practically no chance of your
+getting back and being drawn up over the wall before you were overtaken,
+even if you succeeded in spiking the guns. There are probably a hundred
+men sleeping in the battery, and it is likely they would have sentries
+out in front of it. The loss of four men would seriously weaken the
+garrison."
+
+The next morning another battery to the left was unmasked, and on
+the following day three guns were planted, under cover, so as to play
+against the gate. The first battery now concentrated its fire upon the
+outer wall, the new battery played upon the upper part of the house, and
+the three guns kept up a steady fire at the gate.
+
+There was little rest for the besieged now. It was a constant duel
+between their rifles and the guns, varied by their occasionally turning
+their attention to men who climbed trees, or who, from the roofs of some
+buildings still standing, endeavored to keep down their fire.
+
+Wilson had been released from his labors in the gallery, Bathurst
+undertaking to get down the earth single handed as fast as the servants
+could remove it.
+
+"I never saw such a fellow to work, Miss Hannay," Wilson said one day,
+when he was off duty, and happened to find her working alone at some
+bandages. "I know you don't like him, but he is a first rate fellow if
+there ever was one. It is unlucky for him being so nervous at the guns;
+but that is no fault of his, after all, and I am sure in other things he
+is as cool as possible. Yesterday I was standing close to him, shoving
+the earth back to the men as he got it down. Suddenly he shouted, 'Run,
+Wilson, the roof is coming down!' I could not help bolting a few yards,
+for the earth came pattering down as he spoke; then I looked round and
+saw him standing there, by the light of the lamp, like those figures
+you see holding up pillars; I forget what they call them--catydigs, or
+something of that sort."
+
+"Caryatides," Isobel put in.
+
+"Yes, that is the name. Some timber had given way above him, and he was
+holding it up with his arms. I should say that there must have been
+half a ton of it, and he said, as quietly as possible, 'Get two of those
+short poles, Wilson, and put up one on each side of me. I can hold it a
+bit, but don't be longer than you can help about it.' I managed to shove
+up the timber, so that he could slip out before it came down. It would
+have crushed us both to a certainty if he had not held it up."
+
+"Why do you say you know I don't like Mr. Bathurst?"
+
+"I don't exactly know, Miss Hannay, but I have noticed you are the only
+lady who does not chat with him. I don't think I have seen you speak
+to him since we have come in here. I am sorry, because I like him very
+much, and I don't care for Forster at all."
+
+"What has Captain Forster to do with it?" Isobel asked, somewhat
+indignantly.
+
+"Oh, nothing at all, Miss Hannay, only, you know, Bathurst used to be
+a good deal at the Major's before Forster came, and then after that I
+never met him there except on that evening before he came in here. Now
+you know, Miss Hannay," he went on earnestly, "what I think about you. I
+have not been such an ass as to suppose I ever had a chance, though you
+know I would lay down my life for you willingly; but I did not seem to
+mind Bathurst. I know he is an awfully good fellow, and would have
+made you very happy; but I don't feel like that with Forster. There is
+nothing in the world that I should like better than to punch his head;
+and when I see that a fellow like that has cut Bathurst out altogether
+it makes me so savage sometimes that I have to go and smoke a pipe
+outside so as not to break out and have a row with him."
+
+"You ought not to talk so, Mr. Wilson. It is very wrong. You have
+no right to say that anyone has cut anyone else out as far as I am
+concerned. I know you are all fond of me in a brotherly sort of way,
+and I like you very much; but that gives you no right to say such
+things about other people. Mr. Bathurst ceased his visits not because of
+Captain Forster but from another reason altogether; and certainly I
+have neither said nor done anything that would justify your saying that
+Captain Forster had cut Mr. Bathurst out. Even if I had, you ought not
+to have alluded to such a thing. I am not angry with you," she said,
+seeing how downcast he looked; "but you must not talk like that any
+more; it would be wrong at any time; it is specially so now, when we are
+all shut up here together, and none can say what will happen to us."
+
+"It seemed to me that was just the reason why I could speak about it,
+Miss Hannay. We may none of us get out of this fix we are in, and I
+do think we ought all to be friends together now. Richards and I both
+agreed that as it was certain neither of us had a chance of winning you,
+the next best thing was to see you and Bathurst come together. Well, now
+all that's over, of course, but is it wrong for me to ask, how is it you
+have come to dislike him?"
+
+"But I don't dislike him, Mr. Wilson."
+
+"Well, then, why do you go on as if you didn't like him?"
+
+Isobel hesitated. From most men she would have considered the question
+impertinent, and would have resented it, but this frank faced boy meant
+no impertinence; he loved her in his honest way, and only wanted to see
+her happy.
+
+"I can't speak to him if he doesn't speak to me," she said desperately.
+
+"No, of course not," he agreed; "but why shouldn't he speak to you? You
+can't have done anything to offend him except taking up with Forster."
+
+"It is nothing to do with Captain Forster at all, Mr. Wilson; I--" and
+she hesitated. "I said something at which he had the right to feel hurt
+and offended, and he has never given me any opportunity since of saying
+that I was sorry."
+
+"I am sure you would not have said anything that he should have been
+offended about, Miss Hannay; it is not your nature, and I would not
+believe it whoever told me, not even yourself; so he must be in fault,
+and, of course, I have nothing more to say about it."
+
+"He wasn't in fault at all, Mr. Wilson. I can't tell you what I said,
+but it was very wrong and thoughtless on my part, and I have been sorry
+for it ever since; and he has a perfect right to be hurt and not to
+come near me, especially as"--and she hesitated--"as I have acted badly
+since, and he has no reason for supposing that I am sorry. And now you
+must not ask me any more about it; I don't know why I have said as much
+to you as I have, only I know I can trust you, and I like you very much,
+though I could never like you in the sort of way you would want me to. I
+wish you didn't like me like that."
+
+"Oh, never mind me," he said earnestly. "I am all right, Miss Hannay; I
+never expected anything, you know, so I am not disappointed, and it has
+been awfully good of you talking to me as you have, and not getting
+mad with me for interfering. But I can hear them coming down from the
+terrace, and I must be off. I am on duty there, you know, now. Bathurst
+has undertaken double work in that hole. I didn't like it, really; it
+seemed mean to be getting out of the work and letting him do it all, but
+he said that he liked work, and I really think he does. I am sure he is
+always worrying himself because he can't take his share in the firing on
+the roof; and when he is working he hasn't time to think about it. When
+he told me that in future he would drive the tunnel our shift himself,
+he said, 'That will enable you to take your place on the roof, Wilson,
+and you must remember you are firing for both of us, so don't throw
+away a shot.' It is awfully rough on him, isn't it? Well, goodby, Miss
+Hannay," and Wilson hurried off to the roof.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+The next four days made a great alteration in the position of the
+defenders in the fortified house.
+
+The upper story was now riddled by balls, the parapet round the terrace
+had been knocked away in several places, the gate was in splinters; but
+as the earth from the tunnel had been all emptied against the sandbags,
+it had grown to such a thickness that the defense was still good here.
+But in the wall, against which one of the new batteries had steadily
+directed its fire, there was a yawning gap, which was hourly increasing
+in size, and would ere long be practicable for assault. Many of the
+shots passing through this had struck the house itself. Some of these
+had penetrated, and the room in the line of fire could no longer be
+used.
+
+There had been several casualties. The young civilian Herbert had
+been killed by a shot that struck the parapet just where he was lying.
+Captain Rintoul had been seriously wounded, two of the natives had been
+killed by the first shot which penetrated the lower room. Mr. Hunter
+was prostrate with fever, the result of exposure to the sun, and several
+others had received wounds more or less severe from fragments of stone;
+but the fire of the defenders was as steady as at first, and the loss of
+the natives working the guns was severe, and they no longer ventured to
+fire from the gardens and shrubberies round the walls.
+
+Fatigue, watching, still more the heat on the terrace, was telling
+heavily upon the strength of the garrison. The ladies went about
+their work quietly and almost silently. The constant anxiety and the
+confinement in the darkened rooms were telling upon them too. Several of
+the children were ill; and when not employed in other things, there
+were fresh sandbags to be made by the women, to take the place of those
+damaged by the enemy's shot.
+
+When, of an evening, a portion of the defenders came off duty, there was
+more talk and conversation, as all endeavored to keep up a good face and
+assume a confidence they were far from feeling. The Doctor was perhaps
+the most cheery of the party. During the daytime he was always on the
+roof, and his rifle seldom cracked in vain. In the evening he attended
+to his patients, talked cheerily to the ladies, and laughed and joked
+over the events of the day.
+
+None among the ladies showed greater calmness and courage than Mrs.
+Rintoul, and not a word was ever heard from the time the siege began
+of her ailments or inconveniences. She was Mrs. Hunter's best assistant
+with the sick children. Even after her husband was wounded, and her
+attention night and day was given to him, she still kept on patiently
+and firmly.
+
+"I don't know how to admire Mrs. Rintoul enough," Mrs. Hunter said to
+Isobel Hannay one day; "formerly I had no patience with her, she was
+always querulous and grumbling; now she has turned out a really noble
+woman. One never knows people, my dear, till one sees them in trouble."
+
+"Everyone is nice," Isobel said. "I have hardly heard a word of
+complaint about anything since we came here, and everyone seems to help
+others and do little kindnesses."
+
+The enemy's fire had been very heavy all that day, and the breach in
+the wall had been widened, and the garrison felt certain that the enemy
+would attack on the following morning.
+
+"You and Farquharson, Doctor, must stop on the roof," the Major said.
+"In the first place, it is possible they may try to attack by ladders at
+some other point, and we shall want two good shots up there to keep them
+back; and in the second, if they do force the breach, we shall want you
+to cover our retreat into the house. I will get a dozen rifles for each
+of you loaded and in readiness. Isobel and Mary Hunter, who have both
+volunteered over and over again, shall go up to load; they have both
+practiced, and can load quickly. Of course if you see that the enemy
+are not attacking at any other point, you will help us at the breach
+by keeping up a steady fire on them, but always keep six guns each in
+reserve. I shall blow my whistle as a signal for us to retire to the
+house if I find we can hold the breach no longer, so when you hear that
+blaze away at them as fast as you can. Your twelve shots will check them
+long enough to give us time to get in and fasten the door. We shall
+be round the corner of the house before they can get fairly over the
+breastwork. We will set to work to raise that as soon as it gets dark."
+
+A breastwork of sandbags had already been erected behind the breach, in
+case the enemy should make a sudden rush, and a couple of hours' labor
+transformed this into a strong work; for the bags were already filled,
+and only needed placing in position. When completed, it extended in a
+horseshoe shape, some fifteen feet across, behind the gap in the wall.
+For nine feet from the ground it was composed of sandbags three deep,
+and a single line was then laid along the edge to serve as a parapet.
+
+"I don't think they will get over that," the Major said, when the work
+was finished. "I doubt if they will be disposed even to try when they
+reach the breach."
+
+Before beginning their work they had cleared away all the fallen
+brickwork from behind the breach, and a number of bricks were laid on
+the top of the sandbags to be used as missiles.
+
+"A brick is as good as a musket ball at this distance," the Major said;
+"and when our guns are empty we can take to them; there are enough spare
+rifles for us to have five each, and, with those and our revolvers and
+the bricks, we ought to be able to account for an army. There are some
+of the servants and syces who can be trusted to load. They can stand
+down behind us, and we can pass our guns down to them as we empty them."
+
+Each man had his place on the work assigned to him. Bathurst, who had
+before told the Major that when the time came for an assault to be
+delivered he was determined to take his place in the breach, was placed
+at one end of the horseshoe where it touched the wall.
+
+"I don't promise to be of much use, Major," he said quietly. "I know
+myself too well; but at least I can run my chance of being killed."
+
+The Major had put Wilson next to him.
+
+"I don't think there is much chance of their storming the work, Wilson;
+but if they do, you catch hold of Bathurst's arm, and drag him away
+when you hear me whistle; the chances are a hundred to one against his
+hearing it, or remembering what it means if he does hear it."
+
+"All right, Major, I will look to him."
+
+Four men remained on guard at the breach all night, and at the first
+gleam of daylight the garrison took up their posts.
+
+"Now mind, my dears," the Doctor said, as he and Farquharson went up on
+the terrace with Isobel and Mary Hunter; "you must do exactly as you are
+told, or you will be doing more harm than good, for Farquharson and I
+would not be able to pay attention to our shooting. You must lie down
+and remain perfectly quiet till we begin to fire, then keep behind us
+just so far that you can reach the guns as we hand them back to you
+after firing; and you must load them either kneeling or sitting down,
+so that you don't expose your heads above the thickest part of the
+breastwork. When you have loaded, push the guns back well to the right
+of us, but so that we can reach them. Then, if one of them goes off,
+there won't be any chance of our being hit. The garrison can't afford to
+throw away a life at present. You will, of course, only half cock them;
+still, it is as well to provide against accidents."
+
+Both the girls were pale, but they were quiet and steady. The Doctor saw
+they were not likely to break down.
+
+"That is a rum looking weapon you have got there, Bathurst," Wilson
+said, as, after carrying down the spare guns and placing them ready for
+firing, they lay down in their positions on the sandbags. The weapon
+was a native one, and was a short mace, composed of a bar of iron about
+fifteen inches long, with a knob of the same metal, studded with spikes.
+The bar was covered with leather to break the jar, and had a loop to put
+the hand through at the end.
+
+"Yes," Bathurst said quietly; "I picked it up at one of the native shops
+in Cawnpore the last time I was there. I had no idea then that I might
+ever have to use it, and bought it rather as a curiosity; but I have
+kept it within reach of my bedside since these troubles began, and I
+don't think one could want a better weapon at close quarters."
+
+"No, it is a tremendous thing; and after the way I have seen you using
+that pick I should not like to be within reach of your arm with that
+mace in it. I don't think there is much chance of your wanting that. I
+have no fear of the natives getting over here this time."
+
+"I have no fear of the natives at all," Bathurst said.
+
+"I am only afraid of myself. At present I am just as cool as if there
+was not a native within a thousand miles, and I am sure that my pulse is
+not going a beat faster than usual. I can think of the whole thing and
+calculate the chances as calmly as if it were an affair in which I was
+in no way concerned. It is not danger that I fear in the slightest, it
+is that horrible noise. I know well enough that the moment the firing
+begins I shall be paralyzed. My only hope is that at the last moment, if
+it comes to hand to hand fighting, I shall get my nerve."
+
+"I have no doubt you will," Wilson said warmly; "and when you do I would
+back you at long odds against any of us. Ah, they are beginning."
+
+As he spoke there was a salvo of all the guns on the three Sepoy
+batteries. Then a roar of musketry broke out round the house, and above
+it could be heard loud shouts.
+
+"They are coming, Major," the Doctor shouted down from the roof; "the
+Sepoys are leading, and there is a crowd of natives behind them."
+
+Those lying in the middle of the curve of the horseshoe soon caught
+sight of the enemy advancing tumultuously towards the breach. The Major
+had ordered that not a shot was to be fired until they reached it, and
+it was evident that the silence of the besieged awed the assailants with
+a sense of unknown danger, for their pace slackened, and when they got
+to within fifty yards of the breach they paused and opened fire. Then,
+urged forward by their officers and encouraged by their own noise, they
+again rushed forward. Two of their officers led the way; and as these
+mounted the little heap of rubbish at the foot of the breach, two rifles
+cracked out from the terrace, and both fell dead.
+
+There was a yell of fury from the Sepoys, and then they poured in
+through the breach. Those in front tried to stop as they saw the trap
+into which they were entering, but pressed on by those behind they were
+forced forward.
+
+And now a crackling fire of musketry broke out from the rifles
+projecting between the sandbags into the crowded mass. Every shot told.
+Wild shrieks, yells, and curses rose from the assailants. Some tried
+madly to climb up the sandbags, some to force their way back through
+the crowd behind; some threw themselves down; others discharged their
+muskets at their invisible foe. From the roof the Doctor and his
+companion kept up a rapid fire upon the crowd struggling to enter the
+breach. As fast as the defenders' muskets were discharged they handed
+them down to the servants behind to be reloaded, and when each had fired
+his spare muskets he betook himself to his revolver.
+
+Wilson, while discharging his rifle, kept his eyes upon Bathurst. The
+latter had not fired a shot, but lay rigid and still, save for a sort of
+convulsive shuddering. Presently there was a little lull in the firing
+as the weapons were emptied, and the defenders seizing the bricks hurled
+them down into the mass.
+
+"Look out!" the Major shouted; "keep your heads low--I am going to throw
+the canisters."
+
+A number of these had been prepared, filled to the mouth with powder and
+bullets, and with a short fuse attached, ropes being fastened round them
+to enable them to be slung some distance. The Major half rose to throw
+one of these missiles when his attention was called by a shout from
+Wilson.
+
+The latter was so occupied that he had not noticed Bathurst, who had
+suddenly risen to his feet, and just as Wilson was about to grasp him
+and pull him down, leaped over the sandbag in front of him down among
+the mutineers. The Major gave a swing to the canister, of which the fuse
+was already lighted, and hurled it through the breach among the crowd,
+who, ignorant of what was going on inside, were still struggling to
+enter.
+
+"Look out," he shouted to the others; "mind how you throw. Bathurst is
+down in the middle of them. Hand up all the muskets you have loaded," he
+cried to the servants.
+
+As he spoke he swung another canister through the breach, and almost
+immediately two heavy explosions followed, one close upon the other.
+
+"Give them a volley at the breach," he shouted; "never mind those
+below."
+
+The muskets were fired as soon as received.
+
+"Now to your feet," the Major cried, "and give them the brickbats," and
+as he stood up he hurled two more canisters among the crowd behind the
+breach. The others sprang up with a cheer. The inclosure below them was
+shallower now from the number that had fallen, and was filled with a
+confused mass of struggling men. In their midst was Bathurst fighting
+desperately with his short weapon, and bringing down a man at every
+blow, the mutineers being too crowded together to use their unfixed
+bayonets against him. In a moment Captain Forster leaped down, sword in
+hand, and joined Bathurst in the fight.
+
+"Stand steady," the Major shouted; "don't let another man move."
+
+But the missiles still rained down with an occasional shot, as the
+rifles were handed up by the natives, while the Doctor and Farquharson
+kept up an almost continuous fire from the terrace. Then the two last
+canisters thrown by the Major exploded. The first two had carried havoc
+among the crowd behind the breach, these completed their confusion, and
+they turned and fled; while those in the retrenchment, relieved of the
+pressure from behind, at once turned, and flying through the breach,
+followed their companions.
+
+A loud cheer broke from the garrison, and the Major looking round saw
+the Doctor standing by the parapet waving his hat, while Isobel stood
+beside him looking down at the scene of conflict.
+
+"Lie down, Isobel," he shouted; "they will be opening fire again
+directly."
+
+The girl disappeared, and almost at the same moment the batteries spoke
+out again, and a crackle of the musketry began from the gardens. The
+Major turned round. Bathurst was leaning against the wall breathing
+heavily after his exertions, Forster was coolly wiping his sword on the
+tunic of one of the fallen Sepoys.
+
+"Are either of you hurt?" he asked.
+
+"I am not hurt to speak of," Forster said; "I got a rip with a bayonet
+as I jumped down, but I don't think it is of any consequence."
+
+"How are you, Bathurst?" the Major repeated. "What on earth possessed
+you to jump down like that?"
+
+"I don't know, Major; I had to do something, and when you stopped firing
+I felt it was time for me to do my share."
+
+"You have done more than your share, I should say," the Major said; "for
+they went down like ninepins before you. Now, Wilson, you take one of
+his hands, and I will take the other, and help him up."
+
+It needed considerable exertion to get him up, for the reaction had now
+come, and he was scarce able to stand.
+
+"You had better go up to the house and get a glass of wine," the Major
+said. "Now, is anyone else hurt?"
+
+"I am hit, Major," Richards said quietly; "a ball came in between the
+sandbags just as I fired my first shot, and smashed my right shoulder. I
+think I have not been much good since, though I have been firing from my
+left as well as I could. I think I will go up and get the Doctor to look
+at it."
+
+But almost as he spoke the young fellow tottered, and would have fallen,
+had not the Major caught him.
+
+"Lend me a hand, Doolan," the latter said; "we will carry him in; I am
+afraid he is very hard hit."
+
+The ladies gathered round the Major and Captain Doolan as they entered
+with their burden. Mary Hunter had already run down and told them that
+the attack had been repulsed and the enemy had retreated.
+
+"Nobody else is hit," the Major said, as he entered; "at least, not
+seriously. The enemy have been handsomely beaten with such loss that
+they won't be in a hurry to try again. Will one of you run up and bring
+the Doctor down?"
+
+Richards was carried into the hospital room, where he was left to the
+care of the Doctor, Mrs. Hunter, and Mrs. Rintoul. The Major returned to
+the general room.
+
+"Boy, bring half a dozen bottles of champagne and open them as quickly
+as you can," he said; "we have got enough to last us for weeks, and this
+is an occasion to celebrate, and I think we have all earned it."
+
+The others were by this time coming in, for there was no chance of the
+enemy renewing the attack at present. Farquharson was on the roof on the
+lookout. Quiet greetings were exchanged between wives and husbands.
+
+"It didn't last long," Wilson said; "not above five minutes, I should
+say, from the time when we opened fire."
+
+"It seemed to us an age," Amy Hunter replied; "it was dreadful not to be
+able to see what was going on; it seemed to me everyone must be killed
+with all that firing."
+
+"It was sharp while it lasted," the Major said; "but we were all snug
+enough except against a stray bullet, such as that which hit poor young
+Richards. He behaved very gallantly, and none of us knew he was hit till
+it was all over."
+
+"But how did Captain Forster get his bayonet wound?" Mrs. Doolan asked.
+"I saw him go in just now into the surgery; it seemed to me he had a
+very serious wound, for his jacket was cut from the breast up to the
+shoulder, and he was bleeding terribly, though he made light of it."
+
+"He jumped down into the middle of them," the Major said. "Bathurst
+jumped down first, and was fighting like a madman with a mace he has
+got. We could do nothing, for we were afraid of hitting him, and Forster
+jumped down to help him, and, as he did so, got that rip with the
+bayonet; it is a nasty cut, no doubt, but it is only a flesh wound."
+
+"Where is Mr. Bathurst?" Mrs. Doolan asked; "is he hurt, too? Why did he
+jump down? I should not have thought," and she stopped.
+
+"I fancy a sort of fury seized him," the Major said; "but whatever it
+was, he fought like a giant. He is a powerful man, and that iron mace is
+just the thing for such work. The natives went down like ninepins before
+him. No, I don't think he is hurt."
+
+"I will go out and see," Mrs. Doolan said; and taking a mug half full of
+champagne from the table, she went out.
+
+Bathurst was sitting on the ground leaning against the wall of the
+house.
+
+"You are not hurt, Mr. Bathurst, I hope," Mrs. Doolan said, as she came
+up. "No, don't try to get up, drink a little of this; we are celebrating
+our victory by opening a case of champagne. The Major tells us you have
+been distinguishing yourself greatly."
+
+Bathurst drank some of the wine before he replied.
+
+"In a way, Mrs. Doolan, I scarcely know what I did do. I wanted to do
+something, even if it was only to get killed."
+
+"You must not talk like that," she said kindly; "your life is as
+valuable as any here, and you know that we all like and esteem you; and,
+at any rate, you have shown today that you have plenty of courage."
+
+"The courage of a Malay running amuck, Mrs. Doolan; that is not courage,
+it is madness. You cannot tell--no one can tell--what I have suffered
+since the siege began. The humiliation of knowing that I alone of the
+men here am unable to take my part in the defense, and that while others
+are fighting I am useful only to work as a miner."
+
+"But you are as useful in that way as you would be in the other," she
+said. "I don't feel humiliated because I can only help in nursing the
+sick while the others are fighting for us. We have all of us our gifts.
+Few men have more than you. You have courage and coolness in other ways,
+and you are wrong to care nothing for your life because of the failing,
+for which you are not accountable, of your nerves to stand the sound of
+firearms.. I can understand your feelings and sympathize with you, but
+it is of no use to exaggerate the importance of such a matter. You might
+live a thousand lives without being again in a position when such a
+failing would be of the slightest importance, one way or the other. Now
+come in with me. Certainly this is not the moment for you to give way
+about it; for whatever your feelings may have been, or whatever may have
+impelled you to the act, you have on this occasion fought nobly."
+
+"Not nobly, Mrs. Doolan," he said, rising to his feet; "desperately, or
+madly, if you like."
+
+At this moment Wilson came out. "Halloa, Bathurst, what are doing here?
+Breakfast is just ready, and everyone is asking for you. I am sure
+you must want something after your exertions. You should have seen him
+laying about him with that iron mace, Mrs. Doolan.. I have seen him
+using the pick, and knew how strong he was, but I was astonished, I
+can tell you. It was a sort of Coeur de Lion business. He used to use a
+mace, you know, and once rode through the Saracens and smashed them up,
+till at last, when he had done, he couldn't open his hand. Bring him in,
+Mrs. Doolan. If he won't come, I will go in and send the Doctor out
+to him. Bad business, poor Richards being hurt, isn't it? Awfully good
+fellow, Richards. Can't think why he was the one to be hit."
+
+So keeping up a string of talk, the young subaltern led Bathurst into
+the house.
+
+After breakfast a white flag was waved from the roof, and in a short
+time two Sepoy officers came up with a similar flag. The Major and
+Captain Doolan went out to meet them, and it was agreed that hostilities
+should be suspended until noon, in order that the wounded and dead might
+be carried off.
+
+While this was being done the garrison remained under arms behind their
+work at the breach lest any treacherous attempt should be made. The
+mutineers, however, who were evidently much depressed by the
+failure, carried the bodies off quietly, and at twelve o'clock firing
+recommenced.
+
+That evening, after it was dark, the men gathered on the terrace.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," the Major said, "we have beaten them off today, and
+we may do it again, but there is no doubt how it must all end. You see,
+this afternoon their guns have all been firing at a fresh place in the
+wall; and if they make another breach or two, and attack at them all
+together, it will be hopeless to try to defend them. You see, now that
+we have several sick and wounded, the notion of making our escape is
+almost knocked on the head. At the last moment each may try to save his
+life, but there must be no desertion of the sick and wounded as long as
+there is a cartridge to be fired. Our best hope is in getting assistance
+from somewhere, but we know nothing of what is going on outside. I think
+the best plan will be for one of our number to try to make his way out,
+and go either to Lucknow, Agra, or Allahabad, and try and get help.
+If they could spare a troop of cavalry it might be sufficient; the
+mutineers have suffered very heavily; there were over a hundred and
+fifty bodies carried out today, and if attacked suddenly I don't think
+they would make any great resistance. We may hold out for a week or ten
+days, but I think that is the outside; and if rescue does not arrive by
+that time we must either surrender or try to escape by that passage."
+
+There was a general assent.
+
+"Bathurst would be the man to do it," the Doctor said. "Once through
+their lines he could pass without exciting the slightest suspicion;
+he could buy a horse then, and could be at any of the stations in two
+days."
+
+"Yes, there is no doubt that he is the man to do it," the Major said.
+"Where is he now?"
+
+"At work as usual, Major; shall I go and speak to him? But I tell you
+fairly I don't think he will undertake it."
+
+"Why not, Doctor? It is a dangerous mission, but no more dangerous than
+remaining here."
+
+"Well, we shall see," the Doctor said, as he left the group.
+
+Nothing was said for a few minutes, the men sitting or lying about
+smoking. Presently the Doctor returned.
+
+"Bathurst refuses absolutely," he said. "He admits that he does not
+think there would be much difficulty for him to get through, but he is
+convinced that the mission would be a useless one, and that could help
+have been spared it would have come to us before now."
+
+"But in that case he would have made his escape," the Major said.
+
+"That is just why he won't go, Major; he says that come what will he will
+share the fate of the rest, and that he will not live to be pointed to
+as the one man who made his escape of the garrison of Deennugghur."
+
+"Whom can we send?" the Major said. "You are the only other man who
+speaks the language well enough to pass as a native, Doctor."
+
+"I speak it fairly, but not well enough for that; besides, I am too old
+to bear the fatigue of riding night and day; and, moreover, my services
+are wanted here both as a doctor and as a rifle shot."
+
+"I will go, if you will send me, Major," Captain Forster said suddenly;
+"not in disguise, but in uniform, and on my horse's back. Of course I
+should run the gauntlet of their sentries. Once through, I doubt if they
+have a horse that could overtake mine."
+
+There was a general silence of surprise. Forster's reckless courage was
+notorious, and he had been conspicuous for the manner in which he had
+chosen the most dangerous points during the siege; and this offer to
+undertake what, although a dangerous enterprise in itself, still offered
+a far better chance of life than that of remaining behind, surprised
+everyone. It had been noticed that, since the rejection of his plan to
+sally out in a body and cut their way through the enemy, he had been
+moody and silent, except only when the fire was heavy and the danger
+considerable; then he laughed and joked and seemed absolutely to enjoy
+the excitement; but he was the last man whom any of them would have
+expected to volunteer for a service that, dangerous as it might be, had
+just been refused by Bathurst on the ground that it offered a chance of
+escape from the common lot.
+
+The Major was the first to speak.
+
+"Well, Captain Forster, as we have just agreed that our only chance
+is to obtain aid from one of the stations, and as you are the only
+volunteer for the service, I do not see that I can decline to accept
+your offer. At which station do you think you would be most likely to
+find a force that could help us?"
+
+"I should say Lucknow, Major. If help is to be obtained anywhere, I
+should say it was there."
+
+"Yes, I think that is the most hopeful. You will start at once; I
+suppose the sooner the better."
+
+"As soon as they are fairly asleep; say twelve o'clock."
+
+"Very well. I will go and write a dispatch for you to carry, giving an
+account of the fix we are in here. How will you sally out?"
+
+"I should think the easiest plan would be to make a gap in the sandbags
+in the breach, lead the horse till fairly outside, and then mount."
+
+"I think you had better take a spare horse with you," the Doctor said;
+"it will make a difference if you are chased, if you can change from one
+to the other. Bathurst told me to say whoever went could have his horse,
+which is a long way the best in the station. I should fancy as good as
+your own."
+
+"I don't know," Forster said; "led horses are a nuisance; still, as you
+say, it might come in useful, if it is only to loose and turn down a
+side road, and so puzzle anyone who may be after you in the dark."
+
+The Major and Forster left the roof together.
+
+"Well, that is a rum go," Wilson said. "If it had been anyone but
+Forster I should have said that he funked and was taking the opportunity
+to get out of it, but everyone knows that he has any amount of pluck;
+look how he charged those Sepoys single handed."
+
+"There are two sorts of pluck, Wilson," the Doctor said dryly. "There is
+the pluck that will carry a man through a desperate action and lead him
+to do deeds that are the talk of an army. Forster possesses that kind of
+pluck in an unusual degree. He is almost an ideal cavalryman--dashing,
+reckless; riding with a smile on his lips into the thickest of the fray,
+absolutely careless of life when his blood is up.
+
+"There is another sort of courage, that which supports men under long
+continued strain, and enables them, patiently and steadfastly, to face
+death when they see it approaching step by step. I doubt whether Forster
+possesses that passive sort of courage. He would ride up to a cannon's
+mouth, but would grow impatient in a. square of infantry condemned to
+remain inactive under a heavy artillery fire.
+
+"No one has changed more since this siege began than he has. Except when
+engaged under a heavy fire he has been either silent, or impatient and
+short tempered, shirking conversation even with women when his turn
+of duty was over. Mind, I don't say for a moment that I suspect him of
+being afraid of death; when the end came he would fight as bravely
+as ever, and no one could fight more bravely. But he cannot stand the
+waiting; he is always pulling his mustache moodily and muttering to
+himself; he is good to do but not to suffer; he would make a shockingly
+bad patient in a long illness.
+
+"Well, if any of you have letters you want to write to friends in
+England I should advise you to take the opportunity; mind, I don't think
+they will ever get them. Forster may get through, but I consider the
+chances strongly against it. For a ride of ten miles through a country
+swarming with foes I could choose no messenger I would rather trust, but
+for a ride like this, that requires patience and caution and resource,
+he is not the man I should select. Bathurst would have succeeded almost
+certainly if he had once got out. The two men are as different as light
+to dark; one possesses just the points the other fails in. I have no one
+at home I want to write to, so I will undertake the watch here."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+The men on descending from the roof found all the ladies engaged in
+writing, the Major having told them that there was a chance of their
+letters being taken out. Scarce one looked up as they entered; their
+thoughts at the moment were at home with those to whom they were writing
+what might well be their last farewells. Stifled sobs were heard in the
+quiet room; mournful letters were blurred with tears even from eyes that
+had not before been dimmed since the siege began.
+
+Isobel Hannay was the first to finish, for her letter to her mother was
+but a short one. As she closed it she looked up. Captain Forster was
+standing at the other side of the table with his eyes fixed on her,
+and he made a slight gesture to her that he wished to speak to her. She
+hesitated a moment, and then rose and quietly left the room. A moment
+later he joined her outside.
+
+"Come outside," he said, "I must speak to you;" and together they went
+out through the passage into the courtyard.
+
+"Isobel," he began, "I need not tell you that I love you; till lately
+I have not known how much, but I feel now that I could not live without
+you."
+
+"Why are you going away then, Captain Forster?" she asked quietly.
+
+"I don't want to go alone," he said; "I cannot go alone--I want you to
+go with me. Your uncle would surely consent; it is the only chance of
+saving your life. We all know that it is next to hopeless that a force
+sufficient to rescue us can be sent; there is just a chance, but that is
+all that can be said. We could be married at Allahabad. I would make for
+that town instead of Lucknow if you will go with me, and I could leave
+you there in safety till these troubles are over; I am going to take
+another horse as well as my own, and two would be as likely to escape as
+one."
+
+"Thank you for the offer, Captain Forster," she said coldly, "but I
+decline it. My place is here with my uncle and the others."
+
+"Why is it?" he asked passionately. "If you love me, your place is
+surely with me; and you do love me, Isobel, do you not? Surely I have
+not been mistaken."
+
+Isobel was silent for a moment.
+
+"You were mistaken, Captain Forster," she said, after a pause. "You paid
+me attentions such as I had heard you paid to many others, and it was
+pleasant. That you were serious I did not think. I believed you were
+simply flirting with me; that you meant no more by it than you had meant
+before; and being forewarned, and therefore having no fear that I should
+hurt myself more than you would, I entered into it in the same spirit.
+Where there was so much to be anxious about, it was a pleasure and
+relief. Had I met you elsewhere, and under different circumstances, I
+think I should have come to love you. A girl almost without experience
+and new to the world, as I am, could hardly have helped doing so,
+I think. Had I thought you were in earnest I should have acted
+differently; and if I have deceived you by my manner I am sorry; but
+even had I loved you I would not have consented to do the thing you ask
+me. You are going on duty. You are going in the hope of obtaining aid
+for us. I should be simply escaping while others stay, and I should
+despise myself for the action. Besides; I do not think that even in that
+case my uncle would have consented to my going with you."
+
+"I am sure that he would," Forster broke in. "He would never be mad
+enough to refuse you the chance of escape from such a fate as may now
+await you."
+
+"We need not discuss the question," she said. "Even if I loved you, I
+would not go with you; and I do not love you."
+
+"They have prejudiced you against me," he said angrily.
+
+"They warned me, and they were right in doing so. Ask yourself if they
+were not. Would you see a sister of yours running the risk of breaking
+her heart without warning her? Do not be angry," she went on, putting
+her hand on his arm. "We have been good friends, Captain Forster, and I
+like you very much. We may never meet again; it is most likely we never
+shall do so. I am grateful to you for the many pleasant hours you have
+given me. Let us part thus."
+
+"Can you not give some hope that in the distance, when these troubles
+are over, should we both be spared, you may--"
+
+"No, Captain Forster, I am sure it could never be so; if we ever meet
+again, we will meet as we part now--as friends. And now I can stay no
+longer; they will be missing me," and, turning, she entered the house
+before he could speak again.
+
+It was some minutes before he followed her. He had not really thought
+that she would go with him; perhaps he had hardly wished it, for on
+such an expedition a woman would necessarily add to the difficulty and
+danger; but he had thought that she would have told him that his love
+was returned, and for perhaps the first time in his life he was serious
+in his protestation of it.
+
+"What does it matter?" he said at last, as he turned; "'tis ten thousand
+to one against our meeting again; if we do, I can take it up where it
+breaks off now. She has acknowledged that she would have liked me if she
+had been sure that I was in earnest. Next time I shall be so. She was
+right. I was but amusing myself with her at first, and had no more
+thought of marrying her than I had of flying. But there, it is no use
+talking about the future; the thing now is to get out of this trap. I
+have felt like a rat in a cage with a terrier watching me for the last
+month, and long to be on horseback again, with the chance of making a
+fight for my life. What a fool Bathurst was to throw away the chance!"
+
+Bathurst, his work done, had looked into the hall where the others were
+gathered, and hearing that the Doctor was alone on watch had gone up to
+him.
+
+"I was just thinking, Bathurst," the Doctor said, as he joined him,
+"about that fight today. It seems to me that whatever comes of this
+business, you and I are not likely to be among those who go down when
+the place is taken."
+
+"How is that, Doctor? Why is our chance better than the rest? I have no
+hope myself that any will be spared."
+
+"I put my faith in the juggler, Bathurst. Has it not struck you that the
+first picture you saw has come true?"
+
+"I have never given it a thought for weeks," Bathurst said; "certainly
+I have not thought of it today. Yes, now you speak of it, it has come
+true. How strange! I put it aside as a clever trick--one that I could
+not understand any more than I did the others, but, knowing myself,
+it seemed beyond the bounds of possibility that it could come true.
+Anything but that I would have believed, but, as I told you, whatever
+might happen in the future, I should not be found fighting desperately
+as I saw myself doing there. It is true that I did so, but it was only a
+sort of a frenzy. I did not fire a shot, as Wilson may have told you.
+I strove like a man in a nightmare to break the spell that seemed to
+render me powerless to move, but when, for a moment, the firing ceased,
+a weight seemed to fall off me, and I was seized with a sort of passion
+to kill. I have no distinct remembrance of anything until it was all
+over. It was still the nightmare, but one of a different kind, and I
+was no more myself then than I was when I was lying helpless on the
+sandbags. Still, as you say, the picture was complete; at least, if Miss
+Hannay was standing up here."
+
+"Yes, she rose to her feet in the excitement of the fight. I believe we
+all did so. The picture was true in all its details as you described it
+to me. And that being so, I believe that other picture, the one we saw
+together, you and I and Isobel Hannay in native disguises, will also
+come true."
+
+Bathurst was silent for two or three minutes.
+
+"It may be so, Doctor--Heaven only knows. I trust for your sake and hers
+it may be so, though I care but little about myself; but that picture
+wasn't a final one, and we don't know what may follow it."
+
+"That is so, Bathurst. But I think that you and I, once fairly away in
+disguise, might be trusted to make our way down the country. You see,
+we have a complete confirmation of that juggler's powers. He showed me a
+scene in the past--a scene which had not been in my mind for years, and
+was certainly not in my thoughts at the time. He showed you a scene in
+the future, which, unlikely as it appeared, has actually taken place. I
+believe he will be equally right in this other picture. You have heard
+that Forster is going?"
+
+"Yes; Wilson came down and told me while I was at work. Wilson seemed
+rather disgusted at his volunteering. I don't know that I am surprised
+myself, for, as I told you, I knew him at school, and he had no moral
+courage, though plenty of physical. Still, under the circumstances, I
+should not have thought he would have gone."
+
+"You mean because of Miss Hannay, Bathurst?"
+
+"Yes, that is what I mean."
+
+"That sort of thing might weigh with you or me, Bathurst, but not with
+him. He has loved and ridden away many times before this, but in this
+case, fortunately, I don't think he will leave an aching heart behind
+him."
+
+"You don't mean to say, Doctor, that you don't think she cares for him?"
+
+"I have not asked her the question," the Doctor said dryly. "I dare say
+she likes him; in fact, I am ready to admit that there has been what you
+may call a strong case of flirtation; but when a young woman is
+thrown with an uncommonly good looking man, who lays himself out to be
+agreeable to her, my experience is that a flirtation generally comes
+of it, especially when the young woman has no one else to make herself
+agreeable to, and is, moreover, a little sore with the world in general.
+I own that at one time I was rather inclined to think that out of sheer
+perverseness the girl was going to make a fool of herself with that good
+looking scamp, but since we have been shut up here I have felt easy in
+my mind about it. And now, if you will take my rifle for ten minutes,
+I will go down and get a cup of tea; I volunteered to take sentry work,
+but I didn't bargain for keeping it all night without relief. By the
+way, I told Forster of your offer of your horse, and I think he is going
+to take it."
+
+"He is welcome to it," Bathurst said carelessly; "it will be of no use
+to me."
+
+"Now, look here," the Doctor said shortly; "just put Miss Hannay out of
+your head for the present, and attend to the business on hand. I do not
+think there is much chance of their trying it on again tonight, but they
+may do so, so please to keep a sharp lookout while I am below."
+
+"I will be careful, Doctor," Bathurst said, with a laugh; but the Doctor
+had so little faith in his watchfulness that as soon as he went below he
+sent up Wilson to share his guard.
+
+At twelve o'clock the sandbags were removed sufficiently to allow a
+horse to pass through, and Forster's and Bathurst's animals were led
+out through the breach, their feet having been muffled with blankets to
+prevent their striking a stone and arousing the attention of the enemy's
+sentinels. Once fairly out the mufflings were removed and Forster sprang
+into his saddle.
+
+"Goodby, Major," he said; "I hope I may be back again in eight or nine
+days with a squadron of cavalry."
+
+"Goodby, Forster; I hope it may be so. May God protect you!"
+
+The gap in the defenses was closed the instant the horses passed
+through, and the men stood in the breach of the wall listening as
+Forster rode off. He went at a walk, but before he had gone fifty paces
+there was a sharp challenge, followed almost instantly by a rifle shot,
+then came the crack of a revolver and the rapid beat of galloping hoofs.
+Loud shouts were heard, and musket shots fired in rapid succession.
+
+"They are not likely to have hit him in the dark," the Major said, as
+he climbed back over the sandbags; "but they may hit his horses, which
+would be just as fatal."
+
+Leaving two sentries--the one just outside the breach near the wall,
+the other on the sandbags--the rest of the party hurried up on the
+roof. Shots were still being fired, and there was a confused sound of
+shouting; then a cavalry trumpet rang out sharply, and presently three
+shots fired in quick succession came upon the air.
+
+"That is the signal agreed on," the Major said: "he is safely beyond
+their lines. Now it is a question of riding; some of the cavalry will be
+in pursuit of him before many minutes are over."
+
+Forster's adieus had been brief. He had busied himself up to the last
+moment in looking to the saddling of the two horses, and had only gone
+into the house and said goodby to the ladies just when it was time to
+start. He had said a few hopeful words as to the success of the mission,
+but it had evidently needed an effort for him to do so. He had no
+opportunity of speaking a word apart with Isobel, and he shook her hand
+silently when it came to her turn.
+
+"I should not have given him credit for so much feeling," Mrs. Doolan
+whispered to Isobel, as he went out; "he was really sorry to leave us,
+and I didn't think he was a man to be sorry for anything that didn't
+affect himself. I think he had absolutely the grace to feel a little
+ashamed of leaving us."
+
+"I don't think that is fair," Isobel said warmly, "when he is going away
+to fetch assistance for us."
+
+"He is deserting us as rats desert a sinking ship," Mrs. Doolan said
+positively; "and I am only surprised that he has the grace to feel a
+little ashamed of the action. As for caring, there is only one person in
+the world he cares for--himself. I was reading 'David Copperfield'
+just before we came in here, and Steerforth's character might have been
+sketched from Forster. He is a man without either heart or conscience;
+a man who would sacrifice everything to his own pleasures; and yet even
+when one knows him to be what he is, one can hardly help liking him. I
+wonder how it is, my dear, that scamps are generally more pleasant than
+good men?"
+
+"I never thought about it, Mrs. Doolan," Isobel said, roused to a smile
+by the earnestness with which Mrs. Doolan propounded the problem; "and
+can give no reason except that we are attracted by natures the reverse
+of our own."
+
+Mrs. Doolan laughed.
+
+"So you think we are better than men, Isobel? I don't--not one bit. We
+are cramped in our opportunities; but given equal opportunities I don't
+think there would be anything to choose between us. But we mustn't stay
+talking here any longer; we both go on duty in the sick ward at four
+o'clock."
+
+The enemy's batteries opened on the following morning more violently
+than before. More guns had been placed in position during the night, and
+a rain of missiles was poured upon the house. For the next six days the
+position of the besieged became hourly worse. Several breaches had been
+made in the wall, and the shots now struck the house, and the inmates
+passed the greater part of their time in the basement.
+
+The heat was terrible, and, as the firing was kept up night and
+day, sleep was almost impossible. The number of the besiegers had
+considerably increased, large numbers of the country people taking part
+in the siege, while a regiment of Sepoys from Cawnpore had taken the
+place of the detachment of the 103d Bengal Infantry, of whom, indeed,
+but few now remained.
+
+The garrison no longer held the courtyard. Several times masses of the
+enemy had surged up and poured through the breaches, but a large number
+of hand grenades of various sizes had been constructed by the defenders,
+and the effects of these thrown down from the roof among the crowded
+masses were so terrible that the natives each time fell back. The horses
+had all been turned out through the breach on the day after Captain
+Forster's departure, in order to save their lives. A plague of flies
+was not the least of the defenders' troubles. After the repulse of the
+assaults the defenders went out at night and carried the bodies of the
+natives who had fallen in the courtyard beyond the wall. Nevertheless,
+the odor of blood attracted such countless swarms of flies that the
+ground was black with them, and they pervaded the house in legions.
+
+The number of the defenders decreased daily. Six only were able now to
+carry arms. Mr. Hunter, Captain Rintoul, and Richards had died of fever.
+Farquharson had been killed by a cannon ball; two civilians had been
+badly wounded; several of the children had succumbed; Amy Hunter had
+been killed by a shell that passed through the sandbag protection of the
+grating that gave light to the room in the basement used as a sick
+ward. The other ladies were all utterly worn out with exhaustion,
+sleeplessness, and anxiety. Still there had been no word spoken of
+surrender. Had the men been alone they would have sallied out and
+died fighting, but this would have left the women at the mercy of the
+assailants.
+
+The work at the gallery had been discontinued for some time. It had been
+carried upwards until a number of roots in the earth showed that they
+were near the surface, and, as they believed, under a clump of bushes
+growing a hundred and fifty yards beyond the walls; but of late there
+had been no talk of using this. Flight, which even at first had seemed
+almost hopeless, was wholly beyond them in their present weakened
+condition.
+
+On the last of these six days Major Hannay was severely wounded. At
+night the enemy's fire relaxed a little, and the ladies took advantage
+of it to go up onto the terrace for air, while the men gathered for a
+council round the Major's bed.
+
+"Well, Doctor, the end is pretty near," he said; "it is clear we cannot
+hold out many hours longer. We must look the matter in the face now. We
+have agreed all along that when we could no longer resist we would offer
+to surrender on the terms that our lives should be spared, and that we
+should be given safe conduct down the country, and that if those terms
+were refused we were to resist to the end, and then blow up the house
+and all in it. I think the time has come for raising the white flag."
+
+"I think so," the Doctor said: "we have done everything men could do.
+I have little hope that they will grant us terms of surrender; for from
+the native servants who have deserted us they must have a fair idea of
+our condition. What do you think, Bathurst?"
+
+"I think it probable there are divisions among them," he replied; "the
+Talookdars may have risen against us, but I do not think they can have
+the same deadly enmity the Sepoys have shown. They must be heartily sick
+of this prolonged siege, and they have lost large numbers of their men.
+I should say they would be willing enough to give terms, but probably
+they are overruled by the Sepoys, and perhaps by orders from Nana Sahib.
+I know several of them personally, and I think I could influence Por
+Sing, who is certainly the most powerful of the Zemindars of this
+neighborhood, and is probably looked upon as their natural leader; if
+you approve of it, Major, I will go out in disguise, and endeavor to
+obtain an interview with him. He is an honorable man; and if he will
+give his guarantee for our safety, I would trust him. At any rate, I can
+but try. If I do not return, you will know that I am dead, and that no
+terms can be obtained, and can then decide when to end it all."
+
+"It is worth the attempt anyhow," the Major said. "I say nothing about
+the danger you will run, for no danger can be greater than that which
+hangs over us all now."
+
+"Very well, Major, then I will do it at once, but you must not expect me
+back until tomorrow night. I can hardly hope to obtain an interview with
+Por Sing tonight."
+
+"How will you go out, Bathurst?"
+
+"I will go down at once and break in the roof of the gallery," he said;
+"we know they are close round the wall, and I could not hope to get out
+through any of the breaches."
+
+"I suppose you are quite convinced that there is no hope of relief from
+Lucknow?"
+
+"Quite convinced. I never had any real hope of it; but had there been a
+force disposable, it would have started at once if Forster arrived there
+with his message, and might have been here by this time."
+
+"At any rate, we can wait no longer."
+
+"Then we will begin at once," Bathurst said, and, taking a crowbar and
+pick from the place where the tools were kept, he lighted the lamp and
+went along the gallery, accompanied by the Doctor, who carried two light
+bamboo ladders.
+
+"Do you think you will succeed, Bathurst?"
+
+"I am pretty sure of it," he said confidently. "I believe I have a
+friend there."
+
+"A friend!" the Doctor repeated in surprise.
+
+"Yes; I am convinced that the juggler is there. Not once, but half a
+dozen times during the last two nights when I have been on watch on the
+terrace, I have distinctly heard the words whispered in my ear, 'Meet me
+at your bungalow.' You may think I dozed off and was dreaming, but I
+was as wide awake then as I am now. I cannot say that I recognized the
+voice, but the words were in the dialect he speaks. At any rate, as soon
+as I am out I shall make my way there, and shall wait there all night
+on the chance of his coming. After what we know of the man's strange
+powers, there seems nothing unreasonable to me in his being able to
+impress upon my mind the fact that he wants to see me."
+
+"I quite agree with you there, and his aid might be invaluable. You are
+not the sort of man to have delusions, Bathurst, and I quite believe
+what you say. I feel more hopeful now than I have done for some time."
+
+An hour's hard work, and a hole was made through the soil, which was but
+three feet thick. Bathurst climbed up the ladder and looked out.
+
+"It is as we thought, Doctor; we are in the middle of that thicket. Now
+I will go and dress if you will keep guard here with your rifle."
+
+At the end of the gallery a figure was standing; it was Isobel Hannay.
+
+"I have heard you are going out again, Mr. Bathurst."
+
+"Yes, I am going to see what I can do in the way of making terms for
+us."
+
+"You may not come back again," she said nervously.
+
+"That is, of course, possible, Miss Hannay, but I do not think the risk
+is greater than that run by those who stay here."
+
+"I want to speak to you before you go," she said; "I have wanted to
+speak so long, but you have never given me an opportunity. We may never
+meet again, and I must tell you how sorry I am--how sorry I have been
+ever since for what I said. I spoke as a foolish girl, but I know better
+now. Have I not seen how calm you have been through all our troubles,
+how you have devoted yourself to us and the children, how you have kept
+up all our spirits, how cheerfully you have worked, and as our trouble
+increased we have all come to look up to you and lean upon you. Do say,
+Mr. Bathurst, that you forgive me, and that if you return we can be
+friends as we were before."
+
+"Certainly I forgive you if there is anything to forgive, Miss Hannay,"
+he said gravely. "Nothing that you or anyone can say can relieve me of
+the pain of knowing that I have been unable to take any active part in
+your defense, that I have been forced to play the part of a woman rather
+than a man; but assuredly, if I return, I shall be glad to be again your
+friend, which, indeed. I have never ceased to be at heart."
+
+Perhaps she expected something more, but it did not come. He spoke
+cordially, but yet as one who felt that there was an impassible barrier
+between them. She stood irresolute for a moment, and then held out her
+hand. "Goodby, then," she said.
+
+He held it a moment. "Goodby, Miss Hannay. May God keep you and guard
+you."
+
+Then gently he led her to the door, and they passed out together. A
+quarter of an hour later he rejoined the Doctor, having brought with him
+a few short lengths of bamboo.
+
+"I will put these across the hole when I get out," he said, "lay some
+sods over them, and cover them up with leaves, in case anyone should
+enter the bushes tomorrow. It is not likely, but it is as well to take
+the precaution. One of you had better stay on guard until I come back.
+It would not do to trust any of the natives; those that remain are all
+utterly disheartened and broken down, and might take the opportunity
+of purchasing their lives by going out and informing the enemy of the
+opening into the gallery. They must already know of its existence from
+the men who have deserted. But, fortunately, I don't think any of them
+are aware of its exact direction; if they had been, we should have had
+them countermining before this."
+
+Having carefully closed up the opening, Bathurst went to the edge of the
+bushes and listened. He could hear voices between him and the house,
+but all was quiet near at hand, and he began to move noiselessly along
+through the garden. He had no great fear of meeting with anyone here.
+The natives had formed a cordon round the wall, and behind that there
+would be no one on watch, and as the batteries were silent, all were
+doubtless asleep there. In ten minutes he stood before the charred
+stumps that marked the site of his bungalow. As he did so, a figure
+advanced to meet him.
+
+"It is you, sahib. I was expecting you. I knew that you would come this
+evening."
+
+"I don't know how you knew it but I am heartily glad to see you."
+
+"You want to see Por Sing? Come along with me and I will take you to
+him; but there is no time to lose;" and without another word he walked
+rapidly away, followed by Bathurst.
+
+When they got into the open the latter could see that his companion was
+dressed in an altogether different garb to that in which he had before
+seen him, being attired as a person of some rank and importance. He
+stopped presently for Bathurst to come up with him.
+
+"I have done what I could to prepare the way for you," he said. "Openly
+I could for certain reasons do nothing, but I have said enough to make
+him feel uncomfortable about the future, and to render him anxious to
+find a way of escape for himself if your people should ever again get
+the mastery."
+
+"How are things going, Rujub? We have heard nothing for three weeks. How
+is it at Cawnpore?"
+
+"Cawnpore has been taken by the Nana. They surrendered on his solemn
+oath that all should be allowed to depart in safety. He broke his oath,
+and there are not ten of its defenders alive. The women are all in
+captivity."
+
+Bathurst groaned. He had hardly hoped that the handful of defenders
+could have maintained themselves against such overpowering numbers, but
+the certainty as to their fate was a heavy blow.
+
+"And Lucknow?" he asked.
+
+"The Residency holds out at present, but men say that it must soon
+fall."
+
+"And what do you say?"
+
+"I say nothing," the man said; "we cannot use our art in matters which
+concern ourselves."
+
+"And Delhi?"
+
+"There is a little force of whites in front of Delhi; there are tens of
+thousands of Sepoys in the town, but as yet the whites have maintained
+themselves. The chiefs of the Punjaub have proved faithless to their
+country, and there the British rule is maintained."
+
+"Thank God for that!" Bathurst exclaimed; "as long as the Punjaub holds
+out the tables may be turned. And the other Presidencies?"
+
+"Nothing as yet," Rujub said, in a tone of discontent.
+
+"Then you are against us, Rujub?"
+
+The man stopped.
+
+"Sahib, I know not what I wish now. I have been brought up to hate the
+whites. Two of my father's brothers were hung as Thugs, and my father
+taught me to hate the men who did it. For years I have worked quietly
+against you, as have most of those of my craft. We have reason to hate
+you. In the old times we were honored in the land--honored and feared;
+for even the great ones knew that we had powers such as no other men
+have. But the whites treat us as if we were mere buffoons, who play
+for their amusement; they make no distinction between the wandering
+conjurer, with his tricks of dexterity, and the masters, who have powers
+that have been handed down from father to son for thousands of years,
+who can communicate with each other though separated by the length of
+India; who can, as you have seen, make men invisible; who can read
+the past and the future. They see these things, and though they cannot
+explain them, they persist in treating us all as if we were mere
+jugglers.
+
+"They prefer to deny the evidence of their own senses rather than admit
+that we have powers such as they have not; and so, even in the eyes of
+our own countrymen, we have lost our old standing and position, while
+the whites would bribe us with money to divulge the secrets in which
+they profess to disbelieve. No wonder that we hate you, and that we
+long for the return of the old days, when even princes were glad to ask
+favors at our hands. It is seldom that we show our powers now. Those who
+aid us, and whose servants we are, are not to be insulted by the powers
+they bestow upon us being used for the amusement of men who believe in
+nothing.
+
+"The Europeans who first came to India have left records of the strange
+things they saw at the courts of the native princes. But such things are
+no longer done for the amusement of our white masters. Thus, then, for
+years I have worked against you; and just as I saw that our work was
+successful, just as all was prepared for the blow that was to sweep the
+white men out of India, you saved my daughter; then my work seemed to
+come to an end. Would any of my countrymen, armed only with a whip, have
+thrown themselves in the way of a tiger to save a woman--a stranger--one
+altogether beneath him in rank--one, as it were, dust beneath his feet?
+That I should be ready to give my life for yours was a matter of course;
+I should have been an ungrateful wretch otherwise. But this was not
+enough. At one blow the work I had devoted myself to for years was
+brought to nothing. Everything seemed to me new; and as I sat by my
+daughter's bedside, when she lay sick with the fever, I had to think it
+all out again. Then I saw things in another light. I saw that, though
+the white men were masterful and often hard, though they had little
+regard for our customs, and viewed our beliefs as superstitious,
+and scoffed at the notion of there being powers of which they had no
+knowledge, yet that they were a great people. Other conquerors, many
+of them, India has had, but none who have made it their first object to
+care for the welfare of the people at large. The Feringhees have wrung
+nothing from the poor to be spent in pomp and display; they permit no
+tyranny or ill doing; under them the poorest peasant tills his fields in
+peace.
+
+"I have been obliged to see all this, and I feel now that their
+destruction would be a frightful misfortune. We should be ruled by our
+native lords; but as soon as the white man was gone the old quarrels
+would break out, and the country would be red with blood. I did not see
+this before, because I had only looked at it with the eyes of my own
+caste; now I see it with the eyes of one whose daughter has been saved
+from a tiger by a white man. I cannot love those I have been taught to
+hate, but I can see the benefit their rule has given to India.
+
+"But what can I do now? I am in the stream, and I must go with it. I
+know not what I wish or what I would do. Six months ago I felt certain.
+Now I doubt. It seemed to me that in a day the English Raj would be
+swept away. How could it be otherwise when the whole army that had
+conquered India for them were against them? I knew they were brave, but
+we have never lacked bravery. How could I tell that they would fight one
+against a hundred?
+
+"But come, let us go on. Por Sing is expecting you. I told him that
+I knew that one from the garrison would come out to treat with him
+privately tonight, and he is expecting you, though he does not know who
+may come."
+
+Ten minutes walking, and they approached a large tent surrounded by
+several smaller ones. A sentry challenged when they approached, but
+on Rujub giving his name, he at once resumed his walk up and down, and
+Rujub, followed by Bathurst, advanced and entered the tent. The Zemindar
+was seated on a divan smoking a hookah. Rujub bowed, but not with the
+deep reverence of one approaching his superior.
+
+"He is here," he said.
+
+"Then you were not mistaken, Rujub?"
+
+"How could I be when I knew?" Rujub said. "I have done what I said, and
+have brought him straight to you. That was all I had to do with it; the
+rest is for your highness."
+
+"I would rather that you should be present," Por Sing said, as Rujub
+turned to withdraw.
+
+"No," the latter replied; "in this matter it is for you to decide.
+I know not the Nana's wishes, and your highness must take the
+responsibility. I have brought him to you rather than to the commander
+of the Sepoys, because your authority should be the greater; it is you
+and the other Oude chiefs who have borne the weight of this siege, and
+it is only right that it is you who should decide the conditions of
+surrender. The Sepoys are not our masters, and it is well they are
+not so; the Nana and the Oude chiefs have not taken up arms to free
+themselves from the English Raj to be ruled over by the men who have
+been the servants of the English."
+
+"That is so," the Zemindar said, stroking his beard; "well, I will talk
+with this person."
+
+Rujub left the tent. "You do not know me, Por Sing?" Bathurst said,
+stepping forward from the entrance where he had hitherto stood; "I am
+the Sahib Bathurst."
+
+"Is it so?" the Zemindar said, laying aside his pipe and rising to his
+feet; "none could come to me whom I would rather see. You have always
+proved yourself a just officer, and I have no complaint against you. We
+have often broken bread together, and it has grieved me to know that you
+were in yonder house. Do you come to me on your own account, or from the
+sahib who commands?"
+
+"I come on my own account," Bathurst said; "when I come as a messenger
+from him, I must come openly. I. know you to be an honorable man, and
+that I could say what I have to say to you and depart in safety. I
+regard you as one who has been misled, and regret for your sake that you
+should have been induced to take part with these mutineers against us.
+Believe me, chief, you have been terribly misled. You have been told
+that it needed but an effort to overthrow the British Raj. Those who
+told you so lied. It might have seemed easy to destroy the handful of
+Europeans scattered throughout India, but you have not succeeded in
+doing it. Even had you done so, you would not have so much as begun
+the work. There are but few white soldiers here. Why? Because England
+trusted in the fidelity of her native troops, and thought it necessary
+to keep only a handful of soldiers in India, but if need be, for every
+soldier now here she could send a hundred, and she will send a hundred
+if required to reconquer India. Already you may be sure that ships are
+on the sea laden with troops; and if you find it so hard to overcome the
+few soldiers now here, what would you do against the great armies that
+will pour in ere long? Why, all the efforts of the Sepoys gathered
+at Delhi are insufficient to defeat the four or five thousand British
+troops who hold their posts outside the town, waiting only till the
+succor arrives from England to take a terrible vengeance. Woe be then
+to those who have taken part against us; still more to those whose hands
+are stained with British blood."
+
+"It is too late now," the native said gloomily, "the die is cast; but
+since I have seen how a score of men could defend that shattered house
+against thousands, do you think I have not seen that I have been wrong?
+Who would have thought that men could do such a thing? But it is too
+late now."
+
+"It is not too late," Bathurst said; "it is too late, indeed, to undo
+the mischief that has been done, but not too late for you to secure
+yourself against some of the consequences. The English are just; and
+when they shall have stamped out this mutiny, as assuredly they will do,
+they will draw a distinction between mutinous soldiers who were false
+to their salt, and native chiefs who fought, as they believed, for the
+independence of their country. But one thing they will not forgive,
+whether in Sepoy or in prince, the murder of man, woman, or child in
+cold blood: for that there will be no pardon.
+
+"But it is not upon that ground that I came to appeal to you, but as
+a noble of Oude--a man who is a brave enemy, but who could never be a
+butcher. We have fought against each other fairly and evenly; the time
+has come when we can fight no longer, and I demand of you, confidently,
+that, if we surrender, the lives of all within those walls shall be
+respected, and a safe conduct be granted them down the country. I know
+that such conditions were granted to the garrison at Cawnpore, and that
+they were shamelessly violated; for that act Nana Sahib will never be
+forgiven. He will be hunted down like a dog and hung when he is caught,
+just as if he had been the poorest peasant. But I have not so bad an
+opinion of the people of India as to believe them base enough to follow
+such an example, and I am confident that if you grant us those terms,
+you will see that the conditions are observed."
+
+"I have received orders from Nana Sahib to send all prisoners down to
+him," Por Sing said, in a hesitating voice.
+
+"You will never send down prisoners from here," Bathurst replied firmly.
+"You may attack us again, and after the loss of the lives of scores more
+of your followers you may be successful, but you will take no prisoners,
+for at the last moment we will blow the house and all in it into the
+air. Besides, who made Nana Sahib your master? He is not the lord of
+Oude; and though doubtless he dreams of sovereignty, it is a rope, not
+a throne, that awaits him. Why should you nobles of Oude obey the orders
+of this peasant boy, though he was adopted by the Peishwa? The Peishwa
+himself was never your lord, and why should you obey this traitor, this
+butcher, this disgrace to India, when he orders you to hand over to him
+the prisoners your sword has made?"
+
+"That is true," Por Sing said gloomily; "but the Sepoys will not agree
+to the terms."
+
+"The Sepoys are not your masters," Bathurst said; "we do not surrender
+to them, but to you. We place no confidence in their word, but we have
+every faith in the honor of the nobles of Oude. If you and your friends
+grant us the terms we ask, the Sepoys may clamor, but they will not
+venture to do more. Neither they nor Nana Sahib dare at this moment
+affront the people of Oude.
+
+"There are Sepoys round Lucknow, but it is the men of Oude who are
+really pressing the siege. If you are firm, they will not dare to break
+with you on such a question as the lives of a score of Europeans. If you
+will give me your word and your honor that all shall be spared, I will
+come out in the morning with a flag of truce to treat with you. If not,
+we will defend ourselves to the last, and then blow ourselves into the
+air."
+
+"And you think," Por Sing said doubtfully, "that if I agreed to this, it
+would be taken into consideration should the British Raj be restored."
+
+"I can promise you that it will," Bathurst said. "It will be properly
+represented that it is to you that the defenders of Deennugghur, and the
+women and children with them, owe their lives, and you may be sure that
+this will go a very long way towards wiping out the part you have taken
+in the attack on the station. When the day of reckoning comes, the
+British Government will know as well how to reward those who rendered
+them service in these days, as to punish those who have been our foes."
+
+"I will do it," Por Sing said firmly. "Do not come out until the
+afternoon. In the morning I will talk with the other Zemindars, and
+bring them over to agree that there shall be no more bloodshed. There is
+not one of us but is heartily sick of this business, and eager to put an
+end to it. Rujub may report what he likes to the Nana, I will do what is
+right."
+
+After a hearty expression of thanks, Bathurst left the tent. Rujub was
+awaiting him outside.
+
+"You have succeeded?" he asked.
+
+"Yes; he will guarantee the lives of all the garrison, but he seemed to
+be afraid of what you might report to Nana Sahib."
+
+"I am the Nana's agent here," Rujub said; "I have been working with
+him for months. I would I could undo it all now. I was away when they
+surrendered at Cawnpore. Had I not been, that massacre would never have
+taken place, for I am one of the few who have influence with him. He is
+fully cognizant of my power, and fears it."
+
+They made their way back without interruption to the clump of bushes
+near the house.
+
+"When shall I see you again?" Bathurst asked.
+
+"I do not know," replied Rujub, "but be sure that I shall be at hand to
+aid you if possible should danger arise."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+As soon as Bathurst began to remove the covering of the hole, a voice
+came from below.
+
+"Is that you, Bathurst?"
+
+"All right, Doctor."
+
+"Heaven be praised! You are back sooner than I expected, by a long way.
+I heard voices talking, so I doubted whether it was you."
+
+"The ladder is still there, I suppose, Doctor?"
+
+"Yes; it is just as you got off it. What are you going to do about the
+hole?"
+
+"Rujub is here; he will cover it up after me."
+
+"Then you were right," the Doctor said, as Bathurst stepped down beside
+him; "and you found the juggler really waiting for you?"
+
+"At the bungalow, Doctor, as I expected."
+
+"And what have you done? You can hardly have seen Por Sing; it is not
+much over an hour since you left."
+
+"I have seen him, Doctor; and what is more, he has pledged his word for
+our safety."
+
+"Thank God for that, lad; it is more than I expected. This will be news
+indeed for the poor women. And do you think he will be strong enough to
+keep his pledge?"
+
+"I think so; he asked me to wait until tomorrow afternoon before going
+out with a flag of truce, and said that by that time he would get the
+other Zemindars to stand by him, and would make terms whether the Sepoys
+liked it or not."
+
+"Well, you shall tell us all about it afterwards, Bathurst; let us take
+the news in to them at once; it is long since they had good tidings
+of any kind; it would be cruel to keep them in suspense, even for five
+minutes."
+
+There was no noisy outburst of joy when the news was told. Three weeks
+before it would have been received with the liveliest satisfaction, but
+now the bitterness of death was well nigh past; half the children lay
+in their graves in the garden, scarce one of the ladies but had lost
+husband or child, and while women murmured "Thank God!" as they clasped
+their children to them, the tears ran down as they thought how different
+it would have been had the news come sooner. The men, although equally
+quiet, yet showed more outward satisfaction than the women. Warm grasps
+of the hands were exchanged by those who had fought side by side
+during these terrible days, and a load seemed lifted at once off their
+shoulders.
+
+Bathurst stayed but a moment in the room after this news was told, but
+went in with Dr. Wade to the Major, and reported to him in full the
+conversation that had taken place between himself and Por Sing.
+
+"I think you are right, Bathurst; if the Oude men hold together, the
+Sepoys will scarcely risk a breach with them. Whether he will be able to
+secure our safety afterwards is another thing."
+
+"I quite see that, Major; but it seems to me that we have no option but
+to accept his offer and hope for the best."
+
+"That is it," the Doctor agreed. "It is certain death if we don't
+surrender; there is a chance that he will be able to protect us if we
+do. At any rate, we can be no worse off than we are here."
+
+Isobel had been in with Mrs. Doolan nursing the sick children when
+Bathurst arrived, but they presently came out. Isobel shook hands with
+him without speaking.
+
+"We are all heavily indebted to you, Mr. Bathurst," Mrs. Doolan said.
+"If we escape from this, it will be to you that we humanly owe our
+lives."
+
+She spoke in a voice that all in the room could hear.
+
+"Your are right, Mrs. Doolan," the Doctor said; "and I think that there
+are some who must regret now the manner in which they have behaved to
+Bathurst since this siege began."
+
+"I do for one," Captain Doolan said, coming forward.
+
+"I have regretted it for some time, though I have not had the manliness
+to say so. I am heartily sorry. I have done you a great and cruel
+injustice. I ought to have known that the Doctor, who knew you vastly
+better than I did, was not likely to be mistaken. Putting that aside,
+I ought to have seen, and I did see, though I would not acknowledge
+it even to myself, that no man has borne himself more calmly and
+steadfastly through this siege than you have, and that by twice
+venturing out among the enemy you gave proof that you possessed as much
+courage as any of us. I do hope that you will give me your hand."
+
+All the others who had held aloof from Bathurst came forward and
+expressed their deep regret for what had occurred.
+
+Bathurst heard them in silence.
+
+"I do not feel that there is anything to forgive," he said quietly. "I
+am glad to hear what you say, and I know you mean it, and I accept
+the hands you offer, but what you felt towards me has affected me
+but little, for your contempt for me was as nothing to my contempt of
+myself. Nothing can alter the fact that here, where every man's hand was
+wanted to defend the ladies and children, my hand was paralyzed;
+that whatever I may be at other times, in the hour of battle I
+fail hopelessly; nothing that I can do can wipe out, from my own
+consciousness, that disgrace."
+
+"You exaggerate it altogether, Bathurst," Wilson broke in hotly. "It is
+nonsense your talking like that, after the way you jumped down into the
+middle of them with that mace of yours. It was splendid."
+
+"More than that, Mr. Bathurst," Mrs. Doolan said, "I think we women know
+what true courage is; and there is not one of us but has, since this
+siege began, been helped and strengthened by your calmness--not one but
+has reason to be grateful for your kindness to our children during this
+terrible time. I won't hear even you speak against yourself."
+
+"Then I will not do so, Mrs. Doolan," he said, with a grave smile. "And
+now I will go and sit with the Major for a time. Things are quieter
+tonight than they have been for some time past, and I trust he will get
+some sleep."
+
+So saying, he quietly left the room.
+
+"I don't believe he has slept two hours at a time since the siege
+began," Mrs. Doolan said, with tears in her eyes. "We have all
+suffered--God only knows what we have suffered!--but I am sure that he
+has suffered more than any of us. As for you men, you may well say you
+are sorry and ashamed of your treatment of him. Coward, indeed! Mr.
+Bathurst may be nervous, but I am sure he has as much courage as anyone
+here. Come, Isobel, you were up all last night, and it's past two
+o'clock now. We must try to get a little sleep before morning, and I
+should advise everyone else off duty to do the same."
+
+At daybreak firing commenced, and was kept up energetically all the
+morning. At two o'clock a white flag was hoisted from the terrace, and
+its appearance was greeted with shouts of triumph by the assailants. The
+firing at once ceased, and in a few minutes a native officer carrying a
+white flag advanced towards the walls.
+
+"We wish to see the Zemindar Por Sing," Bathurst said, "to treat with
+him upon the subject of our surrender."
+
+The officer withdrew, and returned in half an hour saying that he would
+conduct the officer in command to the presence of the chief of the
+besieging force. Captain Doolan, therefore, accompanied by Bathurst and
+Dr. Wade, went out. They were conducted to the great tent where all
+the Zemindars and the principal officers of the Sepoys were assembled.
+Bathurst acted as spokesman.
+
+"Por Sing," he said, "and you Zemindars of Oude, Major Hannay being
+disabled, Captain Doolan, who is now in command of the garrison,
+has come to represent him and to offer to surrender to you under the
+condition that the lives of all British and natives within the walls be
+respected, and that you pledge us your faith and honor that we shall be
+permitted to go down the country without molestation. It is to you, Por
+Sing, and you nobles of Oude, that we surrender, and not to those who,
+being sworn soldiers, have mutinied against their officers, and have in
+many cases treacherously murdered them. With such men Major Hannay will
+have no dealings, and it is to you that we surrender. Major Hannay bids
+me say that if this offer is refused, we can for a long time prolong our
+resistance. We are amply supplied with provisions and munitions of war,
+and many as are the numbers of our assailants who have fallen already,
+yet more will die before you obtain possession of the house. More than
+that, in no case will we be taken prisoners, for one and all have firmly
+resolved to fire the magazine when resistance is no longer possible, and
+to bury ourselves and our assailants in the ruins."
+
+When Bathurst ceased, a hubbub of voices arose, the Sepoy officers
+protesting that the surrender should be made to them. It was some
+minutes before anything like quietness was restored, and then one of the
+officers said, "Here is Rujub; he speaks in the name of Nana. What does
+he say to this?"
+
+Rujub, who was handsomely attired, stepped forward.
+
+"I have no orders from his highness on this subject," he said. "He
+certainly said that the prisoners were to be sent to him, but at present
+there are no prisoners, nor, if the siege continues, and the English
+carry out their threat, will there be any prisoners. I cannot think that
+Nana Sahib would wish to see some hundreds more of his countrymen
+slain or blown up, only that he may have these few men and women in his
+power."
+
+"We have come here to take them and kill them," one of the officers said
+defiantly; "and we will do so."
+
+Por Sing, who had been speaking with the Talookdars round him, rose from
+his seat.
+
+"It seems to me that it is for us to decide this matter," he said. "It
+is upon us that the losses of this siege have fallen. At the order of
+Nana Sahib we collected our retainers, abandoned our homes, and have for
+three weeks supported the dangers of this siege. We follow the Nana, but
+we are not his vassals, nor do we even know what his wishes are in
+this matter, but it seems to us that we have done enough and more than
+enough. Numbers of our retainers and kinsmen have fallen, and to prolong
+the siege would cause greater loss, and what should we gain by it? The
+possession of a heap of stones. Therefore, we are all of opinion that
+this offer of surrender should be accepted. We war for the freedom of
+our country, and have no thirst for the blood of these English sahibs,
+still less for that of their wives and children."
+
+Some of the officers angrily protested, but Por Sing stood firm, and
+the other chiefs were equally determined. Seeing this, the officers
+consulted together, and the highest in rank then said to the Talookdars,
+"We protest against these conditions being given, but since you are
+resolved, we stand aside, and are ready to agree for ourselves and our
+men to what you may decide."
+
+"What pledges do you require?" Por Sing asked Bathurst.
+
+"We are content, Rajah, with your personal oath that the lives of all
+within the house shall be respected, and your undertaking that they
+shall be allowed to go unharmed down the country. We have absolute faith
+in the honor of the nobles of Oude, and can desire no better guarantee."
+
+"I will give it," Por Sing said, "and all my friends will join me in
+it. Tonight I will have boats collected on the river; I will furnish you
+with an escort of my troops, and will myself accompany you and see you
+safely on board. I will then not only give you a safe conduct, praying
+all to let you pass unharmed, but my son with ten men shall accompany
+you in the boats to inform all that my honor is concerned in your
+safety, and that I have given my personal pledge that no molestation
+shall be offered to you. I will take my oath, and my friends will do the
+same, and I doubt not that the commander of the Sepoy troops will join
+me in it."
+
+Bathurst translated what had been said to Captain Doolan.
+
+"It is impossible for him to do more than that," he concluded; "I do not
+think there is the least question as to his good faith."
+
+"He is a fine old heathen," Captain Doolan said; "tell him that we
+accept his terms."
+
+Bathurst at once signified this, and the Rajah then took a solemn oath
+to fulfill the conditions of the agreement, the other Talookdars
+doing the same, and the commander of the Sepoys also doing so without
+hesitation. Por Sing then promised that some carts should be collected
+before morning, to carry the ladies, the sick and wounded, down to the
+river, which was eight miles distant.
+
+"You can sleep in quiet tonight," he added; "I will place a guard of my
+own men round the house, and see that none trouble you in any way."
+
+A few other points were settled, and then the party returned to the
+house, to which they were followed a few minutes later by the son of Por
+Sing and three lads, sons of other Zemindars. Bathurst went down to meet
+them when their approach was noticed by the lookout on the roof.
+
+"We have come to place ourselves in your hands as hostages, sahib," Por
+Sing's son said. "My father thought it likely that the Sepoys or
+others might make trouble, and he said that if we were in your hands as
+hostages, all our people would see that the agreement must be kept, and
+would oppose themselves more vigorously to the Sepoys."
+
+"It was thoughtful and kind of your father," Bathurst said. "As far as
+accommodation is concerned, we can do little to make you comfortable,
+but in other respects we are not badly provided."
+
+Some of the native servants were at once told off to erect an awning
+over a portion of the terrace. Tables and couches were placed here, and
+Bathurst undertook the work of entertaining the visitors.
+
+He was glad of the precaution that had been taken in sending them, for
+with the glass he could make out that there was much disturbance in
+the Sepoy lines, men gathering in large groups, with much shouting and
+noise. Muskets were discharged in the direction of the house, and it was
+evident that the mutineers were very discontented with the decision that
+had been arrived at.
+
+In a short time, however, a body, several hundred strong, of the Oude
+fighting men moved down and surrounded the house; and when a number of
+the Sepoys approached with excited and menacing gestures, one of the
+Zemindars went out to meet them, and Bathurst, watching the conference,
+could see by his pointing to the roof of the house that he was
+informing them that hostages had been given to the Europeans for the due
+observance of the treaty, and doubted not he was telling them that
+their lives would be endangered by any movement. Then he pointed to the
+batteries, as if threatening that if any attack was made the guns would
+be turned upon them. At any rate, after a time they moved away, and
+gradually the Sepoys could be seen returning to their lines.
+
+There were but few preparations to be made by the garrison for their
+journey. It had been settled that they might take their personal effects
+with them, but it was at once agreed to take as little as possible,
+as there would probably be but little room in the boats, and the fewer
+things they carried the less there would be to tempt the cupidity of the
+natives.
+
+"Well, Bathurst, what do you think of the outlook?" the Doctor asked,
+as late in the evening they sat together on some sandbags in a corner of
+the terrace.
+
+"I think that if we get past Cawnpore in safety there is not much to
+fear. There is no other large place on the river, and the lower we get
+down the less likely the natives are to disturb us, knowing, as they are
+almost sure to do, that a force is gathering at Allahabad."
+
+"After what you heard of the massacre of the prisoners at Cawnpore, whom
+the Nana and his officers had all sworn to allow to depart in safety,
+there is little hope that this scoundrel will respect the arrangements
+made here."
+
+"We must pass the place at night, and trust to drifting down
+unobserved--the river is wide there--and keeping near the opposite
+shore, we may get past in the darkness without being perceived; and even
+if they do make us out, the chances are they will not hit us. There are
+so few of us that there is no reason why they should trouble greatly
+about us."
+
+"I am sorry to say, Bathurst, that I don't like the appearance of the
+Major's wound. Everything has been against him; the heat, the close air,
+and his anxiety of mind have all told on him, he seems very low, and I
+have great doubts whether he will ever see Allahabad."
+
+"I hope you are wrong, Doctor, but I thought myself there was a change
+for the worse when I saw him an hour ago; there was a drawn look about
+his face I did not like. He is a splendid fellow; nothing could have
+been kinder than he has been to me. I wish I could change places with
+him."
+
+The Doctor grunted. "Well, as none of us may see Allahabad, Bathurst,
+you need not trouble yourself on that score. I wonder what has become
+of your friend the conjurer. I thought he might have been in to see you
+this afternoon."
+
+"I did not expect him," Bathurst said; "I expect he went as far as he
+dared in what he said at the Durbar today. Probably he is doing all he
+can to keep matters quiet. Of course he may have gone down to Cawnpore
+to see Nana Sahib, but I should think it more probable that he would
+remain here until he knows we are safe on board the boats."
+
+"Ah, here is Wilson," said the Doctor; "he is a fine young fellow, and I
+am very glad he has gone through it safely."
+
+"So am I," Bathurst said warmly; "here we are, Wilson."
+
+"I thought I would find you both smoking here," Wilson said, as he
+seated himself; "it is awfully hot below, and the ladies are all at
+work picking out the things they are going to take with them and packing
+them, and as I could not be of any use at that, I thought I would come
+up for a little fresh air, if one can call it fresh; but, in fact, I
+would rather sit over an open drain, for the stench is horrible. How
+quiet everything seems tonight! After crouching here for the last three
+weeks listening to the boom of their cannon and the rush of their balls
+overhead, or the crash as they hit something, it seems quite unnatural;
+one can't help thinking that something is going to happen. I don't
+believe I shall be able to sleep a wink tonight; while generally, in
+spite of the row, it has been as much as I could do to keep my eyes
+open. I suppose I shall get accustomed to it in time. At present it
+seems too unnatural to enjoy it."
+
+"You had better get a good night's sleep, if you can, Wilson," the
+Doctor said. "There won't be much sleep for us in the boats till we see
+the walls of Allahabad."
+
+"I suppose not, Doctor. I expect we shall be horribly cramped up. I long
+to be there. I hope to get attached to one of the regiments coming up,
+so as to help in giving the thrashing to these scoundrels that they
+deserve. I would give a year's pay to get that villain, Nana Sahib,
+within reach of my sword. It is awful to think of the news you brought
+in, Bathurst, and that there are hundreds of women and children in his
+power now. What a day it will be when we march into Cawnpore!"
+
+"Don't count your chickens too soon, Wilson," the Doctor said, "The time
+I am looking forward to is when we shall have safely passed Cawnpore on
+our way down; that is quite enough for me to hope for at present."
+
+"Yes, I was thinking of that myself," Wilson replied. "If the Nana
+could not be bound by the oath he had taken himself, he is not likely to
+respect the agreement made here."
+
+"We must pass the place at night," Bathurst said, "and trust to not
+being seen. Even if they do make us out, we shan't be under fire long
+unless they follow us down the bank; but if the night is dark, they may
+not make us out at all. Fortunately there is no moon, and boats are
+not very large marks even by daylight, and at night it would only be a
+chance shot that would hit us."
+
+"Yes, we should be as difficult to hit as a tiger," the Doctor put in.
+
+Wilson laughed.
+
+"I have gained a lot of experience since then, Doctor. What ages that
+seems back! Years almost."
+
+"It does indeed," the Doctor agreed; "we count time by incidents and not
+by days. Well, I think I shall turn in.. Are you coming, Bathurst?"
+
+"No, I could not sleep," Bathurst said; "I shall watch till morning. I
+feel sure it is all safe, but the mutineers might attempt something."
+
+The night, however, passed off quietly, and soon after daybreak eight
+bullock carts were seen approaching, with a strong body of Oude men.
+Half an hour later the luggage was packed, and the sick and wounded laid
+on straw in the wagons. Several of the ladies took their places with
+them, but Mrs. Doolan, Isobel, and Mary Hunter said they would walk for
+a while. It had been arranged that the men might carry out their arms
+with them, and each of the ten able to walk took their rifles, while
+all, even the women, had pistols about them. Just as they were ready,
+Por Sing and several of the Zemindars rode up on horseback.
+
+"We shall see you to the boats," he said. "Have you taken provisions for
+your voyage? It would be better not to stop to buy anything on the way."
+
+This precaution had been taken, and as soon as all was ready they set
+out, guarded by four hundred Oude matchlock men. The Sepoys had gathered
+near the house, and as soon as they left it there was a rush made to
+secure the plunder.
+
+"I should have liked to have emptied the contents of some of my bottles
+into the wine," the Doctor growled; "it would not have been strictly
+professional, perhaps, but it would have been a good action."
+
+"I am sure you would not have given them poison, Doctor," Wilson
+laughed; "but a reasonable dose of ipecacuanha might hardly have gone
+against your conscience."
+
+"My conscience has nothing to do with it," the Doctor said. "These
+fellows came from Cawnpore, and I have no doubt took part in the
+massacre there. My conscience wouldn't have troubled me if I could
+have poisoned the whole of the scoundrels, or put a slow match in
+the magazine and blown them all into the air, but under the present
+conditions it would hardly have been politic, as one couldn't be sure of
+annihilating the whole of them. Well, Miss Hannay, what are you thinking
+of?"
+
+"I am thinking that my uncle looks worse this morning, Doctor; does it
+not strike you so too?"
+
+"We must hope that the fresh air will do him good. One could not expect
+anyone to get better in that place; it was enough to kill a healthy man,
+to say nothing of a sick one."
+
+Isobel was walking by the side of the cart in which her uncle was lying,
+and it was not long before she took her place beside him.
+
+The Doctor shook his head.
+
+"Can you do nothing, Doctor?" Bathurst said, in a low tone.
+
+"Nothing; he is weaker this morning, still the change of air may help
+him, and he may have strength to fight through; the wound itself is a
+serious one, but he would under other circumstances have got over it.
+As it is, I think his chance a very poor one, though I would not say as
+much to her."
+
+After three hours' travel they reached the river. Here two large native
+boats were lying by the bank. The baggage and sick were soon placed
+on board, and the Europeans with the native servants were then divided
+between them, and the Rajah's son and six of the retainers took their
+places in one of the boats. The Doctor and Captain Doolan had settled
+how the party should be divided. The Major and the other sick men were
+all placed in one boat, and in this were the Doctor, Bathurst, and four
+civilians, with Isobel Hannay, Mrs. Hunter, and her daughter. Captain
+Doolan, his wife, Mrs. Rintoul, and the other three ladies, with the six
+children who had alone survived, and the rest of the party, were in the
+other boat.
+
+Por Sing and his companions were thanked heartily for the protection
+they had given, and Bathurst handed them a document which had been
+signed by all the party, testifying to the service they had rendered.
+
+"If we don't get down to Allahabad," Bathurst said, as he handed it to
+him, "this will insure you good treatment when the British troops come
+up. If we get there, we will represent your conduct in such a light that
+I think I can promise you that the part you took in the siege will be
+forgiven."
+
+Then the boats pushed off and started on their way down the stream.
+
+The distance by water to Cawnpore was over forty miles. It was already
+eleven o'clock, and slow progress only could be made with the heavy
+boats, but it was thought that they would be able to pass the town
+before daylight began to break next morning, and they therefore pushed
+on as rapidly as they could, the boatmen being encouraged to use their
+utmost efforts by the promise of a large reward upon their arrival at
+Allahabad.
+
+There was but little talk in the boats. Now that the strain was over,
+all felt its effects severely. The Doctor attended to his patients;
+Isobel sat by the side of her uncle, giving him some broth that they had
+brought with them, from time to time, or moistening his lips with weak
+brandy and water. He spoke only occasionally.
+
+"I don't much think I shall get down to Allahabad, Isobel," he said. "If
+I don't, go down to Calcutta, and go straight to Jamieson and Son; they
+are my agents, and they will supply you with money to take you home;
+they have a copy of my will; my agents in London have another copy. I
+had two made in case of accident."
+
+"Oh, uncle, you will get better now you are out of that terrible place."
+
+"I am afraid it is too late, my dear, though I should like to live for
+your sake. But I think I see happiness before you, if you choose to
+take it; he is a noble fellow, Isobel, in spite of that unfortunate
+weakness."
+
+Isobel made no answer, but a slight pressure of the hand she was holding
+showed that she understood what he meant. It was no use to tell her
+uncle that she felt that what might have been was over now. Bathurst had
+chatted with her several times the evening before and during the march
+that morning, but she felt the difference between his tone and that in
+which he had addressed her in the old times before the troubles began.
+It was a subtle difference that she could hardly have explained even
+to herself, but she knew that it was as a friend, and as a friend only,
+that he would treat her in the future, and that the past was a closed
+book, which he was determined not to reopen.
+
+Bathurst talked to Mrs. Hunter and her daughter, both of whom were mere
+shadows, worn out with grief, anxiety, and watching. At times he went
+forward to talk to the young noble, who had taken his seat there. Both
+boats had been arched in with a canopy of boughs to serve alike as a
+protection from the sun and to screen those within from the sight of
+natives in boats or on the banks.
+
+"You don't look yourself, Bathurst," the Doctor said to him late in the
+afternoon. "Everything seems going on well. No boats have passed us, and
+the boatmen all say that we shall pass Cawnpore about one o'clock, at
+the rate at which we are going."
+
+"I feel nervous, Doctor; more anxious than I have been ever since this
+began. There is an apprehension of danger weighing over me that I can't
+account for. As you say, everything seems going on well, and yet I feel
+that it is not so. I am afraid I am getting superstitious, but I feel
+as if Rujub knows of some danger impending, and that he is somehow
+conveying that impression to me. I know that there is nothing to be
+done, and that we are doing the only thing that we can do, unless we
+were to land and try and make our way down on foot, which would be sheer
+madness. That the man can in some way impress my mind at a distance
+is evident from that summons he gave me to meet him at the ruins of my
+bungalow, but I do not feel the same clear distinct perception of
+his wishes now as I did then. Perhaps he himself is not aware of the
+particulars of the danger that threatens, or, knowing them, he can see
+no way of escape out of them. It may be that at night, when everything
+is quiet, one's mind is more open to such impressions than it is when we
+are surrounded by other people and have other things to think of, but I
+feel an actual consciousness of danger."
+
+"I don't think there can be any danger until we get down near Cawnpore.
+They may possibly be on the lookout for us there, and may even have
+boats out on the stream. It is possible that the Sepoys may have sent
+down word yesterday afternoon to Nana Sahib that we had surrendered, and
+should be starting by boat this morning, but I don't think there can
+be any danger till we get there. Should we meet native boats and be
+stopped, Por Sing's son will be able to induce them to let us pass.
+Certainly none of the villagers about here would be likely to disobey
+him. Once beyond Cawnpore, I believe that he would have sufficient
+influence, speaking, as he does, in the name, not only of his father,
+but of other powerful landowners, to induce any of these Oude people to
+let us pass. No, I regard Cawnpore as our one danger, and I believe it
+to be a very real one. I have been thinking, indeed, that it would be a
+good thing when we get within a couple of miles of the place for all who
+are able to walk, to land on the opposite bank, and make their way along
+past Cawnpore, and take to the boats again a mile below the town."
+
+"That would be an excellent plan, Doctor; but if the boats were stopped
+and they found the sick, they would kill them to a certainty. I don't
+think we could leave them. I am quite sure Miss Hannay would not leave
+her uncle."
+
+"I think we might get over even that, Bathurst. There are only the Major
+and the other two men, and Mrs. Forsyth and three children, too ill to
+walk. There are eight of the native servants, ourselves, and the young
+Rajah's retainers. We ought to have no difficulty in carrying the
+wounded. As to the luggage, that must be sacrificed, so that the boatmen
+can go down with empty benches. It must be pitched overboard. The loss
+would be of no real consequence; everyone could manage with what they
+have on until we get to Allahabad. There would be no difficulty in
+getting what we require there."
+
+"I think the plan is an excellent one, Doctor. I will ask the young
+chief if his men will help us to carry the sick. If he says yes, we will
+go alongside the other boat and explain our plan to Doolan."
+
+The young Rajah at once assented, and the boat being rowed up to the
+other, the plan was explained and approved of. No objection was raised
+by anyone, even to the proposal for getting rid of all the luggage;
+and as soon as the matter was arranged, a general disposition towards
+cheerfulness was manifested. Everyone had felt that the danger of
+passing Cawnpore would be immense, and this plan for avoiding it seemed
+to lift a load from their minds.
+
+It was settled they should land at some spot where the river was
+bordered by bushes and young trees; that stout poles should be cut, and
+blankets fastened between them, so as to form stretchers on which the
+sick could be carried.
+
+As far as possible the boats were kept on the left side of the river,
+but at times shallows rendered it necessary to keep over by the right
+bank. Whenever they were near the shore, silence was observed, lest the
+foreign tongue should be noticed by anyone near the bank.
+
+Night fell, and they still continued their course. An hour after sunset
+they were rowing near the right bank--the Major had fallen into a sort
+of doze, and Isobel was sitting next to Bathurst, and they were talking
+in low tones together--when suddenly there was a hail from the shore,
+not fifty yards away.
+
+"What boats are those?"
+
+"Fishing boats going down the river," one of the boatmen answered.
+
+"Row alongside, we must examine you."
+
+There was a moment's pause, and then the Doctor said in the native
+language, "Row on, men," and the oars of both boats again dipped into
+the water.
+
+"We are pressed for time," the young Zemindar shouted, and then,
+dropping his voice, urged the men to row at the top of their speed.
+
+"Stop, or we fire," came from the shore.
+
+No answer was returned from the boats; they were now nearly opposite the
+speaker. Then came the word--"Fire." Six cannon loaded with grape were
+discharged, and a crackle of musketry at the same moment broke out. The
+shot tore through the boats, killing and disabling many, and bringing
+down the arbor of boughs upon them.
+
+A terrible cry arose, and all was confusion. Most of the rowers were
+killed, and the boats drifted helplessly amid the storm of rifle
+bullets.
+
+As the cannon flashed out and the grape swept the boats Bathurst, with
+a sharp cry, sprang to his feet, and leaped overboard, as did several
+others from both boats. Diving, he kept under water for some distance,
+and then swam desperately till he reached shallow water on the other
+side of the river, and then fell head foremost on the sand. Eight or
+ten others also gained the shore in a body, and were running towards the
+bank, when the guns were again fired, and all but three were swept away
+by the iron hail. A few straggling musket shots were fired, then orders
+were shouted, and the splashing of an oar was heard, as one of the
+native boatmen rowed one of the two boats toward the shore. Bathurst
+rose to his feet and ran, stumbling like a drunken man, towards the
+bushes, and just as he reached them, fell heavily forward, and lay there
+insensible. Three men came out from the jungle and dragged him in. As
+they did so loud screams arose from the other bank, then half a dozen
+muskets were fired, and all was quiet.
+
+It was not for a quarter of an hour that Bathurst was conscious of what
+was going on around him. Someone was rubbing his chest and hands.
+
+"Who is it?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, it is you, Bathurst!" he heard Wilson's voice exclaim. "I thought
+it was you, but it is so dark now we are off that white sand that I
+could not see. Where are you hit?"
+
+"I don't know," Bathurst said. "I felt a sort of shock as I got out of
+the water, but I don't know that I am hurt at all."
+
+"Oh, you must be hit somewhere. Try and move your arms and legs."
+
+Bathurst moved.
+
+"No, I don't think I am hit; if I am, it is on the head. I feel
+something warm round the back of my neck."
+
+"By Jove, yes!" Wilson said; "here is where it is; there is a cut all
+along the top of your head; the bullet seems to have hit you at the
+back, and gone right along over the top. It can't have gone in, or else
+you would not be able to talk."
+
+"Help me up," Bathurst said, and he was soon on his feet. He felt giddy
+and confused. "Who have you with you?" he asked.
+
+"Two natives. I think one is the young chief, and the other is one of
+his followers."
+
+Bathurst spoke to them in their native language, and found that Wilson
+was not mistaken. As soon as he found that he was understood, the young
+chief poured out a volley of curses upon those who had attacked them.
+
+Bathurst stopped him. "We shall have time for that afterwards, Murad,"
+he said; "the first thing is to see what had best be done. What has
+happened since I landed, Wilson?"
+
+"Our boat was pretty nearly cut in two," Wilson said, "and was sinking
+when I jumped over; the other boat has been rowed ashore."
+
+"What did you hear, Wilson?"
+
+"I heard the women scream," Wilson said reluctantly, "and five or six
+shots were fired. There has been no sound since then."
+
+Bathurst stood silent for a minute.
+
+"I do not think they will have killed the women," he said; "they did not
+do so at Cawnpore. They will take them there. No doubt they killed the
+men. Let me think for a moment. Now," he said after a long pause, "we
+must be doing. Murad, your father and friends have given their word for
+the safety of those you took prisoners; that they have been massacred
+is no fault of your father or of you. This gentleman and myself are the
+only ones saved, as far as we know. Are you sure that none others came
+ashore?"
+
+"The others were all killed, we alone remaining," Murad said. "I will go
+back to my father, and he will go to Cawnpore and demand vengeance."
+
+"You can do that afterwards, Murad; the first thing is to fulfill
+your promise, and I charge you to take this sahib in safety down to
+Allahabad. You must push on at once, for they may be sending out from
+Cawnpore at daylight to search the bushes here to see if any have
+escaped. You must go on with him tonight as far as you can, and in the
+morning enter some village, buy native clothes, and disguise him, and
+then journey on to Allahabad."
+
+"I will do that," the young Rajah said; "but what about yourself?"
+
+"I shall go into Cawnpore and try to rescue any they may have taken.
+I have a native cloth round me under my other clothes, as I thought it
+might be necessary for me to land before we got to Cawnpore to see if
+danger threatened us. So I have everything I want for a disguise about
+me."
+
+"What are you saying, Bathurst?" Wilson asked.
+
+"I am arranging for Murad and his follower to take you down to
+Allahabad, Wilson. I shall stop at Cawnpore."
+
+"Stop at Cawnpore! Are you mad, Bathurst?"
+
+"No, I am not mad. I shall stop to see if any of the ladies have been
+taken prisoners, and if so, try to rescue them. Rujub, the juggler, is
+there, and I am confident he will help me."
+
+"But if you can stay, I can, Bathurst. If Miss Hannay has been made
+prisoner, I would willingly be killed to rescue her."
+
+"I know you would, Wilson, but you would be killed without being able to
+rescue her; and as I should share your fate, you would render her rescue
+impossible. I can speak the native language perfectly, and know native
+ways. I can move about among them without fear of exciting their
+suspicion. If you were with me this would be impossible; the first time
+you were addressed by a native you would be detected; your presence
+would add to my difficulties a hundredfold. It is not now a question of
+fighting. Were it only that, I should be delighted to have you with me.
+As it is, the thing is impossible. If anything is done, I must do it
+alone. If I ever reach Miss Hannay, she shall know that you were ready
+to run all risks to save her. No, no, you must go on to Allahabad, and
+if you cannot save her now, you will be with the force that will save
+her, if I should fail to do so, and which will avenge us both if it
+should arrive too late to rescue her. Now I must get you to bandage my
+head, for I feel faint with loss of blood. I will take off my shirt and
+tear it in strips. I have got a native disguise next to the skin. We may
+as well leave my clothes behind me here."
+
+As soon as Wilson, with the assistance of Murad, had bandaged the wound,
+the party struck off from the river, and after four hours' walking came
+down upon it again two miles below Cawnpore. Here Bathurst said he would
+stop, stain his skin, and complete his disguise.
+
+"I hate leaving you," Wilson said, in a broken voice. "There are only
+you and I left of all our party at Deennugghur. It is awful to think
+they have all gone--the good old chief, the Doctor, and Richards, and
+the ladies. There are only we two left. It does seem such a dirty,
+cowardly thing for me to be making off and leaving you here alone."
+
+"It is not cowardly, Wilson, for I know you would willingly stay if you
+could be of the slightest use; but, as, on the contrary, you would only
+add to the danger, it must be as I have arranged. Goodby, lad; don't
+stay; it has to be done. God bless you! Goodby, Murad. Tell your father
+when you see him that I know no shadow of broken faith rests on him."
+
+So saying, he turned and went into a clump of bushes, while Wilson,
+too overpowered to speak, started on his way down country with the two
+natives.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+Now alone, Bathurst threw himself down among the bashes in an attitude
+of utter depression.
+
+"Why wasn't I killed with the others?" he groaned. "Why was I not killed
+when I sat there by her side?"
+
+So he lay for an hour, and then slowly rose and looked round. There was
+a faint light in the sky.
+
+"It will be light in another hour," he said to himself, and he again sat
+down. Suddenly he started. Had someone spoken, or had he fancied it?
+
+"Wait till I come."
+
+He seemed to hear the words plainly, just as he had heard Rujub's
+summons before.
+
+"That's it; it is Rujub. How is it that he can make me hear in this way?
+I am sure it was his voice. Anyhow, I will wait. It shows he is thinking
+of me, and I am sure he will help me. I know well enough I could do
+nothing by myself."
+
+Bathurst assumed with unquestioning faith that Isobel Hannay was alive.
+He had no reason for his confidence. That first shower of grape might
+have killed her as it killed others, but he would not admit the doubt
+in his mind. Wilson's description of what had happened while he was
+insensible was one of the grounds of this confidence.
+
+He had heard women scream. Mrs. Hunter and her daughter were the only
+other women in the boat. Isobel would not have screamed had those
+muskets been pointed at her, nor did he think the others would have done
+so. They screamed when they saw the natives about to murder those who
+were with them. The three women were sitting together, and if one had
+fallen by the grape shot all would probably have been killed. He felt
+confident, therefore, that she had escaped; he believed he would have
+known it had she been killed.
+
+"If I can be influenced by this juggler, surely I should have felt it
+had Isobel died," he argued, and was satisfied that she was still alive.
+
+What, however, more than anything else gave him hope was the picture
+on the smoke. "Everything else has come true," he said to himself; "why
+should not that? Wilson spoke of the Doctor as dead. I will not believe
+it; for if he is dead, the picture is false. Why should that thing of
+all others have been shown to me unless it had been true? What seemed
+impossible to me--that I should be fighting like a brave man--has
+been verified. Why should not this? I should have laughed at such
+superstition six months ago; now I cling to it as my one ground for
+hope. Well, I will wait if I have to stay here until tomorrow night."
+
+Noiselessly he moved about in the little wood, going to the edge and
+looking out, pacing to and fro with quick steps, his face set in
+a frown, occasionally muttering to himself. He was in a fever of
+impatience. He longed to be doing something, even if that something led
+to his detention and death. He said to himself that he should not care
+so that Isobel Hannay did but know that he had died in trying to rescue
+her.
+
+The sun rose, and he saw the peasants in the fields, and caught the note
+of a bugle sounding from the lines at Cawnpore. At last--it had seemed
+to him an age, but the sun had been up only an hour--he saw a figure
+coming along the river bank. As it approached he told himself that it
+was the juggler; if so, he had laid aside the garments in which he last
+saw him, and was now attired as when they first met. When he saw him
+turn off from the river bank and advance straight towards the wood, he
+had no doubt that it was the man he expected.
+
+"Thanks be to the holy ones that you have escaped, sahib," Rujub said,
+as soon as he came within speaking distance of Bathurst. "I was in
+an agony last night. I was with you in thought, and saw the boats
+approaching the ambuscade. I saw you leap over and swim to shore. I saw
+you fall, and I cried out. For a moment I thought you were killed. Then
+I saw you go on and fall again, and saw your friends carry you in. I
+watched you recover and come on here, and then I willed it that you
+should wait here till I came for you. I have brought you a disguise, for
+I did not know that you had one with you. But, first of all, sit down
+and let me dress your wound afresh. I have brought all that is necessary
+for it."
+
+"You are a true fried, Rujub. I relied upon you for aid; do you know why
+I waited here instead of going down with the others?"
+
+"I know, sahib. I can tell your thoughts as easily when you are away
+from me as I can when we are together."
+
+"Can you do this with all people?"
+
+"No, my lord; to be able to read another's thoughts it is necessary
+there should be a mystic relation established between them. As I walked
+beside your horse when you carried my daughter before you after saving
+her life, I felt that this relation had commenced, and that henceforward
+our fates were connected. It was necessary that you should have
+confidence in me, and it was for that reason that I showed you some of
+the feats that we rarely exhibit, and proved to you that I possessed
+powers with which you were unacquainted. But in thought reading my
+daughter has greater powers than I have, and it was she who last night
+followed you on your journey, sitting with her hand in mine, so that my
+mind followed hers."
+
+"Do you know all that happened last night, Rujub?" Bathurst said,
+summoning up courage to ask the question that had been on his lips from
+the first.
+
+"I only know, my lord, that the party was destroyed, save three white
+women, who were brought in just as the sun rose this morning. One
+was the lady behind whose chair you stood the night I performed at
+Deennugghur, the lady about whom you are thinking. I do not know the
+other two; one was getting on in life, the other was a young one."
+
+The relief was so great that Bathurst turned away, unable for a while to
+continue the conversation. When he resumed the talk, he asked, "Did you
+see them yourself, Rujub?"
+
+"I saw them, sahib; they were brought in on a gun carriage."
+
+"How did they look, Rujub?"
+
+"The old one looked calm and sad. She did not seem to hear the shouts of
+the budmashes as they passed along. She held the young one close to
+her. That one seemed worn out with grief and terror. Your memsahib sat
+upright; she was very pale and changed from the time I saw her that
+evening, but she held her head high, and looked almost scornfully at the
+men who shook their fists and cried at her."
+
+"And they put them with the other women that they have taken prisoners?"
+
+Rujub hesitated.
+
+"They have put the other two there, sahib, but her they took to
+Bithoor."
+
+Bathurst started, and an exclamation of horror and rage burst from him.
+
+"To the Rajah's!" he exclaimed. "To that scoundrel! Come, let us go. Why
+are we staying here?"
+
+"We can do nothing for the moment. Before I started I sent off my
+daughter to Bithoor; she knows many there, and will find out what is
+being done and bring us word, for I dare not show myself there. The
+Rajah is furious with me because I did not support the Sepoys, and
+suffered conditions to be made with your people, but now that all has
+turned out as he wished, I will in a short time present myself before
+him again, but for the moment it was better that my daughter should go,
+as I had to come to you. But first you had better put on the disguise I
+have brought you. You are too big and strong to pass without notice in
+that peasant's dress. The one I have brought you is such as is worn
+by the rough people; the budmashes of Cawnpore. I can procure others
+afterwards when we see what had best be done. It will be easy enough to
+enter Bithoor, for all is confusion there, and men come and go as they
+choose, but it will be well nigh impossible for you to penetrate where
+the memsahib will be placed. Even for me, known as I am to all the
+Rajah's officers, it would be impossible to do so; it is my daughter in
+whom we shall have to trust."
+
+Bathurst rapidly put on the clothes that Rujub had brought with him, and
+thrust a sword, two daggers, and a brace of long barreled pistols into
+the sash round his waist.
+
+"Your color is not dark enough, sahib. I have brought dye with me; but
+first I must dress the wound on your head, and bandage it more neatly,
+so that the blood stained swathings will not show below the folds of
+your turban."
+
+Bathurst submitted himself impatiently to Rujub's hands. The latter cut
+off all the hair that would show under the turban, dyed the skin
+the same color as the other parts, and finally, after darkening his
+eyebrows, eyelashes, and mustache, pronounced that he would pass
+anywhere without attracting attention. Then they started at a quick walk
+along the river, crossed by the ferryboat to Cawnpore, and made their
+way to a quiet street in the native town.
+
+"This is my house for the present," Rujub said, producing a key and
+unlocking a door. He shouted as he closed the door behind him, and an
+old woman appeared.
+
+"Is the meal prepared?" he asked.
+
+"It is ready," she said.
+
+"That is right. Tell Rhuman to put the pony into the cart."
+
+He then led the way into a comfortably furnished apartment where a meal
+was laid.
+
+"Eat, my lord," he said; "you need it, and will require your strength."
+
+Bathurst, who, during his walk, had felt the effects of the loss of
+blood and anxiety, at once seated himself at the table and ate, at first
+languidly, but as appetite came, more heartily, and felt still more
+benefited by a bottle of excellent wine Rujub had placed beside him. The
+latter returned to the room just as he had finished. He was now attired
+as he had been when Bathurst last met him at Deennugghur.
+
+"I feel another man, Rujub, and fit for anything."
+
+"The cart is ready," Rujub said. "I have already taken my meal; we do
+not eat meat, and live entirely on vegetables. Meat clouds the senses,
+and simple food, and little of it, is necessary for those who would
+enter the inner brotherhood."
+
+At the door a small native cart was standing with a pony in the shafts.
+
+"You will go with us, Rhuman," Rujub said, as he and Bathurst took their
+seats in the cart.
+
+The boy squatted down at Rujub's feet, taking the reins and whip, and
+the pony started off at a brisk pace. Upon the way Rujub talked of
+various matters, of the reports of the force that was gathering at
+Allahabad, and the madness of the British in supposing that two or three
+thousand men could withstand the forces of the Nana.
+
+"They would be eaten up," he said; "the troops will go out to meet them;
+they will never arrive within sight of Cawnpore."
+
+As Bathurst saw that he was talking for the boy to hear, rather than to
+himself, he agreed loudly with all that he said, and boasted that even
+without the Nana's troops and the Sepoys, the people of Cawnpore could
+cut the English dogs to pieces.
+
+The drive was not a long one, and the road was full of parties going
+to or returning from Bithoor--groups of Sepoy officers, parties of
+budmashes from Cawnpore, mounted messengers, landowners with their
+retainers, and others. Arriving within a quarter of a mile of the
+palace, Rujub ordered the boy to draw aside.
+
+"Take the horse down that road," he said, "and wait there until we
+return. We may be some time. If we are not back by the time the sun
+sets, you will return home."
+
+As they approached the palace Bathurst scanned every window, as if he
+hoped to see Isobel's face at one of them. Entering the garden, they
+avoided the terrace in front of the house, and sauntering through the
+groups of people who had gathered discussing the latest news, they took
+their seat in a secluded corner.
+
+Bathurst thought of the last time he had been there, when there had been
+a fete given by the Rajah to the residents of Cawnpore, and contrasted
+the present with the past. Then the gardens were lighted up, and a crowd
+of officers and civilians with ladies in white dresses had strolled
+along the terrace to the sound of gay music, while their host moved
+about among them, courteous, pleasant, and smiling. Now the greater
+portion of the men were dead, the women were prisoners in the hands of
+the native who had professed such friendship for them.
+
+"Tell me, Rujub," he said presently, "more about this force at
+Allahabad. What is its strength likely to be?"
+
+"They say there is one British regiment of the line, one of the plumed
+regiments with bare legs, and one of the white Madras regiments; they
+have a few guns, a very few horsemen; that is all, while there are
+twenty thousand troops here. How can they hope to win?"
+
+"You will see they will win," Bathurst said sternly. "They have often
+fought well, but they will fight now as they never fought before; every
+man will feel himself an avenger of the foul treachery and the brutal
+massacres that have been committed. Were it but one regiment that is
+coming up instead of three, I would back it against the blood stained
+wretches."
+
+"They are fighting for freedom," Rujub said.
+
+"They are fighting for nothing of the sort," Bathurst replied hotly;
+"they are fighting for they know not what--change of masters, for
+license to plunder, and because they are ignorant and have been led
+away. I doubt not that at present, confident as they may be of victory,
+most of them in their hearts regret what they have done. They have
+forfeited their pensions, they have thrown away the benefits of their
+years of service, they have been faithless to their salt, and false
+to their oaths. It is true that they know they are fighting with ropes
+round their necks, but even that won't avail against the discipline and
+the fury of our troops. I feel as certain, Rujub, that, in spite of the
+odds against them, the English will triumph, as if I saw their column
+marching into the town. I don't profess to see the future as you do, but
+I know enough to tell you that ere long that palace you can see through
+the trees will be leveled to the ground, that it is as assuredly doomed
+as if fire had already been applied to its gilded beams."
+
+Rujub nodded. "I know the palace is doomed. While I have looked at it
+it has seemed hidden by a cloud of smoke, but I did not think it was the
+work of the British--I thought of an accident."
+
+"The Rajah may fire it with his own hands," Bathurst said; "but if he
+does not, it will be done for him."
+
+"I have not told you yet, sahib," Rujub said, changing the subject, "how
+it was that I could neither prevent the attack on the boats nor warn you
+that it was coming. I knew at Deennugghur that news had been sent of
+the surrender to the Nana. I remained till I knew you were safely in the
+boats, and then rode to Cawnpore. My daughter was at the house when
+I arrived, and told me that the Nana was furious with me, and that it
+would not be safe for me to go near the palace. Thus, although I feared
+that an attack was intended, I thought it would not be until the boats
+passed the town. It was late before I learnt that a battery of artillery
+and some infantry had set out that afternoon. Then I tried to warn you,
+but I felt that I failed. You were not in a mood when my mind could
+communicate itself to yours."
+
+"I felt very uneasy and restless," Bathurst said, "but I had not
+the same feeling that you were speaking to me I had that night at
+Deennugghur; but even had I known of the danger, there would have been
+no avoiding it. Had we landed, we must have been overtaken, and it would
+have come to the same thing. Tell me, Rujub, had you any idea when I saw
+you at Deennugghur that if we were taken prisoners Miss Hannay was to be
+brought here instead of being placed with the other ladies?"
+
+"Yes, I knew it, sahib; the orders he gave to the Sepoys were that every
+man was to be killed, and that the women and children were to be taken
+to Cawnpore, except Miss Hannay, who was to be carried here at once. The
+Rajah had noticed her more than once when she was at Cawnpore, and had
+made up his mind that she should go to his zenana."
+
+"Why did you not tell me when you were at Deennugghur?"
+
+"What would have been the use, sahib? I hoped to save you all; besides,
+it was not until we saw her taken past this morning that we knew that
+the Miss Hannay who was to be taken to Bithoor was the lady whom my
+daughter, when she saw her with you that night, said at once that you
+loved. But had we known it, what good would it have done to have told
+you of the Rajah's orders? You could not have done more than you have
+done. But now we know, we will aid you to save her."
+
+"How long will your daughter be before she comes? It is horrible waiting
+here."
+
+"You must have patience, sahib. It will be no easy work to get the lady
+away. There will be guards and women to look after her. A lady is not to
+be stolen out of a zenana as a young bird is taken from its nest."
+
+"It is all very well to say 'Be patient,'" Bathurst said, getting up and
+walking up and down with quick angry strides. "It is maddening to sit
+here doing nothing. If it were not that I had confidence in your power
+and will to aid me, I would go into the palace and stab Nana Sahib to
+the heart, though I were cut to pieces for it the moment afterwards."
+
+"That would do no good to the lady, sahib," Rujub said calmly. "She
+would only be left without a friend, and the Nana's death might be
+the signal for the murder of every white prisoner. Ah, here comes my
+daughter."
+
+Rabda came up quickly, and stopped before Bathurst with her head bowed
+and her arms crossed in an attitude of humility. She was dressed in the
+attire worn by the principal servants in attendance upon the zenana of a
+Hindoo prince.
+
+"Well, what news, Rabda?" Bathurst asked eagerly.
+
+"The light of my lord's heart is sick. She bore up till she arrived here
+and was handed over to the women. Then her strength failed her, and she
+fainted. She recovered, but she is lying weak and exhausted with all
+that she has gone through and suffered."
+
+"Where is she now?"
+
+"She is in the zenana, looking out into the women's court, that no men
+are ever allowed to enter."
+
+"Has the Rajah seen her?"
+
+"No, sahib. He was told the state that she was in, and the chief lady
+of the zenana sent him word that for the present she must have quiet and
+rest, but that in two or three days she might be fit to see him."
+
+"That is something," Bathurst said thankfully. "Now we shall have time
+to think of some scheme for getting her out."
+
+"You have been in the zenana yourself, Rabda?" Rujub asked.
+
+"Yes, father; the mistress of the zenana saw me directly an attendant
+told her I was there. She has always been kind to me. I said that you
+were going on a journey, and asked her if I might stay with her and act
+as an attendant until you returned, and she at once assented. She asked
+if I should see you before you left, and when I said yes, she asked if
+you could not give her some spell that would turn the Rajah's thoughts
+from this white girl. She fears that if she should become first favorite
+in the zenana, she might take things in her hands as English women do,
+and make all sorts of changes. I told her that, doubtless, the English
+girl would do this, and that I thought she was wise to ask your
+assistance."
+
+"You are mad, Rabda," her father said angrily; "what have I to do with
+spells and love philters?"
+
+"No, father, I knew well enough you would not believe in such things,
+but I thought in this way I might see the lady, and communicate with
+her."
+
+"A very good idea, Rabda," Bathurst said. "Is there nothing you can do,
+Rujub, to make her odious to the Nana?"
+
+"Nothing, sahib. I could act upon some people's minds, and make them
+think that the young lady was afflicted by some loathsome disease, but
+not with the Nana. I have many times tried to influence him, but without
+success: his mind is too deep for mine to master, and between us there
+is no sympathy. Could I be present with him and the girl I might do
+something--that is, if the powers that aid me would act against him; but
+this I do not think."
+
+"Rujub," Bathurst said suddenly, "there must have been medical stores
+taken when the camp was captured--drugs and things of that sort. Can you
+find out who has become possessed of them?"
+
+"I might find out, sahib. Doubtless the men who looted the camp will
+have sold the drugs to the native shops, for English drugs are highly
+prized. Are there medicines that can act as the mistress of the zenana
+wishes?"
+
+"No; but there are drugs that when applied externally would give the
+appearance of a terrible disease. There are acids whose touch would burn
+and blister the skin, and turn a beautiful face into a dreadful mask."
+
+"But would it recover its fairness, sahib?"
+
+"The traces might last for a long time, even for life, if too much were
+used, but I am sure Miss Hannay would not hesitate for a moment on that
+account."
+
+"But you, sahib--would you risk her being disfigured?"
+
+"What does it matter to me?" Bathurst asked sternly. "Do you think love
+is skin deep, and that 'tis only for a fair complexion that we choose
+our wives? Find me the drugs, and let Rabda take them into her with
+a line from me. One of them you can certainly get, for it is used, I
+believe, by gold and silver smiths. It is nitric acid; the other is
+caustic potash, or, as it is sometimes labeled, lunar caustic. It is in
+little sticks; but if you find out anyone who has bought drugs or cases
+of medicines, I will go with you and pick them out."
+
+"There will be no difficulty about finding out where the English drugs
+are. They are certain to be at one of the shops where the native doctors
+buy their medicines."
+
+"Let us go at once, then," Bathurst said. "You can prepare some harmless
+drink, and Rabda will tell the mistress of the zenana it will bring out
+a disfiguring eruption. We can be back here again this evening. Will
+you be here, Rabda, at sunset, and wait until we come? You can tell the
+woman that you have seen your father, and that he will supply her with
+what she requires. Make some excuse, if you can, to see the prisoner.
+Say you are curious to see the white woman who has bewitched the Nana,
+and if you get the opportunity whisper in her ear these words, 'Do not
+despair, friends are working for you.'"
+
+Rabda repeated the English words several times over until she had them
+perfect; then she made her way back to the palace, while Bathurst and
+his companion proceeded at once to the spot where they had left their
+vehicle.
+
+They had but little difficulty in finding what they required. Many of
+the shops displayed garments, weapons, jewelry, and other things, the
+plunder of the intrenchments of Cawnpore. Rujub entered several shops
+where drugs were sold, and finally one of the traders said, "I have a
+large black box full of drugs which I bought from a Sepoy for a rupee,
+but now that I have got it I do not know what to do with it. Some of the
+bottles doubtless contain poisons. I will sell it you for two rupees,
+which is the value of the box, which, as you see, is very strong and
+bound with iron. The contents I place no price upon."
+
+"I will take it," Rujub said. "I know some of the English medicines, and
+may find a use for them."
+
+He paid the money, called in a coolie, and bade him take up the chest
+and follow him, and they soon arrived at the juggler's house.
+
+The box, which was a hospital medical chest, was filled with drugs of
+all kinds. Bathurst put a stick of caustic into a small vial, and half
+filled another, which had a glass stopper, with nitric acid, filled it
+up with water, and tried the effect of rubbing a few drops on his arm.
+
+"That is strong enough for anything," he said, with a slight exclamation
+at the sharp pain. "And now give me a piece of paper and pen and ink."
+
+Then sitting down he wrote:
+
+"My Dear Miss Hannay: Rujub, the juggler, and I will do what we can to
+rescue you. We are powerless to effect anything as long as you remain
+where you are. The bearer, Rujub's daughter, will give you the bottles,
+one containing lunar caustic, the other nitric acid. The mistress of
+the zenana, who wants to get rid of you, as she fears you might obtain
+influence over the Nana, has asked the girl to obtain from her father a
+philter which will make you odious to him. The large bottle is perfectly
+harmless, and you can drink its contents without fear. The caustic is
+for applying to your lips; it will be painful, but I am sure you will
+not mind that, and the injury will be only of a temporary nature.
+I cannot promise as much for the nitric acid; pray apply it very
+carefully, merely moistening the glass stopper and applying it with
+that. I should use it principally round the lips. It will burn and
+blister the skin. The Nana will be told that you have a fever, which is
+causing a terrible and disfiguring eruption. I should apply it also to
+the neck and hands. Pray be very careful with the stuff; for, besides
+the application being exceedingly painful, the scars may possibly remain
+permanently. Keep the two small bottles carefully hidden, in order to
+renew the application if absolutely necessary. At any rate, this will
+give us time, and, from what I hear, our troops are likely to be here
+in another ten days' time. You will be, I know, glad to hear that Wilson
+has also escaped.
+
+"Yours,
+
+"R. Bathurst."
+
+A large bottle was next filled with elder flower water. The trap was
+brought around, and they drove back to Bithoor. Rabda was punctual to
+her appointment.
+
+"I have seen her," she said, "and have given her the message. I could
+see that she understood it, but as there were other women round, she
+made no sign. I told the mistress of the zenana that you had given me
+some magic words that I was to whisper to her to prepare the way for the
+philter, so she let me in without difficulty, and I was allowed to go
+close up to her and repeat your message. I put my hands on her before
+I did so, and I think she felt that it was the touch of a friend. She
+hushed up when I spoke to her. The mistress, who was standing close by,
+thought that this was a sign of the power of the words I had spoken to
+her. I did not stay more than a minute. I was afraid she might try to
+speak to me in your tongue, and that would have been dangerous."
+
+"There are the bottles,"' Bathurst said; "this large one is for her to
+take, the other two and this note are to be given to her separately.
+You had better tell the woman that the philter must be given by your own
+hands, and that you must then watch alone by her side for half an hour.
+Say that after you leave her she will soon go off to sleep; and must
+then be left absolutely alone till daybreak tomorrow, and it will then
+be found that the philter has acted. She must at once tell the Nana
+that the lady is in a high fever, and has been seized with some terrible
+disease that has altogether disfigured her, and that he can see for
+himself the state she is in."
+
+Rabda's whisper had given new life and hope to Isobel Hannay. Previous
+to that her fate had seemed to her to be sealed, and she had only prayed
+for death; the long strain of the siege had told upon her; the scene in
+the boat seemed a species of horrible nightmare, culminating in a
+number of Sepoys leaping on board the boat as it touched the bank, and
+bayoneting her uncle and all on board except herself, Mrs. Hunter, and
+her daughter, who were seized and carried ashore. Then followed a night
+of dull despairing pain, while she and her companions crouched together,
+with two Sepoys standing on guard over them, while the others, after
+lighting fires, talked and laughed long into the night over the success
+of their attack.
+
+At daybreak they had been placed upon a limber and driven into Cawnpore.
+Her spirit had risen as they were assailed by insults and imprecations
+by the roughs of the town, and she had borne up bravely till, upon their
+arrival at the entrance to what she supposed was the prison, she was
+roughly dragged from the limber, placed in a close carriage, and driven
+off. In her despair she had endeavored to open the door in order to
+throw herself under the wheels, but a soldier stood on each step and
+prevented her from doing so.
+
+Outside of the town she soon saw that she was on the road to Bithoor,
+and the fate for which she was reserved flashed upon her. She remembered
+now the oily compliments of Nana Sahib, and the unpleasant thrill she
+had felt when his eyes were fixed upon her; and had she possessed a
+weapon of any kind she would have put an end to her life. But her pistol
+had been taken from her when she landed, and in helpless despair she
+crouched in a corner of the carriage until they reached Bithoor.
+
+As soon as the carriage stopped a cloth was thrown over her head. She
+was lifted out and carried into the palace, through long passages and
+up stairs; then those who carried her set her on her feet and retired.
+Other hands took her and led her forward till the cloth was taken off
+her head, and she found herself surrounded, by women, who regarded her
+with glances of mixed curiosity and hostility. Then everything seemed to
+swim round, and she fainted.
+
+When she recovered consciousness all strength seemed to have left her,
+and she lay in a sort of apathy for hours, taking listlessly the drink
+that was offered to her, but paying no attention to what was passing
+around, until there was a gentle pressure on her arm, the grasp
+tightening with a slight caressing motion that seemed to show sympathy;
+then came the English words softly whispered into her ear, while the
+hand again pressed her arm firmly, as if in warning.
+
+It was with difficulty that she refrained from uttering an exclamation,
+and she felt the blood crimson her cheeks, but she mastered the impulse
+and lay perfectly quiet, glancing up into the face bent down close to
+hers--it was not familiar to her, and yet it seemed to her that she had
+seen it somewhere; another minute and it was gone.
+
+But though to all appearances Isobel's attitude was unchanged, her mind
+was active now. Who could have sent her this message? Who could this
+native girl be who had spoken in English to her? Where had she seen the
+face?
+
+Her thoughts traveled backwards, and she ran over in her mind all
+those with whom she had come in contact since her arrival in India; her
+servants and those of her acquaintances passed before her eyes. She
+had scarcely spoken to another native woman since she had landed. After
+thinking over all she had known in Cawnpore, she thought of Deennugghur.
+Whom had she met there?
+
+Suddenly came the remembrance of the exhibition by the juggler, and
+she recalled the face and figure of his daughter, as, seated, upon the
+growing pole, she had gone up foot by foot in the light of the lamps and
+up into the darkness above. The mystery was solved; that was the face
+that had just leaned over her.
+
+But how could she be interested in her fate? Then she remembered that
+this was the girl whom Bathurst had saved from the tiger. If they
+were interested in her, it must be through Bathurst. Could he too have
+survived the attack of the night before? She had thought of him, as of
+all of them, as dead, but possibly he might have escaped. Even during
+the long night's waiting, a captive to the Sepoys, the thought that he
+had instantly sprung from beside her and leaped overboard had been
+an added pang to all her misery. She had no after remembrance of him;
+perhaps he had swum to shore and got off in safety. In that case he must
+be lingering in Cawnpore, had learned what had become of her, and was
+trying to rescue her. It was to the juggler he would naturally have gone
+to obtain assistance. If so, he was risking his life now to save hers;
+and this was the man whom she despised as a coward.
+
+But what could he do? At Bithoor, in the power of this treacherous
+Rajah, secure in the zenana, where no man save its master ever
+penetrated, how could he possibly help her? Yet the thought that he was
+trying to do so was a happy one, and the tears that flowed between her
+closed lids were not painful ones. She blamed herself now for having
+felt for a moment hurt at Bathurst's desertion of her. To have remained
+in the boat would have been certain death, while he could have been of
+no assistance to her or anyone else. That he should escape, then, if he
+could, now seemed to her a perfectly natural action; she hoped that
+some of the others had done the same, and that Bathurst was not working
+alone.
+
+It did not occur to her that there could be any possibility of the
+scheme for her rescue succeeding; as to that she felt no more hopeful
+than before, but it seemed to take away the sense of utter loneliness
+that she before felt that someone should be interesting himself in her
+fate. Perhaps there would be more than a mere verbal message next time;
+how long would it be before she heard again? How long a respite had she
+before that wretch came to see her? Doubtless he had heard that she was
+ill. She would remain so. She would starve herself. Her weakness seemed
+to her her best protection.
+
+As she lay apparently helpless upon the couch she watched the women move
+about the room. The girl who had spoken to her was not among them. The
+women were not unkind; they brought her cooling drinks, and tried to
+tempt her to eat something; but she shook her head as if utterly unable
+to do so, and after a time feigned to be asleep.
+
+Darkness came on gradually; some lamps were lighted in the room. Not for
+a moment had she been left alone since she was brought in--never less
+than two females remaining with her.
+
+Presently the woman who was evidently the chief of the establishment
+came in accompanied by a girl, whom Isobel recognized at once as the
+juggler's daughter. The latter brought with her a tray, on which were
+some cakes and a silver goblet. These she set down on an oak table by
+the couch. The girl then handed her the goblet, which, keeping up the
+appearance of extreme feebleness, she took languidly. She placed it to
+her lips, but at once took it away. It was not cool and refreshing like
+those she had tasted before, it had but little flavor, but had a faint
+odor, which struck her as not unfamiliar. It was a drug of some sort
+they wished her to drink.
+
+She looked up in the girl's face. Rabda made a reassuring gesture, and
+said in a low whisper, as she bent forward, "Bathurst Sahib."
+
+This was sufficient; whatever it was it would do her no harm, and she
+raised the cup to her lips and emptied it. Then the elder woman said
+something to the other two, and they all left the room together, leaving
+her alone with Rabda.
+
+The latter went to the door quietly and drew the hangings across it,
+then she returned to the couch, and from the folds of her dress produced
+two vials and a tiny note. Then, noiselessly, she placed a lamp on the
+table, and withdrew to a short distance while Isobel opened and read the
+note.
+
+Twice she read it through, and then, laying it down, burst into tears of
+relief. Rabda came and knelt down beside the couch, and, taking one
+of her hands, pressed it to her lips. Isobel threw her arms round the
+girl's neck, drew her close to her, and kissed her warmly.--Rabda then
+drew a piece of paper and a pencil from her dress and handed them to
+her. She wrote:
+
+"Thanks a thousand times, dear friend; I will follow your instructions.
+Please send me if you can some quick and deadly poison, that I may take
+in the last extremity. Do not fear that I will flinch from applying the
+things you have sent me. I would not hesitate to swallow them were there
+no other hope of escape. I rejoice so much to know that you have escaped
+from that terrible attack last night. Did Wilson alone get away? Do you
+know they murdered my uncle and all the others in the boat, except Mrs.
+Hunter and Mary? Pray do not run any risks to try and rescue me. I think
+that I am safe now, and will make myself so hideous that if the wretch
+once sees me he will never want to see me again. As to death, I have no
+fear of it. If we do not meet again, God bless you.
+
+"Yours most gratefully,
+
+"Isobel."
+
+Rabda concealed the note in her garment, and then motioned to Isobel
+that she should close her eyes and pretend to be asleep. Then she gently
+drew back the curtains and seated herself at a distance from the couch.
+
+Half an hour later the mistress of the zenana came in. Rabda rose and
+put her finger to her lips and left the room, accompanied by the woman.
+
+"She is asleep," she said; "do not be afraid, the potion will do its
+work. Leave her alone all night. When she wakes in the morning she will
+be wild with fever, and you need have no fear that the Rajah will seek
+to make her the queen of his zenana."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+Prepared as the mistress of the zenana was to find a great change in the
+captive's appearance, she was startled when, soon after daybreak, she
+went in to see her. The lower part of her face was greatly swollen, her
+lips were covered with white blotches. There were great red scars
+round the mouth and on her forehead, and the skin seemed to have been
+completely eaten away. There were even larger and deeper marks on her
+neck and shoulders, which were partly uncovered, as if by her restless
+tossing. Her hands and arms were similarly marked. She took no notice
+of her entrance, but talked to herself as she tossed restlessly on the
+couch.
+
+There was but little acting in this, for Isobel was suffering an agony
+of pain. She had used the acid much more freely than she had been
+instructed to do, determined that the disfigurement should be complete.
+All night she had been in a state of high fever, and had for a time been
+almost delirious. She was but slightly more easy now, and had difficulty
+in preventing herself from crying out from the torture she was
+suffering.
+
+There was no tinge of pity in the face of the woman who looked at her,
+but a smile of satisfaction at the manner in which the potion had done
+its work.
+
+"The Nana can see her now," she said to herself; "there will be no
+change in the arrangements here."
+
+She at once sent out word that as soon as the Rajah was up he was to be
+told that she begged him to come at once.
+
+An hour later he came to the door of the zenana.
+
+"What is it, Poomba?" he asked; "nothing the matter with Miss Hannay, I
+hope?"
+
+"I grieve to say, your highness, that she has been seized with some
+terrible disease. I know not what it is, for never did I see a woman so
+smitten. It must be an illness contracted from confinement and bad air
+during the siege, some illness that the Europeans have, for never did I
+see aught like it. She is in a high state of fever, and her face is in a
+terrible state. It must be a sort of plague."
+
+"You have been poisoning her," the Nana said roughly; "if so, beware,
+for your life shall be the forfeit. I will see her for myself."
+
+"She has had no poison since she came here, though I know not but what
+she may have had poison about her, and may have taken it after she was
+captured."
+
+"Take me to her," the Rajah said. "I will see for myself."
+
+"It may be a contagious disease, your highness. It were best that you
+should not go near her."
+
+The Rajah made an impatient gesture, and the woman, without another
+word, led him into the room where Isobel was lying. The Nana was
+prepared for some disfigurement of the face he had so admired, but he
+shrank back from the reality.
+
+"It is horrible," he said, in a low voice. "What have you been doing to
+her?" he asked, turning furiously to the woman.
+
+"I have done nothing, your highness. All day yesterday she lay in a
+torpor, as I told you in the evening when you inquired about her, and I
+thought then she was going to be ill. I have watched her all night.
+She has been restless and disturbed, but I thought it better not to go
+nearer lest I should wake her, and it was not until this morning, when
+the day broke, that I perceived this terrible change. What shall we do
+with her? If the disease is contagious, everyone in the palace may catch
+it."
+
+"Have a closed palanquin brought to the door, wrap her up, and have
+her carried down to the Subada Ke Kothee. Let her give it to the women
+there. Burn all the things in this room, and everything that has been
+worn by those who have entered it. I will inquire into this matter later
+on, and should I find that there has been any foul play, those concerned
+in it shall wish they had never been born."
+
+As soon as he had left the woman called Rabda in.
+
+"All has gone well," she said; "your father's philter is powerful
+indeed. Tell him whenever he needs any service I can render he has but
+to ask it. Look at her; did you ever see one so disfigured? The Rajah
+has seen her, and is filled with loathing. She is to be sent to the
+Subada Ke Kothee. Are you sure that the malady is not contagious? I have
+persuaded the Rajah that it is; that is why he is sending her away."
+
+"I am sure it is not," Rabda said; "it is the result of the drugs. It is
+terrible to see her; give me some cooling ointment."
+
+"What does it matter about her now that she is harmless?" Poomba said
+scornfully. Being, however, desirous of pleasing Rabda, she went away
+and brought a pot of ointment, which the girl applied to the sores, the
+tears falling down her cheeks as she did so.
+
+The salve at once afforded relief from the burning pain, and Isobel
+gratefully took a drink prepared from fresh limes.
+
+She had only removed her gown when she had lain down, having done this
+in order that it should not be burned by the acid, and that her neck
+and shoulders might be seen, and the belief induced that this strange
+eruption was all over her. Rabda made signs for her to put it on again,
+and pointing in the direction of Cawnpore, repeated the word several
+times, and Isobel felt with a thrill of intense thankfulness that the
+stratagem had succeeded, and that she was to be sent away at once,
+probably to the place where the other prisoners were confined. Presently
+the woman returned.
+
+"Rabda, you had best go with her. It were well that you should leave
+for the present. The Rajah is suspicious; he may come back again and ask
+questions; and as he knows you by sight, and as you told me your father
+was in disfavor with him at present, he might suspect that you were in
+some way concerned in the matter."
+
+"I will go," Rabda said. "I am sorry she has suffered so much. I did not
+think the potion would have been so strong. Give me a netful of fresh
+limes and some cooling lotion, that I may leave with her there."
+
+In a few minutes a woman came up to say that the palanquin was in
+readiness at the gate of the zenana garden. A large cushion was taken
+off a divan, and Isobel was laid upon it and covered with a light
+shawl. Six of the female attendants lifted it and carried it downstairs,
+accompanied by Rabda and the mistress off the zenana, both closely
+veiled. Outside the gate was a large palanquin, with its bearers and
+four soldiers and an officer. The cushion was lifted and placed in the
+palanquin, and Rabda also took her place there.
+
+"Then you will not return today," the woman said to her, in a voice loud
+enough to be heard by the officers "You will remain with her for a time,
+and afterwards go to see your friends in the town. I will send for you
+when I hear that you wish to return."
+
+The curtains of the palanquin were drawn down; the bearers lifted it and
+started at once for Cawnpore.
+
+On arrival at the large building known as the Subada Ke Kothee the
+gates were opened at once at the order of the Nana's officer, and the
+palanquin was carried across the courtyard to the door of the building
+which was used as a prison for the white women and children. It was
+taken into the great arched room and set down. Rabda stepped out, and
+the bearers lifted out the cushion upon which Isobel lay.
+
+"You will not be wanted any more," Rabda said, in a tone of authority.
+"You can return to Bithoor at once!"
+
+As the door closed behind them several of the ladies came round to
+see this fresh arrival. Rabda looked round till her eye fell upon Mrs.
+Hunter, who was occupied in trying to hush a fractious child. She put
+her hand on her arm and motioned to her to come along. Surprised at the
+summons, Mrs. Hunter followed her. When they reached the cushion Rabda
+lifted the shawl from Isobel's face. For a moment Mrs. Hunter failed to
+recognize her, but as Isobel opened her eyes and held out her hand she
+knew her, and with a cry of pity she dropped on her knees beside her.
+
+"My poor child, what have these fiends been doing to you?"
+
+"They have been doing nothing, Mrs. Hunter," she whispered. "I am not
+so bad as I seem, though I have suffered a great deal of pain. I was
+carried away to Bithoor, to Nana Sahib's zenana, and I have burnt my
+face with caustic and acid; they think I have some terrible disease, and
+have sent me here."
+
+"Bravely done, girl! Bravely and nobly done! We had best keep the secret
+to ourselves; there are constantly men looking through the bars of the
+window, and some of them may understand English."
+
+Then she looked up and said, "It is Miss Hannay, she was captured with
+us in the boats; please help me to carry her over to the wall there, and
+my daughter and I will nurse her; it looks as if she had been terribly
+burnt, somehow."
+
+Many of the ladies had met Isobel in the happy days before the troubles
+began, and great was the pity expressed at her appearance. She was
+carried to the side of the wall, where Mary and Mrs. Hunter at once made
+her as comfortable as they could. Rabda, who had now thrown back her
+veil, produced from under her dress the net containing some fifty small
+limes, and handed to Mrs. Hunter the pot of ointment and the lotion.
+
+"She has saved me," Isobel said; "it is the daughter of the juggler who
+performed at your house, Mrs. Hunter; do thank her for me, and tell her
+how grateful I am."
+
+Mrs. Hunter took Rabda's hand, and in her own language thanked her for
+her kindness to Isobel.
+
+"I have done as I was told," Rabda said simply; "the Sahib Bathurst
+saved my life, and when he said the lady must be rescued from the hands
+of the Nana, it was only right that I should do so, even at the risk of
+my life."
+
+"So Bathurst has escaped," Mrs. Hunter said, turning to Isobel. "I am
+glad of that, dear; I was afraid that all were gone."
+
+"Yes, I had a note from him; it is by his means that I got away from
+Bithoor. He sent me the caustic and acid to burn my face. He told me
+Mr. Wilson had also escaped, and perhaps some others may have got away,
+though he did not seem to know it."
+
+"But surely there could be no occasion to burn yourself as badly as you
+have done, Isobel."
+
+"I am afraid I did put on too much acid," she said. "I was so afraid
+of not burning it enough; but it does not matter, it does not pain me
+nearly so much since I put on that ointment; it will soon get well."
+
+Mrs. Hunter shook her head regretfully.
+
+"I am afraid it will leave marks for a long time."
+
+"That is of no consequence at all, Mrs. Hunter; I am so thankful at
+being here with you, that I should mind very little if I knew that it
+was always to be as bad as it is now. What does it matter?"
+
+"It does not matter at all at present, my dear; but if you ever get out
+of this horrible place, some day you may think differently about it."
+
+"I must go now," Rabda said. "Has the lady any message to send to the
+sahib?" and she again handed a paper and pencil to Isobel.
+
+The girl took them, hesitating a little before writing:
+
+"Thank God you have saved me. Some day, perhaps, I may be able to tell
+you how grateful I am; but, if not, you will know that if the worst
+happens to us, I shall die blessing you for what you have done for me.
+Pray do not linger longer in Cawnpore. You may be discovered, and if I
+am spared, it would embitter my life always to know that it had cost you
+yours. God bless you always.
+
+"Yours gratefully,
+
+"Isobel."
+
+She folded up the paper and gave it to Rabda, who took her hand and
+kissed it; and then, drawing her veil again over her face, went to the
+door, which stood open for the moment.
+
+Some men were bringing in a large cauldron of rice. The sentries offered
+no opposition to her passing out, as the officer with the palanquin
+had told them that a lady of the Rajah's zenana would leave shortly.
+A similar message had been given to the officer at the main gate, who,
+however, requested to see her hand and arm to satisfy him that all was
+right. This was sufficient to assure him that it was not a white woman
+passing out in disguise, and Rabda at once proceeded to her father's
+house.
+
+As she expected, he and Bathurst were away, for she had arranged to meet
+them at eight o'clock in the garden. They did not return until eleven,
+having waited two hours for her, and returning home in much anxiety at
+her non-appearance.
+
+"What has happened? Why did you not meet us, Rabda?" her father
+exclaimed, as he entered.
+
+Rabda rapidly repeated the incidents that had happened since she had
+parted from him the evening before, and handed to Bathurst the two notes
+she had received from Isobel.
+
+"Then she is in safety with the others!" he exclaimed in delight. "Thank
+God for that, and thank you, Rabda, indeed, for what you have done."
+
+"My life is my lord's," the girl said quietly. "What I have done is
+nothing."
+
+"If we had but known, Rujub, that she would be moved at once, we might
+have rescued her on the way."
+
+Rujub shook his head.
+
+"There are far too many people along the road, sahib; it could not have
+been done. But, of course, there was no knowing that she would be sent
+off directly after the Nana had seen her."
+
+"Is she much disfigured, Rabda?" Bathurst asked.
+
+"Dreadfully;" the girl said sorrowfully. "The acid must have been too
+strong."
+
+"It was strong, no doubt," Bathurst said; "but if she had put it on as I
+instructed her it could only have burnt the surface of the skin."
+
+"It has burnt her dreadfully, sahib; even I should hardly have known
+her. She must be brave indeed to have done it. She must have suffered
+dreadfully; but I obtained some ointment for her, and she was better
+when I left her. She is with the wife of the Sahib Hunter."
+
+"Now, Rabda, see if the meal is prepared," Rujub said. "We are both
+hungry, and you can have eaten nothing this morning."
+
+He then left the room, leaving Bathurst to read the letters which he
+still held in his hand, feeling that they were too precious to be looked
+at until he was alone.
+
+It was some time before Rabda brought in his breakfast, and, glancing at
+him, she saw how deeply he had been moved by the letters. She went up to
+him and placed her hand on his shoulder.
+
+"We will get her for you, sahib. We have been successful so far, be
+assured that we shall succeed again. What we have done is more difficult
+than what we have to do. It is easier to get twenty prisoners from a
+jail than one from a rajah's zenana."
+
+"That is true enough, Rabda. At the moment I was not thinking of that,
+but of other things."
+
+He longed for sympathy, but the girl would not have understood him had
+he told her his feelings. To her he was a hero, and it would have seemed
+to her folly had he said that he felt himself altogether unworthy of
+Isobel Hannay. After he had finished his breakfast Rujub again came in.
+
+"What does the sahib intend to do now?" he asked.
+
+"As far as I can see there is nothing to do at present, Rujub," he said.
+"When the white troops come up she will be delivered."
+
+"Then will my lord go down to Allahabad?"
+
+"Certainly not. There is no saying what may happen."
+
+"That is so," Rujub agreed. "The white women are safe at present, but
+if, as the Sahib thinks, the white soldiers should beat the troops of
+the Nana, who can say what will happen? The people will be wild with
+rage, the Nana will be furious--he is a tiger who, having once laid his
+paw on a victim, will not allow it to be torn from him."
+
+"He can never allow them to be injured," Bathurst said. "It is possible
+that as our troops advance he may carry them all off as hostages, and by
+the threat of killing them may make terms for his own life, but he would
+never venture to carry out his threats. You think he would?" he asked.
+
+Rujub remained silent for a minute.
+
+"I think so, sahib; the Nana is an ambitious man; he has wealth and
+everything most men would desire to make life happy, but he wanted more:
+he thought that when the British Raj was destroyed he would rule over
+the territories of the Peishwa, and be one of the greatest lords of the
+land. He has staked everything on that; if he loses, he has lost all. He
+knows that after the breach of his oath and the massacre here, there is
+no pardon for him. He is a tiger--and a wounded tiger is most dangerous.
+If he is, as you believe he will be, defeated, I believe his one thought
+will be of revenge. Every day brings news of fresh risings. Scindia's
+army will join us; Holkar's will probably follow. All Oude is rising in
+arms. A large army is gathering at Delhi. Even if the Nana is defeated
+here all will not be lost. He has twenty thousand men; there are well
+nigh two hundred thousand in arms round Lucknow alone. My belief is
+that if beaten his first thought will be to take revenge at once on the
+Feringhees, and to make his name terrible, and that he will then go off
+with his army to Lucknow or Delhi, where he would be received as one who
+has dared more than all others to defy the whites, who has no hope of
+pardon, and can, therefore, be relied upon above all others to fight to
+the last."
+
+"It may be so, Rujub, though I can scarce believe that there exists a
+monster who would give orders for the murder of hundreds of women and
+children in cold blood; but, at any rate, I will remain and watch.
+We will decide upon what will be the best plan to rescue her from the
+prison, if we hear that evil is intended; but, if not, I can remain
+patiently until our troops arrive. I know the Subada Ke Kothee; it is,
+if I remember right, a large quadrangle with no windows on the outside."
+
+"That is so, sahib; it is a strong place, and difficult indeed to get
+into or out of. There is only the main gate, which is guarded at night
+by two sentries outside and there is doubtless a strong guard within."
+
+"I would learn whether the same regiment always furnishes the guard; if
+so, it might be possible to bribe them."
+
+"I am afraid it would be too dangerous to try. There are scores of men
+in Cawnpore who would cut a throat for a rupee, but when it comes to
+breaking open a prison to carry off one of these white women whom they
+hate it would be too dangerous to try."
+
+"Could you not do something with your art, Rujub?"
+
+"If there were only the outside sentries it would be easy enough, sahib.
+I could send them to sleep with a wave of my hand, but I could not
+affect the men inside whom I do not know even by sight. Besides, in
+addition to the soldiers who guard the gate, there will be the men who
+have been told off to look after the prisoners. It will require a great
+deal of thinking over, sahib, but I believe we shall manage it. I shall
+go tomorrow to Bithoor and show myself boldly to the Nana. He knows that
+I have done good service to him, and his anger will have cooled down by
+this time, and he will listen to what I have to say. It will be useful
+to us for me to be able to go in and out of the palace at will, and so
+learn the first news from those about him. It is most important that we
+should know if he has evil intentions towards the captives, so that we
+may have time to carry out our plans."
+
+"Very well, Rujub. You do not expect me to remain indoors, I hope, for I
+should wear myself out if I were obliged to wait here doing nothing."
+
+"No, sahib; it will be perfectly safe for you to go about just as you
+are, and I can get you any other disguise you like. You will gather what
+is said in the town, can listen to the Sepoys, and examine the Subada Ke
+Kothee. If you like I will go there with you now. My daughter shall come
+with us; she may be useful, and will be glad to be doing something."
+
+They went out from the city towards the prison house, which stood in
+an open space round which were several other buildings, some of them
+surrounded with gardens and walls.
+
+The Subada Ke Kothee was a large building, forming three sides of a
+square, a strong high wall forming the fourth side. It was low, with a
+flat roof. There were no windows or openings in the outside wall, the
+chambers all facing the courtyard. Two sentries were at the gate. They
+were in the red Sepoy uniform, and Bathurst saw at once how much the
+bonds of discipline had been relaxed. Both had leaned their muskets
+against the wall; one was squatted on the ground beside his firearm, and
+the other was talking with two or three natives of his acquaintance. The
+gates were closed.
+
+As they watched, a native officer came up. He stood for a minute
+talking with the soldiers. By his gesticulations it could be seen he was
+exceedingly angry, and the men took their muskets and began to walk up
+and down. Then the officer knocked at the gate. Instead of its being
+opened, a man appeared at a loophole in the gate tower, and the officer
+handed to him a paper. A minute later the gate was opened sufficiently
+for him to pass in, and was then closed behind him.
+
+"They are evidently pretty strict," Bathurst said. "I don't think,
+Rujub, there is much chance of our doing anything there."
+
+Rujub shook his head. "No, sahib, it is clear they have strict orders
+about opening and shutting the gate."
+
+"It would not be very difficult to scale the wall of the house,"
+Bathurst said, "with a rope and a hook at its end; but that is only the
+first step. The real difficulty lies in getting the prison room open in
+the first place--for no doubt they are locked up at night--and in the
+second getting her out of it, and the building."
+
+"You could lower her down from the top of the wall, sahib."
+
+"Yes, if one could get her out of the room they are confined in without
+making the slightest stir, but it is almost too much to hope that one
+could be able to do that. The men in charge of them are likely to keep
+a close watch, for they know that their heads would pay for any captive
+they allowed to escape."
+
+"I don't think they will watch much, sahib; they will not believe that
+any of the women, broken down as they must be by trouble, would attempt
+such a thing, for even if they got out of the prison itself and then
+made their escape from the building, they would be caught before they
+could go far."
+
+"Where does the prison house lie, Rabda?" Bathurst asked.
+
+"It is on the left hand side as you enter the gate; it is the farthest
+door. Along that side most of the buildings--which have been used for
+storehouses, I should say, or perhaps for the guards when the place
+was a palace--have two floors, one above the other. But this is a large
+vaulted room extending from the ground to the roof; it has windows with
+iron gratings; the door is very strong and heavy."
+
+"And now, sahib, we can do nothing more," Rujub said. "I will return
+home with Rabda, and then go over to Bithoor."
+
+"Very well, Rujub, I will stay here, and hear what people are talking
+about."
+
+There were indeed a considerable number of people near the building:
+the fact that the white prisoners were within seemed to exercise a
+fascination, and even women brought their children and sat on the
+banks which marked where gardens had once been, and talked of the
+white captives. Bathurst strolled about among the groups of Sepoys and
+townspeople. The former talked in loud tones of the little force that
+had already started from Allahabad, and boasted how easily they would
+eat up the Feringhees. It seemed, however, to Bathurst that a good deal
+of this confidence was assumed, and that among some, at least, there was
+an undercurrent of doubt and uneasiness, though they talked as loudly
+and boldly as their companions.
+
+The townspeople were of two classes: there were the budmashes or roughs
+of the place, who uttered brutal and ferocious jokes as to the probable
+fate of the white women. There were others who kept in groups apart and
+talked in low voices. These were the traders, to whom the events that
+had taken place foreboded ruin. Already most of the shops had been
+sacked, and many of the principal inhabitants murdered by the mob.
+Those who had so far escaped, thanks in some instances to the protection
+afforded them by Sepoy officers, saw that their trade was ruined, their
+best customers killed, and themselves virtually at the mercy of the mob,
+who might again break out upon the occasion of any excitement. These
+were silent when Bathurst approached them. His attire, and the arms so
+ostentatiously displayed in his sash, marked him as one of the dangerous
+class, perhaps a prisoner from the jail whose doors had been thrown open
+on the first night of the Sepoy rising.
+
+For hours Bathurst remained in the neighborhood of the prison. The sun
+set, and the night came on. Then a small party of soldiers came up and
+relieved the sentries. This time the number of the sentries at the gate
+was doubled, and three men were posted, one on each of the other sides
+of the building. After seeing this done he returned to the house. After
+he had finished his evening meal Rujub and Rabda came into the room.
+
+"Now, sahib," the former said, "I think that we can tell you how the
+lady is. Rabda has seen her, spoken to her, and touched her; there is
+sympathy between them."
+
+He seated Rabda in a chair, placed his hand on her forehead, and then
+drew the tips of his fingers several times slowly down her face. Her
+eyes closed. He took up her hand, and let it fall again. It was limp and
+impassive. Then he said authoritatively, "Go to the prison." He paused a
+moment.
+
+"Are you there?"
+
+"I am there," she said.
+
+"Are you in the room where the ladies are?"
+
+"I am there," she repeated.
+
+"Do you see the lady Hannay?"
+
+"I see her."
+
+"How is she?"
+
+"She is lying quiet. The other young lady is sitting beside her. The
+lower part of her face is bandaged up, but I can see that she is not
+suffering as she was this morning. She looks quiet and happy."
+
+"Try and speak to her. Say, 'Keep up your courage, we are doing what we
+can.' Speak, I order you."
+
+"I have spoken."
+
+"Did she hear you?"
+
+"Yes. She has raised herself on her arm; she is looking round; she has
+asked the other young lady if she heard anything. The other shakes her
+head. She heard my words, but does not understand them."
+
+Rujub looked at Bathurst, who mechanically repeated the message in
+English.
+
+"Speak to her again. Tell her these words," and Rujub repeated the
+message in English.
+
+"Does she hear you?"
+
+"She hears me. She has clasped her hands, and is looking round
+bewildered."
+
+"That will do. Now go outside into the yard; what do you see there?"
+
+"I see eight men sitting round a fire. One gets up and walks to one of
+the grated windows, and looks in at the prisoners."
+
+"Is the door locked?"
+
+"It is locked."
+
+"Where is the key?"
+
+She was silent for some time.
+
+"Where is the key?" he repeated.
+
+"In the lock," she said.
+
+"How many soldiers are there in the guardroom by the gate?"
+
+"There are no soldiers there. There are an officer and four men outside,
+but none inside."
+
+"That will do," and he passed his hand lightly across her forehead.
+
+"Is it all true?" Bathurst asked, as the juggler turned to him.
+
+"Assuredly it is true, sahib. Had I had my daughter with me at
+Deennugghur, I could have sent you a message as easily; as it was, I had
+to trust only to the power of my mind upon yours. The information is of
+use, sahib."
+
+"It is indeed. It is a great thing to know that the key is left in the
+lock, and also that at night there are the prison keepers only inside
+the building."
+
+"Does she know what she has been doing?" he asked, as Rabda languidly
+rose from her chair.
+
+"No, sahib, she knows nothing after she has recovered from these
+trances."
+
+"I will watch tomorrow night," Bathurst said, "and see at what hour the
+sentries are relieved. It is evident that the Sepoys are not trusted
+to enter the prison, which is left entirely to the warders, the outside
+posts being furnished by some regiment in the lines. It is important to
+know the exact hour at which the changes are made, and perhaps you
+could find out tomorrow, Rujub, who these warders are; whether they are
+permanently on duty, or are relieved once a day."
+
+"I will do that, sahib; if they are changed we may be able to get at
+some of them."
+
+"I have no money," Bathurst said; "but--"
+
+"I have money, sahib, and if they can be bribed, will do it; our
+caste is a rich one. We sometimes receive large presents, and we are
+everywhere made welcome. We have little need of money. I am wealthy, and
+practice my art more because I love it than for gain. There are few in
+the land that know the secrets that I do. Men die without having sons
+to pass down their knowledge; thus it is the number of those who possess
+the secrets of the ancient grows smaller every day. There are hundreds
+of jugglers, but very few who know, as I do, the secrets of nature, and
+can control the spirits of the air. Did I need greater wealth than I
+have, Rabda could discover for me all the hidden treasures of India;
+and I could obtain them, guarded though they may be by djins and evil
+spirits."
+
+"Have you a son to come after you, Rujub?"
+
+"Yes; he is traveling in Persia, to confer with one or two of the great
+ones there who still possess the knowledge of the ancient magicians."
+
+"By the way, Rujub, I have not asked you how you got on with the Nana."
+
+"It was easy enough," the juggler said. "He had lost all interest in
+the affairs of Deennugghur, and greeted me at first as if I had just
+returned from a journey. Then he remembered and asked me suddenly why I
+had disobeyed his orders and given my voice for terms being granted to
+the Feringhees. I said that I had obeyed his orders; I understood that
+what he principally desired was to have the women here as prisoners, and
+that had the siege continued the Feringhees would have blown themselves
+into the air. Therefore the only plan was to make terms with them, which
+would, in fact, place them all in his power, as he would not be bound
+by the conditions granted by the Oude men. He was satisfied, and said no
+more about it, and I am restored to my position in his favor. Henceforth
+we shall not have to trust to the gossip of the bazaars, but I shall
+know what news is received and what is going to be done.
+
+"Your people at Delhi have beaten back the Sepoys several times, and at
+Lucknow they resist stoutly. The Nana is very angry that the place has
+not been taken, but from what I hear the intrenchments there are much
+stronger than they were here, and even here they were not taken by the
+sword, but because the whites had no shelter from the guns, and could
+not go to the well without exposing themselves to the fire. At Lucknow
+they have some strong houses in the intrenchments, and no want of
+anything, so they can only be captured by fighting. Everyone says they
+cannot hold out many days longer, but that I do not know. It does not
+seem to me that there is any hope of rescue for them, for even if, as
+you think, the white troops should beat Nana Sahib's men, they
+never could force their way through the streets of Lucknow to the
+intrenchments there."
+
+"We shall see, Rujub. Deennugghur was defended by a mere handful, and
+at Lucknow they have half a regiment of white soldiers. They may, for
+anything I know, have to yield to starvation, but I doubt whether the
+mutineers and Oude men, however numerous they may be, will carry the
+place by assault. Is there any news elsewhere?"
+
+"None, sahib, save that the Feringhees are bringing down regiments from
+the Punjaub to aid those at Delhi."
+
+"The tide is beginning to turn, Rujub; the mutineers have done their
+worst, and have failed to overthrow the English Raj. Now you will see
+that every day they will lose ground. Fresh troops will pour up the
+country, and step by step the mutiny will be crushed out; it is a
+question of time only. If you could call up a picture on smoke of what
+will be happening a year hence, you would see the British triumphant
+everywhere."
+
+"I cannot do that, sahib; I do not know what would appear on the smoke,
+and were I to try, misfortune would surely come upon me. When a picture
+of the past is shown on the smoke, it is not a past I know of, but which
+one of those present knows. I cannot always say which among them may
+know it; it is always a scene that has made a strong impression on the
+mind, but more than that I do not know. As to those of the future, I
+know even less; it is the work of the power of the air, whose name I
+whisper to myself when I pour out the incense, and to whom I pray. It
+is seldom that I show these pictures; he gets angry if called upon too
+often. I never do it unless I feel that he is propitious."
+
+"It is beyond me altogether, Rujub; I can understand your power of
+sending messages, and of your daughter seeing at a distance. I
+have heard of such things at home; they are called mesmerism and
+clairvoyance. It is an obscure art; but that some men do possess the
+power of influencing others at a distance seems to be undoubted, still
+it is certainly never carried to such perfection as I see it in your
+case."
+
+"It could not be," Rujub said; "white men eat too much, and it needs
+long fasting and mortification to fit a man to become a mystic; the
+spirit gains power as the body weakens. The Feringhees can make arms
+that shoot long distances, and carriages that travel faster than the
+fastest horse, and great ships and machines. They can do many great and
+useful things, but they cannot do the things that have been done for
+thousands of years in the East. They are tied too fast to the earth
+to have aught to do with the spirits that dwell in the air. A learned
+Brahmin, who had studied your holy books, told me that your Great
+Teacher said that if you had faith you could move mountains. We could
+well nigh do that if it were of use to mankind; but were we to do so
+merely to show our power, we should be struck dead. It is wrong even to
+tell you these things; I must say no more."
+
+Four days passed. Rujub went every day for some hours to Bithoor, and
+told Bathurst that he heard that the British force, of about fourteen
+hundred whites and five hundred Sikhs, was pushing forward rapidly,
+making double marches each day.
+
+"The first fight will be near Futtehpore," he said; "there are fifteen
+hundred Sepoys, as many Oude tribesmen, and five hundred cavalry with
+twelve guns, and they are in a very strong position, which the British
+can only reach by passing along the road through a swamp. It is a
+position that the officers say a thousand men could hold against ten
+thousand."
+
+"You will see that it will not delay our troops an hour," Bathurst said.
+"Do they imagine they are going to beat us, when the numbers are but
+two to one in their favor? If so, they will soon learn that they are
+mistaken."
+
+The next afternoon, when Rujub returned, he said, "You were right,
+sahib; your people took Futtehpore after only half an hour's fighting.
+The accounts say that the Feringhees came on like demons, and that they
+did not seem to mind our firing in the slightest. The Nana is furious,
+but they still feel confident that they will succeed in stopping the
+Feringhees at Dong. They lost their twelve guns at Futtehpore, but they
+have two heavy ones at the Pandoo Bridge, which sweep the straight road
+leading to it for a mile; and the bridge has been mined, and will be
+blown up if the Feringhees reach it. But, nevertheless, the Nana swears
+that he will be revenged on the captives. If you are to rescue the lady
+it must be done tonight, for tomorrow it may be too late."
+
+"You surely do not think he will give orders for the murder of the women
+and children?"
+
+"I fear he will do so," Rujub answered gloomily.
+
+Each day Bathurst had learned in the same manner as before what
+was doing in the prison. Isobel was no longer being nursed; she was
+assisting to nurse Mary Hunter, who had, the day after Isobel was
+transferred to the prison, been attacked by fever, and was the next
+day delirious. Rabda's report of the next two days left little doubt in
+Bathurst's mind that she was rapidly sinking. All the prisoners suffered
+greatly from the close confinement; many had died, and the girl's
+description of the scenes she witnessed was often interrupted by her
+sobs and tears.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+While Bathurst was busying himself completing his preparations for the
+attempt, Rabda came in with her father.
+
+"My lord," she said, "I tremble at the thought of your venturing your
+life. My life is of no importance, and it belongs to you. What I would
+propose is this. My father will go to Bithoor, and will obtain an order
+from one of the Nana's officers for a lady of the zenana to visit the
+prisoners. I will go in veiled, as I was on the day I went there. I will
+change garments with the lady, and she can come out veiled, and meet you
+outside."
+
+"I would not dream of such a thing, Rabda. You would be killed to a
+certainty when they discovered the trick. Even if I would consent to the
+sacrifice, Miss Hannay would not do so. I am deeply grateful to you for
+proposing it, but it is impossible. You will see that, with the aid of
+your father, I shall succeed."
+
+"I told her that would be your answer, sahib," Rujub said, "but she
+insisted on making the offer."
+
+It was arranged that they were to start at nine o'clock, as it was safer
+to make the attempt before everything became quiet. Before starting,
+Rabda was again placed in a trance. In reply to her father's questions
+she said that Mary Hunter was dead, and that Isobel was lying down. She
+was told to tell her that in an hour she was to be at the window next to
+the door.
+
+Rujub had found that the men inside the prison were those who had been
+employed as warders at the jail before the troubles began, and he had
+procured for Bathurst a dress similar to that which they wore, which
+was a sort of uniform. He had offered, if the attempt was successful,
+to conceal Isobel in his house until the troops reached Cawnpore, but
+Bathurst preferred to take her down the country, upon the ground that
+every house might be searched, and that possibly before the British
+entered the town there might be a general sack of the place by the mob,
+and even if this did not take place there might be desperate house to
+house fighting when the troops arrived. Rujub acknowledged the danger,
+and said that he and his daughter would accompany them on their way down
+country, as it would greatly lessen their risk if two of the party were
+really natives. Bathurst gratefully accepted the offer, as it would make
+the journey far more tolerable for Isobel if she had Rabda with her.
+
+She was to wait a short distance from the prison while Bathurst made the
+attempt, and was left in a clump of bushes two or three hundred yards
+away from the prison. Rujub accompanied Bathurst. They went along
+quietly until within fifty yards of the sentry in the rear of the
+house, and then stopped. The man was walking briskly up and down.
+Rujub stretched out his arms in front of him with the fingers extended.
+Bathurst, who had taken his place behind him, saw his muscles stiffen,
+while there was a tremulous motion of his fingers. In a minute or two
+the sentry's walk became slower. In a little time it ceased altogether,
+and he leaned against the wall as if drowsy; then he slid down in a
+sitting position, his musket falling to the ground.
+
+"You can come along now," Rujub said; "he is fast asleep, and there is
+no fear of his waking. He will sleep till I bid him wake."
+
+They at once moved forward to the wall of the house. Bathurst threw up
+a knotted rope, to which was attached a large hook, carefully wrapped in
+flannel to prevent noise. After three or four attempts it caught on the
+parapet. Bathurst at once climbed up. As soon as he had gained the flat
+terrace, Rujub followed him; they then pulled up the rope, to the lower
+end of which a rope ladder was attached, and fastened this securely;
+then they went to the inner side of the terrace and looked down onto
+the courtyard. Two men were standing at one of the grated windows of the
+prison room, apparently looking in; six others were seated round a fire
+in the center of the court.
+
+Bathurst was about to turn away when Rujub touched him and pointed to
+the two men at the window, and then stretched out his arms towards them.
+Presently they turned and left the window, and in a leisurely way walked
+across the court and entered a room where a light was burning close to
+the grate. For two or three minutes Rujub stood in the same position,
+then his arms dropped.
+
+"They have gone into the guard room to sleep," he said; "there are two
+less to trouble you."
+
+Then he turned towards the group of men by the fire and fixed his gaze
+upon them. In a short time one of them wrapped himself in his cloth and
+lay down. In five minutes two others had followed his example. Another
+ten minutes passed, and then Rujub turned to Bathurst and said, "I
+cannot affect the other three; we cannot influence everyone."
+
+"That will do, Rujub, it is my turn now."
+
+After a short search they found stairs leading down from the terrace,
+and after passing through some empty rooms reached a door opening into
+the courtyard.
+
+"Do you stay here, Rujub," Bathurst said. "They will take me for one of
+themselves. If I succeed without noise, I shall come this way; if not,
+we will go out through the gate, and you had best leave by the way we
+came."
+
+The door was standing open, and Bathurst, grasping a heavy tulwar, went
+out into the courtyard. Keeping close to the house, he sauntered along
+until he reached the grated windows of the prison room. Three lamps were
+burning within, to enable the guard outside to watch the prisoners. He
+passed the two first windows; at the third a figure was standing. She
+shrank back as Bathurst stopped before it.
+
+"It is I, Miss Hannay--Bathurst. Danger threatens you, and you must
+escape at once. Rabda is waiting for you outside. Please go to the door
+and stand there until I open it. I have no doubt that I shall succeed,
+but if anything should go wrong, go and lie down again at once."
+
+Without waiting for an answer, he moved towards the fire.
+
+"Is that you, Ahmed?" one of the warders said. "We all seem sleepy this
+evening, there is something in the air; I felt half inclined to go off
+myself."
+
+"It is very hot tonight," Bathurst replied.
+
+There was something in his voice unfamiliar to the man, and with an
+exclamation, "Who is it?" he sprang to his feet. But Bathurst was now
+but three paces away, and with a bound was upon him, bringing the tulwar
+down with such force upon his head that the man fell lifeless without a
+groan. The other two leaped up with shouts of "Treachery!" but Bathurst
+was upon them, and, aided by the surprise, cut both down after a sharp
+fight of half a minute. Then he ran to the prison door, turned the key
+in the lock, and opened it.
+
+"Come!" he exclaimed, "there is no time to be lost, the guards outside
+have taken the alarm," for, by this time, there was a furious knocking
+at the gate. "Wrap yourself up in this native robe."
+
+"But the others, Mr. Bathurst, can't you save them too?"
+
+"Impossible," he said. "Even if they got out, they would be overtaken
+and killed at once. Come!" And taking her hand, he led her to the gate.
+
+"Stand back here so that the gate will open on you," he said. Then he
+undid the bar, shouting, "Treachery; the prisoners are escaping!"
+
+As he undid the last bolt the gate opened and the soldiers rushed in,
+firing at random as they did so. Bathurst had stepped behind the gate
+as it opened, and as the soldiers ran up the yard he took Isobel's hand,
+and, passing through the gate, ran with her round the building until he
+reached the spot where Rabda was awaiting them. Half a minute later her
+father joined them.
+
+"Let us go at once, there is no time for talking," he said. "We must be
+cautious, the firing will wake the whole quarter;" for by this time
+loud shouts were being raised, and men, hearing the muskets fired,
+were running towards the gate. Taking advantage of the shelter of the
+shrubbery as much as they could, they hurried on until they issued into
+the open country.
+
+"Do you feel strong enough to walk far?" Bathurst asked, speaking for
+the first time since they left the gate.
+
+"I think so," she said; "I am not sure whether I am awake or dreaming."
+
+"You are awake, Miss Hannay; you are safe out of that terrible prison."
+
+"I am not sure," the girl said, speaking slowly; "I have been strange
+since I went there. I have seemed to hear voices speaking to me, though
+no one was there, and no one else heard them; and I am not sure whether
+all this is not fancy now."
+
+"It is reality, Miss Hannay. Take my hand and you will see that it
+is solid. The voices you heard were similar to those I heard at
+Deennugghur; they were messages I sent you by means of Rujub and his
+daughter."
+
+"I did think of what you told me and about the juggler, but it seemed
+so strange. I thought that my brain was turning with trouble; it was
+bad enough at Deennugghur, but nothing to what it has been since that
+dreadful day at Bithoor. There did not seem much hope at Deennugghur.
+But somehow we all kept up, and, desperate as it seemed, I don't think
+we ever quite despaired. You see, we all knew each other; besides, no
+one could give way while the men were fighting and working so hard for
+us; but at Cawnpore there seemed no hope. There was not one woman there
+but had lost husband or father. Most of them were indifferent to life,
+scarcely ever speaking, and seeming to move in a dream, while others
+with children sat holding them close to them as if they dreaded a
+separation at any moment. There were a few who were different, who moved
+about and nursed the children and sick, and tried to comfort the others,
+just as Mrs. Hunter did at Deennugghur. There was no crying and no
+lamenting. It would have been a relief if anyone had cried, it was the
+stillness that was so trying; when people talked to each other they did
+it in a whisper, as they do in a room where someone is lying dead.
+
+"You know Mary Hunter died yesterday? Well, Mrs. Hunter quite put aside
+her own grief and tried to cheer others. I told her the last message I
+received, and asked her to go with me if it should be true. She said,
+'No, Isobel; I don't know whether this message is a dream, or whether
+God has opened a way of escape for you--if so, may He be thanked; but
+you must go alone--one might escape where two could not. As for me, I
+shall wait here for whatever fate God may send me. My husband and
+my children have gone before me. I may do some good among these poor
+creatures, and here I shall stay. You are young and full of life, and
+have many happy days in store for you. My race is nearly run--even did
+I wish for life, I would not cumber you and your friends; there will be
+perils to encounter and fatigues to be undergone. Had not Mary left us I
+would have sent her with you, but God did not will it so. Go, therefore,
+to the window, dear, as you were told by this message you think you have
+received, but do not be disappointed if no one comes. If it turns out
+true, and there is a chance of escape, take it, dear, and may God be
+with you.' As I stood at the window, I could not go at once, as you told
+me, to the door; I had to stand there; I saw it all till you turned and
+ran to the door, and then I came to meet you."
+
+"It was a pity you saw it," he said gently.
+
+"Why? Do you think that, after what I have gone through, I was shocked
+at seeing you kill three of those wretches? Two months ago I suppose I
+should have thought it dreadful, but those two months have changed us
+altogether. Think of what we were then and what we are now. There remain
+only you, Mrs. Hunter, myself, and your letter said, Mr. Wilson. Is he
+the only one?"
+
+"Yes, so far as we know."
+
+"Only we four, and all the others gone--Uncle and Mary and Amy and the
+Doolans and the dear Doctor, all the children. Why, if the door had been
+open, and I had had a weapon, I would have rushed out to help you kill.
+I shudder at myself sometimes."
+
+After a pause she went on. "Then none of those in the other boat came to
+shore, Mr. Bathurst, except Mr. Wilson?"
+
+"I fear not. The other boat sank directly. Wilson told me it was sinking
+as he sprang over. You had better not talk any more, Miss Hannay, for
+you are out of breath now, and will need all your strength."
+
+"Yes, but tell me why you have taken me away; you said there was great
+danger?"
+
+"Our troops are coming up," he said, "and I had reason to fear that when
+the rebels are defeated the mob may break open the prison."
+
+"They surely could not murder women and children who have done them no
+harm!"
+
+"There is no saying what they might do, Miss Hannay, but that was the
+reason why I dared not leave you where you were. I will tell you more
+about it afterwards. Now, please take my arm, we must be miles away from
+here before morning. They will find out then that you have escaped, and
+will no doubt scour the country."
+
+They had left the road and were passing through the fields. Isobel's
+strength failed rapidly, as soon as the excitement that had at first
+kept her up subsided. Rujub several times urged Bathurst to go faster,
+but the girl hung more and more heavily on his arm.
+
+"I can't go any farther," she said at last; "it is so long since I
+walked, and I suppose I have got weak. I have tried very hard, but I can
+scarcely drag my feet along. You had better leave me; you have done all
+you could to save me. I thank you so much. Only please leave a pistol
+with me. I am not at all afraid of dying, but I will not fall into their
+hands again."
+
+"We must carry her, Rujub," Bathurst said; "she is utterly exhausted and
+worn out, and no wonder. If we could make a sort of stretcher, it would
+be easy enough."
+
+Rujub took the cloth from his shoulders, and laid it on the ground by
+the side of Isobel, who had now sunk down and was lying helpless.
+
+"Lift her onto this, sahib, then we will take the four corners and carry
+her; it will be no weight."
+
+Bathurst lifted Isobel, in spite of her feeble protest, and laid her on
+the cloth.
+
+"I will take the two corners by her head," Bathurst said, "if you will
+each take one of the others."
+
+"No, sahib, the weight is all at the head; you take one corner, and I
+will take the other. Rabda can take the two corners at the feet. We can
+change about when we like."
+
+Isobel had lost greatly in weight since the siege of Deennugghur began,
+and she was but a light burden for her three bearers, who started with
+her at a speed considerably greater than that at which she had walked.
+
+"Which way are you taking us, Rujub?" Bathurst asked presently; "I have
+lost my bearings altogether."
+
+"I am keeping near the river, sahib. I know the country well. We cannot
+follow the road, for there the Rajah's troops and the Sepoys and the
+Oude men are gathered to oppose your people. They will fight tomorrow
+at Dong, as I told you, but the main body is not far from here. We must
+keep far away from them, and if your people take Dong we can then join
+them if we like. This road keeps near the river all the way, and we are
+not likely to meet Sepoys here, as it is by the other road the white
+troops are coming up."
+
+After four hours' walking, Rujub said, "There is a large wood just
+ahead. We will go in there. We are far enough off Cawnpore to be safe
+from any parties they may send out to search. If your people take
+Dong tomorrow, they will have enough to think of in Cawnpore without
+troubling about an escaped prisoner. Besides," he added, "if the Rajah's
+orders are carried out, at daybreak they will not know that a prisoner
+has escaped; they will not trouble to count."
+
+"I cannot believe it possible they will carry out such a butchery,
+Rujub."
+
+"We shall see, sahib. I did not tell you all I knew lest we should fail
+to carry off the lady, but I know the orders that have been given. Word
+has been sent round to the butchers of the town, and tomorrow morning
+soon after daybreak it will be done."
+
+Bathurst gave an exclamation of horror, for until now he had hardly
+believed it was possible that even Nana Sahib could perpetrate so
+atrocious a massacre. Not another word was spoken until they entered the
+wood.
+
+"Where is the river, Rujub?"
+
+"A few hundred yards to the left, sahib; the road is half a mile to the
+right. We shall be quite safe here."
+
+They made their way for some little distance into the wood, and then
+laid down their burden.
+
+They had taken to the spot where Rabda remained when the others went
+forward towards the prison a basket containing food and three bottles of
+wine, and this Rujub had carried since they started together. As soon as
+the hammock was lowered to the ground, Isobel moved and sat up.
+
+"I am rested now. Oh, how good you have all been! I was just going to
+tell you that I could walk again. I am quite ready to go on now."
+
+"We are going to halt here till tomorrow evening, Miss Hannay; Rujub
+thinks we are quite beyond any risk of pursuit now. You must first
+eat and drink something, and then sleep as long as you can. Rabda has
+brought a native dress for you and dye for staining your skin, but there
+is no occasion for doing that till tomorrow; the river is only a short
+distance away, and in the morning you will be able to enjoy a wash."
+
+The neck was knocked off a bottle. Rabda had brought in the basket a
+small silver cup, and Isobel, after drinking some wine and eating a few
+mouthfuls of food, lay down by her and was soon fast asleep. Bathurst
+ate a much more hearty meal. Rujub and his daughter said that they did
+not want anything before morning.
+
+The sun was high before Bathurst woke. Rujub had lighted a fire, and was
+boiling some rice in a lota.
+
+"Where is Miss Hannay?" Bathurst asked, as he sat up.
+
+"She has gone down to the river with Rabda. The trees hang down well
+over the water, and they can wash without fear of being seen on the
+opposite shore. I was going to wake you when the lady got up, but she
+made signs that you were to be allowed to sleep on."
+
+In half an hour the two girls returned. Isobel was attired in a native
+dress, and her face, neck, arms, feet, and ankles had been stained to
+the same color as Rabda's. She came forward a little timidly, for she
+felt strange and uncomfortable in her scanty attire. Bathurst gave an
+exclamation of pain as he saw her face.
+
+"How dreadfully, you have burnt yourself, Miss Hannay; surely you cannot
+have followed the instructions I gave you."
+
+"No; it is not your fault at all, Mr. Bathurst; I put a great deal more
+on than you said, but I was so anxious to disfigure myself that I was
+determined to do it thoroughly; but it is nothing to what it was. As you
+see, my lips are getting all right again, and the sores are a good deal
+better than they were; I suppose they will leave scars, but that won't
+trouble me."
+
+"It is the pain you must have suffered that I am thinking of," he
+replied. "As to the scars, I hope they will wear out in time; you must
+indeed have suffered horribly."
+
+"They burnt dreadfully for a time," the girl answered; "but for the last
+two or three days I have hardly felt it, though, of course, it is very
+sore still."
+
+"Do you feel ready for breakfast, Miss Hannay?"
+
+"Quite ready, and for a walk as long as you like afterwards. I feel
+quite another creature after my dip. That was one of the worst things
+in the prison. We had scarcely water enough to drink, and none to wash
+with, and, of course, no combs nor anything."
+
+They sat down together and ate the cold food they had brought, while
+Rabda and her father made their breakfast of rice.
+
+"What has become of Mr. Wilson?" Isobel asked suddenly. "I wondered
+about him as I was being carried along last night, but I was too tired
+to talk afterwards."
+
+"I hope he is either safe at Allahabad by this time, or is with the
+troops marching up. The Zemindar's son, who came down with us as an
+escort, and one of his men got safely to shore also, and they went on
+with Wilson. When he found I was going to stay at Cawnpore to try and
+rescue you, he pleaded very hard that I should keep him with me in order
+that he might share in the attempt, but his ignorance of the language
+might have been fatal, and his being with me would have greatly added
+to the difficulty, so I was obliged to refuse him. It was only because
+I told him that instead of adding to, he would lessen your chance of
+escape, that he consented to go, for I am sure he would willingly have
+laid down his life to save yours."
+
+"I am very glad he is safe; he is very kind hearted and nice, Mr.
+Bathurst, and a thoroughly natural, unaffected young fellow, very loyal
+and stanch. I am quite sure he would have done anything he could, even
+at the risk of his life."
+
+"I like him very much, too, Miss Hannay. Before the siege I thought him
+a careless, happy go lucky lad, but as I got to know him well, I found
+he was much more than that, and he will make a good man and an excellent
+officer one of these days if he is spared. He is thoroughly brave
+without the slightest brag--an excellent specimen of the best class of
+public school boy."
+
+"And who are the troops coming up, Mr. Bathurst? How strong are they? I
+have heard nothing about them."
+
+"About twelve hundred white troops and four or five hundred Sikhs; at
+least that is what the natives put them at."
+
+"But surely they will never be able to fight their way to Cawnpore,
+where there are the mutineers and Nana Sahib's troops and the Oude men
+and the people of the town. Why, there must be ten to one against them."
+
+"Not far short of that, I think, but I feel sure our men will do it.
+They know of the treachery of the Nana, they know of the massacre by the
+river, and they know that the women and children are prisoners in his
+hands, and do you think that men who know these things can be beaten?
+The Sepoys met them in superior force and in a strong position at
+Futtehpore, and they drove them before them like chaff. They will have
+harder work next time, but I have no shadow of fear of the result."
+
+Then their talk went back to Deennugghur and of their friends there--the
+Doolans, the Hunters, the Rintouls, and others--and Isobel wept freely
+over their fate.
+
+"Next to my uncle I shall miss the Doctor," she said.
+
+"He was an awfully good fellow," Bathurst said, "and was the only real
+friend I have had since I came to India, I would have done anything for
+him."
+
+"When shall we start?" Isobel asked presently.
+
+"Directly the sun goes down a little. You would find it terribly hot
+now. I have been talking it over with Rujub, and he says it is better
+not to make a long journey today. We are not more than twenty miles from
+Dong, and it would not do to move in that direction until we know how
+things have gone; therefore, if we start at three o'clock and walk till
+seven or eight, it will be quite far enough."
+
+"He seems a wonderful man," said Isobel. "You remember that talk we had
+at dinner, before we went to see him at the Hunters!"
+
+"Yes," he said. "As you know, I was a believer then, and so was the
+Doctor. I need not say that I believe still more now that these men do
+wholly unaccountable feats. He put the sentry outside the walls of your
+prison and five out of your eight warders so sound asleep that they did
+not wake during the struggle I had with the others. That, of course,
+was mesmerism. His messages to you were actually sent by means of his
+daughter. She was put in a sort of trance, in which she saw you and told
+us what you were doing, and communicated the message her father gave her
+to you. He could not send you a message nor tell me about you when you
+were first at Bithoor, because he said Rabda was not in sympathy with
+you, but after she had seen you and touched you and you had kissed her,
+she was able to do so. There does not appear to me to be anything beyond
+the powers of nature in that, though doubtless powers were called into
+play of which at present we know nothing. But we do know that minds act
+upon each other. Possibly certain persons in sympathy with each other
+may be able to act upon each other from a distance, especially when
+thrown into the sort of trance which is known as the clairvoyant state.
+I always used to look upon that as humbug, but I need hardly say I shall
+in future be ready to believe almost anything. He professes to have
+other and even greater powers than what we have seen. At any rate, he
+can have no motive in deceiving me when he has risked his life to help
+me. Do you know, Rabda offered to go into the prison--her father could
+have got her an order to pass in--and then to let you go out in her
+dress while she remained in your stead. I could not accept the sacrifice
+even to save you, and I was sure had I done so you yourself would have
+refused to leave."
+
+"Of course. But how good of her. Please tell her that you have told me,
+and how grateful I am for her offer."
+
+Bathurst called Rabda, who was sitting a short distance away.
+
+She took the hand that Isobel held out to her and placed it against her
+forehead.
+
+"My life is yours, sahib," she said simply to Bathurst. "It was right
+that I should give it for this lady you love."
+
+"What does she say?" Isobel asked.
+
+"She says that she owed me her life for that tiger business, you know,
+and was ready to give it for you because I had set my mind on saving
+you."
+
+"Is that what she really said, Mr. Bathurst?" Isobel asked quietly, for
+he had hesitated a little in changing its wording.
+
+"That was the sense of it, I can assure you. Not only was she ready
+to make the sacrifice, but her father consented to her doing so. These
+Hindoos are capable of gratitude, you see. There are not many English
+who would be ready thus to sacrifice themselves for a man who had
+accidentally, as I may say, saved their lives."
+
+"Not accidentally, Mr. Bathurst. Why do you always try to run yourself
+down? I suppose you will say next you saved my life by an accident."
+
+"The saving of your life is due chiefly to these natives."
+
+"But they were only your instruments, Mr. Bathurst; they had no interest
+in saving me. You had bought their services at the risk of your life,
+and in saving me they were paying that debt to you."
+
+At three o'clock they prepared for the start. Bathurst had exchanged the
+warder's dress for one of a peasant, which they had brought with them.
+The woods were of no great width, and Rujub said they had better follow
+the road now.
+
+"No one will suspect us of being anything but what we seem," he said.
+"Should we meet any peasants, their talk will be with you and me. They
+will ask no questions about the women; but if there is a woman among
+them, and she speaks, Rabda will answer her."
+
+For hours they had heard dull sounds in the air, which Bathurst had
+recognized at once as distant artillery, showing that the fight was
+going on near Dong.
+
+"The Sepoys are making a stout resistance, or the firing would not last
+so long," he said to Rujub, as they walked through the wood towards the
+road.
+
+"They have two positions to defend, sahib. The Nana's men will fight
+first at a strong village two miles beyond Dong; if they are beaten
+there, they will fight again at the bridge I told you of."
+
+"That would partly account for it; but the Sepoys must be fighting much
+better than they did at Futtehpore, for there, as you said, the white
+troops swept the Sepoys before them."
+
+When they reached the edge of the wood Bathurst said, "I will see that
+the road is clear before we go out. If anyone saw us issuing out of the
+wood they might wonder what we had been after."
+
+He went to the edge of the bushes and looked down the long straight
+road. There was only a solitary figure in sight. It seemed to be an old
+man walking lame with a stick. Bathurst was about to turn and tell the
+others to come out, when he saw the man stop suddenly, turn round to
+look back along the road, stand with his head bent as if listening, then
+run across the road with much more agility than he had before seemed to
+possess, and plunge in among the trees.
+
+"Wait," he said to those behind him, "something is going on. A peasant I
+saw in the road has suddenly dived into the wood as if he was afraid of
+being pursued. Ah!" he exclaimed a minute later, "there is a party of
+horsemen coming along at a gallop--get farther back into the wood."
+
+Presently they heard the rapid trampling of horses, and looking through
+the bushes they saw some twenty sowars of one of the native cavalry
+regiments dash past.
+
+Bathurst went to the edge of the wood again, and looked out. Then he
+turned suddenly to Isobel.
+
+"You remember those pictures on the smoke?" he said excitedly.
+
+"No, I do not remember them," she said, in surprise. "I have often
+wondered at it, but I have never been able to recollect what they were
+since that evening. I have often thought they were just like dreams,
+where one sees everything just as plainly as if it were a reality, and
+then go out of your mind altogether as soon as you are awake."
+
+"It has been just the same with me," replied Bathurst, "except that once
+or twice they have come back for a moment quite vividly. One of them
+I have not thought of for some days, but now I see it again. Don't you
+remember there was a wood, and a Hindoo man and woman stepped out of it,
+and a third native came up to them?"
+
+"Yes, I remember now," she said eagerly; "it was just as we are here;
+but what of that, Mr. Bathurst?"
+
+"Did you recognize any of them?"
+
+"Yes, yes, it all comes back to me now. It was you and the Doctor,
+certainly, and I thought the woman was myself. I spoke to the Doctor
+next day about it, but he laughed at it all, and I have never thought of
+it since."
+
+"The Doctor and I agreed, when we talked it over that evening, that the
+Hindoo who stepped out of the wood was myself, and thought that you were
+the Hindoo girl, but of that we were not so sure, for your face seemed
+not only darkened, but blotched and altered--it was just as you are
+now--and the third native was the Doctor himself; we both felt certain
+of that. It has come true, and I feel absolutely certain that the native
+I saw along the road will turn out to be the Doctor."
+
+"Oh, I hope so, I hope so!" the girl cried, and pressed forward with
+Bathurst to the edge of the wood.
+
+The old native was coming along on the road again. As he approached, his
+eye fell on the two figures, and with a Hindoo salutation he was passing
+on, when Isobel cried, "It is the Doctor!" and rushing forward she threw
+her arms round his neck.
+
+"Isobel Hannay!" he cried in delight and amazement; "my dear little
+girl, my dear little girl, thank God you are saved; but what have you
+been doing with yourself, and who is this with you?"
+
+"You knew me when you saw me in the picture on the smoke, Doctor,"
+Bathurst said, grasping his hand, "though you do not know me in life."
+
+"You, too, Bathurst!" the Doctor exclaimed, as he wrung his hand; "thank
+God for that, my dear boy; to think that both of you should have been
+saved--it seems a miracle. The picture on the smoke? Yes, we were
+speaking of it that last night at Deennugghur, and I never have thought
+of it since. Is there anyone else?"
+
+"My friend the juggler and his daughter are with us, Doctor."
+
+"Then I can understand the miracle," the Doctor said, "for I believe
+that fellow could take you through the air and carry you through stone
+walls with a wave of his hand."
+
+"Well, he has not exactly done that, but he and his daughter have
+rendered us immense service. I could have done nothing without them."
+
+The two natives, seeing through the bushes the recognition that had
+taken place, had now stepped forward and salaamed as the Doctor spoke a
+few hearty words to them.
+
+"But where have you sprung from, Doctor? How were you saved?"
+
+"I jumped overboard when those scoundrels opened fire," the Doctor said.
+"I kept my wits about me, and said to myself that if I were to swim for
+the opposite shore the chances were that I should get shot down, so I
+made a long dive, came up for air, and then went down again, and came up
+the next time under some bushes by the bank; there I remained all night.
+The villains were only a few yards away, and I could hear every word
+they said. I heard the boat come ashore, and although I could have done
+no good by rushing out, I think I should have done so if I had had any
+weapon about me, and have tried to kill one or two of them before I went
+down. As it was, I waited until morning. Then I heard the rumble of the
+guns and the wagons, and knew that they were off. I waited for another
+hour to make sure, and then stepped ashore. I went to the boat lying
+by the bank. When I saw that Isobel and the other two ladies were not
+there, I knew that they must have been carried off into Cawnpore. I
+waited there until night, and then made my way to a peasant's house
+a mile out of the town. I had operated upon him for elephantiasis two
+years ago, and the man had shown himself grateful, and had occasionally
+sent me in little presents of fowls and so on. He received me well, gave
+me food, which I wanted horribly, stained my skin, and rigged me out in
+this disguise. The next morning I went into the town, and for the last
+four or five days have wandered about there. There was nothing I could
+do, and yet I felt that I could not go away, but must stay within sight
+of the prison where you were all confined till our column arrived.
+But this morning I determined to come down to join our people who are
+fighting their way up, little thinking that I should light upon you by
+the way."
+
+"We were just going to push on, Doctor; but as you have had a good long
+tramp already, we will stop here until tomorrow morning, if you like."
+
+"No, no, let us go on, Bathurst. I would rather be on the move, and you
+can tell me your story as we go."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+Bathurst knew the Doctor well, and perceived that glad as he was to have
+met them, he was yet profoundly depressed in spirits. This, added to the
+fact that he had left Cawnpore that morning, instead of waiting as he
+had intended, convinced Bathurst that what he dreaded had taken place.
+He waited until Isobel stopped for a moment, that Rabda might rearrange
+the cloth folded round her in its proper draping. Then he said quickly,
+"I heard yesterday what was intended, Doctor. Is it possible that it has
+been done?"
+
+"It was done this morning."
+
+"What, all? Surely not all, Doctor?"
+
+"Every soul--every woman and child. Think of it--the fiends! the devils!
+The native brought me the news. If I had heard it in the streets of
+Cawnpore I should have gone mad and seized a sword and run amuck. As it
+was, I was well nigh out of mind. I could not stay there. The man would
+have sheltered me until the troops came up, but I was obliged to be
+moving, so I started down. Hush! here comes Isobel; we must keep it from
+her."
+
+"Now, Isobel," he went on, as the girl joined them, and they all started
+along the road, "tell me how it is I find you here."
+
+"Mr. Bathurst must tell you, Doctor; I cannot talk about it yet--I can
+hardly think about it."
+
+"Well, Bathurst, let us hear it from you."
+
+"It is a painful story for me to have to tell."
+
+Isobel looked up in surprise.
+
+"Painful, Mr. Bathurst? I should have thought--" and she stopped.
+
+"Not all painful, Miss Hannay, but in parts. I would rather tell
+you, Doctor, when we have finished our journey this evening, if your
+curiosity will allow you to wait so long."
+
+"I will try to wait," the Doctor replied, "though I own it is a trial.
+Now, Isobel, you have not told me yet what has happened to your face.
+Let me look at it closer, child. I see your arms are bad, too. What on
+earth has happened to you?"
+
+
+"I burnt myself with acid, Doctor. Mr. Bathurst will tell you all about
+it."
+
+"Bless me, mystery seems to thicken. Well, you have got yourself into a
+pretty pickle. Why, child, burns of that sort leave scars as bad as if
+you had been burnt by fire. You ought to be in a dark room with your
+face and hands bandaged, instead of tramping along here in the sun."
+
+"I have some lotions and some ointment, Doctor. I have used them
+regularly since it was done, and the places don't hurt me much now."
+
+"No, they look healthy enough," he said, examining them closely.
+"Granulation is going on nicely; but I warn you you will be disfigured
+for months, and it may be years before you get rid of the scars. I
+doubt, indeed, if you will ever get rid of them altogether. Well, well,
+what shall we talk about?"
+
+"I will take pity on you, Doctor. I will walk on ahead with Rabda and
+her father, and Mr. Bathurst can then tell you his story."
+
+"That will be the best plan, my dear. Now then, Bathurst, fire away," he
+said, when the others had gone on thirty or forty yards ahead.
+
+"Well, Doctor, you remember that you were forward talking to the young
+Zemindar, and I was sitting aft by the side of Miss Hannay, when they
+opened fire?"
+
+"I should think I do remember it," the Doctor said, "and I am not likely
+to forget it if I live to be a hundred. Well, what about that?"
+
+"I jumped overboard," Bathurst said, laying his hand impressively
+upon the Doctor's shoulder. "I gave a cry, I know I did, and I jumped
+overboard."
+
+The Doctor looked at him in astonishment.
+
+"Well, so did I, like a shot. But what do you say it in that tone for?
+Of course you jumped overboard. If you hadn't you would not be here
+now."
+
+"You don't understand me, Doctor," Bathurst said gloomily. "I was
+sitting there next to Isobel Hannay--the woman I loved. We were talking
+in low tones, and I don't know why, but at that moment the mad thought
+was coming into my mind that, after all, she cared for me, that in spite
+of the disgrace I had brought upon myself, in spite of being a coward,
+she might still be mine; and as I was thinking this there came the
+crash of a cannon. Can it be imagined possible that I jumped up like
+a frightened hare, and without a thought of her, without a thought of
+anything in my mad terror, jumped overboard and left her behind to her
+fate? If it had not been that as soon as I recovered my senses--I was
+hit on the head just as I landed, and knew nothing of what happened
+until I found myself in the bushes with young Wilson by my side--the
+thought occurred to me that I would rescue her or die in the attempt, I
+would have blown out my brains."
+
+"But, bless my heart, Bathurst," the Doctor said earnestly, "what else
+could you have done? Why, I jumped overboard without stopping to think,
+and so did everyone else who had power to do so, no doubt. What good
+could you have done if you had stayed? What good would it have done to
+the girl if you had been killed? Why, if you had been killed, she would
+now be lying mangled and dead with the others in that ghastly prison.
+You take too morbid a view of this matter altogether."
+
+"There was no reason why you should not have jumped overboard, Doctor,
+nor the others. Don't you see I was with the woman I loved? I might have
+seized her in my arms and jumped overboard with her, and swam ashore
+with her, or I might have stayed and died with her. I thought of my own
+wretched life, and I deserted her."
+
+"My dear Bathurst, you did not think of your life. I don't think any
+of us stopped to think of anything; but, constituted as you are, the
+impulse must have been overpowering. It is nonsense your taking this
+matter to heart. Why, man, if you had stopped, you would have been
+murdered when the boat touched the shore, and do you think it would have
+made her happier to have seen you killed before her eyes? If you had
+swam ashore with her, the chances are she would have been killed by that
+volley of grape, for I saw eight or ten bodies lying on the sands, and
+you yourself were, you say, hit. You acted upon impulse, I grant, but
+it was upon a wise impulse. You did the very best thing that could have
+been done, and your doing so made it possible that Isobel Hannay should
+be rescued from what would otherwise have been certain death."
+
+"It has turned out so, Doctor," Bathurst said gloomily, "and I thank God
+that she is saved. But that does not alter the fact that I, an English
+gentleman by birth, thought only of myself, and left the woman I loved,
+who was sitting by my side, to perish. But do not let us talk any more
+about it. It is done and over. There is an end of it. Now I will tell
+you the story."
+
+The Doctor listened silently until he heard of Isobel's being taken to
+Bithoor. "The atrocious villain!" he exclaimed. "I have been lamenting
+the last month that I never poisoned the fellow, and now--but go on, go
+on. How on earth did you get her away?"
+
+Bathurst told the whole story, interrupted by many exclamations of
+approval by the Doctor; especially when he learned why Isobel disfigured
+herself.
+
+"Well done!" he exclaimed; "I always knew that she was a plucky girl,
+and it needed courage, I can tell you, to burn herself as she has
+done, to say nothing of risking spoiling her beauty for life. No slight
+sacrifice for a woman."
+
+Bathurst passed lightly over his fight in the courtyard, but the Doctor
+questioned him as to the exact facts.
+
+"Not so bad for a coward, Bathurst," he said dryly.
+
+"There was no noise," Bathurst said; "if they had had pistols, and had
+used them, it might have been different. Heaven knows, but I don't think
+that then, with her life at stake, I should have flinched; I had made
+up my mind they would have pistols, but I hope--I think that my nerves
+would not have given way then."
+
+"I am sure they wouldn't, Bathurst. Well, go on with your story."
+
+"Well, how did you feel then?" he asked, when Bathurst described how the
+guard rushed in through the gate firing, "for it is the noise, and not
+the danger, that upsets you?"
+
+"I did not even think of it," Bathurst said, in some surprise. "Now you
+mention it, I am astonished that I was not for a minute paralyzed, as
+I always am, but I did not feel anything of the sort; they rushed in
+firing as I told you, and directly they had gone I took her hand and we
+ran out together."
+
+"I think it quite possible, Bathurst, that your nervousness may have
+gone forever. Now that once you have heard guns fired close to you
+without your nerves giving way as usual, it is quite possible that
+you might do so again. I don't say that you would, but it is possible,
+indeed it seems to me to be probable. It may be that the sudden shock
+when you jumped into the water, acting upon your nerves when in a state
+of extreme tension, may have set them right, and that bullet graze
+along the top of the skull may have aided the effect of the shock. Men
+frequently lose their nerve after a heavy fall from a horse, or a sudden
+attack by a tiger, or any other unexpected shock. It may be that with
+you it has had the reverse consequence."
+
+"I hope to God that it may be so, Doctor," Bathurst said, with deep
+earnestness. "It is certainly extraordinary I should not have felt
+it when they fired within a few feet of my head. If we get down to
+Allahabad I will try. I will place myself near a gun when it is going to
+be fired; and if I stand that I will come up again and join this column
+as a volunteer, and take part in the work of vengeance. If I can but
+once bear my part as a man, they are welcome to kill me in the next
+engagement."
+
+"Pooh! pooh! man. You are not born to be killed in battle. After making
+yourself a target on the roof at Deennugghur, and jumping down in the
+middle of the Sepoys in the breach, and getting through that attack in
+the boats, I don't think you are fated to meet your end with a bullet.
+Well, now let us walk on, and join the others. Isobel must be wondering
+how much longer we are going to talk together. She cannot exchange a
+word with the natives; it must be dull work for her. She is a great
+deal thinner than she was before these troubles came on. You see how
+differently she walks. She has quite lost that elastic step of hers, but
+I dare say that is a good deal due to her walking with bare feet instead
+of in English boots--boots have a good deal to do with a walk. Look at
+the difference between the walk of a gentleman who has always worn well
+fitting boots and that of a countryman who has gone about in thick iron
+shod boots all his life. Breeding goes for something, no doubt, and
+alters a man's walk just as it alters a horse's gait."
+
+Bathurst could not help laughing at the Doctor dropping into his usual
+style of discussing things.
+
+"Are your feet feeling tender, Isobel?" the latter asked cheerfully, as
+he overtook those in front.
+
+"No, Doctor," she said, with a smile; "I don't know that I was ever
+thankful for dust before, but I am now; it is so soft that it is like
+walking on a carpet, but, of course, it feels very strange."
+
+"You have only to fancy, my dear, that you are by the seaside, walking
+down from your bathing machine across the sands; once get that in your
+mind and you will get perfectly comfortable."
+
+"It requires too great a stretch of the imagination, Doctor, to think
+for a moment, in this sweltering heat, that I am enjoying a sea breeze
+on our English coast. It is silly, of course, to give it even a thought,
+when one is accustomed to see almost every woman without shoes. I think
+I should mind it more than I do if my feet were not stained. I don't
+know why, but I should. But please don't talk about it. I try to forget
+it, and to fancy that I am really a native."
+
+They met but few people on the road. Those they did meet passed them
+with the usual salutation. There was nothing strange in a party of
+peasants passing along the road. They might have been at work at
+Cawnpore, and be now returning to their native village to get away from
+the troubles there. After it became dark they went into a clump of trees
+half a mile distant from a village they could see along the road.
+
+"I will go in," Rujub said, "and bring some grain, and hear what the
+news is."
+
+He returned in an hour. "The English have taken Dong," he said; "the
+news came in two hours ago. There has been some hard fighting; the
+Sepoys resisted stoutly at the village, even advancing beyond the
+inclosures to meet the British. They were driven back by the artillery
+and rifle fire, but held the village for some time before they were
+turned out. There was a stand made at the Pandoo Bridge, but it was a
+short one. The force massed there fell back at once when the British
+infantry came near enough to rush forward at the charge, and in their
+hurry they failed to blow up the bridge."
+
+A consultation was held as to whether they should try to join the
+British, but it was decided that as the road down to Allahabad would be
+rendered safe by their advance, it would be better to keep straight on.
+
+The next day they proceeded on their journey, walking in the early
+morning, halting as soon as the sun had gained much power, and going on
+again in the cool of the evening. After three days' walking they reached
+the fort of Allahabad. It was crowded with ladies who had come in from
+the country round. Most of the men were doing duty with the garrison,
+but some thirty had gone up with Havelock's column as volunteer cavalry,
+his force being entirely deficient in that arm.
+
+As soon as the Doctor explained who they were, they were received with
+the greatest kindness, and Isobel was at once carried off by the ladies,
+while Bathurst and the Doctor were surrounded by an eager group anxious
+to hear the state of affairs at Cawnpore, and how they had escaped. The
+news of the fighting at Dong was already known; for on the evening of
+the day of the fight Havelock had sent down a mounted messenger to say
+the resistance was proving so severe that he begged some more troops
+might be sent up. As all was quiet now at Allahabad, where there had at
+first been some fierce fighting, General Neil, who was in command there,
+had placed two hundred and thirty men of the 84th Regiment in bullock
+vans, and had himself gone on with them.
+
+The Doctor had decided to keep the news of the massacre to himself.
+
+"They will know it before many hours are over, Bathurst," he said; "and
+were I to tell them, half of them wouldn't believe me, and the other
+half would pester my life out with questions. There is never any
+occasion to hurry in telling bad news."
+
+The first inquiry of Bathurst and his friends had been for Wilson, and
+they found to their great pleasure that he had arrived in safety, and
+had gone up with the little body of cavalry. Captain Forster, whom they
+next asked for, had not reached Allahabad, and no news had been heard of
+him.
+
+"What are you going to do, Rujub?" Bathurst asked the native next
+morning.
+
+"I shall go to Patna," he said. "I have friends there, and I shall
+remain in the city until these troubles are over. I believe now that you
+were right, sahib, although I did not think so when you spoke, and that
+the British Raj will be restored. I thought, as did the Sepoys, that
+they were a match for the British troops. I see now that I was wrong.
+But there is a tremendous task before them. There is all Oude and the
+Northwest to conquer, and fully two hundred thousand men in arms against
+them, but I believe that they will do it. They are a great people, and
+now I do not wish it otherwise. This afternoon I shall start."
+
+The Doctor, who had found many acquaintances in Allahabad, had no
+difficulty in obtaining money from the garrison treasury, and Bathurst
+and Isobel purchased the two handsomest bracelets they could obtain from
+the ladies in the fort as a souvenir for Rabda, and gave them to her
+with the heartiest expressions of their deep gratitude to her and her
+father.
+
+"I shall think of you always, Rabda," Isobel said, "and shall be
+grateful to the end of my life for the kindness that you have done us.
+Your father has given us your address at Patna, and I shall write to you
+often."
+
+"I shall never forget you, lady; and even the black water will not quite
+separate us. As I knew how you were in prison, so I shall know how you
+are in your home in England. What we have done is little. Did not the
+sahib risk his life for me? My father and I will never forget what we
+owe him. I am glad to know that you will make him happy."
+
+This was said in the room that had been allotted to Isobel, an ayah of
+one of the ladies in the fort acting as interpreter. The girl had woke
+up in the morning flushed and feverish, and the Doctor, when sent for,
+told her she must keep absolutely quiet.
+
+"I am afraid I am going to have her on my hands for a bit," he said to
+Bathurst. "She has borne the strain well, but she looks to me as if she
+was going to have a smart attack of fever. It is well that we got her
+here before it showed itself. You need not look scared; it is just the
+reaction. If it had been going to be brain fever or anything of that
+sort, I should have expected her to break down directly you got her out.
+No, I don't anticipate anything serious, and I am sure I hope that it
+won't be so. I have put my name down to go up with the next batch of
+volunteers. Doctors will be wanted at the front, and I hope to have a
+chance of wiping out my score with some of those scoundrels. However,
+though I think she is going to be laid up, I don't fancy it will last
+many days."
+
+That afternoon a messenger from Havelock brought down the terrible news
+that they had fought their way to Cawnpore, only to find that the whole
+of the ladies and children in the Subada Ke Kothee had been massacred,
+and their bodies thrown down a well. The grief and indignation caused by
+the news were terrible; scarce one but had friends among the prisoners.
+Women wept; men walked up and down, wild with fury at being unable to do
+aught at present to avenge the massacre.
+
+"What are you going to do, Bathurst?" the Doctor asked that evening. "I
+suppose you have some sort of plan?"
+
+"I do not know yet. In the first place, I want to try whether what you
+said the other day is correct, and if I can stand the noise of firing
+without flinching."
+
+"We can't try here in the fort," the Doctor said, full of interest
+in the experiment; "a musket shot would throw the whole garrison into
+confusion, and at present no one can go far from the gate; however,
+there may be a row before long, and then you will have an opportunity
+of trying. If there is not, we will go out together half a mile or so as
+soon as some more troops get up. You said, when we were talking about it
+at Deennugghur, you should resign your appointment and go home, but if
+you find your nerves are all right you may change your mind about that.
+How about the young lady in there?"
+
+"Well, Doctor, I should say that you, as her father's friend, are the
+person to make arrangements for her. Just at present travel is not very
+safe, but I suppose that directly things quiet down a little many of the
+ladies will be going down to the coast, and no doubt some of them would
+take charge of Miss Hannay back to England."
+
+"And you mean to have nothing to say in the matter?"
+
+"Nothing at all," he said firmly. "I have already told you my views on
+the subject."
+
+"Well, then," the Doctor said hotly, "I regard you as an ass." And
+without another word he walked off in great anger.
+
+For the next four or five days Isobel was in a high state of fever; it
+passed off as the Doctor had predicted it would do, but left her very
+weak and languid. Another week and she was about again.
+
+"What is Mr. Bathurst going to do?" she asked the Doctor the first day
+she was up on a couch.
+
+"I don't know what he is going to do, my dear," he said irritably; "my
+opinion of Bathurst is that he is a fool."
+
+"Oh, Doctor, how can you say so!" she exclaimed in astonishment; "why,
+what has he done?"
+
+"It isn't what he has done, but what he won't do, my dear. Here he is in
+love with a young woman in every way suitable, and who is ready to say
+yes whenever he asks her, and he won't ask, and is not going to ask,
+because of a ridiculous crotchet he has got in his head."
+
+Isobel flushed and then grew pale.
+
+"What is the crotchet?" she asked, in a low tone, after being silent for
+some time.
+
+"What do you think, my dear? He is more disgusted with himself than
+ever."
+
+"Not about that nervousness, surely," Isobel said, "after all he has
+done and the way he has risked his life? Surely that cannot be troubling
+him?"
+
+"It is, my dear; not so much on the general as on a particular ground.
+He insists that by jumping out of the boat when that fire began, he has
+done for himself altogether."
+
+"But what could he have done, Doctor?"
+
+"That's what I ask him, my dear. He insists that he ought to either have
+seized you and jumped overboard with you, in which case you would both
+probably have been killed, as I pointed out to him, or else stayed
+quietly with you by your side, in which case, as I also pointed out
+to him, you would have had the satisfaction of seeing him murdered. He
+could not deny that this would have been so, but that in no way alters
+his opinion of his own conduct. I also ventured to point out to him that
+if he had been killed, you would at this moment be either in the power
+of that villainous Nana, or be with hundreds of others in that ghastly
+well at Cawnpore. I also observed to him that I, who do not regard
+myself as a coward, also jumped overboard from your boat, and that
+Wilson, who is certainly a plucky young fellow, and a number of others,
+jumped over from the other boat; but I might as well have talked to a
+post."
+
+Isobel sat for some time silent, her fingers playing nervously with each
+other.
+
+"Of course it seems foolish of him to think of it so strongly, but I
+don't think it is unnatural he should feel as he does."
+
+"May I ask why?" the Doctor said sarcastically.
+
+"I mean, Doctor, it would be foolish of other people, but I don't think
+it is foolish of him. Of course he could have done no good staying in
+the boat--he would have simply thrown away his life; and yet I think,
+I feel sure, that there are many men who would have thrown away their
+lives in such a case. Even at that moment of terror I felt a pang, when,
+without a word, he sprang overboard. I thought of it many times that
+long night, in spite of my grief for my uncle and the others, and my
+horror of being a prisoner in the hands of the Sepoys. I did not blame
+him, because I knew how he must have felt, and that it was done in a
+moment of panic. I was not so sorry for myself as for him, for I knew
+that if he escaped, the thought of that moment would be terrible for
+him. I need not say that in my mind the feeling that he should not
+have left me so has been wiped out a thousand times by what he did
+afterwards, by the risk he ran for me, and the infinite service he
+rendered me by saving me from a fate worse than death. But I can enter
+into his feelings. Most men would have jumped over just as he did, and
+would never have blamed themselves even if they had at once started away
+down the country to save their own lives, much less if they had stopped
+to save mine as he has done.
+
+"But who can wonder that he is more sensitive than others? Did he not
+hear from you that I said that a coward was contemptible? Did not all
+the men except you and my uncle turn their backs upon him and treat him
+with contempt, in spite of his effort to meet his death by standing up
+on the roof? Think how awfully he must have suffered, and then, when it
+seemed that his intervention, which saved our lives, had to some extent
+won him back the esteem of the men around him, that he should so fail
+again, as he considers, and that with me beside him. No wonder that he
+takes the view he does, and that he refuses to consider that even the
+devotion and courage he afterwards showed can redeem what he considers
+is a disgrace. You always said that he was brave, Doctor, and I believe
+now there is no braver man living; but that makes it so much the worse
+for him. A coward would be more than satisfied with himself for what he
+did afterwards, and would regard it as having completely wiped out any
+failing, while he magnifies the failing, such as it was, and places but
+small weight on what he afterwards did. I like him all the better for
+it. I know the fault, if fault it was, and I thought it so at the time,
+was one for which he was not responsible, and yet I like him all the
+better that he feels it so deeply."
+
+"Well, my dear, you had better tell him so," the Doctor said dryly. "I
+really agree with what you say, and you make an excellent advocate. I
+cannot do better than leave the matter in your hands. You know, child,"
+he said, changing his tone, "I have from the first wished for Bathurst
+and you to come together, and if you don't do so I shall say you are
+the most wrong headed young people I ever met. He loves you, and I don't
+think there is any question about your feelings, and you ought to make
+matters right somehow. Unfortunately, he is a singularly pig headed man
+when he gets an idea in his mind. However, I hope that it will come all
+right. By the way, he asked were you well enough to see him today?"
+
+"I would rather not see him till tomorrow," the girl said.
+
+"And I think too that you had better not see him until tomorrow, Isobel.
+Your cheeks are flushed now, and your hands are trembling, and I do not
+want you laid up again, so I order you to keep yourself perfectly quiet
+for the rest of the day."
+
+But it was not till two days later that Bathurst came up to see her.
+
+The spies brought in, late that evening, the news that a small party of
+the Sepoy cavalry, with two guns, were at a village three miles on the
+other side of the town, and were in communication with the disaffected.
+It was decided at once by the officer who had succeeded General Neil
+in the command of the fort that a small party of fifty infantry,
+accompanied by ten or twelve mounted volunteers, should go out and
+attack them. Bathurst sent in his name to form one of the party as soon
+as he learned the news, borrowing the horse of an officer who was laid
+up ill.
+
+The expedition started two hours before daybreak, and, making a long
+detour, fell upon the Sepoys at seven o'clock. The latter, who had
+received news half an hour before of their approach, made a stand,
+relying on their cannon. The infantry, however, moved forward in
+skirmishing order, their fire quickly silenced the guns, and they then
+rushed forward while the little troop of volunteers charged.
+
+The fight lasted but a few minutes, at the end of which time the enemy
+galloped off in all directions, leaving their guns in the hands of the
+victors. Four of the infantry had been killed by the explosion of a well
+aimed shell, and five of the volunteers were wounded in the hand to hand
+fight with the sowars. The Sepoys' guns and artillery horses had been
+captured.
+
+The party at once set out on their return. On their way they had some
+skirmishing with the rabble of the town, who had heard the firing, but
+they were beaten off without much difficulty, and the victors re-entered
+the fort in triumph. The Doctor was at the gate as they came in.
+Bathurst sprang from his horse and held out his hand. His radiant face
+told its own story.
+
+"Thank God, Doctor, it has passed. I don't think my pulse went a beat
+faster when the guns opened on us, and the crackle of our own musketry
+had no more effect. I think it has gone forever."
+
+"I am glad indeed, Bathurst," the Doctor said, warmly grasping his hand.
+"I hoped that it might be so."
+
+"No words can express how grateful I feel," Bathurst said. "The cloud
+that shadowed my life seems lifted, and henceforth I shall be able to
+look a man in the face."
+
+"You are wounded, I see," the Doctor said.
+
+"Yes, I had a pistol ball through my left arm. I fancy the bone is
+broken, but that is of no consequence."
+
+"A broken arm is no trifle," the Doctor said, "especially in a climate
+like this. Come into the hospital at once and let me see to it."
+
+One of the bones of the forearm was indeed broken, and the Doctor,
+having applied splints and bandages, peremptorily ordered him to lie
+down. Bathurst protested that he was perfectly able to get up with his
+arm in a sling.
+
+"I know you are able," the Doctor said testily; "but if you were to go
+about in this oven, we should very likely have you in a high fever by
+tomorrow morning. Keep yourself perfectly quiet for today; by tomorrow,
+if you have no signs of fever, and the wound is doing well, we will see
+about it."
+
+Upon leaving him Dr. Wade went out and heard the details of the fight.
+
+"Your friend Bathurst particularly distinguished himself," the officer
+who commanded the volunteers said. "He cut down the ressaldar who
+commanded the Sepoys, and was in the thick of it. I saw him run one
+sowar through and shoot another. I am not surprised at his fighting
+so well after what you have gone through in Deennugghur and in that
+Cawnpore business."
+
+The Doctor then went up to see Isobel. She looked flushed and excited.
+
+"Is it true, Doctor, that Mr. Bathurst went out with the volunteers, and
+that he is wounded?"
+
+"Both items are true, my dear. Fortunately the wound is not serious. A
+ball has broken the small bone of the left forearm, but I don't think it
+will lay him up for long; in fact, he objects strongly to go to bed."
+
+"But how did he--how is it he went out to fight, Doctor? I could hardly
+believe it when I was told, though of course I did not say so."
+
+"My dear, it was an experiment. He told me that he did not feel at all
+nervous when the Sepoys rushed in at the gate firing when he was walking
+off with you, and it struck me that possibly the sudden shock and the
+jump into the water when they attacked the boats, and that rap on the
+head with a musket ball, might have affected his nervous system, and
+that he was altogether cured, so he was determined on the first occasion
+to try."
+
+"And did it, Doctor?" Isobel asked eagerly. "I don't care, you know, one
+bit whether he is nervous when there is a noise or not, but for his sake
+I should be glad to know that he has got over it; it has made him so
+unhappy."
+
+"He has got over it, my dear; he went through the fight without feeling
+the least nervous, and distinguished himself very much in the charge, as
+the officer who commanded his troop has just told me."
+
+"Oh, I am glad--I am thankful, Doctor; no words can say how pleased I
+am; I know that it would have made his whole life unhappy, and I should
+have always had the thought that he remembered those hateful words of
+mine."
+
+"I am as glad as you are, Isobel, though I fancy it will change our
+plans."
+
+"How change our plans, Doctor? I did not know that I had any plans."
+
+"I think you had, child, though you might not acknowledge them even
+to yourself. My plan was that you should somehow convince him that, in
+spite of what you said, and in spite of his leaving you in that boat,
+you were quite content to take him for better or for worse."
+
+"How could I tell him that?" the girl said, coloring.
+
+"Well, I think you would have had to do so somehow, my dear, but that is
+not the question now. My plan was that when you had succeeded in doing
+this you should marry him and go home with him."
+
+"But why, Doctor," she asked, coloring even more hotly than before, "is
+the plan changed?"
+
+"Because, my dear, I don't think Bathurst will go home with you."
+
+"Why not, Doctor?" she asked, in surprise.
+
+"Because, my dear, he will want, in the first place, to rehabilitate
+himself."
+
+"But no one knows, Doctor, about the siege and what happened there,
+except you and me and Mr. Wilson; all the rest have gone."
+
+"That is true, my dear, but he will want to rehabilitate himself in his
+own eyes; and besides, that former affair which first set you against
+him, might crop up at any time. Other civilians, many of them, have
+volunteered in the service, and no man of courage would like to go away
+as long as things are in their present state. You will see Bathurst will
+stay."
+
+Isobel was silent.
+
+"I think he will be right," she said at last gravely; "if he wishes to
+do so, I should not try to dissuade him; it would be very hard to know
+that he is in danger, but no harder for me than for others."
+
+"That is right, my dear," the Doctor said affectionately; "I should not
+wish my little girl--and now the Major has gone I feel that you are my
+little girl--to think otherwise. I think," he went on, smiling, "that
+the first part of that plan we spoke of will not be as difficult as
+I fancied it would be; the sting has gone, and he will get rid of his
+morbid fancies."
+
+"When shall I be able to see him?"
+
+"Well, if I had any authority over him you would not see him for a week;
+as I have not, I think it likely enough that you will see him tomorrow."
+
+"I would rather wait if it would do him any harm, Doctor."
+
+"I don't think it will do him any harm. Beyond the fact that he will
+have to carry his arm in a sling for the next fortnight, I don't think
+he will have any trouble with it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+The next morning Bathurst found Isobel Hannay sitting in a shady court
+that had been converted into a sort of general room for the ladies in
+the fort.
+
+"How are you, Miss Hannay? I am glad to see you down."
+
+"I might repeat your words, Mr. Bathurst, for you see we have changed
+places. You are the invalid, and not I."
+
+"There is very little of the invalid about me," he said. "I am glad to
+see that your face is much better than it was."
+
+"Yes, it is healing fast. I am a dreadful figure still; and the Doctor
+says that there will be red scars for months, and that probably my face
+will be always marked."
+
+"The Doctor is a croaker, Miss Hannay; there is no occasion to trust
+him too implicitly. I predict that there will not be any serious scars
+left."
+
+He took a seat beside her. There were two or three others in the court,
+but these were upon the other side, quite out of hearing.
+
+"I congratulate you, Mr. Bathurst," she said quietly, "on yesterday. The
+Doctor has, of course, told me all about it. It can make no difference
+to us who knew you, but I am heartily glad for your sake. I can
+understand how great a difference it must make to you."
+
+"It has made all the difference in the world," he replied. "No one can
+tell the load it has lifted from my mind. I only wish it had taken place
+earlier."
+
+"I know what you mean, Mr. Bathurst; the Doctor has told me about that
+too. You may wish that you had remained in the boat, but it was well for
+me that you did not. You would have lost your life without benefiting
+me. I should be now in the well of Cawnpore, or worse, at Bithoor."
+
+"That may be," he said gravely, "but it does not alter the fact."
+
+"I have no reason to know why you consider you should have stopped in
+the boat, Mr. Bathurst," she went on quietly, but with a slight flush
+on her cheek. "I can perhaps guess by what you afterwards did for me, by
+the risks you ran to save me; but I cannot go by guesses, I think I have
+a right to know."
+
+"You are making me say what I did not mean to say," he exclaimed
+passionately, "at least not now; but you do more than guess, you
+know--you know that I love you."
+
+"And what do you know?" she asked softly.
+
+"I know that you ought not to love me." he said. "No woman should love a
+coward."
+
+"I quite agree with you, but then I know that you are not a coward."
+
+"Not when I jumped over and left you alone? It was the act of a cur."
+
+"It was an act for which you were not really responsible. Had you been
+able to think, you would not have done so. I do not take the view the
+Doctor does, and I agree with you that a man loving a woman should first
+of all think of her and of her safety. So you thought when you could
+think, but you were no more responsible for your action than a madman
+for a murder committed when in a state of frenzy. It was an impulse
+you could not control. Had you, after the impulse had passed, come down
+here, believing, as you might well have believed, that it was absolutely
+impossible to rescue me from my fate, it would have been different. But
+the moment you came to yourself you deliberately took every risk
+and showed how brave you were when master of yourself. I am speaking
+plainly, perhaps more plainly than I ought to. But I should despise
+myself had I not the courage to speak out now when so much is at stake,
+and after all you have done for me.
+
+"You love me?"
+
+"You know that I love you."
+
+"And I love you," the girl said; "more than that, I honor and esteem
+you. I am proud of your love. I am jealous for your honor as for my own,
+and I hold that honor to be spotless. Even now, even with my happiness
+at stake, I could not speak so plainly had I not spoken so cruelly and
+wrongly before. I did not know you then as I know you now, but having
+said what I thought then, I am bound to say what I think now, if only as
+a penance. Did I hesitate to do so, I should be less grateful than that
+poor Indian girl who was ready as she said, to give her life for the
+life you had saved."
+
+"Had you spoken so bravely but two days since," Bathurst said, taking
+her hand, "I would have said. 'I love you too well, Isobel, to link
+your fate to that of a disgraced man.' but now I have it in my power to
+retrieve myself, to wipe out the unhappy memory of my first failure,
+and still more, to restore the self respect which I have lost during
+the last month. But to do so I must stay here: I must bear part in the
+terrible struggle there will be before this mutiny is put down, India
+conquered, and Cawnpore revenged."
+
+"I will not try to prevent you," Isobel said. "I feel it would be wrong
+to do so. I could not honor you as I do, if for my sake you turned away
+now. Even though I knew I should never see you again, I would that you
+had died so, than lived with even the shadow of dishonor on your name.
+I shall suffer, but there are hundreds of other women whose husbands,
+lovers, or sons are in the fray, and I shall not flinch more than they
+do from giving my dearest to the work of avenging our murdered friends
+and winning back India."
+
+So quietly had they been talking that no thought of how momentous
+their conversation had been had entered the minds of the ladies sitting
+working but a few paces away. One, indeed, had remarked to another, "I
+thought when Dr. Wade was telling us how Mr. Bathurst had rescued that
+unfortunate girl with the disfigured face at Cawnpore, that there was
+a romance in the case, but I don't see any signs of it. They are goods
+friends, of course, but there is nothing lover-like in their way of
+talking."
+
+So thought Dr. Wade when he came in and saw them sitting there, and gave
+vent to his feeling in a grunt of dissatisfaction.
+
+"It is like driving two pigs to market," he muttered; "they won't go the
+way I want them to, out of pure contrariness."
+
+"It is all settled, Doctor," Bathurst said, rising. "Come, shake hands;
+it is to you I owe my happiness chiefly."
+
+"Isobel, my dear, give me a kiss," the Doctor exclaimed. "I am glad,
+my dear, I am glad with all my heart. And what have you settled besides
+that?"
+
+"We have settled that I am to go home as soon as I can go down country,
+and he is going up with you and the others to Cawnpore."
+
+"That is right," the Doctor said heartily. "I told you that was what
+he would decide upon; it is right that he should do so. No man ought
+to turn his face to the coast till Lucknow is relieved and Delhi is
+captured. I thank God it has all come right at last. I began to be
+afraid that Bathurst's wrong headedness was going to mar both your
+lives."
+
+The news had already come down that Havelock had found that it would be
+absolutely impossible with the small force at his command to fight his
+way into Lucknow through the multitude of foes that surrounded it, and
+that he must wait until reinforcements arrived. There was, therefore, no
+urgent hurry, and it was not until ten days later that a second troop
+of volunteer horse, composed of civilians unable to resume their duties,
+and officers whose regiments had mutinied, started for Cawnpore.
+
+Half an hour before they mounted, Isobel Hannay and Ralph Bathurst were
+married by the chaplain in the fort. This was at Bathurst's earnest
+wish.
+
+"I may not return, Isobel," he had urged: "it is of no use to blink the
+fact that we have desperate fighting before us, and I should go into
+battle with my mind much more easy in the knowledge that, come what
+might, you were provided for. The Doctor tells me that he considers you
+his adopted daughter, and that he has already drawn up a will leaving
+his savings to you; but I should like your future to come from me, dear,
+even if I am not to share it with you. As you know, I have a fine estate
+at home, and I should like to think of you as its mistress."
+
+And Isobel of course had given way, though not without protest.
+
+"You don't know what I may be like yet," she said, half laughing, half
+in earnest. "I may carry these red blotches to my grave."
+
+"They are honorable scars, dear, as honorable as any gained in battle. I
+hope, for your sake, that they will get better in time, but it makes
+no difference to me. I know what you were, and how you sacrificed your
+beauty. I suppose if I came back short of an arm or leg you would not
+make that an excuse for throwing me over?"
+
+"You ought to be ashamed of even thinking of such a thing, Ralph."
+
+"Well, dear, I don't know that I did think it, but I am only putting a
+parallel case to your own. No, you must consent: it is in all ways best.
+We will be married on the morning I start, so as just to give time for
+our wedding breakfast before I mount."
+
+"It shall be as you wish," she said softly. "You know the estate without
+you would be nothing to me, but I should like to bear your name, and
+should you never come back to me, Ralph, to mourn for you all my life
+as my husband. But I believe you will return to me. I think I am getting
+superstitious, and believe in all sorts of things since so many strange
+events have happened. Those pictures on the smoke that came true, Rujub
+sending you messages at Deennugghur, and Rabda making me hear her voice
+and giving me hope in prison. I do not feel so miserable at the thought
+of your going into danger as I should do, if I had not a sort of
+conviction that we shall meet again. People believe in presentiments of
+evil, why should they not believe in presentiments of good? At any rate,
+it is a comfort to me that I do feel so, and I mean to go on believing
+it."
+
+"Do so, Isobel. Of course there will be danger, but the danger will
+be nothing to that we have passed through together. The Sepoys will
+no doubt fight hard, but already they must have begun to doubt; their
+confidence in victory must be shaken, and they begin to fear retribution
+for their crimes. The fighting will, I think, be less severe as the
+struggle goes on, and at any rate the danger to us, fighting as the
+assailants, is as nothing to that run when we were little groups
+surrounded by a country in arms.
+
+"The news that has come through from Lucknow is that, for some time at
+any rate, the garrison are confident they can hold out, while at
+Delhi we know that our position is becoming stronger every day; the
+reinforcements are beginning to arrive from England, and though the
+work may be slow at first, our army will grow, while their strength will
+diminish, until we sweep them before us. I need not stop until the
+end, only till the peril is over, till Lucknow is relieved, and Delhi
+captured.
+
+"As we agreed, I have already sent in my resignation in the service,
+and shall fight as a volunteer only. If we have to fight our way into
+Lucknow, cavalry will be useless, and I shall apply to be attached to
+one of the infantry regiments; having served before, there will be no
+difficulty about that. I think there are sure to be plenty of vacancies.
+Six months will assuredly see the backbone of the rebellion altogether
+broken. No doubt it will take much longer crushing it out altogether,
+for they will break up into scattered bodies, and it may be a long work
+before these are all hunted down; but when the strength of the rebellion
+is broken, I can leave with honor."
+
+There were but few preparations to be made for the wedding. Great
+interest was felt in the fort in the event, for Isobel's rescue from
+Bithoor and Cawnpore, when all others who had fallen into the power of
+the Nana had perished, had been the one bright spot in the gloom; and
+there would have been a general feeling of disappointment had not the
+romance had the usual termination.
+
+Isobel's presents were numerous and of a most useful character, for they
+took the form of articles of clothing, and her trousseau was a varied
+and extensive one.
+
+The Doctor said to her the evening before the event, "You ought to have
+a certificate from the authorities, Isobel, saying how you came into
+possession of your wardrobe, otherwise when you get back to England you
+will very soon come to be looked upon as a most suspicious character."
+
+"How do you mean, Doctor?"
+
+"Well, my dear, if the washerwoman to whom you send your assortment
+at the end of the voyage is an honest woman, she will probably give
+information to the police that you must be a receiver of stolen
+property, as your garments are all marked with different names."
+
+"It will look suspicious, Doctor, but I must run the risk of that till
+I can remark them again. I can do a good deal that way before I sail. It
+is likely we shall be another fortnight at least before we can start
+for Calcutta. I don't mean to take the old names out, but shall mark my
+initials over them and the word 'from.' Then they will always serve as
+mementoes of the kindness of everyone here."
+
+Early on the morning of the wedding a native presented himself at the
+gate of the fort, and on being allowed to enter with a letter for Miss
+Hannay of which he was the bearer, handed her a parcel, which proved
+to contain a very handsome and valuable set of jewelry, with a slip of
+paper on which were the words, "From Rabda."
+
+The Doctor was in high spirits at the breakfast to which everybody sat
+down directly after the wedding. In the first place, his greatest wish
+was gratified; and, in the second, he was about to start to take part in
+the work of retribution.
+
+"One would think you were just starting on a pleasure party, Doctor,"
+Isobel said.
+
+"It is worth all the pleasure parties in the world, my dear. I have
+always been a hunter, and this time it is human 'tigers' I am going in
+pursuit of--besides which," he said, in a quieter tone, "I hope I am
+going to cure as well as kill. I shall only be a soldier when I am not
+wanted as a doctor. A man who really loves his profession, as I do, is
+always glad to exercise it, and I fear I shall have ample opportunities
+that way; besides, dear there is nothing like being cheerful upon an
+occasion of this kind. The longer we laugh, the less time there is for
+tears."
+
+And so the party did not break up until it was nearly time for the
+little troop to start. Then there was a brief passionate parting, and
+the volunteer horse rode away to Cawnpore. Almost the first person they
+met as they rode into the British lines was Wilson, who gave a shout of
+joy at seeing the Doctor and Bathurst.
+
+"My dear Bathurst!" he exclaimed. "Then you got safely down. Did you
+rescue Miss Hannay?"
+
+"I had that good fortune, Wilson."
+
+"I am glad. I am glad," the young fellow said, shaking his hand
+violently, while the tears stood in his eyes. "I know you were right
+in sending me away, but I have regretted it ever since. I know I should
+have been no good, but it seemed such a mean thing for me to go off by
+myself. Well, Doctor, and so you got off too," he went on, turning from
+Bathurst and wringing the Doctor's hand; "I never even hoped that you
+escaped. I made sure that it was only we two. I have had an awful time
+of it since we heard the news, on the way up, of the massacre of the
+women. I had great faith in Bathurst, and knew that if anything could be
+done he would do it, but when I saw the place they had been shut up in,
+it did not seem really possible that he could have got anyone out of
+such a hole. And where did you leave Miss Hannay?"
+
+"We have not left her at all," the Doctor said gravely; "there is no
+longer a Miss Hannay. There, man, don't look so shocked. She changed her
+name on the morning we came away."
+
+"What!" Wilson exclaimed. "Is she Mrs. Bathurst? I am glad, Bathurst.
+Shake hands again; I felt sure that if you did rescue her that was what
+would come of it. I was almost certain by her way when I talked to
+her about you one day that she liked you. I was awfully spoony on her
+myself, you know, but I knew it was no use, and I would rather by a lot
+that she married you than anyone else I know. But come along into my
+tent; you know your troop and ours are going to be joined. We have
+lost pretty near half our fellows, either in the fights coming up or by
+sunstroke or fever since we came here. I got hold of some fizz in the
+bazaar yesterday, and I am sure you must be thirsty. This is a splendid
+business; I don't know that I ever felt so glad of anything in my life,"
+and he dragged them away to his tent.
+
+Bathurst found, to his disappointment, that intense as was the desire to
+push forward to Lucknow, the general opinion was that the General would
+not venture to risk his little force in an operation that, with the
+means at his disposal, seemed well nigh impossible. Cholera had made
+considerable ravages, and he had but fifteen hundred bayonets at his
+disposal. All that could be done pending the arrival of reinforcements
+was to prepare the way for an advance, and show so bold a front that the
+enemy would be forced to draw a large force from Lucknow to oppose his
+advance.
+
+A bridge of boats was thrown across the Ganges, and the force crossed
+the river and advanced to Onao, eight miles on the road to Lucknow. Here
+the enemy, strongly posted, barred the way; but they were attacked,
+and, after hard fighting, defeated, with a loss of three hundred men and
+fifteen guns.
+
+In this fight the volunteer horse, who had been formed into a single
+troop, did good service. One of their two officers was killed; and as
+the party last up from Allahabad were all full of Bathurst's rescue
+of Miss Hannay from Cawnpore, and Wilson and the Doctor influenced the
+others, he was chosen to fill the vacancy.
+
+There were two other fierce fights out at Busserutgunge, and then
+Bathurst had the satisfaction of advancing with the column against
+Bithoor. Here again the enemy fought sturdily, but were defeated with
+great slaughter, and the Nana's palace was destroyed.
+
+When, after the arrival of Outram with reinforcements, the column set
+out for Lucknow, the volunteers did not accompany them, as they would
+have been useless in street fighting, and were, therefore, detailed
+to form part of the little force left at Cawnpore to hold the city and
+check the rebels, parties of whom were swarming round it.
+
+The officer in command of the troop died of cholera a few days after
+Havelock's column started up, and Bathurst succeeded him. The work was
+very arduous, the men being almost constantly in their saddles,
+and having frequent encounters with the enemy. They were again much
+disappointed at being left behind when Sir Colin Campbell advanced to
+the relief of Havelock and the garrison, but did more than their share
+of fighting in the desperate struggle when the mutineers of the Gwallior
+contingent attacked the force at Cawnpore during the absence of the
+relieving column. Here they were almost annihilated in a desperate
+charge which saved the 64th from being cut to pieces at the most
+critical moment of the fight.
+
+Wilson came out of the struggle with the loss of his left arm, and two
+or three serious wounds. He had been cut off, and surrounded, and was
+falling from his horse when Bathurst cut his way to his rescue, and,
+lifting him into his saddle before him, succeeded after desperate
+fighting in carrying him off, himself receiving several wounds, none of
+which, however, were severe. The action had been noticed, and Bathurst's
+name was sent in for the Victoria Cross. As the troop had dwindled to a
+dozen sabers, he applied to Sir Colin Campbell, whose column had arrived
+in time to save the force at Cawnpore and to defeat the enemy, to be
+attached to a regiment as a volunteer. The General, however, at once
+offered him a post as an extra aide de camp to himself, as his perfect
+knowledge of the language would render him of great use; and he gladly
+accepted the offer.
+
+With the column returning from Lucknow was the Doctor.
+
+"By the way, Bathurst," he said on the evening of his return, "I met an
+old acquaintance in Lucknow; you would never guess who it was--Forster."
+
+"You don't say so; Doctor."
+
+"Yes; it seems he was hotly pursued, but managed to shake the sowars
+off. At that time the garrison was not so closely besieged as it
+afterwards was. He knew the country well, and made his way across
+it until within sight of Lucknow. At night he rode right through the
+rebels, swam the river, and gained the Residency. He distinguished
+himself greatly through the siege, but had been desperately wounded the
+day before we marched in. He was in a ward that was handed over to me
+directly I got there, and I at once saw that his case was a hopeless
+one. The poor fellow was heartily glad to see me. Of course he knew
+nothing of what had taken place at Deennugghur after he had left, and
+was very much cut up when he heard the fate of almost all the garrison.
+He listened quietly when I told how you had rescued Isobel and of your
+marriage. He was silent, and then said, 'I am glad to hear it, Doctor.
+I can't say how pleased I am she escaped. Bathurst has fairly won her.
+I never dreamt that she cared for him. Well, it seems he wasn't a
+coward after all. And you say he has resigned and come up as a volunteer
+instead of going home with her? That is plucky, anyhow. Well, I am
+pleased. I should not have been so if I hadn't been like this, Doctor,
+but now I am out of the running for good, it makes no odds to me either
+way. If ever you see him again, you tell him I said I was glad. I expect
+he will make her a deucedly better husband than I should have done. I
+never liked Bathurst, but I expect it was because he was a better fellow
+than most of us--that was at school, you know--and of course I did not
+take to him at Deennugghur. No one could have taken to a man there who
+could not stand fire. But you say he has got over that, so that is all
+right. Anyhow, I have no doubt he will make her happy. Tell her I am
+glad, Doctor. I thought at one time--but that is no odds now. I am glad
+you are out of it, too.'
+
+"And then he rambled on about shooting Sepoys, and did not say anything
+more coherently until late that night. I was sitting by him; he had been
+unconscious for some time, and he opened his eyes suddenly and said,
+'Tell them both I am glad,' and those were the last words he spoke."
+
+"He was a brave soldier, a fine fellow in many ways," Bathurst said; "if
+he had been brought up differently he would, with all his gifts, have
+been a grand fellow, but I fancy he never got any home training. Well,
+I am glad he didn't die as we supposed, without a friend beside him, on
+his way to Lucknow, and that he fell after doing his duty to the women
+and children there."
+
+Wilson refused to go home after the loss of his arm, and as soon as he
+recovered was appointed to one of the Sikh regiments, and took part in
+the final conquest of Lucknow two months after the fight at Cawnpore.
+A fortnight after the conclusion of that terrible struggle Sir Colin
+Campbell announced to Bathurst that amongst the dispatches that he
+had received from home that morning was a Gazette, in which his name
+appeared among those to whom the Victoria Cross had been granted.
+
+"I congratulate you heartily, Mr. Bathurst," the old officer said: "I
+have had the pleasure of speaking in the highest terms of the bravery
+you displayed in carrying my message through heavy fire a score of times
+during the late operations."
+
+Great as the honor of the Victoria Cross always is, to Bathurst it was
+much more than to other men. It was his rehabilitation. He need never
+fear now that his courage would be questioned, and the report that he
+had before left the army because he lacked courage would be forever
+silenced now that he could write V. C. after his name. The pleasure
+of Dr. Wade and Wilson was scarcely less than his own. The latter's
+regiment had suffered very heavily in the struggle at Lucknow, and he
+came out of it a captain, having escaped without a wound.
+
+A week later Bathurst resigned his appointment. There was still much to
+be done, and months of marching and fighting before the rebellion was
+quite stamped out; but there had now arrived a force ample to overcome
+all opposition, and there was no longer a necessity for the service of
+civilians. As he had already left the service of the Company, he was his
+own master, and therefore started at once for Calcutta..
+
+"I shall not be long before I follow you," the Doctor said, as they
+spent their last evening together. "I shall wait and see this out, and
+then retire. I should have liked to have gone home with you, but it is
+out of the question. Our hands are full, and likely to be so for some
+time, so I must stop."
+
+Bathurst stopped for a day at Patna to see Rujub and his daughter. He
+was received as an expected guest, and after spending a few hours with
+them he continued his journey. At Calcutta he found a letter awaiting
+him from Isobel, saying that she had arrived safely in England, and
+should stay with her mother until his arrival, and there he found her.
+
+"I expected you today," she said, after the first rapturous greeting
+was over. "Six weeks ago I woke in the middle of the night, and heard
+Rabda's voice distinctly say: 'He has been with us today: he is safe and
+well; he is on his way to you.' As I knew how long you would take
+going down from Patna, I went the next day to the office and found what
+steamer you would catch, and when she would arrive. My mother and sister
+both regarded me as a little out of my mind when I said you would be
+back this week. They have not the slightest belief in what I told them
+about Rujub, and insist that it was all a sort of hallucination brought
+on by my sufferings. Perhaps they will believe now."
+
+"Your face is wonderfully better," he said presently. "The marks seem
+dying out, and you look almost your old self."
+
+"Yes," she said; "I have been to one of the great doctors, and he says
+he thinks the scars will quite disappear in time."
+
+Isobel Bathurst has never again received any distinct message from
+Rabda, but from time to time she has the consciousness, when sitting
+quietly alone, that the girl is with her in thought. Every year letters
+and presents are exchanged, and to the end of their lives she and her
+husband will feel that their happiness is chiefly due to her and her
+father--Rujub, the Juggler.
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rujub, the Juggler, by G. A. Henty
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rujub, the Juggler, by G. A. Henty
+#12 in our series by G. A. Henty
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+
+
+Title: Rujub, the Juggler
+
+Author: G. A. Henty
+
+Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7229]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on March 28, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUJUB, THE JUGGLER ***
+
+
+
+
+This etext was produced by Martin Robb
+
+
+
+
+Rujub, the Juggler
+by G. A. Henty.
+
+
+
+PUBLISHERS' INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+"Rujub, the Juggler," is mainly an historical tale for young and
+old, dealing with the Sepoy Mutiny, in India, during the years 1857
+to 1859.
+
+This famous mutiny occurred while the reins of British rule in
+India were in the hands of Lord Canning. Chupattees (cakes of flour
+and water) were circulated among the natives, placards protesting
+against British rule were posted at Delhi, and when the Enfield
+rifle with its greased cartridges was introduced among the Sepoy
+soldiers serving the Queen it was rumored that the cartridges were
+smeared with the forbidden pig's fat, so that the power of the
+Sepoys might forever be destroyed.
+
+Fanatical to the last degree, the Sepoys were not long in bringing
+the mutiny to a head. The first outbreak occurred at Meerut, where
+were stationed about two thousand English soldiers and three thousand
+native troops. The native troops refused to use the cartridges
+supplied to them and eighty-two were placed under arrest. On the
+day following the native troops rebelled in a body, broke open the
+guardhouse and released the prisoners, and a severe battle followed,
+and Meerut was given over to the flames. The mutineers then marched
+upon Delhi, thirty-two miles away, and took possession. At Bithoor
+the Rajah had always professed a strong friendship for the English,
+but he secretly plotted against them, and, later on, General Wheeler
+was compelled to surrender to the Rajah at Cawnpore, and did so
+with the understanding that the lives of all in the place should
+be spared. Shortly after the surrender the English officers and
+soldiers were shot down, and all of the women and children butchered.
+
+The mutiny was now at its height, and for a while it was feared
+that British rule in India must cease. The Europeans at Lucknow
+were besieged for about three months and were on the point of giving
+up, when they were relieved through the heroic march of General
+Havelock. Sir Colin Campbell followed, and soon the city was once
+more in the complete possession of the British. Oude was speedily
+reduced to submission, many of the rebel leaders were either shot
+or hanged, and gradually the mutiny, which had cost the lives of
+thousands, was brought to an end.
+
+The tale, however, is not all of war. In its pages are given many
+true to life pictures of life in India, in the barracks of the
+soldiers and elsewhere. A most important part is played by Rujub,
+the juggler, who is a warm friend to the hero of the narrative.
+Rujub is no common conjuror, but one of the higher men of mystery,
+who perform partly as a religious duty and who accept no pay for such
+performances. The acts of these persons are but little understood,
+even at this late day, and it is possible that many of their arts
+will sooner or later be utterly lost to the world at large. That
+they can do some wonderful things in juggling, mind reading, and
+in second sight, is testified to by thousands of people who have
+witnessed their performances in India; how they do these things
+has never yet been explained.
+
+Strange as it may seem, the hero of the tale is a natural born
+coward, who cannot stand the noise of gunfire. He realizes his
+shortcomings, and they are frequently brought home to him through
+the taunts of his fellow soldiers. A doctor proves that the dread
+of noise is hereditary, but this only adds to the young soldier's
+misery. To make himself brave he rushes to the front in a most
+desperate fight, and engages in scout work which means almost certain
+death. In the end he masters his fear, and gives a practical lesson
+of what stern and unbending will power can accomplish.
+
+In many respects "Rujub, the Juggler," will be found one of the
+strongest of Mr. Henty's works, and this is saying much when one
+considers all of the many stories this well known author has already
+penned for the entertainment of young and old. As a picture of life
+in the English Army in India it is unexcelled.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It would be difficult to find a fairer scene. Throughout the gardens
+lanterns of many shapes and devices threw their light down upon
+the paths, which were marked out by lines of little lamps suspended
+on wires a foot above the ground. In a treble row they encircled
+a large tank or pond and studded a little island in its center.
+Along the terraces were festoons and arches of innumerable lamps,
+while behind was the Palace or Castle, for it was called either;
+the Oriental doors and windows and the tracery of its walls lit up
+below by the soft light, while the outline of the upper part could
+scarce be made out. Eastern as the scene was, the actors were
+for the most part English. Although the crowd that promenaded the
+terrace was composed principally of men, of whom the majority were
+in uniform of one sort or another, the rest in evening dress, there
+were many ladies among them.
+
+At the end of one of the terraces a band of the 103d Bengal Infantry
+was playing, and when they ceased a band of native musicians, at
+the opposite end of the terrace, took up the strains. Within, the
+palace was brilliantly lighted, and at the tables in one of the
+large apartments a few couples were still seated at supper. Among
+his guests moved the Rajah, chatting in fluent English, laughing
+with the men, paying compliments to the ladies, a thoroughly good
+fellow all round, as his guests agreed. The affair had been a
+great success. There had first been a banquet to the officers and
+civilians at the neighboring station. When this was over, the ladies
+began to arrive, and for their amusement there had been a native
+nautch upon a grand scale, followed by a fine display of fireworks,
+and then by supper, at which the Rajah had made a speech expressive
+of his deep admiration and affection for the British. This he had
+followed up by proposing the health of the ladies in flowery terms.
+Never was there a better fellow than the Rajah. He had English
+tastes, and often dined at one or other of the officers' messes.
+He was a good shot, and could fairly hold his own at billiards. He
+had first rate English horses in his stables, and his turnout was
+perfect in all respects. He kept a few horses for the races, and
+was present at every ball and entertainment. At Bithoor he kept
+almost open house. There was a billiard room and racquet courts,
+and once or twice a week there were luncheon parties, at which
+from twelve to twenty officers were generally present. In all India
+there was no Rajah with more pronounced English tastes or greater
+affection for English people. The one regret of his life, he
+often declared, was that his color and his religion prevented his
+entertaining the hope of obtaining an English wife. All this, as
+everyone said, was the more remarkable and praiseworthy, inasmuch
+as he had good grounds of complaint against the British Government.
+
+With the ladies he was an especial favorite; he was always ready
+to show them courtesy. His carriages were at their service. He was
+ready to give his aid and assistance to every gathering. His private
+band played frequently on the promenade, and handsome presents of
+shawls and jewelry were often made to those whom he held in highest
+favor. At present he was talking to General Wheeler and some other
+officers.
+
+"I warn you that I mean to win the cup at the races," he said; "I
+have just bought the horse that swept the board on the Bombay side;
+I have set my heart on winning the cup, and so secured this horse.
+I am ready to back it if any of you gentlemen are disposed to wager
+against it."
+
+"All in good time, Rajah," one of the officers laughed; "we don't
+know what will be entered against it yet, and we must wait to see
+what the betting is, but I doubt whether we have anything that
+will beat the Bombay crack on this side; I fancy you will have to
+lay odds on."
+
+"We shall see," the Rajah said; "I have always been unlucky, but
+I mean to win this time."
+
+"I don't think you take your losses much to heart, Rajah," General
+Wheeler said; "yet there is no doubt that your bets are generally
+somewhat rash ones."
+
+"I mean to make a coup this time. That is your word for a big
+thing, I think. The Government has treated me so badly I must try
+to take something out of the pockets of its officers."
+
+"You do pretty well still," the General laughed; "after this splendid
+entertainment you have given us this evening you can hardly call
+yourself a poor man."
+
+"I know I am rich. I have enough for my little pleasures--I do
+not know that I could wish for more--still no one is ever quite
+content."
+
+By this time the party was breaking up, and for the next half hour
+the Rajah was occupied in bidding goodby to his guests. When the
+last had gone he turned and entered the palace, passed through the
+great halls, and, pushing aside a curtain, entered a small room. The
+walls and the columns were of white marble, inlaid with arabesque
+work of colored stones. Four golden lamps hung from the ceiling, the
+floor was covered with costly carpets, and at one end ran a raised
+platform a foot in height, piled with soft cushions. He took a
+turn or two up and down the room, and then struck a silver bell.
+An attendant entered.
+
+"Send Khoosheal and Imambux here."
+
+Two minutes later the men entered. Imambux commanded the Rajah's
+troops, while Khoosheal was the master of his household.
+
+"All has gone off well," the Rajah said; "I am pleased with you,
+Khoosheal. One more at most, and we shall have done with them.
+Little do they think what their good friend Nana Sahib is preparing
+for them. What a poor spirited creature they think me to kiss the
+hand that robbed me, to be friends with those who have deprived
+me of my rights! But the day of reckoning is not far off, and then
+woe to them all! Have any of your messengers returned, Imambux?"
+
+"Several have come in this evening, my lord; would you see them
+now, or wait till morning?"
+
+"I will see them now; I will get the memory of these chattering
+men and these women with their bare shoulders out of my mind. Send
+the men in one by one. I have no further occasion for you tonight;
+two are better than three when men talk of matters upon which an
+empire depends."
+
+The two officers bowed and retired, and shortly afterwards the
+attendant drew back the curtain again, and a native, in the rags
+of a mendicant, entered, and bowed till his forehead touched the
+carpet. Then he remained kneeling, with his arms crossed over his
+chest, and his head inclined in the attitude of the deepest humility.
+
+"Where have you been?" the Rajah asked.
+
+"My lord's slave has been for three weeks at Meerut. I have obeyed
+orders. I have distributed chupaties among the native regiments,
+with the words, 'Watch, the time is coming,' and have then gone
+before I could be questioned. Then, in another disguise, I have
+gone through the bazaar, and said in talk with many that the Sepoys
+were unclean and outcast, for that they had bitten cartridges anointed
+with pig's fat, and that the Government had purposely greased the
+cartridges with this fat in order that the caste of all the Sepoys
+should be destroyed. When I had set men talking about this I left;
+it will be sure to come to the Sepoys' ears."
+
+The Rajah nodded. "Come again tomorrow at noon; you will have your
+reward then and further orders; but see that you keep silence;
+a single word, and though you hid in the farthest corner of India
+you would not escape my vengeance."
+
+Man after man entered. Some of them, like the first, were in
+mendicant's attire, one or two were fakirs, one looked like a well
+to do merchant. With the exception of the last, all had a similar
+tale to tell; they had been visiting the various cantonments of
+the native army, everywhere distributing chupaties and whispering
+tales of the intention of the Government to destroy the caste of the
+Sepoys by greasing the cartridges with pig's fat. The man dressed
+like a trader was the last to enter.
+
+"How goes it, Mukdoomee?"
+
+"It is well, my lord; I have traversed all the districts where we
+dwelt of old, before the Feringhee stamped us out and sent scores
+to death and hundreds to prison. Most of the latter whom death has
+spared are free now, and with many of them have I talked. They are
+most of them old, and few would take the road again, but scarce one
+but has trained up his son or grandson to the work; not to practice
+it,--the hand of the whites was too heavy before, and the gains
+are not large enough to tempt men to run the risk--but they teach
+them for the love of the art. To a worshiper of the goddess there
+is a joy in a cleverly contrived plan and in casting the roomal
+round the neck of the victim, that can never die. Often in my young
+days, when perhaps twelve of us were on the road in a party, we
+made less than we could have done by labor, but none minded.
+
+"We were sworn brothers; we were working for Kali, and so that we
+sent her victims we cared little; and even after fifteen or twenty
+years spent in the Feringhee's prisons, we love it still; none
+hate the white man as we do; has he not destroyed our profession?
+We have two things to work for; first, for vengeance; second, for
+the certainty that if the white man's Raj were at an end, once again
+would the brotherhood follow their profession, and reap booty for
+ourselves and victims for Kali; for, assuredly, no native prince
+would dare to meddle with us. Therefore, upon every man who was
+once a Thug, and upon his sons and grandsons, you may depend. I do
+not say that they would be useful for fighting, for we have never
+been fighters, but the stranglers will be of use. You can trust them
+with missions, and send them where you choose. From their fathers'
+lips they have learnt all about places and roads; they can decoy
+Feringhee travelers, the Company's servants or soldiers, into
+quiet places, and slay them. They can creep into compounds and into
+houses, and choose their victims from the sleepers. You can trust
+them, Rajah, for they have learned to hate, and each in his way
+will, when the times comes, aid to stir up men to rise. The past
+had almost become a dream, but I have roused it into life again,
+and upon the descendants of the stranglers throughout India you
+can count surely."
+
+"You have not mentioned my name?" the Rajah said suddenly, looking
+closely at the man as he put the question.
+
+"Assuredly not, your highness; I have simply said deliverance is
+at hand; the hour foretold for the end of the Raj of the men from
+beyond the sea will soon strike, and they will disappear from the
+land like fallen leaves; then will the glory of Kali return, then
+again will the brotherhood take to the road and gather in victims.
+I can promise that every one of those whose fathers or grandfathers
+or other kin died by the hand of the Feringhee, or suffered in his
+prisons, will do his share of the good work, and be ready to obey
+to the death the orders which will reach him."
+
+"It is good," the Rajah said; "you and your brethren will have a
+rich harvest of victims, and the sacred cord need never be idle.
+Go; it is well nigh morning, and I would sleep."
+
+But not for some time did the Rajah close his eyes; his brain was
+busy with the schemes which he had long been maturing, but was only
+now beginning to put into action.
+
+"It must succeed," he said to himself; "all through India the
+people will take up arms when the Sepoys give the signal by rising
+against their officers. The whites are wholly unsuspicious; they
+even believe that I, I whom they have robbed, am their friend.
+Fools! I hold them in the hollow of my hand; they shall trust me
+to the last, and then I will crush them. Not one shall escape me!
+Would I were as certain of all the other stations in India as I am
+of this. Oude, I know, will rise as one man; the Princes of Delhi
+I have sounded; they will be the leaders, though the old King will
+be the nominal head; but I shall pull the strings, and as Peishwa,
+shall be an independent sovereign, and next in dignity to the Emperor.
+Only nothing must be done until all is ready; not a movement must
+be made until I feel sure that every native regiment from Calcutta
+to the North is ready to rise."
+
+And so, until the day had fully broken, the Rajah of Bithoor thought
+over his plans--the man who had a few hours before so sumptuously
+entertained the military and civilians of Cawnpore, and the man
+who was universally regarded as the firm friend of the British and
+one of the best fellows going.
+
+The days and weeks passed on, messengers came and went, the storm
+was slowing brewing; and yet to all men it seemed that India was
+never more contented nor the outlook more tranquil and assured.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+A young man in a suit of brown karkee, with a white puggaree wound
+round his pith helmet, was just mounting in front of his bungalow
+at Deennugghur, some forty miles from Cawnpore, when two others
+came up.
+
+"Which way are you going to ride, Bathurst?"
+
+"I am going out to Narkeet; there is a dispute between the villagers
+and a Talookdar as to their limits. I have got to look into the
+case. Why do you ask, Mr. Hunter?"
+
+"I thought that you might be going that way. You know we have had
+several reports of ravages by a man eater whose headquarters seem
+to be that big jungle you pass through on your way to Narkeet. He
+has been paying visits to several villages in its neighborhood,
+and has carried off two mail runners. I should advise you to keep
+a sharp lookout."
+
+"Yes, I have heard plenty about him; it is unfortunate we have no
+one at this station who goes in for tiger hunting. Young Bloxam
+was speaking to me last night; he is very hot about it; but as he
+knows nothing about shooting, and has never fired off a rifle in
+his life, except at the military target, I told him that it was
+madness to think of it by himself, and that he had better ride down
+to the regiment at Cawnpore, and get them to form a party to come
+up to hunt the beast. I told him they need not bring elephants
+with them; I could get as many as were necessary from some of the
+Talookdars, and there will be no want of beaters. He said he would
+write at once, but he doubted whether any of them would be able
+to get away at present; the general inspection is just coming on.
+However, no doubt they will be able to do so before long."
+
+"Well, if I were you I would put a pair of pistols into my holster,
+Bathurst; it would be awfully awkward if you came across the beast."
+
+"I never carry firearms," the young man said shortly; and then
+more lightly, "I am a peaceful man by profession, as you are, Mr.
+Hunter, and I leave firearms to those whose profession it is to
+use them. I have hitherto never met with an occasion when I needed
+them, and am not likely to do so. I always carry this heavy hunting
+whip, which I find useful sometimes, when the village dogs rush
+out and pretend that they are going to attack me; and I fancy that
+even an Oude swordsman would think twice before attacking me when
+I had it in my hand. But, of course, there is no fear about the
+tiger. I generally ride pretty fast; and even if he were lying by
+the roadside waiting for a meal, I don't think he would be likely
+to interfere with me."
+
+So saying, he lightly touched the horse's flanks with his spurs
+and cantered off.
+
+"He's a fine young fellow, Garnet," Mr. Hunter said to his companion;
+"full of energy, and, they say, the very best linguist in Oude."
+
+"Yes, he is all that," the other agreed; "but he is a sort
+of fellow one does not quite understand. I like a man who is like
+other fellows; Bathurst isn't. He doesn't shoot, he doesn't ride
+--I mean he don't care for pig sticking; he never goes in for any
+fun there may be on hand; he just works--nothing else; he does
+not seem to mix with other people; he is the sort of fellow one
+would say had got some sort of secret connected with him."
+
+"If he has, I am certain it is nothing to his personal disadvantage,"
+Mr. Hunter said warmly. "I have known him for the last six years--
+I won't say very well, for I don't think anyone does that, except,
+perhaps, Doctor Wade. When there was a wing of the regiment up
+here three years ago he and Bathurst took to each other very much
+--perhaps because they were both different from other people. But,
+anyhow, from what I know of Bathurst I believe him to be a very
+fine character, though there is certainly an amount of reserve
+about him altogether unusual. At any rate, the service is a gainer
+by it. I never knew a fellow work so indefatigably. He will take
+a very high place in the service before he has done."
+
+"I am not so sure of that," the other said. "He is a man with
+opinions of his own, and all sorts of crotchets and fads. He has
+been in hot water with the Chief Commissioner more than once. When
+I was over at Lucknow last I was chatting with two or three men,
+and his name happened to crop up, and one of them said, 'Bathurst
+is a sort of knight errant, an official Don Quixote. Perhaps the best
+officer in the province in some respects, but hopelessly impracticable.'"
+
+"Yes, that I can quite understand, Garnet. That sort of man is never
+popular with the higher official, whose likings go to the man who
+does neither too much nor too little, who does his work without
+questioning, and never thinks of making suggestions, and is a mere
+official machine. Men of Bathurst's type, who go to the bottom of
+things, protest against what they consider unfair decisions, and
+send in memorandums showing that their superiors are hopelessly
+ignorant and idiotically wrong, are always cordially disliked.
+Still, they generally work their way to the front in the long run.
+Well, I must be off."
+
+Bathurst rode to Narkeet without drawing rein. His horse at times
+slackened its pace on its own accord, but an almost mechanical motion
+from its rider's heel soon started it off again at the rapid pace
+at which its rider ordinarily traveled. From the time he left
+Deennugghur to his arrival at Narkeet no thought of the dreaded
+man eater entered Bathurst's mind. He was deeply meditating on
+a memorandum he was about to draw up, respecting a decision that
+had been arrived at in a case between a Talookdar in his district
+and the Government, and in which, as it appeared to him, a wholly
+erroneous and unjust view had been taken as to the merits of the
+case; and he only roused himself when the horse broke into a walk
+as it entered the village. Two or three of the head men, with many
+bows and salutations of respect, came out to receive him.
+
+"My lord sahib has seen nothing of the tiger?" the head man said;
+"our hearts were melted with fear, for the evil beast was heard
+roaring in the jungle not far from the road early this morning."
+
+"I never gave it a thought, one way or the other," Bathurst said,
+as he dismounted. "I fancy the horse would have let me know if
+the brute had been anywhere near. See that he is tied up in the
+shed, and has food and water, and put a boy to keep the flies from
+worrying him. And now let us get to business. First of all, I must
+go through the village records and documents; after that I will
+question four or five of the oldest inhabitants, and then we must
+go over the ground. The whole question turns, you know, upon whether
+the irrigation ditch mentioned in the Talookdar's grant is the one
+that runs across at the foot of the rising ground on his side, or
+whether it is the one that sweeps round on this side of the grove
+with the little temple in it. Unfortunately most of the best land
+lies between those ditches."
+
+For hours Bathurst listened to the statements of the old people of
+the village, cross questioning them closely, and sparing no efforts
+to sift the truth from their confused and often contradictory evidence.
+Then he spent two hours going over the ground and endeavoring to
+satisfy himself which of the two ditches was the one named in the
+village records. He had two days before taken equal pains in sifting
+the evidence on the other side.
+
+"I trust that my lord sees there can be no doubt as to the justice
+of our claim," the head man said humbly, as he prepared to mount
+again.
+
+"According to your point of view, there is no doubt about it, Childee;
+but then there is equally no doubt the other way, according to the
+statements they put forward. But that is generally the way in all
+these land disputes. For good hard swearing your Hindoo cultivator
+can be matched against the world. Unfortunately there is nothing
+either in your grant or in your neighbors' that specifies unmistakably
+which of these ancient ditches is the one referred to. My present
+impression is that it is essentially a case for a compromise, but
+you know the final decision does not rest on me. I shall be out
+here again next week, and I shall write to the Talookdar to meet
+me here, and we will go over the ground together again, and see if
+we cannot arrange some line that will be fair to both parties. If
+we can do that, the matter would be settled without expense and
+trouble; whereas, if it goes up to Lucknow it may all have to be
+gone into again; and if the decision is given against you, and as
+far as I can see it is just as likely to be one way as another, it
+will be a serious thing for the village."
+
+"We are in my lord's hands," the native said; "he is the protector
+of the poor, and will do us justice."
+
+"I will do you justice, Childee, but I must do justice to the other
+side too. Of course, neither of you will be satisfied, but that
+cannot be helped."
+
+His perfect knowledge of their language, the pains he took to sift
+all matters brought before him to the bottom, had rendered the young
+officer very popular among the natives. They knew they could get
+justice from him direct. There was no necessity to bribe underlings:
+he had the knack of extracting the truth from the mass of lying
+evidence always forthcoming in native cases; and even the defeated
+party admired the manner in which the fabric of falsehood was pulled
+to pieces. But the main reason of his popularity was his sympathy,
+the real interest which he showed in their cases, and the patience
+with which he listened to their stories.
+
+Bathurst himself, as he rode homewards, was still thinking of the
+case. Of course there had been lying on both sides; but to that
+he was accustomed. It was a question of importance--of greater
+importance, no doubt, to the villagers than to their opponent, but
+still important to him--for this tract of land was a valuable
+one, and of considerable extent, and there was really nothing in the
+documents produced on either side to show which ditch was intended
+by the original grants. Evidently, at the time they were made, very
+many years before, one ditch or the other was not in existence; but
+there was no proof as to which was the more recent, although both
+sides professed that all traditions handed down to them asserted
+the ditch on their side to be the more recent.
+
+He was riding along the road through the great jungle, at his horse's
+own pace, which happened for the moment to be a gentle trot, when
+a piercing cry rang through the air a hundred yards ahead. Bathurst
+started from his reverie, and spurred his horse sharply; the animal
+dashed forward at a gallop. At a turn in the road he saw, twenty
+yards ahead of him, a tiger, standing with a foot upon a prostrate
+figure, while a man in front of it was gesticulating wildly. The
+tiger stood as if hesitating whether to strike down the figure in
+front or to content itself with that already in its power.
+
+The wild shouts of the man had apparently drowned the sound of the
+horse's feet upon the soft road, for the animal drew back half a
+pace as it suddenly came into view.
+
+The horse swerved at the sight, and reared high in the air as
+Bathurst drove his spurs into it. As its feet touched the ground
+again, Bathurst sprang off and rushed at the tiger, and brought
+down the heavy lash of his whip with all his force across its head.
+With a fierce snarl it sprang back two paces, but again and again
+the whip descended upon it, and bewildered and amazed at the attack
+it turned swiftly and sprang through the bushes.
+
+Bathurst, knowing that there was no fear of its returning, turned
+at once to the figure on the road. It was, as in even the momentary
+glance he had noticed, a woman, or rather a girl of some fourteen
+or fifteen years of age--the man had dropped on his knees beside
+her, moaning and muttering incoherent words.
+
+"I see no blood," Bathurst said, and stooping, lifted the light
+figure. "Her heart beats, man; I think she has only fainted. The
+tiger must have knocked her down in its spring without striking
+her. So far as I can see she is unhurt."
+
+He carried her to the horse, which stood trembling a few yards
+away, took a flask from the holster, and poured a little brandy
+and water between her lips.
+
+Presently there was a faint sigh. "She is coming round," he said
+to the man, who was still kneeling, looking on with vacant eyes,
+as though he had neither heard nor comprehended what Bathurst was
+doing. Presently the girl moved slightly and opened her eyes. At
+first there was no expression in them; then a vague wonder stole
+into them at the white face looking down upon her.
+
+She closed them again, and then reopened them, and then there was
+a slight struggle to free herself. He allowed her to slip through
+his arms until her feet touched the ground; then her eyes fell on
+the kneeling figure.
+
+"Father!" she exclaimed. With a cry the man leaped to his feet,
+sprang to her and seized her in his arms, and poured out words
+of endearment. Then suddenly he released her and threw himself
+on the ground before Bathurst, with ejaculations of gratitude and
+thankfulness.
+
+"Get up, man, get up," the latter said; "your daughter can scarce
+stand alone, and the sooner we get away from this place the better;
+that savage beast is not likely to return, but he may do so; let
+us be off."
+
+He mounted his horse again, brought it up to the side of the girl,
+and then, leaning over, took her and swung her into the saddle in
+front of him. The man took up a large box that was lying in the
+road and hoisted it onto his shoulders, and then, at a foot's pace,
+they proceeded on their way--Bathurst keeping a close watch on
+the jungle at the side on which the tiger had entered it.
+
+"How came you to travel along this road alone?" he asked the man.
+"The natives only venture through in large parties, because of this
+tiger."
+
+"I am a stranger," the man answered; "I heard at the village where
+we slept last night that there was a tiger in this jungle, but
+I thought we should be through it before nightfall, and therefore
+there was no danger. If one heeded all they say about tigers one
+would never travel at all. I am a juggler, and we are on our way
+down the country through Cawnpore and Allahabad. Had it not been
+for the valor of my lord sahib, we should never have got there; for
+had I lost my Rabda, the light of my heart, I should have gone no
+further, but should have waited for the tiger to take me also."
+
+"There was no particular valor about it," Bathurst said shortly.
+"I saw the beast with its foot on your daughter, and dismounted to
+beat it off just as if it had been a dog, without thinking whether
+there was any danger in it or not. Men do it with savage beasts
+in menageries every day. They are cowardly brutes after all, and
+can't stand the lash. He was taken altogether by surprise, too."
+
+"My lord has saved my daughter's life, and mine is at his service
+henceforth," the man said. "The mouse is a small beast, but he may
+warn the lion. The white sahibs are brave and strong. Would one of
+my countrymen have ventured his life to attack a tiger, armed only
+with a whip, for the sake of the life of a poor wayfarer?"
+
+"Yes, I think there are many who would have done so," Bathurst
+replied. "You do your countrymen injustice. There are plenty of
+brave men among them, and I have heard before now of villagers,
+armed only with sticks, attacking a tiger who has carried off a
+victim from among them. You yourself were standing boldly before
+it when I came up."
+
+"My child was under its feet--besides, I never thought of myself.
+If I had had a weapon I should not have drawn it. I had no thought
+of the tiger; I only thought that my child was dead. She works with
+me, sahib; since her mother died, five years ago, we have traveled
+together over the country; she plays while I conjure. She takes
+round the saucer for the money, and she acts with me in the tricks
+that require two persons; it is she who disappears from the basket.
+We are everything to each other, sahib. But what is my lord's name?
+Will he tell his servant, that he and Rabda may think of him and
+talk of him as they tramp the roads together?"
+
+"My name is Ralph Bathurst. I am District Officer at Deennugghur.
+How far are you going this evening?"
+
+"We shall sleep at the first village we come to, sahib; we have
+walked many hours today, and this box, though its contents are not
+weighty, is heavy to bear. We thought of going down tomorrow to
+Deennugghur, and showing our performances to the sahib logue there."
+
+"Very well; but there is one thing--what is your name?"
+
+"Rujub."
+
+"Well, Rujub, if you go on to Deennugghur tomorrow say nothing to
+anyone there about this affair with the tiger; it is nothing to
+talk about. I am not a shikari, but a hard working official, and
+I don't want to be talked about."
+
+"The sahib's wish shall be obeyed," the man said.
+
+"You can come round to my bungalow and ask for me; I shall be glad
+to hear whether your daughter is any the worse for her scare. How
+do you feel, Rabda?"
+
+"I feel as one in a dream, sahib. I saw a great yellow beast
+springing through the air, and I cried out, and knew nothing more
+till I saw the sahib's face; and now I have heard him and my father
+talking, but their voices sound to me as if far away, though I know
+that you are holding me."
+
+"You will be all the better after a night's rest, child; no wonder
+you feel strange and shaken. Another quarter of an hour and we
+shall be at the village. I suppose, Rujub, you were born a conjurer."
+
+"Yes, sahib, it is always so; it goes down from father to son. As
+soon as I was able to walk, I began to work with my father, and
+as I grew up he initiated me in the secrets of our craft, which we
+may never divulge."
+
+"No, I know they are a mystery. Many of your tricks can be done
+by our conjurers at home, but there are some that have never been
+solved."
+
+"I have been offered, more than once, large sums by English sahibs
+to tell them how some of the feats were done, but I could not; we
+are bound by terrible oaths, and; in no case has a juggler proved
+false to them. Were one to do so he would be slain without mercy,
+and his fate in the next world would be terrible; forever and
+forever his soul would pass through the bodies of the foulest and
+lowest creatures, and there would be no forgiveness for him. I would
+give my life for the sahib, but even to him I would not divulge
+our mysteries."
+
+In a few minutes they came to the first village beyond the jungle.
+As they approached it Bathurst checked his horse and lifted the
+girl down. She took his hand and pressed her forehead to it.
+
+"I shall see you tomorrow, then, Rujub," he said, and shaking the
+reins, went on at a canter.
+
+"That is a new character for me to come out in," he said bitterly;
+"I do not know myself--I, of all men. But there was no bravery
+in it; it never occurred to me to be afraid; I just thrashed him
+off as I should beat off a dog who was killing a lamb; there was no
+noise, and it is noise that frightens me; if the brute had roared
+I should assuredly have run; I know it would have been so; I could
+not have helped it to have saved my life. It is an awful curse that
+I am not as other men, and that I tremble and shake like a girl
+at the sound of firearms. It would have been better if I had been
+killed by the first shot fired in the Punjaub eight years ago, or
+if I had blown my brains out at the end of the day. Good Heavens!
+what have I suffered since. But I will not think of it. Thank God,
+I have got my work; and as long as I keep my thoughts on that there
+is no room for that other;" and then, by a great effort of will,
+Ralph Bathurst put the past behind him, and concentrated his thoughts
+on the work on which he had been that day engaged.
+
+The juggler did not arrive on the following evening as he had expected,
+but late in the afternoon a native boy brought in a message from
+him, saying that his daughter was too shaken and ill to travel,
+but that they would come when she recovered.
+
+A week later, on returning from a long day's work, Bathurst was
+told that a juggler was in the veranda waiting to see him.
+
+"I told him, sahib," the servant said, "that you cared not for
+such entertainments, and that he had better go elsewhere; but he
+insisted that you yourself had told him to come, and so I let him
+wait."
+
+"Has he a girl with him, Jafur?"
+
+"Yes, sahib."
+
+Bathurst strolled round to the other side of the bungalow, where
+Rujub was sitting patiently, with Rabda wrapped in her blue cloth
+beside him. They rose to their feet.
+
+"I am glad to see your daughter is better again, Rujub."
+
+"She is better, sahib; she has had fever, but is restored."
+
+"I cannot see your juggling tonight, Rujub. I have had a heavy
+day's work, and am worn out, and have still much to do. You had
+better go round to some of the other bungalows; though I don't think
+you will do much this evening, for there is a dinner party at the
+Collector's, and almost everyone will be there. My servants will
+give you food, and I shall be off at seven o'clock in the morning,
+but shall be glad to see you before I start. Are you in want of
+money?" and he put his hand in his pocket.
+
+"No, sahib," the juggler said. "We have money sufficient for all
+our wants; we are not thinking of performing tonight, for Rabda
+is not equal to it. Before sunrise we shall be on our way again;
+I must be at Cawnpore, and we have delayed too long already. Could
+you give us but half an hour tonight, sahib; we will come at any
+hour you like. I would show you things that few Englishmen have seen.
+Not mere common tricks, sahib, but mysteries such as are known to
+few even of us. Do not say no, sahib."
+
+"Well, if you wish it, Rujub, I will give you half an hour," and
+Bathurst looked at his watch. "It is seven now, and I have to dine.
+I have work to do that will take me three hours at least, but at
+eleven I shall have finished. You will see a light in my room; come
+straight to the open window."
+
+"We will be there, sahib;" and with a salaam the juggler walked
+off, followed by his daughter.
+
+A few minutes before the appointed time Bathurst threw down his
+pen with a little sigh of satisfaction.
+
+The memo he had just finished was a most conclusive one; it seemed
+to him unanswerable, and that the Department would have trouble in
+disputing his facts and figures. He had not since he sat down to
+his work given another thought to the juggler, and he almost started
+as a figure appeared in the veranda at the open window.
+
+"Ah, Rujub, is it you? I have just finished my work. Come in; is
+Rabda with you?"
+
+"She will remain outside until I want her," the juggler said as
+he entered and squatted himself on the floor. "I am not going to
+juggle, sahib. With us there are two sorts of feats; there are those
+that are performed by sleight of hand or by means of assistance.
+These are the juggler's tricks we show in the verandas and compounds
+of the white sahibs, and in the streets of the cities. There are
+others that are known only to the higher order among us, that we
+show only on rare occasions. They have come to us from the oldest
+times, and it is said they were brought by wise men from Egypt;
+but that I know not."
+
+"I have always been interested in juggling, and have seen many
+things that I cannot understand," Bathurst said. "I have seen the
+basket trick done on the road in front of the veranda, as well as
+in other places, and I cannot in any way account for it."
+
+The juggler took from his basket a piece of wood about two feet in
+length and some four inches in diameter.
+
+"You see this?" he said.
+
+Bathurst took it in his hand. "It looks like a bit sawn off a
+telegraph pole," he said.
+
+"Will you come outside, sahib?"
+
+The night was very dark, but the lamp on the table threw its light
+through the window onto the drive in front of the veranda. Rujub
+took with him a piece of wood about nine inches square, with a soft
+pad on the top. He went out in the drive and placed the piece of
+pole upright, and laid the wood with the cushion on the top.
+
+"Now will you stand in the veranda a while?"
+
+Bathurst stood back by the side of the window so as not to interfere
+with the passage of the light. Rabda stole forward and sat down
+upon the cushion.
+
+"Now watch, sahib."
+
+Bathurst looked, and saw the block of wood apparently growing.
+Gradually it rose until Rabda passed up beyond the light in the
+room.
+
+"You may come out," the juggler said, "but do not touch the pole.
+If you do, it will cause a fall, which would be fatal to my child."
+
+Bathurst stepped out and looked up. He could but just make out
+the figure of Rabda, seemingly already higher than the top of the
+bungalow. Gradually it became more and more indistinct.
+
+"You are there, Rabda?" her father said.
+
+"I am here, father!" and the voice seemed to come from a considerable
+distance.
+
+Again and again the question was asked, and the answer became
+fainter and fainter, although it sounded as if it was a distant
+cry in response to Rujub's shout rather than spoken in an ordinary
+voice.
+
+At last no response was heard.
+
+"Now it shall descend," the juggler said.
+
+Two or three minutes passed, and then Bathurst, who was staring
+up into the darkness, could make out the end of the pole with the
+seat upon it, but Rabda was no longer there. Rapidly it sank, until
+it stood its original height on the ground.
+
+"Where is Rabda?" Bathurst exclaimed.
+
+"She is here, my lord," and as he spoke Rabda rose from a sitting
+position on the balcony close to Bathurst.
+
+"It is marvelous!" the latter exclaimed. "I have heard of that feat
+before, but have never seen it. May I take up that piece of wood?"
+
+"Assuredly, sahib."
+
+Bathurst took it up and carried it to the light. It was undoubtedly,
+as he had before supposed, a piece of solid wood. The juggler had
+not touched it, or he would have supposed he might have substituted
+for the piece he first examined a sort of telescope of thin sheets of
+steel, but even that would not have accounted for Rabda's disappearance.
+
+"I will show you one other feat, my lord."
+
+He took a brass dish, placed a few pieces of wood and charcoal in
+it, struck a match, and set the wood on fire, and then fanned it
+until the wood had burned out, and the charcoal was in a glow; then
+he sprinkled some powder upon it, and a dense white smoke rose.
+
+"Now turn out the lamp, sahib."
+
+Bathurst did so. The glow of the charcoal enabled him still to see
+the light smoke; this seemed to him to become clearer and clearer.
+
+"Now for the past!" Rujub said. The smoke grew brighter and
+brighter, and mixed with flashes of color; presently Bathurst saw
+clearly an Indian scene. A village stood on a crest, jets of smoke
+darted up from between the houses, and then a line of troops in
+scarlet uniform advanced against the village, firing as they went.
+They paused for a moment, and then with a rush went at the village
+and disappeared in the smoke over the crest.
+
+"Good Heavens," Bathurst muttered, "it is the battle of Chillianwalla!"
+
+"The future!" Rujub said, and the colors on the smoke changed.
+Bathurst saw a wall surrounding a courtyard. On one side was a
+house. It had evidently been besieged, for in the upper part were
+many ragged holes, and two of the windows were knocked into one.
+On the roof were men firing, and there were one or two women among
+them. He could see their faces and features distinctly. In the
+courtyard wall there was a gap, and through this a crowd of Sepoys
+were making their way, while a handful of whites were defending
+a breastwork. Among them he recognized his own figure. He saw
+himself club his rifle and leap down into the middle of the Sepoys,
+fighting furiously there. The colors faded away, and the room was
+in darkness again. There was the crack of a match, and then Rujub
+said quietly, "If you will lift off the globe again, I will light
+the lamp, sahib."
+
+Bathurst almost mechanically did as he was told.
+
+"Well, sahib, what do you think of the pictures?"
+
+"The first was true," Bathurst said quietly, "though, how you knew
+I was with the regiment that stormed the village at Chillianwalla
+I know not. The second is certainly not true."
+
+"You can never know what the future will be, sahib," the juggler
+said gravely.
+
+"That is so," Bathurst said; "but I know enough of myself to say
+that it cannot be true. I do not say that the Sepoys can never be
+fighting against whites, improbable as it seems, but that I was
+doing what that figure did is, I know, impossible."
+
+"Time will show, sahib," the juggler said; "the pictures never lie.
+Shall I show you other things?"
+
+"No, Rujub, you have shown me enough; you have astounded me. I want
+to see no more tonight."
+
+"Then farewell, sahib; we shall meet again, I doubt not, and mayhap
+I may be able to repay the debt I owe you;" and Rujub, lifting his
+basket, went out through the window without another word.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Some seven or eight officers were sitting round the table in the
+messroom of the 103d Bengal Infantry at Cawnpore. It had been a
+guest night, but the strangers had left, the lights had been turned
+out in the billiard room overhead, the whist party had broken up,
+and the players had rejoined three officers who had remained at
+table smoking and talking quietly.
+
+Outside, through the open French windows, the ground looked as if
+sprinkled with snow beneath the white light of the full moon. Two
+or three of the mess servants were squatting in the veranda, talking
+in low voices. A sentry walked backwards and forwards by the gate
+leading into the mess house compound; beyond, the maidan stretched
+away flat and level to the low huts of the native lines on the
+other side.
+
+"So the Doctor comes back tomorrow, Major," the Adjutant, who had
+been one of the whist party, said. "I shall be very glad to have
+him back. In the first place, he is a capital fellow, and keeps
+us all alive; secondly, he is a good deal better doctor than the
+station surgeon who has been looking after the men since we have
+been here; and lastly, if I had got anything the matter with me
+myself, I would rather be in his hands than those of anyone else
+I know."
+
+"Yes, I agree with you, Prothero; the Doctor is as good a fellow as
+ever stepped. There is no doubt about his talent in his profession;
+and there are a good many of us who owed our lives to him when
+we were down with cholera, in that bad attack three years ago. He
+is good all round; he is just as keen a shikari as he was when he
+joined the regiment, twenty years ago; he is a good billiard player,
+and one of the best storytellers I ever came across; but his best
+point is that he is such a thoroughly good fellow--always ready
+to do a good turn to anyone, and to help a lame dog over a stile.
+I could name a dozen men in India who owe their commissions to him.
+I don't know what the regiment would do without him."
+
+"He went home on leave just after I joined," one of the subalterns
+said. "Of course, I know, from all I have heard of him, that he is
+an awfully good fellow, but from the little I saw of him myself,
+he seemed always growling and snapping."
+
+There was a general laugh from the others.
+
+"Yes, that is his way, Thompson," the Major said; "he believes
+himself to be one of the most cynical and morose of men."
+
+"He was married, wasn't he, Major?"
+
+"Yes, it was a sad business. It was only just after I joined. He
+is three years senior to me in the regiment. He was appointed to
+it a month or two after the Colonel joined. Well, as I say, a month
+or two after I came to it, he went away on leave down to Calcutta,
+where he was to meet a young lady who had been engaged to him before
+he left home. They were married, and he brought her up country.
+Before she had been with us a month we had one of those outbreaks
+of cholera. It wasn't a very severe one. I think we only lost eight
+or ten men, and no officer; but the Doctor's young wife was attacked,
+and in three or four hours she was carried off. It regularly broke
+him down. However, he got over it, as we all do, I suppose; and
+now I think he is married to the regiment. He could have had staff
+appointments a score of times, but he has always refused them.
+His time is up next year, and he could go home on full pay, but I
+don't suppose he will."
+
+"And your niece arrives with him tomorrow, Major," the Adjutant
+said.
+
+"Yes, I am going to try petticoat government, Prothero. I don't
+know how the experiment will succeed, but I am tired of an empty
+bungalow, and I have been looking forward for some years to her
+being old enough to come out and take charge. It is ten years since
+I was home, and she was a little chit of eight years old at that
+time."
+
+"I think a vote of thanks ought to be passed to you, Major. We have
+only married ladies in the regiment, and it will wake us up and do
+us good to have Miss Hannay among us."
+
+"There are the Colonel's daughters," the Major said, with a smile.
+
+"Yes, there are, Major, but they hardly count; they are scarcely
+conscious of the existence of poor creatures like us; nothing short
+of a Resident or, at any rate, of a full blown Collector, will find
+favor in their eyes."
+
+"Well, I warn you all fairly," the Major said, "that I shall set
+my face against all sorts of philandering and love making. I am
+bringing my niece out here as my housekeeper and companion, and not
+as a prospective wife for any of you youngsters. I hope she will
+turn out to be as plain as a pikestaff, and then I may have some
+hopes of keeping her with me for a time. The Doctor, in his letter
+from Calcutta, says nothing as to what she is like, though he was
+good enough to remark that she seemed to have a fair share of common
+sense, and has given him no more trouble on the voyage than was to
+be expected under the circumstances. And now, lads, it is nearly
+two o'clock, and as there is early parade tomorrow, it is high time
+for you to be all in your beds. What a blessing it would be if the
+sun would forget to shine for a bit on this portion of the world,
+and we could have an Arctic night of seven or eight months with a
+full moon the whole time!"
+
+A few minutes later the messroom was empty, the lights turned out,
+and the servants wrapped up in their blankets had disposed themselves
+for sleep in the veranda.
+
+As soon as morning parade was over Major Hannay went back to his
+bungalow, looked round to see that his bachelor quarters were as
+bright and tidy as possible, then got into a light suit and went
+down to the post house. A quarter of an hour later a cloud of dust
+along the road betokened the approach of the Dak Gharry, and two
+or three minutes later it dashed up at full gallop amid a loud and
+continuous cracking of the driver's whip. The wiry little horses
+were drawn up with a sudden jerk.
+
+The Major opened the door. A little man sprang out and grasped him
+by the hand.
+
+"Glad to see you, Major--thoroughly glad to be back again. Here
+is your niece; I deliver her safe and sound into your hands." And
+between them they helped a girl to alight from the vehicle.
+
+"I am heartily glad to see you, my dear," the Major said, as he
+kissed her; "though I don't think I should have known you again."
+
+"I should think not, uncle," the girl said. "In the first place, I
+was a little girl in short frocks when I saw you last; and in the
+second place, I am so covered with the dust that you can hardly see
+what I am like. I think I should have known you; your visit made a
+great impression upon us, though I can remember now how disappointed
+we were when you first arrived that you hadn't a red coat and a
+sword, as we had expected."
+
+"Well, we may as well be off at once, Isobel; it is only five
+minutes' walk to the bungalow. My man will see to your luggage being
+brought up. Come along, Doctor. Of course you will put up with me
+until you can look round and fix upon quarters. I told Rumzan to
+bring your things round with my niece's. You have had a very pleasant
+voyage out, I hope, Isobel?" he went on, as they started.
+
+"Very pleasant, uncle, though I got rather tired of it at last."
+
+"That is generally the way--everyone is pleasant and agreeable
+at first, but before they get to the end they take to quarreling
+like cats and dogs."
+
+"We were not quite as bad as that," the girl laughed, "but we
+certainly weren't as amiable the last month or so as we were during
+the first part of the voyage. Still, it was very pleasant all along,
+and nobody quarreled with me."
+
+"Present company are always excepted," the Doctor said. "I stood
+in loco parentis, Major, and the result has been that I shall feel
+in future more charitable towards mothers of marriageable daughters.
+Still, I am bound to say that Miss Hannay has given me as little
+trouble as could be expected."
+
+"You frighten me, Doctor; if you found her so onerous only for a
+voyage, what have I to look forward to?"
+
+"Well, you can't say that I didn't warn you, Major; when you wrote
+home and asked me to take charge of your niece on the way out, I
+told you frankly that my opinion of your good sense was shaken."
+
+"Yes, you did express yourself with some strength," the Major laughed;
+"but then one is so accustomed to that, that I did not take it to
+heart as I might otherwise have done."
+
+"That was before you knew me, Dr. Wade, otherwise I should feel
+very hurt," the girl put in.
+
+"Yes, it was," the Doctor said dryly.
+
+"Don't mind him, my dear," her uncle said; "we all know the Doctor
+of old. This is my bungalow."
+
+"It is pretty, with all these flowers and shrubs round it," she
+said admiringly.
+
+"Yes, we have been doing a good deal of watering the last few weeks,
+so as to get it to look its best. This is your special attendant;
+she will take you up to your room. By the time you have had a bath,
+your boxes will be here. I told them to have a cup of tea ready
+for you upstairs. Breakfast will be on the table by the time you
+are ready."
+
+"Well, old friend," he said to the Doctor, when the girl had gone
+upstairs, "no complications, I hope, on the voyage?"
+
+"No, I think not," the Doctor said. "Of course, there were lots of
+young puppies on board, and as she was out and out the best looking
+girl in the ship half of them were dancing attendance upon her all
+the voyage, but I am bound to say that she acted like a sensible
+young woman; and though she was pleasant with them all, she didn't
+get into any flirtation with one more than another. I did my best
+to look after her, but, of course, that would have been of no good
+if she had been disposed to go her own way. I fancy about half of
+them proposed to her--not that she ever said as much to me--
+but whenever I observed one looking sulky and giving himself airs
+I could guess pretty well what had happened. These young puppies
+are all alike, and we are not without experience of the species
+out here.
+
+"Seriously, Major, I think you are to be congratulated. I consider
+that you ran a tremendous risk in asking a young woman, of whom you
+knew nothing, to come out to you; still it has turned out well. If
+she had been a frivolous, giggling thing, like most of them, I had
+made up my mind to do you a good turn by helping to get her engaged
+on the voyage, and should have seen her married offhand at Calcutta,
+and have come up and told you that you were well out of the scrape.
+As, contrary to my expectations, she turned out to be a sensible
+young woman, I did my best the other way. It is likely enough you
+may have her on your hands some little time, for I don't think she
+is likely to be caught by the first comer. Well, I must go and have
+my bath; the dust has been awful coming up from Allahabad. That
+is one advantage, and the only one as far as I can see, that they
+have got in England. They don't know what dust is there."
+
+When the bell for breakfast rang, and Isobel made her appearance,
+looking fresh and cool, in a light dress, the Major said, "You
+must take the head of the table, my dear, and assume the reins of
+government forthwith."
+
+"Then I should say, uncle, that if any guidance is required, there
+will be an upset in a very short time. No, that won't do at all.
+You must go on just as you were before, and I shall look on and
+learn. As far as I can see, everything is perfect just as it is.
+This is a charming room, and I am sure there is no fault to be
+found with the arrangement of these flowers on the table. As for
+the cooking, everything looks very nice, and anyhow, if you have
+not been able to get them to cook to your taste, it is of no use
+my attempting anything in that way. Besides, I suppose I must learn
+something of the language before I can attempt to do anything. No,
+uncle, I will sit in this chair if you like, and make tea and pour
+it out, but that is the beginning and the end of my assumption of
+the head of the establishment at present."
+
+"Well, Isobel, I hardly expected that you were going to run the
+establishment just at first; indeed, as far as that goes, one's
+butler, if he is a good man, has pretty well a free hand. He is
+generally responsible, and is in fact what we should call at home
+housekeeper--he and the cook between them arrange everything.
+I say to him, 'Three gentlemen are coming to tiffen.' He nods and
+says 'Atcha, sahib,' which means 'All right, sir,' and then I know
+it will be all right. If I have a fancy for any special thing, of
+course I say so. Otherwise, I leave it to them, and if the result
+is not satisfactory, I blow up. Nothing can be more simple."
+
+"But how about bills, uncle?"
+
+"Well, my dear, the butler gives them to me, and I pay them. He
+has been with me a good many years, and will not let the others--
+that is to say, the cook and the syce, the washerman, and so on,
+cheat me beyond a reasonable amount. Do you, Rumzan?"
+
+Rumzan, who was standing behind the Major's chair, in a white turban
+and dress, with a red and white sash round his waist, smiled.
+
+"Rumzan not let anyone rob his master."
+
+"Not to any great extent, you know, Rumzan. One doesn't expect more
+than that."
+
+"It is just the same here, Miss Hannay, as it is everywhere else,"
+said the Doctor; "only in big establishments in England they rob
+you of pounds, while here they rob you of annas, which, as I have
+explained to you, are two pence halfpennies. The person who undertakes
+to put down little peculations enters upon a war in which he is
+sure to get the worst of it. He wastes his time, spoils his temper,
+makes himself and everyone around him uncomfortable, and after all
+he is robbed. Life is too short for it, especially in a climate
+like this. Of course, in time you get to understand the language;
+if you see anything in the bills that strikes you as showing waste
+you can go into the thing, but as a rule you trust entirely to your
+butler; if you cannot trust him, get another one. Rumzan has been
+with your uncle ten years, so you are fortunate. If the Major
+had gone home instead of me, and if you had had an entirely fresh
+establishment of servants to look after, the case would have been
+different; as it is, you will have no trouble that way."
+
+"Then what are my duties to be, uncle?"
+
+"Your chief duties, my dear, are to look pleasant, which will
+evidently be no trouble to you; to amuse me and keep me in a good
+temper as far as possible; to keep on as good terms as may be with
+the other ladies of the station; and, what will perhaps be the most
+difficult part of your work, to snub and keep in order the young
+officers of our own and other corps."
+
+Isobel laughed. "That doesn't sound a very difficult programme,
+uncle, except the last item; I have already had a little experience
+that way, haven't I, Doctor? I hope I shall have the benefit of
+your assistance in the future, as I had aboard the ship."
+
+"I will do my best," the Doctor said grimly; "but the British
+subaltern is pretty well impervious to snubs; he belongs to the
+pachydermatous family of animals; his armor of self conceit renders
+him invulnerable against the milder forms of raillery. However, I
+think you can be trusted to hold your own with him, Miss Hannay,
+without much assistance from the Major or myself. Your real difficulty
+will lie rather in your struggle against the united female forces
+of the station."
+
+"But why shall I have to struggle with them?" Isobel asked, in
+surprise, while her uncle broke into a laugh.
+
+"Don't frighten her, Doctor."
+
+"She is not so easily frightened, Major; it is just as well that
+she should be prepared. Well, my dear Miss Hannay, Indian society
+has this peculiarity, that the women never grow old. At least,"
+he continued, in reply to the girl's look of surprise, "they are
+never conscious of growing old. At home a woman's family grows up
+about her, and are constant reminders that she is becoming a matron.
+Here the children are sent away when they get four or five years
+old, and do not appear on the scene again until they are grown
+up. Then, too, ladies are greatly in the minority, and they are
+accustomed to be made vastly more of than they are at home, and
+the consequence is that the amount of envy, hatred, jealousy, and
+all uncharitableness is appalling."
+
+"No, no, Doctor, not as bad as that," the Major remonstrated.
+
+"Every bit as bad as that," the Doctor said stoutly. "I am not a
+woman hater, far from it; but I have felt sometimes that if John
+Company, in its beneficence, would pass a decree absolutely excluding
+the importation of white women into India it would be an unmixed
+blessing."
+
+"For shame, Doctor," Isobel Hannay said; "and to think that I should
+have such a high opinion of you up to now."
+
+"I can't help it, my dear; my experience is that for ninety-nine
+out of every hundred unpleasantnesses that take place out here,
+women are in one way or another responsible. They get up sets and
+cliques, and break up what might be otherwise pleasant society into
+sections. Talk about caste amongst natives; it is nothing to the
+caste among women out here. The wife of a civilian of high rank looks
+down upon the wives of military men, the general's wife looks down
+upon a captain's, and so right through from the top to the bottom.
+
+"It is not so among the men, or at any rate to a very much smaller
+extent. Of course, some men are pompous fools, but, as a rule, if
+two men meet, and both are gentlemen, they care nothing as to what
+their respective ranks may be. A man may be a lord or a doctor, a
+millionaire or a struggling barrister, but they meet on equal terms
+in society; but out here it is certainly not so among the women
+--they stand upon their husband's dignity in a way that would be
+pitiable if it were not exasperating. Of course, there are plenty
+of good women among them, as there are everywhere--women whom
+even India can't spoil; but what with exclusiveness, and with the
+amount of admiration and adulation they get, and what with the
+want of occupation for their thoughts and minds, it is very hard
+for them to avoid getting spoilt."
+
+"Well, I hope I shan't get spoilt, Doctor; and I hope, if you see
+that I am getting spoilt, you will make a point of telling me so
+at once."
+
+The Doctor grunted. "Theoretically, people are always ready to receive
+good advice, Miss Hannay; practically they are always offended by
+it. However, in your case I will risk it, and I am bound to say
+that hitherto you have proved yourself more amenable in that way
+than most young women I have come across."
+
+"And now, if we have done, we will go out on the veranda," the
+Major said. "I am sure the Doctor must be dying for a cheroot."
+
+"The Doctor has smoked pretty continuously since we left Allahabad,"
+Isobel said. "He wanted to sit up with the driver, but, of course,
+I would not have that. I had got pretty well accustomed to smoke
+coming out, and even if I had not been I would much rather have
+been almost suffocated than have been in there by myself. I thought
+a dozen times the vehicle was going to upset, and what with the
+bumping and the shouting and the cracking of the whip--especially
+when the horses wouldn't start, which was generally the case at
+first--I should have been frightened out of my life had I been
+alone. It seemed to me that something dreadful was always going to
+happen."
+
+"You can take it easy this morning, Isobel," the Major said, when
+they were comfortably seated in the bamboo lounges in the veranda.
+"You want have any callers today, as it will be known you traveled
+all night. People will imagine that you want a quiet day before
+you are on show."
+
+"What a horrid expression, uncle!"
+
+"Well, my dear, it represents the truth. The arrival of a fresh lady
+from England, especially of a 'spin,' which is short for spinster
+or unmarried woman, is an event of some importance in an Indian
+station. Not, of course, so much in a place like this, because
+this is the center of a large district, but in a small station it
+is an event of the first importance. The men are anxious to see what
+a newcomer is like for herself; the women, to look at her dresses
+and see the latest fashions from home, and also to ascertain whether
+she is likely to turn out a formidable rival. However, today you
+can enjoy quiet; tomorrow you must attire yourself in your most
+becoming costume, and I will trot you round."
+
+"Trot me round, uncle?"
+
+"Yes, my dear. In India the order of procedure is reversed, and
+newcomers call in the first place upon residents."
+
+"What a very unpleasant custom, uncle; especially as some of the
+residents may not want to know them."
+
+"Well, everyone must know everyone else in a station, my dear,
+though they may not wish to be intimate. So. about half past one
+tomorrow we will start."
+
+"What, in the heat of the day, uncle?"
+
+"Yes, my dear. That is another of the inscrutable freaks of Indian
+fashion. The hours for calling are from about half past twelve to
+half past two, just in the hottest hours. I don't pretend to account
+for it."
+
+How many ladies are there in the regiment?"
+
+"There is the Colonel's wife, Mrs. Cromarty. She has two grown up
+red headed girls," replied the Doctor. "She is a distant relation
+--a second cousin--of some Scotch lord or other, and, on the
+strength of that and her husband's colonelcy, gives herself prodigious
+airs. Three of the captains are married. Mrs. Doolan is a merry
+little Irish woman. You will like her. She has two or three children.
+She is a general favorite in the regiment.
+
+"Mrs. Rintoul--I suppose she is here still, Major, and unchanged?
+Ah, I thought so. She is a washed-out woman, without a spark of
+energy in her composition.-' She believes that she is a chronic
+invalid, and sends for me on an average once a week. But there is
+nothing really the matter with her, if she would but only believe
+it. Mrs. Roberts--"
+
+"Don't be ill natured, Doctor," the Major broke in. "Mrs. Roberts,
+my dear, is a good-looking woman, and a general flirt. I don't think
+there is any harm in her whatever. Mrs. Prothero, the Adjutant's
+wife, has only been out here eighteen months, and is a pretty little
+woman, and in all respects nice.-There is only one other, Mrs.
+Scarsdale; she came out six months ago. She is a quiet young woman,
+with, I should say, plenty of common sense: I should think you will
+like her. That completes the regimental list."
+
+"Well, that is not so very formidable. Anyhow, it is a. comfort
+that we shall have no one here today."
+
+"You will have the whole regiment here in a few minutes, Isobel,
+but they will be coming to see the Doctor, not you; if it hadn't
+been that they knew you were under his charge everyone would have
+come down to meet him when he arrived. But if you feel tired, as
+I am sure you must be after your journey, there is no reason why
+you shouldn't go and lie down quietly for a few hours."
+
+"I will stop here, uncle; it will be much less embarrassing to see
+them all for the first time when they come to see Dr. Wade and I am
+quite a secondary consideration, than if they had to come specially
+to call on me."
+
+"Well, I agree with you there, my dear. Ah! here come Doolan and
+Prothero."
+
+A light trap drove into the inclosure and drew up in front of the
+veranda, and two officers jumped down,-whilst the syce, who had
+been standing on a step behind, ran to the horse's head. They hailed
+the Doctor, as he stepped out from the veranda, with a shout.
+
+"Glad to see you back, Doctor. The regiment has not seemed like
+itself without you."
+
+"We have been just pining without you, Doctor," Captain Doolan
+said; "and the ladies would have got up a deputation to meet you on
+your arrival, only I told them that it would be too much for your
+modesty."
+
+"Well, it is a good thing that someone has a little of that quality
+in the regiment, Doolan," the Doctor said, as he shook hands heartily
+with them both. "It is very little of it that fell to the share of
+Ireland when it was served out."
+
+As they dropped the Doctor's hand the Major said, "Now, gentlemen,
+let me introduce you to my niece." The introductions were made,
+and the whole party took chairs on the veranda.
+
+"Do you object to smoking, Miss Hannay; perhaps you have not got
+accustomed to it yet? I see the Doctor is-smoking; but then he is
+a privileged person, altogether beyond rule."
+
+"I rather like it in the open air," Isobel said. "No doubt I shall
+get accustomed to it indoors before long."
+
+In a few minutes four or five more of the officers arrived, and
+Isobel sat an amused listener to the talk; taking but little part
+in it herself, but gathering a good deal of information as to
+the people at the station from the answers given to the Doctor's
+inquiries. It was very much like the conversation on board ship,
+except that the topics of conversation were wider and more numerous,
+and there was a community of interest wanting on board a ship.
+In half an hour, however, the increasing warmth and her sleepless
+night began to tell upon her, and her uncle, seeing that she was
+beginning to look fagged, said, "The best thing that you can do,
+Isobel, is to go indoors for a bit, and have a good nap. At five
+o'clock I will take you round for a drive, and show you the sights
+of Cawnpore."
+
+"I do feel sleepy," she said, "though it sounds rude to say so."
+
+"Not at all," the Doctor put in; "if any of these young fellows had
+made the journey out from Allahabad in that wretched gharry, they
+would have turned into bed as soon as they arrived, and would not
+have got up till the first mess bugle sounded, and very likely
+would have slept on until next morning.
+
+"Now," he went on, when Isobel had disappeared, "we will adjourn
+with you to the mess-house. That young lady would have very small
+chance of getting to sleep with all this racket here. Doolan's voice
+alone would banish sleep anywhere within a distance of a hundred
+yards."
+
+"I will join you there later, Doctor," the Major said. "I have got
+a couple of hours' work in the orderly-room. Rumzan, don't let my
+niece be disturbed, but if she wakes and rings the bell send up a
+message by the woman that I-shall not be back until four."
+
+The Major walked across to the orderly room, while the rest, mounting
+their buggies, drove to the mess-house, which was a quarter of a
+mile away.
+
+"I should think Miss Hannay will prove a valuable addition to our
+circle, Doctor," the Adjutant said. "I don't know why, but I gathered
+from what the Major said that his niece was very young. He spoke
+of her as if she were quite a child."
+
+"She is a very nice, sensible young woman," the Doctor said;
+"clever and bright, and, as you can see for your-selves, pretty,
+and yet no nonsense about her. I only hope that she won't get spoilt
+here; nineteen out of twenty young women do get spoilt within six
+months of their arrival in India, but I think she will be one of
+the exceptions."
+
+"I should have liked to have seen the Doctor doing chaperon,"
+Captain Doolan laughed; "he would have been a brave man who would
+have attempted even the faintest flirtation with anyone under his
+charge."
+
+"That is your opinion, is it, Doolan?" the Doctor said sharply. "I
+should have thought that even your common sense would have told you
+that anyone who has had the misfortune to see as much of womankind
+as I have would have been aware that any endeavor to check a
+flirtation for which they are inclined would be of all others the
+way to induce them to go in for it headlong. You are a married
+man yourself, and ought to know that. A woman is a good deal like
+a spirited horse; let her have her head, and, though she may for
+a time make the pace pretty fast, she will go straight, and settle
+down to her collar in time, whereas if you keep a tight curb she
+will fret and fidget, and as likely as not make a bolt for it. I
+can assure you that my duties were of The most nominal description.
+There were the usual number of hollow pated lads on board, who
+buzzed in their usual feeble way round Miss Hannay, and were one
+after another duly snubbed. Miss Hannay has plenty of spirits, and
+a considerable sense of humor, and I think that she enjoyed the
+voyage thoroughly. And now let us talk of something else."
+
+After an hour's chat the Doctor started on his round of calls
+upon the ladies; the Major had not come in from the orderly room,
+and, after the Doctor left, Isobel Hannay was again the topic of
+conversation.
+
+"She is out and out the prettiest girl in the station," the Adjutant
+said to some of the officers who had not seen her. "She will make
+quite a sensation; and there are five or six ladies in the station,
+whose names I need hardly mention, who will not be very pleased
+at her coming. She is thoroughly in good form, too; nothing
+in the slightest degree fast or noisy about her. She is quiet and
+self-possessed. I fancy she will be able to hold her own against
+any of them. Clever? I should say 'certainly'; but, of course,
+that is from her face rather than from anything she said. I expect
+half the unmarried men in the station will be going wild over her.
+You need not look so interested, Wilson; the matter is of no more
+personal interest to you than if I were describing a new comet.
+Nothing less than a big civilian is likely to carry off such a
+prize, so I warn you beforehand you had better not be losing your
+heart to her."
+
+"Well, you know, Prothero, subalterns do manage to get wives
+sometimes."
+
+There was a laugh.
+
+"That is true enough, Wilson; but then, you see, I married at home;
+besides, I am adjutant, which sounds a lot better than subaltern."
+
+"That may go for a good deal in the regiment," Wilson retorted, "but
+I doubt if there are many women that know the difference between
+an adjutant and a quartermaster. They know about colonels, majors,
+captains, and even subalterns; but if you were to say that you
+were an adjutant they would be simply mystified, though they might
+understand if you said bandmaster. But I fancy sergeant major would
+sound ever so much more imposing."
+
+"Wilson, if you are disrespectful, I shall discover tomorrow, on
+parade, that No. 3 Company wants a couple of hours' extra drill
+badly, and then you will feel how grievous a mistake it is to cheek
+an adjutant."
+
+The report of those who had called at the Major's was so favorable
+that curiosity was quite roused as to the new-comer, and when the
+Major drove round with her the next day everyone was at home, and
+the verdict on the part of the ladies was generally favorable, but
+was by no means so unqualified as that of the gentlemen.
+
+Mrs. Cromarty admitted that she was nice looking; but was critical
+as to her carriage and manner. She would be admired by young officers,
+no doubt, but there was too much life and animation about her, and
+although she would not exactly say that she stooped, she was likely
+to do so in time.
+
+"She will be nothing remarkable when her freshness has worn off a
+little."
+
+In this opinion the Misses Cromarty thoroughly assented. They had
+never been accused of stooping, and, indeed, were almost painfully
+upright, and were certainly not particularly admired by subalterns.
+
+Mrs. Doolan was charmed with her, and told her she hoped that they
+would be great friends.
+
+"This is a very pleasant life out here, my dear," she said, "if one
+does but take it in the right way. There is a great deal of tittle
+tattle in the Indian stations, and some quarreling; but, you know,
+it takes two to make a quarrel, and I make it a point never to
+quarrel with anyone. It is too hot for it. Then, you see, I have
+the advantage of being Irish, and, for some reason or other that
+I don't understand we can say pretty nearly what we like. People
+don't take us seriously, you know; so I keep in with them all."
+
+Mrs. Rintoul received her visitors on the sofa. "It is quite
+refreshing to see a face straight from England, Miss Hannay. I only
+hope that you may keep your bright color and healthy looks. Some
+people do. Not their color, but their health. Unfortunately I am
+not one of them. I do not know what it is to have a day's health.
+The climate completely oppresses me, and I am fit for nothing.
+You would hardly believe that I was as strong and healthy as you
+are when I first came out. You came out with Dr. Wade--a clever
+man--I have a very high opinion of his talent, but my case is
+beyond him. It is a sad annoyance to him that it is so, and he is
+continually trying to make me believe that there is nothing the
+matter with me, as if my looks did not speak for themselves."
+
+Mrs. Rintoul afterwards told her husband she could hardly say that
+she liked Miss Hannay.
+
+"She is distressingly brisk and healthy, and I should say, my dear,
+not of a sympathetic nature, which is always a pity in a young
+woman."
+
+After this somewhat depressing visit, the call upon Mrs. Roberts
+was a refreshing one. She received her very cordially.
+
+"I like you, Miss Hannay," she said, when, after a quarter of
+an hour's lively talk, the Major and his niece got up to go. "I
+always say what I think, and it is very good natured of me to say
+so, for I don't disguise from myself that you will put my nose out
+of joint."
+
+"I don't want to put anyone's nose out of joint," Isobel laughed.
+
+"You will do it, whether you want to or not," Mrs. Roberts said;
+"my husband as much as told me so last night, and I was prepared
+not to like you, but I see that I shall not be able to help doing
+so. Major Hannay, you have dealt me a heavy blow, but I forgive
+you."
+
+When the round of visits was finished the Major said, "Well, Isobel,
+what do you think of the ladies of the regiment?"
+
+"I think they are all very nice, uncle. I fancy I shall like Mrs.
+Doolan and Mrs. Scarsdale best; I won't give any opinion yet about
+Mrs. Cromarty."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The life of Isobel Hannay had not, up to the time when she left
+England to join her uncle, been a very bright one. At the death of
+her father, her mother had been left with an income that enabled
+her to live, as she said, genteelly, at Brighton. She had three
+children: the eldest a girl of twelve; Isobel, who was eight; and
+a boy of five, who was sadly deformed, the result of a fall from
+the arms of a careless nurse when he was an infant. It was at that
+time that Major Hannay had come home on leave, having been left
+trustee and executor, and seen to all the money arrangements, and
+had established his brother's widow at Brighton. The work had not
+been altogether pleasant, for Mrs. Hannay was a selfish and querulous
+woman, very difficult to satisfy even in little matters, and with
+a chronic suspicion that everyone with whom she came in contact was
+trying to get the best of her. Her eldest girl was likely, Captain
+Hannay thought, to take after her mother, whose pet she was, while
+Isobel took after her father. He had suggested that both should
+be sent to school, but Mrs. Hannay would not hear of parting from
+Helena, but was willing enough that Isobel should be sent to a
+boarding school at her uncle's expense.
+
+As the years went by, Helena grew up, as Mrs. Hannay proudly said,
+the image of what she herself had been at her age--tall and
+fair, indolent and selfish, fond of dress and gayety, discontented
+because their means would not permit them to indulge in either to
+the fullest extent. There was nothing in common between her and her
+sister, who, when at home for the holidays, spent her time almost
+entirely with her brother, who received but slight attention from
+anyone else, his deformity being considered as a personal injury
+and affliction by his mother and elder sister.
+
+"You could not care less for him," Isobel once said, in a fit
+of passion, "if he were a dog. I don't think you notice him more,
+not one bit. He wanders about the house without anybody to give a
+thought to him. I call it cruel, downright cruel."
+
+"You are a wicked girl, Isobel," her mother said angrily, "a
+wicked, violent girl, and I don't know what will become of you. It
+is abominable of you to talk so, even if you are wicked enough to
+get into a passion. What can we do for him that we don't do? What
+is the use of talking to him when he never pays attention to what
+we say, and is always moping. I am sure we get everything that we
+think will please him, and he goes out for a walk with us every
+day; what could possibly be done more for him?"
+
+"A great deal more might be done for him," Isobel burst out. "You
+might love him, and that would be everything to him. I don't believe
+you and Helena love him, not one bit, not one tiny scrap."
+
+"Go up to your room, Isobel, and remain there for the rest of the
+day. You are a very bad girl. I shall write to Miss Virtue about
+you; there must be something very wrong in her management of you,
+or you would never be so passionate and insolent as you are."
+
+But Isobel had not stopped to hear the last part of the sentence,
+the door had slammed behind her. She was not many minutes alone
+upstairs, for Robert soon followed her up, for when she was at home
+he rarely left her side, watching her every look and gesture with
+eyes as loving as those of a dog, and happy to sit on the ground
+beside her, with his head leaning against her, for hours together.
+
+Mrs. Hannay kept her word and wrote to Miss Virtue, and the evening
+after she returned to school Isobel was summoned to her room.
+
+"I am sorry to say, I have a very bad account of you from your
+mother. She says you are a passionate and wicked girl. How is it,
+dear; you are not passionate here, and I certainly do not think
+you are wicked?"
+
+"I can't help it when I am at home, Miss Virtue. I am sure I try to
+be good, but they won't let me. They don't like me because I can't
+be always tidy and what they call prettily behaved, and because I
+hate walking on the parade and being stuck up and unnatural, and
+they don't like me because I am not pretty, and because I am thin
+and don't look, as mamma says, a credit to her; but it is not that
+so much as because of Robert. You know he is deformed, Miss Virtue,
+and they don't care for him, and he has no one to love him but me,
+and it makes me mad to see him treated so. That is what it was she
+wrote about. I told her they treated him like a dog and so they
+do," and she burst into tears.
+
+"But that was very naughty, Isobel," Miss Virtue said gravely. "You
+are only eleven years old, and too young to be a judge of these
+matters, and even if it were as you say, it is not for a child to
+speak so to her mother."
+
+"I know that, Miss Virtue, but how can I help it? I could cry out
+with pain when I see Robert looking from one to the other just for
+a kind word, which he never gets. It is no use, Miss Virtue; if it
+was not for him I would much rather never go home at all, but stop
+here through the holidays, only what would he do if I didn't go
+home? I am the only pleasure he has. When I am there he will sit
+for hours on my knee, and lay his head on my shoulder, and stroke
+my face. It makes me feel as if my heart would break."
+
+"Well, my dear," Miss Virtue said, somewhat puzzled, "it is sad, if
+it is as you say, but that does not excuse your being disrespectful
+to your mother. It is not for you to judge her."
+
+"But cannot something be done for Robert, Miss Virtue? Surely they
+must do something for children like him."
+
+"There are people, my dear, who take a few afflicted children and
+give them special training. Children of that kind have sometimes
+shown a great deal of unusual talent, and, if so, it is cultivated,
+and they are put in a way of earning a livelihood."
+
+"Are there?" Isobel exclaimed, with eager eyes. "Then I know what
+I will do, Miss Virtue; I will write off at once to Uncle Tom--
+he is our guardian. I know if I were to speak to mamma about Robert
+going to school it would be of no use; but if uncle writes I dare
+say it would be done. I am sure she and Helena would be glad enough.
+I don't suppose she ever thought of it. It would be a relief to
+them to get him out of their sight."
+
+Miss Virtue shook her head. "You must not talk so, Isobel. It is
+not right or dutiful, and you are a great deal too young to judge
+your elders, even if they were not related to you; and, pray, if
+you write to your uncle do not write in that spirit--it would
+shock him greatly, and he would form a very bad opinion of you."
+
+And so Isobel wrote. She was in the habit of writing once every
+half year to her uncle, who had told her that he wished her to do
+so, and that people out abroad had great pleasure in letters from
+England. Hitherto she had only written about her school life, and
+this letter caused her a great deal of trouble.
+
+It answered its purpose. Captain Hannay had no liking either for
+his sister in law or his eldest niece, and had, when he was with
+them, been struck with the neglect with which the little boy was
+treated. Isobel had taken great pains not to say anything that
+would show she considered that Robert was harshly treated; but had
+simply said that she heard there were schools where little boys
+like him could be taught, and that it would be such a great thing
+for him, as it was very dull for him having nothing to do all day.
+But Captain Hannay read through the lines, and felt that it was
+a protest against her brother's treatment, and that she would not
+have written to him had she not felt that so only would anything
+be done for him. Accordingly he wrote home to his sister in law,
+saying he thought it was quite time now that the boy should be
+placed with some gentleman who took a few lads unfitted for the
+rough life of an ordinary school. He should take the charges upon
+himself, and had written to his agent in London to find out such
+an establishment, to make arrangements for Robert to go there, and
+to send down one of his clerks to take charge of him on the journey.
+He also wrote to Isobel, telling her what he had done, and blaming
+himself for not having thought of it before, winding up by saying:
+"I have not mentioned to your mother that I heard from you about
+it--that is a little secret just as well to keep to ourselves."
+
+The next five years were much happier to Isobel, for the thought
+of her brother at home without her had before been constantly on
+her mind. It was a delight to her now to go home and to see the
+steady improvement that took place in Robert. He was brighter in
+every respect, and expressed himself as most happy where he was.
+
+As years went on he grew into a bright and intelligent boy, though
+his health was by no means good, and he looked frail and delicate.
+He was as passionately attached to her as ever, and during the
+holidays they were never separated; they stood quite alone, their
+mother and sister interesting themselves but little in their doings,
+and they were allowed to take long walks together, and to sit in
+a room by themselves, where they talked, drew, painted, and read.
+
+Mrs. Hannay disapproved of Isobel as much as ever. "She is a most
+headstrong girl," she would lament to her friends, "and is really
+quite beyond my control. I do not at all approve of the school she
+is at, but unfortunately my brother in law, who is her guardian,
+has, under the will of my poor husband, absolute control in the
+matter. I am sure poor John never intended that he should be able
+to override my wishes; but though I have written to him several
+times about it, he says that he sees no valid reason for any change,
+and that from Isobel's letters to him she seems very happy there,
+and to be getting on well. She is so very unlike dear Helena,
+and even when at home I see but little of her; she is completely
+wrapped up in her unfortunate brother. Of course I don't blame her
+for that, but it is not natural that a girl her age should care
+nothing for pleasures or going out or the things natural to young
+people. Yes, she is certainly improving in appearance, and if she
+would but take some little pains about her dress would be really
+very presentable."
+
+But her mother's indifference disturbed Isobel but little. She was
+perfectly happy with her brother when at home, and very happy at
+school, where she was a general favorite. She was impulsive, high
+spirited, and occasionally gave Miss Virtue some trouble, but
+her disposition was frank and generous, there was not a tinge of
+selfishness in her disposition, and while she was greatly liked
+by girls of her own age, she was quite adored by little ones. The
+future that she always pictured to herself was a little cottage
+with a bright garden in the suburbs of London, where she and Robert
+could live together--she would go out as a daily governess;
+Robert, who was learning to play the organ, would, she hoped, get
+a post as organist. Not, of course, for the sake of the salary, for
+her earnings, and the interest of the thousand pounds that would
+be hers when she came of age, would be sufficient for them both,
+but as an amusement for him, and to give him a sense of independence.
+
+But when she was just seventeen, and was looking forward to the
+time when she would begin to carry her plan into effect, a terrible
+blow came. She heard from her mother that Robert was dead.
+
+"It is a sad blow for us all," Mrs. Hannay wrote, "but, as you
+know, he has never been strong; still, we had no idea that anything
+serious ailed him until we heard a fortnight since he was suffering
+from a violent cough and had lost strength rapidly. A week later
+we heard that the doctors were of opinion it was a case of sudden
+consumption, and that the end was rapidly approaching. I went up
+to town to see him, and found him even worse than I expected, and
+was in no way surprised when this morning I received a letter saying
+that he had gone. Great as is the blow, one cannot but feel that,
+terribly afflicted as he was, his death is, as far as he is concerned,
+a happy release. I trust you will now abandon your wild scheme of
+teaching and come home."
+
+But home was less home than ever to Isobel now, and she remained
+another six months at school, when she received an important letter
+from her uncle.
+
+"My Dear Isobel: When you first wrote to me and told me that what you
+were most looking forward to was to make a home for your brother,
+I own that it was a blow to me, for I had long had plans of my own
+about you; however, I thought your desire to help your brother was
+so natural, and would give you such happiness in carrying it into
+effect, that I at once fell in with it and put aside my own plan.
+But the case is altered now, and I can see no reason why I cannot
+have my own way. When I was in England I made up my mind that unless
+I married, which was a most improbable contingency, I would, when
+you were old enough, have you out to keep house for me. I foresaw,
+even then, that your brother might prove an obstacle to this plan.
+Even in the short time I was with you it was easy enough to see
+that the charge of him would fall on your shoulders, and that it
+would be a labor of love to you.
+
+"If he lived, then, I felt you would not leave him, and that you
+would be right in not doing so, but even then it seemed likely to
+me that he would not grow up to manhood. From time to time I have
+been in correspondence with the clergyman he was with, and learned
+that the doctor who attended them thought but poorly of him. I had
+him taken to two first class physicians in London; they pronounced
+him to be constitutionally weak, and said that beyond strengthening
+medicines and that sort of thing they could do nothing for him.
+
+"Therefore, dear, it was no surprise to me when I received first
+your mother's letter with the news, and then your own written a
+few days later. When I answered that letter I thought it as well
+not to say anything of my plan, but by the time you receive this,
+it will be six months since your great loss, and you will be able
+to look at it in a fairer light than you could have done then,
+and I do hope you will agree to come out to me. Life here has its
+advantages and disadvantages, but I think that, especially for
+young people, it is a pleasant one.
+
+"I am getting very tired of a bachelor's establishment, and it
+will be a very great pleasure indeed to have you here. Ever since
+I was in England I made up my mind to adopt you as my own child.
+You are very like my brother John, and your letters and all I have
+heard of you show that you have grown up just as he would have
+wished you to do. Your sister Helena is your mother's child, and,
+without wishing to hurt your feelings, your mother and I have nothing
+in common. I regard you as the only relation I have in the world,
+and whether you come out or whether you do not, whatever I leave
+behind me will be yours. I do hope that you will at any rate come
+out for a time. Later on, if you don't like the life here, you can
+fall back upon your own plan.
+
+"If you decide to come, write to my agent. I inclose envelope
+addressed to him. Tell him when you can be ready. He will put you
+in the way of the people you had better go to for your outfit, will
+pay all bills, take your passage, and so on.
+
+"Whatever you do, do not stint yourself. The people you go to will
+know a great deal better than you can do what is necessary for a
+lady out here. All you will have to do will be to get measured and
+to give them an idea of your likes and fancies as to colors and so
+on. They will have instructions from my agent to furnish you with
+a complete outfit, and will know exactly how many dozens of everything
+are required.
+
+"I can see no reason why you should not start within a month after
+the receipt of this letter, and I shall look most anxiously for a
+letter from you saying that you will come, and that you will start by
+a sailing ship in a month at latest from the date of your writing."
+
+Isobel did not hesitate, as her faith in her uncle was unbounded.
+Next to her meetings with her brother, his letters had been her
+greatest pleasures. He had always taken her part; it was he who,
+at her request, had Robert placed at school, and he had kept her
+at Miss Virtue's in spite of her mother's complaints. At home she
+had never felt comfortable; it had always seemed to her that she
+was in the way; her mother disapproved of her; while from Helena
+she had never had a sisterly word. To go out to India to see the
+wonders she had read of, and to be her uncle's companion, seemed
+a perfectly delightful prospect. Her answer to her uncle was sent
+off the day after she received his letter, and that day month she
+stepped on board an Indiaman in the London Docks.
+
+The intervening time had not been a pleasant one. Mrs. Hannay had
+heard from the Major of his wishes and intentions regarding Isobel,
+and she was greatly displeased thereat.
+
+"Why should he have chosen you instead of Helena?" she said angrily
+to Isobel, on the first day of her arrival home.
+
+"I suppose because he thought I should suit him better, mamma. I
+really don't see why you should be upset about it; I don't suppose
+Helena would have liked to go, and I am sure you would not have
+liked to have had me with you instead of her. I should have thought
+you would have been pleased I was off your hands altogether. It
+doesn't seem to me that you have ever been really glad to have me
+about you."
+
+"That has been entirely your own fault," Mrs. Hannay said. "You
+have always been headstrong and determined to go your own way, you
+have never been fit to be seen when anyone came, you have thwarted
+me in every way."
+
+"I am very sorry, mamma. I think I might have been better if you
+had had a little more patience with me, but even now if you really
+wish me to stay at home I will do so. I can write again to uncle
+and tell him that I have changed my mind."
+
+"Certainly not," Mrs. Hannay said. "Naturally I should wish to have
+my children with me, but I doubt whether your being here would be
+for the happiness of any of us, and besides, I do not wish your
+uncle's money to go out of the family; he might take it into his
+head to leave it to a hospital for black women. Still, it would
+have been only right and proper that he should at any rate have
+given Helena the first choice. As for your instant acceptance of
+his offer, without even consulting me, nothing can surprise me in
+that way after your general conduct towards me."
+
+However, although Mrs. Hannay declined to take any interest in
+Isobel's preparations, and continued to behave as an injured person,
+neither she nor Helena were sorry at heart for the arrangement
+that had been made. They objected very strongly to Isobel's plan
+of going out as a governess; but upon the other hand, her presence
+at home would in many ways have been an inconvenience. Two can
+make a better appearance on a fixed income than three can, and her
+presence at home would have necessitated many small economies. She
+was, too, a disturbing element; the others understood each other
+perfectly, and both felt that they in no way understood Isobel.
+Altogether, it was much better that she should go.
+
+As to the heirship, Captain Hannay had spoken freely as to his
+monetary affairs when he had been in England after his brother's
+death.
+
+"My pay is amply sufficient for all my wants," he said; "but
+everything is expensive out there, and I have had no occasion to
+save. I have a few hundred pounds laid by, so that if I break down,
+and am ordered to Europe at any time on sick leave, I can live
+comfortably for that time; but, beyond that, there has been no
+reason why I should lay by. I am not likely ever to marry, and when
+I have served my full time my pension will be ample for my wants
+in England; but I shall do my best to help if help is necessary.
+Fortunately the interest of the thousand apiece the girls were
+left by my aunt will help your income. When it is necessary to do
+anything for Robert, poor lad, I will take that expense on myself."
+
+"I thought all Indians came home with lots of money," Mrs. Hannay
+said complainingly.
+
+"Not the military. We do the fighting, and get fairly paid for
+it. The civilians get five times as highly paid, and run no risks
+whatever. Why it should be so no one has ever attempted to explain;
+but there it is, sister."
+
+Mrs. Hannay, therefore, although she complained of the partiality
+shown to Isobel, was well aware that the Major's savings could
+amount to no very great sum; although, in nine years, with higher
+rank and better pay, he might have added a good bit to the little
+store of which he had spoken to her.
+
+When, a week before the vessel sailed, Dr. Wade appeared with a
+letter he had received from the Major, asking him to take charge
+of Isobel on the voyage, Mrs. Hannay conceived a violent objection
+to him. He had, in fact, been by no means pleased with the commission,
+and had arrived in an unusually aggressive and snappish humor.
+He cut short Mrs. Hannay's well turned sentences ruthlessly, and
+aggrieved her by remarking on Helena's want of color, and recommending
+plenty of walking exercise taken at a brisk pace, and more ease
+and comfort in the matter of dress.
+
+"Your daughter's lungs have no room to play, madam," he said; "her
+heart is compressed. No one can expect to be healthy under such
+circumstances."
+
+"I have my own medical attendant, Dr. Wade," Mrs. Hannay said
+decidedly.
+
+"No doubt, madam, no doubt. All I can say is, if his recommendations
+are not the same as mine, he must be a downright fool. Very well,
+Miss Hannay, I think we understand each other; I shall be on board
+by eleven o'clock, and shall keep a sharp lookout for you. Don't be
+later than twelve; she will warp out of the dock by one at latest,
+and if you miss that your only plan will be to take the train down
+to Tilbury, and hire a boat there."
+
+"I shall be in time, sir," Isobel said.
+
+"Well, I hope you will, but my experience of women is pretty
+extensive, and I have scarcely met one who could be relied upon
+to keep an appointment punctually. Don't laden yourself more than
+you can help with little bags, and parcels, and bundles of all
+kinds; I expect you will be three or four in a cabin, and you will
+find that there is no room for litter. Take the things you will
+require at first in one or two flat trunks which will stow under
+your berth; once a week or so, if the weather is fine, you will be
+able to get at your things in the hold. Do try if possible to pack
+all the things that you are likely to want to get at during the
+voyage in one trunk, and have a star or any mark you like painted
+on that trunk with your name, then there will be no occasion for
+the sailors to haul twenty boxes upon deck. Be sure you send all
+your trunks on board, except those you want in your cabin, two days
+before she sails. Do you think you can remember all that?"
+
+"I think so, Dr. Wade."
+
+"Very well then, I'm off," and the Doctor shook hands with Isobel,
+nodded to Mrs. Hannay and Helena, and hurried away.
+
+"What a perfectly detestable little man!" Mrs. Hannay exclaimed,
+as the door closed over him. "Your uncle must have been out of his
+senses to select such an odious person to look after you on the
+voyage. I really pity you, Isobel."
+
+"I have no doubt he is very much nicer than he seems, mamma. Uncle
+said, you know, in his letter last week, that he had written to
+Dr. Wade to look after me, if, as he thought probable, he might be
+coming out in the same ship. He said that he was a little brusque
+in his manner, but that he was a general favorite, and one of the
+kindest hearted of men."
+
+"A little brusque," Mrs. Hannay repeated scornfully. "If he is only
+considered a little brusque in India, all I can say is society must
+be in a lamentable state out there."
+
+"Uncle says he is a great shikari, and has probably killed more
+tigers than any man in India."
+
+"I really don't see that that is any recommendation whatever, Isobel,
+although it might be if you were likely to encounter tigers on
+board ship. However, I am not surprised that your opinion differs
+from mine; we very seldom see matters in the same light. I only hope
+you may be right and I may be wrong, for otherwise the journey is
+not likely to be a very pleasant one for you; personally, I would
+almost as soon have a Bengal tiger loose about the ship than such
+a very rude, unmannerly person as Dr. Wade."
+
+Mrs. Hannay and Helena accompanied Isobel to the docks, and went
+on board ship with her.
+
+The Doctor received them at the gangway. He was in a better temper,
+for the fact that he was on the point of starting for India again
+had put him in high spirits. He escorted the party below and saw
+that they got lunch, showed Isobel which was her cabin, introduced
+her to two or three ladies of his acquaintance, and made himself
+so generally pleasant that even Mrs. Hannay was mollified.
+
+As soon as luncheon was over the bell was rung, and the partings
+were hurriedly got through, as the pilot announced that the tide
+was slackening nearly half an hour before its time, and that it
+was necessary to get the ship out of dock at once.
+
+"Now, Miss Hannay, if you will take my advice," the Doctor said,
+as soon as the ship was fairly in the stream, "you will go below,
+get out all the things you will want from your boxes, and get
+matters tidy and comfortable. In the first place, it will do you
+good to be busy; and in the second place, there is nothing like
+getting everything shipshape in the cabin the very first thing
+after starting, then you are ready for rough weather or anything
+else that may occur. I have got you a chair. I thought that very
+likely you would not think of it, and a passenger without a chair
+of her own is a most forlorn creature, I can tell you. When you
+have done down below you will find me somewhere aft; if you should
+not do so, look out for a chair with your own name on it and take
+possession of it, but I think you are sure to see me."
+
+Before they had been a fortnight at sea Isobel came to like the
+Doctor thoroughly. He knew many of the passengers on board the
+Byculla, and she had soon many acquaintances. She was amused at
+the description that the Doctor gave her of some of the people to
+whom he introduced her.
+
+"I am going to introduce you to that woman in the severely plain
+cloak and ugly bonnet. She is the wife of the Resident of Rajputana.
+I knew her when her husband was a Collector."
+
+"A Collector, Dr. Wade; what did he collect?"
+
+"Well, my dear, he didn't collect taxes or water rates or anything
+of that sort. A Collector is a civil functionary, and frequently
+an important one. I used to attend her at one time when we were in
+cantonments at Bhurtpore, where her husband was stationed at that
+time. I pulled a tooth out for her once, and she halloaed louder
+than any woman I ever heard. I don't mean to say, my dear, that
+woman holloa any louder than men; on the contrary, they bear pain
+a good deal better, but she was an exception. She was twelve years
+younger then, and used to dress a good deal more than she does
+now. That cloak and bonnet are meant to convey to the rest of the
+passengers the fact that there is no occasion whatever for a person
+of her importance to attend to such petty matters as dress.
+
+"She never mentions her husband's name without saying, 'My husband,
+the Resident,' but for all that she is a kind hearted woman--a
+very kind hearted woman. I pulled a child of hers through who was
+down with fever at Bhurtpore; he had a very close shave of it, and
+she has never forgotten it. She greeted me when she came on board
+almost with tears in her eyes at the thought of that time. I told
+her I had a young lady under my charge, and she said that she would
+be very pleased to do anything she could for you. She is a stanch
+friend is Mrs. Resident, and you will find her useful before you
+get to the end of the voyage."
+
+The lady received Isobel with genuine kindness, and took her very
+much under her wing during the voyage, and Isobel received no small
+advantage from her advice and protection.
+
+Her own good sense, however, and the earnest life she had led
+at school and with her brother at home, would have sufficed her
+even without this guardianship and that of the Doctor. There was
+a straightforward frankness about her that kept men from talking
+nonsense to her. A compliment she simply laughed at, an attempt
+at flattery made her angry, and the Doctor afterwards declared to
+her uncle he would not have believed that the guardianship of a
+girl upon the long Indian voyage could possibly have caused him so
+little trouble and annoyance.
+
+"When I read your letter, Major, my hair stood on end, and if my
+leave had not been up I should have canceled my passage and come
+by the next ship; and indeed when I went down to see her I had
+still by no means made up my mind as to whether I would not take
+my chance of getting out in time by the next vessel. However, I
+liked her appearance, and, as I have said, it turned out excellently,
+and I should not mind making another voyage in charge of her."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Two days after his arrival at Cawnpore Dr. Wade moved into quarters
+of his own.
+
+"I like Dr. Wade very much indeed, you know, uncle, still I am glad
+to have you all to myself and to settle down into regular ways."
+
+"Yes, we have got to learn to know each other, Isobel."
+
+"Do you think so, uncle? Why, it seems to me that I know all about
+you, just the same as if we had always been together, and I am sure
+I always told you all about myself, even when I was bad at school
+and got into scrapes, because you said particularly that you liked
+me to tell you everything, and did not want to know only the good
+side of me."
+
+"Yes, that is so, my dear, and no doubt I have a fair idea as to
+what are your strong points and what are your weak ones, but neither
+one or the other affect greatly a person's ordinary everyday character.
+It is the little things, the trifles, the way of talking, the way
+of listening, the amount of sympathy shown, and so on, that make a
+man or woman popular. People do not ask whether he or she may be
+morally sleeping volcanoes, who, if fairly roused, might slay a
+rival or burn a city; they simply look at the surface--is a man
+or a woman pleasant, agreeable, easily pleased, ready to take a
+share in making things go, to show a certain amount of sympathy in
+other people's pleasures or troubles--in fact, to form a pleasant
+unit of the society of a station?
+
+"So in the house you might be the most angelic temper in the world,
+but if you wore creaky boots, had a habit of slamming doors, little
+tricks of giggling or fidgeting with your hands or feet, you would
+be an unpleasant companion, for you would be constantly irritating
+one in small matters. Of course, it is just the same thing with
+your opinion of me. You have an idea that I am a good enough sort
+of fellow, because I have done my best to enable you to carry out
+your plans and wishes, but that has nothing to do at all with my
+character as a man to live with. Till we saw each other, when you
+got out of the gharry, we really knew nothing whatever of each
+other."
+
+Isobel shook her head decidedly.
+
+"Nothing will persuade me that I didn't know everything about you,
+uncle. You are just exactly what I knew you would be in look, and
+voice, in manner and ways and everything. Of course, it is partly
+from what I remember, but I really did not see a great deal of you
+in those days; it is from your letters, I think, entirely that I
+knew all about you, and exactly what you were. Do you mean to say
+that I am not just what you thought I should be?"
+
+"Well, not so clearly as all that, Isobel. Of course you were only
+a little child when I saw you, and except that you had big brown
+eyes, and long eyelashes, I confess that it struck me that you were
+rather a plain little thing, and I do not think that your mother's
+letters since conveyed to my mind the fact that there had been
+any material change since. Therefore I own that you are personally
+quite different from what I had expected to find you. I had expected
+to find you, I think, rather stumpy in figure, and square in build,
+with a very determined and businesslike manner."
+
+"Nonsense, uncle, you could not have expected that."
+
+"Well, my dear, I did, and you see I find I was utterly wrong."
+
+"But you are not discontented, uncle?" Isobel asked, with a smile.
+
+"No, my dear, but perhaps not quite so contented as you may think
+I ought to be."
+
+"Why is that, uncle?"
+
+"Well, my dear, if you had been what I had pictured you, I might
+have had you four or five years to myself. Possibly you might even
+have gone home with me, to keep house for me in England, when I
+retire. As it is now, I give myself six months at the outside."
+
+"What nonsense, uncle! You don't suppose I am going to fall in
+love with the first man who presents himself? Why, everyone says
+the sea voyage is a most trying time, and, you see, I came through
+that quite scathless.
+
+"Besides, uncle," and she laughed, "there is safety in multitude,
+and I think that a girl would be far more likely to fall in love in
+some country place, where she only saw one or two men, than where
+there are numbers of them. Besides, it seems to me that in India a
+girl cannot feel that she is chosen, as it were, from among other
+girls, as she would do at home. There are so few girls, and so
+many men here, there must be a sort of feeling that you are only
+appreciated because there is nothing better to be had.
+
+"But, of course, uncle, you can understand that the idea of love
+making and marrying never entered my head at all until I went on
+board a ship. As you know, I always used to think that Robert and
+I would live together, and I am quite sure that I should never have
+left him if he had lived. If I had stopped in England I should have
+done the work I had trained myself to do, and it might have been
+years and years, and perhaps never, before anyone might have taken
+a fancy to me, or I to him. It seems strange, and I really don't
+think pleasant, uncle, for everyone to take it for granted that
+because a girl comes out to India she is a candidate for marriage.
+I think it is degrading, uncle."
+
+"The Doctor was telling me yesterday that you had some idea of
+that sort," the Major said, with a slight smile, "and I think girls
+often start with that sort of idea. But it is like looking on at
+a game. You don't feel interested in it until you begin to play at
+it. Well, the longer you entertain those ideas the better I shall
+be pleased, Isobel. I only hope that you may long remain of the
+same mind, and that when your time does come your choice will be
+a wise one."
+
+There could be no doubt that the Major's niece was a great success
+in the regiment. Richards and Wilson, two lads who had joined six
+months before, succumbed at once, and mutual animosity succeeded
+the close friendship they had hitherto entertained for each other.
+Travers, the Senior Captain, a man who had hitherto been noted for
+his indifference to the charms of female society, went so far as
+to admit that Miss Hannay was a very nice, unaffected girl. Mrs.
+Doolan was quite enthusiastic about her.
+
+"It is very lucky, Jim," she said to her husband, "that you were
+a sober and respected married man before she came out, and that I
+am installed here as your lawful and wedded wife instead of being
+at Ballycrogin with only an engagement ring on my finger. I know
+your susceptible nature; you would have fallen in love with her,
+and she would not have had you, and we should both of us have been
+miserable."
+
+"How do you know she wouldn't have had me, Norah?"
+
+"Because, my dear, she will be able to pick and choose just where
+she likes; and though no one recognizes your virtues more than I
+do, a company in an Indian regiment is hardly as attractive as a
+Residency or Lieutenant Governorship. But seriously, she is a dear
+girl, and as yet does not seem to have the least idea how pretty
+she is. How cordially some of them will hate her! I anticipate
+great fun in looking on. I am out of all that sort of thing myself."
+
+"That is news to me, Norah; I think you are just as fond of a quiet
+flirtation as you used to be."
+
+"Just of a very little one, Jim; fortunately not more. So I can
+look on complacently; but even I have suffered. Why, for weeks not
+a day has passed without young Richards dropping in for a chat,
+and when he came in yesterday he could talk about nothing but Miss
+Hannay, until I shut him up by telling him it was extremely bad
+form to talk to one lady about another. The boy colored up till I
+almost laughed in his face; in fact, I believe I did laugh."
+
+"That I will warrant you did, Norah."
+
+"I could not help it, especially when he assured me he was perfectly
+serious about Miss Hannay."
+
+"You did not encourage him, I hope, Norah."
+
+"No; I told him the Colonel set his face against married subalterns,
+and that he would injure himself seriously in his profession if
+he were to think of such a thing, and as I knew he had nothing but
+his pay, that would be fatal to him."
+
+Captain Doolan went off into a burst of laughter.
+
+"And he took it all in, Norah? He did not see that you were humbugging
+him altogether?"
+
+"Not a bit of it. They are very amusing, these boys, Jim. I was
+really quite sorry for Richards, but I told him he would get over
+it in time, for as far as I could learn you had been just as bad
+thirty-three times before I finally took pity on you, and that I
+only did it then because you were wearing away with your troubles.
+I advised him to put the best face he could on it, for that Miss
+Hannay would be the last person to be pleased, if he were to be
+going about with a face as long as if he had just come from his
+aunt's funeral."
+
+The race meeting came off three weeks after Miss Hannay arrived
+at Cawnpore. She had been to several dinners and parties by this
+time, and began to know most of the regular residents.
+
+The races served as an excuse for people to come in from all the
+stations round. Men came over from Lucknow, Agra, and Allahabad,
+and from many a little outlying station; every bungalow in the
+cantonment was filled with guests, and tents were erected for the
+accommodation of the overflow.
+
+Several of the officers of the 103d had horses and ponies entered
+in the various races. There was to be a dance at the club on the
+evening of the second day of the races, and a garden party at the
+General's on that of the first. Richards and Wilson had both ponies
+entered for the race confined to country tats which had never won
+a race, and both had endeavored to find without success what was
+Isobel's favorite color.
+
+"But you must have some favorite color?" Wilson urged.
+
+"Why must I, Mr. Wilson? One thing is suitable for one thing and
+one another, and I always like a color that is suitable for the
+occasion."
+
+"But what color are you going to wear at the races, Miss Hannay?"
+
+"Well, you see, I have several dresses," Isobel said gravely, "and
+I cannot say until the morning arrives which I may wear; it will
+depend a good deal how I feel. Besides, I might object to your
+wearing the same color as I do. You remember in the old times,
+knights, when they entered the lists, wore the favors that ladies
+had given them. Now I have no idea of giving you a favor. You have
+done nothing worthy of it. When you have won the Victoria Cross,
+and distinguished yourself by some extraordinarily gallant action,
+it will be quite time to think about it."
+
+"You see one has to send one's color in four days beforehand, in
+time for them to print it on the card," the lad said; "and besides,
+one has to get a jacket and cap made."
+
+"But you don't reflect that it is quite possible your pony won't
+win after all, and supposing that I had colors, I certainly should
+not like to see them come in last in the race. Mr. Richards has
+been asking me just the same thing, and, of course, I gave him the
+same answer. I can only give you the advice I gave him."
+
+"What was that, Miss Hannay?" Wilson asked eagerly.
+
+"Well, you see, it is not very long since either of you left school,
+so I should think the best thing for you to wear are your school
+colors, whatever they were."
+
+And with a merry laugh at his look of discomfiture, Isobel turned
+away and joined Mrs. Doolan and two or three other ladies who were
+sitting with her.
+
+"There is one comfort," Mrs. Doolan was just saying, "in this
+country, when there is anything coming off, there is no occasion
+to be anxious as to the weather; one knows that it will be hot,
+fine, and dusty. One can wear one's gayest dress without fear.
+In Ireland one never knew whether one wanted muslin or waterproof
+until the morning came, and even then one could not calculate with
+any certainty how it would be by twelve o'clock. This will be your
+first Indian festivity, Miss Hannay."
+
+"Do the natives come much?"
+
+"I should think so! All Cawnpore will turn out, and we shall have
+the Lord of Bithoor and any number of Talookdars and Zemindars with
+their suites. A good many of them will have horses entered, and
+they have some good ones if they could but ride them. The Rajah of
+Bithoor is a most important personage. He talks English very well,
+and gives splendid entertainments. He is a most polite gentleman,
+and is always over here if there is anything going on. The general
+idea is that he has set his mind on having an English wife, the
+only difficulty being our objection to polygamy. He has every other
+advantage, and his wife would have jewels that a queen might envy."
+
+Isobel laughed. "I don't think jewels would count for much in my
+ideas of happiness."
+
+"It is not so much the jewels, my dear, in themselves, but the envy
+they would excite in every other woman."
+
+"I don't think I can understand that feeling, Mrs. Doolan. I can
+understand that there might be a satisfaction in being envied for
+being the happiest woman, or the most tastefully dressed woman, or
+even the prettiest woman, though that after all is a mere accident,
+but not for having the greatest number of bright stones, however
+valuable. I don't think the most lovely set of diamonds ever seen
+would give me as much satisfaction as a few choice flowers."
+
+"Ah, but that is because you are quite young," Mrs. Doolan said.
+"Eve was tempted by an apple, but Eve had not lived long. You see,
+an apple will tempt a child, and flowers a young girl. Diamonds
+are the bait of a woman."
+
+"You would not care for diamonds yourself, Mrs. Doolan?"
+
+"I don't know, my dear; the experiment was never tried--bog oak
+and Irish diamonds have been more in my line. Jim's pay has never
+run to diamonds, worse luck, but he has promised me that if he ever
+gets a chance of looting the palace of a native prince he will
+keep a special lookout for them for me. So far he has never had the
+chance. When he was an ensign there was some hard fighting with the
+Sikhs, but nothing of that sort fell to his share. I often tell him
+that he took me under false pretenses altogether. I had visions of
+returning some day and astonishing Ballycrogin, as a sort of begum
+covered with diamonds; but as far as I can see the children are
+the only jewels that I am likely to take back."
+
+"And very nice jewels too," Isobel said heartily; "they are dear
+little things, Mrs. Doolan, and worth all the diamonds in the
+world. I hear, Mrs. Prothero, that your husband has a good chance
+of winning the race for Arabs; I intend to wager several pairs of
+gloves on his horse."
+
+"Yes, Seila is very fast. She won last year. But Nana Sahib has had
+the horse that won the cup at Poona last year, and is considered
+one of the fastest in India, brought across from Bombay. Our only
+hope is that he will put a native up, and in that case we ought to
+have a fair chance, for the natives have no idea of riding a waiting
+race, but go off at full speed, and take it all out of their horse
+before the end of the race."
+
+"Well, we must hope he will, Mrs. Prothero; that seems, from what
+I hear, the only chance there is of the regiment winning a prize.
+So all our sympathies will be with you."
+
+"Hunter and his wife and their two girls are coming," the Major
+said, the next morning, as he opened his letters.
+
+"Very well, uncle, then we will do as we arranged. The Miss Hunters
+shall have my room, and I will take the little passage room."
+
+"I am afraid it will put you out, Isobel; but they have been here
+for the last two years at the race times and I did not like not
+asking them again."
+
+"Of course, uncle. It will make no difference to me, and I don't
+require any very great space to apparel myself."
+
+"We must have dinners for twelve at least, the day before the races,
+and on the three days of the meeting."
+
+Isobel looked alarmed. "I hope you don't rely on me for the
+arrangements, uncle. At each of the four dinners we have been to
+I have done nothing but wonder how it was all done, and have been
+trembling over the thought that it would be our turn presently. It
+seemed a fearful responsibility; and four, one after the other, is
+an appalling prospect."
+
+"Rumzan will see to it all, my dear. He has always managed very well
+before. I will talk it over with him; besides, these will not be
+like regular set dinner parties. At race meetings everyone keeps
+pretty nearly open house. One does not ask any of the people at the
+station; they have all their own visitors. One trusts to chance to
+fill up the table, and one never finds any difficulty about it. It
+is lucky I got up a regular stock of china, and so on, in anticipation
+of your coming. Of course, as a bachelor, I have not been a dinner
+giver, except on occasions like this, when nobody expects anything
+like state, and things are conducted to a certain extent in picnic
+fashion. I have paid off my dinner obligations by having men to mess
+or the club. However, I will consult Rumzan, and we will have a
+regular parade of our materials, and you shall inspect our resources.
+If there is anything in the way of flower vases or center dishes,
+or anything of that sort, you think requisite, we must get them.
+Jestonjee has got a good stock of all that sort of thing. As to
+tablecloths and napkins and so on, I had a supply with the china,
+so you will find that all right. Of course you will get plenty of
+flowers; they are the principal things, after all, towards making
+the table look well. You have had no experience in arranging them,
+I suppose?"
+
+"None at all, uncle; I never arranged a vase of flowers in my life."
+
+"Then I tell you what you had better do, Isobel. You coax the Doctor
+into coming in and undertaking it. He is famous in that way. He
+always has the decoration of the mess table on grand occasions;
+and when we give a dance the flowers and decorations are left to
+him as a matter of course."
+
+"I will ask him, uncle; but he is the last man in the world I should
+have thought of in connection with flowers and decorations."
+
+"He is a many sided man, my dear; he paints excellently, and has
+wonderful taste in the way of dress. I can assure you that no lady
+in the regiment is quite satisfied with a new costume until it has
+received the stamp of the Doctor's approval. When we were stationed
+at Delhi four years ago there was a fancy ball, and people who
+were judges of that sort of thing said that they had never seen so
+pretty a collection of dresses, and I should think fully half of
+them were manufactured from the Doctor's sketches."
+
+"I remember now," Isobel laughed, "that he was very sarcastic on
+board ship as to the dresses of some of the people, but I thought
+it was only his way of grumbling at things in general, though
+certainly I generally agreed with him. He told me one day that
+my taste evidently inclined to the dowdy, but you see I wore half
+mourning until I arrived out here."
+
+The Doctor himself dropped in an hour later.
+
+"I shall be glad, Doctor, if you will dine with us as often as
+you can during the four days of the races," Major Hannay said. "Of
+course, I shall be doing the hospitable to people who come in from
+out stations, and as Isobel won't know any of them, it will be
+a little trying to her, acting for the first time in the capacity
+of hostess. As you know everybody, you will be able to make things
+go. I have got Hunter and his wife and their two girls coming in to
+stay. I calculate the table will hold fourteen comfortably enough.
+At any rate, come first night, even if you can't come on the others."
+
+"Certainly I will, Major, if you will let me bring Bathurst in with
+me; he is going to stay with me for the races."
+
+"By all means, Doctor; I like what I have seen of him very much."
+
+"Yes, he has got a lot in him," the Doctor said, "only he is always
+head over heels in work. He will make a big mark before he has done.
+He is one of the few men out here who has thoroughly mastered the
+language; he can talk to the natives like one of themselves, and
+understands them so thoroughly that they are absolutely afraid to
+lie to him, which is the highest compliment a native can pay to
+an Indian official. It is very seldom he comes in to this sort of
+thing, but I seized him the other day and told him that I could
+see he would break down if he didn't give himself a holiday, and I
+fairly worried him into saying he would come over and stay for the
+races. I believe then he would not have come if I had not written
+to him that all the native swells would be here, and it would be an
+excellent opportunity for him to talk to them about the establishment
+of a school for the daughters of the upper class of natives; that
+is one of his fads at present."
+
+"But it would be a good thing surely, Doctor," Isobel said.
+
+"No doubt, my dear, no doubt; and so would scores of other things,
+if you could but persuade the natives so. But this is really one of
+the most impracticable schemes possible, simply because the whole
+of these unfortunate children get betrothed when they are two or
+three years old, and are married at twelve. Even if all parties
+were agreed, the husband's relations and the wife's relations and
+everyone else, what are you going to teach a child worth knowing
+before she gets to the age of twelve? Just enough to make her
+discontented with her lot. Once get the natives to alter their
+customs and to marry their women at the age of eighteen, and you
+may do something for them; but as long as they stick to this idiotic
+custom of marrying them off when they are still children, the case
+is hopeless."
+
+"There is something I wanted to ask you, Doctor," Isobel said.
+"You know this is the first time I have had anything to do with
+entertaining, and I know nothing about decorating a table. Uncle
+says that you are a great hand at the arrangement of flowers. Would
+you mind seeing to it for me?"
+
+The Doctor nodded. "With pleasure, Miss Hannay. It is a thing I
+enjoy. There is nothing more lamentable than to see the ignorant.
+and I may almost say brutal, way in which people bunch flowers up
+into great masses and call that decoration. They might just as well
+bunch up so many masses of bright colored rags. The shape of the
+flower, its manner of growth, and its individuality are altogether
+lost, and the sole effect produced is that of a confused mass
+of color. I will undertake that part of the business, and you had
+better leave the buying of the flowers to me."
+
+"Certainly, Doctor," the Major said; "I will give you carte blanche."
+
+"Well, I must see your dinner service, Major, so that I may know
+about its color, and what you have got to put the flowers into."
+
+"I will have a regular parade tomorrow morning after breakfast, if
+it would be convenient for you to look in then, and at the same
+time I will get you to have a talk with Rumzan and the cook. I
+am almost as new to giving dinner parties as Isobel is. When one
+has half a dozen men to dine with one at the club, one gives the
+butler notice and chooses the wine, and one knows that it will be
+all right; but it is a very different thing when you have to go
+into the details yourself. Ordinarily I leave it entirely to Rumzan
+and the cook, and I am bound to say they do very well, but this is
+a different matter."
+
+"We will talk it over with them together, Major. You can seem to
+consult me, but it must come from you to them, or else you will be
+getting their backs up. Thank goodness, Indian servants don't give
+themselves the airs English ones do; but human nature is a good
+deal the same everywhere, and the first great rule, if you want
+any domestic arrangements to go off well, is to keep the servants
+in good temper."
+
+"We none of us like to be interfered with, Doctor."
+
+"A wise man is always ready to be taught," the Doctor said
+sententiously.
+
+"Well, there are exceptions, Doctor. I remember, soon after I
+joined, a man blew off two of his fingers. A young surgeon who was
+here wanted to amputate the hand; he was just going to set about
+it when a staff surgeon came in and said that it had better not
+be done, for that natives could not stand amputations. The young
+surgeon was very much annoyed. The staff surgeon went away next
+day. There was a good deal of inflammation, and the young surgeon
+decided to amputate. The man never rallied from the operation, and
+died next day."
+
+"I said, Major, that a wise man was always ready to listen to good
+advice. I was not a wise man in those days--I was a pig headed
+young fool. I thought I knew all about it, and I was quite right
+according to my experience in London hospitals. In the case of an
+Englishman, the hand would have been amputated, and the man would
+have been all right three weeks afterwards. But I knew nothing
+about these soft hearted Hindoos, and never dreamt that an operation
+which would be a trifle to an Englishman would be fatal to one of
+them, and that simply because, although they are plucky enough in
+some respects, they have no more heart than a mouse when anything
+is the matter with them. Yes, if it hadn't been for the old Colonel,
+who gave me a private hint to say nothing about the affair, but
+merely to put down in my report, 'Died from the effect of a gunshot
+wound,' I should have got into a deuce of a scrape over that affair.
+As it was, it only cost me a hundred rupees to satisfy the man's
+family and send them back to their native village. That was for
+years a standing joke against me, Miss Hannay; except your uncle
+and the Colonel, there is no one left in the regiment who was there,
+but it was a sore subject for a long time. Still, no doubt, it was
+a useful lesson, and my rule has been ever since, never amputate
+except as a forlorn hope, and even then don't amputate, for if you
+do the relatives of the man, as far as his fourth cousins, will
+inevitably regard you as his murderer. Well, I must be off; I will
+look in tomorrow morning, Major, and make an inspection of your
+resources."
+
+"I am glad to see the Hunters are going to bring over their carriage,"
+the Major said, two days later, as he looked through a letter. "I
+am very glad of that, for I put it off till too late. I have been
+trying everywhere for the last two days to hire one, but they are
+all engaged, and have been so for weeks, I hear. I was wondering
+what I should do, for my buggy will only hold two. I was thinking
+of asking Mrs. Doolan if she could take one of the Miss Hunters, and
+should have tried to find a place for the other. But this settles
+it all comfortably. They are going to send on their own horses
+halfway the day before, and hire native ponies for the first half.
+They have a good large family vehicle; I hoped that they would
+bring it, but, of course, I could not trust to it."
+
+The Doctor presently dropped in with Captain Doolan. After chatting
+for some time the former said, "I have had the satisfaction this
+morning, Miss Hannay, of relieving Mrs. Cromarty's mind of a great
+burden."
+
+"How was that, Doctor?"
+
+"It was in relation to you, my dear."
+
+"Me, Doctor! how could I have been a weight on Mrs. Cromarty's
+mind?"
+
+"She sent for me under the pretense of being feverish; said she
+had a headache, and so on. Her pulse was all right, and I told her
+at once I did not think there was much the matter with her; but
+I recommended her to keep out of the sun for two days. Then she
+begun a chat about the station. She knows that, somehow or other,
+I generally hear all that is going on. I wondered what was coming,
+till she said casually, 'Do you know what arrangement Major Hannay
+has made as to his niece for the races?' I said, of course, that
+the Hunters were coming over to stay. I could see at once that
+her spirit was instantly relieved of a heavy burden, but she only
+said, 'Of course, then, that settles the question. I had intended
+to send across to her this morning, to ask if she would like a seat
+in my carriage; having no lady with her, she could not very well
+have gone to the races alone. Naturally, I should have been very
+pleased to have had her with us. However, as Mrs. Hunter will be
+staying at the Major's, and will act as her chaperon, the matter
+is settled.'"
+
+"Well, I think it was very kind of her thinking of it," Isobel
+said, "and I don't think it is nice of you, Doctor, to say that it
+was an evident relief to her when she found I had someone else to
+take care of me. Why should it have been a relief?"
+
+"I have no doubt it has weighed on her mind for the last fortnight,"
+the Doctor said; "she must have seen that as you were freshly
+joined, and the only unmarried girl in the regiment, except her
+own daughters, it was only the proper thing she should offer you
+a seat in her carriage. No doubt she decided to put it off as late
+as possible, in hopes that you might make some other arrangement.
+Had you not done so, she might have done the heroic thing and invited
+you, though I am by no means sure of it. Of course, now she will
+say the first time she meets you that she was quite disappointed
+at having heard from me that Mrs. Hunter would be with you, as she
+had hoped to have the pleasure of having you in her carriage with
+her."
+
+"But why shouldn't she like it?" Isobel said indignantly. "Surely
+I am not as disagreeable as all that! Come, Doctor!"
+
+Captain Doolan laughed, while the Doctor said, "It is just
+the contrary, my dear; I am quite sure that if you were in Mrs.
+Cromarty's place, and had two tall, washed out looking daughters,
+you would not feel the slightest desire to place Miss Hannay in
+the same carriage with them."
+
+"I call that very disagreeable of you, Doctor," Isobel said,
+flushing, "and I shall not like you at all if you take such unkind
+and malicious views of people. I don't suppose such an idea ever
+entered into Mrs. Cromarty's head, and even if it did, it makes it
+all the kinder that she should think of offering me a seat. I do
+think most men seem to consider that women think of nothing but
+looks, and that girls are always trying to attract men, and mothers
+always thinking of getting their daughters married. It is not at all
+nice, Doctor, to have such ideas, and I shall thank Mrs. Cromarty
+warmly, when I see her, for her kindness in thinking about me."
+
+Accordingly, that afternoon, when they met at the usual hour, when
+the band was playing, Isobel went up to the Colonel's wife.
+
+"I want to thank you, Mrs. Cromarty. Dr. Wade has told me that you
+had intended to offer me a seat in your carriage to the races. It
+was very kind and nice of you to think of me, and I am very much
+obliged to you. I should have enjoyed it very much if it hadn't
+been that Mrs. Hunter is coming to stay with us, and, of course,
+I shall be under her wing. Still, I am just as much obliged to you
+for having thought of it."
+
+Mrs. Cromarty was pleased with the girl's warmth and manner, and
+afterwards mentioned to several of her friends that she thought
+that Miss Hannay seemed a very nice young woman.
+
+"I was not quite favorably impressed at first," she admitted. "She
+has the misfortune of being a little brusque in her manner, but,
+of course, her position is a difficult one, being alone out here,
+without any lady with her, and no doubt she feels it so. She was
+quite touchingly grateful, only because I offered her a seat in
+our carriage for the races, though she was unable to accept it, as
+the Major will have the Hunters staying with him."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+The clubhouse at Cawnpore was crowded on the evening before the
+races. Up to eleven o'clock it had been comparatively deserted,
+for there was scarcely a bungalow in the station at which dinner
+parties were not going on; but, after eleven, the gentlemen for the
+most part adjourned to the club for a smoke, a rubber, or a game
+of billiards, or to chat over the racing events of the next day.
+
+Loud greetings were exchanged as each fresh contingent arrived,
+for many newcomers had come into the station only that afternoon.
+Every table in the whist room was occupied, black pool was being
+played in the billiard room upstairs, where most of the younger
+men were gathered, while the elders smoked and talked in the rooms
+below.
+
+"What will you do, Bathurst?" the Doctor asked his guest, after
+the party from the Major's had been chatting for some little time
+downstairs. "Would you like to cut in at a rubber or take a ball
+at pool?"
+
+"Neither, Doctor; they are both accomplishments beyond me; I have
+not patience for whist, and I can't play billiards in the least.
+I have tried over and over again, but I am too nervous, I fancy; I
+break down over the easiest stroke--in fact, an easy stroke is
+harder for me than a difficult one. I know I ought to make it, and
+just for that reason, I suppose, I don't."
+
+"You don't give one the idea of a nervous man, either, Bathurst."
+
+"Well, I am, Doctor, constitutionally, indeed terribly so."
+
+"Not in business matters, anyhow," the Doctor said, with a smile.
+"You have the reputation of not minding in the slightest what
+responsibility you take upon yourself, and of carrying out what
+you undertake in the most resolute, I won't say high handed, manner."
+
+"No, it doesn't come in there," Bathurst laughed. "Morally I am
+not nervous so far as I know, physically I am. I would give a great
+deal if I could get over it, but, as I have said, it is constitutional."
+
+"Not on your father's side, Bathurst. I knew him well, and he was
+a very gallant officer."
+
+"No, it was the other side," Bathurst said; "I will tell you about
+it some day."
+
+At this moment another friend of Bathurst's came up and entered
+into conversation with him.
+
+"Well, I will go upstairs to the billiard room," the Doctor said;
+"and you will find me there, Bathurst, whenever you feel disposed
+to go."
+
+A pool had just finished when the Doctor entered the billiard room.
+
+"That is right, Doctor, you are just in time," Prothero said, as
+he entered. "Sinclair has given up his cue; he is going to ride
+tomorrow, and is afraid of shaking his nerves; you must come and
+play for the honor of the corps. I am being ruined altogether, and
+Doolan has retired discomfited."
+
+"I have not touched a cue since I went away," the Doctor said, "but
+I don't mind adding to the list of victims. Who are the winners?"
+
+"Messenger and Jarvis have been carrying all before them; there is
+a report they have just sent off two club waiters, with loads of
+rupees, to their quarters. Scarsdale has been pretty well holding
+his own, but the rest of us are nowhere."
+
+A year's want of practice, however, told, and the Doctor was added
+to the list of victims: he had no difficulty in getting someone
+else to take his cue after playing for half an hour.
+
+"It shows that practice is required for everything," he said; "before
+I went away I could have given each of those men a life, now they
+could give me two; I must devote half an hour a day to it till I
+get it back again."
+
+"And you shall give me a lesson, Doctor," Captain Doolan, who had
+also retired, said.
+
+"It would be time thrown away by both of us, Doolan. You would
+never make a pool player if you were to practice all your life. It
+is not the eye that is wrong, but the temperament. You can make a
+very good shot now and then, but you are too harum scarum and slap
+dash altogether. The art of playing pool is the art of placing
+yourself; while, when you strike, you have not the faintest idea
+where your ball is going to, and you are just as likely to run in
+yourself as you are to pot your adversary. I should abjure it if I
+were you, Doolan; it is too expensive a luxury for you to indulge
+in."
+
+"You are right there, Doctor; only what is a man to do when fellows
+say, 'We want you to make up a pool, Doolan'?"
+
+"I should say the reply would be quite simple. I should answer, 'I
+am ready enough to play if any of you are ready to pay my losses
+and take my winnings; I am tired of being as good as an annuity to
+you all,' for that is what you have been for the last ten years. Why,
+it would be cheaper for you to send home to England for skittles,
+and get a ground up here."
+
+"But I don't play so very badly, Doctor."
+
+"If you play badly enough always to lose, it doesn't matter as to
+the precise degree of badness," the Doctor retorted. "It is not
+surprising. When you came out here, fourteen or fifteen years ago,
+boys did not take to playing billiards, but they do now. Look at
+that little villain, Richards. He has just cleared the table, and
+done it with all the coolness of a professional marker. The young
+scoundrel ought to have been in bed two hours ago, for I hear that
+tat of his is really a good one. Not that it will make any difference
+to him. That sort of boy would play billiards till the first bugle
+sounds in the morning, and have a wash and turn out as fresh as
+paint, but it won't last, Doolan, not in this climate; his cheeks
+will have fallen in and he will have crow's feet at the corners of
+his eyes before another year has gone over. I like that other boy,
+Wilson, better. Of course he is a cub as yet, but I should say
+there is good in him. Just at present I can see he is beginning to
+fancy himself in love with Miss Hannay. That will do him good; it
+is always an advantage to a lad like that to have a good honest
+liking for a nice girl. Of course it comes to nothing, and for a
+time he imagines himself the most unhappy of mortals, but it does
+him good for all that; fellows are far less likely to get into
+mischief and go to the bad after an affair of that sort. It gives
+him a high ideal, and if he is worth anything he will try to make
+himself worthy of her, and the good it does him will continue even
+after the charm is broken."
+
+"What a fellow you are, Doctor," Captain Doolan said, looking down
+upon his companion, "talking away like that in the middle of this
+racket, which would be enough to bother Saint Patrick himself!"
+
+"Well, come along downstairs, Doolan; we will have a final peg and
+then be off; I expect Bathurst is beginning to fidget before now."
+
+"It will do him good," Captain Doolan said disdainfully. "I have
+no patience with a man who is forever working himself to death,
+riding about the country as if Old Nick were behind him, and never
+giving himself a minute for diversion of any kind. Faith, I would
+rather throw myself down a well and have done with it, than work
+ten times as hard as a black nigger."
+
+"Well, I don't think, Doolan," the Doctor said dryly, "you are ever
+likely to be driven to suicide by any such cause."
+
+"You are right there, Doctor," the other said contentedly. "No man
+can throw it in my teeth that I ever worked when I had no occasion
+to work. If there were a campaign, I expect I could do my share
+with the best of them, but in quiet times I just do what I have to
+do, and if anyone has an anxiety to take my place in the rota for
+duty, he is as welcome to it as the flowers of May. I had my share
+of it when I was a subaltern; there is no better fellow living than
+the Major, but when he was Captain of my company he used to keep
+me on the run by the hour together, till I wished myself back
+in Connaught, and anyone who liked it might have had the whole of
+India for anything I cared; he was one of the most uneasy creatures
+I ever came across."
+
+"The Major is a good officer, Doolan, and you were as lazy a youngster,
+and as hard a bargain, as the Company ever got. You ought to thank
+your stars that you had the good luck in having a Captain who knew
+his business, and made you learn yours. Why, if you had had a man
+like Rintoul as your Captain, you would never have been worth your
+salt."
+
+"You are not complimentary, Doctor; but then nobody looks for
+compliments from you."
+
+"I can pay compliments if I have a chance," the Doctor retorted,
+"but it is very seldom I get one of doing so--at least, without
+lying. Well, Bathurst, are you ready to turn in?"
+
+"Quite ready, Doctor; that is one of the advantages of not caring
+for races; the merits and demerits of the horses that run tomorrow
+do not in the slightest degree affect me, and even the news that
+all the favorites had gone wrong would not deprive me of an hour's
+sleep."
+
+"I think it a good thing to take an interest in racing, Bathurst.
+Take men as a whole: out here they work hard--some of them work
+tremendously hard--and unless they get some change to their
+thoughts, some sort of recreation, nineteen out of twenty will
+break down sooner or later. If they don't they become mere machines.
+Every man ought to have some sort of hobby; he need not ride it to
+death, but he wants to take some sort of interest in it. I don't
+care whether he takes to pig sticking, or racing, or shooting,
+or whether he goes in for what I may call the milder kinds of
+relaxation, such as dining out, billiards, whist, or even general
+philandering. Anything is better than nothing--anything that
+will take his mind off his work. As far as I can see, you don't do
+anything."
+
+"Therefore I shall either break down or become a machine, Doctor?"
+
+"One or the other certainly, Bathurst. You may smile, but I mean
+what I say. I have seen other young fellows just as full of work
+and enthusiasm as you are, but I have never seen an exception to
+the rule, unless, of course, they took up something so as to give
+their minds a rest."
+
+"The Doctor has just been scolding me because I am not fond enough
+of work," Captain Doolan laughed.
+
+"You are differently placed, Doolan," the Doctor said. "You have
+got plenty of enthusiasm in your nature--most Irishmen have--
+but you have had nothing to stir it. Life in a native regiment in
+India is an easy one. Your duties are over in two or three hours
+out of the twenty-four, whereas the work of a civilian in a large
+district literally never ends, unless he puts a resolute stop to
+it. What with seeing people from morning until night, and riding
+about and listening to complaints, every hour of the day is occupied,
+and then at night there are reports to write and documents of all
+sorts to go through. It is a great pity that there cannot be a
+better division of work, though I own I don't see how it is to be
+managed."
+
+By this time they were walking towards the lines.
+
+"I should not mind taking a share of the civil work at the station,"
+Captain Doolan said, "if they would make our pay a little more like
+that of the civilians."
+
+"There is something in that, Doolan," the Doctor agreed; "it is
+just as hard work having nothing to do as it is having too much;
+and I have always been of opinion that the tremendous disproportion
+between the pay of a military man and of a civilian of the same
+age is simply monstrous. Well, goodnight, Doolan; I hope you will
+tell Mrs. Doolan that the credit is entirely due to me that you are
+home at the reasonable hour of one o'clock, instead of dropping in
+just in time to change for parade."
+
+"A good fellow," the Doctor said, as he walked on with Bathurst;
+"he would never set the Thames on fire; but he is an honest, kindly
+fellow. He would make a capital officer if he were on service. His
+marriage has been an excellent thing for him. He had nothing to
+do before but to pass away his time in the club or mess house, and
+drink more than was good for him. But he has pulled himself round
+altogether since he married. His wife is a bright, clever little
+woman, and knows how to make the house happy for him; if he had
+married a lackadaisical sort of a woman, the betting is he would
+have gone to the bad altogether."
+
+"I only met him once or twice before," Bathurst said. "You see I
+am not here very often, and when I am it is only on business, so
+I know a very few people here except those I have to deal with,
+and by the time I have got through my business I am generally so
+thoroughly out of temper with the pig headed stupidity and obstinacy
+of people in general, that I get into my buggy and drive straight
+away."
+
+"I fancy you irritate them as much as they irritate you, Bathurst.
+Well, here we are; now we will have a quiet cheroot and a peg, to
+quiet our nerves after all that din, before we turn in. Let us get
+off our coats and collars, and make ourselves comfortable; it is
+a proof of the bestial stupidity of mankind that they should wear
+such abominations as dress clothes in a climate like this. Here,
+boy, light the candles and bring two sodas and brandies."
+
+"Well, Bathurst," he went on, when they had made themselves comfortable
+in two lounging chairs, "what do you thing of Miss Hannay?"
+
+"I was prepared to admire her, Doctor, from what you said; it is
+not very often that you overpraise things; but she is a charming
+girl, very pretty and bright, frank and natural."
+
+"She is all that," the Doctor said. "We were four months on the
+voyage out, and I saw enough of her in that time to know her pretty
+thoroughly."
+
+"What puzzles me about her," Bathurst said, "is that I seemed to
+know her face. Where I saw her, and under what circumstances, I
+have been puzzling myself half the evening to recall, but I have
+the strongest conviction that I have met her."
+
+"You are dreaming, man. You have been out here eight years; she was
+a child of ten when you left England! You certainly have not seen
+her, and as I know pretty well every woman who has been in this
+station for the last five or six years, I can answer for it that
+you have not seen anyone in the slightest degree resembling her."
+
+"That is what I have been saying to myself, Doctor, but that does
+not in the slightest degree shake my conviction about it."
+
+"Then you must have dreamt it," the Doctor said decidedly. "Some
+fool of a poet has said, 'Visions of love cast their shadows before,'
+or something of that sort, which of course is a lie; still, that
+is the only way that I can account for it."
+
+Bathurst smiled faintly. "I don't think the quotation is quite
+right, Doctor; anyhow, I am convinced that the impression is far
+too vivid to have been the result of a dream."
+
+"By the way, Bathurst," the Doctor said, suddenly changing
+his conversation, "what do you think of this talk we hear about
+chupaties being sent round among the native troops, and the talk
+about greased cartridges. You see more of the natives than anyone
+I know; do you think there is anything brewing in the air?"
+
+"If there is, Doctor, I am certain it is not known to the natives
+in general. I see no change whatever in their manner, and I am sure
+I know them well enough to notice any change if it existed. I know
+nothing about the Sepoys, but Garnet tells me that the Company at
+Deennugghur give him nothing to complain of, though they don't obey
+orders as smartly as usual, and they have a. sullen air as they go
+about their work."
+
+"I don't like it, Bathurst. I do not understand what the chupaties
+mean, but I know that there is a sort of tradition that the sending of
+them round has always preceded trouble. The Sepoys have no reason
+for discontent, but there has been no active service lately,
+and idleness is always bad for men. I can't believe there is any
+widespread dissatisfaction among them, but there is no doubt whatever
+that if there is, and it breaks out, the position will be a very
+serious one. There are not half enough white troops in India, and
+the Sepoys may well think that they are masters of the situation.
+It would be a terrible time for everyone in India if they did take
+it into their heads to rise."
+
+"I can't believe they would be mad enough to do that, Doctor;
+they have everything to lose by it, and nothing to gain, that is,
+individually; and we should be sure to win in the long run, even
+if we had to conquer back India foot by foot."
+
+"That is all very well, Bathurst; we may know that we could do it,
+but they don't know it. They are ignorant altogether of the forces
+we could put into the field were there a necessity to make the
+effort. They naturally suppose that we can have but a few soldiers,
+for in all the battles we have fought there have always been two
+or three Sepoy regiments to one English. Besides, they consider
+themselves fully a match for us. They have fought by us side by side
+in every battlefield in India, and have done as well as we have. I
+don't see what they should rise for. I don't even see whose interest
+it is to bring a rising about, but I do know that if they rise we
+shall have a terrible time of it. Now I think we may as well turn
+in. You won't take another peg? Well, I shall see you in the morning.
+I shall be at the hospital by half past six, and shall be in at
+half past eight to breakfast. You have only got to shout for my
+man, and tell him whether you will have tea, coffee, or chocolate,
+any time you wake."
+
+"I shall be about by six, Doctor; five is my general hour, but as
+it is past one now I dare say I shall be able to sleep on for an
+hour later, especially as there is nothing to do."
+
+"You can go round the hospital with me, if you like," the Doctor
+said, "if you will promise not to make a dozen suggestions for the
+improvement of things in general."
+
+Isobel Hannay came down to breakfast in high spirits upon the morning of
+the races. The dinner had gone off excellently. The dinner table,
+with its softly shaded lamps, and the Doctor's arrangements of
+the flowers, had been, she thought, perfection, and everything had
+passed off without a hitch. Her duties as a hostess had been much
+lighter than she had anticipated. Mrs. Hunter was a very pleasant,
+motherly woman, and the girls, who had only come out from England
+four months before, were fresh and unaffected, and the other people
+had all been pleasant and chatty.
+
+Altogether, she felt that her first dinner party had been a great
+success.
+
+She was looking forward now with pleasant anticipation to the day.
+She had seen but little of the natives so far, and she was now to
+see them at their best. Then she had never been present at a race,
+and everything would be new and exciting.
+
+"Well, uncle, what time did you get in?" she asked, as she stepped
+out into the veranda to meet him on his return from early parade.
+"It was too bad of you and Mr. Hunter running off instead of waiting
+to chat things over."
+
+"I have no doubt you ladies did plenty of that, my dear."
+
+"Indeed, we didn't, uncle; you see they had had a very long drive,
+and Mrs. Hunter insisted on the girls going to bed directly you all
+went out, and as I could not sit up by myself, I had to go too."
+
+"We were in at half past twelve," the Major said. "I can stand a
+good deal of smoke, but the club atmosphere was too thick for me."
+
+"Everything went off very well yesterday, didn't it?" she asked.
+
+"Very well, I thought, my dear, thanks to you and the Doctor and
+Rumzan."
+
+"I had very little to do with it," she laughed.
+
+"Well, I don't think you had much to do with the absolute arrangements,
+Isobel, but I thought you did very well as hostess; it seemed to
+me that there was a good deal of laughing and fun at your end of
+the table."
+
+"Yes; you see we had the two Miss Hunters and the Doctor there, and
+Mr. Gregson, who took me in, turned out a very merry old gentleman."
+
+"He would not be pleased if he heard you call him old, Isobel."
+
+"Well, of course he is not absolutely old, but being a commissioner,
+and all that sort of thing, gives one the idea of being old; but
+there are the others."
+
+And they went into the breakfast room.
+
+The first race was set for two o'clock, and at half past one Mrs.
+Hunter's carriage, with the four ladies, arrived at the inclosure.
+The horses were taken out, and the carriage wheeled into its
+place, and then Isobel and the two Miss Hunters prepared to enjoy
+the scene.
+
+It was a very gay one. The course was at present covered with a
+throng of natives in their bright colored garments, and mixed with
+them were the scarlet uniforms of the Sepoys of the 103d and other
+regiments. On the opposite side were a number of native vehicles
+of various descriptions, and some elephants with painted faces and
+gorgeous trappings, and with howdahs shaded by pavilions glittering
+with gilt and silver.
+
+On either side of their vehicle a long line of carriages was soon
+formed up, and among these were several occupied by gayly dressed
+natives, whose rank gave them an entrance to the privileged inclosure.
+The carriages were placed three or four yards back from the rail,
+and the intervening space was filled with civilian and military
+officers, in white or light attire, and with pith helmet or puggaree;
+many others were on horseback behind the carriages.
+
+"It is a bright scene, Miss Hannay," the Doctor said, coming up to
+the carriage.
+
+"Wonderfully pretty, Doctor!"
+
+"An English race course doesn't do after this, I can tell you. I
+went down to the Derby when I was at home, and such an assembly of
+riff raff I never saw before and never wish to see again."
+
+"These people are more picturesque, Dr. Wade," Mrs. Hunter said,
+"but that is merely a question of garment; these people perhaps are
+no more trustworthy than those you met on the racecourse at home."
+
+"I was speaking of them purely as a spectacle; individually I have
+no doubt one would be safer among the English roughs and betting
+men than among these placid looking natives. The one would pick
+your pockets of every penny you have got if they had the chance,
+the other would cut your throat with just as little compunction."
+
+"You don't really mean that, Dr. Wade?" Isobel said.
+
+"I do indeed, Miss Hannay; the Oude men are notorious brawlers and
+fighters, and I should say that the roughs of Cawnpore and Lucknow
+could give long odds to those of any European city, and three out
+of four of those men you see walking about there would not only
+cut the throat of a European to obtain what money he had about him,
+but would do so without that incentive, upon the simple ground that
+he hated us."
+
+"But why should he hate us, Doctor? he is none the worse off now
+than he was before we annexed the country."
+
+"Well, yes, that class of man is worse off. In the old days every
+noble and Zemindar kept up a little army for the purpose of fighting
+his neighbors, just as our Barons used to do in the happy olden
+times people talk of. We have put down private fighting, and the
+consequence is these men's occupations are gone, and they flock to
+great towns and there live as best they can, ready to commit any
+crime whatever for the sum of a few rupees.
+
+"There is Nana Sahib."
+
+Isobel looked round and saw a carriage with a magnificent pair
+of horses, in harness almost covered with silver ornaments, drive
+up to a place that had been kept vacant for it. Four natives were
+sitting in it.
+
+"That is the Rajah," the Doctor said, "the farther man, with that
+aigrette of diamonds in his turban. He is Oriental today, but
+sometimes he affects English fashions. He is a very cheery fellow,
+he keeps pretty well open house at Bithoor, has a billiard table,
+and a first rate cellar of wine, carriages for the use of guests
+--in fact, he does the thing really handsomely."
+
+"Here is my opera glass," Mrs. Hunter said. Isobel looked long and
+fixedly at the Rajah.
+
+"Well, what do you think of him?" the Doctor asked as she lowered
+it.
+
+"I do not know what to think of him," she said; "his face does not
+tell me anything, it is like looking at a mask; but you see I am
+not accustomed to read brown men's characters, they are so different
+from Europeans, their faces all seem so impassive. I suppose it is
+the way in which they are brought up and trained."
+
+"Ages of tyranny have made them supple and deceitful," the Doctor
+said, "but of course less so here than among the Bengallies, who,
+being naturally unwarlike and cowardly, have always been the slaves
+of some master or other.
+
+"You evidently don't like the Nana, Miss Hannay. I am rather glad
+you don't, for he is no great favorite of mine, though he is so
+generally popular in the station here. I don't like him because it
+is not natural that he should be so friendly with us. We undoubtedly,
+according to native notions, robbed him of one of the finest positions
+in India by refusing to acknowledge his adoption. We have given him
+a princely revenue, but that, after all, is a mere trifle to what
+he would have had as Peishwa. Whatever virtues the natives of this
+country possess, the forgiving of injuries is not among them, and
+therefore I consider it to be altogether unnatural that he, having
+been, as he at any rate and everyone round him must consider,
+foully wronged, should go out of his way to affect our society and
+declare the warmest friendship for us."
+
+The Rajah was laughing and talking with General Wheeler and the
+group of officers round his carriage.
+
+Again Isobel raised the glasses. "You are right, Doctor," she said,
+"I don't like him."
+
+"Well, there is one comfort, it doesn't matter whether he is sincere
+or not, he is powerless to hurt us. I don't see any motive for his
+pretending to be friendly if he is not, but I own that I should
+like him better if he sulked and would have nothing to say to us,
+as would be the natural course."
+
+The bell now began to ring, and the native police cleared the
+course. Major Hannay and Mr. Hunter, who had driven over in the
+buggy, came up and took their places on the box of the carriage.
+
+"Here are cards of the races," he said. "Now is the time, young
+ladies, to make your bets."
+
+"I don't know even the name of anyone in this first race," Isobel
+said, looking at the card.
+
+"That doesn't matter in the least, Miss Hannay," Wilson, who had
+just come up to the side of the carriage, said. "There are six
+horses in; you pick out any one you like, and I will lay you five
+pairs of gloves to one against him."
+
+"But how am I to pick out when I don't know anything about them,
+Mr. Wilson? I might pick out one that had no chance at all."
+
+"Yes; but you might pick out the favorite, Miss Hannay, so that it
+is quite fair."
+
+"Don't you bet, Isobel," her uncle said. "Let us have a sweepstake
+instead."
+
+"What is a sweepstake, uncle?"
+
+There was a general laugh.
+
+"Well, my dear, we each put in a rupee. There are six of us, and
+there are Wilson and the Doctor. You will go in, Doctor, won't
+you?"
+
+"Yes; I don't mind throwing away a rupee, Major."
+
+"Very well, that makes eight. We put eight pieces of paper in the
+hat. Six of them have got the names of the horses on, the other
+two are blank. Then we each pull out one. Whoever draws the name
+of the horse that wins takes five rupees, the holder of the second
+two, and the third saves his stake. You shall hold the stakes, Mrs.
+Hunter. We have all confidence in you."
+
+The slips were drawn.
+
+"My horse is Bruce," Isobel said.
+
+"There he is, Miss Hannay," Wilson, who had drawn a blank, said,
+as a horse whose rider had a straw colored jacket and cap came
+cantering along the course. "This is a race for country horses--
+owners up. That means ridden by their owners. That is Pearson of
+the 13th Native Cavalry. He brought the horse over from Lucknow."
+
+"What chance has he?"
+
+"I have not the least idea, Miss Hannay. I did not hear any betting
+on this race at all."
+
+"That is a nice horse, uncle," Isobel said, as one with a rider in
+black jacket, with red cap, came past.
+
+"That is Delhi. Yes, it has good action."
+
+"That is mine," the eldest Miss Hunter said.
+
+"The rider is a good looking young fellow," the Doctor said, "and
+is perfectly conscious of it himself. Who is he, Wilson? I don't
+know him."
+
+"He is a civilian. Belongs to the public works, I think."
+
+The other horses now came along, and after short preliminary canters
+the start was made. To Isobel's disappointment her horse was never
+in the race, which Delhi looked like winning until near the post,
+when a rather common looking horse, which had been lying a short
+distance behind him, came up with a rush and won by a length.
+
+"I don't call that fair," Miss Hunter said, "when the other was first
+all along. I call that a mean way of winning, don't you, father?"
+
+"Well, no, my dear. It was easy to see for the last quarter of a
+mile that the other was making what is called 'a waiting race' of
+it, and was only biding his time. There is nothing unfair in that,
+I fancy Delhi might have won if he had had a better jockey. His
+rider never really called upon him till it was too late. He was
+so thoroughly satisfied with himself and his position in the race
+that he was taken completely by surprise when Moonshee came suddenly
+up to him."
+
+"Well, I think it is very hard upon Delhi, father, after keeping
+ahead all the way and going so nicely. I think everyone ought to
+do their best from the first."
+
+"I fancy you are thinking, Miss Hunter," the Doctor said, "quite
+as much that it is hard on you being beaten after your hopes had
+been raised, as it is upon the horse."
+
+"Perhaps I am, Doctor," she admitted.
+
+"I think it is much harder on me," Isobel said. "You have had the
+satisfaction of thinking all along that your horse was going to
+win, while mine never gave me the least bit of hope."
+
+"The proper expression, Miss Hannay, is, your horse never flattered
+you."
+
+"Then I think it is a very silly expression, Mr. Wilson, because
+I don't see that flattery has anything to do with it."
+
+"Ah, here is Bathurst," the Doctor said. "Where have you been,
+Bathurst? You slipped away from me just now."
+
+"I've just been talking to the Commissioner, Doctor.  I have been
+trying to get him to see--"
+
+"Why, you don't mean to say," the Doctor broke in, "that you have
+been trying to cram your theories down his throat on a racecourse?"
+
+
+"It was before the race began," Bathurst said, "and I don't think
+the Commissioner has any more interest in racing than I have."
+
+"Not in racing," the Doctor agreed, "but I expect he has an
+interest in enjoying himself generally, which is a thing you don't
+seem to have the most remote idea of. Here we are just getting up
+a sweepstake for the next race; hand over a rupee and try to get
+up an interest in it. Do try and forget your work till the race is
+over. I have brought you here to do you good. I regard you as my
+patient, and I give you my medical orders that you are to enjoy
+yourself."
+
+Bathurst laughed.
+
+"I am enjoying myself in my way, Doctor."
+
+"Who is that very pretty woman standing up in the next carriage
+but one?" Isobel asked.
+
+"She comes from an out station," the Doctor repeated; "she is the
+wife of the Collector there, but I think she likes Cawnpore better
+than Boorgum; her name is Rose."
+
+"Is that her husband talking to her?"
+
+"No; that is a man in the Artillery here, I think."
+
+"Yes," the Major said, "that is Harrowby, a good looking fellow,
+and quite a ladies' man."
+
+"Do you mean a man ladies like, uncle, or who likes the society of
+ladies?"
+
+"Both in his case, I should fancy," the Major said; "I believe he
+is considered one of the best looking men in the service."
+
+"I don't see why he should be liked for that," Isobel said. "As far
+as I have seen, good looking men are not so pleasant as others. I
+suppose it is because they are conscious of their own good looks,
+and therefore do not take the trouble of being amusing. We had one
+very good looking man on board ship, and he was the dullest man
+to talk to on board. No, Doctor, I won't have any names mentioned,
+but I am right, am I not?"
+
+"He was a dull specimen, certainly," the Doctor said, "but I think
+you are a little too sweeping."
+
+"I don't mean all good looking men, of course, but men who what I
+call go in for being good looking. I don't know whether you know
+what I mean. What are you smiling at, Mr. Wilson?"
+
+"I was thinking of two or three men I know to whom your description
+applies, Miss Hannay; but I must be going--they are just going
+to start the next race, and mine is the one after, so I must go
+and get ready. You wish me success, don't you?"
+
+"I wish you all the success you deserve. I can't say more than
+that, can I?"
+
+"I am afraid that is saying very little," he laughed. "I don't
+expect to win, but I do hope I shall beat Richards, because he is
+so cock sure he will beat me."
+
+This wish was not gratified. The first and second horses made
+a close race of it; behind them by ten or twelve lengths came the
+other horses in a clump, Wilson and Richards singling themselves
+out in the last hundred yards and making a desperate race for the
+third place, for which they made a dead heat, amid great laughter
+from their comrades.
+
+"That is excellent," Major Hannay said; "you won't see anything
+more amusing than that today, girls. The third horse simply saved
+his stake, so that as they will of course divide, they will have
+paid twenty-five rupees each for the pleasure of riding, and the
+point which of their tats is the fastest remains unsettled."
+
+"Well, they beat a good many of them, Major Hannay," Miss Hunter
+said; "so they did not do so badly after all."
+
+"Oh, no, they did not do so badly; but it will be a long time
+before they get over the chaff about their desperate struggle for
+the third place."
+
+The next two races attracted but slight attention from the occupants
+of the carriage. Most of their acquaintances in the station came up
+one after the other for a chat. There were many fresh introductions,
+and there was so much conversation and laughter that the girls had
+little time to attend to what was going on around them. Wilson and
+Richards both sauntered up after changing, and were the subject of
+much chaff as to their brilliant riding at the finish. Both were
+firm in the belief that the judge's finding was wrong, and each
+maintained stoutly he had beaten the other by a good head.
+
+The race for Arabs turned out a very exciting one; the Rajah of
+Bithoor's horse was the favorite, on the strength of its performances
+elsewhere; but Prothero's horse was also well supported, especially
+in the regiment, for the Adjutant was a first class rider, and was
+in great request at all the principal meetings in Oude and the
+Northwest Provinces, while it was known that the Rajah's horse would
+be ridden by a native. The latter was dressed in strict racing
+costume, and had at the last races at Cawnpore won two or three
+cups for the Rajah.
+
+But the general opinion among the officers of the station was that
+Prothero's coolness and nerve would tell. His Arab was certainly
+a fast one, and had won the previous year, both at Cawnpore and
+Lucknow; but the Rajah's new purchase had gained so high a reputation
+in the Western Presidency as fully to justify the odds of two to
+one laid on it, while four to one were offered against Prothero,
+and from eight to twenty to one against any other competitor.
+
+Prothero had stopped to have a chat at the Hunters' carriage as he
+walked towards the dressing tent.
+
+"Our hopes are all centered in you, Mr. Prothero," Mr. Hunter said.
+"Miss Hannay has been wagering gloves in a frightfully reckless
+way."
+
+"I should advise you to hedge if you can, Miss Hannay," he said.
+"I think there is no doubt that Mameluke is a good deal faster than
+Seila. I fancy he is pounds better. I only beat Vincent's horse
+by a head last year, and Mameluke gave him seven pounds, and beat
+him by three lengths at Poona. So I should strongly advise you to
+hedge your bets if you can."
+
+"What does he mean by hedge, uncle?"
+
+"To hedge is to bet the other way, so that one bet cancels the
+other."
+
+"Oh, I shan't do that," she said; "I have enough money to pay my
+bets if I lose."
+
+"Do you mean to say you mean to pay your bets if you lose, Miss
+Hannay?" the Doctor asked incredulously.
+
+"Of course I do," she said indignantly. "You don't suppose I intend
+to take the gloves if I win, and not to pay if I lose?"
+
+"It is not altogether an uncommon practice among ladies," the Doctor
+said, "when they bet against gentlemen. I believe that when they
+wager against each other, which they do not often do, they are
+strictly honest, but that otherwise their memories are apt to fail
+them altogether."
+
+"That is a libel, Mrs. Hunter, is it not?"
+
+"Not altogether, I think. Of course many ladies do pay their bets
+when they lose, but others certainly do not."
+
+"Then I call it very mean," Isobel said earnestly. "Why, it is
+as bad as asking anyone to make you a present of so many pairs of
+gloves in case a certain horse wins."
+
+"It comes a good deal to the same thing," Mrs. Hunter admitted,
+"but to a certain extent it is a recognized custom; it is a sort
+of tribute that is exacted at race time, just as in France every
+lady expects a present from every gentleman of her acquaintance on
+New Year's Day."
+
+"I wouldn't bet if I didn't mean to pay honestly," Isobel said.
+"And if Mr. Prothero doesn't win, my debts will all be honorably
+discharged."
+
+There was a hush of expectation in the crowd when the ten horses
+whose numbers were up went down to the starting point, a quarter
+of a mile from the stand. They were to pass it, make the circuit,
+and finish there, the race being two miles. The interest of
+the natives was enlisted by the fact that Nana Sahib was running
+a horse, while the hopes of the occupants of the inclosure rested
+principally on Seila.
+
+The flag fell to a good start; but when the horses came along
+Isobel saw with surprise that the dark blue of the Rajah and the
+Adjutant's scarlet and white were both in the rear of the group.
+Soon afterwards the scarlet seemed to be making its way through
+the horses, and was speedily leading them.
+
+"Prothero is making the running with a vengeance," the Major said.
+"That is not like his usual tactics, Doctor."
+
+"I fancy he knows what he is doing," the Doctor replied. "He saw
+that Mameluke's rider was going to make a waiting race of it, and
+as the horse has certainly the turn of speed on him, he is trying
+other tactics. They are passing the mile post now, and Prothero is
+twelve or fourteen lengths ahead. There, Mameluke is going through
+his horses; his rider is beginning to get nervous at the lead
+Prothero has got, and he can't stand it any longer. He ought to
+have waited for another half mile. You will see, Prothero will win
+after all. Seila can stay, there is no doubt about that."
+
+A roar of satisfaction rose from the mass of natives on the other
+side of the inclosure as Mameluke was seen to leave the group of
+horses and gradually to gain upon Seila.
+
+"Oh, he will catch him, uncle!" Isobel said, tearing her handkerchief
+in her excitement.
+
+The Major was watching the horses through his field glass.
+
+"Never mind his catching him," he said; "Prothero is riding quietly
+and steadily. Seila is doing nearly her best, but he is not hurrying
+her, while the fool on Mameluke is bustling the horse as if he had
+only a hundred yards further to go."
+
+The horses were nearing the point at which they had started, when
+a shout from the crowd proclaimed that the blue jacket had come
+up to and passed the scarlet. Slowly it forged ahead until it was
+two lengths in advance, for a few strides their relative positions
+remained unaltered, then there was a shout from the carriages;
+scarlet was coming up again. Mameluke's rider glanced over his
+shoulder, and began to use the whip. For a few strides the horse
+widened the gap again, but Prothero still sat quiet and unmoved.
+Just as they reached the end of the line of carriages, Seila again
+began to close up.
+
+"Seila wins! Seila wins!" the officers shouted.
+
+But it seemed to Isobel that this was well nigh impossible, but foot
+by foot the mare came up, and as they passed the Hunters' carriage
+her head was in advance.
+
+In spite of the desperate efforts of the rider of Mameluke, another
+hundred yards and they passed the winning post, Seila a length
+ahead.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The exultation of the officers of the 103d over Seila's victory
+was great. They had all backed her, relying upon Prothero's riding,
+but although his success was generally popular among the Europeans
+at the station, many had lost considerable sums by their confidence
+in Mameluke's speed.
+
+Isobel sat down feeling quite faint from the excitement.
+
+"I did not think I could have been so excited over a race between
+two horses," she said to Mrs. Hunter; "it was not the bets, I never
+even thought about them--it was just because I wanted to see Mr.
+Prothero's horse win. I never understood before why people should
+take such an interest in horse racing, but I quite understand now."
+
+"What is your size, Miss Hannay?" Wilson asked.
+
+"Oh, I don't care anything about the gloves, Mr. Wilson; I am sorry
+I bet now."
+
+"You needn't feel any compunction in taking them from me or from
+any of us, Miss Hannay; we have all won over Seila; the regiment
+will have to give a ball on the strength of it. I only put on a
+hundred rupees, and so have won four hundred, but most of them have
+won ever so much more than that; and all I have lost is four pair
+of gloves to you, and four to Mrs. Doolan, and four to Mrs. Prothero
+--a dozen in all. Which do you take, white or cream, and what is
+your size?"
+
+"Six and a half, cream."
+
+"All right, Miss Hannay. The Nana must have lost a good lot of
+money; he has been backing his horse with everyone who would lay
+against it. However, it won't make any difference to him, and it
+is always a satisfaction when the loss comes on someone to whom it
+doesn't matter a bit. I think the regiment ought to give a dinner
+to Prothero, Major; it was entirely his riding that did it; he hustled
+that nigger on Mameluke splendidly. If the fellow had waited till
+within half a mile of home he would have won to a certainty; I
+never saw anything better."
+
+"Well, Miss Hannay, what do you think of a horse race?" Bathurst,
+who had only remained a few minutes at the carriage, asked, as
+he strolled up again. "You said yesterday that you had never seen
+one."
+
+"I am a little ashamed to say I was very much excited over it,
+Mr. Bathurst. You have not lost, I hope? You are looking" and she
+stopped.
+
+"Shaky?" he said. "Yes; I feel shaky. I had not a penny on the
+race, for though the Doctor made me put into a sweep last night at
+the club, I drew a blank; but the shouting and excitement at the
+finish seemed to take my breath away, and I felt quite faint."
+
+"That is just how I felt; I did not know men felt like that. They
+don't generally seem to know what nerves are."
+
+"I wish I didn't; it is a great nuisance. The Doctor tries to
+persuade me that it is the effect of overwork, but I have always
+been so from a child, and I can't get over it."
+
+"You don't look nervous, Mr. Bathurst."
+
+"No; when a man is a fair size, and looks bronzed and healthy, no
+one will give him credit for being nervous. I would give a very
+great deal if I could get over it."
+
+"I don't see that it matters much one way or the other, Mr. Bathurst."
+
+"I can assure you that it does. I regard it as being a most serious
+misfortune."
+
+Isobel was a little surprised at the earnestness with which he
+spoke.
+
+"I should not have thought that," she said quietly; "but I
+can understand that it is disagreeable for a man to feel nervous,
+simply, I suppose, because it is regarded as a feminine quality; but
+I think a good many men are nervous. We had several entertainments
+on board the ship coming out, and it was funny to see how many great
+strong men broke down, especially those who had to make speeches."
+
+"I am not nervous in that way," Bathurst said, with a laugh. "My
+pet horror is noise; thunder prostrates me completely, and in fact
+all noises, especially any sharp, sudden sound, affect me. I really
+find it a great nuisance. I fancy a woman with nerves considers
+herself as a martyr, and deserving of all pity and sympathy. It is
+almost a fashionable complaint, and she is a little proud of it;
+but a man ought to have his nerves in good order, and as much as
+that is expected of him unless he is a feeble little body. There
+is the bell for the next race."
+
+"Are you going to bet on this race again, Miss Hannay?" Wilson
+said, coming up.
+
+"No, Mr. Wilson. I have done my first and last bit of gambling.
+I don't think it is nice, ladies betting, after all, and if there
+were a hospital here I should order you to send the money the
+gloves will cost you to it as conscience money, and then perhaps
+you might follow my example with your winnings."
+
+"My conscience is not moved in any way," he laughed; "when it is
+I will look out for a deserving charity. Well, if you won't bet I
+must see if I can make a small investment somewhere else."
+
+"I shall see you at the ball, of course?" Isobel said, turning to
+Mr. Bathurst, as Wilson left the carriage.
+
+"No, I think not. Balls are altogether out of my line, and as there
+is always a superabundance of men at such affairs here, there is
+no sense of duty about it."
+
+"What is your line, Mr. Bathurst?"
+
+"I am afraid I have none, Miss Hannay. The fact is, there is really
+more work to be done than one can get through. When you get to
+know the natives well you cannot help liking them and longing to
+do them some good if they would but let you, but it is so difficult
+to get them to take up new ideas. Their religion, with all its
+customs and ceremonies, seems designed expressly to bar out all
+improvements. Except in the case of abolishing Suttee, we have
+scarcely weaned them from one of their observances; and even now,
+in spite of our efforts, widows occasionally immolate themselves,
+and that with the general approval.
+
+"I wish I had an army of ten thousand English ladies all speaking
+the language well to go about among the women and make friends with
+them; there would be more good done in that way than by all the
+officials in India. They might not be able to emancipate themselves
+from all their restrictions, but they might influence their
+children, and in time pave the way for a moral revolution. But it
+is ridiculous," he said, breaking off suddenly, "my talking like
+this here, but you see it is what you call my line, my hobby, if you
+like; but when one sees this hard working, patient, gentle people
+making their lot so much harder than it need be by their customs
+and observances one longs to force them even against their own will
+to burst their bonds."
+
+Dr. Wade came up at this moment and caught the last word or two.
+
+"You are incorrigible, Bathurst. Miss Hannay, I warn you that this
+man is a monomaniac. I drag him away from his work, and here he is
+discoursing with you on reform just as a race is going to start.
+You may imagine, my dear, what a thorn he is in the side of the
+bigwigs. You have heard of Talleyrand's advice to a young official,
+'Above all things, no zeal.' Go away, Bathurst; Miss Hannay wants
+to see the race, and even if she doesn't she is powerless to assist
+you in your crusade."
+
+Bathurst laughed and drew off.
+
+"That is too bad, Doctor. I was very interested. I like to talk to
+people who can think of something besides races and balls and the
+gossip of the station."
+
+"Yes, in reason, in reason, my dear; but there is a medium in all
+things. I have no doubt Bathurst will be quite happy some time
+or other to give you his full views on child marriages, and the
+remarriages of widows, and female education, and the land settlement,
+and a score of other questions, but for this a few weeks of
+perfect leisure will be required. Seriously, you know that I think
+Bathurst one of the finest young fellows in the service, but his
+very earnestness injures both his prospects and his utility. The
+officials have a horror of enthusiasm; they like the cut and dried
+subordinate who does his duty conscientiously, and does not trouble
+his head about anything but carrying out the regulations laid down
+for him.
+
+"Theoretically I agree with most of Bathurst's views, practically
+I see that a score of officials like him would excite a revolution
+throughout a whole province. In India, of all places in the world,
+the maxim festina lente--go slow--is applicable. You have the
+prejudices of a couple of thousand years against change. The people
+of all things are jealous of the slightest appearance of interference
+with their customs. The change will no doubt come in time, but it
+must come gradually, and must be the work of the natives themselves
+and not of us. To try to hasten that time would be but to defer it.
+Now, child, there is the bell; now just attend to the business in
+hand."
+
+"Very well, Doctor, I will obey your orders, but it is only fair
+to say that Mr. Bathurst's remarks are only in answer to something
+I said," and Isobel turned to watch the race, but with an interest
+less ardent than she had before felt.
+
+Isobel's character was an essentially earnest one, and her life up
+to the day of her departure to India had been one of few pleasures.
+She had enjoyed the change and had entered heartily into it, and
+she was as yet by no means tired of it, but she had upon her arrival
+at Cawnpore been a little disappointed that there was no definite
+work for her to perform, and had already begun to feel that a
+time would come when she would want something more than gossip and
+amusements and the light talk of the officers of her acquaintance
+to fill her life.
+
+She had as yet no distinct interest of her own, and Bathurst's
+earnestness had struck a cord in her own nature and seemed to open
+a wide area for thought. She put it aside now and chatted gayly
+with the Hunters and those who came up to the carriage, but it came
+back to her as she sat in her room before going to bed.
+
+Up till now she had not heard a remark since she had been in Cawnpore
+that might not have been spoken had the cantonments there been the
+whole of India, except that persons at other stations were mentioned.
+The vast, seething native population were no more alluded to than
+if they were a world apart. Bathurst's words had for the first time
+brought home to her the reality of their existence, and that around
+this little group of English men and women lay a vast population,
+with their joys and sorrows and sufferings.
+
+At breakfast she surprised Mrs. Hunter by asking a variety of
+questions as to native customs. "I suppose you have often been in
+the Zenanas, Mrs. Hunter?"
+
+"Not often, my dear. I have been in some of them, and very depressing
+it is to see how childish and ignorant the women are."
+
+"Can nothing be done for them, Mrs. Hunter?"
+
+"Very little. In time I suppose there will be schools for girls, but
+you see they marry so young that it is difficult to get at them."
+
+"How young do they marry?"
+
+"They are betrothed, although it has all the force of a marriage,
+as infants, and a girl can be a widow at two or three years old;
+and so, poor little thing, she remains to the end of her life in
+a position little better than that of a servant in her husband's
+family. Really they are married at ten or eleven."
+
+Isobel looked amazed at this her first insight into native life.
+Mrs. Hunter smiled.
+
+"I heard Mr. Bathurst saying something to you about it yesterday,
+Miss Hannay. He is an enthusiast; we like him very much, but we
+don't see much of him."
+
+"You must beware of him, Miss Hannay," Mr. Hunter said, "or he
+will inoculate you with some of his fads. I do not say that he is
+not right, but he sees the immensity of the need for change, but
+does not see fully the immensity of the difficulty in bringing it
+about."
+
+"There is no fear of his inoculating me; that is to say of setting
+me to work, for what could one woman do?"
+
+"Nothing, my dear," her uncle said; "if all the white women in India
+threw themselves into the work, they could do little. The natives
+are too jealous of what they consider intruders; the Parsees are
+about the only progressive people. While ladies are welcome enough
+when they pay a visit of ceremony to the Zenana of a native, if
+they were to try to teach their wives to be discontented with their
+lots--for that is what it would be--they would be no longer
+welcome. Schools are being established, but at present these are
+but a drop in the ocean. Still, the work does go on, and in time
+something will be done. It is of no use bothering yourself about
+it, Isobel; it is best to take matters as you find them."
+
+Isobel made no answer, but she was much disappointed when Dr. Wade,
+dropping in to tiffin, said his guest had started two hours before
+for Deennugghur. He had a batch of letters and reports from his
+native clerk, and there was something or other that he said he must
+see to at once.
+
+"He begged me to say, Major, that he was very sorry to go off
+without saying goodby, but he hoped to be in Cawnpore before long.
+I own that that part of the message astonished me, knowing as I do
+what difficulty there is in getting him out of his shell. He and
+I became great chums when I was over at Deennugghur two years ago,
+and the young fellow is not given to making friends. However, as
+he is not the man to say a thing without meaning it, I suppose he
+intends to come over again. He knows there is always a bed for him
+in my place."
+
+"We see very little of him," Mary Hunter said; "he is always away
+on horseback all day. Sometimes he comes in the evening when we
+are quite alone, but he will never stay long. He always excuses
+himself on the ground that he has a report to write or something
+of that sort. Amy and I call him 'Timon of Athens.'"
+
+"There is nothing of Timon about him," the Doctor remarked
+dogmatically. "That is the way with you young ladies--you think
+that a man's first business in life is to be dancing attendance on
+you. Bathurst looks at life seriously, and no wonder, going about
+as he does among the natives and listening to their stories and
+complaints. He puts his hand to the plow, and does not turn to the
+right or left."
+
+"Still, Doctor, you must allow," Mrs. Hunter said gravely, "that
+Mr. Bathurst is not like most other men."
+
+"Certainly not," the Doctor remarked. "He takes no interest in sport
+of any kind; he does not care for society; he very rarely goes to
+the club, and never touches a card when he does; and yet he is the
+sort of man one would think would throw himself into what is going
+on. He is a strong, active, healthy man, whom one would expect to
+excel in all sorts of sports; he is certainly good looking; he talks
+extremely well, and is, I should say, very well read and intelligent."
+
+"He can be very amusing when he likes, Doctor. Once or twice when
+he has been with us he has seemed to forget himself, as it were,
+and was full of fun and life. You must allow that it is a little
+singular that a man like this should altogether avoid society, and
+night and day be absorbed in his work."
+
+"I have thought sometimes," Mr. Hunter said, "that Bathurst must
+have had some great trouble in his life. Of what nature I can, of
+course, form no idea. He was little more than twenty when he came
+out here, so I should say that it was hardly a love affair."
+
+"That is always the way, Hunter. If a man goes his own way, and
+that way does not happen to be the way of the mess, it is supposed
+that he must have had trouble of some sort. As Bathurst is the son
+of a distinguished soldier, and is now the owner of a fine property
+at home, I don't see what trouble he can have had. He may possibly,
+for anything I know, have had some boyish love affairs, but I don't
+think he is the sort of man to allow his whole life to be affected
+by any foolery of that sort. He is simply an enthusiast.
+
+"It is good for mankind that there should be some enthusiasts. I
+grant that it would be an unpleasant world if we were all enthusiasts,
+but the sight of a man like him throwing his whole life and energy
+into his work, and wearing himself out trying to lessen the evils he
+sees around him, ought to do good to us all. Look at these boys,"
+and he apostrophized Wilson and Richards, as they appeared together
+at the door. "What do they think of but amusing themselves and
+shirking their duties as far as possible?"
+
+"Oh, I say, Doctor," Wilson exclaimed, astonished at this sudden
+attack, "what are you pitching into us like that for? That is
+not fair, is it, Major? We amuse ourselves, of course, when there
+is nothing else to do, but I am sure we don't shirk our work. You
+don't want us to spend our spare time in reading Greek, I suppose?"
+
+"No; but you might spend some of it very profitably in learning
+some of these native languages," the Doctor said. "I don't believe
+that you know above a dozen native words now. You can shout for
+brandy and water, and for a light for your cigars, but I fancy that
+that is about the extent of it."
+
+"We are going to have a moonshee next week, Doctor," Wilson said,
+a little crestfallen, "and a horrid nuisance it will be."
+
+"That is only because you are obliged to pass in the vernacular,
+Wilson. So you need not take any credit to yourself on that account."
+
+"Doctor, you are in one of your worst possible tempers this morning,"
+Isobel said. "You snap at us all round. You are quite intolerable
+this morning."
+
+"I am rather put out by Bathurst running away in this fashion, Miss
+Hannay. I had made up my mind that he would stop three or four days
+longer, and it is pleasant to have someone who can talk and think
+about something besides horses and balls. But I will go away; I
+don't want to be the disturbing element; and I have no doubt that
+Richards is burning to tell you the odds on some of the horses
+today."
+
+"Shall we see you on the racecourse, Doctor?" the Major asked, as
+the Doctor moved towards the door.
+
+"You will not, Major; one day is enough for me. If they would get
+up a donkey race confined strictly to the subalterns of the station,
+I might take the trouble to go and look at it."
+
+"The Doctor is in great form today," Wilson said good temperedly,
+after the laugh which followed the Doctor's exit had subsided; "and
+I am sure we did nothing to provoke him."
+
+"You got into his line of fire, Wilson," the Major said; "he is
+explosive this morning, and has been giving it to us all round.
+However, nobody minds what the Doctor says; his bark is very bad,
+but he has no bite. Wait till you are down with the fever, and you
+will find him devote himself to you as if he were your father."
+
+"He is one of the kindest men in the world," Isobel agreed warmly,
+thereby effectually silencing Richards, who had just pulled up his
+shirt collar preparatory to a sarcastic utterance respecting him.
+
+Isobel, indeed, was in full sympathy with the Doctor, for she, too,
+was disappointed at Bathurst's sudden departure. She had looked
+forward to learning a good deal from him about the native customs
+and ways, and had intended to have a long talk with him. She was
+perhaps, too, more interested generally in the man himself than
+she would have been willing to admit.
+
+That evening the party went to an entertainment at Bithoor. Isobel
+and the girls were delighted with the illuminations of the gardens
+and with the palace itself, with its mixture of Eastern splendor
+and European luxury. But Isobel did not altogether enjoy the evening.
+
+"I suppose I ought to congratulate you on your success last night,
+Isobel," Dr. Wade said, when he dropped in after breakfast. "Everyone
+has been telling me that the Rajah paid you the greatest attention,
+and that there is the fiercest gnashing of teeth among what must
+now be called the ex-queens of the station."
+
+"I don't know who told you such nonsense, Doctor," Isobel replied
+hotly. "The Rajah quite spoilt the evening for me. I have been
+telling Mrs. Hunter so. If we had not been in his own house, I
+should have told him that I should enjoy the evening very much more
+if he would leave me alone and let me go about and look quietly at
+the place and the gardens, which are really beautiful. No doubt he
+is pleasant enough, and I suppose I ought to have felt flattered
+at his walking about with me and so on, but I am sure I did not.
+What pleasure does he suppose an English girl can have in listening
+to elaborate compliments from a man as yellow as a guinea?"
+
+"Think of his wealth, my dear."
+
+"What difference does his wealth make?" Isobel said. "As far as
+I have seen, I do not think that rich Englishmen are more amusing
+than others, and if he had all the wealth of India, that would not
+improve Nana Sahib in my eyes. There are women, of course, who do
+think a great deal about money, and who will even marry men for it,
+but even women who would do that could not, I should think, care
+anything about the wealth of a Hindoo they cannot marry."
+
+"Not directly, my dear," Mrs. Hunter said; "but people may be
+flattered with the notice and admiration of a person of importance
+and great wealth, even if he is a Hindoo."
+
+"Besides," the Doctor put in, "the Rajah is considered to be a
+great connoisseur of English beauty, and has frequently expressed
+his deep regret that his religion prevented his marrying an English
+lady."
+
+"I should be very sorry for the English girl who would marry him,
+religion or not."
+
+"I think you are rather hard upon the Nana, Isobel," the Major
+said. "He is a general favorite; he is open handed and liberal;
+very fond of entertaining; a great admirer of us as a nation. He
+is a wonderfully well read man for a Hindoo, can talk upon almost
+every subject, and is really a pleasant fellow."
+
+"I don't like him; I don't like him at all," Isobel said positively.
+
+"Ah, that is only because you thought he made you a little more
+conspicuous than you liked by his attentions to you, Isobel."
+
+"No, indeed, uncle; that was very silly and ridiculous, but I did
+not like the man himself, putting that aside altogether. It was
+like talking to a man with a mask on: it gave me a creepy feeling.
+It did not seem to me that one single word he said was sincere,
+but that he was acting; and over and over again as he was talking
+I said to myself, 'What is this man really like? I know he is not
+the least bit in the world what he pretends to be. But what is the
+reality?' I felt just the same as I should if I had one of those
+great snakes they bring to our veranda coiling round me. The
+creature might look quiet enough, but I should know that if it were
+to tighten it would crush me in a moment."
+
+The Major and Mrs. Hunter both laughed at her earnestness, but the
+Doctor said gravely, "Is that really how you felt about him when he
+was talking to you, Miss Hannay? I am sorry to hear you say that.
+I own that my opinion has been that of everyone here, that the
+Rajah is a good fellow and a firm friend of the Europeans, and my
+only doubt has arisen from the fact that it was unnatural he should
+like us when he has considerable grounds for grievance against us.
+We have always relied upon his influence, which is great among his
+countrymen, being thrown entirely into the scale on our side if
+any trouble should ever arise; but I own that what you say makes
+me doubt him. I would always take the opinion of a dog or a child
+about anyone in preference to my own."
+
+"You are not very complimentary, Doctor," Isobel laughed.
+
+"Well, my dear, a young girl who has not mixed much in the world
+and had her instincts blunted is in that respect very much like a
+child. She may be deceived, and constantly is deceived where her
+heart is concerned, and is liable to be taken in by any plausible
+scoundrel; but where her heart is not concerned her instincts are
+true. When I see children and dogs stick to a man I am convinced
+that he is all right, though I may not personally have taken to
+him. When I see a dog put his tail between his legs and decline to
+accept the advances of a man, and when I see children slip away from
+him as soon as they can, I distrust him at once, however pleasant
+a fellow he may be. As the Rajah, from all I heard, certainly laid
+himself out to be agreeable to you last night, and yet in spite of
+that you felt as you say you did about him, I am bound to say that
+without at once admitting that my impressions about him were wrong,
+I consider that there is good ground for thinking the matter over
+again."
+
+"What nonsense, Doctor," the Major laughed. "Everyone here has known
+the Rajah for years. He is a most popular man, everyone likes him,
+among the ladies especially he is a great favorite. It is ridiculous
+to suggest that everyone should have been wrong about him, merely
+because Isobel takes a prejudice against him, and that as far as
+I can see is simply because his admiration for her was somewhat
+marked."
+
+Isobel gave a little shudder. "Don't talk about admiration, uncle;
+that is not the word for it; I don't know what it was like. They
+say snakes fascinate birds before they eat them by fixing their
+eyes upon them. I should say it was something of that sort of look."
+
+"Well, my dear, he is not going to eat you, that is certain," the
+Major said; "and I can assure you that his approbation goes for a
+great deal here, and that after this you will go up several pegs
+in Cawnpore society."
+
+Isobel tossed her head. "Then I am sorry for Cawnpore society; it
+is a matter of entire indifference to me whether I go up or down
+in its opinion."
+
+A fortnight later the Nana gave another entertainment. A good deal
+to her uncle's vexation, Isobel refused to go when the time came.
+
+"But what am I to say, my dear?" he asked in some perplexity.
+
+"You can say anything you like, uncle; you can say that I am feeling
+the heat and have got a bad headache, which is true; or you can say
+that I don't care for gayety, which is also true. I shall be very
+much more comfortable and happy at home by myself."
+
+The Hunters had by this time returned to Deennugghur, and the Major
+drove over to Bithoor accompanied only by Dr. Wade. He was rather
+surprised when the Doctor said he would go, as it was very seldom
+that he went out to such entertainments.
+
+"I am not going to amuse myself, Major; I want to have a good
+look at the Nana again; I am not comfortable since Isobel gave us
+her opinion of him. He is an important personage, and if there is
+any truth in these rumors about disaffection among the Sepoys his
+friendship may be of the greatest assistance to us."
+
+So the Doctor was with Major Hannay when the latter made his excuses
+for Isobel's absence on the ground that she was not feeling very
+well.
+
+The Nana expressed great regret at the news, and said that with the
+Major's permission he would call in the morning to inquire after
+Miss Hannay's health.
+
+"He did not like it," the Doctor said, when they had strolled away
+together. "He was very civil and polite, but I could see that he
+was savage. I fancy he got up this fete principally in her honor.
+It is not often he has two so close together."
+
+"Oh, that is nonsense, Doctor."
+
+"I don't think so. He has done the same sort of thing several times
+before, when he has been specially taken by some fresh face from
+England."
+
+Others besides the Doctor remarked that the Rajah was not quite
+himself that evening. He was courteous and polite to his guests, but
+he was irritable with his own people, and something had evidently
+gone wrong with him.
+
+The next day he called at the Major's. The latter had not told
+Isobel of his intention, for he guessed that had he done so she
+would have gone across to Mrs. Doolan or one of her lady friends,
+and she was sitting in the veranda with him and young Wilson when
+the carriage drove up.
+
+"I was so sorry to hear that you were unwell, Miss Hannay," the
+Nana said courteously. "It was a great disappointment to me that
+you were unable to accompany your uncle last night."
+
+"I have been feeling the heat the last few days," Isobel said
+quietly, "and, indeed, I do not care much about going out in such
+hot weather as this. I have not been accustomed to much society
+in England, and the crowd and the heat and the lights make my head
+ache."
+
+"You look the picture of health, Miss Hannay, but I know that it
+is trying for Englishwomen when they first come into our climate;
+it is always a great pleasure to me to receive English ladies at
+Bithoor. I hope upon the next occasion you will be able to come."
+
+"I am much obliged to your highness," she said, "but it would be
+a truer kindness to let me stay quietly at home."
+
+"But that is selfish of you, Miss Hannay. You should think a little
+of the pleasure of others as well as your own."
+
+"I am not conceited enough to suppose that it could make any
+difference to other people's pleasure whether I am at a party or
+not," Isobel said. "I suppose you mean that as a compliment, Rajah,
+but I am not accustomed to compliments, and don't like them."
+
+"You will have to learn to become accustomed to compliments, Miss
+Hannay," the Rajah said, with a smile; and then turning to the
+Doctor, began to tell him of a tiger that had been doing a great
+deal of harm at a village some thirty miles away, and offered to
+send some elephants over to organize a hunt for him if he liked,
+an invitation that the Doctor promptly accepted.
+
+The visit was but a short one. The Rajah soon took his leave.
+
+"You are wrong altogether, Isobel," the Doctor said. "I have returned
+to my conviction that the Rajah is a first rate fellow."
+
+"That is just because he offered you some shooting, Doctor," Isobel
+said indignantly. "I thought better of you than to suppose that
+you could be bought over so easily as that."
+
+"She had you there, Doctor," the Major laughed. "However, I am glad
+that you will no longer be backing her in her fancies."
+
+"Why did you accept his invitation for us to go over and lunch
+there, uncle?" Isobel asked, in a tone of annoyance.
+
+"Because there was no reason in the world why we should refuse, my
+dear. He very often has luncheon parties, and after that he will
+show you over the place, and exhibit his jewels and curiosities.
+He said there would be other ladies there, and I have no doubt we
+shall have a very pleasant day."
+
+Even Isobel was obliged to confess that the visit was a pleasant
+one. The Nana had asked Mrs. Cromarty, her daughters, and most of
+the other ladies of the regiment, with their husbands. The lunch
+was a banquet, and after it was over the parties were taken round
+the place, paid a visit to the Zenana, inspected the gardens and
+stables, and were driven through the park. The Nana saw that Isobel
+objected to be particularly noticed, and had the tact to make his
+attentions so general that even she could find no fault with him.
+
+On the drive back she admitted to her uncle that she had enjoyed
+her visit very much, and that the Rajah's manners were those of a
+perfect gentleman.
+
+"But mind, uncle," she said, "I do not retract my opinion. What the
+Rajah really is I don't pretend to know, but I am quite sure that
+the character of a smiling host is not his real one, and that for
+some reason or other he is simply playing a part."
+
+"I had no idea that you were such a prejudiced little woman," the
+Major said, somewhat vexed; "but as it is no use arguing with you
+we had better drop the subject."
+
+For the next month Cawnpore suffered a little from the reaction
+after the gayety of the races, but there was no lack of topics of
+conversation, for the rumors of disaffection among the troops gained
+in strength, and although nothing positive was known, and everyone
+scoffed at the notion of any serious trouble, the subject was so
+important a one that little else was talked of whenever parties of
+the ladies got together.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+"I have some bad news, Isobel. At least I suppose you will consider
+it bad news," the Major said one morning, when he returned from the
+orderly room. "You heard me say that four companies were going to
+relieve those at Deennugghur. Well, I am going with them. It seems
+that the General is of opinion that in the present unsettled state
+of affairs there ought to be a field officer in command there, so
+I have to go. For myself I don't mind, but you will find it dull
+in a small station like that, after the gayeties of Cawnpore."
+
+"I don't mind a bit, uncle, in that respect. I don't think I care
+much for gayeties, but of course the move will be a trouble. We
+have everything so nice here, it will be horrid having to leave it
+all. How long will it be for?"
+
+"Six months, in the ordinary state of things, though of course
+something may occur to bring us in before that. Still, the change
+won't be as much trouble as you fancy. When we get there you can stay
+for two or three days with the Hunters till we have got the things
+to rights. There is one thing that you will be pleased about. Wade
+is going with us, at any rate for the present; you are a favorite
+of his, you know, and I think that is the principal reason for
+his going. At any rate, when he heard I was in orders, he told the
+Colonel that, as there was no illness in the regiment, he thought, if
+he did not object, he would change places for a bit with M'Alaster,
+the assistant surgeon, who has been with the detachment at Deennugghur
+for the last year, so as to give him a turn of duty at Cawnpore,
+and do a little shikaring himself. There is more jungle and better
+shooting round Deennugghur than there is here, and you know the
+Doctor is an enthusiast that way. Of course, the Colonel agreed at
+once."
+
+"I am very glad of that, uncle; it won't seem like going to a
+strange place if we have him with us, and the Hunters there, and
+I suppose three or four officers of the regiment. Who are going?"
+
+"Both your boys," the Major laughed, "and Doolan and Rintoul."
+
+"When do we go, uncle?"
+
+"Next Monday. I shall get somebody to put us up from Friday, and
+that morning we will get everything dismantled here, and send them
+off by bullock carts with the servants to Deennugghur, so that they
+will be there by Monday morning. I will write to Hunter to pick us
+out the best of the empty bungalows, and see that our fellows get
+to work to clean the place up as soon as they arrive. We shall be
+two days on the march, and things will be pretty forward by the
+time we get there."
+
+"And where shall we sleep on the march?"
+
+"In tents, my dear, and very comfortable you will find them. Rumzan
+will go with us, and you will find everything go on as smoothly as
+if you were here. Tent life in India is very pleasant. Next year,
+in the cool season, we will do an excursion somewhere, and I am
+sure you will find it delightful: they don't know anything about
+the capabilities of tents at home."
+
+"Then do I quite understand, uncle, that all I have got to do is
+to make a round of calls to say goodby to everyone?"
+
+"That is all. You will find a lot of my cards in one of those pigeon
+holes; you may as well drop one wherever you go. Shall I order a
+carriage from Framjee's for today?"
+
+"No, I think not, uncle; I will go round to our own bungalows first,
+and hear what Mrs. Doolan and the others think about it."
+
+At Mrs. Doolan's Isobel found quite an assembly. Mrs. Rintoul had
+come in almost in tears, and the two young lieutenants had dropped
+in with Captain Doolan, while one or two other officers had come
+round to commiserate with Mrs. Doolan.
+
+"Another victim," the latter said, as Isobel entered.
+
+"You look too cheerful, Miss Hannay. I find that we are expected
+to wear sad countenances at our approaching banishment."
+
+"Are we, Mrs. Doolan? It seems to me that it won't make very much
+difference to us."
+
+"Not make any difference, Miss Hannay!" Captain Doolan said. "Why,
+Deennugghur is one of the dullest little stations on this side of
+India!"
+
+"What do you mean by dull, Captain Doolan?"
+
+"Why, there are only about six white residents there besides the
+troops. Of course, as four companies are going instead of one, it
+will make a difference; but there will be no gayety, no excitement,
+and really nothing to do."
+
+"As for the gayety, I am sure I shall not regret it, Captain Doolan;
+besides, our gayeties are pretty well over, except, of course,
+dinner parties, and it is getting very hot for them. We shall get
+off having to go out in the heat of the day to make calls, which
+seem to me terrible afflictions, and I think with a small party it
+ought to be very sociable and pleasant. As for excitement, I hear
+that there is much better shooting there than there is here. Mrs.
+Hunter was telling me that they have had some tigers that have been
+very troublesome round there, and you will all have an opportunity
+of showing your skill and bravery. I know that Mr. Richards and
+Mr. Wilson are burning to distinguish themselves."
+
+"It would be great fun to shoot a tiger," Richards said. "When
+I came out to India I thought there was going to be lots of tiger
+shooting, and I bought a rifle on purpose, but I have never had a
+chance yet. Yes, we will certainly get up a tiger hunt, won't we,
+Wilson? You will tell us how to set about it, won't you, Doolan?"
+
+"I don't shoot," Captain Doolan said; "and if I wanted to, I am
+not sure that my wife would give me leave."
+
+"Certainly I would not," Mrs. Doolan said promptly. "Married men
+have no right to run into unnecessary danger."
+
+"Dr. Wade will be able to put you in the way, Mr. Richards," Isobel
+said.
+
+"Dr. Wade!" Mrs. Rintoul exclaimed. "You don't mean to say, Miss
+Hannay, that he is going with us?"
+
+"Yes, he is going for a time, Mrs. Rintoul. My uncle told me that
+he had applied to go with the detachment, and that the surgeon
+there would come back to the regiment while he is away."
+
+"I do call that hard," Mrs. Rintoul said. "The only thing I was
+glad we were going for was that we should be under Mr. M'Alaster,
+who is very pleasant, and quite understands my case, while Dr.
+Wade does not seem to understand it at all, and is always so very
+brusque and unsympathetic."
+
+There was a general smile.
+
+"Wade is worth a hundred of M'Alaster," Captain Roberts said.
+"There is not a man out here I would rather trust myself to if I
+were ill. He is an awfully good fellow, too, all round, though he
+may be, as you say, a little brusque in manner."
+
+"I call him a downright bear," Mrs. Rintoul said angrily. "Why,
+only last week he told me that if I would get up two hours earlier
+and go for a brisk walk just after sunrise, and give up eating meat
+at tiffin, and confine myself to two or three dishes at dinner,
+I should be perfectly well in the course of a month; just as if
+I was in the habit of overeating myself, when I have scarcely the
+appetite of a sparrow. I told Captain Rintoul afterwards that I
+must consult someone else, for that really I could not bear such
+rudeness."
+
+"I am afraid we are all against you, Mrs. Rintoul," Mrs. Doolan
+said, with a little shake of her head at Isobel, who was, she saw,
+going to speak out strongly. "No one could possibly be kinder than
+he is when anyone is really ill. I mean seriously ill," she added,
+as Mrs. Rintoul drew herself up indignantly. "I shall never forget
+how attentive he was to the children when they were down with
+fever just before he went to England. He missed his ship and lost
+a month of his leave because he would not go away till they were
+out of danger, and there are very few men who would have done that.
+I shall never forget his kindness. And now let us talk of something
+else. You will have to establish a little mess on your own account,
+Mr. Wilson, as both the Captains are married men, and the Major
+has also an incumbrance."
+
+"Yes, it will be horribly dull, Mrs. Doolan. Richards and I have
+quarters together here, and, of course, it will be the same there,
+and I am sure I don't know what we shall find to talk about when
+we come to have to mess together. Of course, here, there are the
+messroom and the club, and so we get on very well, but to be together
+always will be awful."
+
+"You will really have to take to reading or something of that sort,
+Mr. Wilson," Isobel laughed.
+
+"I always do read the Field, Miss Hannay, but that won't last for a
+whole week, you know; and there is no billiard table, and no racquet
+court, or anything else at Deennugghur, and one cannot always be
+riding about the country."
+
+"We shall all have to take pity on you as much as we can," Mrs.
+Doolan said. "I must say that, like Miss Hannay, I shall not object
+to the change."
+
+"I think it is all very well for you, Mrs. Doolan; you have children."
+
+"Well, Mr. Richards, I will let you both, as a great treat, take
+them out for a walk sometimes of a morning instead of their going
+with the ayah. That will make a change for you."
+
+There was a general laugh, but Wilson said manfully, "Very well,
+Mrs. Doolan; I am very fond of youngsters, and I should like to
+take, anyhow, the two eldest out sometimes. I don't think I should
+make much hand with the other two, but perhaps Richards would like
+to come in and amuse them while we are out; he is just the fellow
+for young ones."
+
+There was another laugh, in which Richards joined. "I could carry
+them about on my back, and pretend to be a horse," he said; "but
+I don't know that I could amuse them in any other way."
+
+"You would find that very hot work, Mr. Richards," Mrs. Doolan
+said; "but I don't think we shall require such a sacrifice of you.
+Well, I don't think we shall find it so bad, after all, and I don't
+suppose it will be for very long; I do not believe in all this
+talk about chupaties, and disaffection, and that sort of thing; I
+expect in three months we shall most of us be back again."
+
+Ten days later the detachment was settled down in Deennugghur.
+The troops were for the most part under canvas, for there was only
+accommodation for a single company at the station. The two subalterns
+occupied a large square tent, while the other three officers took
+possession of the only three bungalows that were vacant at the
+station, the Doctor having a tent to himself. The Major and Isobel
+had stayed for the first three days with the Hunters, at the end
+of which time the bungalow had been put in perfect order. It was
+far less commodious than that at Cawnpore, but Isobel was well
+satisfied with it when all their belongings had been arranged, and
+she soon declared that she greatly preferred Deennugghur to Cawnpore.
+
+Those at the station heartily welcomed the accession to their numbers,
+and there was an entire absence of the stiffness and formality of
+a large cantonment like Cawnpore, and Isobel was free to run in
+as she chose to spend the morning chatting and working with the
+Hunters, or Mrs. Doolan, or with the other ladies, of whom there
+were three at the station.
+
+A few days after their arrival news came in that the famous man
+eater, which had for a time ceased his ravages and moved off to a
+different part of the country, principally because the natives of
+the village near the jungle had ceased altogether to go out after
+nightfall, had returned, and had carried off herdsmen on two
+consecutive days.
+
+The Doctor at once prepared for action, and agreed to allow Wilson
+and Richards to accompany him, and the next day the three rode off
+together to Narkeet, to which village the two herdsmen had belonged.
+Both had been killed near the same spot, and the natives had traced
+the return of the tiger to its lair in the jungle with its victims.
+
+The Doctor soon found that the ordinary methods of destroying the
+tiger had been tried again and again without success. Cattle and
+goats had been tied up, and the native shikaris had taken their
+posts in trees close by, and had watched all night; but in vain.
+Spring traps and deadfalls had also been tried, but the tiger
+seemed absolutely indifferent to the attractions of their baits,
+and always on the lookout for snares. The attempts made at a dozen
+villages near the jungle had all been equally unsuccessful.
+
+"It is evident," the Doctor said, "that the brute cares for nothing
+but human victims. No doubt, if he were very hungry he would take
+a cow or a goat, but we might wait a very long time for that; so
+the only thing that I can see is to act as a bait myself."
+
+"How will you do that, Doctor?"
+
+"I shall build a sort of cage near the point where the tiger has
+twice entered the jungle. I will take with me in the cage a woman
+or girl from the village. From time to time she shall cry out as if
+in pain, and as the tiger is evidently somewhere in this neighborhood
+it is likely enough he will come out to see about it.
+
+"We must have the cage pretty strong, or I shall never get anyone
+to sit with me; besides, on a dark night, there is no calculating
+on killing to a certainty with the first shot, and it is just as
+well to be on the safe side. In daylight it would be a different
+matter altogether. I can rely upon my weapon when I can see, but
+on a dark night it is pretty well guesswork."
+
+The villagers were at once engaged to erect a stout cage eight feet
+square and four high, of beams driven into the ground six inches
+apart, and roofed in with strong bars. There was a considerable
+difficulty in getting anyone to consent to sit by the Doctor, but
+at last the widow of one of the men who had been killed agreed for
+the sum of twenty-five rupees to pass the night there, accompanied
+by her child four years old.
+
+The Doctor's skill with his rifle was notorious, and it was rather
+the desire of seeing her husband's death avenged than for the sake
+of the money that she consented to keep watch. There was but one
+tree suitable for the watchers; it stood some forty yards to the
+right of the cage, and it was arranged that both the subalterns
+should take their station in it.
+
+"Now look here, lads," the Doctor said, "before we start on this
+business, it must be quite settled that you do not fire till you
+hear my rifle. That is the first thing; the second is that you
+only fire when the brute is a fair distance from the cage. If you
+get excited and blaze away anyhow, you are quite as likely to hit
+me as you are the tiger. Now, I object to take any risk whatever
+on that score. You will have a native shikari in the tree with you
+to point out the tiger, for it is twenty to one against your making
+him out for yourselves. It will be quite indistinct, and you have
+no chance of making out its head or anything of that sort, and you
+have to take a shot at it as best you may.
+
+"Remember there must not be a word spoken. If the brute does come,
+it will probably make two or three turns round the cage before it
+approaches it, and may likely enough pass close to you, but in no
+case fire. You can't make sure of killing it, and if it were only
+wounded it would make off into the jungle, and all our trouble
+would be thrown away. Also remember you must not smoke; the tiger
+would smell it half a mile away, and, besides, the sound of a match
+striking would be quite sufficient to set him on his guard."
+
+"There is no objection, I hope, Doctor, to our taking up our flasks;
+we shall want something to keep us from going to sleep."
+
+"No, there is no objection to that," the Doctor said; "but mind
+you don't go to sleep, for if you did you might fall off your bough
+and break your neck, to say nothing of the chance of the tiger
+happening to be close at hand at the time."
+
+Late in the afternoon the Doctor went down to inspect the cage, and
+pronounced it sufficiently strong. Half an hour before nightfall
+he and the woman and child took their places in it, and the two
+beams in the roof that had been left unfastened to allow of their
+entry were securely lashed in their places by the villagers. Wilson
+and Richards were helped up into the tree, and took their places
+upon two boughs which sprang from the trunk close to each other at
+a height of some twelve feet from the ground. The shikari who was
+to wait with them crawled out, and with a hatchet chopped off some
+of the small boughs and foliage so as to give them a clear view of
+the ground for some distance round the cage, which was erected in
+the center of a patch of brushwood, the lower portion of which had
+been cleared out so that the Doctor should have an uninterrupted
+view round. The boughs and leaves were gathered up by the villagers,
+and carried away by them, and the watch began.
+
+"Confound it," Richards whispered to his companion after night
+fell, "it is getting as dark as pitch; I can scarcely make out the
+clump where the cage is. I should hardly see an elephant if it were
+to come, much less a brute like a tiger."
+
+"We shall get accustomed to it presently," Wilson replied; "at any
+rate make quite sure of the direction in which the cage is in; it
+is better to let twenty tigers go than to run the risk of hitting
+the Doctor."
+
+In another hour their eyes had become accustomed to the darkness,
+and they could not only see the clump in which the cage was clearly,
+but could make out the outline of the bush all round the open space
+in which it stood. Both started as a loud and dismal wail rose
+suddenly in the air, followed by a violent crying.
+
+"By Jove, how that woman made me jump!" Wilson said; "it sounded
+quite awful, and she must have pinched that poor little beggar of
+hers pretty sharply to make him yell like that."
+
+A low "hush!" from the shikari at his elbow warned Wilson that he
+was speaking too loudly. Hours passed by, the cries being raised
+at intervals.
+
+"It is enough to give one the jumps, Richards; each time she yells
+I nearly fall off my branch."
+
+"Keep on listening, then it won't startle you."
+
+"A fellow can't keep on listening," Wilson grumbled; "I listen each
+time until my ears begin to sing, and I feel stupid and sleepy,
+and then she goes off again like a steam whistle; that child will
+be black and blue all over in the morning."
+
+A warning hiss from the shikari again induced Wilson to silence.
+
+"I don't believe the brute is coming," he whispered, an hour later.
+"If it wasn't for this bough being so hard I should drop off to
+sleep; my eyes ache with staring at those bushes."
+
+As he spoke the shikari touched him on the shoulder and pointed.
+"Tiger," he whispered; and then did the same to Richards. Grasping
+their rifles, they gazed in the direction in which he pointed, but
+could for some time make out nothing. Then they saw a dim gray mass
+in front of the bushes, directly on the opposite side of the open
+space; then from the cage, lying almost in a direct line between
+it and them, rose the cry of the child. They were neither of them
+at all certain that the object at which they were gazing was the
+tiger. It seemed shapeless, the outline fading away in the bush;
+but they felt sure that they had noticed nothing like it in that
+direction before.
+
+For two or three minutes they remained in uncertainty, then the
+outline seemed to broaden, and it moved noiselessly. There could
+be no mistake now; the tiger had been attracted by the cries, and
+as it moved along they could see that it was making a circuit of
+the spot from whence the sounds proceeded, to reconnoiter before
+advancing towards its prey. It kept close to the line of bushes,
+and sometimes passed behind some of them. The shikari pressed
+their shoulders, and a low hiss enforced the necessity for absolute
+silence. The two young fellows almost held their breath; they had
+lost sight of the tiger now, but knew it must be approaching them.
+
+For two or three minutes they heard and saw nothing, then the
+shikari pointed beyond them, and they almost started as they saw
+the tiger retreating, and knew that it must have passed almost
+under them without their noticing it. At last it reached the spot
+at which they had first seen it. The child's cry, but this time
+low and querulous, again rose. With quicker steps than before it
+moved on, but still not directly towards the center, to the great
+relief of the two subalterns, who had feared that it might attack
+from such a direction that they would not dare to fire for fear of
+hitting the cage. Fortunately it passed that point, and, crouching,
+moved towards the bushes.
+
+Wilson and Richards had their rifles now at their shoulders, but,
+in the feeble and uncertain light, felt by no means sure of hitting
+their mark, though it was but some thirty yards away. Almost
+breathlessly they listened for the Doctor's rifle, but both started
+when the flash and sharp crack broke on the stillness. There was a
+sudden snarl of pain, the tiger gave a spring in the air, and then
+fell, rolling over and over.
+
+"It is not killed!" the shikari exclaimed. "Fire when it gets up."
+
+Suddenly it rose to its feet, and with a loud roar sprang towards
+the thicket. The two subalterns fired, but the movements of the
+dimly seen creature were so swift that they felt by no means sure
+that they had hit it. Then came, almost simultaneously, a loud
+shriek from the woman, of a very different character to the long
+wails she had before uttered, followed by a sound of rending and
+tearing.
+
+"He is breaking down the cage!" Richards exclaimed excitedly, as
+he and Wilson hastened to ram another cartridge down their rifles.
+"Come, we must go and help the Doctor."
+
+But a moment later came another report of a rifle, and then all
+was silent. Then the Doctor's voice was heard.
+
+"Don't get down from the tree yet, lads; I think he is dead, but
+it is best to make sure first."
+
+There was a pause, and then another rifle shot, followed by the shout
+"All right; he is as dead as a door nail now. Mind your rifles as
+you climb down."
+
+"Fancy thinking of that," Wilson said, "when you have just killed
+a tiger! I haven't capped mine yet; have you, Richards?"
+
+"I have just put it on, but will take it off again. Here, old man,
+you get down first, and we will hand the guns to you."--this to
+the shikari.
+
+With some difficulty they scrambled down from the tree.
+
+"Now we may as well cap our rifles," Richards said; "the brute may
+not be dead after all."
+
+They approached the bush cautiously.
+
+"You are quite sure he is dead, Doctor?"
+
+"Quite sure; do you think I don't know when a tiger is dead?"
+
+Still holding their guns in readiness to fire, they approached the
+bushes.
+
+"You can do no good until the villagers come with torches," the
+Doctor said; "the tiger is dead enough, but it is always as well
+to be prudent."
+
+The shikari had uttered a loud cry as he sprang down from the tree,
+and this had been answered by shouts from the distance. In a few
+minutes lights were seen through the trees, and a score of men with
+torches and lanterns ran up with shouts of satisfaction.
+
+As soon as they arrived the two young officers advanced to the
+cage. On the top a tiger was lying stretched out as if in sleep;
+with some caution they approached it and flashed a torch in its
+eyes. There was no doubt that it was dead. The body was quickly
+rolled off the cage, and then a dozen hands cut the lashing and
+lifted the top bars, which was deeply scored by the tiger's claws,
+and the Doctor emerged.
+
+"I am glad to be out of that," he said; "six hours in a cage with
+a woman and a crying brat is no joke."
+
+As soon as the Doctor had got out, the subalterns eagerly examined
+the tiger, upon which the natives were heaping curses and execrations.
+
+"How many wounds has it got?" they asked the Doctor, who repeated
+the question to the shikari in his own language.
+
+"Three, sahib. One full in the chest--it would have been mortal
+--two others in the ribs by the heart."
+
+"No others?" the subalterns exclaimed in disgust, as the answer
+was translated to them. The Doctor himself examined the tiger.
+
+"No; you both missed, lads, but you need not be ashamed of that;
+it is no easy matter to hit a tiger even at a short distance on a
+dark night like this, when you can scarce make him out, and can't
+see the barrel of your rifle. I ought to have told you to rub a
+little phosphorus off the head of a match onto the sight. I am so
+accustomed to do it myself as a matter of course that I did not
+think of telling you. Well, I am heartily glad we have killed it,
+for by all accounts it has done an immense deal of damage."
+
+"It has been a fine tiger in its time, although its skin doesn't
+look much," Wilson said; "there are patches of fur off."
+
+"That is generally the case with man eaters. They are mostly old
+tigers who take, when they get past their strength, to killing men.
+I don't know whether the flesh doesn't agree with them, but they
+are almost always mangy."
+
+"We were afraid for a moment," Richards said, "that the tiger was
+going to break into your cage; we heard him clawing away at the
+timber, and as you didn't fire again we were afraid something was
+the matter."
+
+"The mother was," the Doctor said testily. "The moment the tiger
+sprang, the woman threw herself down at full length right on the
+top of my second rifle, and when I went to push her off I think
+she fancied the tiger had got hold of her, for she gave a yell that
+fairly made me jump. I had to push her off by main force, and then
+lie down on my back, so as to get the rifle up to fire. I was sure
+the first shot was fatal, for I knew just where his heart would be,
+but I dropped a second cartridge in, and gave him another bullet so
+as to make sure. Well, if either of you want his head or his claws,
+you had better say so at once, for the natives will be singeing
+his whiskers off directly; the practice is a superstition of theirs."
+
+"No, I don't want them," Wilson said. "If I had put a bullet into
+the brute, so that I could have said I helped to kill him, I should
+have liked the head to get it preserved and sent home to my people,
+but as it is the natives are welcome to it as far as I am concerned."
+
+Richards was of the same opinion, and so without further delay they
+started back for the village, where, upon their arrival, they were
+greeted with cries of joy by the women, the news having already
+been carried back by a boy.
+
+"Poor beggars!" the Doctor said. "They have been living a life of
+terror for weeks. They must feel as if they had woke from a nightmare.
+Now, lads, we will have some supper. I dare say you are ready for
+it, and I am sure I am."
+
+"Is there any chance for supper, Doctor?--why, it must be two
+o'clock in the morning."
+
+"Of course there is," the Doctor replied. "I gave orders to my man
+to begin to warm up the food as soon as he heard a gun fired, and
+I will guarantee he has got everything ready by this time."
+
+After a hearty meal and a cigar they lay down for a few hours'
+sleep, and at daybreak rode back to Deennugghur, the two subalterns
+rather crestfallen at their failure to have taken any active part
+in killing the tiger that had so long been a terror to the district.
+
+"It was an awful sell missing him, Miss Hannay; I wanted to have
+had the claws mounted as a necklace; I thought you would have liked
+it."
+
+"I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Wilson, but I would much rather
+not have had them. If the tiger hadn't been a man eater I should
+not have minded, but I should never have worn as an ornament claws
+that had killed lots of people--women and children too."
+
+"No, I never thought of that, Miss Hannay; it wouldn't have been
+pleasant, now one thinks of it; still, I wish I had put a bullet
+into him."
+
+"No doubt you will do better next time, Mr. Wilson. The Doctor has
+been telling me that it is extremely difficult to hit an animal
+in the dark when you are not accustomed to that sort of shooting.
+He says he was in a great fright all the time he was lying in the
+cage, and that it was an immense relief to him when he heard your
+rifles go off, and found that he wasn't hit."
+
+"That is too bad of him, Miss Hannay," Wilson laughed; "we were
+not such duffers as all that. I don't believe he really did think
+so."
+
+"I am sure he was in earnest, Mr. Wilson. He said he should have
+felt quite safe if it had been daylight, but that in the dark
+people really can't see which way the rifles are pointed, and that
+he remembered he had not told you to put phosphorus on the sights."
+
+"It was too bad of him," Wilson grumbled; "it would have served
+him right if one of the bullets had hit a timber of the cage and
+given him a start; I should like to have seen the Doctor struggling
+in the dark to get his second rifle from under the woman, with the
+tiger clawing and growling two feet above him."
+
+"The Doctor didn't tell me about that," Isobel laughed; "though he
+said he had a woman and child with him to attract the tiger."
+
+"It would have frightened any decent minded tiger, Miss Hannay,
+instead of attracting it; for such dismal yells as that woman made
+I never listened to. I nearly tumbled off the tree at the first of
+them, it made me jump so, and it gave me a feeling of cold water
+running down my back. As to the child, I don't know whether she
+pinched it or the doctor stuck pins into it, but the poor little
+brute howled in the most frightful way. I don't think I shall ever
+want to go tiger shooting in the dark again; I ache all over today
+as if I had been playing in the first football match of the season,
+from sitting balancing myself on that branch; I was almost over
+half a dozen times."
+
+"I expect you nearly went off to sleep, Mr. Wilson."
+
+"I think I should have gone to sleep if it hadn't been for that
+woman, Miss Hannay. I should not have minded if I could have smoked,
+but to sit there hour after hour and not be able to smoke, and not
+allowed to speak, and staring all the time into the darkness till
+your eyes ached, was trying, I can tell you; and after all that,
+not to hit the brute was too bad."
+
+The days passed quietly at Deennugghur. They were seldom alone at
+Major Hannay's bungalow in the evening, for Wilson and Richards
+generally came in to smoke a cigar in the veranda; the Doctor was
+a regular visitor, when he was not away in pursuit of game, and
+Bathurst was also often one of the party.
+
+"Mr. Bathurst is coming out wonderfully, Miss Hannay," Mrs. Hunter
+said one day, as Isobel sat working with her, while the two girls
+were practicing duets on a piano in the next room. "We used to
+call him the hermit, he was so difficult to get out of his cell.
+We were quite surprised when he accepted our invitation to dinner
+yesterday."
+
+"I think Dr. Wade has stirred him up," Isobel said calmly; "he is
+a great favorite of the Doctor's."
+
+Mrs. Hunter smiled over her work. "Perhaps so, my dear; anyhow, I
+am glad he has come out, and I hope he won't retire into his cell
+again after you have all gone."
+
+"I suppose it depends a good deal upon his work," Isobel said.
+
+"My experience of men is that they can always make time if they
+like, my dear. When a man says he is too busy to do this, that, or
+the other, you may always safely put it down that he doesn't want
+to do it. Of course, it is just the same thing with ourselves. You
+often hear women say they are too busy to attend to all sorts of
+things that they ought to attend to, but the same women can find
+plenty of time to go to every pleasure gathering that comes off.
+There is no doubt that Mr. Bathurst is really fond of work, and
+that he is an indefatigable civil servant of the Company, but that
+would not prevent him making an hour or two's time of an evening,
+occasionally, if he wanted to. However, he seems to have turned
+over a new leaf, and I hope it will last. In a small station like
+this, even one man is of importance, especially when he is as
+pleasant as Mr. Bathurst can be when he likes. He was in the army
+at one time, you know."
+
+"Was he, Mrs. Hunter?"
+
+"Yes. I never heard him say so himself, but I have heard so from
+several people. I think he was only in it for a year or so. I suppose
+he did not care for it, and can quite imagine he would not, so he
+sold out, and a short time afterwards obtained a civil appointment.
+He has very good interest; his father was General Bathurst, who
+was, you know, a very distinguished officer. So he had no difficulty
+in getting into our service, where he is entirely in his element.
+His father died two years ago, and I believe he came into a good
+property at home. Everyone expected he would have thrown up his
+appointment, but it made no difference to him, and he just went on
+as before, working as if he had to depend entirely on the service."
+
+"I can quite understand that," Isobel said, "to a really earnest
+man a life of usefulness here must be vastly preferable to living
+at home without anything to do or any object in life."
+
+"Well, perhaps so, my dear, and in theory that is, no doubt, the
+case; but practically, I fancy you would find nineteen men out of
+twenty, even if they are what you call earnest men, retire from
+the ranks of hard workers if they come into a nice property. By
+the way, you must come in here this evening. There is a juggler in
+the station, and Mr. Hunter has told him to come round. The servants
+say the man is a very celebrated juggler, one of the best in India,
+and as the girls have never seen anything better than the ordinary
+itinerant conjurers, my husband has arranged for him to come in
+here, and we have been sending notes round asking everyone to come
+in. We have sent one round to your place, but you must have come
+out before the chit arrived."
+
+"Oh, I should like that very much!" Isobel said. "Two or three men
+came to our bungalow at Cawnpore and did some conjuring, but it
+was nothing particular; but uncle says some of them do wonderful
+things--things that he cannot account for at all. That was one
+of the things I read about at school, and thought I should like
+to see, more than anything in India. When I was at school we went
+in a body, two or three times, to see conjurers when they came to
+Cheltenham. Of course I did not understand the things they did,
+and they seemed wonderful to me, but I know there are people who
+can explain them, and that they are only tricks; but I have read
+accounts of things done by jugglers in India that seemed utterly
+impossible to explain--really a sort of magic."
+
+"I have heard a good many arguments about it," Mrs. Hunter said;
+"and a good many people, especially those who have seen most of
+them, are of opinion that many of the feats of the Indian jugglers
+cannot be explained by any natural laws we know of. I have seen
+some very curious things myself, but the very fact that I did not
+understand how they were done was no proof they could not be explained;
+certainly two of their commonest tricks, the basket trick and the
+mango, have never been explained. Our conjurers at home can do
+something like them, but then that is on a stage, where they can
+have trapdoors and all sorts of things, while these are done anywhere
+--in a garden, on a road--where there could be no possible
+preparation, and with a crowd of lookers on all round; it makes me
+quite uncomfortable to look at it."
+
+"Well, I must be off now, Mrs. Hunter; it is nearly time for uncle
+to be back, and he likes me to be in when he returns."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Dr. Wade was sitting in the veranda smoking and reading an English
+paper that had arrived by that morning's mail, when Isobel returned.
+
+"Good morning, Doctor. Is uncle back?"
+
+"Not yet. He told me he might be half an hour late, and that I was
+to come round and amuse you until he came back."
+
+"So in my absence you have been amusing yourself, Doctor. I have
+been round at Mrs. Hunter's; she is going to have a juggler there
+this evening, and we are all to go."
+
+"Yes, I got a chit from her this morning. I have seen scores of
+them, but I make a point of never missing an exhibition when I get
+the chance. I hate anything I don't understand, and I go with the
+faint hope of being able to find things out, though I know perfectly
+well that I shall not do so."
+
+"Then you think it is not all quite natural, Doctor?"
+
+"I don't say it is not natural, because we don't know what all the
+natural laws are, but I say that some of the things I have seen
+certainly are not to be accounted for by anything we do know. It is
+not often that the jugglers show their best tricks to the whites--
+they know that, as a rule, we are altogether skeptical; but I have
+seen at native courts more than once the most astounding things
+--things absolutely incomprehensible and inexplicable. I don't
+suppose we are going to see anything of that sort tonight, though
+Mrs. Hunter said in her note that they had heard from the native
+servant that this man was a famous one.
+
+"There is a sect of people in India, I don't mean a caste, but a
+sort of secret society, who, I believe, claim to be able by some
+sort of influence to suspend altogether the laws of nature. I do
+not say that I believe them--as a scientific man, it is my duty
+not to believe them; but I have seen such things done by some of
+the higher class of jugglers, and that under circumstances that
+did not seem to admit of the possibility of deception, that I am
+obliged to suspend my judgment, which, as you may imagine, my dear,
+is exceedingly annoying to me; but some of them do possess to a
+considerable extent what the Scotch call second sight, that is to
+say, the power of foreseeing events in the future. Of that I am
+morally certain; I have seen proofs of it over and over again. For
+example, once an old fakir, whom I had cured of a badly ulcerated
+limb, came up just as I was starting on a shooting expedition.
+
+"'Do not go out today,' he said. 'I foresee evil for you. I saw
+you last night brought back badly wounded.'
+
+"'But if I don't go your dream will come wrong,' I said.
+
+"He shook his head.
+
+"'You will go in spite of what I say,' he said; 'and you will
+suffer, and others too;' and he looked at a group of shikaris, who
+were standing together, ready to make a start.
+
+"'How many men are there?' he said.
+
+"'Why, six of course,' I replied.
+
+"'I see only three,' he said, 'and three dull spots. One of those
+I see is holding his matchlock on his shoulder, another is examining
+his priming, the third is sitting down by the tire. Those three will
+come back at the end of the day; the other three will not return
+alive.'
+
+"I felt rather uncomfortable, but I wasn't, as I said to myself--
+I was a good deal younger then, my dear--such a fool as to be
+deterred from what promised to be a good day's sport by such nonsense
+as this; and I went.
+
+"We were going after a rogue elephant that had been doing a lot of
+damage among the natives' plantations. We found him, and a savage
+brute he turned out to be. He moved just as I fired, and though I
+hit him, it was not on the fatal spot, and he charged right down
+among us. He caught the very three men the fakir said were doomed,
+and dashed the life out of them; then he came at me. The bearer
+had run off with my second gun, and he seized me and flung me up
+in the air.
+
+"I fell in a tree, but broke three of my ribs and one of my arms;
+fortunately, though the beast tried to get at me, I was out of
+his reach, and the tree was too strong for him to knock down. Then
+another man who was with me came up and killed him, and they got
+me down and carried me back, and I was weeks before I was about
+again. That was something more than a coincidence, I think. There
+were some twenty men out with us, and just the four he had pointed
+out were hurt, and no others.
+
+"I have seen scores of other cases in which these predictions have
+come true, especially in cases of disease; though I grant that
+here the predictions often bring about their own fulfilment. If a
+native is told by a fakir, or holy man, that he is going to die,
+he makes no struggle to live. In several cases I have seen natives,
+whose deaths have been predicted, die, without, as far as my science
+could tell me, any disease or ailment whatever that should have
+been fatal to them. They simply sank--died, I should say, from
+pure fright. But putting aside this class, I have seen enough to
+convince me that some at least among these fanatics do possess the
+power of second sight."
+
+"That is very extraordinary, Doctor. Of course I have heard of
+second sight among certain old people in Scotland, but I did not
+believe in it."
+
+"I should not have believed in it if I had not seen the same thing
+here in India. I naturally have been interested in it, and have read
+pretty well everything that has been written about second sight among
+the Highlanders; and some of the incidents are so well authenticated
+that I scarcely see how they can be denied. Of course, there is no
+accounting for it, but it is possible that among what we may call
+primitive people there are certain intuitions or instincts, call
+them what you like, that have been lost by civilized people.
+
+"The power of scent in a dog is something so vastly beyond anything
+we can even imagine possible, that though we put it down to instinct,
+it is really almost inexplicable. Take the case that dogs have
+been known to be taken by railway journeys of many hundred miles
+and to have found their way home again on foot. There is clearly
+the possession of a power which is to us absolutely unaccountable.
+
+"But here comes your uncle; he will think I have been preaching a
+sermon to you if you look so grave."
+
+But Major Hannay was too occupied with his own thoughts to notice
+Isobel.
+
+"Has anything gone wrong, Major?" the Doctor asked, as he saw his
+face.
+
+"I have just learnt," the Major said, "that some more chupaties
+were brought last night. It is most annoying. I have questioned
+several of the native officers, and they profess to have no idea
+whence they came or what is the meaning of them. I wish we could
+get to the bottom of this thing; it keeps the troops in a ferment.
+If I could get hold of one of these messengers, I would get out of
+him all he knew, even if I had to roast him to make him tell."
+
+"My dear uncle," Isobel said reprovingly, "I am sure you don't mean
+what you say."
+
+"I don't know," he said, half laughing; "I should certainly consider
+myself perfectly justified in taking uncommonly strong steps to
+try to get to the bottom of this business. The thing is going on
+all over India, and it must mean something, and it is all the worse
+if taken in connection with this absurd idea about the greased
+cartridges. I grant that it was an act of folly greasing them at
+all, when we know the idiotic prejudices the natives have; still,
+it could hardly have been foreseen that this stir would have been
+made. The issue of the cartridges has been stopped, but when the
+natives once get an idea into their minds it is next to impossible
+to disabuse them of it. It is a tiresome business altogether."
+
+"Tiffin ready, sahib," Rumzan interrupted, coming out onto the
+veranda.
+
+"That is right, Rumzan. Now, Isobel, let us think of more pleasant
+subjects."
+
+"We are to go into the Hunters' this evening, uncle," Isobel said,
+as she sat down. "There is going to be a famous juggler there.
+There is a note for you from Mrs. Hunter on the side table."
+
+"Very well, my dear; some of these fellows are well worth seeing.
+Bathurst is coming in to dinner. I saw him as he was starting this
+morning, just as he was going down to the lines, and he accepted.
+He said he should be able to get back in time. However, I don't
+suppose he will mind going round with us. I hope you will come,
+Doctor, to make up the table. I have asked the two boys to come
+in."
+
+"I shall have to become a permanent boarder at your establishment,
+Major. It is really useless my keeping a cook when I am in here
+nearly half my time. But I will come. I am off for three days
+tomorrow. A villager came in this morning to beg me to go out to rid
+them of a tiger that has established himself in their neighborhood,
+and that is an invitation I never refuse, if I can possibly manage
+to make time for it. Fortunately everyone is so healthy here at
+present that I can be very well spared."
+
+At dinner the subject of juggling came up again, and the two
+subalterns expressed their opinion strongly that it was all humbug.
+
+"Dr. Wade believes in it, Mr. Wilson," Isobel said.
+
+"You don't say so, Doctor; I should have thought you were the last
+sort of man who would have believed in conjurers."
+
+"It requires a wise man to believe, Wilson," the Doctor said; "any
+fool can scoff; the wise man questions. When you have been here as
+long as I have, and if you ever get as much sense as I have, which
+is doubtful, you may be less positive in your ideas, if you can
+call them ideas."
+
+"That is one for me," Wilson said good humoredly, while the others
+laughed.
+
+"Well, I have never seen them, Doctor, except those fellows who
+come around to the veranda, and I have seen conjurers at home do
+ever so much better tricks than they."
+
+"What do you think of them, Mr. Bathurst?" Isobel asked. "I suppose
+you have seen some of the better sort?"
+
+"I do not know what to think of them, Miss Hannay. I used to
+be rather of Wilson's opinion, but I have seen things since that
+I could not account for at all. There was a man here two or three
+months back who astounded me."
+
+"Mrs. Hunter said that the girls had had no opportunity of seeing
+a good conjurer since they came out, Mr. Bathurst. I suppose they
+did know this man you are speaking of being here?"
+
+"He was only here for a few hours, Miss Hannay. I had happened to
+meet him before, and he gave me a private performance, which was
+quite different to anything I have ever seen, though I had often
+heard of the feats he had performed. I was so impressed with them
+that I can assure you that for a few days I had great difficulty
+in keeping my mind upon my work."
+
+"What did he do, Mr. Bathurst?"
+
+Bathurst related the feat of the disappearing girl.
+
+"She must have jumped down when you were not looking," Richards
+said, with an air or conviction.
+
+"Possibly," Bathurst replied quietly; "but as I was within three or
+four yards of the pole, and it was perfectly distinct in the light
+of my lamp, and as I certainly saw her till she was some thirty or
+forty feet up in the air I don't see how she can have managed it.
+For, even supposing she could have sprung down that distance without
+being hurt, she would not have come down so noiselessly that I
+should not have heard her."
+
+"Still, if she did not come down that way, how could she have come?"
+Wilson said.
+
+"That is exactly what I can't make out," Bathurst replied. "If it
+should happen to be the same man, and he will do the same thing
+again, I fancy you will be as much puzzled as I was."
+
+After dinner was over the party walked across to Mr. Hunter's
+bungalow, where, in a short time, the other officers, their wives,
+and all the other residents at the station were assembled. Chairs
+were placed in the veranda for the ladies, and a number of lamps
+hung on the wall, so that a strong light was thrown upon the ground
+in front of it. In addition, four posts had been driven into the
+ground some twenty feet from the veranda, and lamps had been fastened
+upon them.
+
+"I don't know whether the juggler will like that," Mr. Hunter said,
+"and I shan't light them if he objects. I don't think myself it is
+quite fair having a light behind him; still, if he agrees, it will
+be hardly possible for him to make the slightest movement without
+being seen."
+
+The juggler, who was sitting round at the other side of the house,
+was now called up. He and the girl, who followed him, salaamed
+deeply, and made an even deeper bow to Bathurst, who was standing
+behind Isobel's chair.
+
+"You must have paid them well, Bathurst," Major Hannay said. "They
+have evidently a lively remembrance of past favors. I suppose they
+are the same you were talking about?"
+
+"Yes, they are the same people, Major." Then he said in the native
+dialect to the juggler, "Mr. Hunter has put some posts with lamps
+behind you, Rujub, but he hasn't lit them because he did not know
+whether you would object."
+
+"They can be lighted, sahib. My feats do not depend on darkness.
+Any of the sahibs who like to stand behind us can do so if they do
+not come within the line of those posts."
+
+"Let us go out there," Wilson said to Richards, when the answer
+was translated; "we will light the lamps, and we shall see better
+there than we shall see here."
+
+The two went round to the other side and lit the lamps, and the
+servants stood a short distance off on either side.
+
+The first trick shown was the well known mango tree. The juggler
+placed a seed in the ground, poured some water upon it from a lota,
+and covered it with a cloth. In two or three minutes he lifted.
+this, and a plant four or five inches high was seen. He covered
+this with a tall basket, which he first handed round for inspection.
+On removing this a mango tree some three feet high, in full bloom,
+was seen. It was again covered, and when the basket was removed it
+was seen to be covered with ripe fruit, eliciting exclamations of
+astonishment from those among the spectators who had not before
+seen the trick performed.
+
+"Now, Wilson," the Doctor said, "perhaps you will be kind enough
+to explain to us all how this was done?"
+
+"I have no more idea than Adam, Doctor."
+
+"Then we will leave it to Richards. He promised us at dinner to
+keep his eyes well open."
+
+Richards made no reply.
+
+"How was it done, Mr. Bathurst? It seems almost like a miracle."
+
+"I am as ignorant as Wilson is, Miss Hannay. I can't account for
+it in any way, and I have seen it done a score of times. Ah! now
+he is going to do the basket trick. Don't be alarmed when you hear
+the girl cry out. You may be quite sure that she is not hurt. The
+father is deeply attached to her, and would not hurt a hair of her
+head."
+
+Again the usual methods were adopted. The basket was placed on the
+ground and the girl stepped into it, without the pretense of fear
+usually exhibited by the performers.
+
+Before the trick began Major Hannay said to Captain Doolan, "Come
+round with me to the side of those boys. I know the first time I
+saw it done I was nearly throwing myself on the juggler, and Wilson
+is a hot headed boy, and is likely as not to do so. If he did, the
+man would probably go off in a huff and show us nothing more. From
+what Bathurst said, we are likely to see something unusual."
+
+As soon as the lid was put down, an apparently angry colloquy took
+place between the juggler and the girl inside. Presently the man
+appeared to become enraged, and snatching up a long, straight sword
+from the ground, ran it three or four times through the basket.
+
+A loud shriek followed the first thrust, and then all was silent.
+
+Some of the ladies rose to their feet with a cry of horror, Isobel
+among them. Wilson and Richards both started to rush forward, but
+were seized by the collars by the Major and Captain Doolan.
+
+"Will you open the basket?" the juggler said quietly to Mrs.
+Hunter. As she had seen the trick before she stepped forward without
+hesitation, opened the lid of the basket and said, "It is empty."
+The juggler took it up, and held it up, bottom upwards.
+
+"What on earth has become of the girl?" Wilson exclaimed.
+
+As he spoke she passed between him and Richards back to her father's
+side.
+
+"Well, I am dashed," Wilson murmured. "I would not have believed
+it if fifty people had sworn to me they had seen it." He was too
+much confounded even to reply, when the Doctor sarcastically said:
+"We are waiting for your explanation, gentlemen."
+
+"Will you ask him, Major," Richards said, as he wiped his forehead
+with his pocket handkerchief, "to make sure that she is solid?"
+
+The Major translated the request, and the girl at once came across,
+and Richards touched her with evident doubt as to whether on not
+she were really flesh and blood.
+
+There was much curiosity among those who had seen jugglers before
+as to what would be the next feat, for generally those just seen
+were the closing ones of a performance, but as these were the first
+it seemed that those to follow must be extraordinary indeed.
+
+The next feat was the one shown to Bathurst, and was performed
+exactly as upon that occasion, except that as the girl rose beyond
+the circle of light she remained distinctly visible, a sort of
+phosphoric light playing around her. Those in the veranda had come
+out now, the juggler warning them not to approach within six feet
+of the pole.
+
+Higher and higher the girl went, until those below judged her to be
+at least a hundred and fifty feet from the ground. Then the light
+died out, and she disappeared from their sight. There was silence
+for a minute or two, and then the end of the pole could be seen
+descending without her. Another minute, and it was reduced to the
+length it had been at starting.
+
+The spectators were silent now; the whole thing was so strange and
+mysterious that they had no words to express their feeling.
+
+The juggler said something which Mr. Hunter translated to be a
+request for all to resume their places.
+
+"That is a wonderful trick," the Doctor said to Bathurst. "I have
+never seen it done that way before, but I once saw a juggler throw
+up a rope into the air; how high it went I don't know, for, like
+this, it was done at night, but it stood up perfectly stiff, and
+the juggler's attendant climbed up. He went higher and higher, and
+we could hear his voice coming down to us. At last it stopped, and
+then suddenly the rope fell in coils on the ground, and the boy
+walked quietly in, just as that girl has done now."
+
+The girl now placed herself in the center of the open space.
+
+"You will please not to speak while this trick is being performed,"
+the juggler said; "harm might come of it. Watch the ground near
+her feet."
+
+A minute later a dark object made its appearance from the ground.
+It rose higher and higher with an undulating movement.
+
+"By Jove, it is a python!" the Doctor whispered in Bathurst's ear.
+A similar exclamation broke from several of the others, but the
+juggler waved his hand with an authoritative hush. The snake rose
+until its head towered above that of the girl, and then began to
+twine itself round her, continuously rising from the ground until
+it enveloped her with five coils, each thicker than a man's arm.
+It raised its head above hers and hissed loudly and angrily; then
+its tail began to descend, gradually the coils unwound themselves;
+lower and lower it descended until it disappeared altogether.
+
+It was some time before anyone spoke, so great was the feeling of
+wonder. The Doctor was the first to break the silence.
+
+"I have never seen that before," he said, "though I have heard of
+it from a native Rajah."
+
+"Would the sahibs like to see more?" the juggler asked.
+
+The two Miss Hunters, Mrs. Rintoul, and several of the others
+said they had seen enough, but among the men there was expressed
+a general wish to see another feat.
+
+"I would not have missed this for anything," the Doctor said. "It
+would be simple madness to throw away such a chance."
+
+The ladies, therefore, with the exception of Mrs. Hunter, Mrs.
+Doolan, and Isobel, retired into the house.
+
+"You must all go on one side now," the juggler said, "for it is
+only on one side what I am now going to do can be seen."
+
+He then proceeded to light a fire of charcoal. When he had done
+this, he said, "The lights must now be extinguished and the curtains
+drawn, so that the light will not stream out from the house."
+
+As soon as this was done he poured a powder over the fire, and by
+its faint light the cloud of white smoke could be seen.
+
+"Now I will show you the past," he said. "Who speaks?"
+
+There was silence, and then Dr. Wade said, "Show me my past."
+
+A faint light stole up over the smoke--it grew brighter and
+brighter; and then a picture was clearly seen upon it.
+
+It was the sea, a house standing by itself in a garden, and
+separated from the water only by a road. Presently the figure of a
+girl appeared at the gate, and, stepping out, looked down the road
+as if waiting for someone. They could make out all the details of
+her dress and see her features distinctly. A low exclamation broke
+from the Doctor, then the picture gradually faded away.
+
+"The future!" the juggler said, and gradually an Indian scene
+appeared on the smoke. It was a long, straight road, bordered by
+a jungle. A native was seen approaching; he paused in the foreground.
+
+"That is you, Doctor!" Mr. Hunter exclaimed; "you are got up as a
+native, but it's you."
+
+Almost at the same moment two figures came out from the jungle.
+They were also in native dress.
+
+"You and Miss Hannay," the Doctor said in a low tone to Bathurst,
+"dressed like a native and dyed." But no one else detected the
+disguise, and the picture again faded away.
+
+"That is enough, Rujub," Bathurst said, for he felt Isobel lean back
+heavily against the hand which he held at the back of her chair,
+and felt sure that she had fainted.
+
+"Draw back the curtains, someone; I fancy this has been too much
+for Miss Hannay."
+
+The curtains were thrown back, and Mrs. Hunter, running in, brought
+out a lamp. The Doctor had already taken his place by Isobel's
+side.
+
+"Yes, she has fainted," he said to Bathurst; "carry her in her
+chair as she is, so that she may be in the room when she comes to."
+
+This was done.
+
+"Now, gentlemen," the Doctor said, "you had better light the lamps
+again out here, and leave the ladies and me to get Miss Hannay
+round."
+
+When the lamps were lit it was evident that the whole of the men
+were a good deal shaken by what they had seen.
+
+"Well," Mr. Hunter said, "they told me he was a famous juggler, but
+that beat anything I have seen before. I have heard of such things
+frequently from natives, but it is very seldom that Europeans get
+a chance of seeing them."
+
+"I don't want to see anything of the sort again," Major Hannay said;
+"it shakes one's notions of things in general. I fancy, Hunter,
+that we shall want a strong peg all round to steady our nerves.
+I own that I feel as shaky as a boy who thinks he sees a ghost on
+his way through a churchyard."
+
+There was a general murmur of agreement and the materials were
+quickly brought.
+
+"Well, Wilson, what do you and Richards think of it?" the Major went
+on, after he had braced himself up with a strong glass of brandy
+and water. "I should imagine you both feel a little less skeptical
+than you did two hours ago."
+
+"I don't know what Richards feels, Major, but I know I feel like
+a fool. I am sorry, Bathurst, for what I said at dinner; but it
+really didn't seem to me to be possible what you told us about the
+girl going up into the air and not coming down again. Well, after
+I have seen what I have seen this evening, I won't disbelieve
+anything I hear in future about these natives."
+
+"It was natural enough that you should be incredulous," Bathurst
+said. "I should have been just as skeptical as you were when I first
+came out, and I have been astonished now, though I have seen some
+good jugglers before."
+
+At this moment the Doctor came out again.
+
+"Miss Hannay is all right again now, Major. I am not surprised at
+her fainting; old hand as I am at these matters, and I think that
+I have seen as much or more juggling than any man in India. I felt
+very queer myself, specially at the snake business. As I said, I
+have seen that ascension trick before, but how it is done I have no
+more idea than a child. Those smoke scenes, too, are astonishing.
+Of course they could be accounted for as thrown upon a column of
+white smoke by a magic lantern, but there was certainly no magic
+lantern here. The juggler was standing close to me, and the girl
+was sitting at his feet. I watched them both closely, and certainly
+they had no apparatus about them by which such views could be thrown
+on the smoke."
+
+"You recognized the first scene, I suppose, Doctor?" Bathurst asked.
+
+"Perfectly. It took me back twenty-five years. It was a cottage
+near Sidmouth, and was correct in every minute detail. The figure
+was that of the young lady I married four years afterwards. Many a
+time have I seen her standing just like that, as I went along the
+road to meet her from the little inn at which I was stopping; the
+very pattern of her dress, which I need hardly say has never been
+in my mind all these years, was recalled to me.
+
+"Had I been thinking of the scene at the time I could have accounted
+for it somehow, upon the theory that in some way or other the
+juggler was conscious of my thought and reflected it upon the smoke
+--how, I don't at all mean to say; but undoubtedly there exists,
+to some extent, the power of thought reading. It is a mysterious
+subject, and one of which we know absolutely nothing at present,
+but maybe in upwards of a hundred years mankind will have discovered
+many secrets of nature in that direction. But I certainly was not
+thinking of that scene when I spoke and said the 'past.' I had no
+doubt that he would show me something of the past, but certainly
+no particular incident passed through my mind before that picture
+appeared on the smoke."
+
+"The other was almost as curious, Doctor," Captain Doolan said,
+"for it was certainly you masquerading as a native. I believe the
+other was Bathurst; it struck me so; and he seemed to be running
+off with some native girl. What on earth could that all mean?"
+
+"It is no use puzzling ourselves about it," the Doctor said. "It
+may or may not come true. I have no inclination to go about dressed
+out as a native at present, but there is no saying what I may come
+to. There is quite enough for us to wonder at in the other things.
+The mango and basket tricks I have seen a dozen times, and am no
+nearer now than I was at first to understanding them. That ascension
+trick beats me altogether, and there was something horribly uncanny
+about the snake."
+
+"Do you think it was a real snake, Doctor?"
+
+"That I cannot tell you, Richards. Every movement was perfectly
+natural. I could see the working of the ribs as it wound itself
+round the girl, and the quivering of its tongue as it raised its
+head above her. At any other time I should be ready to take my
+affidavit that it was a python of unusual size, but at the present
+moment I should not like to give a decided opinion about anything
+connected with the performance."
+
+"I suppose it is no use asking the juggler any questions, Hunter?"
+one of the other men said.
+
+"Not in the least; they never do answer questions. The higher
+class of jugglers treat their art as a sort of religious mystery,
+and there is no instance known of their opening their lips, although
+large sums have frequently been offered them. In the present case
+you will certainly ask no questions, for the man and girl have both
+disappeared with the box and apparatus and everything connected
+with them. They must have slipped off directly the last trick was
+over, and before we had the lamp lighted. I sent after him at once,
+but the servant could find no signs of him. I am annoyed because
+I have not paid them."
+
+"I am not surprised at that," Dr. Wade said. "It is quite in
+accordance with what I have heard of them. They live by exhibiting
+what you may call their ordinary tricks; but I have heard from natives
+that when they show any what I may call supernatural feats, they
+do not take money. It is done to oblige some powerful Rajah, and
+as I have said, it is only on a very few occasions that Europeans
+have ever seen them. Well, we may as well go in to the ladies.
+I don't fancy any of them would be inclined to come out onto the
+veranda again this evening."
+
+No one was indeed inclined even for talk, and in a very short time
+the party broke up and returned home.
+
+"Come and smoke a pipe with me, Bathurst, before you turn in," the
+Doctor said, as they went out. "I don't think either of us will
+be likely to go to sleep for some time. What is your impression of
+all this?"
+
+"My impression, certainly, is that it is entirely unaccountable by
+any laws with which we are acquainted, Doctor."
+
+"That is just my idea, and always has been since I first saw any
+really good juggling out here. I don't believe in the least in
+anything supernatural, but I can quite believe that there are many
+natural laws of which at present we are entirely ignorant. I believe
+the knowledge of them at one time existed, but has been entirely
+lost, at any rate among Western peoples. The belief in magic is as
+old as anything we have knowledge of. The magicians at the court
+of Pharaoh threw down their rods and turned them into serpents.
+The Witch of Endor called up the spirit of Samuel. The Greeks, by
+no means a nation of fools, believed implicitly in the Oracles.
+Coming down to comparatively later times, the workers of magic
+burnt their books before St. Paul. It doesn't say, mind you, that
+those who pretended to work magic did so; but those who worked
+magic.
+
+"Early travelers in Persia and India have reported things they saw
+far surpassing any we have witnessed this evening, and there is
+certainly a sect in India at present, or rather a body of men, and
+those, as far as I have been able to learn, of an exceptionally
+intelligent class, who believe that they possess an almost absolute
+mastery over the powers of nature. You see, fifty years back,
+if anyone had talked about traveling at fifty miles an hour, or
+sending a message five thousand miles in a minute, he would have
+been regarded as a madman. There may yet be other discoveries as
+startling to be made.
+
+"When I was in England I heard something of a set of people in
+America who called themselves Spiritualists, some of whom--notably
+a young man named Home--claimed to have the power of raising
+themselves through the air. I am far from saying that such a power
+exists; it is of course contrary to what we know of the laws
+of nature, but should such a power exist it would account for
+the disappearance of the girl from the top of the pole. Highland
+second sight, carried somewhat farther, and united with the power
+of conveying the impressions to others, would account for the pictures
+on the smoke, that is, supposing them to be true, and personally
+I own that I expect they will prove to be true--unlikely as it
+may seem that you, I, and Miss Hannay will ever be going about in
+native attire."
+
+By this time they had reached the Doctor's bungalow, and had
+comfortably seated themselves.
+
+"There is one thing that flashed across me this evening," Bathurst
+said. "I told you, that first evening I met Miss Hannay, that I had
+a distinct knowledge of her face. You laughed at me at the time,
+and it certainly seemed absurd, but I was convinced I was not wrong.
+Now I know how it was; I told you at dinner today about the feat
+of the girl going up and not coming down again; but I did not tell
+you--for you can understand it is a thing that I should not care
+to talk much about--that he showed me a picture like those we
+saw tonight.
+
+"It was a house standing in a courtyard, with a high wall round it.
+I did not particularly observe the house. It was of the ordinary
+native type, and might, for anything I know, be the house in the
+middle of this station used as a courthouse by Hunter, and for keeping
+stores, and so on. I don't say it was that; I did not notice it.
+much. There was a breach in the outside wall, and round it there
+was a fierce fight going on. A party of officers and civilians were
+repelling the assault of a body of Sepoys. On the terraced roof of
+the house others were standing firing and looking on, and I think
+engaged in loading rifles were two or three women. One of them I
+particularly noticed; and, now I recall it, her face was that of
+Miss Hannay; of that I am absolutely certain."
+
+"It is curious, lad," the Doctor said, after a pause; "and the picture,
+you see, has so far come true that you have made the acquaintance
+with one of the actors whom you did not previously know."
+
+"I did not believe in the truth of it, Doctor, and I do not believe
+in it now. There was one feature in the fight which was, as I regret
+to know, impossible."
+
+"And what was that, Bathurst?"
+
+Bathurst was silent for a time.
+
+"You are an old friend, Doctor, and you will understand my case,
+and make more allowances for it than most people would. When I first
+came out here I dare say you heard some sort of reports as to why
+I had left the army and had afterwards entered the Civil Service."
+
+"There were some stupid rumors," the Doctor said, "that you had
+gone home on sick leave just after the battle of Chillianwalla,
+and had then sold out, because you had shown the white feather. I
+need not say that I did not give any credit to it; there is always
+gossip flying about as to the reasons a man leaves the army."
+
+"It was quite true, Doctor. It is a hideous thing to say, but
+constitutionally I am a coward."
+
+"I cannot believe it," the Doctor said warmly. "Now that I know
+you, you are the last man of whom I would credit such a thing."
+
+"It is the bane of my life," Bathurst went on. "It is my misfortune,
+for I will not allow it is my fault. In many things I am not a
+coward. I think I could face any danger if the danger were a silent
+one, but I cannot stand noise. The report of a gun makes me tremble
+all over, even when it is a blank cartridge that is fired. When I
+was born my father was in India. A short time before I came into
+the world my mother had a great fright. Her house in the country
+was broken into by burglars, who entered the room and threatened
+to blow out her brains if she moved; but the alarm was given, the
+men servants came down armed, there was a struggle in her room,
+pistol shots were fired, and the burglars were overpowered and
+captured. My mother fainted and was ill for weeks afterwards--
+in fact, until the time I was born; and she died a few days later,
+never having, the doctor said, recovered from the shock she had
+suffered that night.
+
+"I grew up a weakly, timid boy--the sort of boy that is always
+bullied at school. My father, as you know, was a general officer,
+and did not return home until I was ten years old. He was naturally
+much disappointed in me, and I think that added to my timidity, for
+it grew upon me rather than otherwise. Morally, I was not a coward.
+At school I can say that I never told a lie to avoid punishment,
+and my readiness to speak the truth did not add to my popularity
+among the other boys, and I used to be called a sneak, which was
+even more hateful than being called a coward.
+
+"As I grew up I shook off my delicacy, and grew, as you see, into
+a strong man. I then fought several battles at school; I learnt to
+ride, and came to have confidence in myself, and though I had no
+particular fancy for the army my father's heart was so set on it
+that I offered no objection. That the sound of a gun was abhorrent
+to me I knew, for the first time my father put a gun in my hand and
+I fired it, I fainted, and nothing would persuade me to try again.
+Still I thought that this was the result of nervousness as to firing
+it myself, and that I should get over it in time.
+
+"A month or two after I was gazetted I went out to India with the
+regiment, and arrived just in time to get up by forced marches to
+take part in the battle of Chillianwalla. The consequence was that
+up to that time I literally had heard no musketry practice.
+
+"Of the events of that battle I have no remembrance whatever; from
+the moment the first gun was fired to the end of the day I was as
+one paralyzed. I saw nothing, I heard nothing, I moved mechanically;
+but happily my will or my instinct kept me in my place in the
+regiment. When all was over, and silence followed the din, I fell
+to the ground insensible. Happily for me the doctors declared I
+was in a state of high fever, and I so remained for a fortnight.
+As soon as I got better I was sent down the country, and I at once
+sent in my papers and went home. No doubt the affair was talked
+of, and there were whispers as to the real cause of my illness.
+My father was terribly angry when I returned home and told him the
+truth of the matter. That his son should be a coward was naturally
+an awful blow to him. Home was too unhappy to be endured, and
+when an uncle of mine, who was a director on the Company's Board,
+offered me a berth in the Civil Service, I thankfully accepted it,
+believing that in that capacity I need never hear a gun fired again.
+
+"You will understand, then, the anxiety I am feeling owing to these
+rumors of disaffection among the Sepoys, and the possibility of
+anything like a general mutiny.
+
+"It is not of being killed that I have any fear; upon the contrary,
+I have suffered so much in the last eight years from the consciousness
+that the reason why I left the army was widely known, that I should
+welcome death, if it came to me noiselessly; but the thought that
+if there is trouble I shall assuredly not be able to play my part
+like a man fills me with absolute horror, and now more than ever.
+
+"So you will understand now why the picture I saw, in which I was
+fighting in the middle of the Sepoys, is to me not only improbable,
+but simply impossible. It is a horrible story to have to tell.
+This is the first time I have opened my lips on the subject since
+I spoke to my father, but I know that you, both as a friend and a
+doctor, will pity rather than blame me."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+As Bathurst brought his story to its conclusion the Doctor rose
+and placed his hand kindly on his shoulder.
+
+"I certainly should not think of blaming you, Bathurst. What you
+tell me is indeed a terrible misfortune, situated as we may be soon,
+though I trust and believe that all this talk about the Sepoys is
+moonshine. I own that I am surprised at your story, for I should
+have said from my knowledge of you that though, as I could perceive,
+of a nervous temperament, you were likely to be cool and collected
+in danger. But certainly your failing is no fault of your own."
+
+"That is but a small consolation to me, Doctor. Men do not ask why
+and wherefore--they simply point the finger of scorn at a coward.
+The misfortune is that I am here. I might have lived a hundred lives
+in England and never once had occasion to face danger, and I thought
+that I should have been equally secure as an Indian civilian. Now
+this trouble is coming upon us."
+
+"Why don't you take your leave, lad? You have been out seven years
+now without a day's relaxation, except indeed, the three days you
+were over with me at Cawnpore. Why not apply for a year's leave?
+You have a good excuse, too; you did not go home at the death of
+your father, two years ago, and could very well plead urgent family
+affairs requiring your presence in England."
+
+"No, I will not do that, Doctor; I will not run away from danger
+again. You understand me, I have not the least fear of the danger;
+I in no way hold to my life; I do not think I am afraid of physical
+pain. It seems to me that I could undertake any desperate service;
+I dread it simply because I know that when the din of battle begins
+my body will overmaster my mind, and that I shall be as I was at
+Chillianwalla, completely paralyzed. You wondered tonight why that
+juggler should have exhibited feats seldom, almost never, shown to
+Europeans? He did it to please me. I saved his daughter's life--
+this is between ourselves, Doctor, and is not to go farther. But,
+riding in from Narkeet, I heard a cry, and, hurrying on, came upon
+that man eater you shot the other day, standing over the girl, with
+her father half beside himself, gesticulating in front of him. I
+jumped off and attacked the brute with my heavy hunting whip, and
+he was so completely astonished that he turned tail and bolted."
+
+"The deuce he did," the Doctor exclaimed; "and yet you talk of
+being a coward!"
+
+"No, I do not say that I am a coward generally; as long as I have
+to confront danger without noise I believe I could do as well as
+most men."
+
+"But why didn't you mention this business with the tiger, Bathurst?"
+
+"Because, in the first place, it was the work of a mere passing
+impulse; and in the second, because I should have gained credit
+for being what I am not--a brave man. It will be bad enough when
+the truth becomes known, but it would be all the worse if I had
+been trading on a false reputation; therefore I particularly charged
+Rujub to say nothing about the affair to anyone."
+
+"Well, putting this for a time aside, Bathurst, what do you think of
+that curious scene, you and I and Miss Hannay disguised as natives?"
+
+"Taking it with the one I saw of the attack of Sepoys upon a house,
+it looks to me, Doctor, as if there would be a mutiny, and that
+that mutiny would be attended with partial success, that a portion
+of the garrison, at any rate, will escape, and that Miss Hannay
+will be traveling down the country, perhaps to Cawnpore, in your
+charge, while I in some way shall be with you, perhaps acting as
+guide."
+
+"It may possibly be so," the Doctor agreed. "It is at any rate
+very curious. I wonder whether Miss Hannay recognized herself in
+the disguise."
+
+"I should hope not, Doctor; if it all comes true there will be
+enough for her to bear without looking forward to that. I should
+be glad if the detachment were ordered back to Cawnpore."
+
+"Well, I should not have thought that, Bathurst."
+
+"I know what you mean, Doctor, but it is for that reason I wish
+they were gone. I believe now that you insisted on my coming down
+to spend those three days with you at Cawnpore specially that I
+might meet her."
+
+"That is so, Bathurst. I like her so much that I should be very
+sorry to see her throw herself away upon some empty headed fool.
+I like her greatly, and I was convinced that you were just the man
+to make her happy, and as I knew that you had good prospects in
+England, I thought it would be a capital match for her, although
+you are but a young civilian; and I own that of late I have thought
+things were going on very well."
+
+"Perhaps it might have been so, Doctor, had it not been for this
+coming trouble, which, if our fears are realized, will entirely
+put an end even to the possibility of what you are talking about.
+I shall be shown to be a coward, and I shall do my best to put myself
+in the way of being killed. I should not like to blow my brains out,
+but if the worst comes to the worst I will do that rather than go
+on living after I have again disgraced myself."
+
+"You look at it too seriously, Bathurst."
+
+"Not a bit of it, Doctor, and you know it."
+
+"But if the Sepoys rise, Bathurst, why should they harm their
+officers? They may be discontented, they may have a grievance against
+the Government, they may refuse to obey orders and may disband;
+but why on earth should they attack men who have always been kind
+to them, whom they have followed in battle, and against whom they
+have not as much as a shadow of complaint?"
+
+"I hope it may be so most sincerely," Bathurst said; "but one never
+can say. I can hardly bring myself to believe that they will attack
+the officers, much less injure women and children. Still, I have
+a most uneasy foreboding of evil."
+
+"You have heard nothing from the natives as to any coming trouble?"
+
+"Nothing at all, Doctor, and I am convinced that nothing is known
+among them, or at any rate by the great bulk of them. Only one
+person has ever said a word to me that could indicate a knowledge
+of coming trouble, and that was this juggler we saw tonight. I
+thought nothing of his words at the time. That picture he showed
+me of the attack by Sepoys first gave me an idea that his words
+might mean something. Since then we have heard much more of this
+discontent, and I am convinced now that the words had a meaning.
+They were simple enough. It was merely his assurance, two or three
+times repeated, that he would be ready to repay the service I had
+rendered him with his life. It might have been a mere phrase, and
+so I thought at the time. But I think now he had before him the
+possibility of some event occurring in which he might be able to
+repay the service I had rendered him."
+
+"There may have been something in it and there may not," the Doctor
+said; "but, at any rate, Bathurst, he ought to be a potent ally.
+There doesn't seem any limit to his powers, and he might, for aught
+one knows, be able to convey you away as he did his daughter."
+
+The Doctor spoke lightly, and then added, "But seriously, the man
+might be of service. These jugglers go among people of all classes.
+They are like the troubadours of the Middle Ages, welcomed everywhere;
+and they no doubt have every opportunity of learning what is going
+on, and it may be that he will be able to give you timely warning
+should there be any trouble at hand."
+
+"That is possible enough," Bathurst agreed. "Well, Doctor, I shall
+be on horseback at six, so it is time for me to turn in," and taking
+his hat, walked across to his own bungalow.
+
+The Doctor sat for some time smoking before he turned into bed. He
+had as he had said, heard rumors, when Bathurst first came out, that
+he had shown the white feather, but he had paid little attention
+to it at the time. They had been together at the first station to
+which Bathurst was appointed when he came out, and he had come to
+like him greatly; but his evident disinclination to join in any
+society, his absorption in his work, and a certain air of gravity
+unnatural in a young man of twenty, had puzzled him. He had at the
+time come to the conclusion that he must have had some unfortunate
+love affair, or have got into some very serious trouble at home.
+In time that impression had worn off. A young man speedily recovers
+from such a blow, however heavy, but no change had taken place in
+Bathurst, and the Doctor had in time become so accustomed to his
+manner that he had ceased to wonder over it. Now it was all explained.
+He sat thinking over it deeply for an hour, and then laid down his
+pipe.
+
+"It is a terrible pity he came out here," he said. "Of course it
+is not his fault in the slightest degree. One might as well blame
+a man for being born a hunchback; but if there should be a row
+out here it will be terrible for him. I can quite understand his
+feeling about it. If I were placed as he is, and were called upon
+to fight, I should take a dose of prussic acid at once. Men talk:
+about their civilization, but we are little better than savages in
+our instincts. Courage is an almost useless virtue in a civilized
+community, but if it is called for, we despise a man in whom it is
+wanting, just as heartily as our tattooed ancestors did. Of course,
+in him it is a purely constitutional failing, and I have no doubt
+he would be as brave as a lion in any other circumstances--in
+fact, the incident of his attacking the tiger with that dog whip
+of his shows that he is so; and yet, if he should fail when the
+lives of women are at stake it would be a kindness to give him that
+dose of prussic acid, especially as Isobel Hannay will be here.
+That is the hardest part of it to him, I can see."
+
+Three days later the force at Deennugghur was increased by the
+arrival of a troop of native cavalry, under a Captain Forster, who
+had just returned from leave in England.
+
+"Do you know Captain Forster, Doctor?" Isobel Hannay asked, on the
+afternoon of his arrival. "Uncle tells me he is coming to dinner."
+
+"Then you must look after your heart, my dear. He is one of the
+best looking fellows out here, a dashing soldier, and a devoted
+servant of the fair sex."
+
+"You don't like him, Doctor," Isobel said quietly.
+
+"I have not said so, my dear--far from it. I think I said a good
+deal for him."
+
+"Yes, but you don't like him, Doctor. Why is that?"
+
+"I suppose because he is not my sort of man," the Doctor said. "I
+have not seen him since his regiment and ours were at Delhi together,
+and we did not see much of each other then. Our tastes did not lie
+in the same direction."
+
+"Well, I know what your tastes are, Doctor; what are his?"
+
+"I will leave you to find out, my dear. He is all I told you--a
+very handsome man, with, as is perhaps natural, a very good opinion
+of himself, and he distinguished himself more than once in the
+Punjaub by acts of personal gallantry. I have no doubt he thinks
+it an awful nuisance coming to a quiet little station like this,
+and he will probably try to while away his time by making himself
+very agreeable to you. But I don't think you need quite believe
+all that he says."
+
+"I have long ago got over the weakness of believing people's
+flattery, Doctor. However, now you have forewarned me I am forearmed."
+
+The Doctor hesitated, and then said gravely, "It is not my habit
+to speak ill of people, my dear. You do me the justice to believe
+that?"
+
+"I am sure it is not, Doctor."
+
+"Well, child, in a station like this you must see a good deal
+of this man. He is a man who has won many hearts, and thrown them
+away. Don't let him win yours. He is not a good man; he has been
+mixed up in several grave scandals; he has been the ruin of more
+than one young man at cards and billiards; he is in all respects a
+dangerous man. Anatomically I suppose he has a heart, morally he
+has not a vestige of one. Whatever you do, child, don't let him
+make you like him."
+
+"I don't think there is much fear of that, Doctor, after what you
+have said," she replied, with a quiet smile; "and I am obliged to
+you indeed for warning me."
+
+"I know I am an old fool for meddling, but you know, my dear, I feel
+a sort of personal relationship to you, after your having been in
+my charge for six months. I don't know a single man in all India
+whom I would not rather see you fall in love with than with Captain
+Forster."
+
+"I thought uncle did not seem particularly pleased: when he came
+in to tiffin, and said there was a new arrival."
+
+"I should think not," the Doctor said; "the man in notoriously
+a dangerous fellow; and yet, as he has never actually outstepped
+what are considered the bounds which constitute an officer and a
+gentleman, he has retained his commission, but it has been a pretty
+close shave once or twice. Your uncle must know all about him,
+everyone does; but I don't suppose the Major will open his mouth
+to you on the subject--he is one of those chivalrous sort of men
+who never thinks evil of anyone unless he is absolutely obliged to;
+but in a case like this I think he is wrong. At any rate, I have
+done what I consider to be my duty in the matter. Now I leave it
+in your hands. I am glad to see that you are looking quite yourself
+again, and have got over your fainting fit of the other night. I
+quite expected to be sent for professionally the next morning."
+
+"Oh, yes, I have quite got over it, Doctor; I can't make out how I
+was so silly as to faint. I never did such a thing before, but it
+was so strange and mysterious that I felt quite bewildered, and
+the picture quite frightened me, but I don't know why. This is the
+first chance I have had since of speaking to you alone. What do
+you think of it, and why should you be dressed up as a native? and
+why should?" She stopped with a heightened color on her cheeks.
+
+"You and Bathurst be dressed up, too? So you noticed your own
+likeness; nobody else but Bathurst and myself recognized the two
+figures that came out of the wood."
+
+"Oh, you saw it too, Doctor. I thought I might have been mistaken,
+for, besides being stained, the face was all obscured somehow.
+Neither uncle, nor Mrs. Hunter, nor the girls, nor anyone else I
+have spoken to seem to have had an idea it was me, though they all
+recognized you.. What could it mean?"
+
+"I. have not the slightest idea in the world," the Doctor said;
+"very likely it meant nothing. I certainly should not think any
+more about it. These jugglers' tricks are curious and unaccountable;
+but it is no use our worrying ourselves about them. Maybe we are
+all going to get up private theatricals some day, and perform an
+Indian drama. I have never taken any part in tomfooleries of that
+sort so far, but there is no saying what I may come to."
+
+"Are you going to dine here, Doctor?"
+
+"No, my dear; the Major asked me to come in, but I declined. I
+told him frankly that I did not like Forster, and that the less I
+saw of him the better I should be pleased."
+
+The other guests turned out to be Captain and Mrs. Doolan and Mr.
+Congreave, one of the civilians at the station. The Doolans arrived
+first.
+
+"You have not seen Captain Forster yet, Isobel," Mrs. Doolan said,
+as they sat down for a chat together. "I met him at Delhi soon after
+I came out. He is quite my beau ideal of a soldier in appearance,
+but I don't think he is nice, Isobel. I have heard all sorts of
+stories about him."
+
+"Is that meant as a warning for me, Mrs. Doolan?" Isobel asked,
+smiling.
+
+"Well, yes, I think it is, if you don't mind my giving you one.
+There are some men one can flirt with as much as one likes, and
+there are some men one can't; he is one of that sort. Privately,
+my dear, I don't mind telling you that at one time I did flirt with
+him--I had been accustomed to flirt in Ireland; we all flirt
+there, and mean nothing by it; but I had to give it up very suddenly.
+It wouldn't do, my dear, at all; his ideas of flirtation differed
+utterly from mine. I found I was playing with fire, and was
+fortunate in getting off without singeing my wings, which is more
+than a good many others would have done."
+
+"He must be a horrid sort of man," Isobel said indignantly.
+
+Mrs. Doolan laughed. "I don't think you will find him so; certainly
+that is not the general opinion of women. However, you will see
+him for yourself in a very few minutes."
+
+Isobel looked up with some curiosity when Captain Forster was
+announced, and at once admitted to herself that the Doctor's report
+as to his personal appearance was fully justified. He stood over
+six feet high, with a powerful frame, and an easy careless bearing;
+his hair was cut rather close, he wore a long tawny mustache, his
+eyes were dark, his teeth very white and perfect. A momentary look
+of surprise came across his face as his eyes fell on Isobel.
+
+"I had hardly expected," he said, as the Major introduced him to
+her, "to find no less than three unmarried ladies at Deennugghur.
+I had the pleasure of being introduced to the Miss Hunters this
+afternoon. How do you do, Mrs. Doolan? I think it is four years
+since I had the pleasure of knowing you in Delhi."
+
+"I believe that is the number, Captain Forster."
+
+"It seems a very long time to me," he said.
+
+"I thought you would say that," she laughed. "It was quite the
+proper thing to say, Captain Forster; but I have no doubt it does
+seem longer to you than it does to me as you have been home since."
+
+"We are all here," the Major broke in. "Captain Forster, will you
+take my niece in?"
+
+"I suppose you find this very dull after Cawnpore, Miss Hannay?"
+Captain Forster asked.
+
+"Indeed I do not," Isobel said. "I like it better here; everything
+is sociable and pleasant, while at Cawnpore there was much more
+formality. Of course, there were lots of dinner parties, but I don't
+care for large dinner parties at all; it is so hot, and they last
+such a time. I think six is quite large enough. Then there is a
+general talk, and everyone can join in just as much as they like,
+while at a large dinner you have to rely entirely upon one person,
+and I think it is very hard work having to talk for an hour and a
+half to a stranger of whom you know nothing. Don't you agree with
+me?"
+
+"Entirely, Miss Hannay; I am a pretty good hand at talking, but at
+times I have found it very hard work, I can assure you, especially
+when you take down a stranger to the station, so that you have no
+mutual acquaintance to pull to pieces."
+
+The dinner was bright and pleasant, and when the evening was over
+Isobel said to her uncle, "I think Captain Forster is very amusing,
+uncle."
+
+"Yes," the Major agreed, "he is a good talker, a regular society
+man; he is no great favorite of mine; I think he will be a little
+too much for us in a small station like this."
+
+"How do you mean too much, uncle?"
+
+The Major hesitated.
+
+"Well, he won't have much to do with his troop of horse, and time
+will hang heavy on his hands."
+
+"Well, there is shooting, uncle."
+
+"Yes, there is shooting, but I don't think that is much in his
+line. Tiffins and calls, and society generally occupy most of his
+time, I fancy, and I think he is fonder of billiards and cards
+than is good for him or others. Of course, being here by himself,
+as he is, we must do our best to be civil to him, and that sort
+of thing, but if we were at Cawnpore he is a man I should not care
+about being intimate in the house."
+
+"I understand, uncle; but certainly he is pleasant."
+
+"Oh, yes, he is very pleasant," the Major said dryly, in a tone that
+seemed to express that Forster's power of making himself pleasant
+was by no means a recommendation in his eyes.
+
+But Captain Forster had apparently no idea whatever that his
+society could be anything but welcome, and called the next day
+after luncheon.
+
+"I have been leaving my pasteboard at all the residents," he said;
+"not a very large circle. Of course, I knew Mrs. Rintoul at Delhi,
+as well as Mrs. Doolan. I did not know any of the others. They seem
+pleasant people."
+
+"They are very pleasant," Isobel said.
+
+"I left one for a man named Bathurst. He was out. Is that the
+Bathurst, Major Hannay, who was in a line regiment--I forget its
+number--and left very suddenly in the middle of the fighting in
+the Punjaub?"
+
+"Yes; I believe Bathurst was in the army about that time," the
+Major said; "but I don't know anything about the circumstances of
+his leaving."
+
+Had Captain Forster known the Major better he would have been aware
+that what he meant to say was that he did not wish to know, but he
+did not detect the inflection of his voice, and went on--"They
+say he showed the white feather. If it is the same man, I was at
+school with him, and unless he has improved since then, I am sure
+I have no wish to renew his acquaintance."
+
+"I like him very much," the Major said shortly; "he is great
+friends with Dr. Wade, who has the very highest opinion of him, and
+I believe he is generally considered to be one of the most rising
+young officers of his grade."
+
+"Oh, I have nothing to say against him," Captain Forster said; "but
+he was a poor creature at school, and I do not think that there was
+any love lost between us. Did you know him before you came here?"
+
+"I only met him at the last races in Cawnpore," the Major said;
+"he was stopping with the Doctor."
+
+"Quite a character, Wade."
+
+Isobel's tongue was untied now.
+
+"I think he is one of the kindest and best gentlemen I ever met,"
+the girl said hotly; "he took care of me coming out here, and no
+one could have been kinder than he was."
+
+"I have no doubt he is all that," Captain Forster said gently;
+"still he is a character, Miss Hannay, taking the term character
+to mean a person who differs widely from other people. I believe
+he is very skillful in his profession, but I take it he is a sort
+of Abernethy, and tells the most startling truths to his patients."
+
+"That I can quite imagine," Isobel said; "the Doctor hates humbug
+of all sorts, and I don't think I should like to call him in myself
+for an imaginary ailment."
+
+"I rather put my foot in it there," Captain Forster said to himself,
+as he sauntered back to his tent. "The Major didn't like my saying
+anything against Bathurst, and the girl did not like my remark about
+the Doctor. I wonder whether she objected also to what I said about
+that fellow Bathurst--a sneaking little hound he was, and there
+is no doubt about his showing the white feather in the Punjaub.
+However, I don't think that young lady is of the sort to care about
+a coward, and if she asks any questions, as I dare say she will,
+after what I have said, she will find that the story is a true one.
+What a pretty little thing she is! I did not see a prettier face
+all the time I was at home. What with her and Mrs. Doolan, time is
+not likely to hang so heavily here as I had expected."
+
+The Major, afraid that Isobel might ask him some questions about
+this story of Bathurst leaving the army, went off hastily as soon
+as Captain Forster had left. Isobel sat impatiently tapping the
+floor with her foot, awaiting the Doctor, who usually came for half
+an hour's chat in the afternoon.
+
+"Well, child, how did your dinner go off yesterday, and what did
+you think of your new visitor? I saw him come away from here half
+an hour ago. I suppose he has been calling."
+
+"I don't like him at all," Isobel said decidedly.
+
+"No? Well, then, you are an exception to the general rule."
+
+"I thought him pleasant enough last night," Isobel said frankly.
+"He has a deferential sort of way about him when he speaks to one
+that one can hardly help liking. But he made me angry today. In
+the first place, Doctor, he said you were a character."
+
+The Doctor chuckled. "Well, that is true enough, my dear. There
+was no harm in that."
+
+"And then he said"--and she broke off--"he said what I feel
+sure cannot be true. He said that Mr. Bathurst left the army because
+he showed the white feather. It is not true, is it? I am sure it
+can't be true."
+
+The Doctor did not reply immediately.
+
+"It is an old story," he said presently, "and ought not to have
+been brought up again. I don't suppose Forster or anyone else knows
+the rights of the case. When a man leaves his regiment and retires
+when it is upon active service, there are sure to be spiteful stories
+getting about, often without the slightest foundation. But even
+if it had been true, it would hardly be to Bathurst's disadvantage
+now he is no longer in the army, and courage is not a vital necessity
+on the part of a civilian."
+
+"You can't mean that, Doctor; surely every man ought to be brave.
+Could anyone possibly respect a man who is a coward? I don't believe
+it, Doctor, for a moment."
+
+"Courage, my dear, is not a universal endowment--it is a physical
+as much as a moral virtue. Some people are physically brave and
+morally cowards; others are exactly the reverse. Some people are
+constitutionally cowards all round, while in others cowardice shows
+itself only partially. I have known a man who is as brave as a lion
+in battle, but is terrified by a rat. I have known a man brave in
+other respects lose his nerve altogether in a thunderstorm. In neither
+of these cases was it the man's own fault; it was constitutional,
+and by no effort could he conquer it. I consider Bathurst to be
+an exceptionally noble character. I am sure that he is capable of
+acts of great bravery in some directions, but it is possible that
+he is, like the man I have spoken of, constitutionally weak in
+others."
+
+"But the great thing is to be brave in battle, Doctor! You would
+not call a man a coward simply because he was afraid of a rat,
+but you would call a man a coward who was afraid in battle. To be
+a coward there seems to me to be a coward all round. I have always
+thought the one virtue in man I really envied was bravery, and that
+a coward was the most despicable creature living. It might not be
+his actual fault, but one can't help that. It is not anyone's fault
+if he is fearfully ugly or born an idiot, for example. But cowardice
+seems somehow different. Not to be brave when he is strong seems
+to put a man below the level of a woman. I feel sure, Doctor, there
+must be some mistake, and that this story cannot be true. I have
+seen a good deal of Mr. Bathurst since we have been here, and you
+have always spoken so well of him, he is the last man I should have
+thought would be--would be like that."
+
+"I know the circumstances of the case, child. You can trust me when
+I say that there is nothing in Bathurst's conduct that diminishes
+my respect for him in the slightest degree, and that in some respects
+he is as brave a man as any I know."
+
+"Yes, Doctor, all that may be; but you do not answer my question.
+Did Mr. Bathurst leave the army because he showed cowardice? If
+he did, and you know it, why did you invite him here? why did you
+always praise him? why did you not say, 'In other respects this man
+may be good and estimable, but he is that most despicable thing,
+a coward'?"
+
+There was such a passion of pain in her voice and face that the
+Doctor only said quietly, "I did not know it, my dear, or I should
+have told you at first that in this one point he was wanting. It
+is, I consider, the duty of those who know things to speak out.
+But he is certainly not what you say."
+
+Isobel tossed her head impatiently. "We need not discuss it, Doctor.
+It is nothing to me whether Mr. Bathurst is brave or not, only it
+is not quite pleasant to learn that you have been getting on friendly
+terms with a man who--"
+
+"Don't say any more," the Doctor broke in. "You might at least
+remember he is a friend of mine. There is no occasion for us to
+quarrel, my dear, and to prevent the possibility of such a thing
+I will be off at once."
+
+After he had left Isobel sat down to think over what had been said.
+He had not directly answered her questions, but he had not denied
+that the rumor that Bathurst had retired from the army because he
+was wanting in courage was well founded. Everything he had said, in
+fact, was an excuse rather than a denial. The Doctor was as stanch
+a friend as he was bitter an opponent. Could he have denied it he
+would have done so strongly and indignantly.
+
+It was clear that, much as he liked Bathurst, he believed him
+wanting in physical courage. He had said, indeed, that he believed
+he was brave in some respects, and had asserted that he knew of
+one exceptional act of courage that he had performed; but what was
+that if a man had had to leave the army because he was a coward?
+To Isobel it seemed that of all things it was most dreadful that a
+man should be wanting in courage. Tales of daring and bravery had
+always been her special delight, and, being full of life and spirit
+herself, it had not seemed even possible to her that a gentleman
+could be a coward, and that Bathurst could be so was to her well
+nigh incredible.
+
+It might, as the Doctor had urged, be in no way his fault, but this
+did not affect the fact. He might be more to be pitied than to be
+blamed; but pity of that kind, so far from being akin to love, was
+destructive of it.
+
+Unconsciously she had raised Bathurst on a lofty pinnacle. The
+Doctor had spoken very highly of him. She had admired the energy
+with which, instead of caring, as others did, for pleasure, he
+devoted himself to his work. Older men than himself listened to his
+opinions. His quiet and somewhat restrained manner was in contrast
+to the careless fun and good humor of most of those with whom she
+came in contact. It had seemed to her that he was a strong man,
+one who could be relied upon implicitly at all times, and she had
+come in the few weeks she had been at Deennugghur to rely upon his
+opinion, and to look forward to his visits, and even to acknowledge
+to herself that he approached her ideal of what a man should be
+more than anyone else she had met.
+
+And now this was all shattered at a blow. He was wanting in man's
+first attribute. He had left the army, if not in disgrace, at least
+under a cloud and even his warm friend, the Doctor, could not deny
+that the accusation of cowardice was well founded. The pain of the
+discovery opened her eyes to the fact which she had not before,
+even remotely, admitted to herself, that she was beginning to love
+him, and the discovery was a bitter one.
+
+"I may thank Captain Forster for that, at least," she said to
+herself, as she angrily wiped a tear from her cheek; "he has opened
+my eyes in time. What should I have felt if I had found too late
+that I had come to love a man who was a coward--who had left the
+army because he was afraid? I should have despised myself as much
+as I should despise him. Well, that is my first lesson. I shall not
+trust in appearances again. Why, I would rather marry a man like
+Captain Forster, even if everything they say about him is true,
+than a man who is a coward. At least he is brave, and has shown
+himself so."
+
+The Doctor had gone away in a state of extreme irritation.
+
+"Confound the meddling scoundrel!" he said to himself, as he
+surprised the horse with a sharp cut of the whip. "Just when things
+were going on as I wished. I had quite set my mind on it, and though
+I am sure Bathurst would never have spoken to her till he had told
+her himself about that unfortunate failing of his, it would have
+been altogether different coming from his own lips just as he told
+it to me. Of course, my lips were sealed and I could not put the
+case in the right light. I would give three months' pay for the
+satisfaction of horsewhipping that fellow Forster. Still, I can't
+say he did it maliciously, for he could not have known Bathurst
+was intimate there, or that there was anything between them. The
+question is, am I to tell Bathurst that she has heard about it? I
+suppose I had better. Ah, here is the Major," and he drew up his
+horse.
+
+"Anything new, Major? You look put out."
+
+"Yes, there is very bad news, Doctor. A Sowar has just brought
+a letter to me from the Colonel saying that the General has got a
+telegram that the 19th Native Infantry at Berhampore have refused
+to use the cartridges served out to them, and that yesterday a Sepoy
+of the 34th at Barrackpore raised seditious cries in front of the
+lines, and when Baugh, the adjutant, and the sergeant major attempted
+to seize him he wounded them both, while the regiment stood by and
+refused to aid them. The 19th are to be disbanded, and no doubt
+the 34th will be, too."
+
+"That is bad news indeed, Major, and looks as if this talk about
+general disaffection were true. Had there been trouble but at one
+station it might have been the effect of some local grievance, but
+happening at two places, it looks as if it were part of a general
+plot. Well, we must hope it will go no farther."
+
+"It is very bad," said the Major, "but at any rate we may hope we
+shall have no troubles here; the regiment has always behaved well,
+and I am sure they have no reason to complain of their treatment.
+If the Colonel has a fault, it is that of over leniency with the
+men."
+
+"That is so," the Doctor agreed; "but the fact is, Major, we know
+really very little about the Hindoo mind. We can say with some sort
+of certainty what Europeans will do under given circumstances, but
+though I know the natives, I think, pretty nearly as well as most
+men, I feel that I really know nothing about them. They appear mild
+and submissive, and .have certainly proved faithful on a hundred
+battlefields, but we don't know whether that is their real character.
+Their own history, before we stepped in and altered its current,
+shows them as faithless, bloodthirsty and cruel; whether they have
+changed their nature under our rule, or simply disguised it, Heaven
+only knows."
+
+"At any rate," the Major said, "they have always shown themselves
+attached to their English officers. There are numberless instances
+where they have displayed the utmost devotion for them, and although
+some scheming intriguers may have sown the seeds of discontent
+among them, and these lies about the cartridges may have excited
+their religious prejudices, and may even lead them to mutiny, I
+cannot believe for an instant that the Sepoys will lift their hands
+against their officers."
+
+"I hope not," the Doctor said gravely. "A tiger's cub, when tamed,
+is one of the prettiest of playthings, but when it once tastes blood
+it is as savage a beast as its mother was before it. Of course,
+I hope for the best, but if the Sepoys once break loose I would
+not answer for anything they might do. They have been pretty well
+spoilt, Major, till they have come to believe that it is they who
+conquered India and not we."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+That evening, after dining alone, the Doctor went in to Bathurst's.
+The latter had already heard the news, and they talked it over for
+some time. Then the Doctor said, "Have you seen Forster, Bathurst,
+since he arrived?"
+
+"No, I was out when he left his card. I was at school with him..
+I heard when I was in England that he was out here in the native
+cavalry, but I have never run across him before, and I own I had
+no wish to do so. He was about two years older than I was, and was
+considered the cock of the school. He was one of my chief tormentors.
+I don't know that he was a bully generally--fellows who are really
+plucky seldom are; but he disliked me heartily, and I hated him.
+
+"I had the habit of telling the truth when questioned, and he
+narrowly escaped expulsion owing to my refusing to tell a lie about
+his being quietly in bed when, in fact, he and two or three other
+fellows had been out at a public house. He never forgave me for it,
+for he himself would have told a lie without hesitation to screen
+himself, or, to do him justice, to screen anyone else; and the mere
+fact that I myself had been involved in the matter, having been
+sent out by one of the bigger fellows, and, therefore, having got
+myself a flogging by my admission, was no mitigation in his eyes
+of my offense of what he called sneaking.
+
+"So you may imagine I have no particular desire to meet him again.
+Unless he has greatly changed, he would do me a bad turn if he had
+the chance."
+
+"I don't think he has greatly changed," the Doctor said. "That was
+really what I came in here for this evening rather than to talk
+about this Sepoy business. I am sorry to say, Bathurst, that when
+he was in at the Major's today your name happened to be mentioned,
+and he said at once, 'Is that the Bathurst who they say showed the
+white feather at Chillianwalla and left the army in consequence?'"
+
+Bathurst's face grew pale and his fingers closed. He remained silent
+a minute, and then said, "It does not matter; she would have been
+sure to hear it sooner or later, and I should have told her myself
+if he had not done so; besides, if, as I am afraid, this Berhampore
+business is the beginning of trouble, and of such trouble as we have
+never had since we set foot in India, it is likely that everyone
+will know what she knows now. Has she spoken to you about it? I
+suppose she has, or you would not have known that he mentioned it."
+
+"Yes, she was most indignant about it, and did not believe it."
+
+"And what did you say, Doctor?" he asked indifferently.
+
+"Well, I was sorry I could not tell her exactly what you told me.
+It would have been better if I could have done so. I simply said
+there were many sorts of courage, and that I was sure that you
+possessed many sorts in a very high degree, but I could not, of
+course, deny; although I did not admit, the truth of the report he
+had mentioned."
+
+"I don't think it makes much difference one way or the other,"
+Bathurst said wearily. "I have known all along that Isobel Hannay
+would not marry a coward, only I have gone on living in a fool's
+paradise. However, it is over now--the sooner it is all over the
+better."
+
+"My dear fellow," the Doctor said earnestly, "don't take this thing
+too much to heart. I don't wish to try and persuade you that it
+is not a grave misfortune, but even suppose this trouble takes the
+very worst form possible, I do not think you will come so very badly
+out of it as you anticipate. Even assuming that you are unable to
+do your part in absolute fighting, there may be other opportunities,
+and most likely will, in which you may be able to show that although
+unable to control your nerves in the din of battle, you possess in
+other respects coolness and courage. That feat of yours of attacking
+the tiger with the dog whip shows conclusively that under many
+circumstances you are capable of most daring deeds."
+
+Bathurst sat looking down for some minutes. "God grant that it may
+be so," he said at last; "but it is no use talking about it any
+more, Doctor. I suppose Major Hannay will keep a sharp lookout over
+the men?"
+
+"Yes; there was a meeting of the officers this afternoon. It was
+agreed to make no outward change, and to give the troops no cause
+whatever to believe that they are suspected. They all feel confident
+of the goodwill of the men; at the same time they will watch them
+closely, and if the news comes of further trouble, they will prepare
+the courthouse as a place of refuge."
+
+"That is a very good plan; but of course everything depends upon
+whether, if the troops do rise in mutiny, the people of Oude should
+join them. They are a fighting race, and if they should throw in
+their lot against us the position would be a desperate one."
+
+"Well, there is no doubt," the Doctor said, "that the Rajah of
+Bithoor would be with us; that will make Cawnpore safe, and will
+largely influence all the great Zemindars, though there is no doubt
+that a good many of them have been sulky ever since the disarmament
+order was issued. I believe there are few of them who have not got
+cannon hidden away or buried, and as for the people, the number
+of arms given up was as nothing to what we know they possessed. In
+other parts of India I believe the bulk of the people will be with
+us; but here in Oude, our last annexation, I fear that they will
+side against us, unless all the great landowners range themselves
+on our side."
+
+"As far as I can see," Bathurst said, "the people are contented with
+the change. I don't say what I may call the professional fighting
+class, the crowd of retainers kept by the great landowners, who were
+constantly fighting against each other. Annexation has put a stop
+to all that, and the towns are crowded with these fighting men, who
+hate us bitterly; but the peasants, the tillers of the soil, have
+benefited greatly. They are no longer exposed to raids by their
+powerful neighbors, and can cultivate their fields in peace and
+quiet. Unfortunately their friendship, such as it is, will not
+weigh in the slightest degree in the event of a struggle. At any
+rate, I am sure they are not behind the scenes, and know nothing
+whatever of any coming trouble. Going as I do among them, and
+talking to them as one of themselves, I should have noticed it had
+there been any change in them; and of late naturally I have paid
+special notice to their manner. Well, if it is to come I hope it
+will come soon, for anything is better than suspense."
+
+Two days later Major Hannay read out to the men on parade an
+official document, assuring them that there was no truth whatever
+in the statements that had been made that the cartridges served
+out to them had been greased with pigs' fat. They were precisely
+the same as those that they had used for years, and the men were
+warned against listening to seditious persons who might try to
+poison their minds and shake their loyalty to the Government. He
+then told them that he was sorry to say that at one or two stations
+the men had been foolish enough to listen to disloyal counsels,
+and that in consequence the regiments had been disbanded and the
+men had forfeited all the advantages in the way of pay and pension
+they had earned by many years of good conduct. He said that he had
+no fear whatever of any such trouble arising with them, as they
+knew that they had been well treated, that any legitimate complaint
+they might make had always been attended to, and that their officers
+had their welfare thoroughly at heart.
+
+When he had finished, the senior native officer stepped forward, and
+in the name of the detachment assured the Major that the men were
+perfectly contented, and would in all cases follow their officers,
+even if they ordered them to march against their countrymen. At the
+conclusion of his speech he called upon the troops to give three
+cheers for the Major and officers, and this was responded to with
+a show of great enthusiasm.
+
+This demonstration was deemed very satisfactory, and the uneasiness
+among the residents abated considerably, while the Major and his
+officers felt convinced that, whatever happened at other stations,
+there would at least be no trouble at Deennugghur.
+
+"Well, even you are satisfied, Doctor, I suppose?" the Major said,
+as a party of them who had been dining with Dr. Wade were smoking
+in the veranda.
+
+"I was hopeful before, Major, and I am hopeful now; but I can't say
+that today's parade has influenced me in the slightest. Whatever
+virtues the Hindoo may have, he has certainly that of knowing how
+to wait. I believe, from what took place, that they have no intention
+of breaking out at present; whether they are waiting to see what
+is done at other stations, or until they receive a signal, is more
+than I can say; but their assurances do not weigh with me to the
+slightest extent. Their history is full of cases of perfidious
+massacre. I should say, 'Trust them as long as you can, but don't
+relax your watch.'"
+
+"You are a confirmed croaker," Captain Rintoul said.
+
+"I do not think so, Rintoul. I know the men I am talking about,
+and I know the Hindoos generally. They are mere children, and can
+be molded like clay. As long as we had the molding, all went well;
+but if they fall into the hands of designing men they can be led
+in another direction just as easily as we have led them in ours.
+I own that I don't see who can be sufficiently interested in the
+matter to conceive and carry out a great conspiracy of this kind.
+The King of Oude is a captive in our hands, the King of Delhi is
+too old to play such a part. Scindia and Holkar may possibly long
+for the powers their fathers possessed, but they are not likely to
+act together, and may be regarded as rivals rather than friends,
+and yet if it is not one of these who has been brewing this storm.
+I own I don't see who can be at the bottom of it, unless it has
+really originated from some ambitious spirits among the Sepoys,
+who look in the event of success to being masters of the destinies
+of India. It is a pity we did not get a few more views from that
+juggler; we might have known a little more of it then."
+
+"Don't talk about him, Doctor," Wilson said; "it gives me the cold
+shivers to think of that fellow and what he did; I have hardly slept
+since then. It was the most creepy thing I ever saw. Richards and
+I have talked it over every evening we have been alone together,
+and we can't make head or tail of the affair. Richards thinks
+it wasn't the girl at all who went up on that pole, but a sort of
+balloon in her shape. But then, as I say, there was the girl standing
+among us before she took her place on the pole. We saw her sit down
+and settle herself on the cushion so that she was balanced right.
+So it could not have been a balloon then, and if it were a balloon
+afterwards, when did she change? At any rate the light below was
+sufficient to see well until she was forty or fifty feet up, and
+after that she shone out, and we never lost sight of her until
+she was ever so high. I can understand the pictures, because there
+might have been a magic lantern somewhere, but that girl trick, and
+the basket trick, and that great snake are altogether beyond me."
+
+"So I should imagine, Wilson," the Doctor said dryly; "and if I were
+you I would not bother my head about it.. Nobody has succeeded in
+finding out any of them yet, and all the wondering in the world is
+not likely to get you any nearer to it."
+
+"That is what I feel, Doctor, but it is very riling to see things
+that you can't account for anyhow. I wish he had sent up Richards
+on the pole instead of the girl. I would not have minded going up
+myself if he had asked me, though I expect I should have jumped off
+before it got up very far, even at the risk of breaking my neck."
+
+"I should not mind risking that," the Doctor said, "though I doubt
+whether I should have known any more about it when I came down;
+but these jugglers always bring a girl or a boy with them instead
+of calling somebody out from the audience, as they do at home. Well,
+if things are quiet we will organize another hunt, Wilson. I have
+heard of a tiger fifteen miles away from where we killed our last,
+and you and Richards shall go with me if you like."
+
+"I should like it of all things, Doctor, provided it comes off by
+day. I don't think I care about sitting through another night on a
+tree, and then not getting anything like a fair shot at the beast
+after all."
+
+"We will go by day," the Doctor said. "Bathurst has promised to get
+some elephants from one of the Zemindars; we will have a regular
+party this time. I have half promised Miss Hannay she shall have a
+seat in a howdah with me if the Major will give her leave, and in
+that case we will send out tents and make a regular party of it.
+What do you say, Major?"
+
+"I am perfectly willing, Doctor, and have certainly no objection
+to trusting Isobel to your care. I know you are not likely to miss."
+
+"No, I am not likely to miss, certainly; and besides, there will
+be Wilson and Richards to give him the coup de grace if I don't
+finish him."
+
+There was a general laugh, for the two subalterns had been chaffed
+a good deal at both missing the tiger on the previous occasion.
+
+"Well, when shall it be, Major?"
+
+"Not just at present, at any rate," the Major said. "We must see
+how things are going on. I certainly should not think of going
+outside the station now, nor could I give leave to any officer
+to do so; but if things settle down, and we hear no more of this
+cartridge business for the next ten days or a fortnight, we will
+see about it."
+
+But although no news of any outbreak similar to that at Barrackpore
+was received for some days, the report that came showed a widespread
+restlessness. At various stations, all over India, fires, believed
+to be the work of incendiaries, took place, and there was little
+abatement of the uneasiness. It become known, too, that a native
+officer had before the rising of Berhampore given warning of the
+mutiny, and had stated that there was a widespread plot throughout
+the native regiments to rise, kill their officers, and then march
+to Delhi, where they were all to gather.
+
+The story was generally disbelieved, although the actual rising
+had shown that, to some extent, the report was well founded; still
+men could not bring themselves to believe that the troops among whom
+they had lived so long, and who had fought so well for us, could
+meditate such gross treachery, without having, as far as could be
+seen, any real cause for complaint.
+
+The conduct of the troops at Deennugghur was excellent, and the
+Colonel wrote that at Cawnpore there were no signs whatever of
+disaffection, and that the Rajah of Bithoor had offered to come
+down at the head of his own troops should there be any symptoms
+of mutiny among the Sepoys. Altogether things looked better, and a
+feeling of confidence that there would be no serious trouble spread
+through the station.
+
+The weather had set in very hot, and there was no stirring out
+now for the ladies between eleven o'clock and five or six in the
+afternoon. Isobel, however, generally went in for a chat, the first
+thing after early breakfast, with Mrs. Doolan, whose children were
+fractious with prickly heat.
+
+"I only wish we had some big, high mountain, my dear, somewhere
+within reach, where we could establish the children through the
+summer and run away ourselves occasionally to look after them. We
+are very badly off here in Oude for that. You are looking very pale
+yourself the last few days."
+
+"I suppose I feel it a little," Isobel said, "and of course this
+anxiety everyone has been feeling worries one. Everyone seems to
+agree that there is no fear of trouble with the Sepoys here; still,
+as nothing else is talked about, one cannot help feeling nervous
+about it. However, as things seem settling down now, I hope we
+shall soon get something else to talk about."
+
+"I have not seen Mr. Bathurst lately," Mrs. Doolan said presently.
+
+"Nor have we," Isobel said quietly; "it is quite ten days since we
+saw him last."
+
+"I suppose he is falling back into his hermit ways," Mrs. Doolan
+said carelessly, shooting a keen glance at Isobel, who was leaning
+over one of the children.
+
+"He quite emerged from his shell for a bit. Mrs. Hunter was saying
+she never saw such a change in a man, but I suppose he has got
+tired of it. Captain Forster arrived just in time to fill up the
+gap. How do you like him, Isobel?"
+
+"He is amusing," the girl said quietly; "I have never seen anyone
+quite like him before; he talks in an easy, pleasant sort of way,
+and tells most amusing stories. Then, when he sits down by one he
+has the knack of dropping his voice and talking in a confidential
+sort of way, even when it is only about the weather. I am always
+asking myself how much of it is real, and what there is under the
+surface."
+
+Mrs. Doolan nodded approval.
+
+"I don't think there is much under the surface, dear, and what
+there is is just as well left alone; but there is no doubt he can
+be delightful when he chooses, and very few women would not feel
+flattered by the attentions of a man who is said to be the handsomest
+officer in the Indian army, and who has besides distinguished
+himself several times as a particularly dashing officer."
+
+"I don't think handsomeness goes for much in a man," Isobel said
+shortly.
+
+Mrs. Doolan laughed.
+
+"Why should it not go for as much as prettiness in a woman? It is
+no use being cynical, Isobel; it is part of our nature to admire
+pretty things, and as far as I can see an exceptionally handsome
+man is as legitimate an object of admiration as a lovely woman."
+
+"Yes, to admire, Mrs. Doolan, but not to like."
+
+"Well, my dear, I don't want to be hurrying you away, but I think
+you had better get back before the sun gets any higher. You may say
+you don't feel the heat much, but you are looking pale and fagged,
+and the less you are out in the sun the better."
+
+Isobel had indeed been having a hard time during those ten days.
+At first she had thought of little but what she should do when
+Bathurst called. It seemed impossible that she could be exactly
+the same with him as she had been before, that was quite out of
+the question, and yet how was she to be different?
+
+Ten days had passed without his coming. This was so unusual that
+an idea came into her mind which terrified her, and the first time
+when the Doctor came in and found her alone she said, "Of course,
+Dr. Wade, you have not mentioned to Mr. Bathurst the conversation
+we had, but it is curious his not having been here since."
+
+"Certainly I mentioned it," the Doctor said calmly; "how could I
+do otherwise? It was evident to me that he would not be welcomed
+here as he was before, and I could not do otherwise than warn him
+of the change he might expect to find, and to give him the reason
+for it."
+
+Isobel stood the picture of dismay. "I don't think you had any
+right to do so, Doctor," she said. "You have placed me in a most
+painful position."
+
+"In not so painful a one as it would have been, my dear, if he had
+noticed the change himself, as he must have done, and asked for
+the cause of it."
+
+Isobel stood twisting her fingers over each other before her
+nervously.
+
+"But what am I to do?" she asked.
+
+"I do not see that there is anything more for you to do," the Doctor
+said. "Mr. Bathurst may not be perfect in all respects, but he is
+certainly too much of a gentleman to force his visits where they
+are not wanted. I do not say he will not come here at all, for not
+to do so after being here so much would create comment and talk
+in the station, which would be as painful to you as to him, but he
+certainly will not come here more often than is necessary to keep
+up appearances."
+
+"I don't think you ought to have told him," Isobel repeated, much
+distressed.
+
+"I could not help it, my dear. You would force me to admit there
+was some truth in the story Captain Forster told you, and I was,
+therefore, obliged to acquaint him with the fact or he would have
+had just cause to reproach me. Besides, you spoke of despising a
+man who was not physically brave."
+
+"You never told him that, Doctor; surely you never told him that?"
+
+"I only told what it was necessary he should know, my dear, namely,
+that you had heard the story, that you had questioned me, and that
+I, knowing the facts from his lips, admitted that there was some
+foundation for the story, while asserting that I was convinced that
+he was morally a brave man. He did not ask how you took the news,
+nor did I volunteer any information whatever on the subject, but
+he understood, I think, perfectly the light in which you would view
+a coward."
+
+"But what am I to do when we meet, Doctor?" she asked piteously.
+
+"I should say that you will meet just as ordinary .acquaintances
+do meet, Miss Hannay. People are civil to others they are thrown
+with, however much they may distrust them at heart. You may be sure
+that Mr. Bathurst will make no allusion whatever to the matter. I
+think I can answer for it that you will see no shade of difference
+in his manner. This has always been a heavy burden for him, as even
+the most careless observer may see in his manner. I do not say that
+this is not a large addition to it, but I dare say he will pull
+through; and now I must be off."
+
+"You are very unkind, Doctor, and I never knew you unkind before."
+
+"Unkind!" the Doctor repeated, with an air of surprise. "In what
+way? I love this young fellow. I had cherished hopes for him that
+he hardly perhaps ventured to cherish for himself. I quite agree
+with you that what has passed has annihilated those hopes. You
+despise a man who is a coward. I am not surprised at that. Bathurst
+is the last man in the world who would force himself upon a woman
+who despised him. I have done my best to save you from being obliged
+to make a personal declaration of your sentiments. I repudiate
+altogether the accusation as being unkind. I don't blame you in
+the slightest. I think that your view is the one that a young woman
+of spirit would naturally take. I acquiesce in it entirely. I will
+go farther, I consider it a most fortunate occurrence for you both
+that you found it out in time."
+
+Isobel's cheeks had flushed and paled several times while he was
+speaking; then she pressed her lips tightly together, and as he
+finished she said, "I think, Doctor, it will be just as well not
+to discuss the matter further."
+
+"I am quite of your opinion," he said. "We will agree not to allude
+to it again. Goodby."
+
+And then Isobel had retired to her room and cried passionately,
+while the Doctor had gone off chuckling to himself as if he were
+perfectly satisfied with the state of affairs.
+
+During the week that had since elapsed the Major had wondered and
+grumbled several times at Bathurst's absence.
+
+"I expect," he said one day, when a note of refusal had come from
+him, "that he doesn't care about meeting Forster. You remember
+Forster said they had been at school together, and from the tone in
+which he spoke it is evident that they disliked each other there.
+No doubt he has heard from the Doctor that Forster is frequently in
+here," and the Major spoke rather irritably, for it seemed to him
+that Isobel showed more pleasure in the Captain's society than she
+should have done after what he had said to her about him; indeed,
+Isobel, especially when the Doctor was present, appeared by no
+means to object to Captain Forster's attentions.
+
+Upon the evening, however, of the day when Isobel had spoken to
+Mrs. Doolan, Bathurst came in, rather late in the evening.
+
+"How are you, Bathurst?" the Major said cordially. "Why, you have
+become quite a stranger. We haven't seen you for over a fortnight.
+Do you know Captain Forster?"
+
+"We were at school together formerly, I believe," Bathurst said
+quietly. "We have not met since, and I fancy we are both changed
+beyond recognition."
+
+Captain Forster looked with surprise at the strong, well knit
+figure. He had not before seen Bathurst, and had pictured him to
+himself as a weak, puny man.
+
+"I certainly should not have known Mr. Bathurst," he said. "I have
+changed a great deal, no doubt, but he has certainly changed more."
+
+There was no attempt on the part of either to shake hands. As they
+moved apart Isobel came into the room.
+
+A quick flash of color spread over her face when, upon entering,
+she saw Bathurst talking to her uncle. Then she advanced, shook
+hands with him as usual, and said, "It is quite a time since you
+were here, Mr. Bathurst. If everyone was as full of business as
+you are, we should get on badly."
+
+Then she moved on without waiting for a reply and sat down, and
+was soon engaged in a lively conversation with. Captain Forster,
+whilst Bathurst, a few minutes later, pleading that as he had been
+in the saddle all day he must go and make up for lost time, took
+his leave.
+
+Captain Forster had noticed the flush on Isobel's cheeks when she
+saw Bathurst, and had drawn his own conclusions.
+
+"There has been a flirtation between them," he said to himself;
+"but I fancy I have put a spoke in his wheel. She gave him the cold
+shoulder unmistakably."
+
+April passed, and as matters seemed to be quieting down, there
+being no fresh trouble at any of the stations, the Major told Dr.
+Wade that he really saw no reason why the projected tiger hunt
+should not take place. The Doctor at once took the matter in hand,
+and drove out the next morning to the village from which he had
+received news about the tiger, had a long talk with the shikaris
+of the place, took a general view of the country, settled the line
+in which the beat should take place, and arranged for a large body
+of beaters to be on the spot at the time agreed on.
+
+Bathurst undertook to obtain the elephants from two Zemindars in
+the neighborhood, who promised to furnish six, all of which were
+more or less accustomed to the sport; while the Major and Mr. Hunter,
+who had been a keen sportsman, although he had of late given up
+the pursuit of large game, arranged for a number of bullock carts
+for the transport of tents and stores.
+
+Bathurst himself declined to be one of the party, which was to
+consist of Mr. Hunter and his eldest daughter, the Major and Isobel,
+the Doctor, the two subalterns, and Captain Forster. Captain Doolan
+said frankly that he was no shot, and more likely to hit one of
+the party than the tiger. Captain Rintoul at first accepted, but
+his wife shed such floods of tears at the idea of his leaving her
+and going into danger, that for the sake of peace he agreed to
+remain at home.
+
+Wilson and Richards were greatly excited over the prospect, and
+talked of nothing else; they were burning to wipe out the disgrace
+of having missed on the previous occasion. Each of them interviewed
+the Doctor privately, and implored him to put them in a position
+where they were likely to have the first shot. Both used the same
+arguments, namely, that the Doctor had killed so many tigers that
+one more or less could make no difference to him, and if they
+missed, which they modestly admitted was possible, he could still
+bring the animal down.
+
+As the Doctor was always in a good temper when there was a prospect
+of sport, he promised each of them to do all that he could for them,
+at the same time pointing out that it was always quite a lottery
+which way the tiger might break out.
+
+Isobel was less excited than she would have thought possible over the
+prospect of taking part in a tiger hunt. She had many consultations
+to hold with Mrs. Hunter, the Doctor, and Rumzan as to the food
+to be taken, and the things that would be absolutely necessary for
+camping out; for, as it was possible that the first day's beat would
+be unsuccessful, they were to be prepared for at least two days'
+absence from home. Two tents were to be taken, one for the gentlemen,
+the other for Isobel and Mary Hunter. These, with bedding and camp
+furniture, cooking utensils and provisions, were to be sent off
+at daybreak, while the party were to start as soon as the heat of
+the day was over.
+
+"I wish Bathurst had been coming," Major Hannay said, as, with
+Isobel by his side, he drove out of the cantonment. "He seems
+to have slipped away from us altogether; he has only been in once
+for the last three or four weeks. You haven't had a tiff with him
+about anything, have you, Isobel? It seems strange his ceasing so
+suddenly to come after our seeing so much of him."
+
+"No, uncle, I have not seen him except when you have. What put such
+an idea into your mind?"
+
+"I don't know, my dear; young people do have tiffs sometimes about
+all sorts of trifles, though I should not have thought that Bathurst
+was the sort of man to do anything of that sort. I don't think that
+he likes Forster, and does not care to meet him. I fancy that is
+at the bottom of it."
+
+"Very likely," Isobel said innocently, and changed the subject.
+
+It was dark when they reached the appointed spot, and indeed from
+the point where they left the road a native with a torch had run
+ahead to show them the way. The tents looked bright; two or three
+large fires were burning round them, and the lamps had already been
+lighted within.
+
+"These tents do look cozy," Mary Hunter said, as she and Isobel
+entered the one prepared for them. "I do wish one always lived
+under canvas during the hot weather."
+
+"They look cool," Isobel said, "but I don't suppose they are really
+as cool as the bungalows; but they do make them comfortable. Here
+is the bathroom all ready, and I am sure we want it after that dusty
+drive. Will you have one first, or shall I? We must make haste, for
+Rumzan said dinner would be ready in half an hour. Fortunately we
+shan't be expected to do much in the way of dressing."
+
+The dinner was a cheerful meal, and everyone was in high spirits.
+
+The tiger had killed a cow the day before, and the villagers were
+certain that he had retired to a deep nullah round which a careful
+watch had been kept all day. Probably he would steal out by night
+to make a meal from the carcass of the cow, but it had been arranged
+that he was to do this undisturbed, and that the hunt was to take
+place by daylight.
+
+"It is wonderful how the servants manage everything," Isobel said.
+"The table is just as well arranged as it is at home. People would
+hardly believe in England, if they could see us sitting here, that
+we were only out on a two days' picnic. They would be quite content
+there to rough it and take their meals sitting on the ground,
+or anyway they could get them. It really seems ridiculous having
+everything like this."
+
+"There is nothing like making yourself comfortable," the Doctor
+said; "and as the servants have an easy time of it generally, it
+does them good to bestir themselves now and then. The expense of
+one or two extra bullock carts is nothing, and it makes all the
+difference in comfort."
+
+"How far is the nullah from here, Doctor?" Wilson, who could think
+of nothing else but the tiger, asked.
+
+"About two miles. It is just as well not to go any nearer. Not that
+he would be likely to pay us a visit, but he might take the alarm
+and shift his quarters. No, no more wine, Major; we shall want
+our blood cool in the morning. Now we will go out to look at the
+elephants and have a talk with the mahouts, and find out which of
+the animals can be most trusted to stand steady. It is astonishing
+what a dread most elephants have of tigers. I was on one once that
+I was assured would face anything, and the brute bolted and went
+through some trees, and I was swept off the pad and was half an hour
+before I opened my eyes. It was a mercy I had not every rib broken.
+Fortunately I was a lightweight, or I might have been killed. And
+I have seen the same sort of thing happen a dozen times, so we must
+choose a couple of steady ones, anyhow, for the ladies."
+
+For the next hour they strolled about outside. The Doctor cross
+questioned the mahouts and told off the elephants for the party;
+then there was a talk with the native shikaris and arrangements
+made for the beat, and at an early hour all retired to rest. The
+morning was just breaking when they were called. Twenty minutes
+later they assembled to take a cup of coffee before starting. The
+elephants were arranged in front of the tents, and they were just
+about to mount when a horse was heard coming at a gallop.
+
+"Wait a moment," the Major said; "it may be a message of some sort
+from the station." A minute later Bathurst rode in and reined up
+his horse in front of the tent.
+
+"Why, Bathurst, what brings you here? Changed your mind at the last
+moment, and found you could get away? That's right; you shall come
+on the pad with me."
+
+"No, I have not come for that, Major; I have brought a dispatch that
+arrived at two o'clock this morning. Doolan opened it and came to
+me, and asked me to bring it on to you, as I knew the way and where
+your camp was to be pitched."
+
+"Nothing serious, I hope, Bathurst," the Major said, struck with the
+gravity with which Bathurst spoke. "It must be something important,
+or Doolan would never have routed you off like that."
+
+"It is very serious, Major," Bathurst said, in a low voice. "May
+I suggest you had better go into the tent to read it? Some of the
+servants understand English."
+
+"Come in with me," the Major said, and led the way into the tent,
+where the lamps were still burning on the breakfast table, although
+the light had broadened out over the sky outside. It was with grave
+anticipation of evil that the Major took the paper from its envelope,
+but his worst fears were more than verified by the contents.
+
+"My Dear Major: The General has just received a telegram with terrible
+news from Meerut. 'Native troops mutinied, murdered officers, women,
+and children, opened jails and burned cantonments, and marched to
+Delhi.' It is reported that there has been a general rising there
+and the massacre of all Europeans. Although this is not confirmed,
+the news is considered probable. We hear also that the native
+cavalry at Lucknow have mutinied. Lawrence telegraphs that he has
+suppressed it with the European troops there, and has disarmed the
+mutineers. I believe that our regiment will be faithful, but none
+can be trusted now. I should recommend your preparing some fortified
+house to which all Europeans in station can retreat in case of
+trouble. Now that they have taken to massacre as well as mutiny,
+God knows how it will all end."
+
+"Good Heavens! who could have dreamt of this?" the Major groaned.
+"Massacred their officers, women, and children. All Europeans at
+Delhi supposed to have been massacred, and there must be hundreds
+of them. Can it be true?"
+
+"The telegram as to Meerut is clearly an official one," Bathurst
+said. "Delhi is as yet but a rumor, but it is too probable that
+if these mutineers and jail birds, flushed with success, reached
+Delhi before the whites were warned, they would have their own way
+in the place, as, with the exception of a few artillerymen at the
+arsenal, there is not a white soldier in the place."
+
+"But there were white troops at Meerut," the Major said. "What
+could they have been doing? However, that is not the question now.
+We must, of course, return instantly. Ask the others to come in
+here, Bathurst. Don't tell the girls what has taken place; it will
+be time enough for that afterwards. All that is necessary to say is
+that you have brought news of troubles at some stations unaffected
+before, and that I think it best to return at once."
+
+The men were standing in a group, wondering what the news could be
+which was deemed of such importance that Bathurst should carry it
+out in the middle of the night.
+
+"The Major will be glad if you will all go in, gentlemen," Bathurst
+said, as he joined them.
+
+"Are we to go in, Mr. Bathurst?" Miss Hunter asked.
+
+"No, I think not, Miss Hunter; the fact is there have been some
+troubles at two or three other places, and the Major is going to
+hold a sort of council of war as to whether the hunt had not better
+be given up. I rather fancy that they will decide to go back at
+once. News flies very fast in India. I think the Major would like
+that he and his officers should be back before it is whispered among
+the Sepoys that the discontent has not, as we hoped, everywhere
+ceased."
+
+"It must be very serious," Isobel said, "or uncle would never decide
+to go back, when all the preparations are made."
+
+"It would never do, you see, Miss Hannay, for the Commandant and
+four of the officers to be away, if the Sepoys should take it into
+their heads to refuse to receive cartridges or anything of that
+sort."
+
+"You can't give us any particulars, then, Mr. Bathurst?"
+
+"The note was a very short one, and was partly made up of unconfirmed
+rumors. As I only saw it in my capacity of a messenger, I don't
+think I am at liberty to say more than that."
+
+"What a trouble the Sepoys are," Mary Hunter said pettishly; "it
+is too bad our losing a tiger hunt when we may never have another
+chance to see one!"
+
+"That is a very minor trouble, Mary."
+
+"I don't think so," the girl said; "just at present it seems to me
+to be very serious."
+
+At this moment the Doctor put his head out of the tent.
+
+"Will you come in, Bathurst?"
+
+"We have settled, Bathurst," the Major said, when he entered, "that
+we must, of course, go back at once. The Doctor, however, is of
+opinion that if, after all the preparations were made, we were to
+put the tiger hunt off altogether, it would set the natives talking,
+and the report would go through the country like wildfire that
+some great disaster had happened. We must go back at once, and Mr.
+Hunter, having a wife and daughter there, is anxious to get back,
+too; but the Doctor urges that he should go out and kill this
+tiger. As it is known that you have just arrived, he says that if
+you are willing to go with him, it will be thought that you had
+come here to join the hunt, and if that comes off, and the tiger
+is killed, it does not matter whether two or sixty of us went out."
+
+"I shall be quite willing to do so," said Bathurst, "and I really
+think that the Doctor's advice is good. If, now that you have all
+arrived upon the ground, the preparations were canceled, there
+can be no doubt that the natives would come to the conclusion that
+something very serious had taken place, and it would be all over
+the place in no time."
+
+"Thank you, Bathurst. Then we will consider that arranged. Now we
+will get the horses in as soon as possible, and be off at once."
+
+Ten minutes later the buggies were brought round, and the whole
+party, with the exception of the Doctor and Bathurst, started for
+Deennugghur.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+"Let us be off at once," Dr. Wade said to his companion; "we can
+talk as we go along. I have got two rifles with me; I can lend you
+one."
+
+"I shall take no rifle," Bathurst said decidedly, "or rather I will
+take one of the shikaris' guns for the sake of appearance, and for
+use I will borrow one of their spears."
+
+"Very well; I will do the shooting, then," the Doctor agreed.
+
+The two men then took their places on the elephants most used
+to the work, and told the mahouts of the others to follow in case
+the elephants should be required for driving the tiger out of the
+thick jungle, and they then started side by side for the scene of
+action.
+
+"This is awful news, Bathurst. I could not have believed it possible
+that these fellows who have eaten our salt for years, fought our
+battles, and have seemed the most docile and obedient of soldiers,
+should have done this. That they should have been goaded into mutiny
+by lies about their religion being in danger I could have imagined
+well enough, but that they should go in for wholesale massacre,
+not only of their officers, but of women and children, seems well
+nigh incredible. You and I have always agreed that if they were
+once roused there was no saying what they would do, but I don't.
+think either of us dreamt of anything as bad as this."
+
+"I don't know," Bathurst said quietly; "one has watched this cloud
+gathering, and felt that if it did break it would be something
+terrible. No one can foresee now what it will be. The news that
+Delhi is in the hands of the mutineers, and that these have massacred
+all Europeans, and so placed themselves beyond all hope of pardon,
+will fly though India like a flash of lightning, and there is no
+guessing how far the matter will spread. There is no use disguising
+it from ourselves, Doctor, before a week is over there may not be a
+white man left alive in India, save the garrisons of strong places
+like Agra, and perhaps the presidential towns, where there is always
+a strong European force."
+
+"I can't deny that it is possible, Bathurst. If this revolt spreads
+though the three Presidencies the work of conquering India will
+have to be begun again, and worse than that, for we should have
+opposed to us a vast army drilled and armed by ourselves, and led
+by the native officers we have trained. It seems stupefying that
+an empire won piecemeal, and after as hard fighting as the world
+has ever seen, should be lost in a week."
+
+The Doctor spoke as if the question was a purely impersonal one.
+
+"Ugly, isn't it?" he went on; "and to think I have been doctoring
+up these fellows for the last thirty years--saving their lives,
+sir, by wholesale. If I had known what had been coming I would have
+dosed them with arsenic with as little remorse as I should feel
+in shooting a tiger's whelp. Well, there is one satisfaction, the
+Major has already done something towards turning the courthouse
+into a fortress, and I fancy a good many of the scoundrels will go
+down before they take it, that is, if they don't fall on us unawares.
+I have been a noncombatant all my life, but if I can shoot a tiger
+on the spring I fancy I can hit a Sepoy. By Jove, Bathurst, that
+juggler's picture you told me of is likely to come true after all!"
+
+"I wish to Heaven it was!" Bathurst said gloomily; "I could look
+without dread at whatever is coming as far as I am concerned, if I
+could believe it possible that I should be fighting as I saw myself
+there."
+
+"Pooh, nonsense, lad!" the Doctor said. "Knowing what I know of
+you, I have no doubt that, though you may feel nervous at first,
+you will get over it in time."
+
+Bathurst shook his head. "I know myself too well, Doctor, to indulge
+in any such hopes. Now you see we are going out tiger hunting. At
+present, now, as far as I am concerned, I should feel much less
+nervous if I knew I was going to enter the jungle on foot with only
+this spear, than I do at the thought that you are going to fire
+that rifle a few paces from me."
+
+"You will scarcely notice it in the excitement," the Doctor said.
+"In cold blood I admit you might feel it, but I don't think you
+will when you see the tiger spring out from the jungle at us. But
+here we are. That is the nullah in which they say the tiger retires
+at night. I expect the beaters are lying all round in readiness,
+and as soon as we have taken up our station at its mouth they will
+begin."
+
+A shikari came up as they approached the spot.
+
+"The tiger went out last night, sahib, and finished the cow; he
+came back before daylight, and the beaters are all in readiness to
+begin."
+
+The elephants were soon in position at the mouth of the ravine,
+which was some thirty yards across. At about the same distance in
+front of them the jungle of high, coarse grass and thick bush began.
+
+"If you were going to shoot, Bathurst, we would take post one each
+side, but as you are not going to I will place myself nearly in
+the center, and if you are between me and the rocks the tiger is
+pretty certain to go on the other side, as it will seem the most
+open to him. Now we are ready," he said to the shikari.
+
+The latter waved a white rag on the top of a long stick, and at
+the signal a tremendous hubbub of gongs and tom toms, mingled with
+the shouts of numbers of the men, arose. The Doctor looked across
+at his companion. His face was white and set, his muscles twitched
+convulsively; he was looking straight in front of him, his teeth
+set hard.
+
+"An interesting case," the Doctor muttered to himself, "if it had
+been anyone else than Bathurst. I expect the tiger will be some
+little time before it is down. Bathurst," he said, in a quiet
+voice. Three times he repeated the observation, each time raising
+his voice higher, before Bathurst heard him.
+
+"The sooner it comes the better," Bathurst said, between his teeth.
+"I would rather face a hundred tigers than this infernal din."
+
+A quarter of an hour passed, and the Doctor, rifle in hand, was
+watching the bushes in front when he saw a slight movement among
+the leaves on his right, the side on which Bathurst was stationed.
+
+"That's him, Bathurst; he has headed back; he caught sight of either
+your elephant or mine; he will make a bolt in another minute now
+unless he turns back on the beaters."
+
+A minute later there was a gleam of tawny yellow among the long
+grass, and quick as thought the Doctor fired. With a sharp snarl
+the tiger leaped out, and with two short bounds sprang onto the
+head of the elephant ridden by Bathurst. The mahout gave a cry of
+pain, for the talons of one of the forepaws were fixed in his leg.
+Bathurst leaned forward and thrust the spear he held deep into
+the animal's neck. At the same moment the Doctor fired again, and
+the tiger, shot through the head, fell dead, while, with a start,
+Bathurst lost his balance and fell over the elephant's head onto
+the body of the tiger.
+
+It was fortunate indeed for him that the ball had passed through the
+tiger's skull from ear to ear, and that life was extinct before
+it touched the ground. Bathurst sprang to his feet, shaken and
+bewildered, but otherwise unhurt.
+
+"He is as dead as a door nail!" the Doctor shouted, "and lucky for
+you he was so; if he had had a kick left in him you would have been
+badly torn."
+
+"I should never have fallen off," Bathurst said angrily, "if you
+had not fired. I could have finished him with the spear."
+
+"You might or you might not; I could not wait to think about that;
+the tiger had struck its claws into the mahout's leg, and would
+have had him off the elephant in another moment. That is a first
+rate animal you were riding on, or he would have turned and bolted;
+if he had done so you and the mahout would have both been off to
+a certainty."
+
+By this time the shouts of some natives, who had taken their posts
+in trees near at hand, told the beaters that the shots they had
+heard had been successful, and with shouts of satisfaction they
+came rushing down. The Doctor at once dispatched one of them to
+bring up his trap and Bathurst's horse, and then examined the tiger.
+
+It was a very large one, and the skin was in good condition, which
+showed that he had not taken to man eating long. The Doctor bound
+up the wound on the mahout's leg, and then superintended the skinning
+of the animal while waiting for the arrival of the trap.
+
+When it came up he said, "You might as well take a seat by my side,
+Bathurst; the syce will sit behind and lead your horse."
+
+Having distributed money among the beaters, the Doctor took his
+place in his trap, the tiger skin was rolled up and placed under
+the seat, Bathurst mounted beside him, and they started.
+
+"There, you see, Doctor," Bathurst, who had not opened his lips
+from the time he had remonstrated with the Doctor for firing, said;
+"you see it is of no use. I was not afraid of the tiger, for I knew
+that you were not likely to miss, and that in any case it could
+not reach me on the elephant. I can declare that I had not a shadow
+of fear of the beast, and yet, directly that row began, my nerves
+gave way altogether. It was hideous, and yet, the moment the tiger
+charged, I felt perfectly cool again, for the row ceased as you
+fired your first shot. I struck it full in the chest, and was about
+to thrust the spear right down, and should, I believe, have killed
+it, if you had not fired again and startled me so that I fell from
+the elephant."
+
+"I saw that the shouting and noise unnerved you, Bathurst, but I
+saw too that you were perfectly cool and steady when you planted
+your spear into him. If it had not got hold of the mahout's leg I
+should not have fired."
+
+"Is there nothing to be done, Doctor? You know now what it is likely
+we shall have to face with the Sepoys and what it will be with me
+if they rise. Is there nothing you can do for me?"
+
+The Doctor shook his head. "I don't believe in Dutch courage in
+any case, Bathurst; certainly not in yours. There is no saying what
+the effect of spirits might be. I should not recommend them, lad.
+Of course, I can understand your feelings, but I still believe
+that, even if you do badly to begin with, you will pull round in
+the end. I have no doubt you will get a chance to show that it is
+only nerve and not courage in which you are deficient."
+
+Bathurst was silent, and scarce another word was spoken during the
+drive back to Deennugghur.
+
+The place had its accustomed appearance when they drove up. The
+Doctor, as he drew up before his bungalow, said, "Thank God, they
+have not begun yet! I was half afraid we might have found they
+had taken advantage of most of us being away, and have broken out
+before we got back."
+
+"So was I," Bathurst said. "I have been thinking of nothing else
+since we started."
+
+"Well, I will go to the Major at once and see what arrangements
+have been made, and whether there is any further news."
+
+"I shall go off on my rounds," Bathurst said. "I had arranged
+yesterday to be at Nilpore this morning, and there will be time
+for me to get there now. It is only eleven o'clock yet. I shall go
+about my work as usual until matters come to a head."
+
+The Doctor found that the Major was over at the tent which served
+as the orderly office, and at once followed him there.
+
+"Nothing fresh, Major?"
+
+"No; we found everything going on as usual. It has been decided to
+put the courthouse as far as we can in a state of defense. I shall
+have the spare ammunition quietly taken over there, with stores of
+provisions. The ladies have undertaken to sew up sacking and make
+gunny bags for holding earth, and, of course, we shall get a store
+of water there. Everything will be done quietly at present, and
+things will be sent in there after dark by such servants as we can
+thoroughly rely upon. At the first signs of trouble the residents
+will make straight for that point. Of course we must be guided by
+circumstances. If the trouble begins in the daytime--that is, if
+it does begin, for the native officers assure us that we can trust
+implicitly in the loyalty of the men--there will probably be
+time for everyone to gain the courthouse; if it is at night, and
+without warning, as it was at Meerut, I can only say, Doctor, may
+God help us all, for I fear that few, if any, of us would get there
+alive. Certainly not enough to make any efficient defense."
+
+"I do not see that there is anything else to do, Major. I trust
+with you that the men will prove faithful; if not, it is a black
+lookout whichever way we take it."
+
+"Did you kill the tiger, Doctor?"
+
+"Yes; at least Bathurst and I did it between us. I wounded him
+first. It then sprang upon Bathurst's elephant, and he speared it,
+and I finished it with a shot through the head."
+
+"Speared it!" the Major repeated; "why didn't he shoot it. What
+was he doing with his spear?"
+
+"He was born, Major, with a constitutional horror of firearms,
+inherited from his mother. I will tell you about it some day. In
+fact, he cannot stand noise of any sort. It has been a source of
+great trouble to the young fellow, who in all other respects has
+more than a fair share of courage. However, we will talk about that
+when we have more time on our hands. There is no special duty you
+can give me at present?"
+
+"Yes, there is. You are in some respects the most disengaged man in
+the station, and can come and go without attracting any attention.
+I propose, therefore, that you shall take charge of the arrangement
+of matters in the courthouse. I think that it will be an advantage
+if you move from your tent in there at once. There is plenty of
+room for us all: No one can say at what time there may be trouble
+with the Sepoys, and it would be a great advantage to have someone
+in the courthouse who could take the lead if the women, with the
+servants and so on, come flocking in while we were still absent on
+the parade ground. Besides, with your rifle, you could drive any
+small party off who attempted to seize it by surprise. If you were
+there we would call it the hospital, which would be an excuse for
+sending in stores, bedding, and so on.
+
+"You might mention in the orderly room that it is getting so hot
+now that you think it would be as well to have a room or two fitted
+up under a roof, instead of having the sick in tents, in case there
+should be an outbreak of cholera or anything of that sort this
+year. I will say that I think the idea is a very good one, and that
+as the courthouse is very little used, you had better establish
+yourself there. The native officers who hear what we say will
+spread the news. I don't say it will be believed, but at least it
+will serve as an explanation."
+
+"Yes, I think that that will be a very good plan, Major. Two of
+the men who act as hospital orderlies I can certainly depend upon,
+and they will help to receive the things sent in from the bungalows,
+and will hold their tongues as to what is being done; I shall leave
+my tent standing, and use it occasionally as before, but will make
+the courthouse my headquarters. How are we off for arms?"
+
+"There are five cases of muskets and a considerable stock of
+ammunition in that small magazine in the lines; one of the first
+things will be to get them removed to the courthouse. We have
+already arranged to do that tonight; it will give us four or five
+muskets apiece."
+
+"Good, Major; I will load them all myself and keep them locked
+up in a room upstairs facing the gateway, and should there be any
+trouble I fancy I could give a good account of any small body of
+men who might attempt to make an entrance. I am very well content
+with my position as Commandant of the Hospital, as we may call
+it; the house has not been much good to us hitherto, but I suppose
+when it was bought it was intended to make this a more important
+station; it is fortunate they did buy it now, for we can certainly
+turn it into a small fortress. Still, of course, I cannot disguise
+from myself that though we might get on successfully for a time
+against your Sepoys, there is no hope of holding it long if the
+whole country rises."
+
+"I quite see that, Doctor," the Major said gravely; "but I have
+really no fear of that. With the assistance of the Rajah of Bithoor,
+Cawnpore is safe. His example is almost certain to be followed by
+almost all the other great landowners. No; it is quite bad enough
+that we have to face a Sepoy mutiny; I cannot believe that we are
+likely to have a general rising on our hands. If we do--" and he
+stopped.
+
+"If we do it is all up with us, Major; there is no disguising that.
+However, we need not look at the worst side of things. Well, I will
+go with you to the orderly room, and will talk with you about the
+hospital scheme, mention that there is a rumor of cholera, and so
+on, and ask if I can't have a part of the courthouse; then we can
+walk across there together, and see what arrangement had best be
+made."
+
+The following day brought another dispatch from the Colonel, saying
+that the rumors as to Delhi were confirmed. The regiments there
+had joined the Meerut mutineers, had shot down their officers, and
+murdered every European they could lay hands on; that three officers
+and six noncommissioned officers, who were in charge of the arsenal,
+had defended it desperately, and had finally blown up the magazine
+with hundreds of its assailants. Three of the defenders had reached
+Meerut with the news.
+
+Day by day the gloom thickened. The native regiments in the Punjaub
+rose as soon as the news from Meerut and Delhi reached them, but
+there were white troops there, and they were used energetically and
+promptly. In some places the mutineers were disarmed before they
+broke out into open violence; in other cases mutinous regiments
+were promptly attacked and scattered. Several of the leading chiefs
+had hastened to assure the Government of their fidelity, and had
+placed their troops and resources at its disposal.
+
+But in the Punjaub alone the lookout appeared favorable. In the Daob
+a mutiny had taken place at four of the stations, and the Sepoys
+had marched away to Delhi, but without injuring the Europeans.
+
+After this for a week there was quiet, and then at places widely
+apart--at Hansid and Hissar, to the northwest of Delhi; at
+Nusserabad, in the center of Rajpootana, at Bareilly, and other
+stations in Rohilcund--the Sepoys rose, and in most places
+massacre was added to mutiny. Then three regiments of the Gwalior
+contingent at Neemuch revolted. Then two regiments broke out at
+Jhansi, and the whole of the Europeans, after desperately defending
+themselves for four days, surrendered on promise of their lives,
+but were instantly murdered.
+
+But before the news of the Jhansi massacre reached Deennugghur
+they heard of other risings nearer to them. On the 30th of May the
+three native regiments at Lucknow rose, but were sharply repulsed
+by the 300 European troops under Sir Henry Lawrence. At Seetapoor
+the Sepoys rose on the 3d of June and massacred all the Europeans.
+On the 4th the Sepoys at Mohundee imitated the example of those
+at Seetapoor, while on the 8th two regiments rose at Fyzabad, in
+the southeastern division of the province, and massacred all the
+Europeans.
+
+Up to this time the news from Cawnpore had still been good. The
+Rajah of Bithoor had offered Sir Hugh Wheeler a reinforcement of
+two guns and 300 men, and it was believed that, seeing this powerful
+and influential chief had thrown his weight into the scale on the
+side of the British, the four regiments of native troops would
+remain quiet.
+
+Sir Hugh had but a handful of Europeans with him, but had just
+received a reinforcement of fifty men of the 32d regiment from Lucknow,
+and he had formed an intrenchment within which the Europeans of
+the station, and the fugitives who had come in from the districts
+around, could take refuge.
+
+Several communications passed between Sir Hugh Wheeler and Major
+Hannay. The latter had been offered the choice of moving into Cawnpore
+with his wing of the regiment, or remaining at Deennugghur. He had
+chosen the latter alternative, pointing out that he still believed
+in the fidelity of the troops with him; but that if they went to
+Cawnpore they would doubtless be carried away with other regiments,
+and would only swell the force of mutineers there. He was assured,
+at any rate, they would not rise unless their comrades at Cawnpore
+did so, but that it was best to manifest confidence in them, as not
+improbably, did they hear that they were ordered back to Cawnpore,
+they might take it as a slur on their fidelity, and mutiny at once.
+
+The month had been one of intense anxiety. Gradually stores
+of provisions had been conveyed into the hospital, as it was now
+called; the well inside the yard had been put into working order,
+and the residents had sent in stores of bedding and such portable
+valuables as could be removed.
+
+In but few cases had the outbreaks taken place at night, the mutineers
+almost always breaking out either upon being ordered to parade or
+upon actually falling in; still, it was by no means certain when a
+crisis might come, and the Europeans all lay down to rest in their
+clothes, one person in each house remaining up all night on watch,
+so that at the first alarm all might hurry to the shelter of the
+hospital.
+
+Its position was a strong one--a lofty wall inclosing a courtyard
+and garden surrounding it. This completely sheltered the lower floor
+from fire; the windows of the upper floor were above the level of
+the wall, and commanded a view over the country, while round the
+flat terraced roof ran a parapet some two feet high.
+
+During the day the ladies of the station generally gathered at
+Mr. Hunter's, which was the bungalow nearest to the hospital. Here
+they worked at the bags intended to hold earth, and kept up each
+other's spirits as well as they could. Although all looked pale
+and worn from anxiety and watching, there were, after the first
+few days, no manifestations of fear. Occasionally a tear would
+drop over their work, especially in the case of two of the wives
+of civilians, whose children were in England; but as a whole
+their conversation was cheerful, each trying her best to keep up
+the spirits of the others. Generally, as soon as the meeting was
+complete, Mrs. Hunter read aloud one of the psalms suited to their
+position and the prayers for those in danger, then the work was
+got out and the needles applied briskly. Even Mrs. Rintoul showed
+a fortitude and courage that would not have been expected from her.
+
+"One never knows people," Mrs. Doolan said to Isobel, as they
+walked back from one of these meetings, "as long as one only sees
+them under ordinary circumstances. I have never had any patience
+with Mrs. Rintoul, with her constant complaining and imaginary
+ailments. Now that there is really something to complain about, she
+is positively one of the calmest and most cheerful among us. It is
+curious, is it not, how our talk always turns upon home? India is
+hardly ever mentioned. We might be a party of intimate friends,
+sitting in some quiet country place, talking of our girlhood.
+Why, we have learnt more of each other and each other's history in
+the last fortnight than we should have done if we had lived here
+together for twenty years under ordinary circumstances. Except as
+to your little brother, I think you are the only one, Isobel, who
+has not talked much of home."
+
+"I suppose it is because my home was not a very happy one," Isobel
+said.
+
+"I notice that all the talk is about happy scenes, nothing is ever
+said about disagreeables. I suppose, my dear, it is just as I have
+heard, that starving people talk about the feasts they have eaten,
+so we talk of the pleasant times we have had. It is the contrast
+that makes them dearer. It is funny, too, if anything can be funny
+in these days, how different we are in the evening, when we have
+the men with us, to what we are when we are together alone in the
+day. Another curious thing is that our trouble seems to make us more
+like each other. Of course we are not more like, but we all somehow
+take the same tone, and seem to have given up our own particular
+ways and fancies.
+
+"Now the men don't seem like that. Mr. Hunter, for example, whom
+I used to think an even tempered and easygoing sort of man, has
+become fidgety and querulous. The Major is even more genial and kind
+than usual. The Doctor snaps and snarls at everyone and everything.
+Anyone listening to my husband would say that he was in the wildest
+spirits. Rintoul is quieter than usual, and the two lads have grown
+older and nicer; I don't say they are less full of fun than they
+were, especially Wilson, but they are less boyish in their fun,
+and they are nice with everyone, instead of devoting themselves to
+two or three of us, you principally. Perhaps Richards is the most
+changed; he thinks less of his collars and ties and the polish of
+his boots than he used to do, and one sees that he has some ideas
+in his head besides those about horses. Captain Forster is, perhaps,
+least changed, but of that you can judge better than I can, for
+you see more of him. As to Mr. Bathurst, I can say nothing, for we
+never see him now. I think he is the only man in the station who
+goes about his work as usual; he starts away the first thing in the
+morning, and comes back late in the evening, and I suppose spends
+the night in writing reports, though what is the use of writing
+reports at the present time I don't know. Mr. Hunter was saying
+last night it was very foolish of him. What with disbanded soldiers,
+and what with parties of mutineers, it is most dangerous for any
+European to stir outside the station."
+
+"Uncle was saying the same," Isobel said quietly.
+
+"Well, here we separate. Of course you will be in as usual this
+evening?" for the Major's house was the general rendezvous after
+dinner.
+
+Isobel had her private troubles, although, as she often said angrily
+to herself, when she thought of them, what did it matter now? She
+was discontented with herself for having spoken as strongly as she
+did as to the man's cowardice. She was very discontented with the
+Doctor for having repeated it. She was angry with Bathurst for
+staying away altogether, although willing to admit that, after he
+knew what she had said, it was impossible that he should meet her
+as before. Most of all, perhaps, she was angry because, at a time
+when their lives were all in deadly peril, she should allow the
+matter to dwell in her mind a single moment.
+
+Late one afternoon Bathurst walked into the Major's bungalow just
+as he was about to sit down to dinner.
+
+"Major, I want to speak to you for a moment," he said.
+
+"Sit down and have some dinner, Bathurst. You have become altogether
+a stranger."
+
+"Thank you, Major, but I have a great deal to do. Can you spare me
+five minutes now? It is of importance."
+
+Isobel rose to leave the room.
+
+"There is no reason you should not hear, Miss Hannay, but it would
+be better that none of the servants should be present. That is why
+I wish to speak before your uncle goes in to dinner."
+
+Isobel sat down with an air of indifference.
+
+"For the last week, Major, I have ridden every day five and twenty
+to thirty miles in the direction of Cawnpore; my official work has
+been practically at an end since we heard the news from Meerut.
+I could be of no use here, and thought that I could do no better
+service than trying to obtain the earliest news from Cawnpore; I
+am sorry to say that this afternoon I distinctly heard firing in
+that direction. What the result is, of course, I do not know, but
+I feel that there is little doubt that troubles have begun there.
+But this is not all. On my return home, ten minutes ago, I found
+this letter on my dressing table. It had no direction and is, as
+you see, in Hindustanee," and he handed it to the Major, who read:
+
+"To the Sahib Bathurst,--Rising at Cawnpore today. Nana Sahib and
+his troops will join the Sepoys. Whites will be destroyed. Rising
+at Deennugghur at daylight tomorrow. Troops, after killing whites,
+will join those at Cawnpore. Be warned in time--this tiger is
+not to be beaten off with a whip."
+
+"Good Heavens!" the Major exclaimed; "can this be true? Can it be
+possible that the Rajah of Bithoor is going to join the mutineers?
+It is impossible; he could never be such a scoundrel."
+
+"What is it, uncle?" Isobel asked, leaving her seat and coming up
+to him.
+
+The Major translated the letter.
+
+"It must be a hoax," he went on; "I cannot believe it. What does
+this stuff about beating a tiger with a whip mean?"
+
+"I am sorry to say, Major Hannay, that part of the letter convinces
+me that the contents can be implicitly relied upon. The writer did
+not dare sign his name, but those words are sufficient to show me,
+and were no doubt intended to show me, who the warning comes from.
+It is from that juggler who performed here some six weeks ago.
+Traveling about as he does, and putting aside altogether those
+strange powers of his, he has no doubt the means of knowing what
+is going on. As I told you that night, I had done him some slight
+service, and he promised at the time that, if the occasion should
+ever arise, he would risk his life to save mine. The fact that he
+showed, I have no doubt, especially to please me, feats that few
+Europeans have seen before, is, to my mind, a proof of his goodwill
+and that he meant what he said."
+
+"But how do you know that it is from him. Bathurst? You will excuse
+my pressing the question, but of course everything depends on my
+being assured that this communication is trustworthy."
+
+"This allusion to the tiger shows me that, Major. It alludes to an
+incident that I believe to be known only to him and his daughter
+and to Dr. Wade, to whom alone I mentioned it."
+
+As the Major still looked inquiringly, Bathurst went on reluctantly.
+"It was a trifling affair, Major, the result of a passing impulse.
+I was riding home from Narkeet, and while coming along the road
+through the jungle, which was at that time almost deserted by the
+natives on account of the ravages of the man eater whom the Doctor
+afterwards shot, I heard a scream. Galloping forward, I came upon
+the brute, standing with one paw upon a prostrate girl, while a
+man, the juggler, was standing frantically waving his arms. On the
+impulse of the moment I sprang from my horse and lashed the tiger
+across the head with that heavy dog whip I carry, and the brute
+was so astonished that it bolted in the jungle.
+
+"That was the beginning and end of affairs, except that, although
+fortunately the girl was practically unhurt, she was so unnerved
+that we had to carry her to the next village, where she lay for
+some time ill from the shock and fright. After that they came round
+here and performed, for my amusement, the feats I told you of. So
+you see I have every reason to believe in the good faith of the
+writer of this letter."
+
+"By Jove, I should think you had!" the Major said. "Why, my dear
+Bathurst, I had no idea that you could do such a thing!"
+
+"We have all our strong points and our weak ones, Major. That was
+one of my strong ones, I suppose. And now what had best be done,
+sir? That is the important question at present."
+
+This was so evident, that Major Hannay at once dismissed all other
+thoughts from his mind.
+
+"Of course I and the other officers must remain at our posts until
+the Sepoys actually arrive. The question is as to the others. Now
+that we know the worst, or believe we know it, ought we to send
+the women and children away?"
+
+"That is the question, sir. But where can they be sent? Lucknow is
+besieged; the whites at Cawnpore must have been surrounded by this
+time; the bands of mutineers are ranging the whole country, and at
+the news that Nana Sahib has joined the rebels it is probable that
+all will rise. I should say that it was a matter in which Mr. Hunter
+and other civilians had better be consulted."
+
+"Yes, we will hold a council," the Major said.
+
+"I think, Major, it should be done quietly. It is probable that many
+of the servants may know of the intentions of the Sepoys, and if
+they see that anything like a council of the Europeans was being
+held they may take the news to the Sepoys, and the latter, thinking
+that their intention is known, may rise at once."
+
+"That is quite true. Yes, we must do nothing to arouse suspicion.
+What do you propose, Mr. Bathurst?"
+
+"I will go and have a talk with the Doctor; he can go round to the
+other officers one by one. I will tell Mr. Hunter, and he will tell
+the other residents, so that when they meet here in the evening no
+explanations will be needed, and a very few words as we sit out on
+the veranda will be sufficient."
+
+"That will be a very good plan. We will sit down to dinner as if
+nothing had happened; if they are watching at all, they will be
+keeping their eyes on us then."
+
+"Very well; I will be in by nine o'clock, Major;" and with a slight
+bow to Isobel, Bathurst stepped out through the open window, and
+made his way to the Doctor's.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+The Doctor had just sat down to dinner when Bathurst came in. The
+two subalterns were dining with him.
+
+"That's good, Bathurst," the Doctor said, as he entered. "Boy, put
+a chair for Mr. Bathurst. I had begun to think that you had deserted
+me as well as everybody else."
+
+"I was not thinking of dining," Bathurst said, as he sat down, "but
+I will do so with pleasure, though I told my man I should be back
+in half an hour;" and as the servant left the room he added, "I
+have much to say, Doctor; get through dinner as quickly as you can,
+and get the servants out of the tent."
+
+The conversation was at once turned by the Doctor upon shooting and
+hunting, and no allusion was made to passing events until coffee
+was put on the table and the servant retired. The talk, which had
+been lively during dinner, then ceased.
+
+"Well, Bathurst," the Doctor asked, "I suppose you have something
+serious to tell me?"
+
+"Very serious, Doctor;" and he repeated the news he had given the
+Major.
+
+"It could not be worse, Bathurst," the Doctor said quietly, after
+the first shock of the news had passed. "You know I never had any
+faith in the Sepoys since I saw how this madness was spreading from
+station to station. This sort of thing is contagious. It becomes a
+sort of epidemic, and in spite of the assurances of the men I felt
+sure they would go. But this scoundrel of Bithoor turning against
+us is more than I bargained for. There is no disguising the fact
+that it means a general rising through Oude, and in that case God
+help the women and children. As for us, it all comes in the line
+of business. What does the Major say?"
+
+"The only question that seemed to him to be open was whether the
+women and children could be got away."
+
+"But there does not seem any possible place for them to go to.
+One or two might travel down the country in disguise, but that is
+out of the question for a large party. There is no refuge nearer
+than Allahabad. With every man's hand against them, I see not the
+slightest chance of a party making their way down."
+
+"You or I might do it easily enough, Doctor, but for women it
+seems to me out of the question; still, that is a matter for each
+married man to decide for himself. The prospect is dark enough anyway,
+but, as before, it seems to me that everything really depends upon
+the Zemindars. If we hold the courthouse it is possible the Sepoys
+may be beaten off in their first attack, and in their impatience
+to join the mutineers, who are all apparently marching for Delhi,
+they may go off without throwing away their lives by attacking us,
+for they must see they will not be able to take the place without
+cannon. But if the Zemindars join them with cannon, we may defend
+ourselves till the last, but there can be but one end to it."
+
+The Doctor nodded. "That is the situation exactly, Bathurst."
+
+"I am glad we know the danger, and shall be able to face it openly,"
+Wilson said. "For the last month Richards and I have been keeping
+watch alternately, and it has been beastly funky work sitting with
+one's pistols on the table before one, listening, and knowing any
+moment there might be a yell, and these brown devils come pouring
+in. Now, at least, we are likely to have a fight for it, and to
+know that some of them will go down before we do."
+
+Richards cordially agreed with his companion.
+
+"Well, now, what are the orders, Bathurst?" said the Doctor.
+
+"There are no orders as yet, Doctor. The Major says you will go
+round to the others, Doolan, Rintoul, and Forster, and tell them.
+I am to go round to Hunter and the other civilians. Then, this
+evening we are to meet at nine o'clock, as usual, at the Major's.
+If the others decide that the only plan is for all to stop here and
+fight it out, there will be no occasion for anything like a council;
+it will only have to be arranged at what time we all move into the
+fort, and the best means for keeping the news from spreading to
+the Sepoys. Not that it will make much difference after they have
+once fairly turned in. If there is one thing a Hindoo hates more
+than another, it is getting from under his blankets when he has
+once got himself warm at night. Even if they heard at one or two
+o'clock in the morning that we were moving into the fort I don't
+think they would turn out till morning."
+
+"No, I am sure they would not," the Doctor agreed.
+
+"If there were a few more of us," Richards said, "I should vote for
+our beginning it. If we were to fall suddenly upon them we might
+kill a lot and scare the rest off."
+
+"We are too few for that," the Doctor said. "Besides, although
+Bathurst answers for the good faith of the sender of the warning,
+there has as yet been no act of mutiny that would justify our taking
+such a step as that. It would come to the same thing. We might kill
+a good many, but in the long run three hundred men would be more
+than a match for a dozen, and then the women would be at their
+mercy. Well, we had better be moving, or we shall not have time to
+go round to the bungalows before the people set out for the Major's."
+
+It was a painful mission that Bathurst had to perform, for he
+had to tell those he called upon that almost certain death was at
+hand, but the news was everywhere received calmly. The strain had
+of late been so great, that the news that the crisis was at hand was
+almost welcome. He did not stay long anywhere, but, after setting
+the alternative before them, left husband and wife to discuss
+whether to try to make down to Allahabad or to take refuge in the
+fort.
+
+Soon after nine o'clock all were at Major Hannay's. There were
+pale faces among them, but no stranger would have supposed that
+the whole party had just received news which was virtually a death
+warrant. The ladies talked together as usual, while the men moved
+in and out of the room, sometimes talking with the Major, sometimes
+sitting down for a few minutes in the veranda outside, or talking
+there in low tones together.
+
+The Major moved about among them, and soon learned that all had
+resolved to stay and meet together whatever came, preferring that
+to the hardships and unknown dangers of flight.
+
+"I am glad you have all decided so," he said quietly. "In the state
+the country is, the chances of getting to Allahabad are next to
+nothing. Here we may hold out till Lawrence restores order at Lucknow,
+and then he may be able to send a party to bring us in. Or the
+mutineers may draw off and march to Delhi. I certainly think the
+chances are best here; besides, every rifle we have is of importance,
+and though if any of you had made up your minds to try and escape
+I should have made no objection, I am glad that we shall all stand
+together here."
+
+The arrangements were then briefly made for the removal to the
+courthouse. All were to go back and apparently to retire to bed
+as usual. At twelve o'clock the men, armed, were to call up their
+servants, load them up with such things as were most required,
+and proceed with them, the women, and children, at once to the
+courthouse. Half the men were to remain there on guard, while the
+others would continue with the servants to make journeys backwards
+and forwards to the bungalows, bringing in as much as could be
+carried, the guard to be changed every hour. In the morning the
+servants were all to have the choice given them of remaining with
+their masters or leaving.
+
+Captain Forster was the only dissentient. He was in favor of the
+whole party mounting, placing the women and children in carriages,
+and making off in a body, fighting their way if necessary down to
+Allahabad. He admitted that, in addition to the hundred troopers
+of his own squadron, they might be cut off by the mutinous cavalry
+from Cawnpore, fall in with bodies of rebels or be attacked by
+villagers, but he maintained that there was at least some chance of
+cutting their way through, while, once shut up in the courthouse,
+escape would be well nigh impossible.
+
+"But you all along agreed to our holding the courthouse, Forster,"
+the Major said.
+
+"Yes; but then I reckoned upon Cawnpore holding out with the
+assistance of Nana Sahib, and upon the country remaining quiet.
+Now the whole thing is changed. I am quite ready to fight in the
+open, and to take my chance of being killed there, but I protest
+against being shut up like a rat in a hole."
+
+To the rest, however, the proposal appeared desperate. There would
+be no withstanding a single charge of the well trained troopers,
+especially as it would be necessary to guard the vehicles. Had it
+not been for that, the small body of men might possibly have cut
+their way through the cavalry; but even then they would be so hotly
+pursued that the most of them would assuredly be hunted down. But
+encumbered by the women such an enterprise seemed utterly hopeless,
+and the whole of the others were unanimously against it.
+
+The party broke up very early. The strain of maintaining their
+ordinary demeanor was too great to be long endured, and the ladies
+with children were anxious to return as soon as possible to them,
+lest at the last moment the Sepoys should have made some change in
+their arrangements. By ten o'clock the whole party had left.
+
+The two subalterns had no preparations to make; they had already
+sent most of their things into the hospital; and, lighting their
+pipes, they sat down and talked quietly till midnight; then,
+placing their pistols in their belts and wrapping themselves in
+their cloaks, they went into the Doctor's tent, which was next to
+theirs.
+
+The Doctor at once roused his servant, who was sleeping in a shelter
+tent pitched by the side of his. The man came in looking surprised
+at being called. "Roshun," the Doctor said, "you have been with me
+ten years, and I believe you to be faithful."
+
+"I would lay down my life for the sahib," the man said quietly.
+
+"You have heard nothing of any trouble with the Sepoys?"
+
+"No, sahib; they know that Roshun is faithful to his master."
+
+"We have news that they are going to rise in the morning and kill
+all Europeans, so we are going to move at once into the hospital."
+
+"Good, sahib; what will you take with you?"
+
+"My books and papers have all gone in," the Doctor said; "that
+portmanteau may as well go. I will carry these two rifles myself;
+the ammunition is all there except that bag in the corner, which
+I will sling round my shoulder."
+
+"What are in those two cases, Doctor?" Wilson asked.
+
+"Brandy, lad."
+
+"We may as well each carry one of those, Doctor, if your boy takes
+the portmanteau. It would be a pity to leave good liquor to be
+wasted by those brutes."
+
+"I agree with you, Wilson; besides, the less liquor they get hold
+of the better for us. Now, if you are all ready, we will start; but
+we must move quietly, or the sentry at the quarter guard may hear
+us."
+
+Ten minutes later they reached the hospital, being the last of the
+party to arrive there.
+
+"Now, Major," the Doctor said cheerily, as soon as he entered,
+"as this place is supposed to be under my special charge I will
+take command for the present. Wilson and Richards will act as my
+lieutenants. We have nothing to do outside, and can devote ourselves
+to getting things a little straight here. The first thing to do
+is to light lamps in all the lower rooms; then we can see what we
+are doing, and the ladies will be able to give us their help, while
+the men go out with the servants to bring things in; and remember
+the first thing to do is to bring in the horses. They may be useful
+to us. There is a good store of forage piled in the corner of the
+yard, but the syces had best bring in as much more as they can
+carry. Now, ladies, if you will all bring your bundles inside the
+house we will set about arranging things, and at any rate get the
+children into bed as quickly as possible."
+
+As it had been already settled as to the rooms to be occupied, the
+ladies and their ayahs set to work at once, glad to have something
+to employ them. One of the rooms which had been fitted up with beds
+had been devoted to the purposes of a nursery, and the children,
+most of whom were still asleep, were soon settled there. Two other
+rooms had been fitted up for the use of the ladies, while the men
+were occupying two others, the courtroom being turned into a general
+meeting and dining room.
+
+At first there was not much to do; but as the servants, closely
+watched by their masters, went backwards and forwards bringing
+in goods of all kinds, there was plenty of employment in carrying
+them down to a large underground room, where they were left to be
+sorted later on.
+
+The Doctor had appointed Isobel Hannay and the two Miss Hunters to
+the work of lighting a fire and getting boiling water ready, and a
+plentiful supply of coffee was presently made, Wilson and Richards
+drawing the water, carrying the heavier loads downstairs, and making
+themselves generally useful.
+
+Captain Forster had not come in. He had undertaken to remain in
+his tent in the lines, where he had quietly saddled and unpicketed
+his horse, tying it up to the tent ropes so that he could mount in
+an instant. He still believed that his own men would stand firm,
+and declared he would at their head charge the mutinous infantry,
+while if they joined the mutineers he would ride into the fort. It
+was also arranged that he should bring in word should the Sepoys
+obtain news of what was going on and rise before morning.
+
+All felt better and more cheerful after having taken some coffee.
+
+"It is difficult to believe, Miss Hannay," Richards said, "that
+this is all real, and not a sort of picnic, or an early start on
+a hunting expedition."
+
+"It is indeed, Mr. Richards. I can hardly believe even now that
+it is all true, and have pinched myself two or three times to make
+sure that I am awake."
+
+"If the villains venture to attack us," Wilson said, "I feel sure
+we shall beat them off handsomely."
+
+"I have no doubt we shall, Mr. Wilson, especially as it will be in
+daylight. You know you and Mr. Richards are not famous for night
+shooting."
+
+The young men both laughed.
+
+"We shall never hear the last of that tiger story, Miss Hannay.
+I can tell you it is no joke shooting when you have been sitting
+cramped up on a tree for about six hours. We are really both pretty
+good shots. Of course, I don't mean like the Doctor; but we always
+make good scores with the targets. Come, Richards, here is another
+lot of things; if they go on at this rate the Sepoys won't find
+much to loot in the bungalows tomorrow."
+
+Just as daylight was breaking the servants were all called together,
+and given the choice of staying or leaving. Only some eight or
+ten, all of whom belonged to the neighborhood, chose to go off to
+their villages. The rest declared they would stay with their masters.
+
+Two of the party by turns had been on watch all night on the terrace
+to listen for any sound of tumult in the lines, but all had gone
+on quietly. Bathurst had been working with the others all night,
+and after seeing that all his papers were carried to the courthouse,
+he had troubled but little about his own belongings, but had assisted
+the others in bringing in their goods.
+
+At daylight the Major and his officers mounted and rode quietly down
+towards the parade ground. Bathurst and Mr. Hunter, with several of
+the servants, took their places at the gates, in readiness to open
+and close them quickly, while the Doctor and the other Europeans
+went up to the roof, where they placed in readiness six muskets
+for each man, from the store in the courthouse. Isobel Hannay and
+the wives of the two Captains were too anxious to remain below,
+and went up to the roof also. The Doctor took his place by them,
+examining the lines with a field glass.
+
+The officers halted when they reached the parade ground, and sat on
+their horses in a group, waiting for the men to turn out as usual.
+
+"There goes the assembly," the Doctor said, as the notes of the
+bugle came to their ears. "The men are turning out of their tents.
+There, I can make out Forster; he has just mounted; a plucky fellow
+that."
+
+Instead of straggling out onto the parade ground as usual, the
+Sepoys seemed to hang about their tents. The cavalry mounted and
+formed up in their lines. Suddenly a gun was fired, and as if at
+the signal the whole of the infantry rushed forward towards the
+officers, yelling and firing, and the latter at once turned their
+horses and rode towards the courthouse.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, my dear," the Doctor said to Isobel; "I don't
+suppose anyone is hit. The Sepoys are not good shots at the best of
+times, and firing running they would not be able to hit a haystack
+at a hundred yards. The cavalry stand firm, you see," he said,
+turning his glass in that direction. "Forster is haranguing them.
+There, three of the native officers are riding up to him. Ah! one
+has fired at him! Missed! Ah! that is a better shot," as the man
+fell from his horse, from a shot from his Captain's pistol.
+
+The other two rushed at him. One he cut down, and the other shot.
+Then he could be seen again, shouting and waving his sword to the
+men, but their yells could be heard as they rode forward at him.
+
+"Ride, man, ride!" the Doctor shouted, although his voice could
+not have been heard at a quarter of the distance.
+
+But instead of turning Forster rode right at them. There was
+a confused melee for a moment, and then his figure appeared beyond
+the line, through which he had broken. With yells of fury the
+troopers reined in their horses and tried to turn them, but before
+they could do so the officer was upon them again. His revolver
+cracked in his left hand, and his sword flashed in his right. Two
+or three horses and men were seen to roll over, and in a moment he
+was through them again and riding at full speed for the courthouse,
+under a scattered fire from the infantry, while the horsemen, now
+in a confused mass, galloped behind him.
+
+"Now then," the Doctor shouted, picking up his rifle; "let them
+know we are within range, but mind you don't hit Forster. Fire two
+or three shots, and then run down to the gate. He is well mounted,
+and has a good fifty yards' start of them."
+
+Then taking deliberate aim he fired. The others followed his example.
+Three of the troopers dropped from their horses. Four times those
+on the terrace fired, and then ran down, each, at the Doctor's order,
+taking two guns with him. One of these was placed in the hands of
+each of the officers who had just ridden in, and they then gathered
+round the gate. In two minutes Forster rode in at full speed, then
+fifteen muskets flashed out, and several of the pursuers fell from
+their horses. A minute later the gate was closed and barred, and
+the men all ran up to the roof, from which three muskets were fired
+simultaneously.
+
+"Well done!" the Doctor exclaimed. "That is a good beginning."
+
+A minute later a brisk fire was opened from the terrace upon the
+cavalry, who at once turned and rode rapidly back to their lines.
+
+Captain Forster had not come scathless through the fray; his cheek
+had been laid open by a sabre cut, and a musket ball had gone
+through the fleshy part of his arm as he rode back.
+
+"This comes of fighting when there is no occasion," the Doctor
+growled, when he dressed his wounds. "Here you are charging a host
+like a paladin of old, forgetful that we want every man who can
+lift an arm in defense of this place."
+
+"I think, Doctor, there is someone else wants your services more
+than I do."
+
+"Yes; is anyone else hit?"
+
+"No, I don't know that anyone else is hit, Doctor; but as I turned
+to come into the house after the gates were shut, there was that
+fellow Bathurst leaning against the wall as white as a sheet, and
+shaking all over like a leaf. I should say a strong dose of Dutch
+courage would be the best medicine there."
+
+"You do not do justice to Bathurst, Captain Forster," the Doctor
+said gravely. "He is a man I esteem most highly. In some respects
+he is the bravest man I know, but he is constitutionally unable
+to stand noise, and the sound of a gun is torture to him. It is an
+unfortunate idiosyncrasy for which he is in no way accountable."
+
+"Exceedingly unfortunate, I should say," Forster said, with a dry
+laugh; "especially at times like this. It is rather unlucky for him
+that fighting is generally accompanied by noise. If I had such an
+idiosyncrasy, as you call it, I would blow out my brains."
+
+"Perhaps Bathurst would do so, too, Captain Forster, if he had not
+more brains to blow out than some people have."
+
+"That is sharp, Doctor," Forster laughed good temperedly. "I don't
+mind a fair hit."
+
+"Well, I must go," the Doctor said, somewhat mollified; "there is
+plenty to do, and I expect, after these fellows have held a council
+of war, they will be trying an attack."
+
+When the Doctor went out he found the whole of the garrison busy.
+The Major had placed four men on the roof, and had ordered everyone
+else to fill the bags that had been prepared for the purpose with
+earth from the garden. It was only an order to the men and male
+servants, but the ladies had all gone out to render their assistance.
+As fast as the natives filled the bags with earth the ladies sewed
+up the mouths of the bags, and the men carried them away and piled
+them against the gate.
+
+The garrison consisted of the six military officers, the Doctor,
+seven civilians, ten ladies, eight children, thirty-eight male
+servants, and six females. The work, therefore, went on rapidly,
+and in the course of two hours so large a pile of bags was built
+up against the gate that there was no probability whatever of its
+being forced.
+
+"Now," the Major said, "we want four dozen bags at least for the
+parapet of the terrace. We need not raise it all, but we must build
+up a breastwork two bags high at each of the angles."
+
+There was only just time to accomplish this when one of the watch
+on the roof reported that the Sepoys were firing the bungalows. As
+soon as they saw that the Europeans had gained the shelter of the
+courthouse the Sepoys, with yells of triumph, had made for the
+houses of the Europeans, and their disappointment at finding that
+not only had all the whites taken refuge in the courthouse, but that
+they had removed most of their property, vented itself in setting
+fire to the buildings, after stripping them of everything, and
+then amused themselves by keeping up a straggling fire against the
+courthouse.
+
+As soon as the bags were taken onto the roof, the defenders, keeping
+as much as possible under the shelter of the parapet, carried them
+to the corners of the terrace and piled them two deep, thus forming
+a breastwork four feet high. Eight of the best shots were then
+chosen, and two of them took post at each corner.
+
+"Now," the Doctor said cheerfully, as he sat behind a small loophole
+that had been left between the bags, "it is our turn, and I don't
+fancy we shall waste as much lead as they have been doing."
+
+The fire from the defenders was slow, but it was deadly, and in a
+very short time the Sepoys no longer dared to show themselves in
+the open, but took refuge behind trees, whence they endeavored to
+reply to the fire on the roof; but even this proved so dangerous
+that it was not long before the fire ceased altogether, and they
+drew off under cover of the smoke from the burning bungalows.
+
+Isobel Hannay had met Bathurst as he was carrying a sack of earth
+to the roof.
+
+"I have been wanting to speak to you, Mr. Bathurst, ever since
+yesterday evening, but you have never given me an opportunity. Will
+you step into the storeroom for a few minutes as you come down?"
+
+As he came down he went to the door of the room in which Isobel
+was standing awaiting him.
+
+"I am not coming in, Miss Hannay; I believe I know what you are
+going to say. I saw it in your face last night when I had to tell
+that tiger story. You want to say that you are sorry you said that
+you despised cowards. Do not say it; you were perfectly right; you
+cannot despise me one tenth as much as I despise myself. While you
+were looking at the mutineers from the roof I was leaning against
+the wall below well nigh fainting. What do you think my feelings
+must be that here, where every man is brave, where there are women
+and children to be defended, I alone cannot bear my part. Look at
+my face; I know there is not a vestige of color in it. Look at my
+hands; they are not steady yet. It is useless for you to speak;
+you may pity me, but you cannot but despise me. Believe me, that
+death when it comes will be to me a happy release indeed from the
+shame and misery I feel."
+
+Then, turning, he left the girl without another word, and went
+about his work. The Doctor had, just before going up to take his
+place on the roof, come across him.
+
+"Come in here, my dear Bathurst," he said, seizing his arm and
+dragging him into the room which had been given up to him for his
+drugs and surgical appliances.
+
+"Let me give you a strong dose of ammonia and ginger; you want a
+pickup I can see by your face."
+
+"I want it, Doctor, but I will not take it," Bathurst said. "That
+is one thing I have made up my mind to. I will take no spirits to
+create a courage that I do not possess."
+
+"It is not courage; it has nothing to do with courage," the Doctor
+said angrily. "It is a simple question of nerves, as I have told
+you over and over again."
+
+"Call it what you like, Doctor, the result is precisely the same.
+I do not mind taking a strong dose of quinine if you will give it
+me, for I feel as weak as a child, but no spirits."
+
+With an impatient shrug of the shoulders the Doctor mixed a strong
+dose of quinine and gave it to him.
+
+An hour later a sudden outburst of musketry took place. Not a
+native showed himself on the side of the house facing the maidan,
+but from the gardens on the other three sides a heavy fire was
+opened.
+
+"Every man to the roof," the Major said; "four men to each of the
+rear corners, three to the others. Do you think you are fit to
+fire, Forster? Had you not better keep quiet for today; you will
+have opportunities enough."
+
+"I am all right, Major," he said carelessly. "I can put my rifle
+through a loophole and fire, though I have one arm in a sling. By
+Jove!" he broke off suddenly; "look at that fellow Bathurst--he
+looks like a ghost."
+
+The roll of musketry was unabated, and the defenders were already
+beginning to answer it; the bullets sung thickly overhead, and above
+the din could be heard the shouts of the natives. Bathurst's face
+was rigid and ghastly pale. The Major hurried to him.
+
+"My dear Bathurst," he said, "I think you had better go below. You
+will find plenty of work to do there."
+
+"My work is here," Bathurst said, as if speaking to himself: "it
+must be done."
+
+The Major could not at the moment pay further attention to him, for
+a roar of fire broke out round the inclosure, as from the ruined
+bungalows and from every bush the Sepoys, who had crept up, now
+commenced the attack in earnest, while the defenders lying behind
+their parapet replied slowly and steadily, aiming at the puffs of
+smoke as they darted out. His attention was suddenly called by a
+shout from the Doctor.
+
+"Are you mad, Bathurst? Lie down, man; you a throwing away your
+life."
+
+Turning round, the Major saw Bathurst standing up--right by the
+parapet, facing the point where the enemy fire was hottest. He held
+a rifle in his hand but did not attempt to fire; his figure swayed
+slightly to and fro.
+
+"Lie down," the Major shouted, "lie down, sir;" and then as Bathurst
+still stood unmoved he was about to run forward, when the Doctor
+from one side and Captain Forster from the other rushed towards him
+through a storm of bullets, seized him in their arms, and dragged
+him back to the center of the terrace.
+
+"Nobly done, gentlemen," the Major said, as they laid Bathurst
+down; "it was almost miraculous your not being hit."
+
+Bathurst had struggled fiercely for a moment, and then his resistance
+had suddenly ceased, and he had been dragged back like a wooden
+figure. His eyes were closed now.
+
+"Has he been hit, Doctor?" the Major asked. "It seems impossible he
+can have escaped. What madness possessed him to put himself there
+as a target?"
+
+"No, I don't think he is hit," the Doctor said, as he examined him.
+"I think he has fainted. We had better carry him down to my room.
+Shake hands, Forster; I know you and Bathurst were not good friends,
+and you risked your life to save him."
+
+"I did not think who it was," Forster said, with a careless laugh.
+"I saw a man behaving like a madman, and naturally went to pull
+him down. However, I shall think better of him in future, though
+I doubt whether he was in his right senses."
+
+"He wanted to be killed," the Doctor said quietly; "and the effort
+that he made to place himself in the way of death must have been
+greater than either you or I can well understand, Forster. I know
+the circumstances of the case. Morally I believe there is no braver
+man living than he is; physically he has the constitution of a
+timid woman; it is mind against body."
+
+"The distinction is too fine for me, Doctor," Forster said, as he
+turned to go off to his post by the parapet. "I understand pluck
+and I understand cowardice, but this mysterious mixture you speak
+of is beyond me altogether."
+
+The Major and Dr. Wade lifted Bathurst and carried him below. Mrs.
+Hunter, who had been appointed chief nurse, met them.
+
+"Is he badly wounded, Doctor?"
+
+"No; he is not wounded at all, Mrs. Hunter. He stood up at the edge
+of the parapet and exposed himself so rashly to the Sepoys' fire
+that we had to drag him away, and then the reaction, acting on a
+nervous temperament, was too much for him, and he fainted. We shall
+soon bring him round. You can come in with me, but keep the others
+away."
+
+The Major at once returned to the terrace.
+
+In spite of the restoratives the Doctor poured through his lips,
+and cold water dashed in his face, Bathurst was some time before
+he opened his eyes. Seeing Mrs. Hunter and the Doctor beside him,
+he made an effort to rise.
+
+"You must lie still, Bathurst," the Doctor said, pressing his hand
+on his shoulder. "You have done a very foolish thing, a very wrong
+thing. You have tried to throw away your life."
+
+"No, I did not. I had no thought of throwing away my life," Bathurst
+said, after a pause. "I was trying to make myself stand fire. I
+did not think whether I should be hit or not. I am not afraid of
+bullets, Doctor; it's the horrible, fiendish noise that I cannot
+stand."
+
+"I know, my boy," the Doctor said kindly; "but it comes to the same
+thing. You did put yourself in the way of bullets when your doing
+so was of no possible advantage, and it is almost a miracle that
+you escaped unhurt. You must remain here quiet for the present.
+II shall leave you in charge of Mrs. Hunter. There is nothing for
+you to do on the roof at present. This attack is a mere outbreak
+of rage on the part of the Sepoys that we have all escaped them.
+They know well enough they can't take this house by merely firing
+away at the roof. When they attack in earnest it will be quite
+time for you to take part in the affair again. Now, Mrs. Hunter,
+my orders are absolute that he is not to be allowed to get up."
+
+On the Doctor leaving the room he found several of the ladies outside;
+the news that Mr. Bathurst had been carried down had spread among
+them.
+
+"Is he badly hurt, Doctor?"
+
+"No, ladies. Mr. Bathurst is, unfortunately for himself, an extremely
+nervous man, and the noise of firearms has an effect upon him that
+he cannot by any effort of his own overcome. In order, as he says,
+to try and accustom himself to it, he went and stood at the edge
+of the parapet in full sight of the Sepoys, and let them blaze away
+at him. He must have been killed if Forster and I had not dragged
+him away by main force. Then came the natural reaction, and he
+fainted. That is all there is about it. Poor fellow, he is extremely
+sensitive on the ground of personal courage. In other respects I
+have known him do things requiring an amount of pluck that not one
+man in a hundred possesses, and I wish you all to remember that
+his nervousness at the effect of the noise of firearms is a purely
+constitutional weakness, for which he is in no way to be blamed.
+He has just risked his life in the most reckless manner in order
+to overcome what he considers, and what he knows that some persons
+consider, is cowardice, and it would be as cruel, and I may say
+as contemptible, to despise him for a constitutional failing as it
+would be to despise a person for being born a humpback or a cripple.
+But I cannot stand talking any longer. I shall be of more use on
+the roof than I am here."
+
+Isobel Hannay was not among those who had gathered near the door
+of the room in which Bathurst was lying, but the Doctor had raised
+his voice, and she heard what he said, and bent over her work of
+sewing strips of linen together for bandages with a paler face than
+had been caused by the outbreak of musketry. Gradually the firing
+ceased. The Sepoys had suffered heavily from the steady fire of
+the invisible defenders and gradually drew off, and in an hour from
+the commencement of the attack all was silent round the building.
+
+"So far so good, ladies," the Major said cheerily, as the garrison,
+leaving one man on watch, descended from the roof. "We have had
+no casualties, and I think we must have inflicted a good many, and
+the mutineers are not likely to try that game on again, for they
+must see that they are wasting ammunition, and are doing us no
+harm. Now I hope the servants have got tiffin ready for us, for I
+am sure we have all excellent appetites."
+
+"Tiffin is quite ready, Major," Mrs. Doolan, who had been appointed
+chief of the commissariat department, said cheerfully. "The servants
+were a little disorganized when the firing began, but they soon
+became accustomed to it, and I think you will find everything in
+order in the hall."
+
+The meal was really a cheerful one. The fact that the first attack
+had passed over without anyone being hit raised the spirits of
+the women, and all were disposed to look at matters in a cheerful
+light. The two young subalterns were in high spirits, and the party
+were more lively than they had been since the first outbreak of the
+mutiny. All had felt severely the strain of waiting, and the reality
+of danger was a positive relief after the continuous suspense. It
+was much to them to know that the crisis had come at last, that
+they were still all together and the foe were without.
+
+"It is difficult to believe," Mrs. Doolan said, "that it was only
+yesterday evening we were all gathered at the Major's. It seems an
+age since then."
+
+"Yes, indeed," Mrs. Rintoul agreed; "the night seemed endless.
+The worst time was the waiting till we were to begin to move over.
+After that I did not so much mind, though it seemed more like a
+week than a night while the things were being brought in here."
+
+"I think the worse time was while we were waiting watching from the
+roof to see whether the troops would come out on parade as usual,"
+Isobel said. "When my uncle and the others were all in, and Captain
+Forster, and the gates were shut, it seemed that our anxieties were
+over."
+
+"That was a mad charge of yours, Forster," the Major said. "It was
+like the Balaclava business--magnificent; but it wasn't war."
+
+"I did not think of it one way or the other," Captain Forster
+laughed. "I was so furious at the insolence off those dogs attacking
+me, that I thought of nothing else, and just went at them; but of
+course it was foolish."
+
+"It did good," the Doctor said. "It showed the Sepoys how little
+we thought of them, and how a single white officer was ready to
+match himself against a squadron. It will render them a good deal
+more careful in their attack than they otherwise would have been.
+It brought them under our fire, too, and they suffered pretty
+heavily; and I am sure the infantry must have lost a good many men
+from our fire just now. I hope they will come to the conclusion
+that the wisest thing they can do is to march away to Delhi and
+leave us severely alone. Now what are your orders, Major, for after
+breakfast?"
+
+"I think the best thing is for everyone to lie down for a few
+hours," the Major said. "No one had a wink of sleep last night,
+and most of us have not slept much for some nights past. We must
+always keep two men on the roof, to be relieved every two hours.
+I will draw up a regular rota for duty; but except those two, the
+rest had better take a good sleep. We may be all called upon to be
+under arms at night."
+
+"I will go on the first relief, Major," the Doctor said. "I feel
+particularly wide awake. It is nothing new to me to be up all
+night. Put Bathurst down with me," he said, in a low tone, as the
+Major rose from the table. "He knows that I understand him, and it
+will be less painful for him to be with me than with anyone else.
+I will go up at once, and send young Harper down to his breakfast.
+There will be no occasion to have Bathurst up this time. The Sepoys
+are not likely to be trying any pranks at present. No doubt they
+have gone back to their lines to get a meal."
+
+The Doctor had not been long at his post when Isobel Hannay came
+up onto the terrace. They had seen each other alone comparatively
+little of late, as the Doctor had given up his habit of dropping
+in for a chat in the morning since their conversation about Bathurst.
+
+"Well, my dear, what is it?" he asked. "This is no place for you,
+for there are a few fellows still lurking among the trees, and they
+send a shot over the house occasionally."
+
+"I came up to say that I am sorry, Doctor."
+
+"That is right, Isobel. Always say you are sorry when you are so,
+although in nine cases out of ten, and this is one of them, the
+saying so is too late to do much good."
+
+"I think you are rather hard upon me, Doctor. I know you were
+speaking at me today when you were talking to the others, especially
+in what you said at the end."
+
+"Perhaps I was; but I think you quite deserved it."
+
+"Yes, I know I did; but it was hard to tell me it was as contemptible
+to despise a man for a physical weakness he could not help, as to
+despise one for being born humpbacked or a cripple, when you know
+that my brother was so."
+
+"I wanted you to feel that your conduct had been contemptible,
+Isobel, and I put it in the way that was most likely to come home
+to you. I have been disappointed in you. I thought you were more
+sensible than the run of young women, and I found out that you
+were not. I thought you had some confidence in my judgment, but it
+turned out that you had not. If Bathurst had been killed when he
+was standing up, a target for the Sepoys, I should have held you
+morally responsible for his death."
+
+"You would have shared the responsibility, anyhow, Doctor, for it
+was you who repeated my words to him."
+
+"We will not go over that ground again," said the Doctor quietly.
+"I gave you my reasons for doing so, and those reasons are to
+my mind convincing. Now I will tell you how this constitutional
+nervousness on his part arose. He told me the story; but as at
+that time there had been no occasion for him to show whether he
+was brave or otherwise, I considered my lips sealed. Now that his
+weakness has been exhibited, I consider myself more than justified
+in explaining its origin."
+
+And he then repeated the story Bathurst had told him.
+
+"You see," he said, when he had finished, "it is a constitutional
+matter beyond his control; it is a sort of antipathy. I have known
+a case of a woman courageous in all other respects, who, at the
+sight of even a dead cockroach, would faint away. I have seen one
+of the most gallant officers of my acquaintance turn pale at the
+sight of a spider. Certainly no one would think of calling either
+one or the other coward; and assuredly such a name should not be
+applied to a man who would face a tiger armed only with a whip in
+defense of a native woman, because his nerves go all to pieces at
+the sound of firearms."
+
+"If you had told me all this before I should never have spoken as
+I did," Isobel pleaded.
+
+"I did not go into the full details, but I told you that he
+was not responsible for his want of firmness under fire, and that
+I knew him in other respects to be a brave man," the Doctor said
+uncompromisingly. "Since then you have by your manner driven him away
+from you. You have flirted--well, you may not call it flirting,"
+he broke off in answer to a gesture of denial, "but it was the same
+thing--with a man who is undoubtedly a gallant soldier--a very
+paladin, if you like--but who, in spite of his handsome face and
+pleasant manner, is no more to be compared with Bathurst in point
+of moral qualities or mental ability than light to dark, and this
+after I had like an old fool gone out of my way to warn you. You
+have disappointed me altogether, Isobel Hannay."
+
+Isobel stood motionless before him, with downcast eyes.
+
+"Well, there, my dear," the Doctor went on hurriedly, as he saw
+a tear glisten in her eyelashes; "don't let us say anything more
+about it. In the first place, it is no affair of mine; and in the
+second place, your point of view was that most women would take
+at a time like this; only, you know, I expected you would not have
+done just as other women would. We cannot afford to quarrel now,
+for there is no doubt that, although we may put a good face on the
+matter, our position is one of grave peril, and it is of no use
+troubling over trifles. Now run away, and get a few hours' sleep
+if you can. You will want all your strength before we are through
+with this business."
+
+While the Doctor had been talking to Isobel, the men had gathered
+below in a sort of informal council, the subject being Bathurst's
+conduct on the roof.
+
+"I would not have believed it if I had not seen it," Captain Rintoul
+said. "The man was absolutely helpless with fright; I never saw
+such an exhibition; and then his fainting afterwards and having to
+be carried away was disgusting; in fact, it is worse than that."
+
+There was a general murmur of assent.
+
+"It is disgraceful," one of the civilians said; "I am ashamed that
+the man should belong to our service; the idea of a fellow being
+helpless by fright when there are women and children to be defended
+--it is downright revolting."
+
+"Well, he did go and stick himself up in front," Wilson said; "you
+should remember that. He may have been in a blue funk, I don't
+say he wasn't; still, you know, he didn't go away and try to hide
+himself, but he stuck himself up in front for them to fire at. I
+think we ought to take that into consideration."
+
+"Dr. Wade says Bathurst put himself there to try and accustom
+himself to fire," Captain Forster said. "Mind, I don't pretend to
+like the man. We were at school together, and he was a coward then
+and a sneak, but for all that one should look at it fairly. The
+Doctor asserts that Bathurst is morally brave, but that somehow or
+other his nerves are too much for him. I don't pretend to understand
+it myself, but there is no doubt about the Doctor's pluck, and
+I don't think he would stand up for Bathurst as he does unless he
+really thought he was not altogether accountable for showing the
+white feather. I think, too, from what he let drop, that the Major
+is to some extent of the same opinion. What do you think, Doolan?"
+
+"I like Bathurst," Captain Doolan said; "I have always thought him
+a first rate fellow; but one can't stick up, you know, for a fellow
+who can't behave as a gentleman ought to, especially when there
+are women and children in danger."
+
+"It. is quite impossible that we should associate with him," Captain
+Rintoul said. "I don't propose that we should tell him what we
+think of him, but I think we ought to leave him severely alone."
+
+"I should say that he ought to be sent to Coventry," Richards said.
+
+"I should not put it in that way," Mr. Hunter said gravely. "I have
+always esteemed Bathurst. I look upon it as a terribly sad case;
+but I agree with Captain Rintoul that, in the position in which we
+are now placed, a man who proves himself to be a coward must be
+made to feel that he stands apart from us. I should not call it
+sending him to Coventry, or anything of that sort, but I do think
+that we should express by our manner that we don't wish to have
+any communication with him."
+
+There was a general expression of assent to this opinion, Wilson
+alone protesting against it.
+
+"You can do as you like," he said; "but certainly I shall speak to
+Bathurst, and I am sure the Doctor and Major Hannay will do so. I
+don't want to stand up for a coward, but I believe what the Doctor
+says. I have seen a good deal of Bathurst, and I like him; besides,
+haven't you heard the story the Doctor has been telling about his
+attacking a tiger with a whip to save a native woman? I don't care
+what anyone says, a fellow who is a downright coward couldn't do
+a thing like that."
+
+"Who told the Doctor about it?" Farquharson asked. "If he got it
+from Bathurst, I don't think it goes for much after what we have
+seen."
+
+Wilson would have replied angrily, but Captain Doolan put his hand
+on his shoulder.
+
+"Shut up, Wilson," he said; "this is no time for disputes; we are
+all in one boat here, and must row together like brothers. You go
+your own way about Bathurst, I don't blame you for it; he is a man
+everyone has liked, a first rate official, and a good fellow all
+round, except he is not one of the sociable kind. At any other time
+one would not think so much of this, but at present for a man to
+lack courage is for him to lack everything. I hope he will come
+better out of it than it looks at present. He will have plenty of
+chances here, and no one will be more glad than I shall to see him
+pull himself together."
+
+The Doctor, however, would have quarreled with everyone all round
+when he heard what had been decided upon, had not Major Hannay
+taken him aside and talked to him strongly.
+
+"It will never do, Doctor, to have quarrels here, and as commandant
+I must beg of you not to make this a personal matter. I am very
+sorry for this poor fellow; I accept entirely your view of the
+matter; but at the same time I really can't blame the others for
+looking at it from a matter of fact point of view. Want of courage is
+at all times regarded by men as the most unpardonable of failings,
+and at a time like the present this feeling is naturally far stronger
+even than usual. I hope with you that Bathurst will retrieve himself
+yet, but we shall certainly do him no good by trying to fight his
+battle until he does. You and I, thinking as we do, will of course
+make no alteration in our manner towards him. I am glad to hear that
+young Wilson also stands as his friend. Let matters go on quietly.
+I believe they will come right in the end."
+
+The Doctor was obliged to acknowledge that the Major's counsel
+was wise, and to refrain from either argument or sarcasm; but the
+effort required to check his natural tendency to wordy conflict was
+almost too great for him, and when not engaged in his own special
+duties he spent hours in one of the angles of the terrace keenly
+watching every tree and bush within range, and firing vengefully
+whenever he caught sight of a lurking native. So accurate was his
+aim that the Sepoys soon learned to know and dread the crack of
+his rifle; and whenever it spoke out the ground within its range
+was speedily clear of foes.
+
+The matter, however, caused a deep if temporary estrangement between
+Wilson and Richards. Although constantly chaffing each other, and
+engaged in verbal strife, they had hitherto been firm friends.
+Their rivalry in the matter of horseflesh had not aroused angry
+feelings, even their mutual adoration of Isobel Hannay had not
+affected a breach in their friendship; but upon the subject of
+sending Bathurst to Coventry they quarreled so hotly, that for a
+time they broke off all communication with each other, and both in
+their hearts regretted that their schoolboy days had passed, and
+that they could not settle the matter in good schoolboy fashion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+But though obliged to defer to Major Hannay's wishes, and to abstain
+from arguing with the men the question of Bathurst being given the
+cold shoulder, Dr. Wade had already organized the ladies in his
+favor. During the afternoon he had told them the tiger story, and
+had confidentially informed them how it was that Bathurst from his
+birth had been the victim of something like nervous paralysis at
+all loud sounds, especially those of the discharge of firearms.
+
+"His conduct today," he said, "and his courage in rescuing that
+native girl from the tiger, illustrate his character. He is cool,
+brave, and determined, as might be expected from a man of so well
+balanced a mind as his; and even when his nerves utterly broke
+down under the din of musketry, his will was so far dominant that
+he forced himself to go forward and stand there under fire, an act
+which was, under the circumstances, simply heroic."
+
+There is little difficulty in persuading women as to the merits of
+a man they like, and Bathurst had, since the troubles began, been
+much more appreciated than before by the ladies of Deennugghur.
+They had felt there was something strengthening and cheering in his
+presence, for while not attempting to minimize the danger, there
+was a calm confidence in his manner that comforted and reassured
+those he talked to.
+
+In the last twenty-four hours, too, he had unobtrusively performed
+many little kindnesses; had aided in the removals, carried the
+children, looked after the servants, and had been foremost in the
+arrangement of everything that could add to the comfort of the
+ladies.
+
+"I am glad you have told us all about it, Doctor," Mrs. Doolan
+said; "and, of course, no one would dream of blaming him. I had
+heard that story about his leaving the army years ago; but although
+I had only seen him once or twice, I did not believe it for a
+minute. What you tell us now, Doctor, explains the whole matter. I
+pity him sincerely. It must be something awful for a man at a time
+like this not to be able to take his part in the defense, especially
+when there are us women here. Why, it would pain me less to see
+Jim brought in dead, than for him to show the white feather. What
+can we do for the poor fellow?"
+
+"Treat him just as usual. There is nothing else you can do, Mrs.
+Doolan. Any tone of sympathy, still less of pity, would be the
+worst thing possible. He is in the lowest depths at present; but
+if he finds by your tone and manner that you regard him on the same
+footing as before, he will gradually come round, and I hope that
+before the end of the siege he will have opportunities of retrieving
+himself. Not under fire--that is hopeless; but in other ways."
+
+"You may be sure we will do all we can, Doctor," Mrs. Doolan said
+warmly; "and there are plenty of ways he will be able to make
+himself most useful. There is somebody wanted to look after all
+those syces and servants, and it would be a comfort to us to have
+someone to talk to occasionally; besides, all the children are fond
+of him."
+
+This sentiment was warmly echoed; and thus, when the determination
+at which the men had arrived to cut Bathurst became known, there
+was something like a feminine revolution.
+
+"You may do as you like," Mrs. Doolan said indignantly; "but if
+you think that we are going to do anything so cruel and unjust,
+you are entirely mistaken, I can tell you."
+
+Mrs. Rintoul was equally emphatic, and Mrs. Hunter quietly, but with
+as much decision, protested. "I have always regarded Mr. Bathurst
+as a friend," she said, "and I shall continue to do so. It is very
+sad for him that he cannot take part in the defense, but it is no
+more fair to blame him than it would be to blame us, because we,
+too, are noncombatants."
+
+Isobel Hannay had taken no part in the first discussion among the
+ladies, nor did she say anything now.
+
+"It is cruel and unjust," she said to herself, "but they only think
+as I did. I was more cruel and unjust than they, for there was no
+talk of danger then. I expressed my contempt of him because there
+was a suspicion that he had showed cowardice ten years ago, while
+they have seen it shown now when there is fearful peril. If they
+are cruel and unjust, what was I?"
+
+Later on the men gathered together at one end of the room, and
+talked over the situation.
+
+"Dr. Wade," the Major said quietly, "I shall be obliged if you will
+go and ask Mr. Bathurst to join us. He knows the people round here
+better than any of us, and his opinion will be valuable."
+
+The Doctor, who had several times been in to see Bathurst, went to
+his room.
+
+"The Major wants you to join us, Bathurst; we are having a talk
+over things, and he wishes to have your opinion. I had better tell
+you that as to yourself the camp is divided into two parties. On
+one side are the Major, Wilson, and myself, and all the ladies,
+who take, I need not say, a common sense view of the matter, and
+recognize that you have done all a man could do to overcome your
+constitutional nervousness, and that there is no discredit whatever
+attached to you personally. The rest of the men, I am sorry to say,
+at present take another view of the case, and are disposed to show
+you the cold shoulder."
+
+"That, of course," Bathurst said quietly; "as to the ladies' view
+of it, I know that it is only the result of your good offices,
+Doctor."
+
+"Then you will come," the Doctor said, pleased that Bathurst seemed
+less depressed than he had expected.
+
+"Certainly I will come, Doctor," Bathurst said, rising; "the worst
+is over now--everyone knows that I am a coward--that is what
+I have dreaded. There is nothing else for me to be afraid of, and
+it is of no use hiding myself."
+
+"We look quite at home here, Mr. Bathurst, don't we?" Mrs. Doolan
+said cheerfully, as he passed her; "and I think we all feel a great
+deal more comfortable than we did when you gave us your warning
+last night; the anticipation is always worse than the reality."
+
+"Not always, I think, Mrs. Doolan," he said quietly; "but you have
+certainly made yourselves wonderfully at home, though your sewing
+is of a more practical kind than that upon which you are ordinarily
+engaged."
+
+Then he passed on with the Doctor to the other end of the room.
+The Major nodded as he came up.
+
+"All right again now, Bathurst, I hope? We want your opinion, for
+you know, I think, more of the Zemindars in this part of the country
+than any of us. Of course, the question is, will they take part
+against us?"
+
+"I am afraid they will, Major. I had hoped otherwise; but if it be
+true that the Nana has gone--and as the other part of the message
+was correct, I have no doubt this is so also--I am afraid they
+will be carried away with the stream."
+
+"And you think they have guns?"
+
+"I have not the least doubt of it; the number given up was a mere
+fraction of those they were said to have possessed."
+
+"I had hoped the troops would have marched away after the lesson
+we gave them this morning, but, so far as we can make out, there
+is no sign of movement in their lines. However, they may start at
+daybreak tomorrow."
+
+"I will go out to see if you like, Major," Bathurst said quietly.
+"I can get native clothes from the servants, and I speak the language
+well enough to pass as a native; so if you give me permission I
+will go out to the lines and learn what their intentions are."
+
+"It would be a very dangerous undertaking," the Major said gravely.
+
+"I have no fear whatever of danger of that kind, Major; my nerves
+are steady enough, except when there is a noise of firearms, and
+then, as you all saw this morning, I cannot control them, do what
+I will. Risks of any other kind I am quite prepared to undertake,
+but in this matter I think the danger is very slight, the only
+difficulty being to get through the line of sentries they have
+no doubt posted round the house. Once past them, I think there
+is practically no risk whatever of their recognizing me when made
+up as a native. The Doctor has, no doubt, got some iodine in his
+surgery, and a coat of that will bring me to the right color."
+
+"Well, if you are ready to undertake it, I will not refuse," the
+Major said. "How would you propose to get out?"
+
+"I noticed yesterday that the branches of one of the trees in the
+garden extended beyond the top of the wall. I will climb up that
+and lower myself on the other side by a rope; that is a very simple
+matter. The spot is close to the edge of Mr. Hunter's compound,
+and I shall work my way through the shrubbery till I feel sure I am
+beyond any sentries who may be posted there; the chances are that
+they will not be thick anywhere, except opposite the gate. By the
+way, Captain Forster, before I go I must thank you for having risked
+your life to save mine this morning. I heard from Mrs. Hunter that
+it was you and the Doctor who rushed forward and drew me back."
+
+"It is not worth talking about," Captain Forster said carelessly.
+"You seemed bent on making a target of yourself; and as the Major's
+orders were that everyone was to lie down, there was nothing for
+it but to remove you."
+
+Bathurst turned to Dr. Wade. "Will you superintend my get up,
+Doctor?"
+
+"Certainly," the Doctor said, with alacrity. "I will guarantee
+that, with the aid of my boy, I will turn you out so that no one
+would know you even in broad daylight, to say nothing of the dark."
+
+A quarter of an hour sufficed to metamorphose Bathurst into an
+Oude peasant. He did not return to the room, but, accompanied by
+the Doctor, made his way to the tree he had spoken of.
+
+"By the way, you have taken no arms," the Doctor said suddenly.
+
+"They would be useless, Doctor; if I am recognized I shall be
+killed; if I am not discovered, and the chances are very slight of
+my being so, I shall get back safely. By the way, we will tie some
+knots on that rope before I let myself down. I used to be able to
+climb a rope without them, but I doubt whether I could do so now."
+
+"Well, God bless you, lad, and bring you back safely! You may
+make as light of it as you will, but it is a dangerous expedition.
+However, I am glad you have undertaken it, come what may, for it has
+given you the opportunity of showing you are not afraid of danger
+when it takes any other form than that of firearms. There are plenty
+of men who would stand up bravely enough in a fight, who would not
+like to undertake this task of going out alone in the dark into
+the middle of these bloodthirsty scoundrels. How long do you think
+you will be?"
+
+"A couple of hours at the outside."
+
+"Well, at the end of an hour I shall be back here again. Don't be
+longer than you can help, lad, for I shall be very anxious until
+you return."
+
+When the Doctor re-entered the house there was a chorus of questions:
+
+"Has Mr. Bathurst started?"
+
+"Why did you not bring him in here before he left? We should all
+have liked to have said goodby to him."
+
+"Yes, he has gone. I have seen him over the wall; and it was
+much better that he should go without any fuss. He went off just
+as quietly and unconcernedly as if he had been going out for an
+ordinary evening's walk. Now I am going up onto the roof. I don't
+say we should hear any hubbub down at the lines if he were discovered
+there, but we should certainly hear a shout if he came across any
+of the sentries round the house."
+
+"Has he taken any arms, Doctor?" the Major asked.
+
+"None whatever, Major. I asked him if he would not take pistols,
+but he refused."
+
+"Well, I don't understand that," Captain Forster remarked. "If I had
+gone on such a business I would have taken a couple of revolvers.
+I am quite ready to take my chance of being killed fighting, but
+I should not like to be seized and hacked to pieces in cold blood.
+My theory is a man should sell his life as dearly as he can."
+
+"That is the animal instinct, Forster," the Doctor said sharply;
+"though I don't say that I should not feel the same myself; but I
+question whether Bathurst's is not a higher type of courage."
+
+"Well, I don't aspire to Bathurst's type of courage, Doctor,"
+Forster said, with a short laugh.
+
+But the Doctor did not answer. He had already turned away, and was
+making for the stairs.
+
+"May I go with you, Doctor?" Isobel Hannay said, following him.
+"It is very hot down here."
+
+"Yes; come along, child; but there is no time to lose, for Bathurst
+must be near where they are likely to have posted their sentries
+by this time."
+
+"Everything quiet, Wilson?" he asked the young subaltern, who, with
+another, was on guard on the roof.
+
+"Yes; we have heard nothing except a few distant shouts and noises
+out at the lines. Round here there has been nothing moving, except
+that we heard someone go out into the garden just now."
+
+"I went out with Bathurst," the Doctor said. "He has gone in the
+disguise of a native to the Sepoy lines, to find out what are their
+intentions."
+
+"I heard the talk over it, Doctor. I only came up on watch a few
+minutes since. I thought it was most likely him when I heard the
+steps."
+
+"I hope he is beyond the sentries," the Doctor said. "I have come
+up here to listen."
+
+"I expect he is through them before this," Wilson said confidently.
+"I wish I could have gone with him; but of course it would not have
+been any good. It is a beautiful night--isn't it, Miss Hannay?
+--and there is scarcely any dew falling."
+
+"Now, you go off to your post in the corner, Wilson. Your instructions
+are to listen for the slightest sound, and to assure us against
+the Sepoys creeping up to the walls. We did not come up here to
+distract you from your duties, or to gossip."
+
+"There are Richards and another posted somewhere in the garden,"
+Wilson said. "Still, I suppose you are right, Doctor; but if you,
+Miss Hannay, have come up to listen, come and sit in my corner; it
+is the one nearest to the lines."
+
+"You may as well go and sit down, Isobel," the Doctor said; "that
+is, if you intend to stay up here long;" and they went across with
+Wilson to his post.
+
+"Shall I put one of these sandbags for you to sit on?"
+
+"I would rather stand, thank you;" and they stood for some time
+silently watching the fires in the lines.
+
+"They are drawing pretty heavily on the wood stores," the Doctor
+growled; "there is a good deal more than the regulation allowance
+blazing in those fires. I can make out a lot of figures moving
+about round them; no doubt numbers of the peasants have come in."
+
+"Do you think Mr. Bathurst has got beyond the line of sentries?"
+Isobel said, after standing perfectly quiet for some time.
+
+"Oh, yes, a long way; probably he was through by the time we came
+up here. They are not likely to post them more than fifty or sixty
+yards from the wall; and, indeed, it is, as Bathurst pointed out
+to me, probable that they are only thick near the gate. All they
+want to do is to prevent us slipping away. I should think that
+Bathurst must be out near the lines by this time."
+
+Isobel moved a few paces away from the others, and again stood
+listening.
+
+"I suppose you do not think that there is any chance of an attack
+tonight, Doctor?" Wilson asked, in low tones.
+
+"Not in the least; the natives are not fond of night work. I expect
+they are dividing the spoil and quarreling over it; anyhow, they
+have had enough of it for today. They may intend to march away in
+the morning, or they may have sent to Cawnpore to ask for orders,
+or they may have heard from some of the Zemindars that they are
+coming in to join them--that is what Bathurst has gone out to
+learn; but anyhow I do not think they will attack us again with
+their present force."
+
+"I wish there were a few more of us," Wilson said, "so that we
+could venture on a sortie."
+
+"So do I, lad; but it is no use thinking about it as it is. We have
+to wait; our fate is not in our own hands."
+
+"And you think matters look bad, Doctor?"
+
+"I think they could hardly look worse. Unless the mutineers take
+it into their heads to march away, there is, humanly speaking, but
+one chance for us, and that is that Lawrence may thrash the Sepoys
+so completely at Lucknow that he may be able to send out a force
+to bring us in. The chances of that are next to nothing; for
+in addition to a very large Sepoy force he has the population of
+Lucknow--one of the most turbulent in India--on his hands. Ah,
+what is that?"
+
+Two musket shots in quick succession from the Sepoy lines broke
+the silence of the evening, and a startled exclamation burst from
+the girl standing near them.
+
+The Doctor went over to her.
+
+"Do you think--do you think," she said in a low, strained voice,
+"that it was Bathurst?"
+
+"Not at all. If they detected him, and I really do not see that
+there is a chance of their doing so, disguised as he was, they
+would have seized him and probably killed him, but there would
+be no firing. He has gone unarmed, you know, and would offer no
+resistance. Those shots you heard were doubtless the result of some
+drunken quarrel over the loot."
+
+"Do you really think so, Doctor?"
+
+"I feel quite sure of it. If it had been Forster who had gone out,
+and he had been detected, it would have been natural enough that
+we should hear the sound of something like a battle. In the first
+place, he would have defended himself desperately, and, in the
+next, he might have made his way through them and escaped; but, as
+I said, with Bathurst there would be no occasion for their firing."
+
+"Why didn't he come in to say goodby before he went? that is what
+I wanted to ask you, Doctor, and why I came up here. I wanted to
+have spoken to him, if only for a moment, before he started. I tried
+to catch his eye as he went out of the room with you, but he did
+not even look at me. It will be so hard if he never comes back,
+to know that he went away without my having spoken to him again. I
+did try this morning to tell him that I was sorry for what I said,
+but he would not listen to me."
+
+"You will have an opportunity of telling him when he comes back,
+if you want to, or of showing him so by your manner, which would
+be, perhaps, less painful to both of you."
+
+"I don't care about pain to myself," the girl said. "I have been
+unjust, and deserve it."
+
+"I don't think he considers you unjust. I did, and told you so. He
+feels what he considers the disgrace so much that it seems to him
+perfectly natural he should be despised."
+
+"Yes, but I want him to see that he is not despised," she said
+quickly. "You don't understand, Doctor."
+
+"I do understand perfectly, my dear; at least, I think--I think
+I do; I see that you want to put yourself straight with him, which
+is very right and proper, especially placed as we all are; but I
+would not do or say anything hastily. You have spoken hastily once,
+you see, and made a mess of it. I should be careful how I did it
+again, unless, of course," and he stopped.
+
+"Unless what, Doctor?" Isobel asked shyly, after a long pause. But
+there was no reply; and looking round she saw that her companion
+had moved quietly away and had joined Wilson at his post. She stood
+for a few minutes in the same attitude, and then moved quietly
+across the staircase in the center of the terrace, and went down to
+the party below. A short time later the Doctor followed her, and,
+taking his rifle, went out into the garden with Captain Doolan, who
+assisted him in climbing the tree, and handed his gun up to him.
+The Doctor made his way out on the branch to the spot where it
+extended beyond the wall, and there sat, straining his eyes into the
+darkness. Half an hour passed, and then he heard a light footfall
+on the sandy soil.
+
+"Is that you, Bathurst?" he whispered.
+
+"All right, Doctor;" and a minute later Bathurst sat on the branch
+beside him.
+
+"Well, what's your news?"
+
+"Very bad, Doctor; they expect the Rajah Por Sing, who, it seems,
+is the leader of the party in this district, and several other
+Zemindars, to be here with guns tomorrow or next day. The news from
+Cawnpore was true.. The native troops mutinied and marched away,
+but were joined by Nana Sahib and his force, and he persuaded them
+to return and attack the whites in their intrenchments at Cawnpore,
+as they would not be well received at Delhi unless they had properly
+accomplished their share of the work of rooting out the Feringhees."
+
+"The infernal scoundrel!" the Doctor exclaimed; "after pretending
+for years to be our best friend. I'm disgusted to think that I
+have drunk his champagne a dozen times. However, that makes little
+difference to us now, your other news is the most important. We
+could have resisted the Sepoys for a month; but if they bring up
+guns there can be but one ending to it."
+
+"That is so, Doctor. The only hope I can see is that they may find
+our resistance so obstinate as to be glad to grant us terms of
+surrender."
+
+"Yes, there is that chance," the Doctor agreed; "but history shows
+there is but little reliance to be placed upon native oaths."
+
+Bathurst was silent; his own experience of the natives had taught
+him the same lesson.
+
+"It is a poor hope," he said, after a while; "but it is the only
+one, so far as I can see."
+
+Not another word was spoken as they descended the tree and walked
+across to the house.
+
+"Never mind about changing your things, come straight in."
+
+"Our scout has returned," the Doctor said, as he entered the room.
+There was a general exclamation of gladness on the part of the
+ladies who had not retired.
+
+"I am very glad to see you safe back, Mr. Bathurst," Mrs. Hunter
+said, going up to him and taking his hand. "We have all been very
+anxious since you left."
+
+"The danger was very slight, Mrs. Hunter. I only wish I had
+brought you back the news that the native lines were deserted and
+the mutineers in full march for Delhi and Lucknow."
+
+"I was afraid you would hardly bring that news, Mr. Bathurst; it
+was almost too good to hope for. However, we are all glad that you
+are back. Are we not, Isobel?"
+
+"We are indeed, Mr. Bathurst, though as yet I can hardly persuade
+myself that it is you in that get up."
+
+"I think there is no doubt of my identity. Can you tell me where
+you uncle is, Miss Hannay? I have to make my report to him."
+
+"He is on the roof. There is a sort of general gathering of our
+defenders there."
+
+Two lamps had been placed in the center of the terrace, and round
+these the little garrison were grouped, some sitting on boxes, others
+lying on mats, almost all smoking. Bathurst was greeted heartily
+by the Major and Wilson as soon as he was recognized.
+
+"I am awfully glad to see you back," Wilson said, shaking him warmly
+by the hand. "I wish I could have gone with you. Two together does
+not seem so bad, but I should not like to start out by myself as
+you did."
+
+There was a hearty cordiality in the young fellow's voice that was
+very pleasant to Bathurst.
+
+"We have all our gifts, as Hawkeye used to say, as I have no doubt
+you remember, Wilson. Such gifts as I have lay in the way of solitary
+work, I fancy."
+
+"Now, light a cheroot, Bathurst," the Major said, "and drink off
+this tumbler of brandy and soda, and then let us hear your story."
+
+"The story is simple enough, Major. I got through without difficulty.
+The sentries are some distance apart round the garden wall. As soon
+as I discovered by the sound of their footsteps where they were, it
+was easy enough to get through them. Then I made a longish detour,
+and came down on the lines from the other side. There was no occasion
+for concealment then. Numbers of the country people had come in,
+and were gathered round the Sepoys' fires, and I was able to move
+about amongst them, and listen to the conversation without the
+smallest hindrance.
+
+"The Sepoys were loudly expressing their dissatisfaction at their
+officers leading them against the house today, when they had
+no means of either battering down the walls or scaling them. Then
+there was a general opinion that treachery was at work; for how
+else should the Europeans have known they were going to rise that
+morning, and so moved during the night into the house? There was
+much angry recrimination and quarreling, and many expressed their
+regret they had not marched straight to Cawnpore after burning the
+bungalows.
+
+"All this was satisfactory; but I learned that Por Sing and several
+other Zemindars had already sent in assurances that they were wholly
+with them, and would be here, with guns to batter down the walls,
+some time tomorrow."
+
+"That is bad news, indeed," the Major said gravely, when he had
+finished. "Of course, when we heard that Nana Sahib had thrown
+in his lot with the mutineers, it was probable that many of the
+landowners would go the same way; but if the Sepoys had marched off
+they might not have attacked us on their own account. Now we know
+that the Sepoys are going to stay, and that they will have guns,
+it alters our position altogether."
+
+There was a murmur of assent.
+
+"I should tell you before you talk the matter over further," Bathurst
+went on, "that during the last hour some hundreds of peasants
+have taken up their posts round the house in addition to the Sepoy
+sentries. I came back with one party about a hundred strong. They
+are posted a couple of hundred yards or so in front of the gate.
+I slipped away from them in the dark and made my way here."
+
+"Well, gentlemen, what do you think we had better do?" the Major
+said; "we are all in the same boat, and I should like to have your
+opinions. We may defend this house successfully for days--possibly
+we may even tire them out--but on the other hand they may prove
+too strong for us. If the wall were breached we could hardly hope
+to defend it, and, indeed, if they constructed plenty of ladders they
+could scale it at night in a score of places. We must, therefore,
+regard the house as our citadel, close up the lower windows and
+doors with sandbags, and defend it to the last. Still, if they are
+determined, the lookout is not a very bright one."
+
+"I am in favor of our cutting our way out, Major," Captain Forster
+said; "if we are cooped up here, we must, as you say, in the long
+run be beaten."
+
+"That would be all very well, Captain Forster, if we were all
+men," Mr. Hunter said. "There are sixteen of us and there are in
+all eighteen horses, for I and Farquharson have two each; but there
+are eight women and fourteen children; so all the horses would have
+to carry double. We certainly could not hope to escape from them
+with our horses so laden; and if they came up with us, what fighting
+could we do with women behind our saddles? Moreover, we certainly
+could not leave the servants, who have been true to us, to the
+mercy of the Sepoys."
+
+"Besides, where could we go?" the Doctor asked. "The garrison at
+Cawnpore, we know, are besieged by overwhelming numbers. We do not
+know much as to the position at Lucknow, but certainly the Europeans
+are immensely outnumbered there, and I think we may assume that
+they are also besieged. It is a very long distance either to Agra
+or to Allahabad; and with the whole country up in arms against us,
+and the cavalry here at our heels, the prospect seems absolutely
+hopeless. What do you think, Doolan? You and Rintoul have your wives
+here, and you have children. I consider that the question concerns
+you married men more than us."
+
+"It is a case of the frying pan and the fire, as far as I can see,
+Doctor. At any rate, here we have got walls to light behind, and
+food for weeks, and plenty of ammunition. I am for selling our lives
+as dearly as we can here rather than go outside to be chased like
+jackals."
+
+"I agree with you, Doolan," Captain Rintoul said. "Here we may be
+able to make terms with them, but once outside the walls we should
+be at the scoundrels' mercy. If it were not for the women and
+children I should agree entirely with Forster that our best plan
+would be to throw open our gates and make a dash for it, keeping
+together as long as we could, and then, if necessary, separating
+and trying to make our way down to Agra or Allahabad as best we
+could; but with ladies that does not seem to be possible."
+
+The opinion of the married civilians was entirely in accord with
+that of Mr. Hunter.
+
+"But what hope is there of defending this place in the long run?"
+Captain Forster said. "If I saw any chance at all I should be quite
+willing to wait; but I would infinitely rather sally out at once
+and go for them and be killed than wait here day after day and
+perhaps week after week, seeing one's fate drawing nearer inch by
+inch. What do you say, Bathurst? We haven't had your opinion yet."
+
+"I do not think that the defense is so hopeless as you suppose,
+although I admit that the chances are greatly against us," Bathurst
+said quietly. "I think there is a hope of tiring the natives out.
+The Sepoys know well enough there can be no great amount of loot
+here, while they think that were they at Cawnpore, at Lucknow, or
+still more at Delhi, their chances of plunder would be much greater.
+Moreover, I think that men in their position, having offended, as
+it were, without hope of pardon, would naturally desire to flock
+together. There is comfort and encouragement in numbers. Therefore,
+I am sure they will very speedily become impatient if they do not
+meet with success, and would be inclined to grant terms rather than
+waste time here.
+
+"It is the same thing with the native gentry. They will want to be
+off to Lucknow or Delhi, where they will know more how things are
+going, and where, no doubt, they reckon upon obtaining posts of
+importance and increased possessions under the new order of things.
+Therefore, I think, they, as well as the Sepoys, are likely, if
+they find the task longer and more difficult than they expect, to
+be ready to grant terms. I have no great faith in native oaths.
+Still they might be kept.
+
+"Captain Forster's proposal I regard as altogether impracticable.
+We are something like two hundred and fifty miles from the nearest
+British post where we could hope to find refuge, and with the horses
+carrying double, the troopers at our heels directly we start, and
+the country hostile, I see no chance whatever, not a vestige of
+one, of our getting safely away.
+
+"But there is a third alternative by which some might escape; it
+is, that we should make our way out on foot, break up into parties
+of twos and threes; steal or fight our way through the sentries,
+and then for each party to shift for itself, making its way as best
+it can, traveling by night and lying up in woods or plantations by
+day; getting food at times from friendly natives, and subsisting,
+for the most part, upon what might be gathered in the fields. In
+that way some might escape, but the suffering and hardships of the
+women and children would be terrible."
+
+"I agree with you," Mr. Hunter said; "such a journey would be
+frightful to contemplate, and I don't think, in our case, that my
+wife could possibly perform such a journey; still, some might do
+so. At any rate, I think the chances are better than they would be
+were we to ride out in a body. I should suggest, Major, when the
+crisis seems to be approaching--that is, when it is clear that
+we can't defend ourselves much longer--it would be fair that each
+should be at liberty to try to get out and make down the country."
+
+"Certainly," the Major agreed; "we are in a position of men on
+board a sinking ship with the boats gone; we should try to the end
+to save the ship, but when all hope of doing that is over, each
+may try to get to shore as he best can. As long as the house can
+be defended, all must remain and bear their share in the struggle,
+but when we decide that it is but a question of hours, all who
+choose will be at liberty to try to escape."
+
+"It will be vastly more difficult then than now," Captain Forster
+said; "Bathurst made his way out tonight without difficulty, but
+they will be a great deal more vigilant when they know we cannot
+hold out much longer. I don't see how it would be possible for
+women and children to get through them."
+
+"We might then adopt your scheme, to a certain extent, Forster,"
+Major Hannay said. "We could mount, sally out suddenly, break
+through their pickets, and as soon as we are beyond them scatter;
+those who like can try to make their way down on horseback, those
+who prefer it try to do so on foot. That would at least give us an
+alternative should the siege be pushed on to the last, and we find
+ourselves unable to make terms."
+
+There was general assent to the Major's proposal, which seemed to
+offer better chances than any. There was the hope that the mutineers
+might tire of the siege and march away; that if they pressed it, terms
+might be at last obtained from them, and that, failing everything
+else, the garrison might yet make their way down country.
+
+"As there is evidently no chance of an attack during the night,"
+the Major said, "we will divide into two watches and relieve each
+other every four hours; that will give two as lookouts on the
+roof and six in the inclosure. As you are senior officer next to
+myself, Doolan, you will take charge of one watch; I shall myself
+take charge of the other. Forster and Wilson be with me, Rintoul
+and Richards with you. Mr. Hardy, will you and the other gentlemen
+divide your numbers into two watches? Dr. Wade counts as a combatant
+until his hospital begins to fill."
+
+"I fancy he may be counted as a combatant all through," the Doctor
+muttered.
+
+"Tomorrow morning," the Major went on, "we will continue the work
+of filling sandbags. There are still a large number of empty bags
+on hand. We shall want them for all the lower windows and doors,
+and the more there are of them the better; and we must also keep
+a supply in readiness to make a retrenchment if they should breach
+the wall. Now, Mr. Hunter, as soon as you have made out your list
+my watch can go on duty, and I should advise the others to turn in
+without delay."
+
+When the ladies were informed that half the men were going on watch,
+Mrs. Doolan said, "I have an amendment to propose, Major. Women's
+ears are just as keen as men's, and I propose that we supply the
+sentries on the roof. I will volunteer for one."
+
+The whole of the ladies at once volunteered.
+
+"There is no occasion for so many," Mrs. Doolan said; "and I propose
+that tonight, at any rate, I should take the first watch with one
+of the Miss Hunters, and that Miss Hannay and the other should
+take the second. That will leave all the gentlemen available for
+the watch in the inclosure."
+
+The proposal was agreed to, and in a short time the first watch
+had taken their station, and the rest of the garrison lay down to
+rest.
+
+The night passed off quietly. The first work at which the Major set
+the garrison in the morning was to form six wooden stages against
+the wall. One by the gate, one against the wall at the other end,
+and two at each of the long sides of the inclosure. They were
+twelve feet in height, which enabled those upon them to stand head
+and shoulders above the level of the wall.
+
+When these were completed the whole of the garrison, including
+the ladies and native servants, again set to work filling sandbags
+with earth. As fast as they were finished they were carried in and
+piled two deep against the lower windows, and three deep against
+the doors, only one small door being left undefended, so as to allow
+a passage in and out of the house. Bags were piled in readiness
+for closing this also in case of necessity.
+
+Mrs. Rintoul and another lady had volunteered for a third watch
+on the roof, so that each watch would go on duty once every twelve
+hours. The whole of the men, therefore, were available for work
+below.
+
+A scattered fire was opened at the house soon after daybreak, and
+was kept up without intermission from bushes and other cover; but
+the watchers on the roof, seated behind the sandbags at opposite
+angles, were well under shelter, peering out occasionally through
+the crevices between the bags to see that no general movement was
+taking place among the enemy.
+
+About midday there was a desultory discharge of firearms from
+the native lines; and the Major, on ascending to the roof, saw a
+procession of elephants and men approaching the camp.
+
+"I expect there are guns there," he muttered, "and they are going
+to begin in earnest. Ladies, you are relieved of duty at present.
+I expect we shall be hearing from those fellows soon, and we must
+have someone up here who can talk back to them."
+
+Accordingly the Doctor and Mr. Farquharson, who was the best shot
+among the civilians, took the places of the ladies on the roof.
+Half an hour later the Major went up again.
+
+"They have four cannon," the Doctor said. "There they are, on that
+slight rise to the left of the lines. I should fancy they are about
+eight hundred yards away. Do you see, there is a crowd gathering
+behind them? Our rifles will carry that distance easily enough, I
+think. You might as well let us have three or four more up here..
+The two lads are both fair shots, and Hunter was considered a good
+shikari some years ago. We can drive their cannon off that rise;
+the farther we make them take up their post the better, but even
+at that distance their shooting will be wild. The guns are no doubt
+old ones, and, as likely as not, the shot won't fit. At any rate,
+though they may trouble us, they will do no serious harm till they
+establish a battery at pretty close quarters."
+
+The Major went down, and the two subalterns and Mr. Hunter joined
+the Doctor on the roof.
+
+Ten minutes later the boom of four guns in quick succession
+was heard, and the party below stopped for a moment at their work
+as they heard the sound of shot rushing through the air overhead;
+then came five shots in answer from the parapet. Again and again
+the rifles spoke out, and then the Doctor shouted down to those in
+the courtyard, "They have had enough of it already, and are bringing
+up the elephants to move the cannon back. Now, boys," he said to
+the subalterns, "an elephant is an easier mark than a tiger; aim
+carefully, and blaze away as quickly as you like."
+
+For five minutes a rapid fire was kept up; then Wilson went below.
+
+"The Doctor asked me to tell you, sir," he said to the Major, "that
+the guns have been removed. There has been great confusion among
+the natives, and we can see with our glasses eight or ten bodies
+left on the ground. One of the elephants turned and went off at
+full speed among the crowd, and we fancy some of the others were
+hit. There was great trouble in getting them to come up to the
+guns. The Doctor says it is all over for the present."
+
+Two other large parties with elephants were seen to come up to the
+native lines in the course of the afternoon. The defenders of the
+roof had now turned their attention to their foes in the gardens
+around, and the fire thence was gradually suppressed, until by
+evening everything was quiet.
+
+By this time the work of filling the sandbags was completed; the
+doors and windows had been barricaded, and a large pile of bags
+lay in the inclosure ready for erection at any threatened point.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+When the party met at dinner they were for a time somewhat silent,
+for all were exhausted by their hard work under a blazing sun, but
+their spirits rose under their surroundings.
+
+The native servants had laid the table with as scrupulous care as
+usual; and, except that there was no display of flowers, no change
+was observable.
+
+All had dressed after the work was over, and the men were in white
+drill, and the ladies had, from custom, put on light evening gowns.
+
+The cook had prepared an excellent dinner, and as the champagne
+went round no stranger would have supposed that the party had met
+under unusual circumstances. The Doctor and the two subalterns
+were unaffectedly gay, and as the rest all made an effort to be
+cheerful, the languor that had marked the commencement of the dinner
+soon wore off.
+
+"Wilson and Richards are becoming quite sportsmen," the Doctor
+said. "They have tried their hands at tigers but could hardly have
+expected to take part in elephant shooting. They can't quite settle
+between themselves as to which it was who sent the Rajah's elephant
+flying among the crowd. Both declare they aimed at that special
+beast. So, as there is no deciding the point, we must consider the
+honor as divided."
+
+"It was rather hard on us," Isobel said, "to be kept working below
+instead of being up there seeing what was going on. But I consider
+we quite did our full share towards the defense today. My hands are
+quite sore with sewing up the mouths of those rough bags. I think
+the chief honors that way lie with Mrs. Rintoul. I am sure she
+sewed more bags than any of us. I had no idea that you were such
+a worker, Mrs. Rintoul."
+
+"I used to be a quick worker, Miss Hannay, till lately. I have not
+touched a needle since I came out to India."
+
+"I should recommend you to keep it up. Mrs. Rintoul," the Doctor
+said. "It has done you more good than all my medicines. I don't
+believe I have prescribed for you for the last month, and I haven't
+seen you looking so well since you came out."
+
+"I suppose I have not had time to feel ill, Doctor," Mrs. Rintoul
+said, with a slight smile; "all this has been a sort of tonic."
+
+"And a very useful one, Mrs. Rintoul. We are all of us the better
+for a little stirring up sometimes."
+
+Captain Forster had, as usual, secured a place next to Isobel Hannay.
+He had been near her all day, carrying the bags as he filled them
+to her to sew up. Bathurst was sitting at the other end of the
+table, joining but little in the conversation.
+
+"I thought Bathurst was going to faint again when the firing began,
+Miss Hannay," Captain Forster said, in a low voice. "It was quite
+funny to see him give a little start each shot that was fired,
+and his face was as white as my jacket. I never saw such a nervous
+fellow."
+
+"You know he cannot help it, Captain Forster," Isobel said indignantly.
+"I don't think it is right to make fun of him for what is a great
+misfortune."
+
+"I am not making fun of him, Miss Hannay. I am pitying him."
+
+"It did not sound like it," Isobel said. "I don't think you can
+understand it, Captain Forster; it must be terrible to be like
+that."
+
+"I quite agree with you there. I know I should drown myself or put
+a bullet through my head if I could not show ordinary courage with
+a lot of ladies going on working quietly round me."
+
+"You must remember that Mr. Bathurst showed plenty of courage in
+going out among the mutineers last night."
+
+"Yes, he did that very well; but you see, he talks the language so
+thoroughly that, as he said himself, there was very little risk in
+it."
+
+"I don't like you to talk so, Captain Forster," Isobel said quietly.
+"I do not see much of Mr. Bathurst. I have not spoken to him half
+a dozen times in the last month; but both my uncle and Dr. Wade
+have a high opinion of him, and do not consider that he should be
+personally blamed for being nervous under fire. I feel very sorry
+for him, and would much rather that you did not make remarks like
+that about him. We have all our weak points, and, no doubt, many
+of them are a good deal worse than a mere want of nerve."
+
+"Your commands shall be obeyed, Miss Hannay. I did not know that
+Bathurst was a protege of the Major's as well as of the estimable
+Doctor, or I would have said nothing against him."
+
+"I don't think Mr. Bathurst is the sort of man to be anyone's
+protege, Captain Forster," Isobel said coldly. "However, I think
+we had better change the subject."
+
+This Captain Forster did easily and adroitly. He had no special
+feeling against Bathurst save a contempt for his weakness; and as
+he had met him but once or twice at the Major's since he came to
+the station, he had not thought of him in the light of a rival.
+
+Just as dinner was over Richards and one of the civilians came down
+from the terrace.
+
+"I think that there is something up, Major. I can hear noises
+somewhere near where Mr. Hunter's bungalow was."
+
+"What sort of noises, Richards?"
+
+"There is a sort of murmur, as if there were a good many men there."
+
+"Well, gentlemen, we had better go to our posts," the Major said.
+"Doolan, please place your watch on the platforms by the wall. I
+will take my party up onto the terrace. Doctor, will you bring up
+some of those rockets you made the other day? We must try and find
+out what they are doing."
+
+As soon as he gained the terrace with his party, the Major
+requested everyone to remain perfectly still, and going forward to
+the parapet listened intently. In three or four minutes he returned
+to the others.
+
+"There is a considerable body of men at work there," he said. "I
+can hear muffled sounds like digging, and once or twice a sharp
+click, as if a spade struck a stone. I am very much afraid they are
+throwing up a battery there. I was in hopes they would have begun
+in the open, because we could have commanded the approaches; but
+if they begin among the trees, they can come in and out without
+our seeing them, and bring up their guns by the road without our
+being able to interfere with them. Mr. Bathurst, will you take
+down word to Captain Doolan to put his men on the platforms on that
+side. Tell him that I am going to throw up a rocket, as I believe
+they are erecting a battery near Hunter's bungalow, and that his
+men are to be ready to give them a volley if they can make them
+out. Tell them not to expose themselves too much; for if they really
+are at work there no doubt they have numbers of men posted in the
+shrubs all about to keep down our fire. Now, gentlemen, we will
+all lie down by the parapet. Take those spare rifles, and fire as
+quickly as you can while the light of the rocket lasts. Now, Mr.
+Wilson, we will get you to send them up. The rest of you had better
+get in the corner and stoop down behind the sandbags; you can lay
+your rifles on them, so as to be able to fire as soon as you have
+lit the second rocket."
+
+The Doctor soon came up with the rockets; he had made three dozen
+the week before, and a number of blue lights, for the special purpose
+of detecting any movement that the enemy might make at night.
+
+"I will fire them myself," he said, as Wilson offered to take them.
+"I have had charge of the fireworks in a score of fetes and that
+sort of thing, and am a pretty good hand at it. There, we will
+lean them against the sandbags. That is about it. Now, are you all
+ready, Major?"
+
+"All ready!" replied the Major.
+
+The Doctor placed the end of his lighted cheroot against the touch
+paper, there was a momentary pause, then a rushing sound, and the
+rocket soared high in the air, and then burst, throwing out four
+or five white fireballs, which lit up clearly the spot they were
+watching.
+
+"There they are!" the Major exclaimed; "just to the right of the
+bungalow; there are scores of them."
+
+The rifles, both from the terrace and the platforms below, cracked
+out in rapid succession, and another rocket flew up into the air
+and burst. Before its light had faded out, each of the defenders
+had fired his four shots. Shouts and cries from the direction in
+which they fired showed that many of the bullets had told, whilst
+almost immediately a sharp fire broke out from the bushes round
+them.
+
+"Don't mind the fellows in the shrubs," the Major said, "but keep
+up your fire on the battery. We know its exact position now, though
+we cannot actually make them out."
+
+"Let them wait while I go down and get a bit of phosphorus," the
+Doctor said. "I have some in the surgery. They will only throw away
+their fire in the dark without it."
+
+He soon returned, and when all the fore and back sights had been
+rubbed by the phosphorus the firing recommenced, and the Doctor
+sent Wilson down with the phosphorus to the men on the platforms
+facing the threatened point.
+
+Bathurst was returning, after having given the message to Captain
+Doolan, when Mrs. Hunter met him in the passage. She put her hand
+kindly on his shoulder.
+
+"Now, Mr. Bathurst, if you will take my advice you will remain
+quietly here. The Doctor tells me they are going to open fire,
+and it is not the least use your going there exposing yourself to
+be shot when you know that you will be of no use. You showed us
+yesterday that you could be of use in other ways, and I have no
+doubt you will have opportunities of doing so again. I can assure
+you none of us will think any the worse of you for not being able
+to struggle against a nervous affliction that gives you infinite
+pain. If they were attacking it would be different; I know you
+would be wanting to take your share then."
+
+"Thank you, Mrs. Hunter," he said, "but I must go up. I grant that
+I shall be of no use, but at least I will take any chance that
+the others run of being shot. A man does not flinch from a painful
+operation, and, whatever the pain, it has to be faced. I may get
+used to it in time; but whether I do or not I must go through it,
+though I do not say it doesn't hurt."
+
+At this moment the rattle of musketry broke out above. Bathurst
+gave a violent start, and a low cry as of pain; then he rushed past
+Mrs. Hunter and up the staircase to the terrace, when he staggered
+rather than walked forward to the parapet, and threw himself down
+beside two figures who were in the act of firing.
+
+"Is that you, Bathurst?" the Major's voice asked. "Mind, man, don't
+lift your head above the sandbags in that way. There, you had best
+lie quiet; the natives have no idea of attacking, and it is of no
+use throwing away valuable ammunition by firing unless your hand
+is steady."
+
+But Bathurst did not hear, and remained with his head above the
+line of sandbags until the Major put his hand on his shoulder and
+forced him down. He might have put his hands over his ears to deaden
+the sound--for in the darkness no one would have seen the action
+--but he would not do so, but with clenched teeth and quivering
+nerves lay there until the Major said, "I fancy we have stopped them
+working. Now, Doctor, do you, Hunter, Bathurst, and Farquharson go
+and lie down for four hours, when I will send for you to take our
+places. Before you lie down will you tell Doolan to send half his
+party in? Of course you will lie down in your clothes, ready to
+fall in at your posts at a moment's notice."
+
+"Let me send another rocket up first, Major, to see what they
+are doing. We can sleep tomorrow in the daytime; they won't dare
+to work under our fire then. Now, get ready, gentlemen, and don't
+throw away a shot, if they are still working there."
+
+The light of the rocket showed that there were now no natives at
+the spot where they had been seen at work.
+
+"I thought it would be too hot for them, Major, at such close
+quarters as these. We must have played the mischief with them."
+
+"All the better, Doctor; we will send a few shots there occasionally
+to show them we have not forgotten them. But the principal thing
+will be to keep our ears open to see that they don't bring up
+ladders and try a rush."
+
+"I think there is no fear of that tonight, Major. They would not
+have set to work at the battery if they had any idea of trying to
+scale the wall with ladders. That will come later on; but I don't
+think you will be troubled any more tonight, except by these
+fellows firing away from the bushes, and I should think they would
+get tired of wasting their ammunition soon. It is fortunate we
+brought all the spare ammunition in here."
+
+"Yes, they only had ten rounds of ball cartridge, and that must
+be nearly used up by this time. They will have to make up their
+cartridges in future, and cast their bullets, unless they can get
+a supply from some of the other mutineers."
+
+"Well, you will send for us in four hours, Major?"
+
+"You need not be afraid of my forgetting."
+
+Dawn was just breaking when the relief were called up; the firing
+had died away, and all was quiet.
+
+"You will take command here, Rintoul," the Major said. "I should
+keep Farquharson up here, if I were you, and leave the Doctor
+and Bathurst to look after things in general. I think, Doctor, it
+would be as well if we appointed Bathurst in charge of the general
+arrangements of the house. We have a good amount of stores, but
+the servants will waste them if they are not looked after. I should
+put them on rations, Bathurst; and there might be regular rations
+of things served out for us too; then it would fall in your province
+to see that the syces water and feed the horses. You will examine
+the well regularly, and note whether there is any change in the
+look of the water. I think you will find plenty to do."
+
+"Thank you, Major," Bathurst said. "I appreciate your kindness,
+and for the present, at any rate, will gladly undertake the work
+of looking after the stores and servants; but there is one thing
+I have been thinking of, and which I should like to speak to you
+about at once, if you could spare a minute or two before you turn
+in."
+
+"What is that, Bathurst?"
+
+"I think that we are agreed, Major, that though we may hold this
+place for a time, sooner or later we must either surrender or the
+place be carried by storm."
+
+Major Hannay nodded.
+
+"That is what it must come to, Bathurst. If they will at last grant
+us terms, well and good; if not, we must either try to escape or
+die fighting."
+
+"It is about the escape I have been thinking, Major; as our position
+grows more and more desperate they will close round us, and although
+we might have possibly got through last night, our chances of
+doing so when they have once broken into the inclosure and begin
+to attack the house itself are very slight. A few of us who can
+speak the language well might possibly in disguise get away, but
+it would be impossible for the bulk of us to do so."
+
+"I quite see that, Bathurst."
+
+"My proposal is, Major, that we should begin at once to mine; that
+is, to drive a gallery from the cellar, and to carry it on steadily
+as far as we can. I should say that we have ten days or a fortnight
+before us before matters get .to an extremity, and in that time
+we ought to be able to get, working night and day, from fifty to a
+hundred yards beyond the wall, aiming at a clump of bushes. There
+is a large one in Farquharson's compound, about a hundred yards
+off. Then, when things get to the worst, we can work upwards, and
+come out on a dark night. We might leave a long fuse burning in
+the magazine, so that there should be an explosion an hour or two
+after we had left. There is enough powder there to bring the house
+down, and the Sepoys might suppose that we had all been buried in
+the ruins."
+
+"I think the idea is a very good one, Bathurst. What do you think,
+Doctor?"
+
+"Capital," the Doctor said. "It is a light sandy soil, and we should
+be able to get through it at a pretty good rate. How many can work
+together, do you think, Bathurst?"
+
+"I should say two of us in each shift, to drive, and, if necessary,
+prop the roof, with some of the natives to carry out the earth. If
+we have three shifts, each shift would go on twice in the twenty-four
+hours; that would be four hours on and eight hours off."
+
+"Will you take charge of the operation, Bathurst?"
+
+"With pleasure, Major."
+
+"Very well then. You shall have with you Wilson and Richards and the
+three youngest of the civilians, Saunderson, Austin, and Herbert.
+You six will be relieved from other duty except when the enemy
+threaten an attack. I will put down Saunderson and Austin together.
+Which of the others would you like to have with you?"
+
+"I will take Wilson, sir."
+
+"Very well, then, Richards and Herbert will make the third party.
+After breakfast we can pick out the twelve strongest of the natives.
+I will tell them that they have to work, but that they will be each
+paid half a rupee a day in addition to their ordinary wages. Then
+you will give a general supervision to the work, Bathurst, in
+addition to your own share in it?"
+
+"Certainly, Major, I will take general charge of it."
+
+So at breakfast the Major explained the plan agreed upon. The five
+men chosen at once expressed their willingness to undertake the
+work, and the offer of half a rupee extra a day was sufficient to
+induce twelve of the servants to volunteer for it. The Major went
+down to the cellars and fixed upon the spot at which the work should
+begin; and Bathurst and Wilson, taking some of the intrenching
+tools from the storeroom, began to break through the wall without
+delay.
+
+"I like this," Wilson said. "It is a thousand times better than
+sitting up there waiting till they choose to make an attack. How
+wide shall we make it?"
+
+"As narrow as we can for one to pass along at a time," Bathurst
+said. "The narrower it is, the less trouble we shall have with the
+roof."
+
+"But only one will be able to work at a time in that case."
+
+"That will be quite enough,". Bathurst said. "It will be hot work
+and hard. We will relieve each other every five minutes or so."
+
+A very short time sufficed to break through the wall.
+
+"Thank goodness, it is earth," Wilson said, thrusting a crowbar
+through the opening as soon as it was made.
+
+"I had no fear of its being rock, Wilson. If it had been, they
+would not have taken the trouble to have walled the sides of the
+cellar. The soil is very deep all over here. The natives have to
+line their wells thirty or forty feet down."
+
+The enemy were quiet all day, but the garrison thought it likely
+that, warned by the lesson of the night before, they were erecting
+a battery some distance farther back, masked by the trees, and that
+until it was ready to open fire they would know nothing about it.
+
+"So you have turned miner, Mr. Wilson?" Isobel Hannay said to him
+as, after a change and a bath, he came in to get his lunch.
+
+"I calculate I have lost half a stone in weight, Miss Hannay. If
+I were to go on at this for a month or two there would be nothing
+left of me."
+
+"And how far did you drive the hole?"
+
+"Gallery, Miss Hannay; please call it a gallery, it sounds so much
+better. We got in five yards. I should hardly have believed it
+possible, but Bathurst is a tremendous fellow to work. He uses a
+pick as if he had been a sapper all his life. We kept the men pretty
+hard at work, I can tell you, carrying up the earth. Richards is
+at work now, and I bet him five rupees that he and Herbert don't
+drive as far as we did."
+
+"There is not much use in betting now, Mr. Wilson," Isobel said
+sadly.
+
+"No, I suppose not, Miss Hannay; but it gives a sort of interest
+to one's work. I have blistered my hands horribly, but I suppose
+they will get hard in a day or two."
+
+"I wish we could work at something," Isobel said. "Now that we have
+finished with the bags and bandages, the time seems very long; the
+only thing there is to do is to play with the children and try to
+keep them good; it is fortunate there is a bit of garden for them
+to play in."
+
+"It is not much of a garden, Miss Hannay. We had something like
+a garden when I was a boy at home; the governor's is a jolly old
+rectory, with a splendid garden. What fun we used to have there
+when I was a young one! I wonder what the dear old governor and
+mater would say if they knew the fix we were in here. You know,
+sometimes I think that Forster's plan was the best, and that it
+would be better to try and make a dash through them."
+
+"We are in your way, Mr. Wilson; you wouldn't be able to do much
+fighting if you had one of us clinging to you."
+
+"I don't know, Miss Hannay," Wilson said quietly, "what my fighting
+powers are, but I fancy if you were clinging to me I could cut my
+way through a good deal."
+
+"I am sure you would do anything that anyone could do," the girl
+said kindly; "but whatever you might feel, having another person
+behind you could not but hamper you awfully. I would infinitely
+rather try to escape on foot, for then I should be relying on
+myself, while if I was riding behind anyone, and we were pursued or
+attacked, I should feel all the time I was destroying his chances,
+and that if it were not for me he would get away. That would be
+terrible. I don't know whether we were wise to stay here instead
+of trying to escape at once; but as uncle and Mr. Hunter and the
+others all thought it wiser to stay, I have no doubt it was; but
+I am quite sure that it could not have been a good plan to go off
+like that on horseback."
+
+Another day passed quietly, and then during the night the watch
+heard the sounds of blows with axes, and of falling trees.
+
+"They are clearing the ground in front of their battery," the
+Major, who was on the watch with his party, said; "it will begin
+in earnest tomorrow morning. The sound came from just where we
+expected. It is about in the same line as where they made their
+first attempt, but a hundred yards or so further back."
+
+At daylight they saw that the trees and bushes had been leveled,
+and a battery, with embrazures for six guns, erected at a distance
+of about four hundred yards from the house. More sandbags were at
+once brought up from below, and the parapet, on the side facing
+the battery, raised two feet and doubled in thickness. The garrison
+were not disturbed while so engaged.
+
+"Why the deuce don't the fellows begin?" Captain Forster said
+impatiently, as he stood looking over the parapet when the work
+was finished.
+
+"I expect they are waiting for the Rajah and some of the principal
+Zemindars to come down," replied the Major; "the guns are theirs,
+you see, and will most likely be worked by their own followers.
+No doubt they think they will knock the place to pieces in a few
+minutes.
+
+"Listen! there is music; they are coming in grand state. Rintoul,
+will you tell the workers in the mine to come up. By the way, who
+are at work now?"
+
+"Bathurst and Wilson, sir."
+
+"Then tell Wilson to come up, and request Bathurst to go on with the
+gallery. Tell him I want that pushed forward as fast as possible,
+and that one gun will not make much difference here. Request the
+ladies and children to go down into the storeroom for the present.
+I don't think the balls will go through the wall, but it is as well
+to be on the safe side."
+
+Captain Rintoul delivered his message to the ladies. They had
+already heard that the battery had been unmasked and was ready to
+open fire, and lamps had been placed in the storeroom in readiness
+for them. There were pale faces .among them, but their thoughts
+were of those on the roof rather than of themselves.
+
+Mrs. Hunter took up the Bible she had been reading, and said, "Tell
+them, Captain Rintoul, we shall be praying for them." The ladies
+went into the room that served as a nursery, and with the ayahs and
+other female servants carried the children down into the storeroom.
+
+"I would much rather be up there," Isobel said to Mrs. Doolan; "we
+could load the muskets for them, and I don't think it would be
+anything like so bad if we could see what was going on as being
+cooped up below fancying the worst all the time."
+
+"I quite agree with you, but men never will get to understand women.
+Perhaps before we are done they will recognize the fact that we
+are no more afraid than they are."
+
+The music was heard approaching along the road where the bungalows
+had stood. Presently a number of flags were raised in the battery
+amid a great beating of drums. On the previous day a flagstaff had
+been erected on the roof, and a Union Jack was run up in answer to
+the enemy's demonstration.
+
+"A cheer for the old flag, lads," the Major said; and a hearty cheer
+broke from the little party on the roof, where, with the exception
+of Bathurst, all the garrison were assembled. The cheer was answered
+by a yell from the natives not only in the battery, but from the
+gardens and inclosures round the house.
+
+"Pay no attention to the fellows in the gardens," the Major said;
+"fire at their guns--they must expose themselves to load."
+
+The men were kneeling behind the parapet, where the sandbags had
+been so arranged that they could see through between those on the
+upper line, and thus fire without raising their heads above it.
+
+"Shall we wait for them or fire first, Major?" the Doctor asked.
+
+"I expect the guns are loaded and laid, Doctor; but if you see
+a head looking along them, by all means take a shot at it. I wish
+we could see down into the battery itself, but it is too high for
+that."
+
+The Doctor lay looking along his rifle. Presently he fired, and
+as if it had been the signal five cannon boomed out almost at the
+same moment, the other being fired a quarter of a minute later.
+Three of the shot struck the house below the parapet, the others
+went overhead.
+
+"I hit my man," the Doctor said, as he thrust another rifle through
+the loophole. "Now, we will see if we can keep them from loading."
+
+Simultaneously with the roar of the cannon a rattle of musketry
+broke out on three sides of the house, and a hail of bullets whistled
+over the heads of the defenders, who opened a steady fire at the
+embrasures of the guns. These had been run in, and the natives
+could be seen loading them. The Major examined the work through a
+pair of field glasses.
+
+"You are doing well," he said presently; "I have seen several of
+them fall, and there is a lot of confusion among them; they will
+soon get tired of that game."
+
+Slowly and irregularly the guns were run out again, and the fire of
+the defenders was redoubled to prevent them from taking aim. Only
+one shot hit the house this time, the others all going overhead.
+The fire of the enemy became slower and more irregular, and at the
+end of an hour ceased almost entirely.
+
+"Doctor," the Major said, "I will get you and Farquharson to turn
+your attention to some fellows there are in that high tree over
+there. They command us completely, and many of their bullets have
+struck on the terrace behind us. It would not be safe to move
+across to the stairs now. I think we have pretty well silenced.
+the battery for the present. Here are my glasses. With them you
+can easily make out the fellows among the leaves."
+
+"I see them," the Doctor said, handing the glasses to Farquharson;
+"we will soon get them out of that. Now, Farquharson, you take
+that fellow out on the lower branch to the right; I will take the
+one close to the trunk on the same branch."
+
+Laying their rifles on the upper row of sandbags, the two men took
+a steady aim. They fired almost together, and two bodies were seen
+to fall from the tree.
+
+"Well shot!" the Major exclaimed. "There are something like a dozen
+of them up there; but they will soon clear out if you keep that
+up."
+
+"They are not more than two hundred yards away," the Doctor said,
+"and firing from a rest we certainly ought not to miss them at that
+distance. Give me the glasses again."
+
+A similar success attended the next two shots, and then a number
+of figures were seen hastily climbing down.
+
+"Give them a volley, gentlemen," the Major said.
+
+A dozen guns were fired, and three more men dropped, and an angry
+yell from the natives answered the shout of triumph from the
+garrison.
+
+"Will you go down, Mr. Hunter, and tell the ladies that we have
+silenced the guns for the present, and that no one has received a
+scratch? Now, let us see what damage their balls have effected."
+
+This was found to be trifling. The stonework of the house was strong,
+and the guns were light. The stonework of one of the windows was
+broken, and two or three stones in the wall cracked. One ball had
+entered a window, torn its way through two inner walls, and lay
+against the back wall.
+
+"It is a four pound ball," the Major said, taking it up. "I fancy
+the guns are seven pounders. They have evidently no balls to fit,
+which accounts for the badness of their firing and the little
+damage they did; with so much windage the balls can have had but
+small velocity. Well, that is a satisfactory beginning, gentlemen;
+they will take a long time to knock the place about our ears at this
+rate. Now we will see if we cannot clear them out of the gardens.
+Captain Doolan, will you take the glasses and watch the battery;
+if you see any movement about the guns, the fire will be reopened
+at once; until then all will devote their attention to those fellows
+among the bushes; it is important to teach them that they are not
+safe there, for a chance ball might come in between the sandbags.
+Each of you pick out a particular bush, and watch it till you see
+the exact position in which anyone firing from it must be in, and
+then try to silence him. Don't throw away a shot if you can help
+it. We have a good stock of ammunition, but it is as well not to
+waste it. I will leave you in command at present, Doolan."
+
+Major Hannay then went down to the storeroom.
+
+"I have come to relieve you from your confinement, ladies," he said.
+"I am glad to say that we find their balls will not penetrate the
+walls of the house alone, and there is therefore no fear whatever
+of their passing through them and the garden wall together; therefore,
+as long as the wall is intact, there is no reason whatever why you
+should not remain on the floor above."
+
+There was a general exclamation of pleasure.
+
+"That will be vastly better, uncle," Isobel said; "it is hateful
+being hidden away down here when we have nothing to do but to listen
+to the firing; we don't see why some of us should not go up on the
+terrace to load the rifles for you."
+
+"Not at present, Isobel; we are not pressed yet. When it comes to
+a real attack it will be time to consider about that. I don't think
+any of us would shoot straighter if there were women right up among
+us in danger."
+
+"I don't at all see why it should be worse our being in danger
+than for you men, Major," Mrs. Doolan said; "we have just as much
+at stake, and more; and I warn you I shall organize a female mutiny
+if we are not allowed to help."
+
+The Major laughed.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Doolan, I shall have to convert this storeroom into a
+prison, and all who defy my authority will be immured here, so now
+you know the consequence of disobedience."
+
+"And has no one been hurt with all that firing, Major Hannay?" Mary
+Hunter asked.
+
+"A good many people have been hurt, Miss Hunter, but no one on our
+side. I fancy we must have made it very hot for those at the guns,
+and the Doctor and Mr. Farquharson have been teaching them not to
+climb trees. At present that firing you hear is against those who
+are hiding in the gardens."
+
+An hour later the firing ceased altogether, the natives finding
+the fire of the defenders so deadly that they no longer dared, by
+discharging a rifle, to show where they were hiding. They had drawn
+off from the more distant clumps and bushes, but dared not try and
+crawl from those nearer the house until after nightfall.
+
+The next morning it was found that during the night the enemy had
+closed up their embrasures, leaving only openings sufficiently
+large for the muzzles of the guns to be thrust through, and soon
+after daybreak they renewed their fire. The Doctor and Mr. Farquharson
+alone remained on the roof, and throughout the day they kept up
+a steady fire at these openings whenever the guns were withdrawn.
+Several of the sandbags were knocked off the parapet during the
+course of the day, and a few shot found their way through the walls
+of the upper story, but beyond this no damage was done. The mining
+was kept up with great vigor, and the gallery advanced rapidly, the
+servants finding it very hard work to remove the earth as fast as
+the miners brought it down.
+
+Captain Forster offered to go out with three others at night to
+try and get into the battery and spike the guns, but Major Hannay
+would not permit the attempt to be made.
+
+"We know they have several other guns," he said, "and the risk would
+be altogether too great, for there would be practically no chance
+of your getting back and being drawn up over the wall before you
+were overtaken, even if you succeeded in spiking the guns. There
+are probably a hundred men sleeping in the battery, and it is likely
+they would have sentries out in front of it. The loss of four men
+would seriously weaken the garrison."
+
+The next morning another battery to the left was unmasked, and on
+the following day three guns were planted, under cover, so as to
+play against the gate. The first battery now concentrated its fire
+upon the outer wall, the new battery played upon the upper part of
+the house, and the three guns kept up a steady fire at the gate.
+
+There was little rest for the besieged now. It was a constant duel
+between their rifles and the guns, varied by their occasionally
+turning their attention to men who climbed trees, or who, from the
+roofs of some buildings still standing, endeavored to keep down
+their fire.
+
+Wilson had been released from his labors in the gallery, Bathurst
+undertaking to get down the earth single handed as fast as the
+servants could remove it.
+
+"I never saw such a fellow to work, Miss Hannay," Wilson said one
+day, when he was off duty, and happened to find her working alone
+at some bandages. "I know you don't like him, but he is a first
+rate fellow if there ever was one. It is unlucky for him being so
+nervous at the guns; but that is no fault of his, after all, and
+I am sure in other things he is as cool as possible. Yesterday I
+was standing close to him, shoving the earth back to the men as he
+got it down. Suddenly he shouted, 'Run, Wilson, the roof is coming
+down!' I could not help bolting a few yards, for the earth came
+pattering down as he spoke; then I looked round and saw him standing
+there, by the light of the lamp, like those figures you see holding
+up pillars; I forget what they call them--catydigs, or something
+of that sort."
+
+"Caryatides," Isobel put in.
+
+"Yes, that is the name. Some timber had given way above him, and
+he was holding it up with his arms. I should say that there must
+have been half a ton of it, and he said, as quietly as possible,
+'Get two of those short poles, Wilson, and put up one on each side
+of me. I can hold it a bit, but don't be longer than you can help
+about it.' I managed to shove up the timber, so that he could
+slip out before it came down. It would have crushed us both to a
+certainty if he had not held it up."
+
+"Why do you say you know I don't like Mr. Bathurst?"
+
+"I don't exactly know, Miss Hannay, but I have noticed you are the
+only lady who does not chat with him. I don't think I have seen
+you speak to him since we have come in here. I am sorry, because
+I like him very much, and I don't care for Forster at all."
+
+"What has Captain Forster to do with it?" Isobel asked, somewhat
+indignantly.
+
+"Oh, nothing at all, Miss Hannay, only, you know, Bathurst used to
+be a good deal at the Major's before Forster came, and then after
+that I never met him there except on that evening before he came
+in here. Now you know, Miss Hannay," he went on earnestly, "what
+I think about you. I have not been such an ass as to suppose
+I ever had a chance, though you know I would lay down my life for
+you willingly; but I did not seem to mind Bathurst. I know he is
+an awfully good fellow, and would have made you very happy; but I
+don't feel like that with Forster. There is nothing in the world
+that I should like better than to punch his head; and when I see
+that a fellow like that has cut Bathurst out altogether it makes.
+me so savage sometimes that I have to go and smoke a pipe outside
+so as not to break out and have a row with him."
+
+"You ought not to talk so, Mr. Wilson. It is very wrong. You have
+no right to say that anyone has cut anyone else out as far as I
+am concerned. I know you are all fond of me in a brotherly sort of
+way, and I like you very much; but that gives you no right to say
+such things about other people. Mr. Bathurst ceased his visits not
+because of Captain Forster but from another reason altogether; and
+certainly I have neither said nor done anything that would justify
+your saying that Captain Forster had cut Mr. Bathurst out. Even
+if I had, you ought not to have alluded to such a thing. I am not
+angry with you," she said, seeing how downcast he looked; "but you
+must not talk like that any more; it would be wrong at any time;
+it is specially so now, when we are all shut up here together, and
+none can say what will happen to us."
+
+"It seemed to me that was just the reason why I could speak about
+it, Miss Hannay. We may none of us get out of this fix we are in,
+and I do think we ought all to be friends together now. Richards
+and I both agreed that as it was certain neither of us had a chance
+of winning you, the next best thing was to see you and Bathurst
+come together. Well, now all that's over, of course, but is it
+wrong for me to ask, how is it you have come to dislike him?"
+
+"But I don't dislike him, Mr. Wilson."
+
+"Well, then, why do you go on as if you didn't like him?"
+
+Isobel hesitated. From most men she would have considered the
+question impertinent, and would have resented it, but this frank
+faced boy meant no impertinence; he loved her in his honest way,
+and only wanted to see her happy.
+
+"I can't speak to him if he doesn't speak to me," she said desperately.
+
+"No, of course not," he agreed; "but why shouldn't he speak to you?
+You can't have done anything to offend him except taking up with
+Forster."
+
+"It is nothing to do with Captain Forster at all, Mr. Wilson; I--"
+and she hesitated. "I said something at which he had the right to
+feel hurt and offended, and he has never given me any opportunity
+since of saying that I was sorry."
+
+"I am sure you would not have said anything that he should have
+been offended about, Miss Hannay; it is not your nature, and I would
+not believe it whoever told me, not even yourself; so he must be
+in fault, and, of course, I have nothing more to say about it."
+
+"He wasn't in fault at all, Mr. Wilson. I can't tell you what I
+said, but it was very wrong and thoughtless on my part, and I have
+been sorry for it ever since; and he has a perfect right to be
+hurt and not to come near me, especially as"--and she hesitated
+--"as I have acted badly since, and he has no reason for supposing
+that I am sorry. And now you must not ask me any more about it; I
+don't know why I have said as much to you as I have, only I know I
+can trust you, and I like you very much, though I could never like
+you in the sort of way you would want me to. I wish you didn't like
+me like that."
+
+"Oh, never mind me," he said earnestly. "I am all right, Miss Hannay;
+I never expected anything, you know, so I am not disappointed, and
+it has been awfully good of you talking to me as you have, and not
+getting mad with me for interfering. But I can hear them coming
+down from the terrace, and I must be off. I am on duty there, you
+know, now. Bathurst has undertaken double work in that hole. I didn't
+like it, really; it seemed mean to be getting out of the work and
+letting him do it all, but he said that he liked work, and I really
+think he does. I am sure he is always worrying himself because
+he can't take his share in the firing on the roof; and when he is
+working he hasn't time to think about it. When he told me that in
+future he would drive the tunnel our shift himself, he said, 'That
+will enable you to take your place on the roof, Wilson, and you
+must remember you are firing for both of us, so don't throw away
+a shot.' It is awfully rough on him, isn't it? Well, goodby, Miss
+Hannay," and Wilson hurried off to the roof.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+The next four days made a great alteration in the position of the
+defenders in the fortified house.
+
+The upper story was now riddled by balls, the parapet round the
+terrace had been knocked away in several places, the gate was in
+splinters; but as the earth from the tunnel had been all emptied
+against the sandbags, it had grown to such a thickness that the
+defense was still good here. But in the wall, against which one
+of the new batteries had steadily directed its fire, there was
+a yawning gap, which was hourly increasing in size, and would ere
+long be practicable for assault. Many of the shots passing through
+this had struck the house itself. Some of these had penetrated,
+and the room in the line of fire could no longer be used.
+
+There had been several casualties. The young civilian Herbert had been
+killed by a shot that struck the parapet just where he was lying.
+Captain Rintoul had been seriously wounded, two of the natives had
+been killed by the first shot which penetrated the lower room. Mr.
+Hunter was prostrate with fever, the result of exposure to the sun,
+and several others had received wounds more or less severe from
+fragments of stone; but the fire of the defenders was as steady as
+at first, and the loss of the natives working the guns was severe,
+and they no longer ventured to fire from the gardens and shrubberies
+round the walls.
+
+Fatigue, watching, still more the heat on the terrace, was telling
+heavily upon the strength of the garrison. The ladies went about
+their work quietly and almost silently. The constant anxiety and
+the confinement in the darkened rooms were telling upon them too.
+Several of the children were ill; and when not employed in other
+things, there were fresh sandbags to be made by the women, to take
+the place of those damaged by the enemy's shot.
+
+When, of an evening, a portion of the defenders came off duty,
+there was more talk and conversation, as all endeavored to keep
+up a good face and assume a confidence they were far from feeling.
+The Doctor was perhaps the most cheery of the party. During the
+daytime he was always on the roof, and his rifle seldom cracked in
+vain. In the evening he attended to his patients, talked cheerily
+to the ladies, and laughed and joked over the events of the day.
+
+None among the ladies showed greater calmness and courage than
+Mrs. Rintoul, and not a word was ever heard from the time the siege
+began of her ailments or inconveniences. She was Mrs. Hunter's
+best assistant with the sick children. Even after her husband was
+wounded, and her attention night and day was given to him, she
+still kept on patiently and firmly.
+
+"I don't know how to admire Mrs. Rintoul enough," Mrs. Hunter said
+to Isobel Hannay one day; "formerly I had no patience with her,
+she was always querulous and grumbling; now she has turned out a
+really noble woman. One never knows people, my dear, till one sees
+them in trouble."
+
+"Everyone is nice," Isobel said. "I have hardly heard a word of
+complaint about anything since we came here, and everyone seems to
+help others and do little kindnesses."
+
+The enemy's fire had been very heavy all that day, and the breach
+in the wall had been widened, and the garrison felt certain that
+the enemy would attack on the following morning.
+
+"You and Farquharson, Doctor, must stop on the roof," the Major
+said. "In the first place, it is possible they may try to attack
+by ladders at some other point, and we shall want two good shots
+up there to keep them back; and in the second, if they do force
+the breach, we shall want you to cover our retreat into the house.
+I will get a dozen rifles for each of you loaded and in readiness.
+Isobel and Mary Hunter, who have both volunteered over and over
+again, shall go up to load; they have both practiced, and can load
+quickly. Of course if you see that the enemy are not attacking
+at any other point, you will help us at the breach by keeping up
+a steady fire on them, but always keep six guns each in reserve.
+I shall blow my whistle as a signal for us to retire to the house
+if I find we can hold the breach no longer, so when you hear that
+blaze away at them as fast as you can. Your twelve shots will check
+them long enough to give us time to get in and fasten the door. We
+shall be round the corner of the house before they can get fairly
+over the breastwork. We will set to work to raise that as soon as
+it gets dark."
+
+A breastwork of sandbags had already been erected behind the
+breach, in case the enemy should make a sudden rush, and a couple
+of hours' labor transformed this into a strong work; for the bags
+were already filled, and only needed placing in position. When
+completed, it extended in a horseshoe shape, some fifteen feet
+across, behind the gap in the wall. For nine feet from the ground
+it was composed of sandbags three deep, and a single line was then
+laid along the edge to serve as a parapet.
+
+"I don't think they will get over that," the Major said, when the
+work was finished. "I doubt if they will be disposed even to try
+when they reach the breach."
+
+Before beginning their work they had cleared away all the fallen
+brickwork from behind the breach, and a number of bricks were laid
+on the top of the sandbags to be used as missiles.
+
+"A brick is as good as a musket ball at this distance," the Major
+said; "and when our guns are empty we can take to them; there are
+enough spare rifles for us to have five each, and, with those and
+our revolvers and the bricks, we ought to be able to account for an
+army. There are some of the servants and syces who can be trusted
+to load. They can stand down behind us, and we can pass our guns
+down to them as we empty them."
+
+Each man had his place on the work assigned to him. Bathurst, who
+had before told the Major that when the time came for an assault
+to be delivered he was determined to take his place in the breach,
+was placed at one end of the horseshoe where it touched the wall.
+
+"I don't promise to be of much use, Major," he said quietly. "I know
+myself too well; but at least I can run my chance of being killed."
+
+The Major had put Wilson next to him.
+
+"I don't think there is much chance of their storming the work,
+Wilson; but if they do, you catch hold of Bathurst's arm, and drag
+him away when you hear me whistle; the chances are a hundred to
+one against his hearing it, or remembering what it means if he does
+hear it."
+
+"All right, Major, I will look to him."
+
+Four men remained on guard at the breach all night, and at the
+first gleam of daylight the garrison took up their posts.
+
+"Now mind, my dears," the Doctor said, as he and Farquharson went
+up on the terrace with Isobel and Mary Hunter; "you must do exactly
+as you are told, or you will be doing more harm than good, for
+Farquharson and I would not be able to pay attention to our shooting.
+You must lie down and remain perfectly quiet till we begin to fire,
+then keep behind us just so far that you can reach the guns as we
+hand them back to you after firing; and you must load them either
+kneeling or sitting down, so that you don't expose your heads above
+the thickest part of the breastwork. When you have loaded, push the
+guns back well to the right of us, but so that we can reach them.
+Then, if one of them goes off, there won't be any chance of our
+being hit. The garrison can't afford to throw away a life at present.
+You will, of course, only half cock them; still, it is as well to
+provide against accidents."
+
+Both the girls were pale, but they were quiet and steady. The Doctor
+saw they were not likely to break down.
+
+"That is a rum looking weapon you have got there, Bathurst," Wilson
+said, as, after carrying down the spare guns and placing them ready
+for firing, they lay down in their positions on the sandbags. The
+weapon was a native one, and was a short mace, composed of a bar
+of iron about fifteen inches long, with a knob of the same metal,
+studded with spikes. The bar was covered with leather to break the
+jar, and had a loop to put the hand through at the end.
+
+"Yes," Bathurst said quietly; "I picked it up at one of the native
+shops in Cawnpore the last time I was there. I had no idea then that
+I might ever have to use it, and bought it rather as a curiosity;
+but I have kept it within reach of my bedside since these troubles
+began, and I don't think one could want a better weapon at close
+quarters."
+
+"No, it is a tremendous thing; and after the way I have seen you
+using that pick I should not like to be within reach of your arm
+with that mace in it. I don't think there is much chance of your
+wanting that. I have no fear of the natives getting over here this
+time."
+
+"I have no fear of the natives at all," Bathurst said.
+
+"I am only afraid of myself. At present I am just as cool as if
+there was not a native within a thousand miles, and I am sure that
+my pulse is not going a beat faster than usual. I can think of the
+whole thing and calculate the chances as calmly as if it were an
+affair in which I was in no way concerned. It is not danger that
+I fear in the slightest, it is that horrible noise. I know well
+enough that the moment the firing begins I shall be paralyzed. My
+only hope is that at the last moment, if it comes to hand to hand
+fighting, I shall get my nerve."
+
+"I have no doubt you will," Wilson said warmly; "and when you
+do I would back you at long odds against any of us. Ah, they are
+beginning."
+
+As he spoke there was a salvo of all the guns on the three Sepoy
+batteries. Then a roar of musketry broke out round the house, and
+above it could be heard loud shouts.
+
+"They are coming, Major," the Doctor shouted down from the roof;
+"the Sepoys are leading, and there is a crowd of natives behind
+them."
+
+Those lying in the middle of the curve of the horseshoe soon caught
+sight of the enemy advancing tumultuously towards the breach. The
+Major had ordered that not a shot was to be fired until they reached
+it, and it was evident that the silence of the besieged awed the
+assailants with a sense of unknown danger, for their pace slackened,
+and when they got to within fifty yards of the breach they paused
+and opened fire. Then, urged forward by their officers and encouraged
+by their own noise, they again rushed forward. Two of their officers
+led the way; and as these mounted the little heap of rubbish at
+the foot of the breach, two rifles cracked out from the terrace,
+and both fell dead.
+
+There was a yell of fury from the Sepoys, and then they poured in
+through the breach. Those in front tried to stop as they saw the
+trap into which they were entering, but pressed on by those behind
+they were forced forward.
+
+And now a crackling fire of musketry broke out from the rifles
+projecting between the sandbags into the crowded mass. Every shot
+told. Wild shrieks, yells, and curses rose from the assailants.
+Some tried madly to climb up the sandbags, some to force their way
+back through the crowd behind; some threw themselves down; others
+discharged their muskets at their invisible foe. From the roof
+the Doctor and his companion kept up a rapid fire upon the crowd
+struggling to enter the breach. As fast as the defenders' muskets
+were discharged they handed them down to the servants behind to
+be reloaded, and when each had fired his spare muskets he betook
+himself to his revolver.
+
+Wilson, while discharging his rifle, kept his eyes upon Bathurst.
+The latter had not fired a shot, but lay rigid and still, save
+for a sort of convulsive shuddering. Presently there was a little
+lull in the firing as the weapons were emptied, and the defenders
+seizing the bricks hurled them down into the mass.
+
+"Look out!" the Major shouted; "keep your heads low--I am going
+to throw the canisters."
+
+A number of these had been prepared, filled to the mouth with powder
+and bullets, and with a short fuse attached, ropes being fastened
+round them to enable them to be slung some distance. The Major half
+rose to throw one of these missiles when his attention was called
+by a shout from Wilson.
+
+The latter was so occupied that he had not noticed Bathurst, who
+had suddenly risen to his feet, and just as Wilson was about to
+grasp him and pull him down, leaped over the sandbag in front of him
+down among the mutineers. The Major gave a swing to the canister,
+of which the fuse was already lighted, and hurled it through the
+breach among the crowd, who, ignorant of what was going on inside,
+were still struggling to enter.
+
+"Look out," he shouted to the others; "mind how you throw. Bathurst
+is down in the middle of them. Hand up all the muskets you have
+loaded," he cried to the servants.
+
+As he spoke he swung another canister through the breach, and almost
+immediately two heavy explosions followed, one close upon the other.
+
+"Give them a volley at the breach," he shouted; "never mind those
+below."
+
+The muskets were fired as soon as received.
+
+"Now to your feet," the Major cried, "and give them the brickbats,"
+and as he stood up he hurled two more canisters among the crowd
+behind the breach. The others sprang up with a cheer. The inclosure
+below them was shallower now from the number that had fallen, and
+was filled with a confused mass of struggling men. In their midst
+was Bathurst fighting desperately with his short weapon, and bringing
+down a man at every blow, the mutineers being too crowded together
+to use their unfixed bayonets against him. In a moment Captain Forster
+leaped down, sword in hand, and joined Bathurst in the fight.
+
+"Stand steady," the Major shouted; "don't let another man move."
+
+But the missiles still rained down with an occasional shot,
+as the rifles were handed up by the natives, while the Doctor and
+Farquharson kept up an almost continuous fire from the terrace.
+Then the two last canisters thrown by the Major exploded. The first
+two had carried havoc among the crowd behind the breach, these
+completed their confusion, and they turned and fled; while those
+in the retrenchment, relieved of the pressure from behind, at once
+turned, and flying through the breach, followed their companions.
+
+A loud cheer broke from the garrison, and the Major looking round
+saw the Doctor standing by the parapet waving his hat, while Isobel
+stood beside him looking down at the scene of conflict.
+
+"Lie down, Isobel," he shouted; "they will be opening fire again
+directly."
+
+The girl disappeared, and almost at the same moment the batteries
+spoke out again, and a crackle of the musketry began from the
+gardens. The Major turned round. Bathurst was leaning against the
+wall breathing heavily after his exertions, Forster was coolly
+wiping his sword on the tunic of one of the fallen Sepoys.
+
+"Are either of you hurt?" he asked.
+
+"I am not hurt to speak of," Forster said; "I got a rip with a
+bayonet as I jumped down, but I don't think it is of any consequence."
+
+"How are you, Bathurst?" the Major repeated. "What on earth possessed
+you to jump down like that?"
+
+"I don't know, Major; I had to do something, and when yon stopped
+firing I felt it was time for me to do my share."
+
+"You have done more than your share, I should say," the Major said;
+"for they went down like ninepins before you. Now, Wilson, you take
+one of his hands, and I will take the other, and help him up."
+
+It needed considerable exertion to get him up, for the reaction
+had now come, and he was scarce able to stand.
+
+"You had better go up to the house and get a glass of wine," the
+Major said. "Now, is anyone else hurt?"
+
+"I am hit, Major," Richards said quietly; "a ball came in between
+the sandbags just as I fired my first shot, and smashed my right
+shoulder. I think I have not been much good since, though I have
+been firing from my left as well as I could. I think I will go up
+and get the Doctor to look at it."
+
+But almost as he spoke the young fellow tottered, and would have
+fallen, had not the Major caught him.
+
+"Lend me a hand, Doolan," the latter said; "we will carry him in;
+I am afraid he is very hard hit."
+
+The ladies gathered round the Major and Captain Doolan as they entered
+with their burden. Mary Hunter had already run down and told them
+that the attack had been repulsed and the enemy had retreated.
+
+"Nobody else is hit," the Major said, as he entered; "at least,
+not seriously. The enemy have been handsomely beaten with such loss
+that they won't be in a hurry to try again. Will one of you run up
+and bring the Doctor down?"
+
+Richards was carried into the hospital room, where he was left to
+the care of the Doctor, Mrs. Hunter, and Mrs. Rintoul. The Major
+returned to the general room.
+
+"Boy, bring half a dozen bottles of champagne and open them as
+quickly as you can," he said; "we have got enough to last us for
+weeks, and this is an occasion to celebrate, and I think we have
+all earned it."
+
+The others were by this time coming in, for there was no chance of
+the enemy renewing the attack at present. Farquharson was on the
+roof on the lookout. Quiet greetings were exchanged between wives
+and husbands.
+
+"It didn't last long," Wilson said; "not above five minutes, I
+should say, from the time when we opened fire."
+
+"It seemed to us an age," Amy Hunter replied; "it was dreadful not
+to be able to see what was going on; it seemed to me everyone must
+be killed with all that firing."
+
+"It was sharp while it lasted," the Major said; "but we were all
+snug enough except against a stray bullet, such as that which hit
+poor young Richards. He behaved very gallantly, and none of us knew
+he was hit till it was all over."
+
+"But how did Captain Forster get his bayonet wound?" Mrs. Doolan
+asked. "I saw him go in just now into the surgery; it seemed to me
+he had a very serious wound, for his jacket was cut from the breast
+up to the shoulder, and he was bleeding terribly, though he made
+light of it."
+
+"He jumped down into the middle of them," the Major said. "Bathurst
+jumped down first, and was fighting like a madman with a mace he
+has got. We could do nothing, for we were afraid of hitting him,
+and Forster jumped down to help him, and, as he did so, got that
+rip with the bayonet; it is a nasty cut, no doubt, but it is only
+a flesh wound."
+
+"Where is Mr. Bathurst?" Mrs. Doolan asked; "is he hurt, too? Why
+did he jump down? I should not have thought," and she stopped.
+
+"I fancy a sort of fury seized him," the Major said; "but whatever
+it was, he fought like a giant. He is a powerful man, and that iron
+mace is just the thing for such work. The natives went down like
+ninepins before him. No, I don't think he is hurt."
+
+"I will go out and see," Mrs. Doolan said; and taking a mug half
+full of champagne from the table, she went out.
+
+Bathurst was sitting on the ground leaning against the wall of the
+house.
+
+"You are not hurt, Mr. Bathurst, I hope," Mrs. Doolan said, as she
+came up. "No, don't try to get up, drink a little of this; we are
+celebrating our victory by opening a case of champagne. The Major
+tells us you have been distinguishing yourself greatly."
+
+Bathurst drank some of the wine before he replied.
+
+"In a way, Mrs. Doolan, I scarcely know what I did do. I wanted to
+do something, even if it was only to get killed."
+
+"You must not talk like that," she said kindly; "your life is
+as valuable as any here, and you know that we all like and esteem
+you; and, at any rate, you have shown today that you have plenty
+of courage."
+
+"The courage of a Malay running amuck, Mrs. Doolan; that is not
+courage, it is madness. You cannot tell--no one can tell--what
+I have suffered since the siege began. The humiliation of knowing
+that I alone of the men here am unable to take my part in the
+defense, and that while others are fighting I am useful only to
+work as a miner."
+
+"But you are as useful in that way as you would be in the other,"
+she said. "I don't feel humiliated because I can only help in
+nursing the sick while the others are fighting for us. We have all
+of us our gifts. Few men have more than you. You have courage and
+coolness in other ways, and you are wrong to care nothing for your
+life because of the failing, for which you are not accountable, of
+your nerves to stand the sound of firearms.. I can understand your
+feelings and sympathize with you, but it is of no use to exaggerate
+the importance of such a matter. You might live a thousand lives
+without being again in a position when such a failing would be of
+the slightest importance, one way or the other. Now come in with
+me. Certainly this is not the moment for you to give way about
+it; for whatever your feelings may have been, or whatever may have
+impelled you to the act, you have on this occasion fought nobly."
+
+"Not nobly, Mrs. Doolan," he said, rising to his feet; "desperately,
+or madly, if you like."
+
+At this moment Wilson came out. "Halloa, Bathurst, what are doing
+here? Breakfast is just ready, and everyone is asking for you. I
+am sure you must want something after your exertions. You should
+have seen him laying about him with that iron mace, Mrs. Doolan..
+I have seen him using the pick, and knew how strong ho was, but
+I was astonished, I can tell you. It was a sort of Coeur de Lion
+business. He used to use a mace, you know, and once rode through
+the Saracens and smashed them up, till at last, when he had done,
+he couldn't open his hand. Bring him in, Mrs. Doolan. If he won't
+come, I will go in and send the Doctor out to him. Bad business,
+poor Richards being hurt, isn't it? Awfully good fellow, Richards.
+Can't think why he was the one to be hit."
+
+So keeping up a string of talk, the young subaltern led Bathurst
+into the house.
+
+After breakfast a white flag was waved from the roof, and in
+a short time two Sepoy officers came up with a similar flag. The
+Major and Captain Doolan went out to meet them, and it was agreed
+that hostilities should be suspended until noon, in order that the
+wounded and dead might be carried off.
+
+While this was being done the garrison remained under arms behind
+their work at the breach lest any treacherous attempt should be
+made. The mutineers, however, who were evidently much depressed by
+the failure, carried the bodies off quietly, and at twelve o'clock
+firing recommenced.
+
+That evening, after it was dark, the men gathered on the terrace.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," the Major said, "we have beaten them off today,
+and we may do it again, but there is no doubt how it must all end.
+You see, this afternoon their guns have all been firing at a fresh
+place in the wall; and if they make another breach or two, and
+attack at them all together, it will be hopeless to try to defend
+them. You see, now that we have several sick and wounded, the
+notion of making our escape is almost knocked on the head. At the
+last moment each may try to save his life, but there must be no
+desertion of the sick and wounded as long as there is a cartridge
+to be fired. Our best hope is in getting assistance from somewhere,
+but we know nothing of what is going on outside. I think the best
+plan will be for one of our number to try to make his way out, and
+go either to Lucknow, Agra, or Allahabad, and try and get help.
+If they could spare a troop of cavalry it might be sufficient; the
+mutineers have suffered very heavily; there were over a hundred and
+fifty bodies carried out today, and if attacked suddenly I don't
+think they would make any great resistance. We may hold out for a
+week or ten days, but I think that is the outside; and if rescue
+does not arrive by that time we must either surrender or try to
+escape by that passage."
+
+There was a general assent.
+
+"Bathurst would be the man to do it," the Doctor said. "Once through
+their lines he could pass without exciting the slightest suspicion;
+he could buy a horse then, and could be at any of the stations in
+two days."
+
+"Yes, there is no doubt that he is the man to do it," the Major
+said. "Where is he now?"
+
+"At work as usual, Major; shall I go and speak to him? But I tell
+you fairly I don't think he will undertake it."
+
+"Why not, Doctor? It is a dangerous mission, but no more dangerous
+than remaining here."
+
+"Well, we shall see," the Doctor said, as he left the group.
+
+Nothing was said for a few minutes, the men sitting or lying about
+smoking. Presently the Doctor returned.
+
+"Bathurst refuses absolutely," he said. "He admits that he does
+not think there would be much difficulty for him to get through,
+but he is convinced that the mission would be a useless one, and
+that could help have been spared it would have come to us before
+now."
+
+"But in that case he would have made his escape," the Major said.
+
+That is just why he won't go, Major; he says that come what will
+he will share the fate of the rest, and that he will not live to
+be pointed to as the one man who made his escape of the garrison
+of Deennugghur."
+
+"Whom can we send?" the Major said. "You are the only other man
+who speaks the language well enough to pass as a native, Doctor."
+
+"I speak it fairly, but not well enough for that; besides, I am too
+old to bear the fatigue of riding night and day; and, moreover, my
+services are wanted here both as a doctor and as a rifle shot."
+
+"I will go, if you will send me, Major," Captain Forster said
+suddenly; "not in disguise, but in uniform, and on my horse's
+back. Of course I should run the gauntlet of their sentries. Once
+through, I doubt if they have a horse that could overtake mine."
+
+There was a general silence of surprise. Forster's reckless courage
+was notorious, and he had been conspicuous for the manner in which
+he had chosen the most dangerous points during the siege; and this
+offer to undertake what, although a dangerous enterprise in itself,
+still offered a far better chance of life than that of remaining
+behind, surprised everyone. It had been noticed that, since the
+rejection of his plan to sally out in a body and cut their way
+through the enemy, he had been moody and silent, except only when
+the fire was heavy and the danger considerable; then he laughed
+and joked and seemed absolutely to enjoy the excitement; but he
+was the last man whom any of them would have expected to volunteer
+for a service that, dangerous as it might be, had just been refused
+by Bathurst on the ground that it offered a chance of escape from
+the common lot.
+
+The Major was the first to speak.
+
+"Well, Captain Forster, as we have just agreed that our only chance
+is to obtain aid from one of the stations, and as you are the only
+volunteer for the service, I do not see that I can decline to accept
+your offer. At which station do you think you would be most likely
+to find a force that could help us?"
+
+"I should say Lucknow, Major. If help is to be obtained anywhere,
+I should say it was there."
+
+"Yes, I think that is the most hopeful. You will start at once; I
+suppose the sooner the better."
+
+"As soon as they are fairly asleep; say twelve o'clock."
+
+"Very well. I will go and write a dispatch for you to carry, giving
+an account of the fix we are in here. How will you sally out?"
+
+"I should think the easiest plan would be to make a gap in the
+sandbags in the breach, lead the horse till fairly outside, and
+then mount."
+
+"I think you had better take a spare horse with you," the Doctor
+said; "it will make a difference if you are chased, if you can
+change from one to the other. Bathurst told me to say whoever went
+could have his horse, which is a long way the best in the station.
+I should fancy as good as your own."
+
+"I don't know," Forster said; "led horses are a nuisance; still, as
+you say, it might come in useful, if it is only to loose and turn
+down a side road, and so puzzle anyone who may be after you in the
+dark."
+
+The Major and Forster left the roof together.
+
+"Well, that is a rum go," Wilson said. "If it had been anyone
+but Forster I should have said that he funked and was taking the
+opportunity to get out of it, but everyone knows that he has any
+amount of pluck; look how he charged those Sepoys single handed."
+
+"There are two sorts of pluck, Wilson," the Doctor said dryly. "There
+is the pluck that will carry a man through a desperate action and
+lead him to do deeds that are the talk of an army. Forster possesses
+that kind of pluck in an unusual degree. He is almost an ideal
+cavalryman--dashing, reckless; riding with a smile on his lips
+into the thickest of the fray, absolutely careless of life when
+his blood is up.
+
+"There is another sort of courage, that which supports men under
+long continued strain, and enables them, patiently and steadfastly,
+to face death when they see it approaching step by step. I doubt
+whether Forster possesses that passive sort of courage. He would
+ride up to a cannon's mouth, but would grow impatient in a. square
+of infantry condemned to remain inactive under a heavy artillery
+fire.
+
+"No one has changed more since this siege began than he has.
+Except when engaged under a heavy fire he has been either silent,
+or impatient and short tempered, shirking conversation even with
+women when his turn of duty was over. Mind, I don't say for a moment
+that I suspect him of being afraid of death; when the end came he
+would fight as bravely as ever, and no one could fight more bravely.
+But he cannot stand the waiting; he is always pulling his mustache
+moodily and muttering to himself; he is good to do but not to
+suffer; he would make a shockingly bad patient in a long illness.
+
+"Well, if any of you have letters you want to write to friends
+in England I should advise you to take the opportunity; mind, I
+don't think they will ever get them. Forster may get through, but
+I consider the chances strongly against it. For a ride of ten miles
+through a country swarming with foes I could choose no messenger I
+would rather trust, but for a ride like this, that requires patience
+and caution and resource, he is not the man I should select. Bathurst
+would have succeeded almost certainly if he had once got out. The
+two men are as different as light to dark; one possesses just the
+points the other fails in. I have no one at home I want to write
+to, so I will undertake the watch here."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+The men on descending from the roof found all the ladies engaged
+in writing, the Major having told them that there was a chance of
+their letters being taken out. Scarce one looked up as they entered;
+their thoughts at the moment were at home with those to whom they
+were writing what might well be their last farewells. Stifled sobs
+were heard in the quiet room; mournful letters were blurred with
+tears even from eyes that had not before been dimmed since the
+siege began.
+
+Isobel Hannay was the first to finish, for her letter to her mother
+was but a short one. As she closed it she looked up. Captain Forster
+was standing at the other side of the table with his eyes fixed on
+her, and he made a slight gesture to her that he wished to speak
+to her. She hesitated a moment, and then rose and quietly left the
+room. A moment later he joined her outside.
+
+"Come outside," he said, "I must speak to you;" and together they
+went out through the passage into the courtyard.
+
+"Isobel," he began, "I need not tell you that I love you; till
+lately I have not known how much, but I feel now that I could not
+live without you."
+
+"Why are you going away then, Captain Forster?" she asked quietly.
+
+"I don't want to go alone," he said; "I cannot go alone--I want
+you to go with me. Your uncle would surely consent; it is the only
+chance of saving your life. We all know that it is next to hopeless
+that a force sufficient to rescue us can be sent; there is just a
+chance, but that is all that can be said. We could be married at
+Allahabad. I would make for that town instead of Lucknow if you
+will go with me, and I could leave you there in safety till these
+troubles are over; I am going to take another horse as well as my
+own, and two would be as likely to escape as one."
+
+"Thank you for the offer, Captain Forster," she said coldly, "but
+I decline it. My place is here with my uncle and the others."
+
+"Why is it?" he asked passionately. "If you love me, your place
+is surely with me; and you do love me, Isobel, do you not? Surely
+I have not been mistaken."
+
+Isobel was silent for a moment.
+
+"You were mistaken, Captain Forster," she said, after a pause. "You
+paid me attentions such as I had heard you paid to many others, and
+it was pleasant. That you were serious I did not think. I believed
+you were simply flirting with me; that you meant no more by it than
+you had meant before; and being forewarned, and therefore having
+no fear that I should hurt myself more than you would, I entered
+into it in the same spirit. Where there was so much to be anxious
+about, it was a pleasure and relief. Had I met you elsewhere, and
+under different circumstances, I think I should have come to love
+you. A girl almost without experience and new to the world, as I
+am, could hardly have helped doing so, I think. Had I thought you
+were in earnest I should have acted differently; and if I have
+deceived you by my manner I am sorry; but even had I loved you I
+would not have consented to do the thing you ask me. You are going
+on duty. You are going in the hope of obtaining aid for us. I should
+be simply escaping while others stay, and I should despise myself
+for the action. Besides; I do not think that even in that case my
+uncle would have consented to my going with you."
+
+"I am sure that he would," Forster broke in. "He would never be
+mad enough to refuse you the chance of escape from such a fate as
+may now await you."
+
+"We need not discuss the question," she said. "Even if I loved you,
+I would not go with you; and I do not love you."
+
+"They have prejudiced you against me," he said angrily.
+
+"They warned me, and they were right in doing so. Ask yourself if
+they were not. Would you see a sister of yours running the risk
+of breaking her heart without warning her? Do not be angry," she
+went on, putting her hand on his arm. "We have been good friends,
+Captain Forster, and I like you very much. We may never meet again;
+it is most likely we never shall do so. I am grateful to you for
+the many pleasant hours you have given me. Let us part thus."
+
+"Can you not give some hope that in the distance, when these troubles
+are over, should we both be spared, you may--"
+
+"No, Captain Forster, I am sure it could never be so; if we ever
+meet again, we will meet as we part now--as friends. And now
+I can stay no longer; they will be missing me," and, turning, she
+entered the house before he could speak again.
+
+It was some minutes before he followed her. He had not really
+thought that she would go with him; perhaps he had hardly wished
+it, for on such an expedition a woman would necessarily add to the
+difficulty and danger; but he had thought that she would have told
+him that his love was returned, and for perhaps the first time in
+his life he was serious in his protestation of it.
+
+"What does it matter?" he said at last, as he turned; "'tis ten
+thousand to one against our meeting again; if we do, I can take
+it up where it breaks off now. She has acknowledged that she would
+have liked me if she had been sure that I was in earnest. Next
+time I shall be so. She was right. I was but amusing myself with
+her at first, and had no more thought of marrying her than I had
+of flying. But there, it is no use talking about the future; the
+thing now is to get out of this trap. I have felt like a rat in a
+cage with a terrier watching me for the last month, and long to be
+on horseback again, with the chance of making a fight for my life.
+What a fool Bathurst was to throw away the chance!"
+
+Bathurst, his work done, had looked into the hall where the others
+were gathered, and hearing that the Doctor was alone on watch had
+gone up to him.
+
+"I was just thinking, Bathurst," the Doctor said, as he joined
+him, "about that fight today. It seems to me that whatever comes
+of this business, you and I are not likely to be among those who
+go down when the place is taken."
+
+"How is that, Doctor? Why is our chance better than the rest? I
+have no hope myself that any will be spared."
+
+"I put my faith in the juggler, Bathurst. Has it not struck you
+that the first picture you saw has come true?"
+
+"I have never given it a thought for weeks," Bathurst said; "certainly
+I have not thought of it today. Yes, now you speak of it, it has
+come true. How strange! I put it aside as a clever trick--one
+that I could not understand any more than I did the others, but,
+knowing myself, it seemed beyond the bounds of possibility that it
+could come true. Anything but that I would have believed, but, as
+I told you, whatever might happen in the future, I should not be
+found fighting desperately as I saw myself doing there. It is true
+that I did so, but it was only a sort of a frenzy. I did not fire
+a shot, as Wilson may have told you. I strove like a man in a
+nightmare to break the spell that seemed to render me powerless to
+move, but when, for a moment, the firing ceased, a weight seemed
+to fall off me, and I was seized with a sort of passion to kill.
+I have no distinct remembrance of anything until it was all over.
+It was still the nightmare, but one of a different kind, and I was
+no more myself then than I was when I was lying helpless on the
+sandbags. Still, as you say, the picture was complete; at least,
+if Miss Hannay was standing up here."
+
+"Yes, she rose to her feet in the excitement of the fight. I
+believe we all did so. The picture was true in all its details as
+you described it to me. And that being so, I believe that other
+picture, the one we saw together, you and I and Isobel Hannay in
+native disguises, will also come true."
+
+Bathurst was silent for two or three minutes.
+
+"It may be so, Doctor--Heaven only knows. I trust for your sake
+and hers it may be so, though I care but little about myself; but
+that picture wasn't a final one, and we don't know what may follow
+it."
+
+"That is so, Bathurst. But I think that you and I, once fairly away
+in disguise, might be trusted to make our way down the country. You
+see, we have a complete confirmation of that juggler's powers. He
+showed me a scene in the past--a scene which had not been in my
+mind for years, and was certainly not in my thoughts at the time.
+He showed you a scene in the future, which, unlikely as it appeared,
+has actually taken place. I believe he will be equally right in
+this other picture. You have heard that Forster is going?"
+
+"Yes; Wilson came down and told me while I was at work. Wilson
+seemed rather disgusted at his volunteering. I don't know that I
+am surprised myself, for, as I told you, I knew him at school, and
+he had no moral courage, though plenty of physical. Still, under
+the circumstances, I should not have thought he would have gone."
+
+"You mean because of Miss Hannay, Bathurst?"
+
+"Yes, that is what I mean."
+
+"That sort of thing might weigh with you or me, Bathurst, but not
+with him. He has loved and ridden away many times before this, but
+in this case, fortunately, I don't think he will leave an aching
+heart behind him."
+
+"You don't mean to say, Doctor, that you don't think she cares for
+him?"
+
+"I have not asked her the question," the Doctor said dryly. "I dare
+say she likes him; in fact, I am ready to admit that there has been
+what you may call a strong case of flirtation; but when a young
+woman is thrown with an uncommonly good looking man, who lays himself
+out to be agreeable to her, my experience is that a flirtation
+generally comes of it, especially when the young woman has no one
+else to make herself agreeable to, and is, moreover, a little sore
+with the world in general. I own that at one time I was rather
+inclined to think that out of sheer perverseness the girl was going
+to make a fool of herself with that good looking scamp, but since
+we have been shut up here I have felt easy in my mind about it. And
+now, if you will take my rifle for ten minutes, I will go down and
+get a cup of tea; I volunteered to take sentry work, but I didn't
+bargain for keeping it all night without relief. By the way, I
+told Forster of your offer of your horse, and I think he is going
+to take it."
+
+"He is welcome to it," Bathurst said carelessly; "it will be of no
+use to me."
+
+"Now, look here," the Doctor said shortly; "just put Miss Hannay
+out of your head for the present, and attend to the business on
+hand. I do not think there is much chance of their trying it on
+again tonight, but they may do so, so please to keep a sharp lookout
+while I am below."
+
+"I will be careful, Doctor," Bathurst said, with a laugh; but the
+Doctor had so little faith in his watchfulness that as soon as he
+went below he sent up Wilson to share his guard.
+
+At twelve o'clock the sandbags were removed sufficiently to allow
+a horse to pass through, and Forster's and Bathurst's animals
+were led out through the breach, their feet having been muffled
+with blankets to prevent their striking a stone and arousing the
+attention of the enemy's sentinels. Once fairly out the mufflings
+were removed and Forster sprang into his saddle.
+
+"Goodby, Major," he said; "I hope I may be back again in eight or
+nine days with a squadron of cavalry."
+
+"Goodby, Forster; I hope it may be so. May God protect you!"
+
+The gap in the defenses was closed the instant the horses passed
+through, and the men stood in the breach of the wall listening as
+Forster rode off. He went at a walk, but before he had gone fifty
+paces there was a sharp challenge, followed almost instantly by a
+rifle shot, then came the crack of a revolver and the rapid beat
+of galloping hoofs. Loud shouts were heard, and musket shots fired
+in rapid succession.
+
+"They are not likely to have hit him in the dark," the Major said,
+as he climbed back over the sandbags; "but they may hit his horses,
+which would be just as fatal."
+
+Leaving two sentries--the one just outside the breach near the
+wall, the other on the sandbags--the rest of the party hurried up
+on the roof. Shots were still being fired, and there was a confused
+sound of shouting; then a cavalry trumpet rang out sharply, and
+presently three shots fired in quick succession came upon the air.
+
+"That is the signal agreed on," the Major said: "he is safely beyond
+their lines. Now it is a question of riding; some of the cavalry
+will be in pursuit of him before many minutes are over."
+
+Forster's adieus had been brief. He had busied himself up to the
+last moment in looking to the saddling of the two horses, and had
+only gone into the house and said goodby to the ladies just when
+it was time to start. He had said a few hopeful words as to the
+success of the mission, but it had evidently needed an effort for
+him to do so. He had no opportunity of speaking a word apart with
+Isobel, and he shook her hand silently when it came to her turn.
+
+"I should not have given him credit for so much feeling," Mrs.
+Doolan whispered to Isobel, as he went out; "he was really sorry to
+leave us, and I didn't think he was a man to be sorry for anything
+that didn't affect himself. I think he had absolutely the grace to
+feel a little ashamed of leaving us."
+
+"I don't think that is fair," Isobel said warmly, "when he is going
+away to fetch assistance for us."
+
+"He is deserting us as rats desert a sinking ship," Mrs. Doolan
+said positively; "and I am only surprised that he has the grace to
+feel a little ashamed of the action. As for caring, there is only
+one person in the world he cares for--himself. I was reading
+'David Copperfield' just before we came in here, and Steerforth's
+character might have been sketched from Forster. He is a man without
+either heart or conscience; a man who would sacrifice everything
+to his own pleasures; and yet even when one knows him to be what
+he is, one can hardly help liking him. I wonder how it is, my dear,
+that scamps are generally more pleasant than good men?"
+
+"I never thought about it, Mrs. Doolan," Isobel said, roused to
+a smile by the earnestness with which Mrs. Doolan propounded the
+problem; "and can give no reason except that we are attracted by
+natures the reverse of our own."
+
+Mrs. Doolan laughed.
+
+"So you think we are better than men, Isobel? I don't--not one bit.
+We are cramped in our opportunities; but given equal opportunities
+I don't think there would be anything to choose between us. But
+we mustn't stay talking here any longer; we both go on duty in the
+sick ward at four o'clock."
+
+The enemy's batteries opened on the following morning more violently
+than before. More guns had been placed in position during the
+night, and a rain of missiles was poured upon the house. For the
+next six days the position of the besieged became hourly worse.
+Several breaches had been made in the wall, and the shots now struck
+the house, and the inmates passed the greater part of their time
+in the basement.
+
+The heat was terrible, and, as the firing was kept up night and
+day, sleep was almost impossible. The number of the besiegers had
+considerably increased, large numbers of the country people taking
+part in the siege, while a regiment of Sepoys from Cawnpore had
+taken the place of the detachment of the 103d Bengal Infantry, of
+whom, indeed, but few now remained.
+
+The garrison no longer held the courtyard. Several times masses
+of the enemy had surged up and poured through the breaches, but a
+large number of hand grenades of various sizes had been constructed
+by the defenders, and the effects of these thrown down from the
+roof among the crowded masses were so terrible that the natives
+each time fell back. The horses had all been turned out through
+the breach on the day after Captain Forster's departure, in order
+to save their lives. A plague of flies was not the least of the
+defenders' troubles. After the repulse of the assaults the defenders
+went out at night and carried the bodies of the natives who had
+fallen in the courtyard beyond the wall. Nevertheless, the odor
+of blood attracted such countless swarms of flies that the ground
+was black with them, and they pervaded the house in legions.
+
+The number of the defenders decreased daily. Six only were able now
+to carry arms. Mr. Hunter, Captain Rintoul, and Richards had died
+of fever. Farquharson had been killed by a cannon ball; two civilians
+had been badly wounded; several of the children had succumbed; Amy
+Hunter had been killed by a shell that passed through the sandbag
+protection of the grating that gave light to the room in the basement
+used as a sick ward. The other ladies were all utterly worn out
+with exhaustion, sleeplessness, and anxiety. Still there had been
+no word spoken of surrender. Had the men been alone they would have
+sallied out and died fighting, but this would have left the women
+at the mercy of the assailants.
+
+The work at the gallery had been discontinued for some time. It had
+been carried upwards until a number of roots in the earth showed
+that they were near the surface, and, as they believed, under a
+clump of bushes growing a hundred and fifty yards beyond the walls;
+but of late there had been no talk of using this. Flight, which
+even at first had seemed almost hopeless, was wholly beyond them
+in their present weakened condition.
+
+On the last of these six days Major Hannay was severely wounded.
+At night the enemy's fire relaxed a little, and the ladies took
+advantage of it to go up onto the terrace for air, while the men
+gathered for a council round the Major's bed.
+
+"Well, Doctor, the end is pretty near," he said; "it is clear we
+cannot hold out many hours longer. We must look the matter in the
+face now. We have agreed all along that when we could no longer
+resist we would offer to surrender on the terms that our lives
+should be spared, and that we should be given safe conduct down
+the country, and that if those terms were refused we were to resist
+to the end, and then blow up the house and all in it. I think the
+time has come for raising the white flag."
+
+"I think so," the Doctor said: "we have done everything men could
+do. I have little hope that they will grant us terms of surrender;
+for from the native servants who have deserted us they must have
+a fair idea of our condition. What do you think, Bathurst?"
+
+"I think it probable there are divisions among them," he replied;
+"the Talookdars may have risen against us, but I do not think they
+can have the same deadly enmity the Sepoys have shown. They must
+be heartily sick of this prolonged siege, and they have lost large
+numbers of their men. I should say they would be willing enough
+to give terms, but probably they are overruled by the Sepoys, and
+perhaps by orders from Nana Sahib. I know several of them personally,
+and I think I could influence Por Sing, who is certainly the most
+powerful of the Zemindars of this neighborhood, and is probably
+looked upon as their natural leader; if you approve of it, Major,
+I will go out in disguise, and endeavor to obtain an interview with
+him. He is an honorable man; and if he will give his guarantee for
+our safety, I would trust him. At any rate, I can but try. If I do
+not return, you will know that I am dead, and that no terms can be
+obtained, and can then decide when to end it all."
+
+"It is worth the attempt anyhow," the Major said. "I say nothing
+about the danger you will run, for no danger can be greater than
+that which hangs over us all now."
+
+"Very well, Major, then I will do it at once, but you must not
+expect me back until tomorrow night. I can hardly hope to obtain
+an interview with Por Sing tonight."
+
+"How will you go out, Bathurst?"
+
+"I will go down at once and break in the roof of the gallery," he
+said; "we know they are close round the wall, and I could not hope
+to get out through any of the breaches."
+
+"I suppose you are quite convinced that there is no hope of relief
+from Lucknow?"
+
+"Quite convinced. I never had any real hope of it; but had there
+been a force disposable, it would have started at once if Forster
+arrived there with his message, and might have been here by this
+time."
+
+"At any rate, we can wait no longer."
+
+"Then we will begin at once," Bathurst said, and, taking a crowbar
+and pick from the place where the tools were kept, he lighted the
+lamp and went along the gallery, accompanied by the Doctor, who
+carried two light bamboo ladders.
+
+"Do you think you will succeed, Bathurst?"
+
+"I am pretty sure of it," he said confidently. "I believe I have
+a friend there."
+
+"A friend!" the Doctor repeated in surprise.
+
+"Yes; I am convinced that the juggler is there. Not once, but half
+a dozen times during the last two nights when I have been on watch
+on the terrace, I have distinctly heard the words whispered in my
+ear, 'Meet me at your bungalow.' You may think I dozed off and was
+dreaming, but I was as wide awake then as I am now. I cannot say
+that I recognized the voice, but the words were in the dialect he
+speaks. At any rate, as soon as I am out I shall make my way there,
+and shall wait there all night on the chance of his coming. After
+what we know of the man's strange powers, there seems nothing
+unreasonable to me in his being able to impress upon my mind the
+fact that he wants to see me."
+
+"I quite agree with you there, and his aid might be invaluable. You
+are not the sort of man to have delusions, Bathurst, and I quite
+believe what you say. I feel more hopeful now than I have done for
+some time."
+
+An hour's hard work, and a hole was made through the soil, which
+was but three feet thick. Bathurst climbed up the ladder and looked
+out.
+
+"It is as we thought, Doctor; we are in the middle of that thicket.
+Now I will go and dress if you will keep guard here with your
+rifle."
+
+At the end of the gallery a figure was standing; it was Isobel
+Hannay.
+
+"I have heard you are going out again, Mr. Bathurst."
+
+"Yes, I am going to see what I can do in the way of making terms
+for us."
+
+"You may not come back again," she said nervously.
+
+"That is, of course, possible, Miss Hannay, but I do not think the
+risk is greater than that run by those who stay here."
+
+"I want to speak to you before you go," she said; "I have wanted
+to speak so long, but you have never given me an opportunity. We
+may never meet again, and I must tell you how sorry I am--how
+sorry I have been ever since for what I said. I spoke as a foolish
+girl, but I know better now. Have I not seen how calm you have been
+through all our troubles, how you have devoted yourself to us and
+the children, how you have kept up all our spirits, how cheerfully
+you have worked, and as our trouble increased we have all come to
+look up to you and lean upon you. Do say, Mr. Bathurst, that you
+forgive me, and that if you return we can be friends as we were
+before."
+
+"Certainly I forgive you if there is anything to forgive, Miss
+Hannay," he said gravely. "Nothing that you or anyone can say can
+relieve me of the pain of knowing that I have been unable to take
+any active part in your defense, that I have been forced to play
+the part of a woman rather than a man; but assuredly, if I return,
+I shall be glad to be again your friend, which, indeed. I have
+never ceased to be at heart."
+
+Perhaps she expected something more, but it did not come. He spoke
+cordially, but yet as one who felt that there was an impassible
+barrier between them. She stood irresolute for a moment, and then
+held out her hand. "Goodby, then," she said.
+
+He held it a moment. "Goodby, Miss Hannay. May God keep you and
+guard you."
+
+Then gently he led her to the door, and they passed out together.
+A quarter of an hour later he rejoined the Doctor, having brought
+with him a few short lengths of bamboo.
+
+"I will put these across the hole when I get out," he said, "lay
+some sods over them, and cover them up with leaves, in case anyone
+should enter the bushes tomorrow. It is not likely, but it is as
+well to take the precaution. One of you had better stay on guard
+until I come back. It would not do to trust any of the natives;
+those that remain are all utterly disheartened and broken down,
+and might take the opportunity of purchasing their lives by going
+out and informing the enemy of the opening into the gallery. They
+must already know of its existence from the men who have deserted.
+But, fortunately, I don't think any of them are aware of its exact
+direction; if they had been, we should have had them countermining
+before this."
+
+Having carefully closed up the opening, Bathurst went to the edge
+of the bushes and listened. He could hear voices between him and
+the house, but all was quiet near at hand, and he began to move
+noiselessly along through the garden. He had no great fear of meeting
+with anyone here. The natives had formed a cordon round the wall,
+and behind that there would be no one on watch, and as the batteries
+were silent, all were doubtless asleep there. In ten minutes he stood
+before the charred stumps that marked the site of his bungalow. As
+he did so, a figure advanced to meet him.
+
+"It is you, sahib. I was expecting you. I knew that you would come
+this evening."
+
+"I don't know how you knew it but I am heartily glad to see you."
+
+"You want to see Por Sing? Come along with me and I will take you
+to him; but there is no time to lose;" and without another word he
+walked rapidly away, followed by Bathurst.
+
+When they got into the open the latter could see that his companion
+was dressed in an altogether different garb to that in which he
+had before seen him, being attired as a person of some rank and
+importance. He stopped presently for Bathurst to come up with him.
+
+"I have done what I could to prepare the way for you," he said. "Openly
+I could for certain reasons do nothing, but I have said enough to
+make him feel uncomfortable about the future, and to render him
+anxious to find a way of escape for himself if your people should
+ever again get the mastery."
+
+"How are things going, Rujub? We have heard nothing for three weeks.
+How is it at Cawnpore?"
+
+"Cawnpore has been taken by the Nana. They surrendered on his solemn
+oath that all should be allowed to depart in safety. He broke his
+oath, and there are not ten of its defenders alive. The women are
+all in captivity."
+
+Bathurst groaned. He had hardly hoped that the handful of defenders
+could have maintained themselves against such overpowering numbers,
+but the certainty as to their fate was a heavy blow.
+
+"And Lucknow?" he asked.
+
+"The Residency holds out at present, but men say that it must soon
+fall."
+
+"And what do you say?"
+
+"I say nothing," the man said; "we cannot use our art in matters
+which concern ourselves."
+
+"And Delhi?"
+
+"There is a little force of whites in front of Delhi; there are
+tens of thousands of Sepoys in the town, but as yet the whites
+have maintained themselves. The chiefs of the Punjaub have proved
+faithless to their country, and there the British rule is maintained."
+
+"Thank God for that!" Bathurst exclaimed; "as long as the Punjaub
+holds out the tables may be turned. And the other Presidencies?"
+
+"Nothing as yet," Rujub said, in a tone of discontent.
+
+"Then you are against us, Rujub?"
+
+The man stopped.
+
+"Sahib, I know not what I wish now. I have been brought up to hate
+the whites. Two of my father's brothers were hung as Thugs, and
+my father taught me to hate the men who did it. For years I have
+worked quietly against you, as have most of those of my craft. We
+have reason to hate you. In the old times we were honored in the
+land--honored and feared; for even the great ones knew that we
+had powers such as no other men have. But the whites treat us as
+if we were mere buffoons, who play for their amusement; they make
+no distinction between the wandering conjurer, with his tricks of
+dexterity, and the masters, who have powers that have been handed
+down from father to son for thousands of years, who can communicate
+with each other though separated by the length of India; who can,
+as you have seen, make men invisible; who can read the past and
+the future. They see these things, and though they cannot explain
+them, they persist in treating us all as if we were mere jugglers.
+
+"They prefer to deny the evidence of their own senses rather than
+admit that we have powers such as they have not; and so, even in
+the eyes of our own countrymen, we have lost our old standing and
+position, while the whites would bribe us with money to divulge
+the secrets in which they profess to disbelieve. No wonder that
+we hate you, and that we long for the return of the old days, when
+even princes were glad to ask favors at our hands. It is seldom
+that we show our powers now. Those who aid us, and whose servants
+we are, are not to be insulted by the powers they bestow upon us
+being used for the amusement of men who believe in nothing.
+
+"The Europeans who first came to India have left records of the
+strange things they saw at the courts of the native princes. But such
+things are no longer done for the amusement of our white masters.
+Thus, then, for years I have worked against you; and just as I
+saw that our work was successful, just as all was prepared for the
+blow that was to sweep the white men out of India, you saved my
+daughter; then my work seemed to come to an end. Would any of my
+countrymen, armed only with a whip, have thrown themselves in the
+way of a tiger to save a woman--a stranger--one altogether
+beneath him in rank--one, as it were, dust beneath his feet?
+That I should be ready to give my life for yours was a matter of
+course; I should have been an ungrateful wretch otherwise. But this
+was not enough. At one blow the work I had devoted myself to for
+years was brought to nothing. Everything seemed to me new; and as
+I sat by my daughter's bedside, when she lay sick with the fever, I
+had to think it all out again. Then I saw things in another light.
+I saw that, though the white men were masterful and often hard, though
+they had little regard for our customs, and viewed our beliefs as
+superstitious, and scoffed at the notion of there being powers of
+which they had no knowledge, yet that they were a great people.
+Other conquerors, many of them, India has had, but none who have
+made it their first object to care for the welfare of the people
+at large. The Feringhees have wrung nothing from the poor to be
+spent in pomp and display; they permit no tyranny or ill doing;
+under them the poorest peasant tills his fields in peace.
+
+"I have been obliged to see all this, and I feel now that their
+destruction would be a frightful misfortune. We should be ruled
+by our native lords; but as soon as the white man was gone the old
+quarrels would break out, and the country would be red with blood.
+I did not see this before, because I had only looked at it with
+the eyes of my own caste; now I see it with the eyes of one whose
+daughter has been saved from a tiger by a white man. I cannot love
+those I have been taught to hate, but I can see the benefit their
+rule has given to India.
+
+"But what can I do now? I am in the stream, and I must go with it.
+I know not what I wish or what I would do. Six months ago I felt
+certain. Now I doubt. It seemed to me that in a day the English
+Raj would be swept away. How could it be otherwise when the whole
+army that had conquered India for them were against them? I knew
+they were brave, but we have never lacked bravery. How could I tell
+that they would fight one against a hundred?
+
+"But come, let us go on. Por Sing is expecting you. I told him that
+I knew that one from the garrison would come out to treat with him
+privately tonight, and he is expecting you, though he does not know
+who may come."
+
+Ten minutes walking, and they approached a large tent surrounded
+by several smaller ones. A sentry challenged when they approached,
+but on Rujub giving his name, he at once resumed his walk up and
+down, and Rujub, followed by Bathurst, advanced and entered the
+tent. The Zemindar was seated on a divan smoking a hookah. Rujub
+bowed, but not with the deep reverence of one approaching his
+superior.
+
+"He is here," he said.
+
+"Then you were not mistaken, Rujub?"
+
+"How could I be when I knew?" Rujub said. "I have done what I
+said, and have brought him straight to you. That was all I had to
+do with it; the rest is for your highness."
+
+"I would rather that you should be present," Por Sing said, as
+Rujub turned to withdraw.
+
+"No," the latter replied; "in this matter it is for you to
+decide. I know not the Nana's wishes, and your highness must take
+the responsibility. I have brought him to you rather than to the
+commander of the Sepoys, because your authority should be the greater;
+it is you and the other Oude chiefs who have borne the weight of
+this siege, and it is only right that it is you who should decide
+the conditions of surrender. The Sepoys are not our masters, and
+it is well they are not so; the Nana and the Oude chiefs have not
+taken up arms to free themselves from the English Raj to be ruled
+over by the men who have been the servants of the English."
+
+"That is so," the Zemindar said, stroking his beard; "well, I will
+talk with this person."
+
+Rujub left the tent. "You do not know me, Por Sing?" Bathurst said,
+stepping forward from the entrance where he had hitherto stood; "I
+am the Sahib Bathurst."
+
+"Is it so?" the Zemindar said, laying aside his pipe and rising to
+his feet; "none could come to me whom I would rather see. You have
+always proved yourself a just officer, and I have no complaint
+against you. We have often broken bread together, and it has grieved
+me to know that you were in yonder house. Do you come to me on your
+own account, or from the sahib who commands?"
+
+"I come on my own account," Bathurst said; "when I come as a messenger
+from him, I must come openly. I. know you to be an honorable man,
+and that I could say what I have to say to you and depart in safety.
+I regard you as one who has been misled, and regret for your sake
+that you should have been induced to take part with these mutineers
+against us. Believe me, chief, you have been terribly misled.
+You have been told that it needed but an effort to overthrow the
+British Raj. Those who told you so lied. It might have seemed easy
+to destroy the handful of Europeans scattered throughout India,
+but you have not succeeded in doing it. Even had you done so, you
+would not have so much as begun the work. There are but few white
+soldiers here. Why? Because England trusted in the fidelity of her
+native troops, and thought it necessary to keep only a handful of
+soldiers in India, but if need be, for every soldier now here she
+could send a hundred, and she will send a hundred if required to
+reconquer India. Already you may be sure that ships are on the sea
+laden with troops; and if you find it so hard to overcome the few
+soldiers now here, what would you do against the great armies that
+will pour in ere long? Why, all the efforts of the Sepoys gathered
+at Delhi are insufficient to defeat the four or five thousand
+British troops who hold their posts outside the town, waiting only
+till the succor arrives from England to take a terrible vengeance.
+Woe be then to those who have taken part against us; still more to
+those whose hands are stained with British blood."
+
+"It is too late now," the native said gloomily, "the die is cast;
+but since I have seen how a score of men could defend that shattered
+house against thousands, do you think I have not seen that I have
+been wrong? Who would have thought that men could do such a thing?
+But it is too late now."
+
+"It is not too late," Bathurst said; "it is too late, indeed, to
+undo the mischief that has been done, but not too late for you to
+secure yourself against some of the consequences. The English are
+just; and when they shall have stamped out this mutiny, as assuredly
+they will do, they will draw a distinction between mutinous soldiers
+who were false to their salt, and native chiefs who fought, as
+they believed, for the independence of their country. But one thing
+they will not forgive, whether in Sepoy or in prince, the murder
+of man, woman, or child in cold blood: for that there will be no
+pardon.
+
+"But it is not upon that ground that I came to appeal to you, but
+as a noble of Oude--a man who is a brave enemy, but who could
+never be a butcher. We have fought against each other fairly and
+evenly; the time has come when we can fight no longer, and I demand
+of you, confidently, that, if we surrender, the lives of all within
+those walls shall be respected, and a safe conduct be granted them
+down the country. I know that such conditions were granted to the
+garrison at Cawnpore, and that they were shamelessly violated; for
+that act Nana Sahib will never be forgiven. He will be hunted down
+like a dog and hung when he is caught, just as if he had been the
+poorest peasant. But I have not so bad an opinion of the people
+of India as to believe them base enough to follow such an example,
+and I am confident that if you grant us those terms, you will see
+that the conditions are observed."
+
+"I have received orders from Nana Sahib to send all prisoners down
+to him," Por Sing said, in a hesitating voice.
+
+"You will never send down prisoners from here," Bathurst replied
+firmly. "You may attack us again, and after the loss of the lives
+of scores more of your followers you may be successful, but you
+will take no prisoners, for at the last moment we will blow the
+house and all in it into the air. Besides, who made Nana Sahib your
+master? He is not the lord of Oude; and though doubtless he dreams
+of sovereignty, it is a rope, not a throne, that awaits him. Why
+should you nobles of Oude obey the orders of this peasant boy, though
+he was adopted by the Peishwa? The Peishwa himself was never your
+lord, and why should you obey this traitor, this butcher, this
+disgrace to India, when he orders you to hand over to him the
+prisoners your sword has made?"
+
+"That is true," Por Sing said gloomily; "but the Sepoys will not
+agree to the terms."
+
+"The Sepoys are not your masters," Bathurst said; "we do not surrender
+to them, but to you. We place no confidence in their word, but we
+have every faith in the honor of the nobles of Oude. If you and
+your friends grant us the terms we ask, the Sepoys may clamor, but
+they will not venture to do more. Neither they nor Nana Sahib dare
+at this moment affront the people of Oude.
+
+"There are Sepoys round Lucknow, but it is the men of Oude who
+are really pressing the siege. If you are firm, they will not dare
+to break with you on such a question as the lives of a score of
+Europeans. If you will give me your word and your honor that all
+shall be spared, I will come out in the morning with a flag of
+truce to treat with you. If not, we will defend ourselves to the
+last, and then blow ourselves into the air."
+
+"And you think," Por Sing said doubtfully, "that if I agreed to
+this, it would be taken into consideration should the British Raj
+be restored."
+
+"I can promise you that it will," Bathurst said. "It will be properly
+represented that it is to you that the defenders of Deennugghur,
+and the women and children with them, owe their lives, and you may
+be sure that this will go a very long way towards wiping out the
+part you have taken in the attack on the station. When the day of
+reckoning comes, the British Government will know as well how to
+reward those who rendered them service in these days, as to punish
+those who have been our foes."
+
+"I will do it," Por Sing said firmly. "Do not come out until the
+afternoon. In the morning I will talk with the other Zemindars,
+and bring them over to agree that there shall be no more bloodshed.
+There is not one of us but is heartily sick of this business, and
+eager to put an end to it. Rujub may report what he likes to the
+Nana, I will do what is right."
+
+After a hearty expression of thanks, Bathurst left the tent. Rujub
+was awaiting him outside.
+
+"You have succeeded?" he asked.
+
+"Yes; he will guarantee the lives of all the garrison, but he seemed
+to be afraid of what you might report to Nana Sahib."
+
+"I am the Nana's agent here," Rujub said; "I have been working with
+him for months. I would I could undo it all now. I was away when
+they surrendered at Cawnpore. Had I not been, that massacre would
+never have taken place, for I am one of the few who have influence
+with him. He is fully cognizant of my power, and fears it."
+
+They made their way back without interruption to the clump of bushes
+near the house.
+
+"When shall I see you again?" Bathurst asked.
+
+"I do not know," replied Rujub, "but be sure that I shall be at
+hand to aid you if possible should danger arise."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+As soon as Bathurst began to remove the covering of the hole, a
+voice came from below.
+
+"Is that you, Bathurst?"
+
+"All right, Doctor."
+
+"Heaven be praised! You are back sooner than I expected, by a long
+way. I heard voices talking, so I doubted whether it was you."
+
+"The ladder is still there, I suppose, Doctor?"
+
+"Yes; it is just as you got off it. What are you going to do about
+the hole?"
+
+"Rujub is here; he will cover it up after me."
+
+"Then you were right," the Doctor said, as Bathurst stepped down
+beside him; "and you found the juggler really waiting for you?"
+
+"At the bungalow, Doctor, as I expected."
+
+"And what have you done? You can hardly have seen Por Sing; it is
+not much over an hour since you left."
+
+"I have seen him, Doctor; and what is more, he has pledged his word
+for our safety."
+
+"Thank God for that, lad; it is more than I expected. This will be
+news indeed for the poor women. And do you think he will be strong
+enough to keep his pledge?"
+
+"I think so; he asked me to wait until tomorrow afternoon before
+going out with a flag of truce, and said that by that time he
+would get the other Zemindars to stand by him, and would make terms
+whether the Sepoys liked it or not."
+
+"Well, you shall tell us all about it afterwards, Bathurst; let us
+take the news in to them at once; it is long since they had good
+tidings of any kind; it would be cruel to keep them in suspense,
+even for five minutes."
+
+There was no noisy outburst of joy when the news was told.
+Three weeks before it would have been received with the liveliest
+satisfaction, but now the bitterness of death was well nigh past;
+half the children lay in their graves in the garden, scarce one of
+the ladies but had lost husband or child, and while women murmured
+"Thank God!" as they clasped their children to them, the tears
+ran down as they thought how different it would have been had the
+news come sooner. The men, although equally quiet, yet showed more
+outward satisfaction than the women. Warm grasps of the hands were
+exchanged by those who had fought side by side during these terrible
+days, and a load seemed lifted at once off their shoulders.
+
+Bathurst stayed but a moment in the room after this news was told,
+but went in with Dr. Wade to the Major, and reported to him in full
+the conversation that had taken place between himself and Por Sing.
+
+"I think you are right, Bathurst; if the Oude men hold together,
+the Sepoys will scarcely risk a breach with them. Whether he will
+be able to secure our safety afterwards is another thing."
+
+"I quite see that, Major; but it seems to me that we have no option
+but to accept his offer and hope for the best."
+
+"That is it," the Doctor agreed. "It is certain death if we don't
+surrender; there is a chance that he will be able to protect us if
+we do. At any rate, we can be no worse off than we are here."
+
+Isobel had been in with Mrs. Doolan nursing the sick children when
+Bathurst arrived, but they presently came out. Isobel shook hands
+with him without speaking.
+
+"We are all heavily indebted to you, Mr. Bathurst," Mrs. Doolan
+said. "If we escape from this, it will be to you that we humanly
+owe our lives."
+
+She spoke in a voice that all in the room could hear.
+
+"Your are right, Mrs. Doolan," the Doctor said; "and I think that
+there are some who must regret now the manner in which they have
+behaved to Bathurst since this siege began."
+
+"I do for one," Captain Doolan said, coming forward.
+
+"I have regretted it for some time, though I have not had the
+manliness to say so. I am heartily sorry. I have done you a great
+and cruel injustice. I ought to have known that the Doctor, who
+knew you vastly better than I did, was not likely to be mistaken.
+Putting that aside, I ought to have seen, and I did see, though
+I would not acknowledge it even to myself, that no man has borne
+himself more calmly and steadfastly through this siege than you
+have, and that by twice venturing out among the enemy you gave
+proof that you possessed as much courage as any of us. I do hope
+that you will give me your hand."
+
+All the others who had held aloof from Bathurst came forward and
+expressed their deep regret for what had occurred.
+
+Bathurst heard them in silence.
+
+"I do not feel that there is anything to forgive," he said quietly.
+"I am glad to hear what you say, and I know you mean it, and I accept
+the hands you offer, but what you felt towards me has affected me
+but little, for your contempt for me was as nothing to my contempt
+of myself. Nothing can alter the fact that here, where every man's
+hand was wanted to defend the ladies and children, my hand was
+paralyzed; that whatever I may be at other times, in the hour of
+battle I fail hopelessly; nothing that I can do can wipe out, from
+my own consciousness, that disgrace."
+
+"You exaggerate it altogether, Bathurst," Wilson broke in hotly. "It
+is nonsense your talking like that, after the way you jumped down
+into the middle of them with that mace of yours. It was splendid."
+
+"More than that, Mr. Bathurst," Mrs. Doolan said, "I think we women
+know what true courage is; and there is not one of us but has, since
+this siege began, been helped and strengthened by your calmness
+--not one but has reason to be grateful for your kindness to our
+children during this terrible time. I won't hear even you speak
+against yourself."
+
+"Then I will not do so, Mrs. Doolan," he said, with a grave smile.
+"And now I will go and sit with the Major for a time. Things are
+quieter tonight than they have been for some time past, and I trust
+he will get some sleep."
+
+So saying, he quietly left the room.
+
+"I don't believe he has slept two hours at a time since the siege
+began," Mrs. Doolan said, with tears in her eyes. "We have all
+suffered--God only knows what we have suffered!--but I am sure
+that he has suffered more than any of us. As for you men, you may
+well say you are sorry and ashamed of your treatment of him. Coward,
+indeed! Mr. Bathurst may be nervous, but I am sure he has as much
+courage as anyone here. Come, Isobel, you were up all last night,
+and it's past two o'clock now. We must try to get a little sleep
+before morning, and I should advise everyone else off duty to do
+the same."
+
+At daybreak firing commenced, and was kept up energetically all the
+morning. At two o'clock a white flag was hoisted from the terrace,
+and its appearance was greeted with shouts of triumph by the
+assailants. The firing at once ceased, and in a few minutes a native
+officer carrying a white flag advanced towards the walls.
+
+"We wish to see the Zemindar Por Sing," Bathurst said, "to treat
+with him upon the subject of our surrender."
+
+The officer withdrew, and returned in half an hour saying that he
+would conduct the officer in command to the presence of the chief
+of the besieging force. Captain Doolan, therefore, accompanied by
+Bathurst and Dr. Wade, went out. They were conducted to the great
+tent where all the Zemindars and the principal officers of the
+Sepoys were assembled. Bathurst acted as spokesman.
+
+"Por Sing," he said, "and you Zemindars of Oude, Major Hannay being
+disabled, Captain Doolan, who is now in command of the garrison,
+has come to represent him and to offer to surrender to you under
+the condition that the lives of all British and natives within the
+walls be respected, and that you pledge us your faith and honor that
+we shall be permitted to go down the country without molestation.
+It is to you, Por Sing, and you nobles of Oude, that we surrender,
+and not to those who, being sworn soldiers, have mutinied against
+their officers, and have in many cases treacherously murdered them.
+With such men Major Hannay will have no dealings, and it is to you
+that we surrender. Major Hannay bids me say that if this offer is
+refused, we can for a long time prolong our resistance. We are amply
+supplied with provisions and munitions of war, and many as are the
+numbers of our assailants who have fallen already, yet more will
+die before you obtain possession of the house. More than that, in
+no case will we be taken prisoners, for one and all have firmly
+resolved to fire the magazine when resistance is no longer possible,
+and to bury ourselves and our assailants in the ruins."
+
+When Bathurst ceased, a hubbub of voices arose, the Sepoy officers
+protesting that the surrender should be made to them. It was some
+minutes before anything like quietness was restored, and then one
+of the officers said, "Here is Rujub; he speaks in the name of
+Nana. What does he say to this?"
+
+Rujub, who was handsomely attired, stepped forward.
+
+"I have no orders from his highness on this subject," he said. "He
+certainly said that the prisoners were to be sent to him, but at
+present there are no prisoners, nor, if the siege continues, and
+the English carry out their threat, will there be any prisoners. I
+cannot think that Nana Sahib would wish to see some hundreds more
+of his countrymen slain or blown up, only that he may have these
+few men and women in his power."
+
+"We have come here to take them and kill them," one of the officers
+said defiantly; "and we will do so."
+
+Por Sing, who had been speaking with the Talookdars round him, rose
+from his seat.
+
+"It seems to me that it is for us to decide this matter," he said.
+"It is upon us that the losses of this siege have fallen. At the
+order of Nana Sahib we collected our retainers, abandoned our homes,
+and have for three weeks supported the dangers of this siege. We
+follow the Nana, but we are not his vassals, nor do we even know
+what his wishes are in this matter, but it seems to us that we
+have done enough and more than enough. Numbers of our retainers and
+kinsmen have fallen, and to prolong the siege would cause greater
+loss, and what should we gain by it? The possession of a heap of
+stones. Therefore, we are all of opinion that this offer of surrender
+should be accepted. We war for the freedom of our country, and
+have no thirst for the blood of these English sahibs, still less
+for that of their wives and children."
+
+Some of the officers angrily protested, but Por Sing stood firm,
+and the other chiefs were equally determined. Seeing this, the
+officers consulted together, and the highest in rank then said to
+the Talookdars, "We protest against these conditions being given,
+but since you are resolved, we stand aside, and are ready to agree
+for ourselves and our men to what you may decide."
+
+"What pledges do you require?" Por Sing asked Bathurst.
+
+"We are content, Rajah, with your personal oath that the lives of
+all within the house shall be respected, and your undertaking that
+they shall be allowed to go unharmed down the country. We have
+absolute faith in the honor of the nobles of Oude, and can desire
+no better guarantee."
+
+"I will give it," Por Sing said, "and all my friends will join me
+in it. Tonight I will have boats collected on the river; I will
+furnish you with an escort of my troops, and will myself accompany
+you and see you safely on board. I will then not only give you
+a safe conduct, praying all to let you pass unharmed, but my son
+with ten men shall accompany you in the boats to inform all that
+my honor is concerned in your safety, and that I have given my
+personal pledge that no molestation shall be offered to you. I will
+take my oath, and my friends will do the same, and I doubt not that
+the commander of the Sepoy troops will join me in it."
+
+Bathurst translated what had been said to Captain Doolan.
+
+"It is impossible for him to do more than that," he concluded; "I
+do not think there is the least question as to his good faith."
+
+"He is a fine old heathen," Captain Doolan said; "tell him that we
+accept his terms."
+
+Bathurst at once signified this, and the Rajah then took a solemn
+oath to fulfill the conditions of the agreement, the other Talookdars
+doing the same, and the commander of the Sepoys also doing so
+without hesitation. Por Sing then promised that some carts should
+be collected before morning, to carry the ladies, the sick and
+wounded, down to the river, which was eight miles distant.
+
+"You can sleep in quiet tonight," he added; "I will place a guard
+of my own men round the house, and see that none trouble you in
+any way."
+
+A few other points were settled, and then the party returned to
+the house, to which they were followed a few minutes later by the
+son of Por Sing and three lads, sons of other Zemindars. Bathurst
+went down to meet them when their approach was noticed by the
+lookout on the roof.
+
+"We have come to place ourselves in your hands as hostages, sahib,"
+Por Sing's son said. "My father thought it likely that the Sepoys
+or others might make trouble, and he said that if we were in your
+hands as hostages, all our people would see that the agreement must
+be kept, and would oppose themselves more vigorously to the Sepoys."
+
+"It was thoughtful and kind of your father," Bathurst said. "As
+far as accommodation is concerned, we can do little to make you
+comfortable, but in other respects we are not badly provided."
+
+Some of the native servants were at once told off to erect an awning
+over a portion of the terrace. Tables and couches were placed here,
+and Bathurst undertook the work of entertaining the visitors.
+
+He was glad of the precaution that had been taken in sending them,
+for with the glass he could make out that there was much disturbance
+in the Sepoy lines, men gathering in large groups, with much shouting
+and noise. Muskets were discharged in the direction of the house,
+and it was evident that the mutineers were very discontented with
+the decision that had been arrived at.
+
+In a short time, however, a body, several hundred strong, of the
+Oude fighting men moved down and surrounded the house; and when a
+number of the Sepoys approached with excited and menacing gestures,
+one of the Zemindars went out to meet them, and Bathurst, watching
+the conference, could see by his pointing to the roof of the house
+that he was informing them that hostages had been given to the
+Europeans for the due observance of the treaty, and doubted not
+he was telling them that their lives would be endangered by any
+movement. Then he pointed to the batteries, as if threatening that
+if any attack was made the guns would be turned upon them. At any
+rate, after a time they moved away, and gradually the Sepoys could
+be seen returning to their lines.
+
+There were but few preparations to be made by the garrison for their
+journey. It had been settled that they might take their personal
+effects with them, but it was at once agreed to take as little as
+possible, as there would probably be but little room in the boats,
+and the fewer things they carried the less there would be to tempt
+the cupidity of the natives.
+
+"Well, Bathurst, what do you think of the outlook?" the Doctor
+asked, as late in the evening they sat together on some sandbags
+in a corner of the terrace.
+
+"I think that if we get past Cawnpore in safety there is not much to
+fear. There is no other large place on the river, and the lower we
+get down the less likely the natives are to disturb us, knowing, as
+they are almost sure to do, that a force is gathering at Allahabad."
+
+"After what you heard of the massacre of the prisoners at Cawnpore,
+whom the Nana and his officers had all sworn to allow to depart in
+safety, there is little hope that this scoundrel will respect the
+arrangements made here."
+
+"We must pass the place at night, and trust to drifting down unobserved
+--the river is wide there--and keeping near the opposite shore,
+we may get past in the darkness without being perceived; and even
+if they do make us out, the chances are they will not hit us. There
+are so few of us that there is no reason why they should trouble
+greatly about us."
+
+"I am sorry to say, Bathurst, that I don't like the appearance of
+the Major's wound. Everything has been against him; the heat, the
+close air, and his anxiety of mind have all told on him, he seems
+very low, and I have great doubts whether he will ever see Allahabad."
+
+"I hope you are wrong, Doctor, but I thought myself there was a
+change for the worse when I saw him an hour ago; there was a drawn
+look about his face I did not like. He is a splendid fellow; nothing
+could have been kinder than he has been to me. I wish I could change
+places with him."
+
+The Doctor grunted. "Well, as none of us may see Allahabad, Bathurst,
+you need not trouble yourself on that score. I wonder what has
+become of your friend the conjurer. I thought he might have been
+in to see you this afternoon."
+
+"I did not expect him," Bathurst said; "I expect he went as far as
+he dared in what he said at the Durbar today. Probably he is doing
+all he can to keep matters quiet. Of course he may have gone down
+to Cawnpore to see Nana Sahib, but I should think it more probable
+that he would remain here until he knows we are safe on board the
+boats."
+
+"Ah, here is Wilson," said the Doctor; "he is a fine young fellow,
+and I am very glad he has gone through it safely."
+
+"So am I," Bathurst said warmly; "here we are, Wilson."
+
+"I thought I would find you both smoking here," Wilson said, as he
+seated himself; "it is awfully hot below, and the ladies are all
+at work picking out the things they are going to take with them and
+packing them, and as I could not be of any use at that, I thought
+I would come up for a little fresh air, if one can call it fresh;
+but, in fact, I would rather sit over an open drain, for the stench
+is horrible. How quiet everything seems tonight! After crouching here
+for the last three weeks listening to the boom of their cannon and
+the rush of their balls overhead, or the crash as they hit something,
+it seems quite unnatural; one can't help thinking that something
+is going to happen. I don't believe I shall be able to sleep a wink
+tonight; while generally, in spite of the row, it has been as much
+as I could do to keep my eyes open. I suppose I shall get accustomed
+to it in time. At present it seems too unnatural to enjoy it."
+
+"You had better get a good night's sleep, if you can, Wilson," the
+Doctor said. "There won't be much sleep for us in the boats till
+we see the walls of Allahabad."
+
+"I suppose not, Doctor. I expect we shall be horribly cramped up.
+I long to be there. I hope to get attached to one of the regiments
+coming up, so as to help in giving the thrashing to these scoundrels
+that they deserve. I would give a year's pay to get that villain,
+Nana Sahib, within reach of my sword. It is awful to think of the
+news you brought in, Bathurst, and that there are hundreds of women
+and children in his power now. What a day it will be when we march
+into Cawnpore!"
+
+"Don't count your chickens too soon, Wilson," the Doctor said, "The
+time I am looking forward to is when we shall have safely passed
+Cawnpore on our way down; that is quite enough for me to hope for
+at present."
+
+"Yes, I was thinking of that myself," Wilson replied. "If the Nana
+could not be bound by the oath he had taken himself, he is not
+likely to respect the agreement made here."
+
+"We must pass the place at night," Bathurst said, "and trust to not
+being seen. Even if they do make us out, we shan't be under fire
+long unless they follow us down the bank; but if the night is dark,
+they may not make us out at all. Fortunately there is no moon, and
+boats are not very large marks even by daylight, and at night it
+would only be a chance shot that would hit us."
+
+"Yes, we should be as difficult to hit as a tiger," the Doctor put
+in.
+
+Wilson laughed.
+
+"I have gained a lot of experience since then, Doctor. What ages
+that seems back! Years almost."
+
+"It does indeed," the Doctor agreed; "we count time by incidents
+and not by days. Well, I think I shall turn in.. Are you coming,
+Bathurst?"
+
+"No, I could not sleep," Bathurst said; "I shall watch till morning. I
+feel sure it is all safe, but the mutineers might attempt something."
+
+The night, however, passed off quietly, and soon after daybreak
+eight bullock carts were seen approaching, with a strong body of
+Oude men. Half an hour later the luggage was packed, and the sick
+and wounded laid on straw in the wagons. Several of the ladies took
+their places with them, but Mrs. Doolan, Isobel, and Mary Hunter
+said they would walk for a while. It had been arranged that the
+men might carry out their arms with them, and each of the ten able
+to walk took their rifles, while all, even the women, had pistols
+about them. Just as they were ready, Por Sing and several of the
+Zemindars rode up on horseback.
+
+"We shall see you to the boats," he said. "Have you taken provisions
+for your voyage? It would be better not to stop to buy anything on
+the way."
+
+This precaution had been taken, and as soon as all was ready they
+set out, guarded by four hundred Oude matchlock men. The Sepoys
+had gathered near the house, and as soon as they left it there was
+a rush made to secure the plunder.
+
+"I should have liked to have emptied the contents of some of
+my bottles into the wine," the Doctor growled; "it would not have
+been strictly professional, perhaps, but it would have been a good
+action."
+
+"I am sure you would not have given them poison, Doctor," Wilson
+laughed; "but a reasonable dose of ipecacuanha might hardly have
+gone against your conscience."
+
+"My conscience has nothing to do with it," the Doctor said. "These
+fellows came from Cawnpore, and I have no doubt took part in the
+massacre there. My conscience wouldn't have troubled me if I could
+have poisoned the whole of the scoundrels, or put a slow match in
+the magazine and blown them all into the air, but under the present
+conditions it would hardly have been politic, as one couldn't be
+sure of annihilating the whole of them. Well, Miss Hannay, what
+are you thinking of?"
+
+"I am thinking that my uncle looks worse this morning, Doctor; does
+it not strike you so too?"
+
+"We must hope that the fresh air will do him good. One could not
+expect anyone to get better in that place; it was enough to kill
+a healthy man, to say nothing of a sick one."
+
+Isobel was walking by the side of the cart in which her uncle was
+lying, and it was not long before she took her place beside him.
+
+The Doctor shook his head.
+
+"Can you do nothing, Doctor?" Bathurst said, in a low tone.
+
+"Nothing; he is weaker this morning, still the change of air may
+help him, and he may have strength to fight through; the wound itself
+is a serious one, but he would under other circumstances have got
+over it. As it is, I think his chance a very poor one, though I
+would not say as much to her."
+
+After three hours' travel they reached the river. Here two large
+native boats were lying by the bank. The baggage and sick were soon
+placed on board, and the Europeans with the native servants were
+then divided between them, and the Rajah's son and six of the
+retainers took their places in one of the boats. The Doctor and
+Captain Doolan had settled how the party should be divided. The
+Major and the other sick men were all placed in one boat, and in
+this were the Doctor, Bathurst, and four civilians, with Isobel
+Hannay, Mrs. Hunter, and her daughter. Captain Doolan, his wife,
+Mrs. Rintoul, and the other three ladies, with the six children who
+had alone survived, and the rest of the party, were in the other
+boat.
+
+Por Sing and his companions were thanked heartily for the protection
+they had given, and Bathurst handed them a document which had been
+signed by all the party, testifying to the service they had rendered.
+
+"If we don't get down to Allahabad," Bathurst said, as he handed
+it to him, "this will insure you good treatment when the British
+troops come up. If we get there, we will represent your conduct in
+such a light that I think I can promise you that the part you took
+in the siege will be forgiven."
+
+Then the boats pushed off and started on their way down the stream.
+
+The distance by water to Cawnpore was over forty miles. It was
+already eleven o'clock, and slow progress only could be made with
+the heavy boats, but it was thought that they would be able to
+pass the town before daylight began to break next morning, and they
+therefore pushed on as rapidly as they could, the boatmen being
+encouraged to use their utmost efforts by the promise of a large
+reward upon their arrival at Allahabad.
+
+There was but little talk in the boats. Now that the strain was
+over, all felt its effects severely. The Doctor attended to his
+patients; Isobel sat by the side of her uncle, giving him some broth
+that they had brought with them, from time to time, or moistening
+his lips with weak brandy and water. He spoke only occasionally.
+
+"I don't much think I shall get down to Allahabad, Isobel," he said.
+"If I don't, go down to Calcutta, and go straight to Jamieson and
+Son; they are my agents, and they will supply you with money to
+take you home; they have a copy of my will; my agents in London
+have another copy. I had two made in case of accident."
+
+"Oh, uncle, you will get better now you are out of that terrible
+place."
+
+"I am afraid it is too late, my dear, though I should like to
+live for your sake. But I think I see happiness before you, if you
+choose to take it; he is a noble fellow, Isobel, in spite of that
+unfortunate weakness."
+
+Isobel made no answer, but a slight pressure of the hand she was
+holding showed that she understood what he meant. It was no use
+to tell her uncle that she felt that what might have been was over
+now. Bathurst had chatted with her several times the evening before
+and during the march that morning, but she felt the difference
+between his tone and that in which he had addressed her in the old
+times before the troubles began. It was a subtle difference that
+she could hardly have explained even to herself, but she knew that
+it was as a friend, and as a friend only, that he would treat her
+in the future, and that the past was a closed book, which he was
+determined not to reopen.
+
+Bathurst talked to Mrs. Hunter and her daughter, both of whom were
+mere shadows, worn out with grief, anxiety, and watching. At times
+he went forward to talk to the young noble, who had taken his seat
+there. Both boats had been arched in with a canopy of boughs to
+serve alike as a protection from the sun and to screen those within
+from the sight of natives in boats or on the banks.
+
+"You don't look yourself, Bathurst," the Doctor said to him late
+in the afternoon. "Everything seems going on well. No boats have
+passed us, and the boatmen all say that we shall pass Cawnpore
+about one o'clock, at the rate at which we are going."
+
+"I feel nervous, Doctor; more anxious than I have been ever since
+this began. There is an apprehension of danger weighing over me
+that I can't account for. As you say, everything seems going on
+well, and yet I feel that it is not so. I am afraid I am getting
+superstitious, but I feel as if Rujub knows of some danger impending,
+and that he is somehow conveying that impression to me. I know that
+there is nothing to be done, and that we are doing the only thing
+that we can do, unless we were to land and try and make our way
+down on foot, which would be sheer madness. That the man can in some
+way impress my mind at a distance is evident from that summons he
+gave me to meet him at the ruins of my bungalow, but I do not feel
+the same clear distinct perception of his wishes now as I did then.
+Perhaps he himself is not aware of the particulars of the danger
+that threatens, or, knowing them, he can see no way of escape out
+of them. It may be that at night, when everything is quiet, one's
+mind is more open to such impressions than it is when we are
+surrounded by other people and have other things to think of, but
+I feel an actual consciousness of danger."
+
+"I don't think there can be any danger until we get down near
+Cawnpore. They may possibly be on the lookout for us there, and may
+even have boats out on the stream. It is possible that the Sepoys
+may have sent down word yesterday afternoon to Nana Sahib that we
+had surrendered, and should be starting by boat this morning, but
+I don't think there can be any danger till we get there. Should we
+meet native boats and be stopped, Por Sing's son will be able to
+induce them to let us pass. Certainly none of the villagers about
+here would be likely to disobey him. Once beyond Cawnpore, I believe
+that he would have sufficient influence, speaking, as he does, in
+the name, not only of his father, but of other powerful landowners,
+to induce any of these Oude people to let us pass. No, I regard
+Cawnpore as our one danger, and I believe it to be a very real one.
+I have been thinking, indeed, that it would be a good thing when
+we get within a couple of miles of the place for all who are able
+to walk, to land on the opposite bank, and make their way along
+past Cawnpore, and take to the boats again a mile below the town."
+
+"That would be an excellent plan, Doctor; but if the boats were
+stopped and they found the sick, they would kill them to a certainty.
+I don't think we could leave them. I am quite sure Miss Hannay
+would not leave her uncle."
+
+"I think we might get over even that, Bathurst. There are only the
+Major and the other two men, and Mrs. Forsyth and three children,
+too ill to walk. There are eight of the native servants, ourselves,
+and the young Rajah's retainers. We ought to have no difficulty in
+carrying the wounded. As to the luggage, that must be sacrificed,
+so that the boatmen can go down with empty benches. It must be
+pitched overboard. The loss would be of no real consequence; everyone
+could manage with what they have on until we get to Allahabad.
+There would be no difficulty in getting what we require there."
+
+"I think the plan is an excellent one, Doctor. I will ask the young
+chief if his men will help us to carry the sick. If he says yes,
+we will go alongside the other boat and explain our plan to Doolan."
+
+The young Rajah at once assented, and the boat being rowed up to
+the other, the plan was explained and approved of. No objection
+was raised by anyone, even to the proposal for getting rid of all
+the luggage; and as soon as the matter was arranged, a general
+disposition towards cheerfulness was manifested. Everyone had felt
+that the danger of passing Cawnpore would be immense, and this plan
+for avoiding it seemed to lift a load from their minds.
+
+It was settled they should land at some spot where the river was
+bordered by bushes and young trees; that stout poles should be
+cut, and blankets fastened between them, so as to form stretchers
+on which the sick could be carried.
+
+As far as possible the boats were kept on the left side of the
+river, but at times shallows rendered it necessary to keep over
+by the right bank. Whenever they were near the shore, silence was
+observed, lest the foreign tongue should be noticed by anyone near
+the bank.
+
+Night fell, and they still continued their course. An hour after
+sunset they were rowing near the right bank--the Major had fallen
+into a sort of doze, and Isobel was sitting next to Bathurst, and
+they were talking in low tones together--when suddenly there was
+a hail from the shore, not fifty yards away.
+
+"What boats are those?"
+
+"Fishing boats going down the river," one of the boatmen answered.
+
+"Row alongside, we must examine you."
+
+There was a moment's pause, and then the Doctor said in the native
+language, "Row on, men," and the oars of both boats again dipped
+into the water.
+
+"We are pressed for time," the young Zemindar shouted, and then,
+dropping his voice, urged the men to row at the top of their speed.
+
+"Stop, or we fire," came from the shore.
+
+No answer was returned from the boats; they were now nearly opposite
+the speaker. Then came the word--"Fire." Six cannon loaded with
+grape were discharged, and a crackle of musketry at the same moment
+broke out. The shot tore through the boats, killing and disabling
+many, and bringing down the arbor of boughs upon them.
+
+A terrible cry arose, and all was confusion. Most of the rowers
+were killed, and the boats drifted helplessly amid the storm of
+rifle bullets.
+
+As the cannon flashed out and the grape swept the boats Bathurst,
+with a sharp cry, sprang to his feet, and leaped overboard, as did
+several others from both boats. Diving, he kept under water for
+some distance, and then swam desperately till he reached shallow
+water on the other side of the river, and then fell head foremost
+on the sand. Eight or ten others also gained the shore in a body,
+and were running towards the bank, when the guns were again fired,
+and all but three were swept away by the iron hail. A few straggling
+musket shots were fired, then orders were shouted, and the splashing
+of an oar was heard, as one of the native boatmen rowed one of
+the two boats toward the shore. Bathurst rose to his feet and ran,
+stumbling like a drunken man, towards the bushes, and just as he
+reached them, fell heavily forward, and lay there insensible. Three
+men came out from the jungle and dragged him in. As they did so
+loud screams arose from the other bank, then half a dozen muskets
+were fired, and all was quiet.
+
+It was not for a quarter of an hour that Bathurst was conscious
+of what was going on around him. Someone was rubbing his chest and
+hands.
+
+"Who is it?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, it is you, Bathurst!" he heard Wilson's voice exclaim. "I
+thought it was you, but it is so dark now we are off that white
+sand that I could not see. Where are you hit?"
+
+"I don't know," Bathurst said. "I felt a sort of shock as I got
+out of the water, but I don't know that I am hurt at all."
+
+"Oh, you must be hit somewhere. Try and move your arms and legs."
+
+Bathurst moved.
+
+"No, I don't think I am hit; if I am, it is on the head. I feel
+something warm round the back of my neck."
+
+"By Jove, yes!" Wilson said; "here is where it is; there is a cut
+all along the top of your head; the bullet seems to have hit you
+at the back, and gone right along over the top. It can't have gone
+in, or else you would not be able to talk."
+
+"Help me up," Bathurst said, and he was soon on his feet. He felt
+giddy and confused. "Who have you with you?" he asked.
+
+"Two natives. I think one is the young chief, and the other is one
+of his followers."
+
+Bathurst spoke to them in their native language, and found that
+Wilson was not mistaken. As soon as he found that he was understood,
+the young chief poured out a volley of curses upon those who had
+attacked them.
+
+Bathurst stopped him. "We shall have time for that afterwards,
+Murad," he said; "the first thing is to see what had best be done.
+What has happened since I landed, Wilson?"
+
+"Our boat was pretty nearly cut in two," Wilson said, "and was
+sinking when I jumped over; the other boat has been rowed ashore."
+
+"What did you hear, Wilson?"
+
+"I heard the women scream," Wilson said reluctantly, "and five or
+six shots were fired. There has been no sound since then."
+
+Bathurst stood silent for a minute.
+
+"I do not think they will have killed the women," he said; "they
+did not do so at Cawnpore. They will take them there. No doubt they
+killed the men. Let me think for a moment. Now," he said after a
+long pause, "we must be doing. Murad, your father and friends have
+given their word for the safety of those you took prisoners; that
+they have been massacred is no fault of your father or of you. This
+gentleman and myself are the only ones saved, as far as we know.
+Are you sure that none others came ashore?"
+
+"The others were all killed, we alone remaining," Murad said. "I
+will go back to my father, and he will go to Cawnpore and demand
+vengeance."
+
+"You can do that afterwards, Murad; the first thing is to fulfill
+your promise, and I charge you to take this sahib in safety down
+to Allahabad. You must push on at once, for they may be sending
+out from Cawnpore at daylight to search the bushes here to see if
+any have escaped. You must go on with him tonight as far as you
+can, and in the morning enter some village, buy native clothes,
+and disguise him, and then journey on to Allahabad."
+
+"I will do that," the young Rajah said; "but what about yourself?"
+
+"I shall go into Cawnpore and try to rescue any they may have
+taken. I have a native cloth round me under my other clothes, as
+I thought it might be necessary for me to land before we got to
+Cawnpore to see if danger threatened us. So I have everything I
+want for a disguise about me."
+
+"What are you saying, Bathurst?" Wilson asked.
+
+"I am arranging for Murad and his follower to take you down to
+Allahabad, Wilson. I shall stop at Cawnpore."
+
+"Stop at Cawnpore! Are you mad, Bathurst?"
+
+"No, I am not mad. I shall stop to see if any of the ladies have
+been taken prisoners, and if so, try to rescue them. Rujub, the
+juggler, is there, and I am confident he will help me."
+
+"But if you can stay, I can, Bathurst. If Miss Hannay has been made
+prisoner, I would willingly be killed to rescue her."
+
+"I know you would, Wilson, but you would be killed without being
+able to rescue her; and as I should share your fate, you would render
+her rescue impossible. I can speak the native language perfectly,
+and know native ways. I can move about among them without fear
+of exciting their suspicion. If you were with me this would be
+impossible; the first time you were addressed by a native you would
+be detected; your presence would add to my difficulties a hundredfold.
+It is not now a question of fighting. Were it only that, I should
+be delighted to have you with me. As it is, the thing is impossible.
+If anything is done, I must do it alone. If I ever reach Miss Hannay,
+she shall know that you were ready to run all risks to save her.
+No, no, you must go on to Allahabad, and if you cannot save her
+now, you will be with the force that will save her, if I should
+fail to do so, and which will avenge us both if it should arrive
+too late to rescue her. Now I must get you to bandage my head, for
+I feel faint with loss of blood. I will take off my shirt and tear
+it in strips. I have got a native disguise next to the skin. We
+may as well leave my clothes behind me here."
+
+As soon as Wilson, with the assistance of Murad, had bandaged the
+wound, the party struck off from the river, and after four hours'
+walking came down upon it again two miles below Cawnpore. Here Bathurst
+said he would stop, stain his skin, and complete his disguise.
+
+"I hate leaving you," Wilson said, in a broken voice. "There are
+only you and I left of all our party at Deennugghur. It is awful
+to think they have all gone--the good old chief, the Doctor, and
+Richards, and the ladies. There are only we two left. It does seem
+such a dirty, cowardly thing for me to be making off and leaving
+you here alone."
+
+"It is not cowardly, Wilson, for I know you would willingly stay
+if you could be of the slightest use; but, as, on the contrary,
+you would only add to the danger, it must be as I have arranged.
+Goodby, lad; don't stay; it has to be done. God bless you! Goodby,
+Murad. Tell your father when you see him that I know no shadow of
+broken faith rests on him."
+
+So saying, he turned and went into a clump of bushes, while Wilson,
+too overpowered to speak, started on his way down country with the
+two natives.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+Now alone, Bathurst threw himself down among the bashes in an
+attitude of utter depression.
+
+"Why wasn't I killed with the others?" he groaned. "Why was I not
+killed when I sat there by her side?"
+
+So he lay for an hour, and then slowly rose and looked round. There
+was a faint light in the sky.
+
+"It will be light in another hour," he said to himself, and he
+again sat down. Suddenly he started. Had someone spoken, or had he
+fancied it?
+
+"Wait till I come."
+
+He seemed to hear the words plainly, just as he had heard Rujub's
+summons before.
+
+"That's it; it is Rujub. How is it that he can make me hear in this
+way? I am sure it was his voice. Anyhow, I will wait. It shows he
+is thinking of me, and I am sure he will help me. I know well enough
+I could do nothing by myself."
+
+Bathurst assumed with unquestioning faith that Isobel Hannay
+was alive. He had no reason for his confidence. That first shower
+of grape might have killed her as it killed others, but he would
+not admit the doubt in his mind. Wilson's description of what had
+happened while he was insensible was one of the grounds of this
+confidence.
+
+He had heard women scream. Mrs. Hunter and her daughter were the
+only other women in the boat. Isobel would not have screamed had
+those muskets been pointed at her, nor did he think the others
+would have done so. They screamed when they saw the natives about
+to murder those who were with them. The three women were sitting
+together, and if one had fallen by the grape shot all would
+probably have been killed. He felt confident, therefore, that she
+had escaped; he believed he would have known it had she been killed.
+
+"If I can be influenced by this juggler, surely I should have felt
+it had Isobel died," he argued, and was satisfied that she was
+still alive.
+
+What, however, more than anything else gave him hope was the picture
+on the smoke. "Everything else has come true," he said to himself;
+"why should not that? Wilson spoke of the Doctor as dead. I will
+not believe it; for if he is dead, the picture is false. Why should
+that thing of all others have been shown to me unless it had been
+true? What seemed impossible to me--that I should be fighting
+like a brave man--has been verified. Why should not this? I should
+have laughed at such superstition six months ago; now I cling to
+it as my one ground for hope. Well, I will wait if I have to stay
+here until tomorrow night."
+
+Noiselessly he moved about in the little wood, going to the edge
+and looking out, pacing to and fro with quick steps, his face set
+in a frown, occasionally muttering to himself. He was in a fever of
+impatience. He longed to be doing something, even if that something
+led to his detention and death. He said to himself that he should
+not care so that Isobel Hannay did but know that he had died in
+trying to rescue her.
+
+The sun rose, and he saw the peasants in the fields, and caught
+the note of a bugle sounding from the lines at Cawnpore. At last--
+it had seemed to him an age, but the sun had been up only an hour
+--he saw a figure coming along the river bank. As it approached
+he told himself that it was the juggler; if so, he had laid aside
+the garments in which he last saw him, and was now attired as when
+they first met. When he saw him turn off from the river bank and
+advance straight towards the wood, he had no doubt that it was the
+man he expected.
+
+"Thanks be to the holy ones that you have escaped, sahib," Rujub
+said, as soon as he came within speaking distance of Bathurst.
+"I was in an agony last night. I was with you in thought, and saw
+the boats approaching the ambuscade. I saw you leap over and swim
+to shore. I saw you fall, and I cried out. For a moment I thought
+you were killed. Then I saw you go on and fall again, and saw your
+friends carry you in. I watched you recover and come on here, and
+then I willed it that you should wait here till I came for you. I
+have brought you a disguise, for I did not know that you had one
+with you. But, first of all, sit down and let me dress your wound
+afresh. I have brought all that is necessary for it."
+
+"You are a true fried, Rujub. I relied upon you for aid; do you
+know why I waited here instead of going down with the others?"
+
+"I know, sahib. I can tell your thoughts as easily when you are
+away from me as I can when we are together."
+
+"Can you do this with all people?"
+
+"No, my lord; to be able to read another's thoughts it is necessary
+there should be a mystic relation established between them. As I
+walked beside your horse when you carried my daughter before you
+after saving her life, I felt that this relation had commenced, and
+that henceforward our fates were connected. It was necessary that
+you should have confidence in me, and it was for that reason that
+I showed you some of the feats that we rarely exhibit, and proved
+to you that I possessed powers with which you were unacquainted.
+But in thought reading my daughter has greater powers than I have,
+and it was she who last night followed you on your journey, sitting
+with her hand in mine, so that my mind followed hers."
+
+"Do you know all that happened last night, Rujub?" Bathurst said,
+summoning up courage to ask the question that had been on his lips
+from the first.
+
+"I only know, my lord, that the party was destroyed, save three
+white women, who were brought in just as the sun rose this morning.
+One was the lady behind whose chair you stood the night I performed
+at Deennugghur, the lady about whom you are thinking. I do not know
+the other two; one was getting on in life, the other was a young
+one."
+
+The relief was so great that Bathurst turned away, unable for a
+while to continue the conversation. When he resumed the talk, he
+asked, "Did you see them yourself, Rujub?"
+
+"I saw them, sahib; they were brought in on a gun carriage."
+
+"How did they look, Rujub?"
+
+"The old one looked calm and sad. She did not seem to hear the
+shouts of the budmashes as they passed along. She held the young
+one close to her. That one seemed worn out with grief and terror.
+Your memsahib sat upright; she was very pale and changed from the
+time I saw her that evening, but she held her head high, and looked
+almost scornfully at the men who shook their fists and cried at
+her."
+
+"And they put them with the other women that they have taken
+prisoners?"
+
+Rujub hesitated.
+
+"They have put the other two there, sahib, but her they took to
+Bithoor."
+
+Bathurst started, and an exclamation of horror and rage burst from
+him.
+
+"To the Rajah's!" he exclaimed. "To that scoundrel! Come, let us
+go. Why are we staying here?"
+
+"We can do nothing for the moment. Before I started I sent off my
+daughter to Bithoor; she knows many there, and will find out what
+is being done and bring us word, for I dare not show myself there.
+The Rajah is furious with me because I did not support the Sepoys,
+and suffered conditions to be made with your people, but now that
+all has turned out as he wished, I will in a short time present
+myself before him again, but for the moment it was better that
+my daughter should go, as I had to come to you. But first you had
+better put on the disguise I have brought you. You are too big and
+strong to pass without notice in that peasant's dress. The one I have
+brought you is such as is worn by the rough people; the budmashes
+of Cawnpore. I can procure others afterwards when we see what had
+best be done. It will be easy enough to enter Bithoor, for all is
+confusion there, and men come and go as they choose, but it will be
+well nigh impossible for you to penetrate where the memsahib will
+be placed. Even for me, known as I am to all the Rajah's officers,
+it would be impossible to do so; it is my daughter in whom we shall
+have to trust."
+
+Bathurst rapidly put on the clothes that Rujub had brought with
+him, and thrust a sword, two daggers, and a brace of long barreled
+pistols into the sash round his waist.
+
+"Your color is not dark enough, sahib. I have brought dye with me;
+but first I must dress the wound on your head, and bandage it more
+neatly, so that the blood stained swathings will not show below
+the folds of your turban."
+
+Bathurst submitted himself impatiently to Rujub's hands. The latter
+cut off all the hair that would show under the turban, dyed the
+skin the same color as the other parts, and finally, after darkening
+his eyebrows, eyelashes, and mustache, pronounced that he would
+pass anywhere without attracting attention. Then they started at a
+quick walk along the river, crossed by the ferryboat to Cawnpore,
+and made their way to a quiet street in the native town.
+
+"This is my house for the present," Rujub said, producing a key
+and unlocking a door. He shouted as he closed the door behind him,
+and an old woman appeared.
+
+"Is the meal prepared?" he asked.
+
+"It is ready," she said.
+
+"That is right. Tell Rhuman to put the pony into the cart."
+
+He then led the way into a comfortably furnished apartment where
+a meal was laid.
+
+"Eat, my lord," he said; "you need it, and will require your
+strength."
+
+Bathurst, who, during his walk, had felt the effects of the loss of
+blood and anxiety, at once seated himself at the table and ate, at
+first languidly, but as appetite came, more heartily, and felt still
+more benefited by a bottle of excellent wine Rujub had placed beside
+him. The latter returned to the room just as he had finished. He was
+now attired as he had been when Bathurst last met him at Deennugghur.
+
+"I feel another man, Rujub, and fit for anything."
+
+"The cart is ready," Rujub said. "I have already taken my meal; we
+do not eat meat, and live entirely on vegetables. Meat clouds the
+senses, and simple food, and little of it, is necessary for those
+who would enter the inner brotherhood."
+
+At the door a small native cart was standing with a pony in the
+shafts.
+
+"You will go with us, Rhuman," Rujub said, as he and Bathurst took
+their seats in the cart.
+
+The boy squatted down at Rujub's feet, taking the reins and whip,
+and the pony started off at a brisk pace. Upon the way Rujub talked
+of various matters, of the reports of the force that was gathering
+at Allahabad, and the madness of the British in supposing that two
+or three thousand men could withstand the forces of the Nana.
+
+"They would be eaten up," he said; "the troops will go out to meet
+them; they will never arrive within sight of Cawnpore."
+
+As Bathurst saw that he was talking for the boy to hear, rather
+than to himself, he agreed loudly with all that he said, and boasted
+that even without the Nana's troops and the Sepoys, the people of
+Cawnpore could cut the English dogs to pieces.
+
+The drive was not a long one, and the road was full of parties going
+to or returning from Bithoor--groups of Sepoy officers, parties
+of budmashes from Cawnpore, mounted messengers, landowners with
+their retainers, and others. Arriving within a quarter of a mile
+of the palace, Rujub ordered the boy to draw aside.
+
+"Take the horse down that road," he said, "and wait there until
+we return. We may be some time. If we are not back by the time the
+sun sets, you will return home."
+
+As they approached the palace Bathurst scanned every window, as if
+he hoped to see Isobel's face at one of them. Entering the garden,
+they avoided the terrace in front of the house, and sauntering
+through the groups of people who had gathered discussing the latest
+news, they took their seat in a secluded corner.
+
+Bathurst thought of the last time he had been there, when there
+had been a fete given by the Rajah to the residents of Cawnpore,
+and contrasted the present with the past. Then the gardens were
+lighted up, and a crowd of officers and civilians with ladies in
+white dresses had strolled along the terrace to the sound of gay
+music, while their host moved about among them, courteous, pleasant,
+and smiling. Now the greater portion of the men were dead, the
+women were prisoners in the hands of the native who had professed
+such friendship for them.
+
+"Tell me, Rujub," he said presently, "more about this force at
+Allahabad. What is its strength likely to be?"
+
+"They say there is one British regiment of the line, one of the plumed
+regiments with bare legs, and one of the white Madras regiments;
+they have a few guns, a very few horsemen; that is all, while there
+are twenty thousand troops here. How can they hope to win?"
+
+"You will see they will win," Bathurst said sternly. "They have
+often fought well, but they will fight now as they never fought
+before; every man will feel himself an avenger of the foul treachery
+and the brutal massacres that have been committed. Were it but
+one regiment that is coming up instead of three, I would back it
+against the blood stained wretches."
+
+"They are fighting for freedom," Rujub said.
+
+"They are fighting for nothing of the sort," Bathurst replied hotly;
+"they are fighting for they know not what--change of masters, for
+license to plunder, and because they are ignorant and have been
+led away. I doubt not that at present, confident as they may be of
+victory, most of them in their hearts regret what they have done.
+They have forfeited their pensions, they have thrown away the
+benefits of their years of service, they have been faithless to
+their salt, and false to their oaths. It is true that they know
+they are fighting with ropes round their necks, but even that won't
+avail against the discipline and the fury of our troops. I feel as
+certain, Rujub, that, in spite of the odds against them, the English
+will triumph, as if I saw their column marching into the town.
+I don't profess to see the future as you do, but I know enough to
+tell you that ere long that palace you can see through the trees
+will be leveled to the ground, that it is as assuredly doomed as
+if fire had already been applied to its gilded beams."
+
+Rujub nodded. "I know the palace is doomed. While I have looked at
+it it has seemed hidden by a cloud of smoke, but I did not think
+it was the work of the British--I thought of an accident."
+
+"The Rajah may fire it with his own hands," Bathurst said; "but if
+he does not, it will be done for him."
+
+"I have not told you yet, sahib," Rujub said, changing the subject,
+"how it was that I could neither prevent the attack on the boats
+nor warn you that it was coming. I knew at Deennugghur that news
+had been sent of the surrender to the Nana. I remained till I knew
+you were safely in the boats, and then rode to Cawnpore. My daughter
+was at the house when I arrived, and told me that the Nana was
+furious with me, and that it would not be safe for me to go near
+the palace. Thus, although I feared that an attack was intended,
+I thought it would not be until the boats passed the town. It was
+late before I learnt that a battery of artillery and some infantry
+had set out that afternoon. Then I tried to warn you, but I felt
+that I failed. You were not in a mood when my mind could communicate
+itself to yours."
+
+"I felt very uneasy and restless," Bathurst said, "but I had not
+the same feeling that you were speaking to me I had that night at
+Deennugghur; but even had I known of the danger, there would have
+been no avoiding it. Had we landed, we must have been overtaken, and
+it would have come to the same thing. Tell me, Rujub, had you any
+idea when I saw you at Deennugghur that if we were taken prisoners
+Miss Hannay was to be brought here instead of being placed with
+the other ladies?"
+
+"Yes, I knew it, sahib; the orders he gave to the Sepoys were that
+every man was to be killed, and that the women and children were
+to be taken to Cawnpore, except Miss Hannay, who was to be carried
+here at once. The Rajah had noticed her more than once when she
+was at Cawnpore, and had made up his mind that she should go to
+his zenana."
+
+"Why did you not tell me when you were at Deennugghur?"
+
+"What would have been the use, sahib? I hoped to save you all;
+besides, it was not until we saw her taken past this morning that
+we knew that the Miss Hannay who was to be taken to Bithoor was the
+lady whom my daughter, when she saw her with you that night, said
+at once that you loved. But had we known it, what good would it
+have done to have told you of the Rajah's orders? You could not have
+done more than you have done. But now we know, we will aid you to
+save her."
+
+"How long will your daughter be before she comes? It is horrible
+waiting here."
+
+"You must have patience, sahib. It will be no easy work to get the
+lady away. There will be guards and women to look after her. A lady
+is not to be stolen out of a zenana as a young bird is taken from
+its nest."
+
+"It is all very well to say 'Be patient,'" Bathurst said, getting
+up and walking up and down with quick angry strides. "It is maddening
+to sit here doing nothing. If it were not that I had confidence in
+your power and will to aid me, I would go into the palace and stab
+Nana Sahib to the heart, though I were cut to pieces for it the
+moment afterwards."
+
+"That would do no good to the lady, sahib," Rujub said calmly. "She
+would only be left without a friend, and the Nana's death might be
+the signal for the murder of every white prisoner. Ah, here comes
+my daughter."
+
+Rabda came up quickly, and stopped before Bathurst with her head
+bowed and her arms crossed in an attitude of humility. She was
+dressed in the attire worn by the principal servants in attendance
+upon the zenana of a Hindoo prince.
+
+"Well, what news, Rabda?" Bathurst asked eagerly.
+
+"The light of my lord's heart is sick. She bore up till she arrived
+here and was handed over to the women. Then her strength failed
+her, and she fainted. She recovered, but she is lying weak and
+exhausted with all that she has gone through and suffered."
+
+"Where is she now?"
+
+"She is in the zenana, looking out into the women's court, that no
+men are ever allowed to enter."
+
+"Has the Rajah seen her?"
+
+"No, sahib. He was told the state that she was in, and the chief
+lady of the zenana sent him word that for the present she must have
+quiet and rest, but that in two or three days she might be fit to
+see him."
+
+"That is something," Bathurst said thankfully. "Now we shall have
+time to think of some scheme for getting her out."
+
+"You have been in the zenana yourself, Rabda?" Rujub asked.
+
+"Yes, father; the mistress of the zenana saw me directly an attendant
+told her I was there. She has always been kind to me. I said that
+you were going on a journey, and asked her if I might stay with
+her and act as an attendant until you returned, and she at once
+assented. She asked if I should see you before you left, and when
+I said yes, she asked if you could not give her some spell that
+would turn the Rajah's thoughts from this white girl. She fears
+that if she should become first favorite in the zenana, she might
+take things in her hands as English women do, and make all sorts
+of changes. I told her that, doubtless, the English girl would do
+this, and that I thought she was wise to ask your assistance."
+
+"You are mad, Rabda," her father said angrily; "what have I to do
+with spells and love philters?"
+
+"No, father, I knew well enough you would not believe in such things,
+but I thought in this way I might see the lady, and communicate
+with her."
+
+"A very good idea, Rabda," Bathurst said. "Is there nothing you
+can do, Rujub, to make her odious to the Nana?"
+
+"Nothing, sahib. I could act upon some people's minds, and make them
+think that the young lady was afflicted by some loathsome disease,
+but not with the Nana. I have many times tried to influence him,
+but without success: his mind is too deep for mine to master, and
+between us there is no sympathy. Could I be present with him and
+the girl I might do something--that is, if the powers that aid
+me would act against him; but this I do not think."
+
+"Rujub," Bathurst said suddenly, "there must have been medical
+stores taken when the camp was captured--drugs and things of that
+sort. Can you find out who has become possessed of them?"
+
+"I might find out, sahib. Doubtless the men who looted the camp
+will have sold the drugs to the native shops, for English drugs are
+highly prized. Are there medicines that can act as the mistress of
+the zenana wishes?"
+
+"No; but there are drugs that when applied externally would give
+the appearance of a terrible disease. There are acids whose touch
+would burn and blister the skin, and turn a beautiful face into a
+dreadful mask."
+
+"But would it recover its fairness, sahib?"
+
+"The traces might last for a long time, even for life, if too much
+were used, but I am sure Miss Hannay would not hesitate for a moment
+on that account."
+
+"But you, sahib--would you risk her being disfigured?"
+
+"What does it matter to me?" Bathurst asked sternly. "Do you think
+love is skin deep, and that 'tis only for a fair complexion that we
+choose our wives? Find me the drugs, and let Rabda take them into
+her with a line from me. One of them you can certainly get, for it
+is used, I believe, by gold and silver smiths. It is nitric acid;
+the other is caustic potash, or, as it is sometimes labeled, lunar
+caustic. It is in little sticks; but if you find out anyone who
+has bought drugs or cases of medicines, I will go with you and pick
+them out."
+
+"There will be no difficulty about finding out where the English
+drugs are. They are certain to be at one of the shops where the
+native doctors buy their medicines."
+
+"Let us go at once, then," Bathurst said. "You can prepare some
+harmless drink, and Rabda will tell the mistress of the zenana it
+will bring out a disfiguring eruption. We can be back here again
+this evening. Will you be here, Rabda, at sunset, and wait until
+we come? You can tell the woman that you have seen your father, and
+that he will supply her with what she requires. Make some excuse,
+if you can, to see the prisoner. Say you are curious to see the white
+woman who has bewitched the Nana, and if you get the opportunity
+whisper in her ear these words, 'Do not despair, friends are working
+for you.'"
+
+Rabda repeated the English words several times over until she
+had them perfect; then she made her way back to the palace, while
+Bathurst and his companion proceeded at once to the spot where they
+had left their vehicle.
+
+They had but little difficulty in finding what they required.
+Many of the shops displayed garments, weapons, jewelry, and other
+things, the plunder of the intrenchments of Cawnpore. Rujub entered
+several shops where drugs were sold, and finally one of the traders
+said, "I have a large black box full of drugs which I bought from
+a Sepoy for a rupee, but now that I have got it I do not know what
+to do with it. Some of the bottles doubtless contain poisons. I will
+sell it you for two rupees, which is the value of the box, which,
+as you see, is very strong and bound with iron. The contents I
+place no price upon."
+
+"I will take it," Rujub said. "I know some of the English medicines,
+and may find a use for them."
+
+He paid the money, called in a coolie, and bade him take up the
+chest and follow him, and they soon arrived at the juggler's house.
+
+The box, which was a hospital medical chest, was filled with drugs
+of all kinds. Bathurst put a stick of caustic into a small vial,
+and half filled another, which had a glass stopper, with nitric
+acid, filled it up with water, and tried the effect of rubbing a
+few drops on his arm.
+
+"That is strong enough for anything," he said, with a slight
+exclamation at the sharp pain. "And now give me a piece of paper
+and pen and ink."
+
+Then sitting down he wrote:
+
+"My Dear Miss Hannay: Rujub, the juggler, and I will do what we
+can to rescue you. We are powerless to effect anything as long as
+you remain where you are. The bearer, Rujub's daughter, will give
+you the bottles, one containing lunar caustic, the other nitric
+acid. The mistress of the zenana, who wants to get rid of you, as
+she fears you might obtain influence over the Nana, has asked the
+girl to obtain from her father a philter which will make you odious
+to him. The large bottle is perfectly harmless, and you can drink
+its contents without fear. The caustic is for applying to your
+lips; it will be painful, but I am sure you will not mind that,
+and the injury will be only of a temporary nature. I cannot promise
+as much for the nitric acid; pray apply it very carefully, merely
+moistening the glass stopper and applying it with that. I should
+use it principally round the lips. It will burn and blister the
+skin. The Nana will be told that you have a fever, which is causing
+a terrible and disfiguring eruption. I should apply it also to the
+neck and hands. Pray be very careful with the stuff; for, besides
+the application being exceedingly painful, the scars may possibly
+remain permanently. Keep the two small bottles carefully hidden,
+in order to renew the application if absolutely necessary. At any
+rate, this will give us time, and, from what I hear, our troops are
+likely to be here in another ten days' time. You will be, I know,
+glad to hear that Wilson has also escaped.
+
+"Yours,
+
+"R. Bathurst."
+
+A large bottle was next filled with elder flower water. The trap was
+brought around, and they drove back to Bithoor. Rabda was punctual
+to her appointment.
+
+"I have seen her," she said, "and have given her the message.
+I could see that she understood it, but as there were other women
+round, she made no sign. I told the mistress of the zenana that
+you had given me some magic words that I was to whisper to her to
+prepare the way for the philter, so she let me in without difficulty,
+and I was allowed to go close up to her and repeat your message. I
+put my hands on her before I did so, and I think she felt that it
+was the touch of a friend. She hushed up when I spoke to her. The
+mistress, who was standing close by, thought that this was a sign
+of the power of the words I had spoken to her. I did not stay more
+than a minute. I was afraid she might try to speak to me in your
+tongue, and that would have been dangerous."
+
+"There are the bottles,"' Bathurst said; "this large one is for
+her to take, the other two and this note are to be given to her
+separately. You had better tell the woman that the philter must
+be given by your own hands, and that you must then watch alone by
+her side for half an hour. Say that after you leave her she will
+soon go off to sleep; and must then be left absolutely alone till
+daybreak tomorrow, and it will then be found that the philter has
+acted. She must at once tell the Nana that the lady is in a high
+fever, and has been seized with some terrible disease that has
+altogether disfigured her, and that he can see for himself the
+state she is in."
+
+Rabda's whisper had given new life and hope to Isobel Hannay.
+Previous to that her fate had seemed to her to be sealed, and she
+had only prayed for death; the long strain of the siege had told upon
+her; the scene in the boat seemed a species of horrible nightmare,
+culminating in a number of Sepoys leaping on board the boat as it
+touched the bank, and bayoneting her uncle and all on board except
+herself, Mrs. Hunter, and her daughter, who were seized and carried
+ashore. Then followed a night of dull despairing pain, while she
+and her companions crouched together, with two Sepoys standing on
+guard over them, while the others, after lighting fires, talked
+and laughed long into the night over the success of their attack.
+
+At daybreak they had been placed upon a limber and driven into
+Cawnpore. Her spirit had risen as they were assailed by insults and
+imprecations by the roughs of the town, and she had borne up bravely
+till, upon their arrival at the entrance to what she supposed was
+the prison, she was roughly dragged from the limber, placed in a
+close carriage, and driven off. In her despair she had endeavored
+to open the door in order to throw herself under the wheels, but
+a soldier stood on each step and prevented her from doing so.
+
+Outside of the town she soon saw that she was on the road to
+Bithoor, and the fate for which she was reserved flashed upon her.
+She remembered now the oily compliments of Nana Sahib, and the
+unpleasant thrill she had felt when his eyes were fixed upon her;
+and had she possessed a weapon of any kind she would have put an
+end to her life. But her pistol had been taken from her when she
+landed, and in helpless despair she crouched in a corner of the
+carriage until they reached Bithoor.
+
+As soon as the carriage stopped a cloth was thrown over her head.
+She was lifted out and carried into the palace, through long passages
+and up stairs; then those who carried her set her on her feet and
+retired. Other hands took her and led her forward till the cloth
+was taken off her head, and she found herself surrounded, by women,
+who regarded her with glances of mixed curiosity and hostility.
+Then everything seemed to swim round, and she fainted.
+
+When she recovered consciousness all strength seemed to have left
+her, and she lay in a sort of apathy for hours, taking listlessly
+the drink that was offered to her, but paying no attention to what
+was passing around, until there was a gentle pressure on her arm,
+the grasp tightening with a slight caressing motion that seemed to
+show sympathy; then came the English words softly whispered into her
+ear, while the hand again pressed her arm firmly, as if in warning.
+
+It was with difficulty that she refrained from uttering an exclamation,
+and she felt the blood crimson her cheeks, but she mastered the
+impulse and lay perfectly quiet, glancing up into the face bent down
+close to hers--it was not familiar to her, and yet it seemed to
+her that she had seen it somewhere; another minute and it was gone.
+
+But though to all appearances Isobel's attitude was unchanged,
+her mind was active now. Who could have sent her this message? Who
+could this native girl be who had spoken in English to her? Where
+had she seen the face?
+
+Her thoughts traveled backwards, and she ran over in her mind
+all those with whom she had come in contact since her arrival in
+India; her servants and those of her acquaintances passed before
+her eyes. She had scarcely spoken to another native woman since
+she had landed. After thinking over all she had known in Cawnpore,
+she thought of Deennugghur. Whom had she met there?
+
+Suddenly came the remembrance of the exhibition by the juggler,
+and she recalled the face and figure of his daughter, as, seated,
+upon the growing pole, she had gone up foot by foot in the light of
+the lamps and up into the darkness above. The mystery was solved;
+that was the face that had just leaned over her.
+
+But how could she be interested in her fate? Then she remembered
+that this was the girl whom Bathurst had saved from the tiger. If
+they were interested in her, it must be through Bathurst. Could he
+too have survived the attack of the night before? She had thought
+of him, as of all of them, as dead, but possibly he might have
+escaped. Even during the long night's waiting, a captive to the
+Sepoys, the thought that he had instantly sprung from beside her
+and leaped overboard had been an added pang to all her misery. She
+had no after remembrance of him; perhaps he had swum to shore and
+got off in safety. In that case he must be lingering in Cawnpore,
+had learned what had become of her, and was trying to rescue
+her. It was to the juggler he would naturally have gone to obtain
+assistance. If so, he was risking his life now to save hers; and
+this was the man whom she despised as a coward.
+
+But what could he do? At Bithoor, in the power of this treacherous
+Rajah, secure in the zenana, where no man save its master ever
+penetrated, how could he possibly help her? Yet the thought that
+he was trying to do so was a happy one, and the tears that flowed
+between her closed lids were not painful ones. She blamed herself
+now for having felt for a moment hurt at Bathurst's. desertion of
+her. To have remained in the boat would have been certain death,
+while he could have been of no assistance to her or anyone else. That
+he should escape, then, if he could, now seemed to her a perfectly
+natural action; she hoped that some of the others had done the
+same, and that Bathurst was not working alone.
+
+It did not occur to her that there could be any possibility of
+the scheme for her rescue succeeding; as to that she felt no more
+hopeful than before, but it seemed to take away the sense of utter
+loneliness that she before felt that someone should be interesting
+himself in her fate. Perhaps there would be more than a mere verbal
+message next time; how long would it be before she heard again?
+How long a respite had she before that wretch came to see her?
+Doubtless he had heard that she was ill. She would remain so. She
+would starve herself. Her weakness seemed to her her best protection.
+
+As she lay apparently helpless upon the couch she watched the women
+move about the room. The girl who had spoken to her was not among
+them. The women were not unkind; they brought her cooling drinks,
+and tried to tempt her to eat something; but she shook her head as
+if utterly unable to do so, and after a time feigned to be asleep.
+
+Darkness came on gradually; some lamps were lighted in the room.
+Not for a moment had she been left alone since she was brought in
+--never less than two females remaining with her.
+
+Presently the woman who was evidently the chief of the establishment
+came in accompanied by a girl, whom Isobel recognized at once
+as the juggler's daughter. The latter brought with her a tray, on
+which were some cakes and a silver goblet. These she set down on
+an oak table by the couch. The girl then handed her the goblet,
+which, keeping up the appearance of extreme feebleness, she took
+languidly. She placed it to her lips, but at once took it away. It
+was not cool and refreshing like those she had tasted before, it
+had but little flavor, but had a faint odor, which struck her as
+not unfamiliar. It was a drug of some sort they wished her to drink.
+
+She looked up in the girl's face. Rabda made a reassuring gesture,
+and said in a low whisper, as she bent forward, "Bathurst Sahib."
+
+This was sufficient; whatever it was it would do her no harm,
+and she raised the cup to her lips and emptied it. Then the elder
+woman said something to the other two, and they all left the room
+together, leaving her alone with Rabda.
+
+The latter went to the door quietly and drew the hangings across
+it, then she returned to the couch, and from the folds of her dress
+produced two vials and a tiny note. Then, noiselessly, she placed
+a lamp on the table, and withdrew to a short distance while Isobel
+opened and read the note.
+
+Twice she read it through, and then, laying it down, burst into
+tears of relief. Rabda came and knelt down beside the couch, and,
+taking one of her hands, pressed it to her lips. Isobel threw her
+arms round the girl's neck, drew her close to her, and kissed her
+warmly.--Rabda then drew a piece of paper and a pencil from her
+dress and handed them to her. She wrote:
+
+"Thanks a thousand times, dear friend; I will follow your instructions.
+Please send me if you can some quick and deadly poison, that I may
+take in the last extremity. Do not fear that I will flinch from
+applying the things you have sent me. I would not hesitate to
+swallow them were there no other hope of escape. I rejoice so much
+to know that you have escaped from that terrible attack last night.
+Did Wilson alone get away? Do you know they murdered my uncle
+and all the others in the boat, except Mrs. Hunter and Mary? Pray
+do not run any risks to try and rescue me. I think that I am safe
+now, and will make myself so hideous that if the wretch once sees
+me he will never want to see me again. As to death, I have no fear
+of it. If we do not meet again, God bless you.
+
+"Yours most gratefully,
+
+"Isobel."
+
+Rabda concealed the note in her garment, and then motioned to Isobel
+that she should close her eyes and pretend to be asleep. Then she
+gently drew back the curtains and seated herself at a distance from
+the couch.
+
+Half an hour later the mistress of the zenana came in. Rabda rose
+and put her finger to her lips and left the room, accompanied by
+the woman.
+
+"She is asleep," she said; "do not be afraid, the potion will do
+its work. Leave her alone all night. When she wakes in the morning
+she will be wild with fever, and you need have no fear that the
+Rajah will seek to make her the queen of his zenana."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+Prepared as the mistress of the zenana was to find a great change
+in the captive's appearance, she was startled when, soon after
+daybreak, she went in to see her. The lower part of her face was
+greatly swollen, her lips were covered with white blotches. There
+were great red scars round the mouth and on her forehead, and the
+skin seemed to have been completely eaten away. There were even
+larger and deeper marks on her neck and shoulders, which were partly
+uncovered, as if by her restless tossing. Her hands and arms were
+similarly marked. She took no notice of her entrance, but talked
+to herself as she tossed restlessly on the couch.
+
+There was but little acting in this, for Isobel was suffering an
+agony of pain. She had used the acid much more freely than she had
+been instructed to do, determined that the disfigurement should
+be complete. All night she had been in a state of high fever, and
+had for a time been almost delirious. She was but slightly more
+easy now, and had difficulty in preventing herself from crying out
+from the torture she was suffering.
+
+There was no tinge of pity in the face of the woman who looked at
+her, but a smile of satisfaction at the manner in which the potion
+had done its work.
+
+"The Nana can see her now," she said to herself; "there will be no
+change in the arrangements here."
+
+She at once sent out word that as soon as the Rajah was up he was
+to be told that she begged him to come at once.
+
+An hour later he came to the door of the zenana.
+
+"What is it, Poomba?" he asked; "nothing the matter with Miss
+Hannay, I hope?"
+
+"I grieve to say, your highness, that she has been seized with
+some terrible disease. I know not what it is, for never did I see
+a woman so smitten. It must be an illness contracted from confinement
+and bad air during the siege, some illness that the Europeans have,
+for never did I see aught like it. She is in a high state of fever,
+and her face is in a terrible state. It must be a sort of plague."
+
+"You have been poisoning her," the Nana said roughly; "if so, beware,
+for your life shall be the forfeit. I will see her for myself."
+
+"She has had no poison since she came here, though I know not but
+what she may have had poison about her, and may have taken it after
+she was captured."
+
+"Take me to her," the Rajah said. "I will see for myself."
+
+"It may be a contagious disease, your highness. It were best that
+you should not go near her."
+
+The Rajah made an impatient gesture, and the woman, without another
+word, led him into the room where Isobel was lying. The Nana was
+prepared for some disfigurement of the face he had so admired, but
+he shrank back from the reality.
+
+"It is horrible," he said, in a low voice. "What have you been
+doing to her?" he asked, turning furiously to the woman.
+
+"I have done nothing, your highness. All day yesterday she lay in
+a torpor, as I told you in the evening when you inquired about her,
+and I thought then she was going to be ill. I have watched her all
+night. She has been restless and disturbed, but I thought it better
+not to go nearer lest I should wake her, and it was not until this
+morning, when the day broke, that I perceived this terrible change.
+What shall we do with her? If the disease is contagious, everyone
+in the palace may catch it."
+
+"Have a closed palanquin brought to the door, wrap her up, and
+have her carried down to the Subada Ke Kothee. Let her give it to
+the women there. Burn all the things in this room, and everything
+that has been worn by those who have entered it. I will inquire
+into this matter later on, and should I find that there has been
+any foul play, those concerned in it shall wish they had never been
+born."
+
+As soon as he had left the woman called Rabda in.
+
+"All has gone well," she said; "your father's philter is powerful
+indeed. Tell him whenever he needs any service I can render he has
+but to ask it. Look at her; did you ever see one so disfigured?
+The Rajah has seen her, and is filled with loathing. She is to be
+sent to the Subada Ke Kothee. Are you sure that the malady is not
+contagious? I have persuaded the Rajah that it is; that is why he
+is sending her away."
+
+"I am sure it is not," Rabda said; "it is the result of the drugs.
+It is terrible to see her; give me some cooling ointment."
+
+"What does it matter about her now that she is harmless?" Poomba
+said scornfully. Being, however, desirous of pleasing Rabda, she
+went away and brought a pot of ointment, which the girl applied to
+the sores, the tears falling down her cheeks as she did so.
+
+The salve at once afforded relief from the burning pain, and Isobel
+gratefully took a drink prepared from fresh limes.
+
+She had only removed her gown when she had lain down, having done
+this in order that it should not be burned by the acid, and that
+her neck and shoulders might be seen, and the belief induced that
+this strange eruption was all over her. Rabda made signs for her
+to put it on again, and pointing in the direction of Cawnpore,
+repeated the word several times, and Isobel felt with a thrill of
+intense thankfulness that the stratagem had succeeded, and that
+she was to be sent away at once, probably to the place where the
+other prisoners were confined. Presently the woman returned.
+
+"Rabda, you had best go with her. It were well that you should
+leave for the present. The Rajah is suspicious; he may come back
+again and ask questions; and as he knows you by sight, and as you
+told me your father was in disfavor with him at present, he might
+suspect that you were in some way concerned in the matter."
+
+"I will go," Rabda said. "I am sorry she has suffered so much. I
+did not think the potion would have been so strong. Give me a netful
+of fresh limes and some cooling lotion, that I may leave with her
+there."
+
+In a few minutes a woman came up to say that the palanquin was in
+readiness at the gate of the zenana garden. A large cushion was
+taken off a divan, and Isobel was laid upon it and covered with a
+light shawl. Six of the female attendants lifted it and carried it
+downstairs, accompanied by Rabda and the mistress off the zenana,
+both closely veiled. Outside the gate was a large palanquin, with
+its bearers and four soldiers and an officer. The cushion was lifted
+and placed in the palanquin, and Rabda also took her place there.
+
+"Then you will not return today," the woman said to her, in a voice
+loud enough to be heard by the officers "You will remain with her
+for a time, and afterwards go to see your friends in the town. I
+will send for you when I hear that you wish to return."
+
+The curtains of the palanquin were drawn down; the bearers lifted
+it and started at once for Cawnpore.
+
+On arrival at the large building known as the Subada Ke Kothee the
+gates were opened at once at the order of the Nana's officer, and
+the palanquin was carried across the courtyard to the door of the
+building which was used as a prison for the white women and children.
+It was taken into the great arched room and set down. Rabda stepped
+out, and the bearers lifted out the cushion upon which Isobel lay.
+
+"You will not be wanted any more," Rabda said, in a tone of authority.
+"You can return to Bithoor at once!"
+
+As the door closed behind them several of the ladies came round to
+see this fresh arrival. Rabda looked round till her eye fell upon
+Mrs. Hunter, who was occupied in trying to hush a fractious child.
+She put her hand on her arm and motioned to her to come along.
+Surprised at the summons, Mrs. Hunter followed her.  When they
+reached the cushion Rabda lifted the shawl from Isobel's face. For
+a moment Mrs. Hunter failed to recognize her, but as Isobel opened
+her eyes and held out her hand she knew her, and with a cry of pity
+she dropped on her knees beside her.
+
+"My poor child, what have these fiends been doing to you?"
+
+"They have been doing nothing, Mrs. Hunter," she whispered. "I am
+not so bad as I seem, though I have suffered a great deal of pain.
+I was carried away to Bithoor, to Nana Sahib's zenana, and I have
+burnt my face with caustic and acid; they think I have some terrible
+disease, and have sent me here."
+
+"Bravely done, girl! Bravely and nobly done! We had best keep the
+secret to ourselves; there are constantly men looking through the
+bars of the window, and some of them may understand English."
+
+Then she looked up and said, "It is Miss Hannay, she was captured
+with us in the boats; please help me to carry her over to the wall
+there, and my daughter and I will nurse her; it looks as if she
+had been terribly burnt, somehow."
+
+Many of the ladies had met Isobel in the happy days before the
+troubles began, and great was the pity expressed at her appearance.
+She was carried to the side of the wall, where Mary and Mrs.
+Hunter at once made her as comfortable as they could. Rabda, who
+had now thrown back her veil, produced from under her dress the
+net containing some fifty small limes, and handed to Mrs. Hunter
+the pot of ointment and the lotion.
+
+"She has saved me," Isobel said; "it is the daughter of the juggler
+who performed at your house, Mrs. Hunter; do thank her for me, and
+tell her how grateful I am."
+
+Mrs. Hunter took Rabda's hand, and in her own language thanked her
+for her kindness to Isobel.
+
+"I have done as I was told," Rabda said simply; "the Sahib Bathurst
+saved my life, and when he said the lady must be rescued from the
+hands of the Nana, it was only right that I should do so, even at
+the risk of my life."
+
+"So Bathurst has escaped," Mrs. Hunter said, turning to Isobel. "I
+am glad of that, dear; I was afraid that all were gone."
+
+"Yes, I had a note from him; it is by his means that I got away
+from Bithoor. He sent me the caustic and acid to burn my face. He
+told me Mr. Wilson had also escaped, and perhaps some others may
+have got away, though he did not seem to know it."
+
+"But surely there could be no occasion to burn yourself as badly
+as you have done, Isobel."
+
+"I am afraid I did put on too much acid," she said. "I was so afraid
+of not burning it enough; but it does not matter, it does not pain
+me nearly so much since I put on that ointment; it will soon get
+well."
+
+Mrs. Hunter shook her head regretfully.
+
+"I am afraid it will leave marks for a long time."
+
+"That is of no consequence at all, Mrs. Hunter; I am so thankful
+at being here with you, that I should mind very little if I knew
+that it was always to be as bad as it is now. What does it matter?"
+
+"It does not matter at all at present, my dear; but if you ever
+get out of this horrible place, some day you may think differently
+about it."
+
+"I must go now," Rabda said. "Has the lady any message to send to
+the sahib?" and she again handed a paper and pencil to Isobel.
+
+The girl took them, hesitating a little before writing:
+
+"Thank God you have saved me. Some day, perhaps, I may be able to
+tell you how grateful I am; but, if not, you will know that if the
+worst happens to us, I shall die blessing you for what you have
+done for me. Pray do not linger longer in Cawnpore. You may be
+discovered, and if I am spared, it would embitter my life always
+to know that it had cost you yours. God bless you always.
+
+"Yours gratefully,
+
+"Isobel."
+
+She folded up the paper and gave it to Rabda, who took her hand and
+kissed it; and then, drawing her veil again over her face, went to
+the door, which stood open for the moment.
+
+Some men were bringing in a large cauldron of rice. The sentries
+offered no opposition to her passing out, as the officer with the
+palanquin had told them that a lady of the Rajah's zenana would
+leave shortly. A similar message had been given to the officer at
+the main gate, who, however, requested to see her hand and arm to
+satisfy him that all was right. This was sufficient to assure him
+that it was not a white woman passing out in disguise, and Rabda
+at once proceeded to her father's house.
+
+As she expected, he and Bathurst were away, for she had arranged
+to meet them at eight o'clock in the garden. They did not return
+until eleven, having waited two hours for her, and returning home
+in much anxiety at her non-appearance.
+
+"What has happened? Why did you not meet us, Rabda?" her father
+exclaimed, as he entered.
+
+Rabda rapidly repeated the incidents that had happened since she
+had parted from him the evening before, and handed to Bathurst the
+two notes she had received from Isobel.
+
+"Then she is in safety with the others!" he exclaimed in delight.
+"Thank God for that, and thank you, Rabda, indeed, for what you
+have done."
+
+"My life is my lord's," the girl said quietly. "What I have done
+is nothing."
+
+"If we had but known, Rujub, that she would be moved at once, we
+might have rescued her on the way."
+
+Rujub shook his head.
+
+"There are far too many people along the road, sahib; it could
+not have been done. But, of course, there was no knowing that she
+would be sent off directly after the Nana had seen her."
+
+"Is she much disfigured, Rabda?" Bathurst asked.
+
+"Dreadfully;" the girl said sorrowfully. "The acid must have been
+too strong."
+
+"It was strong, no doubt," Bathurst said; "but if she had put it
+on as I instructed her it could only have burnt the surface of the
+skin."
+
+"It has burnt her dreadfully, sahib; even I should hardly have
+known her. She must be brave indeed to have done it. She must have
+suffered dreadfully; but I obtained some ointment for her, and
+she was better when I left her. She is with the wife of the Sahib
+Hunter."
+
+"Now, Rabda, see if the meal is prepared," Rujub said. "We are both
+hungry, and you can have eaten nothing this morning."
+
+He then left the room, leaving Bathurst to read the letters which
+he still held in his hand, feeling that they were too precious to
+be looked at until he was alone.
+
+It was some time before Rabda brought in his breakfast, and, glancing
+at him, she saw how deeply he had been moved by the letters. She
+went up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.
+
+"We will get her for you, sahib. We have been successful so far,
+be assured that we shall succeed again. What we have done is more
+difficult than what we have to do. It is easier to get twenty
+prisoners from a jail than one from a rajah's zenana."
+
+"That is true enough, Rabda. At the moment I was not thinking of
+that, but of other things."
+
+He longed for sympathy, but the girl would not have understood him
+had he told her his feelings. To her he was a hero, and it would
+have seemed to her folly had he said that he felt himself altogether
+unworthy of Isobel Hannay. After he had finished his breakfast
+Rujub again came in.
+
+"What does the sahib intend to do now?" he asked.
+
+"As far as I can see there is nothing to do at present, Rujub," he
+said. "When the white troops come up she will be delivered."
+
+"Then will my lord go down to Allahabad?"
+
+"Certainly not. There is no saying what may happen."
+
+"That is so," Rujub agreed. "The white women are safe at present,
+but if, as the Sahib thinks, the white soldiers should beat the
+troops of the Nana, who can say what will happen? The people will
+be wild with rage, the Nana will be furious--he is a tiger who,
+having once laid his paw on a victim, will not allow it to be torn
+from him."
+
+"He can never allow them to be injured," Bathurst said. "It is
+possible that as our troops advance he may carry them all off as
+hostages, and by the threat of killing them may make terms for his
+own life, but he would never venture to carry out his threats. You
+think he would?" he asked.
+
+Rujub remained silent for a minute.
+
+"I think so, sahib; the Nana is an ambitious man; he has wealth and
+everything most men would desire to make life happy, but he wanted
+more: he thought that when the British Raj was destroyed he would
+rule over the territories of the Peishwa, and be one of the greatest
+lords of the land. He has staked everything on that; if he loses,
+he has lost all. He knows that after the breach of his oath and the
+massacre here, there is no pardon for him. He is a tiger--and a
+wounded tiger is most dangerous. If he is, as you believe he will
+be, defeated, I believe his one thought will be of revenge. Every
+day brings news of fresh risings. Scindia's army will join us;
+Holkar's will probably follow. All Oude is rising in arms. A large
+army is gathering at Delhi. Even if the Nana is defeated here all
+will not be lost. He has twenty thousand men; there are well nigh
+two hundred thousand in arms round Lucknow alone. My belief is that
+if beaten his first thought will be to take revenge at once on the
+Feringhees, and to make his name terrible, and that he will then go
+off with his army to Lucknow or Delhi, where he would be received
+as one who has dared more than all others to defy the whites, who
+has no hope of pardon, and can, therefore, be relied upon above
+all others to fight to the last."
+
+"It may be so, Rujub, though I can scarce believe that there exists a
+monster who would give orders for the murder of hundreds of women
+and children in cold blood; but, at any rate, I will remain and
+watch. We will decide upon what will be the best plan to rescue
+her from the prison, if we hear that evil is intended; but, if not,
+I can remain patiently until our troops arrive. I know the Subada
+Ke Kothee; it is, if I remember right, a large quadrangle with no
+windows on the outside."
+
+"That is so, sahib; it is a strong place, and difficult indeed to
+get into or out of. There is only the main gate, which is guarded
+at night by two sentries outside and there is doubtless a strong
+guard within."
+
+"I would learn whether the same regiment always furnishes the guard;
+if so, it might be possible to bribe them."
+
+"I am afraid it would be too dangerous to try. There are scores of
+men in Cawnpore who would cut a throat for a rupee, but when it
+comes to breaking open a prison to carry off one of these white
+women whom they hate it would be too dangerous to try."
+
+"Could you not do something with your art, Rujub?"
+
+"If there were only the outside sentries it would be easy enough,
+sahib. I could send them to sleep with a wave of my hand, but I
+could not affect the men inside whom I do not know even by sight.
+Besides, in addition to the soldiers who guard the gate, there will
+be the men who have been told off to look after the prisoners. It
+will require a great deal of thinking over, sahib, but I believe
+we shall manage it. I shall go tomorrow to Bithoor and show myself
+boldly to the Nana. He knows that I have done good service to him,
+and his anger will have cooled down by this time, and he will listen
+to what I have to say. It will be useful to us for me to be able
+to go in and out of the palace at will, and so learn the first news
+from those about him. It is most important that we should know if
+he has evil intentions towards the captives, so that we may have
+time to carry out our plans."
+
+"Very well, Rujub. You do not expect me to remain indoors, I hope,
+for I should wear myself out if I were obliged to wait here doing
+nothing."
+
+"No, sahib; it will be perfectly safe for you to go about just as
+you are, and I can get you any other disguise you like. You will
+gather what is said in the town, can listen to the Sepoys, and
+examine the Subada Ke Kothee. If you like I will go there with you
+now. My daughter shall come with us; she may be useful, and will
+be glad to be doing something."
+
+They went out from the city towards the prison house, which stood
+in an open space round which were several other buildings, some of
+them surrounded with gardens and walls.
+
+The Subada Ke Kothee was a large building, forming three sides of
+a square, a strong high wall forming the fourth side. It was low,
+with a flat roof. There were no windows or openings in the outside
+wall, the chambers all facing the courtyard. Two sentries were at
+the gate. They were in the red Sepoy uniform, and Bathurst saw at
+once how much the bonds of discipline had been relaxed. Both had
+leaned their muskets against the wall; one was squatted on the
+ground beside his firearm, and the other was talking with two or
+three natives of his acquaintance. The gates were closed.
+
+As they watched, a native officer came up. He stood for a minute
+talking with the soldiers. By his gesticulations it could be seen
+he was exceedingly angry, and the men took their muskets and began
+to walk up and down. Then the officer knocked at the gate. Instead
+of its being opened, a man appeared at a loophole in the gate tower,
+and the officer handed to him a paper. A minute later the gate was
+opened sufficiently for him to pass in, and was then closed behind
+him.
+
+"They are evidently pretty strict," Bathurst said. "I don't think,
+Rujub, there is much chance of our doing anything there."
+
+Rujub shook his head. "No, sahib, it is clear they have strict
+orders about opening and shutting the gate."
+
+"It would not be very difficult to scale the wall of the house,"
+Bathurst said, "with a rope and a hook at its end; but that is
+only the first step. The real difficulty lies in getting the prison
+room open in the first place--for no doubt they are locked up at
+night--and in the second getting her out of it, and the building."
+
+"You could lower her down from the top of the wall, sahib."
+
+"Yes, if one could get her out of the room they are confined in
+without making the slightest stir, but it is almost too much to
+hope that one could be able to do that. The men in charge of them
+are likely to keep a close watch, for they know that their heads
+would pay for any captive they allowed to escape."
+
+"I don't think they will watch much, sahib; they will not believe
+that any of the women, broken down as they must be by trouble,
+would attempt such a thing, for even if they got out of the prison
+itself and then made their escape from the building, they would be
+caught before they could go far."
+
+"Where does the prison house lie, Rabda?" Bathurst asked.
+
+"It is on the left hand side as you enter the gate; it is the
+farthest door. Along that side most of the buildings--which have
+been used for storehouses, I should say, or perhaps for the guards
+when the place was a palace--have two floors, one above the other.
+But this is a large vaulted room extending from the ground to the
+roof; it has windows with iron gratings; the door is very strong
+and heavy."
+
+"And now, sahib, we can do nothing more," Rujub said. "I will return
+home with Rabda, and then go over to Bithoor."
+
+"Very well, Rujub, I will stay here, and hear what people are
+talking about."
+
+There were indeed a considerable number of people near the building:
+the fact that the white prisoners were within seemed to exercise a
+fascination, and even women brought their children and sat on the
+banks which marked where gardens had once been, and talked of the
+white captives. Bathurst strolled about among the groups of Sepoys
+and townspeople. The former talked in loud tones of the little force
+that had already started from Allahabad, and boasted how easily
+they would eat up the Feringhees. It seemed, however, to Bathurst
+that a good deal of this confidence was assumed, and that among
+some, at least, there was an undercurrent of doubt and uneasiness,
+though they talked as loudly and boldly as their companions.
+
+The townspeople were of two classes: there were the budmashes or
+roughs of the place, who uttered brutal and ferocious jokes as to
+the probable fate of the white women. There were others who kept
+in groups apart and talked in low voices. These were the traders,
+to whom the events that had taken place foreboded ruin. Already most
+of the shops had been sacked, and many of the principal inhabitants
+murdered by the mob. Those who had so far escaped, thanks in
+some instances to the protection afforded them by Sepoy officers,
+saw that their trade was ruined, their best customers killed, and
+themselves virtually at the mercy of the mob, who might again break
+out upon the occasion of any excitement. These were silent when
+Bathurst approached them. His attire, and the arms so ostentatiously
+displayed in his sash, marked him as one of the dangerous class,
+perhaps a prisoner from the jail whose doors had been thrown open
+on the first night of the Sepoy rising.
+
+For hours Bathurst remained in the neighborhood of the prison. The
+sun set, and the night came on. Then a small party of soldiers came
+up and relieved the sentries. This time the number of the sentries
+at the gate was doubled, and three men were posted, one on each of
+the other sides of the building. After seeing this done he returned
+to the house. After he had finished his evening meal Rujub and
+Rabda came into the room.
+
+"Now, sahib," the former said, "I think that we can tell you how
+the lady is. Rabda has seen her, spoken to her, and touched her;
+there is sympathy between them."
+
+He seated Rabda in a chair, placed his hand on her forehead, and
+then drew the tips of his fingers several times slowly down her
+face. Her eyes closed. He took up her hand, and let it fall again.
+It was limp and impassive. Then he said authoritatively, "Go to
+the prison." He paused a moment.
+
+"Are you there?"
+
+"I am there," she said.
+
+"Are you in the room where the ladies are?"
+
+"I am there," she repeated.
+
+"Do you see the lady Hannay?"
+
+"I see her."
+
+"How is she?"
+
+"She is lying quiet. The other young lady is sitting beside her.
+The lower part of her face is bandaged up, but I can see that she is
+not suffering as she was this morning. She looks quiet and happy."
+
+"Try and speak to her. Say, 'Keep up your courage, we are doing
+what we can.' Speak, I order you."
+
+"I have spoken."
+
+"Did she hear you?"
+
+"Yes. She has raised herself on her arm; she is looking round; she
+has asked the other young lady if she heard anything. The other
+shakes her head. She heard my words, but does not understand them."
+
+Rujub looked at Bathurst, who mechanically repeated the message in
+English.
+
+"Speak to her again. Tell her these words," and Rujub repeated the
+message in English.
+
+"Does she hear you?"
+
+"She hears me. She has clasped her hands, and is looking round
+bewildered."
+
+"That will do. Now go outside into the yard; what do you see there?"
+
+"I see eight men sitting round a fire. One gets up and walks to
+one of the grated windows, and looks in at the prisoners."
+
+"Is the door locked?"
+
+"It is locked."
+
+"Where is the key?"
+
+She was silent for some time.
+
+"Where is the key?" he repeated.
+
+"In the lock," she said.
+
+"How many soldiers are there in the guardroom by the gate?"
+
+"There are no soldiers there. There are an officer and four men
+outside, but none inside."
+
+"That will do," and he passed his hand lightly across her forehead.
+
+"Is it all true?" Bathurst asked, as the juggler turned to him.
+
+"Assuredly it is true, sahib. Had I had my daughter with me
+at Deennugghur, I could have sent you a message as easily; as it
+was, I had to trust only to the power of my mind upon yours. The
+information is of use, sahib."
+
+"It is indeed. It is a great thing to know that the key is left in
+the lock, and also that at night there are the prison keepers only
+inside the building."
+
+"Does she know what she has been doing?" he asked, as Rabda languidly
+rose from her chair.
+
+"No, sahib, she knows nothing after she has recovered from these
+trances."
+
+"I will watch tomorrow night," Bathurst said, "and see at what
+hour the sentries are relieved. It is evident that the Sepoys are
+not trusted to enter the prison, which is left entirely to the
+warders, the outside posts being furnished by some regiment in the
+lines. It is important to know the exact hour at which the changes
+are made, and perhaps you could find out tomorrow, Rujub, who these
+warders are; whether they are permanently on duty, or are relieved
+once a day."
+
+"I will do that, sahib; if they are changed we may be able to get
+at some of them."
+
+"I have no money," Bathurst said; "but--"
+
+"I have money, sahib, and if they can be bribed, will do it; our
+caste is a rich one. We sometimes receive large presents, and we
+are everywhere made welcome. We have little need of money. I am
+wealthy, and practice my art more because I love it than for gain.
+There are few in the land that know the secrets that I do. Men die
+without having sons to pass down their knowledge; thus it is the
+number of those who possess the secrets of the ancient grows smaller
+every day. There are hundreds of jugglers, but very few who know,
+as I do, the secrets of nature, and can control the spirits of the
+air. Did I need greater wealth than I have, Rabda could discover
+for me all the hidden treasures of India; and I could obtain them,
+guarded though they may be by djins and evil spirits."
+
+"Have you a son to come after you, Rujub?"
+
+"Yes; he is traveling in Persia, to confer with one or two of the
+great ones there who still possess the knowledge of the ancient
+magicians."
+
+"By the way, Rujub, I have not asked you how you got on with the
+Nana."
+
+"It was easy enough," the juggler said. "He had lost all interest
+in the affairs of Deennugghur, and greeted me at first as if
+I had just returned from a journey. Then he remembered and asked
+me suddenly why I had disobeyed his orders and given my voice for
+terms being granted to the Feringhees. I said that I had obeyed his
+orders; I understood that what he principally desired was to have
+the women here as prisoners, and that had the siege continued the
+Feringhees would have blown themselves into the air. Therefore the
+only plan was to make terms with them, which would, in fact, place
+them all in his power, as he would not be bound by the conditions
+granted by the Oude men. He was satisfied, and said no more about
+it, and I am restored to my position in his favor. Henceforth we
+shall not have to trust to the gossip of the bazaars, but I shall
+know what news is received and what is going to be done.
+
+"Your people at Delhi have beaten back the Sepoys several times,
+and at Lucknow they resist stoutly. The Nana is very angry that the
+place has not been taken, but from what I hear the intrenchments
+there are much stronger than they were here, and even here they
+were not taken by the sword, but because the whites had no shelter
+from the guns, and could not go to the well without exposing
+themselves to the fire. At Lucknow they have some strong houses
+in the intrenchments, and no want of anything, so they can only be
+captured by fighting. Everyone says they cannot hold out many days
+longer, but that I do not know. It does not seem to me that there
+is any hope of rescue for them, for even if, as you think, the
+white troops should beat Nana Sahib's men, they never could force
+their way through the streets of Lucknow to the intrenchments
+there."
+
+"We shall see, Rujub. Deennugghur was defended by a mere handful,
+and at Lucknow they have half a regiment of white soldiers. They
+may, for anything I know, have to yield to starvation, but I doubt
+whether the mutineers and Oude men, however numerous they may be,
+will carry the place by assault. Is there any news elsewhere?"
+
+"None, sahib, save that the Feringhees are bringing down regiments
+from the Punjaub to aid those at Delhi."
+
+"The tide is beginning to turn, Rujub; the mutineers have done their
+worst, and have failed to overthrow the English Raj. Now you will
+see that every day they will lose ground. Fresh troops will pour
+up the country, and step by step the mutiny will be crushed out;
+it is a question of time only. If you could call up a picture on
+smoke of what will be happening a year hence, you would see the
+British triumphant everywhere."
+
+"I cannot do that, sahib; I do not know what would appear on the
+smoke, and were I to try, misfortune would surely come upon me.
+When a picture of the past is shown on the smoke, it is not a past
+I know of, but which one of those present knows. I cannot always
+say which among them may know it; it is always a scene that has
+made a strong impression on the mind, but more than that I do not
+know. As to those of the future, I know even less; it is the work
+of the power of the air, whose name I whisper to myself when I
+pour out the incense, and to whom I pray. It is seldom that I show
+these pictures; he gets angry if called upon too often. I never do
+it unless I feel that he is propitious."
+
+"It is beyond me altogether, Rujub; I can understand your power
+of sending messages, and of your daughter seeing at a distance. I
+have heard of such things at home; they are called mesmerism and
+clairvoyance. It is an obscure art; but that some men do possess
+the power of influencing others at a distance seems to be undoubted,
+still it is certainly never carried to such perfection as I see it
+in your case."
+
+"It could not be," Rujub said; "white men eat too much, and it needs
+long fasting and mortification to fit a man to become a mystic;
+the spirit gains power as the body weakens. The Feringhees can make
+arms that shoot long distances, and carriages that travel faster
+than the fastest horse, and great ships and machines. They can do
+many great and useful things, but they cannot do the things that
+have been done for thousands of years in the East. They are tied
+too fast to the earth to have aught to do with the spirits that
+dwell in the air. A learned Brahmin, who had studied your holy
+books, told me that your Great Teacher said that if you had faith
+you could move mountains. We could well nigh do that if it were of
+use to mankind; but were we to do so merely to show our power, we
+should be struck dead. It is wrong even to tell you these things;
+I must say no more."
+
+Four days passed. Rujub went every day for some hours to Bithoor,
+and told Bathurst that he heard that the British force, of about
+fourteen hundred whites and five hundred Sikhs, was pushing forward
+rapidly, making double marches each day.
+
+"The first fight will be near Futtehpore," he said; "there are
+fifteen hundred Sepoys, as many Oude tribesmen, and five hundred
+cavalry with twelve guns, and they are in a very strong position,
+which the British can only reach by passing along the road through
+a swamp. It is a position that the officers say a thousand men
+could hold against ten thousand."
+
+"You will see that it will not delay our troops an hour," Bathurst
+said. "Do they imagine they are going to beat us, when the numbers
+are but two to one in their favor? If so, they will soon learn that
+they are mistaken."
+
+The next afternoon, when Rujub returned, he said, "You were right,
+sahib; your people took Futtehpore after only half an hour's fighting.
+The accounts say that the Feringhees came on like demons, and that
+they did not seem to mind our firing in the slightest. The Nana
+is furious, but they still feel confident that they will succeed
+in stopping the Feringhees at Dong. They lost their twelve guns
+at Futtehpore, but they have two heavy ones at the Pandoo Bridge,
+which sweep the straight road leading to it for a mile; and the
+bridge has been mined, and will be blown up if the Feringhees reach
+it. But, nevertheless, the Nana swears that he will be revenged on
+the captives. If you are to rescue the lady it must be done tonight,
+for tomorrow it may be too late."
+
+"You surely do not think he will give orders for the murder of the
+women and children?"
+
+"I fear he will do so," Rujub answered gloomily.
+
+Each day Bathurst had learned in the same manner as before what
+was doing in the prison. Isobel was no longer being nursed; she
+was assisting to nurse Mary Hunter, who had, the day after Isobel
+was transferred to the prison, been attacked by fever, and was
+the next day delirious. Rabda's report of the next two days left
+little doubt in Bathurst's mind that she was rapidly sinking. All
+the prisoners suffered greatly from the close confinement; many
+had died, and the girl's description of the scenes she witnessed
+was often interrupted by her sobs and tears.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+While Bathurst was busying himself completing his preparations for
+the attempt, Rabda came in with her father.
+
+"My lord," she said, "I tremble at the thought of your venturing
+your life. My life is of no importance, and it belongs to you. What
+I would propose is this. My father will go to Bithoor, and will
+obtain an order from one of the Nana's officers for a lady of the
+zenana to visit the prisoners. I will go in veiled, as I was on
+the day I went there. I will change garments with the lady, and
+she can come out veiled, and meet you outside."
+
+"I would not dream of such a thing, Rabda. You would be killed to
+a certainty when they discovered the trick. Even if I would consent
+to the sacrifice, Miss Hannay would not do so. I am deeply grateful
+to you for proposing it, but it is impossible. You will see that,
+with the aid of your father, I shall succeed."
+
+"I told her that would be your answer, sahib," Rujub said, "but
+she insisted on making the offer."
+
+It was arranged that they were to start at nine o'clock, as it was
+safer to make the attempt before everything became quiet. Before
+starting, Rabda was again placed in a trance. In reply to her father's
+questions she said that Mary Hunter was dead, and that Isobel was
+lying down. She was told to tell her that in an hour she was to be
+at the window next to the door.
+
+Rujub had found that the men inside the prison were those who had
+been employed as warders at the jail before the troubles began,
+and he had procured for Bathurst a dress similar to that which they
+wore, which was a sort of uniform. He had offered, if the attempt
+was successful, to conceal Isobel in his house until the troops
+reached Cawnpore, but Bathurst preferred to take her down the
+country, upon the ground that every house might be searched, and
+that possibly before the British entered the town there might be
+a general sack of the place by the mob, and even if this did not
+take place there might be desperate house to house fighting when
+the troops arrived. Rujub acknowledged the danger, and said that
+he and his daughter would accompany them on their way down country,
+as it would greatly lessen their risk if two of the party were really
+natives. Bathurst gratefully accepted the offer, as it would make
+the journey far more tolerable for Isobel if she had Rabda with
+her.
+
+She was to wait a short distance from the prison while Bathurst
+made the attempt, and was left in a clump of bushes two or three
+hundred yards away from the prison. Rujub accompanied Bathurst.
+They went along quietly until within fifty yards of the sentry in
+the rear of the house, and then stopped. The man was walking briskly
+up and down. Rujub stretched out his arms in front of him with the
+fingers extended. Bathurst, who had taken his place behind him,
+saw his muscles stiffen, while there was a tremulous motion of his
+fingers. In a minute or two the sentry's walk became slower. In a
+little time it ceased altogether, and he leaned against the wall
+as if drowsy; then he slid down in a sitting position, his musket
+falling to the ground.
+
+"You can come along now," Rujub said; "he is fast asleep, and there
+is no fear of his waking. He will sleep till I bid him wake."
+
+They at once moved forward to the wall of the house. Bathurst threw
+up a knotted rope, to which was attached a large hook, carefully
+wrapped in flannel to prevent noise. After three or four attempts
+it caught on the parapet. Bathurst at once climbed up. As soon as
+he had gained the flat terrace, Rujub followed him; they then pulled
+up the rope, to the lower end of which a rope ladder was attached,
+and fastened this securely; then they went to the inner side of the
+terrace and looked down onto the courtyard. Two men were standing
+at one of the grated windows of the prison room, apparently looking
+in; six others were seated round a fire in the center of the court.
+
+Bathurst was about to turn away when Rujub touched him and pointed
+to the two men at the window, and then stretched out his arms
+towards them. Presently they turned and left the window, and in
+a leisurely way walked across the court and entered a room where
+a light was burning close to the grate. For two or three minutes
+Rujub stood in the same position, then his arms dropped.
+
+"They have gone into the guard room to sleep," he said; "there are
+two less to trouble you."
+
+Then he turned towards the group of men by the fire and fixed his
+gaze upon them. In a short time one of them wrapped himself in
+his cloth and lay down. In five minutes two others had followed
+his example. Another ten minutes passed, and then Rujub turned
+to Bathurst and said, "I cannot affect the other three; we cannot
+influence everyone."
+
+"That will do, Rujub, it is my turn now."
+
+After a short search they found stairs leading down from the terrace,
+and after passing through some empty rooms reached a door opening
+into the courtyard.
+
+"Do you stay here, Rujub," Bathurst said. "They will take me for
+one of themselves. If I succeed without noise, I shall come this
+way; if not, we will go out through the gate, and you had best
+leave by the way we came."
+
+The door was standing open, and Bathurst, grasping a heavy tulwar,
+went out into the courtyard. Keeping close to the house, he
+sauntered along until he reached the grated windows of the prison
+room. Three lamps were burning within, to enable the guard outside
+to watch the prisoners. He passed the two first windows; at the
+third a figure was standing. She shrank back as Bathurst stopped
+before it.
+
+"It is I, Miss Hannay--Bathurst. Danger threatens you, and you
+must escape at once. Rabda is waiting for you outside. Please go
+to the door and stand there until I open it. I have no doubt that
+I shall succeed, but if anything should go wrong, go and lie down
+again at once."
+
+Without waiting for an answer, he moved towards the fire.
+
+"Is that you, Ahmed?" one of the warders said. "We all seem sleepy
+this evening, there is something in the air; I felt half inclined
+to go off myself."
+
+"It is very hot tonight," Bathurst replied.
+
+There was something in his voice unfamiliar to the man, and with an
+exclamation, "Who is it?" he sprang to his feet. But Bathurst was
+now but three paces away, and with a bound was upon him, bringing
+the tulwar down with such force upon his head that the man fell
+lifeless without a groan. The other two leaped up with shouts of
+"Treachery!" but Bathurst was upon them, and, aided by the surprise,
+cut both down after a sharp fight of half a minute. Then he ran to
+the prison door, turned the key in the lock, and opened it.
+
+"Come!" he exclaimed, "there is no time to be lost, the guards
+outside have taken the alarm," for, by this time, there was a furious
+knocking at the gate. "Wrap yourself up in this native robe."
+
+"But the others, Mr. Bathurst, can't you save them too?"
+
+"Impossible," he said. "Even if they got out, they would be overtaken
+and killed at once. Come!" And taking her hand, he led her to the
+gate.
+
+"Stand back here so that the gate will open on you," he said. Then
+he undid the bar, shouting, "Treachery; the prisoners are escaping!"
+
+As he undid the last bolt the gate opened and the soldiers rushed
+in, firing at random as they did so. Bathurst had stepped behind
+the gate as it opened, and as the soldiers ran up the yard he took
+Isobel's hand, and, passing through the gate, ran with her round
+the building until he reached the spot where Rabda was awaiting
+them. Half a minute later her father joined them.
+
+"Let us go at once, there is no time for talking," he said. "We must
+be cautious, the firing will wake the whole quarter;" for by this
+time loud shouts were being raised, and men, hearing the muskets
+fired, were running towards the gate. Taking advantage of the shelter
+of the shrubbery as much as they could, they hurried on until they
+issued into the open country.
+
+"Do you feel strong enough to walk far?" Bathurst asked, speaking
+for the first time since they left the gate.
+
+"I think so," she said; "I am not sure whether I am awake or
+dreaming."
+
+"You are awake, Miss Hannay; you are safe out of that terrible
+prison."
+
+"I am not sure," the girl said, speaking slowly; "I have been
+strange since I went there. I have seemed to hear voices speaking
+to me, though no one was there, and no one else heard them; and I
+am not sure whether all this is not fancy now."
+
+"It is reality, Miss Hannay. Take my hand and you will see that
+it is solid. The voices you heard were similar to those I heard at
+Deennugghur; they were messages I sent you by means of Rujub and
+his daughter."
+
+"I did think of what you told me and about the juggler, but it
+seemed so strange. I thought that my brain was turning with trouble;
+it was bad enough at Deennugghur, but nothing to what it has been
+since that dreadful day at Bithoor. There did not seem much hope
+at Deennugghur. But somehow we all kept up, and, desperate as
+it seemed, I don't think we ever quite despaired. You see, we all
+knew each other; besides, no one could give way while the men were
+fighting and working so hard for us; but at Cawnpore there seemed
+no hope. There was not one woman there but had lost husband or father.
+Most of them were indifferent to life, scarcely ever speaking, and
+seeming to move in a dream, while others with children sat holding
+them close to them as if they dreaded a separation at any moment.
+There were a few who were different, who moved about and nursed the
+children and sick, and tried to comfort the others, just as Mrs.
+Hunter did at Deennugghur. There was no crying and no lamenting. It
+would have been a relief if anyone had cried, it was the stillness
+that was so trying; when people talked to each other they did it
+in a whisper, as they do in a room where someone is lying dead.
+
+"You know Mary Hunter died yesterday? Well, Mrs. Hunter quite put
+aside her own grief and tried to cheer others. I told her the last
+message I received, and asked her to go with me if it should be
+true. She said, 'No, Isobel; I don't know whether this message is
+a dream, or whether God has opened a way of escape for you--if
+so, may He be thanked; but you must go alone--one might escape
+where two could not. As for me, I shall wait here for whatever
+fate God may send me. My husband and my children have gone before
+me. I may do some good among these poor creatures, and here I shall
+stay. You are young and full of life, and have many happy days in
+store for you. My race is nearly run--even did I wish for life,
+I would not cumber you and your friends; there will be perils to
+encounter and fatigues to be undergone. Had not Mary left us I would
+have sent her with you, but God did not will it so. Go, therefore,
+to the window, dear, as you were told by this message you think
+you have received, but do not be disappointed if no one comes. If
+it turns out true, and there is a chance of escape, take it, dear,
+and may God be with you.' As I stood at the window, I could not go
+at once, as you told me, to the door; I had to stand there; I saw
+it all till you turned and ran to the door, and then I came to meet
+you."
+
+"It was a pity you saw it," he said gently.
+
+"Why? Do you think that, after what I have gone through, I was
+shocked at seeing you kill three of those wretches? Two months ago
+I suppose I should have thought it dreadful, but those two months
+have changed us altogether. Think of what we were then and what
+we are now. There remain only you, Mrs. Hunter, myself, and your
+letter said, Mr. Wilson. Is he the only one?"
+
+"Yes, so far as we know."
+
+"Only we four, and all the others gone--Uncle and. Mary and Amy
+and the Doolans and the dear Doctor, all the children. Why, if the
+door had been open, and I had had a weapon, I would have rushed
+out to help you kill. I shudder at myself sometimes."
+
+After a pause she went on. "Then none of those in the other boat
+came to shore, Mr. Bathurst, except Mr. Wilson?"
+
+"I fear not. The other boat sank directly. Wilson told me it was
+sinking as he sprang over. You had better not talk any more, Miss
+Hannay, for you are out of breath now, and will need all your
+strength."
+
+"Yes, but tell me why you have taken me away; you said there was
+great danger?"
+
+"Our troops are coming up," he said, "and I had reason to fear that
+when the rebels are defeated the mob may break open the prison."
+
+"They surely could not murder women and children who have done them
+no harm!"
+
+"There is no saying what they might do, Miss Hannay, but that was
+the reason why I dared not leave you where you were. I will tell
+you more about it afterwards. Now, please take my arm, we must be
+miles away from here before morning. They will find out then that
+you have escaped, and will no doubt scour the country."
+
+They had left the road and were passing through the fields. Isobel's
+strength failed rapidly, as soon as the excitement that had at
+first kept her up subsided. Rujub several times urged Bathurst to
+go faster, but the girl hung more and more heavily on his arm.
+
+"I can't go any farther," she said at last; "it is so long since
+I walked, and I suppose I have got weak. I have tried very hard,
+but I can scarcely drag my feet along. You had better leave me;
+you have done all you could to save me. I thank you so much. Only
+please leave a pistol with me. I am not at all afraid of dying,
+but I will not fall into their hands again."
+
+"We must carry her, Rujub," Bathurst said; "she is utterly exhausted
+and worn out, and no wonder. If we could make a sort of stretcher,
+it would be easy enough."
+
+Rujub took the cloth from his shoulders, and laid it on the ground
+by the side of Isobel, who had now sunk down and was lying helpless.
+
+"Lift her onto this, sahib, then we will take the four corners and
+carry her; it will be no weight."
+
+Bathurst lifted Isobel, in spite of her feeble protest, and laid
+her on the cloth.
+
+"I will take the two corners by her head," Bathurst said, "if you
+will each take one of the others."
+
+"No, sahib, the weight is all at the head; you take one corner,
+and I will take the other. Rabda can take the two corners at the
+feet. We can change about when we like."
+
+Isobel had lost greatly in weight since the siege of Deennugghur
+began, and she was but a light burden for her three bearers, who
+started with her at a speed considerably greater than that at which
+she had walked.
+
+"Which way are you taking us, Rujub?" Bathurst asked presently; "I
+have lost my bearings altogether."
+
+"I am keeping near the river, sahib. I know the country well. We
+cannot follow the road, for there the Rajah's troops and the Sepoys
+and the Oude men are gathered to oppose your people. They will fight
+tomorrow at Dong, as I told you, but the main body is not far from
+here. We must keep far away from them, and if your people take Dong
+we can then join them if we like. This road keeps near the river
+all the way, and we are not likely to meet Sepoys here, as it is
+by the other road the white troops are coming up."
+
+After four hours' walking, Rujub said, "There is a large wood just
+ahead. We will go in there. We are far enough off Cawnpore to be
+safe from any parties they may send out to search. If your people
+take Dong tomorrow, they will have enough to think of in Cawnpore
+without troubling about an escaped prisoner. Besides," he added,
+"if the Rajah's orders are carried out, at daybreak they will not
+know that a prisoner has escaped; they will not trouble to count."
+
+"I cannot believe it possible they will carry out such a butchery,
+Rujub."
+
+"We shall see, sahib. I did not tell you all I knew lest we should
+fail to carry off the lady, but I know the orders that have been
+given. Word has been sent round to the butchers of the town, and
+tomorrow morning soon after daybreak it will be done."
+
+Bathurst gave an exclamation of horror, for until now he had hardly
+believed it was possible that even Nana Sahib could perpetrate so
+atrocious a massacre. Not another word was spoken until they entered
+the wood.
+
+"Where is the river, Rujub?"
+
+"A few hundred yards to the left, sahib; the road is half a mile
+to the right. We shall be quite safe here."
+
+They made their way for some little distance into the wood, and
+then laid down their burden.
+
+They had taken to the spot where Rabda remained when the others
+went forward towards the prison a basket containing food and three
+bottles of wine, and this Rujub had carried since they started
+together. As soon as the hammock was lowered to the ground, Isobel
+moved and sat up.
+
+"I am rested now. Oh, how good you have all been! I was just going
+to tell you that I could walk again. I am quite ready to go on
+now."
+
+"We are going to halt here till tomorrow evening, Miss Hannay;
+Rujub thinks we are quite beyond any risk of pursuit now. You must
+first eat and drink something, and then sleep as long as you can.
+Rabda has brought a native dress for you and dye for staining your
+skin, but there is no occasion for doing that till tomorrow; the
+river is only a short distance away, and in the morning you will
+be able to enjoy a wash."
+
+The neck was knocked off a bottle. Rabda had brought in the basket
+a small silver cup, and Isobel, after drinking some wine and eating
+a few mouthfuls of food, lay down by her and was soon fast asleep.
+Bathurst ate a much more hearty meal. Rujub and his daughter said
+that they did not want anything before morning.
+
+The sun was high before Bathurst woke. Rujub had lighted a fire,
+and was boiling some rice in a lota.
+
+"Where is Miss Hannay?" Bathurst asked, as he sat up.
+
+"She has gone down to the river with Rabda. The trees hang down
+well over the water, and they can wash without fear of being seen
+on the opposite shore. I was going to wake you when the lady got
+up, but she made signs that you were to be allowed to sleep on."
+
+In half an hour the two girls returned. Isobel was attired in a
+native dress, and her face, neck, arms, feet, and ankles had been
+stained to the same color as Rabda's. She came forward a little
+timidly, for she felt strange and uncomfortable in her scanty
+attire. Bathurst gave an exclamation of pain as he saw her face.
+
+"How dreadfully, you have burnt yourself, Miss Hannay; surely you
+cannot have followed the instructions I gave you."
+
+"No; it is not your fault at all, Mr. Bathurst; I put a great deal
+more on than you said, but I was so anxious to disfigure myself
+that I was determined to do it thoroughly; but it is nothing to
+what it was. As you see, my lips are getting all right again, and
+the sores are a good deal better than they were; I suppose they
+will leave scars, but that won't trouble me."
+
+"It is the pain you must have suffered that I am thinking of," he
+replied. "As to the scars, I hope they will wear out in time; you
+must indeed have suffered horribly."
+
+"They burnt dreadfully for a time," the girl answered; "but for the
+last two or three days I have hardly felt it, though, of course,
+it is very sore still."
+
+"Do you feel ready for breakfast, Miss Hannay?"
+
+"Quite ready, and for a walk as long as you like afterwards. I
+feel quite another creature after my dip. That was one of the worst
+things in the prison. We had scarcely water enough to drink, and
+none to wash with, and, of course, no combs nor anything."
+
+They sat down together and ate the cold food they had brought,
+while Rabda and her father made their breakfast of rice.
+
+"What has become of Mr. Wilson?" Isobel asked suddenly. "I wondered
+about him as I was being carried along last night, but I was too
+tired to talk afterwards."
+
+"I hope he is either safe at Allahabad by this time, or is with
+the troops marching up. The Zemindar's son, who came down with us
+as an escort, and one of his men got safely to shore also, and they
+went on with Wilson. When he found I was going to stay at Cawnpore
+to try and rescue you, he pleaded very hard that I should keep
+him with me in order that he might share in the attempt, but his
+ignorance of the language might have been fatal, and his being with
+me would have greatly added to the difficulty, so I was obliged to
+refuse him. It was only because I told him that instead of adding
+to, he would lessen your chance of escape, that he consented to go,
+for I am sure he would willingly have laid down his life to save
+yours."
+
+"I am very glad he is safe; he is very kind hearted and nice, Mr.
+Bathurst, and a thoroughly natural, unaffected young fellow, very
+loyal and stanch. I am quite sure he would have done anything he
+could, even at the risk of his life."
+
+"I like him very much, too, Miss Hannay. Before the siege I thought
+him a careless, happy go lucky lad, but as I got to know him well,
+I found he was much more than that, and he will make a good man
+and an excellent officer one of these days if he is spared. He is
+thoroughly brave without the slightest brag--an excellent specimen
+of the best class of public school boy."
+
+"And who are the troops coming up, Mr. Bathurst? How strong are
+they? I have heard nothing about them."
+
+"About twelve hundred white troops and four or five hundred Sikhs;
+at least that is what the natives put them at."
+
+"But surely they will never be able to fight their way to Cawnpore,
+where there are the mutineers and Nana Sahib's troops and the
+Oude men and the people of the town. Why, there must be ten to one
+against them."
+
+"Not far short of that, I think, but I feel sure our men will do it.
+They know of the treachery of the Nana, they know of the massacre
+by the river, and they know that the women and children are prisoners
+in his hands, and do you think that men who know these things can
+be beaten? The Sepoys met them in superior force and in a strong
+position at Futtehpore, and they drove them before them like chaff.
+They will have harder work next time, but I have no shadow of fear
+of the result."
+
+Then their talk went back to Deennugghur and of their friends there
+--the Doolans, the Hunters, the Rintouls, and others--and Isobel
+wept freely over their fate.
+
+"Next to my uncle I shall miss the Doctor," she said.
+
+"He was an awfully good fellow," Bathurst said, "and was the only
+real friend I have had since I came to India, I would have done
+anything for him."
+
+"When shall we start?" Isobel asked presently.
+
+"Directly the sun goes down a little. You would find it terribly
+hot now. I have been talking it over with Rujub, and he says it
+is better not to make a long journey today. We are not more than
+twenty miles from Dong, and it would not do to move in that direction
+until we know how things have gone; therefore, if we start at three
+o'clock and walk till seven or eight, it will be quite far enough."
+
+"He seems a wonderful man," said Isobel. "You remember that talk
+we had at dinner, before we went to see him at the Hunters!"
+
+"Yes," he said. "As you know, I was a believer then, and so was
+the Doctor. I need not say that I believe still more now that these
+men do wholly unaccountable feats. He put the sentry outside the
+walls of your prison and five out of your eight warders so sound
+asleep that they did not wake during the struggle I had with the
+others. That, of course, was mesmerism. His messages to you were
+actually sent by means of his daughter. She was put in a sort of
+trance, in which she saw you and told us what you were doing, and
+communicated the message her father gave her to you. He could not
+send you a message nor tell me about you when you were first at
+Bithoor, because he said Rabda was not in sympathy with you, but
+after she had seen you and touched you and you had kissed her,
+she was able to do so. There does not appear to me to be anything
+beyond the powers of nature in that, though doubtless powers were
+called into play of which at present we know nothing. But we do
+know that minds act upon each other. Possibly certain persons in
+sympathy with each other may be able to act upon each other from a
+distance, especially when thrown into the sort of trance which is
+known as the clairvoyant state. I always used to look upon that as
+humbug, but I need hardly say I shall in future be ready to believe
+almost anything. He professes to have other and even greater
+powers than what we have seen. At any rate, he can have no motive
+in deceiving me when he has risked his life to help me. Do you
+know, Rabda offered to go into the prison--her father could have
+got her an order to pass in--and then to let you go out in her
+dress while she remained in your stead. I could not accept the
+sacrifice even to save you, and I was sure had I done so you yourself
+would have refused to leave."
+
+"Of course. But how good of her. Please tell her that you have told
+me, and how grateful I am for her offer."
+
+Bathurst called Rabda, who was sitting a short distance away.
+
+She took the hand that Isobel held out to her and placed it against
+her forehead.
+
+"My life is yours, sahib," she said simply to Bathurst. "It was
+right that I should give it for this lady you love."
+
+"What does she say?" Isobel asked.
+
+"She says that she owed me her life for that tiger business, you
+know, and was ready to give it for you because I had set my mind
+on saving you."
+
+"Is that what she really said, Mr. Bathurst?" Isobel asked quietly,
+for he had hesitated a little in changing its wording.
+
+"That was the sense of it, I can assure you. Not only was she ready
+to make the sacrifice, but her father consented to her doing so.
+These Hindoos are capable of gratitude, you see. There are not many
+English who would be ready thus to sacrifice themselves for a man
+who had accidentally, as I may say, saved their lives."
+
+"Not accidentally, Mr. Bathurst. Why do you always try to run
+yourself down? I suppose you will say next you saved my life by an
+accident."
+
+"The saving of your life is due chiefly to these natives."
+
+"But they were only your instruments, Mr. Bathurst; they had no
+interest in saving me. You had bought their services at the risk
+of your life, and in saving me they were paying that debt to you."
+
+At three o'clock they prepared for the start. Bathurst had exchanged
+the warder's dress for one of a peasant, which they had brought
+with them. The woods were of no great width, and Rujub said they
+had better follow the road now.
+
+"No one will suspect us of being anything but what we seem," he
+said. "Should we meet any peasants, their talk will be with you and
+me. They will ask no questions about the women; but if there is a
+woman among them, and she speaks, Rabda will answer her."
+
+For hours they had heard dull sounds in the air, which Bathurst
+had recognized at once as distant artillery, showing that the fight
+was going on near Dong.
+
+"The Sepoys are making a stout resistance, or the firing would not
+last so long," he said to Rujub, as they walked through the wood
+towards the road.
+
+"They have two positions to defend, sahib. The Nana's men will
+fight first at a strong village two miles beyond Dong; if they are
+beaten there, they will fight again at the bridge I told you of."
+
+"That would partly account for it; but the Sepoys must be fighting
+much better than they did at Futtehpore, for there, as you said,
+the white troops swept the Sepoys before them."
+
+When they reached the edge of the wood Bathurst said, "I will see
+that the road is clear before we go out. If anyone saw us issuing
+out of the wood they might wonder what we had been after."
+
+He went to the edge of the bushes and looked down the long straight
+road. There was only a solitary figure in sight. It seemed to be
+an old man walking lame with a stick. Bathurst was about to turn
+and tell the others to come out, when he saw the man stop suddenly,
+turn round to look back along the road, stand with his head bent
+as if listening, then run across the road with much more agility
+than he had before seemed to possess, and plunge in among the trees.
+
+"Wait," he said to those behind him, "something is going on. A
+peasant I saw in the road has suddenly dived into the wood as if
+he was afraid of being pursued. Ah!" he exclaimed a minute later,
+"there is a party of horsemen coming along at a gallop--get
+farther back into the wood."
+
+Presently they heard the rapid trampling of horses, and looking
+through the bushes they saw some twenty sowars of one of the native
+cavalry regiments dash past.
+
+Bathurst went to the edge of the wood again, and looked out. Then
+he turned suddenly to Isobel.
+
+"You remember those pictures on the smoke?" he said excitedly.
+
+"No, I do not remember them," she said, in surprise. "I have often
+wondered at it, but I have never been able to recollect what they
+were since that evening. I have often thought they were just like
+dreams, where one sees everything just as plainly as if it were
+a reality, and then go out of your mind altogether as soon as you
+are awake."
+
+"It has been just the same with me," replied Bathurst, "except
+that once or twice they have come back for a moment quite vividly.
+One of them I have not thought of for some days, but now I see it
+again. Don't you remember there was a wood, and a Hindoo man and
+woman stepped out of it, and a third native came up to them?"
+
+"Yes, I remember now," she said eagerly; "it was just as we are
+here; but what of that, Mr. Bathurst?"
+
+"Did you recognize any of them?"
+
+"Yes, yes, it all comes back to me now. It was you and the Doctor,
+certainly, and I thought the woman was myself. I spoke to the
+Doctor next day about it, but he laughed at it all, and I have
+never thought of it since."
+
+"The Doctor and I agreed, when we talked it over that evening, that
+the Hindoo who stepped out of the wood was myself, and thought that
+you were the Hindoo girl, but of that we were not so sure, for your
+face seemed not only darkened, but blotched and altered--it was
+just as you are now--and the third native was the Doctor himself;
+we both felt certain of that. It has come true, and I feel absolutely
+certain that the native I saw along the road will turn out to be
+the Doctor."
+
+"Oh, I hope so, I hope so!" the girl cried, and pressed forward
+with Bathurst to the edge of the wood.
+
+The old native was coming along on the road again. As he approached,
+his eye fell on the two figures, and with a Hindoo salutation he
+was passing on, when Isobel cried, "It is the Doctor!" and rushing
+forward she threw her arms round his neck.
+
+"Isobel Hannay!" he cried in delight and amazement; "my dear little
+girl, my dear little girl, thank God you are saved; but what have
+you been doing with yourself, and who is this with you?"
+
+"You knew me when you saw me in the picture on the smoke, Doctor,"
+Bathurst said, grasping his hand, "though you do not know me in
+life."
+
+"You, too, Bathurst!" the Doctor exclaimed, as he wrung his hand;
+"thank God for that, my dear boy; to think that both of you should
+have been saved--it seems a miracle. The picture on the smoke?
+Yes, we were speaking of it that last night at Deennugghur, and I
+never have thought of it since. Is there anyone else?"
+
+"My friend the juggler and his daughter are with us, Doctor."
+
+"Then I can understand the miracle," the Doctor said, "for I believe
+that fellow could take you through the air and carry you through
+stone walls with a wave of his hand."
+
+"Well, he has not exactly done that, but he and his daughter have
+rendered us immense service. I could have done nothing without
+them."
+
+The two natives, seeing through the bushes the recognition that
+had taken place, had now stepped forward and salaamed as the Doctor
+spoke a few hearty words to them.
+
+"But where have you sprung from, Doctor? How were you saved?"
+
+"I jumped overboard when those scoundrels opened fire," the Doctor
+said. "I kept my wits about me, and said to myself that if I were
+to swim for the opposite shore the chances were that I should get
+shot down, so I made a long dive, came up for air, and then went
+down again, and came up the next time under some bushes by the
+bank; there I remained all night. The villains were only a few yards
+away, and I could hear every word they said. I heard the boat come
+ashore, and although I could have done no good by rushing out, I
+think I should have done so if I had had any weapon about me, and
+have tried to kill one or two of them before I went down. As it
+was, I waited until morning. Then I heard the rumble of the guns
+and the wagons, and knew that they were off. I waited for another
+hour to make sure, and then stepped ashore. I went to the boat lying
+by the bank. When I saw that Isobel and the other two ladies were
+not there, I knew that they must have been carried off into Cawnpore.
+I waited there until night, and then made my way to a peasant's house
+a mile out of the town. I had operated upon him for elephantiasis
+two years ago, and the man had shown himself grateful, and had
+occasionally sent me in little presents of fowls and so on. He
+received me well, gave me food, which I wanted horribly, stained my
+skin, and rigged me out in this disguise. The next morning I went
+into the town, and for the last four or five days have wandered
+about there. There was nothing I could do, and yet I felt that I
+could not go away, but must stay within sight of the prison where
+you were all confined till our column arrived. But this morning I
+determined to come down to join our people who are fighting their
+way up, little thinking that I should light upon you by the way."
+
+"We were just going to push on, Doctor; but as you have had a good
+long tramp already, we will stop here until tomorrow morning, if
+you like."
+
+"No, no, let us go on, Bathurst. I would rather be on the move,
+and you can tell me your story as we go."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+Bathurst knew the Doctor well, and perceived that glad as he was
+to have met them, he was yet profoundly depressed in spirits. This,
+added to the fact that he had left Cawnpore that morning, instead
+of waiting as he had intended, convinced Bathurst that what he dreaded
+had taken place. He waited until Isobel stopped for a moment, that
+Rabda might rearrange the cloth folded round her in its proper
+draping. Then he said quickly, "I heard yesterday what was intended,
+Doctor. Is it possible that it has been done?"
+
+"It was done this morning."
+
+"What, all? Surely not all, Doctor?"
+
+"Every soul--every woman and child. Think of it--the fiends!
+the devils! The native brought me the news. If I had heard it in
+the streets of Cawnpore I should have gone mad and seized a sword
+and run amuck. As it was, I was well nigh out of mind. I could not
+stay there. The man would have sheltered me until the troops came
+up, but I was obliged to be moving, so I started down. Hush! here
+comes Isobel; we must keep it from her."
+
+"Now, Isobel," he went on, as the girl joined them, and they all
+started along the road, "tell me how it is I find you here."
+
+"Mr. Bathurst must tell you, Doctor; I cannot talk about it yet--
+I can hardly think about it."
+
+"Well, Bathurst, let us hear it from you."
+
+"It is a painful story for me to have to tell."
+
+Isobel looked up in surprise.
+
+"Painful, Mr. Bathurst? I should have thought--" and she stopped.
+
+"Not all painful, Miss Hannay, but in parts. I would rather tell
+you, Doctor, when we have finished our journey this evening, if
+your curiosity will allow you to wait so long."
+
+"I will try to wait," the Doctor replied, "though I own it is a
+trial. Now, Isobel, you have not told me yet what has happened to
+your face. Let me look at it closer, child. I see your arms are
+bad, too. What on earth has happened to you?"
+
+
+"I burnt myself with acid, Doctor. Mr. Bathurst will tell you all
+about it."
+
+"Bless me, mystery seems to thicken. Well, you have got yourself
+into a pretty pickle. Why, child, burns of that sort leave scars
+as bad as if you had been burnt by fire. You ought to be in a dark
+room with your face and hands bandaged, instead of tramping along
+here in the sun."
+
+"I have some lotions and some ointment, Doctor. I have used them
+regularly since it was done, and the places don't hurt me much
+now."
+
+"No, they look healthy enough," he said, examining them closely.
+"Granulation is going on nicely; but I warn you you will be disfigured
+for months, and it may be years before you get rid of the scars. I
+doubt, indeed, if you will ever get rid of them altogether. Well,
+well, what shall we talk about?"
+
+"I will take pity on you, Doctor. I will walk on ahead with Rabda
+and her father, and Mr. Bathurst can then tell you his story."
+
+"That will be the best plan, my dear. Now then, Bathurst, fire
+away," he said, when the others had gone on thirty or forty yards
+ahead.
+
+"Well, Doctor, you remember that you were forward talking to the
+young Zemindar, and I was sitting aft by the side of Miss Hannay,
+when they opened fire?"
+
+"I should think I do remember it," the Doctor said, "and I am not
+likely to forget it if I live to be a hundred. Well, what about
+that?"
+
+"I jumped overboard," Bathurst said, laying his hand impressively
+upon the Doctor's shoulder. "I gave a cry, I know I did, and I
+jumped overboard."
+
+The Doctor looked at him in astonishment.
+
+"Well, so did I, like a shot. But what do you say it in that tone
+for? Of course you jumped overboard. If you hadn't you would not
+be here now."
+
+"You don't understand me, Doctor," Bathurst said gloomily. "I was
+sitting there next to Isobel Hannay--the woman I loved. We were
+talking in low tones, and I don't know why, but at that moment
+the mad thought was coming into my mind that, after all, she cared
+for me, that in spite of the disgrace I had brought upon myself,
+in spite of being a coward, she might still be mine; and as I was
+thinking this there came the crash of a cannon. Can it be imagined
+possible that I jumped up like a frightened hare, and without
+a thought of her, without a thought of anything in my mad terror,
+jumped overboard and left her behind to her fate? If it had not
+been that as soon as I recovered my senses--I was hit on the head
+just as I landed, and knew nothing of what happened until I found
+myself in the bushes with young Wilson by my side--the thought
+occurred to me that I would rescue her or die in the attempt, I
+would have blown out my brains."
+
+"But, bless my heart, Bathurst," the Doctor said earnestly, "what
+else could you have done? Why, I jumped overboard without stopping to
+think, and so did everyone else who had power to do so, no doubt.
+What good could you have done if you had stayed? What good would
+it have done to the girl if you had been killed? Why, if you had
+been killed, she would now be lying mangled and dead with the others
+in that ghastly prison. You take too morbid a view of this matter
+altogether."
+
+"There was no reason why you should not have jumped overboard,
+Doctor, nor the others. Don't you see I was with the woman I loved?
+I might have seized her in my arms and jumped overboard with her,
+and swam ashore with her, or I might have stayed and died with her.
+I thought of my own wretched life, and I deserted her."
+
+"My dear Bathurst, you did not think of your life. I don't think
+any of us stopped to think of anything; but, constituted as you
+are, the impulse must have been overpowering. It is nonsense your
+taking this matter to heart. Why, man, if you had stopped, you
+would have been murdered when the boat touched the shore, and do
+you think it would have made her happier to have seen you killed
+before her eyes? If you had swam ashore with her, the chances are
+she would have been killed by that volley of grape, for I saw eight
+or ten bodies lying on the sands, and you yourself were, you say,
+hit. You acted upon impulse, I grant, but it was upon a wise impulse.
+You did the very best thing that could have been done, and your
+doing so made it possible that Isobel Hannay should be rescued from
+what would otherwise have been certain death."
+
+"It has turned out so, Doctor," Bathurst said gloomily, "and I
+thank God that she is saved. But that does not alter the fact that
+I, an English gentleman by birth, thought only of myself, and left
+the woman I loved, who was sitting by my side, to perish. But do
+not let us talk any more about it. It is done and over. There is
+an end of it. Now I will tell you the story."
+
+The Doctor listened silently until he heard of Isobel's being taken
+to Bithoor. "The atrocious villain!" he exclaimed. "I have been
+lamenting the last month that I never poisoned the fellow, and now
+--but go on, go on. How on earth did you get her away?"
+
+Bathurst told the whole story, interrupted by many exclamations
+of approval by the Doctor; especially when he learned why Isobel
+disfigured herself.
+
+"Well done!" he exclaimed; "I always knew that she was a plucky
+girl, and it needed courage, I can tell you, to burn herself as she
+has done, to say nothing of risking spoiling her beauty for life.
+No slight sacrifice for a woman."
+
+Bathurst passed lightly over his fight in the courtyard, but the
+Doctor questioned him as to the exact facts.
+
+"Not so bad for a coward, Bathurst," he said dryly.
+
+"There was no noise," Bathurst said; "if they had had pistols, and
+had used them, it might have been different. Heaven knows, but
+I don't think that then, with her life at stake, I should have
+flinched; I had made up my mind they would have pistols, but I hope
+--I think that my nerves would not have given way then."
+
+"I am sure they wouldn't, Bathurst. Well, go on with your story."
+
+"Well, how did you feel then?" he asked, when Bathurst described
+how the guard rushed in through the gate firing, "for it is the
+noise, and not the danger, that upsets you?"
+
+"I did not even think of it," Bathurst said, in some surprise.
+"Now you mention it, I am astonished that I was not for a minute
+paralyzed, as I always am, but I did not feel anything of the sort;
+they rushed in firing as I told you, and directly they had gone I
+took her hand and we ran out together."
+
+"I think it quite possible, Bathurst, that your nervousness may
+have gone forever. Now that once you have heard guns fired close to
+you without your nerves giving way as usual, it is quite possible
+that you might do so again. I don't say that you would, but it
+is possible, indeed it seems to me to be probable. It may be that
+the sudden shock when you jumped into the water, acting upon your
+nerves when in a state of extreme tension, may have set them right,
+and that bullet graze along the top of the skull may have aided the
+effect of the shock. Men frequently lose their nerve after a heavy
+fall from a horse, or a sudden attack by a tiger, or any other
+unexpected shock. It may be that with you it has had the reverse
+consequence."
+
+"I hope to God that it may be so, Doctor," Bathurst said, with deep
+earnestness. "It is certainly extraordinary I should not have felt
+it when they fired within a few feet of my head. If we get down
+to Allahabad I will try. I will place myself near a gun when it is
+going to be fired; and if I stand that I will come up again and join
+this column as a volunteer, and take part in the work of vengeance.
+If I can but once bear my part as a man, they are welcome to kill
+me in the next engagement."
+
+"Pooh! pooh! man. You are not born to be killed in battle. After
+making yourself a target on the roof at Deennugghur, and jumping
+down in the middle of the Sepoys in the breach, and getting through
+that attack in the boats, I don't think you are fated to meet your
+end with a bullet. Well, now let us walk on, and join the others.
+Isobel must be wondering how much longer we are going to talk
+together. She cannot exchange a word with the natives; it must be
+dull work for her. She is a great deal thinner than she was before
+these troubles came on. You see how differently she walks. She
+has quite lost that elastic step of hers, but I dare say that is a
+good deal due to her walking with bare feet instead of in English
+boots--boots have a good deal to do with a walk. Look at the
+difference between the walk of a gentleman who has always worn
+well fitting boots and that of a countryman who has gone about in
+thick iron shod boots all his life. Breeding goes for something,
+no doubt, and alters a man's walk just as it alters a horse's gait."
+
+Bathurst could not help laughing at the Doctor dropping into his
+usual style of discussing things.
+
+"Are your feet feeling tender, Isobel?" the latter asked cheerfully,
+as he overtook those in front.
+
+"No, Doctor," she said, with a smile; "I don't know that I was ever
+thankful for dust before, but I am now; it is so soft that it is
+like walking on a carpet, but, of course, it feels very strange."
+
+"You have only to fancy, my dear, that you are by the seaside,
+walking down from your bathing machine across the sands; once get
+that in your mind and you will get perfectly comfortable."
+
+"It requires too great a stretch of the imagination, Doctor, to
+think for a moment, in this sweltering heat, that I am enjoying a
+sea breeze on our English coast. It is silly, of course, to give
+it even a thought, when one is accustomed to see almost every woman
+without shoes. I think I should mind it more than I do if my feet
+were not stained. I don't know why, but I should. But please don't
+talk about it. I try to forget it, and to fancy that I am really
+a native."
+
+They met but few people on the road. Those they did meet passed
+them with the usual salutation. There was nothing strange in a
+party of peasants passing along the road. They might have been at
+work at Cawnpore, and be now returning to their native village to
+get away from the troubles there. After it became dark they went
+into a clump of trees half a mile distant from a village they could
+see along the road.
+
+"I will go in," Rujub said, "and bring some grain, and hear what
+the news is."
+
+He returned in an hour. "The English have taken Dong," he said;
+"the news came in two hours ago. There has been some hard fighting;
+the Sepoys resisted stoutly at the village, even advancing beyond
+the inclosures to meet the British. They were driven back by the
+artillery and rifle fire, but held the village for some time before
+they were turned out. There was a stand made at the Pandoo Bridge,
+but it was a short one. The force massed there fell back at once
+when the British infantry came near enough to rush forward at the
+charge, and in their hurry they failed to blow up the bridge."
+
+A consultation was held as to whether they should try to join the
+British, but it was decided that as the road down to Allahabad
+would be rendered safe by their advance, it would be better to keep
+straight on.
+
+The next day they proceeded on their journey, walking in the early
+morning, halting as soon as the sun had gained much power, and going
+on again in the cool of the evening. After three days' walking they
+reached the fort of Allahabad. It was crowded with ladies who had
+come in from the country round. Most of the men were doing duty with
+the garrison, but some thirty had gone up with Havelock's column
+as volunteer cavalry, his force being entirely deficient in that
+arm.
+
+As soon as the Doctor explained who they were, they were received
+with the greatest kindness, and Isobel was at once carried off by
+the ladies, while Bathurst and the Doctor were surrounded by an
+eager group anxious to hear the state of affairs at Cawnpore, and
+how they had escaped. The news of the fighting at Dong was already
+known; for on the evening of the day of the fight Havelock had
+sent down a mounted messenger to say the resistance was proving so
+severe that he begged some more troops might be sent up. As all was
+quiet now at Allahabad, where there had at first been some fierce
+fighting, General Neil, who was in command there, had placed two
+hundred and thirty men of the 84th Regiment in bullock vans, and
+had himself gone on with them.
+
+The Doctor had decided to keep the news of the massacre to himself.
+
+"They will know it before many hours are over, Bathurst," he said;
+"and were I to tell them, half of them wouldn't believe me, and
+the other half would pester my life out with questions. There is
+never any occasion to hurry in telling bad news."
+
+The first inquiry of Bathurst and his friends had been for Wilson,
+and they found to their great pleasure that he had arrived in safety,
+and had gone up with the little body of cavalry. Captain Forster,
+whom they next asked for, had not reached Allahabad, and no news
+had been heard of him.
+
+"What are you going to do, Rujub?" Bathurst asked the native next
+morning.
+
+"I shall go to Patna," he said. "I have friends there, and I shall
+remain in the city until these troubles are over. I believe now
+that you were right, sahib, although I did not think so when you
+spoke, and that the British Raj will be restored. I thought, as did
+the Sepoys, that they were a match for the British troops. I see
+now that I was wrong. But there is a tremendous task before them.
+There is all Oude and the Northwest to conquer, and fully two hundred
+thousand men in arms against them, but I believe that they will do
+it. They are a great people, and now I do not wish it otherwise.
+This afternoon I shall start."
+
+The Doctor, who had found many acquaintances in Allahabad, had
+no difficulty in obtaining money from the garrison treasury, and
+Bathurst and Isobel purchased the two handsomest bracelets they
+could obtain from the ladies in the fort as a souvenir for Rabda,
+and gave them to her with the heartiest expressions of their deep
+gratitude to her and her father.
+
+"I shall think of you always, Rabda," Isobel said, "and shall be
+grateful to the end of my life for the kindness that you have done
+us. Your father has given us your address at Patna, and I shall
+write to you often."
+
+"I shall never forget you, lady; and even the black water will not
+quite separate us. As I knew how you were in prison, so I shall know
+how you are in your home in England. What we have done is little.
+Did not the sahib risk his life for me? My father and I will never
+forget what we owe him. I am glad to know that you will make him
+happy."
+
+This was said in the room that had been allotted to Isobel, an ayah
+of one of the ladies in the fort acting as interpreter. The girl
+had woke up in the morning flushed and feverish, and the Doctor,
+when sent for, told her she must keep absolutely quiet.
+
+"I am afraid I am going to have her on my hands for a bit," he
+said to Bathurst. "She has borne the strain well, but she looks to
+me as if she was going to have a smart attack of fever. It is well
+that we got her here before it showed itself. You need not look
+scared; it is just the reaction. If it had been going to be brain
+fever or anything of that sort, I should have expected her to break
+down directly you got her out. No, I don't anticipate anything
+serious, and I am sure I hope that it won't be so. I have put my
+name down to go up with the next batch of volunteers. Doctors will
+be wanted at the front, and I hope to have a chance of wiping out
+my score with some of those scoundrels. However, though I think
+she is going to be laid up, I don't fancy it will last many days."
+
+That afternoon a messenger from Havelock brought down the terrible
+news that they had fought their way to Cawnpore, only to find that
+the whole of the ladies and children in the Subada Ke Kothee had
+been massacred, and their bodies thrown down a well. The grief and
+indignation caused by the news were terrible; scarce one but had
+friends among the prisoners. Women wept; men walked up and down,
+wild with fury at being unable to do aught at present to avenge
+the massacre.
+
+"What are you going to do, Bathurst?" the Doctor asked that evening.
+"I suppose you have some sort of plan?"
+
+"I do not know yet. In the first place, I want to try whether what
+you said the other day is correct, and if I can stand the noise of
+firing without flinching."
+
+"We can't try here in the fort," the Doctor said, full of interest
+in the experiment; "a musket shot would throw the whole garrison
+into confusion, and at present no one can go far from the gate;
+however, there may be a row before long, and then you will have
+an opportunity of trying. If there is not, we will go out together
+half a mile or so as soon as some more troops get up. You said,
+when we were talking about it at Deennugghur, you should resign
+your appointment and go home, but if you find your nerves are all
+right you may change your mind about that. How about the young lady
+in there?"
+
+"Well, Doctor, I should say that you, as her father's friend, are
+the person to make arrangements for her. Just at present travel
+is not very safe, but I suppose that directly things quiet down a
+little many of the ladies will be going down to the coast, and no
+doubt some of them would take charge of Miss Hannay back to England."
+
+"And you mean to have nothing to say in the matter?"
+
+"Nothing at all," he said firmly. "I have already told you my views
+on the subject."
+
+"Well, then," the Doctor said hotly, "I regard you as an ass." And
+without another word he walked off in great anger.
+
+For the next four or five days Isobel was in a high state of fever;
+it passed off as the Doctor had predicted it would do, but left
+her very weak and languid. Another week and she was about again.
+
+"What is Mr. Bathurst going to do?" she asked the Doctor the first
+day she was up on a couch.
+
+"I don't know what he is going to do, my dear," he said irritably;
+"my opinion of Bathurst is that he is a fool."
+
+"Oh, Doctor, how can you say so!" she exclaimed in astonishment;
+"why, what has he done?"
+
+"It isn't what he has done, but what he won't do, my dear. Here he
+is in love with a young woman in every way suitable, and who is
+ready to say yes whenever he asks her, and he won't ask, and is
+not going to ask, because of a ridiculous crotchet he has got in
+his head."
+
+Isobel flushed and then grew pale.
+
+"What is the crotchet?" she asked, in a low tone, after being silent
+for some time.
+
+"What do you think, my dear? He is more disgusted with himself than
+ever."
+
+"Not about that nervousness, surely," Isobel said, "after all he
+has done and the way he has risked his life? Surely that cannot be
+troubling him?"
+
+"It is, my dear; not so much on the general as on a particular
+ground. He insists that by jumping out of the boat when that fire
+began, he has done for himself altogether."
+
+"But what could he have done, Doctor?"
+
+"That's what I ask him, my dear. He insists that he ought to either
+have seized you and jumped overboard with you, in which case you
+would both probably have been killed, as I pointed out to him, or
+else stayed quietly with you by your side, in which case, as I also
+pointed out to him, you would have had the satisfaction of seeing
+him murdered. He could not deny that this would have been so, but
+that in no way alters his opinion of his own conduct. I also ventured
+to point out to him that if he had been killed, you would at this
+moment be either in the power of that villainous Nana, or be with
+hundreds of others in that ghastly well at Cawnpore. I also observed
+to him that I, who do not regard myself as a coward, also jumped
+overboard from your boat, and that Wilson, who is certainly a
+plucky young fellow, and a number of others, jumped over from the
+other boat; but I might as well have talked to a post."
+
+Isobel sat for some time silent, her fingers playing nervously with
+each other.
+
+"Of course it seems foolish of him to think of it so strongly, but
+I don't think it is unnatural he should feel as he does."
+
+"May I ask why?" the Doctor said sarcastically.
+
+"I mean, Doctor, it would be foolish of other people, but I don't
+think it is foolish of him. Of course he could have done no good
+staying in the boat--he would have simply thrown away his life;
+and yet I think, I feel sure, that there are many men who would
+have thrown away their lives in such a case. Even at that moment
+of terror I felt a pang, when, without a word, he sprang overboard.
+I thought of it many times that long night, in spite of my grief
+for my uncle and the others, and my horror of being a prisoner in
+the hands of the Sepoys. I did not blame him, because I knew how
+he must have felt, and that it was done in a moment of panic. I was
+not so sorry for myself as for him, for I knew that if he escaped,
+the thought of that moment would be terrible for him. I need not
+say that in my mind the feeling that he should not have left me so
+has been wiped out a thousand times by what he did afterwards, by
+the risk he ran for me, and the infinite service he rendered me by
+saving me from a fate worse than death. But I can enter into his
+feelings. Most men would have jumped over just as he did, and would
+never have blamed themselves even if they had at once started away
+down the country to save their own lives, much less if they had
+stopped to save mine as he has done.
+
+"But who can wonder that he is more sensitive than others? Did he
+not hear from you that I said that a coward was contemptible? Did
+not all the men except you and my uncle turn their backs upon him
+and treat him with contempt, in spite of his effort to meet his
+death by standing up on the roof? Think how awfully he must have
+suffered, and then, when it seemed that his intervention, which
+saved our lives, had to some extent won him back the esteem of the
+men around him, that he should so fail again, as he considers, and
+that with me beside him. No wonder that he takes the view he does,
+and that he refuses to consider that even the devotion and courage
+he afterwards showed can redeem what he considers is a disgrace.
+You always said that he was brave, Doctor, and I believe now there
+is no braver man living; but that makes it so much the worse for
+him. A coward would be more than satisfied with himself for what
+he did afterwards, and would regard it as having completely wiped
+out any failing, while he magnifies the failing, such as it was,
+and places but small weight on what he afterwards did. I like him
+all the better for it. I know the fault, if fault it was, and I
+thought it so at the time, was one for which he was not responsible,
+and yet I like him all the better that he feels it so deeply."
+
+"Well, my dear, you had better tell him so," the Doctor said
+dryly. "I really agree with what you say, and you make an excellent
+advocate. I cannot do better than leave the matter in your hands.
+You know, child," he said, changing his tone, "I have from the first
+wished for Bathurst and you to come together, and if you don't do
+so I shall say you are the most wrong headed young people I ever met.
+He loves you, and I don't think there is any question about your
+feelings, and you ought to make matters right somehow. Unfortunately,
+he is a singularly pig headed man when he gets an idea in his mind.
+However, I hope that it will come all right. By the way, he asked
+were you well enough to see him today?"
+
+"I would rather not see him till tomorrow," the girl said.
+
+"And I think too that you had better not see him until tomorrow,
+Isobel. Your cheeks are flushed now, and your hands are trembling,
+and I do not want you laid up again, so I order you to keep yourself
+perfectly quiet for the rest of the day."
+
+But it was not till two days later that Bathurst came up to see
+her.
+
+The spies brought in, late that evening, the news that a small
+party of the Sepoy cavalry, with two guns, were at a village three
+miles on the other side of the town, and were in communication
+with the disaffected. It was decided at once by the officer who
+had succeeded General Neil in the command of the fort that a small
+party of fifty infantry, accompanied by ten or twelve mounted
+volunteers, should go out and attack them. Bathurst sent in his name
+to form one of the party as soon as he learned the news, borrowing
+the horse of an officer who was laid up ill.
+
+The expedition started two hours before daybreak, and, making
+a long detour, fell upon the Sepoys at seven o'clock. The latter,
+who had received news half an hour before of their approach, made
+a stand, relying on their cannon. The infantry, however, moved
+forward in skirmishing order, their fire quickly silenced the guns,
+and they then rushed forward while the little troop of volunteers
+charged.
+
+The fight lasted but a few minutes, at the end of which time the
+enemy galloped off in all directions, leaving their guns in the
+hands of the victors. Four of the infantry had been killed by the
+explosion of a well aimed shell, and five of the volunteers were
+wounded in the hand to hand fight with the sowars. The Sepoys' guns
+and artillery horses had been captured.
+
+The party at once set out on their return. On their way they had
+some skirmishing with the rabble of the town, who had heard the
+firing, but they were beaten off without much difficulty, and the
+victors re-entered the fort in triumph. The Doctor was at the gate
+as they came in. Bathurst sprang from his .horse and held out his
+hand. His radiant face told its own story.
+
+"Thank God, Doctor, it has passed. I don't think my pulse went a
+beat faster when the guns opened on us, and the crackle of our own
+musketry had no more effect. I think it has gone forever."
+
+"I am glad indeed, Bathurst," the Doctor said, warmly grasping his
+hand. "I hoped that it might be so."
+
+"No words can express how grateful I feel," Bathurst said. "The
+cloud that shadowed my life seems lifted, and henceforth I shall
+be able to look a man in the face."
+
+"You are wounded, I see," the Doctor said.
+
+"Yes, I had a pistol ball through my left arm. I fancy the bone is
+broken, but that is of no consequence."
+
+"A broken arm is no trifle," the Doctor said, "especially in a
+climate like this. Come into the hospital at once and let me see
+to it."
+
+One of the bones of the forearm was indeed broken, and the Doctor,
+having applied splints and bandages, peremptorily ordered him to
+lie down. Bathurst protested that he was perfectly able to get up
+with his arm in a sling.
+
+"I know you are able," the Doctor said testily; "but if you were
+to go about in this oven, we should very likely have you in a high
+fever by tomorrow morning. Keep yourself perfectly quiet for today;
+by tomorrow, if you have no signs of fever, and the wound is doing
+well, we will see about it."
+
+Upon leaving him Dr. Wade went out and heard the details of the
+fight.
+
+"Your friend Bathurst particularly distinguished himself," the officer
+who commanded the volunteers said. "He cut down the ressaldar who
+commanded the Sepoys, and was in the thick of it. I saw him run one
+sowar through and shoot another. I am not surprised at his fighting
+so well after what you have gone through in Deennugghur and in that
+Cawnpore business."
+
+The Doctor then went up to see Isobel. She looked flushed and
+excited.
+
+"Is it true, Doctor, that Mr. Bathurst went out with the volunteers,
+and that he is wounded?"
+
+"Both items are true, my dear. Fortunately the wound is not serious.
+A ball has broken the small bone of the left forearm, but I don't
+think it will lay him up for long; in fact, he objects strongly to
+go to bed."
+
+"But how did he--how is it he went out to fight, Doctor? I could
+hardly believe it when I was told, though of course I did not say
+so."
+
+"My dear, it was an experiment. He told me that he did not feel at
+all nervous when the Sepoys rushed in at the gate firing when he
+was walking off with you, and it struck me that possibly the sudden
+shock and the jump into the water when they attacked the boats,
+and that rap on the head with a musket ball, might have affected
+his nervous system, and that he was altogether cured, so he was
+determined on the first occasion to try."
+
+"And did it, Doctor?" Isobel asked eagerly. "I don't care, you
+know, one bit whether he is nervous when there is a noise or not,
+but for his sake I should be glad to know that he has got over it;
+it has made him so unhappy."
+
+"He has got over it, my dear; he went through the fight without
+feeling the least nervous, and distinguished himself very much in
+the charge, as the officer who commanded his troop has just told
+me."
+
+"Oh, I am glad--I am thankful, Doctor; no words can say how pleased
+I am; I know that it would have made his whole life unhappy, and I
+should have always had the thought that he remembered those hateful
+words of mine."
+
+"I am as glad as you are, Isobel, though I fancy it will change
+our plans."
+
+"How change our plans, Doctor? I did not know that I had any plans."
+
+"I think you had, child, though you might not acknowledge them
+even to yourself. My plan was that you should somehow convince him
+that, in spite of what you said, and in spite of his leaving you
+in that boat, you were quite content to take him for better or for
+worse."
+
+"How could I tell him that?" the girl said, coloring.
+
+"Well, I think you would have had to do so somehow, my dear, but
+that is not the question now. My plan was that when you had succeeded
+in doing this you should marry him and go home with him."
+
+"But why, Doctor," she asked, coloring even more hotly than before,
+"is the plan changed?"
+
+"Because, my dear, I don't think Bathurst will go home with you."
+
+"Why not, Doctor?" she asked, in surprise.
+
+"Because, my dear, he will want, in the first place, to rehabilitate
+himself."
+
+"But no one knows, Doctor, about the siege and what happened there,
+except you and me and Mr. Wilson; all the rest have gone."
+
+"That is true, my dear, but he will want to rehabilitate himself
+in his own eyes; and besides, that former affair which first set
+you against him, might crop up at any time. Other civilians, many
+of them, have volunteered in the service, and no man of courage
+would like to go away as long as things are in their present state.
+You will see Bathurst will stay."
+
+Isobel was silent.
+
+"I think he will be right," she said at last gravely; "if he wishes
+to do so, I should not try to dissuade him; it would be very hard
+to know that he is in danger, but no harder for me than for others."
+
+"That is right, my dear," the Doctor said affectionately; "I should
+not wish my little girl--and now the Major has gone I feel that
+you are my little girl--to think otherwise. I think," he went on,
+smiling, "that the first part of that plan we spoke of will not be
+as difficult as I fancied it would be; the sting has gone, and he
+will get rid of his morbid fancies."
+
+"When shall I be able to see him?"
+
+"Well, if I had any authority over him you would not see him for
+a week; as I have not, I think it likely enough that you will see
+him tomorrow."
+
+"I would rather wait if it would do him any harm, Doctor."
+
+"I don't think it will do him any harm. Beyond the fact that he
+will have to carry his arm in a sling for the next fortnight, I
+don't think he will have any trouble with it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+The next morning Bathurst found Isobel Hannay sitting in a shady
+court that had been converted into a sort of general room for the
+ladies in the fort.
+
+"How are you, Miss Hannay? I am glad to see you down."
+
+"I might repeat your words, Mr. Bathurst, for you see we have
+changed places. You are the invalid, and not I."
+
+"There is very little of the invalid about me," he said. "I am glad
+to see that your face is much better than it was."
+
+"Yes, it is healing fast. I am a dreadful figure still; and
+the Doctor says that there will be red scars for months, and that
+probably my face will be always marked."
+
+"The Doctor is a croaker, Miss Hannay; there is no occasion to trust
+him too implicitly. I predict that there will not be any serious
+scars left."
+
+He took a seat beside her. There were two or three others in the
+court, but these were upon the other side, quite out of hearing.
+
+"I congratulate you, Mr. Bathurst," she said quietly, "on yesterday.
+The Doctor has, of course, told me all about it. It can make
+no difference to us who knew you, but I am heartily glad for your
+sake. I can understand how great a difference it must make to you."
+
+"It has made all the difference in the world," he replied. "No one
+can tell the load it has lifted from my mind. I only wish it had
+taken place earlier."
+
+"I know what you mean, Mr. Bathurst; the Doctor has told me about
+that too. You may wish that you had remained in the boat, but it
+was well for me that you did not. You would have lost your life
+without benefiting me. I should be now in the well of Cawnpore, or
+worse, at Bithoor."
+
+"That may be," he said gravely, "but it does not alter the fact."
+
+"I have no reason to know why you consider you should have stopped
+in the boat, Mr. Bathurst," she went on quietly, but with a slight
+flush on her cheek. "I can perhaps guess by what you afterwards
+did for me, by the risks you ran to save me; but I cannot go by
+guesses, I think I have a right to know."
+
+"You are making me say what I did not mean to say," he exclaimed
+passionately, "at least not now; but you do more than guess, you
+know--you know that I love you."
+
+"And what do you know?" she asked softly.
+
+"I know that you ought not to love me." he said. "No woman should
+love a coward."
+
+"I quite agree with you, but then I know that you are not a coward."
+
+"Not when I jumped over and left you alone? It was the act of a
+cur."
+
+"It was an act for which you were not really responsible. Had you
+been able to think, you would not have done so. I do not take the
+view the Doctor does, and I agree with you that a man loving a
+woman should first of all think of her and of her safety. So you
+thought when you could think, but you were no more responsible for
+your action than a madman for a murder committed when in a state
+of frenzy. It was an impulse you could not control. Had you, after
+the impulse had passed, come down here, believing, as you might
+well have believed, that it was absolutely impossible to rescue
+me from my fate, it would have been different. But the moment you
+came to yourself you deliberately took every risk and showed how
+brave you were when master of yourself. I am speaking plainly,
+perhaps more plainly than I ought to. But I should despise myself
+had I not the courage to speak out now when so much is at stake,
+and after all you have done for me.
+
+"You love me?"
+
+"You know that I love you."
+
+"And I love you," the girl said; "more than that, I honor and esteem
+you. I am proud of your love. I am jealous for your honor as for
+my own, and I hold that honor to be spotless. Even now, even with
+my happiness at stake, I could not speak so plainly had I not spoken
+so cruelly and wrongly before. I did not know you then as I know
+you now, but having said what I thought then, I am bound to say
+what I think now, if only as a penance. Did I hesitate to do so,
+I should be less grateful than that poor Indian girl who was ready
+as she said, to give her life for the life you had saved."
+
+"Had you spoken so bravely but two days since," Bathurst said,
+taking her hand, "I would have said. 'I love you too well, Isobel,
+to link your fate to that of a disgraced man.' but now I have it
+in my power to retrieve myself, to wipe out the unhappy memory of
+my first failure, and still more, to restore the self respect which
+I have lost during the last month. But to do so I must stay here:
+I must bear part in the terrible struggle there will be before this
+mutiny is put down, India conquered, and Cawnpore revenged."
+
+"I will not try to prevent you," Isobel said. "I feel it would be
+wrong to do so. I could not honor you as I do, if for my sake you
+turned away now. Even though I knew I should never see you again,
+I would that you had died so, than lived with even the shadow of
+dishonor on your name. I shall suffer, but there are hundreds of
+other women whose husbands, lovers, or sons are in the fray, and
+I shall not flinch more than they do from giving my dearest to the
+work of avenging our murdered friends and winning back India."
+
+So quietly had they been talking that no thought of how momentous
+their conversation had been had entered the minds of the ladies
+sitting working but a few paces away. One, indeed, had remarked to
+another, "I thought when Dr. Wade was telling us how Mr. Bathurst
+had rescued that unfortunate girl with the disfigured face at
+Cawnpore, that there was a romance in the case, but I don't see
+any signs of it. They are goods friends, of course, but there is
+nothing lover-like in their way of talking."
+
+So thought Dr. Wade when he came in and saw them sitting there,
+and gave vent to his feeling in a grunt of dissatisfaction.
+
+"It is like driving two pigs to market," he muttered; "they won't
+go the way I want them to, out of pure contrariness."
+
+"It is all settled, Doctor," Bathurst said, rising. "Come, shake
+hands; it is to you I owe my happiness chiefly."
+
+"Isobel, my dear, give me a kiss," the Doctor exclaimed. "I am glad,
+my dear, I am glad with all my heart. And what have you settled
+besides that?"
+
+"We have settled that I am to go home as soon as I can go down
+country, and he is going up with you and the others to Cawnpore."
+
+"That is right," the Doctor said heartily. "I told you that was
+what he would decide upon; it is right that he should do so. No
+man ought to turn his face to the coast till Lucknow is relieved
+and Delhi is captured. I thank God it has all come right at last.
+I began to be afraid that Bathurst's wrong headedness was going to
+mar both your lives."
+
+The news had already come down that Havelock had found that it
+would be absolutely impossible with the small force at his command
+to fight his way into Lucknow through the multitude of foes that
+surrounded it, and that he must wait until reinforcements arrived.
+There was, therefore, no urgent hurry, and it was not until ten
+days later that a second troop of volunteer horse, composed of
+civilians unable to resume their duties, and officers whose regiments
+had mutinied, started for Cawnpore.
+
+Half an hour before they mounted, Isobel Hannay and Ralph Bathurst
+were married by the chaplain in the fort. This was at Bathurst's
+earnest wish.
+
+"I may not return, Isobel," he had urged: "it is of no use to blink
+the fact that we have desperate fighting before us, and I should
+go into battle with my mind much more easy in the knowledge that,
+come what might, you were provided for. The Doctor tells me that he
+considers you his adopted daughter, and that he has already drawn
+up a will leaving his savings to you; but I should like your future
+to come from me, dear, even if I am not to share it with you. As
+you know, I have a fine estate at home, and I should like to think
+of you as its mistress."
+
+And Isobel of course had given way, though not without protest.
+
+"You don't know what I may be like yet," she said, half laughing,
+half in earnest. "I may carry these red blotches to my grave."
+
+"They are honorable scars, dear, as honorable as any gained in
+battle. I hope, for your sake, that they will get better in time,
+but it makes no difference to me. I know what you were, and how
+you sacrificed your beauty. I suppose if I came back short of an
+arm or leg you would not make that an excuse for throwing me over?"
+
+"You ought to be ashamed of even thinking of such a thing, Ralph."
+
+"Well, dear, I don't know that I did think it, but I am only putting
+a parallel case to your own. No, you must consent: it is in all
+ways best. We will be married on the morning I start, so as just
+to give time for our wedding breakfast before I mount."
+
+"It shall be as you wish," she said softly. "You know the estate
+without you would be nothing to me, but I should like to bear your
+name, and should you never come back to me, Ralph, to mourn for you
+all my life as my husband. But I believe you will return to me. I
+think I am getting superstitious, and believe in all sorts of things
+since so many strange events have happened. Those pictures on the
+smoke that came true, Rujub sending you messages at Deennugghur,
+and Rabda making me hear her voice and giving me hope in prison. I
+do not feel so miserable at the thought of your going into danger
+as I should do, if I had not a sort of conviction that we shall
+meet again. People believe in presentiments of evil, why should
+they not believe in presentiments of good? At any rate, it is a
+comfort to me that I do feel so, and I mean to go on believing it."
+
+"Do so, Isobel. Of course there will be danger, but the danger will
+be nothing to that we have passed through together. The Sepoys will
+no doubt fight hard, but already they must have begun to doubt;
+their confidence in victory must be shaken, and they begin to fear
+retribution for their crimes. The fighting will, I think, be less
+severe as the struggle goes on, and at any rate the danger to us,
+fighting as the assailants, is as nothing to that run when we were
+little groups surrounded by a country in arms.
+
+"The news that has come through from Lucknow is that, for some time
+at any rate, the garrison are confident they can hold out, while
+at Delhi we know that our position is becoming stronger every day;
+the reinforcements are beginning to arrive from England, and though
+the work may be slow at first, our army will grow, while their
+strength will diminish, until we sweep them before us. I need not
+stop until the end, only till the peril is over, till Lucknow is
+relieved, and Delhi captured.
+
+"As we agreed, I have already sent in my resignation in the service,
+and shall fight as a volunteer only. If we have to fight our way
+into Lucknow, cavalry will be useless, and I shall apply to be
+attached to one of the infantry regiments; having served before,
+there will be no difficulty about that. I think there are sure to
+be plenty of vacancies. Six months will assuredly see the backbone
+of the rebellion altogether broken. No doubt it will take much longer
+crushing it out altogether, for they will break up into scattered
+bodies, and it may be a long work before these are all hunted down;
+but when the strength of the rebellion is broken, I can leave with
+honor."
+
+There were but few preparations to be made for the wedding. Great
+interest was felt in the fort in the event, for Isobel's rescue
+from Bithoor and Cawnpore, when all others who had fallen into the
+power of the Nana had perished, had been the one bright spot in the
+gloom; and there would have been a general feeling of disappointment
+had not the romance had the usual termination.
+
+Isobel's presents were numerous and of a most useful character,
+for they took the form of articles of clothing, and her trousseau
+was a varied and extensive one.
+
+The Doctor said to her the evening before the event, "You ought
+to have a certificate from the authorities, Isobel, saying how you
+came into possession of your wardrobe, otherwise when you get back
+to England you will very soon come to be looked upon as a most
+suspicious character."
+
+"How do you mean, Doctor?"
+
+"Well, my dear, if the washerwoman to whom you send your assortment
+at the end of the voyage is an honest woman, she will probably give
+information to the police that you must be a receiver of stolen
+property, as your garments are all marked with different names."
+
+"It will look suspicious, Doctor, but I must run the risk of that
+till I can remark them again. I can do a good deal that way before
+I sail. It is likely we shall be another fortnight at least before
+we can start for Calcutta. I don't mean to take the old names out,
+but shall mark my initials over them and the word 'from.' Then they
+will always serve as mementoes of the kindness of everyone here."
+
+Early on the morning of the wedding a native presented himself at
+the gate of the fort, and on being allowed to enter with a letter
+for Miss Hannay of which he was the bearer, handed her a parcel,
+which proved to contain a very handsome and valuable set of jewelry,
+with a slip of paper on which were the words, "From Rabda."
+
+The Doctor was in high spirits at the breakfast to which everybody
+sat down directly after the wedding. In the first place, his greatest
+wish was gratified; and, in the second, he was about to start to
+take part in the work of retribution.
+
+"One would think you were just starting on a pleasure party, Doctor,"
+Isobel said.
+
+"It is worth all the pleasure parties in the world, my dear. I have
+always been a hunter, and this time it is human 'tigers' I am going
+in pursuit of--besides which," he said, in a quieter tone, "I hope
+I am going to cure as well as kill. I shall only be a soldier when
+I am not wanted as a doctor. A man who really loves his profession,
+as I do, is always glad to exercise it, and I fear I shall have
+ample opportunities that way; besides, dear there is nothing like
+being cheerful upon an occasion of this kind. The longer we laugh,
+the less time there is for tears."
+
+And so the party did not break up until it was nearly time for the
+little troop to start. Then there was a brief passionate parting,
+and the volunteer horse rode away to Cawnpore. Almost the first
+person they met as they rode into the British lines was Wilson,
+who gave a shout of joy at seeing the Doctor and Bathurst.
+
+"My dear Bathurst!" he exclaimed. "Then you got safely down. Did
+you rescue Miss Hannay?"
+
+"I had that good fortune, Wilson."
+
+"I am glad. I am glad," the young fellow said, shaking his hand
+violently, while the tears stood in his eyes. "I know you were right
+in sending me away, but I have regretted it ever since. I know I
+should have been no good, but it seemed such a mean thing for me to
+go off by myself. Well, Doctor, and so you got off too," he went
+on, turning from Bathurst and wringing the Doctor's hand; "I never
+even hoped that you escaped. I made sure that it was only we two.
+I have had an awful time of it since we heard the news, on the way
+up, of the massacre of the women. I had great faith in Bathurst,
+and knew that if anything could be done he would do it, but when
+I saw the place they had been shut up in, it did not seem really
+possible that he could have got anyone out of such a hole. And
+where did you leave Miss Hannay?"
+
+"We have not left her at all," the Doctor said gravely; "there is
+no longer a Miss Hannay. There, man, don't look so shocked. She
+changed her name on the morning we came away."
+
+"What!" Wilson exclaimed. "Is she Mrs. Bathurst? I am glad, Bathurst.
+Shake hands again; I felt sure that if you did rescue her that
+was what would come of it. I was almost certain by her way when I
+talked to her about you one day that she liked you. I was awfully
+spoony on her myself, you know, but I knew it was no use, and I
+would rather by a lot that she married you than anyone else I know.
+But come along into my tent; you know your troop and ours are going
+to be joined. We have lost pretty near half our fellows, either in
+the fights coming up or by sunstroke or fever since we came here.
+I got hold of some fizz in the bazaar yesterday, and I am sure you
+must be thirsty. This is a splendid business; I don't know that I
+ever felt so glad of anything in my life," and he dragged them away
+to his tent.
+
+Bathurst found, to his disappointment, that intense as was the
+desire to push forward to Lucknow, the general opinion was that the
+General would not venture to risk his little force in an operation
+that, with the means at his disposal, seemed well nigh impossible.
+Cholera had made considerable ravages, and he had but fifteen
+hundred bayonets at his disposal. All that could be done pending
+the arrival of reinforcements was to prepare the way for an advance,
+and show so bold a front that the enemy would be forced to draw a
+large force from Lucknow to oppose his advance.
+
+A bridge of boats was thrown across the Ganges, and the force
+crossed the river and advanced to Onao, eight miles on the road to
+Lucknow. Here the enemy, strongly posted, barred the way; but they
+were attacked, and, after hard fighting, defeated, with a loss of
+three hundred men and fifteen guns.
+
+In this fight the volunteer horse, who had been formed into a single
+troop, did good service. One of their two officers was killed; and
+as the party last up from Allahabad were all full of Bathurst's
+rescue of Miss Hannay from Cawnpore, and Wilson and the Doctor
+influenced the others, he was chosen to fill the vacancy.
+
+There were two other fierce fights out at Busserutgunge, and then
+Bathurst had the satisfaction of advancing with the column against
+Bithoor. Here again the enemy fought sturdily, but were defeated
+with great slaughter, and the Nana's palace was destroyed.
+
+When, after the arrival of Outram with reinforcements, the column
+set out for Lucknow, the volunteers did not accompany them, as they
+would have been useless in street fighting, and were, therefore,
+detailed to form part of the little force left at Cawnpore to hold
+the city and check the rebels, parties of whom were swarming round
+it.
+
+The officer in command of the troop died of cholera a few days after
+Havelock's column started up, and Bathurst succeeded him. The work
+was very arduous, the men being almost constantly in their saddles,
+and having frequent encounters with the enemy. They were again much
+disappointed at being left behind when Sir Colin Campbell advanced
+to the relief of Havelock and the garrison, but did more than their
+share of fighting in the desperate struggle when the mutineers of
+the Gwallior contingent attacked the force at Cawnpore during the
+absence of the relieving column. Here they were almost annihilated
+in a desperate charge which saved the 64th from being cut to pieces
+at the most critical moment of the fight.
+
+Wilson came out of the struggle with the loss of his left arm, and
+two or three serious wounds. He had been cut off, and surrounded,
+and was falling from his horse when Bathurst cut his way to his
+rescue, and, lifting him into his saddle before him, succeeded after
+desperate fighting in carrying him off, himself receiving several
+wounds, none of which, however, were severe. The action had been
+noticed, and Bathurst's name was sent in for the Victoria Cross. As
+the troop had dwindled to a dozen sabers, he applied to Sir Colin
+Campbell, whose column had arrived in time to save the force at
+Cawnpore and to defeat the enemy, to be attached to a regiment as
+a volunteer. The General, however, at once offered him a post as
+an extra aide de camp to himself, as his perfect knowledge of the
+language would render him of great use; and he gladly accepted the
+offer.
+
+With the column returning from Lucknow was the Doctor.
+
+"By the way, Bathurst," he said on the evening of his return, "I
+met an old acquaintance in Lucknow; you would never guess who it
+was--Forster."
+
+"You don't say so; Doctor."
+
+"Yes; it seems he was hotly pursued, but managed to shake the
+sowars off. At that time the garrison was not so closely besieged
+as it afterwards was. He knew the country well, and made his way
+across it until within sight of Lucknow. At night he rode right
+through the rebels, swam the river, and gained the Residency.
+He distinguished himself greatly through the siege, but had been
+desperately wounded the day before we marched in. He was in a ward
+that was handed over to me directly I got there, and I at once
+saw that his case was a hopeless one. The poor fellow was heartily
+glad to see me. Of course he knew nothing of what had taken place
+at Deennugghur after he had left, and was very much cut up when
+he heard the fate of almost all the garrison. He listened quietly
+when I told how you had rescued Isobel and of your marriage. He
+was silent, and then said, 'I am glad to hear it, Doctor. I can't
+say how pleased I am she escaped. Bathurst has fairly won her.
+I never dreamt that she cared for him. Well, it seems he wasn't
+a coward after all. And you say he has resigned and come up as a
+volunteer instead of going home with her? That is plucky, anyhow.
+Well, I am pleased. I should not have been so if I hadn't been like
+this, Doctor, but now I am out of the running for good, it makes
+no odds to me either way. If ever you see him again, you tell him
+I said I was glad. I expect he will make her a deucedly better
+husband than I should have done. I never liked Bathurst, but I
+expect it was because he was a better fellow than most of us--that
+was at school, you know--and of course I did not take to him
+at Deennugghur. No one could have taken to a man there who could
+not stand fire. But you say he has got over that, so that is all
+right. Anyhow, I have no doubt he will make her happy. Tell her I
+am glad, Doctor. I thought at one time--but that is no odds now.
+I am glad you are out of it, too.'
+
+"And then he rambled on about shooting Sepoys, and did not say
+anything more coherently until late that night. I was sitting by
+him; he had been unconscious for some time, and he opened his eyes
+suddenly and said, 'Tell them both I am glad,' and those were the
+last words he spoke."
+
+"He was a brave soldier, a fine fellow in many ways," Bathurst
+said; "if he had been brought up differently he would, with all
+his gifts, have been a grand fellow, but I fancy he never got any
+home training. Well, I am glad he didn't die as we supposed, without
+a friend beside him, on his way to Lucknow, and that he fell after
+doing his duty to the women and children there."
+
+Wilson refused to go home after the loss of his arm, and as soon as
+he recovered was appointed to one of the Sikh regiments, and took
+part in the final conquest of Lucknow two months after the fight
+at Cawnpore. A fortnight after the conclusion of that terrible
+struggle Sir Colin Campbell announced to Bathurst that amongst
+the dispatches that he had received from home that morning was a
+Gazette, in which his name appeared among those to whom the Victoria
+Cross had been granted.
+
+"I congratulate you heartily, Mr. Bathurst," the old officer said:
+"I have had the pleasure of speaking in the highest terms of the
+bravery you displayed in carrying my message through heavy fire a
+score of times during the late operations."
+
+Great as the honor of the Victoria Cross always is, to Bathurst
+it was much more than to other men. It was his rehabilitation. He
+need never fear now that his courage would be questioned, and the
+report that he had before left the army because he lacked courage
+would be forever silenced now that he could write V. C. after his
+name. The pleasure of Dr. Wade and Wilson was scarcely less than
+his own. The latter's regiment had suffered very heavily in the
+struggle at Lucknow, and he came out of it a captain, having escaped
+without a wound.
+
+A week later Bathurst resigned his appointment. There was still
+much to be done, and months of marching and fighting before the
+rebellion was quite stamped out; but there had now arrived a force
+ample to overcome all opposition, and there was no longer a necessity
+for the service of civilians. As he had already left the service of
+the Company, he was his own master, and therefore started at once
+for Calcutta..
+
+"I shall not be long before I follow you," the Doctor said, as they
+spent their last evening together. "I shall wait and see this out,
+and then retire. I should have liked to have gone home with you,
+but it is out of the question. Our hands are full, and likely to
+be so for some time, so I must stop."
+
+Bathurst stopped for a day at Patna to see Rujub and his daughter.
+He was received as an expected guest, and after spending a few hours
+with them he continued his journey. At Calcutta he found a letter
+awaiting him from Isobel, saying that she had arrived safely in
+England, and should stay with her mother until his arrival, and
+there he found her.
+
+"I expected you today," she said, after the first rapturous greeting
+was over. "Six weeks ago I woke in the middle of the night, and
+heard Rabda's voice distinctly say: 'He has been with us today:
+he is safe and well; he is on his way to you.' As I knew how long
+you would take going down from Patna, I went the next day to the
+office and found what steamer you would catch, and when she would
+arrive. My mother and sister both regarded me as a little out of
+my mind when I said you would be back this week. They have not the
+slightest belief in what I told them about Rujub, and insist that
+it was all a sort of hallucination brought on by my sufferings.
+Perhaps they will believe now."
+
+"Your face is wonderfully better," he said presently. "The marks
+seem dying out, and you look almost your old self."
+
+"Yes," she said; "I have been to one of the great doctors, and he
+says he thinks the scars will quite disappear in time."
+
+Isobel Bathurst has never again received any distinct message
+from Rabda, but from time to time she has the consciousness, when
+sitting quietly alone, that the girl is with her in thought. Every
+year letters and presents are exchanged, and to the end of their
+lives she and her husband will feel that their happiness is chiefly
+due to her and her father--Rujub, the Juggler.
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rujub, the Juggler, by G. A. Henty
+
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+Title: Rujub, the Juggler
+
+Author: G. A. Henty
+
+Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7229]
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUJUB, THE JUGGLER ***
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+
+
+<h1>Rujub, the Juggler</h1>
+<br><br>
+<h2>by G. A. Henty.</h2>
+
+<br><br>
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_I_">CHAPTER I.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XII_">CHAPTER XII.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a></h3>
+
+<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></h3>
+
+<p>PUBLISHERS' INTRODUCTION.</p>
+
+<p>"Rujub, the Juggler," is mainly an historical tale for young
+and old, dealing with the Sepoy Mutiny, in India, during the
+years 1857 to 1859.</p>
+
+<p>This famous mutiny occurred while the reins of British rule in
+India were in the hands of Lord Canning. Chupattees (cakes of
+flour and water) were circulated among the natives, placards
+protesting against British rule were posted at Delhi, and when
+the Enfield rifle with its greased cartridges was introduced
+among the Sepoy soldiers serving the Queen it was rumored that
+the cartridges were smeared with the forbidden pig's fat, so that
+the power of the Sepoys might forever be destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>Fanatical to the last degree, the Sepoys were not long in
+bringing the mutiny to a head. The first outbreak occurred at
+Meerut, where were stationed about two thousand English soldiers
+and three thousand native troops. The native troops refused to
+use the cartridges supplied to them and eighty-two were placed
+under arrest. On the day following the native troops rebelled in
+a body, broke open the guardhouse and released the prisoners, and
+a severe battle followed, and Meerut was given over to the
+flames. The mutineers then marched upon Delhi, thirty-two miles
+away, and took possession. At Bithoor the Rajah had always
+professed a strong friendship for the English, but he secretly
+plotted against them, and, later on, General Wheeler was
+compelled to surrender to the Rajah at Cawnpore, and did so with
+the understanding that the lives of all in the place should be
+spared. Shortly after the surrender the English officers and
+soldiers were shot down, and all of the women and children
+butchered.</p>
+
+<p>The mutiny was now at its height, and for a while it was
+feared that British rule in India must cease. The Europeans at
+Lucknow were besieged for about three months and were on the
+point of giving up, when they were relieved through the heroic
+march of General Havelock. Sir Colin Campbell followed, and soon
+the city was once more in the complete possession of the British.
+Oude was speedily reduced to submission, many of the rebel
+leaders were either shot or hanged, and gradually the mutiny,
+which had cost the lives of thousands, was brought to an end.</p>
+
+<p>The tale, however, is not all of war. In its pages are given
+many true to life pictures of life in India, in the barracks of
+the soldiers and elsewhere. A most important part is played by
+Rujub, the juggler, who is a warm friend to the hero of the
+narrative. Rujub is no common conjuror, but one of the higher men
+of mystery, who perform partly as a religious duty and who accept
+no pay for such performances. The acts of these persons are but
+little understood, even at this late day, and it is possible that
+many of their arts will sooner or later be utterly lost to the
+world at large. That they can do some wonderful things in
+juggling, mind reading, and in second sight, is testified to by
+thousands of people who have witnessed their performances in
+India; how they do these things has never yet been explained.</p>
+
+<p>Strange as it may seem, the hero of the tale is a natural born
+coward, who cannot stand the noise of gunfire. He realizes his
+shortcomings, and they are frequently brought home to him through
+the taunts of his fellow soldiers. A doctor proves that the dread
+of noise is hereditary, but this only adds to the young soldier's
+misery. To make himself brave he rushes to the front in a most
+desperate fight, and engages in scout work which means almost
+certain death. In the end he masters his fear, and gives a
+practical lesson of what stern and unbending will power can
+accomplish.</p>
+
+<p>In many respects "Rujub, the Juggler," will be found one of
+the strongest of Mr. Henty's works, and this is saying much when
+one considers all of the many stories this well known author has
+already penned for the entertainment of young and old. As a
+picture of life in the English Army in India it is
+unexcelled.</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_I_"></a>CHAPTER I.</h1>
+
+<p>It would be difficult to find a fairer scene. Throughout the
+gardens lanterns of many shapes and devices threw their light
+down upon the paths, which were marked out by lines of little
+lamps suspended on wires a foot above the ground. In a treble row
+they encircled a large tank or pond and studded a little island
+in its center. Along the terraces were festoons and arches of
+innumerable lamps, while behind was the Palace or Castle, for it
+was called either; the Oriental doors and windows and the tracery
+of its walls lit up below by the soft light, while the outline of
+the upper part could scarce be made out. Eastern as the scene
+was, the actors were for the most part English. Although the
+crowd that promenaded the terrace was composed principally of
+men, of whom the majority were in uniform of one sort or another,
+the rest in evening dress, there were many ladies among them.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of one of the terraces a band of the 103d Bengal
+Infantry was playing, and when they ceased a band of native
+musicians, at the opposite end of the terrace, took up the
+strains. Within, the palace was brilliantly lighted, and at the
+tables in one of the large apartments a few couples were still
+seated at supper. Among his guests moved the Rajah, chatting in
+fluent English, laughing with the men, paying compliments to the
+ladies, a thoroughly good fellow all round, as his guests agreed.
+The affair had been a great success. There had first been a
+banquet to the officers and civilians at the neighboring station.
+When this was over, the ladies began to arrive, and for their
+amusement there had been a native nautch upon a grand scale,
+followed by a fine display of fireworks, and then by supper, at
+which the Rajah had made a speech expressive of his deep
+admiration and affection for the British. This he had followed up
+by proposing the health of the ladies in flowery terms. Never was
+there a better fellow than the Rajah. He had English tastes, and
+often dined at one or other of the officers' messes. He was a
+good shot, and could fairly hold his own at billiards. He had
+first rate English horses in his stables, and his turnout was
+perfect in all respects. He kept a few horses for the races, and
+was present at every ball and entertainment. At Bithoor he kept
+almost open house. There was a billiard room and racquet courts,
+and once or twice a week there were luncheon parties, at which
+from twelve to twenty officers were generally present. In all
+India there was no Rajah with more pronounced English tastes or
+greater affection for English people. The one regret of his life,
+he often declared, was that his color and his religion prevented
+his entertaining the hope of obtaining an English wife. All this,
+as everyone said, was the more remarkable and praiseworthy,
+inasmuch as he had good grounds of complaint against the British
+Government.</p>
+
+<p>With the ladies he was an especial favorite; he was always
+ready to show them courtesy. His carriages were at their service.
+He was ready to give his aid and assistance to every gathering.
+His private band played frequently on the promenade, and handsome
+presents of shawls and jewelry were often made to those whom he
+held in highest favor. At present he was talking to General
+Wheeler and some other officers.</p>
+
+<p>"I warn you that I mean to win the cup at the races," he said;
+"I have just bought the horse that swept the board on the Bombay
+side; I have set my heart on winning the cup, and so secured this
+horse. I am ready to back it if any of you gentlemen are disposed
+to wager against it."</p>
+
+<p>"All in good time, Rajah," one of the officers laughed; "we
+don't know what will be entered against it yet, and we must wait
+to see what the betting is, but I doubt whether we have anything
+that will beat the Bombay crack on this side; I fancy you will
+have to lay odds on."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see," the Rajah said; "I have always been unlucky,
+but I mean to win this time."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you take your losses much to heart, Rajah,"
+General Wheeler said; "yet there is no doubt that your bets are
+generally somewhat rash ones."</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to make a coup this time. That is your word for a big
+thing, I think. The Government has treated me so badly I must try
+to take something out of the pockets of its officers."</p>
+
+<p>"You do pretty well still," the General laughed; "after this
+splendid entertainment you have given us this evening you can
+hardly call yourself a poor man."</p>
+
+<p>"I know I am rich. I have enough for my little pleasures -- I
+do not know that I could wish for more -- still no one is ever
+quite content."</p>
+
+<p>By this time the party was breaking up, and for the next half
+hour the Rajah was occupied in bidding goodby to his guests. When
+the last had gone he turned and entered the palace, passed
+through the great halls, and, pushing aside a curtain, entered a
+small room. The walls and the columns were of white marble,
+inlaid with arabesque work of colored stones. Four golden lamps
+hung from the ceiling, the floor was covered with costly carpets,
+and at one end ran a raised platform a foot in height, piled with
+soft cushions. He took a turn or two up and down the room, and
+then struck a silver bell. An attendant entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Send Khoosheal and Imambux here."</p>
+
+<p>Two minutes later the men entered. Imambux commanded the
+Rajah's troops, while Khoosheal was the master of his
+household.</p>
+
+<p>"All has gone off well," the Rajah said; "I am pleased with
+you, Khoosheal. One more at most, and we shall have done with
+them. Little do they think what their good friend Nana Sahib is
+preparing for them. What a poor spirited creature they think me
+to kiss the hand that robbed me, to be friends with those who
+have deprived me of my rights! But the day of reckoning is not
+far off, and then woe to them all! Have any of your messengers
+returned, Imambux?"</p>
+
+<p>"Several have come in this evening, my lord; would you see
+them now, or wait till morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will see them now; I will get the memory of these
+chattering men and these women with their bare shoulders out of
+my mind. Send the men in one by one. I have no further occasion
+for you tonight; two are better than three when men talk of
+matters upon which an empire depends."</p>
+
+<p>The two officers bowed and retired, and shortly afterwards the
+attendant drew back the curtain again, and a native, in the rags
+of a mendicant, entered, and bowed till his forehead touched the
+carpet. Then he remained kneeling, with his arms crossed over his
+chest, and his head inclined in the attitude of the deepest
+humility.</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you been?" the Rajah asked.</p>
+
+<p>"My lord's slave has been for three weeks at Meerut. I have
+obeyed orders. I have distributed chupaties among the native
+regiments, with the words, 'Watch, the time is coming,' and have
+then gone before I could be questioned. Then, in another
+disguise, I have gone through the bazaar, and said in talk with
+many that the Sepoys were unclean and outcast, for that they had
+bitten cartridges anointed with pig's fat, and that the
+Government had purposely greased the cartridges with this fat in
+order that the caste of all the Sepoys should be destroyed. When
+I had set men talking about this I left; it will be sure to come
+to the Sepoys' ears."</p>
+
+<p>The Rajah nodded. "Come again tomorrow at noon; you will have
+your reward then and further orders; but see that you keep
+silence; a single word, and though you hid in the farthest corner
+of India you would not escape my vengeance."</p>
+
+<p>Man after man entered. Some of them, like the first, were in
+mendicant's attire, one or two were fakirs, one looked like a
+well to do merchant. With the exception of the last, all had a
+similar tale to tell; they had been visiting the various
+cantonments of the native army, everywhere distributing chupaties
+and whispering tales of the intention of the Government to
+destroy the caste of the Sepoys by greasing the cartridges with
+pig's fat. The man dressed like a trader was the last to
+enter.</p>
+
+<p>"How goes it, Mukdoomee?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is well, my lord; I have traversed all the districts where
+we dwelt of old, before the Feringhee stamped us out and sent
+scores to death and hundreds to prison. Most of the latter whom
+death has spared are free now, and with many of them have I
+talked. They are most of them old, and few would take the road
+again, but scarce one but has trained up his son or grandson to
+the work; not to practice it, -- the hand of the whites was too
+heavy before, and the gains are not large enough to tempt men to
+run the risk -- but they teach them for the love of the art. To a
+worshiper of the goddess there is a joy in a cleverly contrived
+plan and in casting the roomal round the neck of the victim, that
+can never die. Often in my young days, when perhaps twelve of us
+were on the road in a party, we made less than we could have done
+by labor, but none minded.</p>
+
+<p>"We were sworn brothers; we were working for Kali, and so that
+we sent her victims we cared little; and even after fifteen or
+twenty years spent in the Feringhee's prisons, we love it still;
+none hate the white man as we do; has he not destroyed our
+profession? We have two things to work for; first, for vengeance;
+second, for the certainty that if the white man's Raj were at an
+end, once again would the brotherhood follow their profession,
+and reap booty for ourselves and victims for Kali; for,
+assuredly, no native prince would dare to meddle with us.
+Therefore, upon every man who was once a Thug, and upon his sons
+and grandsons, you may depend. I do not say that they would be
+useful for fighting, for we have never been fighters, but the
+stranglers will be of use. You can trust them with missions, and
+send them where you choose. From their fathers' lips they have
+learnt all about places and roads; they can decoy Feringhee
+travelers, the Company's servants or soldiers, into quiet places,
+and slay them. They can creep into compounds and into houses, and
+choose their victims from the sleepers. You can trust them,
+Rajah, for they have learned to hate, and each in his way will,
+when the times comes, aid to stir up men to rise. The past had
+almost become a dream, but I have roused it into life again, and
+upon the descendants of the stranglers throughout India you can
+count surely."</p>
+
+<p>"You have not mentioned my name?" the Rajah said suddenly,
+looking closely at the man as he put the question.</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly not, your highness; I have simply said deliverance
+is at hand; the hour foretold for the end of the Raj of the men
+from beyond the sea will soon strike, and they will disappear
+from the land like fallen leaves; then will the glory of Kali
+return, then again will the brotherhood take to the road and
+gather in victims. I can promise that every one of those whose
+fathers or grandfathers or other kin died by the hand of the
+Feringhee, or suffered in his prisons, will do his share of the
+good work, and be ready to obey to the death the orders which
+will reach him."</p>
+
+<p>"It is good," the Rajah said; "you and your brethren will have
+a rich harvest of victims, and the sacred cord need never be
+idle. Go; it is well nigh morning, and I would sleep."</p>
+
+<p>But not for some time did the Rajah close his eyes; his brain
+was busy with the schemes which he had long been maturing, but
+was only now beginning to put into action.</p>
+
+<p>"It must succeed," he said to himself; "all through India the
+people will take up arms when the Sepoys give the signal by
+rising against their officers. The whites are wholly
+unsuspicious; they even believe that I, I whom they have robbed,
+am their friend. Fools! I hold them in the hollow of my hand;
+they shall trust me to the last, and then I will crush them. Not
+one shall escape me! Would I were as certain of all the other
+stations in India as I am of this. Oude, I know, will rise as one
+man; the Princes of Delhi I have sounded; they will be the
+leaders, though the old King will be the nominal head; but I
+shall pull the strings, and as Peishwa, shall be an independent
+sovereign, and next in dignity to the Emperor. Only nothing must
+be done until all is ready; not a movement must be made until I
+feel sure that every native regiment from Calcutta to the North
+is ready to rise."</p>
+
+<p>And so, until the day had fully broken, the Rajah of Bithoor
+thought over his plans -- the man who had a few hours before so
+sumptuously entertained the military and civilians of Cawnpore,
+and the man who was universally regarded as the firm friend of
+the British and one of the best fellows going.</p>
+
+<p>The days and weeks passed on, messengers came and went, the
+storm was slowing brewing; and yet to all men it seemed that
+India was never more contented nor the outlook more tranquil and
+assured.</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h1>
+
+<p>A young man in a suit of brown karkee, with a white puggaree
+wound round his pith helmet, was just mounting in front of his
+bungalow at Deennugghur, some forty miles from Cawnpore, when two
+others came up.</p>
+
+<p>"Which way are you going to ride, Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am going out to Narkeet; there is a dispute between the
+villagers and a Talookdar as to their limits. I have got to look
+into the case. Why do you ask, Mr. Hunter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought that you might be going that way. You know we have
+had several reports of ravages by a man eater whose headquarters
+seem to be that big jungle you pass through on your way to
+Narkeet. He has been paying visits to several villages in its
+neighborhood, and has carried off two mail runners. I should
+advise you to keep a sharp lookout."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have heard plenty about him; it is unfortunate we have
+no one at this station who goes in for tiger hunting. Young
+Bloxam was speaking to me last night; he is very hot about it;
+but as he knows nothing about shooting, and has never fired off a
+rifle in his life, except at the military target, I told him that
+it was madness to think of it by himself, and that he had better
+ride down to the regiment at Cawnpore, and get them to form a
+party to come up to hunt the beast. I told him they need not
+bring elephants with them; I could get as many as were necessary
+from some of the Talookdars, and there will be no want of
+beaters. He said he would write at once, but he doubted whether
+any of them would be able to get away at present; the general
+inspection is just coming on. However, no doubt they will be able
+to do so before long."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if I were you I would put a pair of pistols into my
+holster, Bathurst; it would be awfully awkward if you came across
+the beast."</p>
+
+<p>"I never carry firearms," the young man said shortly; and then
+more lightly, "I am a peaceful man by profession, as you are, Mr.
+Hunter, and I leave firearms to those whose profession it is to
+use them. I have hitherto never met with an occasion when I
+needed them, and am not likely to do so. I always carry this
+heavy hunting whip, which I find useful sometimes, when the
+village dogs rush out and pretend that they are going to attack
+me; and I fancy that even an Oude swordsman would think twice
+before attacking me when I had it in my hand. But, of course,
+there is no fear about the tiger. I generally ride pretty fast;
+and even if he were lying by the roadside waiting for a meal, I
+don't think he would be likely to interfere with me."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he lightly touched the horse's flanks with his
+spurs and cantered off.</p>
+
+<p>"He's a fine young fellow, Garnet," Mr. Hunter said to his
+companion; "full of energy, and, they say, the very best linguist
+in Oude."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he is all that," the other agreed; "but he is a sort of
+fellow one does not quite understand. I like a man who is like
+other fellows; Bathurst isn't. He doesn't shoot, he doesn't ride
+-- I mean he don't care for pig sticking; he never goes in for
+any fun there may be on hand; he just works -- nothing else; he
+does not seem to mix with other people; he is the sort of fellow
+one would say had got some sort of secret connected with
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"If he has, I am certain it is nothing to his personal
+disadvantage," Mr. Hunter said warmly. "I have known him for the
+last six years -- I won't say very well, for I don't think anyone
+does that, except, perhaps, Doctor Wade. When there was a wing of
+the regiment up here three years ago he and Bathurst took to each
+other very much -- perhaps because they were both different from
+other people. But, anyhow, from what I know of Bathurst I believe
+him to be a very fine character, though there is certainly an
+amount of reserve about him altogether unusual. At any rate, the
+service is a gainer by it. I never knew a fellow work so
+indefatigably. He will take a very high place in the service
+before he has done."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so sure of that," the other said. "He is a man with
+opinions of his own, and all sorts of crotchets and fads. He has
+been in hot water with the Chief Commissioner more than once.
+When I was over at Lucknow last I was chatting with two or three
+men, and his name happened to crop up, and one of them said,
+'Bathurst is a sort of knight errant, an official Don Quixote.
+Perhaps the best officer in the province in some respects, but
+hopelessly impracticable.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that I can quite understand, Garnet. That sort of man is
+never popular with the higher official, whose likings go to the
+man who does neither too much nor too little, who does his work
+without questioning, and never thinks of making suggestions, and
+is a mere official machine. Men of Bathurst's type, who go to the
+bottom of things, protest against what they consider unfair
+decisions, and send in memorandums showing that their superiors
+are hopelessly ignorant and idiotically wrong, are always
+cordially disliked. Still, they generally work their way to the
+front in the long run. Well, I must be off."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst rode to Narkeet without drawing rein. His horse at
+times slackened its pace on its own accord, but an almost
+mechanical motion from its rider's heel soon started it off again
+at the rapid pace at which its rider ordinarily traveled. From
+the time he left Deennugghur to his arrival at Narkeet no thought
+of the dreaded man eater entered Bathurst's mind. He was deeply
+meditating on a memorandum he was about to draw up, respecting a
+decision that had been arrived at in a case between a Talookdar
+in his district and the Government, and in which, as it appeared
+to him, a wholly erroneous and unjust view had been taken as to
+the merits of the case; and he only roused himself when the horse
+broke into a walk as it entered the village. Two or three of the
+head men, with many bows and salutations of respect, came out to
+receive him.</p>
+
+<p>"My lord sahib has seen nothing of the tiger?" the head man
+said; "our hearts were melted with fear, for the evil beast was
+heard roaring in the jungle not far from the road early this
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>"I never gave it a thought, one way or the other," Bathurst
+said, as he dismounted. "I fancy the horse would have let me know
+if the brute had been anywhere near. See that he is tied up in
+the shed, and has food and water, and put a boy to keep the flies
+from worrying him. And now let us get to business. First of all,
+I must go through the village records and documents; after that I
+will question four or five of the oldest inhabitants, and then we
+must go over the ground. The whole question turns, you know, upon
+whether the irrigation ditch mentioned in the Talookdar's grant
+is the one that runs across at the foot of the rising ground on
+his side, or whether it is the one that sweeps round on this side
+of the grove with the little temple in it. Unfortunately most of
+the best land lies between those ditches."</p>
+
+<p>For hours Bathurst listened to the statements of the old
+people of the village, cross questioning them closely, and
+sparing no efforts to sift the truth from their confused and
+often contradictory evidence. Then he spent two hours going over
+the ground and endeavoring to satisfy himself which of the two
+ditches was the one named in the village records. He had two days
+before taken equal pains in sifting the evidence on the other
+side.</p>
+
+<p>"I trust that my lord sees there can be no doubt as to the
+justice of our claim," the head man said humbly, as he prepared
+to mount again.</p>
+
+<p>"According to your point of view, there is no doubt about it,
+Childee; but then there is equally no doubt the other way,
+according to the statements they put forward. But that is
+generally the way in all these land disputes. For good hard
+swearing your Hindoo cultivator can be matched against the world.
+Unfortunately there is nothing either in your grant or in your
+neighbors' that specifies unmistakably which of these ancient
+ditches is the one referred to. My present impression is that it
+is essentially a case for a compromise, but you know the final
+decision does not rest on me. I shall be out here again next
+week, and I shall write to the Talookdar to meet me here, and we
+will go over the ground together again, and see if we cannot
+arrange some line that will be fair to both parties. If we can do
+that, the matter would be settled without expense and trouble;
+whereas, if it goes up to Lucknow it may all have to be gone into
+again; and if the decision is given against you, and as far as I
+can see it is just as likely to be one way as another, it will be
+a serious thing for the village."</p>
+
+<p>"We are in my lord's hands," the native said; "he is the
+protector of the poor, and will do us justice."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do you justice, Childee, but I must do justice to the
+other side too. Of course, neither of you will be satisfied, but
+that cannot be helped."</p>
+
+<p>His perfect knowledge of their language, the pains he took to
+sift all matters brought before him to the bottom, had rendered
+the young officer very popular among the natives. They knew they
+could get justice from him direct. There was no necessity to
+bribe underlings: he had the knack of extracting the truth from
+the mass of lying evidence always forthcoming in native cases;
+and even the defeated party admired the manner in which the
+fabric of falsehood was pulled to pieces. But the main reason of
+his popularity was his sympathy, the real interest which he
+showed in their cases, and the patience with which he listened to
+their stories.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst himself, as he rode homewards, was still thinking of
+the case. Of course there had been lying on both sides; but to
+that he was accustomed. It was a question of importance -- of
+greater importance, no doubt, to the villagers than to their
+opponent, but still important to him -- for this tract of land
+was a valuable one, and of considerable extent, and there was
+really nothing in the documents produced on either side to show
+which ditch was intended by the original grants. Evidently, at
+the time they were made, very many years before, one ditch or the
+other was not in existence; but there was no proof as to which
+was the more recent, although both sides professed that all
+traditions handed down to them asserted the ditch on their side
+to be the more recent.</p>
+
+<p>He was riding along the road through the great jungle, at his
+horse's own pace, which happened for the moment to be a gentle
+trot, when a piercing cry rang through the air a hundred yards
+ahead. Bathurst started from his reverie, and spurred his horse
+sharply; the animal dashed forward at a gallop. At a turn in the
+road he saw, twenty yards ahead of him, a tiger, standing with a
+foot upon a prostrate figure, while a man in front of it was
+gesticulating wildly. The tiger stood as if hesitating whether to
+strike down the figure in front or to content itself with that
+already in its power.</p>
+
+<p>The wild shouts of the man had apparently drowned the sound of
+the horse's feet upon the soft road, for the animal drew back
+half a pace as it suddenly came into view.</p>
+
+<p>The horse swerved at the sight, and reared high in the air as
+Bathurst drove his spurs into it. As its feet touched the ground
+again, Bathurst sprang off and rushed at the tiger, and brought
+down the heavy lash of his whip with all his force across its
+head. With a fierce snarl it sprang back two paces, but again and
+again the whip descended upon it, and bewildered and amazed at
+the attack it turned swiftly and sprang through the bushes.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst, knowing that there was no fear of its returning,
+turned at once to the figure on the road. It was, as in even the
+momentary glance he had noticed, a woman, or rather a girl of
+some fourteen or fifteen years of age -- the man had dropped on
+his knees beside her, moaning and muttering incoherent words.</p>
+
+<p>"I see no blood," Bathurst said, and stooping, lifted the
+light figure. "Her heart beats, man; I think she has only
+fainted. The tiger must have knocked her down in its spring
+without striking her. So far as I can see she is unhurt."</p>
+
+<p>He carried her to the horse, which stood trembling a few yards
+away, took a flask from the holster, and poured a little brandy
+and water between her lips.</p>
+
+<p>Presently there was a faint sigh. "She is coming round," he
+said to the man, who was still kneeling, looking on with vacant
+eyes, as though he had neither heard nor comprehended what
+Bathurst was doing. Presently the girl moved slightly and opened
+her eyes. At first there was no expression in them; then a vague
+wonder stole into them at the white face looking down upon
+her.</p>
+
+<p>She closed them again, and then reopened them, and then there
+was a slight struggle to free herself. He allowed her to slip
+through his arms until her feet touched the ground; then her eyes
+fell on the kneeling figure.</p>
+
+<p>"Father!" she exclaimed. With a cry the man leaped to his
+feet, sprang to her and seized her in his arms, and poured out
+words of endearment. Then suddenly he released her and threw
+himself on the ground before Bathurst, with ejaculations of
+gratitude and thankfulness.</p>
+
+<p>"Get up, man, get up," the latter said; "your daughter can
+scarce stand alone, and the sooner we get away from this place
+the better; that savage beast is not likely to return, but he may
+do so; let us be off."</p>
+
+<p>He mounted his horse again, brought it up to the side of the
+girl, and then, leaning over, took her and swung her into the
+saddle in front of him. The man took up a large box that was
+lying in the road and hoisted it onto his shoulders, and then, at
+a foot's pace, they proceeded on their way -- Bathurst keeping a
+close watch on the jungle at the side on which the tiger had
+entered it.</p>
+
+<p>"How came you to travel along this road alone?" he asked the
+man. "The natives only venture through in large parties, because
+of this tiger."</p>
+
+<p>"I am a stranger," the man answered; "I heard at the village
+where we slept last night that there was a tiger in this jungle,
+but I thought we should be through it before nightfall, and
+therefore there was no danger. If one heeded all they say about
+tigers one would never travel at all. I am a juggler, and we are
+on our way down the country through Cawnpore and Allahabad. Had
+it not been for the valor of my lord sahib, we should never have
+got there; for had I lost my Rabda, the light of my heart, I
+should have gone no further, but should have waited for the tiger
+to take me also."</p>
+
+<p>"There was no particular valor about it," Bathurst said
+shortly. "I saw the beast with its foot on your daughter, and
+dismounted to beat it off just as if it had been a dog, without
+thinking whether there was any danger in it or not. Men do it
+with savage beasts in menageries every day. They are cowardly
+brutes after all, and can't stand the lash. He was taken
+altogether by surprise, too."</p>
+
+<p>"My lord has saved my daughter's life, and mine is at his
+service henceforth," the man said. "The mouse is a small beast,
+but he may warn the lion. The white sahibs are brave and strong.
+Would one of my countrymen have ventured his life to attack a
+tiger, armed only with a whip, for the sake of the life of a poor
+wayfarer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think there are many who would have done so," Bathurst
+replied. "You do your countrymen injustice. There are plenty of
+brave men among them, and I have heard before now of villagers,
+armed only with sticks, attacking a tiger who has carried off a
+victim from among them. You yourself were standing boldly before
+it when I came up."</p>
+
+<p>"My child was under its feet -- besides, I never thought of
+myself. If I had had a weapon I should not have drawn it. I had
+no thought of the tiger; I only thought that my child was dead.
+She works with me, sahib; since her mother died, five years ago,
+we have traveled together over the country; she plays while I
+conjure. She takes round the saucer for the money, and she acts
+with me in the tricks that require two persons; it is she who
+disappears from the basket. We are everything to each other,
+sahib. But what is my lord's name? Will he tell his servant, that
+he and Rabda may think of him and talk of him as they tramp the
+roads together?"</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Ralph Bathurst. I am District Officer at
+Deennugghur. How far are you going this evening?"</p>
+
+<p>"We shall sleep at the first village we come to, sahib; we
+have walked many hours today, and this box, though its contents
+are not weighty, is heavy to bear. We thought of going down
+tomorrow to Deennugghur, and showing our performances to the
+sahib logue there."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; but there is one thing -- what is your name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rujub."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Rujub, if you go on to Deennugghur tomorrow say nothing
+to anyone there about this affair with the tiger; it is nothing
+to talk about. I am not a shikari, but a hard working official,
+and I don't want to be talked about."</p>
+
+<p>"The sahib's wish shall be obeyed," the man said.</p>
+
+<p>"You can come round to my bungalow and ask for me; I shall be
+glad to hear whether your daughter is any the worse for her
+scare. How do you feel, Rabda?"</p>
+
+<p>"I feel as one in a dream, sahib. I saw a great yellow beast
+springing through the air, and I cried out, and knew nothing more
+till I saw the sahib's face; and now I have heard him and my
+father talking, but their voices sound to me as if far away,
+though I know that you are holding me."</p>
+
+<p>"You will be all the better after a night's rest, child; no
+wonder you feel strange and shaken. Another quarter of an hour
+and we shall be at the village. I suppose, Rujub, you were born a
+conjurer."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sahib, it is always so; it goes down from father to son.
+As soon as I was able to walk, I began to work with my father,
+and as I grew up he initiated me in the secrets of our craft,
+which we may never divulge."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I know they are a mystery. Many of your tricks can be
+done by our conjurers at home, but there are some that have never
+been solved."</p>
+
+<p>"I have been offered, more than once, large sums by English
+sahibs to tell them how some of the feats were done, but I could
+not; we are bound by terrible oaths, and; in no case has a
+juggler proved false to them. Were one to do so he would be slain
+without mercy, and his fate in the next world would be terrible;
+forever and forever his soul would pass through the bodies of the
+foulest and lowest creatures, and there would be no forgiveness
+for him. I would give my life for the sahib, but even to him I
+would not divulge our mysteries."</p>
+
+<p>In a few minutes they came to the first village beyond the
+jungle. As they approached it Bathurst checked his horse and
+lifted the girl down. She took his hand and pressed her forehead
+to it.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall see you tomorrow, then, Rujub," he said, and shaking
+the reins, went on at a canter.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a new character for me to come out in," he said
+bitterly; "I do not know myself -- I, of all men. But there was
+no bravery in it; it never occurred to me to be afraid; I just
+thrashed him off as I should beat off a dog who was killing a
+lamb; there was no noise, and it is noise that frightens me; if
+the brute had roared I should assuredly have run; I know it would
+have been so; I could not have helped it to have saved my life.
+It is an awful curse that I am not as other men, and that I
+tremble and shake like a girl at the sound of firearms. It would
+have been better if I had been killed by the first shot fired in
+the Punjaub eight years ago, or if I had blown my brains out at
+the end of the day. Good Heavens! what have I suffered since. But
+I will not think of it. Thank God, I have got my work; and as
+long as I keep my thoughts on that there is no room for that
+other;" and then, by a great effort of will, Ralph Bathurst put
+the past behind him, and concentrated his thoughts on the work on
+which he had been that day engaged.</p>
+
+<p>The juggler did not arrive on the following evening as he had
+expected, but late in the afternoon a native boy brought in a
+message from him, saying that his daughter was too shaken and ill
+to travel, but that they would come when she recovered.</p>
+
+<p>A week later, on returning from a long day's work, Bathurst
+was told that a juggler was in the veranda waiting to see
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"I told him, sahib," the servant said, "that you cared not for
+such entertainments, and that he had better go elsewhere; but he
+insisted that you yourself had told him to come, and so I let him
+wait."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he a girl with him, Jafur?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sahib."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst strolled round to the other side of the bungalow,
+where Rujub was sitting patiently, with Rabda wrapped in her blue
+cloth beside him. They rose to their feet.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to see your daughter is better again, Rujub."</p>
+
+<p>"She is better, sahib; she has had fever, but is
+restored."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot see your juggling tonight, Rujub. I have had a heavy
+day's work, and am worn out, and have still much to do. You had
+better go round to some of the other bungalows; though I don't
+think you will do much this evening, for there is a dinner party
+at the Collector's, and almost everyone will be there. My
+servants will give you food, and I shall be off at seven o'clock
+in the morning, but shall be glad to see you before I start. Are
+you in want of money?" and he put his hand in his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sahib," the juggler said. "We have money sufficient for
+all our wants; we are not thinking of performing tonight, for
+Rabda is not equal to it. Before sunrise we shall be on our way
+again; I must be at Cawnpore, and we have delayed too long
+already. Could you give us but half an hour tonight, sahib; we
+will come at any hour you like. I would show you things that few
+Englishmen have seen. Not mere common tricks, sahib, but
+mysteries such as are known to few even of us. Do not say no,
+sahib."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you wish it, Rujub, I will give you half an hour,"
+and Bathurst looked at his watch. "It is seven now, and I have to
+dine. I have work to do that will take me three hours at least,
+but at eleven I shall have finished. You will see a light in my
+room; come straight to the open window."</p>
+
+<p>"We will be there, sahib;" and with a salaam the juggler
+walked off, followed by his daughter.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes before the appointed time Bathurst threw down
+his pen with a little sigh of satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>The memo he had just finished was a most conclusive one; it
+seemed to him unanswerable, and that the Department would have
+trouble in disputing his facts and figures. He had not since he
+sat down to his work given another thought to the juggler, and he
+almost started as a figure appeared in the veranda at the open
+window.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Rujub, is it you? I have just finished my work. Come in;
+is Rabda with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"She will remain outside until I want her," the juggler said
+as he entered and squatted himself on the floor. "I am not going
+to juggle, sahib. With us there are two sorts of feats; there are
+those that are performed by sleight of hand or by means of
+assistance. These are the juggler's tricks we show in the
+verandas and compounds of the white sahibs, and in the streets of
+the cities. There are others that are known only to the higher
+order among us, that we show only on rare occasions. They have
+come to us from the oldest times, and it is said they were
+brought by wise men from Egypt; but that I know not."</p>
+
+<p>"I have always been interested in juggling, and have seen many
+things that I cannot understand," Bathurst said. "I have seen the
+basket trick done on the road in front of the veranda, as well as
+in other places, and I cannot in any way account for it."</p>
+
+<p>The juggler took from his basket a piece of wood about two
+feet in length and some four inches in diameter.</p>
+
+<p>"You see this?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst took it in his hand. "It looks like a bit sawn off a
+telegraph pole," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you come outside, sahib?"</p>
+
+<p>The night was very dark, but the lamp on the table threw its
+light through the window onto the drive in front of the veranda.
+Rujub took with him a piece of wood about nine inches square,
+with a soft pad on the top. He went out in the drive and placed
+the piece of pole upright, and laid the wood with the cushion on
+the top.</p>
+
+<p>"Now will you stand in the veranda a while?"</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst stood back by the side of the window so as not to
+interfere with the passage of the light. Rabda stole forward and
+sat down upon the cushion.</p>
+
+<p>"Now watch, sahib."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst looked, and saw the block of wood apparently growing.
+Gradually it rose until Rabda passed up beyond the light in the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>"You may come out," the juggler said, "but do not touch the
+pole. If you do, it will cause a fall, which would be fatal to my
+child."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst stepped out and looked up. He could but just make out
+the figure of Rabda, seemingly already higher than the top of the
+bungalow. Gradually it became more and more indistinct.</p>
+
+<p>"You are there, Rabda?" her father said.</p>
+
+<p>"I am here, father!" and the voice seemed to come from a
+considerable distance.</p>
+
+<p>Again and again the question was asked, and the answer became
+fainter and fainter, although it sounded as if it was a distant
+cry in response to Rujub's shout rather than spoken in an
+ordinary voice.</p>
+
+<p>At last no response was heard.</p>
+
+<p>"Now it shall descend," the juggler said.</p>
+
+<p>Two or three minutes passed, and then Bathurst, who was
+staring up into the darkness, could make out the end of the pole
+with the seat upon it, but Rabda was no longer there. Rapidly it
+sank, until it stood its original height on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Rabda?" Bathurst exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"She is here, my lord," and as he spoke Rabda rose from a
+sitting position on the balcony close to Bathurst.</p>
+
+<p>"It is marvelous!" the latter exclaimed. "I have heard of that
+feat before, but have never seen it. May I take up that piece of
+wood?"</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly, sahib."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst took it up and carried it to the light. It was
+undoubtedly, as he had before supposed, a piece of solid wood.
+The juggler had not touched it, or he would have supposed he
+might have substituted for the piece he first examined a sort of
+telescope of thin sheets of steel, but even that would not have
+accounted for Rabda's disappearance.</p>
+
+<p>"I will show you one other feat, my lord."</p>
+
+<p>He took a brass dish, placed a few pieces of wood and charcoal
+in it, struck a match, and set the wood on fire, and then fanned
+it until the wood had burned out, and the charcoal was in a glow;
+then he sprinkled some powder upon it, and a dense white smoke
+rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Now turn out the lamp, sahib."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst did so. The glow of the charcoal enabled him still to
+see the light smoke; this seemed to him to become clearer and
+clearer.</p>
+
+<p>"Now for the past!" Rujub said. The smoke grew brighter and
+brighter, and mixed with flashes of color; presently Bathurst saw
+clearly an Indian scene. A village stood on a crest, jets of
+smoke darted up from between the houses, and then a line of
+troops in scarlet uniform advanced against the village, firing as
+they went. They paused for a moment, and then with a rush went at
+the village and disappeared in the smoke over the crest.</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heavens," Bathurst muttered, "it is the battle of
+Chillianwalla!"</p>
+
+<p>"The future!" Rujub said, and the colors on the smoke changed.
+Bathurst saw a wall surrounding a courtyard. On one side was a
+house. It had evidently been besieged, for in the upper part were
+many ragged holes, and two of the windows were knocked into one.
+On the roof were men firing, and there were one or two women
+among them. He could see their faces and features distinctly. In
+the courtyard wall there was a gap, and through this a crowd of
+Sepoys were making their way, while a handful of whites were
+defending a breastwork. Among them he recognized his own figure.
+He saw himself club his rifle and leap down into the middle of
+the Sepoys, fighting furiously there. The colors faded away, and
+the room was in darkness again. There was the crack of a match,
+and then Rujub said quietly, "If you will lift off the globe
+again, I will light the lamp, sahib."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst almost mechanically did as he was told.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sahib, what do you think of the pictures?"</p>
+
+<p>"The first was true," Bathurst said quietly, "though, how you
+knew I was with the regiment that stormed the village at
+Chillianwalla I know not. The second is certainly not true."</p>
+
+<p>"You can never know what the future will be, sahib," the
+juggler said gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"That is so," Bathurst said; "but I know enough of myself to
+say that it cannot be true. I do not say that the Sepoys can
+never be fighting against whites, improbable as it seems, but
+that I was doing what that figure did is, I know,
+impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"Time will show, sahib," the juggler said; "the pictures never
+lie. Shall I show you other things?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Rujub, you have shown me enough; you have astounded me. I
+want to see no more tonight."</p>
+
+<p>"Then farewell, sahib; we shall meet again, I doubt not, and
+mayhap I may be able to repay the debt I owe you;" and Rujub,
+lifting his basket, went out through the window without another
+word.</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h1>
+
+<p>Some seven or eight officers were sitting round the table in
+the messroom of the 103d Bengal Infantry at Cawnpore. It had been
+a guest night, but the strangers had left, the lights had been
+turned out in the billiard room overhead, the whist party had
+broken up, and the players had rejoined three officers who had
+remained at table smoking and talking quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Outside, through the open French windows, the ground looked as
+if sprinkled with snow beneath the white light of the full moon.
+Two or three of the mess servants were squatting in the veranda,
+talking in low voices. A sentry walked backwards and forwards by
+the gate leading into the mess house compound; beyond, the maidan
+stretched away flat and level to the low huts of the native lines
+on the other side.</p>
+
+<p>"So the Doctor comes back tomorrow, Major," the Adjutant, who
+had been one of the whist party, said. "I shall be very glad to
+have him back. In the first place, he is a capital fellow, and
+keeps us all alive; secondly, he is a good deal better doctor
+than the station surgeon who has been looking after the men since
+we have been here; and lastly, if I had got anything the matter
+with me myself, I would rather be in his hands than those of
+anyone else I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I agree with you, Prothero; the Doctor is as good a
+fellow as ever stepped. There is no doubt about his talent in his
+profession; and there are a good many of us who owed our lives to
+him when we were down with cholera, in that bad attack three
+years ago. He is good all round; he is just as keen a shikari as
+he was when he joined the regiment, twenty years ago; he is a
+good billiard player, and one of the best storytellers I ever
+came across; but his best point is that he is such a thoroughly
+good fellow -- always ready to do a good turn to anyone, and to
+help a lame dog over a stile. I could name a dozen men in India
+who owe their commissions to him. I don't know what the regiment
+would do without him."</p>
+
+<p>"He went home on leave just after I joined," one of the
+subalterns said. "Of course, I know, from all I have heard of
+him, that he is an awfully good fellow, but from the little I saw
+of him myself, he seemed always growling and snapping."</p>
+
+<p>There was a general laugh from the others.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is his way, Thompson," the Major said; "he believes
+himself to be one of the most cynical and morose of men."</p>
+
+<p>"He was married, wasn't he, Major?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it was a sad business. It was only just after I joined.
+He is three years senior to me in the regiment. He was appointed
+to it a month or two after the Colonel joined. Well, as I say, a
+month or two after I came to it, he went away on leave down to
+Calcutta, where he was to meet a young lady who had been engaged
+to him before he left home. They were married, and he brought her
+up country. Before she had been with us a month we had one of
+those outbreaks of cholera. It wasn't a very severe one. I think
+we only lost eight or ten men, and no officer; but the Doctor's
+young wife was attacked, and in three or four hours she was
+carried off. It regularly broke him down. However, he got over
+it, as we all do, I suppose; and now I think he is married to the
+regiment. He could have had staff appointments a score of times,
+but he has always refused them. His time is up next year, and he
+could go home on full pay, but I don't suppose he will."</p>
+
+<p>"And your niece arrives with him tomorrow, Major," the
+Adjutant said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am going to try petticoat government, Prothero. I
+don't know how the experiment will succeed, but I am tired of an
+empty bungalow, and I have been looking forward for some years to
+her being old enough to come out and take charge. It is ten years
+since I was home, and she was a little chit of eight years old at
+that time."</p>
+
+<p>"I think a vote of thanks ought to be passed to you, Major. We
+have only married ladies in the regiment, and it will wake us up
+and do us good to have Miss Hannay among us."</p>
+
+<p>"There are the Colonel's daughters," the Major said, with a
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there are, Major, but they hardly count; they are
+scarcely conscious of the existence of poor creatures like us;
+nothing short of a Resident or, at any rate, of a full blown
+Collector, will find favor in their eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I warn you all fairly," the Major said, "that I shall
+set my face against all sorts of philandering and love making. I
+am bringing my niece out here as my housekeeper and companion,
+and not as a prospective wife for any of you youngsters. I hope
+she will turn out to be as plain as a pikestaff, and then I may
+have some hopes of keeping her with me for a time. The Doctor, in
+his letter from Calcutta, says nothing as to what she is like,
+though he was good enough to remark that she seemed to have a
+fair share of common sense, and has given him no more trouble on
+the voyage than was to be expected under the circumstances. And
+now, lads, it is nearly two o'clock, and as there is early parade
+tomorrow, it is high time for you to be all in your beds. What a
+blessing it would be if the sun would forget to shine for a bit
+on this portion of the world, and we could have an Arctic night
+of seven or eight months with a full moon the whole time!"</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later the messroom was empty, the lights turned
+out, and the servants wrapped up in their blankets had disposed
+themselves for sleep in the veranda.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as morning parade was over Major Hannay went back to
+his bungalow, looked round to see that his bachelor quarters were
+as bright and tidy as possible, then got into a light suit and
+went down to the post house. A quarter of an hour later a cloud
+of dust along the road betokened the approach of the Dak Gharry,
+and two or three minutes later it dashed up at full gallop amid a
+loud and continuous cracking of the driver's whip. The wiry
+little horses were drawn up with a sudden jerk.</p>
+
+<p>The Major opened the door. A little man sprang out and grasped
+him by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Glad to see you, Major -- thoroughly glad to be back again.
+Here is your niece; I deliver her safe and sound into your
+hands." And between them they helped a girl to alight from the
+vehicle.</p>
+
+<p>"I am heartily glad to see you, my dear," the Major said, as
+he kissed her; "though I don't think I should have known you
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think not, uncle," the girl said. "In the first
+place, I was a little girl in short frocks when I saw you last;
+and in the second place, I am so covered with the dust that you
+can hardly see what I am like. I think I should have known you;
+your visit made a great impression upon us, though I can remember
+now how disappointed we were when you first arrived that you
+hadn't a red coat and a sword, as we had expected."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we may as well be off at once, Isobel; it is only five
+minutes' walk to the bungalow. My man will see to your luggage
+being brought up. Come along, Doctor. Of course you will put up
+with me until you can look round and fix upon quarters. I told
+Rumzan to bring your things round with my niece's. You have had a
+very pleasant voyage out, I hope, Isobel?" he went on, as they
+started.</p>
+
+<p>"Very pleasant, uncle, though I got rather tired of it at
+last."</p>
+
+<p>"That is generally the way -- everyone is pleasant and
+agreeable at first, but before they get to the end they take to
+quarreling like cats and dogs."</p>
+
+<p>"We were not quite as bad as that," the girl laughed, "but we
+certainly weren't as amiable the last month or so as we were
+during the first part of the voyage. Still, it was very pleasant
+all along, and nobody quarreled with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Present company are always excepted," the Doctor said. "I
+stood in loco parentis, Major, and the result has been that I
+shall feel in future more charitable towards mothers of
+marriageable daughters. Still, I am bound to say that Miss Hannay
+has given me as little trouble as could be expected."</p>
+
+<p>"You frighten me, Doctor; if you found her so onerous only for
+a voyage, what have I to look forward to?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you can't say that I didn't warn you, Major; when you
+wrote home and asked me to take charge of your niece on the way
+out, I told you frankly that my opinion of your good sense was
+shaken."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you did express yourself with some strength," the Major
+laughed; "but then one is so accustomed to that, that I did not
+take it to heart as I might otherwise have done."</p>
+
+<p>"That was before you knew me, Dr. Wade, otherwise I should
+feel very hurt," the girl put in.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it was," the Doctor said dryly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't mind him, my dear," her uncle said; "we all know the
+Doctor of old. This is my bungalow."</p>
+
+<p>"It is pretty, with all these flowers and shrubs round it,"
+she said admiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we have been doing a good deal of watering the last few
+weeks, so as to get it to look its best. This is your special
+attendant; she will take you up to your room. By the time you
+have had a bath, your boxes will be here. I told them to have a
+cup of tea ready for you upstairs. Breakfast will be on the table
+by the time you are ready."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, old friend," he said to the Doctor, when the girl had
+gone upstairs, "no complications, I hope, on the voyage?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I think not," the Doctor said. "Of course, there were
+lots of young puppies on board, and as she was out and out the
+best looking girl in the ship half of them were dancing
+attendance upon her all the voyage, but I am bound to say that
+she acted like a sensible young woman; and though she was
+pleasant with them all, she didn't get into any flirtation with
+one more than another. I did my best to look after her, but, of
+course, that would have been of no good if she had been disposed
+to go her own way. I fancy about half of them proposed to her --
+not that she ever said as much to me -- but whenever I observed
+one looking sulky and giving himself airs I could guess pretty
+well what had happened. These young puppies are all alike, and we
+are not without experience of the species out here.</p>
+
+<p>"Seriously, Major, I think you are to be congratulated. I
+consider that you ran a tremendous risk in asking a young woman,
+of whom you knew nothing, to come out to you; still it has turned
+out well. If she had been a frivolous, giggling thing, like most
+of them, I had made up my mind to do you a good turn by helping
+to get her engaged on the voyage, and should have seen her
+married offhand at Calcutta, and have come up and told you that
+you were well out of the scrape. As, contrary to my expectations,
+she turned out to be a sensible young woman, I did my best the
+other way. It is likely enough you may have her on your hands
+some little time, for I don't think she is likely to be caught by
+the first comer. Well, I must go and have my bath; the dust has
+been awful coming up from Allahabad. That is one advantage, and
+the only one as far as I can see, that they have got in England.
+They don't know what dust is there."</p>
+
+<p>When the bell for breakfast rang, and Isobel made her
+appearance, looking fresh and cool, in a light dress, the Major
+said, "You must take the head of the table, my dear, and assume
+the reins of government forthwith."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I should say, uncle, that if any guidance is required,
+there will be an upset in a very short time. No, that won't do at
+all. You must go on just as you were before, and I shall look on
+and learn. As far as I can see, everything is perfect just as it
+is. This is a charming room, and I am sure there is no fault to
+be found with the arrangement of these flowers on the table. As
+for the cooking, everything looks very nice, and anyhow, if you
+have not been able to get them to cook to your taste, it is of no
+use my attempting anything in that way. Besides, I suppose I must
+learn something of the language before I can attempt to do
+anything. No, uncle, I will sit in this chair if you like, and
+make tea and pour it out, but that is the beginning and the end
+of my assumption of the head of the establishment at
+present."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Isobel, I hardly expected that you were going to run
+the establishment just at first; indeed, as far as that goes,
+one's butler, if he is a good man, has pretty well a free hand.
+He is generally responsible, and is in fact what we should call
+at home housekeeper -- he and the cook between them arrange
+everything. I say to him, 'Three gentlemen are coming to tiffen.'
+He nods and says 'Atcha, sahib,' which means 'All right, sir,'
+and then I know it will be all right. If I have a fancy for any
+special thing, of course I say so. Otherwise, I leave it to them,
+and if the result is not satisfactory, I blow up. Nothing can be
+more simple."</p>
+
+<p>"But how about bills, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, the butler gives them to me, and I pay them.
+He has been with me a good many years, and will not let the
+others -- that is to say, the cook and the syce, the washerman,
+and so on, cheat me beyond a reasonable amount. Do you,
+Rumzan?"</p>
+
+<p>Rumzan, who was standing behind the Major's chair, in a white
+turban and dress, with a red and white sash round his waist,
+smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Rumzan not let anyone rob his master."</p>
+
+<p>"Not to any great extent, you know, Rumzan. One doesn't expect
+more than that."</p>
+
+<p>"It is just the same here, Miss Hannay, as it is everywhere
+else," said the Doctor; "only in big establishments in England
+they rob you of pounds, while here they rob you of annas, which,
+as I have explained to you, are two pence halfpennies. The person
+who undertakes to put down little peculations enters upon a war
+in which he is sure to get the worst of it. He wastes his time,
+spoils his temper, makes himself and everyone around him
+uncomfortable, and after all he is robbed. Life is too short for
+it, especially in a climate like this. Of course, in time you get
+to understand the language; if you see anything in the bills that
+strikes you as showing waste you can go into the thing, but as a
+rule you trust entirely to your butler; if you cannot trust him,
+get another one. Rumzan has been with your uncle ten years, so
+you are fortunate. If the Major had gone home instead of me, and
+if you had had an entirely fresh establishment of servants to
+look after, the case would have been different; as it is, you
+will have no trouble that way."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what are my duties to be, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your chief duties, my dear, are to look pleasant, which will
+evidently be no trouble to you; to amuse me and keep me in a good
+temper as far as possible; to keep on as good terms as may be
+with the other ladies of the station; and, what will perhaps be
+the most difficult part of your work, to snub and keep in order
+the young officers of our own and other corps."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel laughed. "That doesn't sound a very difficult
+programme, uncle, except the last item; I have already had a
+little experience that way, haven't I, Doctor? I hope I shall
+have the benefit of your assistance in the future, as I had
+aboard the ship."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do my best," the Doctor said grimly; "but the British
+subaltern is pretty well impervious to snubs; he belongs to the
+pachydermatous family of animals; his armor of self conceit
+renders him invulnerable against the milder forms of raillery.
+However, I think you can be trusted to hold your own with him,
+Miss Hannay, without much assistance from the Major or myself.
+Your real difficulty will lie rather in your struggle against the
+united female forces of the station."</p>
+
+<p>"But why shall I have to struggle with them?" Isobel asked, in
+surprise, while her uncle broke into a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't frighten her, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"She is not so easily frightened, Major; it is just as well
+that she should be prepared. Well, my dear Miss Hannay, Indian
+society has this peculiarity, that the women never grow old. At
+least," he continued, in reply to the girl's look of surprise,
+"they are never conscious of growing old. At home a woman's
+family grows up about her, and are constant reminders that she is
+becoming a matron. Here the children are sent away when they get
+four or five years old, and do not appear on the scene again
+until they are grown up. Then, too, ladies are greatly in the
+minority, and they are accustomed to be made vastly more of than
+they are at home, and the consequence is that the amount of envy,
+hatred, jealousy, and all uncharitableness is appalling."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, Doctor, not as bad as that," the Major
+remonstrated.</p>
+
+<p>"Every bit as bad as that," the Doctor said stoutly. "I am not
+a woman hater, far from it; but I have felt sometimes that if
+John Company, in its beneficence, would pass a decree absolutely
+excluding the importation of white women into India it would be
+an unmixed blessing."</p>
+
+<p>"For shame, Doctor," Isobel Hannay said; "and to think that I
+should have such a high opinion of you up to now."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't help it, my dear; my experience is that for
+ninety-nine out of every hundred unpleasantnesses that take place
+out here, women are in one way or another responsible. They get
+up sets and cliques, and break up what might be otherwise
+pleasant society into sections. Talk about caste amongst natives;
+it is nothing to the caste among women out here. The wife of a
+civilian of high rank looks down upon the wives of military men,
+the general's wife looks down upon a captain's, and so right
+through from the top to the bottom.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not so among the men, or at any rate to a very much
+smaller extent. Of course, some men are pompous fools, but, as a
+rule, if two men meet, and both are gentlemen, they care nothing
+as to what their respective ranks may be. A man may be a lord or
+a doctor, a millionaire or a struggling barrister, but they meet
+on equal terms in society; but out here it is certainly not so
+among the women -- they stand upon their husband's dignity in a
+way that would be pitiable if it were not exasperating. Of
+course, there are plenty of good women among them, as there are
+everywhere -- women whom even India can't spoil; but what with
+exclusiveness, and with the amount of admiration and adulation
+they get, and what with the want of occupation for their thoughts
+and minds, it is very hard for them to avoid getting spoilt."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I hope I shan't get spoilt, Doctor; and I hope, if you
+see that I am getting spoilt, you will make a point of telling me
+so at once."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor grunted. "Theoretically, people are always ready to
+receive good advice, Miss Hannay; practically they are always
+offended by it. However, in your case I will risk it, and I am
+bound to say that hitherto you have proved yourself more amenable
+in that way than most young women I have come across."</p>
+
+<p>"And now, if we have done, we will go out on the veranda," the
+Major said. "I am sure the Doctor must be dying for a
+cheroot."</p>
+
+<p>"The Doctor has smoked pretty continuously since we left
+Allahabad," Isobel said. "He wanted to sit up with the driver,
+but, of course, I would not have that. I had got pretty well
+accustomed to smoke coming out, and even if I had not been I
+would much rather have been almost suffocated than have been in
+there by myself. I thought a dozen times the vehicle was going to
+upset, and what with the bumping and the shouting and the
+cracking of the whip -- especially when the horses wouldn't
+start, which was generally the case at first -- I should have
+been frightened out of my life had I been alone. It seemed to me
+that something dreadful was always going to happen."</p>
+
+<p>"You can take it easy this morning, Isobel," the Major said,
+when they were comfortably seated in the bamboo lounges in the
+veranda. "You want have any callers today, as it will be known
+you traveled all night. People will imagine that you want a quiet
+day before you are on show."</p>
+
+<p>"What a horrid expression, uncle!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, it represents the truth. The arrival of a
+fresh lady from England, especially of a 'spin,' which is short
+for spinster or unmarried woman, is an event of some importance
+in an Indian station. Not, of course, so much in a place like
+this, because this is the center of a large district, but in a
+small station it is an event of the first importance. The men are
+anxious to see what a newcomer is like for herself; the women, to
+look at her dresses and see the latest fashions from home, and
+also to ascertain whether she is likely to turn out a formidable
+rival. However, today you can enjoy quiet; tomorrow you must
+attire yourself in your most becoming costume, and I will trot
+you round."</p>
+
+<p>"Trot me round, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear. In India the order of procedure is reversed,
+and newcomers call in the first place upon residents."</p>
+
+<p>"What a very unpleasant custom, uncle; especially as some of
+the residents may not want to know them."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, everyone must know everyone else in a station, my dear,
+though they may not wish to be intimate. So. about half past one
+tomorrow we will start."</p>
+
+<p>"What, in the heat of the day, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear. That is another of the inscrutable freaks of
+Indian fashion. The hours for calling are from about half past
+twelve to half past two, just in the hottest hours. I don't
+pretend to account for it."</p>
+
+<p>How many ladies are there in the regiment?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is the Colonel's wife, Mrs. Cromarty. She has two grown
+up red headed girls," replied the Doctor. "She is a distant
+relation -- a second cousin -- of some Scotch lord or other, and,
+on the strength of that and her husband's colonelcy, gives
+herself prodigious airs. Three of the captains are married. Mrs.
+Doolan is a merry little Irish woman. You will like her. She has
+two or three children. She is a general favorite in the
+regiment.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rintoul -- I suppose she is here still, Major, and
+unchanged? Ah, I thought so. She is a washed-out woman, without a
+spark of energy in her composition. -' She believes that she is a
+chronic invalid, and sends for me on an average once a week. But
+there is nothing really the matter with her, if she would but
+only believe it. Mrs. Roberts --"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be ill natured, Doctor," the Major broke in. "Mrs.
+Roberts, my dear, is a good-looking woman, and a general flirt. I
+don't think there is any harm in her whatever. Mrs. Prothero, the
+Adjutant's wife, has only been out here eighteen months, and is a
+pretty little woman, and in all respects nice. - There is only
+one other, Mrs. Scarsdale; she came out six months ago. She is a
+quiet young woman, with, I should say, plenty of common sense: I
+should think you will like her. That completes the regimental
+list."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is not so very formidable. Anyhow, it is a.
+comfort that we shall have no one here today."</p>
+
+<p>"You will have the whole regiment here in a few minutes,
+Isobel, but they will be coming to see the Doctor, not you; if it
+hadn't been that they knew you were under his charge everyone
+would have come down to meet him when he arrived. But if you feel
+tired, as I am sure you must be after your journey, there is no
+reason why you shouldn't go and lie down quietly for a few
+hours."</p>
+
+<p>"I will stop here, uncle; it will be much less embarrassing to
+see them all for the first time when they come to see Dr. Wade
+and I am quite a secondary consideration, than if they had to
+come specially to call on me."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I agree with you there, my dear. Ah! here come Doolan
+and Prothero."</p>
+
+<p>A light trap drove into the inclosure and drew up in front of
+the veranda, and two officers jumped down, -whilst the syce, who
+had been standing on a step behind, ran to the horse's head. They
+hailed the Doctor, as he stepped out from the veranda, with a
+shout.</p>
+
+<p>"Glad to see you back, Doctor. The regiment has not seemed
+like itself without you."</p>
+
+<p>"We have been just pining without you, Doctor," Captain Doolan
+said; "and the ladies would have got up a deputation to meet you
+on your arrival, only I told them that it would be too much for
+your modesty."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is a good thing that someone has a little of that
+quality in the regiment, Doolan," the Doctor said, as he shook
+hands heartily with them both. "It is very little of it that fell
+to the share of Ireland when it was served out."</p>
+
+<p>As they dropped the Doctor's hand the Major said, "Now,
+gentlemen, let me introduce you to my niece." The introductions
+were made, and the whole party took chairs on the veranda.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you object to smoking, Miss Hannay; perhaps you have not
+got accustomed to it yet? I see the Doctor is -smoking; but then
+he is a privileged person, altogether beyond rule."</p>
+
+<p>"I rather like it in the open air," Isobel said. "No doubt I
+shall get accustomed to it indoors before long."</p>
+
+<p>In a few minutes four or five more of the officers arrived,
+and Isobel sat an amused listener to the talk; taking but little
+part in it herself, but gathering a good deal of information as
+to the people at the station from the answers given to the
+Doctor's inquiries. It was very much like the conversation on
+board ship, except that the topics of conversation were wider and
+more numerous, and there was a community of interest wanting on
+board a ship. In half an hour, however, the increasing warmth and
+her sleepless night began to tell upon her, and her uncle, seeing
+that she was beginning to look fagged, said, "The best thing that
+you can do, Isobel, is to go indoors for a bit, and have a good
+nap. At five o'clock I will take you round for a drive, and show
+you the sights of Cawnpore."</p>
+
+<p>"I do feel sleepy," she said, "though it sounds rude to say
+so."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," the Doctor put in; "if any of these young
+fellows had made the journey out from Allahabad in that wretched
+gharry, they would have turned into bed as soon as they arrived,
+and would not have got up till the first mess bugle sounded, and
+very likely would have slept on until next morning.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," he went on, when Isobel had disappeared, "we will
+adjourn with you to the mess-house. That young lady would have
+very small chance of getting to sleep with all this racket here.
+Doolan's voice alone would banish sleep anywhere within a
+distance of a hundred yards."</p>
+
+<p>"I will join you there later, Doctor," the Major said. "I have
+got a couple of hours' work in the orderly -room. Rumzan, don't
+let my niece be disturbed, but if she wakes and rings the bell
+send up a message by the woman that I - shall not be back until
+four."</p>
+
+<p>The Major walked across to the orderly room, while the rest,
+mounting their buggies, drove to the mess-house, which was a
+quarter of a mile away.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think Miss Hannay will prove a valuable addition to
+our circle, Doctor," the Adjutant said. "I don't know why, but I
+gathered from what the Major said that his niece was very young.
+He spoke of her as if she were quite a child."</p>
+
+<p>"She is a very nice, sensible young woman," the Doctor said;
+"clever and bright, and, as you can see for your- selves, pretty,
+and yet no nonsense about her. I only hope that she won't get
+spoilt here; nineteen out of twenty young women do get spoilt
+within six months of their arrival in India, but I think she will
+be one of the exceptions."</p>
+
+<p>"I should have liked to have seen the Doctor doing chaperon,"
+Captain Doolan laughed; "he would have been a brave man who would
+have attempted even the faintest flirtation with anyone under his
+charge."</p>
+
+<p>"That is your opinion, is it, Doolan?" the Doctor said
+sharply. "I should have thought that even your common sense would
+have told you that anyone who has had the misfortune to see as
+much of womankind as I have would have been aware that any
+endeavor to check a flirtation for which they are inclined would
+be of all others the way to induce them to go in for it headlong.
+You are a married man yourself, and ought to know that. A woman
+is a good deal like a spirited horse; let her have her head, and,
+though she may for a time make the pace pretty fast, she will go
+straight, and settle down to her collar in time, whereas if you
+keep a tight curb she will fret and fidget, and as likely as not
+make a bolt for it. I can assure you that my duties were of The
+most nominal description. There were the usual number of hollow
+pated lads on board, who buzzed in their usual feeble way round
+Miss Hannay, and were one after another duly snubbed. Miss Hannay
+has plenty of spirits, and a considerable sense of humor, and I
+think that she enjoyed the voyage thoroughly. And now let us talk
+of something else."</p>
+
+<p>After an hour's chat the Doctor started on his round of calls
+upon the ladies; the Major had not come in from the orderly room,
+and, after the Doctor left, Isobel Hannay was again the topic of
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"She is out and out the prettiest girl in the station," the
+Adjutant said to some of the officers who had not seen her. "She
+will make quite a sensation; and there are five or six ladies in
+the station, whose names I need hardly mention, who will not be
+very pleased at her coming. She is thoroughly in good form, too;
+nothing in the slightest degree fast or noisy about her. She is
+quiet and self-possessed. I fancy she will be able to hold her
+own against any of them. Clever? I should say 'certainly'; but,
+of course, that is from her face rather than from anything she
+said. I expect half the unmarried men in the station will be
+going wild over her. You need not look so interested, Wilson; the
+matter is of no more personal interest to you than if I were
+describing a new comet. Nothing less than a big civilian is
+likely to carry off such a prize, so I warn you beforehand you
+had better not be losing your heart to her."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you know, Prothero, subalterns do manage to get wives
+sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>There was a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"That is true enough, Wilson; but then, you see, I married at
+home; besides, I am adjutant, which sounds a lot better than
+subaltern."</p>
+
+<p>"That may go for a good deal in the regiment," Wilson
+retorted, "but I doubt if there are many women that know the
+difference between an adjutant and a quartermaster. They know
+about colonels, majors, captains, and even subalterns; but if you
+were to say that you were an adjutant they would be simply
+mystified, though they might understand if you said bandmaster.
+But I fancy sergeant major would sound ever so much more
+imposing."</p>
+
+<p>"Wilson, if you are disrespectful, I shall discover tomorrow,
+on parade, that No. 3 Company wants a couple of hours' extra
+drill badly, and then you will feel how grievous a mistake it is
+to cheek an adjutant."</p>
+
+<p>The report of those who had called at the Major's was so
+favorable that curiosity was quite roused as to the new- comer,
+and when the Major drove round with her the next day everyone was
+at home, and the verdict on the part of the ladies was generally
+favorable, but was by no means so unqualified as that of the
+gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Cromarty admitted that she was nice looking; but was
+critical as to her carriage and manner. She would be admired by
+young officers, no doubt, but there was too much life and
+animation about her, and although she would not exactly say that
+she stooped, she was likely to do so in time.</p>
+
+<p>"She will be nothing remarkable when her freshness has worn
+off a little."</p>
+
+<p>In this opinion the Misses Cromarty thoroughly assented. They
+had never been accused of stooping, and, indeed, were almost
+painfully upright, and were certainly not particularly admired by
+subalterns.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Doolan was charmed with her, and told her she hoped that
+they would be great friends.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a very pleasant life out here, my dear," she said,
+"if one does but take it in the right way. There is a great deal
+of tittle tattle in the Indian stations, and some quarreling;
+but, you know, it takes two to make a quarrel, and I make it a
+point never to quarrel with anyone. It is too hot for it. Then,
+you see, I have the advantage of being Irish, and, for some
+reason or other that I don't understand we can say pretty nearly
+what we like. People don't take us seriously, you know; so I keep
+in with them all."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Rintoul received her visitors on the sofa. "It is quite
+refreshing to see a face straight from England, Miss Hannay. I
+only hope that you may keep your bright color and healthy looks.
+Some people do. Not their color, but their health. Unfortunately
+I am not one of them. I do not know what it is to have a day's
+health. The climate completely oppresses me, and I am fit for
+nothing. You would hardly believe that I was as strong and
+healthy as you are when I first came out. You came out with Dr.
+Wade -- a clever man -- I have a very high opinion of his talent,
+but my case is beyond him. It is a sad annoyance to him that it
+is so, and he is continually trying to make me believe that there
+is nothing the matter with me, as if my looks did not speak for
+themselves."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Rintoul afterwards told her husband she could hardly say
+that she liked Miss Hannay.</p>
+
+<p>"She is distressingly brisk and healthy, and I should say, my
+dear, not of a sympathetic nature, which is always a pity in a
+young woman."</p>
+
+<p>After this somewhat depressing visit, the call upon Mrs.
+Roberts was a refreshing one. She received her very
+cordially.</p>
+
+<p>"I like you, Miss Hannay," she said, when, after a quarter of
+an hour's lively talk, the Major and his niece got up to go. "I
+always say what I think, and it is very good natured of me to say
+so, for I don't disguise from myself that you will put my nose
+out of joint."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to put anyone's nose out of joint," Isobel
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You will do it, whether you want to or not," Mrs. Roberts
+said; "my husband as much as told me so last night, and I was
+prepared not to like you, but I see that I shall not be able to
+help doing so. Major Hannay, you have dealt me a heavy blow, but
+I forgive you."</p>
+
+<p>When the round of visits was finished the Major said, "Well,
+Isobel, what do you think of the ladies of the regiment?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think they are all very nice, uncle. I fancy I shall like
+Mrs. Doolan and Mrs. Scarsdale best; I won't give any opinion yet
+about Mrs. Cromarty."</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h1>
+
+<p>The life of Isobel Hannay had not, up to the time when she
+left England to join her uncle, been a very bright one. At the
+death of her father, her mother had been left with an income that
+enabled her to live, as she said, genteelly, at Brighton. She had
+three children: the eldest a girl of twelve; Isobel, who was
+eight; and a boy of five, who was sadly deformed, the result of a
+fall from the arms of a careless nurse when he was an infant. It
+was at that time that Major Hannay had come home on leave, having
+been left trustee and executor, and seen to all the money
+arrangements, and had established his brother's widow at
+Brighton. The work had not been altogether pleasant, for Mrs.
+Hannay was a selfish and querulous woman, very difficult to
+satisfy even in little matters, and with a chronic suspicion that
+everyone with whom she came in contact was trying to get the best
+of her. Her eldest girl was likely, Captain Hannay thought, to
+take after her mother, whose pet she was, while Isobel took after
+her father. He had suggested that both should be sent to school,
+but Mrs. Hannay would not hear of parting from Helena, but was
+willing enough that Isobel should be sent to a boarding school at
+her uncle's expense.</p>
+
+<p>As the years went by, Helena grew up, as Mrs. Hannay proudly
+said, the image of what she herself had been at her age -- tall
+and fair, indolent and selfish, fond of dress and gayety,
+discontented because their means would not permit them to indulge
+in either to the fullest extent. There was nothing in common
+between her and her sister, who, when at home for the holidays,
+spent her time almost entirely with her brother, who received but
+slight attention from anyone else, his deformity being considered
+as a personal injury and affliction by his mother and elder
+sister.</p>
+
+<p>"You could not care less for him," Isobel once said, in a fit
+of passion, "if he were a dog. I don't think you notice him more,
+not one bit. He wanders about the house without anybody to give a
+thought to him. I call it cruel, downright cruel."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a wicked girl, Isobel," her mother said angrily, "a
+wicked, violent girl, and I don't know what will become of you.
+It is abominable of you to talk so, even if you are wicked enough
+to get into a passion. What can we do for him that we don't do?
+What is the use of talking to him when he never pays attention to
+what we say, and is always moping. I am sure we get everything
+that we think will please him, and he goes out for a walk with us
+every day; what could possibly be done more for him?"</p>
+
+<p>"A great deal more might be done for him," Isobel burst out.
+"You might love him, and that would be everything to him. I don't
+believe you and Helena love him, not one bit, not one tiny
+scrap."</p>
+
+<p>"Go up to your room, Isobel, and remain there for the rest of
+the day. You are a very bad girl. I shall write to Miss Virtue
+about you; there must be something very wrong in her management
+of you, or you would never be so passionate and insolent as you
+are."</p>
+
+<p>But Isobel had not stopped to hear the last part of the
+sentence, the door had slammed behind her. She was not many
+minutes alone upstairs, for Robert soon followed her up, for when
+she was at home he rarely left her side, watching her every look
+and gesture with eyes as loving as those of a dog, and happy to
+sit on the ground beside her, with his head leaning against her,
+for hours together.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hannay kept her word and wrote to Miss Virtue, and the
+evening after she returned to school Isobel was summoned to her
+room.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to say, I have a very bad account of you from your
+mother. She says you are a passionate and wicked girl. How is it,
+dear; you are not passionate here, and I certainly do not think
+you are wicked?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't help it when I am at home, Miss Virtue. I am sure I
+try to be good, but they won't let me. They don't like me because
+I can't be always tidy and what they call prettily behaved, and
+because I hate walking on the parade and being stuck up and
+unnatural, and they don't like me because I am not pretty, and
+because I am thin and don't look, as mamma says, a credit to her;
+but it is not that so much as because of Robert. You know he is
+deformed, Miss Virtue, and they don't care for him, and he has no
+one to love him but me, and it makes me mad to see him treated
+so. That is what it was she wrote about. I told her they treated
+him like a dog and so they do," and she burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>"But that was very naughty, Isobel," Miss Virtue said gravely.
+"You are only eleven years old, and too young to be a judge of
+these matters, and even if it were as you say, it is not for a
+child to speak so to her mother."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that, Miss Virtue, but how can I help it? I could cry
+out with pain when I see Robert looking from one to the other
+just for a kind word, which he never gets. It is no use, Miss
+Virtue; if it was not for him I would much rather never go home
+at all, but stop here through the holidays, only what would he do
+if I didn't go home? I am the only pleasure he has. When I am
+there he will sit for hours on my knee, and lay his head on my
+shoulder, and stroke my face. It makes me feel as if my heart
+would break."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear," Miss Virtue said, somewhat puzzled, "it is
+sad, if it is as you say, but that does not excuse your being
+disrespectful to your mother. It is not for you to judge
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"But cannot something be done for Robert, Miss Virtue? Surely
+they must do something for children like him."</p>
+
+<p>"There are people, my dear, who take a few afflicted children
+and give them special training. Children of that kind have
+sometimes shown a great deal of unusual talent, and, if so, it is
+cultivated, and they are put in a way of earning a
+livelihood."</p>
+
+<p>"Are there?" Isobel exclaimed, with eager eyes. "Then I know
+what I will do, Miss Virtue; I will write off at once to Uncle
+Tom -- he is our guardian. I know if I were to speak to mamma
+about Robert going to school it would be of no use; but if uncle
+writes I dare say it would be done. I am sure she and Helena
+would be glad enough. I don't suppose she ever thought of it. It
+would be a relief to them to get him out of their sight."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Virtue shook her head. "You must not talk so, Isobel. It
+is not right or dutiful, and you are a great deal too young to
+judge your elders, even if they were not related to you; and,
+pray, if you write to your uncle do not write in that spirit --
+it would shock him greatly, and he would form a very bad opinion
+of you."</p>
+
+<p>And so Isobel wrote. She was in the habit of writing once
+every half year to her uncle, who had told her that he wished her
+to do so, and that people out abroad had great pleasure in
+letters from England. Hitherto she had only written about her
+school life, and this letter caused her a great deal of
+trouble.</p>
+
+<p>It answered its purpose. Captain Hannay had no liking either
+for his sister in law or his eldest niece, and had, when he was
+with them, been struck with the neglect with which the little boy
+was treated. Isobel had taken great pains not to say anything
+that would show she considered that Robert was harshly treated;
+but had simply said that she heard there were schools where
+little boys like him could be taught, and that it would be such a
+great thing for him, as it was very dull for him having nothing
+to do all day. But Captain Hannay read through the lines, and
+felt that it was a protest against her brother's treatment, and
+that she would not have written to him had she not felt that so
+only would anything be done for him. Accordingly he wrote home to
+his sister in law, saying he thought it was quite time now that
+the boy should be placed with some gentleman who took a few lads
+unfitted for the rough life of an ordinary school. He should take
+the charges upon himself, and had written to his agent in London
+to find out such an establishment, to make arrangements for
+Robert to go there, and to send down one of his clerks to take
+charge of him on the journey. He also wrote to Isobel, telling
+her what he had done, and blaming himself for not having thought
+of it before, winding up by saying: "I have not mentioned to your
+mother that I heard from you about it -- that is a little secret
+just as well to keep to ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>The next five years were much happier to Isobel, for the
+thought of her brother at home without her had before been
+constantly on her mind. It was a delight to her now to go home
+and to see the steady improvement that took place in Robert. He
+was brighter in every respect, and expressed himself as most
+happy where he was.</p>
+
+<p>As years went on he grew into a bright and intelligent boy,
+though his health was by no means good, and he looked frail and
+delicate. He was as passionately attached to her as ever, and
+during the holidays they were never separated; they stood quite
+alone, their mother and sister interesting themselves but little
+in their doings, and they were allowed to take long walks
+together, and to sit in a room by themselves, where they talked,
+drew, painted, and read.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hannay disapproved of Isobel as much as ever. "She is a
+most headstrong girl," she would lament to her friends, "and is
+really quite beyond my control. I do not at all approve of the
+school she is at, but unfortunately my brother in law, who is her
+guardian, has, under the will of my poor husband, absolute
+control in the matter. I am sure poor John never intended that he
+should be able to override my wishes; but though I have written
+to him several times about it, he says that he sees no valid
+reason for any change, and that from Isobel's letters to him she
+seems very happy there, and to be getting on well. She is so very
+unlike dear Helena, and even when at home I see but little of
+her; she is completely wrapped up in her unfortunate brother. Of
+course I don't blame her for that, but it is not natural that a
+girl her age should care nothing for pleasures or going out or
+the things natural to young people. Yes, she is certainly
+improving in appearance, and if she would but take some little
+pains about her dress would be really very presentable."</p>
+
+<p>But her mother's indifference disturbed Isobel but little. She
+was perfectly happy with her brother when at home, and very happy
+at school, where she was a general favorite. She was impulsive,
+high spirited, and occasionally gave Miss Virtue some trouble,
+but her disposition was frank and generous, there was not a tinge
+of selfishness in her disposition, and while she was greatly
+liked by girls of her own age, she was quite adored by little
+ones. The future that she always pictured to herself was a little
+cottage with a bright garden in the suburbs of London, where she
+and Robert could live together -- she would go out as a daily
+governess; Robert, who was learning to play the organ, would, she
+hoped, get a post as organist. Not, of course, for the sake of
+the salary, for her earnings, and the interest of the thousand
+pounds that would be hers when she came of age, would be
+sufficient for them both, but as an amusement for him, and to
+give him a sense of independence.</p>
+
+<p>But when she was just seventeen, and was looking forward to
+the time when she would begin to carry her plan into effect, a
+terrible blow came. She heard from her mother that Robert was
+dead.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a sad blow for us all," Mrs. Hannay wrote, "but, as you
+know, he has never been strong; still, we had no idea that
+anything serious ailed him until we heard a fortnight since he
+was suffering from a violent cough and had lost strength rapidly.
+A week later we heard that the doctors were of opinion it was a
+case of sudden consumption, and that the end was rapidly
+approaching. I went up to town to see him, and found him even
+worse than I expected, and was in no way surprised when this
+morning I received a letter saying that he had gone. Great as is
+the blow, one cannot but feel that, terribly afflicted as he was,
+his death is, as far as he is concerned, a happy release. I trust
+you will now abandon your wild scheme of teaching and come
+home."</p>
+
+<p>But home was less home than ever to Isobel now, and she
+remained another six months at school, when she received an
+important letter from her uncle.</p>
+
+<p>"My Dear Isobel: When you first wrote to me and told me that
+what you were most looking forward to was to make a home for your
+brother, I own that it was a blow to me, for I had long had plans
+of my own about you; however, I thought your desire to help your
+brother was so natural, and would give you such happiness in
+carrying it into effect, that I at once fell in with it and put
+aside my own plan. But the case is altered now, and I can see no
+reason why I cannot have my own way. When I was in England I made
+up my mind that unless I married, which was a most improbable
+contingency, I would, when you were old enough, have you out to
+keep house for me. I foresaw, even then, that your brother might
+prove an obstacle to this plan. Even in the short time I was with
+you it was easy enough to see that the charge of him would fall
+on your shoulders, and that it would be a labor of love to
+you.</p>
+
+<p>"If he lived, then, I felt you would not leave him, and that
+you would be right in not doing so, but even then it seemed
+likely to me that he would not grow up to manhood. From time to
+time I have been in correspondence with the clergyman he was
+with, and learned that the doctor who attended them thought but
+poorly of him. I had him taken to two first class physicians in
+London; they pronounced him to be constitutionally weak, and said
+that beyond strengthening medicines and that sort of thing they
+could do nothing for him.</p>
+
+<p>"Therefore, dear, it was no surprise to me when I received
+first your mother's letter with the news, and then your own
+written a few days later. When I answered that letter I thought
+it as well not to say anything of my plan, but by the time you
+receive this, it will be six months since your great loss, and
+you will be able to look at it in a fairer light than you could
+have done then, and I do hope you will agree to come out to me.
+Life here has its advantages and disadvantages, but I think that,
+especially for young people, it is a pleasant one.</p>
+
+<p>"I am getting very tired of a bachelor's establishment, and it
+will be a very great pleasure indeed to have you here. Ever since
+I was in England I made up my mind to adopt you as my own child.
+You are very like my brother John, and your letters and all I
+have heard of you show that you have grown up just as he would
+have wished you to do. Your sister Helena is your mother's child,
+and, without wishing to hurt your feelings, your mother and I
+have nothing in common. I regard you as the only relation I have
+in the world, and whether you come out or whether you do not,
+whatever I leave behind me will be yours. I do hope that you will
+at any rate come out for a time. Later on, if you don't like the
+life here, you can fall back upon your own plan.</p>
+
+<p>"If you decide to come, write to my agent. I inclose envelope
+addressed to him. Tell him when you can be ready. He will put you
+in the way of the people you had better go to for your outfit,
+will pay all bills, take your passage, and so on.</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever you do, do not stint yourself. The people you go to
+will know a great deal better than you can do what is necessary
+for a lady out here. All you will have to do will be to get
+measured and to give them an idea of your likes and fancies as to
+colors and so on. They will have instructions from my agent to
+furnish you with a complete outfit, and will know exactly how
+many dozens of everything are required.</p>
+
+<p>"I can see no reason why you should not start within a month
+after the receipt of this letter, and I shall look most anxiously
+for a letter from you saying that you will come, and that you
+will start by a sailing ship in a month at latest from the date
+of your writing."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel did not hesitate, as her faith in her uncle was
+unbounded. Next to her meetings with her brother, his letters had
+been her greatest pleasures. He had always taken her part; it was
+he who, at her request, had Robert placed at school, and he had
+kept her at Miss Virtue's in spite of her mother's complaints. At
+home she had never felt comfortable; it had always seemed to her
+that she was in the way; her mother disapproved of her; while
+from Helena she had never had a sisterly word. To go out to India
+to see the wonders she had read of, and to be her uncle's
+companion, seemed a perfectly delightful prospect. Her answer to
+her uncle was sent off the day after she received his letter, and
+that day month she stepped on board an Indiaman in the London
+Docks.</p>
+
+<p>The intervening time had not been a pleasant one. Mrs. Hannay
+had heard from the Major of his wishes and intentions regarding
+Isobel, and she was greatly displeased thereat.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should he have chosen you instead of Helena?" she said
+angrily to Isobel, on the first day of her arrival home.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose because he thought I should suit him better, mamma.
+I really don't see why you should be upset about it; I don't
+suppose Helena would have liked to go, and I am sure you would
+not have liked to have had me with you instead of her. I should
+have thought you would have been pleased I was off your hands
+altogether. It doesn't seem to me that you have ever been really
+glad to have me about you."</p>
+
+<p>"That has been entirely your own fault," Mrs. Hannay said.
+"You have always been headstrong and determined to go your own
+way, you have never been fit to be seen when anyone came, you
+have thwarted me in every way."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry, mamma. I think I might have been better if
+you had had a little more patience with me, but even now if you
+really wish me to stay at home I will do so. I can write again to
+uncle and tell him that I have changed my mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not," Mrs. Hannay said. "Naturally I should wish to
+have my children with me, but I doubt whether your being here
+would be for the happiness of any of us, and besides, I do not
+wish your uncle's money to go out of the family; he might take it
+into his head to leave it to a hospital for black women. Still,
+it would have been only right and proper that he should at any
+rate have given Helena the first choice. As for your instant
+acceptance of his offer, without even consulting me, nothing can
+surprise me in that way after your general conduct towards
+me."</p>
+
+<p>However, although Mrs. Hannay declined to take any interest in
+Isobel's preparations, and continued to behave as an injured
+person, neither she nor Helena were sorry at heart for the
+arrangement that had been made. They objected very strongly to
+Isobel's plan of going out as a governess; but upon the other
+hand, her presence at home would in many ways have been an
+inconvenience. Two can make a better appearance on a fixed income
+than three can, and her presence at home would have necessitated
+many small economies. She was, too, a disturbing element; the
+others understood each other perfectly, and both felt that they
+in no way understood Isobel. Altogether, it was much better that
+she should go.</p>
+
+<p>As to the heirship, Captain Hannay had spoken freely as to his
+monetary affairs when he had been in England after his brother's
+death.</p>
+
+<p>"My pay is amply sufficient for all my wants," he said; "but
+everything is expensive out there, and I have had no occasion to
+save. I have a few hundred pounds laid by, so that if I break
+down, and am ordered to Europe at any time on sick leave, I can
+live comfortably for that time; but, beyond that, there has been
+no reason why I should lay by. I am not likely ever to marry, and
+when I have served my full time my pension will be ample for my
+wants in England; but I shall do my best to help if help is
+necessary. Fortunately the interest of the thousand apiece the
+girls were left by my aunt will help your income. When it is
+necessary to do anything for Robert, poor lad, I will take that
+expense on myself."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought all Indians came home with lots of money," Mrs.
+Hannay said complainingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Not the military. We do the fighting, and get fairly paid for
+it. The civilians get five times as highly paid, and run no risks
+whatever. Why it should be so no one has ever attempted to
+explain; but there it is, sister."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hannay, therefore, although she complained of the
+partiality shown to Isobel, was well aware that the Major's
+savings could amount to no very great sum; although, in nine
+years, with higher rank and better pay, he might have added a
+good bit to the little store of which he had spoken to her.</p>
+
+<p>When, a week before the vessel sailed, Dr. Wade appeared with
+a letter he had received from the Major, asking him to take
+charge of Isobel on the voyage, Mrs. Hannay conceived a violent
+objection to him. He had, in fact, been by no means pleased with
+the commission, and had arrived in an unusually aggressive and
+snappish humor. He cut short Mrs. Hannay's well turned sentences
+ruthlessly, and aggrieved her by remarking on Helena's want of
+color, and recommending plenty of walking exercise taken at a
+brisk pace, and more ease and comfort in the matter of dress.</p>
+
+<p>"Your daughter's lungs have no room to play, madam," he said;
+"her heart is compressed. No one can expect to be healthy under
+such circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>"I have my own medical attendant, Dr. Wade," Mrs. Hannay said
+decidedly.</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt, madam, no doubt. All I can say is, if his
+recommendations are not the same as mine, he must be a downright
+fool. Very well, Miss Hannay, I think we understand each other; I
+shall be on board by eleven o'clock, and shall keep a sharp
+lookout for you. Don't be later than twelve; she will warp out of
+the dock by one at latest, and if you miss that your only plan
+will be to take the train down to Tilbury, and hire a boat
+there."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be in time, sir," Isobel said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I hope you will, but my experience of women is pretty
+extensive, and I have scarcely met one who could be relied upon
+to keep an appointment punctually. Don't laden yourself more than
+you can help with little bags, and parcels, and bundles of all
+kinds; I expect you will be three or four in a cabin, and you
+will find that there is no room for litter. Take the things you
+will require at first in one or two flat trunks which will stow
+under your berth; once a week or so, if the weather is fine, you
+will be able to get at your things in the hold. Do try if
+possible to pack all the things that you are likely to want to
+get at during the voyage in one trunk, and have a star or any
+mark you like painted on that trunk with your name, then there
+will be no occasion for the sailors to haul twenty boxes upon
+deck. Be sure you send all your trunks on board, except those you
+want in your cabin, two days before she sails. Do you think you
+can remember all that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think so, Dr. Wade."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well then, I'm off," and the Doctor shook hands with
+Isobel, nodded to Mrs. Hannay and Helena, and hurried away.</p>
+
+<p>"What a perfectly detestable little man!" Mrs. Hannay
+exclaimed, as the door closed over him. "Your uncle must have
+been out of his senses to select such an odious person to look
+after you on the voyage. I really pity you, Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt he is very much nicer than he seems, mamma.
+Uncle said, you know, in his letter last week, that he had
+written to Dr. Wade to look after me, if, as he thought probable,
+he might be coming out in the same ship. He said that he was a
+little brusque in his manner, but that he was a general favorite,
+and one of the kindest hearted of men."</p>
+
+<p>"A little brusque," Mrs. Hannay repeated scornfully. "If he is
+only considered a little brusque in India, all I can say is
+society must be in a lamentable state out there."</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle says he is a great shikari, and has probably killed
+more tigers than any man in India."</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't see that that is any recommendation whatever,
+Isobel, although it might be if you were likely to encounter
+tigers on board ship. However, I am not surprised that your
+opinion differs from mine; we very seldom see matters in the same
+light. I only hope you may be right and I may be wrong, for
+otherwise the journey is not likely to be a very pleasant one for
+you; personally, I would almost as soon have a Bengal tiger loose
+about the ship than such a very rude, unmannerly person as Dr.
+Wade."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hannay and Helena accompanied Isobel to the docks, and
+went on board ship with her.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor received them at the gangway. He was in a better
+temper, for the fact that he was on the point of starting for
+India again had put him in high spirits. He escorted the party
+below and saw that they got lunch, showed Isobel which was her
+cabin, introduced her to two or three ladies of his acquaintance,
+and made himself so generally pleasant that even Mrs. Hannay was
+mollified.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as luncheon was over the bell was rung, and the
+partings were hurriedly got through, as the pilot announced that
+the tide was slackening nearly half an hour before its time, and
+that it was necessary to get the ship out of dock at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Miss Hannay, if you will take my advice," the Doctor
+said, as soon as the ship was fairly in the stream, "you will go
+below, get out all the things you will want from your boxes, and
+get matters tidy and comfortable. In the first place, it will do
+you good to be busy; and in the second place, there is nothing
+like getting everything shipshape in the cabin the very first
+thing after starting, then you are ready for rough weather or
+anything else that may occur. I have got you a chair. I thought
+that very likely you would not think of it, and a passenger
+without a chair of her own is a most forlorn creature, I can tell
+you. When you have done down below you will find me somewhere
+aft; if you should not do so, look out for a chair with your own
+name on it and take possession of it, but I think you are sure to
+see me."</p>
+
+<p>Before they had been a fortnight at sea Isobel came to like
+the Doctor thoroughly. He knew many of the passengers on board
+the Byculla, and she had soon many acquaintances. She was amused
+at the description that the Doctor gave her of some of the people
+to whom he introduced her.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to introduce you to that woman in the severely
+plain cloak and ugly bonnet. She is the wife of the Resident of
+Rajputana. I knew her when her husband was a Collector."</p>
+
+<p>"A Collector, Dr. Wade; what did he collect?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, he didn't collect taxes or water rates or
+anything of that sort. A Collector is a civil functionary, and
+frequently an important one. I used to attend her at one time
+when we were in cantonments at Bhurtpore, where her husband was
+stationed at that time. I pulled a tooth out for her once, and
+she halloaed louder than any woman I ever heard. I don't mean to
+say, my dear, that woman holloa any louder than men; on the
+contrary, they bear pain a good deal better, but she was an
+exception. She was twelve years younger then, and used to dress a
+good deal more than she does now. That cloak and bonnet are meant
+to convey to the rest of the passengers the fact that there is no
+occasion whatever for a person of her importance to attend to
+such petty matters as dress.</p>
+
+<p>"She never mentions her husband's name without saying, 'My
+husband, the Resident,' but for all that she is a kind hearted
+woman -- a very kind hearted woman. I pulled a child of hers
+through who was down with fever at Bhurtpore; he had a very close
+shave of it, and she has never forgotten it. She greeted me when
+she came on board almost with tears in her eyes at the thought of
+that time. I told her I had a young lady under my charge, and she
+said that she would be very pleased to do anything she could for
+you. She is a stanch friend is Mrs. Resident, and you will find
+her useful before you get to the end of the voyage."</p>
+
+<p>The lady received Isobel with genuine kindness, and took her
+very much under her wing during the voyage, and Isobel received
+no small advantage from her advice and protection.</p>
+
+<p>Her own good sense, however, and the earnest life she had led
+at school and with her brother at home, would have sufficed her
+even without this guardianship and that of the Doctor. There was
+a straightforward frankness about her that kept men from talking
+nonsense to her. A compliment she simply laughed at, an attempt
+at flattery made her angry, and the Doctor afterwards declared to
+her uncle he would not have believed that the guardianship of a
+girl upon the long Indian voyage could possibly have caused him
+so little trouble and annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>"When I read your letter, Major, my hair stood on end, and if
+my leave had not been up I should have canceled my passage and
+come by the next ship; and indeed when I went down to see her I
+had still by no means made up my mind as to whether I would not
+take my chance of getting out in time by the next vessel.
+However, I liked her appearance, and, as I have said, it turned
+out excellently, and I should not mind making another voyage in
+charge of her."</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h1>
+
+<p>Two days after his arrival at Cawnpore Dr. Wade moved into
+quarters of his own.</p>
+
+<p>"I like Dr. Wade very much indeed, you know, uncle, still I am
+glad to have you all to myself and to settle down into regular
+ways."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we have got to learn to know each other, Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think so, uncle? Why, it seems to me that I know all
+about you, just the same as if we had always been together, and I
+am sure I always told you all about myself, even when I was bad
+at school and got into scrapes, because you said particularly
+that you liked me to tell you everything, and did not want to
+know only the good side of me."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is so, my dear, and no doubt I have a fair idea as
+to what are your strong points and what are your weak ones, but
+neither one or the other affect greatly a person's ordinary
+everyday character. It is the little things, the trifles, the way
+of talking, the way of listening, the amount of sympathy shown,
+and so on, that make a man or woman popular. People do not ask
+whether he or she may be morally sleeping volcanoes, who, if
+fairly roused, might slay a rival or burn a city; they simply
+look at the surface -- is a man or a woman pleasant, agreeable,
+easily pleased, ready to take a share in making things go, to
+show a certain amount of sympathy in other people's pleasures or
+troubles -- in fact, to form a pleasant unit of the society of a
+station?</p>
+
+<p>"So in the house you might be the most angelic temper in the
+world, but if you wore creaky boots, had a habit of slamming
+doors, little tricks of giggling or fidgeting with your hands or
+feet, you would be an unpleasant companion, for you would be
+constantly irritating one in small matters. Of course, it is just
+the same thing with your opinion of me. You have an idea that I
+am a good enough sort of fellow, because I have done my best to
+enable you to carry out your plans and wishes, but that has
+nothing to do at all with my character as a man to live with.
+Till we saw each other, when you got out of the gharry, we really
+knew nothing whatever of each other."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel shook her head decidedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing will persuade me that I didn't know everything about
+you, uncle. You are just exactly what I knew you would be in
+look, and voice, in manner and ways and everything. Of course, it
+is partly from what I remember, but I really did not see a great
+deal of you in those days; it is from your letters, I think,
+entirely that I knew all about you, and exactly what you were. Do
+you mean to say that I am not just what you thought I should
+be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, not so clearly as all that, Isobel. Of course you were
+only a little child when I saw you, and except that you had big
+brown eyes, and long eyelashes, I confess that it struck me that
+you were rather a plain little thing, and I do not think that
+your mother's letters since conveyed to my mind the fact that
+there had been any material change since. Therefore I own that
+you are personally quite different from what I had expected to
+find you. I had expected to find you, I think, rather stumpy in
+figure, and square in build, with a very determined and
+businesslike manner."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, uncle, you could not have expected that."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, I did, and you see I find I was utterly
+wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"But you are not discontented, uncle?" Isobel asked, with a
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"No, my dear, but perhaps not quite so contented as you may
+think I ought to be."</p>
+
+<p>"Why is that, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, if you had been what I had pictured you, I
+might have had you four or five years to myself. Possibly you
+might even have gone home with me, to keep house for me in
+England, when I retire. As it is now, I give myself six months at
+the outside."</p>
+
+<p>"What nonsense, uncle! You don't suppose I am going to fall in
+love with the first man who presents himself? Why, everyone says
+the sea voyage is a most trying time, and, you see, I came
+through that quite scathless.</p>
+
+<p>"Besides, uncle," and she laughed, "there is safety in
+multitude, and I think that a girl would be far more likely to
+fall in love in some country place, where she only saw one or two
+men, than where there are numbers of them. Besides, it seems to
+me that in India a girl cannot feel that she is chosen, as it
+were, from among other girls, as she would do at home. There are
+so few girls, and so many men here, there must be a sort of
+feeling that you are only appreciated because there is nothing
+better to be had.</p>
+
+<p>"But, of course, uncle, you can understand that the idea of
+love making and marrying never entered my head at all until I
+went on board a ship. As you know, I always used to think that
+Robert and I would live together, and I am quite sure that I
+should never have left him if he had lived. If I had stopped in
+England I should have done the work I had trained myself to do,
+and it might have been years and years, and perhaps never, before
+anyone might have taken a fancy to me, or I to him. It seems
+strange, and I really don't think pleasant, uncle, for everyone
+to take it for granted that because a girl comes out to India she
+is a candidate for marriage. I think it is degrading, uncle."</p>
+
+<p>"The Doctor was telling me yesterday that you had some idea of
+that sort," the Major said, with a slight smile, "and I think
+girls often start with that sort of idea. But it is like looking
+on at a game. You don't feel interested in it until you begin to
+play at it. Well, the longer you entertain those ideas the better
+I shall be pleased, Isobel. I only hope that you may long remain
+of the same mind, and that when your time does come your choice
+will be a wise one."</p>
+
+<p>There could be no doubt that the Major's niece was a great
+success in the regiment. Richards and Wilson, two lads who had
+joined six months before, succumbed at once, and mutual animosity
+succeeded the close friendship they had hitherto entertained for
+each other. Travers, the Senior Captain, a man who had hitherto
+been noted for his indifference to the charms of female society,
+went so far as to admit that Miss Hannay was a very nice,
+unaffected girl. Mrs. Doolan was quite enthusiastic about
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very lucky, Jim," she said to her husband, "that you
+were a sober and respected married man before she came out, and
+that I am installed here as your lawful and wedded wife instead
+of being at Ballycrogin with only an engagement ring on my
+finger. I know your susceptible nature; you would have fallen in
+love with her, and she would not have had you, and we should both
+of us have been miserable."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know she wouldn't have had me, Norah?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, my dear, she will be able to pick and choose just
+where she likes; and though no one recognizes your virtues more
+than I do, a company in an Indian regiment is hardly as
+attractive as a Residency or Lieutenant Governorship. But
+seriously, she is a dear girl, and as yet does not seem to have
+the least idea how pretty she is. How cordially some of them will
+hate her! I anticipate great fun in looking on. I am out of all
+that sort of thing myself."</p>
+
+<p>"That is news to me, Norah; I think you are just as fond of a
+quiet flirtation as you used to be."</p>
+
+<p>"Just of a very little one, Jim; fortunately not more. So I
+can look on complacently; but even I have suffered. Why, for
+weeks not a day has passed without young Richards dropping in for
+a chat, and when he came in yesterday he could talk about nothing
+but Miss Hannay, until I shut him up by telling him it was
+extremely bad form to talk to one lady about another. The boy
+colored up till I almost laughed in his face; in fact, I believe
+I did laugh."</p>
+
+<p>"That I will warrant you did, Norah."</p>
+
+<p>"I could not help it, especially when he assured me he was
+perfectly serious about Miss Hannay."</p>
+
+<p>"You did not encourage him, I hope, Norah."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I told him the Colonel set his face against married
+subalterns, and that he would injure himself seriously in his
+profession if he were to think of such a thing, and as I knew he
+had nothing but his pay, that would be fatal to him."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Doolan went off into a burst of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"And he took it all in, Norah? He did not see that you were
+humbugging him altogether?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit of it. They are very amusing, these boys, Jim. I
+was really quite sorry for Richards, but I told him he would get
+over it in time, for as far as I could learn you had been just as
+bad thirty-three times before I finally took pity on you, and
+that I only did it then because you were wearing away with your
+troubles. I advised him to put the best face he could on it, for
+that Miss Hannay would be the last person to be pleased, if he
+were to be going about with a face as long as if he had just come
+from his aunt's funeral."</p>
+
+<p>The race meeting came off three weeks after Miss Hannay
+arrived at Cawnpore. She had been to several dinners and parties
+by this time, and began to know most of the regular
+residents.</p>
+
+<p>The races served as an excuse for people to come in from all
+the stations round. Men came over from Lucknow, Agra, and
+Allahabad, and from many a little outlying station; every
+bungalow in the cantonment was filled with guests, and tents were
+erected for the accommodation of the overflow.</p>
+
+<p>Several of the officers of the 103d had horses and ponies
+entered in the various races. There was to be a dance at the club
+on the evening of the second day of the races, and a garden party
+at the General's on that of the first. Richards and Wilson had
+both ponies entered for the race confined to country tats which
+had never won a race, and both had endeavored to find without
+success what was Isobel's favorite color.</p>
+
+<p>"But you must have some favorite color?" Wilson urged.</p>
+
+<p>"Why must I, Mr. Wilson? One thing is suitable for one thing
+and one another, and I always like a color that is suitable for
+the occasion."</p>
+
+<p>"But what color are you going to wear at the races, Miss
+Hannay?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see, I have several dresses," Isobel said gravely,
+"and I cannot say until the morning arrives which I may wear; it
+will depend a good deal how I feel. Besides, I might object to
+your wearing the same color as I do. You remember in the old
+times, knights, when they entered the lists, wore the favors that
+ladies had given them. Now I have no idea of giving you a favor.
+You have done nothing worthy of it. When you have won the
+Victoria Cross, and distinguished yourself by some
+extraordinarily gallant action, it will be quite time to think
+about it."</p>
+
+<p>"You see one has to send one's color in four days beforehand,
+in time for them to print it on the card," the lad said; "and
+besides, one has to get a jacket and cap made."</p>
+
+<p>"But you don't reflect that it is quite possible your pony
+won't win after all, and supposing that I had colors, I certainly
+should not like to see them come in last in the race. Mr.
+Richards has been asking me just the same thing, and, of course,
+I gave him the same answer. I can only give you the advice I gave
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"What was that, Miss Hannay?" Wilson asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see, it is not very long since either of you left
+school, so I should think the best thing for you to wear are your
+school colors, whatever they were."</p>
+
+<p>And with a merry laugh at his look of discomfiture, Isobel
+turned away and joined Mrs. Doolan and two or three other ladies
+who were sitting with her.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one comfort," Mrs. Doolan was just saying, "in this
+country, when there is anything coming off, there is no occasion
+to be anxious as to the weather; one knows that it will be hot,
+fine, and dusty. One can wear one's gayest dress without fear. In
+Ireland one never knew whether one wanted muslin or waterproof
+until the morning came, and even then one could not calculate
+with any certainty how it would be by twelve o'clock. This will
+be your first Indian festivity, Miss Hannay."</p>
+
+<p>"Do the natives come much?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should think so! All Cawnpore will turn out, and we shall
+have the Lord of Bithoor and any number of Talookdars and
+Zemindars with their suites. A good many of them will have horses
+entered, and they have some good ones if they could but ride
+them. The Rajah of Bithoor is a most important personage. He
+talks English very well, and gives splendid entertainments. He is
+a most polite gentleman, and is always over here if there is
+anything going on. The general idea is that he has set his mind
+on having an English wife, the only difficulty being our
+objection to polygamy. He has every other advantage, and his wife
+would have jewels that a queen might envy."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel laughed. "I don't think jewels would count for much in
+my ideas of happiness."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not so much the jewels, my dear, in themselves, but the
+envy they would excite in every other woman."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I can understand that feeling, Mrs. Doolan. I
+can understand that there might be a satisfaction in being envied
+for being the happiest woman, or the most tastefully dressed
+woman, or even the prettiest woman, though that after all is a
+mere accident, but not for having the greatest number of bright
+stones, however valuable. I don't think the most lovely set of
+diamonds ever seen would give me as much satisfaction as a few
+choice flowers."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but that is because you are quite young," Mrs. Doolan
+said. "Eve was tempted by an apple, but Eve had not lived long.
+You see, an apple will tempt a child, and flowers a young girl.
+Diamonds are the bait of a woman."</p>
+
+<p>"You would not care for diamonds yourself, Mrs. Doolan?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, my dear; the experiment was never tried -- bog
+oak and Irish diamonds have been more in my line. Jim's pay has
+never run to diamonds, worse luck, but he has promised me that if
+he ever gets a chance of looting the palace of a native prince he
+will keep a special lookout for them for me. So far he has never
+had the chance. When he was an ensign there was some hard
+fighting with the Sikhs, but nothing of that sort fell to his
+share. I often tell him that he took me under false pretenses
+altogether. I had visions of returning some day and astonishing
+Ballycrogin, as a sort of begum covered with diamonds; but as far
+as I can see the children are the only jewels that I am likely to
+take back."</p>
+
+<p>"And very nice jewels too," Isobel said heartily; "they are
+dear little things, Mrs. Doolan, and worth all the diamonds in
+the world. I hear, Mrs. Prothero, that your husband has a good
+chance of winning the race for Arabs; I intend to wager several
+pairs of gloves on his horse."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Seila is very fast. She won last year. But Nana Sahib
+has had the horse that won the cup at Poona last year, and is
+considered one of the fastest in India, brought across from
+Bombay. Our only hope is that he will put a native up, and in
+that case we ought to have a fair chance, for the natives have no
+idea of riding a waiting race, but go off at full speed, and take
+it all out of their horse before the end of the race."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we must hope he will, Mrs. Prothero; that seems, from
+what I hear, the only chance there is of the regiment winning a
+prize. So all our sympathies will be with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Hunter and his wife and their two girls are coming," the
+Major said, the next morning, as he opened his letters.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, uncle, then we will do as we arranged. The Miss
+Hunters shall have my room, and I will take the little passage
+room."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid it will put you out, Isobel; but they have been
+here for the last two years at the race times and I did not like
+not asking them again."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, uncle. It will make no difference to me, and I
+don't require any very great space to apparel myself."</p>
+
+<p>"We must have dinners for twelve at least, the day before the
+races, and on the three days of the meeting."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel looked alarmed. "I hope you don't rely on me for the
+arrangements, uncle. At each of the four dinners we have been to
+I have done nothing but wonder how it was all done, and have been
+trembling over the thought that it would be our turn presently.
+It seemed a fearful responsibility; and four, one after the
+other, is an appalling prospect."</p>
+
+<p>"Rumzan will see to it all, my dear. He has always managed
+very well before. I will talk it over with him; besides, these
+will not be like regular set dinner parties. At race meetings
+everyone keeps pretty nearly open house. One does not ask any of
+the people at the station; they have all their own visitors. One
+trusts to chance to fill up the table, and one never finds any
+difficulty about it. It is lucky I got up a regular stock of
+china, and so on, in anticipation of your coming. Of course, as a
+bachelor, I have not been a dinner giver, except on occasions
+like this, when nobody expects anything like state, and things
+are conducted to a certain extent in picnic fashion. I have paid
+off my dinner obligations by having men to mess or the club.
+However, I will consult Rumzan, and we will have a regular parade
+of our materials, and you shall inspect our resources. If there
+is anything in the way of flower vases or center dishes, or
+anything of that sort, you think requisite, we must get them.
+Jestonjee has got a good stock of all that sort of thing. As to
+tablecloths and napkins and so on, I had a supply with the china,
+so you will find that all right. Of course you will get plenty of
+flowers; they are the principal things, after all, towards making
+the table look well. You have had no experience in arranging
+them, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"None at all, uncle; I never arranged a vase of flowers in my
+life."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I tell you what you had better do, Isobel. You coax the
+Doctor into coming in and undertaking it. He is famous in that
+way. He always has the decoration of the mess table on grand
+occasions; and when we give a dance the flowers and decorations
+are left to him as a matter of course."</p>
+
+<p>"I will ask him, uncle; but he is the last man in the world I
+should have thought of in connection with flowers and
+decorations."</p>
+
+<p>"He is a many sided man, my dear; he paints excellently, and
+has wonderful taste in the way of dress. I can assure you that no
+lady in the regiment is quite satisfied with a new costume until
+it has received the stamp of the Doctor's approval. When we were
+stationed at Delhi four years ago there was a fancy ball, and
+people who were judges of that sort of thing said that they had
+never seen so pretty a collection of dresses, and I should think
+fully half of them were manufactured from the Doctor's
+sketches."</p>
+
+<p>"I remember now," Isobel laughed, "that he was very sarcastic
+on board ship as to the dresses of some of the people, but I
+thought it was only his way of grumbling at things in general,
+though certainly I generally agreed with him. He told me one day
+that my taste evidently inclined to the dowdy, but you see I wore
+half mourning until I arrived out here."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor himself dropped in an hour later.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be glad, Doctor, if you will dine with us as often as
+you can during the four days of the races," Major Hannay said.
+"Of course, I shall be doing the hospitable to people who come in
+from out stations, and as Isobel won't know any of them, it will
+be a little trying to her, acting for the first time in the
+capacity of hostess. As you know everybody, you will be able to
+make things go. I have got Hunter and his wife and their two
+girls coming in to stay. I calculate the table will hold fourteen
+comfortably enough. At any rate, come first night, even if you
+can't come on the others."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly I will, Major, if you will let me bring Bathurst in
+with me; he is going to stay with me for the races."</p>
+
+<p>"By all means, Doctor; I like what I have seen of him very
+much."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he has got a lot in him," the Doctor said, "only he is
+always head over heels in work. He will make a big mark before he
+has done. He is one of the few men out here who has thoroughly
+mastered the language; he can talk to the natives like one of
+themselves, and understands them so thoroughly that they are
+absolutely afraid to lie to him, which is the highest compliment
+a native can pay to an Indian official. It is very seldom he
+comes in to this sort of thing, but I seized him the other day
+and told him that I could see he would break down if he didn't
+give himself a holiday, and I fairly worried him into saying he
+would come over and stay for the races. I believe then he would
+not have come if I had not written to him that all the native
+swells would be here, and it would be an excellent opportunity
+for him to talk to them about the establishment of a school for
+the daughters of the upper class of natives; that is one of his
+fads at present."</p>
+
+<p>"But it would be a good thing surely, Doctor," Isobel
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt, my dear, no doubt; and so would scores of other
+things, if you could but persuade the natives so. But this is
+really one of the most impracticable schemes possible, simply
+because the whole of these unfortunate children get betrothed
+when they are two or three years old, and are married at twelve.
+Even if all parties were agreed, the husband's relations and the
+wife's relations and everyone else, what are you going to teach a
+child worth knowing before she gets to the age of twelve? Just
+enough to make her discontented with her lot. Once get the
+natives to alter their customs and to marry their women at the
+age of eighteen, and you may do something for them; but as long
+as they stick to this idiotic custom of marrying them off when
+they are still children, the case is hopeless."</p>
+
+<p>"There is something I wanted to ask you, Doctor," Isobel said.
+"You know this is the first time I have had anything to do with
+entertaining, and I know nothing about decorating a table. Uncle
+says that you are a great hand at the arrangement of flowers.
+Would you mind seeing to it for me?"</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor nodded. "With pleasure, Miss Hannay. It is a thing
+I enjoy. There is nothing more lamentable than to see the
+ignorant. and I may almost say brutal, way in which people bunch
+flowers up into great masses and call that decoration. They might
+just as well bunch up so many masses of bright colored rags. The
+shape of the flower, its manner of growth, and its individuality
+are altogether lost, and the sole effect produced is that of a
+confused mass of color. I will undertake that part of the
+business, and you had better leave the buying of the flowers to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, Doctor," the Major said; "I will give you carte
+blanche."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I must see your dinner service, Major, so that I may
+know about its color, and what you have got to put the flowers
+into."</p>
+
+<p>"I will have a regular parade tomorrow morning after
+breakfast, if it would be convenient for you to look in then, and
+at the same time I will get you to have a talk with Rumzan and
+the cook. I am almost as new to giving dinner parties as Isobel
+is. When one has half a dozen men to dine with one at the club,
+one gives the butler notice and chooses the wine, and one knows
+that it will be all right; but it is a very different thing when
+you have to go into the details yourself. Ordinarily I leave it
+entirely to Rumzan and the cook, and I am bound to say they do
+very well, but this is a different matter."</p>
+
+<p>"We will talk it over with them together, Major. You can seem
+to consult me, but it must come from you to them, or else you
+will be getting their backs up. Thank goodness, Indian servants
+don't give themselves the airs English ones do; but human nature
+is a good deal the same everywhere, and the first great rule, if
+you want any domestic arrangements to go off well, is to keep the
+servants in good temper."</p>
+
+<p>"We none of us like to be interfered with, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"A wise man is always ready to be taught," the Doctor said
+sententiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there are exceptions, Doctor. I remember, soon after I
+joined, a man blew off two of his fingers. A young surgeon who
+was here wanted to amputate the hand; he was just going to set
+about it when a staff surgeon came in and said that it had better
+not be done, for that natives could not stand amputations. The
+young surgeon was very much annoyed. The staff surgeon went away
+next day. There was a good deal of inflammation, and the young
+surgeon decided to amputate. The man never rallied from the
+operation, and died next day."</p>
+
+<p>"I said, Major, that a wise man was always ready to listen to
+good advice. I was not a wise man in those days -- I was a pig
+headed young fool. I thought I knew all about it, and I was quite
+right according to my experience in London hospitals. In the case
+of an Englishman, the hand would have been amputated, and the man
+would have been all right three weeks afterwards. But I knew
+nothing about these soft hearted Hindoos, and never dreamt that
+an operation which would be a trifle to an Englishman would be
+fatal to one of them, and that simply because, although they are
+plucky enough in some respects, they have no more heart than a
+mouse when anything is the matter with them. Yes, if it hadn't
+been for the old Colonel, who gave me a private hint to say
+nothing about the affair, but merely to put down in my report,
+'Died from the effect of a gunshot wound,' I should have got into
+a deuce of a scrape over that affair. As it was, it only cost me
+a hundred rupees to satisfy the man's family and send them back
+to their native village. That was for years a standing joke
+against me, Miss Hannay; except your uncle and the Colonel, there
+is no one left in the regiment who was there, but it was a sore
+subject for a long time. Still, no doubt, it was a useful lesson,
+and my rule has been ever since, never amputate except as a
+forlorn hope, and even then don't amputate, for if you do the
+relatives of the man, as far as his fourth cousins, will
+inevitably regard you as his murderer. Well, I must be off; I
+will look in tomorrow morning, Major, and make an inspection of
+your resources."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to see the Hunters are going to bring over their
+carriage," the Major said, two days later, as he looked through a
+letter. "I am very glad of that, for I put it off till too late.
+I have been trying everywhere for the last two days to hire one,
+but they are all engaged, and have been so for weeks, I hear. I
+was wondering what I should do, for my buggy will only hold two.
+I was thinking of asking Mrs. Doolan if she could take one of the
+Miss Hunters, and should have tried to find a place for the
+other. But this settles it all comfortably. They are going to
+send on their own horses halfway the day before, and hire native
+ponies for the first half. They have a good large family vehicle;
+I hoped that they would bring it, but, of course, I could not
+trust to it."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor presently dropped in with Captain Doolan. After
+chatting for some time the former said, "I have had the
+satisfaction this morning, Miss Hannay, of relieving Mrs.
+Cromarty's mind of a great burden."</p>
+
+<p>"How was that, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was in relation to you, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Me, Doctor! how could I have been a weight on Mrs. Cromarty's
+mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"She sent for me under the pretense of being feverish; said
+she had a headache, and so on. Her pulse was all right, and I
+told her at once I did not think there was much the matter with
+her; but I recommended her to keep out of the sun for two days.
+Then she begun a chat about the station. She knows that, somehow
+or other, I generally hear all that is going on. I wondered what
+was coming, till she said casually, 'Do you know what arrangement
+Major Hannay has made as to his niece for the races?' I said, of
+course, that the Hunters were coming over to stay. I could see at
+once that her spirit was instantly relieved of a heavy burden,
+but she only said, 'Of course, then, that settles the question. I
+had intended to send across to her this morning, to ask if she
+would like a seat in my carriage; having no lady with her, she
+could not very well have gone to the races alone. Naturally, I
+should have been very pleased to have had her with us. However,
+as Mrs. Hunter will be staying at the Major's, and will act as
+her chaperon, the matter is settled.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I think it was very kind of her thinking of it," Isobel
+said, "and I don't think it is nice of you, Doctor, to say that
+it was an evident relief to her when she found I had someone else
+to take care of me. Why should it have been a relief?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt it has weighed on her mind for the last
+fortnight," the Doctor said; "she must have seen that as you were
+freshly joined, and the only unmarried girl in the regiment,
+except her own daughters, it was only the proper thing she should
+offer you a seat in her carriage. No doubt she decided to put it
+off as late as possible, in hopes that you might make some other
+arrangement. Had you not done so, she might have done the heroic
+thing and invited you, though I am by no means sure of it. Of
+course, now she will say the first time she meets you that she
+was quite disappointed at having heard from me that Mrs. Hunter
+would be with you, as she had hoped to have the pleasure of
+having you in her carriage with her."</p>
+
+<p>"But why shouldn't she like it?" Isobel said indignantly.
+"Surely I am not as disagreeable as all that! Come, Doctor!"</p>
+
+<p>Captain Doolan laughed, while the Doctor said, "It is just the
+contrary, my dear; I am quite sure that if you were in Mrs.
+Cromarty's place, and had two tall, washed out looking daughters,
+you would not feel the slightest desire to place Miss Hannay in
+the same carriage with them."</p>
+
+<p>"I call that very disagreeable of you, Doctor," Isobel said,
+flushing, "and I shall not like you at all if you take such
+unkind and malicious views of people. I don't suppose such an
+idea ever entered into Mrs. Cromarty's head, and even if it did,
+it makes it all the kinder that she should think of offering me a
+seat. I do think most men seem to consider that women think of
+nothing but looks, and that girls are always trying to attract
+men, and mothers always thinking of getting their daughters
+married. It is not at all nice, Doctor, to have such ideas, and I
+shall thank Mrs. Cromarty warmly, when I see her, for her
+kindness in thinking about me."</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, that afternoon, when they met at the usual hour,
+when the band was playing, Isobel went up to the Colonel's
+wife.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to thank you, Mrs. Cromarty. Dr. Wade has told me that
+you had intended to offer me a seat in your carriage to the
+races. It was very kind and nice of you to think of me, and I am
+very much obliged to you. I should have enjoyed it very much if
+it hadn't been that Mrs. Hunter is coming to stay with us, and,
+of course, I shall be under her wing. Still, I am just as much
+obliged to you for having thought of it."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Cromarty was pleased with the girl's warmth and manner,
+and afterwards mentioned to several of her friends that she
+thought that Miss Hannay seemed a very nice young woman.</p>
+
+<p>"I was not quite favorably impressed at first," she admitted.
+"She has the misfortune of being a little brusque in her manner,
+but, of course, her position is a difficult one, being alone out
+here, without any lady with her, and no doubt she feels it so.
+She was quite touchingly grateful, only because I offered her a
+seat in our carriage for the races, though she was unable to
+accept it, as the Major will have the Hunters staying with
+him."</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h1>
+
+<p>The clubhouse at Cawnpore was crowded on the evening before
+the races. Up to eleven o'clock it had been comparatively
+deserted, for there was scarcely a bungalow in the station at
+which dinner parties were not going on; but, after eleven, the
+gentlemen for the most part adjourned to the club for a smoke, a
+rubber, or a game of billiards, or to chat over the racing events
+of the next day.</p>
+
+<p>Loud greetings were exchanged as each fresh contingent
+arrived, for many newcomers had come into the station only that
+afternoon. Every table in the whist room was occupied, black pool
+was being played in the billiard room upstairs, where most of the
+younger men were gathered, while the elders smoked and talked in
+the rooms below.</p>
+
+<p>"What will you do, Bathurst?" the Doctor asked his guest,
+after the party from the Major's had been chatting for some
+little time downstairs. "Would you like to cut in at a rubber or
+take a ball at pool?"</p>
+
+<p>"Neither, Doctor; they are both accomplishments beyond me; I
+have not patience for whist, and I can't play billiards in the
+least. I have tried over and over again, but I am too nervous, I
+fancy; I break down over the easiest stroke -- in fact, an easy
+stroke is harder for me than a difficult one. I know I ought to
+make it, and just for that reason, I suppose, I don't."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't give one the idea of a nervous man, either,
+Bathurst."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I am, Doctor, constitutionally, indeed terribly
+so."</p>
+
+<p>"Not in business matters, anyhow," the Doctor said, with a
+smile. "You have the reputation of not minding in the slightest
+what responsibility you take upon yourself, and of carrying out
+what you undertake in the most resolute, I won't say high handed,
+manner."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it doesn't come in there," Bathurst laughed. "Morally I
+am not nervous so far as I know, physically I am. I would give a
+great deal if I could get over it, but, as I have said, it is
+constitutional."</p>
+
+<p>"Not on your father's side, Bathurst. I knew him well, and he
+was a very gallant officer."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it was the other side," Bathurst said; "I will tell you
+about it some day."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment another friend of Bathurst's came up and
+entered into conversation with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will go upstairs to the billiard room," the Doctor
+said; "and you will find me there, Bathurst, whenever you feel
+disposed to go."</p>
+
+<p>A pool had just finished when the Doctor entered the billiard
+room.</p>
+
+<p>"That is right, Doctor, you are just in time," Prothero said,
+as he entered. "Sinclair has given up his cue; he is going to
+ride tomorrow, and is afraid of shaking his nerves; you must come
+and play for the honor of the corps. I am being ruined
+altogether, and Doolan has retired discomfited."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not touched a cue since I went away," the Doctor said,
+"but I don't mind adding to the list of victims. Who are the
+winners?"</p>
+
+<p>"Messenger and Jarvis have been carrying all before them;
+there is a report they have just sent off two club waiters, with
+loads of rupees, to their quarters. Scarsdale has been pretty
+well holding his own, but the rest of us are nowhere."</p>
+
+<p>A year's want of practice, however, told, and the Doctor was
+added to the list of victims: he had no difficulty in getting
+someone else to take his cue after playing for half an hour.</p>
+
+<p>"It shows that practice is required for everything," he said;
+"before I went away I could have given each of those men a life,
+now they could give me two; I must devote half an hour a day to
+it till I get it back again."</p>
+
+<p>"And you shall give me a lesson, Doctor," Captain Doolan, who
+had also retired, said.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be time thrown away by both of us, Doolan. You would
+never make a pool player if you were to practice all your life.
+It is not the eye that is wrong, but the temperament. You can
+make a very good shot now and then, but you are too harum scarum
+and slap dash altogether. The art of playing pool is the art of
+placing yourself; while, when you strike, you have not the
+faintest idea where your ball is going to, and you are just as
+likely to run in yourself as you are to pot your adversary. I
+should abjure it if I were you, Doolan; it is too expensive a
+luxury for you to indulge in."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right there, Doctor; only what is a man to do when
+fellows say, 'We want you to make up a pool, Doolan'?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should say the reply would be quite simple. I should
+answer, 'I am ready enough to play if any of you are ready to pay
+my losses and take my winnings; I am tired of being as good as an
+annuity to you all,' for that is what you have been for the last
+ten years. Why, it would be cheaper for you to send home to
+England for skittles, and get a ground up here."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't play so very badly, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"If you play badly enough always to lose, it doesn't matter as
+to the precise degree of badness," the Doctor retorted. "It is
+not surprising. When you came out here, fourteen or fifteen years
+ago, boys did not take to playing billiards, but they do now.
+Look at that little villain, Richards. He has just cleared the
+table, and done it with all the coolness of a professional
+marker. The young scoundrel ought to have been in bed two hours
+ago, for I hear that tat of his is really a good one. Not that it
+will make any difference to him. That sort of boy would play
+billiards till the first bugle sounds in the morning, and have a
+wash and turn out as fresh as paint, but it won't last, Doolan,
+not in this climate; his cheeks will have fallen in and he will
+have crow's feet at the corners of his eyes before another year
+has gone over. I like that other boy, Wilson, better. Of course
+he is a cub as yet, but I should say there is good in him. Just
+at present I can see he is beginning to fancy himself in love
+with Miss Hannay. That will do him good; it is always an
+advantage to a lad like that to have a good honest liking for a
+nice girl. Of course it comes to nothing, and for a time he
+imagines himself the most unhappy of mortals, but it does him
+good for all that; fellows are far less likely to get into
+mischief and go to the bad after an affair of that sort. It gives
+him a high ideal, and if he is worth anything he will try to make
+himself worthy of her, and the good it does him will continue
+even after the charm is broken."</p>
+
+<p>"What a fellow you are, Doctor," Captain Doolan said, looking
+down upon his companion, "talking away like that in the middle of
+this racket, which would be enough to bother Saint Patrick
+himself!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, come along downstairs, Doolan; we will have a final peg
+and then be off; I expect Bathurst is beginning to fidget before
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"It will do him good," Captain Doolan said disdainfully. "I
+have no patience with a man who is forever working himself to
+death, riding about the country as if Old Nick were behind him,
+and never giving himself a minute for diversion of any kind.
+Faith, I would rather throw myself down a well and have done with
+it, than work ten times as hard as a black nigger."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't think, Doolan," the Doctor said dryly, "you are
+ever likely to be driven to suicide by any such cause."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right there, Doctor," the other said contentedly. "No
+man can throw it in my teeth that I ever worked when I had no
+occasion to work. If there were a campaign, I expect I could do
+my share with the best of them, but in quiet times I just do what
+I have to do, and if anyone has an anxiety to take my place in
+the rota for duty, he is as welcome to it as the flowers of May.
+I had my share of it when I was a subaltern; there is no better
+fellow living than the Major, but when he was Captain of my
+company he used to keep me on the run by the hour together, till
+I wished myself back in Connaught, and anyone who liked it might
+have had the whole of India for anything I cared; he was one of
+the most uneasy creatures I ever came across."</p>
+
+<p>"The Major is a good officer, Doolan, and you were as lazy a
+youngster, and as hard a bargain, as the Company ever got. You
+ought to thank your stars that you had the good luck in having a
+Captain who knew his business, and made you learn yours. Why, if
+you had had a man like Rintoul as your Captain, you would never
+have been worth your salt."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not complimentary, Doctor; but then nobody looks for
+compliments from you."</p>
+
+<p>"I can pay compliments if I have a chance," the Doctor
+retorted, "but it is very seldom I get one of doing so -- at
+least, without lying. Well, Bathurst, are you ready to turn
+in?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite ready, Doctor; that is one of the advantages of not
+caring for races; the merits and demerits of the horses that run
+tomorrow do not in the slightest degree affect me, and even the
+news that all the favorites had gone wrong would not deprive me
+of an hour's sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it a good thing to take an interest in racing,
+Bathurst. Take men as a whole: out here they work hard -- some of
+them work tremendously hard -- and unless they get some change to
+their thoughts, some sort of recreation, nineteen out of twenty
+will break down sooner or later. If they don't they become mere
+machines. Every man ought to have some sort of hobby; he need not
+ride it to death, but he wants to take some sort of interest in
+it. I don't care whether he takes to pig sticking, or racing, or
+shooting, or whether he goes in for what I may call the milder
+kinds of relaxation, such as dining out, billiards, whist, or
+even general philandering. Anything is better than nothing --
+anything that will take his mind off his work. As far as I can
+see, you don't do anything."</p>
+
+<p>"Therefore I shall either break down or become a machine,
+Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"One or the other certainly, Bathurst. You may smile, but I
+mean what I say. I have seen other young fellows just as full of
+work and enthusiasm as you are, but I have never seen an
+exception to the rule, unless, of course, they took up something
+so as to give their minds a rest."</p>
+
+<p>"The Doctor has just been scolding me because I am not fond
+enough of work," Captain Doolan laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You are differently placed, Doolan," the Doctor said. "You
+have got plenty of enthusiasm in your nature -- most Irishmen
+have -- but you have had nothing to stir it. Life in a native
+regiment in India is an easy one. Your duties are over in two or
+three hours out of the twenty-four, whereas the work of a
+civilian in a large district literally never ends, unless he puts
+a resolute stop to it. What with seeing people from morning until
+night, and riding about and listening to complaints, every hour
+of the day is occupied, and then at night there are reports to
+write and documents of all sorts to go through. It is a great
+pity that there cannot be a better division of work, though I own
+I don't see how it is to be managed."</p>
+
+<p>By this time they were walking towards the lines.</p>
+
+<p>"I should not mind taking a share of the civil work at the
+station," Captain Doolan said, "if they would make our pay a
+little more like that of the civilians."</p>
+
+<p>"There is something in that, Doolan," the Doctor agreed; "it
+is just as hard work having nothing to do as it is having too
+much; and I have always been of opinion that the tremendous
+disproportion between the pay of a military man and of a civilian
+of the same age is simply monstrous. Well, goodnight, Doolan; I
+hope you will tell Mrs. Doolan that the credit is entirely due to
+me that you are home at the reasonable hour of one o'clock,
+instead of dropping in just in time to change for parade."</p>
+
+<p>"A good fellow," the Doctor said, as he walked on with
+Bathurst; "he would never set the Thames on fire; but he is an
+honest, kindly fellow. He would make a capital officer if he were
+on service. His marriage has been an excellent thing for him. He
+had nothing to do before but to pass away his time in the club or
+mess house, and drink more than was good for him. But he has
+pulled himself round altogether since he married. His wife is a
+bright, clever little woman, and knows how to make the house
+happy for him; if he had married a lackadaisical sort of a woman,
+the betting is he would have gone to the bad altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"I only met him once or twice before," Bathurst said. "You see
+I am not here very often, and when I am it is only on business,
+so I know a very few people here except those I have to deal
+with, and by the time I have got through my business I am
+generally so thoroughly out of temper with the pig headed
+stupidity and obstinacy of people in general, that I get into my
+buggy and drive straight away."</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy you irritate them as much as they irritate you,
+Bathurst. Well, here we are; now we will have a quiet cheroot and
+a peg, to quiet our nerves after all that din, before we turn in.
+Let us get off our coats and collars, and make ourselves
+comfortable; it is a proof of the bestial stupidity of mankind
+that they should wear such abominations as dress clothes in a
+climate like this. Here, boy, light the candles and bring two
+sodas and brandies."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Bathurst," he went on, when they had made themselves
+comfortable in two lounging chairs, "what do you thing of Miss
+Hannay?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was prepared to admire her, Doctor, from what you said; it
+is not very often that you overpraise things; but she is a
+charming girl, very pretty and bright, frank and natural."</p>
+
+<p>"She is all that," the Doctor said. "We were four months on
+the voyage out, and I saw enough of her in that time to know her
+pretty thoroughly."</p>
+
+<p>"What puzzles me about her," Bathurst said, "is that I seemed
+to know her face. Where I saw her, and under what circumstances,
+I have been puzzling myself half the evening to recall, but I
+have the strongest conviction that I have met her."</p>
+
+<p>"You are dreaming, man. You have been out here eight years;
+she was a child of ten when you left England! You certainly have
+not seen her, and as I know pretty well every woman who has been
+in this station for the last five or six years, I can answer for
+it that you have not seen anyone in the slightest degree
+resembling her."</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I have been saying to myself, Doctor, but that
+does not in the slightest degree shake my conviction about
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must have dreamt it," the Doctor said decidedly.
+"Some fool of a poet has said, 'Visions of love cast their
+shadows before,' or something of that sort, which of course is a
+lie; still, that is the only way that I can account for it."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst smiled faintly. "I don't think the quotation is quite
+right, Doctor; anyhow, I am convinced that the impression is far
+too vivid to have been the result of a dream."</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, Bathurst," the Doctor said, suddenly changing his
+conversation, "what do you think of this talk we hear about
+chupaties being sent round among the native troops, and the talk
+about greased cartridges. You see more of the natives than anyone
+I know; do you think there is anything brewing in the air?"</p>
+
+<p>"If there is, Doctor, I am certain it is not known to the
+natives in general. I see no change whatever in their manner, and
+I am sure I know them well enough to notice any change if it
+existed. I know nothing about the Sepoys, but Garnet tells me
+that the Company at Deennugghur give him nothing to complain of,
+though they don't obey orders as smartly as usual, and they have
+a. sullen air as they go about their work."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like it, Bathurst. I do not understand what the
+chupaties mean, but I know that there is a sort of tradition that
+the sending of them round has always preceded trouble. The Sepoys
+have no reason for discontent, but there has been no active
+service lately, and idleness is always bad for men. I can't
+believe there is any widespread dissatisfaction among them, but
+there is no doubt whatever that if there is, and it breaks out,
+the position will be a very serious one. There are not half
+enough white troops in India, and the Sepoys may well think that
+they are masters of the situation. It would be a terrible time
+for everyone in India if they did take it into their heads to
+rise."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't believe they would be mad enough to do that, Doctor;
+they have everything to lose by it, and nothing to gain, that is,
+individually; and we should be sure to win in the long run, even
+if we had to conquer back India foot by foot."</p>
+
+<p>"That is all very well, Bathurst; we may know that we could do
+it, but they don't know it. They are ignorant altogether of the
+forces we could put into the field were there a necessity to make
+the effort. They naturally suppose that we can have but a few
+soldiers, for in all the battles we have fought there have always
+been two or three Sepoy regiments to one English. Besides, they
+consider themselves fully a match for us. They have fought by us
+side by side in every battlefield in India, and have done as well
+as we have. I don't see what they should rise for. I don't even
+see whose interest it is to bring a rising about, but I do know
+that if they rise we shall have a terrible time of it. Now I
+think we may as well turn in. You won't take another peg? Well, I
+shall see you in the morning. I shall be at the hospital by half
+past six, and shall be in at half past eight to breakfast. You
+have only got to shout for my man, and tell him whether you will
+have tea, coffee, or chocolate, any time you wake."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be about by six, Doctor; five is my general hour, but
+as it is past one now I dare say I shall be able to sleep on for
+an hour later, especially as there is nothing to do."</p>
+
+<p>"You can go round the hospital with me, if you like," the
+Doctor said, "if you will promise not to make a dozen suggestions
+for the improvement of things in general."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel Hannay came down to breakfast in high spirits upon the
+morning of the races. The dinner had gone off excellently. The
+dinner table, with its softly shaded lamps, and the Doctor's
+arrangements of the flowers, had been, she thought, perfection,
+and everything had passed off without a hitch. Her duties as a
+hostess had been much lighter than she had anticipated. Mrs.
+Hunter was a very pleasant, motherly woman, and the girls, who
+had only come out from England four months before, were fresh and
+unaffected, and the other people had all been pleasant and
+chatty.</p>
+
+<p>Altogether, she felt that her first dinner party had been a
+great success.</p>
+
+<p>She was looking forward now with pleasant anticipation to the
+day. She had seen but little of the natives so far, and she was
+now to see them at their best. Then she had never been present at
+a race, and everything would be new and exciting.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, uncle, what time did you get in?" she asked, as she
+stepped out into the veranda to meet him on his return from early
+parade. "It was too bad of you and Mr. Hunter running off instead
+of waiting to chat things over."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt you ladies did plenty of that, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, we didn't, uncle; you see they had had a very long
+drive, and Mrs. Hunter insisted on the girls going to bed
+directly you all went out, and as I could not sit up by myself, I
+had to go too."</p>
+
+<p>"We were in at half past twelve," the Major said. "I can stand
+a good deal of smoke, but the club atmosphere was too thick for
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Everything went off very well yesterday, didn't it?" she
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, I thought, my dear, thanks to you and the Doctor
+and Rumzan."</p>
+
+<p>"I had very little to do with it," she laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't think you had much to do with the absolute
+arrangements, Isobel, but I thought you did very well as hostess;
+it seemed to me that there was a good deal of laughing and fun at
+your end of the table."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; you see we had the two Miss Hunters and the Doctor
+there, and Mr. Gregson, who took me in, turned out a very merry
+old gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>"He would not be pleased if he heard you call him old,
+Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, of course he is not absolutely old, but being a
+commissioner, and all that sort of thing, gives one the idea of
+being old; but there are the others."</p>
+
+<p>And they went into the breakfast room.</p>
+
+<p>The first race was set for two o'clock, and at half past one
+Mrs. Hunter's carriage, with the four ladies, arrived at the
+inclosure. The horses were taken out, and the carriage wheeled
+into its place, and then Isobel and the two Miss Hunters prepared
+to enjoy the scene.</p>
+
+<p>It was a very gay one. The course was at present covered with
+a throng of natives in their bright colored garments, and mixed
+with them were the scarlet uniforms of the Sepoys of the 103d and
+other regiments. On the opposite side were a number of native
+vehicles of various descriptions, and some elephants with painted
+faces and gorgeous trappings, and with howdahs shaded by
+pavilions glittering with gilt and silver.</p>
+
+<p>On either side of their vehicle a long line of carriages was
+soon formed up, and among these were several occupied by gayly
+dressed natives, whose rank gave them an entrance to the
+privileged inclosure. The carriages were placed three or four
+yards back from the rail, and the intervening space was filled
+with civilian and military officers, in white or light attire,
+and with pith helmet or puggaree; many others were on horseback
+behind the carriages.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a bright scene, Miss Hannay," the Doctor said, coming
+up to the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>"Wonderfully pretty, Doctor!"</p>
+
+<p>"An English race course doesn't do after this, I can tell you.
+I went down to the Derby when I was at home, and such an assembly
+of riff raff I never saw before and never wish to see again."</p>
+
+<p>"These people are more picturesque, Dr. Wade," Mrs. Hunter
+said, "but that is merely a question of garment; these people
+perhaps are no more trustworthy than those you met on the
+racecourse at home."</p>
+
+<p>"I was speaking of them purely as a spectacle; individually I
+have no doubt one would be safer among the English roughs and
+betting men than among these placid looking natives. The one
+would pick your pockets of every penny you have got if they had
+the chance, the other would cut your throat with just as little
+compunction."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't really mean that, Dr. Wade?" Isobel said.</p>
+
+<p>"I do indeed, Miss Hannay; the Oude men are notorious brawlers
+and fighters, and I should say that the roughs of Cawnpore and
+Lucknow could give long odds to those of any European city, and
+three out of four of those men you see walking about there would
+not only cut the throat of a European to obtain what money he had
+about him, but would do so without that incentive, upon the
+simple ground that he hated us."</p>
+
+<p>"But why should he hate us, Doctor? he is none the worse off
+now than he was before we annexed the country."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, that class of man is worse off. In the old days
+every noble and Zemindar kept up a little army for the purpose of
+fighting his neighbors, just as our Barons used to do in the
+happy olden times people talk of. We have put down private
+fighting, and the consequence is these men's occupations are
+gone, and they flock to great towns and there live as best they
+can, ready to commit any crime whatever for the sum of a few
+rupees.</p>
+
+<p>"There is Nana Sahib."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel looked round and saw a carriage with a magnificent pair
+of horses, in harness almost covered with silver ornaments, drive
+up to a place that had been kept vacant for it. Four natives were
+sitting in it.</p>
+
+<p>"That is the Rajah," the Doctor said, "the farther man, with
+that aigrette of diamonds in his turban. He is Oriental today,
+but sometimes he affects English fashions. He is a very cheery
+fellow, he keeps pretty well open house at Bithoor, has a
+billiard table, and a first rate cellar of wine, carriages for
+the use of guests -- in fact, he does the thing really
+handsomely."</p>
+
+<p>"Here is my opera glass," Mrs. Hunter said. Isobel looked long
+and fixedly at the Rajah.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what do you think of him?" the Doctor asked as she
+lowered it.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know what to think of him," she said; "his face does
+not tell me anything, it is like looking at a mask; but you see I
+am not accustomed to read brown men's characters, they are so
+different from Europeans, their faces all seem so impassive. I
+suppose it is the way in which they are brought up and
+trained."</p>
+
+<p>"Ages of tyranny have made them supple and deceitful," the
+Doctor said, "but of course less so here than among the
+Bengallies, who, being naturally unwarlike and cowardly, have
+always been the slaves of some master or other.</p>
+
+<p>"You evidently don't like the Nana, Miss Hannay. I am rather
+glad you don't, for he is no great favorite of mine, though he is
+so generally popular in the station here. I don't like him
+because it is not natural that he should be so friendly with us.
+We undoubtedly, according to native notions, robbed him of one of
+the finest positions in India by refusing to acknowledge his
+adoption. We have given him a princely revenue, but that, after
+all, is a mere trifle to what he would have had as Peishwa.
+Whatever virtues the natives of this country possess, the
+forgiving of injuries is not among them, and therefore I consider
+it to be altogether unnatural that he, having been, as he at any
+rate and everyone round him must consider, foully wronged, should
+go out of his way to affect our society and declare the warmest
+friendship for us."</p>
+
+<p>The Rajah was laughing and talking with General Wheeler and
+the group of officers round his carriage.</p>
+
+<p>Again Isobel raised the glasses. "You are right, Doctor," she
+said, "I don't like him."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there is one comfort, it doesn't matter whether he is
+sincere or not, he is powerless to hurt us. I don't see any
+motive for his pretending to be friendly if he is not, but I own
+that I should like him better if he sulked and would have nothing
+to say to us, as would be the natural course."</p>
+
+<p>The bell now began to ring, and the native police cleared the
+course. Major Hannay and Mr. Hunter, who had driven over in the
+buggy, came up and took their places on the box of the
+carriage.</p>
+
+<p>"Here are cards of the races," he said. "Now is the time,
+young ladies, to make your bets."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know even the name of anyone in this first race,"
+Isobel said, looking at the card.</p>
+
+<p>"That doesn't matter in the least, Miss Hannay," Wilson, who
+had just come up to the side of the carriage, said. "There are
+six horses in; you pick out any one you like, and I will lay you
+five pairs of gloves to one against him."</p>
+
+<p>"But how am I to pick out when I don't know anything about
+them, Mr. Wilson? I might pick out one that had no chance at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but you might pick out the favorite, Miss Hannay, so
+that it is quite fair."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you bet, Isobel," her uncle said. "Let us have a
+sweepstake instead."</p>
+
+<p>"What is a sweepstake, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a general laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, we each put in a rupee. There are six of us,
+and there are Wilson and the Doctor. You will go in, Doctor,
+won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I don't mind throwing away a rupee, Major."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, that makes eight. We put eight pieces of paper in
+the hat. Six of them have got the names of the horses on, the
+other two are blank. Then we each pull out one. Whoever draws the
+name of the horse that wins takes five rupees, the holder of the
+second two, and the third saves his stake. You shall hold the
+stakes, Mrs. Hunter. We have all confidence in you."</p>
+
+<p>The slips were drawn.</p>
+
+<p>"My horse is Bruce," Isobel said.</p>
+
+<p>"There he is, Miss Hannay," Wilson, who had drawn a blank,
+said, as a horse whose rider had a straw colored jacket and cap
+came cantering along the course. "This is a race for country
+horses -- owners up. That means ridden by their owners. That is
+Pearson of the 13th Native Cavalry. He brought the horse over
+from Lucknow."</p>
+
+<p>"What chance has he?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not the least idea, Miss Hannay. I did not hear any
+betting on this race at all."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a nice horse, uncle," Isobel said, as one with a
+rider in black jacket, with red cap, came past.</p>
+
+<p>"That is Delhi. Yes, it has good action."</p>
+
+<p>"That is mine," the eldest Miss Hunter said.</p>
+
+<p>"The rider is a good looking young fellow," the Doctor said,
+"and is perfectly conscious of it himself. Who is he, Wilson? I
+don't know him."</p>
+
+<p>"He is a civilian. Belongs to the public works, I think."</p>
+
+<p>The other horses now came along, and after short preliminary
+canters the start was made. To Isobel's disappointment her horse
+was never in the race, which Delhi looked like winning until near
+the post, when a rather common looking horse, which had been
+lying a short distance behind him, came up with a rush and won by
+a length.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't call that fair," Miss Hunter said, "when the other
+was first all along. I call that a mean way of winning, don't
+you, father?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, no, my dear. It was easy to see for the last quarter of
+a mile that the other was making what is called 'a waiting race'
+of it, and was only biding his time. There is nothing unfair in
+that, I fancy Delhi might have won if he had had a better jockey.
+His rider never really called upon him till it was too late. He
+was so thoroughly satisfied with himself and his position in the
+race that he was taken completely by surprise when Moonshee came
+suddenly up to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I think it is very hard upon Delhi, father, after
+keeping ahead all the way and going so nicely. I think everyone
+ought to do their best from the first."</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy you are thinking, Miss Hunter," the Doctor said,
+"quite as much that it is hard on you being beaten after your
+hopes had been raised, as it is upon the horse."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I am, Doctor," she admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it is much harder on me," Isobel said. "You have had
+the satisfaction of thinking all along that your horse was going
+to win, while mine never gave me the least bit of hope."</p>
+
+<p>"The proper expression, Miss Hannay, is, your horse never
+flattered you."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I think it is a very silly expression, Mr. Wilson,
+because I don't see that flattery has anything to do with
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, here is Bathurst," the Doctor said. "Where have you been,
+Bathurst? You slipped away from me just now."</p>
+
+<p>"I've just been talking to the Commissioner, Doctor. I have
+been trying to get him to see --"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you don't mean to say," the Doctor broke in, "that you
+have been trying to cram your theories down his throat on a
+racecourse?"<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>"It was before the race began," Bathurst said, "and I don't
+think the Commissioner has any more interest in racing than I
+have."</p>
+
+<p>"Not in racing," the Doctor agreed, "but I expect he has an
+interest in enjoying himself generally, which is a thing you
+don't seem to have the most remote idea of. Here we are just
+getting up a sweepstake for the next race; hand over a rupee and
+try to get up an interest in it. Do try and forget your work till
+the race is over. I have brought you here to do you good. I
+regard you as my patient, and I give you my medical orders that
+you are to enjoy yourself."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I am enjoying myself in my way, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is that very pretty woman standing up in the next
+carriage but one?" Isobel asked.</p>
+
+<p>"She comes from an out station," the Doctor repeated; "she is
+the wife of the Collector there, but I think she likes Cawnpore
+better than Boorgum; her name is Rose."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that her husband talking to her?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; that is a man in the Artillery here, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," the Major said, "that is Harrowby, a good looking
+fellow, and quite a ladies' man."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean a man ladies like, uncle, or who likes the
+society of ladies?"</p>
+
+<p>"Both in his case, I should fancy," the Major said; "I believe
+he is considered one of the best looking men in the service."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why he should be liked for that," Isobel said.
+"As far as I have seen, good looking men are not so pleasant as
+others. I suppose it is because they are conscious of their own
+good looks, and therefore do not take the trouble of being
+amusing. We had one very good looking man on board ship, and he
+was the dullest man to talk to on board. No, Doctor, I won't have
+any names mentioned, but I am right, am I not?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was a dull specimen, certainly," the Doctor said, "but I
+think you are a little too sweeping."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mean all good looking men, of course, but men who
+what I call go in for being good looking. I don't know whether
+you know what I mean. What are you smiling at, Mr. Wilson?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was thinking of two or three men I know to whom your
+description applies, Miss Hannay; but I must be going -- they are
+just going to start the next race, and mine is the one after, so
+I must go and get ready. You wish me success, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you all the success you deserve. I can't say more than
+that, can I?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid that is saying very little," he laughed. "I don't
+expect to win, but I do hope I shall beat Richards, because he is
+so cock sure he will beat me."</p>
+
+<p>This wish was not gratified. The first and second horses made
+a close race of it; behind them by ten or twelve lengths came the
+other horses in a clump, Wilson and Richards singling themselves
+out in the last hundred yards and making a desperate race for the
+third place, for which they made a dead heat, amid great laughter
+from their comrades.</p>
+
+<p>"That is excellent," Major Hannay said; "you won't see
+anything more amusing than that today, girls. The third horse
+simply saved his stake, so that as they will of course divide,
+they will have paid twenty-five rupees each for the pleasure of
+riding, and the point which of their tats is the fastest remains
+unsettled."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they beat a good many of them, Major Hannay," Miss
+Hunter said; "so they did not do so badly after all."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, they did not do so badly; but it will be a long time
+before they get over the chaff about their desperate struggle for
+the third place."</p>
+
+<p>The next two races attracted but slight attention from the
+occupants of the carriage. Most of their acquaintances in the
+station came up one after the other for a chat. There were many
+fresh introductions, and there was so much conversation and
+laughter that the girls had little time to attend to what was
+going on around them. Wilson and Richards both sauntered up after
+changing, and were the subject of much chaff as to their
+brilliant riding at the finish. Both were firm in the belief that
+the judge's finding was wrong, and each maintained stoutly he had
+beaten the other by a good head.</p>
+
+<p>The race for Arabs turned out a very exciting one; the Rajah
+of Bithoor's horse was the favorite, on the strength of its
+performances elsewhere; but Prothero's horse was also well
+supported, especially in the regiment, for the Adjutant was a
+first class rider, and was in great request at all the principal
+meetings in Oude and the Northwest Provinces, while it was known
+that the Rajah's horse would be ridden by a native. The latter
+was dressed in strict racing costume, and had at the last races
+at Cawnpore won two or three cups for the Rajah.</p>
+
+<p>But the general opinion among the officers of the station was
+that Prothero's coolness and nerve would tell. His Arab was
+certainly a fast one, and had won the previous year, both at
+Cawnpore and Lucknow; but the Rajah's new purchase had gained so
+high a reputation in the Western Presidency as fully to justify
+the odds of two to one laid on it, while four to one were offered
+against Prothero, and from eight to twenty to one against any
+other competitor.</p>
+
+<p>Prothero had stopped to have a chat at the Hunters' carriage
+as he walked towards the dressing tent.</p>
+
+<p>"Our hopes are all centered in you, Mr. Prothero," Mr. Hunter
+said. "Miss Hannay has been wagering gloves in a frightfully
+reckless way."</p>
+
+<p>"I should advise you to hedge if you can, Miss Hannay," he
+said. "I think there is no doubt that Mameluke is a good deal
+faster than Seila. I fancy he is pounds better. I only beat
+Vincent's horse by a head last year, and Mameluke gave him seven
+pounds, and beat him by three lengths at Poona. So I should
+strongly advise you to hedge your bets if you can."</p>
+
+<p>"What does he mean by hedge, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"To hedge is to bet the other way, so that one bet cancels the
+other."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I shan't do that," she said; "I have enough money to pay
+my bets if I lose."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say you mean to pay your bets if you lose,
+Miss Hannay?" the Doctor asked incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I do," she said indignantly. "You don't suppose I
+intend to take the gloves if I win, and not to pay if I
+lose?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not altogether an uncommon practice among ladies," the
+Doctor said, "when they bet against gentlemen. I believe that
+when they wager against each other, which they do not often do,
+they are strictly honest, but that otherwise their memories are
+apt to fail them altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a libel, Mrs. Hunter, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not altogether, I think. Of course many ladies do pay their
+bets when they lose, but others certainly do not."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I call it very mean," Isobel said earnestly. "Why, it is
+as bad as asking anyone to make you a present of so many pairs of
+gloves in case a certain horse wins."</p>
+
+<p>"It comes a good deal to the same thing," Mrs. Hunter
+admitted, "but to a certain extent it is a recognized custom; it
+is a sort of tribute that is exacted at race time, just as in
+France every lady expects a present from every gentleman of her
+acquaintance on New Year's Day."</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't bet if I didn't mean to pay honestly," Isobel
+said. "And if Mr. Prothero doesn't win, my debts will all be
+honorably discharged."</p>
+
+<p>There was a hush of expectation in the crowd when the ten
+horses whose numbers were up went down to the starting point, a
+quarter of a mile from the stand. They were to pass it, make the
+circuit, and finish there, the race being two miles. The interest
+of the natives was enlisted by the fact that Nana Sahib was
+running a horse, while the hopes of the occupants of the
+inclosure rested principally on Seila.</p>
+
+<p>The flag fell to a good start; but when the horses came along
+Isobel saw with surprise that the dark blue of the Rajah and the
+Adjutant's scarlet and white were both in the rear of the group.
+Soon afterwards the scarlet seemed to be making its way through
+the horses, and was speedily leading them.</p>
+
+<p>"Prothero is making the running with a vengeance," the Major
+said. "That is not like his usual tactics, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy he knows what he is doing," the Doctor replied. "He
+saw that Mameluke's rider was going to make a waiting race of it,
+and as the horse has certainly the turn of speed on him, he is
+trying other tactics. They are passing the mile post now, and
+Prothero is twelve or fourteen lengths ahead. There, Mameluke is
+going through his horses; his rider is beginning to get nervous
+at the lead Prothero has got, and he can't stand it any longer.
+He ought to have waited for another half mile. You will see,
+Prothero will win after all. Seila can stay, there is no doubt
+about that."</p>
+
+<p>A roar of satisfaction rose from the mass of natives on the
+other side of the inclosure as Mameluke was seen to leave the
+group of horses and gradually to gain upon Seila.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he will catch him, uncle!" Isobel said, tearing her
+handkerchief in her excitement.</p>
+
+<p>The Major was watching the horses through his field glass.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind his catching him," he said; "Prothero is riding
+quietly and steadily. Seila is doing nearly her best, but he is
+not hurrying her, while the fool on Mameluke is bustling the
+horse as if he had only a hundred yards further to go."</p>
+
+<p>The horses were nearing the point at which they had started,
+when a shout from the crowd proclaimed that the blue jacket had
+come up to and passed the scarlet. Slowly it forged ahead until
+it was two lengths in advance, for a few strides their relative
+positions remained unaltered, then there was a shout from the
+carriages; scarlet was coming up again. Mameluke's rider glanced
+over his shoulder, and began to use the whip. For a few strides
+the horse widened the gap again, but Prothero still sat quiet and
+unmoved. Just as they reached the end of the line of carriages,
+Seila again began to close up.</p>
+
+<p>"Seila wins! Seila wins!" the officers shouted.</p>
+
+<p>But it seemed to Isobel that this was well nigh impossible,
+but foot by foot the mare came up, and as they passed the
+Hunters' carriage her head was in advance.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the desperate efforts of the rider of Mameluke,
+another hundred yards and they passed the winning post, Seila a
+length ahead.</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h1>
+
+<p>The exultation of the officers of the 103d over Seila's
+victory was great. They had all backed her, relying upon
+Prothero's riding, but although his success was generally popular
+among the Europeans at the station, many had lost considerable
+sums by their confidence in Mameluke's speed.</p>
+
+<p>Isobel sat down feeling quite faint from the excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not think I could have been so excited over a race
+between two horses," she said to Mrs. Hunter; "it was not the
+bets, I never even thought about them -- it was just because I
+wanted to see Mr. Prothero's horse win. I never understood before
+why people should take such an interest in horse racing, but I
+quite understand now."</p>
+
+<p>"What is your size, Miss Hannay?" Wilson asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't care anything about the gloves, Mr. Wilson; I am
+sorry I bet now."</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't feel any compunction in taking them from me or
+from any of us, Miss Hannay; we have all won over Seila; the
+regiment will have to give a ball on the strength of it. I only
+put on a hundred rupees, and so have won four hundred, but most
+of them have won ever so much more than that; and all I have lost
+is four pair of gloves to you, and four to Mrs. Doolan, and four
+to Mrs. Prothero -- a dozen in all. Which do you take, white or
+cream, and what is your size?"</p>
+
+<p>"Six and a half, cream."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Miss Hannay. The Nana must have lost a good lot of
+money; he has been backing his horse with everyone who would lay
+against it. However, it won't make any difference to him, and it
+is always a satisfaction when the loss comes on someone to whom
+it doesn't matter a bit. I think the regiment ought to give a
+dinner to Prothero, Major; it was entirely his riding that did
+it; he hustled that nigger on Mameluke splendidly. If the fellow
+had waited till within half a mile of home he would have won to a
+certainty; I never saw anything better."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Miss Hannay, what do you think of a horse race?"
+Bathurst, who had only remained a few minutes at the carriage,
+asked, as he strolled up again. "You said yesterday that you had
+never seen one."</p>
+
+<p>"I am a little ashamed to say I was very much excited over it,
+Mr. Bathurst. You have not lost, I hope? You are looking" and she
+stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Shaky?" he said. "Yes; I feel shaky. I had not a penny on the
+race, for though the Doctor made me put into a sweep last night
+at the club, I drew a blank; but the shouting and excitement at
+the finish seemed to take my breath away, and I felt quite
+faint."</p>
+
+<p>"That is just how I felt; I did not know men felt like that.
+They don't generally seem to know what nerves are."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I didn't; it is a great nuisance. The Doctor tries to
+persuade me that it is the effect of overwork, but I have always
+been so from a child, and I can't get over it."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't look nervous, Mr. Bathurst."</p>
+
+<p>"No; when a man is a fair size, and looks bronzed and healthy,
+no one will give him credit for being nervous. I would give a
+very great deal if I could get over it."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see that it matters much one way or the other, Mr.
+Bathurst."</p>
+
+<p>"I can assure you that it does. I regard it as being a most
+serious misfortune."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel was a little surprised at the earnestness with which he
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"I should not have thought that," she said quietly; "but I can
+understand that it is disagreeable for a man to feel nervous,
+simply, I suppose, because it is regarded as a feminine quality;
+but I think a good many men are nervous. We had several
+entertainments on board the ship coming out, and it was funny to
+see how many great strong men broke down, especially those who
+had to make speeches."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not nervous in that way," Bathurst said, with a laugh.
+"My pet horror is noise; thunder prostrates me completely, and in
+fact all noises, especially any sharp, sudden sound, affect me. I
+really find it a great nuisance. I fancy a woman with nerves
+considers herself as a martyr, and deserving of all pity and
+sympathy. It is almost a fashionable complaint, and she is a
+little proud of it; but a man ought to have his nerves in good
+order, and as much as that is expected of him unless he is a
+feeble little body. There is the bell for the next race."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to bet on this race again, Miss Hannay?" Wilson
+said, coming up.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mr. Wilson. I have done my first and last bit of
+gambling. I don't think it is nice, ladies betting, after all,
+and if there were a hospital here I should order you to send the
+money the gloves will cost you to it as conscience money, and
+then perhaps you might follow my example with your winnings."</p>
+
+<p>"My conscience is not moved in any way," he laughed; "when it
+is I will look out for a deserving charity. Well, if you won't
+bet I must see if I can make a small investment somewhere
+else."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall see you at the ball, of course?" Isobel said, turning
+to Mr. Bathurst, as Wilson left the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I think not. Balls are altogether out of my line, and as
+there is always a superabundance of men at such affairs here,
+there is no sense of duty about it."</p>
+
+<p>"What is your line, Mr. Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I have none, Miss Hannay. The fact is, there is
+really more work to be done than one can get through. When you
+get to know the natives well you cannot help liking them and
+longing to do them some good if they would but let you, but it is
+so difficult to get them to take up new ideas. Their religion,
+with all its customs and ceremonies, seems designed expressly to
+bar out all improvements. Except in the case of abolishing
+Suttee, we have scarcely weaned them from one of their
+observances; and even now, in spite of our efforts, widows
+occasionally immolate themselves, and that with the general
+approval.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I had an army of ten thousand English ladies all
+speaking the language well to go about among the women and make
+friends with them; there would be more good done in that way than
+by all the officials in India. They might not be able to
+emancipate themselves from all their restrictions, but they might
+influence their children, and in time pave the way for a moral
+revolution. But it is ridiculous," he said, breaking off
+suddenly, "my talking like this here, but you see it is what you
+call my line, my hobby, if you like; but when one sees this hard
+working, patient, gentle people making their lot so much harder
+than it need be by their customs and observances one longs to
+force them even against their own will to burst their bonds."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Wade came up at this moment and caught the last word or
+two.</p>
+
+<p>"You are incorrigible, Bathurst. Miss Hannay, I warn you that
+this man is a monomaniac. I drag him away from his work, and here
+he is discoursing with you on reform just as a race is going to
+start. You may imagine, my dear, what a thorn he is in the side
+of the bigwigs. You have heard of Talleyrand's advice to a young
+official, 'Above all things, no zeal.' Go away, Bathurst; Miss
+Hannay wants to see the race, and even if she doesn't she is
+powerless to assist you in your crusade."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst laughed and drew off.</p>
+
+<p>"That is too bad, Doctor. I was very interested. I like to
+talk to people who can think of something besides races and balls
+and the gossip of the station."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, in reason, in reason, my dear; but there is a medium in
+all things. I have no doubt Bathurst will be quite happy some
+time or other to give you his full views on child marriages, and
+the remarriages of widows, and female education, and the land
+settlement, and a score of other questions, but for this a few
+weeks of perfect leisure will be required. Seriously, you know
+that I think Bathurst one of the finest young fellows in the
+service, but his very earnestness injures both his prospects and
+his utility. The officials have a horror of enthusiasm; they like
+the cut and dried subordinate who does his duty conscientiously,
+and does not trouble his head about anything but carrying out the
+regulations laid down for him.</p>
+
+<p>"Theoretically I agree with most of Bathurst's views,
+practically I see that a score of officials like him would excite
+a revolution throughout a whole province. In India, of all places
+in the world, the maxim festina lente -- go slow -- is
+applicable. You have the prejudices of a couple of thousand years
+against change. The people of all things are jealous of the
+slightest appearance of interference with their customs. The
+change will no doubt come in time, but it must come gradually,
+and must be the work of the natives themselves and not of us. To
+try to hasten that time would be but to defer it. Now, child,
+there is the bell; now just attend to the business in hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Doctor, I will obey your orders, but it is only
+fair to say that Mr. Bathurst's remarks are only in answer to
+something I said," and Isobel turned to watch the race, but with
+an interest less ardent than she had before felt.</p>
+
+<p>Isobel's character was an essentially earnest one, and her
+life up to the day of her departure to India had been one of few
+pleasures. She had enjoyed the change and had entered heartily
+into it, and she was as yet by no means tired of it, but she had
+upon her arrival at Cawnpore been a little disappointed that
+there was no definite work for her to perform, and had already
+begun to feel that a time would come when she would want
+something more than gossip and amusements and the light talk of
+the officers of her acquaintance to fill her life.</p>
+
+<p>She had as yet no distinct interest of her own, and Bathurst's
+earnestness had struck a cord in her own nature and seemed to
+open a wide area for thought. She put it aside now and chatted
+gayly with the Hunters and those who came up to the carriage, but
+it came back to her as she sat in her room before going to
+bed.</p>
+
+<p>Up till now she had not heard a remark since she had been in
+Cawnpore that might not have been spoken had the cantonments
+there been the whole of India, except that persons at other
+stations were mentioned. The vast, seething native population
+were no more alluded to than if they were a world apart.
+Bathurst's words had for the first time brought home to her the
+reality of their existence, and that around this little group of
+English men and women lay a vast population, with their joys and
+sorrows and sufferings.</p>
+
+<p>At breakfast she surprised Mrs. Hunter by asking a variety of
+questions as to native customs. "I suppose you have often been in
+the Zenanas, Mrs. Hunter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not often, my dear. I have been in some of them, and very
+depressing it is to see how childish and ignorant the women
+are."</p>
+
+<p>"Can nothing be done for them, Mrs. Hunter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very little. In time I suppose there will be schools for
+girls, but you see they marry so young that it is difficult to
+get at them."</p>
+
+<p>"How young do they marry?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are betrothed, although it has all the force of a
+marriage, as infants, and a girl can be a widow at two or three
+years old; and so, poor little thing, she remains to the end of
+her life in a position little better than that of a servant in
+her husband's family. Really they are married at ten or
+eleven."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel looked amazed at this her first insight into native
+life. Mrs. Hunter smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard Mr. Bathurst saying something to you about it
+yesterday, Miss Hannay. He is an enthusiast; we like him very
+much, but we don't see much of him."</p>
+
+<p>"You must beware of him, Miss Hannay," Mr. Hunter said, "or he
+will inoculate you with some of his fads. I do not say that he is
+not right, but he sees the immensity of the need for change, but
+does not see fully the immensity of the difficulty in bringing it
+about."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no fear of his inoculating me; that is to say of
+setting me to work, for what could one woman do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, my dear," her uncle said; "if all the white women in
+India threw themselves into the work, they could do little. The
+natives are too jealous of what they consider intruders; the
+Parsees are about the only progressive people. While ladies are
+welcome enough when they pay a visit of ceremony to the Zenana of
+a native, if they were to try to teach their wives to be
+discontented with their lots -- for that is what it would be --
+they would be no longer welcome. Schools are being established,
+but at present these are but a drop in the ocean. Still, the work
+does go on, and in time something will be done. It is of no use
+bothering yourself about it, Isobel; it is best to take matters
+as you find them."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel made no answer, but she was much disappointed when Dr.
+Wade, dropping in to tiffin, said his guest had started two hours
+before for Deennugghur. He had a batch of letters and reports
+from his native clerk, and there was something or other that he
+said he must see to at once.</p>
+
+<p>"He begged me to say, Major, that he was very sorry to go off
+without saying goodby, but he hoped to be in Cawnpore before
+long. I own that that part of the message astonished me, knowing
+as I do what difficulty there is in getting him out of his shell.
+He and I became great chums when I was over at Deennugghur two
+years ago, and the young fellow is not given to making friends.
+However, as he is not the man to say a thing without meaning it,
+I suppose he intends to come over again. He knows there is always
+a bed for him in my place."</p>
+
+<p>"We see very little of him," Mary Hunter said; "he is always
+away on horseback all day. Sometimes he comes in the evening when
+we are quite alone, but he will never stay long. He always
+excuses himself on the ground that he has a report to write or
+something of that sort. Amy and I call him 'Timon of
+Athens.'"</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing of Timon about him," the Doctor remarked
+dogmatically. "That is the way with you young ladies -- you think
+that a man's first business in life is to be dancing attendance
+on you. Bathurst looks at life seriously, and no wonder, going
+about as he does among the natives and listening to their stories
+and complaints. He puts his hand to the plow, and does not turn
+to the right or left."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, Doctor, you must allow," Mrs. Hunter said gravely,
+"that Mr. Bathurst is not like most other men."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not," the Doctor remarked. "He takes no interest in
+sport of any kind; he does not care for society; he very rarely
+goes to the club, and never touches a card when he does; and yet
+he is the sort of man one would think would throw himself into
+what is going on. He is a strong, active, healthy man, whom one
+would expect to excel in all sorts of sports; he is certainly
+good looking; he talks extremely well, and is, I should say, very
+well read and intelligent."</p>
+
+<p>"He can be very amusing when he likes, Doctor. Once or twice
+when he has been with us he has seemed to forget himself, as it
+were, and was full of fun and life. You must allow that it is a
+little singular that a man like this should altogether avoid
+society, and night and day be absorbed in his work."</p>
+
+<p>"I have thought sometimes," Mr. Hunter said, "that Bathurst
+must have had some great trouble in his life. Of what nature I
+can, of course, form no idea. He was little more than twenty when
+he came out here, so I should say that it was hardly a love
+affair."</p>
+
+<p>"That is always the way, Hunter. If a man goes his own way,
+and that way does not happen to be the way of the mess, it is
+supposed that he must have had trouble of some sort. As Bathurst
+is the son of a distinguished soldier, and is now the owner of a
+fine property at home, I don't see what trouble he can have had.
+He may possibly, for anything I know, have had some boyish love
+affairs, but I don't think he is the sort of man to allow his
+whole life to be affected by any foolery of that sort. He is
+simply an enthusiast.</p>
+
+<p>"It is good for mankind that there should be some enthusiasts.
+I grant that it would be an unpleasant world if we were all
+enthusiasts, but the sight of a man like him throwing his whole
+life and energy into his work, and wearing himself out trying to
+lessen the evils he sees around him, ought to do good to us all.
+Look at these boys," and he apostrophized Wilson and Richards, as
+they appeared together at the door. "What do they think of but
+amusing themselves and shirking their duties as far as
+possible?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I say, Doctor," Wilson exclaimed, astonished at this
+sudden attack, "what are you pitching into us like that for? That
+is not fair, is it, Major? We amuse ourselves, of course, when
+there is nothing else to do, but I am sure we don't shirk our
+work. You don't want us to spend our spare time in reading Greek,
+I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; but you might spend some of it very profitably in
+learning some of these native languages," the Doctor said. "I
+don't believe that you know above a dozen native words now. You
+can shout for brandy and water, and for a light for your cigars,
+but I fancy that that is about the extent of it."</p>
+
+<p>"We are going to have a moonshee next week, Doctor," Wilson
+said, a little crestfallen, "and a horrid nuisance it will
+be."</p>
+
+<p>"That is only because you are obliged to pass in the
+vernacular, Wilson. So you need not take any credit to yourself
+on that account."</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor, you are in one of your worst possible tempers this
+morning," Isobel said. "You snap at us all round. You are quite
+intolerable this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"I am rather put out by Bathurst running away in this fashion,
+Miss Hannay. I had made up my mind that he would stop three or
+four days longer, and it is pleasant to have someone who can talk
+and think about something besides horses and balls. But I will go
+away; I don't want to be the disturbing element; and I have no
+doubt that Richards is burning to tell you the odds on some of
+the horses today."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we see you on the racecourse, Doctor?" the Major asked,
+as the Doctor moved towards the door.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not, Major; one day is enough for me. If they would
+get up a donkey race confined strictly to the subalterns of the
+station, I might take the trouble to go and look at it."</p>
+
+<p>"The Doctor is in great form today," Wilson said good
+temperedly, after the laugh which followed the Doctor's exit had
+subsided; "and I am sure we did nothing to provoke him."</p>
+
+<p>"You got into his line of fire, Wilson," the Major said; "he
+is explosive this morning, and has been giving it to us all
+round. However, nobody minds what the Doctor says; his bark is
+very bad, but he has no bite. Wait till you are down with the
+fever, and you will find him devote himself to you as if he were
+your father."</p>
+
+<p>"He is one of the kindest men in the world," Isobel agreed
+warmly, thereby effectually silencing Richards, who had just
+pulled up his shirt collar preparatory to a sarcastic utterance
+respecting him.</p>
+
+<p>Isobel, indeed, was in full sympathy with the Doctor, for she,
+too, was disappointed at Bathurst's sudden departure. She had
+looked forward to learning a good deal from him about the native
+customs and ways, and had intended to have a long talk with him.
+She was perhaps, too, more interested generally in the man
+himself than she would have been willing to admit.</p>
+
+<p>That evening the party went to an entertainment at Bithoor.
+Isobel and the girls were delighted with the illuminations of the
+gardens and with the palace itself, with its mixture of Eastern
+splendor and European luxury. But Isobel did not altogether enjoy
+the evening.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I ought to congratulate you on your success last
+night, Isobel," Dr. Wade said, when he dropped in after
+breakfast. "Everyone has been telling me that the Rajah paid you
+the greatest attention, and that there is the fiercest gnashing
+of teeth among what must now be called the ex-queens of the
+station."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know who told you such nonsense, Doctor," Isobel
+replied hotly. "The Rajah quite spoilt the evening for me. I have
+been telling Mrs. Hunter so. If we had not been in his own house,
+I should have told him that I should enjoy the evening very much
+more if he would leave me alone and let me go about and look
+quietly at the place and the gardens, which are really beautiful.
+No doubt he is pleasant enough, and I suppose I ought to have
+felt flattered at his walking about with me and so on, but I am
+sure I did not. What pleasure does he suppose an English girl can
+have in listening to elaborate compliments from a man as yellow
+as a guinea?"</p>
+
+<p>"Think of his wealth, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"What difference does his wealth make?" Isobel said. "As far
+as I have seen, I do not think that rich Englishmen are more
+amusing than others, and if he had all the wealth of India, that
+would not improve Nana Sahib in my eyes. There are women, of
+course, who do think a great deal about money, and who will even
+marry men for it, but even women who would do that could not, I
+should think, care anything about the wealth of a Hindoo they
+cannot marry."</p>
+
+<p>"Not directly, my dear," Mrs. Hunter said; "but people may be
+flattered with the notice and admiration of a person of
+importance and great wealth, even if he is a Hindoo."</p>
+
+<p>"Besides," the Doctor put in, "the Rajah is considered to be a
+great connoisseur of English beauty, and has frequently expressed
+his deep regret that his religion prevented his marrying an
+English lady."</p>
+
+<p>"I should be very sorry for the English girl who would marry
+him, religion or not."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are rather hard upon the Nana, Isobel," the Major
+said. "He is a general favorite; he is open handed and liberal;
+very fond of entertaining; a great admirer of us as a nation. He
+is a wonderfully well read man for a Hindoo, can talk upon almost
+every subject, and is really a pleasant fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like him; I don't like him at all," Isobel said
+positively.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that is only because you thought he made you a little
+more conspicuous than you liked by his attentions to you,
+Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed, uncle; that was very silly and ridiculous, but I
+did not like the man himself, putting that aside altogether. It
+was like talking to a man with a mask on: it gave me a creepy
+feeling. It did not seem to me that one single word he said was
+sincere, but that he was acting; and over and over again as he
+was talking I said to myself, 'What is this man really like? I
+know he is not the least bit in the world what he pretends to be.
+But what is the reality?' I felt just the same as I should if I
+had one of those great snakes they bring to our veranda coiling
+round me. The creature might look quiet enough, but I should know
+that if it were to tighten it would crush me in a moment."</p>
+
+<p>The Major and Mrs. Hunter both laughed at her earnestness, but
+the Doctor said gravely, "Is that really how you felt about him
+when he was talking to you, Miss Hannay? I am sorry to hear you
+say that. I own that my opinion has been that of everyone here,
+that the Rajah is a good fellow and a firm friend of the
+Europeans, and my only doubt has arisen from the fact that it was
+unnatural he should like us when he has considerable grounds for
+grievance against us. We have always relied upon his influence,
+which is great among his countrymen, being thrown entirely into
+the scale on our side if any trouble should ever arise; but I own
+that what you say makes me doubt him. I would always take the
+opinion of a dog or a child about anyone in preference to my
+own."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not very complimentary, Doctor," Isobel laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, a young girl who has not mixed much in the
+world and had her instincts blunted is in that respect very much
+like a child. She may be deceived, and constantly is deceived
+where her heart is concerned, and is liable to be taken in by any
+plausible scoundrel; but where her heart is not concerned her
+instincts are true. When I see children and dogs stick to a man I
+am convinced that he is all right, though I may not personally
+have taken to him. When I see a dog put his tail between his legs
+and decline to accept the advances of a man, and when I see
+children slip away from him as soon as they can, I distrust him
+at once, however pleasant a fellow he may be. As the Rajah, from
+all I heard, certainly laid himself out to be agreeable to you
+last night, and yet in spite of that you felt as you say you did
+about him, I am bound to say that without at once admitting that
+my impressions about him were wrong, I consider that there is
+good ground for thinking the matter over again."</p>
+
+<p>"What nonsense, Doctor," the Major laughed. "Everyone here has
+known the Rajah for years. He is a most popular man, everyone
+likes him, among the ladies especially he is a great favorite. It
+is ridiculous to suggest that everyone should have been wrong
+about him, merely because Isobel takes a prejudice against him,
+and that as far as I can see is simply because his admiration for
+her was somewhat marked."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel gave a little shudder. "Don't talk about admiration,
+uncle; that is not the word for it; I don't know what it was
+like. They say snakes fascinate birds before they eat them by
+fixing their eyes upon them. I should say it was something of
+that sort of look."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, he is not going to eat you, that is certain,"
+the Major said; "and I can assure you that his approbation goes
+for a great deal here, and that after this you will go up several
+pegs in Cawnpore society."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel tossed her head. "Then I am sorry for Cawnpore society;
+it is a matter of entire indifference to me whether I go up or
+down in its opinion."</p>
+
+<p>A fortnight later the Nana gave another entertainment. A good
+deal to her uncle's vexation, Isobel refused to go when the time
+came.</p>
+
+<p>"But what am I to say, my dear?" he asked in some
+perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>"You can say anything you like, uncle; you can say that I am
+feeling the heat and have got a bad headache, which is true; or
+you can say that I don't care for gayety, which is also true. I
+shall be very much more comfortable and happy at home by
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>The Hunters had by this time returned to Deennugghur, and the
+Major drove over to Bithoor accompanied only by Dr. Wade. He was
+rather surprised when the Doctor said he would go, as it was very
+seldom that he went out to such entertainments.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not going to amuse myself, Major; I want to have a good
+look at the Nana again; I am not comfortable since Isobel gave us
+her opinion of him. He is an important personage, and if there is
+any truth in these rumors about disaffection among the Sepoys his
+friendship may be of the greatest assistance to us."</p>
+
+<p>So the Doctor was with Major Hannay when the latter made his
+excuses for Isobel's absence on the ground that she was not
+feeling very well.</p>
+
+<p>The Nana expressed great regret at the news, and said that
+with the Major's permission he would call in the morning to
+inquire after Miss Hannay's health.</p>
+
+<p>"He did not like it," the Doctor said, when they had strolled
+away together. "He was very civil and polite, but I could see
+that he was savage. I fancy he got up this fete principally in
+her honor. It is not often he has two so close together."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that is nonsense, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so. He has done the same sort of thing several
+times before, when he has been specially taken by some fresh face
+from England."</p>
+
+<p>Others besides the Doctor remarked that the Rajah was not
+quite himself that evening. He was courteous and polite to his
+guests, but he was irritable with his own people, and something
+had evidently gone wrong with him.</p>
+
+<p>The next day he called at the Major's. The latter had not told
+Isobel of his intention, for he guessed that had he done so she
+would have gone across to Mrs. Doolan or one of her lady friends,
+and she was sitting in the veranda with him and young Wilson when
+the carriage drove up.</p>
+
+<p>"I was so sorry to hear that you were unwell, Miss Hannay,"
+the Nana said courteously. "It was a great disappointment to me
+that you were unable to accompany your uncle last night."</p>
+
+<p>"I have been feeling the heat the last few days," Isobel said
+quietly, "and, indeed, I do not care much about going out in such
+hot weather as this. I have not been accustomed to much society
+in England, and the crowd and the heat and the lights make my
+head ache."</p>
+
+<p>"You look the picture of health, Miss Hannay, but I know that
+it is trying for Englishwomen when they first come into our
+climate; it is always a great pleasure to me to receive English
+ladies at Bithoor. I hope upon the next occasion you will be able
+to come."</p>
+
+<p>"I am much obliged to your highness," she said, "but it would
+be a truer kindness to let me stay quietly at home."</p>
+
+<p>"But that is selfish of you, Miss Hannay. You should think a
+little of the pleasure of others as well as your own."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not conceited enough to suppose that it could make any
+difference to other people's pleasure whether I am at a party or
+not," Isobel said. "I suppose you mean that as a compliment,
+Rajah, but I am not accustomed to compliments, and don't like
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"You will have to learn to become accustomed to compliments,
+Miss Hannay," the Rajah said, with a smile; and then turning to
+the Doctor, began to tell him of a tiger that had been doing a
+great deal of harm at a village some thirty miles away, and
+offered to send some elephants over to organize a hunt for him if
+he liked, an invitation that the Doctor promptly accepted.</p>
+
+<p>The visit was but a short one. The Rajah soon took his
+leave.</p>
+
+<p>"You are wrong altogether, Isobel," the Doctor said. "I have
+returned to my conviction that the Rajah is a first rate
+fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"That is just because he offered you some shooting, Doctor,"
+Isobel said indignantly. "I thought better of you than to suppose
+that you could be bought over so easily as that."</p>
+
+<p>"She had you there, Doctor," the Major laughed. "However, I am
+glad that you will no longer be backing her in her fancies."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you accept his invitation for us to go over and lunch
+there, uncle?" Isobel asked, in a tone of annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>"Because there was no reason in the world why we should
+refuse, my dear. He very often has luncheon parties, and after
+that he will show you over the place, and exhibit his jewels and
+curiosities. He said there would be other ladies there, and I
+have no doubt we shall have a very pleasant day."</p>
+
+<p>Even Isobel was obliged to confess that the visit was a
+pleasant one. The Nana had asked Mrs. Cromarty, her daughters,
+and most of the other ladies of the regiment, with their
+husbands. The lunch was a banquet, and after it was over the
+parties were taken round the place, paid a visit to the Zenana,
+inspected the gardens and stables, and were driven through the
+park. The Nana saw that Isobel objected to be particularly
+noticed, and had the tact to make his attentions so general that
+even she could find no fault with him.</p>
+
+<p>On the drive back she admitted to her uncle that she had
+enjoyed her visit very much, and that the Rajah's manners were
+those of a perfect gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"But mind, uncle," she said, "I do not retract my opinion.
+What the Rajah really is I don't pretend to know, but I am quite
+sure that the character of a smiling host is not his real one,
+and that for some reason or other he is simply playing a
+part."</p>
+
+<p>"I had no idea that you were such a prejudiced little woman,"
+the Major said, somewhat vexed; "but as it is no use arguing with
+you we had better drop the subject."</p>
+
+<p>For the next month Cawnpore suffered a little from the
+reaction after the gayety of the races, but there was no lack of
+topics of conversation, for the rumors of disaffection among the
+troops gained in strength, and although nothing positive was
+known, and everyone scoffed at the notion of any serious trouble,
+the subject was so important a one that little else was talked of
+whenever parties of the ladies got together.</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h1>
+
+<p>"I have some bad news, Isobel. At least I suppose you will
+consider it bad news," the Major said one morning, when he
+returned from the orderly room. "You heard me say that four
+companies were going to relieve those at Deennugghur. Well, I am
+going with them. It seems that the General is of opinion that in
+the present unsettled state of affairs there ought to be a field
+officer in command there, so I have to go. For myself I don't
+mind, but you will find it dull in a small station like that,
+after the gayeties of Cawnpore."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mind a bit, uncle, in that respect. I don't think I
+care much for gayeties, but of course the move will be a trouble.
+We have everything so nice here, it will be horrid having to
+leave it all. How long will it be for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Six months, in the ordinary state of things, though of course
+something may occur to bring us in before that. Still, the change
+won't be as much trouble as you fancy. When we get there you can
+stay for two or three days with the Hunters till we have got the
+things to rights. There is one thing that you will be pleased
+about. Wade is going with us, at any rate for the present; you
+are a favorite of his, you know, and I think that is the
+principal reason for his going. At any rate, when he heard I was
+in orders, he told the Colonel that, as there was no illness in
+the regiment, he thought, if he did not object, he would change
+places for a bit with M'Alaster, the assistant surgeon, who has
+been with the detachment at Deennugghur for the last year, so as
+to give him a turn of duty at Cawnpore, and do a little shikaring
+himself. There is more jungle and better shooting round
+Deennugghur than there is here, and you know the Doctor is an
+enthusiast that way. Of course, the Colonel agreed at once."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad of that, uncle; it won't seem like going to a
+strange place if we have him with us, and the Hunters there, and
+I suppose three or four officers of the regiment. Who are
+going?"</p>
+
+<p>"Both your boys," the Major laughed, "and Doolan and
+Rintoul."</p>
+
+<p>"When do we go, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Next Monday. I shall get somebody to put us up from Friday,
+and that morning we will get everything dismantled here, and send
+them off by bullock carts with the servants to Deennugghur, so
+that they will be there by Monday morning. I will write to Hunter
+to pick us out the best of the empty bungalows, and see that our
+fellows get to work to clean the place up as soon as they arrive.
+We shall be two days on the march, and things will be pretty
+forward by the time we get there."</p>
+
+<p>"And where shall we sleep on the march?"</p>
+
+<p>"In tents, my dear, and very comfortable you will find them.
+Rumzan will go with us, and you will find everything go on as
+smoothly as if you were here. Tent life in India is very
+pleasant. Next year, in the cool season, we will do an excursion
+somewhere, and I am sure you will find it delightful: they don't
+know anything about the capabilities of tents at home."</p>
+
+<p>"Then do I quite understand, uncle, that all I have got to do
+is to make a round of calls to say goodby to everyone?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is all. You will find a lot of my cards in one of those
+pigeon holes; you may as well drop one wherever you go. Shall I
+order a carriage from Framjee's for today?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I think not, uncle; I will go round to our own bungalows
+first, and hear what Mrs. Doolan and the others think about
+it."</p>
+
+<p>At Mrs. Doolan's Isobel found quite an assembly. Mrs. Rintoul
+had come in almost in tears, and the two young lieutenants had
+dropped in with Captain Doolan, while one or two other officers
+had come round to commiserate with Mrs. Doolan.</p>
+
+<p>"Another victim," the latter said, as Isobel entered.</p>
+
+<p>"You look too cheerful, Miss Hannay. I find that we are
+expected to wear sad countenances at our approaching
+banishment."</p>
+
+<p>"Are we, Mrs. Doolan? It seems to me that it won't make very
+much difference to us."</p>
+
+<p>"Not make any difference, Miss Hannay!" Captain Doolan said.
+"Why, Deennugghur is one of the dullest little stations on this
+side of India!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by dull, Captain Doolan?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, there are only about six white residents there besides
+the troops. Of course, as four companies are going instead of
+one, it will make a difference; but there will be no gayety, no
+excitement, and really nothing to do."</p>
+
+<p>"As for the gayety, I am sure I shall not regret it, Captain
+Doolan; besides, our gayeties are pretty well over, except, of
+course, dinner parties, and it is getting very hot for them. We
+shall get off having to go out in the heat of the day to make
+calls, which seem to me terrible afflictions, and I think with a
+small party it ought to be very sociable and pleasant. As for
+excitement, I hear that there is much better shooting there than
+there is here. Mrs. Hunter was telling me that they have had some
+tigers that have been very troublesome round there, and you will
+all have an opportunity of showing your skill and bravery. I know
+that Mr. Richards and Mr. Wilson are burning to distinguish
+themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be great fun to shoot a tiger," Richards said. "When
+I came out to India I thought there was going to be lots of tiger
+shooting, and I bought a rifle on purpose, but I have never had a
+chance yet. Yes, we will certainly get up a tiger hunt, won't we,
+Wilson? You will tell us how to set about it, won't you,
+Doolan?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't shoot," Captain Doolan said; "and if I wanted to, I
+am not sure that my wife would give me leave."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly I would not," Mrs. Doolan said promptly. "Married
+men have no right to run into unnecessary danger."</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Wade will be able to put you in the way, Mr. Richards,"
+Isobel said.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Wade!" Mrs. Rintoul exclaimed. "You don't mean to say,
+Miss Hannay, that he is going with us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he is going for a time, Mrs. Rintoul. My uncle told me
+that he had applied to go with the detachment, and that the
+surgeon there would come back to the regiment while he is
+away."</p>
+
+<p>"I do call that hard," Mrs. Rintoul said. "The only thing I
+was glad we were going for was that we should be under Mr.
+M'Alaster, who is very pleasant, and quite understands my case,
+while Dr. Wade does not seem to understand it at all, and is
+always so very brusque and unsympathetic."</p>
+
+<p>There was a general smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Wade is worth a hundred of M'Alaster," Captain Roberts said.
+"There is not a man out here I would rather trust myself to if I
+were ill. He is an awfully good fellow, too, all round, though he
+may be, as you say, a little brusque in manner."</p>
+
+<p>"I call him a downright bear," Mrs. Rintoul said angrily.
+"Why, only last week he told me that if I would get up two hours
+earlier and go for a brisk walk just after sunrise, and give up
+eating meat at tiffin, and confine myself to two or three dishes
+at dinner, I should be perfectly well in the course of a month;
+just as if I was in the habit of overeating myself, when I have
+scarcely the appetite of a sparrow. I told Captain Rintoul
+afterwards that I must consult someone else, for that really I
+could not bear such rudeness."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid we are all against you, Mrs. Rintoul," Mrs.
+Doolan said, with a little shake of her head at Isobel, who was,
+she saw, going to speak out strongly. "No one could possibly be
+kinder than he is when anyone is really ill. I mean seriously
+ill," she added, as Mrs. Rintoul drew herself up indignantly. "I
+shall never forget how attentive he was to the children when they
+were down with fever just before he went to England. He missed
+his ship and lost a month of his leave because he would not go
+away till they were out of danger, and there are very few men who
+would have done that. I shall never forget his kindness. And now
+let us talk of something else. You will have to establish a
+little mess on your own account, Mr. Wilson, as both the Captains
+are married men, and the Major has also an incumbrance."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it will be horribly dull, Mrs. Doolan. Richards and I
+have quarters together here, and, of course, it will be the same
+there, and I am sure I don't know what we shall find to talk
+about when we come to have to mess together. Of course, here,
+there are the messroom and the club, and so we get on very well,
+but to be together always will be awful."</p>
+
+<p>"You will really have to take to reading or something of that
+sort, Mr. Wilson," Isobel laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I always do read the Field, Miss Hannay, but that won't last
+for a whole week, you know; and there is no billiard table, and
+no racquet court, or anything else at Deennugghur, and one cannot
+always be riding about the country."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall all have to take pity on you as much as we can,"
+Mrs. Doolan said. "I must say that, like Miss Hannay, I shall not
+object to the change."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it is all very well for you, Mrs. Doolan; you have
+children."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. Richards, I will let you both, as a great treat,
+take them out for a walk sometimes of a morning instead of their
+going with the ayah. That will make a change for you."</p>
+
+<p>There was a general laugh, but Wilson said manfully, "Very
+well, Mrs. Doolan; I am very fond of youngsters, and I should
+like to take, anyhow, the two eldest out sometimes. I don't think
+I should make much hand with the other two, but perhaps Richards
+would like to come in and amuse them while we are out; he is just
+the fellow for young ones."</p>
+
+<p>There was another laugh, in which Richards joined. "I could
+carry them about on my back, and pretend to be a horse," he said;
+"but I don't know that I could amuse them in any other way."</p>
+
+<p>"You would find that very hot work, Mr. Richards," Mrs. Doolan
+said; "but I don't think we shall require such a sacrifice of
+you. Well, I don't think we shall find it so bad, after all, and
+I don't suppose it will be for very long; I do not believe in all
+this talk about chupaties, and disaffection, and that sort of
+thing; I expect in three months we shall most of us be back
+again."</p>
+
+<p>Ten days later the detachment was settled down in Deennugghur.
+The troops were for the most part under canvas, for there was
+only accommodation for a single company at the station. The two
+subalterns occupied a large square tent, while the other three
+officers took possession of the only three bungalows that were
+vacant at the station, the Doctor having a tent to himself. The
+Major and Isobel had stayed for the first three days with the
+Hunters, at the end of which time the bungalow had been put in
+perfect order. It was far less commodious than that at Cawnpore,
+but Isobel was well satisfied with it when all their belongings
+had been arranged, and she soon declared that she greatly
+preferred Deennugghur to Cawnpore.</p>
+
+<p>Those at the station heartily welcomed the accession to their
+numbers, and there was an entire absence of the stiffness and
+formality of a large cantonment like Cawnpore, and Isobel was
+free to run in as she chose to spend the morning chatting and
+working with the Hunters, or Mrs. Doolan, or with the other
+ladies, of whom there were three at the station.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after their arrival news came in that the famous
+man eater, which had for a time ceased his ravages and moved off
+to a different part of the country, principally because the
+natives of the village near the jungle had ceased altogether to
+go out after nightfall, had returned, and had carried off
+herdsmen on two consecutive days.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor at once prepared for action, and agreed to allow
+Wilson and Richards to accompany him, and the next day the three
+rode off together to Narkeet, to which village the two herdsmen
+had belonged. Both had been killed near the same spot, and the
+natives had traced the return of the tiger to its lair in the
+jungle with its victims.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor soon found that the ordinary methods of destroying
+the tiger had been tried again and again without success. Cattle
+and goats had been tied up, and the native shikaris had taken
+their posts in trees close by, and had watched all night; but in
+vain. Spring traps and deadfalls had also been tried, but the
+tiger seemed absolutely indifferent to the attractions of their
+baits, and always on the lookout for snares. The attempts made at
+a dozen villages near the jungle had all been equally
+unsuccessful.</p>
+
+<p>"It is evident," the Doctor said, "that the brute cares for
+nothing but human victims. No doubt, if he were very hungry he
+would take a cow or a goat, but we might wait a very long time
+for that; so the only thing that I can see is to act as a bait
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>"How will you do that, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall build a sort of cage near the point where the tiger
+has twice entered the jungle. I will take with me in the cage a
+woman or girl from the village. From time to time she shall cry
+out as if in pain, and as the tiger is evidently somewhere in
+this neighborhood it is likely enough he will come out to see
+about it.</p>
+
+<p>"We must have the cage pretty strong, or I shall never get
+anyone to sit with me; besides, on a dark night, there is no
+calculating on killing to a certainty with the first shot, and it
+is just as well to be on the safe side. In daylight it would be a
+different matter altogether. I can rely upon my weapon when I can
+see, but on a dark night it is pretty well guesswork."</p>
+
+<p>The villagers were at once engaged to erect a stout cage eight
+feet square and four high, of beams driven into the ground six
+inches apart, and roofed in with strong bars. There was a
+considerable difficulty in getting anyone to consent to sit by
+the Doctor, but at last the widow of one of the men who had been
+killed agreed for the sum of twenty-five rupees to pass the night
+there, accompanied by her child four years old.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor's skill with his rifle was notorious, and it was
+rather the desire of seeing her husband's death avenged than for
+the sake of the money that she consented to keep watch. There was
+but one tree suitable for the watchers; it stood some forty yards
+to the right of the cage, and it was arranged that both the
+subalterns should take their station in it.</p>
+
+<p>"Now look here, lads," the Doctor said, "before we start on
+this business, it must be quite settled that you do not fire till
+you hear my rifle. That is the first thing; the second is that
+you only fire when the brute is a fair distance from the cage. If
+you get excited and blaze away anyhow, you are quite as likely to
+hit me as you are the tiger. Now, I object to take any risk
+whatever on that score. You will have a native shikari in the
+tree with you to point out the tiger, for it is twenty to one
+against your making him out for yourselves. It will be quite
+indistinct, and you have no chance of making out its head or
+anything of that sort, and you have to take a shot at it as best
+you may.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember there must not be a word spoken. If the brute does
+come, it will probably make two or three turns round the cage
+before it approaches it, and may likely enough pass close to you,
+but in no case fire. You can't make sure of killing it, and if it
+were only wounded it would make off into the jungle, and all our
+trouble would be thrown away. Also remember you must not smoke;
+the tiger would smell it half a mile away, and, besides, the
+sound of a match striking would be quite sufficient to set him on
+his guard."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no objection, I hope, Doctor, to our taking up our
+flasks; we shall want something to keep us from going to
+sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"No, there is no objection to that," the Doctor said; "but
+mind you don't go to sleep, for if you did you might fall off
+your bough and break your neck, to say nothing of the chance of
+the tiger happening to be close at hand at the time."</p>
+
+<p>Late in the afternoon the Doctor went down to inspect the
+cage, and pronounced it sufficiently strong. Half an hour before
+nightfall he and the woman and child took their places in it, and
+the two beams in the roof that had been left unfastened to allow
+of their entry were securely lashed in their places by the
+villagers. Wilson and Richards were helped up into the tree, and
+took their places upon two boughs which sprang from the trunk
+close to each other at a height of some twelve feet from the
+ground. The shikari who was to wait with them crawled out, and
+with a hatchet chopped off some of the small boughs and foliage
+so as to give them a clear view of the ground for some distance
+round the cage, which was erected in the center of a patch of
+brushwood, the lower portion of which had been cleared out so
+that the Doctor should have an uninterrupted view round. The
+boughs and leaves were gathered up by the villagers, and carried
+away by them, and the watch began.</p>
+
+<p>"Confound it," Richards whispered to his companion after night
+fell, "it is getting as dark as pitch; I can scarcely make out
+the clump where the cage is. I should hardly see an elephant if
+it were to come, much less a brute like a tiger."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall get accustomed to it presently," Wilson replied; "at
+any rate make quite sure of the direction in which the cage is
+in; it is better to let twenty tigers go than to run the risk of
+hitting the Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>In another hour their eyes had become accustomed to the
+darkness, and they could not only see the clump in which the cage
+was clearly, but could make out the outline of the bush all round
+the open space in which it stood. Both started as a loud and
+dismal wail rose suddenly in the air, followed by a violent
+crying.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, how that woman made me jump!" Wilson said; "it
+sounded quite awful, and she must have pinched that poor little
+beggar of hers pretty sharply to make him yell like that."</p>
+
+<p>A low "hush!" from the shikari at his elbow warned Wilson that
+he was speaking too loudly. Hours passed by, the cries being
+raised at intervals.</p>
+
+<p>"It is enough to give one the jumps, Richards; each time she
+yells I nearly fall off my branch."</p>
+
+<p>"Keep on listening, then it won't startle you."</p>
+
+<p>"A fellow can't keep on listening," Wilson grumbled; "I listen
+each time until my ears begin to sing, and I feel stupid and
+sleepy, and then she goes off again like a steam whistle; that
+child will be black and blue all over in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>A warning hiss from the shikari again induced Wilson to
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe the brute is coming," he whispered, an hour
+later. "If it wasn't for this bough being so hard I should drop
+off to sleep; my eyes ache with staring at those bushes."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke the shikari touched him on the shoulder and
+pointed. "Tiger," he whispered; and then did the same to
+Richards. Grasping their rifles, they gazed in the direction in
+which he pointed, but could for some time make out nothing. Then
+they saw a dim gray mass in front of the bushes, directly on the
+opposite side of the open space; then from the cage, lying almost
+in a direct line between it and them, rose the cry of the child.
+They were neither of them at all certain that the object at which
+they were gazing was the tiger. It seemed shapeless, the outline
+fading away in the bush; but they felt sure that they had noticed
+nothing like it in that direction before.</p>
+
+<p>For two or three minutes they remained in uncertainty, then
+the outline seemed to broaden, and it moved noiselessly. There
+could be no mistake now; the tiger had been attracted by the
+cries, and as it moved along they could see that it was making a
+circuit of the spot from whence the sounds proceeded, to
+reconnoiter before advancing towards its prey. It kept close to
+the line of bushes, and sometimes passed behind some of them. The
+shikari pressed their shoulders, and a low hiss enforced the
+necessity for absolute silence. The two young fellows almost held
+their breath; they had lost sight of the tiger now, but knew it
+must be approaching them.</p>
+
+<p>For two or three minutes they heard and saw nothing, then the
+shikari pointed beyond them, and they almost started as they saw
+the tiger retreating, and knew that it must have passed almost
+under them without their noticing it. At last it reached the spot
+at which they had first seen it. The child's cry, but this time
+low and querulous, again rose. With quicker steps than before it
+moved on, but still not directly towards the center, to the great
+relief of the two subalterns, who had feared that it might attack
+from such a direction that they would not dare to fire for fear
+of hitting the cage. Fortunately it passed that point, and,
+crouching, moved towards the bushes.</p>
+
+<p>Wilson and Richards had their rifles now at their shoulders,
+but, in the feeble and uncertain light, felt by no means sure of
+hitting their mark, though it was but some thirty yards away.
+Almost breathlessly they listened for the Doctor's rifle, but
+both started when the flash and sharp crack broke on the
+stillness. There was a sudden snarl of pain, the tiger gave a
+spring in the air, and then fell, rolling over and over.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not killed!" the shikari exclaimed. "Fire when it gets
+up."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly it rose to its feet, and with a loud roar sprang
+towards the thicket. The two subalterns fired, but the movements
+of the dimly seen creature were so swift that they felt by no
+means sure that they had hit it. Then came, almost
+simultaneously, a loud shriek from the woman, of a very different
+character to the long wails she had before uttered, followed by a
+sound of rending and tearing.</p>
+
+<p>"He is breaking down the cage!" Richards exclaimed excitedly,
+as he and Wilson hastened to ram another cartridge down their
+rifles. "Come, we must go and help the Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>But a moment later came another report of a rifle, and then
+all was silent. Then the Doctor's voice was heard.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't get down from the tree yet, lads; I think he is dead,
+but it is best to make sure first."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause, and then another rifle shot, followed by
+the shout "All right; he is as dead as a door nail now. Mind your
+rifles as you climb down."</p>
+
+<p>"Fancy thinking of that," Wilson said, "when you have just
+killed a tiger! I haven't capped mine yet; have you,
+Richards?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have just put it on, but will take it off again. Here, old
+man, you get down first, and we will hand the guns to you." --
+this to the shikari.</p>
+
+<p>With some difficulty they scrambled down from the tree.</p>
+
+<p>"Now we may as well cap our rifles," Richards said; "the brute
+may not be dead after all."</p>
+
+<p>They approached the bush cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite sure he is dead, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite sure; do you think I don't know when a tiger is
+dead?"</p>
+
+<p>Still holding their guns in readiness to fire, they approached
+the bushes.</p>
+
+<p>"You can do no good until the villagers come with torches,"
+the Doctor said; "the tiger is dead enough, but it is always as
+well to be prudent."</p>
+
+<p>The shikari had uttered a loud cry as he sprang down from the
+tree, and this had been answered by shouts from the distance. In
+a few minutes lights were seen through the trees, and a score of
+men with torches and lanterns ran up with shouts of
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as they arrived the two young officers advanced to the
+cage. On the top a tiger was lying stretched out as if in sleep;
+with some caution they approached it and flashed a torch in its
+eyes. There was no doubt that it was dead. The body was quickly
+rolled off the cage, and then a dozen hands cut the lashing and
+lifted the top bars, which was deeply scored by the tiger's
+claws, and the Doctor emerged.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to be out of that," he said; "six hours in a cage
+with a woman and a crying brat is no joke."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the Doctor had got out, the subalterns eagerly
+examined the tiger, upon which the natives were heaping curses
+and execrations.</p>
+
+<p>"How many wounds has it got?" they asked the Doctor, who
+repeated the question to the shikari in his own language.</p>
+
+<p>"Three, sahib. One full in the chest -- it would have been
+mortal -- two others in the ribs by the heart."</p>
+
+<p>"No others?" the subalterns exclaimed in disgust, as the
+answer was translated to them. The Doctor himself examined the
+tiger.</p>
+
+<p>"No; you both missed, lads, but you need not be ashamed of
+that; it is no easy matter to hit a tiger even at a short
+distance on a dark night like this, when you can scarce make him
+out, and can't see the barrel of your rifle. I ought to have told
+you to rub a little phosphorus off the head of a match onto the
+sight. I am so accustomed to do it myself as a matter of course
+that I did not think of telling you. Well, I am heartily glad we
+have killed it, for by all accounts it has done an immense deal
+of damage."</p>
+
+<p>"It has been a fine tiger in its time, although its skin
+doesn't look much," Wilson said; "there are patches of fur
+off."</p>
+
+<p>"That is generally the case with man eaters. They are mostly
+old tigers who take, when they get past their strength, to
+killing men. I don't know whether the flesh doesn't agree with
+them, but they are almost always mangy."</p>
+
+<p>"We were afraid for a moment," Richards said, "that the tiger
+was going to break into your cage; we heard him clawing away at
+the timber, and as you didn't fire again we were afraid something
+was the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"The mother was," the Doctor said testily. "The moment the
+tiger sprang, the woman threw herself down at full length right
+on the top of my second rifle, and when I went to push her off I
+think she fancied the tiger had got hold of her, for she gave a
+yell that fairly made me jump. I had to push her off by main
+force, and then lie down on my back, so as to get the rifle up to
+fire. I was sure the first shot was fatal, for I knew just where
+his heart would be, but I dropped a second cartridge in, and gave
+him another bullet so as to make sure. Well, if either of you
+want his head or his claws, you had better say so at once, for
+the natives will be singeing his whiskers off directly; the
+practice is a superstition of theirs."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't want them," Wilson said. "If I had put a bullet
+into the brute, so that I could have said I helped to kill him, I
+should have liked the head to get it preserved and sent home to
+my people, but as it is the natives are welcome to it as far as I
+am concerned."</p>
+
+<p>Richards was of the same opinion, and so without further delay
+they started back for the village, where, upon their arrival,
+they were greeted with cries of joy by the women, the news having
+already been carried back by a boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor beggars!" the Doctor said. "They have been living a life
+of terror for weeks. They must feel as if they had woke from a
+nightmare. Now, lads, we will have some supper. I dare say you
+are ready for it, and I am sure I am."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any chance for supper, Doctor? -- why, it must be
+two o'clock in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course there is," the Doctor replied. "I gave orders to my
+man to begin to warm up the food as soon as he heard a gun fired,
+and I will guarantee he has got everything ready by this
+time."</p>
+
+<p>After a hearty meal and a cigar they lay down for a few hours'
+sleep, and at daybreak rode back to Deennugghur, the two
+subalterns rather crestfallen at their failure to have taken any
+active part in killing the tiger that had so long been a terror
+to the district.</p>
+
+<p>"It was an awful sell missing him, Miss Hannay; I wanted to
+have had the claws mounted as a necklace; I thought you would
+have liked it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Wilson, but I would much
+rather not have had them. If the tiger hadn't been a man eater I
+should not have minded, but I should never have worn as an
+ornament claws that had killed lots of people -- women and
+children too."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I never thought of that, Miss Hannay; it wouldn't have
+been pleasant, now one thinks of it; still, I wish I had put a
+bullet into him."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt you will do better next time, Mr. Wilson. The Doctor
+has been telling me that it is extremely difficult to hit an
+animal in the dark when you are not accustomed to that sort of
+shooting. He says he was in a great fright all the time he was
+lying in the cage, and that it was an immense relief to him when
+he heard your rifles go off, and found that he wasn't hit."</p>
+
+<p>"That is too bad of him, Miss Hannay," Wilson laughed; "we
+were not such duffers as all that. I don't believe he really did
+think so."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure he was in earnest, Mr. Wilson. He said he should
+have felt quite safe if it had been daylight, but that in the
+dark people really can't see which way the rifles are pointed,
+and that he remembered he had not told you to put phosphorus on
+the sights."</p>
+
+<p>"It was too bad of him," Wilson grumbled; "it would have
+served him right if one of the bullets had hit a timber of the
+cage and given him a start; I should like to have seen the Doctor
+struggling in the dark to get his second rifle from under the
+woman, with the tiger clawing and growling two feet above
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"The Doctor didn't tell me about that," Isobel laughed;
+"though he said he had a woman and child with him to attract the
+tiger."</p>
+
+<p>"It would have frightened any decent minded tiger, Miss
+Hannay, instead of attracting it; for such dismal yells as that
+woman made I never listened to. I nearly tumbled off the tree at
+the first of them, it made me jump so, and it gave me a feeling
+of cold water running down my back. As to the child, I don't know
+whether she pinched it or the doctor stuck pins into it, but the
+poor little brute howled in the most frightful way. I don't think
+I shall ever want to go tiger shooting in the dark again; I ache
+all over today as if I had been playing in the first football
+match of the season, from sitting balancing myself on that
+branch; I was almost over half a dozen times."</p>
+
+<p>"I expect you nearly went off to sleep, Mr. Wilson."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I should have gone to sleep if it hadn't been for
+that woman, Miss Hannay. I should not have minded if I could have
+smoked, but to sit there hour after hour and not be able to
+smoke, and not allowed to speak, and staring all the time into
+the darkness till your eyes ached, was trying, I can tell you;
+and after all that, not to hit the brute was too bad."</p>
+
+<p>The days passed quietly at Deennugghur. They were seldom alone
+at Major Hannay's bungalow in the evening, for Wilson and
+Richards generally came in to smoke a cigar in the veranda; the
+Doctor was a regular visitor, when he was not away in pursuit of
+game, and Bathurst was also often one of the party.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Bathurst is coming out wonderfully, Miss Hannay," Mrs.
+Hunter said one day, as Isobel sat working with her, while the
+two girls were practicing duets on a piano in the next room. "We
+used to call him the hermit, he was so difficult to get out of
+his cell. We were quite surprised when he accepted our invitation
+to dinner yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"I think Dr. Wade has stirred him up," Isobel said calmly; "he
+is a great favorite of the Doctor's."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hunter smiled over her work. "Perhaps so, my dear;
+anyhow, I am glad he has come out, and I hope he won't retire
+into his cell again after you have all gone."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it depends a good deal upon his work," Isobel
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"My experience of men is that they can always make time if
+they like, my dear. When a man says he is too busy to do this,
+that, or the other, you may always safely put it down that he
+doesn't want to do it. Of course, it is just the same thing with
+ourselves. You often hear women say they are too busy to attend
+to all sorts of things that they ought to attend to, but the same
+women can find plenty of time to go to every pleasure gathering
+that comes off. There is no doubt that Mr. Bathurst is really
+fond of work, and that he is an indefatigable civil servant of
+the Company, but that would not prevent him making an hour or
+two's time of an evening, occasionally, if he wanted to. However,
+he seems to have turned over a new leaf, and I hope it will last.
+In a small station like this, even one man is of importance,
+especially when he is as pleasant as Mr. Bathurst can be when he
+likes. He was in the army at one time, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Was he, Mrs. Hunter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I never heard him say so himself, but I have heard so
+from several people. I think he was only in it for a year or so.
+I suppose he did not care for it, and can quite imagine he would
+not, so he sold out, and a short time afterwards obtained a civil
+appointment. He has very good interest; his father was General
+Bathurst, who was, you know, a very distinguished officer. So he
+had no difficulty in getting into our service, where he is
+entirely in his element. His father died two years ago, and I
+believe he came into a good property at home. Everyone expected
+he would have thrown up his appointment, but it made no
+difference to him, and he just went on as before, working as if
+he had to depend entirely on the service."</p>
+
+<p>"I can quite understand that," Isobel said, "to a really
+earnest man a life of usefulness here must be vastly preferable
+to living at home without anything to do or any object in
+life."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, perhaps so, my dear, and in theory that is, no doubt,
+the case; but practically, I fancy you would find nineteen men
+out of twenty, even if they are what you call earnest men, retire
+from the ranks of hard workers if they come into a nice property.
+By the way, you must come in here this evening. There is a
+juggler in the station, and Mr. Hunter has told him to come
+round. The servants say the man is a very celebrated juggler, one
+of the best in India, and as the girls have never seen anything
+better than the ordinary itinerant conjurers, my husband has
+arranged for him to come in here, and we have been sending notes
+round asking everyone to come in. We have sent one round to your
+place, but you must have come out before the chit arrived."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I should like that very much!" Isobel said. "Two or three
+men came to our bungalow at Cawnpore and did some conjuring, but
+it was nothing particular; but uncle says some of them do
+wonderful things -- things that he cannot account for at all.
+That was one of the things I read about at school, and thought I
+should like to see, more than anything in India. When I was at
+school we went in a body, two or three times, to see conjurers
+when they came to Cheltenham. Of course I did not understand the
+things they did, and they seemed wonderful to me, but I know
+there are people who can explain them, and that they are only
+tricks; but I have read accounts of things done by jugglers in
+India that seemed utterly impossible to explain -- really a sort
+of magic."</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard a good many arguments about it," Mrs. Hunter
+said; "and a good many people, especially those who have seen
+most of them, are of opinion that many of the feats of the Indian
+jugglers cannot be explained by any natural laws we know of. I
+have seen some very curious things myself, but the very fact that
+I did not understand how they were done was no proof they could
+not be explained; certainly two of their commonest tricks, the
+basket trick and the mango, have never been explained. Our
+conjurers at home can do something like them, but then that is on
+a stage, where they can have trapdoors and all sorts of things,
+while these are done anywhere -- in a garden, on a road -- where
+there could be no possible preparation, and with a crowd of
+lookers on all round; it makes me quite uncomfortable to look at
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I must be off now, Mrs. Hunter; it is nearly time for
+uncle to be back, and he likes me to be in when he returns."</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h1>
+
+<p>Dr. Wade was sitting in the veranda smoking and reading an
+English paper that had arrived by that morning's mail, when
+Isobel returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Doctor. Is uncle back?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet. He told me he might be half an hour late, and that I
+was to come round and amuse you until he came back."</p>
+
+<p>"So in my absence you have been amusing yourself, Doctor. I
+have been round at Mrs. Hunter's; she is going to have a juggler
+there this evening, and we are all to go."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I got a chit from her this morning. I have seen scores
+of them, but I make a point of never missing an exhibition when I
+get the chance. I hate anything I don't understand, and I go with
+the faint hope of being able to find things out, though I know
+perfectly well that I shall not do so."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you think it is not all quite natural, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't say it is not natural, because we don't know what all
+the natural laws are, but I say that some of the things I have
+seen certainly are not to be accounted for by anything we do
+know. It is not often that the jugglers show their best tricks to
+the whites -- they know that, as a rule, we are altogether
+skeptical; but I have seen at native courts more than once the
+most astounding things -- things absolutely incomprehensible and
+inexplicable. I don't suppose we are going to see anything of
+that sort tonight, though Mrs. Hunter said in her note that they
+had heard from the native servant that this man was a famous
+one.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a sect of people in India, I don't mean a caste, but
+a sort of secret society, who, I believe, claim to be able by
+some sort of influence to suspend altogether the laws of nature.
+I do not say that I believe them -- as a scientific man, it is my
+duty not to believe them; but I have seen such things done by
+some of the higher class of jugglers, and that under
+circumstances that did not seem to admit of the possibility of
+deception, that I am obliged to suspend my judgment, which, as
+you may imagine, my dear, is exceedingly annoying to me; but some
+of them do possess to a considerable extent what the Scotch call
+second sight, that is to say, the power of foreseeing events in
+the future. Of that I am morally certain; I have seen proofs of
+it over and over again. For example, once an old fakir, whom I
+had cured of a badly ulcerated limb, came up just as I was
+starting on a shooting expedition.</p>
+
+<p>"'Do not go out today,' he said. 'I foresee evil for you. I
+saw you last night brought back badly wounded.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But if I don't go your dream will come wrong,' I said.</p>
+
+<p>"He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"'You will go in spite of what I say,' he said; 'and you will
+suffer, and others too;' and he looked at a group of shikaris,
+who were standing together, ready to make a start.</p>
+
+<p>"'How many men are there?' he said.</p>
+
+<p>"'Why, six of course,' I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"'I see only three,' he said, 'and three dull spots. One of
+those I see is holding his matchlock on his shoulder, another is
+examining his priming, the third is sitting down by the tire.
+Those three will come back at the end of the day; the other three
+will not return alive.'</p>
+
+<p>"I felt rather uncomfortable, but I wasn't, as I said to
+myself -- I was a good deal younger then, my dear -- such a fool
+as to be deterred from what promised to be a good day's sport by
+such nonsense as this; and I went.</p>
+
+<p>"We were going after a rogue elephant that had been doing a
+lot of damage among the natives' plantations. We found him, and a
+savage brute he turned out to be. He moved just as I fired, and
+though I hit him, it was not on the fatal spot, and he charged
+right down among us. He caught the very three men the fakir said
+were doomed, and dashed the life out of them; then he came at me.
+The bearer had run off with my second gun, and he seized me and
+flung me up in the air.</p>
+
+<p>"I fell in a tree, but broke three of my ribs and one of my
+arms; fortunately, though the beast tried to get at me, I was out
+of his reach, and the tree was too strong for him to knock down.
+Then another man who was with me came up and killed him, and they
+got me down and carried me back, and I was weeks before I was
+about again. That was something more than a coincidence, I think.
+There were some twenty men out with us, and just the four he had
+pointed out were hurt, and no others.</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen scores of other cases in which these predictions
+have come true, especially in cases of disease; though I grant
+that here the predictions often bring about their own fulfilment.
+If a native is told by a fakir, or holy man, that he is going to
+die, he makes no struggle to live. In several cases I have seen
+natives, whose deaths have been predicted, die, without, as far
+as my science could tell me, any disease or ailment whatever that
+should have been fatal to them. They simply sank -- died, I
+should say, from pure fright. But putting aside this class, I
+have seen enough to convince me that some at least among these
+fanatics do possess the power of second sight."</p>
+
+<p>"That is very extraordinary, Doctor. Of course I have heard of
+second sight among certain old people in Scotland, but I did not
+believe in it."</p>
+
+<p>"I should not have believed in it if I had not seen the same
+thing here in India. I naturally have been interested in it, and
+have read pretty well everything that has been written about
+second sight among the Highlanders; and some of the incidents are
+so well authenticated that I scarcely see how they can be denied.
+Of course, there is no accounting for it, but it is possible that
+among what we may call primitive people there are certain
+intuitions or instincts, call them what you like, that have been
+lost by civilized people.</p>
+
+<p>"The power of scent in a dog is something so vastly beyond
+anything we can even imagine possible, that though we put it down
+to instinct, it is really almost inexplicable. Take the case that
+dogs have been known to be taken by railway journeys of many
+hundred miles and to have found their way home again on foot.
+There is clearly the possession of a power which is to us
+absolutely unaccountable.</p>
+
+<p>"But here comes your uncle; he will think I have been
+preaching a sermon to you if you look so grave."</p>
+
+<p>But Major Hannay was too occupied with his own thoughts to
+notice Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"Has anything gone wrong, Major?" the Doctor asked, as he saw
+his face.</p>
+
+<p>"I have just learnt," the Major said, "that some more
+chupaties were brought last night. It is most annoying. I have
+questioned several of the native officers, and they profess to
+have no idea whence they came or what is the meaning of them. I
+wish we could get to the bottom of this thing; it keeps the
+troops in a ferment. If I could get hold of one of these
+messengers, I would get out of him all he knew, even if I had to
+roast him to make him tell."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear uncle," Isobel said reprovingly, "I am sure you don't
+mean what you say."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," he said, half laughing; "I should certainly
+consider myself perfectly justified in taking uncommonly strong
+steps to try to get to the bottom of this business. The thing is
+going on all over India, and it must mean something, and it is
+all the worse if taken in connection with this absurd idea about
+the greased cartridges. I grant that it was an act of folly
+greasing them at all, when we know the idiotic prejudices the
+natives have; still, it could hardly have been foreseen that this
+stir would have been made. The issue of the cartridges has been
+stopped, but when the natives once get an idea into their minds
+it is next to impossible to disabuse them of it. It is a tiresome
+business altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"Tiffin ready, sahib," Rumzan interrupted, coming out onto the
+veranda.</p>
+
+<p>"That is right, Rumzan. Now, Isobel, let us think of more
+pleasant subjects."</p>
+
+<p>"We are to go into the Hunters' this evening, uncle," Isobel
+said, as she sat down. "There is going to be a famous juggler
+there. There is a note for you from Mrs. Hunter on the side
+table."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, my dear; some of these fellows are well worth
+seeing. Bathurst is coming in to dinner. I saw him as he was
+starting this morning, just as he was going down to the lines,
+and he accepted. He said he should be able to get back in time.
+However, I don't suppose he will mind going round with us. I hope
+you will come, Doctor, to make up the table. I have asked the two
+boys to come in."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall have to become a permanent boarder at your
+establishment, Major. It is really useless my keeping a cook when
+I am in here nearly half my time. But I will come. I am off for
+three days tomorrow. A villager came in this morning to beg me to
+go out to rid them of a tiger that has established himself in
+their neighborhood, and that is an invitation I never refuse, if
+I can possibly manage to make time for it. Fortunately everyone
+is so healthy here at present that I can be very well
+spared."</p>
+
+<p>At dinner the subject of juggling came up again, and the two
+subalterns expressed their opinion strongly that it was all
+humbug.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Wade believes in it, Mr. Wilson," Isobel said.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't say so, Doctor; I should have thought you were the
+last sort of man who would have believed in conjurers."</p>
+
+<p>"It requires a wise man to believe, Wilson," the Doctor said;
+"any fool can scoff; the wise man questions. When you have been
+here as long as I have, and if you ever get as much sense as I
+have, which is doubtful, you may be less positive in your ideas,
+if you can call them ideas."</p>
+
+<p>"That is one for me," Wilson said good humoredly, while the
+others laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I have never seen them, Doctor, except those fellows
+who come around to the veranda, and I have seen conjurers at home
+do ever so much better tricks than they."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of them, Mr. Bathurst?" Isobel asked. "I
+suppose you have seen some of the better sort?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know what to think of them, Miss Hannay. I used to
+be rather of Wilson's opinion, but I have seen things since that
+I could not account for at all. There was a man here two or three
+months back who astounded me."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Hunter said that the girls had had no opportunity of
+seeing a good conjurer since they came out, Mr. Bathurst. I
+suppose they did know this man you are speaking of being
+here?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was only here for a few hours, Miss Hannay. I had happened
+to meet him before, and he gave me a private performance, which
+was quite different to anything I have ever seen, though I had
+often heard of the feats he had performed. I was so impressed
+with them that I can assure you that for a few days I had great
+difficulty in keeping my mind upon my work."</p>
+
+<p>"What did he do, Mr. Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst related the feat of the disappearing girl.</p>
+
+<p>"She must have jumped down when you were not looking,"
+Richards said, with an air or conviction.</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly," Bathurst replied quietly; "but as I was within
+three or four yards of the pole, and it was perfectly distinct in
+the light of my lamp, and as I certainly saw her till she was
+some thirty or forty feet up in the air I don't see how she can
+have managed it. For, even supposing she could have sprung down
+that distance without being hurt, she would not have come down so
+noiselessly that I should not have heard her."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, if she did not come down that way, how could she have
+come?" Wilson said.</p>
+
+<p>"That is exactly what I can't make out," Bathurst replied. "If
+it should happen to be the same man, and he will do the same
+thing again, I fancy you will be as much puzzled as I was."</p>
+
+<p>After dinner was over the party walked across to Mr. Hunter's
+bungalow, where, in a short time, the other officers, their
+wives, and all the other residents at the station were assembled.
+Chairs were placed in the veranda for the ladies, and a number of
+lamps hung on the wall, so that a strong light was thrown upon
+the ground in front of it. In addition, four posts had been
+driven into the ground some twenty feet from the veranda, and
+lamps had been fastened upon them.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know whether the juggler will like that," Mr. Hunter
+said, "and I shan't light them if he objects. I don't think
+myself it is quite fair having a light behind him; still, if he
+agrees, it will be hardly possible for him to make the slightest
+movement without being seen."</p>
+
+<p>The juggler, who was sitting round at the other side of the
+house, was now called up. He and the girl, who followed him,
+salaamed deeply, and made an even deeper bow to Bathurst, who was
+standing behind Isobel's chair.</p>
+
+<p>"You must have paid them well, Bathurst," Major Hannay said.
+"They have evidently a lively remembrance of past favors. I
+suppose they are the same you were talking about?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, they are the same people, Major." Then he said in the
+native dialect to the juggler, "Mr. Hunter has put some posts
+with lamps behind you, Rujub, but he hasn't lit them because he
+did not know whether you would object."</p>
+
+<p>"They can be lighted, sahib. My feats do not depend on
+darkness. Any of the sahibs who like to stand behind us can do so
+if they do not come within the line of those posts."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go out there," Wilson said to Richards, when the
+answer was translated; "we will light the lamps, and we shall see
+better there than we shall see here."</p>
+
+<p>The two went round to the other side and lit the lamps, and
+the servants stood a short distance off on either side.</p>
+
+<p>The first trick shown was the well known mango tree. The
+juggler placed a seed in the ground, poured some water upon it
+from a lota, and covered it with a cloth. In two or three minutes
+he lifted. this, and a plant four or five inches high was seen.
+He covered this with a tall basket, which he first handed round
+for inspection. On removing this a mango tree some three feet
+high, in full bloom, was seen. It was again covered, and when the
+basket was removed it was seen to be covered with ripe fruit,
+eliciting exclamations of astonishment from those among the
+spectators who had not before seen the trick performed.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Wilson," the Doctor said, "perhaps you will be kind
+enough to explain to us all how this was done?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no more idea than Adam, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we will leave it to Richards. He promised us at dinner
+to keep his eyes well open."</p>
+
+<p>Richards made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"How was it done, Mr. Bathurst? It seems almost like a
+miracle."</p>
+
+<p>"I am as ignorant as Wilson is, Miss Hannay. I can't account
+for it in any way, and I have seen it done a score of times. Ah!
+now he is going to do the basket trick. Don't be alarmed when you
+hear the girl cry out. You may be quite sure that she is not
+hurt. The father is deeply attached to her, and would not hurt a
+hair of her head."</p>
+
+<p>Again the usual methods were adopted. The basket was placed on
+the ground and the girl stepped into it, without the pretense of
+fear usually exhibited by the performers.</p>
+
+<p>Before the trick began Major Hannay said to Captain Doolan,
+"Come round with me to the side of those boys. I know the first
+time I saw it done I was nearly throwing myself on the juggler,
+and Wilson is a hot headed boy, and is likely as not to do so. If
+he did, the man would probably go off in a huff and show us
+nothing more. From what Bathurst said, we are likely to see
+something unusual."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the lid was put down, an apparently angry colloquy
+took place between the juggler and the girl inside. Presently the
+man appeared to become enraged, and snatching up a long, straight
+sword from the ground, ran it three or four times through the
+basket.</p>
+
+<p>A loud shriek followed the first thrust, and then all was
+silent.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the ladies rose to their feet with a cry of horror,
+Isobel among them. Wilson and Richards both started to rush
+forward, but were seized by the collars by the Major and Captain
+Doolan.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you open the basket?" the juggler said quietly to Mrs.
+Hunter. As she had seen the trick before she stepped forward
+without hesitation, opened the lid of the basket and said, "It is
+empty." The juggler took it up, and held it up, bottom
+upwards.</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth has become of the girl?" Wilson exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke she passed between him and Richards back to her
+father's side.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I am dashed," Wilson murmured. "I would not have
+believed it if fifty people had sworn to me they had seen it." He
+was too much confounded even to reply, when the Doctor
+sarcastically said: "We are waiting for your explanation,
+gentlemen."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you ask him, Major," Richards said, as he wiped his
+forehead with his pocket handkerchief, "to make sure that she is
+solid?"</p>
+
+<p>The Major translated the request, and the girl at once came
+across, and Richards touched her with evident doubt as to whether
+on not she were really flesh and blood.</p>
+
+<p>There was much curiosity among those who had seen jugglers
+before as to what would be the next feat, for generally those
+just seen were the closing ones of a performance, but as these
+were the first it seemed that those to follow must be
+extraordinary indeed.</p>
+
+<p>The next feat was the one shown to Bathurst, and was performed
+exactly as upon that occasion, except that as the girl rose
+beyond the circle of light she remained distinctly visible, a
+sort of phosphoric light playing around her. Those in the veranda
+had come out now, the juggler warning them not to approach within
+six feet of the pole.</p>
+
+<p>Higher and higher the girl went, until those below judged her
+to be at least a hundred and fifty feet from the ground. Then the
+light died out, and she disappeared from their sight. There was
+silence for a minute or two, and then the end of the pole could
+be seen descending without her. Another minute, and it was
+reduced to the length it had been at starting.</p>
+
+<p>The spectators were silent now; the whole thing was so strange
+and mysterious that they had no words to express their
+feeling.</p>
+
+<p>The juggler said something which Mr. Hunter translated to be a
+request for all to resume their places.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a wonderful trick," the Doctor said to Bathurst. "I
+have never seen it done that way before, but I once saw a juggler
+throw up a rope into the air; how high it went I don't know, for,
+like this, it was done at night, but it stood up perfectly stiff,
+and the juggler's attendant climbed up. He went higher and
+higher, and we could hear his voice coming down to us. At last it
+stopped, and then suddenly the rope fell in coils on the ground,
+and the boy walked quietly in, just as that girl has done
+now."</p>
+
+<p>The girl now placed herself in the center of the open
+space.</p>
+
+<p>"You will please not to speak while this trick is being
+performed," the juggler said; "harm might come of it. Watch the
+ground near her feet."</p>
+
+<p>A minute later a dark object made its appearance from the
+ground. It rose higher and higher with an undulating
+movement.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, it is a python!" the Doctor whispered in Bathurst's
+ear. A similar exclamation broke from several of the others, but
+the juggler waved his hand with an authoritative hush. The snake
+rose until its head towered above that of the girl, and then
+began to twine itself round her, continuously rising from the
+ground until it enveloped her with five coils, each thicker than
+a man's arm. It raised its head above hers and hissed loudly and
+angrily; then its tail began to descend, gradually the coils
+unwound themselves; lower and lower it descended until it
+disappeared altogether.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before anyone spoke, so great was the feeling
+of wonder. The Doctor was the first to break the silence.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never seen that before," he said, "though I have heard
+of it from a native Rajah."</p>
+
+<p>"Would the sahibs like to see more?" the juggler asked.</p>
+
+<p>The two Miss Hunters, Mrs. Rintoul, and several of the others
+said they had seen enough, but among the men there was expressed
+a general wish to see another feat.</p>
+
+<p>"I would not have missed this for anything," the Doctor said.
+"It would be simple madness to throw away such a chance."</p>
+
+<p>The ladies, therefore, with the exception of Mrs. Hunter, Mrs.
+Doolan, and Isobel, retired into the house.</p>
+
+<p>"You must all go on one side now," the juggler said, "for it
+is only on one side what I am now going to do can be seen."</p>
+
+<p>He then proceeded to light a fire of charcoal. When he had
+done this, he said, "The lights must now be extinguished and the
+curtains drawn, so that the light will not stream out from the
+house."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as this was done he poured a powder over the fire, and
+by its faint light the cloud of white smoke could be seen.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I will show you the past," he said. "Who speaks?"</p>
+
+<p>There was silence, and then Dr. Wade said, "Show me my
+past."</p>
+
+<p>A faint light stole up over the smoke -- it grew brighter and
+brighter; and then a picture was clearly seen upon it.</p>
+
+<p>It was the sea, a house standing by itself in a garden, and
+separated from the water only by a road. Presently the figure of
+a girl appeared at the gate, and, stepping out, looked down the
+road as if waiting for someone. They could make out all the
+details of her dress and see her features distinctly. A low
+exclamation broke from the Doctor, then the picture gradually
+faded away.</p>
+
+<p>"The future!" the juggler said, and gradually an Indian scene
+appeared on the smoke. It was a long, straight road, bordered by
+a jungle. A native was seen approaching; he paused in the
+foreground.</p>
+
+<p>"That is you, Doctor!" Mr. Hunter exclaimed; "you are got up
+as a native, but it's you."</p>
+
+<p>Almost at the same moment two figures came out from the
+jungle. They were also in native dress.</p>
+
+<p>"You and Miss Hannay," the Doctor said in a low tone to
+Bathurst, "dressed like a native and dyed." But no one else
+detected the disguise, and the picture again faded away.</p>
+
+<p>"That is enough, Rujub," Bathurst said, for he felt Isobel
+lean back heavily against the hand which he held at the back of
+her chair, and felt sure that she had fainted.</p>
+
+<p>"Draw back the curtains, someone; I fancy this has been too
+much for Miss Hannay."</p>
+
+<p>The curtains were thrown back, and Mrs. Hunter, running in,
+brought out a lamp. The Doctor had already taken his place by
+Isobel's side.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she has fainted," he said to Bathurst; "carry her in her
+chair as she is, so that she may be in the room when she comes
+to."</p>
+
+<p>This was done.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, gentlemen," the Doctor said, "you had better light the
+lamps again out here, and leave the ladies and me to get Miss
+Hannay round."</p>
+
+<p>When the lamps were lit it was evident that the whole of the
+men were a good deal shaken by what they had seen.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," Mr. Hunter said, "they told me he was a famous
+juggler, but that beat anything I have seen before. I have heard
+of such things frequently from natives, but it is very seldom
+that Europeans get a chance of seeing them."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to see anything of the sort again," Major Hannay
+said; "it shakes one's notions of things in general. I fancy,
+Hunter, that we shall want a strong peg all round to steady our
+nerves. I own that I feel as shaky as a boy who thinks he sees a
+ghost on his way through a churchyard."</p>
+
+<p>There was a general murmur of agreement and the materials were
+quickly brought.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Wilson, what do you and Richards think of it?" the
+Major went on, after he had braced himself up with a strong glass
+of brandy and water. "I should imagine you both feel a little
+less skeptical than you did two hours ago."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what Richards feels, Major, but I know I feel
+like a fool. I am sorry, Bathurst, for what I said at dinner; but
+it really didn't seem to me to be possible what you told us about
+the girl going up into the air and not coming down again. Well,
+after I have seen what I have seen this evening, I won't
+disbelieve anything I hear in future about these natives."</p>
+
+<p>"It was natural enough that you should be incredulous,"
+Bathurst said. "I should have been just as skeptical as you were
+when I first came out, and I have been astonished now, though I
+have seen some good jugglers before."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the Doctor came out again.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Hannay is all right again now, Major. I am not surprised
+at her fainting; old hand as I am at these matters, and I think
+that I have seen as much or more juggling than any man in India.
+I felt very queer myself, specially at the snake business. As I
+said, I have seen that ascension trick before, but how it is done
+I have no more idea than a child. Those smoke scenes, too, are
+astonishing. Of course they could be accounted for as thrown upon
+a column of white smoke by a magic lantern, but there was
+certainly no magic lantern here. The juggler was standing close
+to me, and the girl was sitting at his feet. I watched them both
+closely, and certainly they had no apparatus about them by which
+such views could be thrown on the smoke."</p>
+
+<p>"You recognized the first scene, I suppose, Doctor?" Bathurst
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly. It took me back twenty-five years. It was a
+cottage near Sidmouth, and was correct in every minute detail.
+The figure was that of the young lady I married four years
+afterwards. Many a time have I seen her standing just like that,
+as I went along the road to meet her from the little inn at which
+I was stopping; the very pattern of her dress, which I need
+hardly say has never been in my mind all these years, was
+recalled to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Had I been thinking of the scene at the time I could have
+accounted for it somehow, upon the theory that in some way or
+other the juggler was conscious of my thought and reflected it
+upon the smoke -- how, I don't at all mean to say; but
+undoubtedly there exists, to some extent, the power of thought
+reading. It is a mysterious subject, and one of which we know
+absolutely nothing at present, but maybe in upwards of a hundred
+years mankind will have discovered many secrets of nature in that
+direction. But I certainly was not thinking of that scene when I
+spoke and said the 'past.' I had no doubt that he would show me
+something of the past, but certainly no particular incident
+passed through my mind before that picture appeared on the
+smoke."</p>
+
+<p>"The other was almost as curious, Doctor," Captain Doolan
+said, "for it was certainly you masquerading as a native. I
+believe the other was Bathurst; it struck me so; and he seemed to
+be running off with some native girl. What on earth could that
+all mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is no use puzzling ourselves about it," the Doctor said.
+"It may or may not come true. I have no inclination to go about
+dressed out as a native at present, but there is no saying what I
+may come to. There is quite enough for us to wonder at in the
+other things. The mango and basket tricks I have seen a dozen
+times, and am no nearer now than I was at first to understanding
+them. That ascension trick beats me altogether, and there was
+something horribly uncanny about the snake."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think it was a real snake, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I cannot tell you, Richards. Every movement was
+perfectly natural. I could see the working of the ribs as it
+wound itself round the girl, and the quivering of its tongue as
+it raised its head above her. At any other time I should be ready
+to take my affidavit that it was a python of unusual size, but at
+the present moment I should not like to give a decided opinion
+about anything connected with the performance."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it is no use asking the juggler any questions,
+Hunter?" one of the other men said.</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least; they never do answer questions. The higher
+class of jugglers treat their art as a sort of religious mystery,
+and there is no instance known of their opening their lips,
+although large sums have frequently been offered them. In the
+present case you will certainly ask no questions, for the man and
+girl have both disappeared with the box and apparatus and
+everything connected with them. They must have slipped off
+directly the last trick was over, and before we had the lamp
+lighted. I sent after him at once, but the servant could find no
+signs of him. I am annoyed because I have not paid them."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not surprised at that," Dr. Wade said. "It is quite in
+accordance with what I have heard of them. They live by
+exhibiting what you may call their ordinary tricks; but I have
+heard from natives that when they show any what I may call
+supernatural feats, they do not take money. It is done to oblige
+some powerful Rajah, and as I have said, it is only on a very few
+occasions that Europeans have ever seen them. Well, we may as
+well go in to the ladies. I don't fancy any of them would be
+inclined to come out onto the veranda again this evening."</p>
+
+<p>No one was indeed inclined even for talk, and in a very short
+time the party broke up and returned home.</p>
+
+<p>"Come and smoke a pipe with me, Bathurst, before you turn in,"
+the Doctor said, as they went out. "I don't think either of us
+will be likely to go to sleep for some time. What is your
+impression of all this?"</p>
+
+<p>"My impression, certainly, is that it is entirely
+unaccountable by any laws with which we are acquainted,
+Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"That is just my idea, and always has been since I first saw
+any really good juggling out here. I don't believe in the least
+in anything supernatural, but I can quite believe that there are
+many natural laws of which at present we are entirely ignorant. I
+believe the knowledge of them at one time existed, but has been
+entirely lost, at any rate among Western peoples. The belief in
+magic is as old as anything we have knowledge of. The magicians
+at the court of Pharaoh threw down their rods and turned them
+into serpents. The Witch of Endor called up the spirit of Samuel.
+The Greeks, by no means a nation of fools, believed implicitly in
+the Oracles. Coming down to comparatively later times, the
+workers of magic burnt their books before St. Paul. It doesn't
+say, mind you, that those who pretended to work magic did so; but
+those who worked magic.</p>
+
+<p>"Early travelers in Persia and India have reported things they
+saw far surpassing any we have witnessed this evening, and there
+is certainly a sect in India at present, or rather a body of men,
+and those, as far as I have been able to learn, of an
+exceptionally intelligent class, who believe that they possess an
+almost absolute mastery over the powers of nature. You see, fifty
+years back, if anyone had talked about traveling at fifty miles
+an hour, or sending a message five thousand miles in a minute, he
+would have been regarded as a madman. There may yet be other
+discoveries as startling to be made.</p>
+
+<p>"When I was in England I heard something of a set of people in
+America who called themselves Spiritualists, some of whom --
+notably a young man named Home -- claimed to have the power of
+raising themselves through the air. I am far from saying that
+such a power exists; it is of course contrary to what we know of
+the laws of nature, but should such a power exist it would
+account for the disappearance of the girl from the top of the
+pole. Highland second sight, carried somewhat farther, and united
+with the power of conveying the impressions to others, would
+account for the pictures on the smoke, that is, supposing them to
+be true, and personally I own that I expect they will prove to be
+true -- unlikely as it may seem that you, I, and Miss Hannay will
+ever be going about in native attire."</p>
+
+<p>By this time they had reached the Doctor's bungalow, and had
+comfortably seated themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one thing that flashed across me this evening,"
+Bathurst said. "I told you, that first evening I met Miss Hannay,
+that I had a distinct knowledge of her face. You laughed at me at
+the time, and it certainly seemed absurd, but I was convinced I
+was not wrong. Now I know how it was; I told you at dinner today
+about the feat of the girl going up and not coming down again;
+but I did not tell you -- for you can understand it is a thing
+that I should not care to talk much about -- that he showed me a
+picture like those we saw tonight.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a house standing in a courtyard, with a high wall
+round it. I did not particularly observe the house. It was of the
+ordinary native type, and might, for anything I know, be the
+house in the middle of this station used as a courthouse by
+Hunter, and for keeping stores, and so on. I don't say it was
+that; I did not notice it. much. There was a breach in the
+outside wall, and round it there was a fierce fight going on. A
+party of officers and civilians were repelling the assault of a
+body of Sepoys. On the terraced roof of the house others were
+standing firing and looking on, and I think engaged in loading
+rifles were two or three women. One of them I particularly
+noticed; and, now I recall it, her face was that of Miss Hannay;
+of that I am absolutely certain."</p>
+
+<p>"It is curious, lad," the Doctor said, after a pause; "and the
+picture, you see, has so far come true that you have made the
+acquaintance with one of the actors whom you did not previously
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not believe in the truth of it, Doctor, and I do not
+believe in it now. There was one feature in the fight which was,
+as I regret to know, impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"And what was that, Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst was silent for a time.</p>
+
+<p>"You are an old friend, Doctor, and you will understand my
+case, and make more allowances for it than most people would.
+When I first came out here I dare say you heard some sort of
+reports as to why I had left the army and had afterwards entered
+the Civil Service."</p>
+
+<p>"There were some stupid rumors," the Doctor said, "that you
+had gone home on sick leave just after the battle of
+Chillianwalla, and had then sold out, because you had shown the
+white feather. I need not say that I did not give any credit to
+it; there is always gossip flying about as to the reasons a man
+leaves the army."</p>
+
+<p>"It was quite true, Doctor. It is a hideous thing to say, but
+constitutionally I am a coward."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot believe it," the Doctor said warmly. "Now that I
+know you, you are the last man of whom I would credit such a
+thing."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the bane of my life," Bathurst went on. "It is my
+misfortune, for I will not allow it is my fault. In many things I
+am not a coward. I think I could face any danger if the danger
+were a silent one, but I cannot stand noise. The report of a gun
+makes me tremble all over, even when it is a blank cartridge that
+is fired. When I was born my father was in India. A short time
+before I came into the world my mother had a great fright. Her
+house in the country was broken into by burglars, who entered the
+room and threatened to blow out her brains if she moved; but the
+alarm was given, the men servants came down armed, there was a
+struggle in her room, pistol shots were fired, and the burglars
+were overpowered and captured. My mother fainted and was ill for
+weeks afterwards -- in fact, until the time I was born; and she
+died a few days later, never having, the doctor said, recovered
+from the shock she had suffered that night.</p>
+
+<p>"I grew up a weakly, timid boy -- the sort of boy that is
+always bullied at school. My father, as you know, was a general
+officer, and did not return home until I was ten years old. He
+was naturally much disappointed in me, and I think that added to
+my timidity, for it grew upon me rather than otherwise. Morally,
+I was not a coward. At school I can say that I never told a lie
+to avoid punishment, and my readiness to speak the truth did not
+add to my popularity among the other boys, and I used to be
+called a sneak, which was even more hateful than being called a
+coward.</p>
+
+<p>"As I grew up I shook off my delicacy, and grew, as you see,
+into a strong man. I then fought several battles at school; I
+learnt to ride, and came to have confidence in myself, and though
+I had no particular fancy for the army my father's heart was so
+set on it that I offered no objection. That the sound of a gun
+was abhorrent to me I knew, for the first time my father put a
+gun in my hand and I fired it, I fainted, and nothing would
+persuade me to try again. Still I thought that this was the
+result of nervousness as to firing it myself, and that I should
+get over it in time.</p>
+
+<p>"A month or two after I was gazetted I went out to India with
+the regiment, and arrived just in time to get up by forced
+marches to take part in the battle of Chillianwalla. The
+consequence was that up to that time I literally had heard no
+musketry practice.</p>
+
+<p>"Of the events of that battle I have no remembrance whatever;
+from the moment the first gun was fired to the end of the day I
+was as one paralyzed. I saw nothing, I heard nothing, I moved
+mechanically; but happily my will or my instinct kept me in my
+place in the regiment. When all was over, and silence followed
+the din, I fell to the ground insensible. Happily for me the
+doctors declared I was in a state of high fever, and I so
+remained for a fortnight. As soon as I got better I was sent down
+the country, and I at once sent in my papers and went home. No
+doubt the affair was talked of, and there were whispers as to the
+real cause of my illness. My father was terribly angry when I
+returned home and told him the truth of the matter. That his son
+should be a coward was naturally an awful blow to him. Home was
+too unhappy to be endured, and when an uncle of mine, who was a
+director on the Company's Board, offered me a berth in the Civil
+Service, I thankfully accepted it, believing that in that
+capacity I need never hear a gun fired again.</p>
+
+<p>"You will understand, then, the anxiety I am feeling owing to
+these rumors of disaffection among the Sepoys, and the
+possibility of anything like a general mutiny.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not of being killed that I have any fear; upon the
+contrary, I have suffered so much in the last eight years from
+the consciousness that the reason why I left the army was widely
+known, that I should welcome death, if it came to me noiselessly;
+but the thought that if there is trouble I shall assuredly not be
+able to play my part like a man fills me with absolute horror,
+and now more than ever.</p>
+
+<p>"So you will understand now why the picture I saw, in which I
+was fighting in the middle of the Sepoys, is to me not only
+improbable, but simply impossible. It is a horrible story to have
+to tell. This is the first time I have opened my lips on the
+subject since I spoke to my father, but I know that you, both as
+a friend and a doctor, will pity rather than blame me."</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h1>
+
+<p>As Bathurst brought his story to its conclusion the Doctor
+rose and placed his hand kindly on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly should not think of blaming you, Bathurst. What
+you tell me is indeed a terrible misfortune, situated as we may
+be soon, though I trust and believe that all this talk about the
+Sepoys is moonshine. I own that I am surprised at your story, for
+I should have said from my knowledge of you that though, as I
+could perceive, of a nervous temperament, you were likely to be
+cool and collected in danger. But certainly your failing is no
+fault of your own."</p>
+
+<p>"That is but a small consolation to me, Doctor. Men do not ask
+why and wherefore -- they simply point the finger of scorn at a
+coward. The misfortune is that I am here. I might have lived a
+hundred lives in England and never once had occasion to face
+danger, and I thought that I should have been equally secure as
+an Indian civilian. Now this trouble is coming upon us."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you take your leave, lad? You have been out seven
+years now without a day's relaxation, except indeed, the three
+days you were over with me at Cawnpore. Why not apply for a
+year's leave? You have a good excuse, too; you did not go home at
+the death of your father, two years ago, and could very well
+plead urgent family affairs requiring your presence in
+England."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I will not do that, Doctor; I will not run away from
+danger again. You understand me, I have not the least fear of the
+danger; I in no way hold to my life; I do not think I am afraid
+of physical pain. It seems to me that I could undertake any
+desperate service; I dread it simply because I know that when the
+din of battle begins my body will overmaster my mind, and that I
+shall be as I was at Chillianwalla, completely paralyzed. You
+wondered tonight why that juggler should have exhibited feats
+seldom, almost never, shown to Europeans? He did it to please me.
+I saved his daughter's life -- this is between ourselves, Doctor,
+and is not to go farther. But, riding in from Narkeet, I heard a
+cry, and, hurrying on, came upon that man eater you shot the
+other day, standing over the girl, with her father half beside
+himself, gesticulating in front of him. I jumped off and attacked
+the brute with my heavy hunting whip, and he was so completely
+astonished that he turned tail and bolted."</p>
+
+<p>"The deuce he did," the Doctor exclaimed; "and yet you talk of
+being a coward!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I do not say that I am a coward generally; as long as I
+have to confront danger without noise I believe I could do as
+well as most men."</p>
+
+<p>"But why didn't you mention this business with the tiger,
+Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, in the first place, it was the work of a mere
+passing impulse; and in the second, because I should have gained
+credit for being what I am not -- a brave man. It will be bad
+enough when the truth becomes known, but it would be all the
+worse if I had been trading on a false reputation; therefore I
+particularly charged Rujub to say nothing about the affair to
+anyone."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, putting this for a time aside, Bathurst, what do you
+think of that curious scene, you and I and Miss Hannay disguised
+as natives?"</p>
+
+<p>"Taking it with the one I saw of the attack of Sepoys upon a
+house, it looks to me, Doctor, as if there would be a mutiny, and
+that that mutiny would be attended with partial success, that a
+portion of the garrison, at any rate, will escape, and that Miss
+Hannay will be traveling down the country, perhaps to Cawnpore,
+in your charge, while I in some way shall be with you, perhaps
+acting as guide."</p>
+
+<p>"It may possibly be so," the Doctor agreed. "It is at any rate
+very curious. I wonder whether Miss Hannay recognized herself in
+the disguise."</p>
+
+<p>"I should hope not, Doctor; if it all comes true there will be
+enough for her to bear without looking forward to that. I should
+be glad if the detachment were ordered back to Cawnpore."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I should not have thought that, Bathurst."</p>
+
+<p>"I know what you mean, Doctor, but it is for that reason I
+wish they were gone. I believe now that you insisted on my coming
+down to spend those three days with you at Cawnpore specially
+that I might meet her."</p>
+
+<p>"That is so, Bathurst. I like her so much that I should be
+very sorry to see her throw herself away upon some empty headed
+fool. I like her greatly, and I was convinced that you were just
+the man to make her happy, and as I knew that you had good
+prospects in England, I thought it would be a capital match for
+her, although you are but a young civilian; and I own that of
+late I have thought things were going on very well."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it might have been so, Doctor, had it not been for
+this coming trouble, which, if our fears are realized, will
+entirely put an end even to the possibility of what you are
+talking about. I shall be shown to be a coward, and I shall do my
+best to put myself in the way of being killed. I should not like
+to blow my brains out, but if the worst comes to the worst I will
+do that rather than go on living after I have again disgraced
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>"You look at it too seriously, Bathurst."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit of it, Doctor, and you know it."</p>
+
+<p>"But if the Sepoys rise, Bathurst, why should they harm their
+officers? They may be discontented, they may have a grievance
+against the Government, they may refuse to obey orders and may
+disband; but why on earth should they attack men who have always
+been kind to them, whom they have followed in battle, and against
+whom they have not as much as a shadow of complaint?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope it may be so most sincerely," Bathurst said; "but one
+never can say. I can hardly bring myself to believe that they
+will attack the officers, much less injure women and children.
+Still, I have a most uneasy foreboding of evil."</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard nothing from the natives as to any coming
+trouble?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all, Doctor, and I am convinced that nothing is
+known among them, or at any rate by the great bulk of them. Only
+one person has ever said a word to me that could indicate a
+knowledge of coming trouble, and that was this juggler we saw
+tonight. I thought nothing of his words at the time. That picture
+he showed me of the attack by Sepoys first gave me an idea that
+his words might mean something. Since then we have heard much
+more of this discontent, and I am convinced now that the words
+had a meaning. They were simple enough. It was merely his
+assurance, two or three times repeated, that he would be ready to
+repay the service I had rendered him with his life. It might have
+been a mere phrase, and so I thought at the time. But I think now
+he had before him the possibility of some event occurring in
+which he might be able to repay the service I had rendered
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"There may have been something in it and there may not," the
+Doctor said; "but, at any rate, Bathurst, he ought to be a potent
+ally. There doesn't seem any limit to his powers, and he might,
+for aught one knows, be able to convey you away as he did his
+daughter."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor spoke lightly, and then added, "But seriously, the
+man might be of service. These jugglers go among people of all
+classes. They are like the troubadours of the Middle Ages,
+welcomed everywhere; and they no doubt have every opportunity of
+learning what is going on, and it may be that he will be able to
+give you timely warning should there be any trouble at hand."</p>
+
+<p>"That is possible enough," Bathurst agreed. "Well, Doctor, I
+shall be on horseback at six, so it is time for me to turn in,"
+and taking his hat, walked across to his own bungalow.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor sat for some time smoking before he turned into
+bed. He had as he had said, heard rumors, when Bathurst first
+came out, that he had shown the white feather, but he had paid
+little attention to it at the time. They had been together at the
+first station to which Bathurst was appointed when he came out,
+and he had come to like him greatly; but his evident
+disinclination to join in any society, his absorption in his
+work, and a certain air of gravity unnatural in a young man of
+twenty, had puzzled him. He had at the time come to the
+conclusion that he must have had some unfortunate love affair, or
+have got into some very serious trouble at home. In time that
+impression had worn off. A young man speedily recovers from such
+a blow, however heavy, but no change had taken place in Bathurst,
+and the Doctor had in time become so accustomed to his manner
+that he had ceased to wonder over it. Now it was all explained.
+He sat thinking over it deeply for an hour, and then laid down
+his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a terrible pity he came out here," he said. "Of course
+it is not his fault in the slightest degree. One might as well
+blame a man for being born a hunchback; but if there should be a
+row out here it will be terrible for him. I can quite understand
+his feeling about it. If I were placed as he is, and were called
+upon to fight, I should take a dose of prussic acid at once. Men
+talk: about their civilization, but we are little better than
+savages in our instincts. Courage is an almost useless virtue in
+a civilized community, but if it is called for, we despise a man
+in whom it is wanting, just as heartily as our tattooed ancestors
+did. Of course, in him it is a purely constitutional failing, and
+I have no doubt he would be as brave as a lion in any other
+circumstances -- in fact, the incident of his attacking the tiger
+with that dog whip of his shows that he is so; and yet, if he
+should fail when the lives of women are at stake it would be a
+kindness to give him that dose of prussic acid, especially as
+Isobel Hannay will be here. That is the hardest part of it to
+him, I can see."</p>
+
+<p>Three days later the force at Deennugghur was increased by the
+arrival of a troop of native cavalry, under a Captain Forster,
+who had just returned from leave in England.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know Captain Forster, Doctor?" Isobel Hannay asked, on
+the afternoon of his arrival. "Uncle tells me he is coming to
+dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must look after your heart, my dear. He is one of
+the best looking fellows out here, a dashing soldier, and a
+devoted servant of the fair sex."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't like him, Doctor," Isobel said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not said so, my dear -- far from it. I think I said a
+good deal for him."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but you don't like him, Doctor. Why is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose because he is not my sort of man," the Doctor said.
+"I have not seen him since his regiment and ours were at Delhi
+together, and we did not see much of each other then. Our tastes
+did not lie in the same direction."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I know what your tastes are, Doctor; what are his?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will leave you to find out, my dear. He is all I told you
+-- a very handsome man, with, as is perhaps natural, a very good
+opinion of himself, and he distinguished himself more than once
+in the Punjaub by acts of personal gallantry. I have no doubt he
+thinks it an awful nuisance coming to a quiet little station like
+this, and he will probably try to while away his time by making
+himself very agreeable to you. But I don't think you need quite
+believe all that he says."</p>
+
+<p>"I have long ago got over the weakness of believing people's
+flattery, Doctor. However, now you have forewarned me I am
+forearmed."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor hesitated, and then said gravely, "It is not my
+habit to speak ill of people, my dear. You do me the justice to
+believe that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure it is not, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, child, in a station like this you must see a good deal
+of this man. He is a man who has won many hearts, and thrown them
+away. Don't let him win yours. He is not a good man; he has been
+mixed up in several grave scandals; he has been the ruin of more
+than one young man at cards and billiards; he is in all respects
+a dangerous man. Anatomically I suppose he has a heart, morally
+he has not a vestige of one. Whatever you do, child, don't let
+him make you like him."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think there is much fear of that, Doctor, after what
+you have said," she replied, with a quiet smile; "and I am
+obliged to you indeed for warning me."</p>
+
+<p>"I know I am an old fool for meddling, but you know, my dear,
+I feel a sort of personal relationship to you, after your having
+been in my charge for six months. I don't know a single man in
+all India whom I would not rather see you fall in love with than
+with Captain Forster."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought uncle did not seem particularly pleased: when he
+came in to tiffin, and said there was a new arrival."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think not," the Doctor said; "the man in notoriously
+a dangerous fellow; and yet, as he has never actually outstepped
+what are considered the bounds which constitute an officer and a
+gentleman, he has retained his commission, but it has been a
+pretty close shave once or twice. Your uncle must know all about
+him, everyone does; but I don't suppose the Major will open his
+mouth to you on the subject -- he is one of those chivalrous sort
+of men who never thinks evil of anyone unless he is absolutely
+obliged to; but in a case like this I think he is wrong. At any
+rate, I have done what I consider to be my duty in the matter.
+Now I leave it in your hands. I am glad to see that you are
+looking quite yourself again, and have got over your fainting fit
+of the other night. I quite expected to be sent for
+professionally the next morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I have quite got over it, Doctor; I can't make out
+how I was so silly as to faint. I never did such a thing before,
+but it was so strange and mysterious that I felt quite
+bewildered, and the picture quite frightened me, but I don't know
+why. This is the first chance I have had since of speaking to you
+alone. What do you think of it, and why should you be dressed up
+as a native? and why should?" She stopped with a heightened color
+on her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"You and Bathurst be dressed up, too? So you noticed your own
+likeness; nobody else but Bathurst and myself recognized the two
+figures that came out of the wood."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you saw it too, Doctor. I thought I might have been
+mistaken, for, besides being stained, the face was all obscured
+somehow. Neither uncle, nor Mrs. Hunter, nor the girls, nor
+anyone else I have spoken to seem to have had an idea it was me,
+though they all recognized you.. What could it mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I. have not the slightest idea in the world," the Doctor
+said; "very likely it meant nothing. I certainly should not think
+any more about it. These jugglers' tricks are curious and
+unaccountable; but it is no use our worrying ourselves about
+them. Maybe we are all going to get up private theatricals some
+day, and perform an Indian drama. I have never taken any part in
+tomfooleries of that sort so far, but there is no saying what I
+may come to."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to dine here, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, my dear; the Major asked me to come in, but I declined. I
+told him frankly that I did not like Forster, and that the less I
+saw of him the better I should be pleased."</p>
+
+<p>The other guests turned out to be Captain and Mrs. Doolan and
+Mr. Congreave, one of the civilians at the station. The Doolans
+arrived first.</p>
+
+<p>"You have not seen Captain Forster yet, Isobel," Mrs. Doolan
+said, as they sat down for a chat together. "I met him at Delhi
+soon after I came out. He is quite my beau ideal of a soldier in
+appearance, but I don't think he is nice, Isobel. I have heard
+all sorts of stories about him."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that meant as a warning for me, Mrs. Doolan?" Isobel
+asked, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, I think it is, if you don't mind my giving you
+one. There are some men one can flirt with as much as one likes,
+and there are some men one can't; he is one of that sort.
+Privately, my dear, I don't mind telling you that at one time I
+did flirt with him -- I had been accustomed to flirt in Ireland;
+we all flirt there, and mean nothing by it; but I had to give it
+up very suddenly. It wouldn't do, my dear, at all; his ideas of
+flirtation differed utterly from mine. I found I was playing with
+fire, and was fortunate in getting off without singeing my wings,
+which is more than a good many others would have done."</p>
+
+<p>"He must be a horrid sort of man," Isobel said
+indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Doolan laughed. "I don't think you will find him so;
+certainly that is not the general opinion of women. However, you
+will see him for yourself in a very few minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel looked up with some curiosity when Captain Forster was
+announced, and at once admitted to herself that the Doctor's
+report as to his personal appearance was fully justified. He
+stood over six feet high, with a powerful frame, and an easy
+careless bearing; his hair was cut rather close, he wore a long
+tawny mustache, his eyes were dark, his teeth very white and
+perfect. A momentary look of surprise came across his face as his
+eyes fell on Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"I had hardly expected," he said, as the Major introduced him
+to her, "to find no less than three unmarried ladies at
+Deennugghur. I had the pleasure of being introduced to the Miss
+Hunters this afternoon. How do you do, Mrs. Doolan? I think it is
+four years since I had the pleasure of knowing you in Delhi."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that is the number, Captain Forster."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems a very long time to me," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you would say that," she laughed. "It was quite the
+proper thing to say, Captain Forster; but I have no doubt it does
+seem longer to you than it does to me as you have been home
+since."</p>
+
+<p>"We are all here," the Major broke in. "Captain Forster, will
+you take my niece in?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you find this very dull after Cawnpore, Miss
+Hannay?" Captain Forster asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I do not," Isobel said. "I like it better here;
+everything is sociable and pleasant, while at Cawnpore there was
+much more formality. Of course, there were lots of dinner
+parties, but I don't care for large dinner parties at all; it is
+so hot, and they last such a time. I think six is quite large
+enough. Then there is a general talk, and everyone can join in
+just as much as they like, while at a large dinner you have to
+rely entirely upon one person, and I think it is very hard work
+having to talk for an hour and a half to a stranger of whom you
+know nothing. Don't you agree with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Entirely, Miss Hannay; I am a pretty good hand at talking,
+but at times I have found it very hard work, I can assure you,
+especially when you take down a stranger to the station, so that
+you have no mutual acquaintance to pull to pieces."</p>
+
+<p>The dinner was bright and pleasant, and when the evening was
+over Isobel said to her uncle, "I think Captain Forster is very
+amusing, uncle."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," the Major agreed, "he is a good talker, a regular
+society man; he is no great favorite of mine; I think he will be
+a little too much for us in a small station like this."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean too much, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>The Major hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he won't have much to do with his troop of horse, and
+time will hang heavy on his hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there is shooting, uncle."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there is shooting, but I don't think that is much in his
+line. Tiffins and calls, and society generally occupy most of his
+time, I fancy, and I think he is fonder of billiards and cards
+than is good for him or others. Of course, being here by himself,
+as he is, we must do our best to be civil to him, and that sort
+of thing, but if we were at Cawnpore he is a man I should not
+care about being intimate in the house."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand, uncle; but certainly he is pleasant."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, he is very pleasant," the Major said dryly, in a
+tone that seemed to express that Forster's power of making
+himself pleasant was by no means a recommendation in his
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>But Captain Forster had apparently no idea whatever that his
+society could be anything but welcome, and called the next day
+after luncheon.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been leaving my pasteboard at all the residents," he
+said; "not a very large circle. Of course, I knew Mrs. Rintoul at
+Delhi, as well as Mrs. Doolan. I did not know any of the others.
+They seem pleasant people."</p>
+
+<p>"They are very pleasant," Isobel said.</p>
+
+<p>"I left one for a man named Bathurst. He was out. Is that the
+Bathurst, Major Hannay, who was in a line regiment -- I forget
+its number -- and left very suddenly in the middle of the
+fighting in the Punjaub?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I believe Bathurst was in the army about that time," the
+Major said; "but I don't know anything about the circumstances of
+his leaving."</p>
+
+<p>Had Captain Forster known the Major better he would have been
+aware that what he meant to say was that he did not wish to know,
+but he did not detect the inflection of his voice, and went on --
+"They say he showed the white feather. If it is the same man, I
+was at school with him, and unless he has improved since then, I
+am sure I have no wish to renew his acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"I like him very much," the Major said shortly; "he is great
+friends with Dr. Wade, who has the very highest opinion of him,
+and I believe he is generally considered to be one of the most
+rising young officers of his grade."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I have nothing to say against him," Captain Forster said;
+"but he was a poor creature at school, and I do not think that
+there was any love lost between us. Did you know him before you
+came here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I only met him at the last races in Cawnpore," the Major
+said; "he was stopping with the Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite a character, Wade."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel's tongue was untied now.</p>
+
+<p>"I think he is one of the kindest and best gentlemen I ever
+met," the girl said hotly; "he took care of me coming out here,
+and no one could have been kinder than he was."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt he is all that," Captain Forster said gently;
+"still he is a character, Miss Hannay, taking the term character
+to mean a person who differs widely from other people. I believe
+he is very skillful in his profession, but I take it he is a sort
+of Abernethy, and tells the most startling truths to his
+patients."</p>
+
+<p>"That I can quite imagine," Isobel said; "the Doctor hates
+humbug of all sorts, and I don't think I should like to call him
+in myself for an imaginary ailment."</p>
+
+<p>"I rather put my foot in it there," Captain Forster said to
+himself, as he sauntered back to his tent. "The Major didn't like
+my saying anything against Bathurst, and the girl did not like my
+remark about the Doctor. I wonder whether she objected also to
+what I said about that fellow Bathurst -- a sneaking little hound
+he was, and there is no doubt about his showing the white feather
+in the Punjaub. However, I don't think that young lady is of the
+sort to care about a coward, and if she asks any questions, as I
+dare say she will, after what I have said, she will find that the
+story is a true one. What a pretty little thing she is! I did not
+see a prettier face all the time I was at home. What with her and
+Mrs. Doolan, time is not likely to hang so heavily here as I had
+expected."</p>
+
+<p>The Major, afraid that Isobel might ask him some questions
+about this story of Bathurst leaving the army, went off hastily
+as soon as Captain Forster had left. Isobel sat impatiently
+tapping the floor with her foot, awaiting the Doctor, who usually
+came for half an hour's chat in the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, child, how did your dinner go off yesterday, and what
+did you think of your new visitor? I saw him come away from here
+half an hour ago. I suppose he has been calling."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like him at all," Isobel said decidedly.</p>
+
+<p>"No? Well, then, you are an exception to the general
+rule."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought him pleasant enough last night," Isobel said
+frankly. "He has a deferential sort of way about him when he
+speaks to one that one can hardly help liking. But he made me
+angry today. In the first place, Doctor, he said you were a
+character."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor chuckled. "Well, that is true enough, my dear.
+There was no harm in that."</p>
+
+<p>"And then he said" -- and she broke off -- "he said what I
+feel sure cannot be true. He said that Mr. Bathurst left the army
+because he showed the white feather. It is not true, is it? I am
+sure it can't be true."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor did not reply immediately.</p>
+
+<p>"It is an old story," he said presently, "and ought not to
+have been brought up again. I don't suppose Forster or anyone
+else knows the rights of the case. When a man leaves his regiment
+and retires when it is upon active service, there are sure to be
+spiteful stories getting about, often without the slightest
+foundation. But even if it had been true, it would hardly be to
+Bathurst's disadvantage now he is no longer in the army, and
+courage is not a vital necessity on the part of a civilian."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't mean that, Doctor; surely every man ought to be
+brave. Could anyone possibly respect a man who is a coward? I
+don't believe it, Doctor, for a moment."</p>
+
+<p>"Courage, my dear, is not a universal endowment -- it is a
+physical as much as a moral virtue. Some people are physically
+brave and morally cowards; others are exactly the reverse. Some
+people are constitutionally cowards all round, while in others
+cowardice shows itself only partially. I have known a man who is
+as brave as a lion in battle, but is terrified by a rat. I have
+known a man brave in other respects lose his nerve altogether in
+a thunderstorm. In neither of these cases was it the man's own
+fault; it was constitutional, and by no effort could he conquer
+it. I consider Bathurst to be an exceptionally noble character. I
+am sure that he is capable of acts of great bravery in some
+directions, but it is possible that he is, like the man I have
+spoken of, constitutionally weak in others."</p>
+
+<p>"But the great thing is to be brave in battle, Doctor! You
+would not call a man a coward simply because he was afraid of a
+rat, but you would call a man a coward who was afraid in battle.
+To be a coward there seems to me to be a coward all round. I have
+always thought the one virtue in man I really envied was bravery,
+and that a coward was the most despicable creature living. It
+might not be his actual fault, but one can't help that. It is not
+anyone's fault if he is fearfully ugly or born an idiot, for
+example. But cowardice seems somehow different. Not to be brave
+when he is strong seems to put a man below the level of a woman.
+I feel sure, Doctor, there must be some mistake, and that this
+story cannot be true. I have seen a good deal of Mr. Bathurst
+since we have been here, and you have always spoken so well of
+him, he is the last man I should have thought would be -- would
+be like that."</p>
+
+<p>"I know the circumstances of the case, child. You can trust me
+when I say that there is nothing in Bathurst's conduct that
+diminishes my respect for him in the slightest degree, and that
+in some respects he is as brave a man as any I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Doctor, all that may be; but you do not answer my
+question. Did Mr. Bathurst leave the army because he showed
+cowardice? If he did, and you know it, why did you invite him
+here? why did you always praise him? why did you not say, 'In
+other respects this man may be good and estimable, but he is that
+most despicable thing, a coward'?"</p>
+
+<p>There was such a passion of pain in her voice and face that
+the Doctor only said quietly, "I did not know it, my dear, or I
+should have told you at first that in this one point he was
+wanting. It is, I consider, the duty of those who know things to
+speak out. But he is certainly not what you say."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel tossed her head impatiently. "We need not discuss it,
+Doctor. It is nothing to me whether Mr. Bathurst is brave or not,
+only it is not quite pleasant to learn that you have been getting
+on friendly terms with a man who --"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say any more," the Doctor broke in. "You might at least
+remember he is a friend of mine. There is no occasion for us to
+quarrel, my dear, and to prevent the possibility of such a thing
+I will be off at once."</p>
+
+<p>After he had left Isobel sat down to think over what had been
+said. He had not directly answered her questions, but he had not
+denied that the rumor that Bathurst had retired from the army
+because he was wanting in courage was well founded. Everything he
+had said, in fact, was an excuse rather than a denial. The Doctor
+was as stanch a friend as he was bitter an opponent. Could he
+have denied it he would have done so strongly and
+indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>It was clear that, much as he liked Bathurst, he believed him
+wanting in physical courage. He had said, indeed, that he
+believed he was brave in some respects, and had asserted that he
+knew of one exceptional act of courage that he had performed; but
+what was that if a man had had to leave the army because he was a
+coward? To Isobel it seemed that of all things it was most
+dreadful that a man should be wanting in courage. Tales of daring
+and bravery had always been her special delight, and, being full
+of life and spirit herself, it had not seemed even possible to
+her that a gentleman could be a coward, and that Bathurst could
+be so was to her well nigh incredible.</p>
+
+<p>It might, as the Doctor had urged, be in no way his fault, but
+this did not affect the fact. He might be more to be pitied than
+to be blamed; but pity of that kind, so far from being akin to
+love, was destructive of it.</p>
+
+<p>Unconsciously she had raised Bathurst on a lofty pinnacle. The
+Doctor had spoken very highly of him. She had admired the energy
+with which, instead of caring, as others did, for pleasure, he
+devoted himself to his work. Older men than himself listened to
+his opinions. His quiet and somewhat restrained manner was in
+contrast to the careless fun and good humor of most of those with
+whom she came in contact. It had seemed to her that he was a
+strong man, one who could be relied upon implicitly at all times,
+and she had come in the few weeks she had been at Deennugghur to
+rely upon his opinion, and to look forward to his visits, and
+even to acknowledge to herself that he approached her ideal of
+what a man should be more than anyone else she had met.</p>
+
+<p>And now this was all shattered at a blow. He was wanting in
+man's first attribute. He had left the army, if not in disgrace,
+at least under a cloud and even his warm friend, the Doctor,
+could not deny that the accusation of cowardice was well founded.
+The pain of the discovery opened her eyes to the fact which she
+had not before, even remotely, admitted to herself, that she was
+beginning to love him, and the discovery was a bitter one.</p>
+
+<p>"I may thank Captain Forster for that, at least," she said to
+herself, as she angrily wiped a tear from her cheek; "he has
+opened my eyes in time. What should I have felt if I had found
+too late that I had come to love a man who was a coward -- who
+had left the army because he was afraid? I should have despised
+myself as much as I should despise him. Well, that is my first
+lesson. I shall not trust in appearances again. Why, I would
+rather marry a man like Captain Forster, even if everything they
+say about him is true, than a man who is a coward. At least he is
+brave, and has shown himself so."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor had gone away in a state of extreme irritation.</p>
+
+<p>"Confound the meddling scoundrel!" he said to himself, as he
+surprised the horse with a sharp cut of the whip. "Just when
+things were going on as I wished. I had quite set my mind on it,
+and though I am sure Bathurst would never have spoken to her till
+he had told her himself about that unfortunate failing of his, it
+would have been altogether different coming from his own lips
+just as he told it to me. Of course, my lips were sealed and I
+could not put the case in the right light. I would give three
+months' pay for the satisfaction of horsewhipping that fellow
+Forster. Still, I can't say he did it maliciously, for he could
+not have known Bathurst was intimate there, or that there was
+anything between them. The question is, am I to tell Bathurst
+that she has heard about it? I suppose I had better. Ah, here is
+the Major," and he drew up his horse.</p>
+
+<p>"Anything new, Major? You look put out."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there is very bad news, Doctor. A Sowar has just brought
+a letter to me from the Colonel saying that the General has got a
+telegram that the 19th Native Infantry at Berhampore have refused
+to use the cartridges served out to them, and that yesterday a
+Sepoy of the 34th at Barrackpore raised seditious cries in front
+of the lines, and when Baugh, the adjutant, and the sergeant
+major attempted to seize him he wounded them both, while the
+regiment stood by and refused to aid them. The 19th are to be
+disbanded, and no doubt the 34th will be, too."</p>
+
+<p>"That is bad news indeed, Major, and looks as if this talk
+about general disaffection were true. Had there been trouble but
+at one station it might have been the effect of some local
+grievance, but happening at two places, it looks as if it were
+part of a general plot. Well, we must hope it will go no
+farther."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very bad," said the Major, "but at any rate we may hope
+we shall have no troubles here; the regiment has always behaved
+well, and I am sure they have no reason to complain of their
+treatment. If the Colonel has a fault, it is that of over
+leniency with the men."</p>
+
+<p>"That is so," the Doctor agreed; "but the fact is, Major, we
+know really very little about the Hindoo mind. We can say with
+some sort of certainty what Europeans will do under given
+circumstances, but though I know the natives, I think, pretty
+nearly as well as most men, I feel that I really know nothing
+about them. They appear mild and submissive, and .have certainly
+proved faithful on a hundred battlefields, but we don't know
+whether that is their real character. Their own history, before
+we stepped in and altered its current, shows them as faithless,
+bloodthirsty and cruel; whether they have changed their nature
+under our rule, or simply disguised it, Heaven only knows."</p>
+
+<p>"At any rate," the Major said, "they have always shown
+themselves attached to their English officers. There are
+numberless instances where they have displayed the utmost
+devotion for them, and although some scheming intriguers may have
+sown the seeds of discontent among them, and these lies about the
+cartridges may have excited their religious prejudices, and may
+even lead them to mutiny, I cannot believe for an instant that
+the Sepoys will lift their hands against their officers."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not," the Doctor said gravely. "A tiger's cub, when
+tamed, is one of the prettiest of playthings, but when it once
+tastes blood it is as savage a beast as its mother was before it.
+Of course, I hope for the best, but if the Sepoys once break
+loose I would not answer for anything they might do. They have
+been pretty well spoilt, Major, till they have come to believe
+that it is they who conquered India and not we."</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h1>
+
+<p>That evening, after dining alone, the Doctor went in to
+Bathurst's. The latter had already heard the news, and they
+talked it over for some time. Then the Doctor said, "Have you
+seen Forster, Bathurst, since he arrived?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I was out when he left his card. I was at school with
+him.. I heard when I was in England that he was out here in the
+native cavalry, but I have never run across him before, and I own
+I had no wish to do so. He was about two years older than I was,
+and was considered the cock of the school. He was one of my chief
+tormentors. I don't know that he was a bully generally -- fellows
+who are really plucky seldom are; but he disliked me heartily,
+and I hated him.</p>
+
+<p>"I had the habit of telling the truth when questioned, and he
+narrowly escaped expulsion owing to my refusing to tell a lie
+about his being quietly in bed when, in fact, he and two or three
+other fellows had been out at a public house. He never forgave me
+for it, for he himself would have told a lie without hesitation
+to screen himself, or, to do him justice, to screen anyone else;
+and the mere fact that I myself had been involved in the matter,
+having been sent out by one of the bigger fellows, and,
+therefore, having got myself a flogging by my admission, was no
+mitigation in his eyes of my offense of what he called
+sneaking.</p>
+
+<p>"So you may imagine I have no particular desire to meet him
+again. Unless he has greatly changed, he would do me a bad turn
+if he had the chance."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think he has greatly changed," the Doctor said. "That
+was really what I came in here for this evening rather than to
+talk about this Sepoy business. I am sorry to say, Bathurst, that
+when he was in at the Major's today your name happened to be
+mentioned, and he said at once, 'Is that the Bathurst who they
+say showed the white feather at Chillianwalla and left the army
+in consequence?'"</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst's face grew pale and his fingers closed. He remained
+silent a minute, and then said, "It does not matter; she would
+have been sure to hear it sooner or later, and I should have told
+her myself if he had not done so; besides, if, as I am afraid,
+this Berhampore business is the beginning of trouble, and of such
+trouble as we have never had since we set foot in India, it is
+likely that everyone will know what she knows now. Has she spoken
+to you about it? I suppose she has, or you would not have known
+that he mentioned it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she was most indignant about it, and did not believe
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did you say, Doctor?" he asked indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I was sorry I could not tell her exactly what you told
+me. It would have been better if I could have done so. I simply
+said there were many sorts of courage, and that I was sure that
+you possessed many sorts in a very high degree, but I could not,
+of course, deny; although I did not admit, the truth of the
+report he had mentioned."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it makes much difference one way or the other,"
+Bathurst said wearily. "I have known all along that Isobel Hannay
+would not marry a coward, only I have gone on living in a fool's
+paradise. However, it is over now -- the sooner it is all over
+the better."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow," the Doctor said earnestly, "don't take this
+thing too much to heart. I don't wish to try and persuade you
+that it is not a grave misfortune, but even suppose this trouble
+takes the very worst form possible, I do not think you will come
+so very badly out of it as you anticipate. Even assuming that you
+are unable to do your part in absolute fighting, there may be
+other opportunities, and most likely will, in which you may be
+able to show that although unable to control your nerves in the
+din of battle, you possess in other respects coolness and
+courage. That feat of yours of attacking the tiger with the dog
+whip shows conclusively that under many circumstances you are
+capable of most daring deeds."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst sat looking down for some minutes. "God grant that it
+may be so," he said at last; "but it is no use talking about it
+any more, Doctor. I suppose Major Hannay will keep a sharp
+lookout over the men?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; there was a meeting of the officers this afternoon. It
+was agreed to make no outward change, and to give the troops no
+cause whatever to believe that they are suspected. They all feel
+confident of the goodwill of the men; at the same time they will
+watch them closely, and if the news comes of further trouble,
+they will prepare the courthouse as a place of refuge."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a very good plan; but of course everything depends
+upon whether, if the troops do rise in mutiny, the people of Oude
+should join them. They are a fighting race, and if they should
+throw in their lot against us the position would be a desperate
+one."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there is no doubt," the Doctor said, "that the Rajah of
+Bithoor would be with us; that will make Cawnpore safe, and will
+largely influence all the great Zemindars, though there is no
+doubt that a good many of them have been sulky ever since the
+disarmament order was issued. I believe there are few of them who
+have not got cannon hidden away or buried, and as for the people,
+the number of arms given up was as nothing to what we know they
+possessed. In other parts of India I believe the bulk of the
+people will be with us; but here in Oude, our last annexation, I
+fear that they will side against us, unless all the great
+landowners range themselves on our side."</p>
+
+<p>"As far as I can see," Bathurst said, "the people are
+contented with the change. I don't say what I may call the
+professional fighting class, the crowd of retainers kept by the
+great landowners, who were constantly fighting against each
+other. Annexation has put a stop to all that, and the towns are
+crowded with these fighting men, who hate us bitterly; but the
+peasants, the tillers of the soil, have benefited greatly. They
+are no longer exposed to raids by their powerful neighbors, and
+can cultivate their fields in peace and quiet. Unfortunately
+their friendship, such as it is, will not weigh in the slightest
+degree in the event of a struggle. At any rate, I am sure they
+are not behind the scenes, and know nothing whatever of any
+coming trouble. Going as I do among them, and talking to them as
+one of themselves, I should have noticed it had there been any
+change in them; and of late naturally I have paid special notice
+to their manner. Well, if it is to come I hope it will come soon,
+for anything is better than suspense."</p>
+
+<p>Two days later Major Hannay read out to the men on parade an
+official document, assuring them that there was no truth whatever
+in the statements that had been made that the cartridges served
+out to them had been greased with pigs' fat. They were precisely
+the same as those that they had used for years, and the men were
+warned against listening to seditious persons who might try to
+poison their minds and shake their loyalty to the Government. He
+then told them that he was sorry to say that at one or two
+stations the men had been foolish enough to listen to disloyal
+counsels, and that in consequence the regiments had been
+disbanded and the men had forfeited all the advantages in the way
+of pay and pension they had earned by many years of good conduct.
+He said that he had no fear whatever of any such trouble arising
+with them, as they knew that they had been well treated, that any
+legitimate complaint they might make had always been attended to,
+and that their officers had their welfare thoroughly at
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>When he had finished, the senior native officer stepped
+forward, and in the name of the detachment assured the Major that
+the men were perfectly contented, and would in all cases follow
+their officers, even if they ordered them to march against their
+countrymen. At the conclusion of his speech he called upon the
+troops to give three cheers for the Major and officers, and this
+was responded to with a show of great enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>This demonstration was deemed very satisfactory, and the
+uneasiness among the residents abated considerably, while the
+Major and his officers felt convinced that, whatever happened at
+other stations, there would at least be no trouble at
+Deennugghur.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, even you are satisfied, Doctor, I suppose?" the Major
+said, as a party of them who had been dining with Dr. Wade were
+smoking in the veranda.</p>
+
+<p>"I was hopeful before, Major, and I am hopeful now; but I
+can't say that today's parade has influenced me in the slightest.
+Whatever virtues the Hindoo may have, he has certainly that of
+knowing how to wait. I believe, from what took place, that they
+have no intention of breaking out at present; whether they are
+waiting to see what is done at other stations, or until they
+receive a signal, is more than I can say; but their assurances do
+not weigh with me to the slightest extent. Their history is full
+of cases of perfidious massacre. I should say, 'Trust them as
+long as you can, but don't relax your watch.'"</p>
+
+<p>"You are a confirmed croaker," Captain Rintoul said.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think so, Rintoul. I know the men I am talking
+about, and I know the Hindoos generally. They are mere children,
+and can be molded like clay. As long as we had the molding, all
+went well; but if they fall into the hands of designing men they
+can be led in another direction just as easily as we have led
+them in ours. I own that I don't see who can be sufficiently
+interested in the matter to conceive and carry out a great
+conspiracy of this kind. The King of Oude is a captive in our
+hands, the King of Delhi is too old to play such a part. Scindia
+and Holkar may possibly long for the powers their fathers
+possessed, but they are not likely to act together, and may be
+regarded as rivals rather than friends, and yet if it is not one
+of these who has been brewing this storm. I own I don't see who
+can be at the bottom of it, unless it has really originated from
+some ambitious spirits among the Sepoys, who look in the event of
+success to being masters of the destinies of India. It is a pity
+we did not get a few more views from that juggler; we might have
+known a little more of it then."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk about him, Doctor," Wilson said; "it gives me the
+cold shivers to think of that fellow and what he did; I have
+hardly slept since then. It was the most creepy thing I ever saw.
+Richards and I have talked it over every evening we have been
+alone together, and we can't make head or tail of the affair.
+Richards thinks it wasn't the girl at all who went up on that
+pole, but a sort of balloon in her shape. But then, as I say,
+there was the girl standing among us before she took her place on
+the pole. We saw her sit down and settle herself on the cushion
+so that she was balanced right. So it could not have been a
+balloon then, and if it were a balloon afterwards, when did she
+change? At any rate the light below was sufficient to see well
+until she was forty or fifty feet up, and after that she shone
+out, and we never lost sight of her until she was ever so high. I
+can understand the pictures, because there might have been a
+magic lantern somewhere, but that girl trick, and the basket
+trick, and that great snake are altogether beyond me."</p>
+
+<p>"So I should imagine, Wilson," the Doctor said dryly; "and if
+I were you I would not bother my head about it.. Nobody has
+succeeded in finding out any of them yet, and all the wondering
+in the world is not likely to get you any nearer to it."</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I feel, Doctor, but it is very riling to see
+things that you can't account for anyhow. I wish he had sent up
+Richards on the pole instead of the girl. I would not have minded
+going up myself if he had asked me, though I expect I should have
+jumped off before it got up very far, even at the risk of
+breaking my neck."</p>
+
+<p>"I should not mind risking that," the Doctor said, "though I
+doubt whether I should have known any more about it when I came
+down; but these jugglers always bring a girl or a boy with them
+instead of calling somebody out from the audience, as they do at
+home. Well, if things are quiet we will organize another hunt,
+Wilson. I have heard of a tiger fifteen miles away from where we
+killed our last, and you and Richards shall go with me if you
+like."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like it of all things, Doctor, provided it comes off
+by day. I don't think I care about sitting through another night
+on a tree, and then not getting anything like a fair shot at the
+beast after all."</p>
+
+<p>"We will go by day," the Doctor said. "Bathurst has promised
+to get some elephants from one of the Zemindars; we will have a
+regular party this time. I have half promised Miss Hannay she
+shall have a seat in a howdah with me if the Major will give her
+leave, and in that case we will send out tents and make a regular
+party of it. What do you say, Major?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am perfectly willing, Doctor, and have certainly no
+objection to trusting Isobel to your care. I know you are not
+likely to miss."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am not likely to miss, certainly; and besides, there
+will be Wilson and Richards to give him the coup de grace if I
+don't finish him."</p>
+
+<p>There was a general laugh, for the two subalterns had been
+chaffed a good deal at both missing the tiger on the previous
+occasion.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, when shall it be, Major?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not just at present, at any rate," the Major said. "We must
+see how things are going on. I certainly should not think of
+going outside the station now, nor could I give leave to any
+officer to do so; but if things settle down, and we hear no more
+of this cartridge business for the next ten days or a fortnight,
+we will see about it."</p>
+
+<p>But although no news of any outbreak similar to that at
+Barrackpore was received for some days, the report that came
+showed a widespread restlessness. At various stations, all over
+India, fires, believed to be the work of incendiaries, took
+place, and there was little abatement of the uneasiness. It
+become known, too, that a native officer had before the rising of
+Berhampore given warning of the mutiny, and had stated that there
+was a widespread plot throughout the native regiments to rise,
+kill their officers, and then march to Delhi, where they were all
+to gather.</p>
+
+<p>The story was generally disbelieved, although the actual
+rising had shown that, to some extent, the report was well
+founded; still men could not bring themselves to believe that the
+troops among whom they had lived so long, and who had fought so
+well for us, could meditate such gross treachery, without having,
+as far as could be seen, any real cause for complaint.</p>
+
+<p>The conduct of the troops at Deennugghur was excellent, and
+the Colonel wrote that at Cawnpore there were no signs whatever
+of disaffection, and that the Rajah of Bithoor had offered to
+come down at the head of his own troops should there be any
+symptoms of mutiny among the Sepoys. Altogether things looked
+better, and a feeling of confidence that there would be no
+serious trouble spread through the station.</p>
+
+<p>The weather had set in very hot, and there was no stirring out
+now for the ladies between eleven o'clock and five or six in the
+afternoon. Isobel, however, generally went in for a chat, the
+first thing after early breakfast, with Mrs. Doolan, whose
+children were fractious with prickly heat.</p>
+
+<p>"I only wish we had some big, high mountain, my dear,
+somewhere within reach, where we could establish the children
+through the summer and run away ourselves occasionally to look
+after them. We are very badly off here in Oude for that. You are
+looking very pale yourself the last few days."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I feel it a little," Isobel said, "and of course
+this anxiety everyone has been feeling worries one. Everyone
+seems to agree that there is no fear of trouble with the Sepoys
+here; still, as nothing else is talked about, one cannot help
+feeling nervous about it. However, as things seem settling down
+now, I hope we shall soon get something else to talk about."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not seen Mr. Bathurst lately," Mrs. Doolan said
+presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor have we," Isobel said quietly; "it is quite ten days
+since we saw him last."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose he is falling back into his hermit ways," Mrs.
+Doolan said carelessly, shooting a keen glance at Isobel, who was
+leaning over one of the children.</p>
+
+<p>"He quite emerged from his shell for a bit. Mrs. Hunter was
+saying she never saw such a change in a man, but I suppose he has
+got tired of it. Captain Forster arrived just in time to fill up
+the gap. How do you like him, Isobel?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is amusing," the girl said quietly; "I have never seen
+anyone quite like him before; he talks in an easy, pleasant sort
+of way, and tells most amusing stories. Then, when he sits down
+by one he has the knack of dropping his voice and talking in a
+confidential sort of way, even when it is only about the weather.
+I am always asking myself how much of it is real, and what there
+is under the surface."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Doolan nodded approval.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think there is much under the surface, dear, and what
+there is is just as well left alone; but there is no doubt he can
+be delightful when he chooses, and very few women would not feel
+flattered by the attentions of a man who is said to be the
+handsomest officer in the Indian army, and who has besides
+distinguished himself several times as a particularly dashing
+officer."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think handsomeness goes for much in a man," Isobel
+said shortly.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Doolan laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should it not go for as much as prettiness in a woman? It
+is no use being cynical, Isobel; it is part of our nature to
+admire pretty things, and as far as I can see an exceptionally
+handsome man is as legitimate an object of admiration as a lovely
+woman."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, to admire, Mrs. Doolan, but not to like."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, I don't want to be hurrying you away, but I
+think you had better get back before the sun gets any higher. You
+may say you don't feel the heat much, but you are looking pale
+and fagged, and the less you are out in the sun the better."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel had indeed been having a hard time during those ten
+days. At first she had thought of little but what she should do
+when Bathurst called. It seemed impossible that she could be
+exactly the same with him as she had been before, that was quite
+out of the question, and yet how was she to be different?</p>
+
+<p>Ten days had passed without his coming. This was so unusual
+that an idea came into her mind which terrified her, and the
+first time when the Doctor came in and found her alone she said,
+"Of course, Dr. Wade, you have not mentioned to Mr. Bathurst the
+conversation we had, but it is curious his not having been here
+since."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly I mentioned it," the Doctor said calmly; "how could
+I do otherwise? It was evident to me that he would not be
+welcomed here as he was before, and I could not do otherwise than
+warn him of the change he might expect to find, and to give him
+the reason for it."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel stood the picture of dismay. "I don't think you had any
+right to do so, Doctor," she said. "You have placed me in a most
+painful position."</p>
+
+<p>"In not so painful a one as it would have been, my dear, if he
+had noticed the change himself, as he must have done, and asked
+for the cause of it."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel stood twisting her fingers over each other before her
+nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"But what am I to do?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see that there is anything more for you to do," the
+Doctor said. "Mr. Bathurst may not be perfect in all respects,
+but he is certainly too much of a gentleman to force his visits
+where they are not wanted. I do not say he will not come here at
+all, for not to do so after being here so much would create
+comment and talk in the station, which would be as painful to you
+as to him, but he certainly will not come here more often than is
+necessary to keep up appearances."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you ought to have told him," Isobel repeated,
+much distressed.</p>
+
+<p>"I could not help it, my dear. You would force me to admit
+there was some truth in the story Captain Forster told you, and I
+was, therefore, obliged to acquaint him with the fact or he would
+have had just cause to reproach me. Besides, you spoke of
+despising a man who was not physically brave."</p>
+
+<p>"You never told him that, Doctor; surely you never told him
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I only told what it was necessary he should know, my dear,
+namely, that you had heard the story, that you had questioned me,
+and that I, knowing the facts from his lips, admitted that there
+was some foundation for the story, while asserting that I was
+convinced that he was morally a brave man. He did not ask how you
+took the news, nor did I volunteer any information whatever on
+the subject, but he understood, I think, perfectly the light in
+which you would view a coward."</p>
+
+<p>"But what am I to do when we meet, Doctor?" she asked
+piteously.</p>
+
+<p>"I should say that you will meet just as ordinary
+.acquaintances do meet, Miss Hannay. People are civil to others
+they are thrown with, however much they may distrust them at
+heart. You may be sure that Mr. Bathurst will make no allusion
+whatever to the matter. I think I can answer for it that you will
+see no shade of difference in his manner. This has always been a
+heavy burden for him, as even the most careless observer may see
+in his manner. I do not say that this is not a large addition to
+it, but I dare say he will pull through; and now I must be
+off."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very unkind, Doctor, and I never knew you unkind
+before."</p>
+
+<p>"Unkind!" the Doctor repeated, with an air of surprise. "In
+what way? I love this young fellow. I had cherished hopes for him
+that he hardly perhaps ventured to cherish for himself. I quite
+agree with you that what has passed has annihilated those hopes.
+You despise a man who is a coward. I am not surprised at that.
+Bathurst is the last man in the world who would force himself
+upon a woman who despised him. I have done my best to save you
+from being obliged to make a personal declaration of your
+sentiments. I repudiate altogether the accusation as being
+unkind. I don't blame you in the slightest. I think that your
+view is the one that a young woman of spirit would naturally
+take. I acquiesce in it entirely. I will go farther, I consider
+it a most fortunate occurrence for you both that you found it out
+in time."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel's cheeks had flushed and paled several times while he
+was speaking; then she pressed her lips tightly together, and as
+he finished she said, "I think, Doctor, it will be just as well
+not to discuss the matter further."</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite of your opinion," he said. "We will agree not to
+allude to it again. Goodby."</p>
+
+<p>And then Isobel had retired to her room and cried
+passionately, while the Doctor had gone off chuckling to himself
+as if he were perfectly satisfied with the state of affairs.</p>
+
+<p>During the week that had since elapsed the Major had wondered
+and grumbled several times at Bathurst's absence.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect," he said one day, when a note of refusal had come
+from him, "that he doesn't care about meeting Forster. You
+remember Forster said they had been at school together, and from
+the tone in which he spoke it is evident that they disliked each
+other there. No doubt he has heard from the Doctor that Forster
+is frequently in here," and the Major spoke rather irritably, for
+it seemed to him that Isobel showed more pleasure in the
+Captain's society than she should have done after what he had
+said to her about him; indeed, Isobel, especially when the Doctor
+was present, appeared by no means to object to Captain Forster's
+attentions.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the evening, however, of the day when Isobel had spoken
+to Mrs. Doolan, Bathurst came in, rather late in the evening.</p>
+
+<p>"How are you, Bathurst?" the Major said cordially. "Why, you
+have become quite a stranger. We haven't seen you for over a
+fortnight. Do you know Captain Forster?"</p>
+
+<p>"We were at school together formerly, I believe," Bathurst
+said quietly. "We have not met since, and I fancy we are both
+changed beyond recognition."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Forster looked with surprise at the strong, well knit
+figure. He had not before seen Bathurst, and had pictured him to
+himself as a weak, puny man.</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly should not have known Mr. Bathurst," he said. "I
+have changed a great deal, no doubt, but he has certainly changed
+more."</p>
+
+<p>There was no attempt on the part of either to shake hands. As
+they moved apart Isobel came into the room.</p>
+
+<p>A quick flash of color spread over her face when, upon
+entering, she saw Bathurst talking to her uncle. Then she
+advanced, shook hands with him as usual, and said, "It is quite a
+time since you were here, Mr. Bathurst. If everyone was as full
+of business as you are, we should get on badly."</p>
+
+<p>Then she moved on without waiting for a reply and sat down,
+and was soon engaged in a lively conversation with. Captain
+Forster, whilst Bathurst, a few minutes later, pleading that as
+he had been in the saddle all day he must go and make up for lost
+time, took his leave.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Forster had noticed the flush on Isobel's cheeks when
+she saw Bathurst, and had drawn his own conclusions.</p>
+
+<p>"There has been a flirtation between them," he said to
+himself; "but I fancy I have put a spoke in his wheel. She gave
+him the cold shoulder unmistakably."</p>
+
+<p>April passed, and as matters seemed to be quieting down, there
+being no fresh trouble at any of the stations, the Major told Dr.
+Wade that he really saw no reason why the projected tiger hunt
+should not take place. The Doctor at once took the matter in
+hand, and drove out the next morning to the village from which he
+had received news about the tiger, had a long talk with the
+shikaris of the place, took a general view of the country,
+settled the line in which the beat should take place, and
+arranged for a large body of beaters to be on the spot at the
+time agreed on.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst undertook to obtain the elephants from two Zemindars
+in the neighborhood, who promised to furnish six, all of which
+were more or less accustomed to the sport; while the Major and
+Mr. Hunter, who had been a keen sportsman, although he had of
+late given up the pursuit of large game, arranged for a number of
+bullock carts for the transport of tents and stores.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst himself declined to be one of the party, which was to
+consist of Mr. Hunter and his eldest daughter, the Major and
+Isobel, the Doctor, the two subalterns, and Captain Forster.
+Captain Doolan said frankly that he was no shot, and more likely
+to hit one of the party than the tiger. Captain Rintoul at first
+accepted, but his wife shed such floods of tears at the idea of
+his leaving her and going into danger, that for the sake of peace
+he agreed to remain at home.</p>
+
+<p>Wilson and Richards were greatly excited over the prospect,
+and talked of nothing else; they were burning to wipe out the
+disgrace of having missed on the previous occasion. Each of them
+interviewed the Doctor privately, and implored him to put them in
+a position where they were likely to have the first shot. Both
+used the same arguments, namely, that the Doctor had killed so
+many tigers that one more or less could make no difference to
+him, and if they missed, which they modestly admitted was
+possible, he could still bring the animal down.</p>
+
+<p>As the Doctor was always in a good temper when there was a
+prospect of sport, he promised each of them to do all that he
+could for them, at the same time pointing out that it was always
+quite a lottery which way the tiger might break out.</p>
+
+<p>Isobel was less excited than she would have thought possible
+over the prospect of taking part in a tiger hunt. She had many
+consultations to hold with Mrs. Hunter, the Doctor, and Rumzan as
+to the food to be taken, and the things that would be absolutely
+necessary for camping out; for, as it was possible that the first
+day's beat would be unsuccessful, they were to be prepared for at
+least two days' absence from home. Two tents were to be taken,
+one for the gentlemen, the other for Isobel and Mary Hunter.
+These, with bedding and camp furniture, cooking utensils and
+provisions, were to be sent off at daybreak, while the party were
+to start as soon as the heat of the day was over.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish Bathurst had been coming," Major Hannay said, as, with
+Isobel by his side, he drove out of the cantonment. "He seems to
+have slipped away from us altogether; he has only been in once
+for the last three or four weeks. You haven't had a tiff with him
+about anything, have you, Isobel? It seems strange his ceasing so
+suddenly to come after our seeing so much of him."</p>
+
+<p>"No, uncle, I have not seen him except when you have. What put
+such an idea into your mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, my dear; young people do have tiffs sometimes
+about all sorts of trifles, though I should not have thought that
+Bathurst was the sort of man to do anything of that sort. I don't
+think that he likes Forster, and does not care to meet him. I
+fancy that is at the bottom of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely," Isobel said innocently, and changed the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>It was dark when they reached the appointed spot, and indeed
+from the point where they left the road a native with a torch had
+run ahead to show them the way. The tents looked bright; two or
+three large fires were burning round them, and the lamps had
+already been lighted within.</p>
+
+<p>"These tents do look cozy," Mary Hunter said, as she and
+Isobel entered the one prepared for them. "I do wish one always
+lived under canvas during the hot weather."</p>
+
+<p>"They look cool," Isobel said, "but I don't suppose they are
+really as cool as the bungalows; but they do make them
+comfortable. Here is the bathroom all ready, and I am sure we
+want it after that dusty drive. Will you have one first, or shall
+I? We must make haste, for Rumzan said dinner would be ready in
+half an hour. Fortunately we shan't be expected to do much in the
+way of dressing."</p>
+
+<p>The dinner was a cheerful meal, and everyone was in high
+spirits.</p>
+
+<p>The tiger had killed a cow the day before, and the villagers
+were certain that he had retired to a deep nullah round which a
+careful watch had been kept all day. Probably he would steal out
+by night to make a meal from the carcass of the cow, but it had
+been arranged that he was to do this undisturbed, and that the
+hunt was to take place by daylight.</p>
+
+<p>"It is wonderful how the servants manage everything," Isobel
+said. "The table is just as well arranged as it is at home.
+People would hardly believe in England, if they could see us
+sitting here, that we were only out on a two days' picnic. They
+would be quite content there to rough it and take their meals
+sitting on the ground, or anyway they could get them. It really
+seems ridiculous having everything like this."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing like making yourself comfortable," the
+Doctor said; "and as the servants have an easy time of it
+generally, it does them good to bestir themselves now and then.
+The expense of one or two extra bullock carts is nothing, and it
+makes all the difference in comfort."</p>
+
+<p>"How far is the nullah from here, Doctor?" Wilson, who could
+think of nothing else but the tiger, asked.</p>
+
+<p>"About two miles. It is just as well not to go any nearer. Not
+that he would be likely to pay us a visit, but he might take the
+alarm and shift his quarters. No, no more wine, Major; we shall
+want our blood cool in the morning. Now we will go out to look at
+the elephants and have a talk with the mahouts, and find out
+which of the animals can be most trusted to stand steady. It is
+astonishing what a dread most elephants have of tigers. I was on
+one once that I was assured would face anything, and the brute
+bolted and went through some trees, and I was swept off the pad
+and was half an hour before I opened my eyes. It was a mercy I
+had not every rib broken. Fortunately I was a lightweight, or I
+might have been killed. And I have seen the same sort of thing
+happen a dozen times, so we must choose a couple of steady ones,
+anyhow, for the ladies."</p>
+
+<p>For the next hour they strolled about outside. The Doctor
+cross questioned the mahouts and told off the elephants for the
+party; then there was a talk with the native shikaris and
+arrangements made for the beat, and at an early hour all retired
+to rest. The morning was just breaking when they were called.
+Twenty minutes later they assembled to take a cup of coffee
+before starting. The elephants were arranged in front of the
+tents, and they were just about to mount when a horse was heard
+coming at a gallop.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment," the Major said; "it may be a message of some
+sort from the station." A minute later Bathurst rode in and
+reined up his horse in front of the tent.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Bathurst, what brings you here? Changed your mind at the
+last moment, and found you could get away? That's right; you
+shall come on the pad with me."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I have not come for that, Major; I have brought a
+dispatch that arrived at two o'clock this morning. Doolan opened
+it and came to me, and asked me to bring it on to you, as I knew
+the way and where your camp was to be pitched."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing serious, I hope, Bathurst," the Major said, struck
+with the gravity with which Bathurst spoke. "It must be something
+important, or Doolan would never have routed you off like
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very serious, Major," Bathurst said, in a low voice.
+"May I suggest you had better go into the tent to read it? Some
+of the servants understand English."</p>
+
+<p>"Come in with me," the Major said, and led the way into the
+tent, where the lamps were still burning on the breakfast table,
+although the light had broadened out over the sky outside. It was
+with grave anticipation of evil that the Major took the paper
+from its envelope, but his worst fears were more than verified by
+the contents.</p>
+
+<p>"My Dear Major: The General has just received a telegram with
+terrible news from Meerut. 'Native troops mutinied, murdered
+officers, women, and children, opened jails and burned
+cantonments, and marched to Delhi.' It is reported that there has
+been a general rising there and the massacre of all Europeans.
+Although this is not confirmed, the news is considered probable.
+We hear also that the native cavalry at Lucknow have mutinied.
+Lawrence telegraphs that he has suppressed it with the European
+troops there, and has disarmed the mutineers. I believe that our
+regiment will be faithful, but none can be trusted now. I should
+recommend your preparing some fortified house to which all
+Europeans in station can retreat in case of trouble. Now that
+they have taken to massacre as well as mutiny, God knows how it
+will all end."</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heavens! who could have dreamt of this?" the Major
+groaned. "Massacred their officers, women, and children. All
+Europeans at Delhi supposed to have been massacred, and there
+must be hundreds of them. Can it be true?"</p>
+
+<p>"The telegram as to Meerut is clearly an official one,"
+Bathurst said. "Delhi is as yet but a rumor, but it is too
+probable that if these mutineers and jail birds, flushed with
+success, reached Delhi before the whites were warned, they would
+have their own way in the place, as, with the exception of a few
+artillerymen at the arsenal, there is not a white soldier in the
+place."</p>
+
+<p>"But there were white troops at Meerut," the Major said. "What
+could they have been doing? However, that is not the question
+now. We must, of course, return instantly. Ask the others to come
+in here, Bathurst. Don't tell the girls what has taken place; it
+will be time enough for that afterwards. All that is necessary to
+say is that you have brought news of troubles at some stations
+unaffected before, and that I think it best to return at
+once."</p>
+
+<p>The men were standing in a group, wondering what the news
+could be which was deemed of such importance that Bathurst should
+carry it out in the middle of the night.</p>
+
+<p>"The Major will be glad if you will all go in, gentlemen,"
+Bathurst said, as he joined them.</p>
+
+<p>"Are we to go in, Mr. Bathurst?" Miss Hunter asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I think not, Miss Hunter; the fact is there have been
+some troubles at two or three other places, and the Major is
+going to hold a sort of council of war as to whether the hunt had
+not better be given up. I rather fancy that they will decide to
+go back at once. News flies very fast in India. I think the Major
+would like that he and his officers should be back before it is
+whispered among the Sepoys that the discontent has not, as we
+hoped, everywhere ceased."</p>
+
+<p>"It must be very serious," Isobel said, "or uncle would never
+decide to go back, when all the preparations are made."</p>
+
+<p>"It would never do, you see, Miss Hannay, for the Commandant
+and four of the officers to be away, if the Sepoys should take it
+into their heads to refuse to receive cartridges or anything of
+that sort."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't give us any particulars, then, Mr. Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"The note was a very short one, and was partly made up of
+unconfirmed rumors. As I only saw it in my capacity of a
+messenger, I don't think I am at liberty to say more than
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"What a trouble the Sepoys are," Mary Hunter said pettishly;
+"it is too bad our losing a tiger hunt when we may never have
+another chance to see one!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is a very minor trouble, Mary."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so," the girl said; "just at present it seems
+to me to be very serious."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the Doctor put his head out of the tent.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you come in, Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"We have settled, Bathurst," the Major said, when he entered,
+"that we must, of course, go back at once. The Doctor, however,
+is of opinion that if, after all the preparations were made, we
+were to put the tiger hunt off altogether, it would set the
+natives talking, and the report would go through the country like
+wildfire that some great disaster had happened. We must go back
+at once, and Mr. Hunter, having a wife and daughter there, is
+anxious to get back, too; but the Doctor urges that he should go
+out and kill this tiger. As it is known that you have just
+arrived, he says that if you are willing to go with him, it will
+be thought that you had come here to join the hunt, and if that
+comes off, and the tiger is killed, it does not matter whether
+two or sixty of us went out."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be quite willing to do so," said Bathurst, "and I
+really think that the Doctor's advice is good. If, now that you
+have all arrived upon the ground, the preparations were canceled,
+there can be no doubt that the natives would come to the
+conclusion that something very serious had taken place, and it
+would be all over the place in no time."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Bathurst. Then we will consider that arranged. Now
+we will get the horses in as soon as possible, and be off at
+once."</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later the buggies were brought round, and the
+whole party, with the exception of the Doctor and Bathurst,
+started for Deennugghur.</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_XII_"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h1>
+
+<p>"Let us be off at once," Dr. Wade said to his companion; "we
+can talk as we go along. I have got two rifles with me; I can
+lend you one."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall take no rifle," Bathurst said decidedly, "or rather I
+will take one of the shikaris' guns for the sake of appearance,
+and for use I will borrow one of their spears."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; I will do the shooting, then," the Doctor
+agreed.</p>
+
+<p>The two men then took their places on the elephants most used
+to the work, and told the mahouts of the others to follow in case
+the elephants should be required for driving the tiger out of the
+thick jungle, and they then started side by side for the scene of
+action.</p>
+
+<p>"This is awful news, Bathurst. I could not have believed it
+possible that these fellows who have eaten our salt for years,
+fought our battles, and have seemed the most docile and obedient
+of soldiers, should have done this. That they should have been
+goaded into mutiny by lies about their religion being in danger I
+could have imagined well enough, but that they should go in for
+wholesale massacre, not only of their officers, but of women and
+children, seems well nigh incredible. You and I have always
+agreed that if they were once roused there was no saying what
+they would do, but I don't. think either of us dreamt of anything
+as bad as this."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," Bathurst said quietly; "one has watched this
+cloud gathering, and felt that if it did break it would be
+something terrible. No one can foresee now what it will be. The
+news that Delhi is in the hands of the mutineers, and that these
+have massacred all Europeans, and so placed themselves beyond all
+hope of pardon, will fly though India like a flash of lightning,
+and there is no guessing how far the matter will spread. There is
+no use disguising it from ourselves, Doctor, before a week is
+over there may not be a white man left alive in India, save the
+garrisons of strong places like Agra, and perhaps the
+presidential towns, where there is always a strong European
+force."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't deny that it is possible, Bathurst. If this revolt
+spreads though the three Presidencies the work of conquering
+India will have to be begun again, and worse than that, for we
+should have opposed to us a vast army drilled and armed by
+ourselves, and led by the native officers we have trained. It
+seems stupefying that an empire won piecemeal, and after as hard
+fighting as the world has ever seen, should be lost in a
+week."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor spoke as if the question was a purely impersonal
+one.</p>
+
+<p>"Ugly, isn't it?" he went on; "and to think I have been
+doctoring up these fellows for the last thirty years -- saving
+their lives, sir, by wholesale. If I had known what had been
+coming I would have dosed them with arsenic with as little
+remorse as I should feel in shooting a tiger's whelp. Well, there
+is one satisfaction, the Major has already done something towards
+turning the courthouse into a fortress, and I fancy a good many
+of the scoundrels will go down before they take it, that is, if
+they don't fall on us unawares. I have been a noncombatant all my
+life, but if I can shoot a tiger on the spring I fancy I can hit
+a Sepoy. By Jove, Bathurst, that juggler's picture you told me of
+is likely to come true after all!"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to Heaven it was!" Bathurst said gloomily; "I could
+look without dread at whatever is coming as far as I am
+concerned, if I could believe it possible that I should be
+fighting as I saw myself there."</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh, nonsense, lad!" the Doctor said. "Knowing what I know
+of you, I have no doubt that, though you may feel nervous at
+first, you will get over it in time."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst shook his head. "I know myself too well, Doctor, to
+indulge in any such hopes. Now you see we are going out tiger
+hunting. At present, now, as far as I am concerned, I should feel
+much less nervous if I knew I was going to enter the jungle on
+foot with only this spear, than I do at the thought that you are
+going to fire that rifle a few paces from me."</p>
+
+<p>"You will scarcely notice it in the excitement," the Doctor
+said. "In cold blood I admit you might feel it, but I don't think
+you will when you see the tiger spring out from the jungle at us.
+But here we are. That is the nullah in which they say the tiger
+retires at night. I expect the beaters are lying all round in
+readiness, and as soon as we have taken up our station at its
+mouth they will begin."</p>
+
+<p>A shikari came up as they approached the spot.</p>
+
+<p>"The tiger went out last night, sahib, and finished the cow;
+he came back before daylight, and the beaters are all in
+readiness to begin."</p>
+
+<p>The elephants were soon in position at the mouth of the
+ravine, which was some thirty yards across. At about the same
+distance in front of them the jungle of high, coarse grass and
+thick bush began.</p>
+
+<p>"If you were going to shoot, Bathurst, we would take post one
+each side, but as you are not going to I will place myself nearly
+in the center, and if you are between me and the rocks the tiger
+is pretty certain to go on the other side, as it will seem the
+most open to him. Now we are ready," he said to the shikari.</p>
+
+<p>The latter waved a white rag on the top of a long stick, and
+at the signal a tremendous hubbub of gongs and tom toms, mingled
+with the shouts of numbers of the men, arose. The Doctor looked
+across at his companion. His face was white and set, his muscles
+twitched convulsively; he was looking straight in front of him,
+his teeth set hard.</p>
+
+<p>"An interesting case," the Doctor muttered to himself, "if it
+had been anyone else than Bathurst. I expect the tiger will be
+some little time before it is down. Bathurst," he said, in a
+quiet voice. Three times he repeated the observation, each time
+raising his voice higher, before Bathurst heard him.</p>
+
+<p>"The sooner it comes the better," Bathurst said, between his
+teeth. "I would rather face a hundred tigers than this infernal
+din."</p>
+
+<p>A quarter of an hour passed, and the Doctor, rifle in hand,
+was watching the bushes in front when he saw a slight movement
+among the leaves on his right, the side on which Bathurst was
+stationed.</p>
+
+<p>"That's him, Bathurst; he has headed back; he caught sight of
+either your elephant or mine; he will make a bolt in another
+minute now unless he turns back on the beaters."</p>
+
+<p>A minute later there was a gleam of tawny yellow among the
+long grass, and quick as thought the Doctor fired. With a sharp
+snarl the tiger leaped out, and with two short bounds sprang onto
+the head of the elephant ridden by Bathurst. The mahout gave a
+cry of pain, for the talons of one of the forepaws were fixed in
+his leg. Bathurst leaned forward and thrust the spear he held
+deep into the animal's neck. At the same moment the Doctor fired
+again, and the tiger, shot through the head, fell dead, while,
+with a start, Bathurst lost his balance and fell over the
+elephant's head onto the body of the tiger.</p>
+
+<p>It was fortunate indeed for him that the ball had passed
+through the tiger's skull from ear to ear, and that life was
+extinct before it touched the ground. Bathurst sprang to his
+feet, shaken and bewildered, but otherwise unhurt.</p>
+
+<p>"He is as dead as a door nail!" the Doctor shouted, "and lucky
+for you he was so; if he had had a kick left in him you would
+have been badly torn."</p>
+
+<p>"I should never have fallen off," Bathurst said angrily, "if
+you had not fired. I could have finished him with the spear."</p>
+
+<p>"You might or you might not; I could not wait to think about
+that; the tiger had struck its claws into the mahout's leg, and
+would have had him off the elephant in another moment. That is a
+first rate animal you were riding on, or he would have turned and
+bolted; if he had done so you and the mahout would have both been
+off to a certainty."</p>
+
+<p>By this time the shouts of some natives, who had taken their
+posts in trees near at hand, told the beaters that the shots they
+had heard had been successful, and with shouts of satisfaction
+they came rushing down. The Doctor at once dispatched one of them
+to bring up his trap and Bathurst's horse, and then examined the
+tiger.</p>
+
+<p>It was a very large one, and the skin was in good condition,
+which showed that he had not taken to man eating long. The Doctor
+bound up the wound on the mahout's leg, and then superintended
+the skinning of the animal while waiting for the arrival of the
+trap.</p>
+
+<p>When it came up he said, "You might as well take a seat by my
+side, Bathurst; the syce will sit behind and lead your
+horse."</p>
+
+<p>Having distributed money among the beaters, the Doctor took
+his place in his trap, the tiger skin was rolled up and placed
+under the seat, Bathurst mounted beside him, and they
+started.</p>
+
+<p>"There, you see, Doctor," Bathurst, who had not opened his
+lips from the time he had remonstrated with the Doctor for
+firing, said; "you see it is of no use. I was not afraid of the
+tiger, for I knew that you were not likely to miss, and that in
+any case it could not reach me on the elephant. I can declare
+that I had not a shadow of fear of the beast, and yet, directly
+that row began, my nerves gave way altogether. It was hideous,
+and yet, the moment the tiger charged, I felt perfectly cool
+again, for the row ceased as you fired your first shot. I struck
+it full in the chest, and was about to thrust the spear right
+down, and should, I believe, have killed it, if you had not fired
+again and startled me so that I fell from the elephant."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw that the shouting and noise unnerved you, Bathurst, but
+I saw too that you were perfectly cool and steady when you
+planted your spear into him. If it had not got hold of the
+mahout's leg I should not have fired."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there nothing to be done, Doctor? You know now what it is
+likely we shall have to face with the Sepoys and what it will be
+with me if they rise. Is there nothing you can do for me?"</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor shook his head. "I don't believe in Dutch courage
+in any case, Bathurst; certainly not in yours. There is no saying
+what the effect of spirits might be. I should not recommend them,
+lad. Of course, I can understand your feelings, but I still
+believe that, even if you do badly to begin with, you will pull
+round in the end. I have no doubt you will get a chance to show
+that it is only nerve and not courage in which you are
+deficient."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst was silent, and scarce another word was spoken during
+the drive back to Deennugghur.</p>
+
+<p>The place had its accustomed appearance when they drove up.
+The Doctor, as he drew up before his bungalow, said, "Thank God,
+they have not begun yet! I was half afraid we might have found
+they had taken advantage of most of us being away, and have
+broken out before we got back."</p>
+
+<p>"So was I," Bathurst said. "I have been thinking of nothing
+else since we started."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will go to the Major at once and see what
+arrangements have been made, and whether there is any further
+news."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall go off on my rounds," Bathurst said. "I had arranged
+yesterday to be at Nilpore this morning, and there will be time
+for me to get there now. It is only eleven o'clock yet. I shall
+go about my work as usual until matters come to a head."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor found that the Major was over at the tent which
+served as the orderly office, and at once followed him there.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing fresh, Major?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; we found everything going on as usual. It has been
+decided to put the courthouse as far as we can in a state of
+defense. I shall have the spare ammunition quietly taken over
+there, with stores of provisions. The ladies have undertaken to
+sew up sacking and make gunny bags for holding earth, and, of
+course, we shall get a store of water there. Everything will be
+done quietly at present, and things will be sent in there after
+dark by such servants as we can thoroughly rely upon. At the
+first signs of trouble the residents will make straight for that
+point. Of course we must be guided by circumstances. If the
+trouble begins in the daytime -- that is, if it does begin, for
+the native officers assure us that we can trust implicitly in the
+loyalty of the men -- there will probably be time for everyone to
+gain the courthouse; if it is at night, and without warning, as
+it was at Meerut, I can only say, Doctor, may God help us all,
+for I fear that few, if any, of us would get there alive.
+Certainly not enough to make any efficient defense."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see that there is anything else to do, Major. I
+trust with you that the men will prove faithful; if not, it is a
+black lookout whichever way we take it."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you kill the tiger, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; at least Bathurst and I did it between us. I wounded him
+first. It then sprang upon Bathurst's elephant, and he speared
+it, and I finished it with a shot through the head."</p>
+
+<p>"Speared it!" the Major repeated; "why didn't he shoot it.
+What was he doing with his spear?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was born, Major, with a constitutional horror of firearms,
+inherited from his mother. I will tell you about it some day. In
+fact, he cannot stand noise of any sort. It has been a source of
+great trouble to the young fellow, who in all other respects has
+more than a fair share of courage. However, we will talk about
+that when we have more time on our hands. There is no special
+duty you can give me at present?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there is. You are in some respects the most disengaged
+man in the station, and can come and go without attracting any
+attention. I propose, therefore, that you shall take charge of
+the arrangement of matters in the courthouse. I think that it
+will be an advantage if you move from your tent in there at once.
+There is plenty of room for us all: No one can say at what time
+there may be trouble with the Sepoys, and it would be a great
+advantage to have someone in the courthouse who could take the
+lead if the women, with the servants and so on, come flocking in
+while we were still absent on the parade ground. Besides, with
+your rifle, you could drive any small party off who attempted to
+seize it by surprise. If you were there we would call it the
+hospital, which would be an excuse for sending in stores,
+bedding, and so on.</p>
+
+<p>"You might mention in the orderly room that it is getting so
+hot now that you think it would be as well to have a room or two
+fitted up under a roof, instead of having the sick in tents, in
+case there should be an outbreak of cholera or anything of that
+sort this year. I will say that I think the idea is a very good
+one, and that as the courthouse is very little used, you had
+better establish yourself there. The native officers who hear
+what we say will spread the news. I don't say it will be
+believed, but at least it will serve as an explanation."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think that that will be a very good plan, Major. Two
+of the men who act as hospital orderlies I can certainly depend
+upon, and they will help to receive the things sent in from the
+bungalows, and will hold their tongues as to what is being done;
+I shall leave my tent standing, and use it occasionally as
+before, but will make the courthouse my headquarters. How are we
+off for arms?"</p>
+
+<p>"There are five cases of muskets and a considerable stock of
+ammunition in that small magazine in the lines; one of the first
+things will be to get them removed to the courthouse. We have
+already arranged to do that tonight; it will give us four or five
+muskets apiece."</p>
+
+<p>"Good, Major; I will load them all myself and keep them locked
+up in a room upstairs facing the gateway, and should there be any
+trouble I fancy I could give a good account of any small body of
+men who might attempt to make an entrance. I am very well content
+with my position as Commandant of the Hospital, as we may call
+it; the house has not been much good to us hitherto, but I
+suppose when it was bought it was intended to make this a more
+important station; it is fortunate they did buy it now, for we
+can certainly turn it into a small fortress. Still, of course, I
+cannot disguise from myself that though we might get on
+successfully for a time against your Sepoys, there is no hope of
+holding it long if the whole country rises."</p>
+
+<p>"I quite see that, Doctor," the Major said gravely; "but I
+have really no fear of that. With the assistance of the Rajah of
+Bithoor, Cawnpore is safe. His example is almost certain to be
+followed by almost all the other great landowners. No; it is
+quite bad enough that we have to face a Sepoy mutiny; I cannot
+believe that we are likely to have a general rising on our hands.
+If we do --" and he stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"If we do it is all up with us, Major; there is no disguising
+that. However, we need not look at the worst side of things.
+Well, I will go with you to the orderly room, and will talk with
+you about the hospital scheme, mention that there is a rumor of
+cholera, and so on, and ask if I can't have a part of the
+courthouse; then we can walk across there together, and see what
+arrangement had best be made."</p>
+
+<p>The following day brought another dispatch from the Colonel,
+saying that the rumors as to Delhi were confirmed. The regiments
+there had joined the Meerut mutineers, had shot down their
+officers, and murdered every European they could lay hands on;
+that three officers and six noncommissioned officers, who were in
+charge of the arsenal, had defended it desperately, and had
+finally blown up the magazine with hundreds of its assailants.
+Three of the defenders had reached Meerut with the news.</p>
+
+<p>Day by day the gloom thickened. The native regiments in the
+Punjaub rose as soon as the news from Meerut and Delhi reached
+them, but there were white troops there, and they were used
+energetically and promptly. In some places the mutineers were
+disarmed before they broke out into open violence; in other cases
+mutinous regiments were promptly attacked and scattered. Several
+of the leading chiefs had hastened to assure the Government of
+their fidelity, and had placed their troops and resources at its
+disposal.</p>
+
+<p>But in the Punjaub alone the lookout appeared favorable. In
+the Daob a mutiny had taken place at four of the stations, and
+the Sepoys had marched away to Delhi, but without injuring the
+Europeans.</p>
+
+<p>After this for a week there was quiet, and then at places
+widely apart -- at Hansid and Hissar, to the northwest of Delhi;
+at Nusserabad, in the center of Rajpootana, at Bareilly, and
+other stations in Rohilcund -- the Sepoys rose, and in most
+places massacre was added to mutiny. Then three regiments of the
+Gwalior contingent at Neemuch revolted. Then two regiments broke
+out at Jhansi, and the whole of the Europeans, after desperately
+defending themselves for four days, surrendered on promise of
+their lives, but were instantly murdered.</p>
+
+<p>But before the news of the Jhansi massacre reached Deennugghur
+they heard of other risings nearer to them. On the 30th of May
+the three native regiments at Lucknow rose, but were sharply
+repulsed by the 300 European troops under Sir Henry Lawrence. At
+Seetapoor the Sepoys rose on the 3d of June and massacred all the
+Europeans. On the 4th the Sepoys at Mohundee imitated the example
+of those at Seetapoor, while on the 8th two regiments rose at
+Fyzabad, in the southeastern division of the province, and
+massacred all the Europeans.</p>
+
+<p>Up to this time the news from Cawnpore had still been good.
+The Rajah of Bithoor had offered Sir Hugh Wheeler a reinforcement
+of two guns and 300 men, and it was believed that, seeing this
+powerful and influential chief had thrown his weight into the
+scale on the side of the British, the four regiments of native
+troops would remain quiet.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Hugh had but a handful of Europeans with him, but had just
+received a reinforcement of fifty men of the 32d regiment from
+Lucknow, and he had formed an intrenchment within which the
+Europeans of the station, and the fugitives who had come in from
+the districts around, could take refuge.</p>
+
+<p>Several communications passed between Sir Hugh Wheeler and
+Major Hannay. The latter had been offered the choice of moving
+into Cawnpore with his wing of the regiment, or remaining at
+Deennugghur. He had chosen the latter alternative, pointing out
+that he still believed in the fidelity of the troops with him;
+but that if they went to Cawnpore they would doubtless be carried
+away with other regiments, and would only swell the force of
+mutineers there. He was assured, at any rate, they would not rise
+unless their comrades at Cawnpore did so, but that it was best to
+manifest confidence in them, as not improbably, did they hear
+that they were ordered back to Cawnpore, they might take it as a
+slur on their fidelity, and mutiny at once.</p>
+
+<p>The month had been one of intense anxiety. Gradually stores of
+provisions had been conveyed into the hospital, as it was now
+called; the well inside the yard had been put into working order,
+and the residents had sent in stores of bedding and such portable
+valuables as could be removed.</p>
+
+<p>In but few cases had the outbreaks taken place at night, the
+mutineers almost always breaking out either upon being ordered to
+parade or upon actually falling in; still, it was by no means
+certain when a crisis might come, and the Europeans all lay down
+to rest in their clothes, one person in each house remaining up
+all night on watch, so that at the first alarm all might hurry to
+the shelter of the hospital.</p>
+
+<p>Its position was a strong one -- a lofty wall inclosing a
+courtyard and garden surrounding it. This completely sheltered
+the lower floor from fire; the windows of the upper floor were
+above the level of the wall, and commanded a view over the
+country, while round the flat terraced roof ran a parapet some
+two feet high.</p>
+
+<p>During the day the ladies of the station generally gathered at
+Mr. Hunter's, which was the bungalow nearest to the hospital.
+Here they worked at the bags intended to hold earth, and kept up
+each other's spirits as well as they could. Although all looked
+pale and worn from anxiety and watching, there were, after the
+first few days, no manifestations of fear. Occasionally a tear
+would drop over their work, especially in the case of two of the
+wives of civilians, whose children were in England; but as a
+whole their conversation was cheerful, each trying her best to
+keep up the spirits of the others. Generally, as soon as the
+meeting was complete, Mrs. Hunter read aloud one of the psalms
+suited to their position and the prayers for those in danger,
+then the work was got out and the needles applied briskly. Even
+Mrs. Rintoul showed a fortitude and courage that would not have
+been expected from her.</p>
+
+<p>"One never knows people," Mrs. Doolan said to Isobel, as they
+walked back from one of these meetings, "as long as one only sees
+them under ordinary circumstances. I have never had any patience
+with Mrs. Rintoul, with her constant complaining and imaginary
+ailments. Now that there is really something to complain about,
+she is positively one of the calmest and most cheerful among us.
+It is curious, is it not, how our talk always turns upon home?
+India is hardly ever mentioned. We might be a party of intimate
+friends, sitting in some quiet country place, talking of our
+girlhood. Why, we have learnt more of each other and each other's
+history in the last fortnight than we should have done if we had
+lived here together for twenty years under ordinary
+circumstances. Except as to your little brother, I think you are
+the only one, Isobel, who has not talked much of home."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it is because my home was not a very happy one,"
+Isobel said.</p>
+
+<p>"I notice that all the talk is about happy scenes, nothing is
+ever said about disagreeables. I suppose, my dear, it is just as
+I have heard, that starving people talk about the feasts they
+have eaten, so we talk of the pleasant times we have had. It is
+the contrast that makes them dearer. It is funny, too, if
+anything can be funny in these days, how different we are in the
+evening, when we have the men with us, to what we are when we are
+together alone in the day. Another curious thing is that our
+trouble seems to make us more like each other. Of course we are
+not more like, but we all somehow take the same tone, and seem to
+have given up our own particular ways and fancies.</p>
+
+<p>"Now the men don't seem like that. Mr. Hunter, for example,
+whom I used to think an even tempered and easygoing sort of man,
+has become fidgety and querulous. The Major is even more genial
+and kind than usual. The Doctor snaps and snarls at everyone and
+everything. Anyone listening to my husband would say that he was
+in the wildest spirits. Rintoul is quieter than usual, and the
+two lads have grown older and nicer; I don't say they are less
+full of fun than they were, especially Wilson, but they are less
+boyish in their fun, and they are nice with everyone, instead of
+devoting themselves to two or three of us, you principally.
+Perhaps Richards is the most changed; he thinks less of his
+collars and ties and the polish of his boots than he used to do,
+and one sees that he has some ideas in his head besides those
+about horses. Captain Forster is, perhaps, least changed, but of
+that you can judge better than I can, for you see more of him. As
+to Mr. Bathurst, I can say nothing, for we never see him now. I
+think he is the only man in the station who goes about his work
+as usual; he starts away the first thing in the morning, and
+comes back late in the evening, and I suppose spends the night in
+writing reports, though what is the use of writing reports at the
+present time I don't know. Mr. Hunter was saying last night it
+was very foolish of him. What with disbanded soldiers, and what
+with parties of mutineers, it is most dangerous for any European
+to stir outside the station."</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle was saying the same," Isobel said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, here we separate. Of course you will be in as usual
+this evening?" for the Major's house was the general rendezvous
+after dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Isobel had her private troubles, although, as she often said
+angrily to herself, when she thought of them, what did it matter
+now? She was discontented with herself for having spoken as
+strongly as she did as to the man's cowardice. She was very
+discontented with the Doctor for having repeated it. She was
+angry with Bathurst for staying away altogether, although willing
+to admit that, after he knew what she had said, it was impossible
+that he should meet her as before. Most of all, perhaps, she was
+angry because, at a time when their lives were all in deadly
+peril, she should allow the matter to dwell in her mind a single
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>Late one afternoon Bathurst walked into the Major's bungalow
+just as he was about to sit down to dinner.</p>
+
+<p>"Major, I want to speak to you for a moment," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down and have some dinner, Bathurst. You have become
+altogether a stranger."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Major, but I have a great deal to do. Can you
+spare me five minutes now? It is of importance."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel rose to leave the room.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no reason you should not hear, Miss Hannay, but it
+would be better that none of the servants should be present. That
+is why I wish to speak before your uncle goes in to dinner."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel sat down with an air of indifference.</p>
+
+<p>"For the last week, Major, I have ridden every day five and
+twenty to thirty miles in the direction of Cawnpore; my official
+work has been practically at an end since we heard the news from
+Meerut. I could be of no use here, and thought that I could do no
+better service than trying to obtain the earliest news from
+Cawnpore; I am sorry to say that this afternoon I distinctly
+heard firing in that direction. What the result is, of course, I
+do not know, but I feel that there is little doubt that troubles
+have begun there. But this is not all. On my return home, ten
+minutes ago, I found this letter on my dressing table. It had no
+direction and is, as you see, in Hindustanee," and he handed it
+to the Major, who read:</p>
+
+<p>"To the Sahib Bathurst, -- Rising at Cawnpore today. Nana
+Sahib and his troops will join the Sepoys. Whites will be
+destroyed. Rising at Deennugghur at daylight tomorrow. Troops,
+after killing whites, will join those at Cawnpore. Be warned in
+time -- this tiger is not to be beaten off with a whip."</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heavens!" the Major exclaimed; "can this be true? Can it
+be possible that the Rajah of Bithoor is going to join the
+mutineers? It is impossible; he could never be such a
+scoundrel."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, uncle?" Isobel asked, leaving her seat and coming
+up to him.</p>
+
+<p>The Major translated the letter.</p>
+
+<p>"It must be a hoax," he went on; "I cannot believe it. What
+does this stuff about beating a tiger with a whip mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to say, Major Hannay, that part of the letter
+convinces me that the contents can be implicitly relied upon. The
+writer did not dare sign his name, but those words are sufficient
+to show me, and were no doubt intended to show me, who the
+warning comes from. It is from that juggler who performed here
+some six weeks ago. Traveling about as he does, and putting aside
+altogether those strange powers of his, he has no doubt the means
+of knowing what is going on. As I told you that night, I had done
+him some slight service, and he promised at the time that, if the
+occasion should ever arise, he would risk his life to save mine.
+The fact that he showed, I have no doubt, especially to please
+me, feats that few Europeans have seen before, is, to my mind, a
+proof of his goodwill and that he meant what he said."</p>
+
+<p>"But how do you know that it is from him. Bathurst? You will
+excuse my pressing the question, but of course everything depends
+on my being assured that this communication is trustworthy."</p>
+
+<p>"This allusion to the tiger shows me that, Major. It alludes
+to an incident that I believe to be known only to him and his
+daughter and to Dr. Wade, to whom alone I mentioned it."</p>
+
+<p>As the Major still looked inquiringly, Bathurst went on
+reluctantly. "It was a trifling affair, Major, the result of a
+passing impulse. I was riding home from Narkeet, and while coming
+along the road through the jungle, which was at that time almost
+deserted by the natives on account of the ravages of the man
+eater whom the Doctor afterwards shot, I heard a scream.
+Galloping forward, I came upon the brute, standing with one paw
+upon a prostrate girl, while a man, the juggler, was standing
+frantically waving his arms. On the impulse of the moment I
+sprang from my horse and lashed the tiger across the head with
+that heavy dog whip I carry, and the brute was so astonished that
+it bolted in the jungle.</p>
+
+<p>"That was the beginning and end of affairs, except that,
+although fortunately the girl was practically unhurt, she was so
+unnerved that we had to carry her to the next village, where she
+lay for some time ill from the shock and fright. After that they
+came round here and performed, for my amusement, the feats I told
+you of. So you see I have every reason to believe in the good
+faith of the writer of this letter."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, I should think you had!" the Major said. "Why, my
+dear Bathurst, I had no idea that you could do such a thing!"</p>
+
+<p>"We have all our strong points and our weak ones, Major. That
+was one of my strong ones, I suppose. And now what had best be
+done, sir? That is the important question at present."</p>
+
+<p>This was so evident, that Major Hannay at once dismissed all
+other thoughts from his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I and the other officers must remain at our posts
+until the Sepoys actually arrive. The question is as to the
+others. Now that we know the worst, or believe we know it, ought
+we to send the women and children away?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is the question, sir. But where can they be sent?
+Lucknow is besieged; the whites at Cawnpore must have been
+surrounded by this time; the bands of mutineers are ranging the
+whole country, and at the news that Nana Sahib has joined the
+rebels it is probable that all will rise. I should say that it
+was a matter in which Mr. Hunter and other civilians had better
+be consulted."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we will hold a council," the Major said.</p>
+
+<p>"I think, Major, it should be done quietly. It is probable
+that many of the servants may know of the intentions of the
+Sepoys, and if they see that anything like a council of the
+Europeans was being held they may take the news to the Sepoys,
+and the latter, thinking that their intention is known, may rise
+at once."</p>
+
+<p>"That is quite true. Yes, we must do nothing to arouse
+suspicion. What do you propose, Mr. Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will go and have a talk with the Doctor; he can go round to
+the other officers one by one. I will tell Mr. Hunter, and he
+will tell the other residents, so that when they meet here in the
+evening no explanations will be needed, and a very few words as
+we sit out on the veranda will be sufficient."</p>
+
+<p>"That will be a very good plan. We will sit down to dinner as
+if nothing had happened; if they are watching at all, they will
+be keeping their eyes on us then."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; I will be in by nine o'clock, Major;" and with a
+slight bow to Isobel, Bathurst stepped out through the open
+window, and made his way to the Doctor's.</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h1>
+
+<p>The Doctor had just sat down to dinner when Bathurst came in.
+The two subalterns were dining with him.</p>
+
+<p>"That's good, Bathurst," the Doctor said, as he entered. "Boy,
+put a chair for Mr. Bathurst. I had begun to think that you had
+deserted me as well as everybody else."</p>
+
+<p>"I was not thinking of dining," Bathurst said, as he sat down,
+"but I will do so with pleasure, though I told my man I should be
+back in half an hour;" and as the servant left the room he added,
+"I have much to say, Doctor; get through dinner as quickly as you
+can, and get the servants out of the tent."</p>
+
+<p>The conversation was at once turned by the Doctor upon
+shooting and hunting, and no allusion was made to passing events
+until coffee was put on the table and the servant retired. The
+talk, which had been lively during dinner, then ceased.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Bathurst," the Doctor asked, "I suppose you have
+something serious to tell me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very serious, Doctor;" and he repeated the news he had given
+the Major.</p>
+
+<p>"It could not be worse, Bathurst," the Doctor said quietly,
+after the first shock of the news had passed. "You know I never
+had any faith in the Sepoys since I saw how this madness was
+spreading from station to station. This sort of thing is
+contagious. It becomes a sort of epidemic, and in spite of the
+assurances of the men I felt sure they would go. But this
+scoundrel of Bithoor turning against us is more than I bargained
+for. There is no disguising the fact that it means a general
+rising through Oude, and in that case God help the women and
+children. As for us, it all comes in the line of business. What
+does the Major say?"</p>
+
+<p>"The only question that seemed to him to be open was whether
+the women and children could be got away."</p>
+
+<p>"But there does not seem any possible place for them to go to.
+One or two might travel down the country in disguise, but that is
+out of the question for a large party. There is no refuge nearer
+than Allahabad. With every man's hand against them, I see not the
+slightest chance of a party making their way down."</p>
+
+<p>"You or I might do it easily enough, Doctor, but for women it
+seems to me out of the question; still, that is a matter for each
+married man to decide for himself. The prospect is dark enough
+anyway, but, as before, it seems to me that everything really
+depends upon the Zemindars. If we hold the courthouse it is
+possible the Sepoys may be beaten off in their first attack, and
+in their impatience to join the mutineers, who are all apparently
+marching for Delhi, they may go off without throwing away their
+lives by attacking us, for they must see they will not be able to
+take the place without cannon. But if the Zemindars join them
+with cannon, we may defend ourselves till the last, but there can
+be but one end to it."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor nodded. "That is the situation exactly,
+Bathurst."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad we know the danger, and shall be able to face it
+openly," Wilson said. "For the last month Richards and I have
+been keeping watch alternately, and it has been beastly funky
+work sitting with one's pistols on the table before one,
+listening, and knowing any moment there might be a yell, and
+these brown devils come pouring in. Now, at least, we are likely
+to have a fight for it, and to know that some of them will go
+down before we do."</p>
+
+<p>Richards cordially agreed with his companion.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, what are the orders, Bathurst?" said the
+Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"There are no orders as yet, Doctor. The Major says you will
+go round to the others, Doolan, Rintoul, and Forster, and tell
+them. I am to go round to Hunter and the other civilians. Then,
+this evening we are to meet at nine o'clock, as usual, at the
+Major's. If the others decide that the only plan is for all to
+stop here and fight it out, there will be no occasion for
+anything like a council; it will only have to be arranged at what
+time we all move into the fort, and the best means for keeping
+the news from spreading to the Sepoys. Not that it will make much
+difference after they have once fairly turned in. If there is one
+thing a Hindoo hates more than another, it is getting from under
+his blankets when he has once got himself warm at night. Even if
+they heard at one or two o'clock in the morning that we were
+moving into the fort I don't think they would turn out till
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am sure they would not," the Doctor agreed.</p>
+
+<p>"If there were a few more of us," Richards said, "I should
+vote for our beginning it. If we were to fall suddenly upon them
+we might kill a lot and scare the rest off."</p>
+
+<p>"We are too few for that," the Doctor said. "Besides, although
+Bathurst answers for the good faith of the sender of the warning,
+there has as yet been no act of mutiny that would justify our
+taking such a step as that. It would come to the same thing. We
+might kill a good many, but in the long run three hundred men
+would be more than a match for a dozen, and then the women would
+be at their mercy. Well, we had better be moving, or we shall not
+have time to go round to the bungalows before the people set out
+for the Major's."</p>
+
+<p>It was a painful mission that Bathurst had to perform, for he
+had to tell those he called upon that almost certain death was at
+hand, but the news was everywhere received calmly. The strain had
+of late been so great, that the news that the crisis was at hand
+was almost welcome. He did not stay long anywhere, but, after
+setting the alternative before them, left husband and wife to
+discuss whether to try to make down to Allahabad or to take
+refuge in the fort.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after nine o'clock all were at Major Hannay's. There were
+pale faces among them, but no stranger would have supposed that
+the whole party had just received news which was virtually a
+death warrant. The ladies talked together as usual, while the men
+moved in and out of the room, sometimes talking with the Major,
+sometimes sitting down for a few minutes in the veranda outside,
+or talking there in low tones together.</p>
+
+<p>The Major moved about among them, and soon learned that all
+had resolved to stay and meet together whatever came, preferring
+that to the hardships and unknown dangers of flight.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you have all decided so," he said quietly. "In the
+state the country is, the chances of getting to Allahabad are
+next to nothing. Here we may hold out till Lawrence restores
+order at Lucknow, and then he may be able to send a party to
+bring us in. Or the mutineers may draw off and march to Delhi. I
+certainly think the chances are best here; besides, every rifle
+we have is of importance, and though if any of you had made up
+your minds to try and escape I should have made no objection, I
+am glad that we shall all stand together here."</p>
+
+<p>The arrangements were then briefly made for the removal to the
+courthouse. All were to go back and apparently to retire to bed
+as usual. At twelve o'clock the men, armed, were to call up their
+servants, load them up with such things as were most required,
+and proceed with them, the women, and children, at once to the
+courthouse. Half the men were to remain there on guard, while the
+others would continue with the servants to make journeys
+backwards and forwards to the bungalows, bringing in as much as
+could be carried, the guard to be changed every hour. In the
+morning the servants were all to have the choice given them of
+remaining with their masters or leaving.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Forster was the only dissentient. He was in favor of
+the whole party mounting, placing the women and children in
+carriages, and making off in a body, fighting their way if
+necessary down to Allahabad. He admitted that, in addition to the
+hundred troopers of his own squadron, they might be cut off by
+the mutinous cavalry from Cawnpore, fall in with bodies of rebels
+or be attacked by villagers, but he maintained that there was at
+least some chance of cutting their way through, while, once shut
+up in the courthouse, escape would be well nigh impossible.</p>
+
+<p>"But you all along agreed to our holding the courthouse,
+Forster," the Major said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but then I reckoned upon Cawnpore holding out with the
+assistance of Nana Sahib, and upon the country remaining quiet.
+Now the whole thing is changed. I am quite ready to fight in the
+open, and to take my chance of being killed there, but I protest
+against being shut up like a rat in a hole."</p>
+
+<p>To the rest, however, the proposal appeared desperate. There
+would be no withstanding a single charge of the well trained
+troopers, especially as it would be necessary to guard the
+vehicles. Had it not been for that, the small body of men might
+possibly have cut their way through the cavalry; but even then
+they would be so hotly pursued that the most of them would
+assuredly be hunted down. But encumbered by the women such an
+enterprise seemed utterly hopeless, and the whole of the others
+were unanimously against it.</p>
+
+<p>The party broke up very early. The strain of maintaining their
+ordinary demeanor was too great to be long endured, and the
+ladies with children were anxious to return as soon as possible
+to them, lest at the last moment the Sepoys should have made some
+change in their arrangements. By ten o'clock the whole party had
+left.</p>
+
+<p>The two subalterns had no preparations to make; they had
+already sent most of their things into the hospital; and,
+lighting their pipes, they sat down and talked quietly till
+midnight; then, placing their pistols in their belts and wrapping
+themselves in their cloaks, they went into the Doctor's tent,
+which was next to theirs.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor at once roused his servant, who was sleeping in a
+shelter tent pitched by the side of his. The man came in looking
+surprised at being called. "Roshun," the Doctor said, "you have
+been with me ten years, and I believe you to be faithful."</p>
+
+<p>"I would lay down my life for the sahib," the man said
+quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard nothing of any trouble with the Sepoys?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sahib; they know that Roshun is faithful to his
+master."</p>
+
+<p>"We have news that they are going to rise in the morning and
+kill all Europeans, so we are going to move at once into the
+hospital."</p>
+
+<p>"Good, sahib; what will you take with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"My books and papers have all gone in," the Doctor said; "that
+portmanteau may as well go. I will carry these two rifles myself;
+the ammunition is all there except that bag in the corner, which
+I will sling round my shoulder."</p>
+
+<p>"What are in those two cases, Doctor?" Wilson asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Brandy, lad."</p>
+
+<p>"We may as well each carry one of those, Doctor, if your boy
+takes the portmanteau. It would be a pity to leave good liquor to
+be wasted by those brutes."</p>
+
+<p>"I agree with you, Wilson; besides, the less liquor they get
+hold of the better for us. Now, if you are all ready, we will
+start; but we must move quietly, or the sentry at the quarter
+guard may hear us."</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later they reached the hospital, being the last of
+the party to arrive there.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Major," the Doctor said cheerily, as soon as he entered,
+"as this place is supposed to be under my special charge I will
+take command for the present. Wilson and Richards will act as my
+lieutenants. We have nothing to do outside, and can devote
+ourselves to getting things a little straight here. The first
+thing to do is to light lamps in all the lower rooms; then we can
+see what we are doing, and the ladies will be able to give us
+their help, while the men go out with the servants to bring
+things in; and remember the first thing to do is to bring in the
+horses. They may be useful to us. There is a good store of forage
+piled in the corner of the yard, but the syces had best bring in
+as much more as they can carry. Now, ladies, if you will all
+bring your bundles inside the house we will set about arranging
+things, and at any rate get the children into bed as quickly as
+possible."</p>
+
+<p>As it had been already settled as to the rooms to be occupied,
+the ladies and their ayahs set to work at once, glad to have
+something to employ them. One of the rooms which had been fitted
+up with beds had been devoted to the purposes of a nursery, and
+the children, most of whom were still asleep, were soon settled
+there. Two other rooms had been fitted up for the use of the
+ladies, while the men were occupying two others, the courtroom
+being turned into a general meeting and dining room.</p>
+
+<p>At first there was not much to do; but as the servants,
+closely watched by their masters, went backwards and forwards
+bringing in goods of all kinds, there was plenty of employment in
+carrying them down to a large underground room, where they were
+left to be sorted later on.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor had appointed Isobel Hannay and the two Miss
+Hunters to the work of lighting a fire and getting boiling water
+ready, and a plentiful supply of coffee was presently made,
+Wilson and Richards drawing the water, carrying the heavier loads
+downstairs, and making themselves generally useful.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Forster had not come in. He had undertaken to remain
+in his tent in the lines, where he had quietly saddled and
+unpicketed his horse, tying it up to the tent ropes so that he
+could mount in an instant. He still believed that his own men
+would stand firm, and declared he would at their head charge the
+mutinous infantry, while if they joined the mutineers he would
+ride into the fort. It was also arranged that he should bring in
+word should the Sepoys obtain news of what was going on and rise
+before morning.</p>
+
+<p>All felt better and more cheerful after having taken some
+coffee.</p>
+
+<p>"It is difficult to believe, Miss Hannay," Richards said,
+"that this is all real, and not a sort of picnic, or an early
+start on a hunting expedition."</p>
+
+<p>"It is indeed, Mr. Richards. I can hardly believe even now
+that it is all true, and have pinched myself two or three times
+to make sure that I am awake."</p>
+
+<p>"If the villains venture to attack us," Wilson said, "I feel
+sure we shall beat them off handsomely."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt we shall, Mr. Wilson, especially as it will
+be in daylight. You know you and Mr. Richards are not famous for
+night shooting."</p>
+
+<p>The young men both laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall never hear the last of that tiger story, Miss
+Hannay. I can tell you it is no joke shooting when you have been
+sitting cramped up on a tree for about six hours. We are really
+both pretty good shots. Of course, I don't mean like the Doctor;
+but we always make good scores with the targets. Come, Richards,
+here is another lot of things; if they go on at this rate the
+Sepoys won't find much to loot in the bungalows tomorrow."</p>
+
+<p>Just as daylight was breaking the servants were all called
+together, and given the choice of staying or leaving. Only some
+eight or ten, all of whom belonged to the neighborhood, chose to
+go off to their villages. The rest declared they would stay with
+their masters.</p>
+
+<p>Two of the party by turns had been on watch all night on the
+terrace to listen for any sound of tumult in the lines, but all
+had gone on quietly. Bathurst had been working with the others
+all night, and after seeing that all his papers were carried to
+the courthouse, he had troubled but little about his own
+belongings, but had assisted the others in bringing in their
+goods.</p>
+
+<p>At daylight the Major and his officers mounted and rode
+quietly down towards the parade ground. Bathurst and Mr. Hunter,
+with several of the servants, took their places at the gates, in
+readiness to open and close them quickly, while the Doctor and
+the other Europeans went up to the roof, where they placed in
+readiness six muskets for each man, from the store in the
+courthouse. Isobel Hannay and the wives of the two Captains were
+too anxious to remain below, and went up to the roof also. The
+Doctor took his place by them, examining the lines with a field
+glass.</p>
+
+<p>The officers halted when they reached the parade ground, and
+sat on their horses in a group, waiting for the men to turn out
+as usual.</p>
+
+<p>"There goes the assembly," the Doctor said, as the notes of
+the bugle came to their ears. "The men are turning out of their
+tents. There, I can make out Forster; he has just mounted; a
+plucky fellow that."</p>
+
+<p>Instead of straggling out onto the parade ground as usual, the
+Sepoys seemed to hang about their tents. The cavalry mounted and
+formed up in their lines. Suddenly a gun was fired, and as if at
+the signal the whole of the infantry rushed forward towards the
+officers, yelling and firing, and the latter at once turned their
+horses and rode towards the courthouse.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be alarmed, my dear," the Doctor said to Isobel; "I
+don't suppose anyone is hit. The Sepoys are not good shots at the
+best of times, and firing running they would not be able to hit a
+haystack at a hundred yards. The cavalry stand firm, you see," he
+said, turning his glass in that direction. "Forster is haranguing
+them. There, three of the native officers are riding up to him.
+Ah! one has fired at him! Missed! Ah! that is a better shot," as
+the man fell from his horse, from a shot from his Captain's
+pistol.</p>
+
+<p>The other two rushed at him. One he cut down, and the other
+shot. Then he could be seen again, shouting and waving his sword
+to the men, but their yells could be heard as they rode forward
+at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ride, man, ride!" the Doctor shouted, although his voice
+could not have been heard at a quarter of the distance.</p>
+
+<p>But instead of turning Forster rode right at them. There was a
+confused melee for a moment, and then his figure appeared beyond
+the line, through which he had broken. With yells of fury the
+troopers reined in their horses and tried to turn them, but
+before they could do so the officer was upon them again. His
+revolver cracked in his left hand, and his sword flashed in his
+right. Two or three horses and men were seen to roll over, and in
+a moment he was through them again and riding at full speed for
+the courthouse, under a scattered fire from the infantry, while
+the horsemen, now in a confused mass, galloped behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"Now then," the Doctor shouted, picking up his rifle; "let
+them know we are within range, but mind you don't hit Forster.
+Fire two or three shots, and then run down to the gate. He is
+well mounted, and has a good fifty yards' start of them."</p>
+
+<p>Then taking deliberate aim he fired. The others followed his
+example. Three of the troopers dropped from their horses. Four
+times those on the terrace fired, and then ran down, each, at the
+Doctor's order, taking two guns with him. One of these was placed
+in the hands of each of the officers who had just ridden in, and
+they then gathered round the gate. In two minutes Forster rode in
+at full speed, then fifteen muskets flashed out, and several of
+the pursuers fell from their horses. A minute later the gate was
+closed and barred, and the men all ran up to the roof, from which
+three muskets were fired simultaneously.</p>
+
+<p>"Well done!" the Doctor exclaimed. "That is a good
+beginning."</p>
+
+<p>A minute later a brisk fire was opened from the terrace upon
+the cavalry, who at once turned and rode rapidly back to their
+lines.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Forster had not come scathless through the fray; his
+cheek had been laid open by a sabre cut, and a musket ball had
+gone through the fleshy part of his arm as he rode back.</p>
+
+<p>"This comes of fighting when there is no occasion," the Doctor
+growled, when he dressed his wounds. "Here you are charging a
+host like a paladin of old, forgetful that we want every man who
+can lift an arm in defense of this place."</p>
+
+<p>"I think, Doctor, there is someone else wants your services
+more than I do."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; is anyone else hit?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't know that anyone else is hit, Doctor; but as I
+turned to come into the house after the gates were shut, there
+was that fellow Bathurst leaning against the wall as white as a
+sheet, and shaking all over like a leaf. I should say a strong
+dose of Dutch courage would be the best medicine there."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not do justice to Bathurst, Captain Forster," the
+Doctor said gravely. "He is a man I esteem most highly. In some
+respects he is the bravest man I know, but he is constitutionally
+unable to stand noise, and the sound of a gun is torture to him.
+It is an unfortunate idiosyncrasy for which he is in no way
+accountable."</p>
+
+<p>"Exceedingly unfortunate, I should say," Forster said, with a
+dry laugh; "especially at times like this. It is rather unlucky
+for him that fighting is generally accompanied by noise. If I had
+such an idiosyncrasy, as you call it, I would blow out my
+brains."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps Bathurst would do so, too, Captain Forster, if he had
+not more brains to blow out than some people have."</p>
+
+<p>"That is sharp, Doctor," Forster laughed good temperedly. "I
+don't mind a fair hit."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I must go," the Doctor said, somewhat mollified; "there
+is plenty to do, and I expect, after these fellows have held a
+council of war, they will be trying an attack."</p>
+
+<p>When the Doctor went out he found the whole of the garrison
+busy. The Major had placed four men on the roof, and had ordered
+everyone else to fill the bags that had been prepared for the
+purpose with earth from the garden. It was only an order to the
+men and male servants, but the ladies had all gone out to render
+their assistance. As fast as the natives filled the bags with
+earth the ladies sewed up the mouths of the bags, and the men
+carried them away and piled them against the gate.</p>
+
+<p>The garrison consisted of the six military officers, the
+Doctor, seven civilians, ten ladies, eight children, thirty-eight
+male servants, and six females. The work, therefore, went on
+rapidly, and in the course of two hours so large a pile of bags
+was built up against the gate that there was no probability
+whatever of its being forced.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," the Major said, "we want four dozen bags at least for
+the parapet of the terrace. We need not raise it all, but we must
+build up a breastwork two bags high at each of the angles."</p>
+
+<p>There was only just time to accomplish this when one of the
+watch on the roof reported that the Sepoys were firing the
+bungalows. As soon as they saw that the Europeans had gained the
+shelter of the courthouse the Sepoys, with yells of triumph, had
+made for the houses of the Europeans, and their disappointment at
+finding that not only had all the whites taken refuge in the
+courthouse, but that they had removed most of their property,
+vented itself in setting fire to the buildings, after stripping
+them of everything, and then amused themselves by keeping up a
+straggling fire against the courthouse.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the bags were taken onto the roof, the defenders,
+keeping as much as possible under the shelter of the parapet,
+carried them to the corners of the terrace and piled them two
+deep, thus forming a breastwork four feet high. Eight of the best
+shots were then chosen, and two of them took post at each
+corner.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," the Doctor said cheerfully, as he sat behind a small
+loophole that had been left between the bags, "it is our turn,
+and I don't fancy we shall waste as much lead as they have been
+doing."</p>
+
+<p>The fire from the defenders was slow, but it was deadly, and
+in a very short time the Sepoys no longer dared to show
+themselves in the open, but took refuge behind trees, whence they
+endeavored to reply to the fire on the roof; but even this proved
+so dangerous that it was not long before the fire ceased
+altogether, and they drew off under cover of the smoke from the
+burning bungalows.</p>
+
+<p>Isobel Hannay had met Bathurst as he was carrying a sack of
+earth to the roof.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been wanting to speak to you, Mr. Bathurst, ever since
+yesterday evening, but you have never given me an opportunity.
+Will you step into the storeroom for a few minutes as you come
+down?"</p>
+
+<p>As he came down he went to the door of the room in which
+Isobel was standing awaiting him.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not coming in, Miss Hannay; I believe I know what you
+are going to say. I saw it in your face last night when I had to
+tell that tiger story. You want to say that you are sorry you
+said that you despised cowards. Do not say it; you were perfectly
+right; you cannot despise me one tenth as much as I despise
+myself. While you were looking at the mutineers from the roof I
+was leaning against the wall below well nigh fainting. What do
+you think my feelings must be that here, where every man is
+brave, where there are women and children to be defended, I alone
+cannot bear my part. Look at my face; I know there is not a
+vestige of color in it. Look at my hands; they are not steady
+yet. It is useless for you to speak; you may pity me, but you
+cannot but despise me. Believe me, that death when it comes will
+be to me a happy release indeed from the shame and misery I
+feel."</p>
+
+<p>Then, turning, he left the girl without another word, and went
+about his work. The Doctor had, just before going up to take his
+place on the roof, come across him.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in here, my dear Bathurst," he said, seizing his arm and
+dragging him into the room which had been given up to him for his
+drugs and surgical appliances.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me give you a strong dose of ammonia and ginger; you want
+a pickup I can see by your face."</p>
+
+<p>"I want it, Doctor, but I will not take it," Bathurst said.
+"That is one thing I have made up my mind to. I will take no
+spirits to create a courage that I do not possess."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not courage; it has nothing to do with courage," the
+Doctor said angrily. "It is a simple question of nerves, as I
+have told you over and over again."</p>
+
+<p>"Call it what you like, Doctor, the result is precisely the
+same. I do not mind taking a strong dose of quinine if you will
+give it me, for I feel as weak as a child, but no spirits."</p>
+
+<p>With an impatient shrug of the shoulders the Doctor mixed a
+strong dose of quinine and gave it to him.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later a sudden outburst of musketry took place. Not a
+native showed himself on the side of the house facing the maidan,
+but from the gardens on the other three sides a heavy fire was
+opened.</p>
+
+<p>"Every man to the roof," the Major said; "four men to each of
+the rear corners, three to the others. Do you think you are fit
+to fire, Forster? Had you not better keep quiet for today; you
+will have opportunities enough."</p>
+
+<p>"I am all right, Major," he said carelessly. "I can put my
+rifle through a loophole and fire, though I have one arm in a
+sling. By Jove!" he broke off suddenly; "look at that fellow
+Bathurst -- he looks like a ghost."</p>
+
+<p>The roll of musketry was unabated, and the defenders were
+already beginning to answer it; the bullets sung thickly
+overhead, and above the din could be heard the shouts of the
+natives. Bathurst's face was rigid and ghastly pale. The Major
+hurried to him.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Bathurst," he said, "I think you had better go below.
+You will find plenty of work to do there."</p>
+
+<p>"My work is here," Bathurst said, as if speaking to himself:
+"it must be done."</p>
+
+<p>The Major could not at the moment pay further attention to
+him, for a roar of fire broke out round the inclosure, as from
+the ruined bungalows and from every bush the Sepoys, who had
+crept up, now commenced the attack in earnest, while the
+defenders lying behind their parapet replied slowly and steadily,
+aiming at the puffs of smoke as they darted out. His attention
+was suddenly called by a shout from the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you mad, Bathurst? Lie down, man; you a throwing away
+your life."</p>
+
+<p>Turning round, the Major saw Bathurst standing up -- right by
+the parapet, facing the point where the enemy fire was hottest.
+He held a rifle in his hand but did not attempt to fire; his
+figure swayed slightly to and fro.</p>
+
+<p>"Lie down," the Major shouted, "lie down, sir;" and then as
+Bathurst still stood unmoved he was about to run forward, when
+the Doctor from one side and Captain Forster from the other
+rushed towards him through a storm of bullets, seized him in
+their arms, and dragged him back to the center of the
+terrace.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobly done, gentlemen," the Major said, as they laid Bathurst
+down; "it was almost miraculous your not being hit."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst had struggled fiercely for a moment, and then his
+resistance had suddenly ceased, and he had been dragged back like
+a wooden figure. His eyes were closed now.</p>
+
+<p>"Has he been hit, Doctor?" the Major asked. "It seems
+impossible he can have escaped. What madness possessed him to put
+himself there as a target?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't think he is hit," the Doctor said, as he examined
+him. "I think he has fainted. We had better carry him down to my
+room. Shake hands, Forster; I know you and Bathurst were not good
+friends, and you risked your life to save him."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not think who it was," Forster said, with a careless
+laugh. "I saw a man behaving like a madman, and naturally went to
+pull him down. However, I shall think better of him in future,
+though I doubt whether he was in his right senses."</p>
+
+<p>"He wanted to be killed," the Doctor said quietly; "and the
+effort that he made to place himself in the way of death must
+have been greater than either you or I can well understand,
+Forster. I know the circumstances of the case. Morally I believe
+there is no braver man living than he is; physically he has the
+constitution of a timid woman; it is mind against body."</p>
+
+<p>"The distinction is too fine for me, Doctor," Forster said, as
+he turned to go off to his post by the parapet. "I understand
+pluck and I understand cowardice, but this mysterious mixture you
+speak of is beyond me altogether."</p>
+
+<p>The Major and Dr. Wade lifted Bathurst and carried him below.
+Mrs. Hunter, who had been appointed chief nurse, met them.</p>
+
+<p>"Is he badly wounded, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; he is not wounded at all, Mrs. Hunter. He stood up at the
+edge of the parapet and exposed himself so rashly to the Sepoys'
+fire that we had to drag him away, and then the reaction, acting
+on a nervous temperament, was too much for him, and he fainted.
+We shall soon bring him round. You can come in with me, but keep
+the others away."</p>
+
+<p>The Major at once returned to the terrace.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the restoratives the Doctor poured through his
+lips, and cold water dashed in his face, Bathurst was some time
+before he opened his eyes. Seeing Mrs. Hunter and the Doctor
+beside him, he made an effort to rise.</p>
+
+<p>"You must lie still, Bathurst," the Doctor said, pressing his
+hand on his shoulder. "You have done a very foolish thing, a very
+wrong thing. You have tried to throw away your life."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I did not. I had no thought of throwing away my life,"
+Bathurst said, after a pause. "I was trying to make myself stand
+fire. I did not think whether I should be hit or not. I am not
+afraid of bullets, Doctor; it's the horrible, fiendish noise that
+I cannot stand."</p>
+
+<p>"I know, my boy," the Doctor said kindly; "but it comes to the
+same thing. You did put yourself in the way of bullets when your
+doing so was of no possible advantage, and it is almost a miracle
+that you escaped unhurt. You must remain here quiet for the
+present. II shall leave you in charge of Mrs. Hunter. There is
+nothing for you to do on the roof at present. This attack is a
+mere outbreak of rage on the part of the Sepoys that we have all
+escaped them. They know well enough they can't take this house by
+merely firing away at the roof. When they attack in earnest it
+will be quite time for you to take part in the affair again. Now,
+Mrs. Hunter, my orders are absolute that he is not to be allowed
+to get up."</p>
+
+<p>On the Doctor leaving the room he found several of the ladies
+outside; the news that Mr. Bathurst had been carried down had
+spread among them.</p>
+
+<p>"Is he badly hurt, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, ladies. Mr. Bathurst is, unfortunately for himself, an
+extremely nervous man, and the noise of firearms has an effect
+upon him that he cannot by any effort of his own overcome. In
+order, as he says, to try and accustom himself to it, he went and
+stood at the edge of the parapet in full sight of the Sepoys, and
+let them blaze away at him. He must have been killed if Forster
+and I had not dragged him away by main force. Then came the
+natural reaction, and he fainted. That is all there is about it.
+Poor fellow, he is extremely sensitive on the ground of personal
+courage. In other respects I have known him do things requiring
+an amount of pluck that not one man in a hundred possesses, and I
+wish you all to remember that his nervousness at the effect of
+the noise of firearms is a purely constitutional weakness, for
+which he is in no way to be blamed. He has just risked his life
+in the most reckless manner in order to overcome what he
+considers, and what he knows that some persons consider, is
+cowardice, and it would be as cruel, and I may say as
+contemptible, to despise him for a constitutional failing as it
+would be to despise a person for being born a humpback or a
+cripple. But I cannot stand talking any longer. I shall be of
+more use on the roof than I am here."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel Hannay was not among those who had gathered near the
+door of the room in which Bathurst was lying, but the Doctor had
+raised his voice, and she heard what he said, and bent over her
+work of sewing strips of linen together for bandages with a paler
+face than had been caused by the outbreak of musketry. Gradually
+the firing ceased. The Sepoys had suffered heavily from the
+steady fire of the invisible defenders and gradually drew off,
+and in an hour from the commencement of the attack all was silent
+round the building.</p>
+
+<p>"So far so good, ladies," the Major said cheerily, as the
+garrison, leaving one man on watch, descended from the roof. "We
+have had no casualties, and I think we must have inflicted a good
+many, and the mutineers are not likely to try that game on again,
+for they must see that they are wasting ammunition, and are doing
+us no harm. Now I hope the servants have got tiffin ready for us,
+for I am sure we have all excellent appetites."</p>
+
+<p>"Tiffin is quite ready, Major," Mrs. Doolan, who had been
+appointed chief of the commissariat department, said cheerfully.
+"The servants were a little disorganized when the firing began,
+but they soon became accustomed to it, and I think you will find
+everything in order in the hall."</p>
+
+<p>The meal was really a cheerful one. The fact that the first
+attack had passed over without anyone being hit raised the
+spirits of the women, and all were disposed to look at matters in
+a cheerful light. The two young subalterns were in high spirits,
+and the party were more lively than they had been since the first
+outbreak of the mutiny. All had felt severely the strain of
+waiting, and the reality of danger was a positive relief after
+the continuous suspense. It was much to them to know that the
+crisis had come at last, that they were still all together and
+the foe were without.</p>
+
+<p>"It is difficult to believe," Mrs. Doolan said, "that it was
+only yesterday evening we were all gathered at the Major's. It
+seems an age since then."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed," Mrs. Rintoul agreed; "the night seemed endless.
+The worst time was the waiting till we were to begin to move
+over. After that I did not so much mind, though it seemed more
+like a week than a night while the things were being brought in
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"I think the worse time was while we were waiting watching
+from the roof to see whether the troops would come out on parade
+as usual," Isobel said. "When my uncle and the others were all
+in, and Captain Forster, and the gates were shut, it seemed that
+our anxieties were over."</p>
+
+<p>"That was a mad charge of yours, Forster," the Major said. "It
+was like the Balaclava business -- magnificent; but it wasn't
+war."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not think of it one way or the other," Captain Forster
+laughed. "I was so furious at the insolence off those dogs
+attacking me, that I thought of nothing else, and just went at
+them; but of course it was foolish."</p>
+
+<p>"It did good," the Doctor said. "It showed the Sepoys how
+little we thought of them, and how a single white officer was
+ready to match himself against a squadron. It will render them a
+good deal more careful in their attack than they otherwise would
+have been. It brought them under our fire, too, and they suffered
+pretty heavily; and I am sure the infantry must have lost a good
+many men from our fire just now. I hope they will come to the
+conclusion that the wisest thing they can do is to march away to
+Delhi and leave us severely alone. Now what are your orders,
+Major, for after breakfast?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think the best thing is for everyone to lie down for a few
+hours," the Major said. "No one had a wink of sleep last night,
+and most of us have not slept much for some nights past. We must
+always keep two men on the roof, to be relieved every two hours.
+I will draw up a regular rota for duty; but except those two, the
+rest had better take a good sleep. We may be all called upon to
+be under arms at night."</p>
+
+<p>"I will go on the first relief, Major," the Doctor said. "I
+feel particularly wide awake. It is nothing new to me to be up
+all night. Put Bathurst down with me," he said, in a low tone, as
+the Major rose from the table. "He knows that I understand him,
+and it will be less painful for him to be with me than with
+anyone else. I will go up at once, and send young Harper down to
+his breakfast. There will be no occasion to have Bathurst up this
+time. The Sepoys are not likely to be trying any pranks at
+present. No doubt they have gone back to their lines to get a
+meal."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor had not been long at his post when Isobel Hannay
+came up onto the terrace. They had seen each other alone
+comparatively little of late, as the Doctor had given up his
+habit of dropping in for a chat in the morning since their
+conversation about Bathurst.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, what is it?" he asked. "This is no place for
+you, for there are a few fellows still lurking among the trees,
+and they send a shot over the house occasionally."</p>
+
+<p>"I came up to say that I am sorry, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"That is right, Isobel. Always say you are sorry when you are
+so, although in nine cases out of ten, and this is one of them,
+the saying so is too late to do much good."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are rather hard upon me, Doctor. I know you were
+speaking at me today when you were talking to the others,
+especially in what you said at the end."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I was; but I think you quite deserved it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know I did; but it was hard to tell me it was as
+contemptible to despise a man for a physical weakness he could
+not help, as to despise one for being born humpbacked or a
+cripple, when you know that my brother was so."</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted you to feel that your conduct had been contemptible,
+Isobel, and I put it in the way that was most likely to come home
+to you. I have been disappointed in you. I thought you were more
+sensible than the run of young women, and I found out that you
+were not. I thought you had some confidence in my judgment, but
+it turned out that you had not. If Bathurst had been killed when
+he was standing up, a target for the Sepoys, I should have held
+you morally responsible for his death."</p>
+
+<p>"You would have shared the responsibility, anyhow, Doctor, for
+it was you who repeated my words to him."</p>
+
+<p>"We will not go over that ground again," said the Doctor
+quietly. "I gave you my reasons for doing so, and those reasons
+are to my mind convincing. Now I will tell you how this
+constitutional nervousness on his part arose. He told me the
+story; but as at that time there had been no occasion for him to
+show whether he was brave or otherwise, I considered my lips
+sealed. Now that his weakness has been exhibited, I consider
+myself more than justified in explaining its origin."</p>
+
+<p>And he then repeated the story Bathurst had told him.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," he said, when he had finished, "it is a
+constitutional matter beyond his control; it is a sort of
+antipathy. I have known a case of a woman courageous in all other
+respects, who, at the sight of even a dead cockroach, would faint
+away. I have seen one of the most gallant officers of my
+acquaintance turn pale at the sight of a spider. Certainly no one
+would think of calling either one or the other coward; and
+assuredly such a name should not be applied to a man who would
+face a tiger armed only with a whip in defense of a native woman,
+because his nerves go all to pieces at the sound of
+firearms."</p>
+
+<p>"If you had told me all this before I should never have spoken
+as I did," Isobel pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not go into the full details, but I told you that he
+was not responsible for his want of firmness under fire, and that
+I knew him in other respects to be a brave man," the Doctor said
+uncompromisingly. "Since then you have by your manner driven him
+away from you. You have flirted -- well, you may not call it
+flirting," he broke off in answer to a gesture of denial, "but it
+was the same thing -- with a man who is undoubtedly a gallant
+soldier -- a very paladin, if you like -- but who, in spite of
+his handsome face and pleasant manner, is no more to be compared
+with Bathurst in point of moral qualities or mental ability than
+light to dark, and this after I had like an old fool gone out of
+my way to warn you. You have disappointed me altogether, Isobel
+Hannay."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel stood motionless before him, with downcast eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there, my dear," the Doctor went on hurriedly, as he
+saw a tear glisten in her eyelashes; "don't let us say anything
+more about it. In the first place, it is no affair of mine; and
+in the second place, your point of view was that most women would
+take at a time like this; only, you know, I expected you would
+not have done just as other women would. We cannot afford to
+quarrel now, for there is no doubt that, although we may put a
+good face on the matter, our position is one of grave peril, and
+it is of no use troubling over trifles. Now run away, and get a
+few hours' sleep if you can. You will want all your strength
+before we are through with this business."</p>
+
+<p>While the Doctor had been talking to Isobel, the men had
+gathered below in a sort of informal council, the subject being
+Bathurst's conduct on the roof.</p>
+
+<p>"I would not have believed it if I had not seen it," Captain
+Rintoul said. "The man was absolutely helpless with fright; I
+never saw such an exhibition; and then his fainting afterwards
+and having to be carried away was disgusting; in fact, it is
+worse than that."</p>
+
+<p>There was a general murmur of assent.</p>
+
+<p>"It is disgraceful," one of the civilians said; "I am ashamed
+that the man should belong to our service; the idea of a fellow
+being helpless by fright when there are women and children to be
+defended -- it is downright revolting."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he did go and stick himself up in front," Wilson said;
+"you should remember that. He may have been in a blue funk, I
+don't say he wasn't; still, you know, he didn't go away and try
+to hide himself, but he stuck himself up in front for them to
+fire at. I think we ought to take that into consideration."</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Wade says Bathurst put himself there to try and accustom
+himself to fire," Captain Forster said. "Mind, I don't pretend to
+like the man. We were at school together, and he was a coward
+then and a sneak, but for all that one should look at it fairly.
+The Doctor asserts that Bathurst is morally brave, but that
+somehow or other his nerves are too much for him. I don't pretend
+to understand it myself, but there is no doubt about the Doctor's
+pluck, and I don't think he would stand up for Bathurst as he
+does unless he really thought he was not altogether accountable
+for showing the white feather. I think, too, from what he let
+drop, that the Major is to some extent of the same opinion. What
+do you think, Doolan?"</p>
+
+<p>"I like Bathurst," Captain Doolan said; "I have always thought
+him a first rate fellow; but one can't stick up, you know, for a
+fellow who can't behave as a gentleman ought to, especially when
+there are women and children in danger."</p>
+
+<p>"It. is quite impossible that we should associate with him,"
+Captain Rintoul said. "I don't propose that we should tell him
+what we think of him, but I think we ought to leave him severely
+alone."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say that he ought to be sent to Coventry," Richards
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"I should not put it in that way," Mr. Hunter said gravely. "I
+have always esteemed Bathurst. I look upon it as a terribly sad
+case; but I agree with Captain Rintoul that, in the position in
+which we are now placed, a man who proves himself to be a coward
+must be made to feel that he stands apart from us. I should not
+call it sending him to Coventry, or anything of that sort, but I
+do think that we should express by our manner that we don't wish
+to have any communication with him."</p>
+
+<p>There was a general expression of assent to this opinion,
+Wilson alone protesting against it.</p>
+
+<p>"You can do as you like," he said; "but certainly I shall
+speak to Bathurst, and I am sure the Doctor and Major Hannay will
+do so. I don't want to stand up for a coward, but I believe what
+the Doctor says. I have seen a good deal of Bathurst, and I like
+him; besides, haven't you heard the story the Doctor has been
+telling about his attacking a tiger with a whip to save a native
+woman? I don't care what anyone says, a fellow who is a downright
+coward couldn't do a thing like that."</p>
+
+<p>"Who told the Doctor about it?" Farquharson asked. "If he got
+it from Bathurst, I don't think it goes for much after what we
+have seen."</p>
+
+<p>Wilson would have replied angrily, but Captain Doolan put his
+hand on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up, Wilson," he said; "this is no time for disputes; we
+are all in one boat here, and must row together like brothers.
+You go your own way about Bathurst, I don't blame you for it; he
+is a man everyone has liked, a first rate official, and a good
+fellow all round, except he is not one of the sociable kind. At
+any other time one would not think so much of this, but at
+present for a man to lack courage is for him to lack everything.
+I hope he will come better out of it than it looks at present. He
+will have plenty of chances here, and no one will be more glad
+than I shall to see him pull himself together."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor, however, would have quarreled with everyone all
+round when he heard what had been decided upon, had not Major
+Hannay taken him aside and talked to him strongly.</p>
+
+<p>"It will never do, Doctor, to have quarrels here, and as
+commandant I must beg of you not to make this a personal matter.
+I am very sorry for this poor fellow; I accept entirely your view
+of the matter; but at the same time I really can't blame the
+others for looking at it from a matter of fact point of view.
+Want of courage is at all times regarded by men as the most
+unpardonable of failings, and at a time like the present this
+feeling is naturally far stronger even than usual. I hope with
+you that Bathurst will retrieve himself yet, but we shall
+certainly do him no good by trying to fight his battle until he
+does. You and I, thinking as we do, will of course make no
+alteration in our manner towards him. I am glad to hear that
+young Wilson also stands as his friend. Let matters go on
+quietly. I believe they will come right in the end."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor was obliged to acknowledge that the Major's counsel
+was wise, and to refrain from either argument or sarcasm; but the
+effort required to check his natural tendency to wordy conflict
+was almost too great for him, and when not engaged in his own
+special duties he spent hours in one of the angles of the terrace
+keenly watching every tree and bush within range, and firing
+vengefully whenever he caught sight of a lurking native. So
+accurate was his aim that the Sepoys soon learned to know and
+dread the crack of his rifle; and whenever it spoke out the
+ground within its range was speedily clear of foes.</p>
+
+<p>The matter, however, caused a deep if temporary estrangement
+between Wilson and Richards. Although constantly chaffing each
+other, and engaged in verbal strife, they had hitherto been firm
+friends. Their rivalry in the matter of horseflesh had not
+aroused angry feelings, even their mutual adoration of Isobel
+Hannay had not affected a breach in their friendship; but upon
+the subject of sending Bathurst to Coventry they quarreled so
+hotly, that for a time they broke off all communication with each
+other, and both in their hearts regretted that their schoolboy
+days had passed, and that they could not settle the matter in
+good schoolboy fashion.</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h1>
+
+<p>But though obliged to defer to Major Hannay's wishes, and to
+abstain from arguing with the men the question of Bathurst being
+given the cold shoulder, Dr. Wade had already organized the
+ladies in his favor. During the afternoon he had told them the
+tiger story, and had confidentially informed them how it was that
+Bathurst from his birth had been the victim of something like
+nervous paralysis at all loud sounds, especially those of the
+discharge of firearms.</p>
+
+<p>"His conduct today," he said, "and his courage in rescuing
+that native girl from the tiger, illustrate his character. He is
+cool, brave, and determined, as might be expected from a man of
+so well balanced a mind as his; and even when his nerves utterly
+broke down under the din of musketry, his will was so far
+dominant that he forced himself to go forward and stand there
+under fire, an act which was, under the circumstances, simply
+heroic."</p>
+
+<p>There is little difficulty in persuading women as to the
+merits of a man they like, and Bathurst had, since the troubles
+began, been much more appreciated than before by the ladies of
+Deennugghur. They had felt there was something strengthening and
+cheering in his presence, for while not attempting to minimize
+the danger, there was a calm confidence in his manner that
+comforted and reassured those he talked to.</p>
+
+<p>In the last twenty-four hours, too, he had unobtrusively
+performed many little kindnesses; had aided in the removals,
+carried the children, looked after the servants, and had been
+foremost in the arrangement of everything that could add to the
+comfort of the ladies.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you have told us all about it, Doctor," Mrs. Doolan
+said; "and, of course, no one would dream of blaming him. I had
+heard that story about his leaving the army years ago; but
+although I had only seen him once or twice, I did not believe it
+for a minute. What you tell us now, Doctor, explains the whole
+matter. I pity him sincerely. It must be something awful for a
+man at a time like this not to be able to take his part in the
+defense, especially when there are us women here. Why, it would
+pain me less to see Jim brought in dead, than for him to show the
+white feather. What can we do for the poor fellow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Treat him just as usual. There is nothing else you can do,
+Mrs. Doolan. Any tone of sympathy, still less of pity, would be
+the worst thing possible. He is in the lowest depths at present;
+but if he finds by your tone and manner that you regard him on
+the same footing as before, he will gradually come round, and I
+hope that before the end of the siege he will have opportunities
+of retrieving himself. Not under fire -- that is hopeless; but in
+other ways."</p>
+
+<p>"You may be sure we will do all we can, Doctor," Mrs. Doolan
+said warmly; "and there are plenty of ways he will be able to
+make himself most useful. There is somebody wanted to look after
+all those syces and servants, and it would be a comfort to us to
+have someone to talk to occasionally; besides, all the children
+are fond of him."</p>
+
+<p>This sentiment was warmly echoed; and thus, when the
+determination at which the men had arrived to cut Bathurst became
+known, there was something like a feminine revolution.</p>
+
+<p>"You may do as you like," Mrs. Doolan said indignantly; "but
+if you think that we are going to do anything so cruel and
+unjust, you are entirely mistaken, I can tell you."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Rintoul was equally emphatic, and Mrs. Hunter quietly,
+but with as much decision, protested. "I have always regarded Mr.
+Bathurst as a friend," she said, "and I shall continue to do so.
+It is very sad for him that he cannot take part in the defense,
+but it is no more fair to blame him than it would be to blame us,
+because we, too, are noncombatants."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel Hannay had taken no part in the first discussion among
+the ladies, nor did she say anything now.</p>
+
+<p>"It is cruel and unjust," she said to herself, "but they only
+think as I did. I was more cruel and unjust than they, for there
+was no talk of danger then. I expressed my contempt of him
+because there was a suspicion that he had showed cowardice ten
+years ago, while they have seen it shown now when there is
+fearful peril. If they are cruel and unjust, what was I?"</p>
+
+<p>Later on the men gathered together at one end of the room, and
+talked over the situation.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Wade," the Major said quietly, "I shall be obliged if you
+will go and ask Mr. Bathurst to join us. He knows the people
+round here better than any of us, and his opinion will be
+valuable."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor, who had several times been in to see Bathurst,
+went to his room.</p>
+
+<p>"The Major wants you to join us, Bathurst; we are having a
+talk over things, and he wishes to have your opinion. I had
+better tell you that as to yourself the camp is divided into two
+parties. On one side are the Major, Wilson, and myself, and all
+the ladies, who take, I need not say, a common sense view of the
+matter, and recognize that you have done all a man could do to
+overcome your constitutional nervousness, and that there is no
+discredit whatever attached to you personally. The rest of the
+men, I am sorry to say, at present take another view of the case,
+and are disposed to show you the cold shoulder."</p>
+
+<p>"That, of course," Bathurst said quietly; "as to the ladies'
+view of it, I know that it is only the result of your good
+offices, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will come," the Doctor said, pleased that Bathurst
+seemed less depressed than he had expected.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly I will come, Doctor," Bathurst said, rising; "the
+worst is over now -- everyone knows that I am a coward -- that is
+what I have dreaded. There is nothing else for me to be afraid
+of, and it is of no use hiding myself."</p>
+
+<p>"We look quite at home here, Mr. Bathurst, don't we?" Mrs.
+Doolan said cheerfully, as he passed her; "and I think we all
+feel a great deal more comfortable than we did when you gave us
+your warning last night; the anticipation is always worse than
+the reality."</p>
+
+<p>"Not always, I think, Mrs. Doolan," he said quietly; "but you
+have certainly made yourselves wonderfully at home, though your
+sewing is of a more practical kind than that upon which you are
+ordinarily engaged."</p>
+
+<p>Then he passed on with the Doctor to the other end of the
+room. The Major nodded as he came up.</p>
+
+<p>"All right again now, Bathurst, I hope? We want your opinion,
+for you know, I think, more of the Zemindars in this part of the
+country than any of us. Of course, the question is, will they
+take part against us?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid they will, Major. I had hoped otherwise; but if
+it be true that the Nana has gone -- and as the other part of the
+message was correct, I have no doubt this is so also -- I am
+afraid they will be carried away with the stream."</p>
+
+<p>"And you think they have guns?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not the least doubt of it; the number given up was a
+mere fraction of those they were said to have possessed."</p>
+
+<p>"I had hoped the troops would have marched away after the
+lesson we gave them this morning, but, so far as we can make out,
+there is no sign of movement in their lines. However, they may
+start at daybreak tomorrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I will go out to see if you like, Major," Bathurst said
+quietly. "I can get native clothes from the servants, and I speak
+the language well enough to pass as a native; so if you give me
+permission I will go out to the lines and learn what their
+intentions are."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be a very dangerous undertaking," the Major said
+gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no fear whatever of danger of that kind, Major; my
+nerves are steady enough, except when there is a noise of
+firearms, and then, as you all saw this morning, I cannot control
+them, do what I will. Risks of any other kind I am quite prepared
+to undertake, but in this matter I think the danger is very
+slight, the only difficulty being to get through the line of
+sentries they have no doubt posted round the house. Once past
+them, I think there is practically no risk whatever of their
+recognizing me when made up as a native. The Doctor has, no
+doubt, got some iodine in his surgery, and a coat of that will
+bring me to the right color."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you are ready to undertake it, I will not refuse,"
+the Major said. "How would you propose to get out?"</p>
+
+<p>"I noticed yesterday that the branches of one of the trees in
+the garden extended beyond the top of the wall. I will climb up
+that and lower myself on the other side by a rope; that is a very
+simple matter. The spot is close to the edge of Mr. Hunter's
+compound, and I shall work my way through the shrubbery till I
+feel sure I am beyond any sentries who may be posted there; the
+chances are that they will not be thick anywhere, except opposite
+the gate. By the way, Captain Forster, before I go I must thank
+you for having risked your life to save mine this morning. I
+heard from Mrs. Hunter that it was you and the Doctor who rushed
+forward and drew me back."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not worth talking about," Captain Forster said
+carelessly. "You seemed bent on making a target of yourself; and
+as the Major's orders were that everyone was to lie down, there
+was nothing for it but to remove you."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst turned to Dr. Wade. "Will you superintend my get up,
+Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," the Doctor said, with alacrity. "I will guarantee
+that, with the aid of my boy, I will turn you out so that no one
+would know you even in broad daylight, to say nothing of the
+dark."</p>
+
+<p>A quarter of an hour sufficed to metamorphose Bathurst into an
+Oude peasant. He did not return to the room, but, accompanied by
+the Doctor, made his way to the tree he had spoken of.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, you have taken no arms," the Doctor said
+suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"They would be useless, Doctor; if I am recognized I shall be
+killed; if I am not discovered, and the chances are very slight
+of my being so, I shall get back safely. By the way, we will tie
+some knots on that rope before I let myself down. I used to be
+able to climb a rope without them, but I doubt whether I could do
+so now."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, God bless you, lad, and bring you back safely! You may
+make as light of it as you will, but it is a dangerous
+expedition. However, I am glad you have undertaken it, come what
+may, for it has given you the opportunity of showing you are not
+afraid of danger when it takes any other form than that of
+firearms. There are plenty of men who would stand up bravely
+enough in a fight, who would not like to undertake this task of
+going out alone in the dark into the middle of these bloodthirsty
+scoundrels. How long do you think you will be?"</p>
+
+<p>"A couple of hours at the outside."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, at the end of an hour I shall be back here again. Don't
+be longer than you can help, lad, for I shall be very anxious
+until you return."</p>
+
+<p>When the Doctor re-entered the house there was a chorus of
+questions:</p>
+
+<p>"Has Mr. Bathurst started?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you not bring him in here before he left? We should
+all have liked to have said goodby to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he has gone. I have seen him over the wall; and it was
+much better that he should go without any fuss. He went off just
+as quietly and unconcernedly as if he had been going out for an
+ordinary evening's walk. Now I am going up onto the roof. I don't
+say we should hear any hubbub down at the lines if he were
+discovered there, but we should certainly hear a shout if he came
+across any of the sentries round the house."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he taken any arms, Doctor?" the Major asked.</p>
+
+<p>"None whatever, Major. I asked him if he would not take
+pistols, but he refused."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't understand that," Captain Forster remarked. "If
+I had gone on such a business I would have taken a couple of
+revolvers. I am quite ready to take my chance of being killed
+fighting, but I should not like to be seized and hacked to pieces
+in cold blood. My theory is a man should sell his life as dearly
+as he can."</p>
+
+<p>"That is the animal instinct, Forster," the Doctor said
+sharply; "though I don't say that I should not feel the same
+myself; but I question whether Bathurst's is not a higher type of
+courage."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't aspire to Bathurst's type of courage, Doctor,"
+Forster said, with a short laugh.</p>
+
+<p>But the Doctor did not answer. He had already turned away, and
+was making for the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"May I go with you, Doctor?" Isobel Hannay said, following
+him. "It is very hot down here."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; come along, child; but there is no time to lose, for
+Bathurst must be near where they are likely to have posted their
+sentries by this time."</p>
+
+<p>"Everything quiet, Wilson?" he asked the young subaltern, who,
+with another, was on guard on the roof.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; we have heard nothing except a few distant shouts and
+noises out at the lines. Round here there has been nothing
+moving, except that we heard someone go out into the garden just
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"I went out with Bathurst," the Doctor said. "He has gone in
+the disguise of a native to the Sepoy lines, to find out what are
+their intentions."</p>
+
+<p>"I heard the talk over it, Doctor. I only came up on watch a
+few minutes since. I thought it was most likely him when I heard
+the steps."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope he is beyond the sentries," the Doctor said. "I have
+come up here to listen."</p>
+
+<p>"I expect he is through them before this," Wilson said
+confidently. "I wish I could have gone with him; but of course it
+would not have been any good. It is a beautiful night -- isn't
+it, Miss Hannay? -- and there is scarcely any dew falling."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, you go off to your post in the corner, Wilson. Your
+instructions are to listen for the slightest sound, and to assure
+us against the Sepoys creeping up to the walls. We did not come
+up here to distract you from your duties, or to gossip."</p>
+
+<p>"There are Richards and another posted somewhere in the
+garden," Wilson said. "Still, I suppose you are right, Doctor;
+but if you, Miss Hannay, have come up to listen, come and sit in
+my corner; it is the one nearest to the lines."</p>
+
+<p>"You may as well go and sit down, Isobel," the Doctor said;
+"that is, if you intend to stay up here long;" and they went
+across with Wilson to his post.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I put one of these sandbags for you to sit on?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather stand, thank you;" and they stood for some
+time silently watching the fires in the lines.</p>
+
+<p>"They are drawing pretty heavily on the wood stores," the
+Doctor growled; "there is a good deal more than the regulation
+allowance blazing in those fires. I can make out a lot of figures
+moving about round them; no doubt numbers of the peasants have
+come in."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think Mr. Bathurst has got beyond the line of
+sentries?" Isobel said, after standing perfectly quiet for some
+time.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, a long way; probably he was through by the time we
+came up here. They are not likely to post them more than fifty or
+sixty yards from the wall; and, indeed, it is, as Bathurst
+pointed out to me, probable that they are only thick near the
+gate. All they want to do is to prevent us slipping away. I
+should think that Bathurst must be out near the lines by this
+time."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel moved a few paces away from the others, and again stood
+listening.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you do not think that there is any chance of an
+attack tonight, Doctor?" Wilson asked, in low tones.</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least; the natives are not fond of night work. I
+expect they are dividing the spoil and quarreling over it;
+anyhow, they have had enough of it for today. They may intend to
+march away in the morning, or they may have sent to Cawnpore to
+ask for orders, or they may have heard from some of the Zemindars
+that they are coming in to join them -- that is what Bathurst has
+gone out to learn; but anyhow I do not think they will attack us
+again with their present force."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish there were a few more of us," Wilson said, "so that we
+could venture on a sortie."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I, lad; but it is no use thinking about it as it is. We
+have to wait; our fate is not in our own hands."</p>
+
+<p>"And you think matters look bad, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think they could hardly look worse. Unless the mutineers
+take it into their heads to march away, there is, humanly
+speaking, but one chance for us, and that is that Lawrence may
+thrash the Sepoys so completely at Lucknow that he may be able to
+send out a force to bring us in. The chances of that are next to
+nothing; for in addition to a very large Sepoy force he has the
+population of Lucknow -- one of the most turbulent in India -- on
+his hands. Ah, what is that?"</p>
+
+<p>Two musket shots in quick succession from the Sepoy lines
+broke the silence of the evening, and a startled exclamation
+burst from the girl standing near them.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor went over to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think -- do you think," she said in a low, strained
+voice, "that it was Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. If they detected him, and I really do not see
+that there is a chance of their doing so, disguised as he was,
+they would have seized him and probably killed him, but there
+would be no firing. He has gone unarmed, you know, and would
+offer no resistance. Those shots you heard were doubtless the
+result of some drunken quarrel over the loot."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really think so, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"I feel quite sure of it. If it had been Forster who had gone
+out, and he had been detected, it would have been natural enough
+that we should hear the sound of something like a battle. In the
+first place, he would have defended himself desperately, and, in
+the next, he might have made his way through them and escaped;
+but, as I said, with Bathurst there would be no occasion for
+their firing."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't he come in to say goodby before he went? that is
+what I wanted to ask you, Doctor, and why I came up here. I
+wanted to have spoken to him, if only for a moment, before he
+started. I tried to catch his eye as he went out of the room with
+you, but he did not even look at me. It will be so hard if he
+never comes back, to know that he went away without my having
+spoken to him again. I did try this morning to tell him that I
+was sorry for what I said, but he would not listen to me."</p>
+
+<p>"You will have an opportunity of telling him when he comes
+back, if you want to, or of showing him so by your manner, which
+would be, perhaps, less painful to both of you."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care about pain to myself," the girl said. "I have
+been unjust, and deserve it."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think he considers you unjust. I did, and told you
+so. He feels what he considers the disgrace so much that it seems
+to him perfectly natural he should be despised."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but I want him to see that he is not despised," she said
+quickly. "You don't understand, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"I do understand perfectly, my dear; at least, I think -- I
+think I do; I see that you want to put yourself straight with
+him, which is very right and proper, especially placed as we all
+are; but I would not do or say anything hastily. You have spoken
+hastily once, you see, and made a mess of it. I should be careful
+how I did it again, unless, of course," and he stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Unless what, Doctor?" Isobel asked shyly, after a long pause.
+But there was no reply; and looking round she saw that her
+companion had moved quietly away and had joined Wilson at his
+post. She stood for a few minutes in the same attitude, and then
+moved quietly across the staircase in the center of the terrace,
+and went down to the party below. A short time later the Doctor
+followed her, and, taking his rifle, went out into the garden
+with Captain Doolan, who assisted him in climbing the tree, and
+handed his gun up to him. The Doctor made his way out on the
+branch to the spot where it extended beyond the wall, and there
+sat, straining his eyes into the darkness. Half an hour passed,
+and then he heard a light footfall on the sandy soil.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Bathurst?" he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Doctor;" and a minute later Bathurst sat on the
+branch beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what's your news?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very bad, Doctor; they expect the Rajah Por Sing, who, it
+seems, is the leader of the party in this district, and several
+other Zemindars, to be here with guns tomorrow or next day. The
+news from Cawnpore was true.. The native troops mutinied and
+marched away, but were joined by Nana Sahib and his force, and he
+persuaded them to return and attack the whites in their
+intrenchments at Cawnpore, as they would not be well received at
+Delhi unless they had properly accomplished their share of the
+work of rooting out the Feringhees."</p>
+
+<p>"The infernal scoundrel!" the Doctor exclaimed; "after
+pretending for years to be our best friend. I'm disgusted to
+think that I have drunk his champagne a dozen times. However,
+that makes little difference to us now, your other news is the
+most important. We could have resisted the Sepoys for a month;
+but if they bring up guns there can be but one ending to it."</p>
+
+<p>"That is so, Doctor. The only hope I can see is that they may
+find our resistance so obstinate as to be glad to grant us terms
+of surrender."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there is that chance," the Doctor agreed; "but history
+shows there is but little reliance to be placed upon native
+oaths."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst was silent; his own experience of the natives had
+taught him the same lesson.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a poor hope," he said, after a while; "but it is the
+only one, so far as I can see."</p>
+
+<p>Not another word was spoken as they descended the tree and
+walked across to the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind about changing your things, come straight in."</p>
+
+<p>"Our scout has returned," the Doctor said, as he entered the
+room. There was a general exclamation of gladness on the part of
+the ladies who had not retired.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad to see you safe back, Mr. Bathurst," Mrs.
+Hunter said, going up to him and taking his hand. "We have all
+been very anxious since you left."</p>
+
+<p>"The danger was very slight, Mrs. Hunter. I only wish I had
+brought you back the news that the native lines were deserted and
+the mutineers in full march for Delhi and Lucknow."</p>
+
+<p>"I was afraid you would hardly bring that news, Mr. Bathurst;
+it was almost too good to hope for. However, we are all glad that
+you are back. Are we not, Isobel?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are indeed, Mr. Bathurst, though as yet I can hardly
+persuade myself that it is you in that get up."</p>
+
+<p>"I think there is no doubt of my identity. Can you tell me
+where you uncle is, Miss Hannay? I have to make my report to
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"He is on the roof. There is a sort of general gathering of
+our defenders there."</p>
+
+<p>Two lamps had been placed in the center of the terrace, and
+round these the little garrison were grouped, some sitting on
+boxes, others lying on mats, almost all smoking. Bathurst was
+greeted heartily by the Major and Wilson as soon as he was
+recognized.</p>
+
+<p>"I am awfully glad to see you back," Wilson said, shaking him
+warmly by the hand. "I wish I could have gone with you. Two
+together does not seem so bad, but I should not like to start out
+by myself as you did."</p>
+
+<p>There was a hearty cordiality in the young fellow's voice that
+was very pleasant to Bathurst.</p>
+
+<p>"We have all our gifts, as Hawkeye used to say, as I have no
+doubt you remember, Wilson. Such gifts as I have lay in the way
+of solitary work, I fancy."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, light a cheroot, Bathurst," the Major said, "and drink
+off this tumbler of brandy and soda, and then let us hear your
+story."</p>
+
+<p>"The story is simple enough, Major. I got through without
+difficulty. The sentries are some distance apart round the garden
+wall. As soon as I discovered by the sound of their footsteps
+where they were, it was easy enough to get through them. Then I
+made a longish detour, and came down on the lines from the other
+side. There was no occasion for concealment then. Numbers of the
+country people had come in, and were gathered round the Sepoys'
+fires, and I was able to move about amongst them, and listen to
+the conversation without the smallest hindrance.</p>
+
+<p>"The Sepoys were loudly expressing their dissatisfaction at
+their officers leading them against the house today, when they
+had no means of either battering down the walls or scaling them.
+Then there was a general opinion that treachery was at work; for
+how else should the Europeans have known they were going to rise
+that morning, and so moved during the night into the house? There
+was much angry recrimination and quarreling, and many expressed
+their regret they had not marched straight to Cawnpore after
+burning the bungalows.</p>
+
+<p>"All this was satisfactory; but I learned that Por Sing and
+several other Zemindars had already sent in assurances that they
+were wholly with them, and would be here, with guns to batter
+down the walls, some time tomorrow."</p>
+
+<p>"That is bad news, indeed," the Major said gravely, when he
+had finished. "Of course, when we heard that Nana Sahib had
+thrown in his lot with the mutineers, it was probable that many
+of the landowners would go the same way; but if the Sepoys had
+marched off they might not have attacked us on their own account.
+Now we know that the Sepoys are going to stay, and that they will
+have guns, it alters our position altogether."</p>
+
+<p>There was a murmur of assent.</p>
+
+<p>"I should tell you before you talk the matter over further,"
+Bathurst went on, "that during the last hour some hundreds of
+peasants have taken up their posts round the house in addition to
+the Sepoy sentries. I came back with one party about a hundred
+strong. They are posted a couple of hundred yards or so in front
+of the gate. I slipped away from them in the dark and made my way
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, gentlemen, what do you think we had better do?" the
+Major said; "we are all in the same boat, and I should like to
+have your opinions. We may defend this house successfully for
+days -- possibly we may even tire them out -- but on the other
+hand they may prove too strong for us. If the wall were breached
+we could hardly hope to defend it, and, indeed, if they
+constructed plenty of ladders they could scale it at night in a
+score of places. We must, therefore, regard the house as our
+citadel, close up the lower windows and doors with sandbags, and
+defend it to the last. Still, if they are determined, the lookout
+is not a very bright one."</p>
+
+<p>"I am in favor of our cutting our way out, Major," Captain
+Forster said; "if we are cooped up here, we must, as you say, in
+the long run be beaten."</p>
+
+<p>"That would be all very well, Captain Forster, if we were all
+men," Mr. Hunter said. "There are sixteen of us and there are in
+all eighteen horses, for I and Farquharson have two each; but
+there are eight women and fourteen children; so all the horses
+would have to carry double. We certainly could not hope to escape
+from them with our horses so laden; and if they came up with us,
+what fighting could we do with women behind our saddles?
+Moreover, we certainly could not leave the servants, who have
+been true to us, to the mercy of the Sepoys."</p>
+
+<p>"Besides, where could we go?" the Doctor asked. "The garrison
+at Cawnpore, we know, are besieged by overwhelming numbers. We do
+not know much as to the position at Lucknow, but certainly the
+Europeans are immensely outnumbered there, and I think we may
+assume that they are also besieged. It is a very long distance
+either to Agra or to Allahabad; and with the whole country up in
+arms against us, and the cavalry here at our heels, the prospect
+seems absolutely hopeless. What do you think, Doolan? You and
+Rintoul have your wives here, and you have children. I consider
+that the question concerns you married men more than us."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a case of the frying pan and the fire, as far as I can
+see, Doctor. At any rate, here we have got walls to light behind,
+and food for weeks, and plenty of ammunition. I am for selling
+our lives as dearly as we can here rather than go outside to be
+chased like jackals."</p>
+
+<p>"I agree with you, Doolan," Captain Rintoul said. "Here we may
+be able to make terms with them, but once outside the walls we
+should be at the scoundrels' mercy. If it were not for the women
+and children I should agree entirely with Forster that our best
+plan would be to throw open our gates and make a dash for it,
+keeping together as long as we could, and then, if necessary,
+separating and trying to make our way down to Agra or Allahabad
+as best we could; but with ladies that does not seem to be
+possible."</p>
+
+<p>The opinion of the married civilians was entirely in accord
+with that of Mr. Hunter.</p>
+
+<p>"But what hope is there of defending this place in the long
+run?" Captain Forster said. "If I saw any chance at all I should
+be quite willing to wait; but I would infinitely rather sally out
+at once and go for them and be killed than wait here day after
+day and perhaps week after week, seeing one's fate drawing nearer
+inch by inch. What do you say, Bathurst? We haven't had your
+opinion yet."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think that the defense is so hopeless as you
+suppose, although I admit that the chances are greatly against
+us," Bathurst said quietly. "I think there is a hope of tiring
+the natives out. The Sepoys know well enough there can be no
+great amount of loot here, while they think that were they at
+Cawnpore, at Lucknow, or still more at Delhi, their chances of
+plunder would be much greater. Moreover, I think that men in
+their position, having offended, as it were, without hope of
+pardon, would naturally desire to flock together. There is
+comfort and encouragement in numbers. Therefore, I am sure they
+will very speedily become impatient if they do not meet with
+success, and would be inclined to grant terms rather than waste
+time here.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the same thing with the native gentry. They will want
+to be off to Lucknow or Delhi, where they will know more how
+things are going, and where, no doubt, they reckon upon obtaining
+posts of importance and increased possessions under the new order
+of things. Therefore, I think, they, as well as the Sepoys, are
+likely, if they find the task longer and more difficult than they
+expect, to be ready to grant terms. I have no great faith in
+native oaths. Still they might be kept.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Forster's proposal I regard as altogether
+impracticable. We are something like two hundred and fifty miles
+from the nearest British post where we could hope to find refuge,
+and with the horses carrying double, the troopers at our heels
+directly we start, and the country hostile, I see no chance
+whatever, not a vestige of one, of our getting safely away.</p>
+
+<p>"But there is a third alternative by which some might escape;
+it is, that we should make our way out on foot, break up into
+parties of twos and threes; steal or fight our way through the
+sentries, and then for each party to shift for itself, making its
+way as best it can, traveling by night and lying up in woods or
+plantations by day; getting food at times from friendly natives,
+and subsisting, for the most part, upon what might be gathered in
+the fields. In that way some might escape, but the suffering and
+hardships of the women and children would be terrible."</p>
+
+<p>"I agree with you," Mr. Hunter said; "such a journey would be
+frightful to contemplate, and I don't think, in our case, that my
+wife could possibly perform such a journey; still, some might do
+so. At any rate, I think the chances are better than they would
+be were we to ride out in a body. I should suggest, Major, when
+the crisis seems to be approaching -- that is, when it is clear
+that we can't defend ourselves much longer -- it would be fair
+that each should be at liberty to try to get out and make down
+the country."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," the Major agreed; "we are in a position of men on
+board a sinking ship with the boats gone; we should try to the
+end to save the ship, but when all hope of doing that is over,
+each may try to get to shore as he best can. As long as the house
+can be defended, all must remain and bear their share in the
+struggle, but when we decide that it is but a question of hours,
+all who choose will be at liberty to try to escape."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be vastly more difficult then than now," Captain
+Forster said; "Bathurst made his way out tonight without
+difficulty, but they will be a great deal more vigilant when they
+know we cannot hold out much longer. I don't see how it would be
+possible for women and children to get through them."</p>
+
+<p>"We might then adopt your scheme, to a certain extent,
+Forster," Major Hannay said. "We could mount, sally out suddenly,
+break through their pickets, and as soon as we are beyond them
+scatter; those who like can try to make their way down on
+horseback, those who prefer it try to do so on foot. That would
+at least give us an alternative should the siege be pushed on to
+the last, and we find ourselves unable to make terms."</p>
+
+<p>There was general assent to the Major's proposal, which seemed
+to offer better chances than any. There was the hope that the
+mutineers might tire of the siege and march away; that if they
+pressed it, terms might be at last obtained from them, and that,
+failing everything else, the garrison might yet make their way
+down country.</p>
+
+<p>"As there is evidently no chance of an attack during the
+night," the Major said, "we will divide into two watches and
+relieve each other every four hours; that will give two as
+lookouts on the roof and six in the inclosure. As you are senior
+officer next to myself, Doolan, you will take charge of one
+watch; I shall myself take charge of the other. Forster and
+Wilson be with me, Rintoul and Richards with you. Mr. Hardy, will
+you and the other gentlemen divide your numbers into two watches?
+Dr. Wade counts as a combatant until his hospital begins to
+fill."</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy he may be counted as a combatant all through," the
+Doctor muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"Tomorrow morning," the Major went on, "we will continue the
+work of filling sandbags. There are still a large number of empty
+bags on hand. We shall want them for all the lower windows and
+doors, and the more there are of them the better; and we must
+also keep a supply in readiness to make a retrenchment if they
+should breach the wall. Now, Mr. Hunter, as soon as you have made
+out your list my watch can go on duty, and I should advise the
+others to turn in without delay."</p>
+
+<p>When the ladies were informed that half the men were going on
+watch, Mrs. Doolan said, "I have an amendment to propose, Major.
+Women's ears are just as keen as men's, and I propose that we
+supply the sentries on the roof. I will volunteer for one."</p>
+
+<p>The whole of the ladies at once volunteered.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no occasion for so many," Mrs. Doolan said; "and I
+propose that tonight, at any rate, I should take the first watch
+with one of the Miss Hunters, and that Miss Hannay and the other
+should take the second. That will leave all the gentlemen
+available for the watch in the inclosure."</p>
+
+<p>The proposal was agreed to, and in a short time the first
+watch had taken their station, and the rest of the garrison lay
+down to rest.</p>
+
+<p>The night passed off quietly. The first work at which the
+Major set the garrison in the morning was to form six wooden
+stages against the wall. One by the gate, one against the wall at
+the other end, and two at each of the long sides of the
+inclosure. They were twelve feet in height, which enabled those
+upon them to stand head and shoulders above the level of the
+wall.</p>
+
+<p>When these were completed the whole of the garrison, including
+the ladies and native servants, again set to work filling
+sandbags with earth. As fast as they were finished they were
+carried in and piled two deep against the lower windows, and
+three deep against the doors, only one small door being left
+undefended, so as to allow a passage in and out of the house.
+Bags were piled in readiness for closing this also in case of
+necessity.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Rintoul and another lady had volunteered for a third
+watch on the roof, so that each watch would go on duty once every
+twelve hours. The whole of the men, therefore, were available for
+work below.</p>
+
+<p>A scattered fire was opened at the house soon after daybreak,
+and was kept up without intermission from bushes and other cover;
+but the watchers on the roof, seated behind the sandbags at
+opposite angles, were well under shelter, peering out
+occasionally through the crevices between the bags to see that no
+general movement was taking place among the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>About midday there was a desultory discharge of firearms from
+the native lines; and the Major, on ascending to the roof, saw a
+procession of elephants and men approaching the camp.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect there are guns there," he muttered, "and they are
+going to begin in earnest. Ladies, you are relieved of duty at
+present. I expect we shall be hearing from those fellows soon,
+and we must have someone up here who can talk back to them."</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly the Doctor and Mr. Farquharson, who was the best
+shot among the civilians, took the places of the ladies on the
+roof. Half an hour later the Major went up again.</p>
+
+<p>"They have four cannon," the Doctor said. "There they are, on
+that slight rise to the left of the lines. I should fancy they
+are about eight hundred yards away. Do you see, there is a crowd
+gathering behind them? Our rifles will carry that distance easily
+enough, I think. You might as well let us have three or four more
+up here.. The two lads are both fair shots, and Hunter was
+considered a good shikari some years ago. We can drive their
+cannon off that rise; the farther we make them take up their post
+the better, but even at that distance their shooting will be
+wild. The guns are no doubt old ones, and, as likely as not, the
+shot won't fit. At any rate, though they may trouble us, they
+will do no serious harm till they establish a battery at pretty
+close quarters."</p>
+
+<p>The Major went down, and the two subalterns and Mr. Hunter
+joined the Doctor on the roof.</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later the boom of four guns in quick succession
+was heard, and the party below stopped for a moment at their work
+as they heard the sound of shot rushing through the air overhead;
+then came five shots in answer from the parapet. Again and again
+the rifles spoke out, and then the Doctor shouted down to those
+in the courtyard, "They have had enough of it already, and are
+bringing up the elephants to move the cannon back. Now, boys," he
+said to the subalterns, "an elephant is an easier mark than a
+tiger; aim carefully, and blaze away as quickly as you like."</p>
+
+<p>For five minutes a rapid fire was kept up; then Wilson went
+below.</p>
+
+<p>"The Doctor asked me to tell you, sir," he said to the Major,
+"that the guns have been removed. There has been great confusion
+among the natives, and we can see with our glasses eight or ten
+bodies left on the ground. One of the elephants turned and went
+off at full speed among the crowd, and we fancy some of the
+others were hit. There was great trouble in getting them to come
+up to the guns. The Doctor says it is all over for the
+present."</p>
+
+<p>Two other large parties with elephants were seen to come up to
+the native lines in the course of the afternoon. The defenders of
+the roof had now turned their attention to their foes in the
+gardens around, and the fire thence was gradually suppressed,
+until by evening everything was quiet.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the work of filling the sandbags was completed;
+the doors and windows had been barricaded, and a large pile of
+bags lay in the inclosure ready for erection at any threatened
+point.</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h1>
+
+<p>When the party met at dinner they were for a time somewhat
+silent, for all were exhausted by their hard work under a blazing
+sun, but their spirits rose under their surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>The native servants had laid the table with as scrupulous care
+as usual; and, except that there was no display of flowers, no
+change was observable.</p>
+
+<p>All had dressed after the work was over, and the men were in
+white drill, and the ladies had, from custom, put on light
+evening gowns.</p>
+
+<p>The cook had prepared an excellent dinner, and as the
+champagne went round no stranger would have supposed that the
+party had met under unusual circumstances. The Doctor and the two
+subalterns were unaffectedly gay, and as the rest all made an
+effort to be cheerful, the languor that had marked the
+commencement of the dinner soon wore off.</p>
+
+<p>"Wilson and Richards are becoming quite sportsmen," the Doctor
+said. "They have tried their hands at tigers but could hardly
+have expected to take part in elephant shooting. They can't quite
+settle between themselves as to which it was who sent the Rajah's
+elephant flying among the crowd. Both declare they aimed at that
+special beast. So, as there is no deciding the point, we must
+consider the honor as divided."</p>
+
+<p>"It was rather hard on us," Isobel said, "to be kept working
+below instead of being up there seeing what was going on. But I
+consider we quite did our full share towards the defense today.
+My hands are quite sore with sewing up the mouths of those rough
+bags. I think the chief honors that way lie with Mrs. Rintoul. I
+am sure she sewed more bags than any of us. I had no idea that
+you were such a worker, Mrs. Rintoul."</p>
+
+<p>"I used to be a quick worker, Miss Hannay, till lately. I have
+not touched a needle since I came out to India."</p>
+
+<p>"I should recommend you to keep it up. Mrs. Rintoul," the
+Doctor said. "It has done you more good than all my medicines. I
+don't believe I have prescribed for you for the last month, and I
+haven't seen you looking so well since you came out."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I have not had time to feel ill, Doctor," Mrs.
+Rintoul said, with a slight smile; "all this has been a sort of
+tonic."</p>
+
+<p>"And a very useful one, Mrs. Rintoul. We are all of us the
+better for a little stirring up sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Forster had, as usual, secured a place next to Isobel
+Hannay. He had been near her all day, carrying the bags as he
+filled them to her to sew up. Bathurst was sitting at the other
+end of the table, joining but little in the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought Bathurst was going to faint again when the firing
+began, Miss Hannay," Captain Forster said, in a low voice. "It
+was quite funny to see him give a little start each shot that was
+fired, and his face was as white as my jacket. I never saw such a
+nervous fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"You know he cannot help it, Captain Forster," Isobel said
+indignantly. "I don't think it is right to make fun of him for
+what is a great misfortune."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not making fun of him, Miss Hannay. I am pitying
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"It did not sound like it," Isobel said. "I don't think you
+can understand it, Captain Forster; it must be terrible to be
+like that."</p>
+
+<p>"I quite agree with you there. I know I should drown myself or
+put a bullet through my head if I could not show ordinary courage
+with a lot of ladies going on working quietly round me."</p>
+
+<p>"You must remember that Mr. Bathurst showed plenty of courage
+in going out among the mutineers last night."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he did that very well; but you see, he talks the
+language so thoroughly that, as he said himself, there was very
+little risk in it."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like you to talk so, Captain Forster," Isobel said
+quietly. "I do not see much of Mr. Bathurst. I have not spoken to
+him half a dozen times in the last month; but both my uncle and
+Dr. Wade have a high opinion of him, and do not consider that he
+should be personally blamed for being nervous under fire. I feel
+very sorry for him, and would much rather that you did not make
+remarks like that about him. We have all our weak points, and, no
+doubt, many of them are a good deal worse than a mere want of
+nerve."</p>
+
+<p>"Your commands shall be obeyed, Miss Hannay. I did not know
+that Bathurst was a protege of the Major's as well as of the
+estimable Doctor, or I would have said nothing against him."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think Mr. Bathurst is the sort of man to be anyone's
+protege, Captain Forster," Isobel said coldly. "However, I think
+we had better change the subject."</p>
+
+<p>This Captain Forster did easily and adroitly. He had no
+special feeling against Bathurst save a contempt for his
+weakness; and as he had met him but once or twice at the Major's
+since he came to the station, he had not thought of him in the
+light of a rival.</p>
+
+<p>Just as dinner was over Richards and one of the civilians came
+down from the terrace.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that there is something up, Major. I can hear noises
+somewhere near where Mr. Hunter's bungalow was."</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of noises, Richards?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is a sort of murmur, as if there were a good many men
+there."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, gentlemen, we had better go to our posts," the Major
+said. "Doolan, please place your watch on the platforms by the
+wall. I will take my party up onto the terrace. Doctor, will you
+bring up some of those rockets you made the other day? We must
+try and find out what they are doing."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he gained the terrace with his party, the Major
+requested everyone to remain perfectly still, and going forward
+to the parapet listened intently. In three or four minutes he
+returned to the others.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a considerable body of men at work there," he said.
+"I can hear muffled sounds like digging, and once or twice a
+sharp click, as if a spade struck a stone. I am very much afraid
+they are throwing up a battery there. I was in hopes they would
+have begun in the open, because we could have commanded the
+approaches; but if they begin among the trees, they can come in
+and out without our seeing them, and bring up their guns by the
+road without our being able to interfere with them. Mr. Bathurst,
+will you take down word to Captain Doolan to put his men on the
+platforms on that side. Tell him that I am going to throw up a
+rocket, as I believe they are erecting a battery near Hunter's
+bungalow, and that his men are to be ready to give them a volley
+if they can make them out. Tell them not to expose themselves too
+much; for if they really are at work there no doubt they have
+numbers of men posted in the shrubs all about to keep down our
+fire. Now, gentlemen, we will all lie down by the parapet. Take
+those spare rifles, and fire as quickly as you can while the
+light of the rocket lasts. Now, Mr. Wilson, we will get you to
+send them up. The rest of you had better get in the corner and
+stoop down behind the sandbags; you can lay your rifles on them,
+so as to be able to fire as soon as you have lit the second
+rocket."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor soon came up with the rockets; he had made three
+dozen the week before, and a number of blue lights, for the
+special purpose of detecting any movement that the enemy might
+make at night.</p>
+
+<p>"I will fire them myself," he said, as Wilson offered to take
+them. "I have had charge of the fireworks in a score of fetes and
+that sort of thing, and am a pretty good hand at it. There, we
+will lean them against the sandbags. That is about it. Now, are
+you all ready, Major?"</p>
+
+<p>"All ready!" replied the Major.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor placed the end of his lighted cheroot against the
+touch paper, there was a momentary pause, then a rushing sound,
+and the rocket soared high in the air, and then burst, throwing
+out four or five white fireballs, which lit up clearly the spot
+they were watching.</p>
+
+<p>"There they are!" the Major exclaimed; "just to the right of
+the bungalow; there are scores of them."</p>
+
+<p>The rifles, both from the terrace and the platforms below,
+cracked out in rapid succession, and another rocket flew up into
+the air and burst. Before its light had faded out, each of the
+defenders had fired his four shots. Shouts and cries from the
+direction in which they fired showed that many of the bullets had
+told, whilst almost immediately a sharp fire broke out from the
+bushes round them.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't mind the fellows in the shrubs," the Major said, "but
+keep up your fire on the battery. We know its exact position now,
+though we cannot actually make them out."</p>
+
+<p>"Let them wait while I go down and get a bit of phosphorus,"
+the Doctor said. "I have some in the surgery. They will only
+throw away their fire in the dark without it."</p>
+
+<p>He soon returned, and when all the fore and back sights had
+been rubbed by the phosphorus the firing recommenced, and the
+Doctor sent Wilson down with the phosphorus to the men on the
+platforms facing the threatened point.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst was returning, after having given the message to
+Captain Doolan, when Mrs. Hunter met him in the passage. She put
+her hand kindly on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mr. Bathurst, if you will take my advice you will remain
+quietly here. The Doctor tells me they are going to open fire,
+and it is not the least use your going there exposing yourself to
+be shot when you know that you will be of no use. You showed us
+yesterday that you could be of use in other ways, and I have no
+doubt you will have opportunities of doing so again. I can assure
+you none of us will think any the worse of you for not being able
+to struggle against a nervous affliction that gives you infinite
+pain. If they were attacking it would be different; I know you
+would be wanting to take your share then."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Mrs. Hunter," he said, "but I must go up. I grant
+that I shall be of no use, but at least I will take any chance
+that the others run of being shot. A man does not flinch from a
+painful operation, and, whatever the pain, it has to be faced. I
+may get used to it in time; but whether I do or not I must go
+through it, though I do not say it doesn't hurt."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the rattle of musketry broke out above.
+Bathurst gave a violent start, and a low cry as of pain; then he
+rushed past Mrs. Hunter and up the staircase to the terrace, when
+he staggered rather than walked forward to the parapet, and threw
+himself down beside two figures who were in the act of
+firing.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Bathurst?" the Major's voice asked. "Mind, man,
+don't lift your head above the sandbags in that way. There, you
+had best lie quiet; the natives have no idea of attacking, and it
+is of no use throwing away valuable ammunition by firing unless
+your hand is steady."</p>
+
+<p>But Bathurst did not hear, and remained with his head above
+the line of sandbags until the Major put his hand on his shoulder
+and forced him down. He might have put his hands over his ears to
+deaden the sound -- for in the darkness no one would have seen
+the action -- but he would not do so, but with clenched teeth and
+quivering nerves lay there until the Major said, "I fancy we have
+stopped them working. Now, Doctor, do you, Hunter, Bathurst, and
+Farquharson go and lie down for four hours, when I will send for
+you to take our places. Before you lie down will you tell Doolan
+to send half his party in? Of course you will lie down in your
+clothes, ready to fall in at your posts at a moment's
+notice."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me send another rocket up first, Major, to see what they
+are doing. We can sleep tomorrow in the daytime; they won't dare
+to work under our fire then. Now, get ready, gentlemen, and don't
+throw away a shot, if they are still working there."</p>
+
+<p>The light of the rocket showed that there were now no natives
+at the spot where they had been seen at work.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it would be too hot for them, Major, at such close
+quarters as these. We must have played the mischief with
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"All the better, Doctor; we will send a few shots there
+occasionally to show them we have not forgotten them. But the
+principal thing will be to keep our ears open to see that they
+don't bring up ladders and try a rush."</p>
+
+<p>"I think there is no fear of that tonight, Major. They would
+not have set to work at the battery if they had any idea of
+trying to scale the wall with ladders. That will come later on;
+but I don't think you will be troubled any more tonight, except
+by these fellows firing away from the bushes, and I should think
+they would get tired of wasting their ammunition soon. It is
+fortunate we brought all the spare ammunition in here."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, they only had ten rounds of ball cartridge, and that
+must be nearly used up by this time. They will have to make up
+their cartridges in future, and cast their bullets, unless they
+can get a supply from some of the other mutineers."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you will send for us in four hours, Major?"</p>
+
+<p>"You need not be afraid of my forgetting."</p>
+
+<p>Dawn was just breaking when the relief were called up; the
+firing had died away, and all was quiet.</p>
+
+<p>"You will take command here, Rintoul," the Major said. "I
+should keep Farquharson up here, if I were you, and leave the
+Doctor and Bathurst to look after things in general. I think,
+Doctor, it would be as well if we appointed Bathurst in charge of
+the general arrangements of the house. We have a good amount of
+stores, but the servants will waste them if they are not looked
+after. I should put them on rations, Bathurst; and there might be
+regular rations of things served out for us too; then it would
+fall in your province to see that the syces water and feed the
+horses. You will examine the well regularly, and note whether
+there is any change in the look of the water. I think you will
+find plenty to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Major," Bathurst said. "I appreciate your
+kindness, and for the present, at any rate, will gladly undertake
+the work of looking after the stores and servants; but there is
+one thing I have been thinking of, and which I should like to
+speak to you about at once, if you could spare a minute or two
+before you turn in."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that, Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think that we are agreed, Major, that though we may hold
+this place for a time, sooner or later we must either surrender
+or the place be carried by storm."</p>
+
+<p>Major Hannay nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"That is what it must come to, Bathurst. If they will at last
+grant us terms, well and good; if not, we must either try to
+escape or die fighting."</p>
+
+<p>"It is about the escape I have been thinking, Major; as our
+position grows more and more desperate they will close round us,
+and although we might have possibly got through last night, our
+chances of doing so when they have once broken into the inclosure
+and begin to attack the house itself are very slight. A few of us
+who can speak the language well might possibly in disguise get
+away, but it would be impossible for the bulk of us to do
+so."</p>
+
+<p>"I quite see that, Bathurst."</p>
+
+<p>"My proposal is, Major, that we should begin at once to mine;
+that is, to drive a gallery from the cellar, and to carry it on
+steadily as far as we can. I should say that we have ten days or
+a fortnight before us before matters get .to an extremity, and in
+that time we ought to be able to get, working night and day, from
+fifty to a hundred yards beyond the wall, aiming at a clump of
+bushes. There is a large one in Farquharson's compound, about a
+hundred yards off. Then, when things get to the worst, we can
+work upwards, and come out on a dark night. We might leave a long
+fuse burning in the magazine, so that there should be an
+explosion an hour or two after we had left. There is enough
+powder there to bring the house down, and the Sepoys might
+suppose that we had all been buried in the ruins."</p>
+
+<p>"I think the idea is a very good one, Bathurst. What do you
+think, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Capital," the Doctor said. "It is a light sandy soil, and we
+should be able to get through it at a pretty good rate. How many
+can work together, do you think, Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should say two of us in each shift, to drive, and, if
+necessary, prop the roof, with some of the natives to carry out
+the earth. If we have three shifts, each shift would go on twice
+in the twenty-four hours; that would be four hours on and eight
+hours off."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you take charge of the operation, Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure, Major."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well then. You shall have with you Wilson and Richards
+and the three youngest of the civilians, Saunderson, Austin, and
+Herbert. You six will be relieved from other duty except when the
+enemy threaten an attack. I will put down Saunderson and Austin
+together. Which of the others would you like to have with
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will take Wilson, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then, Richards and Herbert will make the third
+party. After breakfast we can pick out the twelve strongest of
+the natives. I will tell them that they have to work, but that
+they will be each paid half a rupee a day in addition to their
+ordinary wages. Then you will give a general supervision to the
+work, Bathurst, in addition to your own share in it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, Major, I will take general charge of it."</p>
+
+<p>So at breakfast the Major explained the plan agreed upon. The
+five men chosen at once expressed their willingness to undertake
+the work, and the offer of half a rupee extra a day was
+sufficient to induce twelve of the servants to volunteer for it.
+The Major went down to the cellars and fixed upon the spot at
+which the work should begin; and Bathurst and Wilson, taking some
+of the intrenching tools from the storeroom, began to break
+through the wall without delay.</p>
+
+<p>"I like this," Wilson said. "It is a thousand times better
+than sitting up there waiting till they choose to make an attack.
+How wide shall we make it?"</p>
+
+<p>"As narrow as we can for one to pass along at a time,"
+Bathurst said. "The narrower it is, the less trouble we shall
+have with the roof."</p>
+
+<p>"But only one will be able to work at a time in that
+case."</p>
+
+<p>"That will be quite enough,". Bathurst said. "It will be hot
+work and hard. We will relieve each other every five minutes or
+so."</p>
+
+<p>A very short time sufficed to break through the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank goodness, it is earth," Wilson said, thrusting a
+crowbar through the opening as soon as it was made.</p>
+
+<p>"I had no fear of its being rock, Wilson. If it had been, they
+would not have taken the trouble to have walled the sides of the
+cellar. The soil is very deep all over here. The natives have to
+line their wells thirty or forty feet down."</p>
+
+<p>The enemy were quiet all day, but the garrison thought it
+likely that, warned by the lesson of the night before, they were
+erecting a battery some distance farther back, masked by the
+trees, and that until it was ready to open fire they would know
+nothing about it.</p>
+
+<p>"So you have turned miner, Mr. Wilson?" Isobel Hannay said to
+him as, after a change and a bath, he came in to get his
+lunch.</p>
+
+<p>"I calculate I have lost half a stone in weight, Miss Hannay.
+If I were to go on at this for a month or two there would be
+nothing left of me."</p>
+
+<p>"And how far did you drive the hole?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gallery, Miss Hannay; please call it a gallery, it sounds so
+much better. We got in five yards. I should hardly have believed
+it possible, but Bathurst is a tremendous fellow to work. He uses
+a pick as if he had been a sapper all his life. We kept the men
+pretty hard at work, I can tell you, carrying up the earth.
+Richards is at work now, and I bet him five rupees that he and
+Herbert don't drive as far as we did."</p>
+
+<p>"There is not much use in betting now, Mr. Wilson," Isobel
+said sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I suppose not, Miss Hannay; but it gives a sort of
+interest to one's work. I have blistered my hands horribly, but I
+suppose they will get hard in a day or two."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we could work at something," Isobel said. "Now that we
+have finished with the bags and bandages, the time seems very
+long; the only thing there is to do is to play with the children
+and try to keep them good; it is fortunate there is a bit of
+garden for them to play in."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not much of a garden, Miss Hannay. We had something
+like a garden when I was a boy at home; the governor's is a jolly
+old rectory, with a splendid garden. What fun we used to have
+there when I was a young one! I wonder what the dear old governor
+and mater would say if they knew the fix we were in here. You
+know, sometimes I think that Forster's plan was the best, and
+that it would be better to try and make a dash through them."</p>
+
+<p>"We are in your way, Mr. Wilson; you wouldn't be able to do
+much fighting if you had one of us clinging to you."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, Miss Hannay," Wilson said quietly, "what my
+fighting powers are, but I fancy if you were clinging to me I
+could cut my way through a good deal."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure you would do anything that anyone could do," the
+girl said kindly; "but whatever you might feel, having another
+person behind you could not but hamper you awfully. I would
+infinitely rather try to escape on foot, for then I should be
+relying on myself, while if I was riding behind anyone, and we
+were pursued or attacked, I should feel all the time I was
+destroying his chances, and that if it were not for me he would
+get away. That would be terrible. I don't know whether we were
+wise to stay here instead of trying to escape at once; but as
+uncle and Mr. Hunter and the others all thought it wiser to stay,
+I have no doubt it was; but I am quite sure that it could not
+have been a good plan to go off like that on horseback."</p>
+
+<p>Another day passed quietly, and then during the night the
+watch heard the sounds of blows with axes, and of falling
+trees.</p>
+
+<p>"They are clearing the ground in front of their battery," the
+Major, who was on the watch with his party, said; "it will begin
+in earnest tomorrow morning. The sound came from just where we
+expected. It is about in the same line as where they made their
+first attempt, but a hundred yards or so further back."</p>
+
+<p>At daylight they saw that the trees and bushes had been
+leveled, and a battery, with embrazures for six guns, erected at
+a distance of about four hundred yards from the house. More
+sandbags were at once brought up from below, and the parapet, on
+the side facing the battery, raised two feet and doubled in
+thickness. The garrison were not disturbed while so engaged.</p>
+
+<p>"Why the deuce don't the fellows begin?" Captain Forster said
+impatiently, as he stood looking over the parapet when the work
+was finished.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect they are waiting for the Rajah and some of the
+principal Zemindars to come down," replied the Major; "the guns
+are theirs, you see, and will most likely be worked by their own
+followers. No doubt they think they will knock the place to
+pieces in a few minutes.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen! there is music; they are coming in grand state.
+Rintoul, will you tell the workers in the mine to come up. By the
+way, who are at work now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bathurst and Wilson, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Then tell Wilson to come up, and request Bathurst to go on
+with the gallery. Tell him I want that pushed forward as fast as
+possible, and that one gun will not make much difference here.
+Request the ladies and children to go down into the storeroom for
+the present. I don't think the balls will go through the wall,
+but it is as well to be on the safe side."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Rintoul delivered his message to the ladies. They had
+already heard that the battery had been unmasked and was ready to
+open fire, and lamps had been placed in the storeroom in
+readiness for them. There were pale faces .among them, but their
+thoughts were of those on the roof rather than of themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hunter took up the Bible she had been reading, and said,
+"Tell them, Captain Rintoul, we shall be praying for them." The
+ladies went into the room that served as a nursery, and with the
+ayahs and other female servants carried the children down into
+the storeroom.</p>
+
+<p>"I would much rather be up there," Isobel said to Mrs. Doolan;
+"we could load the muskets for them, and I don't think it would
+be anything like so bad if we could see what was going on as
+being cooped up below fancying the worst all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"I quite agree with you, but men never will get to understand
+women. Perhaps before we are done they will recognize the fact
+that we are no more afraid than they are."</p>
+
+<p>The music was heard approaching along the road where the
+bungalows had stood. Presently a number of flags were raised in
+the battery amid a great beating of drums. On the previous day a
+flagstaff had been erected on the roof, and a Union Jack was run
+up in answer to the enemy's demonstration.</p>
+
+<p>"A cheer for the old flag, lads," the Major said; and a hearty
+cheer broke from the little party on the roof, where, with the
+exception of Bathurst, all the garrison were assembled. The cheer
+was answered by a yell from the natives not only in the battery,
+but from the gardens and inclosures round the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Pay no attention to the fellows in the gardens," the Major
+said; "fire at their guns -- they must expose themselves to
+load."</p>
+
+<p>The men were kneeling behind the parapet, where the sandbags
+had been so arranged that they could see through between those on
+the upper line, and thus fire without raising their heads above
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we wait for them or fire first, Major?" the Doctor
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect the guns are loaded and laid, Doctor; but if you see
+a head looking along them, by all means take a shot at it. I wish
+we could see down into the battery itself, but it is too high for
+that."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor lay looking along his rifle. Presently he fired,
+and as if it had been the signal five cannon boomed out almost at
+the same moment, the other being fired a quarter of a minute
+later. Three of the shot struck the house below the parapet, the
+others went overhead.</p>
+
+<p>"I hit my man," the Doctor said, as he thrust another rifle
+through the loophole. "Now, we will see if we can keep them from
+loading."</p>
+
+<p>Simultaneously with the roar of the cannon a rattle of
+musketry broke out on three sides of the house, and a hail of
+bullets whistled over the heads of the defenders, who opened a
+steady fire at the embrasures of the guns. These had been run in,
+and the natives could be seen loading them. The Major examined
+the work through a pair of field glasses.</p>
+
+<p>"You are doing well," he said presently; "I have seen several
+of them fall, and there is a lot of confusion among them; they
+will soon get tired of that game."</p>
+
+<p>Slowly and irregularly the guns were run out again, and the
+fire of the defenders was redoubled to prevent them from taking
+aim. Only one shot hit the house this time, the others all going
+overhead. The fire of the enemy became slower and more irregular,
+and at the end of an hour ceased almost entirely.</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor," the Major said, "I will get you and Farquharson to
+turn your attention to some fellows there are in that high tree
+over there. They command us completely, and many of their bullets
+have struck on the terrace behind us. It would not be safe to
+move across to the stairs now. I think we have pretty well
+silenced. the battery for the present. Here are my glasses. With
+them you can easily make out the fellows among the leaves."</p>
+
+<p>"I see them," the Doctor said, handing the glasses to
+Farquharson; "we will soon get them out of that. Now,
+Farquharson, you take that fellow out on the lower branch to the
+right; I will take the one close to the trunk on the same
+branch."</p>
+
+<p>Laying their rifles on the upper row of sandbags, the two men
+took a steady aim. They fired almost together, and two bodies
+were seen to fall from the tree.</p>
+
+<p>"Well shot!" the Major exclaimed. "There are something like a
+dozen of them up there; but they will soon clear out if you keep
+that up."</p>
+
+<p>"They are not more than two hundred yards away," the Doctor
+said, "and firing from a rest we certainly ought not to miss them
+at that distance. Give me the glasses again."</p>
+
+<p>A similar success attended the next two shots, and then a
+number of figures were seen hastily climbing down.</p>
+
+<p>"Give them a volley, gentlemen," the Major said.</p>
+
+<p>A dozen guns were fired, and three more men dropped, and an
+angry yell from the natives answered the shout of triumph from
+the garrison.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you go down, Mr. Hunter, and tell the ladies that we
+have silenced the guns for the present, and that no one has
+received a scratch? Now, let us see what damage their balls have
+effected."</p>
+
+<p>This was found to be trifling. The stonework of the house was
+strong, and the guns were light. The stonework of one of the
+windows was broken, and two or three stones in the wall cracked.
+One ball had entered a window, torn its way through two inner
+walls, and lay against the back wall.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a four pound ball," the Major said, taking it up. "I
+fancy the guns are seven pounders. They have evidently no balls
+to fit, which accounts for the badness of their firing and the
+little damage they did; with so much windage the balls can have
+had but small velocity. Well, that is a satisfactory beginning,
+gentlemen; they will take a long time to knock the place about
+our ears at this rate. Now we will see if we cannot clear them
+out of the gardens. Captain Doolan, will you take the glasses and
+watch the battery; if you see any movement about the guns, the
+fire will be reopened at once; until then all will devote their
+attention to those fellows among the bushes; it is important to
+teach them that they are not safe there, for a chance ball might
+come in between the sandbags. Each of you pick out a particular
+bush, and watch it till you see the exact position in which
+anyone firing from it must be in, and then try to silence him.
+Don't throw away a shot if you can help it. We have a good stock
+of ammunition, but it is as well not to waste it. I will leave
+you in command at present, Doolan."</p>
+
+<p>Major Hannay then went down to the storeroom.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come to relieve you from your confinement, ladies," he
+said. "I am glad to say that we find their balls will not
+penetrate the walls of the house alone, and there is therefore no
+fear whatever of their passing through them and the garden wall
+together; therefore, as long as the wall is intact, there is no
+reason whatever why you should not remain on the floor
+above."</p>
+
+<p>There was a general exclamation of pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"That will be vastly better, uncle," Isobel said; "it is
+hateful being hidden away down here when we have nothing to do
+but to listen to the firing; we don't see why some of us should
+not go up on the terrace to load the rifles for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at present, Isobel; we are not pressed yet. When it comes
+to a real attack it will be time to consider about that. I don't
+think any of us would shoot straighter if there were women right
+up among us in danger."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't at all see why it should be worse our being in danger
+than for you men, Major," Mrs. Doolan said; "we have just as much
+at stake, and more; and I warn you I shall organize a female
+mutiny if we are not allowed to help."</p>
+
+<p>The Major laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mrs. Doolan, I shall have to convert this storeroom
+into a prison, and all who defy my authority will be immured
+here, so now you know the consequence of disobedience."</p>
+
+<p>"And has no one been hurt with all that firing, Major Hannay?"
+Mary Hunter asked.</p>
+
+<p>"A good many people have been hurt, Miss Hunter, but no one on
+our side. I fancy we must have made it very hot for those at the
+guns, and the Doctor and Mr. Farquharson have been teaching them
+not to climb trees. At present that firing you hear is against
+those who are hiding in the gardens."</p>
+
+<p>An hour later the firing ceased altogether, the natives
+finding the fire of the defenders so deadly that they no longer
+dared, by discharging a rifle, to show where they were hiding.
+They had drawn off from the more distant clumps and bushes, but
+dared not try and crawl from those nearer the house until after
+nightfall.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning it was found that during the night the enemy
+had closed up their embrasures, leaving only openings
+sufficiently large for the muzzles of the guns to be thrust
+through, and soon after daybreak they renewed their fire. The
+Doctor and Mr. Farquharson alone remained on the roof, and
+throughout the day they kept up a steady fire at these openings
+whenever the guns were withdrawn. Several of the sandbags were
+knocked off the parapet during the course of the day, and a few
+shot found their way through the walls of the upper story, but
+beyond this no damage was done. The mining was kept up with great
+vigor, and the gallery advanced rapidly, the servants finding it
+very hard work to remove the earth as fast as the miners brought
+it down.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Forster offered to go out with three others at night
+to try and get into the battery and spike the guns, but Major
+Hannay would not permit the attempt to be made.</p>
+
+<p>"We know they have several other guns," he said, "and the risk
+would be altogether too great, for there would be practically no
+chance of your getting back and being drawn up over the wall
+before you were overtaken, even if you succeeded in spiking the
+guns. There are probably a hundred men sleeping in the battery,
+and it is likely they would have sentries out in front of it. The
+loss of four men would seriously weaken the garrison."</p>
+
+<p>The next morning another battery to the left was unmasked, and
+on the following day three guns were planted, under cover, so as
+to play against the gate. The first battery now concentrated its
+fire upon the outer wall, the new battery played upon the upper
+part of the house, and the three guns kept up a steady fire at
+the gate.</p>
+
+<p>There was little rest for the besieged now. It was a constant
+duel between their rifles and the guns, varied by their
+occasionally turning their attention to men who climbed trees, or
+who, from the roofs of some buildings still standing, endeavored
+to keep down their fire.</p>
+
+<p>Wilson had been released from his labors in the gallery,
+Bathurst undertaking to get down the earth single handed as fast
+as the servants could remove it.</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw such a fellow to work, Miss Hannay," Wilson said
+one day, when he was off duty, and happened to find her working
+alone at some bandages. "I know you don't like him, but he is a
+first rate fellow if there ever was one. It is unlucky for him
+being so nervous at the guns; but that is no fault of his, after
+all, and I am sure in other things he is as cool as possible.
+Yesterday I was standing close to him, shoving the earth back to
+the men as he got it down. Suddenly he shouted, 'Run, Wilson, the
+roof is coming down!' I could not help bolting a few yards, for
+the earth came pattering down as he spoke; then I looked round
+and saw him standing there, by the light of the lamp, like those
+figures you see holding up pillars; I forget what they call them
+-- catydigs, or something of that sort."</p>
+
+<p>"Caryatides," Isobel put in.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is the name. Some timber had given way above him,
+and he was holding it up with his arms. I should say that there
+must have been half a ton of it, and he said, as quietly as
+possible, 'Get two of those short poles, Wilson, and put up one
+on each side of me. I can hold it a bit, but don't be longer than
+you can help about it.' I managed to shove up the timber, so that
+he could slip out before it came down. It would have crushed us
+both to a certainty if he had not held it up."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you say you know I don't like Mr. Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't exactly know, Miss Hannay, but I have noticed you are
+the only lady who does not chat with him. I don't think I have
+seen you speak to him since we have come in here. I am sorry,
+because I like him very much, and I don't care for Forster at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"What has Captain Forster to do with it?" Isobel asked,
+somewhat indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing at all, Miss Hannay, only, you know, Bathurst
+used to be a good deal at the Major's before Forster came, and
+then after that I never met him there except on that evening
+before he came in here. Now you know, Miss Hannay," he went on
+earnestly, "what I think about you. I have not been such an ass
+as to suppose I ever had a chance, though you know I would lay
+down my life for you willingly; but I did not seem to mind
+Bathurst. I know he is an awfully good fellow, and would have
+made you very happy; but I don't feel like that with Forster.
+There is nothing in the world that I should like better than to
+punch his head; and when I see that a fellow like that has cut
+Bathurst out altogether it makes. me so savage sometimes that I
+have to go and smoke a pipe outside so as not to break out and
+have a row with him."</p>
+
+<p>"You ought not to talk so, Mr. Wilson. It is very wrong. You
+have no right to say that anyone has cut anyone else out as far
+as I am concerned. I know you are all fond of me in a brotherly
+sort of way, and I like you very much; but that gives you no
+right to say such things about other people. Mr. Bathurst ceased
+his visits not because of Captain Forster but from another reason
+altogether; and certainly I have neither said nor done anything
+that would justify your saying that Captain Forster had cut Mr.
+Bathurst out. Even if I had, you ought not to have alluded to
+such a thing. I am not angry with you," she said, seeing how
+downcast he looked; "but you must not talk like that any more; it
+would be wrong at any time; it is specially so now, when we are
+all shut up here together, and none can say what will happen to
+us."</p>
+
+<p>"It seemed to me that was just the reason why I could speak
+about it, Miss Hannay. We may none of us get out of this fix we
+are in, and I do think we ought all to be friends together now.
+Richards and I both agreed that as it was certain neither of us
+had a chance of winning you, the next best thing was to see you
+and Bathurst come together. Well, now all that's over, of course,
+but is it wrong for me to ask, how is it you have come to dislike
+him?"</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't dislike him, Mr. Wilson."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, why do you go on as if you didn't like him?"</p>
+
+<p>Isobel hesitated. From most men she would have considered the
+question impertinent, and would have resented it, but this frank
+faced boy meant no impertinence; he loved her in his honest way,
+and only wanted to see her happy.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't speak to him if he doesn't speak to me," she said
+desperately.</p>
+
+<p>"No, of course not," he agreed; "but why shouldn't he speak to
+you? You can't have done anything to offend him except taking up
+with Forster."</p>
+
+<p>"It is nothing to do with Captain Forster at all, Mr. Wilson;
+I --" and she hesitated. "I said something at which he had the
+right to feel hurt and offended, and he has never given me any
+opportunity since of saying that I was sorry."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure you would not have said anything that he should
+have been offended about, Miss Hannay; it is not your nature, and
+I would not believe it whoever told me, not even yourself; so he
+must be in fault, and, of course, I have nothing more to say
+about it."</p>
+
+<p>"He wasn't in fault at all, Mr. Wilson. I can't tell you what
+I said, but it was very wrong and thoughtless on my part, and I
+have been sorry for it ever since; and he has a perfect right to
+be hurt and not to come near me, especially as" -- and she
+hesitated -- "as I have acted badly since, and he has no reason
+for supposing that I am sorry. And now you must not ask me any
+more about it; I don't know why I have said as much to you as I
+have, only I know I can trust you, and I like you very much,
+though I could never like you in the sort of way you would want
+me to. I wish you didn't like me like that."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never mind me," he said earnestly. "I am all right, Miss
+Hannay; I never expected anything, you know, so I am not
+disappointed, and it has been awfully good of you talking to me
+as you have, and not getting mad with me for interfering. But I
+can hear them coming down from the terrace, and I must be off. I
+am on duty there, you know, now. Bathurst has undertaken double
+work in that hole. I didn't like it, really; it seemed mean to be
+getting out of the work and letting him do it all, but he said
+that he liked work, and I really think he does. I am sure he is
+always worrying himself because he can't take his share in the
+firing on the roof; and when he is working he hasn't time to
+think about it. When he told me that in future he would drive the
+tunnel our shift himself, he said, 'That will enable you to take
+your place on the roof, Wilson, and you must remember you are
+firing for both of us, so don't throw away a shot.' It is awfully
+rough on him, isn't it? Well, goodby, Miss Hannay," and Wilson
+hurried off to the roof.</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h1>
+
+<p>The next four days made a great alteration in the position of
+the defenders in the fortified house.</p>
+
+<p>The upper story was now riddled by balls, the parapet round
+the terrace had been knocked away in several places, the gate was
+in splinters; but as the earth from the tunnel had been all
+emptied against the sandbags, it had grown to such a thickness
+that the defense was still good here. But in the wall, against
+which one of the new batteries had steadily directed its fire,
+there was a yawning gap, which was hourly increasing in size, and
+would ere long be practicable for assault. Many of the shots
+passing through this had struck the house itself. Some of these
+had penetrated, and the room in the line of fire could no longer
+be used.</p>
+
+<p>There had been several casualties. The young civilian Herbert
+had been killed by a shot that struck the parapet just where he
+was lying. Captain Rintoul had been seriously wounded, two of the
+natives had been killed by the first shot which penetrated the
+lower room. Mr. Hunter was prostrate with fever, the result of
+exposure to the sun, and several others had received wounds more
+or less severe from fragments of stone; but the fire of the
+defenders was as steady as at first, and the loss of the natives
+working the guns was severe, and they no longer ventured to fire
+from the gardens and shrubberies round the walls.</p>
+
+<p>Fatigue, watching, still more the heat on the terrace, was
+telling heavily upon the strength of the garrison. The ladies
+went about their work quietly and almost silently. The constant
+anxiety and the confinement in the darkened rooms were telling
+upon them too. Several of the children were ill; and when not
+employed in other things, there were fresh sandbags to be made by
+the women, to take the place of those damaged by the enemy's
+shot.</p>
+
+<p>When, of an evening, a portion of the defenders came off duty,
+there was more talk and conversation, as all endeavored to keep
+up a good face and assume a confidence they were far from
+feeling. The Doctor was perhaps the most cheery of the party.
+During the daytime he was always on the roof, and his rifle
+seldom cracked in vain. In the evening he attended to his
+patients, talked cheerily to the ladies, and laughed and joked
+over the events of the day.</p>
+
+<p>None among the ladies showed greater calmness and courage than
+Mrs. Rintoul, and not a word was ever heard from the time the
+siege began of her ailments or inconveniences. She was Mrs.
+Hunter's best assistant with the sick children. Even after her
+husband was wounded, and her attention night and day was given to
+him, she still kept on patiently and firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how to admire Mrs. Rintoul enough," Mrs. Hunter
+said to Isobel Hannay one day; "formerly I had no patience with
+her, she was always querulous and grumbling; now she has turned
+out a really noble woman. One never knows people, my dear, till
+one sees them in trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"Everyone is nice," Isobel said. "I have hardly heard a word
+of complaint about anything since we came here, and everyone
+seems to help others and do little kindnesses."</p>
+
+<p>The enemy's fire had been very heavy all that day, and the
+breach in the wall had been widened, and the garrison felt
+certain that the enemy would attack on the following morning.</p>
+
+<p>"You and Farquharson, Doctor, must stop on the roof," the
+Major said. "In the first place, it is possible they may try to
+attack by ladders at some other point, and we shall want two good
+shots up there to keep them back; and in the second, if they do
+force the breach, we shall want you to cover our retreat into the
+house. I will get a dozen rifles for each of you loaded and in
+readiness. Isobel and Mary Hunter, who have both volunteered over
+and over again, shall go up to load; they have both practiced,
+and can load quickly. Of course if you see that the enemy are not
+attacking at any other point, you will help us at the breach by
+keeping up a steady fire on them, but always keep six guns each
+in reserve. I shall blow my whistle as a signal for us to retire
+to the house if I find we can hold the breach no longer, so when
+you hear that blaze away at them as fast as you can. Your twelve
+shots will check them long enough to give us time to get in and
+fasten the door. We shall be round the corner of the house before
+they can get fairly over the breastwork. We will set to work to
+raise that as soon as it gets dark."</p>
+
+<p>A breastwork of sandbags had already been erected behind the
+breach, in case the enemy should make a sudden rush, and a couple
+of hours' labor transformed this into a strong work; for the bags
+were already filled, and only needed placing in position. When
+completed, it extended in a horseshoe shape, some fifteen feet
+across, behind the gap in the wall. For nine feet from the ground
+it was composed of sandbags three deep, and a single line was
+then laid along the edge to serve as a parapet.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think they will get over that," the Major said, when
+the work was finished. "I doubt if they will be disposed even to
+try when they reach the breach."</p>
+
+<p>Before beginning their work they had cleared away all the
+fallen brickwork from behind the breach, and a number of bricks
+were laid on the top of the sandbags to be used as missiles.</p>
+
+<p>"A brick is as good as a musket ball at this distance," the
+Major said; "and when our guns are empty we can take to them;
+there are enough spare rifles for us to have five each, and, with
+those and our revolvers and the bricks, we ought to be able to
+account for an army. There are some of the servants and syces who
+can be trusted to load. They can stand down behind us, and we can
+pass our guns down to them as we empty them."</p>
+
+<p>Each man had his place on the work assigned to him. Bathurst,
+who had before told the Major that when the time came for an
+assault to be delivered he was determined to take his place in
+the breach, was placed at one end of the horseshoe where it
+touched the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't promise to be of much use, Major," he said quietly.
+"I know myself too well; but at least I can run my chance of
+being killed."</p>
+
+<p>The Major had put Wilson next to him.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think there is much chance of their storming the
+work, Wilson; but if they do, you catch hold of Bathurst's arm,
+and drag him away when you hear me whistle; the chances are a
+hundred to one against his hearing it, or remembering what it
+means if he does hear it."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Major, I will look to him."</p>
+
+<p>Four men remained on guard at the breach all night, and at the
+first gleam of daylight the garrison took up their posts.</p>
+
+<p>"Now mind, my dears," the Doctor said, as he and Farquharson
+went up on the terrace with Isobel and Mary Hunter; "you must do
+exactly as you are told, or you will be doing more harm than
+good, for Farquharson and I would not be able to pay attention to
+our shooting. You must lie down and remain perfectly quiet till
+we begin to fire, then keep behind us just so far that you can
+reach the guns as we hand them back to you after firing; and you
+must load them either kneeling or sitting down, so that you don't
+expose your heads above the thickest part of the breastwork. When
+you have loaded, push the guns back well to the right of us, but
+so that we can reach them. Then, if one of them goes off, there
+won't be any chance of our being hit. The garrison can't afford
+to throw away a life at present. You will, of course, only half
+cock them; still, it is as well to provide against
+accidents."</p>
+
+<p>Both the girls were pale, but they were quiet and steady. The
+Doctor saw they were not likely to break down.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a rum looking weapon you have got there, Bathurst,"
+Wilson said, as, after carrying down the spare guns and placing
+them ready for firing, they lay down in their positions on the
+sandbags. The weapon was a native one, and was a short mace,
+composed of a bar of iron about fifteen inches long, with a knob
+of the same metal, studded with spikes. The bar was covered with
+leather to break the jar, and had a loop to put the hand through
+at the end.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Bathurst said quietly; "I picked it up at one of the
+native shops in Cawnpore the last time I was there. I had no idea
+then that I might ever have to use it, and bought it rather as a
+curiosity; but I have kept it within reach of my bedside since
+these troubles began, and I don't think one could want a better
+weapon at close quarters."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it is a tremendous thing; and after the way I have seen
+you using that pick I should not like to be within reach of your
+arm with that mace in it. I don't think there is much chance of
+your wanting that. I have no fear of the natives getting over
+here this time."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no fear of the natives at all," Bathurst said.</p>
+
+<p>"I am only afraid of myself. At present I am just as cool as
+if there was not a native within a thousand miles, and I am sure
+that my pulse is not going a beat faster than usual. I can think
+of the whole thing and calculate the chances as calmly as if it
+were an affair in which I was in no way concerned. It is not
+danger that I fear in the slightest, it is that horrible noise. I
+know well enough that the moment the firing begins I shall be
+paralyzed. My only hope is that at the last moment, if it comes
+to hand to hand fighting, I shall get my nerve."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt you will," Wilson said warmly; "and when you
+do I would back you at long odds against any of us. Ah, they are
+beginning."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke there was a salvo of all the guns on the three
+Sepoy batteries. Then a roar of musketry broke out round the
+house, and above it could be heard loud shouts.</p>
+
+<p>"They are coming, Major," the Doctor shouted down from the
+roof; "the Sepoys are leading, and there is a crowd of natives
+behind them."</p>
+
+<p>Those lying in the middle of the curve of the horseshoe soon
+caught sight of the enemy advancing tumultuously towards the
+breach. The Major had ordered that not a shot was to be fired
+until they reached it, and it was evident that the silence of the
+besieged awed the assailants with a sense of unknown danger, for
+their pace slackened, and when they got to within fifty yards of
+the breach they paused and opened fire. Then, urged forward by
+their officers and encouraged by their own noise, they again
+rushed forward. Two of their officers led the way; and as these
+mounted the little heap of rubbish at the foot of the breach, two
+rifles cracked out from the terrace, and both fell dead.</p>
+
+<p>There was a yell of fury from the Sepoys, and then they poured
+in through the breach. Those in front tried to stop as they saw
+the trap into which they were entering, but pressed on by those
+behind they were forced forward.</p>
+
+<p>And now a crackling fire of musketry broke out from the rifles
+projecting between the sandbags into the crowded mass. Every shot
+told. Wild shrieks, yells, and curses rose from the assailants.
+Some tried madly to climb up the sandbags, some to force their
+way back through the crowd behind; some threw themselves down;
+others discharged their muskets at their invisible foe. From the
+roof the Doctor and his companion kept up a rapid fire upon the
+crowd struggling to enter the breach. As fast as the defenders'
+muskets were discharged they handed them down to the servants
+behind to be reloaded, and when each had fired his spare muskets
+he betook himself to his revolver.</p>
+
+<p>Wilson, while discharging his rifle, kept his eyes upon
+Bathurst. The latter had not fired a shot, but lay rigid and
+still, save for a sort of convulsive shuddering. Presently there
+was a little lull in the firing as the weapons were emptied, and
+the defenders seizing the bricks hurled them down into the
+mass.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out!" the Major shouted; "keep your heads low -- I am
+going to throw the canisters."</p>
+
+<p>A number of these had been prepared, filled to the mouth with
+powder and bullets, and with a short fuse attached, ropes being
+fastened round them to enable them to be slung some distance. The
+Major half rose to throw one of these missiles when his attention
+was called by a shout from Wilson.</p>
+
+<p>The latter was so occupied that he had not noticed Bathurst,
+who had suddenly risen to his feet, and just as Wilson was about
+to grasp him and pull him down, leaped over the sandbag in front
+of him down among the mutineers. The Major gave a swing to the
+canister, of which the fuse was already lighted, and hurled it
+through the breach among the crowd, who, ignorant of what was
+going on inside, were still struggling to enter.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out," he shouted to the others; "mind how you throw.
+Bathurst is down in the middle of them. Hand up all the muskets
+you have loaded," he cried to the servants.</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke he swung another canister through the breach, and
+almost immediately two heavy explosions followed, one close upon
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Give them a volley at the breach," he shouted; "never mind
+those below."</p>
+
+<p>The muskets were fired as soon as received.</p>
+
+<p>"Now to your feet," the Major cried, "and give them the
+brickbats," and as he stood up he hurled two more canisters among
+the crowd behind the breach. The others sprang up with a cheer.
+The inclosure below them was shallower now from the number that
+had fallen, and was filled with a confused mass of struggling
+men. In their midst was Bathurst fighting desperately with his
+short weapon, and bringing down a man at every blow, the
+mutineers being too crowded together to use their unfixed
+bayonets against him. In a moment Captain Forster leaped down,
+sword in hand, and joined Bathurst in the fight.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand steady," the Major shouted; "don't let another man
+move."</p>
+
+<p>But the missiles still rained down with an occasional shot, as
+the rifles were handed up by the natives, while the Doctor and
+Farquharson kept up an almost continuous fire from the terrace.
+Then the two last canisters thrown by the Major exploded. The
+first two had carried havoc among the crowd behind the breach,
+these completed their confusion, and they turned and fled; while
+those in the retrenchment, relieved of the pressure from behind,
+at once turned, and flying through the breach, followed their
+companions.</p>
+
+<p>A loud cheer broke from the garrison, and the Major looking
+round saw the Doctor standing by the parapet waving his hat,
+while Isobel stood beside him looking down at the scene of
+conflict.</p>
+
+<p>"Lie down, Isobel," he shouted; "they will be opening fire
+again directly."</p>
+
+<p>The girl disappeared, and almost at the same moment the
+batteries spoke out again, and a crackle of the musketry began
+from the gardens. The Major turned round. Bathurst was leaning
+against the wall breathing heavily after his exertions, Forster
+was coolly wiping his sword on the tunic of one of the fallen
+Sepoys.</p>
+
+<p>"Are either of you hurt?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not hurt to speak of," Forster said; "I got a rip with a
+bayonet as I jumped down, but I don't think it is of any
+consequence."</p>
+
+<p>"How are you, Bathurst?" the Major repeated. "What on earth
+possessed you to jump down like that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, Major; I had to do something, and when yon
+stopped firing I felt it was time for me to do my share."</p>
+
+<p>"You have done more than your share, I should say," the Major
+said; "for they went down like ninepins before you. Now, Wilson,
+you take one of his hands, and I will take the other, and help
+him up."</p>
+
+<p>It needed considerable exertion to get him up, for the
+reaction had now come, and he was scarce able to stand.</p>
+
+<p>"You had better go up to the house and get a glass of wine,"
+the Major said. "Now, is anyone else hurt?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am hit, Major," Richards said quietly; "a ball came in
+between the sandbags just as I fired my first shot, and smashed
+my right shoulder. I think I have not been much good since,
+though I have been firing from my left as well as I could. I
+think I will go up and get the Doctor to look at it."</p>
+
+<p>But almost as he spoke the young fellow tottered, and would
+have fallen, had not the Major caught him.</p>
+
+<p>"Lend me a hand, Doolan," the latter said; "we will carry him
+in; I am afraid he is very hard hit."</p>
+
+<p>The ladies gathered round the Major and Captain Doolan as they
+entered with their burden. Mary Hunter had already run down and
+told them that the attack had been repulsed and the enemy had
+retreated.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody else is hit," the Major said, as he entered; "at
+least, not seriously. The enemy have been handsomely beaten with
+such loss that they won't be in a hurry to try again. Will one of
+you run up and bring the Doctor down?"</p>
+
+<p>Richards was carried into the hospital room, where he was left
+to the care of the Doctor, Mrs. Hunter, and Mrs. Rintoul. The
+Major returned to the general room.</p>
+
+<p>"Boy, bring half a dozen bottles of champagne and open them as
+quickly as you can," he said; "we have got enough to last us for
+weeks, and this is an occasion to celebrate, and I think we have
+all earned it."</p>
+
+<p>The others were by this time coming in, for there was no
+chance of the enemy renewing the attack at present. Farquharson
+was on the roof on the lookout. Quiet greetings were exchanged
+between wives and husbands.</p>
+
+<p>"It didn't last long," Wilson said; "not above five minutes, I
+should say, from the time when we opened fire."</p>
+
+<p>"It seemed to us an age," Amy Hunter replied; "it was dreadful
+not to be able to see what was going on; it seemed to me everyone
+must be killed with all that firing."</p>
+
+<p>"It was sharp while it lasted," the Major said; "but we were
+all snug enough except against a stray bullet, such as that which
+hit poor young Richards. He behaved very gallantly, and none of
+us knew he was hit till it was all over."</p>
+
+<p>"But how did Captain Forster get his bayonet wound?" Mrs.
+Doolan asked. "I saw him go in just now into the surgery; it
+seemed to me he had a very serious wound, for his jacket was cut
+from the breast up to the shoulder, and he was bleeding terribly,
+though he made light of it."</p>
+
+<p>"He jumped down into the middle of them," the Major said.
+"Bathurst jumped down first, and was fighting like a madman with
+a mace he has got. We could do nothing, for we were afraid of
+hitting him, and Forster jumped down to help him, and, as he did
+so, got that rip with the bayonet; it is a nasty cut, no doubt,
+but it is only a flesh wound."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Mr. Bathurst?" Mrs. Doolan asked; "is he hurt, too?
+Why did he jump down? I should not have thought," and she
+stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy a sort of fury seized him," the Major said; "but
+whatever it was, he fought like a giant. He is a powerful man,
+and that iron mace is just the thing for such work. The natives
+went down like ninepins before him. No, I don't think he is
+hurt."</p>
+
+<p>"I will go out and see," Mrs. Doolan said; and taking a mug
+half full of champagne from the table, she went out.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst was sitting on the ground leaning against the wall of
+the house.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not hurt, Mr. Bathurst, I hope," Mrs. Doolan said, as
+she came up. "No, don't try to get up, drink a little of this; we
+are celebrating our victory by opening a case of champagne. The
+Major tells us you have been distinguishing yourself
+greatly."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst drank some of the wine before he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"In a way, Mrs. Doolan, I scarcely know what I did do. I
+wanted to do something, even if it was only to get killed."</p>
+
+<p>"You must not talk like that," she said kindly; "your life is
+as valuable as any here, and you know that we all like and esteem
+you; and, at any rate, you have shown today that you have plenty
+of courage."</p>
+
+<p>"The courage of a Malay running amuck, Mrs. Doolan; that is
+not courage, it is madness. You cannot tell -- no one can tell --
+what I have suffered since the siege began. The humiliation of
+knowing that I alone of the men here am unable to take my part in
+the defense, and that while others are fighting I am useful only
+to work as a miner."</p>
+
+<p>"But you are as useful in that way as you would be in the
+other," she said. "I don't feel humiliated because I can only
+help in nursing the sick while the others are fighting for us. We
+have all of us our gifts. Few men have more than you. You have
+courage and coolness in other ways, and you are wrong to care
+nothing for your life because of the failing, for which you are
+not accountable, of your nerves to stand the sound of firearms..
+I can understand your feelings and sympathize with you, but it is
+of no use to exaggerate the importance of such a matter. You
+might live a thousand lives without being again in a position
+when such a failing would be of the slightest importance, one way
+or the other. Now come in with me. Certainly this is not the
+moment for you to give way about it; for whatever your feelings
+may have been, or whatever may have impelled you to the act, you
+have on this occasion fought nobly."</p>
+
+<p>"Not nobly, Mrs. Doolan," he said, rising to his feet;
+"desperately, or madly, if you like."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Wilson came out. "Halloa, Bathurst, what are
+doing here? Breakfast is just ready, and everyone is asking for
+you. I am sure you must want something after your exertions. You
+should have seen him laying about him with that iron mace, Mrs.
+Doolan.. I have seen him using the pick, and knew how strong ho
+was, but I was astonished, I can tell you. It was a sort of Coeur
+de Lion business. He used to use a mace, you know, and once rode
+through the Saracens and smashed them up, till at last, when he
+had done, he couldn't open his hand. Bring him in, Mrs. Doolan.
+If he won't come, I will go in and send the Doctor out to him.
+Bad business, poor Richards being hurt, isn't it? Awfully good
+fellow, Richards. Can't think why he was the one to be hit."</p>
+
+<p>So keeping up a string of talk, the young subaltern led
+Bathurst into the house.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast a white flag was waved from the roof, and in a
+short time two Sepoy officers came up with a similar flag. The
+Major and Captain Doolan went out to meet them, and it was agreed
+that hostilities should be suspended until noon, in order that
+the wounded and dead might be carried off.</p>
+
+<p>While this was being done the garrison remained under arms
+behind their work at the breach lest any treacherous attempt
+should be made. The mutineers, however, who were evidently much
+depressed by the failure, carried the bodies off quietly, and at
+twelve o'clock firing recommenced.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, after it was dark, the men gathered on the
+terrace.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, gentlemen," the Major said, "we have beaten them off
+today, and we may do it again, but there is no doubt how it must
+all end. You see, this afternoon their guns have all been firing
+at a fresh place in the wall; and if they make another breach or
+two, and attack at them all together, it will be hopeless to try
+to defend them. You see, now that we have several sick and
+wounded, the notion of making our escape is almost knocked on the
+head. At the last moment each may try to save his life, but there
+must be no desertion of the sick and wounded as long as there is
+a cartridge to be fired. Our best hope is in getting assistance
+from somewhere, but we know nothing of what is going on outside.
+I think the best plan will be for one of our number to try to
+make his way out, and go either to Lucknow, Agra, or Allahabad,
+and try and get help. If they could spare a troop of cavalry it
+might be sufficient; the mutineers have suffered very heavily;
+there were over a hundred and fifty bodies carried out today, and
+if attacked suddenly I don't think they would make any great
+resistance. We may hold out for a week or ten days, but I think
+that is the outside; and if rescue does not arrive by that time
+we must either surrender or try to escape by that passage."</p>
+
+<p>There was a general assent.</p>
+
+<p>"Bathurst would be the man to do it," the Doctor said. "Once
+through their lines he could pass without exciting the slightest
+suspicion; he could buy a horse then, and could be at any of the
+stations in two days."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there is no doubt that he is the man to do it," the
+Major said. "Where is he now?"</p>
+
+<p>"At work as usual, Major; shall I go and speak to him? But I
+tell you fairly I don't think he will undertake it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, Doctor? It is a dangerous mission, but no more
+dangerous than remaining here."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we shall see," the Doctor said, as he left the
+group.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing was said for a few minutes, the men sitting or lying
+about smoking. Presently the Doctor returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Bathurst refuses absolutely," he said. "He admits that he
+does not think there would be much difficulty for him to get
+through, but he is convinced that the mission would be a useless
+one, and that could help have been spared it would have come to
+us before now."</p>
+
+<p>"But in that case he would have made his escape," the Major
+said.</p>
+
+<p>That is just why he won't go, Major; he says that come what
+will he will share the fate of the rest, and that he will not
+live to be pointed to as the one man who made his escape of the
+garrison of Deennugghur."</p>
+
+<p>"Whom can we send?" the Major said. "You are the only other
+man who speaks the language well enough to pass as a native,
+Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"I speak it fairly, but not well enough for that; besides, I
+am too old to bear the fatigue of riding night and day; and,
+moreover, my services are wanted here both as a doctor and as a
+rifle shot."</p>
+
+<p>"I will go, if you will send me, Major," Captain Forster said
+suddenly; "not in disguise, but in uniform, and on my horse's
+back. Of course I should run the gauntlet of their sentries. Once
+through, I doubt if they have a horse that could overtake
+mine."</p>
+
+<p>There was a general silence of surprise. Forster's reckless
+courage was notorious, and he had been conspicuous for the manner
+in which he had chosen the most dangerous points during the
+siege; and this offer to undertake what, although a dangerous
+enterprise in itself, still offered a far better chance of life
+than that of remaining behind, surprised everyone. It had been
+noticed that, since the rejection of his plan to sally out in a
+body and cut their way through the enemy, he had been moody and
+silent, except only when the fire was heavy and the danger
+considerable; then he laughed and joked and seemed absolutely to
+enjoy the excitement; but he was the last man whom any of them
+would have expected to volunteer for a service that, dangerous as
+it might be, had just been refused by Bathurst on the ground that
+it offered a chance of escape from the common lot.</p>
+
+<p>The Major was the first to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Captain Forster, as we have just agreed that our only
+chance is to obtain aid from one of the stations, and as you are
+the only volunteer for the service, I do not see that I can
+decline to accept your offer. At which station do you think you
+would be most likely to find a force that could help us?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should say Lucknow, Major. If help is to be obtained
+anywhere, I should say it was there."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think that is the most hopeful. You will start at
+once; I suppose the sooner the better."</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as they are fairly asleep; say twelve o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. I will go and write a dispatch for you to carry,
+giving an account of the fix we are in here. How will you sally
+out?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should think the easiest plan would be to make a gap in the
+sandbags in the breach, lead the horse till fairly outside, and
+then mount."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you had better take a spare horse with you," the
+Doctor said; "it will make a difference if you are chased, if you
+can change from one to the other. Bathurst told me to say whoever
+went could have his horse, which is a long way the best in the
+station. I should fancy as good as your own."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," Forster said; "led horses are a nuisance;
+still, as you say, it might come in useful, if it is only to
+loose and turn down a side road, and so puzzle anyone who may be
+after you in the dark."</p>
+
+<p>The Major and Forster left the roof together.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is a rum go," Wilson said. "If it had been anyone
+but Forster I should have said that he funked and was taking the
+opportunity to get out of it, but everyone knows that he has any
+amount of pluck; look how he charged those Sepoys single
+handed."</p>
+
+<p>"There are two sorts of pluck, Wilson," the Doctor said dryly.
+"There is the pluck that will carry a man through a desperate
+action and lead him to do deeds that are the talk of an army.
+Forster possesses that kind of pluck in an unusual degree. He is
+almost an ideal cavalryman -- dashing, reckless; riding with a
+smile on his lips into the thickest of the fray, absolutely
+careless of life when his blood is up.</p>
+
+<p>"There is another sort of courage, that which supports men
+under long continued strain, and enables them, patiently and
+steadfastly, to face death when they see it approaching step by
+step. I doubt whether Forster possesses that passive sort of
+courage. He would ride up to a cannon's mouth, but would grow
+impatient in a. square of infantry condemned to remain inactive
+under a heavy artillery fire.</p>
+
+<p>"No one has changed more since this siege began than he has.
+Except when engaged under a heavy fire he has been either silent,
+or impatient and short tempered, shirking conversation even with
+women when his turn of duty was over. Mind, I don't say for a
+moment that I suspect him of being afraid of death; when the end
+came he would fight as bravely as ever, and no one could fight
+more bravely. But he cannot stand the waiting; he is always
+pulling his mustache moodily and muttering to himself; he is good
+to do but not to suffer; he would make a shockingly bad patient
+in a long illness.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if any of you have letters you want to write to friends
+in England I should advise you to take the opportunity; mind, I
+don't think they will ever get them. Forster may get through, but
+I consider the chances strongly against it. For a ride of ten
+miles through a country swarming with foes I could choose no
+messenger I would rather trust, but for a ride like this, that
+requires patience and caution and resource, he is not the man I
+should select. Bathurst would have succeeded almost certainly if
+he had once got out. The two men are as different as light to
+dark; one possesses just the points the other fails in. I have no
+one at home I want to write to, so I will undertake the watch
+here."</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h1>
+
+<p>The men on descending from the roof found all the ladies
+engaged in writing, the Major having told them that there was a
+chance of their letters being taken out. Scarce one looked up as
+they entered; their thoughts at the moment were at home with
+those to whom they were writing what might well be their last
+farewells. Stifled sobs were heard in the quiet room; mournful
+letters were blurred with tears even from eyes that had not
+before been dimmed since the siege began.</p>
+
+<p>Isobel Hannay was the first to finish, for her letter to her
+mother was but a short one. As she closed it she looked up.
+Captain Forster was standing at the other side of the table with
+his eyes fixed on her, and he made a slight gesture to her that
+he wished to speak to her. She hesitated a moment, and then rose
+and quietly left the room. A moment later he joined her
+outside.</p>
+
+<p>"Come outside," he said, "I must speak to you;" and together
+they went out through the passage into the courtyard.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel," he began, "I need not tell you that I love you; till
+lately I have not known how much, but I feel now that I could not
+live without you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you going away then, Captain Forster?" she asked
+quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to go alone," he said; "I cannot go alone -- I
+want you to go with me. Your uncle would surely consent; it is
+the only chance of saving your life. We all know that it is next
+to hopeless that a force sufficient to rescue us can be sent;
+there is just a chance, but that is all that can be said. We
+could be married at Allahabad. I would make for that town instead
+of Lucknow if you will go with me, and I could leave you there in
+safety till these troubles are over; I am going to take another
+horse as well as my own, and two would be as likely to escape as
+one."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you for the offer, Captain Forster," she said coldly,
+"but I decline it. My place is here with my uncle and the
+others."</p>
+
+<p>"Why is it?" he asked passionately. "If you love me, your
+place is surely with me; and you do love me, Isobel, do you not?
+Surely I have not been mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel was silent for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"You were mistaken, Captain Forster," she said, after a pause.
+"You paid me attentions such as I had heard you paid to many
+others, and it was pleasant. That you were serious I did not
+think. I believed you were simply flirting with me; that you
+meant no more by it than you had meant before; and being
+forewarned, and therefore having no fear that I should hurt
+myself more than you would, I entered into it in the same spirit.
+Where there was so much to be anxious about, it was a pleasure
+and relief. Had I met you elsewhere, and under different
+circumstances, I think I should have come to love you. A girl
+almost without experience and new to the world, as I am, could
+hardly have helped doing so, I think. Had I thought you were in
+earnest I should have acted differently; and if I have deceived
+you by my manner I am sorry; but even had I loved you I would not
+have consented to do the thing you ask me. You are going on duty.
+You are going in the hope of obtaining aid for us. I should be
+simply escaping while others stay, and I should despise myself
+for the action. Besides; I do not think that even in that case my
+uncle would have consented to my going with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure that he would," Forster broke in. "He would never
+be mad enough to refuse you the chance of escape from such a fate
+as may now await you."</p>
+
+<p>"We need not discuss the question," she said. "Even if I loved
+you, I would not go with you; and I do not love you."</p>
+
+<p>"They have prejudiced you against me," he said angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"They warned me, and they were right in doing so. Ask yourself
+if they were not. Would you see a sister of yours running the
+risk of breaking her heart without warning her? Do not be angry,"
+she went on, putting her hand on his arm. "We have been good
+friends, Captain Forster, and I like you very much. We may never
+meet again; it is most likely we never shall do so. I am grateful
+to you for the many pleasant hours you have given me. Let us part
+thus."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you not give some hope that in the distance, when these
+troubles are over, should we both be spared, you may --"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Captain Forster, I am sure it could never be so; if we
+ever meet again, we will meet as we part now -- as friends. And
+now I can stay no longer; they will be missing me," and, turning,
+she entered the house before he could speak again.</p>
+
+<p>It was some minutes before he followed her. He had not really
+thought that she would go with him; perhaps he had hardly wished
+it, for on such an expedition a woman would necessarily add to
+the difficulty and danger; but he had thought that she would have
+told him that his love was returned, and for perhaps the first
+time in his life he was serious in his protestation of it.</p>
+
+<p>"What does it matter?" he said at last, as he turned; "'tis
+ten thousand to one against our meeting again; if we do, I can
+take it up where it breaks off now. She has acknowledged that she
+would have liked me if she had been sure that I was in earnest.
+Next time I shall be so. She was right. I was but amusing myself
+with her at first, and had no more thought of marrying her than I
+had of flying. But there, it is no use talking about the future;
+the thing now is to get out of this trap. I have felt like a rat
+in a cage with a terrier watching me for the last month, and long
+to be on horseback again, with the chance of making a fight for
+my life. What a fool Bathurst was to throw away the chance!"</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst, his work done, had looked into the hall where the
+others were gathered, and hearing that the Doctor was alone on
+watch had gone up to him.</p>
+
+<p>"I was just thinking, Bathurst," the Doctor said, as he joined
+him, "about that fight today. It seems to me that whatever comes
+of this business, you and I are not likely to be among those who
+go down when the place is taken."</p>
+
+<p>"How is that, Doctor? Why is our chance better than the rest?
+I have no hope myself that any will be spared."</p>
+
+<p>"I put my faith in the juggler, Bathurst. Has it not struck
+you that the first picture you saw has come true?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have never given it a thought for weeks," Bathurst said;
+"certainly I have not thought of it today. Yes, now you speak of
+it, it has come true. How strange! I put it aside as a clever
+trick -- one that I could not understand any more than I did the
+others, but, knowing myself, it seemed beyond the bounds of
+possibility that it could come true. Anything but that I would
+have believed, but, as I told you, whatever might happen in the
+future, I should not be found fighting desperately as I saw
+myself doing there. It is true that I did so, but it was only a
+sort of a frenzy. I did not fire a shot, as Wilson may have told
+you. I strove like a man in a nightmare to break the spell that
+seemed to render me powerless to move, but when, for a moment,
+the firing ceased, a weight seemed to fall off me, and I was
+seized with a sort of passion to kill. I have no distinct
+remembrance of anything until it was all over. It was still the
+nightmare, but one of a different kind, and I was no more myself
+then than I was when I was lying helpless on the sandbags. Still,
+as you say, the picture was complete; at least, if Miss Hannay
+was standing up here."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she rose to her feet in the excitement of the fight. I
+believe we all did so. The picture was true in all its details as
+you described it to me. And that being so, I believe that other
+picture, the one we saw together, you and I and Isobel Hannay in
+native disguises, will also come true."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst was silent for two or three minutes.</p>
+
+<p>"It may be so, Doctor -- Heaven only knows. I trust for your
+sake and hers it may be so, though I care but little about
+myself; but that picture wasn't a final one, and we don't know
+what may follow it."</p>
+
+<p>"That is so, Bathurst. But I think that you and I, once fairly
+away in disguise, might be trusted to make our way down the
+country. You see, we have a complete confirmation of that
+juggler's powers. He showed me a scene in the past -- a scene
+which had not been in my mind for years, and was certainly not in
+my thoughts at the time. He showed you a scene in the future,
+which, unlikely as it appeared, has actually taken place. I
+believe he will be equally right in this other picture. You have
+heard that Forster is going?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; Wilson came down and told me while I was at work. Wilson
+seemed rather disgusted at his volunteering. I don't know that I
+am surprised myself, for, as I told you, I knew him at school,
+and he had no moral courage, though plenty of physical. Still,
+under the circumstances, I should not have thought he would have
+gone."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean because of Miss Hannay, Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is what I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"That sort of thing might weigh with you or me, Bathurst, but
+not with him. He has loved and ridden away many times before
+this, but in this case, fortunately, I don't think he will leave
+an aching heart behind him."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mean to say, Doctor, that you don't think she cares
+for him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not asked her the question," the Doctor said dryly. "I
+dare say she likes him; in fact, I am ready to admit that there
+has been what you may call a strong case of flirtation; but when
+a young woman is thrown with an uncommonly good looking man, who
+lays himself out to be agreeable to her, my experience is that a
+flirtation generally comes of it, especially when the young woman
+has no one else to make herself agreeable to, and is, moreover, a
+little sore with the world in general. I own that at one time I
+was rather inclined to think that out of sheer perverseness the
+girl was going to make a fool of herself with that good looking
+scamp, but since we have been shut up here I have felt easy in my
+mind about it. And now, if you will take my rifle for ten
+minutes, I will go down and get a cup of tea; I volunteered to
+take sentry work, but I didn't bargain for keeping it all night
+without relief. By the way, I told Forster of your offer of your
+horse, and I think he is going to take it."</p>
+
+<p>"He is welcome to it," Bathurst said carelessly; "it will be
+of no use to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, look here," the Doctor said shortly; "just put Miss
+Hannay out of your head for the present, and attend to the
+business on hand. I do not think there is much chance of their
+trying it on again tonight, but they may do so, so please to keep
+a sharp lookout while I am below."</p>
+
+<p>"I will be careful, Doctor," Bathurst said, with a laugh; but
+the Doctor had so little faith in his watchfulness that as soon
+as he went below he sent up Wilson to share his guard.</p>
+
+<p>At twelve o'clock the sandbags were removed sufficiently to
+allow a horse to pass through, and Forster's and Bathurst's
+animals were led out through the breach, their feet having been
+muffled with blankets to prevent their striking a stone and
+arousing the attention of the enemy's sentinels. Once fairly out
+the mufflings were removed and Forster sprang into his
+saddle.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodby, Major," he said; "I hope I may be back again in eight
+or nine days with a squadron of cavalry."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodby, Forster; I hope it may be so. May God protect
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>The gap in the defenses was closed the instant the horses
+passed through, and the men stood in the breach of the wall
+listening as Forster rode off. He went at a walk, but before he
+had gone fifty paces there was a sharp challenge, followed almost
+instantly by a rifle shot, then came the crack of a revolver and
+the rapid beat of galloping hoofs. Loud shouts were heard, and
+musket shots fired in rapid succession.</p>
+
+<p>"They are not likely to have hit him in the dark," the Major
+said, as he climbed back over the sandbags; "but they may hit his
+horses, which would be just as fatal."</p>
+
+<p>Leaving two sentries -- the one just outside the breach near
+the wall, the other on the sandbags -- the rest of the party
+hurried up on the roof. Shots were still being fired, and there
+was a confused sound of shouting; then a cavalry trumpet rang out
+sharply, and presently three shots fired in quick succession came
+upon the air.</p>
+
+<p>"That is the signal agreed on," the Major said: "he is safely
+beyond their lines. Now it is a question of riding; some of the
+cavalry will be in pursuit of him before many minutes are
+over."</p>
+
+<p>Forster's adieus had been brief. He had busied himself up to
+the last moment in looking to the saddling of the two horses, and
+had only gone into the house and said goodby to the ladies just
+when it was time to start. He had said a few hopeful words as to
+the success of the mission, but it had evidently needed an effort
+for him to do so. He had no opportunity of speaking a word apart
+with Isobel, and he shook her hand silently when it came to her
+turn.</p>
+
+<p>"I should not have given him credit for so much feeling," Mrs.
+Doolan whispered to Isobel, as he went out; "he was really sorry
+to leave us, and I didn't think he was a man to be sorry for
+anything that didn't affect himself. I think he had absolutely
+the grace to feel a little ashamed of leaving us."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think that is fair," Isobel said warmly, "when he is
+going away to fetch assistance for us."</p>
+
+<p>"He is deserting us as rats desert a sinking ship," Mrs.
+Doolan said positively; "and I am only surprised that he has the
+grace to feel a little ashamed of the action. As for caring,
+there is only one person in the world he cares for -- himself. I
+was reading 'David Copperfield' just before we came in here, and
+Steerforth's character might have been sketched from Forster. He
+is a man without either heart or conscience; a man who would
+sacrifice everything to his own pleasures; and yet even when one
+knows him to be what he is, one can hardly help liking him. I
+wonder how it is, my dear, that scamps are generally more
+pleasant than good men?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never thought about it, Mrs. Doolan," Isobel said, roused
+to a smile by the earnestness with which Mrs. Doolan propounded
+the problem; "and can give no reason except that we are attracted
+by natures the reverse of our own."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Doolan laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"So you think we are better than men, Isobel? I don't -- not
+one bit. We are cramped in our opportunities; but given equal
+opportunities I don't think there would be anything to choose
+between us. But we mustn't stay talking here any longer; we both
+go on duty in the sick ward at four o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>The enemy's batteries opened on the following morning more
+violently than before. More guns had been placed in position
+during the night, and a rain of missiles was poured upon the
+house. For the next six days the position of the besieged became
+hourly worse. Several breaches had been made in the wall, and the
+shots now struck the house, and the inmates passed the greater
+part of their time in the basement.</p>
+
+<p>The heat was terrible, and, as the firing was kept up night
+and day, sleep was almost impossible. The number of the besiegers
+had considerably increased, large numbers of the country people
+taking part in the siege, while a regiment of Sepoys from
+Cawnpore had taken the place of the detachment of the 103d Bengal
+Infantry, of whom, indeed, but few now remained.</p>
+
+<p>The garrison no longer held the courtyard. Several times
+masses of the enemy had surged up and poured through the
+breaches, but a large number of hand grenades of various sizes
+had been constructed by the defenders, and the effects of these
+thrown down from the roof among the crowded masses were so
+terrible that the natives each time fell back. The horses had all
+been turned out through the breach on the day after Captain
+Forster's departure, in order to save their lives. A plague of
+flies was not the least of the defenders' troubles. After the
+repulse of the assaults the defenders went out at night and
+carried the bodies of the natives who had fallen in the courtyard
+beyond the wall. Nevertheless, the odor of blood attracted such
+countless swarms of flies that the ground was black with them,
+and they pervaded the house in legions.</p>
+
+<p>The number of the defenders decreased daily. Six only were
+able now to carry arms. Mr. Hunter, Captain Rintoul, and Richards
+had died of fever. Farquharson had been killed by a cannon ball;
+two civilians had been badly wounded; several of the children had
+succumbed; Amy Hunter had been killed by a shell that passed
+through the sandbag protection of the grating that gave light to
+the room in the basement used as a sick ward. The other ladies
+were all utterly worn out with exhaustion, sleeplessness, and
+anxiety. Still there had been no word spoken of surrender. Had
+the men been alone they would have sallied out and died fighting,
+but this would have left the women at the mercy of the
+assailants.</p>
+
+<p>The work at the gallery had been discontinued for some time.
+It had been carried upwards until a number of roots in the earth
+showed that they were near the surface, and, as they believed,
+under a clump of bushes growing a hundred and fifty yards beyond
+the walls; but of late there had been no talk of using this.
+Flight, which even at first had seemed almost hopeless, was
+wholly beyond them in their present weakened condition.</p>
+
+<p>On the last of these six days Major Hannay was severely
+wounded. At night the enemy's fire relaxed a little, and the
+ladies took advantage of it to go up onto the terrace for air,
+while the men gathered for a council round the Major's bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Doctor, the end is pretty near," he said; "it is clear
+we cannot hold out many hours longer. We must look the matter in
+the face now. We have agreed all along that when we could no
+longer resist we would offer to surrender on the terms that our
+lives should be spared, and that we should be given safe conduct
+down the country, and that if those terms were refused we were to
+resist to the end, and then blow up the house and all in it. I
+think the time has come for raising the white flag."</p>
+
+<p>"I think so," the Doctor said: "we have done everything men
+could do. I have little hope that they will grant us terms of
+surrender; for from the native servants who have deserted us they
+must have a fair idea of our condition. What do you think,
+Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it probable there are divisions among them," he
+replied; "the Talookdars may have risen against us, but I do not
+think they can have the same deadly enmity the Sepoys have shown.
+They must be heartily sick of this prolonged siege, and they have
+lost large numbers of their men. I should say they would be
+willing enough to give terms, but probably they are overruled by
+the Sepoys, and perhaps by orders from Nana Sahib. I know several
+of them personally, and I think I could influence Por Sing, who
+is certainly the most powerful of the Zemindars of this
+neighborhood, and is probably looked upon as their natural
+leader; if you approve of it, Major, I will go out in disguise,
+and endeavor to obtain an interview with him. He is an honorable
+man; and if he will give his guarantee for our safety, I would
+trust him. At any rate, I can but try. If I do not return, you
+will know that I am dead, and that no terms can be obtained, and
+can then decide when to end it all."</p>
+
+<p>"It is worth the attempt anyhow," the Major said. "I say
+nothing about the danger you will run, for no danger can be
+greater than that which hangs over us all now."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Major, then I will do it at once, but you must not
+expect me back until tomorrow night. I can hardly hope to obtain
+an interview with Por Sing tonight."</p>
+
+<p>"How will you go out, Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will go down at once and break in the roof of the gallery,"
+he said; "we know they are close round the wall, and I could not
+hope to get out through any of the breaches."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you are quite convinced that there is no hope of
+relief from Lucknow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite convinced. I never had any real hope of it; but had
+there been a force disposable, it would have started at once if
+Forster arrived there with his message, and might have been here
+by this time."</p>
+
+<p>"At any rate, we can wait no longer."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we will begin at once," Bathurst said, and, taking a
+crowbar and pick from the place where the tools were kept, he
+lighted the lamp and went along the gallery, accompanied by the
+Doctor, who carried two light bamboo ladders.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you will succeed, Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am pretty sure of it," he said confidently. "I believe I
+have a friend there."</p>
+
+<p>"A friend!" the Doctor repeated in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I am convinced that the juggler is there. Not once, but
+half a dozen times during the last two nights when I have been on
+watch on the terrace, I have distinctly heard the words whispered
+in my ear, 'Meet me at your bungalow.' You may think I dozed off
+and was dreaming, but I was as wide awake then as I am now. I
+cannot say that I recognized the voice, but the words were in the
+dialect he speaks. At any rate, as soon as I am out I shall make
+my way there, and shall wait there all night on the chance of his
+coming. After what we know of the man's strange powers, there
+seems nothing unreasonable to me in his being able to impress
+upon my mind the fact that he wants to see me."</p>
+
+<p>"I quite agree with you there, and his aid might be
+invaluable. You are not the sort of man to have delusions,
+Bathurst, and I quite believe what you say. I feel more hopeful
+now than I have done for some time."</p>
+
+<p>An hour's hard work, and a hole was made through the soil,
+which was but three feet thick. Bathurst climbed up the ladder
+and looked out.</p>
+
+<p>"It is as we thought, Doctor; we are in the middle of that
+thicket. Now I will go and dress if you will keep guard here with
+your rifle."</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the gallery a figure was standing; it was Isobel
+Hannay.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard you are going out again, Mr. Bathurst."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am going to see what I can do in the way of making
+terms for us."</p>
+
+<p>"You may not come back again," she said nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"That is, of course, possible, Miss Hannay, but I do not think
+the risk is greater than that run by those who stay here."</p>
+
+<p>"I want to speak to you before you go," she said; "I have
+wanted to speak so long, but you have never given me an
+opportunity. We may never meet again, and I must tell you how
+sorry I am -- how sorry I have been ever since for what I said. I
+spoke as a foolish girl, but I know better now. Have I not seen
+how calm you have been through all our troubles, how you have
+devoted yourself to us and the children, how you have kept up all
+our spirits, how cheerfully you have worked, and as our trouble
+increased we have all come to look up to you and lean upon you.
+Do say, Mr. Bathurst, that you forgive me, and that if you return
+we can be friends as we were before."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly I forgive you if there is anything to forgive, Miss
+Hannay," he said gravely. "Nothing that you or anyone can say can
+relieve me of the pain of knowing that I have been unable to take
+any active part in your defense, that I have been forced to play
+the part of a woman rather than a man; but assuredly, if I
+return, I shall be glad to be again your friend, which, indeed. I
+have never ceased to be at heart."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps she expected something more, but it did not come. He
+spoke cordially, but yet as one who felt that there was an
+impassible barrier between them. She stood irresolute for a
+moment, and then held out her hand. "Goodby, then," she said.</p>
+
+<p>He held it a moment. "Goodby, Miss Hannay. May God keep you
+and guard you."</p>
+
+<p>Then gently he led her to the door, and they passed out
+together. A quarter of an hour later he rejoined the Doctor,
+having brought with him a few short lengths of bamboo.</p>
+
+<p>"I will put these across the hole when I get out," he said,
+"lay some sods over them, and cover them up with leaves, in case
+anyone should enter the bushes tomorrow. It is not likely, but it
+is as well to take the precaution. One of you had better stay on
+guard until I come back. It would not do to trust any of the
+natives; those that remain are all utterly disheartened and
+broken down, and might take the opportunity of purchasing their
+lives by going out and informing the enemy of the opening into
+the gallery. They must already know of its existence from the men
+who have deserted. But, fortunately, I don't think any of them
+are aware of its exact direction; if they had been, we should
+have had them countermining before this."</p>
+
+<p>Having carefully closed up the opening, Bathurst went to the
+edge of the bushes and listened. He could hear voices between him
+and the house, but all was quiet near at hand, and he began to
+move noiselessly along through the garden. He had no great fear
+of meeting with anyone here. The natives had formed a cordon
+round the wall, and behind that there would be no one on watch,
+and as the batteries were silent, all were doubtless asleep
+there. In ten minutes he stood before the charred stumps that
+marked the site of his bungalow. As he did so, a figure advanced
+to meet him.</p>
+
+<p>"It is you, sahib. I was expecting you. I knew that you would
+come this evening."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how you knew it but I am heartily glad to see
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"You want to see Por Sing? Come along with me and I will take
+you to him; but there is no time to lose;" and without another
+word he walked rapidly away, followed by Bathurst.</p>
+
+<p>When they got into the open the latter could see that his
+companion was dressed in an altogether different garb to that in
+which he had before seen him, being attired as a person of some
+rank and importance. He stopped presently for Bathurst to come up
+with him.</p>
+
+<p>"I have done what I could to prepare the way for you," he
+said. "Openly I could for certain reasons do nothing, but I have
+said enough to make him feel uncomfortable about the future, and
+to render him anxious to find a way of escape for himself if your
+people should ever again get the mastery."</p>
+
+<p>"How are things going, Rujub? We have heard nothing for three
+weeks. How is it at Cawnpore?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cawnpore has been taken by the Nana. They surrendered on his
+solemn oath that all should be allowed to depart in safety. He
+broke his oath, and there are not ten of its defenders alive. The
+women are all in captivity."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst groaned. He had hardly hoped that the handful of
+defenders could have maintained themselves against such
+overpowering numbers, but the certainty as to their fate was a
+heavy blow.</p>
+
+<p>"And Lucknow?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"The Residency holds out at present, but men say that it must
+soon fall."</p>
+
+<p>"And what do you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"I say nothing," the man said; "we cannot use our art in
+matters which concern ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"And Delhi?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is a little force of whites in front of Delhi; there
+are tens of thousands of Sepoys in the town, but as yet the
+whites have maintained themselves. The chiefs of the Punjaub have
+proved faithless to their country, and there the British rule is
+maintained."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God for that!" Bathurst exclaimed; "as long as the
+Punjaub holds out the tables may be turned. And the other
+Presidencies?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing as yet," Rujub said, in a tone of discontent.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are against us, Rujub?"</p>
+
+<p>The man stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Sahib, I know not what I wish now. I have been brought up to
+hate the whites. Two of my father's brothers were hung as Thugs,
+and my father taught me to hate the men who did it. For years I
+have worked quietly against you, as have most of those of my
+craft. We have reason to hate you. In the old times we were
+honored in the land -- honored and feared; for even the great
+ones knew that we had powers such as no other men have. But the
+whites treat us as if we were mere buffoons, who play for their
+amusement; they make no distinction between the wandering
+conjurer, with his tricks of dexterity, and the masters, who have
+powers that have been handed down from father to son for
+thousands of years, who can communicate with each other though
+separated by the length of India; who can, as you have seen, make
+men invisible; who can read the past and the future. They see
+these things, and though they cannot explain them, they persist
+in treating us all as if we were mere jugglers.</p>
+
+<p>"They prefer to deny the evidence of their own senses rather
+than admit that we have powers such as they have not; and so,
+even in the eyes of our own countrymen, we have lost our old
+standing and position, while the whites would bribe us with money
+to divulge the secrets in which they profess to disbelieve. No
+wonder that we hate you, and that we long for the return of the
+old days, when even princes were glad to ask favors at our hands.
+It is seldom that we show our powers now. Those who aid us, and
+whose servants we are, are not to be insulted by the powers they
+bestow upon us being used for the amusement of men who believe in
+nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"The Europeans who first came to India have left records of
+the strange things they saw at the courts of the native princes.
+But such things are no longer done for the amusement of our white
+masters. Thus, then, for years I have worked against you; and
+just as I saw that our work was successful, just as all was
+prepared for the blow that was to sweep the white men out of
+India, you saved my daughter; then my work seemed to come to an
+end. Would any of my countrymen, armed only with a whip, have
+thrown themselves in the way of a tiger to save a woman -- a
+stranger -- one altogether beneath him in rank -- one, as it
+were, dust beneath his feet? That I should be ready to give my
+life for yours was a matter of course; I should have been an
+ungrateful wretch otherwise. But this was not enough. At one blow
+the work I had devoted myself to for years was brought to
+nothing. Everything seemed to me new; and as I sat by my
+daughter's bedside, when she lay sick with the fever, I had to
+think it all out again. Then I saw things in another light. I saw
+that, though the white men were masterful and often hard, though
+they had little regard for our customs, and viewed our beliefs as
+superstitious, and scoffed at the notion of there being powers of
+which they had no knowledge, yet that they were a great people.
+Other conquerors, many of them, India has had, but none who have
+made it their first object to care for the welfare of the people
+at large. The Feringhees have wrung nothing from the poor to be
+spent in pomp and display; they permit no tyranny or ill doing;
+under them the poorest peasant tills his fields in peace.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been obliged to see all this, and I feel now that
+their destruction would be a frightful misfortune. We should be
+ruled by our native lords; but as soon as the white man was gone
+the old quarrels would break out, and the country would be red
+with blood. I did not see this before, because I had only looked
+at it with the eyes of my own caste; now I see it with the eyes
+of one whose daughter has been saved from a tiger by a white man.
+I cannot love those I have been taught to hate, but I can see the
+benefit their rule has given to India.</p>
+
+<p>"But what can I do now? I am in the stream, and I must go with
+it. I know not what I wish or what I would do. Six months ago I
+felt certain. Now I doubt. It seemed to me that in a day the
+English Raj would be swept away. How could it be otherwise when
+the whole army that had conquered India for them were against
+them? I knew they were brave, but we have never lacked bravery.
+How could I tell that they would fight one against a hundred?</p>
+
+<p>"But come, let us go on. Por Sing is expecting you. I told him
+that I knew that one from the garrison would come out to treat
+with him privately tonight, and he is expecting you, though he
+does not know who may come."</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes walking, and they approached a large tent
+surrounded by several smaller ones. A sentry challenged when they
+approached, but on Rujub giving his name, he at once resumed his
+walk up and down, and Rujub, followed by Bathurst, advanced and
+entered the tent. The Zemindar was seated on a divan smoking a
+hookah. Rujub bowed, but not with the deep reverence of one
+approaching his superior.</p>
+
+<p>"He is here," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you were not mistaken, Rujub?"</p>
+
+<p>"How could I be when I knew?" Rujub said. "I have done what I
+said, and have brought him straight to you. That was all I had to
+do with it; the rest is for your highness."</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather that you should be present," Por Sing said, as
+Rujub turned to withdraw.</p>
+
+<p>"No," the latter replied; "in this matter it is for you to
+decide. I know not the Nana's wishes, and your highness must take
+the responsibility. I have brought him to you rather than to the
+commander of the Sepoys, because your authority should be the
+greater; it is you and the other Oude chiefs who have borne the
+weight of this siege, and it is only right that it is you who
+should decide the conditions of surrender. The Sepoys are not our
+masters, and it is well they are not so; the Nana and the Oude
+chiefs have not taken up arms to free themselves from the English
+Raj to be ruled over by the men who have been the servants of the
+English."</p>
+
+<p>"That is so," the Zemindar said, stroking his beard; "well, I
+will talk with this person."</p>
+
+<p>Rujub left the tent. "You do not know me, Por Sing?" Bathurst
+said, stepping forward from the entrance where he had hitherto
+stood; "I am the Sahib Bathurst."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it so?" the Zemindar said, laying aside his pipe and
+rising to his feet; "none could come to me whom I would rather
+see. You have always proved yourself a just officer, and I have
+no complaint against you. We have often broken bread together,
+and it has grieved me to know that you were in yonder house. Do
+you come to me on your own account, or from the sahib who
+commands?"</p>
+
+<p>"I come on my own account," Bathurst said; "when I come as a
+messenger from him, I must come openly. I. know you to be an
+honorable man, and that I could say what I have to say to you and
+depart in safety. I regard you as one who has been misled, and
+regret for your sake that you should have been induced to take
+part with these mutineers against us. Believe me, chief, you have
+been terribly misled. You have been told that it needed but an
+effort to overthrow the British Raj. Those who told you so lied.
+It might have seemed easy to destroy the handful of Europeans
+scattered throughout India, but you have not succeeded in doing
+it. Even had you done so, you would not have so much as begun the
+work. There are but few white soldiers here. Why? Because England
+trusted in the fidelity of her native troops, and thought it
+necessary to keep only a handful of soldiers in India, but if
+need be, for every soldier now here she could send a hundred, and
+she will send a hundred if required to reconquer India. Already
+you may be sure that ships are on the sea laden with troops; and
+if you find it so hard to overcome the few soldiers now here,
+what would you do against the great armies that will pour in ere
+long? Why, all the efforts of the Sepoys gathered at Delhi are
+insufficient to defeat the four or five thousand British troops
+who hold their posts outside the town, waiting only till the
+succor arrives from England to take a terrible vengeance. Woe be
+then to those who have taken part against us; still more to those
+whose hands are stained with British blood."</p>
+
+<p>"It is too late now," the native said gloomily, "the die is
+cast; but since I have seen how a score of men could defend that
+shattered house against thousands, do you think I have not seen
+that I have been wrong? Who would have thought that men could do
+such a thing? But it is too late now."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not too late," Bathurst said; "it is too late, indeed,
+to undo the mischief that has been done, but not too late for you
+to secure yourself against some of the consequences. The English
+are just; and when they shall have stamped out this mutiny, as
+assuredly they will do, they will draw a distinction between
+mutinous soldiers who were false to their salt, and native chiefs
+who fought, as they believed, for the independence of their
+country. But one thing they will not forgive, whether in Sepoy or
+in prince, the murder of man, woman, or child in cold blood: for
+that there will be no pardon.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is not upon that ground that I came to appeal to you,
+but as a noble of Oude -- a man who is a brave enemy, but who
+could never be a butcher. We have fought against each other
+fairly and evenly; the time has come when we can fight no longer,
+and I demand of you, confidently, that, if we surrender, the
+lives of all within those walls shall be respected, and a safe
+conduct be granted them down the country. I know that such
+conditions were granted to the garrison at Cawnpore, and that
+they were shamelessly violated; for that act Nana Sahib will
+never be forgiven. He will be hunted down like a dog and hung
+when he is caught, just as if he had been the poorest peasant.
+But I have not so bad an opinion of the people of India as to
+believe them base enough to follow such an example, and I am
+confident that if you grant us those terms, you will see that the
+conditions are observed."</p>
+
+<p>"I have received orders from Nana Sahib to send all prisoners
+down to him," Por Sing said, in a hesitating voice.</p>
+
+<p>"You will never send down prisoners from here," Bathurst
+replied firmly. "You may attack us again, and after the loss of
+the lives of scores more of your followers you may be successful,
+but you will take no prisoners, for at the last moment we will
+blow the house and all in it into the air. Besides, who made Nana
+Sahib your master? He is not the lord of Oude; and though
+doubtless he dreams of sovereignty, it is a rope, not a throne,
+that awaits him. Why should you nobles of Oude obey the orders of
+this peasant boy, though he was adopted by the Peishwa? The
+Peishwa himself was never your lord, and why should you obey this
+traitor, this butcher, this disgrace to India, when he orders you
+to hand over to him the prisoners your sword has made?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is true," Por Sing said gloomily; "but the Sepoys will
+not agree to the terms."</p>
+
+<p>"The Sepoys are not your masters," Bathurst said; "we do not
+surrender to them, but to you. We place no confidence in their
+word, but we have every faith in the honor of the nobles of Oude.
+If you and your friends grant us the terms we ask, the Sepoys may
+clamor, but they will not venture to do more. Neither they nor
+Nana Sahib dare at this moment affront the people of Oude.</p>
+
+<p>"There are Sepoys round Lucknow, but it is the men of Oude who
+are really pressing the siege. If you are firm, they will not
+dare to break with you on such a question as the lives of a score
+of Europeans. If you will give me your word and your honor that
+all shall be spared, I will come out in the morning with a flag
+of truce to treat with you. If not, we will defend ourselves to
+the last, and then blow ourselves into the air."</p>
+
+<p>"And you think," Por Sing said doubtfully, "that if I agreed
+to this, it would be taken into consideration should the British
+Raj be restored."</p>
+
+<p>"I can promise you that it will," Bathurst said. "It will be
+properly represented that it is to you that the defenders of
+Deennugghur, and the women and children with them, owe their
+lives, and you may be sure that this will go a very long way
+towards wiping out the part you have taken in the attack on the
+station. When the day of reckoning comes, the British Government
+will know as well how to reward those who rendered them service
+in these days, as to punish those who have been our foes."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do it," Por Sing said firmly. "Do not come out until
+the afternoon. In the morning I will talk with the other
+Zemindars, and bring them over to agree that there shall be no
+more bloodshed. There is not one of us but is heartily sick of
+this business, and eager to put an end to it. Rujub may report
+what he likes to the Nana, I will do what is right."</p>
+
+<p>After a hearty expression of thanks, Bathurst left the tent.
+Rujub was awaiting him outside.</p>
+
+<p>"You have succeeded?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; he will guarantee the lives of all the garrison, but he
+seemed to be afraid of what you might report to Nana Sahib."</p>
+
+<p>"I am the Nana's agent here," Rujub said; "I have been working
+with him for months. I would I could undo it all now. I was away
+when they surrendered at Cawnpore. Had I not been, that massacre
+would never have taken place, for I am one of the few who have
+influence with him. He is fully cognizant of my power, and fears
+it."</p>
+
+<p>They made their way back without interruption to the clump of
+bushes near the house.</p>
+
+<p>"When shall I see you again?" Bathurst asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know," replied Rujub, "but be sure that I shall be
+at hand to aid you if possible should danger arise."</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XVIII.</h1>
+
+<p>As soon as Bathurst began to remove the covering of the hole,
+a voice came from below.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven be praised! You are back sooner than I expected, by a
+long way. I heard voices talking, so I doubted whether it was
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"The ladder is still there, I suppose, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it is just as you got off it. What are you going to do
+about the hole?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rujub is here; he will cover it up after me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you were right," the Doctor said, as Bathurst stepped
+down beside him; "and you found the juggler really waiting for
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"At the bungalow, Doctor, as I expected."</p>
+
+<p>"And what have you done? You can hardly have seen Por Sing; it
+is not much over an hour since you left."</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen him, Doctor; and what is more, he has pledged his
+word for our safety."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God for that, lad; it is more than I expected. This
+will be news indeed for the poor women. And do you think he will
+be strong enough to keep his pledge?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think so; he asked me to wait until tomorrow afternoon
+before going out with a flag of truce, and said that by that time
+he would get the other Zemindars to stand by him, and would make
+terms whether the Sepoys liked it or not."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you shall tell us all about it afterwards, Bathurst;
+let us take the news in to them at once; it is long since they
+had good tidings of any kind; it would be cruel to keep them in
+suspense, even for five minutes."</p>
+
+<p>There was no noisy outburst of joy when the news was told.
+Three weeks before it would have been received with the liveliest
+satisfaction, but now the bitterness of death was well nigh past;
+half the children lay in their graves in the garden, scarce one
+of the ladies but had lost husband or child, and while women
+murmured "Thank God!" as they clasped their children to them, the
+tears ran down as they thought how different it would have been
+had the news come sooner. The men, although equally quiet, yet
+showed more outward satisfaction than the women. Warm grasps of
+the hands were exchanged by those who had fought side by side
+during these terrible days, and a load seemed lifted at once off
+their shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst stayed but a moment in the room after this news was
+told, but went in with Dr. Wade to the Major, and reported to him
+in full the conversation that had taken place between himself and
+Por Sing.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are right, Bathurst; if the Oude men hold
+together, the Sepoys will scarcely risk a breach with them.
+Whether he will be able to secure our safety afterwards is
+another thing."</p>
+
+<p>"I quite see that, Major; but it seems to me that we have no
+option but to accept his offer and hope for the best."</p>
+
+<p>"That is it," the Doctor agreed. "It is certain death if we
+don't surrender; there is a chance that he will be able to
+protect us if we do. At any rate, we can be no worse off than we
+are here."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel had been in with Mrs. Doolan nursing the sick children
+when Bathurst arrived, but they presently came out. Isobel shook
+hands with him without speaking.</p>
+
+<p>"We are all heavily indebted to you, Mr. Bathurst," Mrs.
+Doolan said. "If we escape from this, it will be to you that we
+humanly owe our lives."</p>
+
+<p>She spoke in a voice that all in the room could hear.</p>
+
+<p>"Your are right, Mrs. Doolan," the Doctor said; "and I think
+that there are some who must regret now the manner in which they
+have behaved to Bathurst since this siege began."</p>
+
+<p>"I do for one," Captain Doolan said, coming forward.</p>
+
+<p>"I have regretted it for some time, though I have not had the
+manliness to say so. I am heartily sorry. I have done you a great
+and cruel injustice. I ought to have known that the Doctor, who
+knew you vastly better than I did, was not likely to be mistaken.
+Putting that aside, I ought to have seen, and I did see, though I
+would not acknowledge it even to myself, that no man has borne
+himself more calmly and steadfastly through this siege than you
+have, and that by twice venturing out among the enemy you gave
+proof that you possessed as much courage as any of us. I do hope
+that you will give me your hand."</p>
+
+<p>All the others who had held aloof from Bathurst came forward
+and expressed their deep regret for what had occurred.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst heard them in silence.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not feel that there is anything to forgive," he said
+quietly. "I am glad to hear what you say, and I know you mean it,
+and I accept the hands you offer, but what you felt towards me
+has affected me but little, for your contempt for me was as
+nothing to my contempt of myself. Nothing can alter the fact that
+here, where every man's hand was wanted to defend the ladies and
+children, my hand was paralyzed; that whatever I may be at other
+times, in the hour of battle I fail hopelessly; nothing that I
+can do can wipe out, from my own consciousness, that
+disgrace."</p>
+
+<p>"You exaggerate it altogether, Bathurst," Wilson broke in
+hotly. "It is nonsense your talking like that, after the way you
+jumped down into the middle of them with that mace of yours. It
+was splendid."</p>
+
+<p>"More than that, Mr. Bathurst," Mrs. Doolan said, "I think we
+women know what true courage is; and there is not one of us but
+has, since this siege began, been helped and strengthened by your
+calmness -- not one but has reason to be grateful for your
+kindness to our children during this terrible time. I won't hear
+even you speak against yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will not do so, Mrs. Doolan," he said, with a grave
+smile. "And now I will go and sit with the Major for a time.
+Things are quieter tonight than they have been for some time
+past, and I trust he will get some sleep."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he quietly left the room.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe he has slept two hours at a time since the
+siege began," Mrs. Doolan said, with tears in her eyes. "We have
+all suffered -- God only knows what we have suffered! -- but I am
+sure that he has suffered more than any of us. As for you men,
+you may well say you are sorry and ashamed of your treatment of
+him. Coward, indeed! Mr. Bathurst may be nervous, but I am sure
+he has as much courage as anyone here. Come, Isobel, you were up
+all last night, and it's past two o'clock now. We must try to get
+a little sleep before morning, and I should advise everyone else
+off duty to do the same."</p>
+
+<p>At daybreak firing commenced, and was kept up energetically
+all the morning. At two o'clock a white flag was hoisted from the
+terrace, and its appearance was greeted with shouts of triumph by
+the assailants. The firing at once ceased, and in a few minutes a
+native officer carrying a white flag advanced towards the
+walls.</p>
+
+<p>"We wish to see the Zemindar Por Sing," Bathurst said, "to
+treat with him upon the subject of our surrender."</p>
+
+<p>The officer withdrew, and returned in half an hour saying that
+he would conduct the officer in command to the presence of the
+chief of the besieging force. Captain Doolan, therefore,
+accompanied by Bathurst and Dr. Wade, went out. They were
+conducted to the great tent where all the Zemindars and the
+principal officers of the Sepoys were assembled. Bathurst acted
+as spokesman.</p>
+
+<p>"Por Sing," he said, "and you Zemindars of Oude, Major Hannay
+being disabled, Captain Doolan, who is now in command of the
+garrison, has come to represent him and to offer to surrender to
+you under the condition that the lives of all British and natives
+within the walls be respected, and that you pledge us your faith
+and honor that we shall be permitted to go down the country
+without molestation. It is to you, Por Sing, and you nobles of
+Oude, that we surrender, and not to those who, being sworn
+soldiers, have mutinied against their officers, and have in many
+cases treacherously murdered them. With such men Major Hannay
+will have no dealings, and it is to you that we surrender. Major
+Hannay bids me say that if this offer is refused, we can for a
+long time prolong our resistance. We are amply supplied with
+provisions and munitions of war, and many as are the numbers of
+our assailants who have fallen already, yet more will die before
+you obtain possession of the house. More than that, in no case
+will we be taken prisoners, for one and all have firmly resolved
+to fire the magazine when resistance is no longer possible, and
+to bury ourselves and our assailants in the ruins."</p>
+
+<p>When Bathurst ceased, a hubbub of voices arose, the Sepoy
+officers protesting that the surrender should be made to them. It
+was some minutes before anything like quietness was restored, and
+then one of the officers said, "Here is Rujub; he speaks in the
+name of Nana. What does he say to this?"</p>
+
+<p>Rujub, who was handsomely attired, stepped forward.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no orders from his highness on this subject," he said.
+"He certainly said that the prisoners were to be sent to him, but
+at present there are no prisoners, nor, if the siege continues,
+and the English carry out their threat, will there be any
+prisoners. I cannot think that Nana Sahib would wish to see some
+hundreds more of his countrymen slain or blown up, only that he
+may have these few men and women in his power."</p>
+
+<p>"We have come here to take them and kill them," one of the
+officers said defiantly; "and we will do so."</p>
+
+<p>Por Sing, who had been speaking with the Talookdars round him,
+rose from his seat.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me that it is for us to decide this matter," he
+said. "It is upon us that the losses of this siege have fallen.
+At the order of Nana Sahib we collected our retainers, abandoned
+our homes, and have for three weeks supported the dangers of this
+siege. We follow the Nana, but we are not his vassals, nor do we
+even know what his wishes are in this matter, but it seems to us
+that we have done enough and more than enough. Numbers of our
+retainers and kinsmen have fallen, and to prolong the siege would
+cause greater loss, and what should we gain by it? The possession
+of a heap of stones. Therefore, we are all of opinion that this
+offer of surrender should be accepted. We war for the freedom of
+our country, and have no thirst for the blood of these English
+sahibs, still less for that of their wives and children."</p>
+
+<p>Some of the officers angrily protested, but Por Sing stood
+firm, and the other chiefs were equally determined. Seeing this,
+the officers consulted together, and the highest in rank then
+said to the Talookdars, "We protest against these conditions
+being given, but since you are resolved, we stand aside, and are
+ready to agree for ourselves and our men to what you may
+decide."</p>
+
+<p>"What pledges do you require?" Por Sing asked Bathurst.</p>
+
+<p>"We are content, Rajah, with your personal oath that the lives
+of all within the house shall be respected, and your undertaking
+that they shall be allowed to go unharmed down the country. We
+have absolute faith in the honor of the nobles of Oude, and can
+desire no better guarantee."</p>
+
+<p>"I will give it," Por Sing said, "and all my friends will join
+me in it. Tonight I will have boats collected on the river; I
+will furnish you with an escort of my troops, and will myself
+accompany you and see you safely on board. I will then not only
+give you a safe conduct, praying all to let you pass unharmed,
+but my son with ten men shall accompany you in the boats to
+inform all that my honor is concerned in your safety, and that I
+have given my personal pledge that no molestation shall be
+offered to you. I will take my oath, and my friends will do the
+same, and I doubt not that the commander of the Sepoy troops will
+join me in it."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst translated what had been said to Captain Doolan.</p>
+
+<p>"It is impossible for him to do more than that," he concluded;
+"I do not think there is the least question as to his good
+faith."</p>
+
+<p>"He is a fine old heathen," Captain Doolan said; "tell him
+that we accept his terms."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst at once signified this, and the Rajah then took a
+solemn oath to fulfill the conditions of the agreement, the other
+Talookdars doing the same, and the commander of the Sepoys also
+doing so without hesitation. Por Sing then promised that some
+carts should be collected before morning, to carry the ladies,
+the sick and wounded, down to the river, which was eight miles
+distant.</p>
+
+<p>"You can sleep in quiet tonight," he added; "I will place a
+guard of my own men round the house, and see that none trouble
+you in any way."</p>
+
+<p>A few other points were settled, and then the party returned
+to the house, to which they were followed a few minutes later by
+the son of Por Sing and three lads, sons of other Zemindars.
+Bathurst went down to meet them when their approach was noticed
+by the lookout on the roof.</p>
+
+<p>"We have come to place ourselves in your hands as hostages,
+sahib," Por Sing's son said. "My father thought it likely that
+the Sepoys or others might make trouble, and he said that if we
+were in your hands as hostages, all our people would see that the
+agreement must be kept, and would oppose themselves more
+vigorously to the Sepoys."</p>
+
+<p>"It was thoughtful and kind of your father," Bathurst said.
+"As far as accommodation is concerned, we can do little to make
+you comfortable, but in other respects we are not badly
+provided."</p>
+
+<p>Some of the native servants were at once told off to erect an
+awning over a portion of the terrace. Tables and couches were
+placed here, and Bathurst undertook the work of entertaining the
+visitors.</p>
+
+<p>He was glad of the precaution that had been taken in sending
+them, for with the glass he could make out that there was much
+disturbance in the Sepoy lines, men gathering in large groups,
+with much shouting and noise. Muskets were discharged in the
+direction of the house, and it was evident that the mutineers
+were very discontented with the decision that had been arrived
+at.</p>
+
+<p>In a short time, however, a body, several hundred strong, of
+the Oude fighting men moved down and surrounded the house; and
+when a number of the Sepoys approached with excited and menacing
+gestures, one of the Zemindars went out to meet them, and
+Bathurst, watching the conference, could see by his pointing to
+the roof of the house that he was informing them that hostages
+had been given to the Europeans for the due observance of the
+treaty, and doubted not he was telling them that their lives
+would be endangered by any movement. Then he pointed to the
+batteries, as if threatening that if any attack was made the guns
+would be turned upon them. At any rate, after a time they moved
+away, and gradually the Sepoys could be seen returning to their
+lines.</p>
+
+<p>There were but few preparations to be made by the garrison for
+their journey. It had been settled that they might take their
+personal effects with them, but it was at once agreed to take as
+little as possible, as there would probably be but little room in
+the boats, and the fewer things they carried the less there would
+be to tempt the cupidity of the natives.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Bathurst, what do you think of the outlook?" the Doctor
+asked, as late in the evening they sat together on some sandbags
+in a corner of the terrace.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that if we get past Cawnpore in safety there is not
+much to fear. There is no other large place on the river, and the
+lower we get down the less likely the natives are to disturb us,
+knowing, as they are almost sure to do, that a force is gathering
+at Allahabad."</p>
+
+<p>"After what you heard of the massacre of the prisoners at
+Cawnpore, whom the Nana and his officers had all sworn to allow
+to depart in safety, there is little hope that this scoundrel
+will respect the arrangements made here."</p>
+
+<p>"We must pass the place at night, and trust to drifting down
+unobserved -- the river is wide there -- and keeping near the
+opposite shore, we may get past in the darkness without being
+perceived; and even if they do make us out, the chances are they
+will not hit us. There are so few of us that there is no reason
+why they should trouble greatly about us."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to say, Bathurst, that I don't like the appearance
+of the Major's wound. Everything has been against him; the heat,
+the close air, and his anxiety of mind have all told on him, he
+seems very low, and I have great doubts whether he will ever see
+Allahabad."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you are wrong, Doctor, but I thought myself there was
+a change for the worse when I saw him an hour ago; there was a
+drawn look about his face I did not like. He is a splendid
+fellow; nothing could have been kinder than he has been to me. I
+wish I could change places with him."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor grunted. "Well, as none of us may see Allahabad,
+Bathurst, you need not trouble yourself on that score. I wonder
+what has become of your friend the conjurer. I thought he might
+have been in to see you this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not expect him," Bathurst said; "I expect he went as
+far as he dared in what he said at the Durbar today. Probably he
+is doing all he can to keep matters quiet. Of course he may have
+gone down to Cawnpore to see Nana Sahib, but I should think it
+more probable that he would remain here until he knows we are
+safe on board the boats."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, here is Wilson," said the Doctor; "he is a fine young
+fellow, and I am very glad he has gone through it safely."</p>
+
+<p>"So am I," Bathurst said warmly; "here we are, Wilson."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I would find you both smoking here," Wilson said,
+as he seated himself; "it is awfully hot below, and the ladies
+are all at work picking out the things they are going to take
+with them and packing them, and as I could not be of any use at
+that, I thought I would come up for a little fresh air, if one
+can call it fresh; but, in fact, I would rather sit over an open
+drain, for the stench is horrible. How quiet everything seems
+tonight! After crouching here for the last three weeks listening
+to the boom of their cannon and the rush of their balls overhead,
+or the crash as they hit something, it seems quite unnatural; one
+can't help thinking that something is going to happen. I don't
+believe I shall be able to sleep a wink tonight; while generally,
+in spite of the row, it has been as much as I could do to keep my
+eyes open. I suppose I shall get accustomed to it in time. At
+present it seems too unnatural to enjoy it."</p>
+
+<p>"You had better get a good night's sleep, if you can, Wilson,"
+the Doctor said. "There won't be much sleep for us in the boats
+till we see the walls of Allahabad."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose not, Doctor. I expect we shall be horribly cramped
+up. I long to be there. I hope to get attached to one of the
+regiments coming up, so as to help in giving the thrashing to
+these scoundrels that they deserve. I would give a year's pay to
+get that villain, Nana Sahib, within reach of my sword. It is
+awful to think of the news you brought in, Bathurst, and that
+there are hundreds of women and children in his power now. What a
+day it will be when we march into Cawnpore!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't count your chickens too soon, Wilson," the Doctor said,
+"The time I am looking forward to is when we shall have safely
+passed Cawnpore on our way down; that is quite enough for me to
+hope for at present."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I was thinking of that myself," Wilson replied. "If the
+Nana could not be bound by the oath he had taken himself, he is
+not likely to respect the agreement made here."</p>
+
+<p>"We must pass the place at night," Bathurst said, "and trust
+to not being seen. Even if they do make us out, we shan't be
+under fire long unless they follow us down the bank; but if the
+night is dark, they may not make us out at all. Fortunately there
+is no moon, and boats are not very large marks even by daylight,
+and at night it would only be a chance shot that would hit
+us."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we should be as difficult to hit as a tiger," the Doctor
+put in.</p>
+
+<p>Wilson laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I have gained a lot of experience since then, Doctor. What
+ages that seems back! Years almost."</p>
+
+<p>"It does indeed," the Doctor agreed; "we count time by
+incidents and not by days. Well, I think I shall turn in.. Are
+you coming, Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I could not sleep," Bathurst said; "I shall watch till
+morning. I feel sure it is all safe, but the mutineers might
+attempt something."</p>
+
+<p>The night, however, passed off quietly, and soon after
+daybreak eight bullock carts were seen approaching, with a strong
+body of Oude men. Half an hour later the luggage was packed, and
+the sick and wounded laid on straw in the wagons. Several of the
+ladies took their places with them, but Mrs. Doolan, Isobel, and
+Mary Hunter said they would walk for a while. It had been
+arranged that the men might carry out their arms with them, and
+each of the ten able to walk took their rifles, while all, even
+the women, had pistols about them. Just as they were ready, Por
+Sing and several of the Zemindars rode up on horseback.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see you to the boats," he said. "Have you taken
+provisions for your voyage? It would be better not to stop to buy
+anything on the way."</p>
+
+<p>This precaution had been taken, and as soon as all was ready
+they set out, guarded by four hundred Oude matchlock men. The
+Sepoys had gathered near the house, and as soon as they left it
+there was a rush made to secure the plunder.</p>
+
+<p>"I should have liked to have emptied the contents of some of
+my bottles into the wine," the Doctor growled; "it would not have
+been strictly professional, perhaps, but it would have been a
+good action."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure you would not have given them poison, Doctor,"
+Wilson laughed; "but a reasonable dose of ipecacuanha might
+hardly have gone against your conscience."</p>
+
+<p>"My conscience has nothing to do with it," the Doctor said.
+"These fellows came from Cawnpore, and I have no doubt took part
+in the massacre there. My conscience wouldn't have troubled me if
+I could have poisoned the whole of the scoundrels, or put a slow
+match in the magazine and blown them all into the air, but under
+the present conditions it would hardly have been politic, as one
+couldn't be sure of annihilating the whole of them. Well, Miss
+Hannay, what are you thinking of?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am thinking that my uncle looks worse this morning, Doctor;
+does it not strike you so too?"</p>
+
+<p>"We must hope that the fresh air will do him good. One could
+not expect anyone to get better in that place; it was enough to
+kill a healthy man, to say nothing of a sick one."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel was walking by the side of the cart in which her uncle
+was lying, and it was not long before she took her place beside
+him.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you do nothing, Doctor?" Bathurst said, in a low
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing; he is weaker this morning, still the change of air
+may help him, and he may have strength to fight through; the
+wound itself is a serious one, but he would under other
+circumstances have got over it. As it is, I think his chance a
+very poor one, though I would not say as much to her."</p>
+
+<p>After three hours' travel they reached the river. Here two
+large native boats were lying by the bank. The baggage and sick
+were soon placed on board, and the Europeans with the native
+servants were then divided between them, and the Rajah's son and
+six of the retainers took their places in one of the boats. The
+Doctor and Captain Doolan had settled how the party should be
+divided. The Major and the other sick men were all placed in one
+boat, and in this were the Doctor, Bathurst, and four civilians,
+with Isobel Hannay, Mrs. Hunter, and her daughter. Captain
+Doolan, his wife, Mrs. Rintoul, and the other three ladies, with
+the six children who had alone survived, and the rest of the
+party, were in the other boat.</p>
+
+<p>Por Sing and his companions were thanked heartily for the
+protection they had given, and Bathurst handed them a document
+which had been signed by all the party, testifying to the service
+they had rendered.</p>
+
+<p>"If we don't get down to Allahabad," Bathurst said, as he
+handed it to him, "this will insure you good treatment when the
+British troops come up. If we get there, we will represent your
+conduct in such a light that I think I can promise you that the
+part you took in the siege will be forgiven."</p>
+
+<p>Then the boats pushed off and started on their way down the
+stream.</p>
+
+<p>The distance by water to Cawnpore was over forty miles. It was
+already eleven o'clock, and slow progress only could be made with
+the heavy boats, but it was thought that they would be able to
+pass the town before daylight began to break next morning, and
+they therefore pushed on as rapidly as they could, the boatmen
+being encouraged to use their utmost efforts by the promise of a
+large reward upon their arrival at Allahabad.</p>
+
+<p>There was but little talk in the boats. Now that the strain
+was over, all felt its effects severely. The Doctor attended to
+his patients; Isobel sat by the side of her uncle, giving him
+some broth that they had brought with them, from time to time, or
+moistening his lips with weak brandy and water. He spoke only
+occasionally.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't much think I shall get down to Allahabad, Isobel," he
+said. "If I don't, go down to Calcutta, and go straight to
+Jamieson and Son; they are my agents, and they will supply you
+with money to take you home; they have a copy of my will; my
+agents in London have another copy. I had two made in case of
+accident."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, uncle, you will get better now you are out of that
+terrible place."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid it is too late, my dear, though I should like to
+live for your sake. But I think I see happiness before you, if
+you choose to take it; he is a noble fellow, Isobel, in spite of
+that unfortunate weakness."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel made no answer, but a slight pressure of the hand she
+was holding showed that she understood what he meant. It was no
+use to tell her uncle that she felt that what might have been was
+over now. Bathurst had chatted with her several times the evening
+before and during the march that morning, but she felt the
+difference between his tone and that in which he had addressed
+her in the old times before the troubles began. It was a subtle
+difference that she could hardly have explained even to herself,
+but she knew that it was as a friend, and as a friend only, that
+he would treat her in the future, and that the past was a closed
+book, which he was determined not to reopen.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst talked to Mrs. Hunter and her daughter, both of whom
+were mere shadows, worn out with grief, anxiety, and watching. At
+times he went forward to talk to the young noble, who had taken
+his seat there. Both boats had been arched in with a canopy of
+boughs to serve alike as a protection from the sun and to screen
+those within from the sight of natives in boats or on the
+banks.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't look yourself, Bathurst," the Doctor said to him
+late in the afternoon. "Everything seems going on well. No boats
+have passed us, and the boatmen all say that we shall pass
+Cawnpore about one o'clock, at the rate at which we are
+going."</p>
+
+<p>"I feel nervous, Doctor; more anxious than I have been ever
+since this began. There is an apprehension of danger weighing
+over me that I can't account for. As you say, everything seems
+going on well, and yet I feel that it is not so. I am afraid I am
+getting superstitious, but I feel as if Rujub knows of some
+danger impending, and that he is somehow conveying that
+impression to me. I know that there is nothing to be done, and
+that we are doing the only thing that we can do, unless we were
+to land and try and make our way down on foot, which would be
+sheer madness. That the man can in some way impress my mind at a
+distance is evident from that summons he gave me to meet him at
+the ruins of my bungalow, but I do not feel the same clear
+distinct perception of his wishes now as I did then. Perhaps he
+himself is not aware of the particulars of the danger that
+threatens, or, knowing them, he can see no way of escape out of
+them. It may be that at night, when everything is quiet, one's
+mind is more open to such impressions than it is when we are
+surrounded by other people and have other things to think of, but
+I feel an actual consciousness of danger."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think there can be any danger until we get down near
+Cawnpore. They may possibly be on the lookout for us there, and
+may even have boats out on the stream. It is possible that the
+Sepoys may have sent down word yesterday afternoon to Nana Sahib
+that we had surrendered, and should be starting by boat this
+morning, but I don't think there can be any danger till we get
+there. Should we meet native boats and be stopped, Por Sing's son
+will be able to induce them to let us pass. Certainly none of the
+villagers about here would be likely to disobey him. Once beyond
+Cawnpore, I believe that he would have sufficient influence,
+speaking, as he does, in the name, not only of his father, but of
+other powerful landowners, to induce any of these Oude people to
+let us pass. No, I regard Cawnpore as our one danger, and I
+believe it to be a very real one. I have been thinking, indeed,
+that it would be a good thing when we get within a couple of
+miles of the place for all who are able to walk, to land on the
+opposite bank, and make their way along past Cawnpore, and take
+to the boats again a mile below the town."</p>
+
+<p>"That would be an excellent plan, Doctor; but if the boats
+were stopped and they found the sick, they would kill them to a
+certainty. I don't think we could leave them. I am quite sure
+Miss Hannay would not leave her uncle."</p>
+
+<p>"I think we might get over even that, Bathurst. There are only
+the Major and the other two men, and Mrs. Forsyth and three
+children, too ill to walk. There are eight of the native
+servants, ourselves, and the young Rajah's retainers. We ought to
+have no difficulty in carrying the wounded. As to the luggage,
+that must be sacrificed, so that the boatmen can go down with
+empty benches. It must be pitched overboard. The loss would be of
+no real consequence; everyone could manage with what they have on
+until we get to Allahabad. There would be no difficulty in
+getting what we require there."</p>
+
+<p>"I think the plan is an excellent one, Doctor. I will ask the
+young chief if his men will help us to carry the sick. If he says
+yes, we will go alongside the other boat and explain our plan to
+Doolan."</p>
+
+<p>The young Rajah at once assented, and the boat being rowed up
+to the other, the plan was explained and approved of. No
+objection was raised by anyone, even to the proposal for getting
+rid of all the luggage; and as soon as the matter was arranged, a
+general disposition towards cheerfulness was manifested. Everyone
+had felt that the danger of passing Cawnpore would be immense,
+and this plan for avoiding it seemed to lift a load from their
+minds.</p>
+
+<p>It was settled they should land at some spot where the river
+was bordered by bushes and young trees; that stout poles should
+be cut, and blankets fastened between them, so as to form
+stretchers on which the sick could be carried.</p>
+
+<p>As far as possible the boats were kept on the left side of the
+river, but at times shallows rendered it necessary to keep over
+by the right bank. Whenever they were near the shore, silence was
+observed, lest the foreign tongue should be noticed by anyone
+near the bank.</p>
+
+<p>Night fell, and they still continued their course. An hour
+after sunset they were rowing near the right bank -- the Major
+had fallen into a sort of doze, and Isobel was sitting next to
+Bathurst, and they were talking in low tones together -- when
+suddenly there was a hail from the shore, not fifty yards
+away.</p>
+
+<p>"What boats are those?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fishing boats going down the river," one of the boatmen
+answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Row alongside, we must examine you."</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's pause, and then the Doctor said in the
+native language, "Row on, men," and the oars of both boats again
+dipped into the water.</p>
+
+<p>"We are pressed for time," the young Zemindar shouted, and
+then, dropping his voice, urged the men to row at the top of
+their speed.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop, or we fire," came from the shore.</p>
+
+<p>No answer was returned from the boats; they were now nearly
+opposite the speaker. Then came the word -- "Fire." Six cannon
+loaded with grape were discharged, and a crackle of musketry at
+the same moment broke out. The shot tore through the boats,
+killing and disabling many, and bringing down the arbor of boughs
+upon them.</p>
+
+<p>A terrible cry arose, and all was confusion. Most of the
+rowers were killed, and the boats drifted helplessly amid the
+storm of rifle bullets.</p>
+
+<p>As the cannon flashed out and the grape swept the boats
+Bathurst, with a sharp cry, sprang to his feet, and leaped
+overboard, as did several others from both boats. Diving, he kept
+under water for some distance, and then swam desperately till he
+reached shallow water on the other side of the river, and then
+fell head foremost on the sand. Eight or ten others also gained
+the shore in a body, and were running towards the bank, when the
+guns were again fired, and all but three were swept away by the
+iron hail. A few straggling musket shots were fired, then orders
+were shouted, and the splashing of an oar was heard, as one of
+the native boatmen rowed one of the two boats toward the shore.
+Bathurst rose to his feet and ran, stumbling like a drunken man,
+towards the bushes, and just as he reached them, fell heavily
+forward, and lay there insensible. Three men came out from the
+jungle and dragged him in. As they did so loud screams arose from
+the other bank, then half a dozen muskets were fired, and all was
+quiet.</p>
+
+<p>It was not for a quarter of an hour that Bathurst was
+conscious of what was going on around him. Someone was rubbing
+his chest and hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is it?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is you, Bathurst!" he heard Wilson's voice exclaim. "I
+thought it was you, but it is so dark now we are off that white
+sand that I could not see. Where are you hit?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," Bathurst said. "I felt a sort of shock as I
+got out of the water, but I don't know that I am hurt at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you must be hit somewhere. Try and move your arms and
+legs."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst moved.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't think I am hit; if I am, it is on the head. I
+feel something warm round the back of my neck."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, yes!" Wilson said; "here is where it is; there is a
+cut all along the top of your head; the bullet seems to have hit
+you at the back, and gone right along over the top. It can't have
+gone in, or else you would not be able to talk."</p>
+
+<p>"Help me up," Bathurst said, and he was soon on his feet. He
+felt giddy and confused. "Who have you with you?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Two natives. I think one is the young chief, and the other is
+one of his followers."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst spoke to them in their native language, and found
+that Wilson was not mistaken. As soon as he found that he was
+understood, the young chief poured out a volley of curses upon
+those who had attacked them.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst stopped him. "We shall have time for that afterwards,
+Murad," he said; "the first thing is to see what had best be
+done. What has happened since I landed, Wilson?"</p>
+
+<p>"Our boat was pretty nearly cut in two," Wilson said, "and was
+sinking when I jumped over; the other boat has been rowed
+ashore."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you hear, Wilson?"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard the women scream," Wilson said reluctantly, "and five
+or six shots were fired. There has been no sound since then."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst stood silent for a minute.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think they will have killed the women," he said;
+"they did not do so at Cawnpore. They will take them there. No
+doubt they killed the men. Let me think for a moment. Now," he
+said after a long pause, "we must be doing. Murad, your father
+and friends have given their word for the safety of those you
+took prisoners; that they have been massacred is no fault of your
+father or of you. This gentleman and myself are the only ones
+saved, as far as we know. Are you sure that none others came
+ashore?"</p>
+
+<p>"The others were all killed, we alone remaining," Murad said.
+"I will go back to my father, and he will go to Cawnpore and
+demand vengeance."</p>
+
+<p>"You can do that afterwards, Murad; the first thing is to
+fulfill your promise, and I charge you to take this sahib in
+safety down to Allahabad. You must push on at once, for they may
+be sending out from Cawnpore at daylight to search the bushes
+here to see if any have escaped. You must go on with him tonight
+as far as you can, and in the morning enter some village, buy
+native clothes, and disguise him, and then journey on to
+Allahabad."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do that," the young Rajah said; "but what about
+yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall go into Cawnpore and try to rescue any they may have
+taken. I have a native cloth round me under my other clothes, as
+I thought it might be necessary for me to land before we got to
+Cawnpore to see if danger threatened us. So I have everything I
+want for a disguise about me."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you saying, Bathurst?" Wilson asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I am arranging for Murad and his follower to take you down to
+Allahabad, Wilson. I shall stop at Cawnpore."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop at Cawnpore! Are you mad, Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am not mad. I shall stop to see if any of the ladies
+have been taken prisoners, and if so, try to rescue them. Rujub,
+the juggler, is there, and I am confident he will help me."</p>
+
+<p>"But if you can stay, I can, Bathurst. If Miss Hannay has been
+made prisoner, I would willingly be killed to rescue her."</p>
+
+<p>"I know you would, Wilson, but you would be killed without
+being able to rescue her; and as I should share your fate, you
+would render her rescue impossible. I can speak the native
+language perfectly, and know native ways. I can move about among
+them without fear of exciting their suspicion. If you were with
+me this would be impossible; the first time you were addressed by
+a native you would be detected; your presence would add to my
+difficulties a hundredfold. It is not now a question of fighting.
+Were it only that, I should be delighted to have you with me. As
+it is, the thing is impossible. If anything is done, I must do it
+alone. If I ever reach Miss Hannay, she shall know that you were
+ready to run all risks to save her. No, no, you must go on to
+Allahabad, and if you cannot save her now, you will be with the
+force that will save her, if I should fail to do so, and which
+will avenge us both if it should arrive too late to rescue her.
+Now I must get you to bandage my head, for I feel faint with loss
+of blood. I will take off my shirt and tear it in strips. I have
+got a native disguise next to the skin. We may as well leave my
+clothes behind me here."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Wilson, with the assistance of Murad, had bandaged
+the wound, the party struck off from the river, and after four
+hours' walking came down upon it again two miles below Cawnpore.
+Here Bathurst said he would stop, stain his skin, and complete
+his disguise.</p>
+
+<p>"I hate leaving you," Wilson said, in a broken voice. "There
+are only you and I left of all our party at Deennugghur. It is
+awful to think they have all gone -- the good old chief, the
+Doctor, and Richards, and the ladies. There are only we two left.
+It does seem such a dirty, cowardly thing for me to be making off
+and leaving you here alone."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not cowardly, Wilson, for I know you would willingly
+stay if you could be of the slightest use; but, as, on the
+contrary, you would only add to the danger, it must be as I have
+arranged. Goodby, lad; don't stay; it has to be done. God bless
+you! Goodby, Murad. Tell your father when you see him that I know
+no shadow of broken faith rests on him."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he turned and went into a clump of bushes, while
+Wilson, too overpowered to speak, started on his way down country
+with the two natives.</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h1>
+
+<p>Now alone, Bathurst threw himself down among the bashes in an
+attitude of utter depression.</p>
+
+<p>"Why wasn't I killed with the others?" he groaned. "Why was I
+not killed when I sat there by her side?"</p>
+
+<p>So he lay for an hour, and then slowly rose and looked round.
+There was a faint light in the sky.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be light in another hour," he said to himself, and he
+again sat down. Suddenly he started. Had someone spoken, or had
+he fancied it?</p>
+
+<p>"Wait till I come."</p>
+
+<p>He seemed to hear the words plainly, just as he had heard
+Rujub's summons before.</p>
+
+<p>"That's it; it is Rujub. How is it that he can make me hear in
+this way? I am sure it was his voice. Anyhow, I will wait. It
+shows he is thinking of me, and I am sure he will help me. I know
+well enough I could do nothing by myself."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst assumed with unquestioning faith that Isobel Hannay
+was alive. He had no reason for his confidence. That first shower
+of grape might have killed her as it killed others, but he would
+not admit the doubt in his mind. Wilson's description of what had
+happened while he was insensible was one of the grounds of this
+confidence.</p>
+
+<p>He had heard women scream. Mrs. Hunter and her daughter were
+the only other women in the boat. Isobel would not have screamed
+had those muskets been pointed at her, nor did he think the
+others would have done so. They screamed when they saw the
+natives about to murder those who were with them. The three women
+were sitting together, and if one had fallen by the grape shot
+all would probably have been killed. He felt confident,
+therefore, that she had escaped; he believed he would have known
+it had she been killed.</p>
+
+<p>"If I can be influenced by this juggler, surely I should have
+felt it had Isobel died," he argued, and was satisfied that she
+was still alive.</p>
+
+<p>What, however, more than anything else gave him hope was the
+picture on the smoke. "Everything else has come true," he said to
+himself; "why should not that? Wilson spoke of the Doctor as
+dead. I will not believe it; for if he is dead, the picture is
+false. Why should that thing of all others have been shown to me
+unless it had been true? What seemed impossible to me -- that I
+should be fighting like a brave man -- has been verified. Why
+should not this? I should have laughed at such superstition six
+months ago; now I cling to it as my one ground for hope. Well, I
+will wait if I have to stay here until tomorrow night."</p>
+
+<p>Noiselessly he moved about in the little wood, going to the
+edge and looking out, pacing to and fro with quick steps, his
+face set in a frown, occasionally muttering to himself. He was in
+a fever of impatience. He longed to be doing something, even if
+that something led to his detention and death. He said to himself
+that he should not care so that Isobel Hannay did but know that
+he had died in trying to rescue her.</p>
+
+<p>The sun rose, and he saw the peasants in the fields, and
+caught the note of a bugle sounding from the lines at Cawnpore.
+At last -- it had seemed to him an age, but the sun had been up
+only an hour -- he saw a figure coming along the river bank. As
+it approached he told himself that it was the juggler; if so, he
+had laid aside the garments in which he last saw him, and was now
+attired as when they first met. When he saw him turn off from the
+river bank and advance straight towards the wood, he had no doubt
+that it was the man he expected.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks be to the holy ones that you have escaped, sahib,"
+Rujub said, as soon as he came within speaking distance of
+Bathurst. "I was in an agony last night. I was with you in
+thought, and saw the boats approaching the ambuscade. I saw you
+leap over and swim to shore. I saw you fall, and I cried out. For
+a moment I thought you were killed. Then I saw you go on and fall
+again, and saw your friends carry you in. I watched you recover
+and come on here, and then I willed it that you should wait here
+till I came for you. I have brought you a disguise, for I did not
+know that you had one with you. But, first of all, sit down and
+let me dress your wound afresh. I have brought all that is
+necessary for it."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a true fried, Rujub. I relied upon you for aid; do
+you know why I waited here instead of going down with the
+others?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know, sahib. I can tell your thoughts as easily when you
+are away from me as I can when we are together."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you do this with all people?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, my lord; to be able to read another's thoughts it is
+necessary there should be a mystic relation established between
+them. As I walked beside your horse when you carried my daughter
+before you after saving her life, I felt that this relation had
+commenced, and that henceforward our fates were connected. It was
+necessary that you should have confidence in me, and it was for
+that reason that I showed you some of the feats that we rarely
+exhibit, and proved to you that I possessed powers with which you
+were unacquainted. But in thought reading my daughter has greater
+powers than I have, and it was she who last night followed you on
+your journey, sitting with her hand in mine, so that my mind
+followed hers."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know all that happened last night, Rujub?" Bathurst
+said, summoning up courage to ask the question that had been on
+his lips from the first.</p>
+
+<p>"I only know, my lord, that the party was destroyed, save
+three white women, who were brought in just as the sun rose this
+morning. One was the lady behind whose chair you stood the night
+I performed at Deennugghur, the lady about whom you are thinking.
+I do not know the other two; one was getting on in life, the
+other was a young one."</p>
+
+<p>The relief was so great that Bathurst turned away, unable for
+a while to continue the conversation. When he resumed the talk,
+he asked, "Did you see them yourself, Rujub?"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw them, sahib; they were brought in on a gun
+carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"How did they look, Rujub?"</p>
+
+<p>"The old one looked calm and sad. She did not seem to hear the
+shouts of the budmashes as they passed along. She held the young
+one close to her. That one seemed worn out with grief and terror.
+Your memsahib sat upright; she was very pale and changed from the
+time I saw her that evening, but she held her head high, and
+looked almost scornfully at the men who shook their fists and
+cried at her."</p>
+
+<p>"And they put them with the other women that they have taken
+prisoners?"</p>
+
+<p>Rujub hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"They have put the other two there, sahib, but her they took
+to Bithoor."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst started, and an exclamation of horror and rage burst
+from him.</p>
+
+<p>"To the Rajah's!" he exclaimed. "To that scoundrel! Come, let
+us go. Why are we staying here?"</p>
+
+<p>"We can do nothing for the moment. Before I started I sent off
+my daughter to Bithoor; she knows many there, and will find out
+what is being done and bring us word, for I dare not show myself
+there. The Rajah is furious with me because I did not support the
+Sepoys, and suffered conditions to be made with your people, but
+now that all has turned out as he wished, I will in a short time
+present myself before him again, but for the moment it was better
+that my daughter should go, as I had to come to you. But first
+you had better put on the disguise I have brought you. You are
+too big and strong to pass without notice in that peasant's
+dress. The one I have brought you is such as is worn by the rough
+people; the budmashes of Cawnpore. I can procure others
+afterwards when we see what had best be done. It will be easy
+enough to enter Bithoor, for all is confusion there, and men come
+and go as they choose, but it will be well nigh impossible for
+you to penetrate where the memsahib will be placed. Even for me,
+known as I am to all the Rajah's officers, it would be impossible
+to do so; it is my daughter in whom we shall have to trust."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst rapidly put on the clothes that Rujub had brought
+with him, and thrust a sword, two daggers, and a brace of long
+barreled pistols into the sash round his waist.</p>
+
+<p>"Your color is not dark enough, sahib. I have brought dye with
+me; but first I must dress the wound on your head, and bandage it
+more neatly, so that the blood stained swathings will not show
+below the folds of your turban."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst submitted himself impatiently to Rujub's hands. The
+latter cut off all the hair that would show under the turban,
+dyed the skin the same color as the other parts, and finally,
+after darkening his eyebrows, eyelashes, and mustache, pronounced
+that he would pass anywhere without attracting attention. Then
+they started at a quick walk along the river, crossed by the
+ferryboat to Cawnpore, and made their way to a quiet street in
+the native town.</p>
+
+<p>"This is my house for the present," Rujub said, producing a
+key and unlocking a door. He shouted as he closed the door behind
+him, and an old woman appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the meal prepared?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is ready," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"That is right. Tell Rhuman to put the pony into the
+cart."</p>
+
+<p>He then led the way into a comfortably furnished apartment
+where a meal was laid.</p>
+
+<p>"Eat, my lord," he said; "you need it, and will require your
+strength."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst, who, during his walk, had felt the effects of the
+loss of blood and anxiety, at once seated himself at the table
+and ate, at first languidly, but as appetite came, more heartily,
+and felt still more benefited by a bottle of excellent wine Rujub
+had placed beside him. The latter returned to the room just as he
+had finished. He was now attired as he had been when Bathurst
+last met him at Deennugghur.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel another man, Rujub, and fit for anything."</p>
+
+<p>"The cart is ready," Rujub said. "I have already taken my
+meal; we do not eat meat, and live entirely on vegetables. Meat
+clouds the senses, and simple food, and little of it, is
+necessary for those who would enter the inner brotherhood."</p>
+
+<p>At the door a small native cart was standing with a pony in
+the shafts.</p>
+
+<p>"You will go with us, Rhuman," Rujub said, as he and Bathurst
+took their seats in the cart.</p>
+
+<p>The boy squatted down at Rujub's feet, taking the reins and
+whip, and the pony started off at a brisk pace. Upon the way
+Rujub talked of various matters, of the reports of the force that
+was gathering at Allahabad, and the madness of the British in
+supposing that two or three thousand men could withstand the
+forces of the Nana.</p>
+
+<p>"They would be eaten up," he said; "the troops will go out to
+meet them; they will never arrive within sight of Cawnpore."</p>
+
+<p>As Bathurst saw that he was talking for the boy to hear,
+rather than to himself, he agreed loudly with all that he said,
+and boasted that even without the Nana's troops and the Sepoys,
+the people of Cawnpore could cut the English dogs to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>The drive was not a long one, and the road was full of parties
+going to or returning from Bithoor -- groups of Sepoy officers,
+parties of budmashes from Cawnpore, mounted messengers,
+landowners with their retainers, and others. Arriving within a
+quarter of a mile of the palace, Rujub ordered the boy to draw
+aside.</p>
+
+<p>"Take the horse down that road," he said, "and wait there
+until we return. We may be some time. If we are not back by the
+time the sun sets, you will return home."</p>
+
+<p>As they approached the palace Bathurst scanned every window,
+as if he hoped to see Isobel's face at one of them. Entering the
+garden, they avoided the terrace in front of the house, and
+sauntering through the groups of people who had gathered
+discussing the latest news, they took their seat in a secluded
+corner.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst thought of the last time he had been there, when
+there had been a fete given by the Rajah to the residents of
+Cawnpore, and contrasted the present with the past. Then the
+gardens were lighted up, and a crowd of officers and civilians
+with ladies in white dresses had strolled along the terrace to
+the sound of gay music, while their host moved about among them,
+courteous, pleasant, and smiling. Now the greater portion of the
+men were dead, the women were prisoners in the hands of the
+native who had professed such friendship for them.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, Rujub," he said presently, "more about this force at
+Allahabad. What is its strength likely to be?"</p>
+
+<p>"They say there is one British regiment of the line, one of
+the plumed regiments with bare legs, and one of the white Madras
+regiments; they have a few guns, a very few horsemen; that is
+all, while there are twenty thousand troops here. How can they
+hope to win?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will see they will win," Bathurst said sternly. "They
+have often fought well, but they will fight now as they never
+fought before; every man will feel himself an avenger of the foul
+treachery and the brutal massacres that have been committed. Were
+it but one regiment that is coming up instead of three, I would
+back it against the blood stained wretches."</p>
+
+<p>"They are fighting for freedom," Rujub said.</p>
+
+<p>"They are fighting for nothing of the sort," Bathurst replied
+hotly; "they are fighting for they know not what -- change of
+masters, for license to plunder, and because they are ignorant
+and have been led away. I doubt not that at present, confident as
+they may be of victory, most of them in their hearts regret what
+they have done. They have forfeited their pensions, they have
+thrown away the benefits of their years of service, they have
+been faithless to their salt, and false to their oaths. It is
+true that they know they are fighting with ropes round their
+necks, but even that won't avail against the discipline and the
+fury of our troops. I feel as certain, Rujub, that, in spite of
+the odds against them, the English will triumph, as if I saw
+their column marching into the town. I don't profess to see the
+future as you do, but I know enough to tell you that ere long
+that palace you can see through the trees will be leveled to the
+ground, that it is as assuredly doomed as if fire had already
+been applied to its gilded beams."</p>
+
+<p>Rujub nodded. "I know the palace is doomed. While I have
+looked at it it has seemed hidden by a cloud of smoke, but I did
+not think it was the work of the British -- I thought of an
+accident."</p>
+
+<p>"The Rajah may fire it with his own hands," Bathurst said;
+"but if he does not, it will be done for him."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not told you yet, sahib," Rujub said, changing the
+subject, "how it was that I could neither prevent the attack on
+the boats nor warn you that it was coming. I knew at Deennugghur
+that news had been sent of the surrender to the Nana. I remained
+till I knew you were safely in the boats, and then rode to
+Cawnpore. My daughter was at the house when I arrived, and told
+me that the Nana was furious with me, and that it would not be
+safe for me to go near the palace. Thus, although I feared that
+an attack was intended, I thought it would not be until the boats
+passed the town. It was late before I learnt that a battery of
+artillery and some infantry had set out that afternoon. Then I
+tried to warn you, but I felt that I failed. You were not in a
+mood when my mind could communicate itself to yours."</p>
+
+<p>"I felt very uneasy and restless," Bathurst said, "but I had
+not the same feeling that you were speaking to me I had that
+night at Deennugghur; but even had I known of the danger, there
+would have been no avoiding it. Had we landed, we must have been
+overtaken, and it would have come to the same thing. Tell me,
+Rujub, had you any idea when I saw you at Deennugghur that if we
+were taken prisoners Miss Hannay was to be brought here instead
+of being placed with the other ladies?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I knew it, sahib; the orders he gave to the Sepoys were
+that every man was to be killed, and that the women and children
+were to be taken to Cawnpore, except Miss Hannay, who was to be
+carried here at once. The Rajah had noticed her more than once
+when she was at Cawnpore, and had made up his mind that she
+should go to his zenana."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you not tell me when you were at Deennugghur?"</p>
+
+<p>"What would have been the use, sahib? I hoped to save you all;
+besides, it was not until we saw her taken past this morning that
+we knew that the Miss Hannay who was to be taken to Bithoor was
+the lady whom my daughter, when she saw her with you that night,
+said at once that you loved. But had we known it, what good would
+it have done to have told you of the Rajah's orders? You could
+not have done more than you have done. But now we know, we will
+aid you to save her."</p>
+
+<p>"How long will your daughter be before she comes? It is
+horrible waiting here."</p>
+
+<p>"You must have patience, sahib. It will be no easy work to get
+the lady away. There will be guards and women to look after her.
+A lady is not to be stolen out of a zenana as a young bird is
+taken from its nest."</p>
+
+<p>"It is all very well to say 'Be patient,'" Bathurst said,
+getting up and walking up and down with quick angry strides. "It
+is maddening to sit here doing nothing. If it were not that I had
+confidence in your power and will to aid me, I would go into the
+palace and stab Nana Sahib to the heart, though I were cut to
+pieces for it the moment afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>"That would do no good to the lady, sahib," Rujub said calmly.
+"She would only be left without a friend, and the Nana's death
+might be the signal for the murder of every white prisoner. Ah,
+here comes my daughter."</p>
+
+<p>Rabda came up quickly, and stopped before Bathurst with her
+head bowed and her arms crossed in an attitude of humility. She
+was dressed in the attire worn by the principal servants in
+attendance upon the zenana of a Hindoo prince.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what news, Rabda?" Bathurst asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"The light of my lord's heart is sick. She bore up till she
+arrived here and was handed over to the women. Then her strength
+failed her, and she fainted. She recovered, but she is lying weak
+and exhausted with all that she has gone through and
+suffered."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is she now?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is in the zenana, looking out into the women's court,
+that no men are ever allowed to enter."</p>
+
+<p>"Has the Rajah seen her?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sahib. He was told the state that she was in, and the
+chief lady of the zenana sent him word that for the present she
+must have quiet and rest, but that in two or three days she might
+be fit to see him."</p>
+
+<p>"That is something," Bathurst said thankfully. "Now we shall
+have time to think of some scheme for getting her out."</p>
+
+<p>"You have been in the zenana yourself, Rabda?" Rujub
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, father; the mistress of the zenana saw me directly an
+attendant told her I was there. She has always been kind to me. I
+said that you were going on a journey, and asked her if I might
+stay with her and act as an attendant until you returned, and she
+at once assented. She asked if I should see you before you left,
+and when I said yes, she asked if you could not give her some
+spell that would turn the Rajah's thoughts from this white girl.
+She fears that if she should become first favorite in the zenana,
+she might take things in her hands as English women do, and make
+all sorts of changes. I told her that, doubtless, the English
+girl would do this, and that I thought she was wise to ask your
+assistance."</p>
+
+<p>"You are mad, Rabda," her father said angrily; "what have I to
+do with spells and love philters?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, father, I knew well enough you would not believe in such
+things, but I thought in this way I might see the lady, and
+communicate with her."</p>
+
+<p>"A very good idea, Rabda," Bathurst said. "Is there nothing
+you can do, Rujub, to make her odious to the Nana?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, sahib. I could act upon some people's minds, and
+make them think that the young lady was afflicted by some
+loathsome disease, but not with the Nana. I have many times tried
+to influence him, but without success: his mind is too deep for
+mine to master, and between us there is no sympathy. Could I be
+present with him and the girl I might do something -- that is, if
+the powers that aid me would act against him; but this I do not
+think."</p>
+
+<p>"Rujub," Bathurst said suddenly, "there must have been medical
+stores taken when the camp was captured -- drugs and things of
+that sort. Can you find out who has become possessed of
+them?"</p>
+
+<p>"I might find out, sahib. Doubtless the men who looted the
+camp will have sold the drugs to the native shops, for English
+drugs are highly prized. Are there medicines that can act as the
+mistress of the zenana wishes?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; but there are drugs that when applied externally would
+give the appearance of a terrible disease. There are acids whose
+touch would burn and blister the skin, and turn a beautiful face
+into a dreadful mask."</p>
+
+<p>"But would it recover its fairness, sahib?"</p>
+
+<p>"The traces might last for a long time, even for life, if too
+much were used, but I am sure Miss Hannay would not hesitate for
+a moment on that account."</p>
+
+<p>"But you, sahib -- would you risk her being disfigured?"</p>
+
+<p>"What does it matter to me?" Bathurst asked sternly. "Do you
+think love is skin deep, and that 'tis only for a fair complexion
+that we choose our wives? Find me the drugs, and let Rabda take
+them into her with a line from me. One of them you can certainly
+get, for it is used, I believe, by gold and silver smiths. It is
+nitric acid; the other is caustic potash, or, as it is sometimes
+labeled, lunar caustic. It is in little sticks; but if you find
+out anyone who has bought drugs or cases of medicines, I will go
+with you and pick them out."</p>
+
+<p>"There will be no difficulty about finding out where the
+English drugs are. They are certain to be at one of the shops
+where the native doctors buy their medicines."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go at once, then," Bathurst said. "You can prepare
+some harmless drink, and Rabda will tell the mistress of the
+zenana it will bring out a disfiguring eruption. We can be back
+here again this evening. Will you be here, Rabda, at sunset, and
+wait until we come? You can tell the woman that you have seen
+your father, and that he will supply her with what she requires.
+Make some excuse, if you can, to see the prisoner. Say you are
+curious to see the white woman who has bewitched the Nana, and if
+you get the opportunity whisper in her ear these words, 'Do not
+despair, friends are working for you.'"</p>
+
+<p>Rabda repeated the English words several times over until she
+had them perfect; then she made her way back to the palace, while
+Bathurst and his companion proceeded at once to the spot where
+they had left their vehicle.</p>
+
+<p>They had but little difficulty in finding what they required.
+Many of the shops displayed garments, weapons, jewelry, and other
+things, the plunder of the intrenchments of Cawnpore. Rujub
+entered several shops where drugs were sold, and finally one of
+the traders said, "I have a large black box full of drugs which I
+bought from a Sepoy for a rupee, but now that I have got it I do
+not know what to do with it. Some of the bottles doubtless
+contain poisons. I will sell it you for two rupees, which is the
+value of the box, which, as you see, is very strong and bound
+with iron. The contents I place no price upon."</p>
+
+<p>"I will take it," Rujub said. "I know some of the English
+medicines, and may find a use for them."</p>
+
+<p>He paid the money, called in a coolie, and bade him take up
+the chest and follow him, and they soon arrived at the juggler's
+house.</p>
+
+<p>The box, which was a hospital medical chest, was filled with
+drugs of all kinds. Bathurst put a stick of caustic into a small
+vial, and half filled another, which had a glass stopper, with
+nitric acid, filled it up with water, and tried the effect of
+rubbing a few drops on his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"That is strong enough for anything," he said, with a slight
+exclamation at the sharp pain. "And now give me a piece of paper
+and pen and ink."</p>
+
+<p>Then sitting down he wrote:</p>
+
+<p>"My Dear Miss Hannay: Rujub, the juggler, and I will do what
+we can to rescue you. We are powerless to effect anything as long
+as you remain where you are. The bearer, Rujub's daughter, will
+give you the bottles, one containing lunar caustic, the other
+nitric acid. The mistress of the zenana, who wants to get rid of
+you, as she fears you might obtain influence over the Nana, has
+asked the girl to obtain from her father a philter which will
+make you odious to him. The large bottle is perfectly harmless,
+and you can drink its contents without fear. The caustic is for
+applying to your lips; it will be painful, but I am sure you will
+not mind that, and the injury will be only of a temporary nature.
+I cannot promise as much for the nitric acid; pray apply it very
+carefully, merely moistening the glass stopper and applying it
+with that. I should use it principally round the lips. It will
+burn and blister the skin. The Nana will be told that you have a
+fever, which is causing a terrible and disfiguring eruption. I
+should apply it also to the neck and hands. Pray be very careful
+with the stuff; for, besides the application being exceedingly
+painful, the scars may possibly remain permanently. Keep the two
+small bottles carefully hidden, in order to renew the application
+if absolutely necessary. At any rate, this will give us time,
+and, from what I hear, our troops are likely to be here in
+another ten days' time. You will be, I know, glad to hear that
+Wilson has also escaped.</p>
+
+<p>"Yours,</p>
+
+<p>"R. Bathurst."</p>
+
+<p>A large bottle was next filled with elder flower water. The
+trap was brought around, and they drove back to Bithoor. Rabda
+was punctual to her appointment.</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen her," she said, "and have given her the message.
+I could see that she understood it, but as there were other women
+round, she made no sign. I told the mistress of the zenana that
+you had given me some magic words that I was to whisper to her to
+prepare the way for the philter, so she let me in without
+difficulty, and I was allowed to go close up to her and repeat
+your message. I put my hands on her before I did so, and I think
+she felt that it was the touch of a friend. She hushed up when I
+spoke to her. The mistress, who was standing close by, thought
+that this was a sign of the power of the words I had spoken to
+her. I did not stay more than a minute. I was afraid she might
+try to speak to me in your tongue, and that would have been
+dangerous."</p>
+
+<p>"There are the bottles,"' Bathurst said; "this large one is
+for her to take, the other two and this note are to be given to
+her separately. You had better tell the woman that the philter
+must be given by your own hands, and that you must then watch
+alone by her side for half an hour. Say that after you leave her
+she will soon go off to sleep; and must then be left absolutely
+alone till daybreak tomorrow, and it will then be found that the
+philter has acted. She must at once tell the Nana that the lady
+is in a high fever, and has been seized with some terrible
+disease that has altogether disfigured her, and that he can see
+for himself the state she is in."</p>
+
+<p>Rabda's whisper had given new life and hope to Isobel Hannay.
+Previous to that her fate had seemed to her to be sealed, and she
+had only prayed for death; the long strain of the siege had told
+upon her; the scene in the boat seemed a species of horrible
+nightmare, culminating in a number of Sepoys leaping on board the
+boat as it touched the bank, and bayoneting her uncle and all on
+board except herself, Mrs. Hunter, and her daughter, who were
+seized and carried ashore. Then followed a night of dull
+despairing pain, while she and her companions crouched together,
+with two Sepoys standing on guard over them, while the others,
+after lighting fires, talked and laughed long into the night over
+the success of their attack.</p>
+
+<p>At daybreak they had been placed upon a limber and driven into
+Cawnpore. Her spirit had risen as they were assailed by insults
+and imprecations by the roughs of the town, and she had borne up
+bravely till, upon their arrival at the entrance to what she
+supposed was the prison, she was roughly dragged from the limber,
+placed in a close carriage, and driven off. In her despair she
+had endeavored to open the door in order to throw herself under
+the wheels, but a soldier stood on each step and prevented her
+from doing so.</p>
+
+<p>Outside of the town she soon saw that she was on the road to
+Bithoor, and the fate for which she was reserved flashed upon
+her. She remembered now the oily compliments of Nana Sahib, and
+the unpleasant thrill she had felt when his eyes were fixed upon
+her; and had she possessed a weapon of any kind she would have
+put an end to her life. But her pistol had been taken from her
+when she landed, and in helpless despair she crouched in a corner
+of the carriage until they reached Bithoor.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the carriage stopped a cloth was thrown over her
+head. She was lifted out and carried into the palace, through
+long passages and up stairs; then those who carried her set her
+on her feet and retired. Other hands took her and led her forward
+till the cloth was taken off her head, and she found herself
+surrounded, by women, who regarded her with glances of mixed
+curiosity and hostility. Then everything seemed to swim round,
+and she fainted.</p>
+
+<p>When she recovered consciousness all strength seemed to have
+left her, and she lay in a sort of apathy for hours, taking
+listlessly the drink that was offered to her, but paying no
+attention to what was passing around, until there was a gentle
+pressure on her arm, the grasp tightening with a slight caressing
+motion that seemed to show sympathy; then came the English words
+softly whispered into her ear, while the hand again pressed her
+arm firmly, as if in warning.</p>
+
+<p>It was with difficulty that she refrained from uttering an
+exclamation, and she felt the blood crimson her cheeks, but she
+mastered the impulse and lay perfectly quiet, glancing up into
+the face bent down close to hers -- it was not familiar to her,
+and yet it seemed to her that she had seen it somewhere; another
+minute and it was gone.</p>
+
+<p>But though to all appearances Isobel's attitude was unchanged,
+her mind was active now. Who could have sent her this message?
+Who could this native girl be who had spoken in English to her?
+Where had she seen the face?</p>
+
+<p>Her thoughts traveled backwards, and she ran over in her mind
+all those with whom she had come in contact since her arrival in
+India; her servants and those of her acquaintances passed before
+her eyes. She had scarcely spoken to another native woman since
+she had landed. After thinking over all she had known in
+Cawnpore, she thought of Deennugghur. Whom had she met there?</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly came the remembrance of the exhibition by the
+juggler, and she recalled the face and figure of his daughter,
+as, seated, upon the growing pole, she had gone up foot by foot
+in the light of the lamps and up into the darkness above. The
+mystery was solved; that was the face that had just leaned over
+her.</p>
+
+<p>But how could she be interested in her fate? Then she
+remembered that this was the girl whom Bathurst had saved from
+the tiger. If they were interested in her, it must be through
+Bathurst. Could he too have survived the attack of the night
+before? She had thought of him, as of all of them, as dead, but
+possibly he might have escaped. Even during the long night's
+waiting, a captive to the Sepoys, the thought that he had
+instantly sprung from beside her and leaped overboard had been an
+added pang to all her misery. She had no after remembrance of
+him; perhaps he had swum to shore and got off in safety. In that
+case he must be lingering in Cawnpore, had learned what had
+become of her, and was trying to rescue her. It was to the
+juggler he would naturally have gone to obtain assistance. If so,
+he was risking his life now to save hers; and this was the man
+whom she despised as a coward.</p>
+
+<p>But what could he do? At Bithoor, in the power of this
+treacherous Rajah, secure in the zenana, where no man save its
+master ever penetrated, how could he possibly help her? Yet the
+thought that he was trying to do so was a happy one, and the
+tears that flowed between her closed lids were not painful ones.
+She blamed herself now for having felt for a moment hurt at
+Bathurst's. desertion of her. To have remained in the boat would
+have been certain death, while he could have been of no
+assistance to her or anyone else. That he should escape, then, if
+he could, now seemed to her a perfectly natural action; she hoped
+that some of the others had done the same, and that Bathurst was
+not working alone.</p>
+
+<p>It did not occur to her that there could be any possibility of
+the scheme for her rescue succeeding; as to that she felt no more
+hopeful than before, but it seemed to take away the sense of
+utter loneliness that she before felt that someone should be
+interesting himself in her fate. Perhaps there would be more than
+a mere verbal message next time; how long would it be before she
+heard again? How long a respite had she before that wretch came
+to see her? Doubtless he had heard that she was ill. She would
+remain so. She would starve herself. Her weakness seemed to her
+her best protection.</p>
+
+<p>As she lay apparently helpless upon the couch she watched the
+women move about the room. The girl who had spoken to her was not
+among them. The women were not unkind; they brought her cooling
+drinks, and tried to tempt her to eat something; but she shook
+her head as if utterly unable to do so, and after a time feigned
+to be asleep.</p>
+
+<p>Darkness came on gradually; some lamps were lighted in the
+room. Not for a moment had she been left alone since she was
+brought in -- never less than two females remaining with her.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the woman who was evidently the chief of the
+establishment came in accompanied by a girl, whom Isobel
+recognized at once as the juggler's daughter. The latter brought
+with her a tray, on which were some cakes and a silver goblet.
+These she set down on an oak table by the couch. The girl then
+handed her the goblet, which, keeping up the appearance of
+extreme feebleness, she took languidly. She placed it to her
+lips, but at once took it away. It was not cool and refreshing
+like those she had tasted before, it had but little flavor, but
+had a faint odor, which struck her as not unfamiliar. It was a
+drug of some sort they wished her to drink.</p>
+
+<p>She looked up in the girl's face. Rabda made a reassuring
+gesture, and said in a low whisper, as she bent forward,
+"Bathurst Sahib."</p>
+
+<p>This was sufficient; whatever it was it would do her no harm,
+and she raised the cup to her lips and emptied it. Then the elder
+woman said something to the other two, and they all left the room
+together, leaving her alone with Rabda.</p>
+
+<p>The latter went to the door quietly and drew the hangings
+across it, then she returned to the couch, and from the folds of
+her dress produced two vials and a tiny note. Then, noiselessly,
+she placed a lamp on the table, and withdrew to a short distance
+while Isobel opened and read the note.</p>
+
+<p>Twice she read it through, and then, laying it down, burst
+into tears of relief. Rabda came and knelt down beside the couch,
+and, taking one of her hands, pressed it to her lips. Isobel
+threw her arms round the girl's neck, drew her close to her, and
+kissed her warmly. -- Rabda then drew a piece of paper and a
+pencil from her dress and handed them to her. She wrote:</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks a thousand times, dear friend; I will follow your
+instructions. Please send me if you can some quick and deadly
+poison, that I may take in the last extremity. Do not fear that I
+will flinch from applying the things you have sent me. I would
+not hesitate to swallow them were there no other hope of escape.
+I rejoice so much to know that you have escaped from that
+terrible attack last night. Did Wilson alone get away? Do you
+know they murdered my uncle and all the others in the boat,
+except Mrs. Hunter and Mary? Pray do not run any risks to try and
+rescue me. I think that I am safe now, and will make myself so
+hideous that if the wretch once sees me he will never want to see
+me again. As to death, I have no fear of it. If we do not meet
+again, God bless you.</p>
+
+<p>"Yours most gratefully,</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>Rabda concealed the note in her garment, and then motioned to
+Isobel that she should close her eyes and pretend to be asleep.
+Then she gently drew back the curtains and seated herself at a
+distance from the couch.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour later the mistress of the zenana came in. Rabda
+rose and put her finger to her lips and left the room,
+accompanied by the woman.</p>
+
+<p>"She is asleep," she said; "do not be afraid, the potion will
+do its work. Leave her alone all night. When she wakes in the
+morning she will be wild with fever, and you need have no fear
+that the Rajah will seek to make her the queen of his
+zenana."</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h1>
+
+<p>Prepared as the mistress of the zenana was to find a great
+change in the captive's appearance, she was startled when, soon
+after daybreak, she went in to see her. The lower part of her
+face was greatly swollen, her lips were covered with white
+blotches. There were great red scars round the mouth and on her
+forehead, and the skin seemed to have been completely eaten away.
+There were even larger and deeper marks on her neck and
+shoulders, which were partly uncovered, as if by her restless
+tossing. Her hands and arms were similarly marked. She took no
+notice of her entrance, but talked to herself as she tossed
+restlessly on the couch.</p>
+
+<p>There was but little acting in this, for Isobel was suffering
+an agony of pain. She had used the acid much more freely than she
+had been instructed to do, determined that the disfigurement
+should be complete. All night she had been in a state of high
+fever, and had for a time been almost delirious. She was but
+slightly more easy now, and had difficulty in preventing herself
+from crying out from the torture she was suffering.</p>
+
+<p>There was no tinge of pity in the face of the woman who looked
+at her, but a smile of satisfaction at the manner in which the
+potion had done its work.</p>
+
+<p>"The Nana can see her now," she said to herself; "there will
+be no change in the arrangements here."</p>
+
+<p>She at once sent out word that as soon as the Rajah was up he
+was to be told that she begged him to come at once.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later he came to the door of the zenana.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Poomba?" he asked; "nothing the matter with Miss
+Hannay, I hope?"</p>
+
+<p>"I grieve to say, your highness, that she has been seized with
+some terrible disease. I know not what it is, for never did I see
+a woman so smitten. It must be an illness contracted from
+confinement and bad air during the siege, some illness that the
+Europeans have, for never did I see aught like it. She is in a
+high state of fever, and her face is in a terrible state. It must
+be a sort of plague."</p>
+
+<p>"You have been poisoning her," the Nana said roughly; "if so,
+beware, for your life shall be the forfeit. I will see her for
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>"She has had no poison since she came here, though I know not
+but what she may have had poison about her, and may have taken it
+after she was captured."</p>
+
+<p>"Take me to her," the Rajah said. "I will see for myself."</p>
+
+<p>"It may be a contagious disease, your highness. It were best
+that you should not go near her."</p>
+
+<p>The Rajah made an impatient gesture, and the woman, without
+another word, led him into the room where Isobel was lying. The
+Nana was prepared for some disfigurement of the face he had so
+admired, but he shrank back from the reality.</p>
+
+<p>"It is horrible," he said, in a low voice. "What have you been
+doing to her?" he asked, turning furiously to the woman.</p>
+
+<p>"I have done nothing, your highness. All day yesterday she lay
+in a torpor, as I told you in the evening when you inquired about
+her, and I thought then she was going to be ill. I have watched
+her all night. She has been restless and disturbed, but I thought
+it better not to go nearer lest I should wake her, and it was not
+until this morning, when the day broke, that I perceived this
+terrible change. What shall we do with her? If the disease is
+contagious, everyone in the palace may catch it."</p>
+
+<p>"Have a closed palanquin brought to the door, wrap her up, and
+have her carried down to the Subada Ke Kothee. Let her give it to
+the women there. Burn all the things in this room, and everything
+that has been worn by those who have entered it. I will inquire
+into this matter later on, and should I find that there has been
+any foul play, those concerned in it shall wish they had never
+been born."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he had left the woman called Rabda in.</p>
+
+<p>"All has gone well," she said; "your father's philter is
+powerful indeed. Tell him whenever he needs any service I can
+render he has but to ask it. Look at her; did you ever see one so
+disfigured? The Rajah has seen her, and is filled with loathing.
+She is to be sent to the Subada Ke Kothee. Are you sure that the
+malady is not contagious? I have persuaded the Rajah that it is;
+that is why he is sending her away."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure it is not," Rabda said; "it is the result of the
+drugs. It is terrible to see her; give me some cooling
+ointment."</p>
+
+<p>"What does it matter about her now that she is harmless?"
+Poomba said scornfully. Being, however, desirous of pleasing
+Rabda, she went away and brought a pot of ointment, which the
+girl applied to the sores, the tears falling down her cheeks as
+she did so.</p>
+
+<p>The salve at once afforded relief from the burning pain, and
+Isobel gratefully took a drink prepared from fresh limes.</p>
+
+<p>She had only removed her gown when she had lain down, having
+done this in order that it should not be burned by the acid, and
+that her neck and shoulders might be seen, and the belief induced
+that this strange eruption was all over her. Rabda made signs for
+her to put it on again, and pointing in the direction of
+Cawnpore, repeated the word several times, and Isobel felt with a
+thrill of intense thankfulness that the stratagem had succeeded,
+and that she was to be sent away at once, probably to the place
+where the other prisoners were confined. Presently the woman
+returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Rabda, you had best go with her. It were well that you should
+leave for the present. The Rajah is suspicious; he may come back
+again and ask questions; and as he knows you by sight, and as you
+told me your father was in disfavor with him at present, he might
+suspect that you were in some way concerned in the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"I will go," Rabda said. "I am sorry she has suffered so much.
+I did not think the potion would have been so strong. Give me a
+netful of fresh limes and some cooling lotion, that I may leave
+with her there."</p>
+
+<p>In a few minutes a woman came up to say that the palanquin was
+in readiness at the gate of the zenana garden. A large cushion
+was taken off a divan, and Isobel was laid upon it and covered
+with a light shawl. Six of the female attendants lifted it and
+carried it downstairs, accompanied by Rabda and the mistress off
+the zenana, both closely veiled. Outside the gate was a large
+palanquin, with its bearers and four soldiers and an officer. The
+cushion was lifted and placed in the palanquin, and Rabda also
+took her place there.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will not return today," the woman said to her, in a
+voice loud enough to be heard by the officers "You will remain
+with her for a time, and afterwards go to see your friends in the
+town. I will send for you when I hear that you wish to
+return."</p>
+
+<p>The curtains of the palanquin were drawn down; the bearers
+lifted it and started at once for Cawnpore.</p>
+
+<p>On arrival at the large building known as the Subada Ke Kothee
+the gates were opened at once at the order of the Nana's officer,
+and the palanquin was carried across the courtyard to the door of
+the building which was used as a prison for the white women and
+children. It was taken into the great arched room and set down.
+Rabda stepped out, and the bearers lifted out the cushion upon
+which Isobel lay.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not be wanted any more," Rabda said, in a tone of
+authority. "You can return to Bithoor at once!"</p>
+
+<p>As the door closed behind them several of the ladies came
+round to see this fresh arrival. Rabda looked round till her eye
+fell upon Mrs. Hunter, who was occupied in trying to hush a
+fractious child. She put her hand on her arm and motioned to her
+to come along. Surprised at the summons, Mrs. Hunter followed
+her. When they reached the cushion Rabda lifted the shawl from
+Isobel's face. For a moment Mrs. Hunter failed to recognize her,
+but as Isobel opened her eyes and held out her hand she knew her,
+and with a cry of pity she dropped on her knees beside her.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor child, what have these fiends been doing to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"They have been doing nothing, Mrs. Hunter," she whispered. "I
+am not so bad as I seem, though I have suffered a great deal of
+pain. I was carried away to Bithoor, to Nana Sahib's zenana, and
+I have burnt my face with caustic and acid; they think I have
+some terrible disease, and have sent me here."</p>
+
+<p>"Bravely done, girl! Bravely and nobly done! We had best keep
+the secret to ourselves; there are constantly men looking through
+the bars of the window, and some of them may understand
+English."</p>
+
+<p>Then she looked up and said, "It is Miss Hannay, she was
+captured with us in the boats; please help me to carry her over
+to the wall there, and my daughter and I will nurse her; it looks
+as if she had been terribly burnt, somehow."</p>
+
+<p>Many of the ladies had met Isobel in the happy days before the
+troubles began, and great was the pity expressed at her
+appearance. She was carried to the side of the wall, where Mary
+and Mrs. Hunter at once made her as comfortable as they could.
+Rabda, who had now thrown back her veil, produced from under her
+dress the net containing some fifty small limes, and handed to
+Mrs. Hunter the pot of ointment and the lotion.</p>
+
+<p>"She has saved me," Isobel said; "it is the daughter of the
+juggler who performed at your house, Mrs. Hunter; do thank her
+for me, and tell her how grateful I am."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hunter took Rabda's hand, and in her own language thanked
+her for her kindness to Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"I have done as I was told," Rabda said simply; "the Sahib
+Bathurst saved my life, and when he said the lady must be rescued
+from the hands of the Nana, it was only right that I should do
+so, even at the risk of my life."</p>
+
+<p>"So Bathurst has escaped," Mrs. Hunter said, turning to
+Isobel. "I am glad of that, dear; I was afraid that all were
+gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I had a note from him; it is by his means that I got
+away from Bithoor. He sent me the caustic and acid to burn my
+face. He told me Mr. Wilson had also escaped, and perhaps some
+others may have got away, though he did not seem to know it."</p>
+
+<p>"But surely there could be no occasion to burn yourself as
+badly as you have done, Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I did put on too much acid," she said. "I was so
+afraid of not burning it enough; but it does not matter, it does
+not pain me nearly so much since I put on that ointment; it will
+soon get well."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hunter shook her head regretfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid it will leave marks for a long time."</p>
+
+<p>"That is of no consequence at all, Mrs. Hunter; I am so
+thankful at being here with you, that I should mind very little
+if I knew that it was always to be as bad as it is now. What does
+it matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"It does not matter at all at present, my dear; but if you
+ever get out of this horrible place, some day you may think
+differently about it."</p>
+
+<p>"I must go now," Rabda said. "Has the lady any message to send
+to the sahib?" and she again handed a paper and pencil to
+Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>The girl took them, hesitating a little before writing:</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God you have saved me. Some day, perhaps, I may be able
+to tell you how grateful I am; but, if not, you will know that if
+the worst happens to us, I shall die blessing you for what you
+have done for me. Pray do not linger longer in Cawnpore. You may
+be discovered, and if I am spared, it would embitter my life
+always to know that it had cost you yours. God bless you
+always.</p>
+
+<p>"Yours gratefully,</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>She folded up the paper and gave it to Rabda, who took her
+hand and kissed it; and then, drawing her veil again over her
+face, went to the door, which stood open for the moment.</p>
+
+<p>Some men were bringing in a large cauldron of rice. The
+sentries offered no opposition to her passing out, as the officer
+with the palanquin had told them that a lady of the Rajah's
+zenana would leave shortly. A similar message had been given to
+the officer at the main gate, who, however, requested to see her
+hand and arm to satisfy him that all was right. This was
+sufficient to assure him that it was not a white woman passing
+out in disguise, and Rabda at once proceeded to her father's
+house.</p>
+
+<p>As she expected, he and Bathurst were away, for she had
+arranged to meet them at eight o'clock in the garden. They did
+not return until eleven, having waited two hours for her, and
+returning home in much anxiety at her non-appearance.</p>
+
+<p>"What has happened? Why did you not meet us, Rabda?" her
+father exclaimed, as he entered.</p>
+
+<p>Rabda rapidly repeated the incidents that had happened since
+she had parted from him the evening before, and handed to
+Bathurst the two notes she had received from Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"Then she is in safety with the others!" he exclaimed in
+delight. "Thank God for that, and thank you, Rabda, indeed, for
+what you have done."</p>
+
+<p>"My life is my lord's," the girl said quietly. "What I have
+done is nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"If we had but known, Rujub, that she would be moved at once,
+we might have rescued her on the way."</p>
+
+<p>Rujub shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"There are far too many people along the road, sahib; it could
+not have been done. But, of course, there was no knowing that she
+would be sent off directly after the Nana had seen her."</p>
+
+<p>"Is she much disfigured, Rabda?" Bathurst asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Dreadfully;" the girl said sorrowfully. "The acid must have
+been too strong."</p>
+
+<p>"It was strong, no doubt," Bathurst said; "but if she had put
+it on as I instructed her it could only have burnt the surface of
+the skin."</p>
+
+<p>"It has burnt her dreadfully, sahib; even I should hardly have
+known her. She must be brave indeed to have done it. She must
+have suffered dreadfully; but I obtained some ointment for her,
+and she was better when I left her. She is with the wife of the
+Sahib Hunter."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Rabda, see if the meal is prepared," Rujub said. "We are
+both hungry, and you can have eaten nothing this morning."</p>
+
+<p>He then left the room, leaving Bathurst to read the letters
+which he still held in his hand, feeling that they were too
+precious to be looked at until he was alone.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before Rabda brought in his breakfast, and,
+glancing at him, she saw how deeply he had been moved by the
+letters. She went up to him and placed her hand on his
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"We will get her for you, sahib. We have been successful so
+far, be assured that we shall succeed again. What we have done is
+more difficult than what we have to do. It is easier to get
+twenty prisoners from a jail than one from a rajah's zenana."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true enough, Rabda. At the moment I was not thinking
+of that, but of other things."</p>
+
+<p>He longed for sympathy, but the girl would not have understood
+him had he told her his feelings. To her he was a hero, and it
+would have seemed to her folly had he said that he felt himself
+altogether unworthy of Isobel Hannay. After he had finished his
+breakfast Rujub again came in.</p>
+
+<p>"What does the sahib intend to do now?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"As far as I can see there is nothing to do at present,
+Rujub," he said. "When the white troops come up she will be
+delivered."</p>
+
+<p>"Then will my lord go down to Allahabad?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not. There is no saying what may happen."</p>
+
+<p>"That is so," Rujub agreed. "The white women are safe at
+present, but if, as the Sahib thinks, the white soldiers should
+beat the troops of the Nana, who can say what will happen? The
+people will be wild with rage, the Nana will be furious -- he is
+a tiger who, having once laid his paw on a victim, will not allow
+it to be torn from him."</p>
+
+<p>"He can never allow them to be injured," Bathurst said. "It is
+possible that as our troops advance he may carry them all off as
+hostages, and by the threat of killing them may make terms for
+his own life, but he would never venture to carry out his
+threats. You think he would?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Rujub remained silent for a minute.</p>
+
+<p>"I think so, sahib; the Nana is an ambitious man; he has
+wealth and everything most men would desire to make life happy,
+but he wanted more: he thought that when the British Raj was
+destroyed he would rule over the territories of the Peishwa, and
+be one of the greatest lords of the land. He has staked
+everything on that; if he loses, he has lost all. He knows that
+after the breach of his oath and the massacre here, there is no
+pardon for him. He is a tiger -- and a wounded tiger is most
+dangerous. If he is, as you believe he will be, defeated, I
+believe his one thought will be of revenge. Every day brings news
+of fresh risings. Scindia's army will join us; Holkar's will
+probably follow. All Oude is rising in arms. A large army is
+gathering at Delhi. Even if the Nana is defeated here all will
+not be lost. He has twenty thousand men; there are well nigh two
+hundred thousand in arms round Lucknow alone. My belief is that
+if beaten his first thought will be to take revenge at once on
+the Feringhees, and to make his name terrible, and that he will
+then go off with his army to Lucknow or Delhi, where he would be
+received as one who has dared more than all others to defy the
+whites, who has no hope of pardon, and can, therefore, be relied
+upon above all others to fight to the last."</p>
+
+<p>"It may be so, Rujub, though I can scarce believe that there
+exists a monster who would give orders for the murder of hundreds
+of women and children in cold blood; but, at any rate, I will
+remain and watch. We will decide upon what will be the best plan
+to rescue her from the prison, if we hear that evil is intended;
+but, if not, I can remain patiently until our troops arrive. I
+know the Subada Ke Kothee; it is, if I remember right, a large
+quadrangle with no windows on the outside."</p>
+
+<p>"That is so, sahib; it is a strong place, and difficult indeed
+to get into or out of. There is only the main gate, which is
+guarded at night by two sentries outside and there is doubtless a
+strong guard within."</p>
+
+<p>"I would learn whether the same regiment always furnishes the
+guard; if so, it might be possible to bribe them."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid it would be too dangerous to try. There are
+scores of men in Cawnpore who would cut a throat for a rupee, but
+when it comes to breaking open a prison to carry off one of these
+white women whom they hate it would be too dangerous to try."</p>
+
+<p>"Could you not do something with your art, Rujub?"</p>
+
+<p>"If there were only the outside sentries it would be easy
+enough, sahib. I could send them to sleep with a wave of my hand,
+but I could not affect the men inside whom I do not know even by
+sight. Besides, in addition to the soldiers who guard the gate,
+there will be the men who have been told off to look after the
+prisoners. It will require a great deal of thinking over, sahib,
+but I believe we shall manage it. I shall go tomorrow to Bithoor
+and show myself boldly to the Nana. He knows that I have done
+good service to him, and his anger will have cooled down by this
+time, and he will listen to what I have to say. It will be useful
+to us for me to be able to go in and out of the palace at will,
+and so learn the first news from those about him. It is most
+important that we should know if he has evil intentions towards
+the captives, so that we may have time to carry out our
+plans."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Rujub. You do not expect me to remain indoors, I
+hope, for I should wear myself out if I were obliged to wait here
+doing nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"No, sahib; it will be perfectly safe for you to go about just
+as you are, and I can get you any other disguise you like. You
+will gather what is said in the town, can listen to the Sepoys,
+and examine the Subada Ke Kothee. If you like I will go there
+with you now. My daughter shall come with us; she may be useful,
+and will be glad to be doing something."</p>
+
+<p>They went out from the city towards the prison house, which
+stood in an open space round which were several other buildings,
+some of them surrounded with gardens and walls.</p>
+
+<p>The Subada Ke Kothee was a large building, forming three sides
+of a square, a strong high wall forming the fourth side. It was
+low, with a flat roof. There were no windows or openings in the
+outside wall, the chambers all facing the courtyard. Two sentries
+were at the gate. They were in the red Sepoy uniform, and
+Bathurst saw at once how much the bonds of discipline had been
+relaxed. Both had leaned their muskets against the wall; one was
+squatted on the ground beside his firearm, and the other was
+talking with two or three natives of his acquaintance. The gates
+were closed.</p>
+
+<p>As they watched, a native officer came up. He stood for a
+minute talking with the soldiers. By his gesticulations it could
+be seen he was exceedingly angry, and the men took their muskets
+and began to walk up and down. Then the officer knocked at the
+gate. Instead of its being opened, a man appeared at a loophole
+in the gate tower, and the officer handed to him a paper. A
+minute later the gate was opened sufficiently for him to pass in,
+and was then closed behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"They are evidently pretty strict," Bathurst said. "I don't
+think, Rujub, there is much chance of our doing anything
+there."</p>
+
+<p>Rujub shook his head. "No, sahib, it is clear they have strict
+orders about opening and shutting the gate."</p>
+
+<p>"It would not be very difficult to scale the wall of the
+house," Bathurst said, "with a rope and a hook at its end; but
+that is only the first step. The real difficulty lies in getting
+the prison room open in the first place -- for no doubt they are
+locked up at night -- and in the second getting her out of it,
+and the building."</p>
+
+<p>"You could lower her down from the top of the wall,
+sahib."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if one could get her out of the room they are confined
+in without making the slightest stir, but it is almost too much
+to hope that one could be able to do that. The men in charge of
+them are likely to keep a close watch, for they know that their
+heads would pay for any captive they allowed to escape."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think they will watch much, sahib; they will not
+believe that any of the women, broken down as they must be by
+trouble, would attempt such a thing, for even if they got out of
+the prison itself and then made their escape from the building,
+they would be caught before they could go far."</p>
+
+<p>"Where does the prison house lie, Rabda?" Bathurst asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is on the left hand side as you enter the gate; it is the
+farthest door. Along that side most of the buildings -- which
+have been used for storehouses, I should say, or perhaps for the
+guards when the place was a palace -- have two floors, one above
+the other. But this is a large vaulted room extending from the
+ground to the roof; it has windows with iron gratings; the door
+is very strong and heavy."</p>
+
+<p>"And now, sahib, we can do nothing more," Rujub said. "I will
+return home with Rabda, and then go over to Bithoor."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Rujub, I will stay here, and hear what people are
+talking about."</p>
+
+<p>There were indeed a considerable number of people near the
+building: the fact that the white prisoners were within seemed to
+exercise a fascination, and even women brought their children and
+sat on the banks which marked where gardens had once been, and
+talked of the white captives. Bathurst strolled about among the
+groups of Sepoys and townspeople. The former talked in loud tones
+of the little force that had already started from Allahabad, and
+boasted how easily they would eat up the Feringhees. It seemed,
+however, to Bathurst that a good deal of this confidence was
+assumed, and that among some, at least, there was an undercurrent
+of doubt and uneasiness, though they talked as loudly and boldly
+as their companions.</p>
+
+<p>The townspeople were of two classes: there were the budmashes
+or roughs of the place, who uttered brutal and ferocious jokes as
+to the probable fate of the white women. There were others who
+kept in groups apart and talked in low voices. These were the
+traders, to whom the events that had taken place foreboded ruin.
+Already most of the shops had been sacked, and many of the
+principal inhabitants murdered by the mob. Those who had so far
+escaped, thanks in some instances to the protection afforded them
+by Sepoy officers, saw that their trade was ruined, their best
+customers killed, and themselves virtually at the mercy of the
+mob, who might again break out upon the occasion of any
+excitement. These were silent when Bathurst approached them. His
+attire, and the arms so ostentatiously displayed in his sash,
+marked him as one of the dangerous class, perhaps a prisoner from
+the jail whose doors had been thrown open on the first night of
+the Sepoy rising.</p>
+
+<p>For hours Bathurst remained in the neighborhood of the prison.
+The sun set, and the night came on. Then a small party of
+soldiers came up and relieved the sentries. This time the number
+of the sentries at the gate was doubled, and three men were
+posted, one on each of the other sides of the building. After
+seeing this done he returned to the house. After he had finished
+his evening meal Rujub and Rabda came into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, sahib," the former said, "I think that we can tell you
+how the lady is. Rabda has seen her, spoken to her, and touched
+her; there is sympathy between them."</p>
+
+<p>He seated Rabda in a chair, placed his hand on her forehead,
+and then drew the tips of his fingers several times slowly down
+her face. Her eyes closed. He took up her hand, and let it fall
+again. It was limp and impassive. Then he said authoritatively,
+"Go to the prison." He paused a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am there," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you in the room where the ladies are?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am there," she repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see the lady Hannay?"</p>
+
+<p>"I see her."</p>
+
+<p>"How is she?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is lying quiet. The other young lady is sitting beside
+her. The lower part of her face is bandaged up, but I can see
+that she is not suffering as she was this morning. She looks
+quiet and happy."</p>
+
+<p>"Try and speak to her. Say, 'Keep up your courage, we are
+doing what we can.' Speak, I order you."</p>
+
+<p>"I have spoken."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she hear you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. She has raised herself on her arm; she is looking round;
+she has asked the other young lady if she heard anything. The
+other shakes her head. She heard my words, but does not
+understand them."</p>
+
+<p>Rujub looked at Bathurst, who mechanically repeated the
+message in English.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak to her again. Tell her these words," and Rujub repeated
+the message in English.</p>
+
+<p>"Does she hear you?"</p>
+
+<p>"She hears me. She has clasped her hands, and is looking round
+bewildered."</p>
+
+<p>"That will do. Now go outside into the yard; what do you see
+there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I see eight men sitting round a fire. One gets up and walks
+to one of the grated windows, and looks in at the prisoners."</p>
+
+<p>"Is the door locked?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is locked."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the key?"</p>
+
+<p>She was silent for some time.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the key?" he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"In the lock," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"How many soldiers are there in the guardroom by the
+gate?"</p>
+
+<p>"There are no soldiers there. There are an officer and four
+men outside, but none inside."</p>
+
+<p>"That will do," and he passed his hand lightly across her
+forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it all true?" Bathurst asked, as the juggler turned to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly it is true, sahib. Had I had my daughter with me at
+Deennugghur, I could have sent you a message as easily; as it
+was, I had to trust only to the power of my mind upon yours. The
+information is of use, sahib."</p>
+
+<p>"It is indeed. It is a great thing to know that the key is
+left in the lock, and also that at night there are the prison
+keepers only inside the building."</p>
+
+<p>"Does she know what she has been doing?" he asked, as Rabda
+languidly rose from her chair.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sahib, she knows nothing after she has recovered from
+these trances."</p>
+
+<p>"I will watch tomorrow night," Bathurst said, "and see at what
+hour the sentries are relieved. It is evident that the Sepoys are
+not trusted to enter the prison, which is left entirely to the
+warders, the outside posts being furnished by some regiment in
+the lines. It is important to know the exact hour at which the
+changes are made, and perhaps you could find out tomorrow, Rujub,
+who these warders are; whether they are permanently on duty, or
+are relieved once a day."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do that, sahib; if they are changed we may be able to
+get at some of them."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no money," Bathurst said; "but --"</p>
+
+<p>"I have money, sahib, and if they can be bribed, will do it;
+our caste is a rich one. We sometimes receive large presents, and
+we are everywhere made welcome. We have little need of money. I
+am wealthy, and practice my art more because I love it than for
+gain. There are few in the land that know the secrets that I do.
+Men die without having sons to pass down their knowledge; thus it
+is the number of those who possess the secrets of the ancient
+grows smaller every day. There are hundreds of jugglers, but very
+few who know, as I do, the secrets of nature, and can control the
+spirits of the air. Did I need greater wealth than I have, Rabda
+could discover for me all the hidden treasures of India; and I
+could obtain them, guarded though they may be by djins and evil
+spirits."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you a son to come after you, Rujub?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; he is traveling in Persia, to confer with one or two of
+the great ones there who still possess the knowledge of the
+ancient magicians."</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, Rujub, I have not asked you how you got on with
+the Nana."</p>
+
+<p>"It was easy enough," the juggler said. "He had lost all
+interest in the affairs of Deennugghur, and greeted me at first
+as if I had just returned from a journey. Then he remembered and
+asked me suddenly why I had disobeyed his orders and given my
+voice for terms being granted to the Feringhees. I said that I
+had obeyed his orders; I understood that what he principally
+desired was to have the women here as prisoners, and that had the
+siege continued the Feringhees would have blown themselves into
+the air. Therefore the only plan was to make terms with them,
+which would, in fact, place them all in his power, as he would
+not be bound by the conditions granted by the Oude men. He was
+satisfied, and said no more about it, and I am restored to my
+position in his favor. Henceforth we shall not have to trust to
+the gossip of the bazaars, but I shall know what news is received
+and what is going to be done.</p>
+
+<p>"Your people at Delhi have beaten back the Sepoys several
+times, and at Lucknow they resist stoutly. The Nana is very angry
+that the place has not been taken, but from what I hear the
+intrenchments there are much stronger than they were here, and
+even here they were not taken by the sword, but because the
+whites had no shelter from the guns, and could not go to the well
+without exposing themselves to the fire. At Lucknow they have
+some strong houses in the intrenchments, and no want of anything,
+so they can only be captured by fighting. Everyone says they
+cannot hold out many days longer, but that I do not know. It does
+not seem to me that there is any hope of rescue for them, for
+even if, as you think, the white troops should beat Nana Sahib's
+men, they never could force their way through the streets of
+Lucknow to the intrenchments there."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see, Rujub. Deennugghur was defended by a mere
+handful, and at Lucknow they have half a regiment of white
+soldiers. They may, for anything I know, have to yield to
+starvation, but I doubt whether the mutineers and Oude men,
+however numerous they may be, will carry the place by assault. Is
+there any news elsewhere?"</p>
+
+<p>"None, sahib, save that the Feringhees are bringing down
+regiments from the Punjaub to aid those at Delhi."</p>
+
+<p>"The tide is beginning to turn, Rujub; the mutineers have done
+their worst, and have failed to overthrow the English Raj. Now
+you will see that every day they will lose ground. Fresh troops
+will pour up the country, and step by step the mutiny will be
+crushed out; it is a question of time only. If you could call up
+a picture on smoke of what will be happening a year hence, you
+would see the British triumphant everywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot do that, sahib; I do not know what would appear on
+the smoke, and were I to try, misfortune would surely come upon
+me. When a picture of the past is shown on the smoke, it is not a
+past I know of, but which one of those present knows. I cannot
+always say which among them may know it; it is always a scene
+that has made a strong impression on the mind, but more than that
+I do not know. As to those of the future, I know even less; it is
+the work of the power of the air, whose name I whisper to myself
+when I pour out the incense, and to whom I pray. It is seldom
+that I show these pictures; he gets angry if called upon too
+often. I never do it unless I feel that he is propitious."</p>
+
+<p>"It is beyond me altogether, Rujub; I can understand your
+power of sending messages, and of your daughter seeing at a
+distance. I have heard of such things at home; they are called
+mesmerism and clairvoyance. It is an obscure art; but that some
+men do possess the power of influencing others at a distance
+seems to be undoubted, still it is certainly never carried to
+such perfection as I see it in your case."</p>
+
+<p>"It could not be," Rujub said; "white men eat too much, and it
+needs long fasting and mortification to fit a man to become a
+mystic; the spirit gains power as the body weakens. The
+Feringhees can make arms that shoot long distances, and carriages
+that travel faster than the fastest horse, and great ships and
+machines. They can do many great and useful things, but they
+cannot do the things that have been done for thousands of years
+in the East. They are tied too fast to the earth to have aught to
+do with the spirits that dwell in the air. A learned Brahmin, who
+had studied your holy books, told me that your Great Teacher said
+that if you had faith you could move mountains. We could well
+nigh do that if it were of use to mankind; but were we to do so
+merely to show our power, we should be struck dead. It is wrong
+even to tell you these things; I must say no more."</p>
+
+<p>Four days passed. Rujub went every day for some hours to
+Bithoor, and told Bathurst that he heard that the British force,
+of about fourteen hundred whites and five hundred Sikhs, was
+pushing forward rapidly, making double marches each day.</p>
+
+<p>"The first fight will be near Futtehpore," he said; "there are
+fifteen hundred Sepoys, as many Oude tribesmen, and five hundred
+cavalry with twelve guns, and they are in a very strong position,
+which the British can only reach by passing along the road
+through a swamp. It is a position that the officers say a
+thousand men could hold against ten thousand."</p>
+
+<p>"You will see that it will not delay our troops an hour,"
+Bathurst said. "Do they imagine they are going to beat us, when
+the numbers are but two to one in their favor? If so, they will
+soon learn that they are mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>The next afternoon, when Rujub returned, he said, "You were
+right, sahib; your people took Futtehpore after only half an
+hour's fighting. The accounts say that the Feringhees came on
+like demons, and that they did not seem to mind our firing in the
+slightest. The Nana is furious, but they still feel confident
+that they will succeed in stopping the Feringhees at Dong. They
+lost their twelve guns at Futtehpore, but they have two heavy
+ones at the Pandoo Bridge, which sweep the straight road leading
+to it for a mile; and the bridge has been mined, and will be
+blown up if the Feringhees reach it. But, nevertheless, the Nana
+swears that he will be revenged on the captives. If you are to
+rescue the lady it must be done tonight, for tomorrow it may be
+too late."</p>
+
+<p>"You surely do not think he will give orders for the murder of
+the women and children?"</p>
+
+<p>"I fear he will do so," Rujub answered gloomily.</p>
+
+<p>Each day Bathurst had learned in the same manner as before
+what was doing in the prison. Isobel was no longer being nursed;
+she was assisting to nurse Mary Hunter, who had, the day after
+Isobel was transferred to the prison, been attacked by fever, and
+was the next day delirious. Rabda's report of the next two days
+left little doubt in Bathurst's mind that she was rapidly
+sinking. All the prisoners suffered greatly from the close
+confinement; many had died, and the girl's description of the
+scenes she witnessed was often interrupted by her sobs and
+tears.</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h1>
+
+<p>While Bathurst was busying himself completing his preparations
+for the attempt, Rabda came in with her father.</p>
+
+<p>"My lord," she said, "I tremble at the thought of your
+venturing your life. My life is of no importance, and it belongs
+to you. What I would propose is this. My father will go to
+Bithoor, and will obtain an order from one of the Nana's officers
+for a lady of the zenana to visit the prisoners. I will go in
+veiled, as I was on the day I went there. I will change garments
+with the lady, and she can come out veiled, and meet you
+outside."</p>
+
+<p>"I would not dream of such a thing, Rabda. You would be killed
+to a certainty when they discovered the trick. Even if I would
+consent to the sacrifice, Miss Hannay would not do so. I am
+deeply grateful to you for proposing it, but it is impossible.
+You will see that, with the aid of your father, I shall
+succeed."</p>
+
+<p>"I told her that would be your answer, sahib," Rujub said,
+"but she insisted on making the offer."</p>
+
+<p>It was arranged that they were to start at nine o'clock, as it
+was safer to make the attempt before everything became quiet.
+Before starting, Rabda was again placed in a trance. In reply to
+her father's questions she said that Mary Hunter was dead, and
+that Isobel was lying down. She was told to tell her that in an
+hour she was to be at the window next to the door.</p>
+
+<p>Rujub had found that the men inside the prison were those who
+had been employed as warders at the jail before the troubles
+began, and he had procured for Bathurst a dress similar to that
+which they wore, which was a sort of uniform. He had offered, if
+the attempt was successful, to conceal Isobel in his house until
+the troops reached Cawnpore, but Bathurst preferred to take her
+down the country, upon the ground that every house might be
+searched, and that possibly before the British entered the town
+there might be a general sack of the place by the mob, and even
+if this did not take place there might be desperate house to
+house fighting when the troops arrived. Rujub acknowledged the
+danger, and said that he and his daughter would accompany them on
+their way down country, as it would greatly lessen their risk if
+two of the party were really natives. Bathurst gratefully
+accepted the offer, as it would make the journey far more
+tolerable for Isobel if she had Rabda with her.</p>
+
+<p>She was to wait a short distance from the prison while
+Bathurst made the attempt, and was left in a clump of bushes two
+or three hundred yards away from the prison. Rujub accompanied
+Bathurst. They went along quietly until within fifty yards of the
+sentry in the rear of the house, and then stopped. The man was
+walking briskly up and down. Rujub stretched out his arms in
+front of him with the fingers extended. Bathurst, who had taken
+his place behind him, saw his muscles stiffen, while there was a
+tremulous motion of his fingers. In a minute or two the sentry's
+walk became slower. In a little time it ceased altogether, and he
+leaned against the wall as if drowsy; then he slid down in a
+sitting position, his musket falling to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"You can come along now," Rujub said; "he is fast asleep, and
+there is no fear of his waking. He will sleep till I bid him
+wake."</p>
+
+<p>They at once moved forward to the wall of the house. Bathurst
+threw up a knotted rope, to which was attached a large hook,
+carefully wrapped in flannel to prevent noise. After three or
+four attempts it caught on the parapet. Bathurst at once climbed
+up. As soon as he had gained the flat terrace, Rujub followed
+him; they then pulled up the rope, to the lower end of which a
+rope ladder was attached, and fastened this securely; then they
+went to the inner side of the terrace and looked down onto the
+courtyard. Two men were standing at one of the grated windows of
+the prison room, apparently looking in; six others were seated
+round a fire in the center of the court.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst was about to turn away when Rujub touched him and
+pointed to the two men at the window, and then stretched out his
+arms towards them. Presently they turned and left the window, and
+in a leisurely way walked across the court and entered a room
+where a light was burning close to the grate. For two or three
+minutes Rujub stood in the same position, then his arms
+dropped.</p>
+
+<p>"They have gone into the guard room to sleep," he said; "there
+are two less to trouble you."</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned towards the group of men by the fire and fixed
+his gaze upon them. In a short time one of them wrapped himself
+in his cloth and lay down. In five minutes two others had
+followed his example. Another ten minutes passed, and then Rujub
+turned to Bathurst and said, "I cannot affect the other three; we
+cannot influence everyone."</p>
+
+<p>"That will do, Rujub, it is my turn now."</p>
+
+<p>After a short search they found stairs leading down from the
+terrace, and after passing through some empty rooms reached a
+door opening into the courtyard.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you stay here, Rujub," Bathurst said. "They will take me
+for one of themselves. If I succeed without noise, I shall come
+this way; if not, we will go out through the gate, and you had
+best leave by the way we came."</p>
+
+<p>The door was standing open, and Bathurst, grasping a heavy
+tulwar, went out into the courtyard. Keeping close to the house,
+he sauntered along until he reached the grated windows of the
+prison room. Three lamps were burning within, to enable the guard
+outside to watch the prisoners. He passed the two first windows;
+at the third a figure was standing. She shrank back as Bathurst
+stopped before it.</p>
+
+<p>"It is I, Miss Hannay -- Bathurst. Danger threatens you, and
+you must escape at once. Rabda is waiting for you outside. Please
+go to the door and stand there until I open it. I have no doubt
+that I shall succeed, but if anything should go wrong, go and lie
+down again at once."</p>
+
+<p>Without waiting for an answer, he moved towards the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Ahmed?" one of the warders said. "We all seem
+sleepy this evening, there is something in the air; I felt half
+inclined to go off myself."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very hot tonight," Bathurst replied.</p>
+
+<p>There was something in his voice unfamiliar to the man, and
+with an exclamation, "Who is it?" he sprang to his feet. But
+Bathurst was now but three paces away, and with a bound was upon
+him, bringing the tulwar down with such force upon his head that
+the man fell lifeless without a groan. The other two leaped up
+with shouts of "Treachery!" but Bathurst was upon them, and,
+aided by the surprise, cut both down after a sharp fight of half
+a minute. Then he ran to the prison door, turned the key in the
+lock, and opened it.</p>
+
+<p>"Come!" he exclaimed, "there is no time to be lost, the guards
+outside have taken the alarm," for, by this time, there was a
+furious knocking at the gate. "Wrap yourself up in this native
+robe."</p>
+
+<p>"But the others, Mr. Bathurst, can't you save them too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible," he said. "Even if they got out, they would be
+overtaken and killed at once. Come!" And taking her hand, he led
+her to the gate.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand back here so that the gate will open on you," he said.
+Then he undid the bar, shouting, "Treachery; the prisoners are
+escaping!"</p>
+
+<p>As he undid the last bolt the gate opened and the soldiers
+rushed in, firing at random as they did so. Bathurst had stepped
+behind the gate as it opened, and as the soldiers ran up the yard
+he took Isobel's hand, and, passing through the gate, ran with
+her round the building until he reached the spot where Rabda was
+awaiting them. Half a minute later her father joined them.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go at once, there is no time for talking," he said.
+"We must be cautious, the firing will wake the whole quarter;"
+for by this time loud shouts were being raised, and men, hearing
+the muskets fired, were running towards the gate. Taking
+advantage of the shelter of the shrubbery as much as they could,
+they hurried on until they issued into the open country.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you feel strong enough to walk far?" Bathurst asked,
+speaking for the first time since they left the gate.</p>
+
+<p>"I think so," she said; "I am not sure whether I am awake or
+dreaming."</p>
+
+<p>"You are awake, Miss Hannay; you are safe out of that terrible
+prison."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure," the girl said, speaking slowly; "I have been
+strange since I went there. I have seemed to hear voices speaking
+to me, though no one was there, and no one else heard them; and I
+am not sure whether all this is not fancy now."</p>
+
+<p>"It is reality, Miss Hannay. Take my hand and you will see
+that it is solid. The voices you heard were similar to those I
+heard at Deennugghur; they were messages I sent you by means of
+Rujub and his daughter."</p>
+
+<p>"I did think of what you told me and about the juggler, but it
+seemed so strange. I thought that my brain was turning with
+trouble; it was bad enough at Deennugghur, but nothing to what it
+has been since that dreadful day at Bithoor. There did not seem
+much hope at Deennugghur. But somehow we all kept up, and,
+desperate as it seemed, I don't think we ever quite despaired.
+You see, we all knew each other; besides, no one could give way
+while the men were fighting and working so hard for us; but at
+Cawnpore there seemed no hope. There was not one woman there but
+had lost husband or father. Most of them were indifferent to
+life, scarcely ever speaking, and seeming to move in a dream,
+while others with children sat holding them close to them as if
+they dreaded a separation at any moment. There were a few who
+were different, who moved about and nursed the children and sick,
+and tried to comfort the others, just as Mrs. Hunter did at
+Deennugghur. There was no crying and no lamenting. It would have
+been a relief if anyone had cried, it was the stillness that was
+so trying; when people talked to each other they did it in a
+whisper, as they do in a room where someone is lying dead.</p>
+
+<p>"You know Mary Hunter died yesterday? Well, Mrs. Hunter quite
+put aside her own grief and tried to cheer others. I told her the
+last message I received, and asked her to go with me if it should
+be true. She said, 'No, Isobel; I don't know whether this message
+is a dream, or whether God has opened a way of escape for you --
+if so, may He be thanked; but you must go alone -- one might
+escape where two could not. As for me, I shall wait here for
+whatever fate God may send me. My husband and my children have
+gone before me. I may do some good among these poor creatures,
+and here I shall stay. You are young and full of life, and have
+many happy days in store for you. My race is nearly run -- even
+did I wish for life, I would not cumber you and your friends;
+there will be perils to encounter and fatigues to be undergone.
+Had not Mary left us I would have sent her with you, but God did
+not will it so. Go, therefore, to the window, dear, as you were
+told by this message you think you have received, but do not be
+disappointed if no one comes. If it turns out true, and there is
+a chance of escape, take it, dear, and may God be with you.' As I
+stood at the window, I could not go at once, as you told me, to
+the door; I had to stand there; I saw it all till you turned and
+ran to the door, and then I came to meet you."</p>
+
+<p>"It was a pity you saw it," he said gently.</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Do you think that, after what I have gone through, I was
+shocked at seeing you kill three of those wretches? Two months
+ago I suppose I should have thought it dreadful, but those two
+months have changed us altogether. Think of what we were then and
+what we are now. There remain only you, Mrs. Hunter, myself, and
+your letter said, Mr. Wilson. Is he the only one?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, so far as we know."</p>
+
+<p>"Only we four, and all the others gone -- Uncle and. Mary and
+Amy and the Doolans and the dear Doctor, all the children. Why,
+if the door had been open, and I had had a weapon, I would have
+rushed out to help you kill. I shudder at myself sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>After a pause she went on. "Then none of those in the other
+boat came to shore, Mr. Bathurst, except Mr. Wilson?"</p>
+
+<p>"I fear not. The other boat sank directly. Wilson told me it
+was sinking as he sprang over. You had better not talk any more,
+Miss Hannay, for you are out of breath now, and will need all
+your strength."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but tell me why you have taken me away; you said there
+was great danger?"</p>
+
+<p>"Our troops are coming up," he said, "and I had reason to fear
+that when the rebels are defeated the mob may break open the
+prison."</p>
+
+<p>"They surely could not murder women and children who have done
+them no harm!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no saying what they might do, Miss Hannay, but that
+was the reason why I dared not leave you where you were. I will
+tell you more about it afterwards. Now, please take my arm, we
+must be miles away from here before morning. They will find out
+then that you have escaped, and will no doubt scour the
+country."</p>
+
+<p>They had left the road and were passing through the fields.
+Isobel's strength failed rapidly, as soon as the excitement that
+had at first kept her up subsided. Rujub several times urged
+Bathurst to go faster, but the girl hung more and more heavily on
+his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't go any farther," she said at last; "it is so long
+since I walked, and I suppose I have got weak. I have tried very
+hard, but I can scarcely drag my feet along. You had better leave
+me; you have done all you could to save me. I thank you so much.
+Only please leave a pistol with me. I am not at all afraid of
+dying, but I will not fall into their hands again."</p>
+
+<p>"We must carry her, Rujub," Bathurst said; "she is utterly
+exhausted and worn out, and no wonder. If we could make a sort of
+stretcher, it would be easy enough."</p>
+
+<p>Rujub took the cloth from his shoulders, and laid it on the
+ground by the side of Isobel, who had now sunk down and was lying
+helpless.</p>
+
+<p>"Lift her onto this, sahib, then we will take the four corners
+and carry her; it will be no weight."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst lifted Isobel, in spite of her feeble protest, and
+laid her on the cloth.</p>
+
+<p>"I will take the two corners by her head," Bathurst said, "if
+you will each take one of the others."</p>
+
+<p>"No, sahib, the weight is all at the head; you take one
+corner, and I will take the other. Rabda can take the two corners
+at the feet. We can change about when we like."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel had lost greatly in weight since the siege of
+Deennugghur began, and she was but a light burden for her three
+bearers, who started with her at a speed considerably greater
+than that at which she had walked.</p>
+
+<p>"Which way are you taking us, Rujub?" Bathurst asked
+presently; "I have lost my bearings altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"I am keeping near the river, sahib. I know the country well.
+We cannot follow the road, for there the Rajah's troops and the
+Sepoys and the Oude men are gathered to oppose your people. They
+will fight tomorrow at Dong, as I told you, but the main body is
+not far from here. We must keep far away from them, and if your
+people take Dong we can then join them if we like. This road
+keeps near the river all the way, and we are not likely to meet
+Sepoys here, as it is by the other road the white troops are
+coming up."</p>
+
+<p>After four hours' walking, Rujub said, "There is a large wood
+just ahead. We will go in there. We are far enough off Cawnpore
+to be safe from any parties they may send out to search. If your
+people take Dong tomorrow, they will have enough to think of in
+Cawnpore without troubling about an escaped prisoner. Besides,"
+he added, "if the Rajah's orders are carried out, at daybreak
+they will not know that a prisoner has escaped; they will not
+trouble to count."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot believe it possible they will carry out such a
+butchery, Rujub."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see, sahib. I did not tell you all I knew lest we
+should fail to carry off the lady, but I know the orders that
+have been given. Word has been sent round to the butchers of the
+town, and tomorrow morning soon after daybreak it will be
+done."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst gave an exclamation of horror, for until now he had
+hardly believed it was possible that even Nana Sahib could
+perpetrate so atrocious a massacre. Not another word was spoken
+until they entered the wood.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the river, Rujub?"</p>
+
+<p>"A few hundred yards to the left, sahib; the road is half a
+mile to the right. We shall be quite safe here."</p>
+
+<p>They made their way for some little distance into the wood,
+and then laid down their burden.</p>
+
+<p>They had taken to the spot where Rabda remained when the
+others went forward towards the prison a basket containing food
+and three bottles of wine, and this Rujub had carried since they
+started together. As soon as the hammock was lowered to the
+ground, Isobel moved and sat up.</p>
+
+<p>"I am rested now. Oh, how good you have all been! I was just
+going to tell you that I could walk again. I am quite ready to go
+on now."</p>
+
+<p>"We are going to halt here till tomorrow evening, Miss Hannay;
+Rujub thinks we are quite beyond any risk of pursuit now. You
+must first eat and drink something, and then sleep as long as you
+can. Rabda has brought a native dress for you and dye for
+staining your skin, but there is no occasion for doing that till
+tomorrow; the river is only a short distance away, and in the
+morning you will be able to enjoy a wash."</p>
+
+<p>The neck was knocked off a bottle. Rabda had brought in the
+basket a small silver cup, and Isobel, after drinking some wine
+and eating a few mouthfuls of food, lay down by her and was soon
+fast asleep. Bathurst ate a much more hearty meal. Rujub and his
+daughter said that they did not want anything before morning.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was high before Bathurst woke. Rujub had lighted a
+fire, and was boiling some rice in a lota.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Miss Hannay?" Bathurst asked, as he sat up.</p>
+
+<p>"She has gone down to the river with Rabda. The trees hang
+down well over the water, and they can wash without fear of being
+seen on the opposite shore. I was going to wake you when the lady
+got up, but she made signs that you were to be allowed to sleep
+on."</p>
+
+<p>In half an hour the two girls returned. Isobel was attired in
+a native dress, and her face, neck, arms, feet, and ankles had
+been stained to the same color as Rabda's. She came forward a
+little timidly, for she felt strange and uncomfortable in her
+scanty attire. Bathurst gave an exclamation of pain as he saw her
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"How dreadfully, you have burnt yourself, Miss Hannay; surely
+you cannot have followed the instructions I gave you."</p>
+
+<p>"No; it is not your fault at all, Mr. Bathurst; I put a great
+deal more on than you said, but I was so anxious to disfigure
+myself that I was determined to do it thoroughly; but it is
+nothing to what it was. As you see, my lips are getting all right
+again, and the sores are a good deal better than they were; I
+suppose they will leave scars, but that won't trouble me."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the pain you must have suffered that I am thinking of,"
+he replied. "As to the scars, I hope they will wear out in time;
+you must indeed have suffered horribly."</p>
+
+<p>"They burnt dreadfully for a time," the girl answered; "but
+for the last two or three days I have hardly felt it, though, of
+course, it is very sore still."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you feel ready for breakfast, Miss Hannay?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite ready, and for a walk as long as you like afterwards. I
+feel quite another creature after my dip. That was one of the
+worst things in the prison. We had scarcely water enough to
+drink, and none to wash with, and, of course, no combs nor
+anything."</p>
+
+<p>They sat down together and ate the cold food they had brought,
+while Rabda and her father made their breakfast of rice.</p>
+
+<p>"What has become of Mr. Wilson?" Isobel asked suddenly. "I
+wondered about him as I was being carried along last night, but I
+was too tired to talk afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope he is either safe at Allahabad by this time, or is
+with the troops marching up. The Zemindar's son, who came down
+with us as an escort, and one of his men got safely to shore
+also, and they went on with Wilson. When he found I was going to
+stay at Cawnpore to try and rescue you, he pleaded very hard that
+I should keep him with me in order that he might share in the
+attempt, but his ignorance of the language might have been fatal,
+and his being with me would have greatly added to the difficulty,
+so I was obliged to refuse him. It was only because I told him
+that instead of adding to, he would lessen your chance of escape,
+that he consented to go, for I am sure he would willingly have
+laid down his life to save yours."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad he is safe; he is very kind hearted and nice,
+Mr. Bathurst, and a thoroughly natural, unaffected young fellow,
+very loyal and stanch. I am quite sure he would have done
+anything he could, even at the risk of his life."</p>
+
+<p>"I like him very much, too, Miss Hannay. Before the siege I
+thought him a careless, happy go lucky lad, but as I got to know
+him well, I found he was much more than that, and he will make a
+good man and an excellent officer one of these days if he is
+spared. He is thoroughly brave without the slightest brag -- an
+excellent specimen of the best class of public school boy."</p>
+
+<p>"And who are the troops coming up, Mr. Bathurst? How strong
+are they? I have heard nothing about them."</p>
+
+<p>"About twelve hundred white troops and four or five hundred
+Sikhs; at least that is what the natives put them at."</p>
+
+<p>"But surely they will never be able to fight their way to
+Cawnpore, where there are the mutineers and Nana Sahib's troops
+and the Oude men and the people of the town. Why, there must be
+ten to one against them."</p>
+
+<p>"Not far short of that, I think, but I feel sure our men will
+do it. They know of the treachery of the Nana, they know of the
+massacre by the river, and they know that the women and children
+are prisoners in his hands, and do you think that men who know
+these things can be beaten? The Sepoys met them in superior force
+and in a strong position at Futtehpore, and they drove them
+before them like chaff. They will have harder work next time, but
+I have no shadow of fear of the result."</p>
+
+<p>Then their talk went back to Deennugghur and of their friends
+there -- the Doolans, the Hunters, the Rintouls, and others --
+and Isobel wept freely over their fate.</p>
+
+<p>"Next to my uncle I shall miss the Doctor," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"He was an awfully good fellow," Bathurst said, "and was the
+only real friend I have had since I came to India, I would have
+done anything for him."</p>
+
+<p>"When shall we start?" Isobel asked presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Directly the sun goes down a little. You would find it
+terribly hot now. I have been talking it over with Rujub, and he
+says it is better not to make a long journey today. We are not
+more than twenty miles from Dong, and it would not do to move in
+that direction until we know how things have gone; therefore, if
+we start at three o'clock and walk till seven or eight, it will
+be quite far enough."</p>
+
+<p>"He seems a wonderful man," said Isobel. "You remember that
+talk we had at dinner, before we went to see him at the
+Hunters!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said. "As you know, I was a believer then, and so
+was the Doctor. I need not say that I believe still more now that
+these men do wholly unaccountable feats. He put the sentry
+outside the walls of your prison and five out of your eight
+warders so sound asleep that they did not wake during the
+struggle I had with the others. That, of course, was mesmerism.
+His messages to you were actually sent by means of his daughter.
+She was put in a sort of trance, in which she saw you and told us
+what you were doing, and communicated the message her father gave
+her to you. He could not send you a message nor tell me about you
+when you were first at Bithoor, because he said Rabda was not in
+sympathy with you, but after she had seen you and touched you and
+you had kissed her, she was able to do so. There does not appear
+to me to be anything beyond the powers of nature in that, though
+doubtless powers were called into play of which at present we
+know nothing. But we do know that minds act upon each other.
+Possibly certain persons in sympathy with each other may be able
+to act upon each other from a distance, especially when thrown
+into the sort of trance which is known as the clairvoyant state.
+I always used to look upon that as humbug, but I need hardly say
+I shall in future be ready to believe almost anything. He
+professes to have other and even greater powers than what we have
+seen. At any rate, he can have no motive in deceiving me when he
+has risked his life to help me. Do you know, Rabda offered to go
+into the prison -- her father could have got her an order to pass
+in -- and then to let you go out in her dress while she remained
+in your stead. I could not accept the sacrifice even to save you,
+and I was sure had I done so you yourself would have refused to
+leave."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. But how good of her. Please tell her that you have
+told me, and how grateful I am for her offer."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst called Rabda, who was sitting a short distance
+away.</p>
+
+<p>She took the hand that Isobel held out to her and placed it
+against her forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"My life is yours, sahib," she said simply to Bathurst. "It
+was right that I should give it for this lady you love."</p>
+
+<p>"What does she say?" Isobel asked.</p>
+
+<p>"She says that she owed me her life for that tiger business,
+you know, and was ready to give it for you because I had set my
+mind on saving you."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that what she really said, Mr. Bathurst?" Isobel asked
+quietly, for he had hesitated a little in changing its
+wording.</p>
+
+<p>"That was the sense of it, I can assure you. Not only was she
+ready to make the sacrifice, but her father consented to her
+doing so. These Hindoos are capable of gratitude, you see. There
+are not many English who would be ready thus to sacrifice
+themselves for a man who had accidentally, as I may say, saved
+their lives."</p>
+
+<p>"Not accidentally, Mr. Bathurst. Why do you always try to run
+yourself down? I suppose you will say next you saved my life by
+an accident."</p>
+
+<p>"The saving of your life is due chiefly to these natives."</p>
+
+<p>"But they were only your instruments, Mr. Bathurst; they had
+no interest in saving me. You had bought their services at the
+risk of your life, and in saving me they were paying that debt to
+you."</p>
+
+<p>At three o'clock they prepared for the start. Bathurst had
+exchanged the warder's dress for one of a peasant, which they had
+brought with them. The woods were of no great width, and Rujub
+said they had better follow the road now.</p>
+
+<p>"No one will suspect us of being anything but what we seem,"
+he said. "Should we meet any peasants, their talk will be with
+you and me. They will ask no questions about the women; but if
+there is a woman among them, and she speaks, Rabda will answer
+her."</p>
+
+<p>For hours they had heard dull sounds in the air, which
+Bathurst had recognized at once as distant artillery, showing
+that the fight was going on near Dong.</p>
+
+<p>"The Sepoys are making a stout resistance, or the firing would
+not last so long," he said to Rujub, as they walked through the
+wood towards the road.</p>
+
+<p>"They have two positions to defend, sahib. The Nana's men will
+fight first at a strong village two miles beyond Dong; if they
+are beaten there, they will fight again at the bridge I told you
+of."</p>
+
+<p>"That would partly account for it; but the Sepoys must be
+fighting much better than they did at Futtehpore, for there, as
+you said, the white troops swept the Sepoys before them."</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the edge of the wood Bathurst said, "I will
+see that the road is clear before we go out. If anyone saw us
+issuing out of the wood they might wonder what we had been
+after."</p>
+
+<p>He went to the edge of the bushes and looked down the long
+straight road. There was only a solitary figure in sight. It
+seemed to be an old man walking lame with a stick. Bathurst was
+about to turn and tell the others to come out, when he saw the
+man stop suddenly, turn round to look back along the road, stand
+with his head bent as if listening, then run across the road with
+much more agility than he had before seemed to possess, and
+plunge in among the trees.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," he said to those behind him, "something is going on. A
+peasant I saw in the road has suddenly dived into the wood as if
+he was afraid of being pursued. Ah!" he exclaimed a minute later,
+"there is a party of horsemen coming along at a gallop -- get
+farther back into the wood."</p>
+
+<p>Presently they heard the rapid trampling of horses, and
+looking through the bushes they saw some twenty sowars of one of
+the native cavalry regiments dash past.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst went to the edge of the wood again, and looked out.
+Then he turned suddenly to Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"You remember those pictures on the smoke?" he said
+excitedly.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I do not remember them," she said, in surprise. "I have
+often wondered at it, but I have never been able to recollect
+what they were since that evening. I have often thought they were
+just like dreams, where one sees everything just as plainly as if
+it were a reality, and then go out of your mind altogether as
+soon as you are awake."</p>
+
+<p>"It has been just the same with me," replied Bathurst, "except
+that once or twice they have come back for a moment quite
+vividly. One of them I have not thought of for some days, but now
+I see it again. Don't you remember there was a wood, and a Hindoo
+man and woman stepped out of it, and a third native came up to
+them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I remember now," she said eagerly; "it was just as we
+are here; but what of that, Mr. Bathurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you recognize any of them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, it all comes back to me now. It was you and the
+Doctor, certainly, and I thought the woman was myself. I spoke to
+the Doctor next day about it, but he laughed at it all, and I
+have never thought of it since."</p>
+
+<p>"The Doctor and I agreed, when we talked it over that evening,
+that the Hindoo who stepped out of the wood was myself, and
+thought that you were the Hindoo girl, but of that we were not so
+sure, for your face seemed not only darkened, but blotched and
+altered -- it was just as you are now -- and the third native was
+the Doctor himself; we both felt certain of that. It has come
+true, and I feel absolutely certain that the native I saw along
+the road will turn out to be the Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I hope so, I hope so!" the girl cried, and pressed
+forward with Bathurst to the edge of the wood.</p>
+
+<p>The old native was coming along on the road again. As he
+approached, his eye fell on the two figures, and with a Hindoo
+salutation he was passing on, when Isobel cried, "It is the
+Doctor!" and rushing forward she threw her arms round his
+neck.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel Hannay!" he cried in delight and amazement; "my dear
+little girl, my dear little girl, thank God you are saved; but
+what have you been doing with yourself, and who is this with
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You knew me when you saw me in the picture on the smoke,
+Doctor," Bathurst said, grasping his hand, "though you do not
+know me in life."</p>
+
+<p>"You, too, Bathurst!" the Doctor exclaimed, as he wrung his
+hand; "thank God for that, my dear boy; to think that both of you
+should have been saved -- it seems a miracle. The picture on the
+smoke? Yes, we were speaking of it that last night at
+Deennugghur, and I never have thought of it since. Is there
+anyone else?"</p>
+
+<p>"My friend the juggler and his daughter are with us,
+Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I can understand the miracle," the Doctor said, "for I
+believe that fellow could take you through the air and carry you
+through stone walls with a wave of his hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he has not exactly done that, but he and his daughter
+have rendered us immense service. I could have done nothing
+without them."</p>
+
+<p>The two natives, seeing through the bushes the recognition
+that had taken place, had now stepped forward and salaamed as the
+Doctor spoke a few hearty words to them.</p>
+
+<p>"But where have you sprung from, Doctor? How were you
+saved?"</p>
+
+<p>"I jumped overboard when those scoundrels opened fire," the
+Doctor said. "I kept my wits about me, and said to myself that if
+I were to swim for the opposite shore the chances were that I
+should get shot down, so I made a long dive, came up for air, and
+then went down again, and came up the next time under some bushes
+by the bank; there I remained all night. The villains were only a
+few yards away, and I could hear every word they said. I heard
+the boat come ashore, and although I could have done no good by
+rushing out, I think I should have done so if I had had any
+weapon about me, and have tried to kill one or two of them before
+I went down. As it was, I waited until morning. Then I heard the
+rumble of the guns and the wagons, and knew that they were off. I
+waited for another hour to make sure, and then stepped ashore. I
+went to the boat lying by the bank. When I saw that Isobel and
+the other two ladies were not there, I knew that they must have
+been carried off into Cawnpore. I waited there until night, and
+then made my way to a peasant's house a mile out of the town. I
+had operated upon him for elephantiasis two years ago, and the
+man had shown himself grateful, and had occasionally sent me in
+little presents of fowls and so on. He received me well, gave me
+food, which I wanted horribly, stained my skin, and rigged me out
+in this disguise. The next morning I went into the town, and for
+the last four or five days have wandered about there. There was
+nothing I could do, and yet I felt that I could not go away, but
+must stay within sight of the prison where you were all confined
+till our column arrived. But this morning I determined to come
+down to join our people who are fighting their way up, little
+thinking that I should light upon you by the way."</p>
+
+<p>"We were just going to push on, Doctor; but as you have had a
+good long tramp already, we will stop here until tomorrow
+morning, if you like."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, let us go on, Bathurst. I would rather be on the
+move, and you can tell me your story as we go."</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h1>
+
+<p>Bathurst knew the Doctor well, and perceived that glad as he
+was to have met them, he was yet profoundly depressed in spirits.
+This, added to the fact that he had left Cawnpore that morning,
+instead of waiting as he had intended, convinced Bathurst that
+what he dreaded had taken place. He waited until Isobel stopped
+for a moment, that Rabda might rearrange the cloth folded round
+her in its proper draping. Then he said quickly, "I heard
+yesterday what was intended, Doctor. Is it possible that it has
+been done?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was done this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"What, all? Surely not all, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Every soul -- every woman and child. Think of it -- the
+fiends! the devils! The native brought me the news. If I had
+heard it in the streets of Cawnpore I should have gone mad and
+seized a sword and run amuck. As it was, I was well nigh out of
+mind. I could not stay there. The man would have sheltered me
+until the troops came up, but I was obliged to be moving, so I
+started down. Hush! here comes Isobel; we must keep it from
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Isobel," he went on, as the girl joined them, and they
+all started along the road, "tell me how it is I find you
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Bathurst must tell you, Doctor; I cannot talk about it
+yet -- I can hardly think about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Bathurst, let us hear it from you."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a painful story for me to have to tell."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel looked up in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Painful, Mr. Bathurst? I should have thought --" and she
+stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Not all painful, Miss Hannay, but in parts. I would rather
+tell you, Doctor, when we have finished our journey this evening,
+if your curiosity will allow you to wait so long."</p>
+
+<p>"I will try to wait," the Doctor replied, "though I own it is
+a trial. Now, Isobel, you have not told me yet what has happened
+to your face. Let me look at it closer, child. I see your arms
+are bad, too. What on earth has happened to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I burnt myself with acid, Doctor. Mr. Bathurst will tell you
+all about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Bless me, mystery seems to thicken. Well, you have got
+yourself into a pretty pickle. Why, child, burns of that sort
+leave scars as bad as if you had been burnt by fire. You ought to
+be in a dark room with your face and hands bandaged, instead of
+tramping along here in the sun."</p>
+
+<p>"I have some lotions and some ointment, Doctor. I have used
+them regularly since it was done, and the places don't hurt me
+much now."</p>
+
+<p>"No, they look healthy enough," he said, examining them
+closely. "Granulation is going on nicely; but I warn you you will
+be disfigured for months, and it may be years before you get rid
+of the scars. I doubt, indeed, if you will ever get rid of them
+altogether. Well, well, what shall we talk about?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will take pity on you, Doctor. I will walk on ahead with
+Rabda and her father, and Mr. Bathurst can then tell you his
+story."</p>
+
+<p>"That will be the best plan, my dear. Now then, Bathurst, fire
+away," he said, when the others had gone on thirty or forty yards
+ahead.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Doctor, you remember that you were forward talking to
+the young Zemindar, and I was sitting aft by the side of Miss
+Hannay, when they opened fire?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should think I do remember it," the Doctor said, "and I am
+not likely to forget it if I live to be a hundred. Well, what
+about that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I jumped overboard," Bathurst said, laying his hand
+impressively upon the Doctor's shoulder. "I gave a cry, I know I
+did, and I jumped overboard."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor looked at him in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, so did I, like a shot. But what do you say it in that
+tone for? Of course you jumped overboard. If you hadn't you would
+not be here now."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't understand me, Doctor," Bathurst said gloomily. "I
+was sitting there next to Isobel Hannay -- the woman I loved. We
+were talking in low tones, and I don't know why, but at that
+moment the mad thought was coming into my mind that, after all,
+she cared for me, that in spite of the disgrace I had brought
+upon myself, in spite of being a coward, she might still be mine;
+and as I was thinking this there came the crash of a cannon. Can
+it be imagined possible that I jumped up like a frightened hare,
+and without a thought of her, without a thought of anything in my
+mad terror, jumped overboard and left her behind to her fate? If
+it had not been that as soon as I recovered my senses -- I was
+hit on the head just as I landed, and knew nothing of what
+happened until I found myself in the bushes with young Wilson by
+my side -- the thought occurred to me that I would rescue her or
+die in the attempt, I would have blown out my brains."</p>
+
+<p>"But, bless my heart, Bathurst," the Doctor said earnestly,
+"what else could you have done? Why, I jumped overboard without
+stopping to think, and so did everyone else who had power to do
+so, no doubt. What good could you have done if you had stayed?
+What good would it have done to the girl if you had been killed?
+Why, if you had been killed, she would now be lying mangled and
+dead with the others in that ghastly prison. You take too morbid
+a view of this matter altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"There was no reason why you should not have jumped overboard,
+Doctor, nor the others. Don't you see I was with the woman I
+loved? I might have seized her in my arms and jumped overboard
+with her, and swam ashore with her, or I might have stayed and
+died with her. I thought of my own wretched life, and I deserted
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Bathurst, you did not think of your life. I don't
+think any of us stopped to think of anything; but, constituted as
+you are, the impulse must have been overpowering. It is nonsense
+your taking this matter to heart. Why, man, if you had stopped,
+you would have been murdered when the boat touched the shore, and
+do you think it would have made her happier to have seen you
+killed before her eyes? If you had swam ashore with her, the
+chances are she would have been killed by that volley of grape,
+for I saw eight or ten bodies lying on the sands, and you
+yourself were, you say, hit. You acted upon impulse, I grant, but
+it was upon a wise impulse. You did the very best thing that
+could have been done, and your doing so made it possible that
+Isobel Hannay should be rescued from what would otherwise have
+been certain death."</p>
+
+<p>"It has turned out so, Doctor," Bathurst said gloomily, "and I
+thank God that she is saved. But that does not alter the fact
+that I, an English gentleman by birth, thought only of myself,
+and left the woman I loved, who was sitting by my side, to
+perish. But do not let us talk any more about it. It is done and
+over. There is an end of it. Now I will tell you the story."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor listened silently until he heard of Isobel's being
+taken to Bithoor. "The atrocious villain!" he exclaimed. "I have
+been lamenting the last month that I never poisoned the fellow,
+and now -- but go on, go on. How on earth did you get her
+away?"</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst told the whole story, interrupted by many
+exclamations of approval by the Doctor; especially when he
+learned why Isobel disfigured herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Well done!" he exclaimed; "I always knew that she was a
+plucky girl, and it needed courage, I can tell you, to burn
+herself as she has done, to say nothing of risking spoiling her
+beauty for life. No slight sacrifice for a woman."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst passed lightly over his fight in the courtyard, but
+the Doctor questioned him as to the exact facts.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so bad for a coward, Bathurst," he said dryly.</p>
+
+<p>"There was no noise," Bathurst said; "if they had had pistols,
+and had used them, it might have been different. Heaven knows,
+but I don't think that then, with her life at stake, I should
+have flinched; I had made up my mind they would have pistols, but
+I hope -- I think that my nerves would not have given way
+then."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure they wouldn't, Bathurst. Well, go on with your
+story."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, how did you feel then?" he asked, when Bathurst
+described how the guard rushed in through the gate firing, "for
+it is the noise, and not the danger, that upsets you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not even think of it," Bathurst said, in some surprise.
+"Now you mention it, I am astonished that I was not for a minute
+paralyzed, as I always am, but I did not feel anything of the
+sort; they rushed in firing as I told you, and directly they had
+gone I took her hand and we ran out together."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it quite possible, Bathurst, that your nervousness
+may have gone forever. Now that once you have heard guns fired
+close to you without your nerves giving way as usual, it is quite
+possible that you might do so again. I don't say that you would,
+but it is possible, indeed it seems to me to be probable. It may
+be that the sudden shock when you jumped into the water, acting
+upon your nerves when in a state of extreme tension, may have set
+them right, and that bullet graze along the top of the skull may
+have aided the effect of the shock. Men frequently lose their
+nerve after a heavy fall from a horse, or a sudden attack by a
+tiger, or any other unexpected shock. It may be that with you it
+has had the reverse consequence."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope to God that it may be so, Doctor," Bathurst said, with
+deep earnestness. "It is certainly extraordinary I should not
+have felt it when they fired within a few feet of my head. If we
+get down to Allahabad I will try. I will place myself near a gun
+when it is going to be fired; and if I stand that I will come up
+again and join this column as a volunteer, and take part in the
+work of vengeance. If I can but once bear my part as a man, they
+are welcome to kill me in the next engagement."</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh! pooh! man. You are not born to be killed in battle.
+After making yourself a target on the roof at Deennugghur, and
+jumping down in the middle of the Sepoys in the breach, and
+getting through that attack in the boats, I don't think you are
+fated to meet your end with a bullet. Well, now let us walk on,
+and join the others. Isobel must be wondering how much longer we
+are going to talk together. She cannot exchange a word with the
+natives; it must be dull work for her. She is a great deal
+thinner than she was before these troubles came on. You see how
+differently she walks. She has quite lost that elastic step of
+hers, but I dare say that is a good deal due to her walking with
+bare feet instead of in English boots -- boots have a good deal
+to do with a walk. Look at the difference between the walk of a
+gentleman who has always worn well fitting boots and that of a
+countryman who has gone about in thick iron shod boots all his
+life. Breeding goes for something, no doubt, and alters a man's
+walk just as it alters a horse's gait."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst could not help laughing at the Doctor dropping into
+his usual style of discussing things.</p>
+
+<p>"Are your feet feeling tender, Isobel?" the latter asked
+cheerfully, as he overtook those in front.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Doctor," she said, with a smile; "I don't know that I was
+ever thankful for dust before, but I am now; it is so soft that
+it is like walking on a carpet, but, of course, it feels very
+strange."</p>
+
+<p>"You have only to fancy, my dear, that you are by the seaside,
+walking down from your bathing machine across the sands; once get
+that in your mind and you will get perfectly comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"It requires too great a stretch of the imagination, Doctor,
+to think for a moment, in this sweltering heat, that I am
+enjoying a sea breeze on our English coast. It is silly, of
+course, to give it even a thought, when one is accustomed to see
+almost every woman without shoes. I think I should mind it more
+than I do if my feet were not stained. I don't know why, but I
+should. But please don't talk about it. I try to forget it, and
+to fancy that I am really a native."</p>
+
+<p>They met but few people on the road. Those they did meet
+passed them with the usual salutation. There was nothing strange
+in a party of peasants passing along the road. They might have
+been at work at Cawnpore, and be now returning to their native
+village to get away from the troubles there. After it became dark
+they went into a clump of trees half a mile distant from a
+village they could see along the road.</p>
+
+<p>"I will go in," Rujub said, "and bring some grain, and hear
+what the news is."</p>
+
+<p>He returned in an hour. "The English have taken Dong," he
+said; "the news came in two hours ago. There has been some hard
+fighting; the Sepoys resisted stoutly at the village, even
+advancing beyond the inclosures to meet the British. They were
+driven back by the artillery and rifle fire, but held the village
+for some time before they were turned out. There was a stand made
+at the Pandoo Bridge, but it was a short one. The force massed
+there fell back at once when the British infantry came near
+enough to rush forward at the charge, and in their hurry they
+failed to blow up the bridge."</p>
+
+<p>A consultation was held as to whether they should try to join
+the British, but it was decided that as the road down to
+Allahabad would be rendered safe by their advance, it would be
+better to keep straight on.</p>
+
+<p>The next day they proceeded on their journey, walking in the
+early morning, halting as soon as the sun had gained much power,
+and going on again in the cool of the evening. After three days'
+walking they reached the fort of Allahabad. It was crowded with
+ladies who had come in from the country round. Most of the men
+were doing duty with the garrison, but some thirty had gone up
+with Havelock's column as volunteer cavalry, his force being
+entirely deficient in that arm.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the Doctor explained who they were, they were
+received with the greatest kindness, and Isobel was at once
+carried off by the ladies, while Bathurst and the Doctor were
+surrounded by an eager group anxious to hear the state of affairs
+at Cawnpore, and how they had escaped. The news of the fighting
+at Dong was already known; for on the evening of the day of the
+fight Havelock had sent down a mounted messenger to say the
+resistance was proving so severe that he begged some more troops
+might be sent up. As all was quiet now at Allahabad, where there
+had at first been some fierce fighting, General Neil, who was in
+command there, had placed two hundred and thirty men of the 84th
+Regiment in bullock vans, and had himself gone on with them.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor had decided to keep the news of the massacre to
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>"They will know it before many hours are over, Bathurst," he
+said; "and were I to tell them, half of them wouldn't believe me,
+and the other half would pester my life out with questions. There
+is never any occasion to hurry in telling bad news."</p>
+
+<p>The first inquiry of Bathurst and his friends had been for
+Wilson, and they found to their great pleasure that he had
+arrived in safety, and had gone up with the little body of
+cavalry. Captain Forster, whom they next asked for, had not
+reached Allahabad, and no news had been heard of him.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do, Rujub?" Bathurst asked the native
+next morning.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall go to Patna," he said. "I have friends there, and I
+shall remain in the city until these troubles are over. I believe
+now that you were right, sahib, although I did not think so when
+you spoke, and that the British Raj will be restored. I thought,
+as did the Sepoys, that they were a match for the British troops.
+I see now that I was wrong. But there is a tremendous task before
+them. There is all Oude and the Northwest to conquer, and fully
+two hundred thousand men in arms against them, but I believe that
+they will do it. They are a great people, and now I do not wish
+it otherwise. This afternoon I shall start."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor, who had found many acquaintances in Allahabad, had
+no difficulty in obtaining money from the garrison treasury, and
+Bathurst and Isobel purchased the two handsomest bracelets they
+could obtain from the ladies in the fort as a souvenir for Rabda,
+and gave them to her with the heartiest expressions of their deep
+gratitude to her and her father.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall think of you always, Rabda," Isobel said, "and shall
+be grateful to the end of my life for the kindness that you have
+done us. Your father has given us your address at Patna, and I
+shall write to you often."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall never forget you, lady; and even the black water will
+not quite separate us. As I knew how you were in prison, so I
+shall know how you are in your home in England. What we have done
+is little. Did not the sahib risk his life for me? My father and
+I will never forget what we owe him. I am glad to know that you
+will make him happy."</p>
+
+<p>This was said in the room that had been allotted to Isobel, an
+ayah of one of the ladies in the fort acting as interpreter. The
+girl had woke up in the morning flushed and feverish, and the
+Doctor, when sent for, told her she must keep absolutely
+quiet.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I am going to have her on my hands for a bit," he
+said to Bathurst. "She has borne the strain well, but she looks
+to me as if she was going to have a smart attack of fever. It is
+well that we got her here before it showed itself. You need not
+look scared; it is just the reaction. If it had been going to be
+brain fever or anything of that sort, I should have expected her
+to break down directly you got her out. No, I don't anticipate
+anything serious, and I am sure I hope that it won't be so. I
+have put my name down to go up with the next batch of volunteers.
+Doctors will be wanted at the front, and I hope to have a chance
+of wiping out my score with some of those scoundrels. However,
+though I think she is going to be laid up, I don't fancy it will
+last many days."</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon a messenger from Havelock brought down the
+terrible news that they had fought their way to Cawnpore, only to
+find that the whole of the ladies and children in the Subada Ke
+Kothee had been massacred, and their bodies thrown down a well.
+The grief and indignation caused by the news were terrible;
+scarce one but had friends among the prisoners. Women wept; men
+walked up and down, wild with fury at being unable to do aught at
+present to avenge the massacre.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do, Bathurst?" the Doctor asked that
+evening. "I suppose you have some sort of plan?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know yet. In the first place, I want to try whether
+what you said the other day is correct, and if I can stand the
+noise of firing without flinching."</p>
+
+<p>"We can't try here in the fort," the Doctor said, full of
+interest in the experiment; "a musket shot would throw the whole
+garrison into confusion, and at present no one can go far from
+the gate; however, there may be a row before long, and then you
+will have an opportunity of trying. If there is not, we will go
+out together half a mile or so as soon as some more troops get
+up. You said, when we were talking about it at Deennugghur, you
+should resign your appointment and go home, but if you find your
+nerves are all right you may change your mind about that. How
+about the young lady in there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Doctor, I should say that you, as her father's friend,
+are the person to make arrangements for her. Just at present
+travel is not very safe, but I suppose that directly things quiet
+down a little many of the ladies will be going down to the coast,
+and no doubt some of them would take charge of Miss Hannay back
+to England."</p>
+
+<p>"And you mean to have nothing to say in the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all," he said firmly. "I have already told you my
+views on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," the Doctor said hotly, "I regard you as an ass."
+And without another word he walked off in great anger.</p>
+
+<p>For the next four or five days Isobel was in a high state of
+fever; it passed off as the Doctor had predicted it would do, but
+left her very weak and languid. Another week and she was about
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"What is Mr. Bathurst going to do?" she asked the Doctor the
+first day she was up on a couch.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what he is going to do, my dear," he said
+irritably; "my opinion of Bathurst is that he is a fool."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Doctor, how can you say so!" she exclaimed in
+astonishment; "why, what has he done?"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't what he has done, but what he won't do, my dear.
+Here he is in love with a young woman in every way suitable, and
+who is ready to say yes whenever he asks her, and he won't ask,
+and is not going to ask, because of a ridiculous crotchet he has
+got in his head."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel flushed and then grew pale.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the crotchet?" she asked, in a low tone, after being
+silent for some time.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think, my dear? He is more disgusted with himself
+than ever."</p>
+
+<p>"Not about that nervousness, surely," Isobel said, "after all
+he has done and the way he has risked his life? Surely that
+cannot be troubling him?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is, my dear; not so much on the general as on a particular
+ground. He insists that by jumping out of the boat when that fire
+began, he has done for himself altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"But what could he have done, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I ask him, my dear. He insists that he ought to
+either have seized you and jumped overboard with you, in which
+case you would both probably have been killed, as I pointed out
+to him, or else stayed quietly with you by your side, in which
+case, as I also pointed out to him, you would have had the
+satisfaction of seeing him murdered. He could not deny that this
+would have been so, but that in no way alters his opinion of his
+own conduct. I also ventured to point out to him that if he had
+been killed, you would at this moment be either in the power of
+that villainous Nana, or be with hundreds of others in that
+ghastly well at Cawnpore. I also observed to him that I, who do
+not regard myself as a coward, also jumped overboard from your
+boat, and that Wilson, who is certainly a plucky young fellow,
+and a number of others, jumped over from the other boat; but I
+might as well have talked to a post."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel sat for some time silent, her fingers playing nervously
+with each other.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it seems foolish of him to think of it so strongly,
+but I don't think it is unnatural he should feel as he does."</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask why?" the Doctor said sarcastically.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean, Doctor, it would be foolish of other people, but I
+don't think it is foolish of him. Of course he could have done no
+good staying in the boat -- he would have simply thrown away his
+life; and yet I think, I feel sure, that there are many men who
+would have thrown away their lives in such a case. Even at that
+moment of terror I felt a pang, when, without a word, he sprang
+overboard. I thought of it many times that long night, in spite
+of my grief for my uncle and the others, and my horror of being a
+prisoner in the hands of the Sepoys. I did not blame him, because
+I knew how he must have felt, and that it was done in a moment of
+panic. I was not so sorry for myself as for him, for I knew that
+if he escaped, the thought of that moment would be terrible for
+him. I need not say that in my mind the feeling that he should
+not have left me so has been wiped out a thousand times by what
+he did afterwards, by the risk he ran for me, and the infinite
+service he rendered me by saving me from a fate worse than death.
+But I can enter into his feelings. Most men would have jumped
+over just as he did, and would never have blamed themselves even
+if they had at once started away down the country to save their
+own lives, much less if they had stopped to save mine as he has
+done.</p>
+
+<p>"But who can wonder that he is more sensitive than others? Did
+he not hear from you that I said that a coward was contemptible?
+Did not all the men except you and my uncle turn their backs upon
+him and treat him with contempt, in spite of his effort to meet
+his death by standing up on the roof? Think how awfully he must
+have suffered, and then, when it seemed that his intervention,
+which saved our lives, had to some extent won him back the esteem
+of the men around him, that he should so fail again, as he
+considers, and that with me beside him. No wonder that he takes
+the view he does, and that he refuses to consider that even the
+devotion and courage he afterwards showed can redeem what he
+considers is a disgrace. You always said that he was brave,
+Doctor, and I believe now there is no braver man living; but that
+makes it so much the worse for him. A coward would be more than
+satisfied with himself for what he did afterwards, and would
+regard it as having completely wiped out any failing, while he
+magnifies the failing, such as it was, and places but small
+weight on what he afterwards did. I like him all the better for
+it. I know the fault, if fault it was, and I thought it so at the
+time, was one for which he was not responsible, and yet I like
+him all the better that he feels it so deeply."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, you had better tell him so," the Doctor said
+dryly. "I really agree with what you say, and you make an
+excellent advocate. I cannot do better than leave the matter in
+your hands. You know, child," he said, changing his tone, "I have
+from the first wished for Bathurst and you to come together, and
+if you don't do so I shall say you are the most wrong headed
+young people I ever met. He loves you, and I don't think there is
+any question about your feelings, and you ought to make matters
+right somehow. Unfortunately, he is a singularly pig headed man
+when he gets an idea in his mind. However, I hope that it will
+come all right. By the way, he asked were you well enough to see
+him today?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather not see him till tomorrow," the girl said.</p>
+
+<p>"And I think too that you had better not see him until
+tomorrow, Isobel. Your cheeks are flushed now, and your hands are
+trembling, and I do not want you laid up again, so I order you to
+keep yourself perfectly quiet for the rest of the day."</p>
+
+<p>But it was not till two days later that Bathurst came up to
+see her.</p>
+
+<p>The spies brought in, late that evening, the news that a small
+party of the Sepoy cavalry, with two guns, were at a village
+three miles on the other side of the town, and were in
+communication with the disaffected. It was decided at once by the
+officer who had succeeded General Neil in the command of the fort
+that a small party of fifty infantry, accompanied by ten or
+twelve mounted volunteers, should go out and attack them.
+Bathurst sent in his name to form one of the party as soon as he
+learned the news, borrowing the horse of an officer who was laid
+up ill.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition started two hours before daybreak, and, making
+a long detour, fell upon the Sepoys at seven o'clock. The latter,
+who had received news half an hour before of their approach, made
+a stand, relying on their cannon. The infantry, however, moved
+forward in skirmishing order, their fire quickly silenced the
+guns, and they then rushed forward while the little troop of
+volunteers charged.</p>
+
+<p>The fight lasted but a few minutes, at the end of which time
+the enemy galloped off in all directions, leaving their guns in
+the hands of the victors. Four of the infantry had been killed by
+the explosion of a well aimed shell, and five of the volunteers
+were wounded in the hand to hand fight with the sowars. The
+Sepoys' guns and artillery horses had been captured.</p>
+
+<p>The party at once set out on their return. On their way they
+had some skirmishing with the rabble of the town, who had heard
+the firing, but they were beaten off without much difficulty, and
+the victors re-entered the fort in triumph. The Doctor was at the
+gate as they came in. Bathurst sprang from his .horse and held
+out his hand. His radiant face told its own story.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God, Doctor, it has passed. I don't think my pulse went
+a beat faster when the guns opened on us, and the crackle of our
+own musketry had no more effect. I think it has gone
+forever."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad indeed, Bathurst," the Doctor said, warmly grasping
+his hand. "I hoped that it might be so."</p>
+
+<p>"No words can express how grateful I feel," Bathurst said.
+"The cloud that shadowed my life seems lifted, and henceforth I
+shall be able to look a man in the face."</p>
+
+<p>"You are wounded, I see," the Doctor said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I had a pistol ball through my left arm. I fancy the
+bone is broken, but that is of no consequence."</p>
+
+<p>"A broken arm is no trifle," the Doctor said, "especially in a
+climate like this. Come into the hospital at once and let me see
+to it."</p>
+
+<p>One of the bones of the forearm was indeed broken, and the
+Doctor, having applied splints and bandages, peremptorily ordered
+him to lie down. Bathurst protested that he was perfectly able to
+get up with his arm in a sling.</p>
+
+<p>"I know you are able," the Doctor said testily; "but if you
+were to go about in this oven, we should very likely have you in
+a high fever by tomorrow morning. Keep yourself perfectly quiet
+for today; by tomorrow, if you have no signs of fever, and the
+wound is doing well, we will see about it."</p>
+
+<p>Upon leaving him Dr. Wade went out and heard the details of
+the fight.</p>
+
+<p>"Your friend Bathurst particularly distinguished himself," the
+officer who commanded the volunteers said. "He cut down the
+ressaldar who commanded the Sepoys, and was in the thick of it. I
+saw him run one sowar through and shoot another. I am not
+surprised at his fighting so well after what you have gone
+through in Deennugghur and in that Cawnpore business."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor then went up to see Isobel. She looked flushed and
+excited.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true, Doctor, that Mr. Bathurst went out with the
+volunteers, and that he is wounded?"</p>
+
+<p>"Both items are true, my dear. Fortunately the wound is not
+serious. A ball has broken the small bone of the left forearm,
+but I don't think it will lay him up for long; in fact, he
+objects strongly to go to bed."</p>
+
+<p>"But how did he -- how is it he went out to fight, Doctor? I
+could hardly believe it when I was told, though of course I did
+not say so."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, it was an experiment. He told me that he did not
+feel at all nervous when the Sepoys rushed in at the gate firing
+when he was walking off with you, and it struck me that possibly
+the sudden shock and the jump into the water when they attacked
+the boats, and that rap on the head with a musket ball, might
+have affected his nervous system, and that he was altogether
+cured, so he was determined on the first occasion to try."</p>
+
+<p>"And did it, Doctor?" Isobel asked eagerly. "I don't care, you
+know, one bit whether he is nervous when there is a noise or not,
+but for his sake I should be glad to know that he has got over
+it; it has made him so unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>"He has got over it, my dear; he went through the fight
+without feeling the least nervous, and distinguished himself very
+much in the charge, as the officer who commanded his troop has
+just told me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am glad -- I am thankful, Doctor; no words can say how
+pleased I am; I know that it would have made his whole life
+unhappy, and I should have always had the thought that he
+remembered those hateful words of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"I am as glad as you are, Isobel, though I fancy it will
+change our plans."</p>
+
+<p>"How change our plans, Doctor? I did not know that I had any
+plans."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you had, child, though you might not acknowledge them
+even to yourself. My plan was that you should somehow convince
+him that, in spite of what you said, and in spite of his leaving
+you in that boat, you were quite content to take him for better
+or for worse."</p>
+
+<p>"How could I tell him that?" the girl said, coloring.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I think you would have had to do so somehow, my dear,
+but that is not the question now. My plan was that when you had
+succeeded in doing this you should marry him and go home with
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"But why, Doctor," she asked, coloring even more hotly than
+before, "is the plan changed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, my dear, I don't think Bathurst will go home with
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, Doctor?" she asked, in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Because, my dear, he will want, in the first place, to
+rehabilitate himself."</p>
+
+<p>"But no one knows, Doctor, about the siege and what happened
+there, except you and me and Mr. Wilson; all the rest have
+gone."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true, my dear, but he will want to rehabilitate
+himself in his own eyes; and besides, that former affair which
+first set you against him, might crop up at any time. Other
+civilians, many of them, have volunteered in the service, and no
+man of courage would like to go away as long as things are in
+their present state. You will see Bathurst will stay."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"I think he will be right," she said at last gravely; "if he
+wishes to do so, I should not try to dissuade him; it would be
+very hard to know that he is in danger, but no harder for me than
+for others."</p>
+
+<p>"That is right, my dear," the Doctor said affectionately; "I
+should not wish my little girl -- and now the Major has gone I
+feel that you are my little girl -- to think otherwise. I think,"
+he went on, smiling, "that the first part of that plan we spoke
+of will not be as difficult as I fancied it would be; the sting
+has gone, and he will get rid of his morbid fancies."</p>
+
+<p>"When shall I be able to see him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if I had any authority over him you would not see him
+for a week; as I have not, I think it likely enough that you will
+see him tomorrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather wait if it would do him any harm, Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it will do him any harm. Beyond the fact that
+he will have to carry his arm in a sling for the next fortnight,
+I don't think he will have any trouble with it."</p>
+
+<h1 align="CENTER"><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER
+XXIII.</h1>
+
+<p>The next morning Bathurst found Isobel Hannay sitting in a
+shady court that had been converted into a sort of general room
+for the ladies in the fort.</p>
+
+<p>"How are you, Miss Hannay? I am glad to see you down."</p>
+
+<p>"I might repeat your words, Mr. Bathurst, for you see we have
+changed places. You are the invalid, and not I."</p>
+
+<p>"There is very little of the invalid about me," he said. "I am
+glad to see that your face is much better than it was."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is healing fast. I am a dreadful figure still; and
+the Doctor says that there will be red scars for months, and that
+probably my face will be always marked."</p>
+
+<p>"The Doctor is a croaker, Miss Hannay; there is no occasion to
+trust him too implicitly. I predict that there will not be any
+serious scars left."</p>
+
+<p>He took a seat beside her. There were two or three others in
+the court, but these were upon the other side, quite out of
+hearing.</p>
+
+<p>"I congratulate you, Mr. Bathurst," she said quietly, "on
+yesterday. The Doctor has, of course, told me all about it. It
+can make no difference to us who knew you, but I am heartily glad
+for your sake. I can understand how great a difference it must
+make to you."</p>
+
+<p>"It has made all the difference in the world," he replied. "No
+one can tell the load it has lifted from my mind. I only wish it
+had taken place earlier."</p>
+
+<p>"I know what you mean, Mr. Bathurst; the Doctor has told me
+about that too. You may wish that you had remained in the boat,
+but it was well for me that you did not. You would have lost your
+life without benefiting me. I should be now in the well of
+Cawnpore, or worse, at Bithoor."</p>
+
+<p>"That may be," he said gravely, "but it does not alter the
+fact."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no reason to know why you consider you should have
+stopped in the boat, Mr. Bathurst," she went on quietly, but with
+a slight flush on her cheek. "I can perhaps guess by what you
+afterwards did for me, by the risks you ran to save me; but I
+cannot go by guesses, I think I have a right to know."</p>
+
+<p>"You are making me say what I did not mean to say," he
+exclaimed passionately, "at least not now; but you do more than
+guess, you know -- you know that I love you."</p>
+
+<p>"And what do you know?" she asked softly.</p>
+
+<p>"I know that you ought not to love me." he said. "No woman
+should love a coward."</p>
+
+<p>"I quite agree with you, but then I know that you are not a
+coward."</p>
+
+<p>"Not when I jumped over and left you alone? It was the act of
+a cur."</p>
+
+<p>"It was an act for which you were not really responsible. Had
+you been able to think, you would not have done so. I do not take
+the view the Doctor does, and I agree with you that a man loving
+a woman should first of all think of her and of her safety. So
+you thought when you could think, but you were no more
+responsible for your action than a madman for a murder committed
+when in a state of frenzy. It was an impulse you could not
+control. Had you, after the impulse had passed, come down here,
+believing, as you might well have believed, that it was
+absolutely impossible to rescue me from my fate, it would have
+been different. But the moment you came to yourself you
+deliberately took every risk and showed how brave you were when
+master of yourself. I am speaking plainly, perhaps more plainly
+than I ought to. But I should despise myself had I not the
+courage to speak out now when so much is at stake, and after all
+you have done for me.</p>
+
+<p>"You love me?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know that I love you."</p>
+
+<p>"And I love you," the girl said; "more than that, I honor and
+esteem you. I am proud of your love. I am jealous for your honor
+as for my own, and I hold that honor to be spotless. Even now,
+even with my happiness at stake, I could not speak so plainly had
+I not spoken so cruelly and wrongly before. I did not know you
+then as I know you now, but having said what I thought then, I am
+bound to say what I think now, if only as a penance. Did I
+hesitate to do so, I should be less grateful than that poor
+Indian girl who was ready as she said, to give her life for the
+life you had saved."</p>
+
+<p>"Had you spoken so bravely but two days since," Bathurst said,
+taking her hand, "I would have said. 'I love you too well,
+Isobel, to link your fate to that of a disgraced man.' but now I
+have it in my power to retrieve myself, to wipe out the unhappy
+memory of my first failure, and still more, to restore the self
+respect which I have lost during the last month. But to do so I
+must stay here: I must bear part in the terrible struggle there
+will be before this mutiny is put down, India conquered, and
+Cawnpore revenged."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not try to prevent you," Isobel said. "I feel it would
+be wrong to do so. I could not honor you as I do, if for my sake
+you turned away now. Even though I knew I should never see you
+again, I would that you had died so, than lived with even the
+shadow of dishonor on your name. I shall suffer, but there are
+hundreds of other women whose husbands, lovers, or sons are in
+the fray, and I shall not flinch more than they do from giving my
+dearest to the work of avenging our murdered friends and winning
+back India."</p>
+
+<p>So quietly had they been talking that no thought of how
+momentous their conversation had been had entered the minds of
+the ladies sitting working but a few paces away. One, indeed, had
+remarked to another, "I thought when Dr. Wade was telling us how
+Mr. Bathurst had rescued that unfortunate girl with the
+disfigured face at Cawnpore, that there was a romance in the
+case, but I don't see any signs of it. They are goods friends, of
+course, but there is nothing lover-like in their way of
+talking."</p>
+
+<p>So thought Dr. Wade when he came in and saw them sitting
+there, and gave vent to his feeling in a grunt of
+dissatisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"It is like driving two pigs to market," he muttered; "they
+won't go the way I want them to, out of pure contrariness."</p>
+
+<p>"It is all settled, Doctor," Bathurst said, rising. "Come,
+shake hands; it is to you I owe my happiness chiefly."</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel, my dear, give me a kiss," the Doctor exclaimed. "I am
+glad, my dear, I am glad with all my heart. And what have you
+settled besides that?"</p>
+
+<p>"We have settled that I am to go home as soon as I can go down
+country, and he is going up with you and the others to
+Cawnpore."</p>
+
+<p>"That is right," the Doctor said heartily. "I told you that
+was what he would decide upon; it is right that he should do so.
+No man ought to turn his face to the coast till Lucknow is
+relieved and Delhi is captured. I thank God it has all come right
+at last. I began to be afraid that Bathurst's wrong headedness
+was going to mar both your lives."</p>
+
+<p>The news had already come down that Havelock had found that it
+would be absolutely impossible with the small force at his
+command to fight his way into Lucknow through the multitude of
+foes that surrounded it, and that he must wait until
+reinforcements arrived. There was, therefore, no urgent hurry,
+and it was not until ten days later that a second troop of
+volunteer horse, composed of civilians unable to resume their
+duties, and officers whose regiments had mutinied, started for
+Cawnpore.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour before they mounted, Isobel Hannay and Ralph
+Bathurst were married by the chaplain in the fort. This was at
+Bathurst's earnest wish.</p>
+
+<p>"I may not return, Isobel," he had urged: "it is of no use to
+blink the fact that we have desperate fighting before us, and I
+should go into battle with my mind much more easy in the
+knowledge that, come what might, you were provided for. The
+Doctor tells me that he considers you his adopted daughter, and
+that he has already drawn up a will leaving his savings to you;
+but I should like your future to come from me, dear, even if I am
+not to share it with you. As you know, I have a fine estate at
+home, and I should like to think of you as its mistress."</p>
+
+<p>And Isobel of course had given way, though not without
+protest.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know what I may be like yet," she said, half
+laughing, half in earnest. "I may carry these red blotches to my
+grave."</p>
+
+<p>"They are honorable scars, dear, as honorable as any gained in
+battle. I hope, for your sake, that they will get better in time,
+but it makes no difference to me. I know what you were, and how
+you sacrificed your beauty. I suppose if I came back short of an
+arm or leg you would not make that an excuse for throwing me
+over?"</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to be ashamed of even thinking of such a thing,
+Ralph."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, dear, I don't know that I did think it, but I am only
+putting a parallel case to your own. No, you must consent: it is
+in all ways best. We will be married on the morning I start, so
+as just to give time for our wedding breakfast before I
+mount."</p>
+
+<p>"It shall be as you wish," she said softly. "You know the
+estate without you would be nothing to me, but I should like to
+bear your name, and should you never come back to me, Ralph, to
+mourn for you all my life as my husband. But I believe you will
+return to me. I think I am getting superstitious, and believe in
+all sorts of things since so many strange events have happened.
+Those pictures on the smoke that came true, Rujub sending you
+messages at Deennugghur, and Rabda making me hear her voice and
+giving me hope in prison. I do not feel so miserable at the
+thought of your going into danger as I should do, if I had not a
+sort of conviction that we shall meet again. People believe in
+presentiments of evil, why should they not believe in
+presentiments of good? At any rate, it is a comfort to me that I
+do feel so, and I mean to go on believing it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do so, Isobel. Of course there will be danger, but the danger
+will be nothing to that we have passed through together. The
+Sepoys will no doubt fight hard, but already they must have begun
+to doubt; their confidence in victory must be shaken, and they
+begin to fear retribution for their crimes. The fighting will, I
+think, be less severe as the struggle goes on, and at any rate
+the danger to us, fighting as the assailants, is as nothing to
+that run when we were little groups surrounded by a country in
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>"The news that has come through from Lucknow is that, for some
+time at any rate, the garrison are confident they can hold out,
+while at Delhi we know that our position is becoming stronger
+every day; the reinforcements are beginning to arrive from
+England, and though the work may be slow at first, our army will
+grow, while their strength will diminish, until we sweep them
+before us. I need not stop until the end, only till the peril is
+over, till Lucknow is relieved, and Delhi captured.</p>
+
+<p>"As we agreed, I have already sent in my resignation in the
+service, and shall fight as a volunteer only. If we have to fight
+our way into Lucknow, cavalry will be useless, and I shall apply
+to be attached to one of the infantry regiments; having served
+before, there will be no difficulty about that. I think there are
+sure to be plenty of vacancies. Six months will assuredly see the
+backbone of the rebellion altogether broken. No doubt it will
+take much longer crushing it out altogether, for they will break
+up into scattered bodies, and it may be a long work before these
+are all hunted down; but when the strength of the rebellion is
+broken, I can leave with honor."</p>
+
+<p>There were but few preparations to be made for the wedding.
+Great interest was felt in the fort in the event, for Isobel's
+rescue from Bithoor and Cawnpore, when all others who had fallen
+into the power of the Nana had perished, had been the one bright
+spot in the gloom; and there would have been a general feeling of
+disappointment had not the romance had the usual termination.</p>
+
+<p>Isobel's presents were numerous and of a most useful
+character, for they took the form of articles of clothing, and
+her trousseau was a varied and extensive one.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor said to her the evening before the event, "You
+ought to have a certificate from the authorities, Isobel, saying
+how you came into possession of your wardrobe, otherwise when you
+get back to England you will very soon come to be looked upon as
+a most suspicious character."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean, Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, if the washerwoman to whom you send your
+assortment at the end of the voyage is an honest woman, she will
+probably give information to the police that you must be a
+receiver of stolen property, as your garments are all marked with
+different names."</p>
+
+<p>"It will look suspicious, Doctor, but I must run the risk of
+that till I can remark them again. I can do a good deal that way
+before I sail. It is likely we shall be another fortnight at
+least before we can start for Calcutta. I don't mean to take the
+old names out, but shall mark my initials over them and the word
+'from.' Then they will always serve as mementoes of the kindness
+of everyone here."</p>
+
+<p>Early on the morning of the wedding a native presented himself
+at the gate of the fort, and on being allowed to enter with a
+letter for Miss Hannay of which he was the bearer, handed her a
+parcel, which proved to contain a very handsome and valuable set
+of jewelry, with a slip of paper on which were the words, "From
+Rabda."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor was in high spirits at the breakfast to which
+everybody sat down directly after the wedding. In the first
+place, his greatest wish was gratified; and, in the second, he
+was about to start to take part in the work of retribution.</p>
+
+<p>"One would think you were just starting on a pleasure party,
+Doctor," Isobel said.</p>
+
+<p>"It is worth all the pleasure parties in the world, my dear. I
+have always been a hunter, and this time it is human 'tigers' I
+am going in pursuit of -- besides which," he said, in a quieter
+tone, "I hope I am going to cure as well as kill. I shall only be
+a soldier when I am not wanted as a doctor. A man who really
+loves his profession, as I do, is always glad to exercise it, and
+I fear I shall have ample opportunities that way; besides, dear
+there is nothing like being cheerful upon an occasion of this
+kind. The longer we laugh, the less time there is for tears."</p>
+
+<p>And so the party did not break up until it was nearly time for
+the little troop to start. Then there was a brief passionate
+parting, and the volunteer horse rode away to Cawnpore. Almost
+the first person they met as they rode into the British lines was
+Wilson, who gave a shout of joy at seeing the Doctor and
+Bathurst.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Bathurst!" he exclaimed. "Then you got safely down.
+Did you rescue Miss Hannay?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had that good fortune, Wilson."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad. I am glad," the young fellow said, shaking his
+hand violently, while the tears stood in his eyes. "I know you
+were right in sending me away, but I have regretted it ever
+since. I know I should have been no good, but it seemed such a
+mean thing for me to go off by myself. Well, Doctor, and so you
+got off too," he went on, turning from Bathurst and wringing the
+Doctor's hand; "I never even hoped that you escaped. I made sure
+that it was only we two. I have had an awful time of it since we
+heard the news, on the way up, of the massacre of the women. I
+had great faith in Bathurst, and knew that if anything could be
+done he would do it, but when I saw the place they had been shut
+up in, it did not seem really possible that he could have got
+anyone out of such a hole. And where did you leave Miss
+Hannay?"</p>
+
+<p>"We have not left her at all," the Doctor said gravely; "there
+is no longer a Miss Hannay. There, man, don't look so shocked.
+She changed her name on the morning we came away."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" Wilson exclaimed. "Is she Mrs. Bathurst? I am glad,
+Bathurst. Shake hands again; I felt sure that if you did rescue
+her that was what would come of it. I was almost certain by her
+way when I talked to her about you one day that she liked you. I
+was awfully spoony on her myself, you know, but I knew it was no
+use, and I would rather by a lot that she married you than anyone
+else I know. But come along into my tent; you know your troop and
+ours are going to be joined. We have lost pretty near half our
+fellows, either in the fights coming up or by sunstroke or fever
+since we came here. I got hold of some fizz in the bazaar
+yesterday, and I am sure you must be thirsty. This is a splendid
+business; I don't know that I ever felt so glad of anything in my
+life," and he dragged them away to his tent.</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst found, to his disappointment, that intense as was the
+desire to push forward to Lucknow, the general opinion was that
+the General would not venture to risk his little force in an
+operation that, with the means at his disposal, seemed well nigh
+impossible. Cholera had made considerable ravages, and he had but
+fifteen hundred bayonets at his disposal. All that could be done
+pending the arrival of reinforcements was to prepare the way for
+an advance, and show so bold a front that the enemy would be
+forced to draw a large force from Lucknow to oppose his
+advance.</p>
+
+<p>A bridge of boats was thrown across the Ganges, and the force
+crossed the river and advanced to Onao, eight miles on the road
+to Lucknow. Here the enemy, strongly posted, barred the way; but
+they were attacked, and, after hard fighting, defeated, with a
+loss of three hundred men and fifteen guns.</p>
+
+<p>In this fight the volunteer horse, who had been formed into a
+single troop, did good service. One of their two officers was
+killed; and as the party last up from Allahabad were all full of
+Bathurst's rescue of Miss Hannay from Cawnpore, and Wilson and
+the Doctor influenced the others, he was chosen to fill the
+vacancy.</p>
+
+<p>There were two other fierce fights out at Busserutgunge, and
+then Bathurst had the satisfaction of advancing with the column
+against Bithoor. Here again the enemy fought sturdily, but were
+defeated with great slaughter, and the Nana's palace was
+destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>When, after the arrival of Outram with reinforcements, the
+column set out for Lucknow, the volunteers did not accompany
+them, as they would have been useless in street fighting, and
+were, therefore, detailed to form part of the little force left
+at Cawnpore to hold the city and check the rebels, parties of
+whom were swarming round it.</p>
+
+<p>The officer in command of the troop died of cholera a few days
+after Havelock's column started up, and Bathurst succeeded him.
+The work was very arduous, the men being almost constantly in
+their saddles, and having frequent encounters with the enemy.
+They were again much disappointed at being left behind when Sir
+Colin Campbell advanced to the relief of Havelock and the
+garrison, but did more than their share of fighting in the
+desperate struggle when the mutineers of the Gwallior contingent
+attacked the force at Cawnpore during the absence of the
+relieving column. Here they were almost annihilated in a
+desperate charge which saved the 64th from being cut to pieces at
+the most critical moment of the fight.</p>
+
+<p>Wilson came out of the struggle with the loss of his left arm,
+and two or three serious wounds. He had been cut off, and
+surrounded, and was falling from his horse when Bathurst cut his
+way to his rescue, and, lifting him into his saddle before him,
+succeeded after desperate fighting in carrying him off, himself
+receiving several wounds, none of which, however, were severe.
+The action had been noticed, and Bathurst's name was sent in for
+the Victoria Cross. As the troop had dwindled to a dozen sabers,
+he applied to Sir Colin Campbell, whose column had arrived in
+time to save the force at Cawnpore and to defeat the enemy, to be
+attached to a regiment as a volunteer. The General, however, at
+once offered him a post as an extra aide de camp to himself, as
+his perfect knowledge of the language would render him of great
+use; and he gladly accepted the offer.</p>
+
+<p>With the column returning from Lucknow was the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, Bathurst," he said on the evening of his return,
+"I met an old acquaintance in Lucknow; you would never guess who
+it was -- Forster."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't say so; Doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it seems he was hotly pursued, but managed to shake the
+sowars off. At that time the garrison was not so closely besieged
+as it afterwards was. He knew the country well, and made his way
+across it until within sight of Lucknow. At night he rode right
+through the rebels, swam the river, and gained the Residency. He
+distinguished himself greatly through the siege, but had been
+desperately wounded the day before we marched in. He was in a
+ward that was handed over to me directly I got there, and I at
+once saw that his case was a hopeless one. The poor fellow was
+heartily glad to see me. Of course he knew nothing of what had
+taken place at Deennugghur after he had left, and was very much
+cut up when he heard the fate of almost all the garrison. He
+listened quietly when I told how you had rescued Isobel and of
+your marriage. He was silent, and then said, 'I am glad to hear
+it, Doctor. I can't say how pleased I am she escaped. Bathurst
+has fairly won her. I never dreamt that she cared for him. Well,
+it seems he wasn't a coward after all. And you say he has
+resigned and come up as a volunteer instead of going home with
+her? That is plucky, anyhow. Well, I am pleased. I should not
+have been so if I hadn't been like this, Doctor, but now I am out
+of the running for good, it makes no odds to me either way. If
+ever you see him again, you tell him I said I was glad. I expect
+he will make her a deucedly better husband than I should have
+done. I never liked Bathurst, but I expect it was because he was
+a better fellow than most of us -- that was at school, you know
+-- and of course I did not take to him at Deennugghur. No one
+could have taken to a man there who could not stand fire. But you
+say he has got over that, so that is all right. Anyhow, I have no
+doubt he will make her happy. Tell her I am glad, Doctor. I
+thought at one time -- but that is no odds now. I am glad you are
+out of it, too.'</p>
+
+<p>"And then he rambled on about shooting Sepoys, and did not say
+anything more coherently until late that night. I was sitting by
+him; he had been unconscious for some time, and he opened his
+eyes suddenly and said, 'Tell them both I am glad,' and those
+were the last words he spoke."</p>
+
+<p>"He was a brave soldier, a fine fellow in many ways," Bathurst
+said; "if he had been brought up differently he would, with all
+his gifts, have been a grand fellow, but I fancy he never got any
+home training. Well, I am glad he didn't die as we supposed,
+without a friend beside him, on his way to Lucknow, and that he
+fell after doing his duty to the women and children there."</p>
+
+<p>Wilson refused to go home after the loss of his arm, and as
+soon as he recovered was appointed to one of the Sikh regiments,
+and took part in the final conquest of Lucknow two months after
+the fight at Cawnpore. A fortnight after the conclusion of that
+terrible struggle Sir Colin Campbell announced to Bathurst that
+amongst the dispatches that he had received from home that
+morning was a Gazette, in which his name appeared among those to
+whom the Victoria Cross had been granted.</p>
+
+<p>"I congratulate you heartily, Mr. Bathurst," the old officer
+said: "I have had the pleasure of speaking in the highest terms
+of the bravery you displayed in carrying my message through heavy
+fire a score of times during the late operations."</p>
+
+<p>Great as the honor of the Victoria Cross always is, to
+Bathurst it was much more than to other men. It was his
+rehabilitation. He need never fear now that his courage would be
+questioned, and the report that he had before left the army
+because he lacked courage would be forever silenced now that he
+could write V. C. after his name. The pleasure of Dr. Wade and
+Wilson was scarcely less than his own. The latter's regiment had
+suffered very heavily in the struggle at Lucknow, and he came out
+of it a captain, having escaped without a wound.</p>
+
+<p>A week later Bathurst resigned his appointment. There was
+still much to be done, and months of marching and fighting before
+the rebellion was quite stamped out; but there had now arrived a
+force ample to overcome all opposition, and there was no longer a
+necessity for the service of civilians. As he had already left
+the service of the Company, he was his own master, and therefore
+started at once for Calcutta..</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not be long before I follow you," the Doctor said, as
+they spent their last evening together. "I shall wait and see
+this out, and then retire. I should have liked to have gone home
+with you, but it is out of the question. Our hands are full, and
+likely to be so for some time, so I must stop."</p>
+
+<p>Bathurst stopped for a day at Patna to see Rujub and his
+daughter. He was received as an expected guest, and after
+spending a few hours with them he continued his journey. At
+Calcutta he found a letter awaiting him from Isobel, saying that
+she had arrived safely in England, and should stay with her
+mother until his arrival, and there he found her.</p>
+
+<p>"I expected you today," she said, after the first rapturous
+greeting was over. "Six weeks ago I woke in the middle of the
+night, and heard Rabda's voice distinctly say: 'He has been with
+us today: he is safe and well; he is on his way to you.' As I
+knew how long you would take going down from Patna, I went the
+next day to the office and found what steamer you would catch,
+and when she would arrive. My mother and sister both regarded me
+as a little out of my mind when I said you would be back this
+week. They have not the slightest belief in what I told them
+about Rujub, and insist that it was all a sort of hallucination
+brought on by my sufferings. Perhaps they will believe now."</p>
+
+<p>"Your face is wonderfully better," he said presently. "The
+marks seem dying out, and you look almost your old self."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said; "I have been to one of the great doctors, and
+he says he thinks the scars will quite disappear in time."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel Bathurst has never again received any distinct message
+from Rabda, but from time to time she has the consciousness, when
+sitting quietly alone, that the girl is with her in thought.
+Every year letters and presents are exchanged, and to the end of
+their lives she and her husband will feel that their happiness is
+chiefly due to her and her father -- Rujub, the Juggler.</p>
+
+<p>THE END.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rujub, the Juggler, by G. A. Henty
+
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