In Times of Peril: A Tale of India

by G. A. Henty

  CHAPTER IV.

  BROKEN DOWN.

  They ran at the top of their speed, but the sound of the horses' feetgrew louder.

  "There is a path leading to the river," Ned said; "let us turn downthere; we can hide under the jungle on the bank."

  Breathlessly they ran down to the river.

  "Hurrah! here is a boat, jump in;" and in another minute they hadpushed off from the bank, just as they heard a body of cavalry--forthat they were troops they knew by the jingling of theiraccouterments--pass at a gallop. The stream was strong; and the boysfound that with the rude oars they could make no way whatever.

  "We had better land again, and get further from the river," Ned said."We will push the boat off, and it will be supposed that we have goneoff in it."

  This was soon done, and having regained the road, they crossed it andstruck over the fields.

  The moon, which had been hitherto hidden under a passing cloud, wassoon out fully, and for some time they kept across the country,carefully avoiding all villages. These were here more thinly scattered;patches of jungle and wood occurred more frequently; and it was evidentthat they were getting into a less highly cultivated district. It waslong before daybreak that Rose declared that she was too fatigued to gofurther, and they entered a large wood. Here they lay down, and weresoon fast asleep. It was broad daylight when the Warreners woke. Rosestill slept on.

  Presently Kate came to her brothers. "I am afraid Rose is going to beill. She keeps talking and moaning in her sleep; her face is flushed,and her hands as hot as fire."

  As they were looking sadly at her she opened her eyes.

  "Is it time to get up?" she asked. "Oh, my head! it is aching terribly.Is the trap at the door?"

  Then she closed her eyes again, and went on talking incoherently toherself.

  "She has fever," Kate said, "and we must get her under shelter, atwhatever risk."

  "I heard a dog bark not far off, just as I went to sleep," Ned said. "Iwill go and reconnoiter. Dick, you had better stay here."

  Dick nodded, and Ned advanced cautiously to the edge of the wood. Therehe saw a farmhouse of a better class than usual. Three peons were juststarting for work, and an elderly man with a long beard was standing atthe door. Then he went in, and after a few minutes reappeared with along staff in his hands, and went out into the fields. He did not,however, follow the direction which the peons had taken, but took aline parallel with the edge of the wood. "He looks a decent oldfellow," Ned said to himself; "I can but try; at any rate, at the worstI am more than a match for him."

  So saying, he stepped out into the field. The farmer started withsurprise at seeing a young Mussulman appear before him.

  "I am English," Ned said at once. "I think you are kind by your face,and I tell you the truth. There are two English girls in the wood, andone is ill. We can go no further. Will you give them shelter?"

  The old man stood for some time in thought.

  "I have no complaint against the Feringhees," he said; "in my fatherstime the country was red with blood, but all my life I have eaten mybread in peace, and no man has injured me. Where are the Englishladies?"

  Ned led the way to the spot where Rose was still lying. The old manlooked at her flushed face, and then at Kate, and said:

  "The English ladies have suffered much, and can have done harm to noone. I will shelter them. My wife and daughter will nurse the sick one.They will be in the women's chamber, and my servants will not know thatthere is a stranger there. I believe that they would be faithful, butone who knows nothing can tell no tales. On the other side of the woodthere is a shed. It is empty now, and none go near it. The Englishsahibs can live there, and each day I will bring them food. When theirsister is well they can go on again."

  Ned translated the old man's words, and Kate, who was kneeling by Rose,caught his hand and kissed it in her gratitude. He patted her head andsaid, "Poor child!"

  "How are we to carry Rose? I don't think she can walk," Kate asked.

  The farmer solved the difficulty by motioning them to stay where theywere. He then went off, and in ten minutes returned, bearing a driedbullock's skin. On this Rose was laid. The Hindoo took the two ends ather feet, the boys each one of those by her head, and then, slung as ina hammock, Rose was carried to the house, where the wife and daughterof their host, prepared by him for what was coming, received them withmany expressions of pity, and she was at once carried into the innerroom. The farmer then placed before the boys two bowls of milk and somefreshly made chupatties, and then gave them some food for the day. Withan expression of fervent gratitude to him, and a kiss from Kate, whocame out to tell them that Rose would be well nursed and cared for, theboys started for the hut in the direction the Hindoo pointed out tothem. It was a small building, and had apparently been at some timeused as a cattle shed. The floor was two feet deep in fodder of thestalks of Indian corn. Above was a sort of rough loft, in which grainhad been stored.

  The boys at once agreed that, to prevent suspicion, it was safer tooccupy this, and they soon transferred enough of the fodder from belowto make a comfortable bed. Then, feeling secure from discovery, even ifby chance some passer-by should happen to glance into the shed, theywere soon deep in a sounder sleep than they had enjoyed since they leftSandynugghur.

  The next day, when the old man came to see them, he was accompanied byKate. She looked pale and wan.

  "How is Rose?" was their first question.

  "She is as bad as she can be, dears. She has been delirious all night,and is so this morning. I did not like to leave her for a moment. Butthis kind old man wanted me to go with him, as I think he has somethingto say to you."

  "Have you any news?" Ned asked him.

  "My servants tell me that the Sepoys are searching the whole country,some of the officers have escaped from Sandynugghur, and also fromNalgwa, where the troops rose on the same night; some of the residentshave escaped also. There is a reward offered for them alive or dead,and any one hiding them is to be punished with death. The white lady isvery ill. She is in the hand of God; she may get better, she may die.If she gets better it will be weeks before she can go through thehardships of the journey to Meerut. I think it better that you shouldgo on alone; the white ladies will be as my daughters. I have told myservants that my daughter is ill, so that if they hear cries and voicesat night they will think that it is she who is in pain. You can do nogood here. If the woods are searched you may be found; if you are foundthey will search everywhere closely, and may find them. I will hidethem here safely. The orders are, I hear, that the captives taken areto be carried to Delhi; but if they should be found I will myselfjourney to Meerut to bring you the news. You will give me your names,and I will find you; then you may get help and rescue them on the way."

  Ned translated the old man's opinion and kind offer to his brother andsister, and said that he was very unwilling to leave the girls--asentiment in which Dick heartily joined.

  Kate, however, at once expressed her warm approval of the plan.

  "It will be weeks, dears, before Rose can walk again, and I shall havean anxious time with her. It would add greatly to my anxiety if I knewthat you were near, and might at any time be captured and killed. Ifdear papa has escaped he will be in a terrible state of anxiety aboutus, and you could relieve him if you can join him at Meerut, and tellhim how kindly we are treated here. Altogether, boys, it would be somuch better for you to go; for if the Sepoys do come, you could notdefend us against more than two or three, and they are sure to come ina stronger party than that."

  In spite of their disinclination to leave the girls without suchprotection as they could give them, the boys saw that the courseadvised was the best to be pursued, and told their Hindoo friend thatthey agreed to follow his counsel, thanking him in the warmest termsfor his kindness.

  He advised them to leave their Mohammedan dresses behind, and to dressin the simple costume of Hindoo peons, with which he could supply them.They would then attract far less attention, and coul
d even by day passacross the fields without any comment whatever from the natives at workthere, who would naturally suppose that they belonged to some villagenear at hand. "Englishmen could not do this," he said; "too much leg,too much arm, too much width of shoulders; but boys are thinner, and noone will notice the difference. In half an hour I will come back withthe things." Ned gave him the rest of the berries, which they hadpreserved, and asked him to boil them up in a little water, as theywould now have to color their bodies and arms and legs, in addition totheir faces.

  It was a sad parting between Kate and her brothers, for all felt thatthey might never meet again. Still the course decided upon was, underthe circumstances, evidently the best that could be adopted.

  In an hour the Hindoo returned. The boys took off their clothes, andstained themselves a deep brown from head to foot. The farmer thenproduced a razor and a bowl of water and some soap, and said that theymust shave their hair off their heads, up to a level with the top ofthe ears, so as to leave only that which could be concealed by theirturban. This, with some laughter--the first time they had smiled sincethey left Sandynugghur--they proceeded to do to each other, and theskin thus exposed they dyed the same color as the rest of the body.They then each put on a scanty loincloth, and wrapping a large piece ofdark blue cotton stuff first round their waists and then over oneshoulder, their costume was complete, with the exception of a pair ofsandals and a white turban. The old Hindoo surveyed them gravely whentheir attire was completed, and expressed his belief that they wouldpass without exciting the slightest suspicion. Their pistols were atrouble. They were determined that, come what might, they would not gowithout these, and they were finally slung behind them from a strappassing round the waist under the loin-cloth; the spare ammunition anda supply of biscuit were stowed in stout cotton bags, with which theirfriend provided them, and which hung by a band passing over oneshoulder. Their money and a box of matches they secured in a corner oftheir clothes. A couple of stout staves completed their outfit.

  Bidding a grateful farewell to their friendly Hindoo, the boys startedon their journey. The sandals they found so difficult to keep on thatthey took them off and carried them, except when they were passing overstony ground. They kept to bypaths and avoided all villages.Occasionally they met a native, but either they passed him withoutspeech, or Ned muttered a salutation in answer to that of the passer.All day they walked, and far into the night. They had no fear ofmissing their way, as the road on one hand and the river on the otherboth ran to Meerut; and although these were sometimes ten miles apart,they served as a fair index as to the line they should take. Thebiscuits, eked out with such grain as they could pluck as they crossedthe fields, lasted for two days; but at the end of that time it becamenecessary to seek another supply of food.

  "I don't know what to ask for, Dick; and those niggers always chatterso much that I should have to answer, and then I should be found outdirectly. I think we must try some quiet huts at a distance from theroad."

  The wood in which they that night slept was near three or fourscattered huts. In the morning they waited and watched for a long timeuntil one of the cottages was, as far as they could judge, deserted,all its inmates being gone out to work in the fields. They then enteredit boldly. It was empty. On hunting about they found some chupattieswhich had apparently been newly baked, a store of rice and of severalother grains. They took the chupatties, five or six pounds of rice, anda little copper cooking-pot. They placed in a conspicuous position tworupees, which were more than equivalent to the value of the things theyhad taken, and went on their way rejoicing.

  At midday they sat down, lit a fire with some dried sticks, and puttheir rice in the pot to boil. As Ned was stooping to pick up a stickhe was startled by a simultaneous cry of "Look out!" from Dick, and asharp hiss; and looking up, saw, three or four feet ahead of him, acobra, with its hood inflated, and its head raised in the very act ofspringing. Just as it was darting itself forward Dick's stick came downwith a sharp tap on its head and killed it.

  "That was a close shave, Ned," the boy said, laughing; "if you hadstooped he would have bit you on the face. What would have been thebest thing to do if he had bitten you?"

  "The best thing is to suck the wound instantly, to take out a knife andcut deeply in, and then, as we have no vesuvians, I should break uphalf a dozen pistol cartridges, put the powder into and on the wound,and set it alight. I believe that that is what they do in some parts ofEastern Europe in the case of the bites of mad dogs; and this, if notime is lost after the bite is given, is almost always effectual inkeeping off hydrophobia."

  "Well, Ned, I am very thankful that we had not to put the virtue of thereceipt to a practical test."

  "Would you like to eat the snake, Dick? I believe that snake is not atall bad eating."

  "Thank you," Dick said, "I will take it on trust. We have got rice; andalthough I am not partial to rice it will do very well. If we couldhave got nothing else we might have tried the snake; but as it is, Ihad rather not. Two more days, Ned, and we shall be at Meerut. The oldHindoo said it was a hundred miles, and we go twenty-five a day, evenwith all our bends and turns to get out of the way of villages."

  "Yes, I should think we do quite that, Dick. We walk from daylight tosunset, and often two or three hours by moonlight; and though we don'tgo very fast, we ought to get over a lot of ground. Listen! There ismusic!" Both held their breath. "Yes, there are the regular beats of abig drum. It is on the highroad, I should say, nearly abreast of us. Ifwe go to that knoll we shall have a view of them; and there cannot bethe least danger, as they must be fully a mile away."

  Upon gaining the rise in question they saw a regiment in scarlet,winding along the road.

  "Are they mutineers, Dick, or British?"

  It was more than any one could say. Mounted officers rode at the headof the regiment; perfect order was to be observed in its marching;there was nothing that in any way differed from its ordinary aspect.

  "Let us go back and get our rice and lota, Dick. We can't afford tolose that; and if we go at a trot for a couple of miles we can getround into some trees near the road, where we can see their faces. Ifthe mounted officers are white it is all right; if not, they aremutineers."

  Half an hour's trot brought them to such a point of vantage as theydesired. Crouched in some bushes at the edge of a clump of trees, notfifty yards from the road, they awaited the passage of the regiment.They had not been in their hiding-place five minutes when the head ofthe column appeared.

  "They march in very good order, Ned; do you think that they would keepup such discipline as that after they had mutinied?"

  "I don't know. Dirk; but they'll want all their discipline when theycome to meet our men. For anything we know we may be the two last whitemen left in India; but when the news gets to England there will be sucha cry throughout the land that, if it needed a million men to win backthe country, I believe they would be found and sent out. There! Thereare two mounted officers; I can't see their color, but I don't thinkthey are white."

  "No, Ned; I am sure they are not white; then they must be mutineers.Look! Look! Don't you see they have got three prisoners? There theyare, marching in the middle of that column; they are officers; and oh!Ned! I do think that the middle one's father." And the excited boy,with tears of joy running down his cheeks, would have risen and dashedout had not Ned forcibly detained him.

  "Hush! Dick! and keep quiet. Yes! It is father! and Dunlop and Manners.Thank God!" he said, in deep gratitude.

  "Well, let's go to them, Ned; we may as well be all together."

  "Keep quiet, Dick," the elder said, holding him down again; "you willdestroy their chance as well as ours. We must rescue them if we can."

  "How, Ned, how?"

  "I don't know yet, Dick; but we must wait and see; anyhow, we will try.There goes the bugle for a halt. I expect they have done their day'smarch. Come on, Dick; we must get out of this. When they have oncepitched their tents they will scatter about, and, as likely as not,some
will come into this wood. Let us get further back, so as to beable to see them pitch their tents, and watch, if we can, where theyput the prisoners."

  The regiment piled arms, and waited until the bullock-carts came upwith the tents. These were taken out and pitched on the other side ofthe road, and facing the wood. The ground being marked out, the menwere told off to their quarters, and the poles of the tents alignedwith as much regularity and exactness as could have been used when theregiment possessed its white officers.

  Near the quarter-guard tent--that is, the tent of the men engaged uponactual duty--a small square tent was erected; and into this the threeofficers, who were handcuffed, were thrust; and two sentries, one infront, the other at the back of the tent, were placed.

  "Now, Dick, we know all about it; let us get further away, and talkover how it is to be managed."

  The task was one of extreme difficulty, and the boys were a long timearranging the details. Had there been but one sentry, the matter wouldhave been easy enough: but with two sentries, and with the quarterguard close at hand, it seemed at first as if no possible scheme couldbe hit upon. The sentry at the back of the tent must be the one to bedisposed of, and this must be done so noiselessly as not to alarm theman in front. Each marched backward and forward some eight paces to theright, and as much to the left, of the tent, halting occasionally. Whenboth marched right and left at the same time, they were in sight ofeach other except during the time of passing before and behind thetent; when they walked alternately, the tent hid them altogether fromeach other.

  "I suppose there is no chance of our being able to gag that fellow,Ned? It's horrid to think of killing a man in cold blood."

  "There is no help for it, Dick. If he were alone, we might gag him; asit is, he must be killed. These scoundrels are all mutineers andmurderers. This regiment has, no doubt, like the others, killed itsofficers, and all the men, women, and children at the station. I wouldnot kill the man unless it could be helped, but our father's lifedepends upon it; and to save him I would, if there were no other way,cut the throats of the whole regiment while they were asleep! This isno ordinary war, Dick; it is a struggle for existence; and though I'msure I hate the thought of it, I shall not hesitate for an instant."

  "I shan't hesitate," the midshipman said; "but I wish the fellow couldmake a fight of it. However, as he would kill me if he had a chance, hemustn't grumble if I do the same for him. Now, Ned, you tell me exactlywhat I am to do, and you may rely on my doing it."

  Every minute detail of the scheme was discussed and arranged; and then,as the sun set, the boys lit a fire in a nullah and boiled some rice,and ate their food with lighter hearts than they had done since theyleft Sandynugghur, for the knowledge that their father had escapeddeath had lifted a heavy burden from their hearts. As to the danger ofthe expedition that they were about to undertake, with the happyrecklessness of boys they thought but little of it.

  Across the plain they could see the campfires, but as the evening wenton these gradually died away, and the sounds which had come faintlyacross the still night air ceased altogether. As patiently as might be,they waited until they guessed that it must be about ten o'clock. Thenight was, for the country, cold--a favorable circumstance, as thenatives, who are very chilly, would be less likely to leave their tentsif they felt restless. The moon was now half full and shining brightly,giving a light with which the boys could well have dispensed.

  "Now, Dick, old boy, let's be moving. May God help us in our night'swork!"

  They made a considerable detour to approach the camp in the rear, wherethey rightly judged that the Sepoys, having no fear whatever of anyhostile body being near, would have placed no sentries.

  "Listen!" Dick said, as they were pausing to reconnoiter; "that soundedlike a cannon in the far distance."

  There was no doubt of it; faintly, but quite distinct, across the aircame the sound of heavy cannon fired at regular intervals.

  "Those cannon must be fired as a salute to some great chief newlyarrived at Delhi--we should not fire so late, but I suppose they arenot particular," Ned said; "we calculated it was not more thantwenty-five miles off, and we should hear them at that distance easily.We had better wait a few minutes to see if any one comes out to listento it."

  But there was no movement among the white tents. Then they stolequietly into the camp.

  The tents of the Indian native regiments are large, oblong tents, withtwo poles, holding thirty men each. They are manufactured at thegovernment prison at Jubbalpore, and are made of thick cotton canvas,lined with red or blue cotton. In the daytime they open right along oneside, the wall of the tent being propped outward, with two slightpoles, so as to form a sort of veranda, and shade the inside of thetent while admitting the air. At night-time, in the cool season, thisflap is let down and the tent closed. In front of the tents the musketsof the men inside are piled.

  Into one of these tents Dick crawled, Ned watching outside. When Dickfirst entered it was so dark that he could see nothing; but themoonlight penetrated dimly through the double cotton, and he was soonable to discover objects around. The ground was all occupied bysleeping figures, each wrapped up from head to foot in his blanket,looking like so many mummies. Their uniforms were folded, and placedbetween their heads and the wall of the tent. Six of these, with thesame number of caps, and six ammunition pouches and belts, and auniform cloak, taken carefully off one of the sleepers, Dick collectedand passed out through the door of the tent to Ned. Not a sleeperstirred while he did so, and he crept quietly out, with the first partof his task accomplished. Gathering the things together, the boys madeall speed back to a clump of trees half a mile in the rear of the camp.Here Ned put on one of the uniforms and the cloak, and they thenstarted back again for the camp.

  The sentries upon the prisoners' tent were changed at twelve o'clock,and a few minutes later the sentry at the rear of the tent saw one ofhis comrades come out of one of the large tents close to the end of hisbeat. He was wrapped in his blanket, and his face was tied up with acloth. Coughing violently, he squatted himself in front of his tent,and rocked himself to and fro, with his hands to his face, utteringoccasional groans. This was all so natural--for the natives of Indiasuffer much from neuralgia in the cold weather--that the sentry thoughtnothing of the matter. He continued to pace his beat, turning back eachtime when within a yard or two of the sufferer. The third time he didso the figure dropped off his blanket, and, with a sudden bound, threwhimself on the sentry's back; at the same moment a Sepoy in uniformdarted out from the tent. One hand of the assailant--in which was adamp cloth--was pressed tightly over the mouth and nostrils of thesentry; the other grasped the lock of his musket, so that it could notbe discharged. Thrown backward off his balance, taken utterly bysurprise, the sentry was unable even to struggle, and in an instant thesecond antagonist plunged a bayonet twice into his body, and he fell alifeless mass on the ground. It was the work of an instant to drag thebody a yard or two into the shadow of the tent, and before the othersentry appeared from the opposite side of the prisoner's tent thenative was rocking himself as before; the sentry, wrapped in his cloak,was marching calmly on his beat. The whole affair had lasted but twentyseconds, and had passed as noiselessly as a dream.

  The next time the sentry in front was hidden from view the nativestarted from his sitting position and stole up behind the tent.Cautiously and quietly he cut a slit in the canvas and entered. Then heknelt down by the side of one of the sleepers, and kissed him. He movedin his sleep, and his disturber, putting his hand on his mouth toprevent sudden speech, shook him gently. The major opened his eyes.

  "Father, it is I--Richard; hush! do not speak."

  Then, as the bewildered man gradually understood what was said, his sonfell on his neck, kissing him with passionate delight.

  After the first rapturous joy of the recognition was over, "Ned and thegirls?" Major Warrener asked.

  "The girls are at present safe," Dick said; "Ned is outside behind. Heis the sentry. Now, father, wake
the others, and then let us steal off.Take off your boots; the men's tents are only ten yards behind; oncethere, you are safe. I will let Ned know when you are ready, and hewill occupy the sentry. We can't silence him, because he is withinsight of the sentry of the quarter-guard."

  Major Warrener aroused his sleeping companions, and in a few whisperedwords told them what had happened. In silence they wrung Dick's hand,and then taking off their boots, stole one by one out of the tent. AsNed passed he exchanged a silent embrace with his father. The next timethe sentry in front was passing before the tent, a heavy stone, hurledby Ned, crashed into a bush upon the other side of the road. The sentryhalted instantly, and, with gun advanced, listened, but he could hearnothing, for his comrade was at that instant seized with a fit ofcoughing.

  After standing in a listening attitude for three or four minutes theSepoy supposed that the noise must have been caused by some large birdsuddenly disturbed in the foliage.

  "Did you hear anything?" he asked Ned, as their path crossed.

  "Nothing," Ned answered, continuing his march.

  For another quarter of an hour he passed backward and forward, his onlyfear being that the sentry might take it into his head to open the tentand look in to see if the prisoners were safe. In a quarter of an hourhe knew that the fugitives would have gained the trees, and would havetime to put on the Sepoy uniforms before he reached them; and also, bythe aid of a couple of large stones, have got rid of their handcuffs,lie might therefore be off to join them.

  Waiting till the sentry was at the other end of his beat, he slippedround the tent, stripped off his cloak, lay down his musket andbelt--for Dick had arranged that they should carry off five muskets intheir retreat--threw off the Sepoy jacket, and in light running order,darted through the tents. He calculated that he should have at least acouple of minutes start before his absence was discovered, anotherminute or two before the sentry was sufficiently sure of it to hail thequarter-guard and report the circumstance. Then would follow thediscovery of the escape of the prisoners; but by that time he would befar out on the plain, and even if seen, which was unlikely, he wasconfident that he could outrun any native.

  His anticipations turned out correct; he was already some distance offwhen he heard the call of the sentry to the quarter-guard, followedalmost immediately by a still louder shout, that told that he haddiscovered the flight of the prisoners; then came the sound of a musketshot, a drum beat the alarm, and a babel of sounds rang on the stillair. But by this time Ned was halfway to the clump of trees, and threeminutes later he was in his father's arms. There was no time to talkthen. Another coat was hurried on to him, an ammunition belt and pouchthrown over his shoulder, and Captain Manners carrying his musket untilhe should have quite recovered breath, the five went off at a steadytrot, which after a quarter of an hour broke into a walk--for there wasno fear of pursuit--in the direction in which they knew Delhi to lie.