by G. A. Henty
“Not as long as it is straight running, Sahib; but if they follow us far, they may come up within range of us as we are making our way down some of those nasty places, where we came up the face of the ghaut.”
“If we once get well away from them, we will hide up somewhere, and then strike off on another line.”
“We might do that,” Surajah agreed; “but you know, the place where we came up was the only one that seemed to us climbable, and it would be certainly better to make for it again, if we can find our way.”
“I quite agree with you there, Surajah. It would never do to go and find ourselves on the edge of a precipice that we could not get down, with the soldiers anywhere near us. Besides, it is of the greatest importance that we should take the news back as soon as possible, as every hour may be of importance. I only wish we could find out which pass Tippoo means to go by, but I don’t suppose that will be known until he starts for it. Anyhow, our news will be very valuable, for at present he is supposed to be over on the other side, and he would have taken our troops entirely by surprise, if he had suddenly poured out onto the plain. So we must give up my idea of hiding up, for if we did so we should have to lie there all day, and it would mean the loss of twenty-four hours; for I would not go down those ghauts for any money, except in daylight. It is a very different thing going downhill to going up, and if we were to attempt it in the dark, we should break our necks for a certainty. If we can get away early, tonight, we shall be at the edge of that steep place by nine o’clock in the morning, and if we strike the right point, we might be back to the Rajah by nightfall.”
“It will be difficult to find our way back in the dark,” Surajah said.
“No doubt. Still, we can keep in the general direction, and even if we do not hit upon the stream tonight, we shall find it in the morning.”
It was late in the afternoon when they reached the village, and it was now growing dark. Two soldiers came up to them, and bade them follow them into one of the huts, and there pointed to the farther corner as their place. They wrapped themselves in their blankets, and at once lay down.
“If they take it into their heads,” Dick whispered to Surajah, “to put a sentry on guard at the door, it will upset all our plans. It would not be very difficult to cut our way through the mud wall behind us, but in the first place they have taken away our knives; and, even if we had them, it would be risky work trying it.
“The chances are that they will sit and talk all night. Of course, we might surprise the sentry, but it would be a great risk with those fellows close at hand, and we should have to run straight for the steps, and might get a dozen balls after us, before we were over the wall.”
“I don’t think there would be much chance of their hitting us,” Surajah said. “Jumping up from their sleep in confusion, they would be a minute or so before they could find out what had happened, and we should be at the foot of the steps before they saw us, and then they would fire almost at random.
“But, in that case, we should lose our weapons,” he added regretfully.
“We cannot help that. The arms are of no consequence at all, compared to our getting away—unless, of course, any of them happen to overtake us.”
For three or four hours, the soldiers, of whom there were ten in the hut, sat eating, talking, and smoking round the fire, which they kept burning on the earthen floor. One by one, however, they left it and lay down. When but three remained, one of them got up, with a grumble of discontent, took his musket, which was leaning against the wall, and went out of the hut.
“What a nuisance!” Dick whispered. “He is evidently going on sentry duty.”
“Perhaps he has gone to the gate?” Surajah suggested.
“I am afraid not. I expect the other hut is furnishing the sentry there. Listen!”
During the pauses of the low conversation of the two men still sitting by the fire, they could hear a footfall outside.
“That settles the question,” Dick said. “Now, the sooner those fellows go to sleep, the better.”
“We had better wait for some time, after they do,” Surajah replied. “One or two of the men, who lay down first, are sure to get up and go to the door and look out. They always do that, once or twice during the night. The sentry will soon get accustomed to the door being opened, and won’t look round sharp.”
“That is a good idea,” Dick agreed. “The moon is at the back of the hut, so we shall be in the shadow. I will spring upon him, and will try and grip him by the throat, so that he can’t holloa. You wrench the musket from his hands, and snatch his belt of cartridges. That will give us a weapon, anyhow. As soon as you have got it, I will give him one sharp squeeze, and throw him down. It will be some time before he gets breath enough to holloa.”
In half an hour, the two men by the fire lay down. It was not long before, as Surajah predicted, one of the sleepers sat up and stretched himself; then he rose and walked to the door, opened it, and stood at the entrance; a moment later he was joined by another figure, and for a few minutes they stood, talking together. Then he came in again, shut the door, and lay down.
During the next hour, three of the others followed his example, the last of them leaving the door ajar behind him, when he came in.
“Now is our chance, Surajah. We must give him ten minutes to fall asleep again. Then we will move. Should one of them be lying awake, and notice us—which is not likely, for it is too dark in here to see figures distinctly—and ask where we are going, say, ‘To the door, to get cool.’ They won’t imagine that we are thinking of escape, with one sentry at the door, and another at the gate.”
“Don’t you think, Sahib, that it would be safer to kill the sentries?”
“Safer or not, Surajah, we will not do it. At present, they have done us no harm. They are only acting as their officer ordered, and we have no grudge against them. When they take to shooting at us, we must shoot at them; but to kill this sentry would be nothing short of murder.”
After waiting a few minutes longer, Dick said:
“We had better be off, now. If we were to wait longer, we should have another fellow getting up.”
They rose quietly to their feet, made their way to the door, and opened it noiselessly. The sentry was standing, leaning on his long matchlock, a few feet away. Suddenly a voice behind exclaimed, “Who is that?”
The sentry was in the act of turning round, when Dick sprang upon him, and grasped him by the throat. No cry came from the man’s lips, but the gun fell from his grasp, as he clutched convulsively at Dick’s wrists, and went off as it fell.
“Pick it up,” Dick shouted, “and run.”
He released his grip from the man’s throat, snatched the bandolier from his shoulder, and, tripping his feet from under him, threw him heavily to the ground, and then turned to run.
The whole had occupied but a few seconds, but as he started a soldier ran out from the hut, shouting loudly. He had a gun in his hand. Dick changed his mind, turned, threw himself upon him, wrenched the gun from his hold, and, as the man staggered back, struck him with his right hand under the chin.
The man fell back through the open door, as if shot. Dick seized the handle and closed it, and then ran, at full speed, towards the foot of the steps. They were but some twenty yards away.
“Up you go, Surajah. We have not a moment to lose!”
Dick sprang up the steps, Surajah following. As they reached the top of the wall, a shot was discharged at them by the sentry at the gate, who, ignorant of the cause of the sudden uproar, had been standing in readiness to fire. He was, however, too excited to take aim, and the bullet flew harmlessly over their heads. In another instant, they sprang over the parapet.
“Lower yourself by your arms, and then drop.”
The wall, like many others of its sort, was thicker at the base than on the top, and the foot projected two feet beyond the upper line, so that it was a sharp slide, rather than an absolute fall. It was well that it was so, for although only so
me twelve feet high inside, it was eight feet higher on its outer face, as a dry ditch encircled it. Both came down in a heap on the sand that had crumbled from the face of the wall.
As soon as they picked themselves up, Dick exclaimed, “Keep along the foot of the wall, Surajah,” and they dashed along until they reached the angle. As they turned the corner, they heard a burst of voices from the wall where they had slid down, and several shots were fired. Dick led the way along the ditch to the next angle, then left it and entered the village, and dashed along the street.
The sound of firing had roused many of the peasants. Doors were opening, and men coming out. Exclamations of surprise were heard, as the two figures rushed past, but no one thought of interfering with them. As they left the houses behind them, Surajah said:
“You are going the wrong way, Sahib. You are going right away from the ghauts.”
“I know that well enough,” Dick panted; “but I did it on purpose. We will turn and work round again. They will hear, from the villagers, that we have come this way, and will be following us down the road while we are making our way back to the ghauts.”
They ran for another hundred yards, then quitted the path, and made across the fields. From the fort and village they could hear a great hubbub, and above it could make out the voice of the officer, shouting orders. They continued to run, for another quarter of a mile, and then turned.
“Now we can go quietly,” Dick said, breaking into a walk. “This line will take us clear of the fort and village, and we have only to make straight for the ghauts. I think we have thrown them well off the scent, and unless the officer suspects that we have only gone the other way to deceive him, and that we are really making for the ghauts, we shall hear nothing more of them.”
“It is capital,” Surajah said. “I could not think what you were doing, when you turned round the corner of the fort and made for the village, instead of going the other way. But where did you get that gun from?”
Dick told him how it had come into his possession.
“It was not so much that I cared for the gun,” he said, “as that I wanted to prevent the man from using it. If he had followed me closely, he could hardly have helped hitting one of us, as we went up the steps. By shutting the door, we gained a few moments, for they were all in confusion in the dim light inside, and would certainly not learn anything, either from the man I pitched in among them, or from the sentry outside.
“I don’t suppose any of them had an idea of what had happened, until the sentry shouted to them that we had got over the wall. Then they rushed up, and fired at random from the top, thinking that we should be running straight from it.”
They walked along for a short distance, and then Dick said:
“I have got my wind again, now. We will go on at a jog trot. I mistrust that officer. He had a crafty face, and as we said we belonged to a village down the ghauts, he may have a suspicion that we have been trying to throw him off our scent, and think we should be sure to double back and make for home.”
They kept on their way, sometimes dropping into a walk, but generally going at an easy trot, until day broke.
“As soon as it gets a little lighter, Surajah, we will go up on to one of these rises, so as to have a good look down over the line we have come. If they are following us, we must go on at the top of our speed. If we see nothing of them, we can take it quietly. Of course, they can’t have been following our steps, but it is quite likely that some of the villagers may know that the ghauts can be climbed at the point where we came up. You know we noticed signs of a path, two or three times, on the way up. In that case, if the officer really did think of pursuing us, he would take one of the villagers as guide.”
Half an hour later, they ascended a sharp rise, and threw themselves down on its crest.
“I don’t think that there is the least chance of their coming,” Surajah said, carelessly. “When they had gone some distance, without overtaking us on the road, they may possibly have suspected that we had turned and made this way; but by the time they got back to the village, they would know, well enough, that there was no chance of overtaking us.”
Dick made no answer. He had a sort of uneasy conviction that the officer would at once suspect their plan, and that pursuit would have commenced very shortly after they had re-passed the fort. For some minutes, no words were spoken. No sign of life was to be seen; but in so broken a country, covered in many places with jungle or wood, a considerable body of men might be coming up, unperceived.
Suddenly, Dick grasped Surajah’s arm.
“There they are. You see that I was right. Look at that clump of bush, half a mile away, well to the left of the line we came by. They have just come out from there. There are ten or twelve of them.”
“I see them,” Surajah said. “They are running, too, but not very fast.”
“We will crawl back, till we are out of their sight, and then make a run for it. They must have got a guide, and are, no doubt, taking a more direct line than we are, for we may be a good bit off the stream we followed as we came along. I have not seen anything I recognise, since it got light, though I am sure we have been going somewhere near the right direction. Now, we have got to run for it.”
They dashed off, at a rate of speed much higher than that at which they had before been travelling; keeping, as much as possible, in ground covered from the sight of their pursuers; and bearing somewhat to the left, so as to place the latter directly behind them, and to strike the path Dick had no doubt their pursuers were keeping.
“It is no use running too fast,” he said, a few minutes later. “There is a good long way to go yet—another ten miles, I should think; and anyhow, I don’t think we can get down that steep place, before they come to the edge of the cliff above. You see, we are not certain as to where it is. We might strike the cliffs a mile or two on either side of it, and I have no doubt they will go straight to the spot. I expect the man they have got as a guide has been in the habit of going down the ghauts, and knows his way.
“If it were not that we are in such a hurry to get to Uncle with the news about Tippoo, it would be much better to turn off, altogether, and stay in a wood for a day or two. They would not stop very long at the top of the ghauts, for they cannot be sure that we are going that way, at all, and when a few hours passed, and we didn’t come, the officer would suppose that he was mistaken, and that we really kept on in the line on which we started.”
They trotted along for some time in silence, and then Surajah said:
“Do you not think that it would be better for us to make for the pass to the left? It is twenty miles off, but we should be there by the evening, and we should surely find some way of getting into it, below where the fort stands.”
Dick stopped running.
“Why not go the other way, and make for the pass we know?” he said. “It can’t be more than fifteen miles, at the outside, and once below the fort we know our way, and should get down to the village twelve hours sooner than if we went round by the other pass.”
“It would be the right plan, if we could do it,” Surajah agreed; “but you know the rocks rise straight up on both sides of the fort, and the road passes up through a narrow cleft, with the fort standing at its mouth. That is why I proposed the other pass.”
“I think we had better try it, nevertheless, Surajah. We should not be more than three hours in going straight there, and shall have ample time to follow the edge of the precipice for the last five miles. We may discover some break, where we can get down. If we should find it impossible to descend anywhere, we must sleep till sunset, then strike the road above the fort, go down at night, and manage to slip past the sentry.”
“The only thing is, Sahib, that it seemed as if the fort lay right across the entrance to the gorge, and the road went through it.”
“It did look like that, Surajah. Certainly the road went through a gateway. But there must be a break somewhere. We could see that, in the wet season, a lot of water c
omes down there, so there must be some sort of passage for it; and if the passage is big enough for the storm water to go through, it must be big enough for us.”
Surajah agreed, and they turned off from the line that they had before been following; no longer hurrying, but walking at a leisurely pace. They were not pressed for time. There was no chance, whatever, of pursuit; and as they had been going, for some six hours, at the top of their speed, they were both feeling exhausted.
After proceeding for two miles, they came upon a small stream. Here they sat down, lighted a fire, mixed some flour and water—for although the ghee had been taken from them, when they were disarmed, they had been allowed to retain their supply of flour, for their sustenance in prison—and made some small cakes. These they cooked in the glowing embers. They could not be termed a success, for the outside was burned black, while the centre was a pasty mass. However, they sufficed to satisfy their hunger, and after an hour’s rest, they again went forward.
It was not very long before they stood on the edge of the rock wall. They followed this along, but could nowhere find a spot where a descent seemed at all possible. After walking for an hour, they saw a road winding up a long valley below them.
“That is our road,” Dick exclaimed. “That clump of houses, Surajah, must be the one where we generally turned. I know that, from below, these rocks looked as steep as walls, so there is no chance of our finding a way down anywhere, between this and the fort.”
Surajah nodded. To him, also, the ascent of the ghauts had seemed impracticable.
“It is no use following this line any more,” Dick went on. “We may as well strike across, until we come onto the edge of the pass, somewhere above the fort; find a place where we can descend easily, and then lie down and sleep, till it is time to make our attempt.”
In another hour, they were looking down on the road, a mile or so above the fort. The slopes here were gradual, and could be descended without the least difficulty, even in the dark.
“There! Do you see, Surajah? The water course runs along by the side of the road. There is a little water in it now. You know we used to meet with it, down below, and water our horses at a pool close to that ruined village. When we start, we can follow the road until we get close to the fort, and then crawl along in the water course, and take our chances. If we should find it so blocked up that we can’t get through, we must then see how we can get past the place in some other way. If the gate is only barred, no doubt we should be able to overpower the sentry, and get the gate open before any alarm is given. If it is locked, we must do the best we can. We may calculate upon taking the sentry by surprise, as we did in the prison, and on silencing him at once; then we should have time to break up some cartridges, and pour the powder into the keyhole, which is sure to be a big one, make a slow match, and blow the lock open. We could make the slow match before we start, if we had some water.”