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from Among Malay Pirates: a tale of
adventure and peril
New York, Hurst and Company (year?)
(Book originally published, 1897)
A JOVIAL party were gathered round a blazing fire in an
old grange near Warwick. The hour was getting late; the very
little ones had, after dancing round the Christmas tree,
enjoying the snap-dragon, and playing a variety of games,
gone off to bed; and the elder boys and girls now gathered
round their uncle, Colonel Harley, and asked him for a
story-- "But I have never seen any ghosts," the
colonel said, laughing; "and, moreover, I don't believe in
them one bit. I have traveled pretty well all over the
world, I have slept in houses said to be haunted, but
nothing have I seen--no noises that could not be accounted
for by rats or the wind have I ever heard. I have
never" "Yes, uncle. But what was the 'once' when
circumstances happened that you could not explain?"
"It's rather a long story," the colonel
said,
"and it's getting late."
"Oh! no, no, uncle; it does not matter a bit
how late we sit up on Christmas Eve, and the longer the
story is, the better; and if you don't believe in ghosts how
can it be a story of something you could not account for by
the light of
nature?"
"You will see when I have done," the
colonel
said. "It is rather a story of what the Scotch call second
sight, than one of ghosts. As to accounting for it, you
shall form your own opinion when you have heard me to the
end.
"I landed in India in '50, and after going
through the regular drill work, marched with detachment up
country to join my regiment, which was stationed at
Jubbalpore, in the very heart of India. It has become an
important place since; the railroad across India passes
through it and no end of changes have taken place; but at
that time it was one of the most out-of- "My great friend there was a man named
Simmonds. He was just of my own standing; we had come out in
the same ship, had marched up the country together, and were
almost like brothers. He was an old Etonian, I an old
Westminster, and we were both fond of boating, and, indeed,
of sport of all kinds. But I am not going to tell you of
that now. The people in these hills are called Gonds, a true
hill tribe--that is to say, aborigines, somewhat of the
negro type. The chiefs are of mixed blood, but the people
are almost black. They are supposed to accept the religion
of the Hindus, but are in reality deplorably ignorant and
superstitious. Their priests are a sort of compound of a
Brahmin priest and a negro fetish man, and among their
principal duties is that of charming away tigers from the
villages by means of incantations. There, as in other parts
of India, were a few wandering fakirs, who enjoyed an
immense reputation for holiness and wisdom. The people would
go to them from great distances for charms or predictions,
and believed in their power with implicit faith.
"At the time when we were at Jubbalpore,
there was one of these fellows, whose reputation altogether
eclipsed that of his rivals, and nothing could be done until
his permission had been asked and his blessing obtained. All
sorts of marvelous stories were constantly coming to our
ears of the unerring foresight with which he predicted the
termination of diseases, both in men and animals; and so
generally was he believed in that the colonel ordered that
no one connected with the regiment should consult him, for
these predictions very frequently brought about their own
fulfilment; for those who were told that an illness would
terminate fatally, lost all hope, and literally lay down to
die.
"However, many of the stories that we heard
could not be explained on these grounds, and the fakir and
his doings were often talked over at mess, some of the
officers scoffing at the whose business, others maintaining
that some of these fakirs had, in some way or another, the
power of foretelling the future, citing many well
authenticated anecdotes upon the subject.
"The older officers were the believers, we
young fellows were the scoffers. But for the well-known fact
that it is very seldom indeed that these fakirs will utter
any of their predictions to Europeans, some of us would have
gone to him, to test his powers. As it was, none of us had
ever seen him.
"He lived in an old ruined temple, in the
middle of a large patch of jungle at the foot of the hills,
some ten or twelve miles away.
"I had been at Jubbalpore about a year, when
I was woke up one night by a native, who came in to say that
at about eight o'clock a tiger had killed a man in his
village, and had dragged off the body.
"Simmonds and I were constantly out after
tigers, and the people in all the villages within twenty
miles knew that we were always ready to pay for early
information. This tiger had been doing great damage, and had
carried off about thirty men, women, and children. So great
was the fear of him, indeed, that the people in the
neighborhood he frequented scarcely dared stir out of doors,
except in parties of five or six. We had had several hunts
after him, but, like all maneaters, he was old and awfully
crafty; and although we got several snap shots at him, he
had always managed to save his skin.
"In a quarter of an hour after the receipt of
the message, Charley Simmonds and I were on the back of an
elephant, which was our joint property; our shekarry, a
capital fellow, was on foot beside us, and with the native
trotting on ahead as guide we went off at the best pace of
old Begaum, for that was the elephant's name. The village
was fifteen miles away, but we got there soon after
daybreak, and were received with delight by the population.
In half an hour the hunt was organized; all the male
population turned out as beaters, with sticks, guns,
tom-toms, and other instruments for making a noise.
"The trail was not difficult to find. A broad
path, with occasional smears of blood, showed where he had
dragged his victim through the long grass to a cluster of
trees a couple of hundred yards from the village.
"We scarcely expected to find him there, but
the villagers held back, while we went forward with cocked
rifles. We found, however, nothing but a few bones and a
quantity of blood. The tiger had made off at the approach of
daylight into the jungle, which was about two miles distant.
We traced him easily enough, and found that he had entered a
large ravine, from which several smaller ones branched off.
"It was an awkward place, as it was next to
impossible to surround it with the number of people at our
command. We posted them at last all along the upper ground,
and told them to make up in noise what they wanted in
numbers. At last all was ready, and we gave the signal.
However, I am not telling you a hunting story, and need only
say that we could neither find nor disturb him. In vain we
pushed Begaum through the thickest of the jungle which
clothed the sides and bottom of the ravine, while the men
shouted, beat their tom-toms, and showered imprecations
against the tiger himself and his ancestors up to the
remotest generations.
"The day was tremendously hot, and, after
three hours' march, we gave it up for a time, and lay down
in the shade, while the shekarries made a long examination
of the ground all round the hillside, to be sure that he had
not left the ravine. They came back with the news that no
traces could be discovered, and that, beyond a doubt, he was
still there. A tiger will crouch up in an exceedingly small
clump of grass or bush, and will sometimes almost allow
himself to be trodden on before moving. However, we
determined to have one more search, and if that should prove
unsuccessful, to send off to Jubbalpore for some more of the
men to come out with elephants, while we kept up a circle of
fires, and of noises of all descriptions, so as to keep him
a prisoner until the arrival of the re-enforcements. Our
next search was no more successful than our first had been;
and having, as we imagined, examined every clump and crevice
in which he could have been concealed, we had just reached
the upper end of the ravine, when we heard a tremendous
roar, followed by a perfect babel of yells and screams from
the natives.
"The outburst came from the mouth of the
ravine, and we felt at once that he had escaped. We hurried
back to find, as we had expected, that the tiger was gone.
He had burst out suddenly from his hiding-place, had seized
a native, torn him horribly and had made across the open
plain.
"This was terribly provoking, but we had
nothing to do but follow him. This was easy enough, and we
traced him to a detached patch of wood and jungle, two miles
distant. This wood was four or five hundred yards across,
and the exclamations of the people at once told us that it
was the one in which stood the ruined temple of the fakir of
whom I have been telling you. I forgot to say, that as the
tiger broke out one of the village shekarries had fired at,
and, he declared, wounded him.
"It was already getting late in the
afternoon, and it was hopeless to attempt to beat the jungle
that night. We therefore sent off a runner with a note to
the colonel, asking him to send the work-elephants, and to
allow a party of volunteers to march over at night, to help
surround the jungle when we commenced beating it in the
morning.
"We based our request upon the fact that the
tiger was a notorious man-eater, and had been doing immense
damage. We then had a talk with our shekarry, sent a man off
to bring provisions for the people out with us, and then set
them to work cutting sticks and grass to make a circle of
fires.
"We both felt much uneasiness respecting the
fakir, who might be seized at any moment by the enraged
tiger. The natives would not allow that there was any cause
for fear, as the tiger would not dare to touch so holy a
man. Our belief in the respect of the tiger for sanctity was
by no means strong, and we determined to go in and warn him
of the presence of the brute in the wood. It was a mission
which we could not intrust to any one else, for no native
would have entered the jungle for untold gold; so we mounted
the Begaum again, and started. The path leading towards the
temple was pretty wide, and as we went along almost
noiselessly, for the elephant was too well trained to tread
upon fallen sticks, it was just possible we might come upon
the tiger suddenly, so we kept our rifles in readiness in
our hands.
"Presently we came in sight of the ruins. No
one was at first visible; but at that very moment the fakir
came out from the temple. He did not see or hear us, for we
were rather behind him and still among the trees, but at
once proceeded in a high voice to break into a sing-song
prayer. He had not said two words before his voice was
drowned in a terrific roar, and in an instant the tiger had
sprung upon him, struck him to the ground, seized him as a
cat would a mouse, and started off with him at a trot. The
brute evidently had not detected our presence, for he came
right towards us. We halted the Begaum, and with our fingers
on the triggers, awaited the favorable moment. He was a
hundred yards from us when he struck down his victim; he was
not more than fifty when he caught sight of us. He stopped
for an instant in surprise. Charley muttered, 'Both barrels,
Harley,' and as the beast turned to plunge into the jungle,
and so showed us his side, we sent four bullets crashing
into him, and he rolled over lifeless.
"We went up to the spot, made the Begaum give
him a kick, to be sure that he was dead, and then got down
to examine the unfortunate fakir. The tiger had seized him
by the shoulder, which was terribly torn, and the bone
broken. He was still perfectly conscious.
"We at once fired three shots, our usual
signal that the tiger was dead, and in a few minutes were
surrounded by the villagers, who hardly knew whether to be
delighted at the death of their enemy, or to grieve over the
injury to the fakir. We proposed taking the latter to our
hospital at Jubbalpore, but this he positively refused to
listen to. However, we finally persuaded him to allow his
arm to be set and the wounds dressed in the first place by
our regimental surgeon, after which he could go to one of
the native villages and have his arm dressed in accordance
with his own notions. A litter was soon improvised, and away
we went to Jubbalpore, which we reached about eight in the
evening.
"The fakir refused to enter the hospital, so
we brought out a couple of trestles, laid the litter upon
them, and the surgeon set his arm and dressed his wounds by
torch-light, when he was lifted into a dhoolie, and his
bearers again prepared to start for the village.
"Hitherto he had only spoken a few words; but
he now briefly expressed his deep gratitude to Simmonds and
myself. We told him that we would ride over to see him
shortly, and hoped to find him getting on rapidly. Another
minute and he was gone.
"It happened that we had three or four
fellows away on leave or on staff duty, and several others
knocked up with fever just about this time, so that the duty
fell very heavily upon the rest of us, and it was over a
month before we had time to ride over to see the fakir.
"We had heard he was going on well; but we
were surprised upon reaching the village, to find that he
had already returned to his old abode in the jungle.
However, we had made up our minds to see him, especially as
we had agreed that we would endeavor to persuade him to do a
prediction for us; so we turned our horses' heads towards
the jungle. We found the fakir sitting on a rock in front of
the temple, just where he had been seized by the tiger. He
rose as we rode up.
"'I knew that you would come to-day, sahibs,
and was joyful in the thought of seeing those who have
preserved my life.'
"'We are glad to see you looking pretty
strong again, though your arm is still in a sling,' I said,
for Simmonds was not strong in Hindustani.
"'How did you know that we were coming?' I
asked, when we had tied up our horses.
"'Siva has given to his servant to know many
things,' he said quietly.
"'Did you know beforehand that the tiger was
going to seize you?' I asked.
"'I knew that a great danger threatened, and
that Siva would not let me die before my time had come.'
"'Could you see into our future?' I asked.
"The fakir hesitated, looked at me for a
moment earnestly to see if I was speaking in mockery, and
then said:
"'The sahibs do not believe in the power of
Siva or of his servants. They call his messengers impostors,
and scoff at them when they speak of the events of the
future.'
"'No, indeed,' I said. 'My friend and I have
no idea of scoffing. We have heard of so many of your
predictions coming true, that we are really anxious that you
should tell us something of the future.'
"The fakir nodded his head, went into the
temple, and returned in a minute or two with two small pipes
used by the natives for opium-smoking, and a brazier of
burning charcoal. The pipes were already charged. He made
signs to us to sit down, and took his place in front of us.
Then he began singing in a low voice, rocking himself to and
fro, and waving a staff which he held in his hand. Gradually
his voice rose, and his gesticulations and actions became
more violent. So far as I could make out, it was a prayer to
Siva that he would give some glimpse of the future which
might benefit the sahibs who had saved the life of his
servant. Presently he darted forward, gave us each a pipe,
took two pieces of red-hot charcoal from the brazier in his
fingers, without seeming to know that they were warm, and
placed them in the pipes; then he recommenced his singing
and gesticulations.
"A glance at Charley, to see if, like myself,
he was ready to carry the thing through, and then I put the
pipe to my lips. I felt at once that it was opium, of which
I had before made experiment, but mixed with some other
substance, which was, I imagine, haschish, a preparation of
hemp. A few puffs, and I felt a drowsiness creeping over me.
I saw, as through a mist, the fakir swaying himself
backwards and forwards, his arms waving, and his face
distorted. Another minute, and the pipe slipped from my
fingers, and I fell back insensible.
"How long I lay there I do not know. I woke
with a strange and not unpleasant sensation, and presently
became conscious that the fakir was gently pressing, with a
sort of shampooing action, my temples and head. When he saw
that I opened my eyes he left me, and performed the same
process upon Charley. In a few minutes he rose from his
stooping position, waved his hand in token of adieu and
walked slowly back into the temple.
"As he disappeared I sat up; Charley did the
same.
"We stared at each other for a minute without
speaking, and then Charley said:
"'This is a rum go, and no mistake, old man.'
"'You're right, Charley. My opinion is, we've
made fools of ourselves. Let's be off out of this.'
"We staggered to our feet, for we both felt
like drunken men, made our way to our horses, poured a
mussuk of water over our heads, took a drink of brandy from
our flasks, and then feeling more like ourselves, mounted
and rode out of the jungle.
"'Well, Harley, if the glimpse of futurity
which I had is true, all I can say is that it was extremely
unpleasant.'
"'That was just my case, Charley.'
"'My dream, or whatever you like to call it
was about a mutiny of the men.#'
"'You don't say so, Charley; so was mine.
This is monstrously strange, to say the least of it.
However, you tell your story first, and then I will tell
mine.'
"'It was very short,' Charley said. 'We were at mess--not in
our present mess-room--we were dining with the fellows of
some other regiment. Suddenly, without any warning, the
windows were filled with a crowd of Sepoys, who opened fire
right and left into us. Half the fellows were shot down at
once; the rest of us made a rush to our swords just as the
niggers came swarming into the room. There was a desperate
fight for a moment. I remember that Subadar
Piràn--one of the best native officers in the
regiment, by the way--made a rush at me, and I shot him
through the head with a revolver. At the same moment a ball
hit me, and down I went. At the moment a Sepoy fell dead
across me, hiding me partly from sight. The fight lasted a
minute or two longer.
I fancy a few fellows escaped, for I heard
shots outside. Then the place became quiet. In another
minute I heard a crackling, and saw that the devils had set
the mess-room on fire. One of our men, who was lying close
by me, got up and crawled to the window, but he was shot
down the moment he showed himself. I was hesitating whether
to do the same or to lie still and be smothered, when
suddenly I rolled the dead Sepoy off, crawled into the
anteroom half-suffocated by smoke, raised the lid of a very
heavy trap-door, and stumbled down some steps into a place,
half store-house half cellar, under the mess-room. How I
knew about it being there I don't know. The trap closed over
my head with a bang. That is all I remember.'
"'Well, Charley, curiously enough my dream
was also about an extraordinary escape from danger, lasting,
like yours, only a minute or two. The first thing I
remember--there seems to have been something before, but
what, I don't know--I was on horseback, holding a very
pretty but awfully pale girl in front of me. We were pursued
by a whole troop of Sepoy cavalry, who were firing
pistol-shots at us. We were not more than seventy or eighty
yards in front, and they were gaining fast, just as I rode
into a large deserted temple. In the center was a huge stone
figure. I jumped off my horse with the lady, and as I did so
she said, 'Blow out my brains, Edward; don't let me fall
alive into their hands.'
"'Instead of answering, I hurried her round
behind the idol, pushed against one of the leaves of a
flower in the carving, and the stone swung back, and showed
a hole just large enough to get through, with a stone
staircase inside the body of the idol, made no doubt for the
priest to go up and give responses through the mouth. I
hurried the girl through, crept in after her, and closed the
stone, just as our pursuers came clattering into the
courtyard. That is all I remember.'
"'Well, it is monstrously rum,' Charley said,
after a pause. 'Did you understand what the old fellow was
singing about before he gave us the pipes?"
"'Yes; I caught the general drift. It was an
entreaty to Siva to give us some glimpse of futurity which
might benefit us.'
"We lit our cheroots and rode for some miles
at a brisk canter without remark. When we were within a
short distance of home we reined up.
"'I feel ever so much better,' Charley said.
'We have got that opium out of our heads now. How do you
account for it all, Harley?'
"'I account for it in this way, Charley. The
opium naturally had the effect of making us both dream, and
as we took similar doses of the same mixture, under similar
circumstances, it is scarcely extraordinary that it should
have affected the same portion of the brain, and caused a
certain similarity in our dreams. In all nightmares
something terrible happens, or is on the point of happening;
and so it was here. Not unnaturally in both our cases, our
thoughts turned to soldiers. If you remember there was a
talk at mess some little time since, as to what would happen
in the extremely unlikely event of the Sepoys mutinying in a
body. I have no doubt that was the foundation of both our
dreams. It is all natural enough when we come to think it
over calmly. I think, by the way, we had better agree to say
nothing at all about it in the regiment.'
"'I should think not,' Charley said. 'We
should never hear the end of it; they would chaff us out of
our lives.'
"We kept our secret, and came at last to
laugh over it heartily when we were together. Then the
subject dropped, and by the end of a year had as much
escaped our minds as any other dream would have done. Three
months after the affair the regiment was ordered down to
Allahabad, and the change of place no doubt helped to erase
all memory of the dream. Four years after we had left
Jubbalpore we went to Beerapore. The time is very marked in
my memory, because, the very week we arrived there, your
aunt, then Miss Gardiner, came out from England, to her
father, our colonel. The instant I saw her I was impressed
with the idea that I knew her intimately. I recollected her
face, her figure, and the very tone of her voice, but
wherever I had met her I could not conceive. Upon the
occasion of my first introduction to her, I could not help
telling her that I was convinced that we had met, and asking
her if she did not remember it. No, she did not remember,
but very likely she might have done so, and she suggested
the names of several people at whose houses we might have
met. I did not know any of them. Presently she asked how
long I had been out in India?
"'Six years,' I said.
"'And how old, Mr. Harley' she said, 'do you
take me to be?'
"I saw in an instant my stupidity, and was
stammering out an apology, when she went on--
"'I am very little over eighteen, Mr. Harley,
although I evidently look ever so many years older; but papa
can certify to my age; so I was only twelve when you left
England.'
"I tried in vain to clear matters up. Your
aunt would insist that I took her to be forty, and the fun
that my blunder made rather drew us together, and gave me a
start over the other fellows at the station, half of whom
fell straightway in love with her. Some months went on, and
when the mutiny broke out we were engaged to be married. It
is a proof of how completely the opium-dreams had passed out
of the minds of both Simmonds and myself, that even when
rumors of general disaffection among the Sepoys began to be
current, they never once recurred to us; and even when the
news of the actual mutiny reached us, we were just as
confident as were the others of the fidelity of our own
regiment. It was the old story, foolish confidence and black
treachery. As at very many other stations, the mutiny broke
out when we were at mess. Our regiment was dining with the
34th Bengalees. Suddenly, just as dinner was over, the
window was opened, and a tremendous fire poured in. Four or
five men fell dead at once, and the poor colonel, who was
next to me, was shot right through the head. Every one
rushed to his sword and drew his pistol--for we had been
ordered to carry pistols as part of our uniform. I was next
to Charley Simmonds as the Sepoys of both regiments, headed
by Subadar Pir#àn poured in at the windows.
"'I have it now,' Charley said; 'it is the
scene I dreamed.'
"As he spoke he fired his revolver at the
subadar, who fell dead in his tracks.
"A Sepoy close by leveled his musket and
fired. Charley fell, and the fellow rushed forward to
bayonet him. As he did so I sent a bullet through his head,
and he fell across Charley. It was a wild fight for a minute
or two, and then a few of us made a sudden rush together,
cut our way through the mutineers, and darted through an
open window on to the parade. There were shouts, shots, and
screams from the officers' bungalows, and in several places
flames were already rising. What became of the other men I
knew not; I made as hard as I could tear for the colonel's
bungalow. Suddenly I came upon a sowar sitting on his horse
watching the rising flames. Before he saw me I was on him,
and ran him through. I leapt on his horse and galloped down
to Gardiner's compound. I saw lots of Sepoys in and around
the bungalow, all engaged in looting. I dashed into the
compound.
"'May! May!' I shouted. #'Where are you?'
"I had scarcely spoken before a dark figure
rushed out of a clump of bushes close by with a scream of
delight.
"In an instant she was on the horse before
me, and shooting down a couple of fellows who made a rush at
my reins, I dashed out again. Stray shots were fired after
us. But fortunately the Sepoys were all busy looting, most
of them had laid down their muskets, and no one really took
up the pursuit. I turned off from the parade-ground, dashed
down between the hedges of two compounds, and in another
minute we were in the open country.
"Fortunately, the cavalry were all down
looting their own lines, or we must have been overtaken at
once. May happily had fainted as I lifted her on to my
horse--happily, because the fearful screams that we heard
from the various bungalows almost drove me mad, and would
probably have killed her, for the poor ladies were all her
intimate friends.
"I rode on for some hours, till I felt quite
safe from any immediate pursuit, and then we halted in the
shelter of a clump of trees.
"By this time I had heard May's story. She
had felt uneasy at being alone, but had laughed at herself
for being so, until upon her speaking to one of the servants
he had answered in a tone of gross insolence, which had
astonished her. She at once guessed that there was danger,
and the moment that she was alone caught up a large, dark
carriage rug, wrapped it round her so as to conceal her
white dress, and stole out into the veranda. The night was
dark, and scarcely had she left the house than she heard a
burst of firing across at the mess-house. She at once ran in
among the bushes and crouched there, as she heard the rush
of men into the room she had just left. She heard them
searching for her, but they were looking for a white dress,
and her dark rug saved her. What she must have suffered in
the five minutes between the firing of the first shots and
my arrival, she only knows. May had spoken but very little
since we started. I believe that she was certain that her
father was dead, although I had given an evasive answer when
she asked me; and her terrible sense of loss, added to the
horror of that time of suspense in the garden, had
completely stunned her. We waited in the tope until the
afternoon, and then set out again.
"We had gone but a short distance when we saw
a body of the rebel cavalry in pursuit. They had no doubt
been scouring the country generally, and the discovery was
accidental. For a short time we kept away from them, but
this could not be for long, as our horse was carrying
double. I made for a sort of ruin I saw at the foot of a
hill, half a mile away. I did so with no idea of the
possibility of concealment. My intention was simply to get
my back to a rock and to sell my life as dearly as I could,
keeping the last two barrels of the revolver for ourselves.
Certainly no remembrance of my dream influenced me in any
way, and in the wild whirl of excitement I had not given a
second thought to Charley Simmonds' exclamation. As we rode
up to the ruins only a hundred yards ahead of us, May said:
"'Blow out my brains, Edward; don't let me
fall alive into their hands.'
"A shock of remembrance shot across me. The
chase, her pale face, the words, the temple--all my dream
rushed into my mind.
"'We are saved,' I cried, to her amazement,
as we rode into the courtyard, in whose center a great
figure was sitting.
"I leapt from the horse, snatched the mussuk
of water from the saddle, and then hurried May round the
idol, between which and the rock behind, there was but just
room to get along.
"Not a doubt entered my mind but that I
should find the spring as I had dreamed. Sure enough there
was the carving, fresh upon my memory as if I had seen it
but the day before. I placed my hand on the leaflet without
hesitation, a solid stone moved back, I hurried my amazed
companion in, and shut to the stone. I found, and shot to, a
massive bolt, evidently placed to prevent the door being
opened by accident or design when any one was in the idol.
"At first it seemed quite dark, but a faint
light streamed in from above; we made our way up the stairs,
and found that the light came through a number of small
holes pierced in the upper part of the head, and through
still smaller holes lower down, not much larger than a
good-sized knitting-needle could pass through. These holes,
we afterwards found, were in the ornaments round the idol's
neck. The holes enlarged inside, and enabled us to have a
view all round.
"The mutineers were furious at our
disappearance, and for hours searched about. Then, saying
that we must be hidden somewhere, and that they would wait
till we came out, they proceeded to bivouac in the courtyard
of the temple.
"We passed four terrible days, but on the
morning of the fifth a scout came in to tell the rebels that
a column of British troops marching on Delhi would pass
close by the temple. They therefore hastily mounted and
galloped off.
"Three-quarters of an hour later we were safe
among our own people. A fortnight afterwards your aunt and I
were married. It was no time for ceremony then; there were
no means of sending her away; no place where she could have
waited until the time for her mourning for her father was
over. So we were married quietly by one of the chaplains of
the troops, and, as your storybooks say, have lived very
happily ever after."
"And how about Mr. Simmonds, uncle? Did he
get safe off too?"
"Yes, his dream came as vividly to his mind
as mine had done. He crawled to the place where he knew the
trap-door would be, and got into the cellar. Fortunately for
him there were plenty of eatables there, and he lived there
in concealment for a fortnight. After that he crawled out,
and found the mutineers had marched for Delhi. He went
through a lot, but at last joined us before that city. We
often talked over our dreams together, and there was no
question that we owe our lives to them. Even then we did not
talk much to other people about them, for there would have
been a lot of talk, and inquiry, and questions, and you know
fellows hate that sort of thing. So we held our tongues.
Poor Charley's silence was sealed a year later at Lucknow,
for on the advance with Lord Clyde he was killed.
"And now, boys and girls, you must run off to
bed. Five minutes more and it will be Christmas-day. So you
see, Frank, that although I don't believe in ghosts, I have
yet met with a circumstance which I cannot account for."
"It is very curious anyhow, uncle, and beats
ghost stories into fits."
"I like it better, certainly," one of
the
girls said, "for we can go to bed without being afraid of
dreaming about it."
"Well, you must not talk any more now. Off to
bed, off to bed," Colonel Harley said, "or I shall get
into
terrible disgrace with your fathers and mothers, who have
been looking very gravely at me for the last three-quarters
of an hour."
(End.)