SIX LIVES OR ONE ?

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1111, 21 December 1869, Page 3

SIX LIVES OR ONE ?

A TALE OF, THB MUTIISFXVfcij VV

(from " Cassell's Magazine -'..for Qotober),

IN TWO . PARTS.— PABT.OT PIBST.!

CHAPTER Ij

Was he true, or washoifalse P That.WM J the problem w:e had to- solve ; but howj.tp >;.• arrivo at the truth P . Ladi'Dadi had been 7, with my brother five, years, changing: , about.from station to station-^aiways .fat,, ... good-tempered, and willing; ,4 eo ? a^g .••'•• with Eastern volubility ; and flourish, thal& he would die any day for the S^hib j;.andy : :', as for my brofhi^'i .wife, he would lie ;> down any time for ncr to make, him the, . carpet beneath her- feet. He md not. behave very dishonestly himself ; whileasto. others he took good care that no prowling nigger should trespass withinthe bounds . of the verandah by night. One is obliged to wink a little at the peccadilloes of In-?.' dian servants; but, as far as.'wo; could judge, Ladi Dadi—or as my brother called \ him, on account of his round, unctuous . person and oily face, Lardy—was as good a servant as could be obtained south of the Hill Country, which, after all, was not saying much. But was he true P or would he, forgetful of past benefits, and mindful of nasty threats and objurgations uttered by peevish people suffering from the heat in a climate un suited to their constitutions, now, in these dread days of trouble, turn upon us, siding with his countrymen, and delivering us over to the horrors pf whoseperpetration we had heard enough to drive calmness and reflection far away? „

For it was during the height of tho Indian mutiny, when staying *with my brother's wife at a station far removed from safety, .that the question heading this Eaper requir-ed^ solution; :_ln indifferent ealth myself, and left in -charge: of my brother's wife, who was slowly recovering from a shock which had threatened to crush out her Hfe— tboug-h now, weak as she was, there was something almost sub? lime in the look of ineffable joy with which • she would gaze upon the sturdy little one in her lap ; with her two sisters, who had but lately come out from England, and a couple of English servants, one the companion of oiir travels, the other the maid of the sisters, mine was hot an enviable position. Surrounded by people who would certainly declare in favour o£ their fellow countrymen ;' fifty miles from help before Lucknow was besieged; and also unable to share the perils and horrors of the ill-fated place through the sickness of my brother's wife, to whom, upon the first rumours of trouble, removal might have been fatal— l felt completely alone, and was waiting in daily expectation of M the fate which had befallen so many of. :'. our friends and neighbours, my brother being actively employed with his regi? ment.

I had proposed to senc£ the sisters on to Lucknow, but they expressed great unwillingness to go; and as at that time Lardy would have been their sole escort, and doubts, just or unjust, had begun. to spring up in my mind, I yielded without much pressure to their prayer that they might stay and share our safety, or peril, as ifc might turn oufc. , For, dread as had been the scanty news brought in at times, we were unwilling to believe all, taking it for granted that it had been magnified during its journey; but when at last we learned for certain that the family of the doctor,., the only intimates we had in this oukof-the-way place, had beon cruelly murdered, we were almost plunged in despair, since, helpless, aloiie, and Abound to our home by the dread of falling into greater danger if we, stirred, . there was nothing for us but a horrible inaotion, and the faint hope that the 'people about would not turn upon us, but keep any marauding party from finding put our whereabouts. As to my dealings with the people, I could not recall a single act that I had done likely to excite their animosity. But that was nothing ; the idea that seemed to pervade them at that time was that their rulers must be driven oufc— exterminated ; and, after encountering louring looks whenever I went out, I returned .home with the feeling strong upon me that I could do nothing but patiently await the • result — leaving our fate in the hands of a higher Power, since we were of ourselves utterly helpless. Fleeing was out of the question ; hiding in the woods nieant starvation ,* resistance would be vain, for I was the only male European there ; and half • mad with anxiety at a time when I was obliged to speak cheerfully and hopeftdly to those who watched every change of my countenance, I could not at times help thinking that it would be an act of mercy to the poor helpless ones' in my charge it', at the last, I did that which rumour told me had been done — with my own hands preventing them from falling alive into the power of the enemy. And now it was that the question kept rising respecting Lardy—" Was he true P" To all appearance the poor fellow never was more attentive ; carefully ministering to all our wants, bringing us news, watching ever ; but on more than one occasion, when anxiety led me to rise from my restless coucb to prowl round the house fco see if there were danger at hand— danger that . I was always meeting more than half-way-—Lardy was missing. " Where go, Sahib P" he would say, on being taxed with his absence. "Go look see if rabble coming, so massa and Missy . Sahib get down in cellar place." For, as a last resort when the peril , came, I had mado arrangements for turning one of the cellars into, a hiding-place, , taking down provisions, water, wine, and : a little furniture, as well as such arms as I possessed ; tlie thoujght always coming, as I made these preparations, that my duty to my brother was to fight to my last gasp. Wo had two cellars, and it was in the farther one— a dark, gloomy place— that I , made these arrangements, providing myself too with brioks, for filling up the . doorway from the inside, and leaving outside whitewash and a brush, so that Lardy could coat over the slight wall I piled up, thus giving us poor walled-in prisoners a chance of escape ; always supposing that wo had time to carry out these arrangements, and that our native servant would be faithful. In the hurried search that would be made, it was quite within the bounds of probability that the marauding party .would pass the roughlyconstructed wall, seize upon tho wine and spirits they would find in the first cellar, and then, concluding that we had escaped, proceed to plunder the house. But now, in the face of such an opportunifcy, would Lardy feel that he owed us allegiance? Would he not snatch at. the chance of casting off the yoke,, and, joining his countrymen, enrich himself afc our expense P . < • , V.- - • .- My sister said no. Lardy was so old and faithful a servant, she could.trust her * life in his hands ; and I believed that this. - , was the only time before the great to^bieV; came upon us that I spoke as if. burdened; by gloomy forebodings,; and said .t^at all • , our lives were in his keeping. V ; 1.,,; • ;:; : '; : .'*. " : /' 7CHAPTSR'iIi i - ; ,r -; 1 - '' Uy^TZ' f- What water's tWli^clyiPV^^'one;? : day. "It' must U'M(tsp^o!s "sW",' V you touso

girl Kate handing. me bricks an<i passing me handluls of mortar, until 'my little opening was close to the top, when a few more handfuls of the cement shut out the last ray of, pale light, and we were to all intents and purposes buried alive. 7 ' '' ENi» OPTPABT THB WEBT. ' •

. '^WeU^water not good now, Sahib — must We outer tank." : I did not inake any reply; but remem- ; ber thinking" it strange that the well ' .* should bavel^cdme'teinted ; but my mind was too full of anxious" forebodings to take muchheed of petty domestic troubles, so I soon after rose and left the room, intending to reconnoitre a little in the neiglibourhbod. , - But J the dark; scowling facea'X encountered, and the thought that wlnlel.was at, a distance trouble might Mitt&^pbh MsW* ihy ; oharge, where there'^ereso*i^yiipprotected,droveme baok mime. to liieSt'' fc J very voluble en-counted-beWie^ the maid; the well-water, the former tovhij snatched a jugful .away from ber, atid7scatte|ed it far andjftide. to the great' anoyance of the girl, who deoiared the soft water to be unfit for Christians to drinkv'

Unmlling to do the slightest thing that might tend to promote an unfriendly feeling between the family and the native, I directly, took' Kis part, ordering the girl indoors, where she immediately gave vent to her anger and annoyance in a not very novel way, for upon entering the room ten minutes after, I found her standing redeyed and angry before my brother's wife. ". Kate has been giving me warning to leave/ Charles," said my sister. I could not help smiling sadly at her words j *and the girl must have divined my thoughts, for, holding her apron to her face, she dashed out of the. room, and we saw her ho more that day. "AJil" /I.said ratherdplefully," I wis|li we (Hfcidd-all give warning and get aiway." "' f Butfjdotft you think Lardy is very Btrangei-Tvery important and imperious in his ways -P" said my sister. «-Qhj ( nol-T-#ifey;' I replied. "We are ail nervous and fidgety, <and given to making mountains, of molehills.!' " Aro we to be-niade prisoners, Charley P" exclaimed one of the sisters, as they now entered the rbomV

"Kisphors:!" I echoed, half dreading? ihat sbmeliing was.wrbng. - .'-..!, <-.!•.. " Yes): prisoners.. •. We went for a stroll in the* wood atftho back, an.d that horrible man Lardy came and insisted npon our coming home. In faot, he was almost rade, taking hold of Lizzie's arm, and turning lier rbund." , " Otrefc-anjaeiy for our welfare," I replied ; but all the while feeling exceedingly uneasy—a feeling.augmented bvthe man's behaviour towards myself. "If he proves treacherous:—- •" I muttered. I said no more, but .there was a fearful oath registered in silence as to the fellow's fate if opportunity :served, and he proved to have betrayed us into the rebels hands. And then two days passed, whose long, drawn-out hours seemed without end. The Jleiy was insufferable, the water we were drinking vile, while nothing but an open rupture with Lardy would have enabled us to ob tain access to the well. But all doubt upon that score was put an end to by the native himself, who in my sight drew a buoket from the well, and showed me that it was decidedly impure. A dozen times over I was for making our escape across the country when rumour asserted that the mutineers were in the neighbourhood ; but reason told me that such a step would be sheer madness, since, even if we did not meet with our bloodthirsty enemies, the weak women would be certain to perish of exhaustion. " Sahib sit still and wait," Larry would say; "think perhaps fellows never come at all j but if they come, Sahib go down cellar, and keep quiet till all gone again." It was on the ninth day after our preparations that, unable to sleep, I had risen about .three, and was leaning from my open window enjoying the coolness, when I heard a shdutiii the distance, and that followed hy others, whioh plainly told me' that if'n6t;th#enemy, it was at all events caused by something, unusual. Living as we were theh^pori the slope of a treacherous volcano, I 'took this as a warning of the expected eraption, and lost no time in arousing those in the house, and hurrying them down into the hiding-place,, taking care ta scatter , the bed-clothes and different garments about the rooms, so' «is to indications bf there having beon a *. 'rriedflight in the hope that the sight of Jr ■•onfasion would prevent too close a ram* Tlienl^astilypiledupthebri.Bks, ii a W thii m ? rtar I had ke P t mois * *fti « a oSyfesh.' o^ l^ certain that ao waUw y asever,^2n m wf ICkly ;°J ? worse style, sine.' m «n first Tjegan to da ub bricks with temi» ered or ed mortar. „ , , , It was as much as I cS™ <* 0 -<> Pwrei at the womenv&om bursting C™ mto hy stei aca> cries, as they saw them.3elves beir ig immuredin the dark dungeon J for I w as at work on the outside, meaning to lea ye just sufficient room to creep through at the top, and then to finish from the insi- de, trusting to a few holes I hi.\d bored in the floor above for fresh air. Again and again my hand i r aikd me, for now, at what I felt was a time of lmmment danger, lardy was absent, and. I could not but feel that my task was labour i n vain, seeing in my mind's eye a savage, bloodstained "party dragging us from ou* concealment, while, as I thought of the . liternative, a cold sweat broke out upon *ny forehead, and I shuddered again a.^d again. " He must be in league with them," I < thought; and dozens of little acts that seemed suspicious occurred to my mind, so that I regretted now that I had not determined to try to escape across oountry ; for after all, we might nave been as likely to Mm with a party of friends as with our eneitties, and it would have been bettor, I thougWto be at the worst in the hands, of Grbd than in those of man. But Jhis was liow all unavailing ; I had made my arrangements, and I knew that I must abide by them; ; So, after warning those under my care to -preserve utter silence, and endeavouring in vain to reassure them, I cautiously stole up the stairs, listening as I went. All was silent though, and I began to think that I had taken alarm too soon, when j was startled by a crackling in the "bushes. opposite the open window, and directly after, Lardy dashed in at the verandah seeming startled at the sight of the revolver I held pointed towards him. "Coming now, Sahib— -hundreds— bad men," he gasped, for he had evidently been running. " And how did they know the way here, Lardy P" I said, gazing through the pale dawn at the man's dusk-y features. " Bad people in the village tell," he replied. /"But Sahib go down and take Mem Sahib, and Miss, and Lardy say all gone away." There was nothing else for it, and once more hurrying down, I crawled over my tottering, piece of wallj and told the native to smear ft over with the whitewash as, seizing brick' and mortar,' I began to pile up more and more .towards the low ceiliag,y.' :y i ;•>'■ y' ,'■■ "N6: time now, Sahib!'' cried the man,, and in; the twilight of the place I saw him •. liaßt%;tnrus. pail and brush into a corner, y an^t^u^^auitvas there fell upon my ■x eM^e;trra^lu_gf of foot, and the gabbling '■ 7of^i^^a^da.]3^dred vbices ; talking Vv^Oja^^^^v.v'vV;;-':" ;-'- ■ he Vlitt noKffceaiy betrayed us •," but with .. itted^fermjniftfioa to leave nothing undone