that I was never much of a credit to the family, and I doubt if they
would be so very glad to see me. They were all steady, chapel-going
folk, small farmers, well known and respected over the country-side,
while I was always a bit of a rover. At last, however, when I was
about eighteen, I gave them no more trouble, for I got into a mess
over a girl, and could only get out of it again by taking the queen's
shilling and joining the 3d Buffs, which was just starting for India.
"I wasn't destined to do much soldiering, however. I had just got
past the goose-step, and learned to handle my musket, when I was fool
enough to go swimming in the Ganges. Luckily for me, my company
sergeant, John Holder, was in the water at the same time, and he was
one of the finest swimmers in the service. A crocodile took me, just
as I was half-way across, and nipped off my right leg as clean as a
surgeon could have done it, just above the knee. What with the shock
and the loss of blood, I fainted, and should have drowned if Holder
had not caught hold of me and paddled for the bank. I was five months
in hospital over it, and when at last I was able to limp out of it
with this timber toe strapped to my stump I found myself invalided
out of the army and unfitted for any active occupation.
"I was, as you can imagine, pretty down on my luck at this time, for
I was a useless cripple though not yet in my twentieth year. However,
my misfortune soon proved to be a blessing in disguise. A man named
Abelwhite, who had come out there as an indigo-planter, wanted an
overseer to look after his coolies and keep them up to their work. He
happened to be a friend of our colonel's, who had taken an interest
in me since the accident. To make a long story short, the colonel
recommended me strongly for the post and, as the work was mostly to
be done on horseback, my leg was no great obstacle, for I had enough
knee left to keep good grip on the saddle. What I had to do was to
ride over the plantation, to keep an eye on the men as they worked,
and to report the idlers. The pay was fair, I had comfortable
quarters, and altogether I was content to spend the remainder of my
life in indigo-planting. Mr. Abelwhite was a kind man, and he would
often drop into my little shanty and smoke a pipe with me, for white
folk out there feel their hearts warm to each other as they never do
here at home.
"Well, I was never in luck's way long. Suddenly, without a note of
warning, the great mutiny broke upon us. One month India lay as still
and peaceful, to all appearance, as Surrey or Kent; the next there
were two hundred thousand black devils let loose, and the country was
a perfect hell. Of course you know all about it, gentlemen,--a deal
more than I do, very like, since reading is not in my line. I only
know what I saw with my own eyes. Our plantation was at a place
called Muttra, near the border of the Northwest Provinces. Night
after night the whole sky was alight with the burning bungalows, and
day after day we had small companies of Europeans passing through our
estate with their wives and children, on their way to Agra, where
were the nearest troops. Mr. Abelwhite was an obstinate man. He had
it in his head that the affair had been exaggerated, and that it
would blow over as suddenly as it had sprung up. There he sat on his
veranda, drinking whiskey-pegs and smoking cheroots, while the
country was in a blaze about him. Of course we stuck by him, I and
Dawson, who, with his wife, used to do the book-work and the
managing. Well, one fine day the crash came. I had been away on a
distant plantation, and was riding slowly home in the evening, when
my eye fell upon something all huddled together at the bottom of a
steep nullah. I rode down to see what it was, and the cold struck
through my heart when I found it was Dawson's wife, all cut into
ribbons, and half eaten by jackals and native dogs. A little further
up the road Dawson himself was lying on his face, quite dead, with an
empty revolver in his hand and four Sepoys lying across each other in
front of him. I reined up my horse, wondering which way I should
turn, but at that moment I saw thick smoke curling up from
Abelwhite's bungalow and the flames beginning to burst through the
roof. I knew then that I could do my employer no good, but would only
throw my own life away if I meddled in the matter. From where I stood
I could see hundreds of the black fiends, with their red coats still
on their backs, dancing and howling round the burning house. Some of
them pointed at me, and a couple of bullets sang past my head; so I
broke away across the paddy-fields, and found myself late at night
safe within the walls at Agra.
"As it proved, however, there was no great safety there, either. The
whole country was up like a swarm of bees. Wherever the English could
collect in little bands they held just the ground that their guns
commanded. Everywhere else they were helpless fugitives. It was a
fight of the millions against the hundreds; and the cruellest part of
it was that these men that we fought against, foot, horse, and
gunners, were our own picked troops, whom we had taught and trained,
handling our own weapons, and blowing our own bugle-calls. At Agra
there were the 3d Bengal Fusiliers, some Sikhs, two troops of horse,
and a battery of artillery. A volunteer corps of clerks and merchants
had been formed, and this I joined, wooden leg and all. We went out
to meet the rebels at Shahgunge early in July, and we beat them back
for a time, but our powder gave out, and we had to fall back upon the
city. Nothing but the worst news came to us from every side,--which
is not to be wondered at, for if you look at the map you will see
that we were right in the heart of it. Lucknow is rather better than
a hundred miles to the east, and Cawnpore about as far to the south.
From every point on the compass there was nothing but torture and
murder and outrage.
"The city of Agra is a great place, swarming with fanatics and fierce
devil-worshippers of all sorts. Our handful of men were lost among
the narrow, winding streets. Our leader moved across the river,
therefore, and took up his position in the old fort at Agra. I don't
know if any of you gentlemen have ever read or heard anything of that
old fort. It is a very queer place,--the queerest that ever I was in,
and I have been in some rum corners, too. First of all, it is
enormous in size. I should think that the enclosure must be acres and
acres. There is a modern part, which took all our garrison, women,
children, stores, and everything else, with plenty of room over. But
the modern part is nothing like the size of the old quarter, where
nobody goes, and which is given over to the scorpions and the
centipedes. It is all full of great deserted halls, and winding
passages, and long corridors twisting in and out, so that it is easy
enough for folk to get lost in it. For this reason it was seldom that
any one went into it, though now and again a party with torches might
go exploring.
"The river washes along the front of the old fort, and so protects
it, but on the sides and behind there are many doors, and these had
to be guarded, of course, in the old quarter as well as in that which
was actually held by our troops. We were short-handed, with hardly
men enough to man the angles of the building and to serve the guns.
It was impossible for us, therefore, to station a strong guard at
every one of the innumerable gates. What we did was to organize a
central guard-house in the middle of the fort, and to leave each gate
under the charge of one white man and two or three natives. I was
selected to take charge during certain hours of the night of a small
isolated door upon the southwest side of the building. Two Sikh
troopers were placed under my command, and I was instructed if
anything went wrong to fire my musket, when I might rely upon help
coming at once from the central guard. As the guard was a good two
hundred paces away, however, and as the space between was cut up into
a labyrinth of passages and corridors, I had great doubts as to
whether they could arrive in time to be of any use in case of an
actual attack.
"Well, I was pretty proud at having this small command given me,
since I was a raw recruit, and a game-legged one at that. For two
nights I kept the watch with my Punjaubees. They were tall,
fierce-looking chaps, Mahomet Singh and Abdullah Khan by name, both
old fighting-men who had borne arms against us at Chilian-wallah.
They could talk English pretty well, but I could get little out of
them. They preferred to stand together and jabber all night in their
queer Sikh lingo. For myself, I used to stand outside the gate-way,
looking down on the broad, winding river and on the twinkling lights
of the great city. The beating of drums, the rattle of tomtoms, and
the yells and howls of the rebels, drunk with opium and with bang,
were enough to remind us all night of our dangerous neighbors across
the stream. Every two hours the officer of the night used to come
round to all the posts, to make sure that all was well.
"The third night of my watch was dark and dirty, with a small,
driving rain. It was dreary work standing in the gate-way hour after
hour in such weather. I tried again and again to make my Sikhs talk,
but without much success. At two in the morning the rounds passed,
and broke for a moment the weariness of the night. Finding that my
companions would not be led into conversation, I took out my pipe,
and laid down my musket to strike the match. In an instant the two
Sikhs were upon me. One of them snatched my firelock up and levelled
it at my head, while the other held a great knife to my throat and
swore between his teeth that he would plunge it into me if I moved a
step.
"My first thought was that these fellows were in league with the
rebels, and that this was the beginning of an assault. If our door
were in the hands of the Sepoys the place must fall, and the women
and children be treated as they were in Cawnpore. Maybe you gentlemen
think that I am just making out a case for myself, but I give you my
word that when I thought of that, though I felt the point of the
knife at my throat, I opened my mouth with the intention of giving a
scream, if it was my last one, which might alarm the main guard. The
man who held me seemed to know my thoughts; for, even as I braced
myself to it, he whispered, 'Don't make a noise. The fort is safe
enough. There are no rebel dogs on this side of the river.' There was
the ring of truth in what he said, and I knew that if I raised my
voice I was a dead man. I could read it in the fellow's brown eyes. I
waited, therefore, in silence, to see what it was that they wanted
from me.
"'Listen to me, Sahib,' said the taller and fiercer of the pair, the
one whom they called Abdullah Khan. 'You must either be with us now
or you must be silenced forever. The thing is too great a one for us
to hesitate. Either you are heart and soul with us on your oath on
the cross of the Christians, or your body this night shall be thrown
into the ditch and we shall pass over to our brothers in the rebel
army. There is no middle way. Which is it to be, death or life? We
can only give you three minutes to decide, for the time is passing,
and all must be done before the rounds come again.'
"'How can I decide?' said I. 'You have not told me what you want of
me. But I tell you know that if it is anything against the safety of
the fort I will have no truck with it, so you can drive home your
knife and welcome.'
"'It is nothing against the fort,' said he. 'We only ask you to do
that which your countrymen come to this land for. We ask you to be
rich. If you will be one of us this night, we will swear to you upon
the naked knife, and by the threefold oath which no Sikh was ever
known to break, that you shall have your fair share of the loot. A
quarter of the treasure shall be yours. We can say no fairer.'
"'But what is the treasure, then?' I asked. 'I am as ready to be rich
as you can be, if you will but show me how it can be done.'
"'You will swear, then,' said he, 'by the bones of your father, by
the honor of your mother, by the cross of your faith, to raise no
hand and speak no word against us, either now or afterwards?'
"'I will swear it,' I answered, 'provided that the fort is not
endangered.'
"'Then my comrade and I will swear that you shall have a quarter of
the treasure which shall be equally divided among the four of us.'
"'There are but three,' said I.
"'No; Dost Akbar must have his share. We can tell the tale to you
while we await them. Do you stand at the gate, Mahomet Singh, and
give notice of their coming. The thing stands thus, Sahib, and I tell
it to you because I know that an oath is binding upon a Feringhee,
and that we may trust you. Had you been a lying Hindoo, though you
had sworn by all the gods in their false temples, your blood would
