Part 24 (1/2)
”'Of course not! Why?' says the e! Why, the whole of India's ablaze from end to end-the sepoys have mutinied to a man, and the rest have joined the-they've shot their officers-Hammond's dead and Carstairs and Welfleet and heaven knoho else They've burned their barracks and the stores and they're trying to seize the et that, God help every one They're short of ammunition as it is, but two coainst that horde You'll be in the nick of tiet a move on!”
IV
”Trot,of his wife, alone in Hanadra, unprotected except by a sixty-year-old Risaldar and a half-brother as a civilian and an unknown quantity There were cold chills running down his spine and a sickening sensation in his sto pace beside hi, hated the Service, and the country-and the guns, that could put him into such a fiendish predicament
O'Rourke broke silence first
”Who is with your wife?” he demanded suddenly
”Heaven knows! I left her under the protection of Risaldar Mahommed Khan, but he was to ride off for an escort for her”
”Not your father's old Risaldar?” asked O'Rourke
”The same”
”Then thank God! I'd sooner trust hi her in alive or slit the throats of half Asia-maybe 'he'll do both! Come, that's off our minds! She's safer with him than she would be here Have you lots of aht all I had with rape!”
”I've lots of it It's nearly all grape”
”Hurrah! Then we'll treat those dirty mutineers to a dose or two of pills they won't fancy! Come on, man-set the pace a little faster!”
”Why didn'tin h There'd be so, they'd credit you with sense enough to bring her in without being told For another, the ot captured on the way-they wouldn't want to tell the sepoyslike a hurry They're attacked there too-can't even send us assistance Told us to waylay you and ot your wife-maybe they didn't It's a devil of a business anyhow!”
It was difficult to talk at the speed that they wereheavily, O'Rourke's especially; the guns thundering along behind the in front, and their attention distracted every other minute by the noise of volleys on ahead and the occasional staccato rattle of independent firing The whole sky was now alight with the reflection of the burning barracks and they could see the ragged outlines of the cracking walls silhouetted against the blazing red within One s they could see, too, the occasional flash of rifles where the two companies of the Thirty-third, Honorable East India Coainst the mutineers
”Why did they mutiny?” asked Bellairs
”God knows! nobody knows! nobody knows anything! I' what?”
”Forrester-Carter is co We'll settle this business pretty quickly, now you've come Then-Steady, boy! Steady! Hold up! This poor horse of mine is just about foundered, by the feel of hih Then we'll ask Carter toMrs Bellairs-maybe we'll meet her and the Risaldar half-ho knows? The sepoys wouldn't expect that, either The ”
”Let's hope Carter will consent!” prayed Bellairs fervently ”Nohat's the lay of things?”
”Couldn't tell you! When I left, our et away Ours are all around the azine and the sepoys are on every side of theonal fire unless you want to hurt soround over to the right there, within four hundred yards of the position Maybe they're holding it, though-there's no knowing!”
They could hear the roar of the fla here and there The rattle of musketry was incessant They could hear howls and yells and bugle-calls blown at random by the sepoys, and once, in answer as it seee chorus fro din of inter cheer