Part 27 (1/2)

VI

The er to the trail of destiny, has been the fact that in every tremendous crisis there have been leaders on the spot to meet it It is not so wonderful that there should be suchbetter, and it is more than likely that the men who have left their footprints in the sands of tie with their coht ht time Scipio met Hannibal; Philip of Spain was forced to ham and Drake; Napoleon Bonaparte, the ”Man of Destiny,” found Wellington and Nelson of the Nile to deal with hiton and Grant and Lincoln seeht of history, like ti devices in an intricate gle was unexpected A handful of Europeans, commissioned and enlisted in the ordinary ith a view to trade, not statesmanshi+p, found theeful millions Succor was a question of months, not days or weeks India was ablaze from end to end with rebel fires that had been planned in secret through silent watchful years The British force was scattered here and there in unconnected details, and each detail was suddenly cut off froht by the British themselves and ere not afraid to die

The suddenness hich the outbreak came was one of the chief assets of the rebels, for they were able to seize guns and s, before the British force could concentrate Their hour could scarcely have been better chosen The Criland's standing army was abroad and deciland by the throat; the income-tax was on a Napoleonic scale andarh of war

India was isolated, at the rebels' mercy, so it seemed There were no railway trains to make swift movements of troops possible Distances were reckoned by the hundred miles-of sun-baked, thirsty dust in the hot weather, and of raph-wires, and the British had to cope with thenews-the so-called ”underground route,” by which news and instructions travel faster than a pigeon flies There was never a greater certainty or a le, at the start The only question seemed to be how many days, or possibly weeks, would pass before jackals crunched the bones of every Englishman in India

But at the British helm was Nicholson, and under hie and resource had been an unknown quantity until the outbreak ca spirit, but it needed only his generalshi+p to fire all the others with that grim enthusiasm that has pulled Great Britain out of soand counter to relieve the scattered posts, a swift, sudden sas s of the rebellion had hatched

As ht their oay in, and those that could not be reached were left to defend the blow had been struck at the heart of things If Delhi could be taken, the rebels would be paralyzed and the rescue of beleaguered details would be easier; so, although odds of one hundred or e in wartiate-there was no tioal; and from north and south and east and west the men who could march marched, and those who could not entrenched themselves, and made ready to die in the last ditch

Some of the natives were loyal still There were men like Risaldar Mahommed Khan, ould have died ten deaths ten times over rather than be false in one particular to the British Government It was these men who helped to es and soh unsuspected where a British soldier would have been shot before he had ridden half a mile Their loyalty was put to the utmost test in that hour, for they can not have believed that the British force could win They knew the extent of as out against them and knew, too, what their fate would be in the event of capture or defeat There would be direr, slower vengeance wreaked on them than on the alien British But they had eaten British salt and pledged their word, and nothing short of death could free them from it There was not a shred of self interest to actuate theiven as law and there it ended

There were isolated commands, like that at Jundhra, that were too far away to strike at Delhi and too large and too efficient to be shut in by the mutineers They were centers on their own account of isolated siven leave to act as he saw best, provided that he acted and did it quickly He could either march to the relief of his detachments or call them in, but under no condition was he to sit still and do nothing

So, Colonel Carter's note addressed to O C-Jundhra only got two-thirds of the way froht to a sudden standstill by an advance-guard of British cavalry, and twoup his note to the General Co The rebels at Jundhra had been worsted and scattered after an eight-hour fight, and General Turner had made up his mind instantly to sweep down on Hanadra with all his force and relieve the British garrison at Doonha on his way

Jundhra was a se city, the center of a province; and, fro Hanadra before the mutineers had time to barricade themselves inside it, he could paralyze the countryside, for in Hanadra were the money and provisions and, above all, the Hindu priests who, in that part of India at least, were the brains of the rebellion So he burned Jundhra, to make it useless to the rebels, and started for Hanadra with every on and round of ammunition that he had

Nos in India travels like the wind, first one way and then another But, unlike the wind, it never whistles Things happen and ible, inaudible, but positive and, in nine cases out of ten, correct in detail A government can no more censor it, or divert it, or stop it on the way, than it can stay the birthrate or tamper with the Great Monsoon

First the priests knew it, then it filtered through the h the smaller streets By the time that General Turner had been two hours on the road with his command every man and woman and child in Hanadra knew that the rebels had been beaten back and that Hanadra was his objective They knew, too, that the section had reached Doonha, had relieved it and started back again And yet not a single rebel who had fought in either engagement ithin twenty ed room above the archway Mahommed Khan paced up and down and chewed at his blackhis scabbard away fro at the priest

”That dog can solve this riddle!” he kept lare at Ruth impatiently and execrate the squeamishness of women Ruth sat on the divan with her face between her hands, trying to force herself to realize the full extent of her predica of hysteria that alrip The priest lay quiet He was in a torture of discoive the Risaldar the satisfaction of knowing it He eased his position quietly froes would let him, but he made no complaint

Suddenly, Ruth looked up It had occurred to her that she asting tiht off the depression that had seized her she would be better occupied

”Mahommed Khan,” she said, ”if I am to leave here on horseback, with you or with an escort, I had better collect sos that I would like to take with me Let me in that room, please!”

”The horse will have all that it can carry, heavenborn, without a load of wos”

”My jewels? I can take them, I suppose?”

He bowed ”They are in there? I will bring them, heavenborn!”

”Nonsense! You don't knohere to find them”

”The ayah-ill show me!”

He fitted the key into the lock and turned it, but Ruth was at his side before he could pass in through the door

”Nonsense, Risaldar! The ayah can't hurt me You have taken her knife away, and that is o in there alone!”