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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales of Daring and Danger, by G. A. Henty
+#22 in our series by G. A. Henty
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+Title: Tales of Daring and Danger
+
+Author: G. A. Henty
+
+Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7870]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 28, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES OF DARING AND DANGER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produce by Juliet Sutherland, Thomas Hutchinson
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+TALES OF DARING AND DANGER.
+
+
+by G. A. Henty
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+BEARS AND DACOITS
+THE PATERNOSTERS
+A PIPE OF MYSTERY
+WHITE-FACED DICK
+A BRUSH WITH THE CHINESE
+
+
+
+
+
+BEARS AND DACOITS.
+
+A TALE OF THE GHAUTS
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+A merry party were sitting in the verandah of one of the largest and
+handsomest bungalows of Poonah. It belonged to Colonel Hastings, colonel
+of a native regiment stationed there, and at present, in virtue of
+seniority, commanding a brigade. Tiffin was on, and three or four
+officers and four ladies had taken their seats in the comfortable cane
+lounging chairs which form the invariable furniture of the verandah of a
+well-ordered bungalow. Permission had been duly asked, and granted by
+Mrs. Hastings and the cheroots had just begun to draw, when Miss
+Hastings, a niece of the colonel, who had only arrived the previous week
+from England, said,--
+
+"Uncle, I am quite disappointed. Mrs. Lyons showed me the bear she has
+got tied up in their compound, and it is the most wretched little thing,
+not bigger than Rover, papa's retriever, and it's full-grown. I thought
+bears were great fierce creatures, and this poor little thing seemed so
+restless and unhappy that I thought it quite a shame not to let it go."
+
+Colonel Hastings smiled rather grimly.
+
+"And yet, small and insignificant as that bear is, my dear, it is a
+question whether he is not as dangerous an animal to meddle with as a
+man-eating tiger."
+
+"What, that wretched little bear, Uncle?"
+
+"Yes, that wretched little bear. Any experienced sportsman will tell you
+that hunting those little bears is as dangerous a sport as tiger-hunting
+on foot, to say nothing of tiger-hunting from an elephant's back, in
+which there is scarcely any danger whatever. I can speak feelingly about
+it, for my career was pretty nearly brought to an end by a bear, just
+after I entered the army, some thirty years ago, at a spot within a few
+miles from here. I have got the scars on my shoulder and arm still."
+
+"Oh, do tell me all about it," Miss Hastings said, and the request being
+seconded by the rest of the party, none of whom, with the exception of
+Mrs. Hastings, had ever heard the story before--for the colonel was
+somewhat chary of relating this special experience--he waited till they
+had all drawn up their chairs as close as possible, and then giving two
+or three vigorous puffs at his cheroot, began as follows--
+
+"Thirty years ago, in 1855, things were not so settled in the Deccan as
+they are now. There was no idea of insurrection on a large scale, but we
+were going through one of those outbreaks of Dacoity, which have several
+times proved so troublesome. Bands of marauders kept the country in
+confusion, pouring down on a village, now carrying off three or four of
+the Bombay money-lenders, who were then, as now, the curse of the
+country; sometimes making an onslaught upon a body of traders; and
+occasionally venturing to attack small detachments of troops or isolated
+parties of police. They were not very formidable, but they were very
+troublesome, and most difficult to catch, for the peasantry regarded
+them as patriots, and aided and shielded them in every way. The
+head-quarters of these gangs of Dacoits were the Ghauts. In the thick
+bush and deep valleys and gorges there they could always take refuge,
+while sometimes the more daring chiefs converted these detached peaks
+and masses of rock, numbers of which you can see as you come up the
+Ghaut by railway, into almost impregnable fortresses. Many of these
+masses of rock rise as sheer up from the hillside as walls of masonry,
+and look at a short distance like ruined castles. Some are absolutely
+inaccessible, others can only be scaled by experienced climbers, and,
+although possible for the natives with their bare feet, are
+impracticable to European troops. Many of these rock fortresses were at
+various times the headquarters of famous Dacoit leaders, and unless the
+summits happened to be commanded from some higher ground within gunshot
+range they were all but impregnable except by starvation. When driven to
+bay, these fellows would fight well.
+
+"Well, about the time I joined, the Dacoits were unusually troublesome;
+the police had a hard time of it, and almost lived in the saddle, and
+the cavalry were constantly called up to help them, while detachments of
+infantry from the station were under canvas at several places along the
+top of the Ghauts to cut the bands off from their strongholds, and to
+aid, if necessary, in turning them out of their rock fortresses. The
+natives in the valleys at the foot of the Ghauts, who have always been a
+semi-independent race, ready to rob whenever they saw a chance, were
+great friends with the Dacoits, and supplied them with provisions
+whenever the hunt on the Deccan was too hot for them to make raids in
+that direction.
+
+"This is a long introduction, you will say, and does not seem to have
+much to do with bears; but it is really necessary, as you will see. I
+had joined about six months when three companies of the regiment were
+ordered to relieve a wing of the 15th, who had been under canvas at a
+village some four miles to the north of the point where the line crosses
+the top of the Ghauts. There were three white officers, and little
+enough to do, except when a party was sent off to assist the police. We
+had one or two brushes with the Dacoits, but I was not out on either
+occasion. However, there was plenty of shooting, and a good many pigs
+about, so we had very good fun. Of course, as a raw hand, I was very
+hot for it, and as the others had both passed the enthusiastic age,
+except for pig-sticking and big game, I could always get away. I was
+supposed not to go far from camp, because, in the first place, I might
+be wanted; and, in the second, because of the Dacoits; and Norworthy,
+who was in command, used to impress upon me that I ought not to go
+beyond the sound of a bugle. Of course we both knew that if I intended
+to get any sport I must go further afoot than this; but I merely used to
+say 'All right, sir, I will keep an ear to the camp,' and he on his part
+never considered it necessary to ask where the game which appeared on
+the table came from. But in point of fact, I never went very far, and my
+servant always had instructions which way to send for me if I was
+wanted; while as to the Dacoits I did not believe in their having the
+impudence to come in broad daylight within a mile or two of our camp. I
+did not often go down the face of the Ghauts. The shooting was good, and
+there were plenty of bears in those days, but it needed a long day for
+such an expedition, and in view of the Dacoits who might be scattered
+about, was not the sort of thing to be undertaken except with a strong
+party. Norworthy had not given any precise orders about it, but I must
+admit that he said one day:--
+
+"'Of course you won't be fool enough to think of going down the Ghauts,
+Hastings?' But I did not look at that as equivalent to a direct
+order--whatever I should do now," the colonel put in, on seeing a
+furtive smile on the faces of his male listeners.
+
+"However, I never meant to go down, though I used to stand on the edge
+and look longingly down into the bush and fancy I saw bears moving about
+in scores. But I don't think I should have gone into their country if
+they had not come into mine. One day the fellow who always carried my
+spare gun or flask, and who was a sort of shekarry in a small way, told
+me he had heard that a farmer, whose house stood near the edge of the
+Ghauts, some two miles away, had been seriously annoyed by his fruit and
+corn being stolen by bears.
+
+"'I'll go and have a look at the place tomorrow,' I said, 'there is no
+parade, and I can start early. You may as well tell the mess cook to put
+up a basket with some tiffin and a bottle of claret, and get a boy to
+carry it over.'
+
+"'The bears not come in day,' Rahman said.
+
+"'Of course not,' I replied, 'still I may like to find out which way
+they come. Just do as you are told.'
+
+"The next morning, at seven o'clock, I was at the farmer's spoken of,
+and there was no mistake as to the bears. A patch of Indian corn had
+been ruined by them, and two dogs had been killed. The native was in a
+terrible state of rage and alarm. He said that on moonlight nights he
+had seen eight of them, and they came and sniffed around the door of the
+cottage.
+
+"'Why don't you fire through the window at them?' I asked scornfully,
+for I had seen a score of tame bears in captivity, and, like you, Mary,
+was inclined to despise them, though there was far less excuse for me,
+for I had heard stories which should have convinced me that, small as he
+is, the Indian bear is not a beast to be attacked with impunity. Upon
+walking to the edge of the Ghauts there was no difficulty in discovering
+the route by which the bears came up to the farm. For a mile to the
+right and left the ground fell away as if cut with a knife, leaving a
+precipice of over a hundred feet sheer down; but close by where I was
+standing was the head of a water-course, which in time had gradually
+worn a sort of cleft in the wall, up or down which it was not difficult
+to make one's way. Further down this little gorge widened out and became
+a deep ravine, and further still a wide valley, where it opened upon the
+flats far below us. About half a mile down where the ravine was deepest
+and darkest was a thick clump of trees and jungle.
+
+"'That's where the bears are?' I asked Rahman. He nodded. It seemed no
+distance. I could get down and back in time for tiffin, and perhaps bag
+a couple of bears. For a young sportsman the temptation was great. 'How
+long would it take us to go down and have a shot or two at them?'
+
+"'No good go down. Master come here at night, shoot bears when they come
+up.'
+
+"I had thought of that; but, in the first place, it did not seem much
+sport to shoot the beasts from cover when they were quietly eating, and,
+in the next place, I knew that Norworthy could not, even if he were
+willing, give me leave to go out of camp at night. I waited, hesitating
+for a few minutes, and then I said to myself, 'It is of no use
+waiting. I could go down and get a bear and be back again while I am
+thinking of it;' then to Rahman, 'No, come along; we will have a look
+through that wood anyhow.'
+
+"Rahman evidently did not like it.
+
+"'Not easy find bear, sahib. He very cunning.'
+
+"'Well, very likely we sha'n't find them,' I said, 'but we can try
+anyhow. Bring that bottle with you; the tiffin basket can wait here till
+we come back.' In another five minutes I had begun to climb down the
+watercourse--the shekarry following me. I took the double-barrelled
+rifle and handed him the shot-gun, having first dropped a bullet down
+each barrel over the charge. The ravine was steep, but there were bushes
+to hold on by, and although it was hot work and took a good deal longer
+than I expected, we at last got down to the place which I had fixed upon
+as likely to be the bears' home.
+
+"'Sahib, climb up top,' Rahman said; 'come down through wood; no good
+fire at bear when he above.'
+
+"I had heard that before; but I was hot, the sun was pouring down, there
+was not a breath of wind, and it looked a long way up to the top of the
+wood.
+
+"'Give me the claret. It would take too long to search the wood
+regularly. We will sit down here for a bit, and if we can see anything
+moving up in the wood, well and good; if not, we will come back again
+another day with some beaters and dogs.' So saying, I sat down with my
+back against a rock, at a spot where I could look up among the trees for
+a long way through a natural vista. I had a drink of claret, and then I
+sat and watched till gradually I dropped off to sleep. I don't know how
+long I slept, but it was some time, and I woke up with a sudden
+start. Rahman, who had, I fancy, been asleep too, also started up.
+
+"The noise which had aroused us was made by a rolling stone striking a
+rock; and looking up I saw some fifty yards away, not in the wood, but
+on the rocky hillside on our side of the ravine, a bear standing, as
+though unconscious of our presence, snuffing the air. As was natural, I
+seized my rifle, cocked it, and took aim, unheeding a cry of 'No, no,
+sahib,' from Rahman. However, I was not going to miss such a chance as
+this, and I let fly. The beast had been standing sideways to me, and as
+I saw him fall I felt sure I had hit him in the heart. I gave a shout of
+triumph, and was about to climb up, when, from behind the rock on which
+the bear had stood, appeared another growling fiercely; on seeing me, it
+at once prepared to come down. Stupidly, being taken by surprise, and
+being new at it, I fired at once at its head. The bear gave a spring,
+and then--it seemed instantaneous--down it came at me. Whether it rolled
+down, or slipped down, or ran down, I don't know, but it came almost as
+if it had jumped straight at me.
+
+[Illustration: "My Gun, Rahman," I Shouted.]
+
+"'My gun, Rahman,' I shouted, holding out my hand. There was no
+answer. I glanced round, and found that the scoundrel had bolted. I had
+time, and only just time, to take a step backwards, and to club my
+rifle, when the brute was upon me. I got one fair blow at the side of
+its head, a blow that would have smashed the skull of any civilized
+beast into pieces, and which did fortunately break the brute's jaw, then
+in an instant he was upon me, and I was fighting for life. My
+hunting-knife was out, and with my left hand I had the beast by the
+throat; while with my right I tried to drive my knife into its ribs. My
+bullet had gone through his chest. The impetus of his charge had
+knocked me over, and we rolled on the ground, he tearing with his claws
+at my shoulder and arm, I stabbing and struggling, my great effort being
+to keep my knees up so as to protect my body with them from his hind
+claws. After the first blow with his paw, which laid my shoulder open, I
+do not think I felt any special pain whatever. There was a strange faint
+sensation, and my whole energy seemed centered in the two ideas--to
+strike and to keep my knees up. I knew that I was getting faint, but I
+was dimly conscious that his efforts, too, were relaxing. His weight on
+me seemed to increase enormously, and the last idea that flashed across
+me was that it was a drawn fight.
+
+"The next idea of which I was conscious was that I was being carried. I
+seemed to be swinging about, and I thought I was at sea. Then there was
+a little jolt and a sense of pain. 'A collision,' I muttered, and opened
+my eyes. Beyond the fact that I seemed in a yellow world--a bright
+orange-yellow--my eyes did not help me, and I lay vaguely wondering
+about it all, till the rocking ceased. There was another bump, and then
+the yellow world seemed to come to an end; and as the daylight streamed
+in upon me I fainted again. This time when I awoke to consciousness
+things were clearer. I was stretched by a little stream. A native woman
+was sprinkling my face and washing the blood from my wounds; while
+another, who had with my own knife cut off my coat and shirt, was
+tearing the latter into strips to bandage my wounds. The yellow world
+was explained. I was lying on the yellow robe of one of the women. They
+had tied the ends together, placed a long stick through them, and
+carried me in the bag-like hammock. They nodded to me when they saw I
+was conscious, and brought water in a large leaf, and poured it into my
+mouth. Then one went away for some time, and came back with some leaves
+and bark. These they chewed and put on my wounds, bound them up with
+strips of my shirt, and then again knotted the ends of the cloth, and
+lifting me up, went on as before.
+
+"I was sure that we were much lower down the Ghaut than we had been when
+I was watching for the bears, and we were now going still
+lower. However, I knew very little Hindustani, nothing of the language
+the women spoke. I was too weak to stand, too weak even to think much,
+and I dozed and woke, and dozed again, until, after what seemed to me
+many hours of travel, we stopped again, this time before a tent. Two or
+three old women and four or five men came out, and there was great
+talking between them and the young women--for they were young--who had
+carried me down. Some of the party appeared angry, but at last things
+quieted down, and I was carried into the tent. I had fever, and was, I
+suppose, delirious for days. I afterwards found that for fully a
+fortnight I had lost all consciousness, but a good constitution and the
+nursing of the women pulled me round. When once the fever had gone, I
+began to mend rapidly. I tried to explain to the women that if they
+would go up to the camp and tell them where I was they would be well
+rewarded, but although I was sure they understood, they shook then
+heads, and by the fact that as I became stronger two or three armed men
+always hung about the tent, I came to the conclusion that I was a sort
+of prisoner. This was annoying, but did not seem serious. If these
+people were Dacoits, or as was more likely, allies of the Dacoits, I
+could be kept only for ransom or exchange. Moreover, I felt sure of my
+ability to escape when I got strong, especially as I believed that in
+the young women who had saved my life, both by bringing me down and by
+their careful nursing, I should find friends."
+
+"Were they pretty, uncle?" Mary Hastings broke in.
+
+"Never mind whether they were pretty, Mary; they were better than
+pretty."
+
+"No; but we like to know, uncle."
+
+"Well, except for the soft, dark eyes, common to the race, and the good
+temper and lightheartedness, also so general among Hindu girls, and the
+tenderness which women feel towards a creature whose life they have
+saved, whether it is a wounded bird or a drowning puppy, I suppose they
+were nothing remarkable in the way of beauty, but at the time I know
+that I thought them charming."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+"Just as I was getting strong enough to walk, and was beginning to think
+of making my escape, a band of five or six fellows, armed to the teeth,
+came in, and made signs that I was to go with them. It was evidently an
+arranged thing, the girls only were surprised, but they were at once
+turned out, and as we started I could see two crouching figures in the
+shade with their cloths over their heads. I had a native garment thrown
+over my shoulders, and in five minutes after the arrival of the fellows
+found myself on my way. It took us some six hours before we reached our
+destination, which was one of those natural rock citadels. Had I been in
+my usual health I could have done the distance in an hour and a half,
+but I had to rest constantly, and was finally carried rather than helped
+up. I had gone not unwillingly, for the men were clearly, by their
+dress, Dacoits of the Deccan, and I had no doubt that it was intended
+either to ransom or exchange me.
+
+"At the foot of this natural castle were some twenty or thirty more
+robbers, and I was led to a rough sort of arbour in which was lying, on
+a pile of maize straw, a man who was evidently their chief. He rose and
+we exchanged salaams.
+
+"'What is your name, sahib?' he asked in Mahratta.
+
+"'Hastings--Lieutenant Hastings,' I said. 'And yours?'
+
+"'Sivajee Punt!' he said.
+
+"This was bad. I had fallen into the hands of the most troublesome, most
+ruthless, and most famous of the Dacoit leaders. Over and over again he
+had been hotly chased, but had always managed to get away; and when I
+last heard anything of what was going on four or five troops of native
+police were scouring the country after him. He gave an order which I did
+not understand, and a wretched Bombay writer, I suppose a clerk of some
+money-lender, was dragged forward. Sivajee Punt spoke to him for some
+time, and the fellow then told me in English that I was to write at once
+to the officer commanding the troops, telling him that I was in his
+hands, and should be put to death directly he was attacked.
+
+"'Ask him,' I said, 'if he will take any sum of money to let me go?'
+
+"Sivajee shook his head very decidedly.
+
+"A piece of paper was put before me, and a pen and ink, and I wrote as I
+had been ordered, adding, however, in French, that I had brought myself
+into my present position by my own folly, and would take my chance, for
+I well knew the importance which Government attached to Sivajee's
+capture. I read out loud all that I had written in English, and the
+interpreter translated it. Then the paper was folded and I addressed it,
+'The Officer Commanding,' and I was given some chupattis and a drink of
+water, and allowed to sleep. The Dacoits had apparently no fear of any
+immediate attack.
+
+"It was still dark, although morning was just breaking, when I was
+awakened, and was got up to the citadel. I was hoisted rather than
+climbed, two men standing above with a rope, tied round my body, so that
+I was half-hauled, half-pushed up the difficult places, which would have
+taxed all my climbing powers had I been in health.
+
+"The height of this mass of rock was about a hundred feet; the top was
+fairly flat, with some depressions and risings, and about eighty feet
+long by fifty wide. It had evidently been used as a fortress in ages
+past. Along the side facing the hill were the remains of a rough
+wall. In the centre of a depression was a cistern, some four feet
+square, lined with stone-work, and in another depression a gallery had
+been cut, leading to a subterranean store-room or chamber. This natural
+fortress rose from the face of the hill at a distance of a thousand
+yards or so from the edge of the plateau, which was fully two hundred
+feet higher than the top of the rock. In the old days it would have
+been impregnable, and even at that time it was an awkward place to take,
+for the troops were armed only with Brown Bess, and rifled cannon were
+not thought of. Looking round, I could see that I was some four miles
+from the point where I had descended. The camp was gone; but running my
+eye along the edge of the plateau I could see the tops of tents a mile
+to my right, and again two miles to my left; turning round, and looking
+down into the wide valley, I saw a regimental camp.
+
+"It was evident that a vigorous effort was being made to surround and
+capture the Dacoits, since troops had been brought up from Bombay. In
+addition to the troops above and below, there would probably be a strong
+police force, acting on the face of the hill. I did not see all these
+things at the time, for I was, as soon as I got to the top, ordered to
+sit down behind the parapet, a fellow armed to the teeth squatting down
+by me, and signifying that if I showed my head above the stones he would
+cut my throat without hesitation. There were, however, sufficient gaps
+between the stones to allow me to have a view of the crest of the Ghaut,
+while below my view extended down to the hills behind Bombay. It was
+evident to me now why the Dacoits did not climb up into the
+fortress. There were dozens of similar crags on the face of the Ghauts,
+and the troops did not as yet know their whereabouts. It was a sort of
+blockade of the whole face of the hills which was being kept up, and
+there were, probably enough, several other bands of Dacoits lurking in
+the jungle.
+
+"There were only two guards and myself on the rock plateau. I discussed
+with myself the chances of my overpowering them and holding the top of
+the rock till help came, but I was greatly weakened, and was not a match
+for a boy, much less for the two stalwart Mahrattas; besides, I was by
+no means sure that the way I had been brought up was the only possible
+path to the top. The day passed off quietly. The heat on the bare rock
+was frightful, but one of the men, seeing how weak and ill I really was,
+fetched a thick rug from the storehouse, and with the aid of a stick
+made a sort of lean-to against the wall, under which I lay sheltered
+from the sun.
+
+"Once or twice during the day I heard a few distant musket-shots, and
+once a sharp heavy outburst of firing. It must have been three or four
+miles away, but it was on the side of the Ghaut, and showed that the
+troops or police were at work. My guards looked anxiously in that
+direction, and uttered sundry curses. When it was dusk, Sivajee and
+eight of the Dacoits came up. From what they said, I gathered that the
+rest of the band had dispersed, trusting either to get through the line
+of their pursuers, or, if caught, to escape with slight punishment, the
+men who remained being too deeply concerned in murderous outrages to
+hope for mercy. Sivajee himself handed me a letter, which the man who
+had taken my note had brought back in reply. Major Knapp, the writer,
+who was the second in command, said that he could not engage the
+Government, but that if Lieutenant Hastings was given up the act would
+certainly dispose the Government to take the most merciful view
+possible; but that if, on the contrary, any harm was suffered by
+Lieutenant Hastings, every man taken would be at once hung. Sivajee did
+not appear put out about it. I do not think he expected any other
+answer, and imagine that his real object in writing was simply to let
+them know that I was a prisoner, and so enable him the better to
+paralyse the attack upon a position which he no doubt considered all but
+impregnable.
+
+"I was given food, and was then allowed to walk as I chose upon the
+little plateau, two of the Dacoits taking post as sentries at the
+steepest part of the path, while the rest gathered, chatting and
+smoking, in the depression in front of the storehouse. It was still
+light enough for me to see for some distance down the face of the rock,
+and I strained my eyes to see if I could discern any other spot at which
+an ascent or descent was possible. The prospect was not encouraging. At
+some places the face fell sheer away from the edge, and so evident was
+the impracticability of escape that the only place which I glanced at
+twice was the western side, that is the one away from the hill. Here it
+sloped gradually for a few feet. I took off my shoes and went down to
+the edge. Below, some ten feet, was a ledge, on to which with care I
+could get down, but below that was a sheer fall of some fifty feet. As a
+means of escape it was hopeless, but it struck me that if an attack was
+made I might slip away and get on to the ledge. Once there I could not
+be seen except by a person standing where I now was, just on the edge of
+the slope, a spot to which it was very unlikely that anyone would come.
+
+"The thought gave me a shadow of hope, and, returning to the upper end
+of the platform, I lay down, and in spite of the hardness of the rock,
+was soon asleep. The pain of my aching bones woke me up several times,
+and once, just as the first tinge of dawn was coming, I thought I could
+hear movements in the jungle. I raised myself somewhat, and I saw that
+the sounds had been heard by the Dacoits, for they were standing
+listening, and some of them were bringing spare fire-arms from the
+storehouse, in evident preparation for attack.
+
+"As I afterwards learned, the police had caught one of the Dacoits
+trying to effect his escape, and by means of a little of the ingenious
+torture to which the Indian police then frequently resorted, when their
+white officers were absent, they obtained from him the exact position of
+Sivajee's band, and learned the side from which the ascent must be
+made. That the Dacoit and his band were still upon the slopes of the
+Ghauts they knew, and were gradually narrowing their circle, but there
+were so many rocks and hiding-places that the process of searching was a
+slow one, and the intelligence was so important that the news was off at
+once to the colonel, who gave orders for the police to surround the rock
+at daylight and to storm it if possible. The garrison was so small that
+the police were alone ample for the work, supposing that the natural
+difficulties were not altogether insuperable.
+
+"Just at daybreak there was a distant noise of men moving in the jungle,
+and the Dacoit halfway down the path fired his gun. He was answered by a
+shout and a volley. The Dacoits hurried out from the chamber, and lay
+down on the edge, where, sheltered by a parapet, they commanded the
+path. They paid no attention to me, and I kept as far away as
+possible. The fire began--a quiet, steady fire, a shot at a time, and in
+strong contrast to the rattle kept up from the surrounding jungle; but
+every shot must have told, as man after man who strove to climb that
+steep path, fell. It lasted only ten minutes, and then all was quiet
+again.
+
+"The attack had failed, as I knew it must do, for two men could have
+held the place against an army; a quarter of an hour later a gun from
+the crest above spoke out, and a round shot whistled above our
+heads. Beyond annoyance, an artillery fire could do no harm, for the
+party could be absolutely safe in the store cave. The instant the shot
+flew overhead, however, Sivajee Punt beckoned to me, and motioned me to
+take my seat on the wall facing the guns. Hesitation was useless, and I
+took my seat with my back to the Dacoits and my face to the hill. One of
+the Dacoits, as I did so, pulled off the native cloth which covered my
+shoulders, in order that I might be clearly seen.
+
+"Just as I took my place another round shot hummed by; but then there
+was a long interval of silence. With a field-glass every feature must
+have been distinguishable to the gunners, and I had no doubt that they
+were waiting for orders as to what to do next.
+
+"I glanced round and saw that with the exception of one fellow squatted
+behind the parapet some half-dozen yards away, clearly as a sentry to
+keep me in place, all the others had disappeared. Some, no doubt, were
+on sentry down the path, the others were in the store beneath me. After
+half an hour's silence the guns spoke out again. Evidently the gunners
+were told to be as careful as they could, for some of the shots went
+wide on the left, others on the right. A few struck the rock below me.
+The situation was not pleasant, but I thought that at a thousand yards
+they ought not to hit me, and I tried to distract my attention by
+thinking out what I should do under every possible contingency.
+
+"Presently I felt a crash and a shock, and fell backwards to the
+ground. I was not hurt, and on picking myself up saw that the ball had
+struck the parapet to the left, just where my guard was sitting, and he
+lay covered with its fragments. His turban lay some yards behind
+him. Whether he was dead or not I neither knew nor cared.
+
+"I pushed down some of the parapet where I had been sitting, dropped my
+cap on the edge outside, so as to make it appear that I had fallen over,
+and then picking up the man's turban, ran to the other end of the
+platform and scrambled down to the ledge. Then I began to wave my arms
+about--I had nothing on above the waist--and in a moment I saw a face
+with a uniform cap peer out through the jungle, and a hand was waved. I
+made signs to him to make his way to the foot of the perpendicular wall
+of rock beneath me. I then unwound the turban, whose length was, I knew,
+amply sufficient to reach to the bottom, and then looked round for
+something to write on. I had my pencil still in my trousers pocket, but
+not a scrap of paper.
+
+"I picked up a flattish piece of rock and wrote on it, 'Get a
+rope-ladder quickly, I can haul it up. Ten men in garrison. They are all
+under cover. Keep on firing to distract their attention."
+
+"I tied the stone to the end of the turban, and looked over. A
+non-commissioned officer of the police was already standing below. I
+lowered the stone; he took it, waved his hand to me, and was gone.
+
+"An hour passed: it seemed an age. The round shots still rang overhead,
+and the fire was now much more heavy and sustained than before.
+Presently I again saw a movement in the jungle, and Norworthy's face
+appeared, and he waved his arm in greeting.
+
+"Five minutes more and a party were gathered at the foot of the rock,
+and a strong rope was tied to the cloth. I pulled it up. A rope-ladder
+was attached to it, and the top rung was in a minute or two in my
+hands. To it was tied a piece of paper with the words: 'Can you fasten
+the ladder?" I wrote on the paper: 'No; but I can hold it for a light
+weight.'
+
+"I put the paper with a stone in the end of the cloth, and lowered it
+again. Then I sat down, tied the rope round my waist, got my feet
+against two projections, and waited. There was a jerk, and then I felt
+some one was coming up the rope-ladder. The strain was far less than I
+expected, but the native policeman who came up first did not weigh half
+so much as an average Englishman. There were now two of us to hold. The
+officer in command of the police came up next, then Norworthy, then a
+dozen more police. I explained the situation, and we mounted to the
+upper level. Not a soul was to be seen. Quickly we advanced and took up
+a position to command the door of the underground chamber; while one of
+the police waved a white cloth from his bayonet as a signal to the
+gunners to cease firing. Then the police officer hailed the party within
+the scave.
+
+"'Sivajee Punt! you may as well come out and give yourself up! We are in
+possession, and resistance is useless!'
+
+"A yell of rage and surprise was heard, and the Dacoits, all desperate
+men, came bounding out, firing as they did so. Half of their number were
+shot down at once, and the rest, after a short, sharp struggle, were
+bound hand and foot.
+
+"That is pretty well all of the story, I think. Sivajee Punt was one of
+the killed. The prisoners were all either hung or imprisoned for life. I
+escaped my blowing-up for having gone down the Ghauts after the bear,
+because, after all, Sivajee Punt might have defied their force for
+months had I not done so.
+
+"It seemed that that scoundrel Rahman had taken back word that I was
+killed. Norworthy had sent down a strong party, who found the two dead
+bears, and who, having searched everywhere without finding any signs of
+my body, came to the conclusion that I had been found and carried away,
+especially as they ascertained that natives used that path. They had
+offered rewards, but nothing was heard of me till my note saying I was
+in Sivajee's hands arrived."
+
+"And did you ever see the women who carried you off?"
+
+"No, Mary, I never saw them again. I did, however, after immense
+trouble, succeed in finding out where it was that I had been taken to.
+I went down at once, but found the village deserted. Then after much
+inquiry I found where the people had moved to, and sent messages to the
+women to come up to the camp, but they never came; and I was reduced at
+last to sending them down two sets of silver bracelets, necklaces, and
+bangles, which must have rendered them the envy of all the women on the
+Ghauts. They sent back a message of grateful thanks, and I never heard
+of them afterwards. No doubt their relatives, who knew that their
+connection with the Dacoits was now known, would not let them
+come. However, I had done all I could, and I have no doubt the women
+were perfectly satisfied. So you see, my dear, that the Indian bear,
+small as he is, is an animal which it is as well to leave alone, at any
+rate when he happens to be up on the side of a hill while you are at the
+foot."
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PATERNOSTERS.
+
+A YACHTING STORY.
+
+
+
+
+And do you really mean that we are to cross by the steamer, Mr. Virtue,
+while you go over in the _Seabird_? I do not approve of that at all.
+Fanny, why do you not rebel, and say we won't be put ashore? I call it
+horrid, after a fortnight on board this dear little yacht, to have to
+get on to a crowded steamer, with no accommodation and lots of sea-sick
+women, perhaps, and crying children. You surely cannot be in earnest?"
+
+"I do not like it any more than you do, Minnie; but, as Tom says we had
+better do it, and my husband agrees with him, I am afraid we must
+submit. Do you really think it is quite necessary, Mr. Virtue? Minnie
+and I are both good sailors, you know; and we would much rather have a
+little extra tossing about on board the _Seabird_ than the discomforts
+of a steamer."
+
+'I certainly think that it will be best, Mrs. Grantham. You know very
+well we would rather have you on board, and that we shall suffer from
+your loss more than you will by going the other way; but there's no
+doubt the wind is getting up, and though we don't feel it much here, it
+must be blowing pretty hard outside. The _Seabird_ is as good a
+sea-boat as anything of her size that floats, but you don't know what it
+is to be out in anything like a heavy sea in a thirty-tonner. It would
+be impossible for you to stay on deck, and we should have our hands
+full, and should not be able to give you the benefit of our
+society. Personally, I should not mind being out in the _Seabird_ in any
+weather, but I would certainly rather not have ladies on board."
+
+"You don't think we should scream, or do anything foolish, Mr. Virtue?"
+Minnie Graham said indignantly.
+
+"Not at all, Miss Graham. Still, I repeat, the knowledge that there are
+women on board, delightful at other times, does not tend to comfort in
+bad weather. Of course, if you prefer it, we can put off our start till
+this puff of wind has blown itself out. It may have dropped before
+morning. It may last some little time. I don't think myself that it
+will drop, for the glass has fallen, and I am afraid we may have a spell
+of broken weather."
+
+"Oh no; don't put it off," Mrs. Grantham said; "we have only another
+fortnight before James must be back again in London, and it would be a
+great pity to lose three or four days perhaps; and we have been looking
+forward to cruising about among the Channel Islands, and to St. Malo,
+and all those places. Oh no; I think the other is much the better
+plan--that is, if you won't take us with you."
+
+"It would be bad manners to say that I won't, Mrs. Grantham; but I must
+say I would rather not. It will be a very short separation. Grantham
+will take you on shore at once, and as soon as the boat comes back I
+shall be off. You will start in the steamer this evening, and get into
+Jersey at nine or ten o'clock to-morrow morning; and if I am not there
+before you, I shall not be many hours after you."
+
+"Well, if it must be it must," Mrs. Grantham said, with an air of
+resignation. "Come, Minnie, let us put a few things into a hand-bag for
+to-night. You see the skipper is not to be moved by our pleadings."
+
+"That is the worst of you married women, Fanny," Miss Graham said, with
+a little pout. "You get into the way of doing as you are ordered. I
+call it too bad. Here have we been cruising about for the last
+fortnight, with scarcely a breath of wind, and longing for a good brisk
+breeze and a little change and excitement, and now it comes at last, we
+are to be packed off in a steamer. I call it horrid of you, Mr. Virtue.
+You may laugh, but I do"
+
+Tom Virtue laughed, but he showed no signs of giving way, and ten
+minutes later Mr. and Mrs. Grantham and Miss Graham took their places in
+the gig, and were rowed into Southampton Harbour, off which the
+_Seabird_ was lying.
+
+The last fortnight had been a very pleasant one, and it had cost the
+owner of the _Seabird_ as much as his guests to come to the conclusion
+that it was better to break up the party for a few hours.
+
+Tom Virtue had, up to the age of five-and-twenty, been possessed of a
+sufficient income for his wants. He had entered at the bar, not that he
+felt any particular vocation in that direction, but because he thought
+it incumbent upon him to do something. Then, at the death of an uncle,
+he had come into a considerable fortune, and was able to indulge his
+taste for yachting, which was the sole amusement for which he really
+cared, to the fullest.
+
+He sold the little five-tonner he had formerly possessed, and purchased
+the _Seabird_. He could well have afforded a much larger craft, but he
+knew that there was far more real enjoyment in sailing to be obtained
+from a small craft than a large one, for in the latter he would be
+obliged to have a regular skipper, and would be little more than a
+passenger, whereas on board the _Seabird_, although his first hand was
+dignified by the name of skipper, he was himself the absolute
+master. The boat carried the aforesaid skipper, three hands, and a
+steward, and with them he had twice been up the Mediterranean, across to
+Norway, and had several times made the circuit of the British Isles.
+
+He had unlimited confidence in his boat, and cared not what weather he
+was out in her. This was the first time since his ownership of her that
+the _Seabird_ had carried lady passengers. His friend Grantham, an old
+school and college chum, was a hard-working barrister, and Virtue had
+proposed to him to take a month's holiday on board the _Seabird_.
+
+"Put aside your books, old man," he said. "You look fagged and
+overworked; a month's blow will do you all the good in the world"
+
+"Thank you, Tom; I have made up my mind for a month's holiday, but I
+can't accept your invitation, though I should enjoy it of all things.
+But it would not be fair to my wife; she doesn't get very much of my
+society, and she has been looking forward to our having a run together.
+So I must decline."
+
+Virtue hesitated a moment. He was not very fond of ladies' society, and
+thought them especially in the way on board a yacht; but he had a great
+liking for his friend's wife, and was almost as much at home in his
+house as in his own chambers.
+
+"Why not bring the wife with you?" he said, as soon as his mind was made
+up. "It will be a nice change for her too; and I have heard her say that
+she is a good sailor. The accommodation is not extensive, but the
+after-cabin is a pretty good size, and I would do all I could to make
+her comfortable. Perhaps she would like another lady with her; if so by
+all means bring one. They could have the after-cabin, you could have the
+little state-room, and I could sleep in the saloon."
+
+"It is very good of you, Tom, especially as I know that it will put you
+out frightfully; but the offer is a very tempting one. I will speak to
+Fanny, and let you have an answer in the morning."
+
+"That will be delightful, James," Mrs. Grantham said, when the
+invitation was repeated to her. "I should like it of all things; and I
+am sure the rest and quiet and the sea air will be just the thing for
+you. It is wonderful, Tom Virtue making the offer; and I take it as a
+great personal compliment, for he certainly is not what is generally
+called a lady's man. It is very nice, too, of him to think of my having
+another lady on board. Whom shall we ask? Oh, I know," she said
+suddenly; "that will be the thing of all others. We will ask my cousin
+Minnie; she is full of fun and life, and will make a charming wife for
+Tom!"
+
+James Grantham laughed.
+
+"What schemers you all are, Fanny! Now I should call it downright
+treachery to take anyone on board the _Seabird_ with the idea of
+capturing its master."
+
+"Nonsense, treachery!" Mrs. Grantham said indignantly; "Minnie is the
+nicest girl I know, and it would do Tom a world of good to have a wife
+to look after him. Why, he is thirty now, and will be settling down into
+a confirmed old bachelor before long. It's the greatest kindness we
+could do him, to take Minnie on board; and I am sure he is the sort of
+man any girl might fall in love with when she gets to know him. The
+fact is, he's shy! He never had any sisters, and spends all his time in
+winter at that horrid club; so that really he has never had any women's
+society, and even with us he will never come unless he knows we are
+alone. I call it a great pity, for I don't know a pleasanter fellow than
+he is. I think it will be doing him a real service in asking Minnie; so
+that's settled. I will sit down and write him a note."
+
+"In for a penny, in for a pound, I suppose," was Tom Virtue's comment
+when he received Mrs. Grantham's letter, thanking him warmly for the
+invitation, and saying that she would bring her cousin, Miss Graham,
+with her, if that young lady was disengaged.
+
+As a matter of self-defence he at once invited Jack Harvey, who was a
+mutual friend of himself and Grantham, to be of the party.
+
+"Jack can help Grantham to amuse the women," he said to himself; "that
+will be more in his line than mine. I will run down to Cowes to-morrow
+and have a chat with Johnson; we shall want a different sort of stores
+altogether to those we generally carry, and I suppose we must do her up
+a bit below."
+
+Having made up his mind to the infliction of female passengers, Tom
+Virtue did it handsomely, and when the party came on board at Ryde they
+were delighted with the aspect of the yacht below. She had been
+repainted, the saloon and ladies' cabin were decorated in delicate
+shades of gray, picked out with gold; and the upholsterer, into whose
+hands the owner of the _Seabird_ had placed her, had done his work with
+taste and judgment, and the ladies' cabin resembled a little boudoir.
+
+"Why, Tom, I should have hardly known her!" Grantham, who had often
+spent a day on board the _Seabird_, said.
+
+"I hardly know her myself," Tom said, rather ruefully; "but I hope she's
+all right, Mrs. Grantham, and that you and Miss Graham will find
+everything you want."
+
+"It is charming!" Mrs. Grantham said enthusiastically. "It's awfully
+good of you, Tom, and we appreciate it; don't we, Minnie? It is such a
+surprise, too; for James said that while I should find everything very
+comfortable, I must not expect that a small yacht would be got up like a
+palace."
+
+So a fortnight had passed; they had cruised along the coast as far as
+Plymouth, anchoring at night at the various ports on the way. Then they
+had returned to Southampton, and it had been settled that as none of the
+party, with the exception of Virtue himself, had been to the Channel
+Islands, the last fortnight of the trip should be spent there. The
+weather had been delightful, save that there had been some deficiency in
+wind, and throughout the cruise the _Seabird_ had been under all the
+sail she could spread. But when the gentlemen came on deck early in the
+morning a considerable change had taken place; the sky was gray and the
+clouds flying fast overhead.
+
+"We are going to have dirty weather," Tom Virtue said at once. "I don't
+think it's going to be a gale, but there will be more sea on than will
+be pleasant for ladies. I tell you what, Grantham; the best thing will
+be for you to go on shore with the two ladies, and cross by the boat
+to-night. If you don't mind going directly after breakfast I will start
+at once, and shall be at St. Helier's as soon as you are."
+
+And so it had been agreed, but not, as has been seen, without opposition
+and protest on the part of the ladies.
+
+Mrs. Grantham's chief reason for objecting had not been given. The
+little scheme on which she had set her mind seemed to be working
+satisfactorily. From the first day Tom Virtue had exerted himself to
+play the part of host satisfactorily, and had ere long shaken off any
+shyness he may have felt towards the one stranger of the party, and he
+and Miss Graham had speedily got on friendly terms. So things were going
+on as well as Mrs. Grantham could have expected.
+
+No sooner had his guests left the side of the yacht than her owner began
+to make his preparations for a start.
+
+"What do you think of the weather, Watkins?" he asked his skipper.
+
+"It's going to blow hard, sir; that's my view of it, and if I was you I
+shouldn't up anchor today. Still, it's just as you likes; the _Seabird_
+won't mind it if we don't. She has had a rough time of it before now;
+still, it will be a case of wet jackets, and no mistake."
+
+"Yes, I expect we shall have a rough time of it, Watkins, but I want to
+get across. We don't often let ourselves be weather-bound, and I am not
+going to begin it to-day. We had better house the topmast at once, and
+get two reefs in the main-sail. We can get the other down when we get
+clear of the island. Get number three jib up, and the leg-of-mutton
+mizzen; put two reefs in the foresail."
+
+Tom and his friend Harvey, who was a good sailor, assisted the crew in
+reefing down the sails, and a few minutes after the gig had returned and
+been hoisted in, the yawl was running rapidly down Southampton waters.
+
+"We need hardly have reefed quite so closely," Jack Harvey said, as he
+puffed away at his pipe.
+
+"Not yet, Jack; but you will see she has as much as she can carry before
+long. It's all the better to make all snug before starting; it saves a
+lot of trouble afterwards, and the extra canvas would not have made ten
+minutes' difference to us at the outside. We shall have pretty nearly a
+dead beat down the Solent. Fortunately tide will be running strong with
+us, but there will be a nasty kick-up there. You will see we shall feel
+the short choppy seas there more than we shall when we get outside. She
+is a grand boat in a really heavy sea, but in short waves she puts her
+nose into it with a will. Now, if you will take my advice, you will do
+as I am going to do, put on a pair of fisherman's boots and oilskin and
+sou'-wester. There are several sets for you to choose from below."
+
+As her owner had predicted, the _Seabird_ put her bowsprit under pretty
+frequently in the Solent; the wind was blowing half a gale, and as it
+met the tide it knocked up a short, angry sea, crested with white heads,
+and Jack Harvey agreed that she had quite as much sail on her as she
+wanted. The cabin doors were bolted, and all made snug to prevent the
+water getting below before they got to the race off Hurst Castle; and it
+was well that they did so, for she was as much under water as she was
+above.
+
+"I think if I had given way to the ladies and brought them with us they
+would have changed their minds by this time, Jack," Tom Virtue said,
+with a laugh.
+
+"I should think so," his friend agreed; "this is not a day for a
+fair-weather sailor. Look what a sea is breaking on the shingles!"
+
+"Yes, five minutes there would knock her into matchwood. Another ten
+minutes and we shall be fairly out; and I sha'n't be sorry; one feels as
+if one was playing football, only just at present the _Seabird_ is the
+ball and the waves the kickers."
+
+Another quarter of an hour and they had passed the Needles.
+
+"That is more pleasant, Jack," as the short, chopping motion was
+exchanged for a regular rise and fall; "this is what I enjoy--a steady
+wind and a regular sea. The _Seabird_ goes over it like one of her
+namesakes; she is not taking a teacupful now over her bows.
+
+"Watkins, you may as well take the helm for a spell, while we go down to
+lunch. I am not sorry to give it up for a bit, for it has been jerking
+like the kick of a horse.
+
+"That's right, Jack, hang up your oilskin there. Johnson, give us a
+couple of towels; we have been pretty well smothered up there on
+deck. Now what have you got for us?"
+
+"There is some soup ready, sir, and that cold pie you had for dinner
+yesterday."
+
+"That will do; open a couple of bottles of stout."
+
+Lunch over, they went on deck again.
+
+"She likes a good blow as well as we do," Virtue said, enthusiastically,
+as the yawl rose lightly over each wave. "What do you think of it,
+Watkins? Is the wind going to lull a bit as the sun goes down?"
+
+"I think not, sir. It seems to me it's blowing harder than it was."
+
+"Then we will prepare for the worst, Watkins; get the try-sail up on
+deck. When you are ready we will bring her up into the wind and set it.
+That's the comfort of a yawl, Jack; one can always lie to without any
+bother, and one hasn't got such a tremendous boom to handle."
+
+The try-sail was soon on deck, and then the _Seabird_ was brought up
+into the wind, the weather fore-sheet hauled aft, the mizzen sheeted
+almost fore and aft, and the _Seabird_ lay, head to wind, rising and
+falling with a gentle motion, in strong contrast to her impetuous rushes
+when under sail.
+
+"She would ride out anything like that," her owner said. "Last time we
+came through the Bay on our way from Gib., we were caught in a gale
+strong enough to blow the hair off one's head, and we lay to for nearly
+three days, and didn't ship a bucket of water all the time. Now let us
+lend a hand to get the mainsail stowed."
+
+Ten minutes' work and it was securely fastened and its cover on; two
+reefs were put in the trysail. Two hands went to each of the halliards,
+while, as the sail rose, Tom Virtue fastened the toggles round the mast.
+
+"All ready, Watkins?"
+
+"All ready, sir."
+
+"Slack off the weather fore-sheet, then, and haul aft the leeward. Slack
+out the mizzen-sheet a little, Jack. That's it; now she's off again,
+like a duck."
+
+The _Seabird_ felt the relief from the pressure of the heavy boom to
+leeward and rose easily and lightly over the waves.
+
+"She certainly is a splendid sea-boat, Tom; I don't wonder you are ready
+to go anywhere in her. I thought we were rather fools for starting this
+morning, although I enjoy a good blow; but now I don't care how hard it
+comes on."
+
+By night it was blowing a downright gale.
+
+"We will lie to till morning, Watkins. So that we get in by daylight
+to-morrow evening, that is all we want. See our side-lights are burning
+well, and you had better get up a couple of blue lights, in case
+anything comes running up Channel and don't see our lights. We had
+better divide into two watches; I will keep one with Matthews and
+Dawson, Mr. Harvey will go in your watch with Nicholls. We had better
+get the try-sail down altogether, and lie to under the foresail and
+mizzen, but don't put many lashings on the trysail, one will be enough,
+and have it ready to cast off in a moment, in case we want to hoist the
+sail in a hurry. I will go down and have a glass of hot grog first, and
+then I will take my watch to begin with. Let the two hands with me go
+down; the steward will serve them out a tot each. Jack, you had better
+turn in at once." Virtue was soon on deck again, muffled up in his
+oilskins.
+
+"Now, Watkins, you can go below and turn in."
+
+"I sha'n't go below to-night, sir--not to lie down. There's nothing much
+to do here, but I couldn't sleep, if I did lie down."
+
+"Very well; you had better go below and get a glass of grog; tell the
+steward to give you a big pipe with a cover like this, out of the
+locker; and there's plenty of chewing tobacco, if the men are short."
+
+"I will take that instead of a pipe," Watkins said; "there's nothing
+like a quid in weather like this, it ain't never in your way, and it
+lasts. Even with a cover a pipe would soon be out."
+
+"Please yourself, Watkins; tell the two hands forward to keep a bright
+look-out for lights."
+
+The night passed slowly. Occasionally a sea heavier than usual came on
+board, curling over the bow and falling with a heavy thud on the deck,
+but for the most part the _Seabird_ breasted the waves easily; the
+bowsprit had been reefed in to its fullest, thereby adding to the
+lightness and buoyancy of the boat. Tom Virtue did not go below when his
+friend came up to relieve him at the change of watch, but sat smoking
+and doing much talking in the short intervals between the gusts.
+
+The morning broke gray and misty, driving sleet came along on the wind,
+and the horizon was closed in as by a dull curtain.
+
+"How far can we see, do you think, Watkins?"
+
+"Perhaps a couple of miles, sir."
+
+"That will be enough. I think we both know the position of every reef to
+within a hundred yards, so we will shape our course for Guernsey. If we
+happen to hit it off, we can hold on to St Helier; but if when we think
+we ought to be within sight of Guernsey we see nothing of it, we must
+lie to again, till the storm has blown itself out or the clouds lift. It
+would never do to go groping our way along with such currents as run
+among the islands. Put the last reef in the try-sail before you hoist
+it. I think you had better get the foresail down altogether, and run up
+the spit-fire jib."
+
+The _Seabird_ was soon under way again.
+
+"Now, Watkins, you take the helm; we will go down and have a cup of hot
+coffee, and I will see that the steward has a good supply for you and
+the hands, but first, do you take the helm, Jack, whilst Watkins and I
+have a look at the chart, and try and work out where we are, and the
+course we had better lie for Guernsey."
+
+Five minutes were spent over the chart, then Watkins went up and Jack
+Harvey came down.
+
+"You have got the coffee ready, I hope, Johnson?"
+
+"Yes, sir, coffee and chocolate. I didn't know which you would like."
+
+"Chocolate, by all means. Jack, I recommend the chocolate. Bring two
+full-sized bowls, Johnson, and put that cold pie on the table, and a
+couple of knives and forks; never mind about a cloth; but first of all
+bring a couple of basins of hot water, we shall enjoy our food more
+after a wash."
+
+The early breakfast was eaten, dry coats and mufflers put on, pipes
+lighted, and they then went up upon deck. Tom took the helm.
+
+"What time do you calculate we ought to make Guernsey, Tom?"
+
+"About twelve. The wind is freer than it was, and we are walking along
+at a good pace. Matthews, cast the log, and let's see what we are
+doing. About seven knots, I should say."
+
+"Seven and a quarter, sir," the man said, when he checked the line.
+
+"Not a bad guess, Tom; it's always difficult to judge pace in a heavy
+sea."
+
+At eleven o'clock the mist ceased.
+
+"That's fortunate," Tom Virtue said; "I shouldn't be surprised if we get
+a glimpse of the sun between the clouds, presently. Will you get my
+sextant and the chronometer up, Jack, and put them handy?"
+
+Jack Harvey did as he was asked, but there was no occasion to use the
+instruments, for ten minutes later, Watkins, who was standing near the
+bow gazing fixedly ahead, shouted:
+
+"There's Guernsey, sir, on her lee bow, about six miles away, I should
+say."
+
+"That's it, sure enough," Tom agreed, as he gazed in the direction in
+which Watkins was pointing. "There's a gleam of sunshine on it, or we
+shouldn't have seen it yet. Yes, I think you are about right as to the
+distance. Now let us take its bearings, we may lose it again directly."
+
+Having taken the bearings of the island they went below, and marked off
+their position on the chart, and they shaped their course for Cape
+Grosnez, the north-western point of Jersey. The gleam of sunshine was
+transient--the clouds closed in again overhead, darker and grayer than
+before. Soon the drops of rain came flying before the wind, the horizon
+closed in, and they could not see half a mile away, but, though the sea
+was heavy, the _Seabird_ was making capital weather of it, and the two
+friends agreed that, after all, the excitement of a sail like this was
+worth a month of pottering about in calms.
+
+"We must keep a bright look-out presently," the skipper said; "there are
+some nasty rocks off the coast of Jersey. We must give them a wide
+berth. We had best make round to the south of the island, and lay to
+there till we can pick up a pilot to take us into St. Helier. I don't
+think it will be worth while trying to get into St. Aubyn's Bay by
+ourselves."
+
+"I think so, too, Watkins, but we will see what it is like before it
+gets dark; if we can pick up a pilot all the better; if not, we will lie
+to till morning, if the weather keeps thick; but if it clears so that we
+can make out all the lights we ought to be able to get into the bay
+anyhow."
+
+An hour later the rain ceased and the sky appeared somewhat
+clearer. Suddenly Watkins exclaimed, "There is a wreck, sir! There,
+three miles away to leeward. She is on the Paternosters."
+
+"Good heavens! she is a steamer," Tom exclaimed, as he caught sight of
+her the next time the _Seabird_ lifted on a wave. "Can she be the
+Southampton boat, do you think?"
+
+"Like enough, sir, she may have had it thicker than we had, and may not
+have calculated enough for the current."
+
+"Up helm, Jack, and bear away towards her. Shall we shake out a reef,
+Watkins?"
+
+"I wouldn't, sir; she has got as much as she can carry on her now. We
+must mind what we are doing, sir; the currents run like a millstream,
+and if we get that reef under our lee, and the wind and current both
+setting us on to it, it will be all up with us in no time."
+
+"Yes, I know that, Watkins. Jack, take the helm a minute while we run
+down and look at the chart.
+
+"Our only chance, Watkins, is to work up behind the reef, and try and
+get so that they can either fasten a line to a buoy and let it float
+down to us, or get into a boat, if they have one left, and drift to us."
+
+"They are an awful group of rocks," Watkins said, as they examined the
+chart; "you see some of them show merely at high tide, and a lot of them
+are above at low water. It will be an awful business to get among them
+rocks, sir, just about as near certain death as a thing can be."
+
+"Well, it's got to be done, Watkins," Tom said, firmly. "I see the
+danger as well as you do, but whatever the risk, it must be
+tried. Mr. Grantham and the two ladies went on board by my persuasion,
+and I should never forgive myself if anything happened to them. But I
+will speak to the men."
+
+He went on deck again and called the men to him. "Look here, lads; you
+see that steamer ashore on the Paternosters. In such a sea as this she
+may go to pieces in half an hour. I am determined to make an effort to
+save the lives of those on board. As you can see for yourselves there is
+no lying to weather of her, with the current and wind driving us on to
+the reef; we must beat up from behind. Now, lads, the sea there is full
+of rocks, and the chances are ten to one we strike on to them and go to
+pieces; but, anyhow I am going to try; but I won't take you unless you
+are willing. The boat is a good one, and the zinc chambers will keep her
+afloat if she fills; well managed, you ought to be able to make the
+coast of Jersey in her. Mr. Harvey, Watkins, and I can handle the yacht,
+so you can take the boat if you like."
+
+The men replied that they would stick to the yacht wherever Mr. Virtue
+chose to take her, and muttered something about the ladies, for the
+pleasant faces of Mrs. Grantham and Miss Graham had, during the
+fortnight they had been on board, won the men's hearts.
+
+"Very well, lads, I am glad to find you will stick by me; if we pull
+safely through it I will give each of you three months' wages. Now set
+to work with a will and get the gig out. We will tow her after us, and
+take to her if we make a smash of it."
+
+They were now near enough to see the white breakers, in the middle of
+which the ship was lying. She was fast breaking up. The jagged outline
+showed that the stern had been beaten in. The masts and funnel were
+gone, and the waves seemed to make a clean breach over her, almost
+hiding her from sight in a white cloud of spray.
+
+"Wood and iron can't stand that much longer," Jack Harvey said; "another
+hour and I should say there won't be two planks left together."
+
+"It is awful, Jack; I would give all I have in the world if I had not
+persuaded them to go on board. Keep her off a little more, Watkins."
+
+The _Seabird_ passed within a cable's-length of the breakers at the
+northern end of the reef.
+
+"Now, lads, take your places at the sheets, ready to haul or let go as I
+give the word." So saying, Tom Virtue took his place in the bow, holding
+on by the forestay.
+
+The wind was full on the _Seabird's_ beam as she entered the broken
+water. Here and there the dark heads of the rocks showed above the
+water. These were easy enough to avoid, the danger lay in those hidden
+beneath its surface, and whose position was indicated only by the
+occasional break of a sea as it passed over them. Every time the
+_Seabird_ sank on a wave those on board involuntarily held their breath,
+but the water here was comparatively smooth, the sea having spent its
+first force upon the outer reef. With a wave of his hand Tom directed
+the helmsman as to his course, and the little yacht was admirably
+handled through the dangers.
+
+"I begin to think we shall do it," Tom said to Jack Harvey, who was
+standing close to him. "Another five minutes and we shall be within
+reach of her."
+
+It could be seen now that there was a group of people clustered in the
+bow of the wreck. Two or three light lines were coiled in readiness for
+throwing.
+
+"Now, Watkins," Tom said, going aft, "make straight for the wreck. I see
+no broken water between us and them, and possibly there may be deep
+water under their bow."
+
+It was an anxious moment, as, with the sails flattened in, the yawl
+forged up nearly in the eye of the wind towards the wreck. Her progress
+was slow, for she was now stemming the current.
+
+Tom stood with a coil of line in his hand in the bow.
+
+"You get ready to throw, Jack, if I miss."
+
+Nearer and nearer the yacht approached the wreck, until the bowsprit of
+the latter seemed to stand almost over her. Then Tom threw the line. It
+fell over the bowsprit, and a cheer broke from those on board the wreck
+and from the sailors of the _Seabird_. A stronger line was at once
+fastened to that thrown, and to this a strong hawser was attached.
+
+"Down with the helm, Watkins. Now, lads, lower away the try-sail as fast
+as you can. Now, one of you, clear that hawser as they haul on it. Now
+out with the anchors."
+
+These had been got into readiness; it was not thought that they would
+get any hold on the rocky bottom, still they might catch on a projecting
+ledge, and at any rate their weight and that of the chain cable would
+relieve the strain upon the hawser.
+
+Two sailors had run out on the bowsprit of the wreck as soon as the line
+was thrown, and the end of the hawser was now on board the steamer.
+
+"Thank God, there's Grantham!" Jack Harvey exclaimed; "do you see him
+waving his hand?"
+
+"I see him," Tom said, "but I don't see the ladies."
+
+"They are there, no doubt," Jack said, confidently; "crouching down, I
+expect. He would not be there if they weren't, you may be sure. Yes,
+there they are; those two muffled-up figures. There, one of them has
+thrown back her cloak and is waving her arm."
+
+The two young men waved their caps.
+
+"Are the anchors holding, Watkins? There's a tremendous strain on that
+hawser."
+
+"I think so, sir; they are both tight."
+
+"Put them round the windlass, and give a turn or two, we must relieve
+the strain on that hawser."
+
+Since they had first seen the wreck the waves had made great progress in
+the work of destruction, and the steamer had broken in two just aft of
+the engines.
+
+"Get over the spare spars, Watkins, and fasten them to float in front of
+her bows like a triangle. Matthews, catch hold of that boat-hook and
+try to fend off any piece of timber that comes along. You get hold of
+the sweeps, lads, and do the same. They would stave her in like a
+nut-shell if they struck her.
+
+"Thank God, here comes the first of them!"
+
+Those on board the steamer had not been idle. As soon as the yawl was
+seen approaching slings were prepared, and no sooner was the hawser
+securely fixed, than the slings were attached to it and a woman placed
+in them. The hawser was tight and the descent sharp, and without a check
+the figure ran down to the deck of the _Seabird_. She was lifted out of
+the slings by Tom and Jack Harvey, who found she was an old woman and
+had entirely lost consciousness.
+
+"Two of you carry her down below; tell Johnson to pour a little brandy
+down her throat. Give her some hot soup as soon as she comes to."
+
+Another woman was lowered and helped below. The next to descend was
+Mrs. Grantham.
+
+"Thank God, you are rescued!" Tom said, as he helped her out of the
+sling.
+
+"Thank God, indeed," Mrs. Grantham said, "and thank you all! Oh, Tom, we
+have had a terrible time of it, and had lost all hope till we saw your
+sail, and even then the captain said that he was afraid nothing could be
+done. Minnie was the first to make out it was you, and then we began to
+hope. She has been so brave, dear girl. Ah! here she comes."
+
+But Minnie's firmness came to an end now that she felt the need for it
+was over. She was unable to stand when she was lifted from the slings,
+and Tom carried her below.
+
+"Are there any more women, Mrs. Grantham?"
+
+"No; there was only one other lady passenger and the stewardess."
+
+"Then you had better take possession of your own cabin. I ordered
+Johnson to spread a couple more mattresses and some bedding on the
+floor, so you will all four be able to turn in. There's plenty of hot
+coffee and soup. I should advise soup with two or three spoonfuls of
+brandy in it. Now, excuse me; I must go upon deck."
+
+Twelve men descended by the hawser, one of them with both legs broken by
+the fall of the mizzen. The last to come was the captain.
+
+"Is that all?" Tom asked.
+
+"That is all," the captain said. "Six men were swept overboard when she
+first struck, and two were killed by the fall of the funnel. Fortunately
+we had only three gentlemen passengers and three ladies on board. The
+weather looked so wild when we started that no one else cared about
+making the passage. God bless you, sir, for what you have done! Another
+half-hour and it would have been all over with us. But it seems like a
+miracle your getting safe through the rocks to us."
+
+"It was fortunate indeed that we came along," Tom said; "three of the
+passengers are dear friends of mine; and as it was by my persuasion that
+they came across in the steamer instead of in the yacht, I should never
+have forgiven myself if they had been lost. Take all your men below,
+captain; you will find plenty of hot soup there. Now, Watkins, let us
+be off; that steamer won't hold together many minutes longer, so there's
+no time to lose. We will go back as we came. Give me a hatchet. Now,
+lads, two of you stand at the chain-cables; knock out the shackles the
+moment I cut the hawser. Watkins, you take the helm and let her head pay
+off till the jib fills. Jack, you lend a hand to the other two, and get
+up the try-sail again as soon as we are free."
+
+In a moment all were at their stations. The helm was put on the yacht,
+and she payed off on the opposite tack to that on which she had before
+been sailing. As soon as the jib filled, Tom gave two vigorous blows
+with his hatchet on the hawser, and, as he lifted his hand for a third,
+it parted. Then came the sharp rattle of the chains as they ran round
+the hawser-holes. The try-sail was hoisted and sheeted home, and the
+_Seabird_ was under way again. Tom, as before, conned the ship from the
+bow. Several times she was in close proximity to the rocks, but each
+time she avoided them. A shout of gladness rose from all on deck as she
+passed the last patch of white water. Then she tacked and bore away for
+Jersey.
+
+Tom had now time to go down below and look after his passengers. They
+consisted of the captain and two sailors--the sole survivors of those
+who had been on deck when the vessel struck--three male passengers, and
+six engineers and stokers.
+
+"I have not had time to shake you by the hand before, Tom," Grantham
+said, as Tom Virtue entered; "and I thought you would not want me on
+deck at present. God bless you, old fellow! we all owe you our lives."
+
+"How did it happen, captain?" Tom asked, as the captain also came up to
+him.
+
+"It was the currents, I suppose," the captain said; "it was so thick we
+could not see a quarter of a mile any way. The weather was so wild I
+would not put into Guernsey, and passed the island without seeing it. I
+steered my usual course, but the gale must have altered the currents,
+for I thought I was three miles away from the reef, when we saw it on
+our beam, not a hundred yards away. It was too late to avoid it then,
+and in another minute we ran upon it, and the waves were sweeping over
+us. Every one behaved well. I got all, except those who had been swept
+overboard or crushed by the funnel, up into the bow of the ship, and
+there we waited. There was nothing to be done. No boat would live for a
+moment in the sea on that reef, and all I could advise was, that when
+she went to pieces every one should try to get hold of a floating
+fragment; but I doubt whether a man would have been alive a quarter of
+an hour after she went to pieces."
+
+"Perhaps, captain, you will come on deck with me and give me the benefit
+of your advice. My skipper and I know the islands pretty well, but no
+doubt you know them a good deal better, and I don't want another
+mishap."
+
+But the _Seabird_ avoided all further dangers, and as it became dark,
+the lights of St. Helier's were in sight, and an hour later the yacht
+brought up in the port and landed her involuntary passengers.
+
+A fortnight afterwards the _Seabird_ returned to England, and two months
+later Mrs. Grantham had the satisfaction of being present at the
+ceremony which was the successful consummation of her little scheme in
+inviting Minnie Graham to be her companion on board the _Seabird_.
+
+"Well, my dear," her husband said, when she indulged in a little natural
+triumph, "I do not say that it has not turned out well, and I am
+heartily glad for both Tom and Minnie's sake it has so; but you must
+allow that it very nearly had a disastrous ending, and I think if I were
+you I should leave matters to take their natural course in future. I
+have accepted Tom's invitation for the same party to take a cruise in
+the _Seabird_ next summer, but I have bargained that next time a storm
+is brewing up we shall stop quietly in port."
+
+"That's all very well, James," Mrs. Grantham said saucily; "but you must
+remember that Tom Virtue will only be first-mate of the _Seabird_ in
+future."
+
+"That I shall be able to tell you better, my dear, after our next
+cruise. All husbands are not as docile and easily led as I am."
+
+
+
+
+
+A PIPE OF MYSTERY
+
+
+
+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 snapdragon, 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--above all, a ghost story.
+
+"But I have never seen any ghosts," the colonel said, laughing; "and,
+moreover, I don't believe in them one bit. I have travelled 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"--and here he paused--"never
+but once met with any circumstances or occurrence that could not be
+accounted for by the light of reason, and I know you prefer hearing
+stories of my own adventures to mere invention."
+
+"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 a 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-the-way stations in India, and, I may say, one of the
+most pleasant. It lay high, there was capital boating on the Nerbudda,
+and, above all, it was a grand place for sport, for it lay at the foot
+of the hill country, an immense district, then but little known, covered
+with forests and jungle, and abounding with big game of all kinds.
+
+"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 marvellous 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 whole 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 neighbourhood 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 man-eaters, 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 reinforcements. 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
+anyone 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 favourable 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, on 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 endeavour 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 Pirán--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
+ante-room 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 centre 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 effected 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 one 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 rumours 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 Pirán, 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 levelled 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 verandah. 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 centre 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
+anyone 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 story-books 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 owed 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."
+
+
+
+
+
+WHITE-FACED DICK
+
+A STORY OF PINE-TREE GULCH.
+
+
+
+How Pine-tree Gulch got its name no one knew, for in the early days
+every ravine and hillside was thickly covered with pines. It may be that
+a tree of exceptional size caught the eye of the first explorer, that he
+camped under it, and named the place in its honour; or, may be, some
+fallen giant lay in the bottom and hindered the work of the first
+prospectors. At any rate, Pine-tree Gulch it was, and the name was as
+good as any other. The pine-trees were gone now. Cut up for firing, or
+for the erection of huts, or the construction of sluices, but the
+hillside was ragged with their stumps.
+
+The principal camp was at the mouth of the Gulch, where the little
+stream, which scarce afforded water sufficient for the cradles in the
+dry season, but which was a rushing torrent in winter, joined the
+Yuba. The best ground was at the junction of the streams, and lay,
+indeed, in the Yuba valley rather than in the Gulch. At first most gold
+had been found higher up, but there was here comparatively little depth
+down to the bed-rock, and as the ground became exhausted the miners
+moved down towards the mouth of the Gulch. They were doing well as a
+whole, how well no one knew, for miners are chary of giving information
+as to what they are making; still, it was certain they were doing well,
+for the bars were doing a roaring trade, and the store-keepers never
+refused credit--a proof in itself that the prospects were good.
+
+The flat at the mouth of the Gulch was a busy scene, every foot was good
+paying stuff, for in the eddy, where the torrents in winter rushed down
+into the Yuba, the gold had settled down and lay thick among the
+gravel. But most of the parties were sinking, and it was a long way down
+to the bed-rock; for the hills on both sides sloped steeply, and the
+Yuba must here at one time have rushed through a narrow gorge, until, in
+some wild freak, it brought down millions of tons of gravel, and resumed
+its course seventy feet above its former level.
+
+A quarter of a mile higher up a ledge of rock ran across the valley, and
+over it in the old time the Yuba had poured in a cascade seventy feet
+deep into the ravine. But the rock now was level with the gravel, only
+showing its jagged points here and there above it. This ledge had been
+invaluable to the diggers: without it they could only have sunk their
+shafts with the greatest difficulty, for the gravel would have been full
+of water, and even with the greatest pains in puddling and timber-work
+the pumps would scarcely have sufficed to keep it down as it rose in the
+bottom of the shafts. But the miners had made common cause together, and
+giving each so many ounces of gold or so many day's work had erected a
+dam thirty feet high along the ledge of rock, and had cut a channel for
+the Yuba along the lower slopes of the valley. Of course, when the rain
+set in, as everybody knew, the dam would go, and the river diggings must
+be abandoned till the water subsided and a fresh dam was made; but there
+were two months before them yet, and every one hoped to be down to the
+bed-rock before the water interrupted their work.
+
+The hillside, both in the Yuba Valley and for some distance along
+Pine-tree Gulch, was dotted by shanties and tents; the former
+constructed for the most part of logs roughly squared, the walls being
+some three feet in height, on which the sharp sloping roof was placed,
+thatched in the first place with boughs, and made all snug, perhaps,
+with an old sail stretched over all. The camp was quiet enough during
+the day. The few women were away with their washing at the pools, a
+quarter of a mile up the Gulch, and the only persons to be seen about
+were the men told off for cooking for their respective parties.
+
+But in the evening the camp was lively. Groups of men in red shirts and
+corded trousers tied at the knee, in high boots, sat round blazing
+fires, and talked of their prospects or discussed the news of the luck
+at other camps. The sound of music came from two or three plank
+erections which rose conspicuously above the huts of the diggers, and
+were bright externally with the glories of white and coloured paints. To
+and from these men were always sauntering, and it needed not the clink
+of glasses and the sound of music to tell that they were the bars of the
+camp.
+
+Here, standing at the counter, or seated at numerous small tables, men
+were drinking villainous liquor, smoking and talking, and paying but
+scant attention to the strains of the fiddle or the accordion, save when
+some well-known air was played, when all would join in a boisterous
+chorus. Some were always passing in or out of a door which led into a
+room behind. Here there was comparative quiet, for men were gambling,
+and gambling high.
+
+Going backwards and forwards with liquors into the gambling-room of the
+Imperial Saloon, which stood just where Pine-tree Gulch opened into Yuba
+valley, was a lad, whose appearance had earned for him the name of
+White-faced Dick.
+
+White-faced Dick was not one of those who had done well at Pine-tree
+Gulch; he had come across the plains with his father, who had died when
+half-way over, and Dick had been thrown on the world to shift for
+himself. Nature had not intended him for the work, for he was a
+delicate, timid lad; what spirits he originally had having been years
+before beaten out of him by a brutal father. So far, indeed, Dick was
+the better rather than the worse for the event which had left him an
+orphan.
+
+They had been travelling with a large party for mutual security against
+Indians and Mormons, and so long as the journey lasted Dick had got on
+fairly well. He was always ready to do odd jobs, and as the draught
+cattle were growing weaker and weaker, and every pound of weight was of
+importance, no one grudged him his rations in return for his services,
+but when the company began to descend the slopes of the Sierra Nevada
+they began to break up, going off by twos and threes to the diggings, of
+which they heard such glowing accounts. Some, however, kept straight on
+to Sacramento, determining there to obtain news as to the doings at all
+the different places, and then to choose that which seemed to offer the
+best prospects of success.
+
+Dick proceeded with them to the town, and there found himself alone. His
+companions were absorbed in the busy rush of population, and each had so
+much to provide and arrange for, that none gave a thought to the
+solitary boy. However, at that time no one who had a pair of hands,
+however feeble, to work need starve in Sacramento; and for some weeks
+Dick hung around the town doing odd jobs, and then, having saved a few
+dollars, determined to try his luck at the diggings, and started on foot
+with a shovel on his shoulder and a few day's provisions slung across
+it.
+
+Arrived at his destination, the lad soon discovered that gold-digging
+was hard work for brawny and seasoned men, and after a few feeble
+attempts in spots abandoned as worthless he gave up the effort, and
+again began to drift; and even in Pine-tree Gulch it was not difficult
+to get a living. At first he tried rocking cradles, but the work was far
+harder than it appeared. He was standing ankle deep in water from
+morning till night, and his cheeks grew paler, and his strength, instead
+of increasing, seemed to fade away. Still, there were jobs within his
+strength. He could keep a fire alight and watch a cooking-pot, he could
+carry up buckets of water or wash a flannel shirt, and so he struggled
+on, until at last some kind-hearted man suggested to him that he should
+try to get a place at the new saloon which was about to be opened.
+
+"You are not fit for this work, young 'un, and you ought to be at home
+with your mother; if you like I will go up with you this evening to
+Jeffries. I knew him down on the flats, and I daresay he will take you
+on. I don't say as a saloon is a good place for a boy, still you will
+always get your bellyful of victuals and a dry place to sleep in, if
+it's only under a table. What do you say?"
+
+Dick thankfully accepted the offer, and on Red George's recommendation
+was that evening engaged. His work was not hard now, for till the
+miners knocked off there was little doing in the saloon; a few men would
+come in for a drink at dinner-time, but it was not until the lamps were
+lit that business began in earnest, and then for four or five hours Dick
+was busy.
+
+A rougher or healthier lad would not have minded the work, but to Dick
+it was torture; every nerve in his body thrilled whenever rough miners
+cursed him for not carrying out their orders more quickly, or for
+bringing them the wrong liquors, which, as his brain was in a whirl with
+the noise, the shouting, and the multiplicity of orders, happened
+frequently. He might have fared worse had not Red George always stood
+his friend, and Red George was an authority in Pine-tree Gulch--powerful
+in frame, reckless in bearing and temper, he had been in a score of
+fights and had come off them, if not unscathed, at least victorious. He
+was notoriously a lucky digger, but his earnings went as fast as they
+were made, and he was always ready to open his belt and give a bountiful
+pinch of dust to any mate down on his luck.
+
+One evening Dick was more helpless and confused than usual. The saloon
+was full, and he had been shouted at and badgered and cursed until he
+scarcely knew what he was doing. High play was going on in the saloon,
+and a good many men were clustered round the table. Red George was
+having a run of luck, and there was a big pile of gold dust on the table
+before him. One of the gamblers who was losing had ordered old rye, and
+instead of bringing it to him, Dick brought a tumbler of hot liquor
+which someone else had called for. With an oath the man took it up and
+threw it in his face.
+
+"You cowardly hound!" Red George exclaimed. "Are you man enough to do
+that to a man?"
+
+"You bet," the gambler, who was a new arrival at Pine-tree Gulch,
+replied; and picking up an empty glass, he hurled it at Red George. The
+by-standers sprang aside, and in a moment the two men were facing each
+other with outstretched pistols. The two reports rung out
+simultaneously: Red George sat down unconcernedly with a streak of blood
+flowing down his face, where the bullet had cut a furrow in his cheek;
+the stranger fell back with the bullet hole in the centre of his
+forehead.
+
+The body was carried outside, and the play continued as if no
+interruption had taken place. They were accustomed to such occurrences
+in Pine-tree Gulch, and the piece of ground at the top of the hill, that
+had been set aside as a burial place, was already dotted thickly with
+graves, filled in almost every instance by men who had died, in the
+local phraseology, "with their boots on."
+
+Neither then nor afterwards did Red George allude to the subject to
+Dick, whose life after this signal instance of his championship was
+easier than it had hitherto been, for there were few in Pine-tree Gulch
+who cared to excite Red George's anger; and strangers going to the place
+were sure to receive a friendly warning that it was best for their
+health to keep their tempers over any shortcomings on the part of
+White-faced Dick.
+
+Grateful as he was for Red George's interference on his behalf, Dick
+felt the circumstance which had ensued more than anyone else in the
+camp. With others it was the subject of five minutes' talk, but Dick
+could not get out of his head the thought of the dead man's face as he
+fell back. He had seen many such frays before, but he was too full of
+his own troubles for them to make much impression upon him. But in the
+present case he felt as if he himself was responsible for the death of
+the gambler; if he had not blundered this would not have happened. He
+wondered whether the dead man had a wife and children, and, if so, were
+they expecting his return? Would they ever hear where he had died, and
+how?
+
+But this feeling, which, tired out as he was when the time came for
+closing the bar, often prevented him from sleeping for hours, in no way
+lessened his gratitude and devotion towards Red George, and he felt that
+he could die willingly if his life would benefit his champion. Sometimes
+he thought, too, that his life would not be much to give, for in spite
+of shelter and food, the cough which he had caught while working in the
+water still clung to him, and, as his employer said to him angrily one
+day--
+
+"Your victuals don't do you no good, Dick; you get thinner and thinner,
+and folks will think as I starve you. Darned if you ain't a disgrace to
+the establishment."
+
+The wind was whistling down the gorges, and the clouds hung among the
+pine-woods which still clothed the upper slopes of the hills, and the
+diggers, as they turned out one morning, looked up apprehensively.
+
+"But it could not be," they assured each other. Every one knew that the
+rains were not due for another month yet; it could only be a passing
+shower if it rained at all.
+
+But as the morning went on, men came in from camps higher up the river,
+and reports were current that it had been raining for the last two days
+among the upper hills; while those who took the trouble to walk across
+to the new channel could see for themselves at noon that it was filled
+very nigh to the brim, the water rushing along with thick and turbid
+current. But those who repeated the rumours, or who reported that the
+channel was full, were summarily put down. Men would not believe that
+such a calamity as a flood and the destruction of all their season's
+work could be impending. There had been some showers, no doubt, as there
+had often been before, but it was ridiculous to talk of anything like
+rain a month before its time. Still, in spite of these assertions, there
+was uneasiness at Pine-tree Gulch, and men looked at the driving clouds
+above and shook their heads before they went down to the shafts to work
+after dinner.
+
+When the last customer had left and the bar was closed, Dick had nothing
+to do till evening, and he wandered outside and sat down on a stump, at
+first looking at the work going on in the valley, then so absorbed in
+his own thoughts that he noticed nothing, not even the driving mist
+which presently set in. He was calculating that he had, with his savings
+from his wages and what had been given him by the miners, laid by eighty
+dollars. When he got another hundred and twenty he would go; he would
+make his way down to San Francisco, and then by ship to Panama and up to
+New York, and then west again to the village where he was born. There
+would be people there who would know him, and who would give him work,
+for his mother's sake. He did not care what it was; anything would be
+better than this.
+
+Then his thoughts came back to Pine-tree Gulch, and he started to his
+feet. Could he be mistaken? Were his eyes deceiving him? No; among the
+stones and boulders of the old bed of the Yuba there was the gleam of
+water, and even as he watched it he could see it widening out. He
+started to run down the hill to give the alarm, but before he was
+half-way he paused, for there were loud shouts, and a scene of bustle
+and confusion instantly arose.
+
+The cradles were deserted, and the men working on the surface loaded
+themselves with their tools and made for the high ground, while those at
+the windlasses worked their hardest to draw up their comrades below. A
+man coming down from above stopped close to Dick, with a low cry, and
+stood gazing with a white scared face. Dick had worked with him; he was
+one of the company to which Red George belonged.
+
+"What is it, Saunders?"
+
+"My God! they are lost," the man replied. "I was at the windlass when
+they shouted up to me to go up and fetch them a bottle of rum. They had
+just struck it rich, and wanted a drink on the strength of it."
+
+Dick understood at once. Red George and his mates were still in the
+bottom of the shaft, ignorant of the danger which was threatening them.
+
+"'Come on," he cried; "we shall be in time yet," and at the top of his
+speed dashed down the hill, followed by Saunders.
+
+"What is it, what is it?" asked parties of men mounting the hill. "Red
+George's gang are still below."
+
+Dick's eyes were fixed on the water. There was a broad band now of
+yellow with a white edge down the centre of the stony flat, and it was
+widening with terrible rapidity. It was scarce ten yards from the
+windlass at the top of Red George's shaft when Dick, followed closely by
+Saunders, reached it.
+
+"Come up, mates; quick, for your lives! The river is rising; you will be
+flooded out directly. Every one else has gone!"
+
+As he spoke he pulled at the rope by which the bucket was hanging, and
+the handles of the windlass flew round rapidly as it descended. When it
+had run out. Dick and he grasped the handles.
+
+"All right below?"
+
+An answering call came up, and the two began their work, throwing their
+whole strength into it. Quickly as the windlass revolved, it seemed an
+endless time to Dick before the bucket came up, and the first man
+stepped out. It was not Red George. Dick had hardly expected it would
+be. Red George would be sure to see his two mates up before him, and the
+man uttered a cry of alarm as he saw the water, now within a few feet of
+the mouth of the shaft.
+
+It was a torrent now, for not only was it coming through the dam, but it
+was rushing down in cascades from the new channel. Without a word the
+miner placed himself facing Dick and the moment the bucket was again
+down, the three grasped the handles. But quickly as they worked, the
+edge of the water was within a few inches of the shaft when the next man
+reached the surface, but again the bucket descended before the rope
+tightened. However, the water had began to run over the lip--at first in
+a mere trickle, and then, almost instantaneously, in a cascade, which
+grew larger and larger.
+
+The bucket was half-way up when a sound like thunder was heard, the
+ground seemed to tremble under their feet, and then at the turn of the
+valley above, a great wave of yellow water, crested with foam, was seen
+tearing along at the speed of a race-horse.
+
+"The dam has burst!" Saunders shouted. "Run for your lives, or we are
+all lost!"
+
+The three men dropped the handles and ran at full speed towards the
+shore, while loud shouts to Dick to follow came from the crowd of men
+standing on the slope. But the boy still grasped the handles, and with
+lips tightly closed, still toiled on. Slowly the bucket ascended, for
+Red George was a heavy man; then suddenly the weight slackened, and the
+handle went round faster. The shaft was filling, the water had reached
+the bucket, and had risen to Red George's neck, so that his weight was
+no longer on the rope. So fast did the water pour in, that it was not
+half a minute before the bucket reached the surface, and Red George
+sprang out. There was but time for one exclamation, and then the great
+wave struck them. Red George was whirled like a straw in the current,
+but he was a strong swimmer, and at a point where the valley widened
+out, half a mile lower, he struggled to shore.
+
+Two days later the news reached Pine-tree Gulch that a boy's body had
+been washed ashore twenty miles down, and ten men, headed by Red George,
+went and brought it solemnly back to Pine-tree Gulch. There, among the
+stumps of pine-trees, a grave was dug, and there, in the presence of the
+whole camp, White-faced Dick was laid to rest.
+
+Pine-tree Gulch is a solitude now, the trees are growing again, and none
+would dream that it was once a busy scene of industry; but if the
+traveller searches among the pine-trees, he will find a stone with the
+words:
+
+"Here lies White-faced Dick, who died to save Red George. 'What can a
+man do more than give his life for a friend?'"
+
+The text was the suggestion of an ex-clergyman working as a miner in
+Pine-tree Gulch.
+
+Red George worked no more at the diggings, but after seeing the stone
+laid in its place, went east, and with what little money came to him
+when the common fund of the company was divided after the flood on the
+Yuba, bought a small farm, and settled down there; but to the end of his
+life he was never weary of telling those who would listen to it the
+story of Pine-tree Gulch.
+
+
+
+
+
+A BRUSH WITH THE CHINESE
+
+AND WHAT CAME OF IT.
+
+
+
+It was early in December that H.M.S. _Perseus_ was cruising off the
+mouth of the Canton River. War had been declared with China in
+consequence of her continued evasions of the treaty she had made with
+us, and it was expected that a strong naval force would soon gather to
+bring her to reason. In the meantime the ships on the station had a busy
+time of it, chasing the enemy's junks when they ventured to show
+themselves beyond the reach of the guns of their forts, and occasionally
+having a brush with the piratical boats which took advantage of the
+general confusion to plunder friend as well as foe.
+
+The _Perseus_ had that afternoon chased two Government junks up a
+creek. The sun had already set when they took refuge there, and the
+captain did not care to send his boats after them in the dark, as many
+of the creeks ran up for miles into the flat country; and as they not
+unfrequently had many arms or branches, the boats might, in the dark,
+miss the junks altogether. Orders were issued that four boats should be
+ready for starting at daybreak the next morning. The _Perseus_ anchored
+off the mouth of the creek, and two boats were ordered to row backwards
+and forwards off its mouth all night to insure that the enemy did not
+slip out in the darkness.
+
+Jack Fothergill, the senior midshipman, was commanding the gig, and two
+of the other midshipmen were going in the pinnace and launch, commanded
+respectively by the first lieutenant and the master. The three other
+midshipmen of the _Perseus_ were loud in their lamentations that they
+were not to take share in the fun.
+
+"You can't all go, you know," Fothergill said, "and it's no use making a
+row about it; the captain has been very good to let three of us go."
+
+"It's all very well for you, Jack," Percy Adcock, the youngest of the
+lads, replied, "because you are one of those chosen; and it is not so
+hard for Simmons and Linthorpe, because they went the other day in the
+boat that chased those junks under shelter of the guns of their battery,
+but I haven't had a chance for ever so long."
+
+"'What fun was there in chasing the junks?" Simmons said. "We never got
+near the brutes till they were close to their battery, and then just as
+the first shot came singing from their guns, and we thought that we were
+going to have some excitement, the first lieutenant sung out 'Easy all,'
+and there was nothing for it but to turn round and to row for the ship,
+and a nice hot row it was--two hours and a half in a broiling sun. Of
+course I am not blaming Oliphant, for the captain's orders were strict
+that we were not to try to cut the junks out if they got under the guns
+of any of their batteries. Still it was horribly annoying, and I do
+think the captain might have remembered what beastly luck we had last
+time, and given us a chance tomorrow."
+
+"It is clear we could not all go," Fothergill said, "and naturally
+enough the captain chose the three seniors. Besides, if you did have bad
+luck last time, you had your chance, and I don't suppose we shall have
+anything more exciting now, these fellows always set fire to their junks
+and row for the shore directly they see us, after firing a shot or two
+wildly in our direction."
+
+"Well, Jack, if you don't expect any fun," Simmons replied, "perhaps you
+wouldn't mind telling the first lieutenant you do not care for going,
+and that I am very anxious to take your place. Perhaps he will be good
+enough to allow me to relieve you."
+
+"A likely thing that!" Fothergill laughed. "No, Tom, I am sorry you are
+not going, but you must make the best of it till another chance comes."
+
+"Don't you think, Jack," Percy Adcock said to his senior in a coaxing
+tone later on, "you could manage to smuggle me into the boat with you?"
+
+"Not I, Percy. Suppose you got hurt, what would the captain say then?
+And firing as wildly as the Chinese do, a shot is just as likely to hit
+your little carcase as to lodge in one of the sailors. No, you must just
+make the best of it, Percy, and I promise you that next time there is a
+boat expedition, if you are not put in, I will say a good word to the
+first luff for you."
+
+"That promise is better than nothing," the boy said; "but I would a deal
+rather go this time and take my chance next."
+
+"But you see you can't, Percy, and there's no use talking any more about
+it. I really do not expect there will be any fighting. Two junks would
+hardly make any opposition to the boats of the ship, and I expect we
+shall be back by nine o'clock with the news that they were well on fire
+before we came up."
+
+Percy Adcock, however, was determined, if possible, to go. He was a
+favourite among the men, and when he spoke to the bow oar of the gig,
+the latter promised to do anything he could to aid him to carry out his
+wishes.
+
+"We are to start at daybreak, Tom, so that it will be quite dark when
+the boats are lowered. I will creep into the gig before that and hide
+myself as well as I can under your thwart, and all you have got to do is
+to take no notice of me. When the boat is lowered I think they will
+hardly make me out from the deck, especially as you will be standing up
+in the bow holding on with the boat-hook till the rest get on board."
+
+"Well, sir, I will do my best, but if you are caught you must not let
+out that I knew anything about it."
+
+"I won't do that," Percy said. "I don't think there is much chance of my
+being noticed until we get on board the junks, and then they won't know
+which boat I came off in, and the first lieutenant will be too busy to
+blow me up. Of course I shall get it when I am on board again, but I
+don't mind that so that I see the fun. Besides, I want to send home
+some things to my sister, and she will like them all the better if I can
+tell her I captured them on board some junks we seized and burnt."
+
+The next morning the crews mustered before daybreak. Percy had already
+taken his place under the bow thwart of the gig. The davits were swung
+overboard, and two men took their places in her as she was lowered down
+by the falls. As soon as she touched the water the rest of the crew
+clambered down by the ladder and took their places, then Fothergill took
+his seat in the stern, and the boat pushed off and lay a few lengths
+away from the ship until the heavier boats put off. As soon as they were
+under way Percy crawled out from his hiding-place and placed himself in
+the bow, where he was sheltered by the body of the oarsmen from
+Fothergill's sight.
+
+Day was just breaking now, but it was still dark on the water, and the
+boat rowed very slowly until it became lighter. Percy could just make
+out the shores of the creek on both sides; they were but two or three
+feet above the level of the water, and were evidently submerged at high
+tide. The creek was about a hundred yards wide, and the lad could not
+see far ahead, for it was full of sharp windings and turnings. Here and
+there branches joined it, but the boats were evidently following the
+main channel. After another half-hour's rowing the first lieutenant
+suddenly gave the order, "Easy all," and the men, looking over their
+shoulders, saw a village a quarter of a mile ahead, with the two junks
+they had chased the night before lying in front of it. Almost at the
+same moment a sudden uproar was heard--drums were beaten and gongs
+sounded.
+
+"They are on the look-out for us," the first lieutenant
+said. "Mr. Mason, do you keep with me and attack the junk highest up the
+river; Mr. Bellew and Mr. Fothergill, do you take the one lower
+down. Row on, men."
+
+The oars all touched the water together, and the four boats leapt
+forward. In a minute a scattering fire of gingals and matchlocks was
+opened from the junks, and the bullets pattered on the water round the
+boats. Percy was kneeling up in the bow now. As they passed a branch
+channel three or four hundred yards from the village, he started and
+leapt to his feet.
+
+"There are four or five junks in that passage, Fothergill; they are
+poling out."
+
+The first lieutenant heard the words.
+
+"Row on, men; let us finish with these craft ahead before the others get
+out. This must be that piratical village we have heard about, Mr.
+Mason, as lying up one of these creeks; that accounts for those two
+junks not going higher up. I was surprised at seeing them here, for they
+might guess that we should try to get them this morning. Evidently they
+calculated on catching us in a trap."
+
+Percy was delighted at finding that, in the excitement caused by his
+news, the first lieutenant had forgotten to take any notice of his being
+there without orders, and he returned a defiant nod to the threat
+conveyed by Fothergill shaking his fist at him. As they neared the junks
+the fire of those on board redoubled, and was aided by that of many
+villagers gathered on the bank of the creek. Suddenly from a bank of
+rushes four cannons were fired. A ball struck the pinnace, smashing in
+her side. The other boats gathered hastily round and took her crew on
+board, and then dashed at the junks, which were but a hundred yards
+distant. The valour of the Chinese evaporated as they saw the boats
+approaching, and scores of them leapt overboard and swam for shore.
+
+In another minute the boats were alongside and the crews scrambling up
+the sides of the junks. A few Chinamen only attempted to oppose
+them. These were speedily overcome, and the British had now time to look
+round, and saw that six junks crowded with men had issued from the side
+creek and were making towards them.
+
+"Let the boats tow astern," the lieutenant ordered. "We should have to
+run the gauntlet of that battery on shore if we were to attack them, and
+might lose another boat before we reached their side. We will fight them
+here."
+
+The junks approached, those on board firing their guns, yelling and
+shouting, while the drums and gongs were furiously beaten.
+
+"They will find themselves mistaken, Percy, if they think they are going
+to frighten us with all that row," Fothergill said. "You young rascal,
+how did you get on board the boat without being seen? The captain will
+be sure to suspect I had a hand in concealing you."
+
+The tars were now at work firing the gingals attached to the bulwarks
+and the matchlocks, with which the deck was strewn, at the approaching
+junks. As they took steady aim, leaning their pieces on the bulwarks,
+they did considerable execution among the Chinamen crowded on board the
+junks, while the shot of the Chinese, for the most part, whistled far
+overhead; but the guns of the shore battery, which had now been slewed
+round to bear upon them, opened with a better aim, and several shots
+came crashing into the sides of the two captured junks.
+
+"Get ready to board, lads!" Lieutenant Oliphant shouted. "Don't wait for
+them to board you, but the moment they come alongside lash their rigging
+to ours and spring on board them."
+
+The leading junk was now about twenty yards away, and presently grated
+alongside. Half-a-dozen sailors at once sprang into her rigging with
+ropes, and after lashing the junks together leaped down upon her deck,
+where Fothergill was leading the gig's crew and some of those rescued
+from the pinnace, while Mr. Bellew, with another party, had boarded her
+at the stern. Several of the Chinese fought stoutly, but the greater
+part lost heart at seeing themselves attacked by the "white devils,"
+instead of, as they expected, overwhelming them by their superior
+numbers. Many began at once to jump overboard, and after two or three
+minutes' sharp fighting, the rest either followed their example or were
+beaten below.
+
+Fothergill looked round. The other junk had been attacked by two of the
+enemy, one on each side, and the little body of sailors were gathered in
+her waist, and were defending themselves against an overwhelming number
+of the enemy. The other three piratical junks had been carried somewhat
+up the creek by the tide that was sweeping inward, and could not for the
+moment take part in the fight.
+
+"Mr. Oliphant is hard pressed, sir." He asked the master: "Shall we take
+to the boats?"
+
+"That will be the best plan," Mr. Bellew replied. "Quick, lads, get the
+boats alongside and tumble in; there is not a moment to be lost."
+
+The crew at once sprang to the boats and rowed to the other junk, which
+was but some thirty yards away.
+
+The Chinese, absorbed in their contest with the crew of the pinnace, did
+not perceive the newcomers until they gained the deck, and with a shout
+fell furiously upon them. In their surprise and consternation the
+pirates did not pause to note that they were still five to one superior
+in number, but made a precipitate rush for their own vessels. The
+English at once took the offensive. The first lieutenant with his party
+boarded one, while the new-comers leapt on to the deck of the other. The
+panic which had seized the Chinese was so complete that they attempted
+no resistance whatever, but sprang overboard in great numbers and swam
+to the shore, which was but twenty yards away, and in three minutes the
+English were in undisputed possession of both vessels.
+
+"Back again, Mr. Fothergill, or you will lose the craft you captured,"
+Lieutenant Oliphant said; "they have already cut her free."
+
+The Chinese, indeed, who had been beaten below by the boarding party,
+had soon perceived the sudden departure of their captors, and gaining
+the deck again had cut the lashings which fastened them to the other
+junk, and were proceeding to hoist their sails. They were too late,
+however. Almost before the craft had way on her Fothergill and his crew
+were alongside. The Chinese did not wait for the attack, but at once
+sprang overboard and made for the shore. The other three junks, seeing
+the capture of their comrades, had already hoisted their sails and were
+making up the creek. Fothergill dropped an anchor, left four of his men
+in charge, and rowed back to Mr. Oliphant.
+
+"What shall we do next, sir?"
+
+"We will give those fellows on shore a lesson, and silence their
+battery. Two men have been killed since you left. We must let the other
+junks go for the present. Four of my men were killed and eleven wounded
+before Mr. Bellew and you came to our assistance. The Chinese were
+fighting pluckily up to that time, and it would have gone very hard with
+us if you had not been at hand; the beggars will fight when they think
+they have got it all their own way. But before we land we will set fire
+to the five junks we have taken. Do you return and see that the two
+astern are well lighted, Mr. Fothergill; Mr. Mason will see to these
+three. When you have done your work take to your boat and lay off till I
+join you; keep the junks between you and the shore, to protect you from
+the fire of the rascals there."
+
+"I cannot come with you, I suppose, Fothergill?" Percy Adcock said, as
+the midshipman was about to descend into his boat again.
+
+"Yes, come along, Percy. It doesn't matter what you do now. The captain
+will be so pleased when he hears that we have captured and burnt five
+junks, that you will get off with a very light wigging, I imagine."
+
+"That's just what I was thinking, Jack. Has it not been fun?"
+
+"You wouldn't have thought it fun if you had got one of those matchlock
+balls in your body. There are a good many of our poor fellows just at
+the present moment who do not see anything funny in the affair at
+all. Here we are; clamber up."
+
+The crew soon set to work under Fothergill's orders. The sails were cut
+off the masts and thrown down into the hold; bamboos, of which there
+were an abundance down there, were heaped over them, a barrel of oil was
+poured over the mass, and the fire then applied.
+
+"That will do, lads. Now take to your boats and let's make a bonfire of
+the other junk."
+
+In ten minutes both vessels were a sheet of flame, and the boat was
+lying a short distance from them waiting for further operations. The
+inhabitants of the village, furious at the failure of the plan which had
+been laid for the destruction of the "white devils," kept up a constant
+fusilade, which, however, did no harm, for the gig was completely
+sheltered by the burning junks close to her from their missiles.
+
+"There go the others!" Percy exclaimed after a minute or two, as three
+columns of smoke arose simultaneously from the other junks, and the
+sailors were seen dropping into their boats alongside.
+
+The killed and wounded were placed in the other gig with four sailors in
+charge. They were directed to keep under shelter of the junks until
+rejoined by the pinnace and Fothergill's gig, after these had done their
+work on shore.
+
+When all was ready the first lieutenant raised his hand as a signal, and
+the two boats dashed between the burning junks and rowed for the
+shore. Such of the natives as had their weapons charged fired a hasty
+volley, and then, as the sailors leapt from their boats, took to their
+heels.
+
+"Mr. Fothergill, take your party into the village and set fire to the
+houses; shoot down every man you see. This place is a nest of pirates. I
+will capture that battery and then join you."
+
+Fothergill and his sailors at once entered the village. The men had
+already fled; the women were turned out of the houses, and these were
+immediately set on fire. The tars regarded the whole affair as a
+glorious joke, and raced from house to house, making a hasty search in
+each for concealed valuables before setting it on fire. In a short time
+the whole village was in a blaze.
+
+"There is a house there, standing in that little grove a hundred yards
+away," Percy said.
+
+"It looks like a temple," Fothergill replied. "However, we will have a
+look at it." And calling two sailors to accompany him, he started at a
+run towards it, Percy keeping by his side.
+
+"It is a temple," Fothergill said when they approached it. "Still, we
+will have a look at it, but we won't burn it; it will be as well to
+respect the religion, even of a set of piratical scoundrels like these."
+
+At the head of his men he rushed in at the entrance. There was a blaze
+of fire as half a dozen muskets were discharged in their faces. One of
+the sailors dropped dead, and before the others had time to realize what
+had happened they were beaten to the ground by a storm of blows from
+swords and other weapons.
+
+A heavy blow crashed down on Percy's head, and he fell insensible even
+before he realized what had occurred.
+
+When he recovered, his first sensation was that of a vague wonder as to
+what had happened to him. He seemed to be in darkness and unable to move
+hand or foot. He was compressed in some way that he could not at first
+understand, and was being bumped and jolted in an extraordinary
+manner. It was some little time before he could understand the
+situation. He first remembered the fight with the junks, then he
+recalled the landing and burning the village; then, as his brain
+cleared, came the recollection of his start with Fothergill for the
+temple among the trees, his arrival there, and a loud report and flash
+of fire.
+
+"I must have been knocked down and stunned," he said to himself, "and I
+suppose I am a prisoner now to these brutes, and one of them must be
+carrying me on his back."
+
+Yes, he could understand it all now. His hands and his feet were tied,
+ropes were passed round his body in every direction, and he was fastened
+back to back upon the shoulders of a Chinaman. Percy remembered the
+tales he had heard of the imprisonment and torture of those who fell
+into the hands of the Chinese, and he bitterly regretted that he had not
+been killed instead of stunned in the surprise of the temple.
+
+"It would have been just the same feeling," he said to himself, "and
+there would have been an end of it. Now, there is no saying what is
+going to happen. I wonder whether Jack was killed, and the sailors."
+
+Presently there was a jabber of voices; the motion ceased. Percy could
+feel that the cords were being unwound, and he was dropped on to his
+feet; then the cloth was removed from his head, and he could look round.
+
+A dozen Chinese, armed with matchlocks and bristling with swords and
+daggers, stood around, and among them, bound like himself and gagged by
+a piece of bamboo forced lengthways across his mouth and kept there with
+a string going round the back of the head, stood Fothergill. He was
+bleeding from several cuts in the head. Percy's heart gave a bound of
+joy at finding that he was not alone; then he tried to feel sorry that
+Jack had not escaped, but failed to do so, although he told himself that
+his comrade's presence would not in any way alleviate the fate which was
+certain to befall him. Still the thought of companionship, even in
+wretchedness, and perhaps a vague hope that Jack, with his energy and
+spirit, might contrive some way for their escape, cheered him up.
+
+As Percy, too, was gagged, no word could be exchanged by the midshipmen,
+but they nodded to each other. They were now put side by side and made
+to walk in the centre of their captors. On the way they passed through
+several villages, whose inhabitants poured out to gaze at the captives,
+but the men in charge of them were evidently not disposed to delay, as
+they passed through without a stop. At last they halted before two
+cottages standing by themselves, thrust the prisoners into a small room,
+removed their gags, and left them to themselves.
+
+"Well, Percy, my boy, so they caught you too? I am awfully sorry. It was
+my fault for going with only two men into that temple, but as the
+village had been deserted and scarcely a man was found there, it never
+entered my mind that there might be a party in the temple."
+
+"Of course not, Jack; it was a surprise altogether. I don't know
+anything about it, for I was knocked down, I suppose, just as we went
+in, and the first thing I knew about it was that I was being carried on
+the back of one of those fellows. I thought it was awful at first, but I
+don't seem to mind so much now you are with me."
+
+"It is a comfort to have someone to speak to," Jack said, "yet I wish
+you were not here, Percy; I can't do you any good, and I shall never
+cease blaming myself for having brought you into this scrape. I don't
+know much more about the affair than you do. The guns were fired so
+close to us that my face was scorched with one of them, and almost at
+the same instant I got a lick across my cheek with a sword. I had just
+time to hit at one of them, and then almost at the same moment I got two
+or three other blows, and down I went; they threw themselves on the top
+of me and tied and gagged me in no time. Then I was tied to a long
+bamboo, and two fellows put the ends on their shoulders and went off
+with me through the fields. Of course I was face downwards, and did not
+know you were with us till they stopped and loosed me from the bamboo
+and set me on my feet."
+
+"But what are they going to do with us do you think, Jack?"
+
+"I should say they are going to take us to Canton and claim a reward for
+our capture, and there I suppose they will cut off our heads or saw us
+in two, or put us to some other unpleasant kind of death. I expect they
+are discussing it now; do you hear what a jabber they are kicking up?"
+
+Voices were indeed heard raised in angry altercation in the next
+room. After a time the din subsided and the conversation appeared to
+take a more amiable turn.
+
+"I suppose they have settled it as far as they are concerned," Jack
+said; "anyhow, you may be quite sure they mean to make something out of
+us. If they hadn't they would have finished us at once, for they must
+have been furious at the destruction of their junks and village. As to
+the idea that mercy has anything to do with it, we may as well put it
+out of our minds. The Chinaman, at the best of times, has no feeling of
+pity in his nature, and after their defeat it is certain they would have
+killed us at once had they not hoped to do better by us. If they had
+been Indians I should have said they had carried us off to enjoy the
+satisfaction of torturing us, but I don't suppose it is that with them."
+
+"Do you think there is any chance of our getting away?" Percy asked,
+after a pause.
+
+"I should say not the least in the world, Percy. My hands are fastened
+so tight now that the ropes seem cutting into my wrists, and after they
+had set me on my feet and cut the cords of my legs I could scarcely
+stand at first, my feet were so numbed by the pressure. However, we must
+keep up our pluck. Possibly they may keep us at Canton for a bit, and if
+they do the squadron may arrive and fight its way past the forts and
+take the city before they have quite made up their minds as to what kind
+of death will be most appropriate to the occasion. I wonder what they
+are doing now? They seem to be chopping sticks."
+
+"I wish they would give us some water," Percy said "I am frightfully
+thirsty."
+
+"And so am I, Percy; there is one comfort, they won't let us die of
+thirst, they could get no satisfaction out of our deaths now."
+
+Two hours later some of the Chinese re-entered the room and led the
+captives outside, and the lads then saw what was the meaning of the
+noise they had heard. A cage had been manufactured of strong bamboos. It
+was about four and a half feet long, four feet wide, and less than three
+feet high; above it was fastened two long bamboos. Two or three of the
+bars of the cage had been left open.
+
+"My goodness! they never intend to put us in there," Percy exclaimed.
+
+"That they do," Jack said. "They are going to carry us the rest of the
+way."
+
+The cords which bound the prisoners' hands were now cut, and they were
+motioned to crawl into the cage. This they did; the bars were then put
+in their places and securely lashed. Four men went to the ends of the
+poles and lifted the cage upon their shoulders; two others took their
+places beside it, and one man, apparently the leader of the party,
+walked on ahead, the rest remained behind.
+
+"I never quite realized what a fowl felt in a coop before," Jack said,
+"but if its sensations are at all like mine they must be decidedly
+unpleasant. It isn't high enough to sit upright in, it is nothing like
+long enough to lie down, and as to getting out one might as well think
+of flying. Do you know, Percy, I don't think they mean taking us to
+Canton at all. I did not think of it before, but from the direction of
+the sun I feel sure that we cannot have been going that way. What they
+are up to I can't imagine."
+
+In an hour they came to a large village. Here the cage was set down and
+the villagers closed round. They were, however, kept a short distance
+from the cage by the men in charge of it. Then a wooden platter was
+placed on the ground, and persons throwing a few copper coins into this
+were allowed to come near the cage.
+
+"They are making a show of us!" Fothergill exclaimed. "That's what they
+are up to, you see if it isn't; they are going to travel up country to
+show the 'white devils' whom their valour has captured."
+
+This was, indeed, the purpose of the pirates. At that time Europeans
+seldom ventured beyond the limits assigned to them in the two or three
+towns where they were permitted to trade, and few, indeed, of the
+country people had ever obtained a sight of the white barbarians of
+whose doings they had so frequently heard. Consequently a small crowd
+soon gathered round the cage, eyeing the captives with the same interest
+they would have felt as to unknown and dangerous beasts; they laughed
+and joked, passed remarks upon them, and even poked them with
+sticks. Fothergill, furious at this treatment, caught one of the sticks,
+and wrenching it from the hands of the Chinaman, tried to strike at him
+through the bars, a proceeding which excited shouts of laughter from the
+bystanders.
+
+"I think, Jack," Percy said, "it will be best to try and keep our
+tempers and not to seem to mind what they do to us, then if they find
+they can't get any fun out of us they will soon leave us alone."
+
+"Of course, that's the best plan," Fothergill agreed, "but it's not so
+easy to follow. That fellow very nearly poked out my eye with his stick,
+and no one's going to stand that if he can help it."
+
+It was some hours before the curiosity of the village was
+satisfied. When all had paid who were likely to do so, the guards broke
+up their circle, and leaving two of their number at the cage to see that
+no actual harm was caused to their prisoners, the rest went off to a
+refreshment house. The place of the elders was now taken by the boys and
+children of the village, who crowded round the cage, prodded the
+prisoners with sticks, and, putting their hands through the bars, pulled
+their ears and hair. This amusement, however, was brought to an abrupt
+conclusion by Fothergill suddenly seizing the wrist of a big boy and
+pulling his arm through the cage until his face was against the bars;
+then he proceeded to punch him until the guard, coming to his rescue,
+poked Fothergill with his stick until he released his hold.
+
+The punishment of their comrade excited neither anger nor resentment
+among the other boys, who yelled with delight at his discomfiture, but
+it made them more careful in approaching the cage, and though they
+continued to poke the prisoners with sticks they did not venture again
+to thrust a hand through the bars. At sunset the guards again came
+round, lifted the cage and carried it into a shed. A platter of dirty
+rice and a jug of water were put into the cage; two of the men lighted
+their long pipes and sat down on guard beside it, and, the doors being
+closed, the captives were left in peace.
+
+"If this sort of thing is to go on, as I suppose it is," Fothergill
+said, "the sooner they cut off our heads the better."
+
+"It is very bad, Jack. I am sore all over with those probes from their
+sharp sticks."
+
+"I don't care for the pain, Percy, so much as the humiliation of the
+thing. To be stared at and poked at as if we were wild beasts by these
+curs, when with half a dozen of our men we could send a hundred of them
+scampering, I feel as if I could choke with rage."
+
+"You had better try and eat some of this rice, Jack. It is beastly, but
+I daresay we shall get no more until to-morrow night, and we must keep
+up our strength if we can. At any rate, the water is not bad, that's a
+comfort."
+
+"No thanks to them," Jack growled. "If there had been any bad water in
+the neighbourhood they would have given it to us."
+
+For six weeks the sufferings of the prisoners continued. Their captors
+avoided towns where the authorities would probably at once have taken
+the prisoners out of their hands. No one would have recognized the two
+captives as the midshipmen of the _Perseus_; their clothes were in
+rags--torn to pieces by the thrusts of the sharp-pointed bamboos, to
+which they had daily been subjected--the bad food, the cramped position,
+and the misery which they suffered had worn both lads to skeletons;
+their hair was matted with filth, their faces begrimed with dirt. Percy
+was so weak that he felt he could not stand. Fothergill, being three
+years older, was less exhausted, but he knew that he, too, could not
+support his sufferings for many days longer. Their bodies were covered
+with sores, and try as they would they were able to catch only a few
+minutes' sleep at a time, so much did the bamboo bars hurt their wasted
+limbs.
+
+They seldom exchanged a word during the daytime, suffering in silence
+the persecutions to which they were exposed, but at night they talked
+over their homes and friends in England, and their comrades on board
+ship, seldom saying a word as to their present position. They were now
+in a hilly country, but had not the least idea of the direction in which
+it lay from Canton or its distance from the coast.
+
+One evening Jack said to his companion, "I think it's nearly all over
+now, Percy. The last two days we have made longer journeys, and have not
+stopped at any of the smaller villages we passed through. I fancy our
+guards must see that we can't last much longer, and are taking us down
+to some town to hand us over to the authorities and get their reward for
+us."
+
+"I hope it is so, Jack; the sooner the better. Not that it makes much
+difference now to me, for I do not think I can stand many more days of
+it."
+
+"I am afraid I am tougher than you, Percy, and shall take longer to
+kill, so I hope with all my heart that I may be right, and that they may
+be going to give us up to the authorities."
+
+The next evening they stopped at a large place, and were subjected to
+the usual persecution; this, however, was now less prolonged than during
+the early days of their captivity, for they had now no longer strength
+or spirits to resent their treatment, and as no fun was to be obtained
+from passive victims, even the village boys soon ceased to find any
+amusement in tormenting them.
+
+When most of their visitors had left them, an elderly Chinaman
+approached the side of the cage. He spoke to their guards and looked at
+them attentively for some minutes, then he said in pigeon English, "You
+officer men?"
+
+"Yes!" Jack exclaimed, starting at the sound of the English words, the
+first they had heard spoken since their captivity. "Yes, we are officers
+of the _Perseus_."
+
+"Me speeke English velly well," the Chinaman said; "me pilot-man many
+years on Canton river. How you get here?"
+
+"We were attacking some piratical junks, and landed to destroy the
+village where the people were firing on us. We entered a place full of
+pirates, and were knocked down and taken prisoners, and carried away up
+the country; that is six weeks ago, and you see what we are now."
+
+"Pirate men velly bad," the Chinaman said; "plunder many junk on river
+and kill crew. Me muchee hate them."
+
+"Can you do anything for us?" Jack asked. "You will be well rewarded if
+you could manage to get us free."
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+"Me no see what can do, me stranger here; come to stay with wifey;
+people no do what me ask them. English ships attack Canton, much fight
+and take town, people all hate English. Bad country dis. People in one
+village fight against another. Velly bad men here."
+
+"How far is Canton away?" Jack asked. "Could you not send down to tell
+the English we are here?"
+
+"Fourteen days' journey off," the man said, "no see how can do
+anything."
+
+"Well," Jack said, "when you get back again to Canton let our people
+know what has been the end of us, we shall not last much longer."
+
+"All light," the man said, "will see what me can do. Muchee think
+to-night!" And after saying a few words to the guards, who had been
+regarding this conversation with an air of surprise, the Chinaman
+retired.
+
+The guards had for some time abandoned the precaution of sitting up at
+night by the cage, convinced that their captives had no longer strength
+to attempt to break through its fastenings or to drag themselves many
+yards away if they could do so. They therefore left it standing in the
+open, and, wrapping themselves in their thickly-wadded coats, for the
+nights were cold, lay down by the side of the cage.
+
+The coolness of the nights had, indeed, assisted to keep the two
+prisoners alive. During the day the sun was excessively hot, and the
+crowd of visitors round the cage impeded the circulation of the air and
+added to their sufferings. It was true that the cold at night frequently
+prevented them from sleeping, but it acted as a tonic and braced them
+up.
+
+"What did he mean about the villages attacking each other?" Percy asked.
+
+"I have heard," Jack replied, "that in some parts of China things are
+very much the same as they used to be in the highlands of Scotland.
+There is no law or order. The different villages are like clans, and
+wage war on each other. Sometimes the Government sends a number of
+troops, who put the thing down for a time, chop off a good many heads,
+and then march away, and the whole work begins again as soon as their
+backs are turned."
+
+That night the uneasy slumber of the lads was disturbed by a sudden
+firing; shouts and yells were heard, and the firing redoubled.
+
+"The village is attacked," Jack said. "I noticed that, like some other
+places we have come into lately, there is a strong earthen wall round
+it, with gates. Well, there is one comfort--it does not make much
+difference to us which side wins."
+
+The guards at the first alarm leapt to their feet, caught up their
+matchlocks, and ran to aid in the defence of the wall. Two minutes later
+a man ran up to the cage.
+
+"All lightee," he said; "just what me hopee."
+
+With his knife he cut the tough withes that held the bamboos in their
+places, and pulled out three of the bars.
+
+"Come along," he said; "no time to lose."
+
+Jack scrambled out, but in trying to stand upright gave a sharp
+exclamation of pain. Percy crawled out more slowly; he tried to stand
+up, but could not. The Chinaman caught him up and threw him on his
+shoulder.
+
+"Come along quickee," he said to Jack; "if takee village, kill evely
+one." He set off at a run. Jack followed as fast as he could, groaning
+at every step from the pain the movement caused to his bruised body.
+
+They went to the side of the village opposite to that at which the
+attack was going on. They met no one on the way, the inhabitants having
+all rushed to the other side to repel the attack. They stopped at a
+small gate in the wall, the Chinaman drew back the bolts and opened it,
+and they passed out into the country. For an hour they kept on. By the
+end of that time Jack could scarcely drag his limbs along. The Chinaman
+halted at length in a clump of trees surrounded by a thick undergrowth.
+
+"Allee safee here," he said, "no searchee so far; here food;" and he
+produced from a wallet a cold chicken and some boiled rice, and unslung
+from his shoulder a gourd filled with cold tea.
+
+"Me go back now, see what happen. To-mollow nightee come again--bringee
+more food." And without another word went off at a rapid pace.
+
+Jack moistened his lips with the tea, and then turned to his
+companion. Percy had not spoken a word since he had been released from
+the cage, and had been insensible during the greater part of his
+journey. Jack poured some cold tea between his lips.
+
+"Cheer up, Percy, old boy, we are free now, and with luck and that good
+fellow's help we will work our way down to Canton yet."
+
+"I shall never get down there; you may," Percy said feebly.
+
+"Oh, nonsense, you will pick up strength like a steam-engine now. Here,
+let me prop you against this tree. That's better. Now drink a drop of
+this tea; it's like nectar after that filthy water we have been
+drinking. Now you will feel better. Now you must try and eat a little of
+this chicken and rice. Oh, nonsense, you have got to do it. I am not
+going to let you give way when our trouble is just over. Think of your
+people at home, Percy, and make an effort, for their sakes. Good
+heavens! now I think of it, it must be Christmas morning. We were caught
+on the 2nd and we have been just twenty-two days on show. I am sure that
+it must be past twelve o'clock, and it is Christmas-day. It is a good
+omen, Percy. This food isn't like roast beef and plum-pudding, but it's
+not to be despised, I can tell you. Come, fire away, that's a good
+fellow."
+
+Percy made an effort and ate a few mouthfuls of rice and chicken, then
+he took another draught of tea, and lay down, and was almost immediately
+asleep.
+
+Jack ate his food slowly and contentedly till he finished half the
+supply, then he, too, lay down, and, after a short but hearty
+thanksgiving for his escape from a slow and lingering death, he, too,
+fell off to sleep. The sun was rising when he woke, being aroused by a
+slight movement on the part of Percy; he opened his eyes and sat up.
+
+"Well, Percy, how do you feel this morning?" he asked cheerily.
+
+"I feel too weak to move," Percy replied languidly.
+
+"Oh, you will be all right when you have sat up and eaten breakfast,"
+Jack said. "Here you are; here is a wing for you, and this rice is as
+white as snow, and the tea is first rate. I thought last night after I
+lay down that I heard a murmur of water, so after we have had breakfast
+I will look about and see if I can find it. We should feel like new men
+after a wash. You look awful, and I am sure I am just as bad."
+
+The thought of a wash inspirited Percy far more than that of eating, and
+he sat up and made a great effort to do justice to breakfast. He
+succeeded much better than he had done the night before, and Jack,
+although he pretended to grumble, was satisfied with his companion's
+progress, and finished off the rest of the food. Then he set out to
+search for water. He had not very far to go; a tiny stream, a few inches
+wide and two or three inches deep, ran through the wood from the higher
+ground. After throwing himself down and taking a drink, he hurried back
+to Percy.
+
+"It is all right, Percy, I have found it. We can wash to our hearts'
+content; think of that, lad."
+
+Percy could hardly stand, but he made an effort, and Jack half carried
+him to the streamlet. There the lads spent hours. First they bathed
+their heads and hands, and then, stripping, lay down in the stream and
+allowed it to flow over them, then they rubbed themselves with handfuls
+of leaves dipped in the water, and when they at last put on their rags
+again felt like new men. Percy was able to walk back to the spot they
+had quitted with the assistance only of Jack's arm. The latter, feeling
+that his breakfast had by no means appeased his hunger, now started for
+a search through the wood, and presently returned to Percy laden with
+nuts and berries.
+
+"The nuts are sure to be all right; I expect the berries are too. I have
+certainly seen some like them in native markets, and I think it will be
+quite safe to risk it."
+
+The rest of the day was spent in picking nuts and eating them. Then they
+sat down and waited for the arrival of their friend. He came two hours
+after nightfall with a wallet stored with provisions, and told them that
+he had regained the village unobserved. The attack had been repulsed,
+but with severe loss to the defenders as well as the assailants; two of
+their guards had been among the killed. The others had made a great
+clamour over the escape of the prisoners, and had made a close search
+throughout the village and immediately round it, for they were convinced
+that their captives had not had the strength to go any distance. He
+thought, however, that although they had professed the greatest
+indignation, and had offered many threats as to the vengeance that
+Government would take upon the village, one of whose inhabitants, at
+least, must have aided in the evasion of the prisoners, they would not
+trouble themselves any further in the matter. They had already reaped a
+rich harvest from the exhibition, and would divide among themselves the
+share of their late comrades; nor was it at all improbable that if they
+were to report the matter to the authorities they would themselves get
+into serious trouble for not having handed over the prisoners
+immediately after their capture.
+
+For a fortnight the pilot nursed and fed the two midshipmen. He had
+already provided them with native clothes, so that if by chance any
+villagers should catch sight of them they would not recognize them as
+the escaped white men. At the end of that time both the lads had almost
+recovered from the effects of their sufferings. Jack, indeed, had
+picked up from the first, but Percy for some days continued so weak and
+ill that Jack had feared that he was going to have an attack of fever of
+some kind. His companion's cheery and hopeful chat did as much good for
+Percy as the nourishing food with which their friend supplied them, and
+at the end of the fortnight he declared that he felt sufficiently strong
+to attempt to make his way down to the coast.
+
+The pilot acted as their guide. When they inquired about his wife, he
+told them carelessly that she would remain with her kinsfolk, and would
+travel on to Canton and join him there when she found an opportunity.
+The journey was accomplished at night, by very short stages at first,
+but by increasing distances as Percy gained strength. During the daytime
+the lads lay hid in woods or jungles, while their companion went into
+the village and purchased food. They struck the river many miles above
+Canton, and the pilot, going down first to a village on its banks,
+bargained for a boat to take him and two women down to the city.
+
+The lads went on board at night and took their places in the little
+cabin formed of bamboos and covered with mats in the stern of the boat,
+and remained thus sheltered not only from the view of people in boats
+passing up or down the stream, but from the eyes of their own boatmen.
+
+After two days' journey down the river without incident, they arrived
+off Canton, where the British fleet was still lying while negotiations
+for peace were being carried on with the authorities at Pekin. Peeping
+out between the mats, the lads caught sight of the English warships,
+and, knowing that there was now no danger, they dashed out of the cabin,
+to the surprise of the native boatmen, and shouted and waved their arms
+to the distant ships.
+
+In ten minutes they were alongside the _Perseus_, when they were hailed
+as if restored from the dead. The pilot was very handsomely rewarded by
+the English authorities for his kindness to the prisoners, and was
+highly satisfied with the result of his proceedings, which more than
+doubled the little capital with which he had retired from business. Jack
+Fothergill and Percy Adcock declare that they have never since eaten
+chicken without thinking of their Christmas fare on the morning of their
+escape from the hands of the Chinese pirates.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Tales of Daring and Danger, by G. A. Henty
+
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