Not for long did we hesitate, but rushing down into the ditch after him we were speedily in the fort. There our shouts roused first a company of Sepoys, and finally the whole force, who came trooping in, to find the place deserted, and the garrison fled secretly under cover of the darkness to Calcutta.
While this was going on I had approached my old friend, for so I cannot but call him. Indeed, in spite of his evil character and manifold breaches of the laws of God and man, the old fellow had shown me much kindness, for which I was not ungrateful, and this perhaps inclined me to look with an unduly lenient eye on his misdeeds. Going up to him, I clapped him on the back, and cried out—
“How goes it, old Muzzy? and what of the Fair Maid and the rest of her crew?”
The boatswain gave a great start, and turned round to me with a look of astonishment which quickly passed into one of delight.
“Why, drown me, if it ain’t that young cockerel again!” he exclaimed.
And before I knew what he would be at, he cast his arms around me, and gave me a most evil-smelling kiss, fragrant of rum and tobacco. Then, still holding me firmly with his great hairy hands, as though he feared I should vanish into air, he put me back far enough for him to gaze at my face.
“Stab my vitals if I didn’t think as you was suffocated in that there Black Hole!” He garnished his speech with many other expressions which I am ashamed to remember, far less to write here. “So we all heard aboard the ship. But you’re alive, ain’t ye now?” he added. “It’s not the rum as makes me think I sees you?”
“I am Athelstane Ford,” I answered, trying to shake myself free from his grasp, “and not a little glad to meet you again. But how did you come to be on a King’s ship? Is the Fair Maid——”
“Hist!” He interrupted me with a warning frown, and cast an apprehensive glance behind him. “Not a word about her! It might be a hanging matter if it was known I had been in the boat that escaped from Gheriah. I’ll tell you all about it by our two selves.”
I took advantage of this offer to lead the way out of the fort. We walked back to the British lines together, old Muzzy still clutching me with one hand, and as soon as we had reached a quiet spot out of earshot we sat down and he commenced his tale.