The native showed no surprise on seeing the surgeon, from whom he supposed he had parted forever, but respectfully saluted him and the young lady, who had also risen and stood by his side.
"What news do you bring?" asked the doctor.
"Bad news, sahib,—bad news; the natives are so impatient that they will not wait for the day fixed by their leaders. The streets are full of people; I have heard threats made against this house; they are afraid to make the attack, but before long they will gain the courage to do so."
"Then it is unsafe to stay here."
"Every hour increases the danger, sahib."
The native spoke the truth.
CHAPTER V.
THE OPENING TRAGEDY.
The city of Meerut stands on a grassy plain, to the northeast of Delhi, and distant some thirty two miles. At the date of the mutiny, its population was about forty thousand souls. The cantonments lie two miles to the north of the town, and contained accommodations for twenty thousand troops.
On the afternoon of Sunday, May 10, the native troops at Meerut mutinied, and the first massacre of the lurid series began. The slaughter of all the Europeans was determined on, and would have been carried out but for the lack of unanimity among the mutineers, though there is good reason for believing that the outbreak was not premeditated, but the result of a rumor that arrangements had been made to seize their arms.