“Good Heavens! who could have dreamt of this?” the Major groaned. “Massacred their officers, women, and children. All Europeans at Delhi supposed to have been massacred, and there must be hundreds of them. Can it be true?”
“The telegram as to Meerut is clearly an official one,” Bathurst said. “Delhi is as yet but a rumor, but it is too probable that if these mutineers and jail birds, flushed with success, reached Delhi before the whites were warned, they would have their own way in the place, as, with the exception of a few artillerymen at the arsenal, there is not a white soldier in the place.”
“But there were white troops at Meerut,” the Major said. “What could they have been doing? However, that is not the question now. We must, of course, return instantly. Ask the others to come in here, Bathurst. Don't tell the girls what has taken place; it will be time enough for that afterwards. All that is necessary to say is that you have brought news of troubles at some stations unaffected before, and that I think it best to return at once.”
The men were standing in a group, wondering what the news could be which was deemed of such importance that Bathurst should carry it out in the middle of the night.
“The Major will be glad if you will all go in, gentlemen,” Bathurst said, as he joined them.
“Are we to go in, Mr. Bathurst?” Miss Hunter asked.
“No, I think not, Miss Hunter; the fact is there have been some troubles at two or three other places, and the Major is going to hold a sort of council of war as to whether the hunt had not better be given up. I rather fancy that they will decide to go back at once. News flies very fast in India. I think the Major would like that he and his officers should be back before it is whispered among the Sepoys that the discontent has not, as we hoped, everywhere ceased.”
“It must be very serious,” Isobel said, “or uncle would never decide to go back, when all the preparations are made.”
“It would never do, you see, Miss Hannay, for the Commandant and four of the officers to be away, if the Sepoys should take it into their heads to refuse to receive cartridges or anything of that sort.”
“You can't give us any particulars, then, Mr. Bathurst?”