“Yes, sahib. It was a secret way of communication. A man came to a regiment bearing a lotus flower, and this was passed on from man to man right through the regiment, till the last had the blossom, and he had to take it to the next regiment.”
“But what did it mean?” I asked.
“I can tell you no more, sahib. It was their secret sign. And then, after a time, the chupatties were sent round to the villages.”
“Chupatties? The little cakes?”
“Yes, sahib, and that was a sign. A messenger went to the head man of a village, and gave him six little cakes of Indian corn. ‘These are for you,’ he said. ‘You will make six more, and send them on to the next village.’ This the head man did, and the cakes passed on from village to village, as a sign that the rising was to take place, and all were to be ready when the time came.”
“But it seems so stupid,” I said. “Why not have sent a messenger?”
“The cause was too great to risk anything. It was more mysterious to send like that. They knew what it meant; but if the collector or the police heard, and said, ‘What is this?—ye are plotting against your lords;’ they could reply, ‘No, it is nothing; the head man of the next village has only sent me a few chupatties.’ Who else would think it was a secret sign?”
I knew comparatively little about the people then, and the question seemed to me unanswerable.
I rode on, depressed and thoughtful, for a terrible idea had taken root in my breast. These people of Arbagh had been surprised, and, saving a few who had escaped, murdered without mercy, and with horrible indignities. Suppose there had been such a sudden rising at Nussoor, where my father’s regiment was stationed, what of my mother and my sister Grace?
A cold perspiration broke out all over me, and a mist rose before my eyes, through which the horrors that had taken place at Arbagh rose out, at first dimly, and then clearer and clearer; but with those I loved as victims, and I was shuddering with horror, and so wrapped up in my own thoughts, that I did not notice that Brace had ridden up alongside, and he had gripped my arm before I knew he was there.