'God bless you, Brierly!' said the captain, wringing his hand. 'God bless you!'
How I envied Bill, and would gladly have gone with him, but he—used to acting, knowing the lingo and the ways of the country, and how to comport himself—could alone perform the perilous task he undertook, knowing well, too, the while, that if he fell into the enemy's hands by being discovered, he would suffer a death as elaborately cruel as these barbarians could devise. He attired himself in a blue silk koortah, over a muslin shirt; a yellow-coloured chintz was wrapped round his shoulders; he wore a green turban and white cummerbund, or sash, in which he placed a brace of double-barrelled pistols carefully loaded. His face and neck to the shoulders and his hands to the wrists were coloured with lamp-black, the cork he used being dipped in oil to cause the colour to adhere; and thus disguised, he left the Residency, singing as he went—
'Sing hey, sing ho for the army O!
Sing hey for the fame of the army O!
A shilling a day is very fine pay,
Then buckle and away for the army O!'
And we watched him, as, after the heat of mid-day was past, he took, alone, the road that led to Kuttingee.
Three days passed, and as there was no sign of poor Bill coming back, we began to fear the worst—that 'the niggers' had discovered and cruelly killed him.
After perils or risks that might be spun out into a volume, Bill got past the outposts and sentries of the rebels and found himself in Kuttingee—ostensibly a budmash—willing to serve, for money or mischief, Buktawur Sing, or anyone else. Riot and disorder seemed to prevail in every quarter, though for their own safety the rebel Sepoys maintained a kind of discipline, and had guards and sentries posted. On all hands were seen the plunder of villas and bungalows. In the bazaar, three European heads were hung in a bhoosa bag, or forage-net, and Bill looked at them with anxiety lest one might prove the head of her he had come to seek tidings of.
Three days were passed without progress being made; but on the third he succeeded beyond his expectation.
When loitering near the gate of the fort, which overlooked the town of Kuttingee, he jostled unexpectedly a Sepoy in the uniform of an officer, all save a huge green turban, who was about to enter the gate.
'Chullo Sahib!' (Come, sir!), the latter exclaimed angrily; 'what in the name of Jehannum are you about?'
Bill's heart leaped on finding himself face to face with Buktawur Sing, the commander of all the rascal multitude in the place!