‘The miners are very decent fellows, what I have seen of them,’ said the son. ‘Of course there will be all sorts among them; but he would have no greater risk of losing his cattle at their hands than with many others.’
‘Not so bad as Sepoys, eh, Billy?’ said the host; ‘and yet I suppose you trusted the villains to the last minute.’
‘Well, I did,’ said the Colonel, ‘and I’m not ashamed to say so; and so would you if you had seen them fight and die by your side for many a year as I had done. There were some splendid fellows among them—“true to their salt” to the last. It was a great chance that I wasn’t shot down by my own men, like Howard and Weston, and many other commanding officers.’
‘How did you escape, uncle?’ said one of the young ladies, deeply interested.
‘Well, I’d been out at daylight with a scratch pack of hounds hunting jackals. Just as I was coming in, the old havildar (I had saved his life once) came rushing out: “No go home, sahib,” he said, “men all mad since chupatties come; shot Captain, sahib, Lieutenant, sahib, Major, sahib, and his men, sahib, hide away. Ride away, sahib.” And he hung on to my horse’s rein.
‘“Let me go, you old fool,” I said, “I must go back; the men will hear me. It’s those rascally Brahmins.”
‘“You give life, sahib, you do no good,” he cried out, and, by Jove! the tears did roll down his face. “I give my life for the Colonel, sahib, if he please. All no use. Look there!” and he pointed to where a long line of flame was rising up from my bungalow and stable.
‘“Where’s Lady Jane?” I roared; “you don’t mean to tell me they’ve taken her? I won’t leave her if I die for it.”
‘“Lukehmeen syce, he very good man, he go away with Lady Jane this morning; go away to Raneepore. She all safe.”
‘“By Jove,” I said, “that’s good news. If Lady Jane was there now, I believe I should have gone in among the rascally Pandies with my sword and revolver, and seen it out.”’