A PIPE OF MYSTERY.
A jovial party were gathered round a blazing fire in an old grange nearWarwick. The hour was getting late; the very little ones had, afterdancing round the Christmas-tree, enjoying the snapdragon, and playing avariety of games, gone off to bed; and the elder boys and girls nowgathered round their uncle, Colonel Harley, and asked him for astory--above all, a ghost story.
"But I have never seen any ghosts," the colonel said, laughing; "and,moreover, I don't believe in them one bit. I have travelled pretty wellall over the world, I have slept in houses said to be haunted, butnothing have I seen--no noises that could not be accounted for by ratsor the wind have I ever heard. I have never"--and here he paused--"neverbut once met with any circumstances or occurrence that could not beaccounted for by the light of reason, and I know you prefer hearingstories of my own adventures to mere invention."
"Yes, uncle. But what was the 'once' when circumstances happened thatyou could not explain?"
"It's rather a long story," the colonel said, "and it's getting late."
"Oh! no, no, uncle; it does not matter a bit how late we sit up onChristmas Eve, and the longer the story is, the better; and if you don'tbelieve in ghosts, how can it be a story of something you could notaccount for by the light of nature?"
"You will see when I have done," the colonel said. "It is rather a storyof what the Scotch call second sight, than one of ghosts. As toaccounting for it, you shall form your own opinion when you have heardme to the end.
"I landed in India in '50, and after going through the regular drillwork, marched with a detachment up country to join my regiment, whichwas stationed at Jubbalpore, in the very heart of India. It has becomean important place since; the railroad across India passes through it,and no end of changes have taken place; but at that time it was one ofthe most out-of-the-way stations in India, and, I may say, one of themost pleasant. It lay high, there was capital boating on the Nerbudda,and, above all, it was a grand place for sport, for it lay at the footof the hill country, an immense district, then but little known, coveredwith forests and jungle, and abounding with big game of all kinds.
"My great friend there was a man named Simmonds. He was just of my ownstanding; we had come out in the same ship, had marched up the countrytogether, and were almost like brothers. He was an old Etonian, I an oldWestminster, and we were both fond of boating, and, indeed, of sport ofall kinds. But I am not going to tell you of that now. The people inthese hills are called Gonds, a true hill tribe--that is to say,aborigines, somewhat of the negro type. The chiefs are of mixed blood,but the people are almost black. They are supposed to accept thereligion of the Hindus, but are in reality deplorably ignorant andsuperstitious. Their priests are a sort of compound of a Brahmin priestand a negro fetish man, and among their principal duties is that ofcharming away tigers from the villages by means of incantations. There,as in other parts of India, were a few wandering fakirs, who enjoyed animmense reputation for holiness and wisdom. The people would go to themfrom great distances for charms or predictions, and believed in theirpower with implicit faith.
"At the time when we were at Jubbalpore, there was one of these fellows,whose reputation altogether eclipsed that of his rivals, and nothingcould be done until his permission had been asked and his blessingobtained. All sorts of marvellous stories were constantly coming to ourears of the unerring foresight with which he predicted the terminationof diseases, both in men and animals; and so generally was he believedin that the colonel ordered that no one connected with the regimentshould consult him, for these predictions very frequently brought abouttheir own fulfilment; for those who were told that an illness wouldterminate fatally, lost all hope, and literally lay down to die.
"However, many of the stories that we heard could not be explained onthese grounds, and the fakir and his doings were often talked over atmess, some of the officers scoffing at the whole business, othersmaintaining that some of these fakirs had, in some way or another, thepower of foretelling the future, citing many well authenticatedanecdotes upon the subject.
"The older officers were the believers, we young fellows were thescoffers. But for the well-known fact that it is very seldom indeedthat these fakirs will utter any of their predictions to Europeans, someof us would have gone to him, to test his powers. As it was, none of ushad ever seen him.
"He lived in an old ruined temple, in the middle of a large patch ofjungle at the foot of the hills, some ten or twelve miles away.
"I had been at Jubbalpore about a year, when I was woke up one night bya native, who came in to say that at about eight o'clock a tiger hadkilled a man in his village, and had dragged off the body.
"Simmonds and I were constantly out after tigers, and the people in allthe villages within twenty miles knew that we were always ready to payfor early information. This tiger had been doing great damage, and hadcarried off about thirty men, women, and children. So great was the fearof him, indeed, that the people in the neighbourhood he frequentedscarcely dared stir out of doors, except in parties of five or six. Wehad had several hunts after him, but, like all man-eaters, he was oldand awfully crafty; and although we got several snap shots at him, hehad always managed to save his skin.
"In a quarter of an hour after the receipt of the message, CharleySimmonds and I were on the back of an elephant, which was our jointproperty; our shekarry, a capital fellow, was on foot beside us, andwith the native trotting on ahead as guide we went off at the best paceof old Begaum, for that was the elephant's name. The village was fifteenmiles away, but we got there soon after daybreak, and were received withdelight by the population. In half an hour the hunt was organized; allthe male population turned out as beaters, with sticks, guns, tom-toms,and other instruments for making a noise.
"The trail was not difficult to find. A broad path, with occasionalsmears of blood, showed where he had dragged his victim through the longgrass to a cluster of trees a couple of hundred yards from the village.
"We scarcely expected to find him there, but the villagers held back,while we went forward with cocked rifles. We found, however, nothing buta few bones and a quantity of blood. The tiger had made off at theapproach of daylight into the jungle, which was about two miles distant.We traced him easily enough, and found that he had entered a largeravine, from which several smaller ones branched off.
"It was an awkward place, as it was next to impossible to surround itwith the number of people at our command. We posted them at last allalong the upper ground, and told them to make up in noise what theywanted in numbers. At last all was ready, and we gave the signal.However, I am not telling you a hunting story, and need only say that wecould neither find nor disturb him. In vain we pushed Begaum through thethickest of the jungle which clothed the sides and bottom of the ravine,while the men shouted, beat their tom-toms, and showered imprecationsagainst the tiger himself and his ancestors up to the remotestgenerations.
"The day was tremendously hot, and, after three hours' march, we gave itup for a time, and lay down in the shade, while the shekarries made along examination of the ground all round the hillside, to be sure thathe had not left the ravine. They came back with the news that no tracescould be discovered, and that, beyond a doubt, he was still there. Atiger will crouch up in an exceedingly small clump of grass or bush, andwill sometimes almost allow himself to be trodden on before moving.However, we determined to have one more search, and if that should proveunsuccessful, to send off to Jubbalpore for some more of the men to comeout with elephants, while we kept up a circle of fires, and of noisesof all descriptions, so as to keep him a prisoner until the arrival ofthe reinforcements. Our next search was no more successful than ourfirst had been; and having, as we imagined, examined every clump andcrevice in which he could have been concealed, we had just reached theupper end of the ravine, when we heard a tremendous roar, followed by aperfect babel of yells and screams from the natives.
"The outburst came from the mouth of the ravine, and we felt at oncethat he had escape
d. We hurried back to find, as we had expected, thatthe tiger was gone. He had burst out suddenly from his hiding-place, hadseized a native, torn him horribly, and had made across the open plain.
"This was terribly provoking, but we had nothing to do but follow him.This was easy enough, and we traced him to a detached patch of wood andjungle, two miles distant. This wood was four or five hundred yardsacross, and the exclamations of the people at once told us that it wasthe one in which stood the ruined temple of the fakir of whom I havebeen telling you. I forgot to say, that as the tiger broke out one ofthe village shekarries had fired at, and, he declared, wounded him.
"It was already getting late in the afternoon, and it was hopeless toattempt to beat the jungle that night. We therefore sent off a runnerwith a note to the colonel, asking him to send the work-elephants, andto allow a party of volunteers to march over at night, to help surroundthe jungle when we commenced beating it in the morning.
"We based our request upon the fact that the tiger was a notoriousman-eater, and had been doing immense damage. We then had a talk withour shekarry, sent a man off to bring provisions for the people out withus, and then set them to work cutting sticks and grass to make a circleof fires.
"We both felt much uneasiness respecting the fakir, who might be seizedat any moment by the enraged tiger. The natives would not allow thatthere was any cause for fear, as the tiger would not dare to touch soholy a man. Our belief in the respect of the tiger for sanctity was byno means strong, and we determined to go in and warn him of the presenceof the brute in the wood. It was a mission which we could not intrust toanyone else, for no native would have entered the jungle for untoldgold; so we mounted the Begaum again, and started. The path leadingtowards the temple was pretty wide, and as we went along almostnoiselessly, for the elephant was too well trained to tread upon fallensticks, it was just possible we might come upon the tiger suddenly, sowe kept our rifles in readiness in our hands.
"Presently we came in sight of the ruins. No one was at first visible;but at that very moment the fakir came out from the temple. He did notsee or hear us, for we were rather behind him and still among the trees,but at once proceeded in a high voice to break into a sing-song prayer.He had not said two words before his voice was drowned in a terrificroar, and in an instant the tiger had sprung upon him, struck him to theground, seized him as a cat would a mouse, and started off with him at atrot. The brute evidently had not detected our presence, for he cameright towards us. We halted the Begaum, and with our fingers on thetriggers, awaited the favourable moment. He was a hundred yards from uswhen he struck down his victim; he was not more than fifty when hecaught sight of us. He stopped for an instant in surprise. Charleymuttered, 'Both barrels, Harley,' and as the beast turned to plunge intothe jungle, and so showed us his side, we sent four bullets crashinginto him, and he rolled over lifeless.
"We went up to the spot, made the Begaum give him a kick, to be surethat he was dead, and then got down to examine the unfortunate fakir.The tiger had seized him by the shoulder, which was terribly torn, andthe bone broken. He was still perfectly conscious.
"We at once fired three shots, our usual signal that the tiger was dead,and in a few minutes were surrounded by the villagers, who hardly knewwhether to be delighted at the death of their enemy, or to grieve overthe injury to the fakir. We proposed taking the latter to our hospitalat Jubbalpore, but this he positively refused to listen to. However wefinally persuaded him to allow his arm to be set and the wounds dressedin the first place by our regimental surgeon, after which he could go toone of the native villages and have his arm dressed in accordance withhis own notions. A litter was soon improvised, and away we went toJubbalpore, which we reached about eight in the evening.
"The fakir refused to enter the hospital, so we brought out a couple oftrestles, laid the litter upon them, and the surgeon set his arm anddressed his wounds by torch-light, when he was lifted into a dhoolie,and his bearers again prepared to start for the village.
"Hitherto he had only spoken a few words; but he now briefly expressedhis deep gratitude to Simmonds and myself. We told him that we wouldride over to see him shortly, and hoped to find him getting on rapidly.Another minute and he was gone.
"It happened that we had three or four fellows away on leave or on staffduty, and several others knocked up with fever just about this time, sothat the duty fell very heavily upon the rest of us, and it was over amonth before we had time to ride over to see the fakir.
"We had heard he was going on well; but we were surprised, on reachingthe village, to find that he had already returned to his old abode inthe jungle. However, we had made up our minds to see him, especially aswe had agreed that we would endeavour to persuade him to do a predictionfor us; so we turned our horses' heads towards the jungle. We found thefakir sitting on a rock in front of the temple, just where he had beenseized by the tiger. He rose as we rode up.
"'I knew that you would come to-day, sahibs, and was joyful in thethought of seeing those who have preserved my life.'
"'We are glad to see you looking pretty strong again, though your armis still in a sling,' I said, for Simmonds was not strong in Hindustani.
"'How did you know that we were coming?' I asked, when we had tied upour horses.
"'Siva has given to his servant to know many things,' he said quietly.
"'Did you know beforehand that the tiger was going to seize you?' Iasked.
"'I knew that a great danger threatened, and that Siva would not let medie before my time had come.'
"'Could you see into our future?' I asked.
"The fakir hesitated, looked at me for a moment earnestly to see if Iwas speaking in mockery, and then said:
"'The sahibs do not believe in the power of Siva or of his servants.They call his messengers impostors, and scoff at them when they speak ofthe events of the future.'
"'No, indeed,' I said. 'My friend and I have no idea of scoffing. Wehave heard of so many of your predictions coming true, that we arereally anxious that you should tell us something of the future.'
"The fakir nodded his head, went into the temple, and returned in aminute or two with two small pipes used by the natives foropium-smoking, and a brazier of burning charcoal. The pipes werealready charged. He made signs to us to sit down, and took his place infront of us. Then he began singing in a low voice, rocking himself toand fro, and waving a staff which he held in his hand. Gradually hisvoice rose, and his gesticulations and actions became more violent. Sofar as I could make out, it was a prayer to Siva that he would give someglimpse of the future which might benefit the sahibs who had saved thelife of his servant. Presently he darted forward, gave us each a pipe,took two pieces of red-hot charcoal from the brazier in his fingers,without seeming to know that they were warm, and placed them in thepipes; then he recommenced his singing and gesticulations.
"A glance at Charley, to see if, like myself, he was ready to carry thething through, and then I put the pipe to my lips. I felt at once thatit was opium, of which I had before made experiment, but mixed with someother substance, which was, I imagine, haschish, a preparation of hemp.A few puffs, and I felt a drowsiness creeping over me. I saw, as througha mist, the fakir swaying himself backwards and forwards, his armswaving, and his face distorted. Another minute, and the pipe slippedfrom my fingers, and I fell back insensible.
"How long I lay there I do not know. I woke with a strange and notunpleasant sensation, and presently became conscious that the fakir wasgently pressing, with a sort of shampooing action, my temples and head.When he saw that I opened my eyes he left me, and performed the sameprocess upon Charley. In a few minutes he rose from his stoopingposition, waved his hand in token of adieu, and walked slowly back intothe temple.
"As he disappeared I sat up; Charley did the same.
"We stared at each other for a minute without speaking, and then Charleysaid:
"'This is a rum go, and no mistake, old man.'
"'You're right, Charley. My opinion is, we've ma
de fools of ourselves.Let's be off out of this.'
"We staggered to our feet, for we both felt like drunken men, made ourway to our horses, poured a mussuk of water over our heads, took a drinkof brandy from our flasks, and then feeling more like ourselves, mountedand rode out of the jungle.
"'Well, Harley, if the glimpse of futurity which I had is true, all Ican say is that it was extremely unpleasant.'
"'That was just my case, Charley.'
"'My dream, or whatever you like to call it, was about a mutiny of themen.'
"'You don't say so, Charley; so was mine. This is monstrously strange,to say the least of it. However, you tell your story first, and then Iwill tell mine.'
"'It was very short,' Charley said. 'We were at mess--not in our presentmess-room--we were dining with the fellows of some other regiment.Suddenly, without any warning, the windows were filled with a crowd ofSepoys, who opened fire right and left into us. Half the fellows wereshot down at once; the rest of us made a rush to our swords just as theniggers came swarming into the room. There was a desperate fight for amoment. I remember that Subadar Piran--one of the best native officersin the regiment, by the way--made a rush at me, and I shot him throughthe head with a revolver. At the same moment a ball hit me, and down Iwent. At the moment a Sepoy fell dead across me, hiding me partly fromsight. The fight lasted a minute or two longer. I fancy a few fellowsescaped, for I heard shots outside. Then the place became quiet. Inanother minute I heard a crackling, and saw that the devils had set themess-room on fire. One of our men, who was lying close by me, got upand crawled to the window, but he was shot down the moment he showedhimself. I was hesitating whether to do the same or to lie still and besmothered, when suddenly I rolled the dead sepoy off, crawled into theante-room half-suffocated by smoke, raised the lid of a very heavytrap-door, and stumbled down some steps into a place, half storehousehalf cellar, under the mess-room. How I knew about it being there Idon't know. The trap closed over my head with a bang. That is all Iremember.'
"'Well, Charley, curiously enough my dream was also about anextraordinary escape from danger, lasting, like yours, only a minute ortwo. The first thing I remember--there seems to have been somethingbefore, but what, I don't know--I was on horseback, holding a verypretty but awfully pale girl in front of me. We were pursued by a wholetroop of Sepoy cavalry, who were firing pistol-shots at us. We were notmore than seventy or eighty yards in front, and they were gaining fast,just as I rode into a large deserted temple. In the centre was a hugestone figure. I jumped off my horse with the lady, and as I did so shesaid, 'Blow out my brains, Edward; don't let me fall alive into theirhands.'
"'Instead of answering, I hurried her round behind the idol, pushedagainst one of the leaves of a flower in the carving, and the stoneswung back, and showed a hole just large enough to get through, with astone staircase inside the body of the idol, made no doubt for thepriest to go up and give responses through the mouth. I hurried the girlthrough, crept in after her, and closed the stone, just as our pursuerscame clattering into the courtyard. That is all I remember.'
"'Well, it is monstrously rum,' Charley said, after a pause. 'Did youunderstand what the old fellow was singing about before he gave us thepipes?'
"'Yes; I caught the general drift. It was an entreaty to Siva to give ussome glimpse of futurity which might benefit us.'
"We lit our cheroots and rode for some miles at a brisk canter withoutremark. When we were within a short distance of home we reined up.
"'I feel ever so much better,' Charley said. 'We have got that opium outof our heads now. How do you account for it all, Harley?'
"'I account for it in this way, Charley. The opium naturally had theeffect of making us both dream, and as we took similar doses of the samemixture, under similar circumstances, it is scarcely extraordinary thatit should have effected the same portion of the brain, and caused acertain similarity in our dreams. In all nightmares something terriblehappens, or is on the point of happening; and so it was here. Notunnaturally in both our cases, our thoughts turned to soldiers. If youremember there was a talk at mess some little time since, as to whatwould happen in the extremely unlikely event of the sepoys mutinying ina body. I have no doubt that was the foundation of both our dreams. Itis all natural enough when we come to think it over calmly. I think, bythe way, we had better agree to say nothing at all about it in theregiment.'
"'I should think not,' Charley said. 'We should never hear the end ofit; they would chaff us out of our lives.'
"We kept our secret, and came at last to laugh over it heartily when wewere together. Then the subject dropped, and by the end of a year had asmuch escaped our minds as any other dream would have done. Three monthsafter the affair the regiment was ordered down to Allahabad, and thechange of place no doubt helped to erase all memory of the dream. Fouryears after we had left Jubbalpore we went to Beerapore. The time isvery marked in my memory, because the very week we arrived there, youraunt, then Miss Gardiner, came out from England, to her father, ourcolonel. The instant I saw her I was impressed with the idea that I knewher intimately. I recollected her face, her figure, and the very tone ofher voice, but wherever I had met her I could not conceive. Upon theoccasion of my first introduction to her, I could not help telling herthat I was convinced that we had met, and asking her if she did notremember it. No, she did not remember, but very likely she might havedone so, and she suggested the names of several people at whose houseswe might have met. I did not know any of them. Presently she asked howlong I had been out in India?
"'Six years,' I said.
"'And how old, Mr. Harley,' she said, 'do you take me to be?'
"I saw in one instant my stupidity, and was stammering out an apology,when she went on,--
"'I am very little over eighteen, Mr. Harley, although I evidently lookever so many years older; but papa can certify to my age; so I was onlytwelve when you left England.'
"I tried in vain to clear matters up. Your aunt would insist that I tookher to be forty, and the fun that my blunder made rather drew ustogether, and gave me a start over the other fellows at the station,half of whom fell straightway in love with her. Some months went on, andwhen the mutiny broke out we were engaged to be married. It is a proofof how completely the opium-dreams had passed out of the minds of bothSimmonds and myself, that even when rumours of general disaffectionamong the Sepoys began to be current, they never once recurred to us;and even when the news of the actual mutiny reached us, we were just asconfident as were the others of the fidelity of our own regiment. It wasthe old story, foolish confidence and black treachery. As at very manyother stations, the mutiny broke out when we were at mess. Our regimentwas dining with the 34th Bengalees. Suddenly, just as dinner was over,the window was opened, and a tremendous fire poured in. Four or five menfell dead at once, and the poor colonel, who was next to me, was shotright through the head. Every one rushed to his sword and drew hispistol--for we had been ordered to carry pistols as part of our uniform.I was next to Charley Simmonds as the Sepoys of both regiments, headedby Subadar Piran, poured in at the windows.
"'I have it now,' Charley said; 'it is the scene I dreamed.'
"As he spoke he fired his revolver at the subadar, who fell dead in histracks.
"A Sepoy close by levelled his musket and fired. Charley fell, and thefellow rushed forward to bayonet him. As he did so I sent a bulletthrough his head, and he fell across Charley. It was a wild fight for aminute or two, and then a few of us made a sudden rush together, cut ourway through the mutineers, and darted through an open window on to theparade. There were shouts, shots, and screams from the officers'bungalows, and in several places flames were already rising. What becameof the other men I knew not; I made as hard as I could tear for thecolonel's bungalow. Suddenly I came upon a sowar sitting on his horsewatching the rising flames. Before he saw me I was on him, and ran himthrough. I leapt on his horse and galloped down to Gardiner's compound.I saw lots of Sepoys in and around the bungalow, all engaged in looting.I dashe
d into the compound.
"'May! May!' I shouted. 'Where are you?'
"I had scarcely spoken before a dark figure rushed out of a clump ofbushes close by with a scream of delight.
"In an instant she was on the horse before me, and shooting down acouple of fellows who made a rush at my reins, I dashed out again.Stray shots were fired after us. But fortunately the Sepoys were allbusy looting, most of them had laid down their muskets, and no onereally took up the pursuit. I turned off from the parade-ground, dasheddown between the hedges of two compounds, and in another minute we werein the open country.
"Fortunately, the cavalry were all down looting their own lines, or wemust have been overtaken at once. May happily had fainted as I liftedher on to my horse--happily, because the fearful screams that we heardfrom the various bungalows almost drove me mad, and would probably havekilled her, for the poor ladies were all her intimate friends.
"I rode on for some hours, till I felt quite safe from any immediatepursuit, and then we halted in the shelter of a clump of trees.
"By this time I had heard May's story. She had felt uneasy at beingalone, but had laughed at herself for being so, until upon her speakingto one of the servants he had answered in a tone of gross insolence,which had astonished her. She at once guessed that there was danger, andthe moment that she was alone caught up a large, dark carriage rug,wrapped it round her so as to conceal her white dress, and stole outinto the verandah. The night was dark, and scarcely had she left thehouse than she heard a burst of firing across at the mess-house. She atonce ran in among the bushes and crouched there, as she heard the rushof men into the room she had just left. She heard them searching forher, but they were looking for a white dress, and her dark rug savedher. What she must have suffered in the five minutes between the firingof the first shots and my arrival, she only knows. May had spoken butvery little since we started. I believe that she was certain that herfather was dead, although I had given an evasive answer when she askedme; and her terrible sense of loss, added to the horror of that time ofsuspense in the garden, had completely stunned her. We waited in thetope until the afternoon, and then set out again.
"We had gone but a short distance when we saw a body of the rebelcavalry in pursuit. They had no doubt been scouring the countrygenerally, and the discovery was accidental. For a short time we keptaway from them, but this could not be for long, as our horse wascarrying double. I made for a sort of ruin I saw at the foot of a hillhalf a mile away. I did so with no idea of the possibility ofconcealment. My intention was simply to get my back to a rock and tosell my life as dearly as I could, keeping the last two barrels of therevolver for ourselves. Certainly no remembrance of my dream influencedme in any way, and in the wild whirl of excitement I had not given asecond thought to Charley Simmonds' exclamation. As we rode up to theruins only a hundred yards ahead of us, May said,--
"'Blow out my brains, Edward; don't let me fall alive into their hands.'
"A shock of remembrance shot across me. The chase, her pale face, thewords, the temple--all my dream rushed into my mind.
"'We are saved,' I cried, to her amazement, as we rode into thecourtyard, in whose centre a great figure was sitting.
"I leapt from the horse, snatched the mussuk of water from the saddle,and then hurried May round the idol, between which and the rock behind,there was but just room to get along.
"Not a doubt entered my mind but that I should find the spring as I haddreamed. Sure enough there was the carving, fresh upon my memory as if Ihad seen it but the day before. I placed my hand on the leaflet withouthesitation, a solid stone moved back, I hurried my amazed companion in,and shut to the stone. I found, and shot to, a massive bolt, evidentlyplaced to prevent the door being opened by accident or design whenanyone was in the idol.
"At first it seemed quite dark, but a faint light streamed in fromabove; we made our way up the stairs, and found that the light camethrough a number of small holes pierced in the upper part of the head,and through still smaller holes lower down, not much larger than agood-sized knitting-needle could pass through. These holes, weafterwards found, were in the ornaments round the idol's neck. The holesenlarged inside, and enabled us to have a view all round.
"The mutineers were furious at our disappearance, and for hours searchedabout. Then, saying that we must be hidden somewhere, and that theywould wait till we came out, they proceeded to bivouac in the courtyardof the temple.
"We passed four terrible days, but on the morning of the fifth a scoutcame in to tell the rebels that a column of British troops marching onDelhi would pass close by the temple. They therefore hastily mounted andgalloped off.
"Three quarters of an hour later we were safe among our own people. Afortnight afterwards your aunt and I were married. It was no time forceremony then; there were no means of sending her away; no place whereshe could have waited until the time for her mourning for her father wasover. So we were married quietly by one of the chaplains of the troops,and, as your story-books say, have lived very happily ever after."
"And how about Mr. Simmonds, uncle? Did he get safe off too?"
"Yes, his dream came as vividly to his mind as mine had done. He crawledto the place where he knew the trap-door would be, and got into thecellar. Fortunately for him there were plenty of eatables there, and helived there in concealment for a fortnight. After that he crawled out,and found the mutineers had marched for Delhi. He went through a lot,but at last joined us before that city. We often talked over our dreamstogether, and there was no question that we owed our lives to them. Eventhen we did not talk much to other people about them, for there wouldhave been a lot of talk, and inquiry, and questions, and you knowfellows hate that sort of thing. So we held our tongues. Poor Charley'ssilence was sealed a year later at Lucknow, for on the advance with LordClyde he was killed.
"And now, boys and girls, you must run off to bed. Five minutes moreand it will be Christmas-day. So you see, Frank, that although I don'tbelieve in ghosts, I have yet met with a circumstance which I cannotaccount for."
"It is very curious anyhow, uncle, and beats ghost stories into fits."
"I like it better, certainly," one of the girls said, "for we can go tobed without being afraid of dreaming about it."
"Well, you must not talk any more now. Off to bed, off to bed," ColonelHarley said, "or I shall get into terrible disgrace with your fathersand mothers, who have been looking very gravely at me for the last threequarters of an hour."