CHAPTER X
Hope and Despair
Two more weary days passed inside the fortified house. Numerous attackshad been made, and though they had invariably failed, some damage hadbeen inflicted on the besieged. As the assailants were retiring indisorder after one of these futile attempts, a big, light-featured manin scanty costume sidled up to the house, waving a sealed letter.
"Quick! let me in!" he shouted. "I'm a sepoy of the Guide Corps!"
The door was hurriedly thrown open, but not before the besiegers haddivined the man's intentions, and bullets whizzed perilously near hishead before he was safe inside. Espying our hero, the Guide handed himthe letter, and Ted recognized the fellow as Faiz Talab, his brother'sorderly.
He opened the note, and his face glowed. He whistled, then shouted ingreat excitement, "Hurrah! the Guides are coming!"
"The Guides!" echoed Sir Arthur, and a joyful light came into Ethel'seyes. Faiz Talab, the Pathan, grinned gleefully.
The letter, dated from Manghur, thirty-two miles away, ran as follows:--
"We were starting for Delhi when the Aurungpore news arrived, and as wepass so close I obtained permission to detach 120 men to your aid. Agreater number cannot be spared, as Delhi is all-important. So, old man,tell Ethel I'll soon be with her."
The great news quickly spread from one end of the big house to theother. Food was prepared for the bearer of good tidings, and Faiz Talab,Yusufzai, was feted as he had never been before. He described the routeby which the Guides would come, and stated when they might be expected.
"Russell Sahib will be here to-morrow, and by the beard of the Prophet,we shall teach these curs a lesson!" he concluded.
"You seem to know this district well," said the Commissioner. "You havebeen here before," and the man grinned slyly.
"I was a youngster, sahib, when first I saw Aurungpore. We Yusufzaiscame down at night and lifted the cattle and raided the villages, and welaughed at Ranjit Singh's army that followed, for we knew that we had agood start, and the Sikhs would not venture into the hills. Ah, thosewere the good old days! Yet people say they have come again, and thatDelhi is a richer town to loot than Aurungpore."
The Yusufzai smacked his lips at the prospect. Here, thought Ted, wasanother sample of the robbers that apparently formed the backbone of theGuide Corps. The brightness of the prospect revealed by Faiz Talab'smessage was fast fading away, and as the garrison had time to think itover there came a diminution of enthusiasm. Ted voiced the generalopinion when he abruptly asked:
"But of what use is a single company against such swarms of rebels andbudmashes, even if they are to be trusted?"
"But we are the Guides, sahib," said Faiz Talab proudly.
That self-same day came tidings that more than destroyed the hopesraised by Jim's letter. Into Aurungpore marched the 138th Bengal NativeInfantry, rebels and murderers, flushed with success. They had shot downtheir officers and looted the treasury, to guard which had been theirduty. Dire was the consternation caused by the arrival of the newcontingent, and great was the dismay.
But when, next morning, our friends noticed that the six 9-pounders ofthe fort were being moved by certain of the new-comers into a positionwhence their place of refuge could be bombarded, dismay gave place toutter despair. The sepoys of the 193rd did not understand the handlingof these guns, and had regarded them with some awe as fearsome weaponsthat might turn against themselves. But the 138th counted a couple ofhundred Sikhs amongst their number.
Now the Sikh maharaja, Ranjit Singh, had maintained a splendid force ofartillery, and many of the Sikh sepoys, who had enlisted under Britishcolours, had previously been gunners in the army of the Khalsa,[6] andthey saw at once how the little garrison might be speedily destroyed. Afew hours' search brought to light a quantity of material that had notbeen demolished in the explosion. All day long the exploration went on,and plenty of ammunition to feed the guns was soon stored close at hand.
[6] The title of the Sikh Confederacy.
The time of the expected arrival of the Guides drew nigh.
"Better that they should not come," Major Munro wearily opined. "Theywould only share our fate. What chance would they have against 1500trained soldiers?"
"Do you think they will turn back, sir, when they hear of the arrival ofthis fresh lot?" Ted enquired in an anxious tone.
"I certainly do. It would be foolish--idiotic--to attempt a rescue inthe face of such odds. Were I in your brother's place I should feel itmy duty to government, as well as to my men, not to throw them away onso helpless an undertaking. It will be very hard for him to leave hisaffianced wife in such dreadful peril, but that is one of a soldier'srisks. His men belong to the government, not to him, and he has noright to risk them where there is no chance. We are short enough of menas it is."
Ethel, standing by, grew pale as she thought of the danger to herbeloved. Her own peril, and even her father's, were forgotten for themoment.
"Oh, Major Munro," she exclaimed, "let us hope that they will turn back!They cannot do us good by throwing their own lives away!"
And this was the opinion of all.
The devoted Rajputs of Captain Markham's company never for a momentwavered in their allegiance. They fought and took their turn on guard,and fought again as staunchly as the white men, and many were the actsof heroism they displayed. Twice was the staff of the Union Jack, thatstill floated above the house, broken by missiles, and on each occasionsome of the intrepid Hindus volunteered to splice the wood. In fullsight of the enemy, who fired wildly at them, they achieved this, andagain the silken folds waved freely in the breeze.
Again and again the mutineers advanced on every side, with great noiseand waving of weapons. Again and again they approached more peaceably,shouting to the Hindus that they should come out and join theircomrades, promising them gold and silver in abundance should theydeliver the white men into their hands.
Each attack was met with steadfast courage; the noisy firing wasanswered by a steadier rattle of musketry, and the rebels dropped fast;unwavering fidelity rejected both bribes and friendly advances; and onmore than one occasion a determined, vigorous sortie was the only replyvouchsafed by these gallant dark-faces.
Slowly and anxiously the day wore on. Care-worn faces wistfully regardedthe threatening nine-pounders that would soon begin to pour destructionupon them. For a moment the attacks ceased as the rebels crowded roundthe guns that were placed upon an open eminence overlooking the house.
Fascinated by the sight, the whole garrison gathered before the windows,powerless to avert their gaze from the instruments of destruction.
But what means that sudden commotion--that loud shrill cheering? The mobis seen to part right and left, the rebel sepoys fling their caps in theair and wave their muskets excitedly as a body of fine, well-set-up men,fierce of aspect, turbaned, and clad in drab uniforms, marches into thecourtyard of the fort. Though no word of command is given, the fresharrivals there halt, fall out, and at once begin to fraternize with themutineers. Behind the tall men appear a score of much smaller figures,clothed in the same uniform, and these shout and gesticulate more wildlythan any.
"The Guides!" gasps Lieutenant Leigh.
"Traitors, by George!" thunders Major Munro, with intense and vehementbitterness. "Traitors!"
A long pause followed. The Britons gazed upon one another with blank,haggard faces. The whole Indian Empire was tumbling down, and none wasloyal! Until this moment not a man amongst them but had known some rayof hope, however feeble.
"Are they truly the Guides?" asked one. "Who, then, are the littlebeggars?" pointing to the rearmost.
"Gurkhas of the Guide Corps," answered Leigh, no less bitterly. "Andtheir officers have always maintained that Gurkhas can be trusted whenall others fail. Well, we live and learn."
"Aye, we learn,--but not the other," was Munro's grim aside.
Momentarily forgetting their predicament, Ted stared with greatinterest at the short figures and Tartar laces that gri
nned in fiendishanticipation; for his father had often spoken in terms of the highestpraise of these reputedly fearless Himalayan mountaineers, against whomhe had fought, and whom he had afterwards led.
"Well, if those are Gurkhas, I don't think much of 'em," said theensign, his critical spirit asserting itself even at this crisis. "Ourseventy Rajputs could tackle a hundred of them."
As for Faiz Talab, his eyes seemed to be starting from his head.
"The pigs! the curs!" he gasped at length. "What can it mean?"
As the Yusufzai spoke he grasped an Enfield rifle, brought it to hisshoulder, and fired at the mass of drab uniforms, then fell to cursinghis comrades afresh for the shame they had brought upon their corps. Theonlookers could distinguish their own disloyal men pointing out theBritish stronghold to the Guides, who seemed to be examining thesituation with keen interest. The siege was temporarily raised, whilst ageneral confabulation took place among the rebel leaders.
"Faiz Talab, what have they done to my brother?" asked Ted.
The Yusufzai shook his head. "I know not," said he.
"Hadst thou no word or hint of this intended treachery?"
"Neither word nor hint, sahib. Surely I must be dreaming, for yesterdaywe were all loyal to the backbone, and we loved thy brother greatly. Ido not understand it."
"Yesterday," interposed Lieutenant Leigh, "they had not heard of themutiny and entry of the 138th. Perhaps that decided the rascals to throwover the British raj."
"It must indeed be so, yet it does not seem possible."
"Think you they have allowed the Captain Sahib to escape?" asked AlecPaterson, guessing that Ted could not bring himself to ask this questionfor fear of the reply.
"Nay, that could hardly be. If they have been so base as to prove untrueto the salt they have eaten, they would not hesitate to kill theirofficer."
"Though you pretend that they loved him?" Ted bitterly demanded.
"The better reason for slaying him. They would kill him first of all,because they loved and honoured him, so that he might never know theirshame. Yet I cannot believe it. May my father's grave be defiled if I donot kill some of the traitors before I die!"
Ted walked to the window and gazed forth upon the distant hubbub.Paterson followed, and laid his hand upon the shoulder of his chum.
"It will be worse for the poor lassie, I'm thinking, Ted," he said.
Our hero nodded, but could not trust himself to speak.
"We must keep the news from her as long as we can," Alec continued. "Sheis with her father now, and has not heard. The others will not tellher."