In Times of Peril: A Tale of India

by G. A. Henty

  CHAPTER XVI.

  A SORTIE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

  The night passed off without the expected attack from Johannes' house,the rebels being too much disconcerted by the destruction of thebattery, and the loss of so many men, to attempt any offensiveoperations. The destruction of the house behind the guns, and of allthose in its vicinity, deterred them from re-establishing a battery inthe same place, as there would be no shelter for the infantrysupporting the guns; and after the result of the sortie it was evidentto them that a large force must be kept in readiness to repel theattacks of the British.

  For a few days life was more tolerable in Gubbins' garrison; foralthough shot and shell frequently struck the house, and batteriesmultiplied in the circle around, none kept up so deadly and accurate afire as that which they had destroyed.

  The Warreners took their fair share in all the heavy fatigue work, andin the picket duty in the battery or on the roof; but they enjoyedtheir intervals of repose, which were now always spent with Mr.Hargreaves' family.

  Mr. Hargreaves was collector of a district near Lucknow, and was highin the Civil Service. He was a fit husband for his kindly wife; and asMr. Righton was of a cheerful and hopeful disposition, the boys foundthemselves members of a charming family circle. Often and often theywished that their father, sister, and cousin could but join them; orrather, as Ned said, they could join the party without, for no onecould wish that any they loved should be at Lucknow at that time.

  One evening late they were sitting together in a group outside thehouse, the enemy's fire being slack, when Mr. Johnson came up from thebattery to Mr. Gubbins, who formed one of the party.

  "I am afraid, sir, they are mining again; lying on the ground, we thinkwe can hear the sound of blows."

  "That is bad," Mr. Gubbins said; "I heard this afternoon that theybelieve that two mines are being driven from Johannes' house in thedirection of the Martiniere, and the brigade messhouse; now we are tohave our turn, eh? Well, we blew in the last they tried, and must do itagain; but it is so much more hard work. Now, gentlemen, let us see whohas the best ears. Excuse us, Mrs. Hargreaves, we shall not be longaway."

  On entering the battery they found the men on guard all lying downlistening, and were soon at full length with their ears to the ground.All could hear the sound; it was very faint, as faint as the muffledtick of a watch, sometimes beating at regular intervals of a second orso, sometimes ceasing for a minute or two.

  "There is no doubt they are mining," Mr. Gubbins said; "the questionis, from which way are they coming."

  None could give an opinion. The sound was so faint, and seemed to comeso directly from below, that the ear could not discriminate in theslightest.

  "At any rate," Mr. Gubbins said, "we must begin at once to sink ashaft. If, when we get down a bit, we cannot judge as to the direction,we must drive two or three listening galleries in different directions.But before we begin we must let Major Anderson, of the Royal Engineers,know, and take his advice; he is in command of all mining operations."

  In ten minutes Major Anderson was on the ground.

  "The fellows are taking to mining in earnest," he said; "this is thethird we have discovered to-day, and how many more there may be,goodness only knows. I think you had better begin here," he said to Mr.Gubbins. "You have got tools, I think. Say about six feet square, thentwo men can work at once. I will be here the first thing in themorning, and then we will look round and see which is the likeliestspot for the fellows to be working from. Will you ask your sentries onthe roof to listen closely to-night, in order to detect, if possible, astir of men coming or going from any given point."

  Picks and shovels were brought out, the garrison told off into workingparties of four each, to relieve each other every hour, and the workbegan. Well-sinking is hard work in any climate, but with a thermometermarking a hundred and five at night, it is terrible; and each set ofworkers, as they came up bathed in perspiration, threw themselves onthe ground utterly exhausted. Mr. Hargreaves and a few of the elders ofthe garrison were excused this work, and took extra duty on the terraceand battery.

  The next day it was decided that the enemy were probably working from aruined house near their former battery, and a gallery was begun fromthe bottom of the shaft. This was pushed on night and day for threedays, the workers being now certain, from the rapidly increasing soundof the workers, that this was the line by which the enemy wasapproaching. The gallery was driven nearly twenty yards, and then threebarrels of powder were stored there, and the besieged awaited theapproach of the rebels' gallery.

  The Sepoys had now erected batteries whose cross fire swept the groundoutside the intrenchments, so that a sortie could no longer be carriedout with any hope of success. Had it been possible to have attemptedit, a party would have gone out, and driving off any guard that mighthave been placed, entered the enemy's gallery and caught them at theirwork. A sentry was placed continually in the gallery, and each hour thesound of the pick and crowbar became louder.

  On the fifth day the engineers judged that there could not be more thana yard of earth between them. The train was laid now, and a cautiouswatch kept, until, just at the moment when it was thought that anopening would be made, the train was fired. The earth heaved, and agreat opening was made, while a shower of stones flew high in the air.The enemy's gallery was blown in, and the men working destroyed, and aloud cheer broke from the garrison at the defeat of another attemptupon them.

  The month of August began badly in Lucknow. Major Banks, the civilcommissioner named by Sir Henry Lawrence to succeed him, was shot deadwhile reconnoitering from the top of an outhouse. The Reverend Mr.Polehampton, who had been wounded at the commencement of the siege, waskilled, as were Lieutenants Lewin, Shepherd, and Archer.

  On the 8th large bodies of Sepoys were observed to enter the city, andon the 10th a furious attack was made all round the British line. Everyman capable of bearing arms stood at his post, and even the sick andwounded crawled out of hospital and took posts on housetops whereverthey could fire on the foe. The din was prodigious--the yells of theenemy, their tremendous fire of musketry, the incessant roar of theircannon, but they lacked heart for close fighting.

  Frequently large bodies of men showed from behind their shelter, and,carrying ladders, advanced as if with the determination of making anassault. Each time, however, the withering fire opened upon them fromthe line of earthworks, from the roof of every house, and the storm ofgrape from the batteries, caused them to waver and fall back. Eachfresh effort was led by brave men, fanatics, who advanced alone far infront of the rest, shrieking, "Death to the infidel!"

  But they died, and their spirit failed to animate their followers. Onlyonce or twice did the assailing parties get near the line ofintrenchments, and then but to fall back rapidly after heavy loss.

  Day after day the position of the besieged grew more unendurable. Thebuildings were crumbling away under the heavy and continued fire; andas one after another became absolutely untenable, the ladies andchildren were more closely crowded in those which still offered somesort of shelter. Even death, fearful as were its ravages, did notsuffice to counteract the closeness of the packing. Crowded in darkrooms, living on the most meager food--for all the comforts, such astea, sugar, wine, spirits, etc., were exhausted, and even the bread wasmade of flour ground, each for himself, between rough stones--withoutproper medicines, attendance, or even bedding; tormented by a plague offlies, sickened by disgusting smells, condemned to inaction andconfinement, the women and children died off rapidly, and the men,although better off with regard to light and air, sickened fast. Halfthe officers were laid up with disease, and all were lowered in healthand strength.

  On the 18th, as the Warreners had just returned from a heavy night'swork, strengthening the defenses, and burying horses and cattle, agreat explosion was heard, and one of those posted on the roof ran downshouting:

  "To arms! they have fired a mine under the Sikh Square!"

  Every man caught up his rifle
and rushed to the spot. The mine hadcarried away a portion of the exterior defense, and the enemy, withyells of triumph, rushed forward toward the opening. Then ensued afurious _melee_; each man fought for himself, hand to hand, in thebreach; Mussulmen and Englishmen struggled in deadly combat; the crackof the revolver, the thud of the clubbed guns, the clash of swordagainst steel, the British cheer and the native yell, were mingled inwild confusion. While some drove the enemy back, others brought boxesand beams, fascines and sandbags, to repair the breach. The enemy wereforced back, and the British poured out with shouts of triumph.

  Our men's blood was up, and they followed their advantage. Part of theengineers, ever on the alert, joined the throng with some barrels ofpowder, and the enemy were pushed back sufficiently far to enable someof the houses, from which we had been greatly annoyed by the enemy'ssharpshooters, to be blown up.

  This success cheered the besieged, and on the 20th, when it wasdiscovered that the enemy were driving two new mines, a fresh sortiewas determined upon.

  The garrison of Gubbins' house had now less cover than before, for thebuilding had been reduced almost to a shell by the enemy's fire, andall the women and children had the day before been removed to otherquarters. The Residency itself was a tottering mass of ruins, and thisalso had been emptied of its helpless ones, who were crowded in a greatunderground room in the Begum Khotee. It is difficult to form an ideaof the storm of shot and shell which swept the space inclosed withinthe lines of defense, but some notion may be obtained from the factthat an officer had the curiosity to count the number of cannon ballsof various sizes that fell on the roof of the brigade messhouse in oneday, and found that they amounted to the almost incredible number oftwo hundred and eighty. Living such a life as this, the Warreners wererejoiced when they received orders, with ten of the other defenders ofthe ruins of Gubbins' house, to join in the sortie on the 20th ofAugust. About a hundred of the garrison formed up in the Sikh Square,and at the word being given dashed over the stockade and intrenchment,and made a charge for Johannes' house. This had throughout the siegebeen the post from which the enemy had most annoyed them, the king ofOude's negro in particular having killed a great many of our officersand men. It was from this point that the mines being driven, and it wasdetermined at all hazards to destroy it.

  The rush of the British took the enemy by surprise. Scarce a shot wasfired until they had traversed half the distance, and then a heavy fireof musketry opened from all the houses held by the enemy. Still theEnglish pushed on at full speed, without pausing to return a shot. Witha cheer they burst into the inclosure in which the house stood, andwhile half the party entered it and engaged in a furious combat withthose within, the others, in accordance with orders, pressed forwardinto the houses beyond, so as to keep the enemy from advancing to theassistance of their friends, thus caught in a trap. The Warrenersbelonged to the party who advanced, and were soon engaged in ahand-to-hand fight with the enemy. Scattering through the houses, theydrove the Sepoys before them. The Warreners were fighting side by sidewith Mr. Johnson, and with him, after driving the enemy through thenext house, they entered an outhouse beyond it.

  Mr. Johnson entered first, followed by Ned, Dick being last of theparty. Dick heard a sudden shout and a heavy blow, and rushed in. Mr.Johnson lay on the ground, his skull beaten in with a blow from theiron-bound staff of a dervish, a wild figure with long hair and beardreaching down to his waist. Dick was in time to see the terrible staffdescend again upon Ned's head. Ned guarded it with his rifle, but theguard was beaten down and Ned stretched senseless on the ground. Beforethe fakir had time to raise his stuff again, Dick drove his bayonetthrough his chest, and the fakir fell prostrate, his body rolling downsome steps into a cellar which served as a woodstore.

  As he fell Dick heard a fierce growl, and a bear of a very large size,who was standing by the fakir, rose on his hind legs. FortunatelyDick's rifle was still loaded, and, pointing it into the fierce beast'smouth, he fired, and the bear rolled down the wooden steps after hismaster. Throwing aside his rifle, Dick turned to raise his brother. Nedlay as if dead.

  Dick leaped to his feet, and ran out to call for succor. He went intothe house, but it was empty. He rushed to the door, and saw the rest ofthe party in full retreat. He shouted, but his voice was lost in thecrackle of musketry fire. He ran back to Ned and again tried to lifthim, and had got him on his shoulders, when there was a tremendousexplosion. Johannes' house had been blown up.

  Following close upon the sound came the yells of the enemy, who wereflocking up to pursue the English back to their trenches. Escape wasnow hopeless. Dick lowered Ned to the ground, hastily dragged the bodyof Mr. Johnson outside the door, and then, lifting Ned, bore him downthe steps into the cellar into which the fakir and the bear had fallen.He carried him well into the cellar, took away the wooden steps, andthen, with great difficulty, also dragged the bodies of the fakir andthe bear further in, so that any one looking down into the hole fromthe outside would observe nothing unusual.

  Then, as he lay down, faint from his exertions, he could hear above thetread of a great number of men, followed by a tremendous musketry firefrom the house. Once or twice he thought he heard some one come to thedoor of the outhouse; but if so, no one entered.

  Beyond rubbing Ned's hands, and putting cold stones to his forehead,Dick could do nothing; but Ned breathed, and Dick felt strong hopesthat he was only stunned. In a quarter of an hour he showed signs ofreviving, and in an hour was able to hear from Dick an account of whathad happened, and where they were.

  "We are in a horrible fix this time, Dick, and no mistake; my headaches so, I can hardly think; let us be quiet for a bit, and we willboth try to think what is best to be done. There is no hurry to decide.No one is likely to come down into this place, but we may as well creepwell behind this pile of wood and straw, and then we shall be safe."

  Dick assented, and for an hour they lay quiet, Ned's regular breathingsoon telling his brother that he had dropped off to sleep. Then Dickvery quietly crept out again from their hiding-place.

  "It is a grand idea," he said to himself; "magnificent. It's nasty,horribly nasty; but after three weeks of what we have gone through inthe Residency one can see and do things which it would have made onealmost sick to think of a month back; and as our lives depend upon itwe must not stand upon niceties. I wish, though, I had been brought upa red Indian; it would have come natural then, I suppose."

  So saying, he took out his pocket-knife, opened it, and went to thebody of the dead fakir. He took the long, matted hair into his handwith an exclamation of disgust, but saw at once that his idea was afeasible one. The hair was matted together in an inextricable mass, andcould be trusted to hang together.

  He accordingly set to work to cut it off close to the head; butalthough his knife was a sharp one it was a long and unpleasant task,and nothing but the necessity of the case could have nerved him to getthrough with it.

  At last it was finished, and he looked at his work with complacency.

  "That's a magnificent wig," he said. "I defy the best barber in theworld to make such a natural one. Now for the bear."

  This was a long task; but at last the bear was skinned, and Dick set toto clean, as well as he could, the inside of the hide. Then he draggedinto a corner and covered up the carcass of the bear and the body ofthe fakir, having first stripped the clothes off the latter, scattereda little straw over the bear's skin, and then, his task being finished,he crept behind the logs again, lay down, and went off to sleep by theside of Ned. It was getting dark when he awoke. Ned was awake, and wassitting up by his side. Outside, the din of battle, the ceaseless crackof the rifle, and the roar of cannon was going on as usual, withoutinterruption.

  "How do you feel now, Ned?" Dick asked.

  "All right, Dick. I have got a biggish bump on the side of my head, andfeel a little muddled still, but that is nothing. I can't think of anyplan for escaping from this place, Dick, nor of getting hold of adisguise; for even if we could get out of t
his place and neighborhoodwe must be detected, and in this town it is of no use trying to beg forshelter or aid."

  "It is all arranged," Dick said cheerfully. "I have got two of the bestdisguises in the world, and we have only to dress up in them and walkout."

  Ned looked at Dick as if he thought that he had gone out of his mind.

  "You don't believe me? Just you wait, then, two minutes, till I havedressed up, and then I'll call you;" and without waiting for an answer,Dick went out.

  He speedily stripped to the waist, rubbed some mud from the damp flooron his arms, wound the fakir's rags round his body with a grimace ofdisgust, put the wig on his head--his hair, like that of all thegarrison, had been cut as close to the head as scissors would takeit--shook the long, knotted hair over his face and shoulders--behind ithung to the waist--took the staff in his hand, and called quietly toNed to come out. Ned crept out, and remained petrified withastonishment.

  "The fakir!" he exclaimed at last. "Good heavens, Dick! is that you?"

  "It's me, sure enough," Dick said, taking off his wig. "Here is a wigin which the sharpest eyes in the world could not detect you."

  "But where--" began Ned, still lost in surprise.

  "My dear Ned, I have borrowed from the fakir. It was not quite a nicejob," he went on, in answer to Ned's astonished look, "but it's overnow, and we need not say any more about it. The hair and rags aredisgustingly filthy, there is no doubt about that. Their late ownernever used a comb, and was otherwise beastly in his habits; still, oldman, that cannot be helped, and if you like, when we once get out ofthe town, we can put them in water for twenty-four hours, or make asort of oven, and bake them to get rid of their inhabitants. Our livesare at stake, Ned, and we must not mind trifles."

  "Right, old boy," Ned said, making a great effort to overcome his firstsensation of disgust. "As you say, it is a trifle. You have hit upon asuperb idea, Dick, superb; and I think you have saved our lives fromwhat seemed a hopeless scrape. But what is your other disguise?"

  "This," Dick said, lifting the bear's skin. "I can get into this, andif we travel at night, so that I can walk upright, for I never couldtravel far on all-fours, I should pass well enough, as I could liecurled up by your side in the daytime, and no one will ask a holy fakirany troublesome questions. I don't think you could get into the skin,Ned, or I would certainly take the fakir for choice; for it will beawfully hot in this skin."

  "I don't mind doing the fakir a bit," Ned said. "Fortunately the sunhas done his work, and the color of our skins can be hidden by a goodcoat of dirt, which will look as natural as possible. Now let us setabout it at once."

  It took an hour's preparation; for, although Ned's toilet was quicklymade, needing in fact nothing but a coating of mud, it took some timeto sew Dick up in the skin, the opening being sewn up by means of thesmall blade of the knife and some string. It was by this time quitedark, and the operation had been completed so perfectly that once Nedwas dressed they had no fear whatever of interruption.

  "Now, Ned, before we go I will set fire to the straw. I don't supposeany one will go down and make any discoveries, but they may be lookingfor wood, so it's as well to prevent accidents. We will throw that bigpiece of matting over the opening in the floor, so the light won't showtill we get well away."

  He ran down the ladder, struck a match, lit the straw, and then ranquickly up again. The mat was dragged across the opening, and then theboys went boldly out into the yard, Ned striding along, and Dicktrotting on all-fours beside him. The night was dark, and althoughthere were many men in the yard, sitting about on the ground roundfires, no one noticed the boys, who, turning out through a gateway,took the road into the heart of Lucknow.