Part 6 (1/2)
He advised them to leave their Mohammedan dresses behind, and to dress in the simple costume of Hindoo peons, with which he could supply them.
They would then attract far less attention, and could even by day pa.s.s across the fields without any comment whatever from the natives at work there, who would naturally suppose that they belonged to some village near at hand. ”Englishmen could not do this,” he said; ”too much leg, too much arm, too much width of shoulders; but boys are thinner, and no one will notice the difference. In half an hour I will come back with the things.” Ned gave him the rest of the berries, which they had preserved, and asked him to boil them up in a little water, as they would now have to color their bodies and arms and legs, in addition to their faces.
It was a sad parting between Kate and her brothers, for all felt that they might never meet again. Still the course decided upon was, under the circ.u.mstances, evidently the best that could be adopted.
In an hour the Hindoo returned. The boys took off their clothes, and stained themselves a deep brown from head to foot. The farmer then produced a razor and a bowl of water and some soap, and said that they must shave their hair off their heads, up to a level with the top of the ears, so as to leave only that which could be concealed by their turban. This, with some laughter--the first time they had smiled since they left Sandynugghur--they proceeded to do to each other, and the skin thus exposed they dyed the same color as the rest of the body.
They then each put on a scanty loincloth, and wrapping a large piece of dark blue cotton stuff first round their waists and then over one shoulder, their costume was complete, with the exception of a pair of sandals and a white turban. The old Hindoo surveyed them gravely when their attire was completed, and expressed his belief that they would pa.s.s without exciting the slightest suspicion. Their pistols were a trouble. They were determined that, come what might, they would not go without these, and they were finally slung behind them from a strap pa.s.sing round the waist under the loin-cloth; the spare ammunition and a supply of biscuit were stowed in stout cotton bags, with which their friend provided them, and which hung by a band pa.s.sing over one shoulder. Their money and a box of matches they secured in a corner of their clothes. A couple of stout staves completed their outfit.
Bidding a grateful farewell to their friendly Hindoo, the boys started on their journey. The sandals they found so difficult to keep on that they took them off and carried them, except when they were pa.s.sing over stony ground. They kept to bypaths and avoided all villages.
Occasionally they met a native, but either they pa.s.sed him without speech, or Ned muttered a salutation in answer to that of the pa.s.ser.
All day they walked, and far into the night. They had no fear of missing their way, as the road on one hand and the river on the other both ran to Meerut; and although these were sometimes ten miles apart, they served as a fair index as to the line they should take. The biscuits, eked out with such grain as they could pluck as they crossed the fields, lasted for two days; but at the end of that time it became necessary to seek another supply of food.
”I don't know what to ask for, d.i.c.k; and those n.i.g.g.e.rs always chatter so much that I should have to answer, and then I should be found out directly. I think we must try some quiet huts at a distance from the road.”
The wood in which they that night slept was near three or four scattered huts. In the morning they waited and watched for a long time until one of the cottages was, as far as they could judge, deserted, all its inmates being gone out to work in the fields. They then entered it boldly. It was empty. On hunting about they found some chupatties which had apparently been newly baked, a store of rice and of several other grains. They took the chupatties, five or six pounds of rice, and a little copper cooking-pot. They placed in a conspicuous position two rupees, which were more than equivalent to the value of the things they had taken, and went on their way rejoicing.
At midday they sat down, lit a fire with some dried sticks, and put their rice in the pot to boil. As Ned was stooping to pick up a stick he was startled by a simultaneous cry of ”Look out!” from d.i.c.k, and a sharp hiss; and looking up, saw, three or four feet ahead of him, a cobra, with its hood inflated, and its head raised in the very act of springing. Just as it was darting itself forward d.i.c.k's stick came down with a sharp tap on its head and killed it.
”That was a close shave, Ned,” the boy said, laughing; ”if you had stooped he would have bit you on the face. What would have been the best thing to do if he had bitten you?”
”The best thing is to suck the wound instantly, to take out a knife and cut deeply in, and then, as we have no vesuvians, I should break up half a dozen pistol cartridges, put the powder into and on the wound, and set it alight. I believe that that is what they do in some parts of Eastern Europe in the case of the bites of mad dogs; and this, if no time is lost after the bite is given, is almost always effectual in keeping off hydrophobia.”
”Well, Ned, I am very thankful that we had not to put the virtue of the receipt to a practical test.”
”Would you like to eat the snake, d.i.c.k? I believe that snake is not at all bad eating.”
”Thank you,” d.i.c.k said, ”I will take it on trust. We have got rice; and although I am not partial to rice it will do very well. If we could have got nothing else we might have tried the snake; but as it is, I had rather not. Two more days, Ned, and we shall be at Meerut. The old Hindoo said it was a hundred miles, and we go twenty-five a day, even with all our bends and turns to get out of the way of villages.”
”Yes, I should think we do quite that, d.i.c.k. We walk from daylight to sunset, and often two or three hours by moonlight; and though we don't go very fast, we ought to get over a lot of ground. Listen! There is music!” Both held their breath. ”Yes, there are the regular beats of a big drum. It is on the highroad, I should say, nearly abreast of us. If we go to that knoll we shall have a view of them; and there cannot be the least danger, as they must be fully a mile away.”
Upon gaining the rise in question they saw a regiment in scarlet, winding along the road.
”Are they mutineers, d.i.c.k, or British?”
It was more than any one could say. Mounted officers rode at the head of the regiment; perfect order was to be observed in its marching; there was nothing that in any way differed from its ordinary aspect.
”Let us go back and get our rice and lota, d.i.c.k. We can't afford to lose that; and if we go at a trot for a couple of miles we can get round into some trees near the road, where we can see their faces. If the mounted officers are white it is all right; if not, they are mutineers.”
Half an hour's trot brought them to such a point of vantage as they desired. Crouched in some bushes at the edge of a clump of trees, not fifty yards from the road, they awaited the pa.s.sage of the regiment.
They had not been in their hiding-place five minutes when the head of the column appeared.
”They march in very good order, Ned; do you think that they would keep up such discipline as that after they had mutinied?”
”I don't know. Dirk; but they'll want all their discipline when they come to meet our men. For anything we know we may be the two last white men left in India; but when the news gets to England there will be such a cry throughout the land that, if it needed a million men to win back the country, I believe they would be found and sent out. There! There are two mounted officers; I can't see their color, but I don't think they are white.”
”No, Ned; I am sure they are not white; then they must be mutineers.
Look! Look! Don't you see they have got three prisoners? There they are, marching in the middle of that column; they are officers; and oh!
Ned! I do think that the middle one's father.” And the excited boy, with tears of joy running down his cheeks, would have risen and dashed out had not Ned forcibly detained him.
”Hus.h.!.+ d.i.c.k! and keep quiet. Yes! It is father! and Dunlop and Manners.