Then the young officer saw, too late, that he was surrounded by a ring of steel. Yet he strove to rally his escort, got four of the men to obey his command, and, placing himself in front, led them at the vague forms that blocked the road to Cawnpore. In the confusion, he might have cut his way through had not Nejdi unfortunately jumped over a wounded man at the instant Frank was aiming a blow at a sowar. His sword swished harmlessly in the air, and his adversary, hitting out wildly, struck the Englishman"s head with the forte of his saber. The violent shock dazed Malcolm for a second, but all might yet have been well were it not for an unavoidable accident. A sepoy"s bayonet became entangled in the reins. In the effort to free his weapon the man gave such a tug to the bit on the near side that the Arab crossed his fore-legs and fell, throwing his rider violently. Frank landed fairly on his head. His turban saved his neck, but could not prevent a momentary concussion. For a while he lay as one dead.
When he came to his senses he found that his arms were tied behind his back, that he had been carried under a big tree, and that a tall native, in the uniform of a subadar of the 2d Bengal Cavalry, was holding a lantern close to his face.
"I am an officer of the 3d Cavalry," he said, trying to rise. "Why do you, a man in my own service, suffer me to be bound?"
"You are no officer of mine, Feringhi," was the scornful reply. "You are safely trussed because we thought it better sport to dangle you from a bough than to stab you where you dropped. Quick, there, with that heel-rope, Abdul Huq. We have occupation. Let us hang this crow here to show other Nazarenes what they may expect. And we have no time to lose.
The Nana may appear at any moment."
CHAPTER V
A WOMAN INTERVENES
That ominous order filled Malcolm"s soul with a fierce rage. He was not afraid of death. The wine of life ran too strongly in his veins that craven fear should so suddenly quell the excitement of the combat that had ended thus disastrously. But his complete helplessness--the fact that he was to be hanged like some wretched felon by men wearing the uniform of which he had been so proud--these things stirred him to the verge of frenzy.
Oddly enough, in that moment of anguish he thought of Hodson, the man who rode alone from Kurnaul to Meerut. Why had Hodson succeeded? Would Hodson, knowing the exceeding importance of his mission, have turned to rescue a servant or raise a fallen horse? Would he not rather have dashed on like a thunderbolt, trusting to the superior speed of his charger to carry him clear of his a.s.sailants? And Nejdi! What had become of that trusted friend? Never before, Arab though he was, had he been guilty of a stumble. Perhaps he was shot, and sobbing out his gallant life on the road, almost at the foot of the tree which would be his master"s gallows.
A doomed man indulges in strange reveries. Malcolm was almost as greatly concerned with Nejdi"s imagined fate as with his own desperate plight when the trooper who answered to the name of Abdul Huq brought the heel-rope that was to serve as a halter.
The man was a Pathan, swarthy, lean, and sinewy, with the nose and eyes of a bird of prey. Though a hawk would show mercy to a fledgling sparrow sooner than this cut-throat to a captive, the robber instinct in him made him pause before he tied the fatal noose.
"Have you gone through the Nazarene"s pockets, sirdar?" he asked.
"No," was the impatient answer. "Of what avail is it? These chota-sahibs[7] have no money. And Cawnpore awaits us."
[Footnote 7: Junior Officers.]
"Nevertheless, every rupee counts. And he may be carrying letters of value to the Maharajah. Once he is swinging up there he will be out of reach, and our caste does not permit us to defile our hands by touching a dead body."
While the callous ruffian was delivering himself of this curious blend of cynicism and dogma, his skilled fingers were rifling Malcolm"s pockets. First he drew forth a sealed packet addressed to Sir Hugh Wheeler. He recognized the government envelope and, though neither of the pair could read English, Abdul Huq handed it to his leader with an "I-told-you-so" air.
It was in Frank"s mind to revile the men, but, most happily, he composed himself sufficiently to resolve that he would die like an officer and a gentleman, while the last words on his lips would be a prayer.
The next doc.u.ment produced was the Persi-Arabic scrawl which purported to be a "safe-conduct" issued by Bahadur Shah, whom the rebels acclaimed as their ruler. Until that instant, the Englishman had given no thought to it. But when he saw the look of consternation that flitted across the face of the subadar when his eyes took in the meaning of the writing, despair yielded to hope, and he managed to say thickly:
"Perhaps you will understand now that you ought to have asked my business ere you proposed to hang me off hand."
His active brain devised a dozen expedients to account for his presence in Bithoor, but the native officer was far too shrewd to be beguiled into setting his prisoner at liberty. After re-reading the pa.s.s, to make sure of its significance, the rebel leader curtly told Abdul Huq and another sowar to bring the Feringhi into the presence of the Maharajah, by which t.i.tle he evidently indicated Nana Sahib.
The order was, at least, a reprieve, and Malcolm breathed more easily.
He even asked confidently about his horse and the members of his escort.
He was given no reply save a muttered curse, a command to hold his tongue, and an angry tug at his tied arms.
It is hard to picture the degradation of such treatment of a British officer by a native trooper. The Calcutta Brahmin who was taunted by a Lascar--a warrior-priest insulted by a social leper--scarce flinched more keenly under the jibe than did Malcolm when he heard the tone of his captors. Truly the flag of Britain was trailing in the mire, or these men would not have dared to address him in that fashion. In that bitter moment he felt for the first time that the Mutiny was a real thing. Hitherto, in spite of the murders and incendiarism of Meerut, the risings in other stations, the proclamation of Bahadur Shah as Emperor, and the actual conflicts with the Mogul"s armed retainers on the battle-field of Ghazi-ud-din Nuggur, Malcolm was inclined to treat the outburst as a mere blaze of local fanaticism, a blaze that would soon be stamped under heel by the combined efforts of the East India Company"s troops and the Queen"s Forces. Now, at last, he saw the depth of hate with which British dominion was regarded in India. He heard Mohammedans alluding to a Brahmin as a leader--so might a wolf and a snake make common alliance against a watch dog. From that hour dated a new and sterner conception of the task that lay before him and every other Briton in the country. The Mutiny was no longer a welcome variant to the tedium of the hot weather. It was a life-and-death struggle between West and East, between civilization and barbarism, between the laws of Christianity and the lawlessness of Mahomet, supported by the cruel, inhuman, and nebulous doctrines of Hinduism.
Not that these thoughts took shape and coherence in Malcolm"s brain as he was being hurried to the house of Nana Sahib. A man may note the deadly malice of a cobra"s eye, but it is not when the poison fangs are ready to strike that he stops to consider the philosophy underlying the creature"s malign hatred of mankind.
Events were in a rare fret and fume in the neighborhood of Cawnpore that night. As a matter of historical fact, while Malcolm was hearing from the villager that Roshinara Begum had come to Bithoor, the 1st Native Infantry and 2d Cavalry had risen at Cawnpore.
Nana Sahib was deep in intrigue with all the sepoy regiments stationed there, and his adherents ultimately managed to persuade these two corps to throw off their allegiance to the British Raj. Following the recognized routine they burst open the gaol, burnt the public offices, robbed the Treasury, and secured possession of the Magazine. Then, while the ever-swelling mob of criminals and loafers made pandemonium in the bazaar, the saner spirits among the mutineers hurried to Bithoor to ascertain the will of the man who, by common consent, was regarded as their leader.
He was expecting them, eagerly perhaps, but with a certain quaking that demanded the a.s.sistance of the "Raja"s peg," a blend of champagne and brandy that is calculated to fire heart and brain to madness more speedily than any other intoxicant. He was conversing with his nephew, Rao Sahib, and his chief lieutenants, Tantia Topi and a Mohammedan named Azim-Ullah, when the native officers of the rebel regiments clattered into his presence.
"Maharajah," said their chief, "a kingdom is yours if you join us, but it is death if you side with the Nazarenes."
He laughed, with the fine air of one who sees approaching the fruition of long-cherished plans. He advanced a pace, confidently.
"What have I to do with the British?" he asked. "Are they not my enemies, too? I am altogether with you."
"Will you lead us to Delhi, Maharajah?"
"Why not? That is the natural rallying ground of all who wish the downfall of the present Government."
"Then behold, O honored one, we offer you our fealty."
They pressed near him, tendering the hilts of their swords. He touched each weapon, and placed his hands on the head of its owner, vowing that he would keep his word and be faithful to the trust they reposed in him.
"Our brothers of the 53d and 56th have not joined us yet," said one.
"Then let us ride forth and win them to our side," said the Nana grandiloquently. He went into the courtyard, mounted a gaily-caparisoned horse, and, surrounded by the rebel cohort, cantered off towards Cawnpore.
Thus it befell that the mob of hors.e.m.e.n pressed past Malcolm and his guards as they entered the palace. The subadar tried in vain to attract the Nana"s attention. Fearing lest he might be forgotten if he were not in the forefront of the conspiracy, this man bade his subordinates take their prisoner before the Begum, and ran off to secure his horse and race after the others. He counted on the despatches gaining him a hearing.
Abdul Huq, more crafty than his chief, smiled.
"Better serve a king"s daughter than these Shia dogs who are so ready to fawn on a Brahmin," said he to his comrade, another Pathan, and a Sunni like himself, for Islam, united against Christendom, is divided into seventy-two warring sects. Hence the wavering loyalty of two sepoy battalions in Cawnpore carried Malcolm out of the Nana"s path, and led him straight to the presence of Princess Roshinara.
The lapse of three weeks had paled that lady"s glowing cheeks and deepened the l.u.s.ter of her eyes. Not only was she worn by anxiety, in addition to the physical fatigue of the long journey from Delhi, but the day"s happenings had not helped to lighten the load of care. Yet she was genuinely amazed at seeing Malcolm.
"How come you to be here?" she cried instantly, addressing him before Abdul Huq could open his mouth in explanation.
"As your Highness can see for yourself, I am brought hither forcibly by these slaves," said Frank, thinking that now or never must he display a bold front.
"How did you learn that I had left Delhi?"
"The journeyings of the Princess Roshinara are known to many."
"But you came not when I summoned you."
"Your Highness"s letter did not reach me until after the affair on the Hindun river."
"What is all this idle talk?" broke in Abdul Huq roughly. "This Feringhi was carrying despatches--"
"Peace, dog!" cried the Begum. "Unfasten the Sahib"s arms, and be gone.
What! Dost thou hesitate!"