Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-03-26
SAVED BY sTRATAGEM.

SAVED BY STRATAGEM.
Dinner was over at last, and Mr..
Walter Currie, English Commissioner
at the up-country station of Hutta-
Bagh, in Northern India, had gone out
up0n the veranda with his wife and his
two guests-Colonel Ayres and Major
Armstrong of the -th infantry. While |
the party we're quietly cOnversing a
sudden clamor of angry voices from the
road below drew them all TO the front
of the veranda.
The cause of the disturbance was visi- |
BILE at once Two half-drunken English
soldiers, swaggering along the road,
had come into violent contact with
native hoy who was running past; and
one Of them, enTaged at the collision,
had felled the poor lad to the ground,
and was unclasping his own belt with
the evident intention Of beating him
numerically. ul ta lll'
"Serve the young whelp right"
shouted the Colonel, rubbing his hands;
" that's Just what they all want"
The other officer, Major Armstrong
popularity called Major Strongarm-T
a huge, brawny, silent man, whose forte
lay in acting rather than in talking. TO
leap to the ground twelve feet below,
to dart across the garden, to vault over
the high stockade beyond, was the work
of a moment for the athletic Maiori and
in another instant he had raised the
fallen boy tenderly from the ground,
while saying to the foremost soldier, in
the low, compressed tone of a man who
means what he says:
''Be off with you'll"
"And who the deuce are you, shown
yer nose in where you amt wantedPn
roared the infuriated rufiian, to whose
eyes the Majors plain evening dress
bore nc. token of his being an officer;
jist you" a.
The sentence was never finished. At
the SOUND of that last iusolent defiande,
ATmstroug's sorely-tried patience gave
way altogether, and the strong right
hand which had hewed its way through
a whole squadron of Sikh cavalry, fell
like a sledge hammer upon his oppo-
nents face, dashihg him to the ground
as II he had been blown from the mouth
of gun.
"Well done, Major!" shouted Mr..
Currie from above tYou deserve
your name, and no mistake,'l At the
name of major" the other soldier
took to his heels, and Armstrong, with
out even looking at his PROSTATE an
tagOnist, proceeded to examine the in
juries of the boy, The latter was
sOrely bruised in many places. and the
blood was trickling freely over his
sWarthy face; but the little hero still
did bis best TO stand erect, and to keep
down every sign Of the pain which lhe
was enduring . ,LC- KS -a0 tF
You're brave lad, and you'll
make soldier some day." said the
Major TO him, in Hindoostanee
"COme with mo, ard I'll see that no
one molests yon again"
Six months have come and gone, and
Mr.. ClIfTie's hospitable house presents
very different spectacle The pretty
garden is trampled into dust and mlre,
and the bodies OF men and horses are
lying thick among the fragments OF the
half-destroyed stockade. The windows
of the house are blocked up, and
through the loop-holed walls peer the
muzzles of ready rifles, showing how
steady tho besieged garrison stands at
bay against the countless enemies
whose dark, fierce faces and glitterin8
weapons are visible amid the half
ruined building and matted thickets all
around. The Sepoy mutIny Of 1857 is
blazing sky high over Northern India,
and Colonel Ayres is blockaded in Hut
ta-BAgh, with q certainty Of a hideouS
death for himself and every man OF
the few who are still true to him, UNI
less help come speedily.
Day was Just breaking when two
men held whispered oounsels in one OF
the upper rooms. I
"No fear of the water running
short sald Major Armstrong; "but
even upon half rations the food win be
out in four days more" ar' tf'I
Sand then wen Just go right at
them, and cut our way through or did
for ~ growled the old Colonel, with q
grim smile on his iron face, for, with
all bis harshness and injustice, Colonel
Ayrns was "grit" TO the backbone.
We mustn't say anything TO them
about II, though" added he, with u
side glance at Mr., Currie, who, stand
ing In the further corner, was anxious
y Watching the thin, worn face Of his
sleeping wife,
AT that moment loud cheer from
below startled them both, and the next
moment Ismail (the Majors boy," AS
every one nov called him) burst into
the room, with a glow Of unwonted ex-
element ON his dark face, 5ut
"Sahibr' cried he, "there Ia hope
for US yeti A detachmont Of English
Ars coming up the other bank of the
TiVer; II we oan send word to them as
they pass. we are savedW
"H0w do you knowP' asked the
Major. eagerly.
g heard the Sepoys say so while ]
was lying bid among the bushes yon,
der" answered the lad.
''Among the bushes yOnderPN roared
the Colonel, facing around. Have
You really been in the midst of those
eut-throat villains, listening to whai
lhey saidP Whatever did you do thai
EOrP''
~ did it for Sahib Armstrong
sake" replied the boy, proudly, be
cause he was good to me-
"But, Il the troops are beyond tn,
river, how can we communicate with