The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-04-15
SAVED BY STRATAGEM.

DINNER was over at last, and MIR.
Walter Currie, English Commissioner
at the up-country station of Hutta- Bagh,
in Northern India, had gone out upon
the veranda with his wife and his two
guests-Colonel Ayres and Major Arm
stron. of the til infantry. While the
party were quietly conyersing sudden
clamor of angry voices from the road
below drew them all to the front of the
veranda.
The cause of the disturbance was Wis
ible at once. = TWO. half-drupken En-
glish soldiers, staggering along the road,
had come into violent contact with "a
native boy who was running past; and
one of them, enraged 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.
"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-was
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 Major; and
in another instant he had raised the
fallen boy tenderlv 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!"
EN- "And who the deuce are you, shown
yer nose in where you amt wantedP''
roared the Infatuated rutfian, to whose
eyes the Majors plain evening dress
bore no token of his being an officer
jist YOU -
The sentence was never finished. At
the sound of that last insolent defiance,
Armstrong; sorely-tried patience gave
way altogether, and the strong right
hand which had hewed its way through
q whole squadron of Sikh cavalry, fell
like sledge-hammer upon his oppo-
nent's face, dashing him to the ground
as if he had been blown fran the mouth
of gun.
"Well done, Maori" shouted Mr..
Currie from above. "You deserve your
name, and no mistake At the name
of "Major " the other soldier took to
his heels, and Armstrong, without even
looking at his PROSTATE antagonist,
proceeded to examine the injuries of the
boy. The latter was sorely bruised in
many places, and the blood was trick
ling freely over his swarthy face
but the little hero still did his best to
stand erect, and to keep down every
sign OF the pain which he was en-
during.
YOU'RE brave lad, and you'll make
soldier some day." said the Major to
him, in Hindoostanee, F." Come with me,
and I'll see that no one molests you
again.
Six months have come and gone, and
MIR. Currie's hospitable house presents a
very different spectacle. The pretty
garden is trampled into dust and mire,
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 the
besieged garrison stands at bay against
the countless enemies whose dark.
fierce faces and glittering weapons are
visible amid the half-ruined building
and matted thiekets all around. The
Sepoy mutiny of 1857 is blazing sky
high over Northern India, and Colonel
Ayres is blockaded in Hutta- Bagh,
with certainty of a hideous death for
himself and every man of the few who
are still true to him, unless help come
, speedily.
Day was just breaking when two men
held whispered counsels in one of the
upper rooms. 81
- No fear of the water running short, -
said Major Armstrong; :" but even upon
half rations the food will be out in four
days more.'
g And then We'll Just go right at
them, and cut our way through or die
for it,'' growled the old Colonel. with a
grim smile on his iron face, for, with all
his harshness and injustice, Colonel
Ayres was "grit" to the backbone.
We mustn't say any thing TO them
about it, though added he, with side
glance at Hr. Currie, who, standing in
the further corner, was anxiously watch
ing the thin, worn face of his sleeping
wife.
p AT that moment a loud cheer from be-
low startled them both, and the next
moment lsmail (the "Major's boy," as
every one now called him) burst into the
room, with a glow of unwonted excite
ment on his dark face.
q" Sahib!" cried he, ssthere is hope for
us yet! A detachment of English are
coming up the other bank of the river ::
it we can send word to them as they
pass, we are sayed!"
y How do you know?a asked the
Major. eagerly. ~ 4 le
.ss | heard the Sepoys say so while I
was lying hid among the bushes yon-
der, answered the lad.
"Among the bushes yonderP" roared
the Colonel, facing around. Have
you really been in the midst of those
cut-throat villains, listening to what
they said? Whatever did you do that