Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1885-09-09
SAVED BY A JACKAL.
A Story of India in the Time of the Great
Rebellion of the Sepoys.

"Jackals are at once the bane and
the blessing of India" said a gentle
man, whose face, either through dis
organized liver or from quarter of a
century of steady curry eating underan
Eastern sun, or in consequence of both,
had acquired rich yellow hue. They
Danish Sleep with their nightly bowling.
and sometimes they carry off a child,
but they are the scavengers of the
plains. which think would hardly be
habitable without them. Let me tell
you a curious story about one OF the
brutes saving child.
Il had better state at once, to check
undue sympathy, that the jackal, when
he rescued Lal Chokre, acted purely as
an involuntary agent, for he certainly
intended to eat her. The little girls
real name, given to her in England a
year previously, was Mabel Stern. Her
father, Colonel Stern, whose regiment
was in India, was on leave of absence
in his native land when Mabel was
born. and three months later rumOrs OF
the coming mutiny in India began to
be heard. Colonel Stern was ordered
to reioin his command, and with his
wife. who insisted on accompanying
him, his infant daughter, and an ayah,
or native nurse, obtained with some
difficulty in London, he turned his face
eastward. When he stepped ashore in
Calcutta the country was in flame Of
Instruction, and the Colonel learned
that his own regiment, composed OF Sc
poys, recruited chiefly in the northwest,
had been among the first to turn the
arms they had obtained and the arts
they had learned from their English
masters against their teachers. Hewas
ordered to do general duty with the
forces besieging Delhi, and, still &C
companied BY his wife and child, though
the ayah refused to 60 any further, he
went up the country.
1.-The last scenes of the mutiny were
being played. Their horrors, and those
that preceded them, are too well known
to need description. Colonel Stern and
his little family, with another ayah,
were living in bungalow, or Indian
house, few miles from Delhi, and
keeping careful watch at night time,
for parties of disbanded mutineers were
still prowling about, actuated by one
prevailing purpose, to murder white
men, women, and children whenever
they could do so with fair chance of
escaping with their lives. The Colonel
was an old Indian campaigner, and was
apprehensive of an attack. 1t came at
last in broad daylight and when the
master of the house and his wife were
absent in the city for an hour, and no.
body was in the bungalow except the
ayah and the child. When the Colonel
and Mrs. Stern returned Mabel was
gone, and the ayah, who seemed half |
distracted, told the story in her native !
tongue:
They came, Mem-Sahib,' she said,
excitedly addressing Mrs. Stern, so |
quickly that heard no noise until they |
were in the ROOM Where is the Sahib
Logue?' said one of them. I told them |
the Colonel had gone out and would
not be back before night. They wanted |
to know where the Mem-Sahib was. I |
told them you were with him. "Great |
Allah" said the leader, nobody left |
to kill!'' Then dirty little fellow, who
lives by robbery, and mutinied, but |
never fought, said:
""There is still the chokre.'
""'Oh, Mem-Sahib! 1 put my fore
head to the ground to them. said:
kill me, but spare the chokre.''' At |
last they said should not see the baby
die. The leader asked what her name |
was, and | said, Mabel Stern.
THAT will not do" said the man. |
''She must not meet Allah with such a
name as that. The country is still red |
with blood. Let us call her Lal Chok-
re'' Cred GirD. Then they took her
away.
"Mrs. Stern shrieked and rushed to-
ward the door: The Colonel stopped
her.
"What will they do with our babyp"
he asked the ayah.
''The woman bowed her head SORROW
fully.
"'Sahib,' she said. 4 know them
we'll The leader will take her home,
and let her lie an hour with his own lit
tie girl. have seen her-a child a year
old with great scar on her forehead.
This child will thus get all the good for
tune that might have come to yours had
she lived. Then he will take her to the
river, and leave her lying on pillow on
the shore until the tide rises. 1t will be
full at y O clock.
" There may be time yet said the
Colonel, looking at his watch. Mabel,
YOU must stay here. Ayah, do you
know where the leaders bungalow tsp
"'Yes, Sahib, she said. I will show
you. 1t is only half mile away, and,
perhaps, many men will not be there.
Take your pistol, and come
..The Colonel followed her, pistol in
hand, but they had not gone a quarter
Of mile before both stopped as they
heard the noise made by some animal
them. Then, under the
bright moonlight, and only a few yards
away, great gaunt jackal passed them,
going at a labored trot, and carrying
Something heavy in his mouth. Both
saw plainly what it was-a native child
-witk q great scar on its forehead.
1.-THE Colonel raised his pistol and
was about to fire at the brute, when the