The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1886-06-02
d TRUST WELL KEPT
BY EDMUND LYONS.

The torrent of mutiny in India that
had been gathering volume and force in
secret for months had burst its barriers
at last, and was sweeping along as though
past all control. The gallant old Colonel
Pratt had paraded his regiment in front
of his bungalow, and, with his gray hair
rippled by the warm breeze. had ex-
pressed to them his ill-founded conf
dence that, though all the other Sepoys
rose in rebellion, they would never rise
His men, whom he always spoke of as "his
children, greeted his speech with ring
ing cheers. Two hours later they had
murdered the veteran, and, under their
own chosen leaders, were marching to
Delhi, their band playing, with the curl
Gus inconsistency for which the mutineers
from first to last were famous, the Eng
lish national anthem, "God Save the
Queen" Allahabad had fallen. Every
officer at the mess table, with ore ex-
ception had been butchered by the ser.
want who stood behind him, and struck
with his knife when the signal was given.
The one who escaped the general doom.
and who was called when the story was
told, the 'Martyr of Allahabad," sprang
through window of the mess room, and
'eaching the banks Of the Ganges plunged
in and swan for many miles; hiding in
the jungle during the day, and drifting
with the current at night; suffering in
credible hardships, to die of native fever
induced 10y the exposure when friends
and apparent safety were reached at last.
Other officers belonging to that i'll
fated mess escaped. Not many, and
those only because they were not at the
table when the murderous signal was
given. One Of them. having been de-
tanned by regimental business. was hur-
rying to Join hiscomrades when woman
stopped him by coming with startling
suddenness from the shadow of clump
of bambooS beside the road.
"Sahib, don't 60 on !" she said, speak
lag in her own language. "Thev are all
dead by this time Boden Singh was
behind your chair, his knife ready, and
had you been in it you would have been
with Allah now. Boden Singh was mad
with rage, and waiting. He had waited
so long that he said he could wait no
longer, He wanted TO murder you last
night when you were asleep on the char
poy, but told him if he did so il would
not be easy to get the officers all together
at the mess tonight. So he agreed to
wait little longer and stab you in the
back, as the others were stabbed, while
he stood behind at dinner. He has killed
somebody else by this time to make up
for having missed YOU Yes, it ist terri
BILE but why did you put the grease on
the cartridgosl All here they GOMEZ"
The butchery was over, and troop of
soldiers, accompanied by the servants
who had slain their masters, were march
ing down the road, headed bv q band
playing "Rule Britannia" ~" The woman
who had spoken was Pooniah, the wife
of the villain Boden Singh. GBodcn
Singh was the bearer" or body servant,
of the officer who had been warned.
was the officer.
"Quick, Sahib!' she exclaimed, has
tily, ms | stood irresolute in the middle of
the road. "They will see us in minute.
Hide in the clump of bamboos! And in
moment we were crouching there, side
by side, while the mutineers came on,
marching with that steady military step
that they had learned so well from their
English masters. They bad learned
some other things. too, from the same
teachers, and in the next few months
they showed all too plainly that the seed
of Instruction had not been cast upon
bari2n soil.
"Why did you put grease on the cart
ridges" At that moment, with life and
death hanging about evenly in the bal
ance, those words and their evil inference
were ringing in my brain. Assuredly the
pork grease on the cartridges had in some
degree hastened the mutiny. The cart
ridges of that day had to be bitten
before they were used, and both
Hindoo and Mussulman abhor the
flesh of the pig, though the
higher classes eat imported hams and
bacon, and protest that they are not the
same meat at all. The Sepoys had gone
on biting the cartridges contentedly, and
with no idea that they were putting the
unelean thing into their mouths. until the
Tebellious rajahs, watching for such an