The Press., 1895-06-06

these had to be guarded, of course, in the old quarter as well as in that which was actually held by our troops. We were short handed, with hardly men enough to man the angles of the building and to serve the guns. Ib was impossible for us, therefore, to station strong guard at ev cry one of the innumcrablG gates. What we did was to organize central guard house in tho middle of the fort and to leave each gate under the charge of one white man and two or three natives. I was sc lected to take charge during certain hours of the night of a small isolated door upon the southwest sido of the building. Two Sikh troopers were placed under my com mand, and 1 was instructed if anything went wrong to fire my musket, when might rely upon help coming at once from the central guard. As the guard was a good 200 paces away, however, and as the space between was cut up into a labyrinth of passages and corridors 1 had great doubts as to whether they could arrive in time to be of any use in case of an actual attack.
 Well, was pretty proud at having this small command given me, since I was raw recruit, and a game legged ono at that. For two nights l kept the watch with my Punjabees. They were tall, fierce looking chaps, Mohammed Singh and Alb dullah Khan by name, both old fighting men who had borne arms against us at | Chilianwallah. They could talk English pretty well, but could get little out of them. They preferred to stand together and jabber all night ill their queer Sikh lingo. For myself, 1 used to stand outside the gateway, looking down on the broad, winding river and on the twinkling lights of the great city. The beating of drums, the rattle of tomtoms and the yells and | hoWls of the rebels, drunk with opium and with bang, were enough to remind us all night of our dangerous neighbors across the stream. Every two hours the officers of the night used to come round to all the posts to mako sure that all was well.
 1.-The third night of my watch was dark and dirty, with small, driving rain. It was dreary work standing in the gateway hour after hour in such weather. 1 tried again and again to mako my Sikhs talk, l but without much success At in the morning the rounds passed and broke for a moment the weariness of tho night Finding that my companions would not | be led into conversation, 1 took out my pipe and laid down my muskCt to strike a match. In an instant the two Sikhs were upon mo. One of them snatched my fire lock up and leveled it at my head, while the other hCld great knl1e to my throat and swore between his teeth that he would plunge it into me if l moved step.
 My first thought was that these fellows were in league with the rebels, and that this was the beginning of an assault If our door were in the hards of the sepoys, the place must fall and the women and children be treated as they were in Cawn- pur Maybe you gentlemen think that am just making out a case for myself, but I give you my word that when thought of that, though 1 felt the point of the knife at my throat, l opened my mouth with tho intention of giving a scream, if it was my last one, which might alarm the main guard. The man who held me seemed to know my thoughts, for even as I braced myself to it he whispered: Don t make a nDiSe. The fort is safe enough. There are 10 rebel dogs on this side of the river. There was the ring of truth in what he said, and l knew that if l raised my voice I WAS dead man. 1 could read 1t in the fellows brown eyes. waited, therefore, in silence to see what it was that they wanted from me.
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