The Ely miner., 1901-05-17
The Mysterious Sound
An Adventure I'm Northern India.
BY David Ker.
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Il WV UOy tCh
years old and girl somewhat
younger-were playing hide-and-seek
among broken pillars and heaps of
fallen stones down in the dark Gel
lars of ruined house in the Hindu
fort of Fati-Ghur, in northern India.
1t was gloomy place black, lone
some, dreary-and just the spot
where you might expect wildcat or
poisonous snake to pop out upon
you at any moment; but Harry and
Nellie did not seem to mind it bit,
and went scampering and laughing
through the dim archways and dark,
ghostly vaults as merrily as if they
had been in a kindergarten.
1t was certainly a very strange
place to choose for playground, and
it was stranger still that they should
be playing and laughing at all, with
the shadow of death deepening day by
day over themselves, their fathers
and the whole garrison of the fort.
War was raging throughout the en-
tire district, and all around Fati-
Ghur lay encamped great host OF
fierce Hindu warriors, vowing never
to leave the place until they had
taken the place and killed every liv-
ing thing within it's walls.
Three times had the besiegers made
furious attack on the fort, but each
time they had been beaten off with
heavy loss, and did not seem inclined
to try it again. ~
But all day long and sometimes
at night, too = they kept banging
away at the walls with their cannon
and muskets, till no one could look
over the battlements for fear of be-
ing shot dead, and the sick and
wounded men of the garrison were
quite worn out with the ceaseless
din.
Worse, still, food was beginning to
run short, and they would soon be
forced to surrender or be all starved
to death, unless some one came to
the rescue; and there seemed to be
little hope for that, for it would have
taken a large army, as well as a
brave one, to cut through the forest
of white turbans and colored robes
and dark, fierce faces and glittering
weapons that hemmed in the doomed
fortress on every side.
'And we've helped to defend the
fort, too,'' said Harry to Nellie, as
they paused to rest, after running 9
themselves quite out of breath. 81
heard Capt. Markham say so myself
while l was helping mamma to scrape
lint for those soldiers that were
wounded d last night
"And I've torn up whole lot OF
rags for bandages," replied Nellie
proudly; land I'm going to tear up
a lot more this afternoon. [ do wish
though, they'd give over fighting. I'm
so tired of those guns banging away
all night long, and it's so horrid see-
ing the poor soldiers brought in all
cut and bleeding. There's poor Sergt
Bennett, who made all those pretty
toys for me, has got such terrible
where a bullet hit him the other
day; and it's so sore that he can't
sleep a bit"
"Never mind" answered Harry, as
suming quite a fatherly air, in virtue
of his being six months the older OF
the two; 'just you wait two or three
days more, and then you'll see Gen
Rose and his men come up from the
other side of the river and send all
these black fellows flying"
"But I heard papa say yesterday
cried Nellie, with rather grave look
on her round, rosy little face, "that
Gen. Rose has only a few hundred
men with him just now; and surely
they can't fight a whole army al
once"
Cant they?" cried Harry, disdain.
fully. Didn't Lord Give thrash co..
600 of them at Plassey, with only
5000 men of his own? And didn't
the duke of Wellington send the ra
jah's whole army scampering with
only two regiments? Just you wait
and see, that's all. 1 say, let's have
another game. You go and hide, ano
I'll hunt for you."
Away went Nellie instantly, right
into the gloomiest and loneliest part
of the ruins, bent upon discovering
some place where even Harry himsel1
would not be able to find her.
E'earlessly she picked her way il
almost total darkness through one
black and dismal vault after another
for the toughest soldier in the gar