The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1901-08-15
AN ADVENTURE
NORTHERN INDIA.
. BY DAVID MEX.
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BY DAVID KER.


broken pillars and heaps of fallen
stones down in the dark cellars Of a
ruined house in the Hindu fort Of
Fati-Ghur, in northern India.
1t was a gloomy place-black, lone
some, dreary-and just the spot where
you might expect wildcat or a poi
sonous 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 a great host Of fierce
Hindu warriors, vowing never to
leave the place until the had taken
the place and killed every living thing
within it's walls.
Three times had the besiegers made
q 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 ali day long-and sometimes at
night-they kept banging away at
the walls with their cannon and mus
kets, till no one could look over the
battlements for fear Of being shot
dead, and the sick and wounded men
of the garrison were quite worn out
with this ceaseless din.
Worse, still, food was beginning to
run short, and they would soon be
forced to surrender or starve 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 we'll as 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 them
selves quite out of breath, Il heard
Capt. Markham say so myself, while
was helping a woman to scrape lint
for those soldiers that were wounded
last night"
"And I've torn up a whole lot OF
rags for bandages," replied Nellie
proudly; "and I'm going to tear up
8 lot more this afternoon. l 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
g ing the poor soldiers brought In all
cut and bleeding. There's poor Ser
geant Bennett, who made all those
pretty toys for me, has got such a
terrible hurt all along one side OF his
s head, where q bullet hit him the
other day; and it's so sore that ne
can't sleep Bit
..Never mind" answered Harry, as
suming quite a fatherly air, in vir-
tue of his being six months the older
of the two; lust you wait two or
three days more, and then you'll see
General 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"
said Nellie, with rather grave look
on her round, rosy little face, that
General Rose has only a few hundred
men with him just now; and surely
they can't fight whole army at
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 rajah's whole
army scampering with cE$>two regi-
ments? Just you wait See, that's
all. say, let's havser game.
You go and hide, and 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 himself
would not be able to find her.
Fearlessly she picked her way in
almost total darkness thrpugh one
black and dismal vault after another
for the roughest soldier in the gar
rison was not braver than our little
golden-haired Nellie-and at length
x1,ho fyy0
masses of masonry had fallen in such
a way as, to lean against each other,
forming kind of low arch very much
like the mouth of cavern.
Harry will never find me here, said
she to herself, triumphantly, as she
crept into the hole; and finding it
not large enough to let her stand up
right, she lay down upon the ground
and remained as quiet as mouse,
chuckling inwardly to think how puz-
zled Harry would be when he came
to look for her.
But scarcely had her ear touched
the earth when she became aware or
a strange, dull sound deep down be-
low her, like the measured beat OF
oars or the noise which would be made
by some one humping hard against a
padded door.
What could it be? 1t was certainly
not Harry, and there was no one else
down there except herself; but the
sound could not be merely her fancy
she was quite sure that she did hear
it, and what was more it seemed to
be growing louder and coming nearer.
Then, for the first time, little Nellie
began to feel frightened. Even in the
course of her short life she had been
in the East Indian jungles so many
tigers and crocodiles and huge snakes
and other terrible creatures that it
seemed quite natural to her that some
unknown and fearful monster should