Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1904-10-08

SFO~ insects and snakes, It's dis
NAL and overlooking wei
sea sons and fevers and dozen Other
disagreeable things to make life miser
able.
There was an uprising in n neigh
boring petty State, and detachment
of the Forty.iifth was ordered there
post haste. Which does not meal
much as to speed in n country with
roads and II temperature such as India
has.
We duly arrived, however, and found
that tharn 5000 II pretty mess or II.
The petty prince Of the little prov
ince had been raising and keeping q
standing army, consisting Of thirty OF
forty lower caste Hindoos, whom he
had armed with as many guns of an
old-fashioned design, probably worked
off on him by some junk dealer OH the
coast
Whether the Oriental inclination for
despotism had got to be little harder
than usual on the members Of the
standing army, or whether the army
had found itself getting more powerful
than its sovereign-for some reason II
had revOlted and deserted in n body
plundered the royal bungalow and
some of the native residents of the sta
ton, and was at that time living Il sort
of bandit life in the neighborng jungle,
swooping down on the place whenever
provisions ran short, and taking what
ever they wanted, with an incidental
murder here and there.
Major Barker, on learning all the
circumstances and the amount Of the
force from the few English residents,
said:
We'll put an end to this at once,
sir; Wen stamp the rebellion out like
that, sir" and he stamped his foot
sharply on the mating, by sheer good
luck catching one of the big reaches of
that cline under his sole, which lent
objective force to his declaration.
Well, we did stamp them out very
much like that-when we found them.
But the finding Of the rebels was the
uoiNSSl par VI INC Jou, anu, III SlIltC VI
the majors contempt for the quality Of
the foe, it happened that he was to be
the man who was to come the nearest
to losing his life in short campaign
which was all but bloodless on our
side.
The undercurrent of rebellion against
our English rule In India is we'll illus
trated by the conduct of some of the
natives of this station, from whom we
tried to find out the whereabouts Of
the rebellious standing army.
Much as thew -warn in fA"" 90 ~ "'-
fellow cOuntrymen's raids and barbar-
GUS atrocities, rs between them and us
their aid was given to the rebels.
In few days Major Barker had be-
come furious.
"rhey think they can fool us, do
they? BY CAD, sir. III show them!
Wen hunt them out, sir, and hunt
them down, sir-in short order, too, by
Jovew
So the major divided his detachment
into several small accommodating par
ties to beat up the jungle very much
as he would have done on tiger hunt,
with a systematic plan Of progress and
series Of stated rendezvous.
The major, on his part, took two
men with him. and was one of them.
Our party was smaller than any of
the others, and think the reason was
that he wanted to express to the men,
In striking way, his utter contempt
for the nature Ct the enemy.
The majors zeal and bravery were
beyond question:; these and his hot
headedness We're apt to be sources of
misfortune to him occasionally.
At the time referred to he dragged
us on so eagerly and impatiently into
the forest that on the very first day we
completely lost ourselves, through not
having time to take proper precautions
to mark our path.
The fact worried Dick Brace and me
considerably, and we began to discuss
the matter over the fire we built at
dark that night with view to keeping
off the wild denizens of this Indian
forest.
We could not get much satisfaction
from the major.
Lost, sir:' said he. "LOst! Absurd.
These rascally HindOos find their way
back through these forests; how dare
you imply, sir, that our Christian in
telligence is unable to do the same?
Don't speak that way again, sir, or III
put you under arrest for disrespect to
your commanding officer"
Then the major lay down and went
to sleep, while Dick Brace and talked
1t over.
1t Is just such men as the major that
have the luck in this world.
Next morning at dawn we We're I'D
and looking about for something to
shoot for breakfast. 1t was the major
who stumbled over the bird and shot
1t and at the same time he stumbled
over trail that bore with it divers
signs which would seem to indicate its
use by the enemy.
There, SIR" said the major, when we
were forced to halt for a rest after an
hours march, there sir, YOU see the
triumph of British instinct, if not intel
ligence, over cody craft. You NAV call
1t luck, sir, ny stumbling on this trail,
but l, sir, call it superior instinct, born
Of keener intelligence"
The major had risen, as hn delivered
this specimen Of his logic and his phil
osophy, and he had hardly got the
words out Of his mouth when there
was flash and deafening report
from some underground a few yards
away.
The major drew his left arm IN MS If
In pain and uttered an exclamation.
The next moment he had turned and
dashed right into tie midst Of the
clump where the fire came from.
l might as well say at this point that
we all thought Major Barker more or
less of born idiot in action. he was
so confoundely fooihardy' but for that
very reason there was not man I'm