y quarry. As I reached a bend in the line,
my head mason, Heera Singh, a very good man, crept cautiously out of
the bushes and warned me not to proceed. On my asking him the reason,
he said that he dared not tell, but that he and twenty other masons
were not going to work that day, as they were afraid of trouble at the
quarry. At this I began to think that there was something in the story
I had heard overnight, but I laughingly assured him there would be no
trouble and continued on my way. On my arrival at the quarry,
everything seemed perfectly peaceful. All the men were working away
busily, but after a moment or two I noticed stealthy side glances, and
felt that there was something in the wind. As soon as I came up to the
first gang of workmen, the jemadar, a treacherous-looking villain,
informed me that the men working further up the ravine had refused to
obey his orders, and asked me if I would go and see them. I felt at
once that this was a device to lure me into the narrow part of the
ravine, where, with gangs in front of me and behind me, there would be
no escape; still I thought I would see the adventure through, whatever
came of it, so I accompanied the jemadar up the gully. When we got to
the further gang, he went so far as to point out the two men who, he
said, had refused to do what he told them--I suppose he thought that as
I was never to leave the place alive, it did not matter whom he
complained of. I noted their names in my pocket-book in my usual
manner, and turned to retrace my steps. Immediately a yell of rage was
raised by the whole body of some sixty men, answered by a similar shout
from those I had first passed, and who numbered about a hundred. Both
groups of men, carrying crowbars and flourishing their heavy hammers,
then closed in on me in the narrow part of the ravine. I stood still,
waiting for them to act, and one man rushed at me, seizing both my
wrists and shouting out that he was going to "be hung and shot for
me"--rather a curious way of putting it, but that was his exact
expression. I easily wrenched my arms free, and threw him from me; but
by this time I was closely hemmed in, and everywhere I looked I could
see nothing but evil and murderous-looking faces. One burly brute,
afraid to be the first to deal a blow, hurled the man next him at me;
and if he had succeeded in knocking me down, I am certain that I should
never have got up again alive. As it was, however, I stepped quickly
aside,