ould have had her when the Mutiny
broke out, and all hell was loose in the country.

"We were shut up in Bhurtee, the regiment of us with half a battery of
artillery, a company of Sikhs, and a lot of civilians and women-folk.
There were ten thousand rebels round us, and they were as keen as a set
of terriers round a rat-cage. About the second week of it our water gave
out, and it was a question whether we could communicate with General
Neill's column, which was moving up country. It was our only chance, for
we could not hope to fight our way out with all the women and children,
so I volunteered to go out and to warn General Neill of our danger. My
offer was accepted, and I talked it over with Sergeant Barclay, who was
supposed to know the ground better than any other man, and who drew up
a route by which I might get through the rebel lines. At ten o'clock the
same night I started off upon my journey. There were a thousand lives to
save, but it was of only one that I was thinking when I dropped over the
wall that night.

"My way ran down a dried-up watercourse, which we hoped would screen
me from the enemy's sentries; but as I crept round the corner of it
I walked right into six of them, who were crouching down in the dark
waiting for me. In an instant I was stunned with a blow and bound hand
and foot. But the real blow was to my heart and not to my head, for as
I came to and listened to as much as I could understand of their talk,
I heard enough to tell me that my comrade, the very man who had arranged
the way that I was to take, had betrayed me by means of a native servant
into the hands of the enemy.

"Well, there's no need for me to dwell on that part of it. You know now
what James Barclay was capable of. Bhurtee was relieved by Neill next
day, but the rebels took me away with them in their retreat, and it was
many a long year before ever I saw a white face again. I was tortured
and tried to get away, and was captured and tortured again. You can see
for yourselves the state in which I was left. Some of them that fled
into Nepaul took me with them, and then afterwards I was up past
Darjeeling. The hill-folk up there murdered the rebels who had me, and
I became their slave for a time until I escaped; but instead of going
south I had to go north, until I found myself among the Afghans. There
I wandered about for many a year, and at last came back to the Punjab,
where I lived mostly among the natives and picked up a li