CHAPTER VI.
ON THE GANGES.
While all the members of the party were cheered by hope, none forgotthat a dreadful peril impended. Enough time had passed since therevolt at Meerut for the news to spread even beyond the little town ofAkwar, which was within a fourth of a mile of the home of Dr. Marlowe.He was aware that some of the most fanatical Mussulmans in all Indialived there. The action of the servant Mustad, who owed his life tothe father and child, was proof of what might be expected from thesemiscreants when swept off their feet by the delirium that was spreadingwith the frightful swiftness of a prairie fire.
Accordingly no time was lost. There was a hurried scrambling on board,the water fortunately being deep enough near shore to allow all to stepupon the boat dry shod. The faint moon revealed the smooth surface ofthe Ganges for nearly a hundred yards from land, but the further shorewas veiled in darkness. It was at this juncture that Miss Marlowe madean annoying discovery.
"Oh, papa, I have forgotten my pistol!"
"Wait and I'll soon get it," she added, starting to leap the shortdistance from the gunwale to land, but Jack Everson caught her arm.
"You must not think of it; tell me where you left the weapon and I'llbring it."
"I laid it on the table in the dining-room and in the hurry forgot itwhen we left."
Jack turned to his friends.
"Don't wait here," he said, aware of the nervousness of the wholeparty. "Push down stream, and I'll quickly overtake you."
Without waiting for further explanation, he leaped the slight space andstarted up the lawn on a loping trot. For convenience he left hisrifle behind, but made sure that his revolver was in his hip pocket.He did not apprehend that he would need the weapon in the short time heexpected to be absent, but if anything went awry it would be moreuseful than the rifle.
In that moment of profound stillness following the disappearance of theyoung man among the trees grouped about the lawn, the motionless peopleon the boat felt a thrill of terror at the unmistakable sound of oarsfrom some point on the river not distant.
"Let us land and take refuge in your house," suggested young Wharton;"we cannot make a decent fight in this boat."
"We shall have a better chance than in the house," was the reply of thephysician; "the bank of the river is shaded by trees a little furtherdown; we must lose no time in getting there, and avoid the least noise."
There were two long poles belonging to the boat, one of which wasgrasped by Wharton, while Anderson swayed the other, the remainderwatching their movements, which could not have been more skillful.Pressing the end against the bank, and afterwards against the clayeybottom, the craft speedily swung several rods from shore.
While the two men were thus employed, the others peered off in thegloom and listened for a repetition of the sounds that had frightenedthem a few minutes before. They were not heard again, nor could thestraining vision detect anything of the dreaded object, which could notbe far away. Not a person on board doubted that a number of theirenemies were near and searching for them. Dr. Marlowe would have takencomfort from this fact had the circumstances been different; for themen who were hunting for him would go to his house, since it was therethey must gain their first knowledge of his flight; but, as he viewedit, it was impossible that they should be wholly ignorant of the boatand its occupants, which must have made most of the distance beforenight closed in.
It followed, therefore, that if they were looking for the doctor andhis family they were also looking for the boat and the fugitives itcontained. The low-lying shore, with no trees fringing the bank, wasthe worst place for him and his friends, and he was in a fever ofeagerness to reach the protecting shadows along shore. The nerves ofall were keyed to the tensest point, when they caught the dim outlinesof the overhanging growth, with the leafage as exuberant as it alwaysis in a subtropical region at that season of the year. The men toiledwith vigor and care, while the others glanced from the gloom of theriver to the deeper gloom of the bank, which seemed to recede as theylabored toward it. With a relief that cannot be imagined the bulkycraft glided into the bank of deeper gloom, which so wrapped it aboutthat it was invisible from any point more than a dozen yards distant.
It is inconceivable how a narrower escape could have come about, forthe two men had hardly ceased poling, allowing the boat to move forwardwith the momentum already gained, when their enemies were discovered.Mary Marlowe's arm was interlocked with that of her father, when shenervously clutched it and whispered:
"Yonder is their boat!"
All saw the terrifying sight at the same moment. Almost opposite, andbarely fifty yards out on the river, could be traced a moving shadow,the outlines of which showed a craft similarly shaped to their own,except that it was somewhat smaller and sat lower in the water. Themen were too dimly seen for their number to be counted or their motionsobserved, but, as in the former instance, the sounds indicated thatthey were using paddles.
Since it was certain that the natives were searching for the fugitivesin the boat under the shadows of the bank every one of the latterwondered that the pursuers remained out in the stream, when there wasneed of unimpeded vision. They half expected their enemies to turn tothe left and come directly for them. But nothing of the kind tookplace. The craft headed down the river, the sound of the paddles soslight that only the closely listening ear could hear them, until itmelted in the gloom and vanished from sight.
It was a vast relief for the moment, but little comfort could ourfriends take from the fact. Their enemies were not likely to go far,when they would suspect that something of the nature described hadoccurred, and they would return and grope along shore for theirvictims. So certain was Dr. Marlowe of this turn that he believed thewisest course was for the entire party to abandon the boat, and, as maybe said, "take to the woods." They had the whole night before them,and, with his intimate knowledge of the roads, paths and trails of thecountry and jungles, he was confident of guiding them beyond danger andto some place where, when morning dawned, there would be little to fearin the way of discovery.
This course would have been taken except for the absence of JackEverson. There was no way of apprising him of the change of plan, and,with his ignorance of the topography of their surroundings, he would becertain to go astray, and for any one in his situation, to go astraymeant death.