Chapter 17: Back At Tripataly.
Annie's lips moved, as Dick announced that they had crossed the Mysoreboundary, but no sound came from them. He saw her eyes close, and shereeled in the saddle.
"Hold her, Surajah," Dick exclaimed, "or she will fall."
Leaning over, Surajah caught her by the shoulder; and Dick, leaping tothe ground, stopped her horse, and, lifting her from the saddle,seated her upon a bank and supported her.
"Some water, Surajah!" he exclaimed.
Surajah poured a little water from the skin into the hollow of Dick'shand, and the latter sprinkled the girl's face with it.
"I have not fainted," she murmured, opening her eyes, "but I turnedgiddy. I shall be better, directly."
"Drink a little wine," Dick said.
Surajah poured some into a cup, but with an effort she sat up, andpushed it from her.
"There is nothing the matter," she said. "Only, only" and she burstsuddenly into a passion of sobbing.
The spirit that she had shown, so long as there was danger, haddeserted her now that the peril had passed, and she was safe.
Dick looked at her, helplessly. A girl in tears was a creature whollybeyond his experience, and he had no idea what he ought to do in suchan emergency. He therefore adopted what was, doubtless, the bestcourse, had he but known it, of letting her alone. After a time, theviolence of her crying abated, and only short sobs broke from her, asshe sat with her face hidden in her hands.
"That is right, Annie," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Itis quite natural for you to cry, after the excitement and fatigue youhave gone through. You have been very brave, and have not said a wordof complaint today about your fatigue, although you must bedesperately tired. Now, try and pull yourself together. It is gettingdark already, and we ought to be moving on to Ryacotta, which cannotbe much more than a mile away. You shall ride in front of me, when weget there."
"I would rather not," she said, getting up with a painful effort. "Iam awfully foolish, and I am so sorry that I broke down, but I felt sodelighted that I could not help it. You said we could camp, safely,when we once got across the frontier. Would you mind doing so? For Idon't think I could go much farther."
"Certainly we can camp," Dick said cheerfully. "But we must get alittle bit farther from that post we passed. If they were to see afire, here, they would be sure to suspect something. I see a clump oftrees a quarter of a mile on. We can make our camp there, and I wouldrather do that, myself, than go on to Ryacotta, where our appearancein the Mysore uniform would excite a stir, and we should have no endof questions to answer.
"But I am sure that you are not fit to walk, even that distance. Now,I will lift you on my saddle, and you can sit sideways. There, I willwalk by your side, and you can put your hand to my shoulder to steadyyourself. Surajah can lead your horse and his own, and Ibrahim cantake mine."
In this way they performed the journey to the trees, and then halted.Annie was lifted down, and laid on a rug. Dick insisted on herdrinking some wine, and then, covering her with another rug, they lefther and lighted a fire, fifty yards away.
"Look here, Ibrahim, put that whole chicken into the pan, cover itwith water, and let it stew. Don't let it boil fast, but just simmeruntil it falls all to pieces. Then I will wake her, if she has gone tosleep, and make her drink the broth. It will do her ever so much moregood than wine, and she will be all right in the morning, though nodoubt she will be desperately stiff again. Still, it has not been alonger ride than she had yesterday. I expect it is the excitement,more than the fatigue, that has upset her. Tomorrow she must ride infront of me, again."
An hour and a half later, Dick went across with the cup full of strongbroth.
"Are you asleep, Annie?" he said, when he reached her side.
"No, I am not asleep. There is so much to think of, and it is suchhappiness to know that I am free, that I feel quite wide awake.Besides, you know, I have been asleep for hours today, and I slept allnight, as I was riding before you."
"Then sit up, and drink this hot broth. It will do you good. And afterthat, I hope you will go off. You won't be fit for anything, tomorrow,if you don't have a good night. You will have plenty of time to think,as we ride along."
The girl did as she was told.
"It is very nice," she said, as she handed the cup back to him. "Oh,Dick, I do hope that we shall find my father and mother. I don't wantto, for some things, but I do for others, and most of all that theymay thank you for all your goodness to me, which I shall never be ableto do, myself."
"Nonsense, child!" he said cheerfully. "I have done what every onewould do, if they found a little countrywoman in distress. I shouldhave gone away from Seringapatam anyhow, if I had not met you, andgetting you down is a good excuse for me to go back and spend afortnight with my mother.
"Now get off to sleep, as quickly as you can. We will see what we cando to make things comfortable for your ride, tomorrow."
It was late when Annie awoke. The sun was some distance above thehorizon, and she saw her companions occupied with the horses. In a fewminutes she joined them.
"I am ashamed at sleeping so long," she said.
"We were glad to find that you did," Dick replied. "If you went tosleep soon after I brought you the broth, you have had ten hours ofit, and ought to feel all the better."
"I do," she said. "I am very stiff, but not so stiff as I wasyesterday morning. How you are both altered!"
"Yes. It would never have done to have gone on in our gay dresses, andTippoo's badges. These are the clothes we came up in, and we shallattract no attention whatever. You won't have to ride far, today. Itwill be as well for you to keep to your own horse, until we havepassed through Ryacotta, which is not much more than half a mile away.After that, you must sit on this pad I have fastened behind my saddle.You can sit sideways, you know, and put your arm around me, just asladies used to ride in England, a couple of hundred years ago."
As soon as they had eaten something they started, and rode at a goodpace to the little town. People looked at them somewhat curiously asthey passed through the street, wondering that they should have comefrom Mysore; but as they did not halt, no one asked any questions. Thepopulation were, at present, a good deal divided. The great majorityby no means regretted their change of masters. Some of the Mohammedanshad left, when the place was taken over by the English, and hadcrossed into Mysore. Others had remained, and hoped that, ere long,Tippoo would drive back the British, and regain his former dominions.
Before mounting, the rich housings and the silver work on the bridleshad been removed, and hidden among the rugs, and there was nothingbeyond the excellence of two of the horses, and the direction fromwhich they came, to attract attention.
When well beyond the town, they halted. The saddlebags were all packedupon Annie's horse. Dick lifted the girl on to the pad behind hissaddle, and then mounted.
"Now hold tight by me," he said, "and mind, whenever you are tired, wewill halt for an hour's rest. We will not go more than twenty milestoday, and then it will only be as much more down to Tripataly,tomorrow. We will walk for a bit, until you get quite accustomed toyour seat."
After a while, the horses broke into a gentle canter. For a time,Annie felt very doubtful as to whether she could retain her seat, andso held tight with one arm to Dick, while with the other hand she kepta firm hold of the crupper. Presently, however, she was able torelease her hold of the latter, and it was not long before she wasable, honestly, to assure Dick that she felt quite comfortable, andhad no fear of falling off.
In two hours they passed near the hill on which stood the fortress ofKistnagherry, which had successfully resisted the attack of theEnglish, but above which now flew the British flag. Skirting round thefoot, they came, in the course of an hour and a half's ride, on to thedirect road which they had left at Anicull, in order to avoid passingthrough the town of Oussoor. Here they came upon a large village, andDick found no difficulty in hiring a light native cart to take Annie,who
was, as he felt by the relaxation of her hold, unable to proceedfarther on horseback, or continue straight through to Tripataly.
A thick layer of straw was placed at the bottom of the cart, a coupleof rugs spread over it, and on this Annie was enabled to lie down ather ease. The horses were fed and watered, and had an hour's rest, andthen they started for the last twenty miles of their journey.
Annie had, while the horses were resting, a chat with a native woman,and had gone into her house with her. When they were ready for thestart, she returned, dressed in the costume she had worn in thePalace. It had originally been intended to get rid of the clothes,after starting, but Annie had asked for them to be taken on.
"I can change again, before I get to Tripataly," she said. "I shouldnot like to appear before your mother, for the first time, dressed asa boy."
And Dick had at once fallen in with her wishes.
The turban was gone, and her head was covered in the fashion of nativewomen, with a long cotton cloth of a deep red colour.
Where the road was good, the cart proceeded at a fair pace, but in thepass down the ghauts they could go only at a walk, and the sun had setbefore they reached Tripataly. Dick, seeing that Annie was growingvery nervous, as they neared their destination, had ridden all the wayby the side of the cart, chatting cheerfully with her.
"Why, Annie," he said, "you look as solemn as if you were just goinginto slavery, instead of having escaped from it."
"It is not that I feel solemn, Dick. It is that everything is so newand strange. Of course, after your saving my life, I have never feltthat you were a stranger, and as long as there were only you andSurajah, I did not mind, and I have felt quite at home with you. Butnow that I am going to a new place, where I don't know anyone, I can'thelp feeling desolate."
"You will feel quite as much at home with them, in twenty-four hours,as you have done with me, Annie. You are tired now, and quite worn outwith your journey, and so you take a gloomy view of things. I willguarantee that, before I go away again, you will be good friends witheveryone, and will wonder how you could have thought it to be anythingdreadful to come among them."
When they got within a mile of Tripataly, Dick said:
"Now I will ride on ahead, Annie, and prepare my mother for yourcoming. It will be pleasant to have no questions or explanations whenyou arrive, and I am sure she will carry you straight off to bed, andkeep you there, until you have quite got over the effects of yourjourney."
He did not wait to hear Annie's faint protest against his leaving her,but telling Surajah to take his place beside the cart, and to keeptalking to the girl, he galloped on ahead. He sprang from his horse inthe courtyard, threw the reins to a servant, and ran in. The party hadjust sat down to their evening meal, and as he entered he was greetedby exclamations of astonishment and welcome.
His mother had received two letters, sent through Pertaub by tradersgoing down from Seringapatam. In these he had told her, first, of hisarrival and of the adventure with the tiger, and of his obtaining thepost in the Palace; and in the second of the non-success that hadattended his visits to the hill forts. He had told her that he shouldprobably leave Seringapatam shortly, and continue the search, but thatshe must not anticipate any result, for a long time.
"Well, Mother," he said, after the first embrace and greetings wereover, "I have left Tippoo's service, you see, and am no longer acolonel, or an officer of the Palace. I have come down to spend afortnight with you, before I set out again on my travels."
"Has Surajah come back with you, Dick?" the Rajah asked.
"Yes. He will be here in a few minutes, with a cart. That is one ofthe reasons why I came down here. I found, among the slaves of theharem, a white girl about fourteen years old. She is the daughter of aBritish officer named Mansfield, and was carried away from herparents, eight years ago. She was the only white captive left in thePalace. There have been other girls, in a similar position, but theyhave all, at about fourteen or fifteen, been given by Tippoo to hisofficers; as would have been her fate, before long, so I determined tocarry her off with me, and bring her to you, until we could find herparents. She is a very plucky girl, and, although she had never beenon a horse before, rode all the way down, until we got this side ofKistnagherry. But as you may imagine, the poor little thing iscompletely knocked up, so we brought her down from there in a cart.
"It is something, Mother, to have saved one captive from Tippoo'sgrasp, even though it is not the dear one that I was looking for; andI promised that you would be a mother to her, until we could restoreher to her friends."
"Certainly I will, Dick," Mrs. Holland said warmly.
"Will you tell the girls, Gholla," she said to her sister-in-law, "tohave a bed made up for her, in my room?"
"I will do so at once," the ranee said. "Poor little thing, she musthave had a journey, indeed."
"She will be here directly, Mother," Dick said, as his aunt gave thenecessary directions for the bed to be prepared, and a dish of riceand strong gravy. "She is very nervous, and I am sure it will be bestif you will meet her, when she arrives, and take her straight to herroom."
"That is what I was going to do, Dick," his mother said, with a smile."Well, I will go down with you, at once."
Two or three minutes later, the cart entered the courtyard. Mrs.Holland was on the steps. Dick ran down, and helped Annie from thecart. The girl was trembling violently.
"Don't be afraid, Annie," Dick whispered, as he lifted her down. "Hereis my mother, waiting to receive you.
"This is the young lady," he went on cheerfully, as he turned to hismother. "I promised her a warm welcome, in your name."
Mrs. Holland had already come down the steps, and as the girl turnedtowards her, she took her in her arms, and kissed her in motherlyfashion.
"Welcome, indeed," she said. "I will be a mother to you, poor child,till I can hand you over to your own. I thank God for sending you tome. It will be a comfort to me to know that, even if my son shouldnever bring my husband back to me, he has at least succeeded inrescuing one victim from Tippoo, and in making one family happy."
The girl clung to her, crying softly.
"Oh, how good you all are!" she sobbed. "It seems too much happinessto be true."
"It is quite true, dear. Come with me. We will go up the privatestairs, and I will put you straight to bed in my room, and no one elseshall see you, or question you, until you are quite recovered fromyour fatigue."
"I am afraid," Annie began faintly.
She did not need to say more. Mrs. Holland interrupted her.
"Dick, you must lift her up, and carry her into my room. Poor child,she is utterly exhausted, and no wonder."
A couple of minutes later, Dick returned to the dining room. He hadrun down, first, to tell Surajah to come up with him, but found thathe had already gone to his father's apartments.
"Well, Dick," the Rajah said, as he entered, "I was prepared, afterhearing of that tiger adventure, and of you and Surajah being colonelsin Tippoo's household, for almost anything; but I certainly neverdreamt of your returning here with an English girl."
"I suppose not, Uncle. Such a thing certainly never entered into mycalculations. I did not even know there was a white girl in thePalace, until one day she stopped me, as I was passing along thecorridor near the harem, to thank me for saving her life--for it wasthis girl that the tiger had struck down, and was standing upon, whenI fired at him. Of course, she had no idea that I was English. We onlysaid a few words then, for if I had been seen talking to a slave girlbelonging to the harem, I might have got into a scrape. However, I sawher afterwards, and she told me about herself, and how she was afraidthat she would be given away to one of Tippoo's officers. Of course, Icould not leave her to such a fate as that.
"There was really no difficulty in getting her away. She was dressedas a boy, and only had to ride, with our servant, after us. We hadarranged so that our absence would not be noticed, until we had beenaway for at least twenty-four hours, and of course, as
officers of thePalace, no one questioned us on the journey, so that it is a verysimple affair altogether, and the only difficulty there was, rose fromher being completely tired out and exhausted by the journey, as shewas utterly unaccustomed to travelling. I had to carry her one night,in front of me on my saddle, for she was scarce able to stand."
"I am not surprised at that. A journey of a hundred and fifty miles,to anyone who has never been on horseback, would be a terrible trial,especially to a young girl. I really wonder that she did not breakdown altogether. Why, you can remember how stiff you were, yourself,the first day or two you were here, and that after riding only an houror two."
"I know, Uncle, and I should not have been in the least surprised, ifshe had collapsed. I talked it over with Surajah, and we agreed that,if she could not go on, we must hire a vehicle of some sort, and lether travel, every day, in front of us with Ibrahim, and that if itdelayed us so much that there was any possibility of our beingovertaken, we would have put on our peasant's dresses, got rid of ourhorses, and have gone forward on foot.
"However, she kept up wonderfully well, and always made the best ofthings."
"We won't ask you to tell us anything more, Dick, till your motherjoins us, or you will have to go over the story twice."
"No, Uncle; and I can assure you I don't want to tell the story untilI have had my supper, for our meals have not been very comfortable onthe road, and I have not eaten anything since early this morning."
"What is Tippoo doing, Dick?"
"Well, as far as I can see, Uncle, he is preparing for war again. Heis strengthening all his forts, building fresh defences toSeringapatam, and drilling numbers of fresh troops."
"The English general made a great mistake, in not finishing with himwhen he was there. We ought to have taken the city, sent Tippoo down aprisoner to Madras, and there tried him for the murder of scores ofEnglishmen, and hung him over the ramparts. We shall have all our workto do over again, in another four or five years. However, it will notbe such a difficult business as it was last time, now that we have thepasses in our hands."
"There is no doubt, Uncle, that a considerable part of the populationwill be heartily glad when Tippoo's power is at an end. You see, heand Hyder were both usurpers, and had no more right to the throne thanyou had."
"Quite so, Dick, and that makes our letting him off, when we couldhave taken the capital easily, all the more foolish. If he had beenthe lawful ruler of Mysore, it might not have been good policy to pushhim too hard, for he would have had sympathy from all the nativeprinces of India. But, as being only the son of an adventurer, who haddeposed and ill-treated the lawful ruler of Mysore, it would seem tothem but a mere act of justice, if the English had dethroned him andpunished him--provided, of course, they put a native prince on thethrone, and did not annex all his dominions.
"It has all got to come some day. I can see that, in time, the Englishwill be the rulers of all India, but at present they are not strongenough to face a general coalition of the native states against them;and any very high-handed action, in Mysore, might well alarm thenative princes, throughout India, into laying aside their quarrelswith each other, and combining in an attempt to drive them out."
Just as they had finished their meal, Mrs. Holland entered.
"The poor child is asleep," she said. "She wanted to talk at first,and to tell me how grateful she was to you, Dick; but of course Iinsisted on her being quiet, and said that she should tell me allabout it, in the morning. She ate a few mouthfuls of the rice, and notlong after she lay down, she fell asleep. I have left Sundra sittingthere, in case she should wake up again, but I don't think it islikely that she will do so.
"Now, Dick, you must tell us all about it."
Dick was not a great hand at writing letters, so he had not entered,with any fullness, into the details of what he was doing, theprincipal point being to let his mother know that he was alive andwell.
"Before he begins," the Rajah said, "I will send for Rajbullub andSurajah. Master Dick is rather fond of cutting his stories short, andwe must have Surajah here to fill up details."
Surajah and his father soon appeared. The former was warmly greeted bythe Rajah, and when they had seated themselves on a divan, Dickproceeded to tell the story. He was not interrupted, until he came tothe incident of the killing of the tiger, and here Surajah was calledupon to supplement the story, which he did, doing full credit to thequickness with which Dick had, without a moment's loss of time, cutthe netting and ascended to the window.
When Dick came to the incident of the ladies of the harem presentingthem, in Tippoo's presence, with the two caskets, Mrs. Holland brokein:
"You did not say anything about that in your letter, Dick. Let me seeyour casket. Where is it?"
"It is in one of the saddlebags," Dick said.
"They are in my room," Rajbullub corrected. "Surajah brought them upat once."
"Then he had better get them," the Rajah said.
"What do they contain, Dick?" he asked, as Surajah left the room.
"All sorts of things--necklaces and rings. Some of them are stones, asif they had been taken out of their settings. Pertaub said they haddone this because they thought, perhaps, that Tippoo would not allowthe jewels they had worn to be sold, or worn by anyone else."
"Then I should think that they must be valuable," the ranee said.
"Pertaub said they were worth a good deal, but I don't know whether hereally knew about the cost of precious stones. Some of the things wereof small value, being, I suppose, the trinkets of the slave girls. Allgave something, and there is a little cross there that belonged toAnnie. It has her initials on it, and she had it on her neck, when shewas captured. It was the thing she valued most, and therefore she gaveit. I don't suppose she had anything else, except the usual trinketsshe would wear, when she went out on special occasions with the ladiesof the harem. I thought it would be useful to us, to prove who shewas."
Surajah now returned with the casket.
"You had better look at Surajah's first," Dick said. "I don't knowanything about it, but it looks as if mine were the more valuable. Iwanted Surajah to put them all together, and divide fairly, but hewould not."
"My son was perfectly right," Rajbullub said. "If it had not been forthe young lord, the deed would never have been done at all. Surajahaided in killing the tiger, but that was nothing more than he has doneon the hills, here. It is to you the merit is entirely due. The pursethat the Sultan gave my son was, in itself, an ample reward for theshare he took in it.
"Now, Surajah, open your casket. The ladies are waiting to see thecontents."
The whole of the little packets, some fifty in number, were opened andexamined; many of them eliciting exclamations of admiration from theranee and Mrs. Holland.
"There is no doubt that many of them are worth a good deal of money,"the Rajah said. "It is certain that Tippoo's treasuries are full ofthe spoils he has carried off, from the states he has overrun, and theladies of the harem, no doubt, possess a store of the jewels, andcould afford to be liberal to those whom they considered had savedtheir lives. Those seven, which you put together as the best, mustalone be worth a large sum. I should think that the total value of thewhole cannot be less than forty or fifty thousand rupees, so that, ifthose in your casket are handsomer than these, Dick, they must bevaluable, indeed."
Dick's casket was next examined.
"Some of these stones are magnificent, Dick. Those three greatdiamonds could only be valued by a jeweller accustomed to such things,for their value depends upon their being of good lustre, and free fromall flaws; but, according to my judgment, I should say that, at thevery least, they must be worth ten thousand rupees each. That pearlnecklace is worth at least as much. Those rubies are superb. I shouldsay, lad, that the value of the whole cannot be less than fifteenthousand pounds.
"The harem must be rich in jewels, indeed, to be able to make suchgifts. Not that I am surprised at that. Tippoo had all the jewelsbelonging to the lawful
rulers of Mysore. He has captured all those ofCoorg, Travancore, and the other states on the Malabar coast. He andhis father have looted all the Carnatic, from Cape Comorin to thenorth of Madras. He has captured many of the Nizam's cities, andseveral Mahratta provinces.
"In fact, he has accumulated, at Seringapatam, the spoils of the wholeof southern India, and those of the Hindoo portion of his own people.The value of the jewels, alone, must be millions of pounds; and as hehimself, as they say, dresses simply, and only wears one or two gems,of immense value, he may well have bestowed large quantities upon hisharem, especially as these would be, in fact, only loans, as at thedeath of their wearers they would revert to him, or, indeed, could bereclaimed at any moment, in a freak of bad temper.
"I have no doubt they had to ask his permission to give you thepresents, and as you, at the moment, were in high favour with him, Idaresay he suffered them to give what they chose, without inquiring atall into their value. The gold he gave you was simply to procure youroutfits, and he left it to the harem to reward you, as they chose, forthe service you had rendered.
"Well, Dick, I congratulate you heartily. It places your future beyonddoubt, and leaves you free to choose any mode of life that you mayprefer.
"I congratulate you, too, Margaret, on the lad's good fortune; whichhe has well deserved by his conduct.
"See this, my sons. Here you have a proof of the advantages of thetraining your cousin has had. The quickness and coolness he hasacquired, by it, enabled him to make his way down through the fort atthe top of the pass, and to defend the ruined hut against fiftyenemies. Now it has enabled him to seize the opportunity, opened bythe attack of the tiger on Tippoo's harem, thereby gaining theSultan's favour, his appointment to the rank of colonel in the Mysorearmy, a post in his Palace, and this magnificent collection of gems.Without that quickness and decision, his courage alone would have donelittle for him. We in India have courage; but it is because ourprinces and nobles are brought up in indolence and luxury that theEnglish, though but a handful in point of numbers, have become mastersof such wide territories. Surajah is as brave as Dick, but he would bethe first to tell you that it is to Dick he owes it that, on theirfirst excursion together, he escaped with his life; and that, in thislast adventure, he attained rank and position, and has returned withthese valuable gifts."
"It is indeed, my lord," Surajah said. "The young lord has been myleader, and I have tried to carry out his orders. Alone, I could neverhave got through the gate in the fort, and should no more have thoughtof going to the assistance of the ladies of the Sultan's harem thandid any other of the thousands of men who were there, looking on."
"So you see, boys," the Rajah went on, "that though, when he came outhere, your cousin was able neither to shoot nor to ride, and canneither shoot nor ride as well, now, as can tens of thousands ofnatives; he has acquired, from his training in rough exercises,qualities of infinitely greater value than these accomplishments; andI do hope that his example will stir you up to take much greaterinterest than, in spite of my advice, you have hitherto done in activesports and exercises. Your grandmother was an Englishwoman, and I wantto see that, with the white blood in your veins, you have some of thevigour and energy of Englishmen."
It was some days before Annie Mansfield left her room. For the firsttwo she had been completely prostrated. After that, she rapidly gainedstrength; but Mrs. Holland thought it best to insist upon herremaining perfectly quiet, until she had quite recovered. Either sheor the ranee were constantly with her, so that when, at the end of aweek, she made her first appearance at the breakfast table, she wasalready at home with three of the party.
Before long her shyness completely wore off, and she seemed to havebecome really a member of the family. Mrs. Holland had altered two ofher own dresses to fit her, but she preferred, for a time, to dress inIndian costume, to which she was accustomed; and which was, indeed,much better suited to the climate than the more closely-fittingEuropean dress. Mrs. Holland, however, bargained that she should, ofan evening, wear the frocks she had made for her.
"You must get accustomed to them, my dear, so that when you find yourown people, you will not be stiff and awkward; as you certainly willbe, when you dress in English fashion for the first time."
The day after his arrival, Dick had written to the military secretaryof the governor of Madras, with whom he was well acquainted, to tellhim that, having gone up in disguise to Seringapatam, to endeavour toascertain the fate of his father, he had discovered a young Englishgirl, detained as a slave in Tippoo's harem, and that he had enabledher to effect her escape, and had placed her in the charge of hismother. He then repeated the account Annie had given of her capture,and asked if the circumstances could be identified, and if theofficer, of the name of Mansfield, concerned in it was still alive;and if so, was he still in India?
Annie was secretly dreading the arrival of the answer. After her lifeas a slave, her present existence seemed to her so perfectly happythat she shrank from the idea of any fresh change. She had no memory,whatever, of her parents, and had already a very strong affection forMrs. Holland. She liked the ranee very much also, and the absence ofall state and ceremony, in the household of the Rajah, was to herdelightful. She was already on good terms with the boys; and as toDick, she was always ready to go out with him, if he would take her,to run messages for him, or to do anything in her power; and, indeed,watched him anxiously, as if she would discover and forestall hisslightest wish.
"One would think, Annie," he said one day, "that you were still aslave, and that I was your master. I don't want you to wait on me,child, as you waited on the ladies of the harem. However, as I shallbe going away in a few days now, it does not matter; but I should growas lazy as a young rajah, if this were to go on long."
"What shall I do when you go away, Dick?"
"Well, I hope that you will set to work, hard, to learn to read andwrite, and other things my mother will teach you. You would not like,when you find your own people, to be regarded by girls of your own ageas an ignorant little savage; and I want you to set to, and make upfor lost time; so that, if you are still here when I come back, Ishall find you have made wonderful progress."
"Oh, I do hope I sha'n't be gone before that, Dick!"
"I am afraid you must make up your mind to it, Annie, for there is nosaying how long I may be away next time. You see, there is not muchchance of my lighting upon another white slave girl, and having tobring her down here; and I shall go in for a long, steady search formy father."
"I don't want you to find another slave girl, Dick," she saidearnestly, "not even if it brought you down here again. I should notlike that at all."
"Why not, Annie?"
"Oh, you might like her ever so much better than me. I should like youto do all sorts of brave things, Dick, and to save people as you havesaved me, but I would rather there was not another girl."
Dick laughed.
"Well, I don't suppose that there is much chance of it. Besides, Ican't turn my uncle's palace into a Home for Lost Girls."
Two days before Dick and Surajah started again, the reply from themilitary secretary arrived. It stated that the time and circumstancespointed out that the place besieged and forced to surrender, eightyears before, was Corsepan; and this was indeed rendered a certainty,by the fact that the officer in command was Captain Mansfield. He hadwith him a half company of Europeans, and three companies of Sepoys.On looking through the official papers at the time, he had foundCaptain Mansfield's report, in which he stated that, on the nightafter leaving the fort, the troops, which had been reduced to halftheir original strength, had been attacked by a party either ofdacoits or irregular troops. Fearing that some such act of treacherymight be attempted, he had told his men to conceal a few cartridgesunder their clothes, when they marched out with empty cartridgepouches. They had, on arriving at their halting place, loaded; and,when the dacoits fell upon them, had opened fire.
The robbers doubtless expected to find them defenceless, and speedi
lyfled. In the confusion, some of them had penetrated far into the camp,and had carried off the captain's daughter, a child of six years old.When peace was signed with Tippoo, three weeks afterwards, thecommissioners were ordered to make special inquiries as to this child,and to demand her restoration. They reported that Tippoo denied allknowledge of the affair, and neither she, nor any of the other girlsthere, were ever given up. The letter went on:
"There can be no doubt that the young lady you rescued is the childwho was carried off, and the initials you speak of, on the cross, maycertainly be taken as proof of her identity. Her father retired fromthe Service last year, with the rank of colonel. I am, of course,ignorant of his address. As you say that Mrs. Holland will gladlycontinue in charge of her, I would suggest that you should write aletter to Colonel Mansfield, stating the circumstances of the case,and saying that, as soon as you are informed of his address, the younglady will be sent to England. I will enclose the letter in one to theBoard of Directors, briefly stating the circumstances, and requestingthem to forward the enclosure to Colonel Mansfield."
To Annie, the letter came as a relief. It would be nearly a yearbefore a letter could be received from her father. Until then shewould be able to remain in her new home.