In Times of Peril: A Tale of IndiaHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
History
In Times of Peril: A Tale of India
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
India -- History -- Sepoy Rebellion, 1857-1858 -- Juvenile fiction
Dick assented, and for an hour they lay quiet, Ned's regular breathing
soon telling his brother that he had dropped off to sleep. Then Dick
very quietly crept out again from their hiding-place.
"It is a grand idea," he said to himself; "magnificent. It's nasty,
horribly nasty; but after three weeks of what we have gone through in
the Residency one can see and do things which it would have made one
almost sick to think of a month back; and as our lives depend upon it
we must not stand upon niceties. I wish, though, I had been brought up
a red Indian; it would have come natural then, I suppose."
So saying, he took out his pocket-knife, opened it, and went to the
body of the dead fakir. He took the long, matted hair into his hand
with an exclamation of disgust, but saw at once that his idea was a
feasible one. The hair was matted together in an inextricable mass, and
could be trusted to hang together.
He accordingly set to work to cut it off close to the head; but
although his knife was a sharp one it was a long and unpleasant task,
and nothing but the necessity of the case could have nerved him to get
through with it.
At last it was finished, and he looked at his work with complacency.
"That's a magnificent wig," he said. "I defy the best barber in the
world to make such a natural one. Now for the bear."
This was a long task; but at last the bear was skinned, and Dick set to
to clean, as well as he could, the inside of the hide. Then he dragged
into a corner and covered up the carcass of the bear and the body of
the fakir, having first stripped the clothes off the latter, scattered
a little straw over the bear's skin, and then, his task being finished,
he crept behind the logs again, lay down, and went off to sleep by the
side of Ned. It was getting dark when he awoke. Ned was awake, and was
sitting up by his side. Outside, the din of battle, the ceaseless crack
of the rifle, and the roar of cannon was going on as usual, without
interruption.
"How do you feel now, Ned?" Dick asked.
"All right, Dick. I have got a biggish bump on the side of my head, and
feel a little muddled still, but that is nothing. I can't think of any
plan for escaping from this place, Dick, nor of getting hold of a
disguise; for even if we could get out of this place and neighborhood
we must be detected, and in this town it is of no use trying to beg for
shelter or aid."
"It is all arranged," Dick said cheerfully. "I have got two of the best
disguises in the world, and we have only to dress up in them and walk
out."
Ned looked at Dick as if he thought that he had gone out of his mind.
"You don't believe me? Just you wait, then, two minutes, till I have
dressed up, and then I'll call you;" and without waiting for an answer,
Dick went out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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