British -- Asia -- Fiction; Women physicians -- Fiction
“Never mind. Go back into your tent, and don’t show yourselves, any of
you,” returned Dick, sharply. She obeyed without hesitation; but since
he had not forbidden her to watch him, she took advantage of a hole in
the canvas to gain a view of all that passed. From the sandhill on
which the tents were pitched she could see the soldiers in their camp
below, gathered round an orator who was haranguing them, while no
preparations for starting were visible. She saw Dick march calmly into
the throng, elbowing his way through the men with little ceremony, and
dislodge the orator forcibly from the unsteady rostrum of
biscuit-boxes which he occupied. When she next caught a glimpse of him
he was on the outskirts of the crowd again, holding his prisoner by
the rags which represented his collar, and propelling him vigorously
in the direction of the tents, assisting his progress now and again by
a hearty kick. The rest of the troop appeared to have been stupefied by
the suddenness of the onslaught, but just as Dick was free of the
throng, Georgia saw another man leap up upon a box and call out to his
fellows to rescue their leader. The spell was broken, and there was an
ugly rush, while weapons were hastily caught up.
“Arrest that man, Ismail Bakhsh,” said Dick, without looking round;
“and if he won’t come quietly, shoot him.”
Ismail Bakhsh obeyed in perfect silence, and led his captive up the
hill after Dick, the troopers once more making way for him without
attempting to use their weapons. Arrived at the summit, Dick paused
and looked back.
“Dismiss!” he said, in a sharp, harsh voice such as Georgia had never
heard from him before, and the mutineers, understanding the order by a
species of intuition, dispersed quietly, while Dick and Ismail Bakhsh
passed on to the tent with their prisoners.
“Georgie, what is the matter?” cried Lady Haigh, as Georgia dropped
the canvas flap with a gasping cry, and staggered back against the
tent pole.
“Only that I have just watched Dick take his life in his hand,” she
explained, breathlessly. “For the last ten minutes I have been
thinking that I should never see him alive again.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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