India -- History -- Sepoy Rebellion, 1857-1858 -- Fiction
When she recovered consciousness all strength seemed to have left her,
and she lay in a sort of apathy for hours, taking listlessly the drink
that was offered to her, but paying no attention to what was passing
around, until there was a gentle pressure on her arm, the grasp
tightening with a slight caressing motion that seemed to show sympathy;
then came the English words softly whispered into her ear, while the
hand again pressed her arm firmly, as if in warning.
It was with difficulty that she refrained from uttering an exclamation,
and she felt the blood crimson her cheeks, but she mastered the impulse
and lay perfectly quiet, glancing up into the face bent down close to
hers--it was not familiar to her, and yet it seemed to her that she had
seen it somewhere; another minute and it was gone.
But though to all appearances Isobel’s attitude was unchanged, her mind
was active now. Who could have sent her this message? Who could this
native girl be who had spoken in English to her? Where had she seen the
face?
Her thoughts traveled backwards, and she ran over in her mind all
those with whom she had come in contact since her arrival in India; her
servants and those of her acquaintances passed before her eyes. She
had scarcely spoken to another native woman since she had landed. After
thinking over all she had known in Cawnpore, she thought of Deennugghur.
Whom had she met there?
Suddenly came the remembrance of the exhibition by the juggler, and
she recalled the face and figure of his daughter, as, seated, upon the
growing pole, she had gone up foot by foot in the light of the lamps and
up into the darkness above. The mystery was solved; that was the face
that had just leaned over her.
But how could she be interested in her fate? Then she remembered that
this was the girl whom Bathurst had saved from the tiger. If they
were interested in her, it must be through Bathurst. Could he too have
survived the attack of the night before? She had thought of him, as of
all of them, as dead, but possibly he might have escaped. Even during
the long night’s waiting, a captive to the Sepoys, the thought that he
had instantly sprung from beside her and leaped overboard had been
an added pang to all her misery. She had no after remembrance of him;
perhaps he had swum to shore and got off in safety. In that case he must
be lingering in Cawnpore, had learned what had become of her, and was
trying to rescue her. It was to the juggler he would naturally have gone
to obtain assistance. If so, he was risking his life now to save hers;
and this was the man whom she despised as a coward.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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