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Campbell were waiting. The latter went out to see to the 

 pitching of the tents. 



He had scarcely left, when I heard him calling loudly to 

 me, * Hooker ! Hooker ! the savages are murdering me ! ' 

 I rushed to the door, and caught sight of him striking out 

 with his fists, and struggling violently ; being tall and 

 powerful, he had already prostrated a few, but a host of 

 men bore him down, and appeared to be trampling on him ; 

 at the same moment I was myself seized by eight men, 

 who forced me back into the hut, and down on the log, 

 where they held me in a sitting posture, pressing me against 

 the wall ; here I spent a few moments of agony, as I heard 

 my friend's stifled cries grow fainter and fainter. I struggled 

 but little, and that only at first, for at least five-and-twenty 

 men crowded round and laid their hands upon me, rendering 

 any effort to move useless ; they were, however, neither 

 angry nor violent, and signed to me to keep quiet. I retained 

 my presence of mind, and felt comfort in remembering that 

 I saw no knives used by the party who fell on Campbell, 

 and that if their intentions had been murderous, an arrow 

 would have been the more sure and less troublesome weapon. 

 It was evident that the whole animus was directed against 

 Campbell, and though at first alarmed on my own account, 

 all the inferences which, with the rapidity of lightning, my 

 mind involuntarily drew, were favourable. 



Soon the Singtam Soubah returned, ' pale, trembling like 

 a leaf, and with great drops of sweat trickling from his greasy 

 brow,' with the Tchebu Lama under arrest. He explained the 

 seizure of Campbell as a political hostage, to be kept till the 

 supreme government at Calcutta should confirm articles to 

 which he should be compelled to subscribe. How would 

 Campbell behave ? What steps should Sikkim take to secure 

 their end ? Hooker refused to answer till informed why he 

 himself was made a prisoner, whereupon the Soubah went away. 

 Campbell was knocked about and tortured by twisting of the 

 cords that bound him, especially by the scoundrel already 

 mentioned who bore him a grudge ; but he disconcerted the 

 Soubah by declaring that whatever he might say or do under 

 compulsion, the Government would not confirm it. The 



