THE GUNS OF BURRISAUL. 333 



Mr. Godkin had little to say about Equatorial Africa, for he had never visited 

 the section, but when they spoke of Hindostan he was at home, for the greater part 

 of his life had been spent in that remarkable region, which, though a dependency of 

 England, contains more than four times its population. 



Bob and Dick reminded their friend that he had promised to tell them about his 

 singular experience in India many years before, and that there could be no time 

 more favorable for the telling than the present. The gentleman seemed loth to 

 relate the story, but, since he had given his promise, he could not refuse, and you 

 may be sure he had attentive listeners to his narrative, which I think is interesting 

 enough to insert in this place. 



" I believe I told you," said he, after lighting his pipe, " that when I first went 

 to India for Mr. Barnum, it was before either of you young gentlemen was born. 

 In fact, I reached the country in the year 1857, just in time to be caught in the 

 swirl of the Sepoy mutiny, which horrified the whole civilized world, and I can say 

 that among all the strange adventures which befell the foreign residents enveloped 

 in that lurid tragedy, I don't think any one had a more extraordinary experience 

 than I. 



" I had a cousin, who was a missionary, living with his wife and three children 

 two miles south of Dacca. I was but a youth, when, fulfilling a promise, I reached 

 their pleasant home in the latter part of June, 1857, which, as you know, was the 

 month succeeding the first outbreak at Meerut, where the troops mutinied on 

 Sunday, May loth. In the same month ths Mogul Empire was proclaimed at Delhi. 



" I had a pretty rough time on the road to Dacca, for there were signs of the 

 upheaval all around me, though I, like most of the Europeans, was inclined to 

 believe that it would amount to little and would soon be suppressed. 



" I had sent no notice to cousin Fred of my coming, knowing I would be welcome 

 at any time, and the result was, when I arrived at his home, I found that he and 

 his family had left several weeks before, and were probably at that very hour in 

 Calcutta, safe under the guns of Fort William. 



" But Fred's house was open and in charge of a single native servant, Kush-awa, 

 a converted Hindoo, of whom he had often written me. The native was as devoted 

 as a Newfoundland dog, so Fred wrote, and he declared he would unhesitatingly 

 place his life in his hands ; but I distrusted the fellow from the first. 



" He spoke English well, and, when I made known my identity, he told me that 

 his master had often spoken of me, and with such affection that he (tha native) 

 loved me before he saw me. He was tall, thin, muscular and reserved, scarcely 

 ever speaking unless first addressed by me. 



" At that season the weather in India is like sheol, and much as I wanted to get 

 out and follow Fred to Calcutta, before the road thither was closed by the mutineers, 

 I hesitated to start on account of the frightful temperature. I still hoped that the 

 skies would clear and that affairs would speedily settle down as before. 



"One characteristic of Kush-awa deepened my distrust of him. He had a habit 

 of moving about with such silent stealth that he reminded me of a cobra. Often, 



