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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 strugghng 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 hghtning, my 
mind involuntarily drew, were favourable. 
Soon the Singtam Soubah returned, ' pale, trembling like 
a leaf, and with great drops of sweat trickhng 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 
