On the Irrawaddy: A Story of the First Burmese War by G. A. Henty (best books for 20 year olds txt) 📗

and two young fellows quite capable of fighting; then there are your two guards, Meinik, the trooper, and myself. So you see, we muster twelve. We have two guns, and a brace of pistols, and spears for us all; and if we cannot defend that narrow passage, against any number of Burmans, we shall deserve our fate.

"Besides, there is another, and even narrower door, in the corner behind you. They would have to force that; and in the chamber beyond there is a narrow, straight staircase, some forty feet high, which a man with an axe ought to be able to hold against an army. They are taking the stores up there, now. We have got provisions and water for a month. When everything is straight, there we shall carry you up and, unless they sit down in front of this place and regularly starve us out, we are as safe as if we were in Prome."

"I wish to goodness you had that hideous dye off you, Stanley. I know it is you by your voice but, what with the colour, and all that tattooing, and your extraordinary hair, I don't know you in the least."

"I am in just the same disguise as that in which I made my way down from Ava," Stanley laughed. "I felt very uncomfortable, at first, with nothing on but this short petticoat thing; but I have got accustomed to it, now, and I am bound to say that it is cool and comfortable.

"Now, tell me about your wounds."

"They are not very serious, Stanley. I had a lick across the head with a sword--that was the one that brought me down--and a slice taken out of my arm from the elbow, nearly up to the shoulder. Also a spear-wound in the side; but that was a trifle, as it glanced off the ribs. If I had been left as I fell, and somebody had bound up my wounds at once, I should have been all right by this time. The fellows did bandage them up, to some extent; but the movement of the litter set them off bleeding again, and I fancy that I lost pretty nearly all the blood in my body. I think that it was pure weakness, rather than fever, that kept me unconscious so long; for I gather, from the pantomime of the trooper, that I must have been nearly a fortnight unconscious."

"Yes, you were certainly so when I came the first time, Harry; but I think, perhaps, on the whole, it is lucky that you were. You would probably have had a great deal more fever, if you had not been so very weak; and if you had escaped that, and had gone on well, you might have been sent off to Ava before I could get all the arrangements made for your escape."

"Tell me all about it," Harry said. "It seems to me wonderful how you managed it."

Stanley told him the whole story. By the time that he had finished, the stores had all been taken upstairs; and the fire most carefully extinguished, as the smoke would at once have betrayed them. The cross pieces of the litter had been taken off, to allow Harry to be carried in through the door, and he was now lifted. Two of the men took off their cloths, and wrapped the materials of the bed into these, carrying them up at once. As soon as they had gone on, Harry was slowly and carefully taken to the upper chamber, and laid down again on the bed. Stanley took his place beside him, and the rest of the party went down to the lower room; having received the strictest orders not to show themselves near the entrance, and not to smoke until well assured that their pursuers must have passed on ahead.

The bamboos of the litter were converted into a rough ladder and, on this, Meinik took his post at the little window in the second of the lower rooms. Owing to the immense thickness of the rock wall, he did not get an extensive view, but he could see the path by which anyone coming up through the forest would approach the temple. It was now about half-past seven and, by this time, the pursuers might be at hand; in ten minutes, indeed, distant shouts could be heard, and Stanley at once went down and joined the men below.

He placed himself in the line of the doorway. As the wall here was four feet thick, the room was in semi-darkness and, standing well back, he was certain that his figure could not be perceived by anyone standing in the glare of sunshine outside. The sounds grew louder and louder; and in a minute or two an officer, followed by some twenty men, emerged from the trees. All paused, when they saw the temple. The men would have drawn back at once; but the officer shouted to them to advance, although showing small inclination to do so, himself.

They were still standing, irresolute, when a superior officer on horseback, followed by some fifty footmen, came up the path. He shouted orders for them to search the temple and, as the fear of him was even greater than their dread of the spirits, the whole of the men made their way over the fallen stones, and up to the face of the rock. They first entered the chamber where the horses had been stabled. The officer who had first arrived went in with his men and, coming out, reported to his senior that there had been a fire made, and that some horses had also been there; but that three weeks, or a month, must have passed since then.

"Are you sure of that?"

"Quite certain, my lord. It is extraordinary that anyone should have dared to enter there, still less to stable horses when, as everyone knows, the temple is haunted by evil spirits."

"I care nothing for spirits," the officer said. "It is men we are in search of. Go and look into any other chambers there may be."

At this moment a deep, mournful sound was heard. Louder and louder it rose, and then gradually died away. The soldiers stood as if paralysed. Even the high official--who had been obliged to leave his horse, and make his way across the fallen blocks on foot--stepped back a pace, with an expression of awe. He soon recovered himself, and shouted angrily to the men to go on. But again the dirge-like noise rose, louder and louder. It swelled, and then as gradually died away; but this time with a quavering modulation.

The men looked up, and round. Some gazed at the upper part of the rock, some straight ahead, while others turned round and faced the forest.

"Search!" the officer shouted, furiously. "Evil spirits or no evil spirits, not a man shall stir from here, until the place is searched."

Then rose a shrill, vibrating sound, as if of eerie laughter. Not even the officer's authority, or the fear of punishment, could restrain the soldiers. With cries of alarm, they rushed across the ruins and plunged into the forest; followed, at a rate which he tried in vain to make dignified, by the officer who, as soon as he reached his horse, leapt upon it and galloped away.

The Burmese keenly appreciate a joke and, as soon as the troops had fled, the villagers and guards inside the temple threw themselves down on the ground, and roared with laughter. Stanley at once made his way into the upper room.

"Splendidly done, Meinik! It was like the note of an organ. Although I knew what you were going to do, I felt almost startled, myself, when that deep note rose. No wonder they were frightened."

"Well, at any rate, master, we are safe for the present."

"For the present, no doubt, Meinik; but I question if we sha'n't hear of them, again. That officer was a determined-looking fellow and, though he was scared, too, he stuck to it like a man."

"That is the governor of the town, master. I saw him carried through the streets in his chair. Everyone was bending to the ground, as he passed. He was a famous general, at one time; and they say that he is likely to command a part of the army, again, when fighting begins."

"Well, I think that we shall hear of them again, Meinik. I don't suppose that he really thought that we were here for, certainly, no Burman would take up his abode in this place, even to save his life. They will push on the chase through the woods all day and, by that time, they will feel sure that they would have overtaken us, had we gone straight on. Then I should not be at all surprised if he tries here, again."

"Perhaps he will, master. Like enough, he will chop off the heads of some of the men that ran away, and pick out some of his best troops for the search. Still, I hope he won't think of it."

Stanley shook his head.

"I hope so, too, Meinik. There is one thing about which I feel certain--if he does find us here, he will stay here or, at any rate, leave some troops here, until he gets us. He would know that he would get into trouble, at Ava, for letting the prisoners escape; and it would be all important for him to recapture them.

"Now we are up here, Meinik, we will go and have a look at that upper staircase, again. If we are besieged, that is our only hope of safety."

They again went along the ledge, and up the staircase. Stanley examined the stones that blocked the passage, for some time, and at last exclaimed:

"There, Meinik, look along by the side of this stone. I can see a ray of light. Yes, and some leaves. I don't think they are more than thirty feet above us!"

Meinik applied his eye to the crevice.

"I see them, master. Yes, I don't think those leaves are more than that distance away."

"That is what I came to look for," Stanley said. "It was evident that this rubbish could only be the stones of the root, and pavement over the depression in the middle of the ruin; and that these could not block up this staircase very far. The question is, will it be possible to clear them away? Evidently it will be frightfully dangerous work. One might manage to get one stone out, at a time, in safety. But at any moment, the loosening of one stone might bring a number of others down, with a run; and anyone on this narrow staircase would be swept away like a straw."

Meinik agreed as to the danger.

"Well, we need not think it over now, Meinik; but if we are really besieged, it is by this way that we must escape, if at all. We must hope that we sha'n't be beset; but if we are, we must try here. I would rather be killed, at once, by the fall of a stone on my head, than tortured to death."

Meinik nodded, and they descended the stairs, put out the torches that they had used there, and returned along the ledge to the chamber where Harry was lying.

"So Meinik scared them away," the latter said, as Stanley sat down beside him. "I could not think what he was going to do when he came up here with that long reed, as thick as my leg. He showed it to me, and I saw that it had a sort of mouthpiece fixed into it; and he made signs that he was going to blow down it. When he did, it was tremendous and, as it got louder and louder, I put my hands to my ears. Everything seemed to quiver. The other row--that diabolical laughing noise--he made with a smaller one. It was frightful; but the big note was more like a trombone, only twenty times louder.

"Well, do you think that we have done with them?"

"I hope so, Harry. At any rate, you can be assured that they will never fight their way up here and, long before our provisions are finished, I have no doubt that I shall be able to hit on some plan of escape."

The day passed quietly. The woods were as silent as usual. The Burmans were all in high spirits at the success of Meinik's horn. When it became dark, they hung a blanket before the entrance, placed one of the lads on watch just outside it, and then lighted a fire. Stanley took a couple of torches and went up to Harry, taking the precaution to hang a cloth before the window.

"I have not said much about thanking you, old fellow," Harry said, "but you must know how I feel."

"You had better say nothing about it, Harry. I have only done what you would have done, had you been in my place. Had you been in charge of