In Times of Peril | Page 7

pierced the
animal's flank. His aim was, however, disconcerted by his horse, at the
moment he struck, leaping over the fallen ensign; the wound, therefore,
was but a glancing one, and in a moment the boar was round upon his
new assailant. Fortunately the horse was a well-trained one, and needed
not the sharp touch of his master's rein to wheel sharp round on his hind
legs, and dart off at full speed. The boar swerved off again, and
continued his original line of flight, his object being to gain a thick
patch of jungle, now little over a quarter of a mile distant; the detention,
however, was fatal to him, for the doctor, who was close on Captain
Dunlop's heels, now brought up his horse with a rush and, with a
well-aimed thrust, ran the animal through, completely pinning him to
the earth. The honor of his death was therefore divided between the
doctor and Captain Dunlop, for the latter had drawn first blood, or, as it
is termed, had taken first spear, while the former had scored the kill.
The sow had been more fortunate than her lord. She had taken a line
across a part of the plain which was intersected by several nullahs. She,
too, had been wounded, but one of the nullahs had thrown out several
of her pursuers: one rider had been sent over his horse's head and
stunned; and the sow, turning sharp down a deep and precipitous gully,
had made her escape. Three of the squeakers fell to the spears of the
Griffs--young hands--and the rest had escaped. The boar had been
killed only a short distance from the rise upon which the spectators
from Sandynugghur were assembled, and the beaters soon tied its four
legs together, and, putting a pole through them, six of them carried the
beast up to the colonel's wife for inspection.
"What a savage-looking brute it is!" said Kate; "not a bit like a pig,
with all those long bristles, and that sharp high back, and those
tremendous tusks."
"Will you accept the skin, Miss Warrener?" Captain Dunlop said to her

afterward; "I have arranged with the doctor. He is to have the hams,
and I am to have the hide. If you will, I will have it dressed and
mounted."
"Thank you, Captain Dunlop, I should like it very much;" but, as it
turned out, Kate Warrener never got the skin.
The boar killed, the doctor's first care was to attend to the wounded,
and Skinner's arm was soon bound up, and he was sent home in a
buggy; the man who was stunned came to in a short time. The
unsuccessful ones were much laughed at by the colonel and major, for
allowing half the game started to get away.
"You ought not to grumble, colonel," Captain Manners said. "If we had
killed them all, we might not have had another run for months; as it is,
we will have some more sport next week."
There was some consultation as to the chance of getting the sow even
now, but it was generally agreed that she would follow the nullah down,
cross the stream, and get into a large canebrake beyond, from which it
would take hours to dislodge her; so a general move was made to the
carriages, and in a short time the whole party were on their way back to
Sandynugghur.

CHAPTER II.
THE OUTBREAK.
A week after the boar-hunt came the news that a Sepoy named Mangul
Pandy, belonging to the Thirty-fourth Native Infantry, stationed at
Barrackpore, a place only a few miles out of Calcutta, had, on the 29th
of March, rushed out upon the parade ground and called upon the men
to mutiny. He then shot the European sergeant-major of the regiment,
and cut down an officer. Pandy continued to exhort the men to rise to
arms, and although his comrades would not join him, they refused to
make any movement to arrest him. General Hearsey now arrived on the

parade ground with his son and a Major Ross, and at once rode at the
man, who, finding that his comrades would not assist him, discharged
the contents of the musket into his own body.
Two days later the mutinous Nineteenth were disbanded at Barrackpore.
On the 3rd of April Mangul Pandy, who had only wounded himself,
was hung, and the same doom was allotted to a native officer of his
regiment, for refusing to order the men to assist the officer attacked by
that mutineer, and for himself inciting the men to rise against the
government.
"What do you think of the news, papa?" Dick asked his father.
"I hope that the example which has been set by the execution of these
ringleaders, and by the disbandment of the