The Tiger of Mysore | Page 2

said, 'When we get close, Ben,
we must cut ourselves adrift from this spar, or it will crush the life out
of us; but before we do that, I will tie the two of us together.'
"He cut a bit of rope from the raffle hanging from the spar, and tied one
end round my waist and the other round his own, leaving about five
fathoms loose between us.
"'There,' he shouted in my ear. 'If either of us gets chucked well up, and
the natives get a hold of him, the other must come up, too. Now mind,
Ben, keep broadside on to the wave if you can, and let it roll you up as
far as it will take you. Then, when you feel that its force is spent, stick
your fingers and toes into the sand, and hold on like grim death.'
"Well, we drifted nearer and nearer until, just as we got to the point
where the great waves tumbled over, the captain cut the lashings and
swam a little away, so as to be clear of the spar. Then a big wave came
towering up. I was carried along like a straw in a whirlpool. Then there
was a crash that pretty nigh knocked the senses out of me. I do not
know what happened afterwards. It was a confusion of white water
rushing past and over me. Then for a moment I stopped, and at once
made a clutch at the ground that I had been rolling over. There was a
big strain, and I was hauled backwards as if a team of wild horses were
pulling at me. Then there was a jerk, and I knew nothing more, till I
woke up and found myself on the sands, out of reach of the surf.
"Your father did not come to for half an hour. He had been hurt a bit
worse than I had, but at last he came round.
"Well, we were kept three months in a sort of castle place; and then one
day a party of chaps, with guns and swords, came into the yard where
we were sitting. The man, who seemed the head of the fellows who had
been keeping us prisoners, walked up with one who was evidently an

officer over the chaps as had just arrived. He looked at us both, and
then laid his hand on the captain. Then the others came up.
"The captain had just time to say, 'We are going to be parted, Ben. God
bless you! If ever you get back, give my love to my wife, and tell her
what has happened to me, and that she must keep up her heart, for I
shall make a bolt of it the first time I get a chance.'
"The next day, I was taken off to a place they call Calicut. There I
stopped a year, and then the rajah of the place joined the English
against Tippoo, who was lord of all the country, and I was released. I
had got, by that time, to talk their lingo pretty well, though I have
forgotten it all now, and I had found out that the chaps who had taken
your father away were a party sent down by Tippoo, who, having heard
that two Englishmen had been cast on shore, had insisted upon one of
them being handed over to him.
"It is known that a great many of the prisoners in Tippoo's hands have
been murdered in their dungeons. He has sworn, over and over again,
that he has no European prisoners, but every one knows that he has
numbers of them in his hands. Whether the captain is one of those who
have been murdered, or whether he is still in one of Tippoo's dungeons,
is more than I or any one else can say."
"Well, as I have told you, Ben, that is what we mean to find out."
"I know that is what your mother has often said, lad, but it seems to me
that you have more chance of finding the man in the moon than you
have of learning whether your father is alive, or not."
"Well, we are going to try, anyhow, Ben. I know it's a difficult job, but
Mother and I have talked it over, ever since you came home with the
news, three years ago; so I have made up my mind, and nothing can
change me. You see, I have more chances than most people would have.
Being a boy is all in my favour; and then, you know, I talk the language
just as well as English."
"Yes, of course that is a pull, and a big one; but it is a desperate

undertaking, lad, and I can't say as I