Flora Annie Steel

“ Dear Mother,—It has come at last! I always knew it must come if you would make a soldier of me, just because my father was one! Why didn't you think? Why didn't you know? Poor mother! I'm sorry to write all this. How could you dream I have felt more or less a coward all my life when he was so brave? ”

“ And yet I'll be hanged—this mother darling isn't really for your eyes, if I can see what good I should have done if I had ordered that Sepoy under arrest. The men wouldn't have obeyed orders. I saw murder in their eyes. I've seen it for a long time, and I haven't dared to say so—haven't dared to warn those who should be warned, for fear of being thought a coward! Isn't that cowardice in itself? Oh, mother! mother! ”

“ How had he been saved? She scarcely knew. She remembered his running back like a hare—yes! he the bravest of men—all bleeding and fainting, to gasp some words of almost hopeless directions for her safety. ”

“ Unconsciousness had come to bring the silence which gives consent, and she stood up again, stepped to the lad, and laid her lips on his forehead.
"Thank you, dear; in the name of all these, thanks for a brave deed."
The blood surged up to his face. A boyish look of sheer triumph transfigured it as he paused for an instant to throw off his coat and tighten his waistband.
"I shall have my chance, too," he cried exultantly, "for I was always a runner at school!"
Aye! A good runner indeed! With the wild whoop of a schoolboy at play he was across the barrack-square untouched. ”

“ Then a pause and retreating footsteps.
"What is it, Imân Khan?" she questioned dully, as the old man stole over to her and laid his forehead in the dust.
"What this slave has feared—has waited for all the hours," he whispered whimperingly. "They know, Huzoor"—he pointed to the bed—"or, at least, they have suspicion that a man is here. And they must search; they will search, or kill. ”

“ Aye! the women and children might be safe, even if the almost hopeless stratagem failed; but what of the man—her husband—the only one, so far as she knew, of all the officers of the regiment who had escaped that massacre on the parade-ground? ”