The old nurse shook her head. "Bad news; no tell Saba."

"Now, Saba, get ready to start," for the nurse had declared that she would
accompany them, to go into the villages to buy food; "Dick, come with me;
we will put one of the horses into the dogcart."

They were leaving the room when they heard the sound of a rifle. As if it
were the signal, in a moment the air rang with rifle shots, shouts, and
yells. The boys leaped back into the room and caught up the bundles.

"Quick, for your lives, girls! some of them are not fifty yards off! To
the bushes! Come, Saba!"

"Saba do more good here," the old nurse said, and seated herself quietly
in the veranda.

It was but twenty yards to the bushes they had marked as the place of
concealment; and as they entered and crouched down there came the sound of
hurrying feet, and a band of Sepoys, led by one of the jemadars, or native
officers, rushed up to the veranda from the back.

"Now," the jemadar shouted, "search the house; kill the boys, but keep the
white women; they are too pretty to hurt."

Two minutes' search--in which furniture was upset, curtains pulled down,
and chests ransacked--and a shout of rage proclaimed that the house was
empty.

The jemadar shouted to his men: "Search the compound; they can't be far