At The Very Moment That He Thus Professed, He
Was Coolly Deceiving Me.
He had arranged to start without me on the
Saturday, while he was proposing to march together on the Monday.
This I
did not know at the time.
One morning I had returned to the tent after having, as usual, inspected
the transport animals, when I observed Mrs. Baker looking
extraordinarily pale, and immediately upon my arrival she gave orders
for the presence of the vakeel (headman). There was something in her
manner, so different to her usual calm, that I was utterly bewildered
when I heard her question the vakeel, "Whether the men were willing to
march?" Perfectly ready, was the reply. "Then order them to strike the
tent, and load the animals; we start this moment." The man appeared
confused, but not more so than I. Something was evidently on foot, but
what I could not conjecture. The vakeel wavered, and to my astonishment
I heard the accusation made against him, that, "during the night, the
whole of the escort had mutinously conspired to desert me, with my arms
and ammunition that were in their hands, and to fire simultaneously at
me should I attempt to disarm them." At first this charge was
indignantly denied until the boy Saat manfully stepped forward, and
declared that the conspiracy was entered into by the whole of the
escort, and that both he and Richarn, knowing that mutiny was intended,
had listened purposely to the conversation during the night; at daybreak
the boy reported the fact to his mistress.
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