It blood." A Dutch merchant Lahore, of murders at Kasur, had hidden all day, and had of trains derailed and lines come out at nightfall, disguised torn up, of telegraph wires out in a "burka," the all-envelop- and Government buildings and ing white cloth used by purdah railway stations burnt; and women. An English lady we were very anxious about doctor had managed to con- Europeans in the neighbourcoal herself in her hospital hood. The news was often while the crowd tried to find vague, but with the breakher, and she also had escaped down in communications and in the evening. Two Indian our own experiences we were ladies, sohool-teachers, who had left to imagine the worst, and driven out of the city in a the native population had closed carriage, told us of the some excuse for their belief Sikh peasants who were pour- that the British raj was over. ing into the city with their The situation was so precarious, iron-bound sticks. The booty and troops for defensive purfrom the National Bank had poses se scarce, that it was been carried out into the dis- decided to evacuate the Alextrict as proof that the British andra School, just inside the rule was over, and all the riff- Civil Lines, in which the Indian raff for miles round hurried in Christian school children had to be early on the spot if loot- been collected until now. ing began again. The residents might be supposed by English of the railway quarters came readers that these children on to us from the railway would have been safe from station, in which they had their own countrymen, but on taken refuge. They brought the day of the riots the crowd news of how the crowd had set fire to one school, with the swept through the station, girls inside, and it was only leaving behind them burning the timely arrival of a small trucks and the hardly recog- band of police that saved them. nisable body of Guard Robin- We were told now to prepare son. Everything was done to to receive them, and when they stop false reports: under the arrived they brought our numconditions I have described, bers up to about 400-a heavy moral was of paramount im- strain on our resources, but portance. But the real truth they were grateful and worked was so often worse than any- splendidly. thing rumour could invent that one realised the uses of censorship. It is not surprising that there was a certain amount of hysteria, but our people as a whole showed both courage and good sense. During the first three days every hour brought in some news from outside: of firing at An office was established in the canteen hall, and all the civilian inhabitants of the Fort and their servants were registered. After a few days passes were issued for going out of the Fort, but this was not allowed without an armed escort, and everybody had to be back before sunset. The time at which the pass-holder was due to return was registered, so that if he or she failed to report at the office at the hour named a search-party could be sent out immediately, The days were monotonous, and we had to keep very quiet for the sake of Miss Sherwood, who was lying between life and death. Seizing her as she was bicycling from house to house in the city, the crowd had beaten her down with iron-bound sticks and left her for dead in the gutter, and for many days her life was in danger. After about a week it was considered safe for us to travel, and arrangements were made to remove all the women and children to the hills. Special trains were run, packed with refugees from Lahore and Amritsar. It was considered better by the authorities that no women should be left behind, and they decided that Eurasians as well as Europeans should reside in hill stations for a time. The sight of these trains must have given residents in unaffected districts some idea of what the riots meant. And yet it has been stated that there was no real insecurity and no more trouble than the police could have dealt with. No European who was in Amritsar or Lahore doubts that for some days there was a very real danger of the entire European population being massacred, and that General Dyer's action alone saved them. FOLLOW THE LITTLE PICTURES! BY ALAN GRAHAM. CHAPTER XXII. as soon as I find the treasure. Of course we are bound to find it, but I don't like the delay." NOTHING happened during finish. I was going to say the next few days in fulfilment that the Squire has agreed of my doleful prognostications. to my engagement to Marigold There were comings and goings between the two households, and consultations galore on the one burning topic-the little pictures. Roy's wife did not come again to Hopeton, nor did Marigold visit her at Blackdykes, but Roy was over each day, and Morgan and the Laird on more than one occasion went to the farm. It was about a week after "What does Marigold say to it?" I asked. "She is so afraid of her father that she is thankful for small mercies." "At the least, I can congratulate you on working wonders in a very short time," the events narrated in the I said. "What do you think of this, you old Jeremiah?" he said, shaking me to and fro by the arm-"the Squire has agreed to my engagement to Marigold" "Congratulations, my dear fellow," I interrupted, shaking him warmly by the hand. "You are a wonder-worker. I believe after all, Morgan, there is nothing on this earth that you might want that you wouldn't contrive to get." "I hope you are right," he said, smiling merrily with twinkling glasses, "for I have got to get something else before the engagement is complete. You didn't let me "Thanks. I have been fairly successful. Roy gets more friendly with his father every day, and the old man himself is certainly turning over a new leaf. You will have to retract a lot of your prophecies yet, Seaton." "I hope I shall," I answered. It was that same day that -possibly spurred on by the obvious happiness of Morgan - I summoned up pluck to make a proposal of my own. It is impossible for me to keep my own feelings and actions out of this history of the Hopeton treasure, because, as will be seen, this resolution of mine had a direct bearing upon the solution of the eryptogram. It happened, then, that I Copyrighted in the United States of America by Messrs Little, Brown, & Co. had arranged to meet Betty Forbes that afternoon by the fox-cover, in order to make an excursion to the top of the hill on whose lower slope the house of the Tanishes was built. There was a cairn on this hill, and although we had visited several of the hill-tops without finding a vestige of a olue, Betty was still as keen as before. To me it mattered little where we went, provided we went together. It was a lovely summer day, with hardly a breath of wind, and a deep blue sky broken only by a few small fleecy clouds. I waited by the stile on the margin of the wood, and watched the dainty form of Betty olimbing towards me between the broken dykes on the old Roman Road. She was dressed in some light creamy material covered with dainty small sprigs of flowers, and wore a wide straw hat, beneath which glimpses of her rich hair shone as she looked up towards the wood where I awaited her. She had the light springy step of the country girl used to rough roads and rougher hillsides. It was a joy to sit there idly on the stile and see her coming towards me. "Have I kept you long?" she called as she drew near. "Never mind, you are not really a busy person. I am! I stopped at Newgate's farm to inspect the new babymost interesting produc a tion!" "You don't look to be dressed for hill climbing," I remarked, with my admiring eyes upon her. "Don't call these things hills," she said, pointing to the green and purple knolls all around us. "Over there, on Arran, it is different. Goatfell would finish a frock like this, and I should be barefoot before I was half-way to the top. But this is just a gentle stroll up a heather-clad slope." The hill we had chosen for our investigation lay, as I have said, behind Hopeton, and from where we met we had to cross the shoulders of two lower knolls before we started the actual climb. At two hillside burns that lay across our track I offered my hand to Betty, but she scorned my assistance, and jumped from stone to stone with an ease and grace born of long custom. It took us under an hour to reach our destination. We threw ourselves down upon the springy heather to rest after the climb. The cairn that we had come to see was like all the others in the district-just a pile of loose stones gathered from the hillside. What we expected to discover merely by looking at it I do not know to this day. Perhaps some rude inscription on a stone may have been in our minds, but we were quite vague in our expectations. "I am afraid we have drawn another blank," said Betty. She had discarded her hat, and lay upon the slope with her hands behind her head, her back resting on a weather worn boulder. "You are a broken reed, Bob. You don't seem to be as full of brilliant ideas as you ought to be." "I have never professed to be one of the brainy ones," I said laughingly. "You expect too much from me, It is you who are the treasure-finder, Betty. You are far more enthusiastic than I am." "Of course if you are tired of these expeditions you have only to say so!" Betty replied provokingly. "I have my own copy of the little pictures, and I can hobble about by myself somehow or other!" "Betty, you are a cat!" I declared solemnly. "Of course I am. Have you only just discovered it? All girls are eats, only some are more catty than others. But what particular trait of the feline race are you referring to at the moment?" "The mouse triok," I answered. "You ought not to play with a poor chap. You know jolly well that it is not the Hopeton treasure that I run about all over the countryside after. It is another treasure, in my eyes thousands of times more valuable!" "If you are going to be sentimental, Bob, I shall go home," said Betty lightly; but there was a new colour and a half-frightened expression growing upon her face, that told me she knew that we were getting down to essentials. "I am going to be sentimental, and I shan't let you go home," I said firmly; but my heart was beating like a steam-hammer, and there was a buzzing in my head that spoke of strong excitement. "Hark to the man-thing, with his masterful ways!" exclaimed Betty to the bare hillside; but her long red lashes drooped over her honest brown eyes. "You know what treasure I want, Betty?" I said, and I found that my throat was so dry and husky all of a sudden that my voice sounded quite unlike itself. "How can I know until you tell me?" said Betty in a low voice and without looking up. I remember she was plucking the little purple flowers from a spray of heather as she spoke. It seemed to me that the warm summer air had become suddenly electrified. I felt a drumming in my ears and a vibration of the air upon my skin. Betty's preoccupation with her spray of heather annoyed me. I wanted her full attention. I stretched out my hand and swallowed up both of hers - heather and all-in my grip. "You are the only treasure for me, Betty," I said hoarsely. "I want you, and the little piotures can go hang for all I care." "Don't speak about it, Bob, don't!" said Betty in a low tremulous voice. "I'm not ready to marry; I didn't expect you to speak so soon. I haven't looked life in the face yet. I'm just a girl-enjoying herself. Can't we go on doing that?" "It is I shook my head. "No!" I replied. not enough! We are friends |