He had small confidence in these messages.
If the local risings were serious, as he believed them to be, they would
be too late, and in any case they were beyond the country where
strategical points were of advantage against an invader. There remained
the stations on the Indus Valley railway, which must be
the earliest point of attack. The terminus at Boonji was held by a
certain Jackson, a wise man who inspired terror in a mixed force of
irregulars, Afridis, Pathans, Punjabis, Swats, and a dozen other
varieties of tribesmen. To him he sent the most lengthy and urgent
messages, for he held the key of a great telegraphic system with which
he might awake Abbotabad and the Punjab. Then, perspiring with heat and
anxiety, he gave the bundle into the hands of his English servant, and
told off an officer and twenty men to hold the telegraph office. A blue
light was to be lit in the window if the native town should prove
troublesome and reinforcements be needed.
Soon the force of the garrison was assembled in the yard, all but a few
who had been sent on messages to the more isolated houses of the English
residents. Thwaite addressed them briefly: "Men, there's the devil's
own sweet row up the north, and it's moving down to us. This very night
we may have to fight. And, remember, it's not the old game with the
hillmen, but an army of white men, servants of the Tsar, come to fight
the servants of the Empress.
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