At Rawal
Pindi there was some small difficulty with native officials, a large
body of whom seemed to have unaccountably disappeared. This delayed for
some time the sending of a freight-train to Abbotabad, but by and by
substitutes were found, and the works left under guard. The telegram to
Peshawur found things in readiness there, for memories of old trouble
still linger, and people sleep lightly on that frontier. Word came of
native riots in the south, at Lahore and Amritsar, and the line of towns
which mark the way to Delhi. In some places extraordinary accidents
were reported. Certain officers had gone off on holiday and had not
returned; odd and unintelligible commands had come to perplex the minds
of others; whole camps were reported sick where sickness was least
expected. A little rising of certain obscure rivers had broken up an
important highway by destroying all the bridges save the one which
carried the railway. The whole north was on the brink of a sudden
disorganization, but the brink had still to be passed. It lay with its
masters to avert calamity; and its masters, going about with haggard
faces, prayed for daylight and a few hours to prepare.
George had sent his men to Khautmi before he entered the telegraph hut,
and he followed himself in twenty minutes. Somewhere upon the hill-road
he met St. John with a dozen men, who abused him roundly and besought
details.
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