rgeant,
John Holder, was in the water at the same time, and he was one of the
finest swimmers in the service. A crocodile took me, just as I was
half-way across, and nipped off my right leg as clean as a surgeon
could have done it, just above the knee. What with the shock and the
loss of blood, I fainted, and should have drowned if Holder had not
caught hold of me and paddled for the bank. I was five months in
hospital over it, and when at last I was able to limp out of it with
this timber toe strapped to my stump I found myself invalided out of
the army and unfitted for any active occupation.

"I was, as you can imagine, pretty down on my luck at this time, for I
was a useless cripple though not yet in my twentieth year. However, my
misfortune soon proved to be a blessing in disguise. A man named
Abelwhite, who had come out there as an indigo-planter, wanted an
overseer to look after his coolies and keep them up to their work. He
happened to be a friend of our colonel's, who had taken an interest in
me since the accident. To make a long story short, the colonel
recommended me strongly for the post and, as the work was mostly to be
done on horseback, my leg was no great obstacle, for I had enough knee
left to keep good grip on the saddle. What I had to do was to ride
over the plantation, to keep an eye on the men as they worked, and to
report the idlers. The pay was fair, I had comfortable quarters, and
altogether I was content to spend the remainder of my life in
indigo-planting. Mr. Abelwhite was a kind man, and he would often drop
into my little shanty and smoke a pipe with me, for white folk out
there feel their hearts warm to each other as they never do here at
home.

"Well, I was never in luck's way long. Suddenly, without a note of
warning, the great mutiny broke upon us. One month India lay as still
and peaceful, to all appearance, as Surrey or Kent; the next there were
two hundred thousand black devils let loose, and the country was a
perfect hell. Of course you know all about it, gentlemen,--a deal more
than I do, very like, since reading is not in my line. I only know
what I saw with my own eyes. Our plantation was at a place called
Muttra, near the border of the Northwest Provinces. Night after night
the whole sky was alight with the burning bungalows, and day after day
we had small companies of Europeans passing through our estate with
their wives and children, on their way to Agra, where were