We were
pursued by a whole troop of Sepoy cavalry, who were firing pistol
shots at us. We were not more than seventy or eighty yards in front,
and they were gaining fast, just as I rode into a large deserted
temple. In the center was a huge stone figure. I jumped off my
horse with the lady, and as I did so she said, 'blow out my brains,
Edward; don't let me fall into their hands.'
"Instead of answering, I hurried her round behind the idol, pushed
against one of the leaves of a flower in the carving, and the stone
swung back, and showed a hole just large enough to get through,
with a stone staircase inside the body of the idol, made, no doubt,
for the priest to go up and give responses through the mouth. I
hurried the girl through, crept in after her, and closed the stone,
just as our pursuers came clattering into the courtyard. That is
all I remember.'
"'Well, it is monstrously rum,' Charley said after a pause. 'Did
you understand what the old fellow was singing about before he gave
us the pipes?'
"'Yes; I caught the general drift. It was an entreaty to Siva to
give us some glimpse of futurity which might benefit us.'
"We lit our cheroots and rode for some miles at a brisk canter
without remark. When we were within a short distance of home we
reined up.
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