"A little warm
water and a bandage will put it all right."
"Do you think it will leave a scar?" Charley asked rather
dolorously.
"Well, Charley, I should not be surprised if it does; but it won't
spoil your beauty long, your whiskers will cover it: besides, a
scar won in honorable conflict is always admired by ladies, you
know. Now let us go downstairs; my arm, too, wants bandaging, for
it is beginning to smart amazingly; and I am sure we all must want
something to eat."
The supper was eaten hurriedly, and then all but Terence, who, as a
measure of precaution, was stationed as watchman on the tower, were
glad to lie down for a few hours' sleep. At daybreak they were up
and moving.
Mr. Hardy requested that neither his wife nor daughters should go
outside the house until the dead Indians were removed and buried,
as the sight could not but be a most shocking one. Two of the peons
were ordered to put in the oxen and bring up two carts, and the
rest of the men set about the unpleasant duty of examining and
collecting the slain.
These were even more numerous than Mr. Hardy had anticipated, and
showed how thickly they must have been clustered round the door and
windows. The guns had been loaded with buckshot; two bullets he
dropped down each barrel in addition; and the discharge of these
had been most destructive, more especially those fired through the
loopholes at the end of the house.
Pages:
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259