The Star of India

One morning in the month of April, 1857, Baird Avery, an assistant surgeon in the employ of the Honorable East India Company, was on his way to Delhi, the ancient capital of the...

A few days later, Dr. Baird Avery found himself nearing the great city of Delhi, led by an attraction like that of the lodestone for the steel. It was there that the missionary,...

Imperial Delhi contains nearly a quarter of a million of people, and the modern city is all of seven miles in circumference. There was a time when its population was tenfold gre...

Who can be so welcome as the cherished one that comes to us from the jaws of death? The arrival of Baird Avery turned all the gloom into radiance, and lifted for the moment the...

The city of Meerut stands on a grassy plain, to the northeast of Delhi, and distant some thirty two miles. At the date of the mutiny, its population was about forty thousand sou...

Before venturing upon the streets, the fugitives, as they may now be called, had recourse to such disguises as were at their command. It so happened that at that time, the only...

That which arrested the eye of Dr. Avery was another crowd, or more properly the same one. He had been drawn away from his true course, and in trying to regain it, he came face...

Fortunately our friends had entered one of the loneliest portions of Delhi, where for a time they saw not a living soul, even when so many thousands were abroad; but this could...

A few minutes later, the latter, standing under the mango tree, saw the dark figures fall apart and gradually draw near them. One tall, sinewy native, carrying a scimeter in his...

While the fugitives stood motionless beneath the spreading mango, the fearful cry fell upon their ears. Then it was that neither was able to move or speak and life stood still.

Marian turned to the nawab, and told him they accepted his hospitality with much gratitude. He seemed delighted, and led the way to the veranda, where he insisted that they shou...

On the forenoon of Monday, May 11, 1857, the horde of mutineers, fresh from the massacres of the evening before at Meerut, were discerned by the crowds that were swarming on the...

While the missionary, Mr. Hildreth, and his friends kept close watch within their home through the entire day, they knew of the wild excitement in other parts of the city, but t...

Luchman continued gazing toward Delhi. He glanced at the officer, but said nothing. Evidently he felt little respect for the leader who had shown such inefficiency, and therefor...

"Quick!" repeated the missionary to his wife and daughter, shoving them before him into the deep shade among the trees, while Avery came last, the native remaining in the path t...

He did not come back empty handed. He brought a lota or brass jar of water, some native fruits and a half dozen chuppatties or flat cakes, used universally through India and the...

Luchman waited until several hours had passed, and would have waited longer, had not Mr. Hildreth awakened from sleep, his slight movement causing his wife and daughter to open...

Few realize the annual destruction of life in India from serpents and wild beasts. About twenty thousand people are annually destroyed by animals, and of these nineteen in twent...

This question was caused by the sound of an elephant trumpeting in the road behind them. The noise was not loud, and when they turned their heads they saw the animal only a shor...

Had Dr. Baird Avery and George Harking been alone, they would have felt pleasure in their singular adventure with the elephant, which was bearing them so swiftly away from their...

From what has been told, it will be readily believed that Harkins and Dr. Avery had been taken much further from their friends than they suspected; and as is too often the case...

The first, as will be recalled, dropped from the limbs of the tree, where he had taken refuge when the runaway elephant caused the howdah to be scraped from his huge back.

Each now touched his ear to the wall, which was a better conductor of sound than the air. As a result, both heard persons talking. They did not speak continuously, and modulated...

There was an alarming significance in the declaration of the native guide that the horseman at the head of the Ghoojurs who were besieging the fugitives in the ruined temple was...

Less than twenty yards distant was a depression in the ground, running at right angles to the course he took in leaving the temple. Since they must have crossed it in their flig...

Luchman looked off to where Wana Affghar was seated on his black pony, intently watching proceedings, and circling his knife over his head. As his two followers fell, he uttered...

Blue eyed Jennie, in far away England, standing in the door of the vine clad cottage and shading her vision with her hand, would look longingly toward the stormy Atlantic, in th...

Dr. Avery was determined to make the guide express himself more clearly as to the probable fate of the party. He had let fall some abrupt expressions, but they were not satisfac...

Marian Hildreth committed a serious mistake in not making known the strange occurrence of the night before. Had she told of it, the history of the succeeding few days would have...

The native had racked his brain for some feasible means of getting the fugitives out of the temple and on the road to Kurnal again. But there was no such means. They were surrou...

One of the Ghoojurs who left the main party in quest of the cooking kit came back, but his companion was a stranger. The one who did not return knew the whole scheme of Wana Aff...

Observing the fixedness of the chieftain's gaze and the spell that held his senses captive, he felt that it was an appropriate time for him to leave. The majority of the Ghoojur...

From the moment Wana Affghar of Puneput solemnly pledged himself to allow the fugitives to go free, in consideration of the Star of India being turned over to him, his brain was...

As soon as the Ghoojurs learned that the Europeans had fled, their courage came back, and they made a scrambling rush for the interior of the temple. A brief search proved the t...

All stood still while their leader rasped the phosphorus against the dry cement at his side. The tiny light did not give the view they sought, but it showed there was no need of...

A low, tremulous whistle sounded on the still night, as it had sounded several times. Rising to his feet, Dr. Avery returned the call, which was immediately repeated. Several ex...

This narrative touches only the fringe of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Its subsequent history is written in letters of flame. Never has the world witnessed such scenes of atrocity,...