He heard at Calcutta, his starting point, at Benares, Allahabad, Cawnpore and other places, the whisperings of the uprising that was soon to come, and his alarm increased as he penetrated the country.
"Worse than all," he said gravely, speaking of his trip, "one of my bearers spoke English well, and quite an intimacy sprang up between us.
Since his companions could not utter a word in our language, we conversed freely without being understood.

He was reticent at first concerning the impending danger and professed to know nothing of it, but this forenoon be gave me to understand, in words that could not be mistaken, that the whole country would soon be aflame with insurrection." "Did he offer any advice ?" asked Dr.Marlowe, less impressed with the news than was his visitor or his daughter.
"He did; he said that the escape of myself and of your family could be secured only by leaving this place at the earliest moment possible." "But whither can we go?
We are hundreds of miles from the seacoast and should have to journey for weeks through a country swarming with enemies." "I asked him that question, and his answer was that we should make for Nepaul." "That is the province to the east of us.

It is a mountainous country, a long way off, and hard to reach.

Why should he advise us to go thither ?" "I questioned him, but he seemed to fear that his companions would grow suspicious over our conversation and he said nothing more.

I thought he would add something definite when we came to separate, and, to loosen his tongue, I gave him an extra fee, but he added never a word, and, unless I am mistaken, regretted what he had already said." "It seems to me," observed the daughter, "that the man knew it is impossible for us to get to the seacoast, and believed that by going further into the interior we should reach the people who are not affected by the insurrection.