Page:Chandra Shekhar.djvu/125

 Pratap. What fear is in that?

Ramcharan. Mind you, they are eight in number.

Pratap. What will be the fate of the women in this house if I hide myself like a coward? Go, and bring down my gun.

If Ramcharan had known all particulars about the English, he would not have asked Pratap to hide himself in the darkness. By the time they were speaking to each other, the house suddenly became lighted. Johnson handed over to a sepoy the burning taper. In its light the Englishmen saw two persons standing on the stairs.

"What, are those the ruffians?" inquired Johnson of Bakaullah.

Bakaullah could not recognise them fully. He had seen Pratap and Ramcharan in the darkness of night, and so it was not possible for him to identify them with confidence. But the pain of his broken hand had passed endurance—some one, it does not matter who, is responsible for it. Bakaullah, therefore, said,

"Yes, they are indeed."

The Englishmen then leaped upon the stairs like tigers. Finding the sepoys following them, Ram-