AN ADVENTURE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3221, 26 October 1881, Page 4

AN ADVENTURE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.

(From Mr 7.*. L. Arnold's "On the Indian Hills.") I was busy writing, and the evening being cold and wet, and fever still hanging about me, on that eventful day I had made a fire in the stove in my little hut, the chimney of which passed up through the thatch of the roof. The dinner was standing ready on the table and the lamp was burning brightly, but, as the next day was mail day, I wrote on and on, absorbed in my occupation. The temperature of the room suddenly increased very rapidly, and a sort of red glow came on the paper, which T remembered afterwards, but at the time thrv"!rht little of. However' the heat became so noticeable that I at last started up to attend to the stove, which I supposed was the culprit; but, to my dismay and astonishment, directly my eyes were raised, l saw the roof of my hut already in flames, and burning fiercely under a strong wind which was howling through the trees outside. What followed was yery brief ~"d decisive. My " boy" was just coming round from the kitchen with a dish of curry, but when he saw this astonishing sight he stood spell-bound for a moment, and then down went the curry and he flew to the big bell hanging on a tree cloie by, and rang a peal which brought the coolies swarming up the hill in a dusky yelling crowd from their " lines." Half a glance showed me it was impossible to save the '••■-, for it was now well alight, and the strong wind increased the flames every moment, while the nearest water was at the bottom of the hill, and I knew well that before we could collect chatties and organise a fire brigade it would be all over. So I proceeded io save what was possible. The estate books were got out first,, along with a lot of my own, which will buar the marks of the jungle mud, into which they were thrown, a3 long as they last; and then J unlocked some drawers and salvaged several parcels of money. By this time the place was like an oven, and burning " fore and aft," and the wild looking crowd of coolies outside were yelling and dancing about, quite at their wits' end. One old woman rushed bravely in, and, making for my sleeping apartment, seized a blanket and pillow, which she gripped tight in her dusky arms and carried about with her for the rest of the time, being much too excited to put them down anywhere. Fired by this exampxe, some coolies nade a rush into the porch. Unfortunately my door opened outwards, and in the scuffle it banged to and was kept hard shut in my face by the great crowd outside, of whom the men nearest tho door were pressed close against it by the other? further away. In vain I kicked and shouted; it was shut firm, and the dense yellow smoke was blinding me and getting down my throat. At length I called out to the head native " maistry," whom I knew was outside, " Jowra rnaietry, knock some of those fools down, and clear my door." Then thc-e came the refreshing " Whack, whack!" of his stick, and the crowd parted and the door opened, but not a moment to soon. Already the flaming mass of the roof overhead was rocking on the slender uprights which supported -"t. Any moment it might fall. The last I saw of the interior of my poor but was the ready-set table, the lamp still burning placidly in the thick yellow smoke, the white table-cloth on fire in twenty places, and big flakes of matting falling, smoking, to right {md left, Scarcely had the door opened and

freed me, when I heard the sharp crack of my revolver, which hung up loaded at the head of bed, and tho bullet whistled overhead. ' The pistol had become red-hot, and now added to the general confusion by falling to the ground, and c.cry now and then leaping up and firing a shot promiscuously into the crowd. This reminded me of my unfortunate _/uns, which there had been no time to safe, and they, in turn, reminded me of a new, unopened five-gallon tin of kerosene oil which stood in my bedroom. I would have fr'i-'ied ifc out, though ifc were red-hot, had there been any chance of its staying the fiu ; but, as it was, I was so disgusted with the loss of my property, I thought it might as well take its chance and end up the tomasha by o. rvand final firework. And so it aid! The coolies had scarcely obeyed my warning, and got behind trees, when there a terrific bang, which was heard right up on top of Bungalow Hill; a great column of smoke, flames, and sparks leapt right up to the tree tops, singeing the leave 3 ; and then, dying down, the roof fell in, followed by what remained of the walls. For a moment everything was brightly illuminated, but soon iao fire went out with a sudden calm, and I was aware that I was standing in my slippers, bareheaded, in the rain, which was falling fast now, by the smoking cinders of the poor little house which had sheltered me for ten or eleven months.

That night I slept rolled up in a blanket on the floor of L 'a bungalow on the hill, and the next morning, after a melancholy search amongst the ruins for treasure trove—in which I found rupees and annas fused into lumps, and only the metal work of my guns remaining—l confided my servants, my dogs, all my belongings, that could be got together (and the eat, if she could be found), to the care of my friend ; borrowed a pair of boots and a hat, and, mounting the estate pony, turned my back on tho PaHagherry jungles, mean--ing to go to Calicut to reflt and see a doctor, and perhaps take a holiday, if he prescribed one, afc fchafc great resort of the broken-down Southern Indians, the Neilgherry Hills.