Chapter 77: NO! -- Not Mary Pettygree!

Date: September 9, 1904 (2015)
Location: Village of Ramanujam
Situation: Replenish Locomotive 1300's Water 
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Chronology
Sept. 25, 1900: Thugee armistice, recall from India and retirement.
April 30, 1903: Learns armistice broken by resurgent Thugee Army.
May 9, 1903: Recalled to duty in India to break the Thugees.
June 1903: Assumes command in Egypt as a ruse.
September 1903: Secretly departs Egypt for India.
Next four months: Assembles the Army.
Feb. 22, 1904 Gen. Pettygree Arrives at Tapi River Camp near Burhanpur.
Feb. 23, 1904: Battle of Burhanpur.
Feb. 23, 1904: Skull fracture caused by sniper
Mar. 4, 1904: Arrived at St. George Hospital, Bombay, India
Sept. 7, 1904: Train Back To The Field Force
Sept. 9, 1904: Station Stop To Rewater Engine 1300
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See Previous Chapter 76 here:
http://generalpettygree.blogspot.com/2016/05/chapter-76-departure.html
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SEPTEMBER 9, 1904

General and Mary Pettygree are en-route from Bombay to Delhi.

Some passengers rode atop the train.

Naturally the Pettygrees were accommodated in first class.

William, the conductor just passed by. In fifteen minutes the train stops at Ramanujam to replenish water for the locomotive. I'm going to get off to find fresh fruit for us.

I have just enough time to change clothes.

Have a care Mary. --- Trouble is far to the north --- but....

Darling, food vendors are always right at the station platform. 

I'll hop off and be back aboard in the blink of an eye.

Right, dear. I'll get up in a few min.... dress an'....

Arrival at Ramanujam.

Mr. Winslogic prepared to disembark too. 

What he saw next shocked him grievously. 

STOP or I'll shoot! --- ALARM! --- I SAY, ALARM!  
HELP! --- Constables! --- Scoundrels have....

Taken Mary Pettygree off the train!

Who are they?

As the evil doers ran, they confronted a peasant leading his water buffalo.

The leader, a boy really, demanded the farmer step aside. 

He knew it would be bad karma to bother the holy herbivore.

You are mad taking the English woman!

Quiet or else you will be in your next incarnation too soon.

They carried her bleeding through a break in a hedge. Three continued to brandish their traditional yellow rumals. Only the swaggering boy prevented her immediate strangulation at the hands of this murderous band of thugs.

They hurriedly left the village....

Moving swiftly and deeply into the prodigious jungle nearby.

Later they hideously congratulated themselves shouting shabash.

My father will be proud and make me a yuva rajah.
You my holy brothers will be generously rewarded by Kali.

They then enthusiastically bellowed shabash many more times!

BACK ABOARD THE TRAIN

General, I... Mr. Winslogic says your wife was abducted.

WHAT!

I saw it happen, raised the alarm but there are no constables here.
I could not fire for fear of striking your wife.

WHERE DID THEY TAKE HER?

The wretched fiends took her --- north --- into the jungle.

CLOSING REMARKS

1) Translations
   Shabash = hurrah or bravo.
   Yuva rajah = young lord

2) Buildings are Miniature Building Authority. Abductors are from Pulp Figures. The locomotive and coaches are Lionel Trains "O Gauge" models. Taking the baggage coach apart allowed scratch-built construction of a portion of the Pettygree's first class compartment. Thank you John B. for the loan of your water tank.

3)  Oh the horror. What else can we do or say? I will naturally give your remarks to General Pettygree if he recovers --- placed below at Comments.
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