2. There is no one left (part 2)

The wailing grew wilder and wilder. "What is it? What is it?" Mrs. Lennox gasped.

    "Some one has dies" answered the boy officer. "You didcnot say it had broken out among your servants."

    "I did not know!" said the Mem Sahib. "Come with me! Come with me!" and she turned and ran into the house.

    After that, appealing things happened, and the mysteriousness of the morning was explained to Mary. The cholera had broken out in its most fatal form and people were dying like flies.  Ayah had been taken ill in the night, and it was because she had just died that the servants had wailed in the huts. Before the next day three other servants were dead and the others had run away in terror. There was panic on every side, and dying people in all te bungalows.

    During the bewilderment and confusion of the second day Mary hid herself in the nursery and was forgotten by everyone. Nobody thought of her, nobody wanted her, and strange things happened of which she knew nothing. Mary alternately cried and slept through the ours. She only knew that people were ill and that she heard mysterious and frightening sounds. Once she crept into the dining hall and found it empty, though a partly-finished meal was on the table and chairs and plates looked as if they had been hastily pushed back when the diners rose suddenly for some reason. The child ate some fruits and biscuits, and being thirsty she drank a glass of wine which stood nearly filled. It was sweet, and she did not know how strong it was.. Very soon it made her intensly drowsy, and she went back to the nursery and shut herself in again, frightened by cries she heard in the huts and by the hurrying sound of feet. The wine made her so sleepy that she could scarcely keep her eyes open snd she lay down on her bed and knew nothing more for a long time.

    Many things happened during the hours in which she slept so heavily, but she was not disturbed by the wails and the sound of things being carried in and out of the bungalow.

    When she awakened she lay and stared at the wall. The house was perfectly still. She had never known it to be so silent before. She heard neither voices nor footsteps, and she wondered if everyone had got well of the cholera and all the trouble was over. She wondered also who would take care of her now her Ayah was dead. There would be a new Ayah, and perhaps she would know some new stories. Mary had been rather tired of the old ones.She did not cry because her nurse had died. She was not an affectionate child and had never cared for anyone. The noise and hurrying about and wailing over the cholera had frightened her, and she had been angry because no one seemed to remember that she was alive. Everyone was too panick-striken to think of a little girl no one was fond of. When people had the cholera, it seemed that they remember nothing but htemselves. But if everyone had got well again, surely somene would remember and come to look for her.

    But no one came, and as she lay waiting, the house seemed to grow more and more silent. She heard something rustling on the matting and when she looked down she saw a little snake gliding along and watching her with eyes like jewels. She was not frightened, because he was a harmles little thing who would not hurt her and he seemed in a hurry to get out of the room. He slipped under the door as she watched him.......

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