'Two!' l exclaimed.

'Yes! Two! I am sure of it! There were two; one had his big face close to me – the one who had his hand on me – on me – somewhere! The other had a knife in his hand and was grinning! I could see his teeth! Then I shrieked and tried to jump out of bed, but the man whose hand was – who had his hand on – who had his hand on – who -'

'Yes! darling!' I said, seeing she was embarrassed, 'the man who was attacking you.'

'Yes! He put his hand on my chest and held me down. I hit him in the face, and must have hurt his eye, for he cried out and put his hand to it, and I jumped up, escaped for a moment and began to call out as loud as I could. He reached round for me and caught me, and I felt him tear my nightgown, and he dashed me down on the bed and fell upon me with all his might and seized my throat with his two hands, and I suppose I fainted then, for I remember nothing else. Oh! how did you come here, dear, dear, dear Captain Devereaux?'

All this time the gentle, frightened girl had her arms round me. She did not appear aware that, except for the upper parts of her arms, she was as naked as the day she was born. In fact, although able to talk now, it was plain to me that she had not yet fully realised her exact position. She clung to me with the grasp of the drowning, and this was what was so charming, and yet so dear, as it was like the embrace of a girl who feels the lively and moving prick giving her rapture beyond compare.

'I had been nervous ever since your father went to Peshawar, Miss Selwyn, and every night I have patrolled to satisfy myself that you were safe. I heard your shrieks and that is how I happened to arrive just in the nick of time.'

Fanny raised her head and looked at me with eyes from which love and gratitude both darted most speaking rays.

'Kiss me!' she cried, with passion plainly thrilling through her, 'you are a good fellow!'

I did not wait to be asked twice. I passed my thirsty lips to hers in one long, deep draught, but whilst doing so a question struck me. What had become of the second Afghan? Had this thought not occurred to me, I really don't know what might have happened. I was rapidly losing control over my passions; Fanny was in a glow of more than loving gratitude; a very little pressing and I felt sure she would welcome me between her thighs, and in spite of her 'illness' I should have there and then swept away the charming maidenhead I had discovered to be safe and secure. A standing prick has no conscience, saith the proverb, and as to that, mine was worse than standing! It was in a terrible state of agonised extension and fighting to crack the outer skin!

But that second Afghan!

'Fanny! Did you not say you saw two men? One with a knife?'

'Yes! I certainly did!'

'Where is the second?'

'I don't know! I suppose he must have run away when he saw you.'

'But where to? Your door is shut! There is only one window and I am certain that he could not have got out of that. That man is in the house somewhere.'

It being plain that the second Afghan was not in the room, I insisted on searching the house. It struck me as odd that no one seemed to have been roused by Fanny's shrieks, and yet I had heard them a hundred yards off when I was outside the house. Cursing my folly in delaying when each moment might be precious, and for thinking of how sweet it would be to fuck Fanny, when perhaps Amy might be lying ravished or murdered, I sprang to the door, though poor Fanny did all she could to try and hold me back. She was alarmed at the idea of seeking danger and was frightened for me, but I persisted.

Between her door and her sister's was a passage. But I must first say I had picked up the knife my Afghan had dropped. This I held sword-like in my hand. I opened Amy's bedroom door suddenly and quickly, and there I saw another sight which made me sick with horror. The Afghan was apparently buggering Amy. Apparently? Alas! no! He was actually doing it! And like the other ruffian whom I had so fortunately caught just in time to prevent any real damage being done to the suffering Fanny, this devil's spawn was so intent on his rich enjoyment that he did not at first notice my entry. All took place so rapidly that I cannot attempt to imitate time in my very true history. I dashed at the villain who withdrew his glistening black prick from poor Amy's bottom so suddenly that it made a 'pop' like a cork coming out of a bottle. He reared himself upright, seized a long knife from off the bed, where he had placed it ready for use before he had begun buggering the poor girl, and with a shout of triumphant defiance and the expression of a fiend courting further victory, he rushed at me crying in terms of abuse common to gentle Hindu and savage Afghan alike that he had defiled both my sister's cunt and my mother's cunt, then, passing from the general to the particular, 'I have fucked and buggered your sister – I will now bugger you too!'

In my rage I roared in reply, 'I'll be buggered if you do!' quite an unnecessary piece of bad language on my part. I now found what a mistake I had made in not holding my knife dagger-wise instead of as a sword, for before I could make any attempt to stab my huge antagonist he had his knife twice in me, once in my left shoulder and once in my breast. He was trying to stab me down to the heart through the shoulder, and had I not sprung back, his second stab would have succeeded. As it was he cut me terribly all down the left breast. I, however, caught my knife well into his left side and turned hard. Fanny, screaming at the top of her voice, had fled the moment she saw this second devil, and all the time the combat lasted I could hear the hills and rocky caverns resounding with her shrill shrieks, for she had gone to the open window and was literally hysterical. Meanwhile the burly and really immense Afghan was getting the better of me. He was far more accustomed to using the dagger than I was, who had never fought with one in my life. He stabbed me many times, but fortunately, chiefly in the left arm, though I caught some fearful rips in the chest like the first one. I began to fight at random, for I felt bewildered by his extraordinary activity and lightning-like blows which I had to ward off as best I could or avoid by jumping from side to side like a cat, but at last a lucky and desperate stab from me laid the red brute lifeless at my feet. I had struck him an upward blow in the stomach, and the keen knife, having penetrated his clothes and outer flesh, had passed, as through a pat of butter, up to the hilt into his body and transfixed his heart. He lay on the floor a moment writhing and trampling with his feet, and then he gave a dreadful gasp or two and died! To the last his fierce eyes seemed to bore deadly hatred into mine, and I could not help shuddering, even in victory, at the terrible escape I had had.

At first I was overcome with faintness and fatigue. I could hear Fanny yelling but could not go to her assistance. I sat on the bed next to the motionless Amy and panted; I did not feel my wounds much, but they made me sick. Poor Amy was lying on her face, which I could not see. She was stark naked. Her arms were tied behind her back, her elbows being made to meet. Bandages, also fastened behind, passed apparently over her face and confined her rich flowing locks at the back of her head. I had not time, nor spirit, to fall to admiring her lovely form, but to this day I see those rich full hips and those beautiful hemispheres, between which was that back entrance so lately defiled by the beastly Afghan's black prick. At last, somewhat recovered, I began with hands trembling with fatigue and excitement to try and undo the bandages. They were knotted too tightly, however, and I had to use the knife I held to cut them, and wherever I touched her the blood streamed from me on to her fair white skin, until she looked as if she were weltering in her own gore; but at last I succeeded, and got the arms free, and the bandage off her face, then putting my hands under her, I turned her on her back. In so doing I unconsciously grasped two full and firm bubbies which adorned her bosom far more richly than Fanny's did hers, for, though some eighteen months younger than her sister, Amy was more 'grown up' in body than Fanny. I was in an agony to know if the Afghan's brutal boast was true. Had he fucked as well as he had undoubtedly buggered the unfortunate girl? Hardly noticing then the fact that the bush which curled all over the plump and well-shaped motte under my eyes was far thicker and more grown than on Fanny's, I slipped an enquiring finger into the palpitating and sweet little cunt, feeling sick at heart with dread and apprehension'. Oh! joy! she had not been fucked. Her dear little maidenhead was intact. Buggered she had been, but not ravished.