“You will give up all idea, of course, of going on to Runjetpoora, and return with us to our camp and join our troop, for we are to attack these gentry to-morrow evening, I believe.  Colonel Atherly, of the engineers, commands the column.  He has heard of your exploits at Mooltan and Chillianwalla, and would be sorry to lose the services of so good a Sabre on this occasion.  You can report in writing to headquarters, through his Deputy-Adjutant-General, that you have joined your troop.  Your tent and servants can be sent over to you during to-morrow; in the meantime, you can share mine,”—­“or mine,”—­“or mine,”—­shouted a chorus of voices.

“Upon my word, Dorville, you are highly complimentary.  It’s very flattering to a fellow’s feelings to be so thoroughly appreciated, especially, after so long an absence from the regiment.  Devilish kind of you, gentlemen, to offer me quarters among you; but, as I cannot divide myself into half a dozen pieces, I shall only be too happy to accept our friend Dorville’s offer, he being first in the field.  By George, it will be rejoining with eclat if that little fort up yonder, on the hill side, could be carried by one bold dash, and the affair terminated in a day or so,” cried Carlton, his handsome face lighting up, and pleasure beaming from his flashing eye at the bare idea of the coming contest.

“If I can only get my twenty-four pound howitzer in a good position I will make the place so hot in a dozen hours that the blackguards will curse their unlucky stars that caused them to unlimber for action in such an owl’s nest as that,” put in another of the party, an artillery officer, attached to the flying column.

“But what say you to a move, gentlemen.  We have some miles to ride, and that, too, before the trumpet sounds the mess call,” said Travas, raising himself from his sitting position and moving towards his horse.  This suited the views of the whole party.  The greater number were already in the saddle.  While Arthur and the two others had their feet in the stirrup, preparing to mount, the whole party were startled and amazed by the very novel and unlooked for apparition of a female figure, flying towards them, evidently in great terror and alarm.  On reaching Carlton, who was the nearest to her, she bent forward with supplicating looks and clasped hands, passionately exclaiming, “Oh! for pity sake, hasten to the rescue, ere it be too late.  Fly! gentlemen, and stay the bloody work of those miscreants, those fiends in human form.  Oh! waste not a moment, or your aid may come too late.”  The supplicant was a handsome three-quarter cast.  Her luxuriant hair, dark as a raven’s wing, hung in wild confusion about her neck and shoulders.  Her well-fitting dress, of fine Madras muslin, hung in shreds around her finely moulded form, and blood was issuing from rents in her light kid slippers, caused, doubtless, by the thorns and other prickly obstacles she had met with on her passage through the tangled brushwood of the jungle.