“Save us alive!  This bangs Bannagher.  Wait, honey—­wait till I call an officer.”

Presently, when the wounds had been rudely but effectively bound up, a captain of the 38th came up, and to him McKay made himself known.

“This is no time or place to ask how you came here.  Taken prisoner, I suppose?”

“Who are you?  What force?”

“Eyre’s Brigade:  of the Third Division.  Told off to attack the Creek Battery.  We have carried the cemetery, but what else we’ve done I have not the least idea.”

“Haven’t you?  Well, I’ll tell you.  You’ve taken Sebastopol.”

“Not quite, I’m afraid.”

“You’re well inside the fortress anyway.  I can tell you that for certain.  Just above is the place in which I was kept a prisoner.”

“Is that a fact?  By Jove! what tremendous luck!”

“But can you hold your ground?”

“Eyre will.  He’ll hold on by his eyelids till reinforcements come up, never fear.  And the French have promised us support.”

“Is yours the only attack?”

“Dear no!  The French have gone in at the Malakoff, and our people at the Redan.”

“How has it gone—­have you any idea?” asked McKay, anxiously.

“No one knows, except the general, perhaps.  Here he comes; and he don’t look over pleased.”

General Eyre, a tall, fierce-looking soldier, strode up with a long step, talking excitedly to a staff-officer, whom McKay recognised as one of Lord Raglan’s aides-de-camps.

“Hold our ground!” the general was saying.  “Of course we will, to the last.  But if the French could only come up in force we might still retrieve the day.  You see we are well inside, though I cannot say exactly where.”

At this moment the officer who had been speaking to McKay touched his hat and said to the general—­

“There is some one here who can tell you, I think, sir.”

“Who is that?  A prisoner?”

“One of our own people.  McKay, of the headquarter staff.  A man whom the Russians took, and whom we have just recovered.”

“McKay!” cried the aide-de-camp, joyfully.  “Where is he?”

Our hero was speedily surrounded by a group of sympathetic friends, to whom he gave a short account of himself.  Then he briefly explained to the general the position in which they were.

“It is as I thought,” said the general.  “We have pierced the Russian works above the man-of-war harbour, and, if reinforced promptly, can take the whole of the line in reverse.  Will you let Lord Raglan know? and the attack might then be renewed on this side.”

“I fear there is no hope of that,” said the aide-de-camp, gloomily.

“Have we failed, then?” asked McKay.

His friend shook his head.

“Completely.  I cannot tell why exactly, but I know that part of the French started prematurely.  There was some mistake about the signal-rocket.  This gave the alarm to the whole garrison.”