Another life was thrust in between her and the proximate enjoyment of high rank and great wealth.

Who was this interloper—­this McKay—­this private soldier serving in the ranks of the Royal Picts?  What sort of man?  What were his prospects—­his age?  Was it likely that he would stand permanently in her way?

These were facts which she must speedily ascertain.  The regiment to which he belonged was in the Crimea, part of her uncle’s brigade.  Surely through him she might discover all she wanted to know.  But how could this be best accomplished?

The more she thought over it, the more convinced she was that she ought to go in person to the Crimea, to prosecute her inquiries on the spot.  While still doubtful as to the best means of reaching the theatre of war, it occurred to her that she could not do better than make use of Lord Lydstone’s yacht.

It would have to go home eventually—­to be paid off and disposed of by Lord Lydstone’s heirs.  But there was surely no immediate hurry for this, and Mrs. Wilders thought she had sufficient influence with Captain Trejago to persuade him, not only to postpone his departure, but to take a trip to the Crimea.

In this she was perfectly successful, and the day after Lord Lydstone’s funeral the Arcadia, with a fine breeze aft, steered northward across the Black Sea.

It reached Balaclava on the morning of the 5th of November, and Mrs. Wilders immediately despatched a messenger on shore to inform the general of her arrival.  That day, however, the general and his brigade were very busily employed.  It was the day of Inkerman!

CHAPTER XVI.

“HARD POUNDING.”

Mr. Hobson, as he called himself, had been perfectly right when he gleefully assured Mrs. Wilders that the Russians were gathering up their strength for a supreme effort against the allies.  Reinforcements had been steadily pouring into the Crimea for weeks past—­two of the Czar’s sons had arrived to stir up the enthusiasm of the soldiers.  Menschikoff, who still commanded, counted confidently upon inflicting exemplary chastisement upon the invaders.  He looked for nothing less, according to an intercepted despatch, than the destruction or capture of the whole allied army.

No doubt the enemy had now an overwhelming superiority in numbers.  The total land forces under Prince Menschikoff’s command, including the garrison of Sebastopol, were 120,000 strong.  Those numbers included a large body of cavalry and a formidable field artillery.

The entire allied army was barely half that strength.  It was called upon, moreover, to occupy an immense front—­a front which extended from the sea at Kamiesch to the Tchernaya, and from the Tchernaya, by a long and circuitous route, back to the sea at Balaclava.  This line, offensive as regards the siege-works, but defensive along the unduly extended and exposed right flank at Balaclava, was close on twenty miles.  The great length of front made severe demands upon the allied troops; it could only be manned by dangerously splitting up their whole strength into many weak units, none of which could be very easily or rapidly reinforced by the rest.