“I thought I should find some of you fellows keeping it up.”

“Well, there was nothing else to do.  There won’t be much chance of going to sleep.  We all dined in the town, for of course the mess plate and kit have been packed up.  We are not taking much with us now, just enough to make shift with.  The rest will be sent round to Calcutta, to be stored there till we settle down.  The men had a dinner given to them by the town, and as they all got leave out till twelve o’clock, and the loading of the wagons began at two, there has been a row going on all night.  Most of us played pool till an hour ago, then we gradually dropped off for an hour’s snooze.”

“There will be a chance of getting breakfast, I hope?”

“Yes, there is to be a rough and tumble breakfast at a quarter to five.  We fall in at a quarter past.  We got through the inspection of kits yesterday.  The mess sergeant and a party will pack up the breakfast things, and the pots and pans will come on by the next train.  There is one at eight.  It will be in plenty of time, as I don’t suppose the transport will be off until the afternoon, perhaps not till night.  There are always delays at the last moment.

“However, it will be something to be on board ship.  That is the first step towards getting at those black scoundrels.  We are all afraid that we shall be late for Delhi; still there is plenty of other work to be done.”

“Any ladies with us?”

“No, there was a general agreement among the married officers that they had best be left behind.  So for once the regiment goes without women.”

“There is a levity about your tone that I do not approve of, Armstrong,” Frank Mallett said, reprovingly.  “There were no women when we went out to the Crimea, at the time when you were a good little boy doing Latin exercises.”

“Well, altogether it is a good thing, Mallett, and we shall be much more comfortable without them.”

“Speak for yourself, Armstrong.  Lads of your age who can talk nothing but barrack slang, and are eminently uncomfortable when they have to chat for five minutes to a lady, are naturally glad when they are free from the restraint of having to talk like reasonable beings; but it is not so with older and wiser men.  How about Marshall?”

“He has been away on leave for the last ten days.  He has not come back here.  There have been two fellows inquiring after him diligently for the last week.  There was no mistaking their errand, even if we did not know how he stood.  I expect he is on board the transport.  I fancy the Colonel gave him a hint to join there.  No doubt the Jews will be on the lookout for him at Plymouth, as well as here; but he will manage to smuggle himself on board somehow, even if he has to wrap up as an old woman.”