hout being told. For another, the messenger who took the
note might have got captured on the way--they wouldn't want to tell
the sepoys more than they could help. Then there'd be something like a
hurry. They're attacked there too--can't even send us assistance. Told
us to waylay you and make use of you. Maybe they forgot your wife--maybe
they didn't. It's a devil of a business anyhow!"

It was difficult to talk at the speed that they were making, with their
own horses breathing heavily, O'Rourke's especially; the guns thundering
along behind them and the advance-guard clattering in front, and their
attention distracted every other minute by the noise of volleys on ahead
and the occasional staccato rattle of independent firing. The whole
sky was now alight with the reflection of the burning barracks and they
could see the ragged outlines of the cracking walls silhouetted against
the blazing red within. One mile or less from the burning buildings they
could see, too, the occasional flash of rifles where the two companies
of the Thirty-third, Honorable East India Company's Light Infantry, held
out against the mutineers.

"Why did they mutiny?" asked Bellairs.

"God knows! Nobody knows! Nobody knows anything! I'm thinking--"

"Thinking what?"

"Forrester-Carter is commanding. We'll settle this business pretty
quickly, now you've come. Then--Steady, boy! Steady! Hold up! This poor
horse of mine is just about foundered, by the feel of him. He'll reach
Doonha, though. Then we'll ask Carter to make a dash on Hanadra and
bring Mrs. Bellairs--maybe we'll meet her and the Risaldar half-way--who
knows? The sepoys wouldn't expect that, either. The move'd puzzle
'em--it'd be a good move, to my way of thinking."

"Let's hope Carter will consent!" prayed Bellairs fervently. "Now,
what's the lay of things?"

"Couldn't tell you! When I left, our men were surrounded. I had to burst
through the enemy to get away. Ours are all around the magazine and
the sepoys are on every side of them. You'll have to use diagonal fire
unless you want to hurt some of our chaps--sweep 'em cornerwise. There's
high ground over to the right there, within four hundred yards of the
position. Maybe they're holding it, though--there's no knowing!"

They could hear the roar of the flames now, and could see the figures
of sepoys running here and there. The rattle of musketry was incessant.
They could hear howls and yells and bugle-calls blown at random by th