rsely; and a canteen
having been handed to him, he drank deeply, and then tried to rise, but
failed.

"You'll have to go on, captain," he said hoarsely. "I've got a bit of a
hurt. I did not think it was so much as it is. Makes me a bit faint.
If some one took my arm perhaps I could struggle on."

"We are close to the jungle, sahib," whispered Dost.

"Two of you support the sergeant," cried the captain; and a couple of
men being detailed for the duty, the sergeant struggled on again for
about a couple of hundred yards, the last hundred being in the deep
shadows of the trees; and none too soon, for a few bird notes were heard
announcing the coming day. Ten minutes later sentries were posted, the
horses picketed, and the men were lying down to drop asleep directly,
while the doctor busily examined the sergeant's wound.

"A big and ugly one," he said, "but nothing to mind. Made you faint, of
course. There, it isn't your sword arm."

"'Tisn't your sword arm" rung in my ears again and again, mingled with
the whistling and singing of birds; and to me the bird song had
something to do with the dressing of the wound; and then all was blank,
and I was plunged in a deep sleep which after some time grew disturbed,
and I seemed to be back at the college, drilling, and studying under
General Crucie. Then I was getting into difficulties with my fellow
cadets and being sent to Coventry, as the most ill-humoured fellow they
knew; and then I was awake, gazing up at the trees whose boughs shaded
us from the sun, bathed in perspiration, and smelling tobacco smoke.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. Dhoolies are light ambulances.

Note 2. Purdahs, curtains or hangings.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

"Awake, Gil?" said a voice by me, and I started up to see that Brace was
seated close by me, with his elbow upon his knee and his chin resting in
his hand.

"Yes," I said. "Have I been asleep long?"

"About seven or eight hours, my lad."

"Oh, why didn't you rouse me?" I cried.

"Because there was no work for you to do, and it was better for you to
have a good long rest ready for when I want you. Come and have some
breakfast--such as it is."

"Can't I wash first?" I asked.

He laughed.

"No, my lad. There is the river below us yonder, and you can see the
barracks, what is left of them."

"Left of them?"

"Yes. They were set on fire about nine o'clock, and the smoke i