ce to-night."

"Whom shall you send?" I cried eagerly. "Let me go."

"It is too important a task to trust to another," he replied. "I am
going myself. You can go with me if you like."

I eagerly snatched at the opportunity, and then sat down with him near
the edge of the jungle patch to watch the village and note everything
that passed. In the course of conversation Brace told me that the
doctor would also start on his expedition at dark, Dost accompanying him
to the lane in the city, where he could attend to the major's wounds and
learn whether there was any news of the women.

Brace kept on chatting to me; but I soon found out that it was to keep
down his excitement, and his mind employed, so that he should not dwell
upon the terrible enforced delay; for quite a fever was consuming him,
his eyes looked unnaturally bright, and his fingers kept twitching and
playing with the handle of his sword.

That night seemed as if it would never come, and I never suffered so
from the heat; but it came at last, and, almost before I realised it,
Brace was giving the doctor his final instructions and a message for the
major.

"Tell him," said Brace, in a low voice, "that I shall never rest till I
have retrieved our disgrace. Tell him to be of a good heart, for I will
get back the guns."

"My dear Brace," said the doctor coldly, "our poor friend is not likely
to understand anything for some days to come, perhaps weeks. Your
message is all in vain. Now, Dost--ready?"

The white figure of my servant glided up to us, and the next minute the
pair had disappeared, while, after a few words had been addressed to
Haynes as to keeping the men well under cover, we two stepped out of the
shelter of the jungle, and the darkness swallowed us from the sight of
the sentry.

We had carefully mapped our way that afternoon, and I saw it all in my
mind; how we must go down that nullah, along by those trees, and make
straight for the cultivated land, which spread out around the village,
evidently one whose inhabitants cultivated largely for the benefit of
the city. And in all our discussions as to our course, Brace and I had
thoroughly agreed, for the task was, or seemed to be, simplicity itself;
but in the intense darkness of the Indian night it proved to be very
different in character.

As we started we could see the distant lights of the city across the
river, and, keeping them on our right, they formed sometimes a guide for
a fe