will have a route map
prepared for you. The distance to Nagpore is about eight hundred
miles, and you will get there in four weeks, travelling thirty
miles a day. I have given orders, today, for one of the Company's
ships of war to take you and your escort to the mouth of the
Ganjam; and express messengers have already started, with orders to
the commandant to provide waggons to carry your tent, equipage and
stores. You should, if the winds are favourable, reach there in
four or five days' time."

"The carts will delay us, sir, and without them we might make forty
miles a day, after we have landed; for the horses of this country
have great endurance."

"A few days will make no great difference. There are no towns of
any importance on the road to Nagpore, and you would have to put up
at wretched khans, and would be considered as worthy of little
consideration; whereas I wish you to travel in a style suitable for
my agent, and to impress the native mind with your importance.

"Have you horses?"

"I have but one, sir, and a pony for my servant."

"You must purchase another, and a good one, with showy equipments.
You will, of course, charge that and all other expenses, and your
appointment will be a thousand rupees a month. I have no doubt the
rajah will lodge you handsomely. Should he not do so, you had best
encamp outside the town. Do not put up with any inferior lodging."

"Very well, sir; I shall endeavour to carry out your orders, to the
letter."

Harry was fortunate in being able to purchase an excellent horse
and, in the afternoon, received his letters of instruction. On the
following day he embarked in a twelve-gun sloop, with twenty
troopers under the command of a native officer. The wind was
favourable and, in four days, they arrived at the mouth of the
Ganjam.

A large native barge came out to meet them. The horses and the
stores which Harry had purchased, together with some boxes with
presents for the rajah, were transferred to her; and two of the
ship's boats took the barge in tow to the shore. The commandant of
the small garrison there informed Harry that the bullock carts had
already gone on to a village, thirty miles away; and that he would
find all in readiness for him, on his arrival.

Without waiting an hour he started with his escort and, half a mile
from the village, found the camp already pitched. It consisted of
one large and handsome tent, such as those used by high officials,
and two s