wn to the river where we discovered the
sergeant. What can have become of your brother since I know not.
Evidently he left his water-bottle by his comrade and went somewhere,
probably to join us. As I was saying to you when we were chatting about
it before you opened that letter, he was probably either making his way
towards the square on the day of the fight or coming towards our camp
after we got in, and was seized by the Arabs. That was the conclusion at
which we all arrived, though I had little thought when we were talking
it over that the missing man was your brother."

"Then you think he has been killed?" Rupert said hoarsely.

"I don't know that, Clinton. He may have been made a prisoner. You see,
we have searched the ground between that grove and our camp thoroughly
to-day, and had he been killed there I think we should certainly have
found him. Of course it may have happened further out on the plain if he
was making his way out to join our square; but I should think he would
never have done that, for the Arabs were swarming all round it. Besides,
the Hussars were scouting about all over the plains this morning, and if
they had seen the body of any of our men would certainly have reported
it. The Arabs in fight never show mercy, but if they came upon him by
himself they might very well have carried him off as a prisoner,
especially if he made no resistance. You see, they are all slave-dealers
at heart; besides, they might think that a white prisoner would be an
acceptable present to the Mahdi. Of course I know no more about it than
you do, but I should say that the chances are quite as great of his
being taken prisoner as of his having been killed."

"One is as bad as the other," Rupert said in a broken voice. "This is
awful, Easton. I will walk up to your camp again. Would you mind seeing
the colonel of his regiment or the officer of his troop, and find out
what you can about him?"

Easton soon found one of the few surviving officers of Edgar's troop.

"Can you tell me anything about Trumpeter Smith?" he asked. "I have
reason to believe that he was a relative of a friend of mine, and that
he ran away and enlisted under a false name."

"He bore an excellent character," the officer said. "He came to us from
the Hussars at Cairo, and no one could behave better than he has done
from the time he joined us. They would not have sent him to us if he
hadn't been a thoroughly well-conducted young fellow. I was chatt