he men who succeeded to the reins packed him off at once with a free
hand, and with no other orders than to hit, hit hard, and keep on
hitting.

"Go for them, Byng, old man. Live off the country, keep moving, and
don't let 'em guess once what your next move's going to be!"

So Byng recruited as he went, and struck like a brain-controlled tornado
at whatever crossed his path. But irreparable damage had been done
before the old school was relieved, and Byng--like others--was terribly
short of men. Many of his own irregulars were so enraged at having been
disbanded at a moment's notice that they refused to return to him. Their
honor, as they saw it, had been outraged. Only two British regiments
could be spared him, and they were both thinned by sickness from the
first. They were Sikhs, who formed the bulk of his headquarterless
brigade, and many of them were last-minute friends, who came to him
unorganized and almost utterly undrilled.

But Byng was a man of genius, and his bare reputation was enough to
offset much in the way of unpreparedness. He coaxed and licked and
praised his new men into shape as he went along; within a week he had
stormed Deeseera, blowing up their greatest reserve of ammunition and
momentarily stunning the rebellion's leaders. But cholera took charge in
the city, and two days later found him hurrying out again, to camp
where there was uncontaminated water, on rising ground that gave him the
command of three main roads. It was there that the rebels cornered him.

They blew up a hundred-yard-long bridge behind him at the one point
where a swiftly running river could be crossed, and from two other sides
at once mutinied native regiments and thousands from the countryside
flocked, hurrying to take a hand in what seemed destined to be Byng's
last action. The fact that so many swaggering soldier Sikhs were
cornered with him was sufficient in itself to bring out Hindoo and
Mohammedan alike.

The mutinous regiments had all been drilled and taught by British
officers until they were as nearly perfect as the military knowledge of
the day could make them; the fact that they had killed their officers
only served to make them savage without detracting much from their
efficiency. They had native officers quite capable of taking charge, and
sense enough to retain their discipline.

So Byng intrenched himself on the gradual rise, and sent out as many
messengers as he could spare to bring reinforcements from