f, looking years older--weak, thin, sunken-eyed, little like the
sleek, well-fed Babu Desmond had last seen in Calcutta.

"Are the ladies safe?" asked Desmond, yards ahead of his men.

"Yes, sir, quite safe," replied Surendra Nath, trembling.

"Thank God for that! Go in, Babu: tell them we are here to protect them."

While speaking he had eagerly scanned the surroundings. On each side of
the sodden track that did duty for a road there was a mango grove.
Desmond directed Toley to take four men to one side, and Bulger four men
to the other, and place themselves among the trees. When the first three
files of the horsemen should have passed through, the seamen were to give
the word to fire; then, taking advantage of the inevitable confusion, to
rush with their men to the house. Desmond himself meanwhile, with the
remaining twelve, set to work to strengthen the defenses. These
proceedings were watched with amazement by the villagers, who, men,
women, and children, stood in groups, discussing in shrill tones the
movements of these energetic strangers.

There was a small veranda to the house. This was wrenched away by main
force. The posts and other parts of the woodwork were carried to the
gateway and piled up as rapidly as possible to form a rough barricade.
Scarcely was this task half accomplished when the clanking of weapons was
heard in the distance, soon accompanied by the swashing of horses' hoofs
on the drenched soil.

Desmond coolly ordered his men to proceed with the work. A minute later
there was a sharp discharge of musketry, followed by cries, shouts, and
the sound of galloping horses. The villagers scuttled away shrieking.
Immediately afterward Bulger and Toley with their eight men sprang from
cover and made a dash for the wall.

"Muskets first!" shouted Desmond.

The muskets were pitched over: then the men scrambled up, Desmond and his
Sepoys assisting them to get across. Almost the first to drop down into
the compound was Bulger, whose hook had proved, not for the first time,
of more service than a sound left arm. Once over himself, he used his
hook to haul the Sepoys after him, with many a vigorous "Yo, heave ho!"

"All aboard, sir," he cried, when the last of the men was within the
wall. "I may be wrong, but I lay my button hook 'tis now all hands to
repel boarders; and only two cutlasses among us--mine and Mr. Toley's.
What ho, mateys! who cares--"

Desmond ordered four of his men to post them