e came into the
light of the fire, several of the officers jumped up, with their
hands on their revolvers.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" Lisle exclaimed, with a laugh. "I can
assure you that I am perfectly harmless."

"It is Bullen's voice," one of them exclaimed, and all crowded
round him, and wrung his hands and patted him on the back.

"This is the second time, Bullen, that you have come back to us
from the dead; and this time, like Hamlet's father, you have come
back with very questionable disguise. Now, sit down and take a cup
of tea, which is all we have to offer you."

"I will," Lisle said, "and I shall be glad of some cold meat; for I
have been living, for the past three days, on uncooked grain."

The meat was brought, and Lisle ate it ravenously, declining to
answer any questions until he had finished.

"Now," he said, "I will tell you a plain, unvarnished tale;" and he
gave them, in full detail, the adventure he had gone through.

"Upon my word, Lisle, you are as full of resources as an egg is
full of meat. Your pluck, in going down to the lower story of that
house while the women were chatting outside, was wonderful. It was,
of course, sheer luck that you found that dead Pathan, and so got
suitable clothes; but how you dyed your face that colour, I cannot
understand."

Lisle explained how he had found a plant which was, as he knew,
used for that purpose; and how he had extracted the colouring
matter from it.

"You had wonderful luck in making your way through the Pathans,
without being questioned; but, as we know, fortune favours the
brave. Well, I shall have another yarn to tell General Lockhart, in
the morning; but how we are to rig you out, I don't know."

Several of the officers, however, had managed to carry one or two
spare garments in their kits. These were produced; and Lisle, with
great satisfaction, threw off the dirt-stained Pathan garments, and
arrayed himself in uniform.

Pleased as all the others were at his return, no one was so
delighted as Robah, who fairly cried over his master, whom he had
believed to be lost for ever.

"We shall not be uneasy about you again, Bullen," the colonel said,
as they lay down for the night. "Whenever we miss you we shall know
that, sooner or later, you will turn up, like a bad penny. If you
hadn't got that wound in the leg--which, by the way, the surgeon
had better dress and examine in the morning--I should have said
that you were invulnerable to