iver is ordering
Griselda to be saddled and brought across at once. If the affair looks
serious we'll send an orderly back to fetch a doolie from the
hospital, come on here for you and the Boy, and see you safely to the
Fort, where you must stay till further orders. Get all possible
necessaries together, and be ready to leave at a moment's notice."

"If we move him to-night, Theo, 'twill be--the end of it all."

A spasm of pain crossed his face.

"I hope to God it mayn't be necessary. But we must take our chance of
that. It won't be safe for you to have a light in the house, with
every door open, and the city full of _budmashes_.[24] Can you manage
with just a night-light carefully screened?"

[24] Bad characters.

"Sure I can. I'll manage to see with me fingers well enough!"

"Right! Amar Singh'll sit outside the door. He'll not sleep a wink, I
promise you."

The suspicion of a tremor in her brave smile caught at his heart. He
pressed her shoulder with a reassuring hand.

"Sorry Olliver couldn't see you before leaving," he said gently.
"Hullo, there's Paul; I must be off. God bless you for a plucky woman,
Frank. We'll all get back--sometime, never fear." And in an instant
she was alone.

Nothing remained but to blow out the lamp and set the screened
night-light on a table farthest from the outer doors. Its uncertain
flicker served to make darkness visible and through the darkness she
crept back to her station by the bed.

Denvil, who had fallen into an unrefreshing sleep, stirred and tossed
with broken mutterings that threatened every moment to break out into
the babble of delirium; and for a while she sat beside him in a
stunned quietness, her ears strained to catch the sounds that came up
from below--the hasty gathering of men and horses and mules; the
jingle of harness; brisk words of command; the tramping of many feet.
Comforting sounds, since they spoke of the protective presence of
Englishmen.

But those that followed were less reassuring, for they were sounds of
massed movement, of an organised body under way: the muffled tread of
infantry, the cheerful clatter of cavalry at the trot. She knew the
order of their going, to the minutest detail. A vision of it all was
photographed upon her brain as she had witnessed it these many times
within the past ten years; and perhaps owing to the mental vividness
of her race, custom had not yet ground the edge off the poignant
moment of departure.

Rapidly,