lty in hiring a light native cart to take Annie,
who was, as he felt by the relaxation of her hold, unable to proceed
farther on horseback, or continue straight through to Tripataly.

A thick layer of straw was placed at the bottom of the cart, a couple
of rugs spread over it, and on this Annie was enabled to lie down at
her ease. The horses were fed and watered, and had an hour's rest, and
then they started for the last twenty miles of their journey.

Annie had, while the horses were resting, a chat with a native woman,
and had gone into her house with her. When they were ready for the
start, she returned, dressed in the costume she had worn in the
Palace. It had originally been intended to get rid of the clothes,
after starting, but Annie had asked for them to be taken on.

"I can change again, before I get to Tripataly," she said. "I should
not like to appear before your mother, for the first time, dressed as
a boy."

And Dick had at once fallen in with her wishes.

The turban was gone, and her head was covered in the fashion of native
women, with a long cotton cloth of a deep red colour.

Where the road was good, the cart proceeded at a fair pace, but in the
pass down the ghauts they could go only at a walk, and the sun had set
before they reached Tripataly. Dick, seeing that Annie was growing
very nervous, as they neared their destination, had ridden all the way
by the side of the cart, chatting cheerfully with her.

"Why, Annie," he said, "you look as solemn as if you were just going
into slavery, instead of having escaped from it."

"It is not that I feel solemn, Dick. It is that everything is so new
and strange. Of course, after your saving my life, I have never felt
that you were a stranger, and as long as there were only you and
Surajah, I did not mind, and I have felt quite at home with you. But
now that I am going to a new place, where I don't know anyone, I can't
help feeling desolate."

"You will feel quite as much at home with them, in twenty-four hours,
as you have done with me, Annie. You are tired now, and quite worn out
with your journey, and so you take a gloomy view of things. I will
guarantee that, before I go away again, you will be good friends with
everyone, and will wonder how you could have thought it to be anything
dreadful to come among them."

When they got within a mile of Tripataly, Dick said:

"Now I will ride on ahead, Annie, and prepare my mother for your
coming. It will b