d for; only
annoyance, humiliation, and trouble. To find his son, then, all
that he could wish for--a gentleman, a most promising young
officer, the man, indeed, to whom he had been so specially
attracted--was a joy altogether unhoped and unlooked for.

Morning had broken before the newly united father and son had done
their long and happy talk, and they separated only to take a bath,
to prepare them for the day's work.

The astonishment of everyone was unbounded when Colonel Ripon
announced, on the following morning, that in Captain Gale of the
66th--who, it was known, had risen from the ranks--he had
discovered a son that had been stolen from him, as a child. No one
entertained a doubt, for an instant, that any mistake had arisen;
for the likeness between the two men, as they strode down the
street together, on their way to General Roberts' quarters, was so
marked that--now that men knew the relationship--none doubted for a
moment that they were, indeed, father and son.

The warmest congratulations poured in upon them, from all sides;
and from none more heartily than from the general, who was more
than ever pleased that he had been the means of Will's obtaining
his commission from the ranks.

The same day Colonel Ripon sent off, by a mounted messenger
carrying despatches, a telegram to be sent from the nearest station
of the flying line--which the engineers advancing with General
Phayre's force had already carried as far as the Kojak Pass--to the
government of India; asking leave to go home, at once, on the most
urgent and pressing family business.

Yossouf's grief, when he heard that his master was going to leave for
England, was very great. At first, he begged that he might accompany
him; but Tom pointed out that--much as he should like to have him with
him--his position in England would be an uncomfortable one. He would
meet with no one with whom he could converse; and would, after a time,
long for his own country again. Yossouf yielded to his reasoning;
and the picture which Will drew of his own loneliness when in Cabul,
separated from all his own people, aided greatly in enforcing his
arguments on his mind. He said however that, at any rate, he would not
return to Afghanistan, at present.

"It will be long," he said, "before things settle down there; and
it will be useless for me to put my money into a herd which might
be driven off by plunderers, the next week.

"Besides, at present the feeling agains