heard from any of you. How have you all been
keeping?"

"Why, as well as could be expected. But we will be better tomorrow--we
will be different men to-morrow, eh, Corporal?"

"Yes, sir," said the corporal, raising his hand to his forehead in a
military salute. "We'll be right as the bank to-morrow."

"The corporal and I are a little disturbed in our minds just now," the
general explained, "but I have no doubt that all will come right. After
all, there is nothing higher than Providence, and we are all in His
hands. And how have you been, eh?"

"We have been very busy for one thing," said I. "I suppose you have
heard nothing of the great shipwreck?"

"Not a word," the general answered listlessly.

"I thought the noise of the wind would prevent you hearing the signal
guns. She came ashore in the bay the night before last--a great barque
from India."

"From India!" ejaculated the general.

"Yes. Her crew were saved, fortunately, and have all been sent on to
Glasgow."

"All sent on!" cried the general, with a face as bloodless as a corpse.

"All except three rather strange characters who claim to be Buddhist
priests. They have decided to remain for a few days upon the coast."

The words were hardly out of my mouth when the general dropped upon his
knees with his long, thin arms extended to Heaven.

"Thy will be done!" he cried in a cracking voice. "Thy blessed will be
done!"

I could see through the crack that Corporal Rufus Smith's face had
turned to a sickly yellow shade, and that he was wiping the perspiration
from his brow.

"It's like my luck!" he said. "After all these years, to come when I
have got a snug billet."

"Never mind, my lad," the general said, rising, and squaring his
shoulders like a man who braces himself up for an effort. "Be it what
it may we'll face it as British soldiers should. D'ye remember at
Chillianwallah, when you had to run from your guns to our square, and
the Sikh horse came thundering down on our bayonets? We didn't flinch
then, and we won't flinch now. It seems to me that I feel better than I
have done for years. It was the uncertainty that was killing me."

"And the infernal jingle-jangle," said the corporal. "Well, we all go
together--that's some consolation."

"Good-bye, West," said the general. "Be a good husband to Gabriel,
and give my poor wife a home. I don't think she will trouble you long.
Good-bye! God bless you!"

"Look here, General," I said, peremptoril