ng dinner, then ceased.

"Well, Bathurst," the Doctor asked, "I suppose you have something
serious to tell me?"

"Very serious, Doctor;" and he repeated the news he had given the Major.

"It could not be worse, Bathurst," the Doctor said quietly, after the
first shock of the news had passed. "You know I never had any faith in
the Sepoys since I saw how this madness was spreading from station
to station. This sort of thing is contagious. It becomes a sort of
epidemic, and in spite of the assurances of the men I felt sure they
would go. But this scoundrel of Bithoor turning against us is more than
I bargained for. There is no disguising the fact that it means a general
rising through Oude, and in that case God help the women and children.
As for us, it all comes in the line of business. What does the Major
say?"

"The only question that seemed to him to be open was whether the women
and children could be got away."

"But there does not seem any possible place for them to go to. One or
two might travel down the country in disguise, but that is out of the
question for a large party. There is no refuge nearer than Allahabad.
With every man's hand against them, I see not the slightest chance of a
party making their way down."

"You or I might do it easily enough, Doctor, but for women it seems to
me out of the question; still, that is a matter for each married man to
decide for himself. The prospect is dark enough anyway, but, as before,
it seems to me that everything really depends upon the Zemindars. If we
hold the courthouse it is possible the Sepoys may be beaten off in their
first attack, and in their impatience to join the mutineers, who are
all apparently marching for Delhi, they may go off without throwing away
their lives by attacking us, for they must see they will not be able
to take the place without cannon. But if the Zemindars join them with
cannon, we may defend ourselves till the last, but there can be but one
end to it."

The Doctor nodded. "That is the situation exactly, Bathurst."

"I am glad we know the danger, and shall be able to face it openly,"
Wilson said. "For the last month Richards and I have been keeping watch
alternately, and it has been beastly funky work sitting with one's
pistols on the table before one, listening, and knowing any moment there
might be a yell, and these brown devils come pouring in. Now, at least,
we are likely to have a fight for it, and to know that some of them wil