ere is he now?"

"At work as usual, Major; shall I go and speak to him? But I tell you
fairly I don't think he will undertake it."

"Why not, Doctor? It is a dangerous mission, but no more dangerous than
remaining here."

"Well, we shall see," the Doctor said, as he left the group.

Nothing was said for a few minutes, the men sitting or lying about
smoking. Presently the Doctor returned.

"Bathurst refuses absolutely," he said. "He admits that he does not
think there would be much difficulty for him to get through, but he is
convinced that the mission would be a useless one, and that could help
have been spared it would have come to us before now."

"But in that case he would have made his escape," the Major said.

"That is just why he won't go, Major; he says that come what will he will
share the fate of the rest, and that he will not live to be pointed to
as the one man who made his escape of the garrison of Deennugghur."

"Whom can we send?" the Major said. "You are the only other man who
speaks the language well enough to pass as a native, Doctor."

"I speak it fairly, but not well enough for that; besides, I am too old
to bear the fatigue of riding night and day; and, moreover, my services
are wanted here both as a doctor and as a rifle shot."

"I will go, if you will send me, Major," Captain Forster said suddenly;
"not in disguise, but in uniform, and on my horse's back. Of course I
should run the gauntlet of their sentries. Once through, I doubt if they
have a horse that could overtake mine."

There was a general silence of surprise. Forster's reckless courage was
notorious, and he had been conspicuous for the manner in which he had
chosen the most dangerous points during the siege; and this offer to
undertake what, although a dangerous enterprise in itself, still offered
a far better chance of life than that of remaining behind, surprised
everyone. It had been noticed that, since the rejection of his plan to
sally out in a body and cut their way through the enemy, he had been
moody and silent, except only when the fire was heavy and the danger
considerable; then he laughed and joked and seemed absolutely to enjoy
the excitement; but he was the last man whom any of them would have
expected to volunteer for a service that, dangerous as it might be, had
just been refused by Bathurst on the ground that it offered a chance of
escape from the common lot.

The Major was the first to speak.

"Well, Captai