I shall get down to Allahabad, Isobel," he said. "If
I don't, go down to Calcutta, and go straight to Jamieson and Son; they
are my agents, and they will supply you with money to take you home;
they have a copy of my will; my agents in London have another copy. I
had two made in case of accident."

"Oh, uncle, you will get better now you are out of that terrible place."

"I am afraid it is too late, my dear, though I should like to live for
your sake. But I think I see happiness before you, if you choose to
take it; he is a noble fellow, Isobel, in spite of that unfortunate
weakness."

Isobel made no answer, but a slight pressure of the hand she was holding
showed that she understood what he meant. It was no use to tell her
uncle that she felt that what might have been was over now. Bathurst had
chatted with her several times the evening before and during the march
that morning, but she felt the difference between his tone and that in
which he had addressed her in the old times before the troubles began.
It was a subtle difference that she could hardly have explained even
to herself, but she knew that it was as a friend, and as a friend only,
that he would treat her in the future, and that the past was a closed
book, which he was determined not to reopen.

Bathurst talked to Mrs. Hunter and her daughter, both of whom were mere
shadows, worn out with grief, anxiety, and watching. At times he went
forward to talk to the young noble, who had taken his seat there. Both
boats had been arched in with a canopy of boughs to serve alike as a
protection from the sun and to screen those within from the sight of
natives in boats or on the banks.

"You don't look yourself, Bathurst," the Doctor said to him late in the
afternoon. "Everything seems going on well. No boats have passed us, and
the boatmen all say that we shall pass Cawnpore about one o'clock, at
the rate at which we are going."

"I feel nervous, Doctor; more anxious than I have been ever since this
began. There is an apprehension of danger weighing over me that I can't
account for. As you say, everything seems going on well, and yet I feel
that it is not so. I am afraid I am getting superstitious, but I feel
as if Rujub knows of some danger impending, and that he is somehow
conveying that impression to me. I know that there is nothing to be
done, and that we are doing the only thing that we can do, unless we
were to land and try and make our way down on foot, whic