ey know of the massacre by the
river, and they know that the women and children are prisoners in his
hands, and do you think that men who know these things can be beaten?
The Sepoys met them in superior force and in a strong position at
Futtehpore, and they drove them before them like chaff. They will have
harder work next time, but I have no shadow of fear of the result."

Then their talk went back to Deennugghur and of their friends there--the
Doolans, the Hunters, the Rintouls, and others--and Isobel wept freely
over their fate.

"Next to my uncle I shall miss the Doctor," she said.

"He was an awfully good fellow," Bathurst said, "and was the only real
friend I have had since I came to India, I would have done anything for
him."

"When shall we start?" Isobel asked presently.

"Directly the sun goes down a little. You would find it terribly hot
now. I have been talking it over with Rujub, and he says it is better
not to make a long journey today. We are not more than twenty miles from
Dong, and it would not do to move in that direction until we know how
things have gone; therefore, if we start at three o'clock and walk till
seven or eight, it will be quite far enough."

"He seems a wonderful man," said Isobel. "You remember that talk we had
at dinner, before we went to see him at the Hunters!"

"Yes," he said. "As you know, I was a believer then, and so was the
Doctor. I need not say that I believe still more now that these men do
wholly unaccountable feats. He put the sentry outside the walls of your
prison and five out of your eight warders so sound asleep that they did
not wake during the struggle I had with the others. That, of course,
was mesmerism. His messages to you were actually sent by means of his
daughter. She was put in a sort of trance, in which she saw you and told
us what you were doing, and communicated the message her father gave her
to you. He could not send you a message nor tell me about you when you
were first at Bithoor, because he said Rabda was not in sympathy with
you, but after she had seen you and touched you and you had kissed her,
she was able to do so. There does not appear to me to be anything beyond
the powers of nature in that, though doubtless powers were called into
play of which at present we know nothing. But we do know that minds act
upon each other. Possibly certain persons in sympathy with each other
may be able to act upon each other from a distance, especially when