take, I should have flinched; I had made
up my mind they would have pistols, but I hope--I think that my nerves
would not have given way then."

"I am sure they wouldn't, Bathurst. Well, go on with your story."

"Well, how did you feel then?" he asked, when Bathurst described how the
guard rushed in through the gate firing, "for it is the noise, and not
the danger, that upsets you?"

"I did not even think of it," Bathurst said, in some surprise. "Now you
mention it, I am astonished that I was not for a minute paralyzed, as
I always am, but I did not feel anything of the sort; they rushed in
firing as I told you, and directly they had gone I took her hand and we
ran out together."

"I think it quite possible, Bathurst, that your nervousness may have
gone forever. Now that once you have heard guns fired close to you
without your nerves giving way as usual, it is quite possible that
you might do so again. I don't say that you would, but it is possible,
indeed it seems to me to be probable. It may be that the sudden shock
when you jumped into the water, acting upon your nerves when in a state
of extreme tension, may have set them right, and that bullet graze
along the top of the skull may have aided the effect of the shock. Men
frequently lose their nerve after a heavy fall from a horse, or a sudden
attack by a tiger, or any other unexpected shock. It may be that with
you it has had the reverse consequence."

"I hope to God that it may be so, Doctor," Bathurst said, with deep
earnestness. "It is certainly extraordinary I should not have felt
it when they fired within a few feet of my head. If we get down to
Allahabad I will try. I will place myself near a gun when it is going to
be fired; and if I stand that I will come up again and join this column
as a volunteer, and take part in the work of vengeance. If I can but
once bear my part as a man, they are welcome to kill me in the next
engagement."

"Pooh! pooh! man. You are not born to be killed in battle. After making
yourself a target on the roof at Deennugghur, and jumping down in the
middle of the Sepoys in the breach, and getting through that attack in
the boats, I don't think you are fated to meet your end with a bullet.
Well, now let us walk on, and join the others. Isobel must be wondering
how much longer we are going to talk together. She cannot exchange a
word with the natives; it must be dull work for her. She is a great
deal thinner than she was before the