I believe now that you
were right, sahib, although I did not think so when you spoke, and that
the British Raj will be restored. I thought, as did the Sepoys, that
they were a match for the British troops. I see now that I was wrong.
But there is a tremendous task before them. There is all Oude and the
Northwest to conquer, and fully two hundred thousand men in arms against
them, but I believe that they will do it. They are a great people, and
now I do not wish it otherwise. This afternoon I shall start."

The Doctor, who had found many acquaintances in Allahabad, had no
difficulty in obtaining money from the garrison treasury, and Bathurst
and Isobel purchased the two handsomest bracelets they could obtain from
the ladies in the fort as a souvenir for Rabda, and gave them to her
with the heartiest expressions of their deep gratitude to her and her
father.

"I shall think of you always, Rabda," Isobel said, "and shall be
grateful to the end of my life for the kindness that you have done us.
Your father has given us your address at Patna, and I shall write to you
often."

"I shall never forget you, lady; and even the black water will not quite
separate us. As I knew how you were in prison, so I shall know how you
are in your home in England. What we have done is little. Did not the
sahib risk his life for me? My father and I will never forget what we
owe him. I am glad to know that you will make him happy."

This was said in the room that had been allotted to Isobel, an ayah of
one of the ladies in the fort acting as interpreter. The girl had woke
up in the morning flushed and feverish, and the Doctor, when sent for,
told her she must keep absolutely quiet.

"I am afraid I am going to have her on my hands for a bit," he said to
Bathurst. "She has borne the strain well, but she looks to me as if she
was going to have a smart attack of fever. It is well that we got her
here before it showed itself. You need not look scared; it is just the
reaction. If it had been going to be brain fever or anything of that
sort, I should have expected her to break down directly you got her out.
No, I don't anticipate anything serious, and I am sure I hope that it
won't be so. I have put my name down to go up with the next batch of
volunteers. Doctors will be wanted at the front, and I hope to have a
chance of wiping out my score with some of those scoundrels. However,
though I think she is going to be laid up, I don't fancy it will l