eerful upon an
occasion of this kind. The longer we laugh, the less time there is for
tears."

And so the party did not break up until it was nearly time for the
little troop to start. Then there was a brief passionate parting, and
the volunteer horse rode away to Cawnpore. Almost the first person they
met as they rode into the British lines was Wilson, who gave a shout of
joy at seeing the Doctor and Bathurst.

"My dear Bathurst!" he exclaimed. "Then you got safely down. Did you
rescue Miss Hannay?"

"I had that good fortune, Wilson."

"I am glad. I am glad," the young fellow said, shaking his hand
violently, while the tears stood in his eyes. "I know you were right
in sending me away, but I have regretted it ever since. I know I should
have been no good, but it seemed such a mean thing for me to go off by
myself. Well, Doctor, and so you got off too," he went on, turning from
Bathurst and wringing the Doctor's hand; "I never even hoped that you
escaped. I made sure that it was only we two. I have had an awful time
of it since we heard the news, on the way up, of the massacre of the
women. I had great faith in Bathurst, and knew that if anything could be
done he would do it, but when I saw the place they had been shut up in,
it did not seem really possible that he could have got anyone out of
such a hole. And where did you leave Miss Hannay?"

"We have not left her at all," the Doctor said gravely; "there is no
longer a Miss Hannay. There, man, don't look so shocked. She changed her
name on the morning we came away."

"What!" Wilson exclaimed. "Is she Mrs. Bathurst? I am glad, Bathurst.
Shake hands again; I felt sure that if you did rescue her that was what
would come of it. I was almost certain by her way when I talked to
her about you one day that she liked you. I was awfully spoony on her
myself, you know, but I knew it was no use, and I would rather by a lot
that she married you than anyone else I know. But come along into my
tent; you know your troop and ours are going to be joined. We have
lost pretty near half our fellows, either in the fights coming up or by
sunstroke or fever since we came here. I got hold of some fizz in the
bazaar yesterday, and I am sure you must be thirsty. This is a splendid
business; I don't know that I ever felt so glad of anything in my life,"
and he dragged them away to his tent.

Bathurst found, to his disappointment, that intense as was the desire to
push forward to Lucknow