m and
regard of any among whom he might be thrown, and would lead them to
regard him in an entirely different light to that in which they
would otherwise have held him.

"I think that you will all agree with me, gentlemen."

"Certainly."

There was a chorus of assent from the circle of officers. His
narrative had, as the general said, shown that the young fellow was
possessed of coolness, steadiness, and pluck; but this feat was
altogether out of the common and, as performed by a mere lad,
seemed little short of marvellous.

"You will, of course, have Hitchcock's quarters," the quartermaster
general said to Stanley, as the party broke up. "It is a small
room, but it has the advantage of being water tight, which is more
than one can say of most of our quarters. It is a room in the upper
storey of the next house. I fancy the poor fellow's card is on the
door still. The commissariat offices are in the lower part of the
house, and they occupy all the other rooms upstairs; but we kept
this for one of the aides-de-camp, so that the general could send a
message at once, night or day."

"Of course I shall want a horse, sir."

"Yes, you must have a horse. I will think over what we can do for
you, in that way. There is no buying one here, unless a field
officer is killed, or dies.

"By the way, Hitchcock's horses are not sold, yet. They were not
put up, yesterday. I have no doubt that some arrangement can be
made about them, and the saddlery."

"That would be excellent, sir. As I told the general this morning,
I have some rubies and other stones. I have no idea what they are
worth. They were given me by those men I was with, in the forest.
They said that they were very difficult to dispose of, as the mines
are monopolies of government so, when my man Meinik proposed it,
they acceded at once to his request, and handed a number of them
over to me.

"I have not even looked at them. There may be someone, here, who
could tell me what they are worth."

"Yes, I have no doubt some of those Parsee merchants, who have
lately set up stores, could tell you. I should only take down two
or three stones to them, if I were you. If they are really
valuable, you might be robbed of them; but I am rather afraid that
you will not find that they are so. Brigand fellows will hardly
have been likely to give you anything very valuable."

"I don't think that they looked at them, themselves; they were the
proceeds of one day's attack on a