from the palisade and, when he reached it, he stood up
and cautiously looked in.

The Indian trooper was seated in a chair, asleep, without his
tunic. One arm was bandaged, and a blood-stained cloth was wrapped
round his head. On a bamboo pallet, with a dark rug thrown over it,
was another figure. The lamp on the wall gave too feeble a light
for Stanley to be able to make out whether the figure lying there
was Harry, but he had no doubt that it was so.

In a low tone he said, in Hindustani, "Wake up, man!"

The soldier moved a little. Stanley repeated the words in a
somewhat louder tone, and the trooper sprang to his feet, and
looked round in a bewildered way.

"Come to the window," Stanley said. "It is I, your officer."

The man's glance turned to the window but, surprised at seeing a
Burmese peasant--as he supposed--instead of the officer, he stood
hesitating.

"Come on," Stanley said. "I am Lieutenant Brooke."

The soldier recognized the voice, drew himself up, made the
military salute, and then stepped to the window.

"I have come," Stanley said, "to try and rescue Lieutenant Brooke,
and yourself. I have some friends without. How is he?"

"He is very ill, sir. He is badly wounded, and is unconscious.
Sometimes he lies for hours without moving; sometimes he talks to
himself but, as I cannot understand the language, I know not what
he says; but sometimes he certainly calls upon you. He uses your
name often.

"I do what I can for him, but it is very little. I bathe his
forehead with water, and pour it between his lips. Of course he can
eat nothing, but I keep the water my rice is boiled in and, when it
is cool, give it him to drink. There is some strength in it."

"Then nothing can be done, at present," Stanley said. "Tomorrow
night I will bring some fruit. You can squeeze the juice of some
limes into a little water, and give it to him. There is nothing
better for fever. As soon as he is well enough for us to get him
through the palisades, we will have a litter ready for him, and
carry him off; but nothing can be done until then.

"How are you treated?"

"They give me plenty of rice, sahib, and I am at liberty to go out
into the courtyard in the daytime and, now that I know that you are
near, I shall have no fear. I have been expecting that they would
send me to Ava where, no doubt, they would kill me; but I have
thought most that, if they were to send me away from here, and
there was no one to look a