ery much, Captain Noton. I should like it immensely.
Should I have to get a uniform?"

"There will be no absolute necessity for it; but if you get a white
patrol jacket, like this, and a white cap cover, it will establish
you in the eyes of the natives as an officer, and give you more
authority. Oh, by the way, you need not get them, for one of our
lieutenants died, the other day, of fever. His effects have not
been sold, yet; but you may as well have his patrol jackets and
belts. We can settle what you are to pay for them, afterwards. It
will only be a matter of a few rupees, anyhow."

They now arrived at the house that had been taken for the use of
the officers. On entering, Captain Noton introduced him to the
others and, as several of these had at various times met his
father, in cantonments or on service, he was heartily welcomed by
them and, at luncheon, they listened with great interest to his
accounts of the fighting, in Cachar, with the Burmese.

"I fancy we shall find them more formidable, here, if they come,"
Captain Noton said. "Bandoola has a great reputation, and is
immensely popular with them. From what you say, a considerable
proportion of the fellows you met up there were Assamese levies,
raised by the Burmese. I grant that the Burmese, themselves, do not
seem to have done much better; but they would never have conquered
all the peoples they have come across, and built up a great empire,
if there had not been good fighting stuff in them. I have no doubt
that we shall thrash them, but I don't think we shall do it as
easily as our troops did in the north."

The time now passed pleasantly with Stanley. He had, after thinking
it over, declined to accept payment for his services; for this
would have hindered his freedom of action, and prevented his
obeying any instructions that his uncle might send him. He
therefore joined as a volunteer interpreter, and was made a member
of the officers' mess. He was specially attached to the native levy
and, soon acquiring their words of command, assisted its officers
in drilling it into something like order.

Early in May a Burmese division, 8000 strong, crossed the Naaf and
established itself at Rutnapullung, fourteen miles south of Ramoo.
As soon as Captain Noton learned that the Burmese had crossed the
river, he sent news of the fact to Chittagong, with a request that
reinforcements should be at once sent to him; and then moved out
with his force from Ramoo, to a