uncertainty about what was to come next. Hely, who was in command at
Deira, was a good enough man, but he had only three companies of white
troops, and the black troops were as likely as not to be on their way
to the rebels. It looked as if we should have a Cawnpore business on a
small scale, though I thanked Heaven there were no women in the case.
As for Tommy, he would probably be repeating platitudes in Deira and
composing an intelligent despatch on the whole subject.

"About four in the afternoon of the third day I struck the line near a
little station called Palala. I saw by the look of the rails that
trains were still running, and my hopes revived. At Palala there was a
coolie stationmaster, who gave me a drink and a little food, after
which I slept heavily in his office till wakened by the arrival of an
up train. It contained one of the white companies and a man Davidson,
of the 101st, who was Hely's second in command. From him I had news
that took away my breath. The Governor had gone up the line two days
before with an A.D.C. and old Mackay. 'The sportsman has got a move
on him at last,' said Davidson, 'but what he means to do Heaven only
knows. The Labonga are at the mines, and a kind of mine-guard has been
formed for defence. The joke of it is that most of the magnates are
treed up there, for the railway is cut and they can't get away. I
don't envy your chief the job of schooling that nervous crowd.'

"I went on with Davidson, and very early next morning we came to a
broken culvert and had to stop. There we stuck for three hours till
the down train arrived, and with it Hely. He was for ordinary a stolid
soul, but I never saw a man in such a fever of excitement. He gripped
me by the arm and fairly shook me. 'That old man of yours is a hero,'
he cried. 'The Lord forgive me! and I have always crabbed him.'

"I implored him in Heaven's name to tell me what was up, but he would
say nothing till he had had his pow-pow with Davidson. It seemed that
he was bringing all his white troops up the line for some great
demonstration that Tommy had conceived. Davidson went back to Deira,
while we mended the culvert and got the men transferred to the other
train. Then I screwed the truth out of Hely. Tommy had got up to the
mines before the rebels arrived, and had found as fine a chaos as can
be imagined. He did not seem to have had any doubts what to do. There
was a certain number of white workmen, h