I remembered Lizzy
Green, any more than there was when Miss Ross came uppermost in my mind,
for I knew well enough that they must have soon known of the disaster
that had befallen our little party.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

Whatever those poor women suffered, they took care it should not be seen
by us men, and indeed we had little time to think of them the next day.
We had given ourselves the task to protect them, and we were fighting
hard to do it, and that was all we could do then; for the enemy gave us
but little peace; not making any savage attack, but harassing us in a
cruel way, every man acting like for himself, and all the discipline the
sepoys had learned seeming to be forgotten.

As for Lieutenant Leigh, he looked cold and stern, but there was no
flinching with him now: he was in command, and he shewed it; and though
I never liked the man, I must say that he shewed himself now a brave and
clever officer; and but for his skilful arrangement of the few men under
his charge, that place would have fallen half-a-dozen times over.

We had taken no prisoners, so that there was no chance of talking of
exchange; though I believe to a man all thought that the captain and
files missing from our company were dead.

The women now lent us their help, bringing down spare muskets and
cartridges, loading too for us; so that when the mutineers made an
attack, we were able to keep up a much sharper fire than we should have
done under other circumstances.

It was about the middle of the afternoon, when, hot and exhausted, we
were firing away, for the bullets were coming thick and fast through the
gateway, flying across the yard, and making a passage in that direction
nearly certain death, when I felt a strange choking feeling, for Measles
says to me all at once: "Look there, Ike."

I looked and I could hardly believe it, and rubbed my eyes, for just in
the thickest of the firing there was the sound of merry laughter, and
those two children of the colonel's came toddling out, right across the
line of fire, turned back to look up at some one calling to them from
the window, and then stood still, laughing and clapping their hands.

I don't know how it was, I only know that it wasn't to look brave, but,
dropping my piece, I rushed to catch them, just at the same moment as
did Miss Ross and Lizzy Green; while, directly after, Lieutenant Leigh
rushed from where he was, caught Miss Ross round the waist, and dragged
her