g the prisoners well on the way back, hearing a cheer from our men,
and then, hammer in one hand, bayonet in the other, fighting my way
backward along with my comrades. Then all at once a glittering flash
came in the air, and I felt a dull cut on the face, followed directly
after by another strange, numbing blow, which made me drop my bayonet,
as my arm fell uselessly to my side; and then with a lurch and a
stagger, I fell, and was trampled upon twice, when as I rallied once, a
black savage-looking sepoy raised his clubbed musket to knock out my
brains, but a voice I well knew cried: "Not this time, my fine fellow.
That's number three, that is, and well home;" and I saw Measles drive
his bayonet with a crash through the fellow's breast-bone, so that he
fell across my legs.--"Now, old chap, come along," he shouts, and an arm
was passed under me.

"Run, Measles, run!" I said as well as I could. "It's all over with
me."

"No; 'taint," he said; "and don't be a fool. Let me do as I like, for
once in a way."

I don't know how he did it, nor how, feeling sick and faint as I did, I
managed to get on my legs; but old Measles stuck to me like a true
comrade, and brought me in. For one moment I was struggling to my feet;
and the next, after what seemed a deal of firing going over my head, I
was inside the breastwork, listening to our men cheering and firing
away, as the mutineers came howling and raging up almost to the very
gate.

"All in?" I heard Lieutenant Leigh ask.

"To a man, sir," says some one; "but Private Bantem is hurt."

"Hold your tongue, will you!" says Joe Bantem. "I ain't killed, nor yet
half. How would you like your wife frightened if you had one?"

"How's Private Lant?"

"Cut to pieces, sir," says some one softly.

"I'm thankful that you are not wounded, Captain Dyer," then says
Lieutenant Leigh.

"God bless you, Leigh!" says the captain faintly: "it was a brave act.
I've only a scratch or two when I can get over the numbness of my
limbs."

I heard all this in a dim sort of fashion, just as if it was a dream in
the early morning; for I was leaning up against the wall, with my face
laid open and bleeding, and my left arm smashed by a bullet, and nobody
just then took any notice of me, because they were carrying in Captain
Dyer and Harry Lant; while the next minute, the fire was going on hard
and fast; for the mutineers were furious, and I suppose they danced
round the guns in a way that she