the
right place."

The next minute she gave Measles a slap on the back as echoed through
the place, sending him staggering forward; but he only laughed and said:
"Praise the saints, I ain't Bantem."

There was a fine deal of excitement, though, now. The colonel seemed to
wake up, and with him every officer, for we expected not only news but
orders every moment. Discipline, if I may say so, was buckled up tight
with the tongue in the last hole; provisions and water were got in;
sentries doubled, and a strange feeling of distrust and fear came upon
all, for we soon saw that the people of the place hung away from us, and
though, from such an inoffensive-looking lot as we had about us, there
didn't seem much to fear, yet there was no knowing what treachery we
might have to encounter, and as he had to think and act for others
beside himself, Colonel Maine--God bless him--took every possible
precaution against danger, then hidden, but which was likely to spring
into sight at any moment.

There were not many English residents at Begumbagh, but what there were
came into quarters directly; and the very next morning we learned
plainly enough that there was danger threatening our place by the
behaviour of the natives, who packed up their few things and filed out
of the town as fast as they could, so that at noonday the market-place
was deserted, and, save the few we had in quarters, there was not a
black face to be seen.

The next morning came without news; and I was orderly, and standing
waiting in the outer court close behind the colonel, who was holding a
sort of council of war with the officers, when a sentry up in the
broiling sun, on the roof, calls out that a horseman was coming; and
before very long, covered with sweat and dust, an orderly dragoon dashes
up, his horse all panting and blown, and then coming jingling and
clanking in with those spurs and that sabre of his, he hands despatches
to the colonel.

I hope I may be forgiven for what I thought then, but, as I watched his
ruddy face, while he read those despatches, and saw it turn all of a
sickly, greeny white, I gave him the credit of being a coward; and I was
not the only one who did so. We all knew that, like us, he had never
seen a shot fired in anger; and something like an angry feeling of
vexation came over me, I know, as I thought of what a fellow he would be
to handle and risk the lives of the four hundred men under his charge
there at Begumbagh.