to
his head like so much green 'rack. I've thought of it some little time
now, sir; and--it strikes me that if, instead of our short company being
Englishmen, they were all Chunder Chows, before to-morrow morning,
begging your pardon, Captain Dyer and Lieutenant Leigh would have said
`Right wheel' for the last time."

"And the women and children!" he muttered softly: but I heard him.

He did not speak then for quite half a minute, when he turned to me with
a pleasant smile.

"But you see, though, Smith," he said, "our short company is made up of
different stuff; and therefore there's some hope for us yet; but--Ah,
Leigh, did you hear what he said?"

"Yes," said the lieutenant, who had been standing at the door for a few
moments, scowling at us both.

"Well, what do you think?" said Captain Dyer.

"Think?" said Lieutenant Leigh contemptuously, as he turned
away--"nothing!"

"But," said Captain Dyer quietly, "really I think there is much truth in
what he, an observant man, says."

There was a challenge from the roof just then; and we all went out to
find that a mounted man was in sight; and on the captain making use of
his glass, I heard him tell Lieutenant Leigh that it was an orderly
dragoon.

A few minutes after, it was plain enough to everybody; and soon, man and
horse dead beat, the orderly with a despatch trotted into the court.

It was a sight worth seeing, to look upon Mrs Maine clutching at the
letter enclosed for her in Captain Dyer's despatch. Poor woman! it was
a treasure to her--one that made her pant as she hurriedly snatched it
from the captain's hand, for all formality was forgotten in those days;
and then she hurried away to where her sister was waiting to hear the
news.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER TEN.

The orderly took back a despatch from Captain Dyer, starting at daybreak
the next morning; but before then, we all knew that matters were getting
to wear a terrible aspect. At first, I had been disposed to think that
the orderly was romancing, and giving us a few travellers' tales; but I
soon found out that he was in earnest; and more than once I felt a
shiver as he sat with our mess, telling us of how regiment after
regiment had mutinied and murdered their officers; how station after
station had been plundered, collectors butchered, and their wives and
daughters sometimes cut down, sometimes carried off by the wretches, who
had made a sport of throwing infants from one to the other on thei