The sergeant might have made some fiery answer; but his major, who came up at the moment, stopped all further exchange of pleasantries by saying that he would himself bring over the sergeant and the other men of his regiment in the morning. Sergeant Linham and Larry, after dropping in at the canteens of various regiments, found Andrew M’Farlane and the other artillerymen, and all was ready for the morning. When Jack and Will came up in due course before the colonel, the major of the Fusiliers, who had arrived with his men and the artillerymen, begged to be allowed to say a few words, and the tale he told was such that it at once altered the aspect of affairs. The two trumpeters were liberated, the colonel saying they had behaved as he hoped men of his regiment always would, by taking the part of the weaker against the stronger. Corporal Napper was then arrested, tried by summary court-martial, and reduced to the ranks. This Jack could not pretend to be sorry for, though, as he said to Will, ‘I would rather he had kept his stripes and been made to give up Dainty; the poor mare is only a shadow of what she used to be.’ Next morning Will was put in orders as corporal and orderly to the colonel, _vice_ Samuel Napper reduced, and Jack hastened off to congratulate his friend. ‘It’s the first step up the ladder,’ he said, ‘and no one deserves it better than you; before we get home you’ll be sergeant.’ ‘If ever we do get home,’ said Will. ‘Last night there was a case of cholera in ours; Jenkins of C Troop died.’ ‘Our first loss,’ said Jack sadly. ‘I wonder who’ll be next.’ During the days that followed, the dread scourge, cholera, raged in the camp; day after day the burying-parties were busy, and dozens died off. The heat was intolerable, the camp a regular hotbed of pestilence. The water was full of animalcules, and it was learnt that seven thousand Russians who had perished of cholera in the campaign of 1828 were buried in the vicinity of the British camp, the spot having been christened by the Muscovites ‘The Valley of the Plague.’ Many of the men took to drinking heavily, thinking thus to keep off cholera; alas! they only lessened their chances of avoiding it. Napper continued to drink as before, and since his reduction he seemed to hate Jack more and more. One morning, at watering-parade, he and Jack being together and some distance from the others, the former, who was of course mounted on Dainty, could not get her down to the water. He dismounted and dragged angrily at her headstall; but the mare still refused to drink. Napper then kicked her twice, savagely, which so enraged Jack that he cried out, ‘Let her alone, you brute, or I’ll report you.’ ‘I’ll treat you the same if you interfere with me,’ said Napper furiously, and he struck the mare on the muzzle, and was again about to kick her when Jack slipped from his own horse, and catching Napper by the collar of his jacket, hurled him on his back.