"Oh, nonsense!" cried my brother-officer hastily. "We can't be talking about that sort of thing; it's nonsense. I only did what any one else would have done. Steady there, my lads. Silence in the ranks." The word was given to advance directly after, and in a few minutes there was a burst of cheers from on in front, where a skirmishing party of Captain Mason's regiment had come upon our advance-guard. This was answered by our troop, and directly after the officers were eagerly talking together as we marched into the outskirts of the little town, and soon after were congratulating ourselves on the excellent quarters we had found, the foot regiment being most eager in showing us where we could obtain provisions, and the necessaries for a restful night. About an hour after, when the sentinels and outposts had been visited, and the round made of the horses, I was one of a party in one of the ruined rooms of the residency, where the officers were debating what steps should be taken at daylight the next morning, and matters were still in doubt as to whether we should march east or west when a prisoner was brought in. This was a shivering non-combatant, who eagerly gave every information he knew about the movements of the rebels, and was able to inform us, by way of buying his own life, as he thought, that the sowars were going to join the rajah, Ny Deen, the next morning, when their arrangements were suddenly upset by the return of the foot regiment which, on finding out that it had been deluded, came back by a forced march, but too late to save those at the station. "Then the relics of the regiment will still seek to join this revolted rajah," said the colonel of the foot regiment. "But his power has been broken up," said Brace. "We put him to flight." "They'll try to join him, all the same," cried the colonel. "The only hope of these men," he continued, "is in co-operation. Depend upon it, the scoundrels will move west, and I say we ought to follow. Our march must be on Badhpore, and from thence in the direction of Nussoor. What do you say?" "I say," cried Brace, "that we are weak without infantry, and you are feeble without guns. It is a question of expediency, sir, and our force may prove to be the nucleus of a little army strong enough to sweep the mutineers from the land." CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. A thrill ran through me at the colonel's mention of Nussoor, and I listened eagerly to Brace's reply, for I had felt in a dread lest he should oppose the plan of marching on that city, though I was obliged to own that it was quite possible that my father's regiment might have left there in these disturbed times, and of course he would have placed my mother and sister where they would be safe.