Jack Polwhele was perhaps the more soldier-like of the two; he was fully an inch less in stature than Waller, taper-waisted and broad-chested; to his weather-beaten face, dark complexion, and sparkling eyes of the clearest hazel, a pair of black eyebrows, and a heavy mustache of the same tint, imparted a great deal of character; and being closely shaven, the contour of a chin indicative of decision--a virtue essentially military--was fully displayed. He had a smarter, perhaps more dashing, air than Waller; but like him exhibited a set of teeth, unique for whiteness and regularity, when he laughed, which he always did heartily, for like most young officers, he was a happy and heedless fellow. He and Waller were rather considered to be two "pattern officers" of the Cornish Light Infantry, a corps which carries on its colours all the honours of the old war that began on the plains of Corunna and ended on those of Waterloo; and to these are added the glories of India down to the battle of Goojerat and the terrible siege of Lucknow. Raised in 1702, in the days of the Good Queen Anne, it has served in every war that added honour or territory to the British Empire, and numbers among its Colonels sturdy old Brigadier Jacob Borr, who, before the capture of Barcelona in 1705, during the strife of the Spanish Succession, in a dispute about precedence, fought a duel in front of the British lines, sword in hand, in his Ramillies wig and lace ruffles, with Colonel Rodney of the Marines, whom he ran fairly through the body; Brigadier Thomas Paget of the House of Uxbridge; the ferocious old John Huske, who did such butcherly things at Culloden; Lieutenant-General Leighton of Watlesborough; William Amherst, who was Governor of Newfoundland during the American War of Independence; Ralph Earl of Rosse, and others, down to General Trecarrel, to whom Sir John Keane presented the watch already referred to, subsequent to the storming of Ghuznee, where "Old Tre," as the soldiers named him, was the second man through the Cabul gate, after Colonel Peat had blown it up, by three hundred pounds of gunpowder. The conversation of those with whom Denzil now found himself, will best explain the state of affairs in Cabul, and the new phase of society in which Destiny had cast him. CHAPTER II. IN THE AFGHAN FORT. "So, Polwhele, I find by the Order Book, that you are detailed for the party against the plundering Ghazeeas?" said Waller. "Yes; I shall have the pleasure of scouring all the Siah Sung after these wretched fanatics to-morrow." "What force goes with you?" "Thirty rank and file of ours, with Sergeant Treherne." "Son of old Mike, the miner, at Porthellick?" "Yes; and forty of the thirty-seventh Native Infantry under Burgoyne."