"Then you are both to be congratulated," put in the elder sister, "for she is quite the most charming girl we know, and our opinion of you is not likely to be a poor one after to-day's experiences." "What? After an hour's acquaintance?" "An hour! There are some hours that are half a lifetime. Good-by, may Heaven guard and watch over you!" Renaud despatched Lawrence's messenger to the south in a dâk-gharry, or post-carriage. Chumru would have taken the servant's usual perch beside the driver, but Malcolm would not hear of it. His faithful attendant was almost as worn with fatigue as he himself; master and man shared the comfort of the roomy vehicle; and slept for many hours while it rumbled along the road. At dawn on the 4th of July they entered Allahabad. But the driver had his orders and did not stop in the city. They passed through a sullen bazaar, and were gazed at by a mob that wore the aspect of a cageful of tigers in which order has just been induced by the liberal use of red-hot irons. The travelers were nodding asleep again when the sharp summons of a British sentry gladdened Malcolm's ears. "Who goes there?" How alert it sounded! How reminiscent of the old days! How full of promise of the days that were to come! He leaned out and smiled as he told a stolid private of the 64th that he was "a friend." His uniform acted as a passport, the dâk-gharry crossed the drawbridge and crept through a narrow tunnel, and he found himself standing in the great inner parade-ground of the fort. A young officer approached. "Do you wish to see the General? Whom shall I report?" he asked, eyeing the worn appearance and torn and blood-stained uniforms of Englishman and native. "I am from Lucknow," said Frank. "Will you kindly tell General Havelock that Captain Malcolm of the 3d Cavalry has brought him a message from Sir Henry Lawrence?" It was the first time he had described himself by his new rank. It sent a pleasant tingle through his veins and made that injured arm of his ache again. Lawrence had given him to the 4th, and here he was in Allahabad on the very date of his Chief's reckoning, after having gone through adventures that would have satiated Ulysses.