After perils or risks that might be spun out into a volume, Bill got past the outposts and sentries of the rebels and found himself in Kuttingee--ostensibly a _budmash_--willing to serve, for money or mischief, Buktawur Sing, or anyone else. Riot and disorder seemed to prevail in every quarter, though for their own safety the rebel Sepoys maintained a kind of discipline, and had guards and sentries posted. On all hands were seen the plunder of villas and bungalows. In the bazaar, three European heads were hung in a _bhoosa_ bag, or forage-net, and Bill looked at them with anxiety lest one might prove the head of her he had come to seek tidings of. Three days were passed without progress being made; but on the third he succeeded beyond his expectation. When loitering near the gate of the fort, which overlooked the town of Kuttingee, he jostled unexpectedly a Sepoy in the uniform of an officer, all save a huge green turban, who was about to enter the gate. '_Chullo Sahib!_' (Come, sir!), the latter exclaimed angrily; 'what in the name of Jehannum are you about?' Bill's heart leaped on finding himself face to face with Buktawur Sing, the commander of all the rascal multitude in the place! 'Who are you?' demanded the ex-Subadar-Major. 'Sookham Lall, a budmash, in want of a captain.' 'From whence?' 'Jubbulpore, last.' 'Jubbulpore! What are the cursed Kafirs doing there?' Bill described in somewhat exaggerated terms the fortification and garrison of the Residency. 'We may bring guns against it,' said Buktawur. 'They too have got guns,' replied Bill, though he knew that the Residency could no more stand a bombardment than a house of cards. 'And now, what do you want here?' asked Buktawur, his black beady eyes gleaming suspiciously. 'To kill your Christian prisoners, just to keep my hand in,' replied Bill, grinding his teeth; 'you have twenty, I understand.' 'I have only two here--the Sahib Macgregor and the Mehm Sahib Heron (her brat is not worth counting); there they are in the garden.' Bill laid a hand on his tulwar. 'Not so fast, my friend,' said Buktawur, with a grin, 'for she is to be my wife; and if matters go hard with me I may want the Sahib's head.' 'So they live yet!' thought Bill, as he entered the garden of the fort, but dared not approach them, though looking sharply at them, and viewing the strong defences of the place, and the avenues that led to it. In a kind of alcove, excavated out of the solid rock of the fort, Mrs. Heron--clad now partly like a native woman--was seated with her baby in her lap, and near her Lieutenant Macgregor, as if for companionship or the sympathy he dared scarcely to manifest. He was in the rags of his uniform, and both looked haggard and wasted with the anxieties and troubles they had undergone. Bill drew near her, but at that moment a Sepoy came to Buktawur for orders.