A contented smile came to the face she was leaving, but a look showed on the one she was approaching which struck her like a blow, which she felt she could never forget, so full was it of something akin to anger in its hopeless, helpless blame. 'He is in the thick of it, poor chap,' said the doctor in a low voice; 'only came in yesterday.' And Grace's eyes, dim with tears, could scarcely see the jagged notches rising higher and higher in the fresh unfingered chart that was being shown her. 'Can nothing be done?' she asked abruptly, when the doctor was driving her over to the mess in his dogcart. The others were walking, and he had just pointed out the temporary hospital they had had to open. He shook his head. 'God knows! Sometimes I think I could, with a free hand. We do what we can, as it is, but what can you expect when the men get sitting about the bazaars, and eating and drinking filth. There is only one way out of it now, Lady Arbuthnot, as I hope you'll tell Sir George. Get 'em away into the desert, _not_ to be tempted of the devil, but to--what shall we say?--to--to get back the sinews of war!' he finished, proud of his quotation. It was apt enough to recur more than once to Grace Arbuthnot's mind as she watched the sports; once, especially, when a tug-of-war began, and a team of boys, big enough, but soft-looking, stood up against the Artillery. 'They haven't a chance against us!' said Nevill Lloyd, with pardonable pride. 'To begin with, we are accustomed to handle ropes; and then!--of course, if the Highlanders had been here still, there'd have been a fight, but these new fellows haven't the sinew--as yet.' They pulled pluckily, though, for all they were worth, encouraged thereat, amongst other supporters, by a number of big upstanding sepoys from the native lines. They were in _mufti_, which, however, was no disguise to their martial swagger and palpable pride of strength. 'Don't pull, brotherlings!' they advised; 'put the weight on the rope and stand steady. So! Oh, 'tis God's will! He has not given the weight yet. It will come, brothers! Meanwhile it is fate, not defeat.' But as they turned carelessly from the end, one said to his neighbour, '_Ari bhai!_ We could have taught the _tope khana-wallahs_ a lesson.' And the neighbour laughed. 'Yea, if they gave us the chance, but they will not. They know we of the _pultans_ are bigger and stronger than they of the _rigiments_, but they would not have the world know it; as if it could not see!' As he stood aside cheerfully, almost respectfully, to let a smooth-faced fresh-coloured boy in a red coat pass, he proved his words, for he towered a good head above him, and could have covered two of him in breadth. Nevill Lloyd, standing beside the Arbuthnots' carriage, overheard the remark and frowned. 'I should like to challenge those fellows,' he said vexedly. 'I know we could pull 'em over and knock the conceit out of 'em.'