message and get a reward. I say that this child is their God, and
that they will spare none of us, nor our women, if we harm him.'

It was Din Mahommed, the dismissed groom of the Colonel, who made the
diversion, and an angry and heated discussion followed. Wee Willie
Winkie, standing over Miss Allardyce, waited the upshot. Surely his
'wegiment,' his own 'wegiment,' would not desert him if they knew of
his extremity.

* * * * *

The riderless pony brought the news to the 195th, though there had
been consternation in the Colonel's household for an hour before. The
little beast came in through the parade-ground in front of the main
barracks, where the men were settling down to play Spoil-five till
the afternoon. Devlin, the Colour-Sergeant of E Company, glanced at
the empty saddle and tumbled through the barrack-rooms, kicking; up
each Room Corporal as he passed. 'Up, ye beggars! There's something
happened to the Colonel's son,' he shouted.

'He couldn't fall off! S'elp me, 'e _couldn't_ fall off,' blubbered
a drummer-boy. 'Go an' hunt acrost the river. He's over there if he's
anywhere, an' maybe those Pathans have got 'im. For the love o' Gawd
don't look for 'im in the nullahs! Let's go over the river.'

'There's sense in Mott yet,' said Devlin. 'E Company, double out to
the river--sharp!'

So E Company, in its shirt-sleeves mainly, doubled for the dear life,
and in the rear toiled the perspiring Sergeant, adjuring it to double