yet faster. The cantonment was alive with the men of the 195th
hunting for Wee Willie Winkie, and the Colonel finally overtook E
Company, far too exhausted to swear, struggling in the pebbles of the
river-bed.

Up the hill under which Wee Willie Winkie's Bad Men were discussing
the wisdom of carrying off the child and the girl, a look-out fired
two shots.

'What have I said?' shouted Din Mahommed. 'There is the warning! The
_pulton_ are out already and are coming across the plain! Get away!
Let us not be seen with the boy!'

The men waited for an instant, and then, as another shot was fired,
withdrew into the hills, silently as they had appeared.

'The wegiment is coming,' said Wee Willie Winkie confidently to Miss
Allardyce, 'and it's all wight. Don't cwy!'

He needed the advice himself, for ten minutes later, when his father
came up, he was weeping bitterly with his head in Miss Allardyce's
lap.

And the men of the 195th carried him home with shouts and rejoicings;
and Coppy, who had ridden a horse into a lather, met him, and, to his
intense disgust, kissed him openly in the presence of the men.

But there was balm for his dignity. His father assured him that not
only would the breaking of arrest be condoned, but that the
good-conduct badge would be restored as soon as his mother could sew