apartments, followed by screams from the women, and then--they could
scarcely believe their ears--their names shouted in Major Warrener's
voice. With a cry of delight both sprang up, and seizing shawls, rushed to
the door, and in another moment Kate was in the arms of her father.

"We are all here, dear," he said, after the first wild greeting--"the
boys, and Dunlop, and Manners. Hurry on your clothes, darlings; they are
longing to see you."

The garrison of the castle were all collected in one of the smaller
courts, where twenty troopers, revolver in hand, kept guard over them. The
whole of the arms found in the castle were broken to pieces and thrown
over the walls, and the cannon planted there were first spiked and then
pitched over. The guns on the gates were similarly rendered useless, and
the stores of gunpowder all wetted. The rajah and his two sons, boys of
six and eight, were then told to prepare to accompany the troops, and
warning was given that they would be shot in case an attack was made upon
the force as it returned to Meerut.

"Tell your followers this," Major Warrener said, "and order them to give
no alarm, or to spread the news; for if we are caught your life and that
of your sons will pay forfeit. As it is, you may hope for clemency. You
have as yet taken no part in the insurrection; and although there is no
doubt of your intention, your good conduct in the future may, perhaps,
wipe out the memory of your faults."

It needs not to say anything of the rapturous greeting of the girls and
their brothers and lovers, or the happy half-hour which was spent together
in the great hall while the preparations for the departure were being made
outside. Captain Kent saw to all that there was to be done, leaving the