"I suppose you have a good many men from Delhi, civilians and military, as
well as from other places?"

"Oh, yes, we are crowded; every bungalow has been given up to the ladies,
and we all sleep under canvas."

"I intend to ask leave to get up a troop of volunteers," Major Warrener
said; "in the first place to go out and bring in my daughter and niece,
and afterward to do any scouting or other duty that may be required."

"There has already been a talk of forming the unattached officers and
civilians into a sort of irregular cavalry, so I should think that you
will get leave; but it will be a hazardous business to make your way
eighty miles through the country, especially as the mutineers are marching
in all directions toward Delhi."

The next morning Major Warrener obtained permission, without difficulty,
to carry out his scheme; and the news no sooner was known through the
cantonments that a body of irregular horse was to be formed for scouting
and general purposes, and that unattached officers might, until they
received further orders, join it, than the tent which had been assigned to
Major Warrener was besieged by men anxious to join a corps which seemed
likely to afford them a chance of striking an early blow at the mutineers.

Hitherto, the officers who had escaped from Delhi and other stations,
those who had come in from police duties in isolated districts, and
civilians, both merchants and government officials, had been fretting that
they could not be doing something to aid the great work of holding India,
and punishing those who had murdered their friends and relations. Major