The Lost Heir

of Brigadier-General Mathieson, the officer in command of the f

omfortable himself and don't care a rap how the soldiers get on: he sees to the comfort of everyone and spends his money freely, too. He don't seem to care what he lays out in making the quarters of the married men comfortable, and in getting any amount of ice for the hospital, and extra punkawallahs in the barrack rooms during the hot season. He goes out and sees to everything himself. Why, on the march I have known him, when all the doolies were full,

the other ma

er, and the brute shifted its hold to the shoulder, and carried him into the jungle; then the other fellow slipped of

was a plucky th

n the band was playing yesterday evening. Several of the men remarked how like he

about my height and build, but of course I did not notice the likeness; a man does not know his own face m

here about a week. I think he is some man from England, traveling, I suppose, to see the wo

l take him to the G

d be in different bungalows, because then if one gets delirious and noisy he won't disturb the other. Dr. Hunter i

he General's bungalow, two mounted troopers having brought in th

doctor was riding by the side of the doolies, and two mounted orderlies with baskets containing ice and surgical dressings rode fifty paces in the rear.

Then, as the injured men were carried into the two bungalows, most of the soldiers strolled off, some, however, remaining near in hopes of getting a favorabl

cManus?" one of them a

it will be a very narrow shave. He was insensible till we lifted him into the doolie at eight o'clock yesterday evening, when the motion seemed to rouse him a little, and he just opened his eyes; and each ti

how i

, with a good constitution. If there is no complication he ought to be about again in a month's time. He is perfectly sensible. Let him lie quiet for a day or two; after that it would

his elephant, just as the tiger sprang, and that it seized him and carried him into the jungle; that Simcoe slipped off hi

in, and firing together knocked it over stone dead. It was an extraordinarily plucky action

up. It was a miracle that he wasn't killed. Well, we shall not have quite so easy a time of it for a bit. Of course Murdock, as senior officer, will take command of the brigade, but he won't be half as c

e on the brigade staff. Sanderson was the Paymaster's clerk, Nichol worked in the orderly-room.

wounded tiger with nothing but an empty gun and a hunting-knife is not the sort of job that I should like to tackle. It makes one's blood run cold to think of it. I consider that everyone i

ssion of approval at the

hing of that sort done by the officers, two or three of us might go up and say that it was the gen

from below. We had better wait and see whether there is any movement that way. I da

r still, take his passage home at once. Had the day and hour of his leaving been known, there was not a white soldier in the cantonments who would not have turned out to give him a hearty cheer, but although going on well the doctor said that all excitement should be avoided. It would be quite enou

s spread that Staff Pay-Sergeant Sanderson had deserted. He had obtained a fortnight's furlough, saying that he wanted to pay a visit to some old comrades at Allahabad; at the end of the fortnight he had not returned, and the Staff Paymaster had gone strictly into his

ay, and to all the principal places on the roads to those ports; but it was

thorities that he had not traveled by land. If he had gone down to Calcutta he had gone by boat; but he might have start

men in the country, save those holding civil or military positions and the merchants at the large ports, therefore there was not much difficulty in ascertaining t

n but six days out. There was no possible doubt as to his fate, for a vessel half a mile distant had seen her founder, but could render no assistance, being herself dismasted and unmanageable and the sea so tremendous that no boat could have lived in it for a moment. As both ships

"Here is a man who faces a wounded tiger with nothing but a hunting-knife, and recovers from his wounds; here is the General, whose life he

y hard luck. I am sure the General will be terribly cut up about it. I heard Major Butler tell Captain Thompson that he had heard from Dr. Hunter that when the General began to get round and heard that Simcoe had gone, while

is no news o

st in some trader knocking about among the islands, and by the time she comes back he could take a passage home without questions being asked. He is a sharp fellow is Sanderson. I never quite liked him myself, but I never thought he was a rogue

ed hit General Mathieson very heavily, and for a time seriou

ven worse to know that my rescue has brought about his death, for had it not been for that he would have by this time been up at Delh

but after she had been out four years she married a rising young civilian who was also stationed at Delhi. The union was a happy one, except that the first two children born to them died in infancy. They were girls. The third was a boy, who at the age of eight months was sent home under the charge of an officer's wife returning with her childre

, and he was still a hale, active man. Being generally popular he was soon at home in London, where he took a house in Hyde Park Gardens and became a regular frequenter of the Oriental and East Indian United Service Cl

rvants," she wrote, "spoil the children dreadfully, and let them have entirely their own way, and the consequence is that they grow up domineering, bad-tempered, and irritable. I have seen so many cases of

the child was no trouble; an excellent nurse w

ter, my niece Mary Covington. Of course I hoped for another bout of active service, and when the chance came at last up in the north, there was I stuck down in Calcutta. If it hadn't been for Jane I should certainly have given it up in disgust when I found I was practically shelved. But she always used to come down and stay with me for a month or two in the cool season, and as she was the only person in the world I cared for, I held on from year to year

, a dinner in India was worth a score of them. Most of them were very stiff and formal, and after the women had gone upstairs, the men talked of nothing but hunting and shooting and crops and cattle; so at last I could stand it no longer, but threw up six months of my furlough and went out again. Yes, of cour

at present, so that I am losing nothing that way, and if I were out there I should be only holding inspections at Barrakpoor, Dumdum, or on the Maidan at Calcutta. Of course it was pleasant enough in its way, for I never felt the heat; but as a man g

few days of each other. Of course he is only a lieutenant-colonel, while I am a major-general, but that is because he had the good sense to quit the service years ago. There are scores of others in the club just about my own standing, and one

er-indulged and will some day give us a lot of trouble. I keep my liver all right by taking

avored, but in vain, to find out the family of John

oubtless there are some of his family who may be in circumstances where I could give them a helping hand. The

have been a well-to-do young fellow. Men cannot wande

most things. I laughed at the time, for I was by no means sure that he was in earnest, but I have felt since that he must have been. If it had not been so, my advertisements would surely have caught the eye of someone who knew his family. A family wealthy enough for one of the sons to start on two years' travel must be in a fair position, whether in town or country. Had it been so I should have heard of it, and therefore I think that what he said must ha

im. I know numbers of these Indian princes, some of them intimately, and to some I have been of very considerable service; and I fancy that I might have got him a berth of some kind or other without much difficulty. Or had he made up his mind to return to England I would have set him up in any business he had a fancy for. He ha

lamentation to him, when he finally settled in town, that although he had again