n Clive said, looking keenly at the lads. "Well, young
gentlemen, and how do you like what you have seen of your life here?"

"We hate it, sir," Charlie said. "We would, both of us, a thousand
times rather enlist under you as private soldiers. Oh, sir, if there
is any expedition going to take place, do you think there is a chance
of our being allowed to go as volunteers?"

"I will see about it," Captain Clive said, smiling. "Trade must be
dull enough here, at present, and we want every hand that can hold a
sword or a musket in the field.

"You are sure you can recommend them?" he said, turning to Doctor Rae
with a smile.

"Most warmly," the doctor said. "They both showed great coolness and
courage, in the affairs I spoke of. Have you any surgeons with you,
Captain Clive? If not, I hope that I shall go with any expedition that
will take place. The doctor here is just recovering from an attack of
fever and will not be fit, for weeks, for the fatigues of active
service.

"May I ask who is to command the expedition?"

"I am," Clive said quietly. "You may well look surprised that an
officer who has but just joined should have been selected; but in
fact, there is no one else. Cope and Gingen are both at Trichinopoli,
and even if they were not--" he paused, and a shrug of the shoulders
expressed his meaning clearly. "Mr. Saunders is good enough to feel
some confidence in my capacity, and I trust that I shall not
disappoint him.

"We are going--but this, mind, is a profound secret till the day we
march--to attack Arcot. It is the only possible way of relieving
Trichinopoli."

"To attack Arcot?" Doctor Rae said, astonished. "That does indeed
appear a desperate enterprise, with such a small body as you have at
your command, and these, entirely new recruits. But I recognize the
importance of the enterprise. If you should succeed, it will draw off
Chunda Sahib from Trichinopoli. It's a grand idea, Captain Clive, a
grand idea, though I own it seems to me a desperate one."

"In desperate times we must take desperate measures, Doctor," Captain
Clive said. "Now I must be going on after the governor. I shall see
you tomorrow.

"I will not forget you, young gentlemen."

So saying, he proceeded to the factory.

It was afterwards known that the proposal, to effect a diversion by an
expedition against Arcot, was the proposal of Clive himself. Upon
arriving at Trichinopoli, he had at once seen that all was lost,
there. The s