to
continue its march till seven, eight, or nine o'clock, according to the
distance of the camping-place, the same spots being used by the
different regiments year after year.

There was very little variety, save that we had more or less dust,
according to the character of the road material over which we travelled;
and I heard the news, after many days, that the next would be the last,
as eagerly as I had of the one which had been nominated for our start.

It was a brilliant morning when we came in sight of a sparkling river,
beyond which were the white walls and gilded minarets of Rajgunge, with
squat temples and ghauts down at the riverside, and everywhere dotted
about tall waving palms, groves of trees, and again, beyond these, the
rich green of cultivated lands, rising up to mountains blue in the
distance, where the wild jungle filled up the valleys and gorges which
seamed their sides.

"Lovely!" I ejaculated, as I feasted my eyes on the glorious scene.

"Eh? What?" said Barton, who heard me. "Bah! what a gushing girl you
are, Gil Vincent! Does look, though, as if we might get a bit of
shooting."

He rode on, and I hung back till Brace came abreast of me, and looked at
me inquiringly.

"Well, Vincent," he said, "you wanted some beautiful country to look at.
I have not exaggerated, have I?"

"No; it is glorious!" I cried.

"Yes; beautiful indeed, and the more lovely to us who have been so long
in the plains."

We rode on in silence for a time till we neared the head of the bridge
of boats we had to cross--a structure which looked too frail to bear our
guns and the ponderous elephants in our baggage-train; but the leading
men advanced; the first gun was drawn over by its six horses, and the
rest followed, while, as I passed over with the Sheik snorting and
looking rather wild-eyed at the rushing water, I was only conscious of
an elastic motion of the plank roadway, as a hollow sound came up at the
trampling of the horses' feet, and before long we were winding through
that densely-populated city, and then right through to our quarters,
high up on a slope, where the wind came down fresh and sweet from the
hills.

"How long shall we stay here?" I asked Brace, that evening, after mess,
as we stood at the edge of our parade-ground, looking down at the city
with the level rays of the setting sun lighting up the gilded minarets,
and glorifying the palm-trees that spread their great feathery leaves
against