to
have jumped up, but the sleepy, stupid feeling was too much for me, and
I only lay there and grumbled.

"Don't!" I remember crying, "you hurt me;" but whoever it was kept on
all the same, doing something to my head, and then he began dragging my
arm about, and then I went off fast asleep.

I remembered all that when I opened my eyes again. It was my first
thought, and I lay wondering in a puzzled sort of way whether it was
Haynes, for he was the only one likely to play any trick with me, and
unlikely enough too. Brace was too stern, thoughtful, and serious, so I
thought it could not have been he.

"Hullo!" I exclaimed. No: it could hardly be called an exclamation,
for it was said in a very low tone of voice, as I stared about me, and
grew confused. For I felt that I ought to be lying in one of the
shattered rooms of the residency. No: we had left the residency, and I
ought to be lying under a tree in the tope.

It was very puzzling, and I could not make it out at all. In fact, the
more I tried, the more perplexing it grew, and while I was trying to get
my head to think properly, everything grew dull and misty, and I went
off to sleep once more.

But the next time I awoke and ran over my position, I found that I was
able to think well, and I did, though the puzzle was great still, why it
was that I was lying on cushions with handsome purdahs or curtains hung
about the sides of what was evidently a tent, with handsome Indian
carpets spread on the floor, and a punkah over my head, waving gently to
and fro to cool the air.

As I was trying to pierce the cloud that closed me in, I at last got a
gleam of light through it as if the cloud had opened a little, and I
recollected distinctly standing by my two guns in the glaring hot
street. Yes; I could recollect that clearly, but no more. Then came a
period of confusion, but that passed off, and I remembered our trot and
then gallop out of the town, down the long road, and out into the
country-like plain, where we took up position, and brought the guns into
action.

After a time I recalled the whole of the particulars of the engagement
right on to our halt beside the tope, within whose shades the waggons,
elephants, and wounded men were placed. And now a feeling of trouble
and worry came over me, for I recollected that I had been so busy that I
had not been to see Serjeant Craig.

It looked hard, for he had done so much for us, but I hoped that Brace
had