He had seen the Duke, however, only a few
days before in London, but he wasn't dressed in his red coat and cocked
hat, and he believed that the Duke never slept in his red coat and
cocked hat now.

"Is the Corporal like the Duke?" asked Dick anxiously. No! the Colonel
could not truthfully say that he was, but the Corporal was the bigger
man of the two, which was a consolation to the children.

Then the children asked him about Boney, for Polly Short, who had been
their maid, had told them that he was a "riglar monster," and she had
heard it from her first cousin's wife's brother-law, who was a sergeant
of Marines. But the Colonel said that Polly was wrong, for he had seen
Boney himself at St. Helena, and he was not in the least like a
monster, but a little fat man with a pale face and auburn hair, not
nearly as big as the Corporal. And Boney had made no attempt to eat
him up, but had received him with the pleasantest smile that he had
ever seen, and had told him that English horses were good. "And of
course he was thinking of Billy," said Elsie, "when he said that."

And then the Colonel brought out pencil and paper and drew pictures of
Boney and of the Duke, and of Bheels and Pindarrees and Mahrattas and
other strange people against whom he had fought in India. He also
assured Dick that he had drunk puddle-water, like Lord Willoughby's
men, and had been very glad to get it. Finally he produced a little
silver bangle hung with curious silver coins which he put on Elsie's
wrist for her very own, and a knife in a sheath for Dick. The knife
was not very sharp, but then the sheath was beautiful. So that by the
time when Lord Fitzdenys and Lady Eleanor came out to look for them,
they found the children hanging on to the Colonel's arms and calling
him Colonel George as if they had known him all their lives.

Lord Fitzdenys called Colonel George to him; and he left the children
to join Lady Eleanor, who told him the story of Tommy Fry, and asked
him what he made of it.

"Witchcraft, of course, is nonsense," he said, "but there are people
who can wield such influence as this over others, the power of a
stronger will over a weaker, I suppose. One hears of it often in
India. Probably the boy will recover in a day or two, when he gets
over his fright."

"But if he does not?" said Lady Eleanor.

"Why, if the doctor can't deal with it, the best thing we can do will
be to find the woman; and if she has bound the boy