ghly the whereabouts of the captives, and if I
can get in at an early hour, I may be able to save them."

"You shall have more men. You shall have your old crew, my lad. I know
well that you will lead them discreetly. Save these prisoners for us,
and you will have completed some very fine work. There. Off you go,
Mr Stapleton. I would willingly keep you and listen to all you have to
say, but I see that you are very tired. And besides, we are off at
cock-crow tomorrow."

Once more he shook hands with our hero and nodded adieu. Then he
stepped across to the tent occupied by Sir Garnet, and told him of the
remarkable occurrence.

"A really gallant and modest lad, General," he said, feelingly. "I
could not be prouder of him had he been my own son."

When morning dawned on the following day the hutted town was all bustle
and hurry, and very soon the bridge over the river resounded to the
tramp of many feet, for the punitive army was on the march. The last
stage of this short and historic campaign had commenced.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

THE DESTRUCTION OF KUMASI.

Excitement rose high early that morning as the main body of the British
force crossed the bridge over the Prahsu and began their invasion of
Ashanti proper, for stern fighting was expected. It was known now that
the protectorate on the coast side of the river was freed of all
enemies, so effective had been the operations carried out by Sir Garnet,
and in addition, thanks to the information supplied by Dick and his two
men, and by Lord Gifford, one of the most valuable officers in this
campaign, it was ascertained for certain that the road on the Ashanti
side, as far as a range of hills known as the Adansi range, was also
entirely clear. Beyond that the enemy lurked, while there were rumours
that large bodies were operating on the flanks, prepared to close in on
us.

Not a snap of the fingers did our gallant fellows care for this news.
They itched to be at Kumasi, and in their hearts all had registered a
vow to strike hard in the interests of mercy. For even the men who had
only recently landed, and who had marched directly up-country, had seen
sufficient to convince them that it was high time that King Koffee and
his barbarians were subjugated. On every road the Ashantis had left
their sacrifices, wretched slaves done to death with horrible
mutilations, or lashed to trees and left there to die like those two
poor fellows at Kumasi. And so every