ing.

"Here we turn off."

"There is a man there," Surajah exclaimed, when they had ridden a few
yards farther.

Dick checked his horse.

"It is Pertaub," he said, a moment later, and in a minute they were
beside the Hindoo.

"I could not sleep, thinking of you, Sahib," the latter said, as they
came up. "So I came across here, partly to help you dig up the
caskets, and partly that I might see you, and assure myself that, so
far, all had gone well."

"Thank you, Pertaub. You have, I see, brought a pickaxe. It will save
us half an hour's work; and besides, I am glad to say goodbye again.

"All has gone well. This is the young lady."

"She is well disguised," Pertaub said, bowing his head to Annie. "She
looks so like a boy that, even now you tell me, I can scarce believe
she is a white girl. Truly you can go on without fear that anyone will
suspect her."

Leading the way to the spot where the caskets had been buried, Dick
looked on while Surajah and Ibrahim dug them up. They were then
wrapped up in rugs, and strapped securely behind their owners'
saddles. Then, after a warm adieu to the kind old man, they turned
their horses' heads, and rode back out of the woods.

After riding for three hours at a canter, Dick saw that, although
Annie still spoke cheerfully, her strength was failing her, and on
arriving at a wood, he said:

"We will wait here till the heat of the sun has abated. We have done
very well, and the horses, as well as ourselves, will be glad of a few
hours' rest."

He alighted from the saddle, gave his horse to Ibrahim, and then
lifted Annie from her seat. As he set her down on her feet, and loosed
his hold of her, she slipped down on to the ground. Dick and Surajah
at once raised her, and placed her so that, as she sat, she could lean
against a tree.

Here Dick supported her, while Surajah ran and fetched his water
bottle. Annie drank a little, and then said, with a nervous laugh:

"It is very silly of me. But I feel better now. My legs seemed to give
way, altogether."

"It was not silly at all," Dick said. "You have held on most bravely.
I can tell you there are not many girls who would have ridden four or
five and twenty miles, the first time they sat on a horse. Why, I can
tell you the first time I mounted, I did not do a quarter as much, and
I was so stiff I could hardly walk, when I got down. I should have
stopped before, but you kept talking so cheerfully that, it seemed to
me, you