mess house compound; beyond, the maidan stretched away flat and
level to the low huts of the native lines on the other side.

"So the Doctor comes back tomorrow, Major," the Adjutant, who had been
one of the whist party, said. "I shall be very glad to have him back.
In the first place, he is a capital fellow, and keeps us all alive;
secondly, he is a good deal better doctor than the station surgeon who
has been looking after the men since we have been here; and lastly, if
I had got anything the matter with me myself, I would rather be in his
hands than those of anyone else I know."

"Yes, I agree with you, Prothero; the Doctor is as good a fellow as ever
stepped. There is no doubt about his talent in his profession; and there
are a good many of us who owed our lives to him when we were down with
cholera, in that bad attack three years ago. He is good all round; he
is just as keen a shikari as he was when he joined the regiment,
twenty years ago; he is a good billiard player, and one of the best
storytellers I ever came across; but his best point is that he is such a
thoroughly good fellow--always ready to do a good turn to anyone, and to
help a lame dog over a stile. I could name a dozen men in India who
owe their commissions to him. I don't know what the regiment would do
without him."

"He went home on leave just after I joined," one of the subalterns said.
"Of course, I know, from all I have heard of him, that he is an awfully
good fellow, but from the little I saw of him myself, he seemed always
growling and snapping."

There was a general laugh from the others.

"Yes, that is his way, Thompson," the Major said; "he believes himself
to be one of the most cynical and morose of men."

"He was married, wasn't he, Major?"

"Yes, it was a sad business. It was only just after I joined. He is
three years senior to me in the regiment. He was appointed to it a month
or two after the Colonel joined. Well, as I say, a month or two after I
came to it, he went away on leave down to Calcutta, where he was to meet
a young lady who had been engaged to him before he left home. They were
married, and he brought her up country. Before she had been with us a
month we had one of those outbreaks of cholera. It wasn't a very severe
one. I think we only lost eight or ten men, and no officer; but the
Doctor's young wife was attacked, and in three or four hours she was
carried off. It regularly broke him down. However, he got over it