tting to him."

"I earnestly beseech you, my dear Mrs. Baird, to compose yourself. It
is quite natural that your heart should draw you to your husband's side;
but it is quite impossible for you to carry out your intention. The
night is drawing on, and even if it were broad daylight nobody would
be able to get through the confusion of the retiring army to the place
where your husband must be sought."

"The battle is then lost? Our army is in full retreat?"

"The treachery of the Indian troops is to blame for this disaster. Your
countrymen, Mrs. Baird, have fought like heroes, and as a lost battle
does not yet mean a lost campaign, they will perhaps soon retrieve
to-day's disaster."

"But what is to become of us? The wounded will be brought in here, won't
they? Therefore I shall not think of leaving before I see my husband
again."

Her determination to remain in the panic-stricken city would certainly
have been impossible to shake by any art of persuasion, but Heideck did
not dream of attempting to dissuade Mrs. Baird from her resolve. It was
his firm conviction that the flight to Amritsar, which the Colonel had
advised in case of a defeat, was, under the present circumstances, quite
impracticable. As a matter of fact, there was scarcely anything else
possible but to remain in the hotel and patiently await the development
of events.

It was now quite impossible for white women and children to trust
themselves in the streets in the midst of the excited populace; but
Heideck believed that they were, for the present, quite safe in the
house, thinking that the fanaticism of the natives would not culminate
in an attack upon the hotel so long as any considerable body of English
soldiers remained in the town. But only too soon he was compelled to
admit that he had under-estimated the seriousness of the situation. A
ruddy, flickering flame, which suddenly lit up the room which had been
filled by the dying evening glow, caused him to rush to the window,
when, to his horror, he perceived that one of the houses on the opposite
side of the street was on fire, and that in the adjacent building the
tongues of flame had caught the wooden pillars of the verandah. There
was no doubt but that the hotel would, within a few minutes, be involved
in the conflagration.

Under these circumstances it was impossible to think of remaining longer
in the hotel. Its massive walls could, perhaps, withstand the fire for a
time, but the biting v