remains in Calcutta."

"Quite right; but that does not preclude the news of the occupation
of Simla having a great effect on the world at large. Moreover, in
the Government offices there there might possibly be found interesting
documents which it would be worth while to intercept."

"And you consider it possible that His Excellency would despatch me
thither?"

"As the detachment to which my dragoons, as well as some infantry and
two machine guns, would belong is under my command, I have begged the
General to attach you to the expedition."

Heideck understood the high-minded intentions of the Prince, and shook
his hands almost impetuously.

"Heaven grant that permission from Berlin comes in time! I desire
nothing in the world so earnestly as to accompany you to Simla."

XIX

ON THE ROAD TO SIMLA

Almost quicker than could have been expected, considering the heavy work
imposed upon the telegraph wires, the communication arrived from Berlin
that Captain Heideck should, for the time being, do duty in the Russian
army, and that it should be left to his judgment to take the first
favourable opportunity to return to Germany.

He forthwith waited upon the commanding general, was initiated into his
new role formally and by handshake, and was in all due form attached as
captain to the detachment that was commanded to proceed to Simla.

The next morning the cavalcade set out under the command of Prince
Tchajawadse.

Their route led across a part of the battlefield lying east of Lahore,
where the battle between the sepoys and the pursuing Russian cavalry had
principally taken place.

The sight of this trampled, bloodstained plain was shockingly sad.
Although numerous Indian and Russian soldiers under the military police
were engaged in picking up the corpses, there still lay everywhere
around the horribly mutilated bodies of the fallen in the postures in
which they had been overtaken by a more or less painful death. An almost
intolerable odour of putrefaction filled the air, and mingled with the
biting, stifling smoke of the funeral pyres upon which the corpses were
being burnt.

The greater part of the Russian army was in the camp and in the city.
Only the advance guard, which had returned from the pursuit of the
fleeing English, had taken up a position to the south of the city. The
reinforcements which had been despatched from Peshawar, and which had
been impatiently expected, had not yet arrived.

He