the last thing they would look for is Englishmen making their way to
Lucknow at present. The guide who is going with us got out, you know; and
they must be looking out ten times as sharp to prevent people getting out,
as to prevent any one getting in."

"I really do not think, father," Ned said, "that the danger of detection
is great-certainly nothing like what it was before. Dick and I will of
course go as Sepoys, and Dick can bind up his face and mouth as if he had
been wounded, and was unable to speak. There must be thousands of them
making their way to Lucknow, and we shall excite no attention whatever.
The distance is not forty miles."

"Very well, boys, so be it," Colonel Warrener said. "There is much in what
you say; and reluctant as I am to part with you both, yet somehow the
thought that you are together, and can help each other, will be a comfort
to me. God bless you, my boys! Go back to the general, and say I consent
freely to your doing the duty for which he has selected you. I expect you
will have to start at once, but you will come back here to change."

General Havelock expressed his warm satisfaction when the boys returned
with their father's consent to their undertaking the adventure. "I
understand from Colonel Warrener," he said, addressing Ned, "that you are
intended for the army. I have deferred telling you that on the day of the
first fight I sent your name home, begging that you might be gazetted on
that date to a commission in the Sixty-fourth. Your name will by this time
have appeared in order. There are only two ensigns now in the regiment,
and ere I see you again there will, I fear, be more than that even of
death vacancies, so that you will have got your step. I will do the same
for you," he said, turning to Dick, "if you like to give up your
midshipman's berth and take to the army."