acted, as reported by Mr. Warrener, with great courage, coolness, and good
discipline. Then the Warreners went back to their tent, and had to go
through their yarn again with great minuteness and detail.

"I do think," said Rivers, a midshipman of some two years older standing
than Dick, "that you are the luckiest youngster in the service. It is not
one fellow in a hundred thousand who has such chances."

"That is so, Rivers," one of the lieutenants answered; "but it is not one
in a hundred thousand who, having gone through such adventures, would have
been alive to tell them at the end. The getting into these scrapes may be
luck, but the getting out of them demands courage, coolness, and quickness
of invention, such as not one lad in a thousand possesses. Now, Rivers,
tell me honestly whether you think that, had you been cut off as he was in
that sortie at Lucknow, you would ever have thought of robbing that old
fakir of his wig?"

"No," Rivers said; "I am quite sure it would never have occurred to me.
Yes, as you say, sir, Dick Warrener has no end of luck, but he certainly
deserves and makes the best of it."




CHAPTER XX.

THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW.


On the 6th of November Captain Peel, with five hundred of his gallant