shot. Their faces were set, pale, and earnest, Scarcely a word was spoken.
Each loaded in silence, took up a place at the firing point, and aimed
steadily and seriously; the boys with an angry eye and frowning brow, as
if each time they were firing at a deadly foe; the girls as earnestly, and
without any of the nervousness or timidity which would be natural in girls
handling firearms for the first time. Each day the exercise was repeated,
and after a week's practice all could hit, with a fair amount of
certainty, a piece of paper six inches square, at a distance of ten yards.

During this time Captains Dunlop and Manners spent their whole time, when
not engaged upon their military duties, at Major Warrener's. They were now
the recognized lovers of Kate and Rose; and although, in those days of
tremendous anxiety and peril, no formal engagements were entered upon, the
young people understood each other, and Major Warrener gave his tacit
approval. Very earnestly all the party hoped that when the dread moment
came it might come when they were all together, so that they might share
the same fate, whatever it might be. The young officers' buggies now stood
all day in Major Warrener's compound, with the patient _syces_ squatting
near, or talking with the servants, while the major's horses stood ready
saddled in the stables.

However much the party might hope to be together when the crisis came,
they felt that it was improbable that they would be so, for at the first
symptoms of mutiny it would be the duty of the officers to hasten to the
barracks to endeavor to quell it, even if certain death should meet them
there.

In the face of the tidings from Meerut and Delhi, all the pretense of
confidence, which had hitherto been kept up at the station, came to an
end; and even had there been implicit confidence in the regiment, the news