with which their friend provided them, and which hung by a band passing
over one shoulder. Their money and a box of matches they secured in a
corner of their clothes. A couple of stout staves completed their outfit.

Bidding a grateful farewell to their friendly Hindoo, the boys started on
their journey. The sandals they found so difficult to keep on that they
took them off and carried them, except when they were passing over stony
ground. They kept to bypaths and avoided all villages. Occasionally they
met a native, but either they passed him without speech, or Ned muttered a
salutation in answer to that of the passer. All day they walked, and far
into the night. They had no fear of missing their way, as the road on one
hand and the river on the other both ran to Meerut; and although these
were sometimes ten miles apart, they served as a fair index as to the line
they should take. The biscuits, eked out with such grain as they could
pluck as they crossed the fields, lasted for two days; but at the end of
that time it became necessary to seek another supply of food.

"I don't know what to ask for, Dick; and those niggers always chatter so
much that I should have to answer, and then I should be found out
directly. I think we must try some quiet huts at a distance from the
road."

The wood in which they that night slept was near three or four scattered
huts. In the morning they waited and watched for a long time until one of
the cottages was, as far as they could judge, deserted, all its inmates
being gone out to work in the fields. They then entered it boldly. It was
empty. On hunting about they found some chupatties which had apparently
been newly baked, a store of rice and of several other grains. They took
the chupatties, five or six pounds of rice, and a little copper cooking-
pot. They placed in a conspicuous position two rupees, which were more