although I am not partial to rice it will do very well. If we could have
got nothing else we might have tried the snake; but as it is, I had rather
not. Two more days, Ned, and we shall be at Meerut. The old Hindoo said it
was a hundred miles, and we go twenty-five a day, even with all our bends
and turns to get out of the way of villages."

"Yes, I should think we do quite that, Dick. We walk from daylight to
sunset, and often two or three hours by moonlight; and though we don't go
very fast, we ought to get over a lot of ground. Listen! There is music!"
Both held their breath. "Yes, there are the regular beats of a big drum.
It is on the highroad, I should say, nearly abreast of us. If we go to
that knoll we shall have a view of them; and there cannot be the least
danger, as they must be fully a mile away."

Upon gaining the rise in question they saw a regiment in scarlet, winding
along the road.

"Are they mutineers, Dick, or British?"

It was more than any one could say. Mounted officers rode at the head of
the regiment; perfect order was to be observed in its marching; there was
nothing that in any way differed from its ordinary aspect.

"Let us go back and get our rice and lota, Dick. We can't afford to lose
that; and if we go at a trot for a couple of miles we can get round into
some trees near the road, where we can see their faces. If the mounted
officers are white it is all right; if not, they are mutineers."

Half an hour's trot brought them to such a point of vantage as they
desired. Crouched in some bushes at the edge of a clump of trees, not