going to get over it, and should be fit for service again. Then I
got worse; first it was a cough, then the blood used to come up,
and they said that the only chance for me was to come home. I did
not believe it would be of any use, but I thought that I would
rather die at home than in India, so home I came, and have now been
a week in London.

"I thought at first of going down to my place at Reigate, and having
you and your boy there with me; but as I have certainly not many
weeks, perhaps not many days, to live, I thought I would come down
to you; so the day after you receive this letter I shall be with
you. I shall not bring my little girl down; I have left her in good
hands, and I shall only bring with me my Hindoo servant. He will
give you no trouble--a mat to sleep on, and a little rice to eat,
will satisfy his wants; and he will take the trouble of me a good
deal off your hands. He was a Sepoy in my regiment, and has always
evinced the greatest devotion for me. More than once in battle
he has saved my life, and has, for the last three years, been my
servant, and has nursed me since I have been ill as tenderly as a
woman could have done. As I shall have time to tell you everything
when I arrive, I will say no more now."

The news had much affected John Thorndyke. His brother George was
five years his senior, and had gone out as a cadet in the company's
service when John was but thirteen, and this was his first home
coming. Had it not been for a portrait that had been taken of him in
his uniform just before he sailed, John would have had but little
remembrance of him. In that he was represented as a thin, spare
youth, with an expression of quiet determination in his face. From
his father John had, of course, heard much about him.