It yet wanted an hour or so of daybreak, and they struck off at right angles to the river and walked till it became light, when they entered a small wood near to which was a hut. Watching this closely, they saw only an old man come out, and at once made to it, and asked him for food and shelter. Recovered from his first surprise he received them kindly, and gave them the best which his hut, in which he lived alone with his wife, afforded. A meal of cakes and parched grain greatly revived them, and after a long sleep they started again at nightfall, with enough food for the next two days' supply. That they were not ahead of all their foes was certain, from the fact that the peasant said that he had heard firing on the river bank on the previous day. They knew by this also that the one boat ahead of them had at any rate escaped its perils of the first day.
For two more nights they walked, passing one day in a thick wood, the other in a ruined temple, their hopes rising; for, as they knew, the further they got from Cawnpore the less likely the country people were to be hostile.
The third morning they again entered a hut to ask for food.
"I will give you food," the peasant said, "but you had better go to the rajah's—his house is over there, half an hour's walk. He has four Englishmen there who came from the river, and he is the friend of the Feringhees."
Delighted at the news the boys went forward. As they entered the courtyard of the house they were greeted with a hearty salutation in English, and their hands were clasped a moment afterward by Lieutenant Delafosse, an officer who had greatly distinguished himself in the defence of Cawnpore, and was one of the few
