CONTENTS.CHAP. Page I. MIXED! 11 II. AT CHELTENHAM, 27 III. GONE, 47 IV. BACK AT SCHOOL, 65 V. ENLISTED, 84 VI. EGYPT, 97 VII. EL-TEB, 116 VIII. TAMANIEB, 134 IX. THE CAMEL CORPS, 144 X. AN UNEXPECTED MEETING, 165 XI. ABU KLEA, 183 XII. METEMMEH, 201 XIII. ABU KRU, 218 XIV. A SLAVE, 235 XV. BAD NEWS, 253 XVI. IN DISGUISE, 270 XVII. A RUNAWAY SLAVE, 288 XVIII. THE ZAREBA, 306 XIX. A LONG SEARCH, 325 XX. FOUND! 340 XXI. HOME! 359CHAPTER IMIXED!In a room in the married non-commissioned officers' quarters in thecantonments at Agra, a young woman was sitting looking thoughtfully attwo infants, who lay sleeping together on the outside of a bed with ashawl thrown lightly over them. Jane Humphreys had been married about ayear. She was the daughter of the regimental sergeant-major, and hadbeen a spoilt child. She was good looking, and had, so the wives anddaughters of the other non-commissioned officers said, laid herself outto catch one of the young officers of the regiment, and was bitterlydisappointed at the failure of her efforts.The report may have been untrue, for Jane Farran was by no means popularwith the other women, taking far too much upon herself, as theyconsidered, upon the strength of her father's rank, and giving herselfairs as if she were better than those around her. There were girls inthe regiment just as good looking as she was without any of her airs andtempers. Why should she set herself up above the rest?When, however, Sergeant-major Farran died suddenly of sunstroke after aheavy field-day, whatever plans and hopes his daughter may haveentertained came to an end. Her name and that of her mother were putdown among the women to be sent, with the next batch of invalids, hometo England, and she suddenly accepted the offer of marriage of youngSergeant Humphreys, whose advances she had previously treated withscorn. They were married six weeks later, on the day before her motherwas to go down by train with a party of invalids to Calcutta. Theuniversal opinion of the women in the regiment was that the sergeant hadgot a bad bargain.