“I came with despatches,—that is, I ought to have had them.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that some of the bags I left at Tarin; and one small fellow, which I take to have been the cream of the correspondence, Chamberlayne carried on here,—at least I hope so. Have n't you got it?”

“What infernal muddle are your brains in? Who is Chamberlayne?”

“Come, come, Skeffy, I 'm not in a joking mood;” and he glanced at the letter in his hand as he spoke. “Don't worry me, old fellow, but say that you have got the bag all right.”

“But I have not, I never saw it,—never heard of it.”

“And has the Colonel not been here?”

“Who is the Colonel?”

“Chamberlayne.”

“And who is Chamberlayne.”