"Dinner will be ready in ten minutes. It is just as well that you should get up, for two or three hours. After that, you will be good for another sleep till morning. We shall have to look out sharp now, and keep a couple of vedettes always at that village; as, for all we know, this may be the pass by which Tippoo is coming down."
Dick got up rather reluctantly, but he was not long in shaking off his drowsiness, and after dinner was able to go through the story again, with full details of his adventures.
"I don't know what I should have done without Surajah, Uncle. He is a capital fellow, and if ever I go up by myself, into Mysore, to look for my father, I hope that you will let me take him."
"That I will certainly do, Dick. Ever since I first heard of your plans, I have quite decided that you ought not to go alone. I daresay I should have chosen an older man to accompany you, but after what you and the lad have done together, I don't think you could do better than take him. Of course, such an affair would demand infinitely greater caution and care, though not greater courage, than you had occasion to use on this excursion. It is one thing to enter a village, to ask a few questions, make a purchase or two, and be off again; but it is a very different thing to be among people for weeks, or perhaps months, and to live as one of themselves. However, we may hope that this war will end in our army marching to Seringapatam, when we shall recover many of the prisoners in Tippoo's hands.
"I do not say all. We know how many hundreds remained in his power last time, in spite of his promise to deliver them all up; and maybe something of the same sort will occur next time. Numbers may be sent away, by him, to the hill fortresses dotted all over the country; and we should never be able to obtain news of them. However, we must hope for the best."
The next morning, the troopers arrived with a letter from the English resident at Arcot. The Rajah glanced through it, and handed it to Dick, with the remark:
"You will not get the honour you deserve, Dick."
The letter ran:
"Dear Rajah:
"Your news would be extremely valuable, were it correct; but unfortunately it is not so, and doubtless the reports brought down by your nephew were spread by Tippoo, for the purpose of deceiving us. Or, possibly, he may have intended to have come that way, but afterwards changed his mind. We have news that, just after Colonel Maxwell effected his junction with General Meadows, near Caveripatam, and was about to ascend the ghauts by the Tapour pass, Tippoo came down by that very route, slipped past them, and is marching on to Trichinopoly. That being the case, I see no further utility in your remaining with your troop in the passes, but think it were best that you should re-assemble them at once, and march here. There is no chance of Tippoo capturing Trichinopoly before Meadows, who is following him, can come up and force on a battle; so it is likely that the Mysore army may continue their march in this direction, in which case every fighting man will be of use, to defend this place until it is relieved by the general."