There was a sudden exclamation, and one of the gentlemen sprang from his chair. "Why, Groves, is it you? I should hardly have known you again. Why, it is more than two years since we met."
"Some months more, Mr. Fullarton. I am indeed pleased to meet you again."
"Groves is an old friend of mine," Mr. Fullarton said, turning to the other gentleman. "You know he was carried off by Sher Singh when he deserted from Whish's camp before Mooltan. We have heard, indeed, from messages Sher Singh has from time to time sent in that he was with him and well, but I have been anxious as to what might happen if we defeated the Sikhs. I am proud of Groves, for he is, if I may say so, a protégé of mine, and it was partly through me that he made his first start in the service."
"Entirely through you, sir," Percy said warmly. "I owe my position entirely to you."
"Not entirely by a long way, Groves. I accepted your services as a volunteer when we were badly off for interpreters, but it was solely to your own good conduct and bravery that you owed your permanent appointment. Sir Henry Hardinge and Lord Gough both personally recommended him in very strong terms to the Court of Directors;" he added to the other officer. "I will carry him off to my tent. I expect he has nothing but what he stands in."
"One moment, Fullarton; he may have some valuable information to give us."
"No; I am sorry I have nothing to tell you but what is known already, that Sher Singh has retreated towards the Jhelum. I was not with him in the fight yesterday. I had been left under a guard here in camp, and I only went away with them at ten o'clock at night, and managed to escape from them four hours afterwards. I hid until I saw a battery of our horse-artillery coming along this afternoon, and went with them into Heylah. I picked up a Sikh horse there and started at once to report myself to you."
"Then I will not detain you, Mr. Groves. You will, of course, address a report to me as to your stay in Sher Singh's camp and your treatment by him. I shall no doubt be able to find you plenty to do in the course of a day or two."
"In the first place, Groves," Mr. Fullarton said as they reached his tent, which was close by, "I suppose you must want something to eat?"
"I shall be very glad of something, sir, for I have had nothing to-day. I found that the troops at Heylah had had nothing since they marched in the morning, and there did not seem any chance of their getting anything to-night, so it was of no use my thinking of getting food there."