General Simpson greeted Jim, when at last he was admitted, with simple kindliness but evident preoccupation. His hands and mind were very full at the moment, and Jim's only desire was to get on towards home. All his requests were granted without hesitation, the necessary papers were promised him before night, and they set off again, first to the cavalry camp, whose location he had learned from one of the aides, and then to the railway which lay a little beyond.
At the camp he came across his own orderly, who greeted him with a mixture of jovial delight at meeting again an openhanded friend and master, and of deferential awe at encountering one returned from the dead.
"Quite thought you was dead, sir," said he, with a big shy smile.
"I've been next door to it once or twice, Jones. Where's my horse?"
"Ah, then! Dear knows, sir! The French gentleman took him to's own quarters an' I never set eyes on him since."
"Ah! Anybody left here that I know? Denham?"
"Lord Charles Denham, he died six, seven months ago the fever, sir."
"Mr. Kingsnorth?
"Invalided home in the winter, sir."
"Captain Warren?"