"
Richards cordially agreed with his companion.
"Well, now, what are the orders, Bathurst?" said the Doctor.
"There are no orders as yet, Doctor. The Major says you will go
round to the others, Doolan, Rintoul, and Forster, and tell them.
I am to go round to Hunter and the other civilians. Then, this
evening we are to meet at nine o'clock, as usual, at the Major's.
If the others decide that the only plan is for all to stop here and
fight it out, there will be no occasion for anything like a council;
it will only have to be arranged at what time we all move into the
fort, and the best means for keeping the news from spreading to
the Sepoys. Not that it will make much difference after they have
once fairly turned in. If there is one thing a Hindoo hates more
than another, it is getting from under his blankets when he has
once got himself warm at night. Even if they heard at one or two
o'clock in the morning that we were moving into the fort I don't
think they would turn out till morning."
"No, I am sure they would not," the Doctor agreed.
"If there were a few more of us," Richards said, "I should vote for
our beginning it. If we were to fall suddenly upon them we might
kill a lot and scare the rest off."
"We are too few for that," the Doctor said. "Besides, although
Bathurst answers for the good faith of the sender of the warning,
there has as yet been no act of mutiny that would justify our taking
such a step as that.
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