As the horses have gone about forty
miles, it would be a long journey for them to go right through
tomorrow."
"I don't think I could do it, Dick, if they could. I expect I shall be
stiffer tomorrow than I am now. Eager as I am to see your dear mother,
I don't want to have to be lifted off my horse when I arrive there,
almost speechless with fatigue."
The next day they rode on to Kistnagherry, passing a small frontier
fort without question. They slept at the post house there, Dick and
Surajah having removed their scarves and emblems of rank, as soon as
they passed the frontier, in order to escape all inquiries. They
started next morning at daybreak, and arrived within sight of
Tripataly at ten o'clock.
"Now, Father, I will gallop on," Dick said. "I must break the news to
Mother, before you arrive."
"Certainly, Dick," his father, who had scarcely spoken since they
started, replied. "I have been feeling very anxious about it, all the
morning; for though, as you tell me, she has never lost faith in my
being alive, my return cannot but be a great shock to her."
Dick rode on, and on arriving at the palace was met in the courtyard
by the Rajah, who was on the point of going out on horseback.
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