"It's getting an old story, and I always found it puzzling.

So far as one could Judge, Dick, Blake should have made an excellent officer; his mother, the Colonel's sister, was true to the Challoner strain, his father a reckless Irish sportsman." "But what was the story?
I haven't heard it." "After Blake broke his neck when hunting, the Colonel brought Dick up, and, as a matter of course, sent him into the army.

He became a sapper, entering the Indian service.

There he met his cousin, Bertram, who was in the line, somewhere on the frontier.

They were both sent with an expedition into the hills, and there was a night attack.