The story was published in the Civil and Military Gazette on April 11th 1887, in the first Indian edition of Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888, and in subsequent editions of that collection.
Mulvaney tells the tale of a platoon of twenty-five young soldiers, hunting dacoits (bandits) in the Burmese jungle, including himself and Ortheris. They strip naked to cross a river, fight their way into a town full of dacoits, and capture it with great slaughter, despite being heavily out-numbered. Had they been older, says Mulvaney, they would never have taken the risk, but fearless young men with a good officer could conquer anything.
This is the second of the eighteen 'Mulvaney' stories. Carrington (page 104) records that the Second Queen’s Regiment carried out such an operation, which was reported in the Civil and Military Gazette a few weeks before the story was written. A similar story is told of the Hampshire Regiment.
