way in which they were finished off
at the bottoms with leather as if they were jack-boots.

"Wait till he comes out, Pickle, and ask him," said the doctor dryly.

"No, thank you, uncle; my French is so bad," said the boy, with his eyes
sparkling. "But, my word, they must have been galloping hard to escape
the rain! Look at those poor horses. They are breathed."

Rodd had hardly spoken when they became fully aware that they had taken
refuge in the entrance to the town barracks, for the notes of a bugle
rang out, echoing round the inner square of the building, and seeming to
be thrown back in a half-smothered way from wall to wall, while the wind
and rain raged down more fiercely than ever.

"Something must be the matter," said Rodd, with his lips close to his
uncle's ear.

"Seems like it, boy. That officer must have brought a dispatch."

The object of the bugle was shown directly, for in spite of the rain the
interior of the barracks began to assume the aspect of some huge wasps'
nest that had suddenly been disturbed.

Soldiers came hurrying out into the rain, hurriedly putting on their
overcoats; the great arched gateway filled up at once with men seeking
its shelter, and the sentry who had received his half-crown came to
roughly order the English intruders to go elsewhere; but it was only
outside militarism, for he said in a low hurried tone in French--

"Run outside to the end of the barracks. Grand cafe."

"Come along, uncle. Never mind the rain," cried Rodd, catching at his
uncle's wrist, as he fully grasped the sentry's meaning; and stepping
outside the archway they ran together, or rather, were half carried by
the shrieking wind, for some thirty or forty yards, almost into the
doorway of a large lit-up building, for already it seemed to be almost
night.

"Never mind the rain, indeed!" grumbled Uncle Paul. "Why, I'm nearly
soaked. Oh, come, we have got into civilised regions, at all events;"
for a couple of waiters, seeing their plight, literally pounced upon
them and hurried them through the building into a great kitchen where a
huge fire was burning and the smell of cookery saluted their nostrils.

The attentions of the waiters of what was evidently one of the principal
hotels of the town were very welcome, and a glance teaching them that
their visitors were people of some standing, they made use of their
napkins to remove as much of the superabundant moisture as was possible,
and then furni