nd then our officer
came in to tell us what he thought of their chances of getting back.

On one of these visits, Blount remarked by way of airy persiflage, that
that drink of wine that had been sent for was a long time coming.
Anything as subtle as that was lost on our friend, for he walked
solemnly away, only to reappear in a few minutes with a bottle and
several glasses which he set up on the edge of the platform and filled
with excellent Burgundy. We stood up among the horses and drained a
bumper of the stuff, while the officer wandered back to his work. He had
gone calmly out into the thick of things to rescue this bottle, and took
it as a matter of course that we should claim the drink that had been
promised us.

Presently, with a good deal of noise, a fairly large force of troops
came marching down the boulevard, and took up positions around the
station. Our officer returned, waving a smoking revolver, and told us to
lie down as flat as we could among the horses, and not to move unless
they got restive. He said it looked as though an attempt would be made
to take the station by storm, and that there might be a brisk fight.

However, there were only a few scattering shots, and then our friend
came back and told us that we had better get out and start for home
before things began again. He added, however, that we must have the
permission of the commanding officer who was on the other side of the
station, but offered to pilot us to the great man and help us get the
permission. The way lay straight out into the square, in full view of
the houses across the way, along the front of the station just behind
the troops and into the railroad yard on the other side.

That station seemed about four miles long, and the officer was possessed
of a desire to loiter by the way, recounting anecdotes of his school
days. He would walk along for a few steps and then pause to tell Bulle
some long and rambling yarn about his uncle. Bulle would take him by the
arm and get him in motion again. Then the old chap would transfer his
conversational fire to another member of the party, and we were obliged
almost to pull him the length of the square.

The commanding officer was a pleasant-faced little man who stood in the
shelter of a water tank and received us in a puzzled way, as though he
wondered what civilians were doing in that neighbourhood anyway.
Permission was readily granted for us to leave, with the ludicrous
proviso that we d