ssia has
answered that she will have it or war, and now I believe the Sultan is
on the point of replying."

"Yus, that's clear enough, young un, but what about Old England? Where
does she come in? Why should she fight Russia when the row's between
the Czar and the Sultan? It beats me altogether."

"And me too, Tony. I'm in a regular fog."

"Then allow me to help you," came in suave tones from the dapper little
stranger, with such suddenness, that both Tony and Phil started back in
surprise.

"Ah! did not know that I was there, I suppose," remarked the stranger,
with a smile. "But I've been listening--listening with interest for
some time. You have had some education, I observe, young sir," he
continued, addressing Phil, "and if you and your companion would really
care, I will clear up this mystery for you."

"Thank you! It would be very kind, sir," exclaimed Phil. "We have
bothered about the matter many days."

"And there is no one who ought to be informed more than you, my
friends," the stranger remarked earnestly. "As sure as my name is
Shelton, you of the Guards, and many another soldier boy, will be off
towards the Black Sea before many weeks have passed. For war is
practically certain."

"Horroo! You don't say so, sir!" cried Tony, snapping his fingers with
delight and drawing himself up stiffly as though to show Mr Shelton
what a fight he would make of it.

"But I do, my young friend," the latter replied, with a grave smile.
"War is undoubtedly imminent, and the Powers are about to grapple with
an enemy as subtle and as courageous as exists in any part of the world.
But come, glance at the map and I will try to tell you all about the
trouble, and when I have finished I feel sure that you two will go out
with all the more determination to do your duty for the sake of the
oppressed and for England's honour, for if ever there was an act of
bullying the Czar is guilty of it.

"You must know that Russia's teeming thousands are, as a mass, densely,
hopelessly ignorant. Peasants for the most part, they live a life of
abject misery. They are little better than slaves, and, ruled over by
various lords, they one and all look to the Czar as all-powerful,
unconquerable, and as a tyrant whose word is law, and whose hand, lifted
in anger, is worse than death itself. He is, in other words, an
autocratic ruler, and he, like those who held the throne before him, has
diligently followed out a policy of kee