s--N.C.O.'s as we call
'em--remember Owen Williams. I've many a pal there, and as soon as
you're ready I'll take you right along to the barracks and see you
'listed myself."

A day was fixed, and having learned a few more details, Phil returned to
his friends. The latter were genuinely sorry to hear that he was to go,
and of all, Jim was perhaps the saddest.

"No one to cook the breakfast no more, now you're off, young un," he
said, with a ring of true regret in his voice. "Never mind; that chap
Tony's come back, and I'll turn him on to the job. If he kicks there'll
be trouble, and then I'll do as I promised yer."

But Jim was disappointed. For three weeks Tony had lain in bed at a
hospital, and for the first six days it was a matter of life and death.
The bear's claws had lacerated his scalp so severely that it was a
wonder he survived. But by dint of careful nursing he recovered, and on
the very day that Phil had been to see the sergeant-major he returned to
the menagerie. But he was a changed man. A double escape from death
had cured him of his rowdiness, and when he came towards Phil
shamefacedly, offering his hand as though he could not expect it to be
shaken, he was filled with deep gratitude for the truly gallant deed
that had saved his life.

Phil clutched the hand extended and shook it heartily.

"Ah, sir!" Tony blurted out, with tears in his eyes, "I've been a real
brute, and no one knows it better nor myself. But yer saved my life,
Phil Western, yer did, and I ain't ungrateful. If you'd left me to be
torn to pieces it was only what I deserved, for we wasn't the best of
friends, and a chap as can torment a dumb animal must expect something
back in the end. And now, sir, I hear you're going, and if you'll let
me I'll come too."

"Nonsense, Tony!" Phil exclaimed. "You've got a good job, and had
better stick to it."

"I had one, but I ain't now, Phil," Tony replied dolefully. "The boss
give me the sack, saying I'd cost him a good fifty pounds by causing the
death of the bear. So I'm out of work now, and if you're for a soldier,
as they tell me, why, so am I too; and I tell yer I'll stick to yer like
a true 'un if you'll let me come, and one day when you're an officer
I'll be yer servant."

Phil laughed good-naturedly, and flushed red when he saw that here was
one who thought it was within the bounds of possibility that he would
attain to the status of officer.

"It will be a long time