that I shall
have an awful trouble to get them off; and my hair the same. If you
feel along here, from one ear to the other, you will feel a ridge.
That is the cobbler's wax, that sticks all this mass of frizzled
hair on.

"Did you not notice that both my brother's and my face and hands
were much darker than the rest of our skin?"

"Yes, the doctor did notice that," the captain said--now beginning
to think that Ralph was not insane, after all.

Passing his finger where Ralph directed him, he felt the ridge of
the false hair.

"Who are you then, may I ask?" he said.

"My brother and myself are named Barclay," Ralph said. "We are
lieutenants in the army, and are both decorated for service in the
field. We left Tours four days ago, and are bearers of dispatches
from Gambetta to General Trochu."

A cheer broke from all who were standing within hearing; and the
boys' hands--for Percy came up at the moment--were warmly shaken by
the officers of the boat, one after another. Congratulations of all
sorts were heaped upon them, and those around were unable to make
enough of them.

"No pigeon has come in, for ten days," the commander said. "You
will indeed be welcome."

At this moment, a sailor came down to say that they were passing
the Louvre and, in another two minutes, the gunboat lay alongside
the wharf.

"You do not know, I suppose, where Trochu is to be found?" the
commander of the Farcey asked.

"No, indeed," Ralph said.

"I will go with you, myself," the officer said. "If the general has
gone to bed, we must knock him up. He won't mind, when he hears the
reason."

It was but a short distance to walk, but the boys had great
difficulty in getting there; for their limbs were stiff and aching,
and they felt a burning sensation all over them, as if they had
been dipped in boiling water. General Trochu had not yet gone to
bed and--upon the message being delivered by the orderly, "The
commander of the Farcey, with officers bearing dispatches, from
Tours,"--he ordered them to be instantly admitted.

"These are the Lieutenants Barclay, general," the commander of the
Farcey said. "A heavy firing broke out, suddenly, from the water
side at Lower Meudon. It was answered from our side and--thinking
that it might be someone trying to swim across--I fired a round of
grape into the Germans, and ordered a sharp lookout to be kept. I
had scarcely spoken the words before we were hailed for a rope; and
in another minute