"

"Bravo!" cried Jerry. "What did you say, sergeant?"

"I said it was a blackguardly, cowardly thing to say behind a man's
back."

"Yes; and what then?" cried Jerry, breathlessly.

"Then? Oh, he turned upon me and let me have it, while I took no
notice, feeling as I did that I ought to have known better; and the
quieter I was the more he went on giving it me, and threatening and
getting more and more savage, till he roused me at last."

"How? What did he say?"

"Well, there is one thing that makes me wild, and he did it. I stood
there holding the bombardon, letting him go on, till all at once he told
me that I was no more good in my company and I had come sneaking to the
band to try and get taken on there, but that I was of no use at all, and
he'd soon put a stop to my practising with the men; and that I was--"

Brumpton stopped, and wiped his face again.

"Well, let's have it!" cried Jerry, excitedly.

"He said that I was a fat, idiotic porpoise; and that did it."

"Did what?" cried Jerry.

"I'd got that big bombardon upside down in my hands, and, before I knew
it, I'd brought it down on his bald head, just as if it was an
extinguisher."

"And put him out!" said Jerry.

"Well, he put me out then, anyhow."

"And what did he say, then."

"Oh, he didn't say any more," replied Brumpton. "But I'm sorry I did
it, and there'll be a big row."

"Mind shaking hands with me, sergeant?"

"No, my lad--not a bit."

"Hah!" ejaculated Jerry after the operation. "That was a real honest
English grip, and I wish Dick Smithson had been there to hear you take
his part. He'll never come back now!"

"He will," said the sergeant, drily.

"Not he. Never show his face here again."

"No! We will show it for him, poor lad. Ah! it was a very mad thing to
do; and, if the truth was known, not the first mad thing Smithson's
done."

"Right," said Jerry.

"Look here, Jerry Brigley, you haven't been a soldier long enough to
know how sharp the police are in tracking deserters. It don't take very
long to send word all over the country that a man--described--has left
his regiment."

"I dunno so much about that," said Jerry.

"Well, I do!" replied Brumpton. "Say the police here telegraph to
twenty stations round, and each of those twenty stations wire to twenty,
and each of those to another twenty, it don't take long, at that rate,
to send all over the country. You mark my words: the bobbies won't be
long bef