d the way we did, for although it was taking us further from home
it was but two miles along the road here, while, if we had gone the
right way, it would have been six or seven before we arrived at the
next village."

"I think we are lucky all round," Ralph said. "An hour ago if any one
told us we were going to sit down at half-past four to a hot dinner of
pork and potatoes we should have slain him as a scoffer. It would have
seemed altogether too good to be true."

Ralph had no difficulty in purchasing whisky, and be ordered the
sergeant to serve out a tot to each man with his dinner and another
half an hour later, and by seven o'clock there was scarcely one of the
tired men who was not already asleep. The next morning they started at
eight o'clock, having had a breakfast of potatoes before they fell in.
Ralph rewarded the peasants generously for their hospitality, and the
men set off in high spirits for their tramp, and reached Ballyporrit
at half-past two in the afternoon.

"You gave us a nice scare yesterday, Conway," was Captain O'Connor's
greeting as they marched in. "When twelve o'clock came and you didn't
come back I began to think you must have lost yourselves; and a nice
time we had of it till your messenger arrived at eight. It was no use
sending out to look for you on the hills. But I went out with a party,
with two or three men to guide us, to the end of a valley, up which a
path went; beyond that there was no going, for one couldn't see one's
hand. I stayed there an hour, firing off guns once a minute, and as
there was no reply was sure that you must be a good distance off,
wherever you were; so there was nothing to do but to come back and
hope you had found shelter somewhere. Come in, lad; I have got some
hot lunch waiting for you. Come in, Mr. Fitzgibbon. It's lucky I
didn't catch you yesterday, or I should have considered it my duty to
have hung you forthwith for decoying his majesty's troops among the
hills."

"Well, Conway, you didn't bargain for all this when you offered to
change places with me," Lieutenant Desmond said when they were seated
at table.

"No; but now it's all over I am glad I did change, in spite of the
tramp we had. It has been an adventure, and beside, it was a good
thing to learn how best to get out of a fog."

"How did you manage, Conway?" Captain O'Connor asked; "for once lost
in such a fog as that on those hills there really does not seem
anything to be done."

Ralph r