outface an English officer is no small
thing, but the bluff loses relish when one plays it from the utter dark,
and stumbles up and down rough ways, thinking and eternally thinking
of what might have been if things had fallen out otherwise, and all had
been as it was not.

George shared his meal with Dick and went off to the mule-lines. His
charge sat alone in a shed with his face in his hands. Before his
tight-shut eyes danced the face of Maisie, laughing, with parted lips.
There was a great bustle and clamour about him. He grew afraid and
almost called for George.

'I say, have you got your mules ready?' It was the voice of the
subaltern over his shoulder.

'My man's looking after them. The--the fact is I've a touch of
ophthalmia and can't see very well.

'By Jove! that's bad. You ought to lie up in hospital for a while. I've
had a turn of it myself. It's as bad as being blind.'

'So I find it. When does this armoured train go?'

'At six o'clock. It takes an hour to cover the seven miles.'

'Are the Fuzzies on the rampage--eh?'

'About three nights a week. Fact is I'm in acting command of the
night-train. It generally runs back empty to Tanai for the night.'

'Big camp at Tanai, I suppose?'

'Pretty big. It has to feed our desert-column somehow.'

'Is that far off?'

'Between thirty and forty miles--in an infernal thirsty country.'

'Is the country quiet between Tanai and our men?'

'More or less. I shouldn't care to cross it alone, or with a subaltern's
command for the matter of that, but the scouts get through it in some
extraordinary fashion.'

'They always did.'

'Have you been here before, then?'

'I was through most of the trouble when it first broke out.'

'In the service and cashiered,' was the subaltern's first thought, so he
refrained from putting any questions.

'There's you man coming up with the mules. It seems rather queer----'

'That I should be mule-leading?' said Dick.

'I didn't mean to say so, but it is. Forgive me--it's beastly
impertinence I know, but you speak like a man who has been at a public
school. There's no mistaking the tone.'

'I am a public school man.'

'I thought so. I say, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but you're a
little down on your luck, aren't you? I saw you sitting with your head
in your hands, and that's why I spoke.'

'Thanks. I am about as thoroughly and completely broke as a man need
be.'

'Suppose--I mean I'm a public school man myself