nsconced myself in the reading-room with the
work in question, I prepared to devote a dusty and laborious morning to
the service of State.

Immediately opposite me sat a gigantic young man of a slightly
threadbare appearance, who was copying some screed out of a bulky tome
before him. I regarded him in a reminiscent sort of way for a few
minutes, and presently found that my scrutiny was being returned
fourfold. Next came an enormous hand that was suddenly thrust across the
table towards me, and I remembered him.

We had met six years ago in a railway train, under circumstances which
made me extremely glad to make his acquaintance at any price. Kitty and
I were on our honeymoon, and happened to be travelling on a Saturday
afternoon from Edinburgh to Perth in a train packed to suffocation with
the supporters of a football team of the baser sort. We were bound for
Inchellan, the Scottish residence of my Chief, who was sending to meet
us at Perth.

As the first-class carriages were all occupied by gentlemen with
third-class tickets, we travelled third with a company who did not seem
to possess any tickets at all. Just before the train started the door
was thrown open and two inebriated Scots, several degrees further gone
than the rest of the company--which is saying a good deal--were hurled
in. If the assemblage had all been of one way of thinking we might have
reached Perth with nothing worse than bad headaches, but unfortunately
some supporters of the other team were present, and in the midst of a
heated and alcoholic debate on the rights and wrongs of the last free
kick, two rival orators suddenly arose, clinched, and continued their
argument at close grips on the floor. In a moment the party divided
itself into two camps, and the conflict became general. As there were
ten people in the compartment, of whom seven were engaged in a
life-and-death struggle, the movements of the non-combatants--Kitty,
myself, and a gigantic youth of gawky appearance--were, to put it
mildly, somewhat restricted. Kitty became thoroughly frightened, and
hampered my preparations for battle by clinging to my arm. The gigantic
youth, seeing this, suddenly took command of the situation.

"Watch you the young leddy!" he bellowed in my ear, "and I'll sort
them."

With that he hurled himself into the tumult. The exact details of his
performance I could not see, the scientific dusting of railway cushions
not having penetrated any further north o