ch explains the whole thing. If the gallant
General had not been in quite such a hurry, he would have spared himself
this unpleasant experience.'

'Let's all go down, and see how they're getting on,' said Hazel.

'I know this,' said the General sullenly, 'they were in quite as big a
funk as I was!'

'Then why didn't they run in, and ask to be hidden too?' inquired
Hilary.

'Why? Because they didn't dare!' retorted Tinling, boldly.

'You know,' he remarked to Cecily, as they were going down together
through the warm darkness, 'it's not fair of your uncle to play these
tricks on fellows.'

'Perhaps it isn't quite,' said Cecily, impartially; 'but then he didn't
_begin_, did he?'

'Ahoy!' shouted Uncle Lambert, as they neared the stockade, and he was
answered by a ringing cheer from the fortress.

'Come on--we ain't afraid of you! Don't skulk there--see what you'll
get!' And a volley of peas, corks, and small shot flew about their ears.

Lambert Jolliffe ran forward: 'Hi, stop that! spare our lives!' he
cried, laughing. 'Jack, you young rascal, put down that confounded
popgun--can't you see we're not Red Indians?'

'What, is it you, uncle?' said Guy, in a rather crestfallen tone. 'Where
are the Red Indians then?'

'They had to go up to town to see their dentist. But do you mean to say
you haven't opened my envelope after all?'

'I thought you told us it was only in case we got frightened?' said
Jack.

'What does the General say to _that_?' cried Lambert--but Clarence
Tinling was nowhere to be found. He had slipped off to his bedroom, and
the next morning he announced at breakfast that he 'thought his people
would be wanting him at home.'

So the army was disbanded, for there was a general disarmament, and on
the afternoon after Tinling's departure the entire Jolliffe family
engaged in a grand cricket match, when lazy Uncle Lambert came out
unexpectedly strong as an overhand bowler.

_SHUT OUT_

It is towards the end of an afternoon in December, and Wilfred Rolleston
is walking along a crowded London street with his face turned westward.
A few moments ago and he was scarcely conscious of where he was or where
he meant to go: he was walking on mechanically in a heavy stupor,
through which there stole a haunting sense of degradation and despair
that tortured him dully. And suddenly, as if by magic, this has
vanished: he seems to himself to have waked from a miserable day dream
to the buoyant consc