ght, I think."

"Yes, I suppose so. But of course we ain't sure; and I suppose we are
not going anywhere near the old _padre's_ place?"

"No, Punch; that lies farther away still to the right."

"Yes. But, I say, how you seem to get it into your head where all the
places lie! I can't. It seems to me as if you could make a map."

"No, no. But I suppose if I wandered about here for long enough I
should be able to make out some of the roads and tracks."

"Then I suppose you haven't been here long enough," said the boy
banteringly. "If you had, you would be able to tell where the British
army is, and lead right on to it at once."

"That would be rather a hard job, Punch, when troops are perhaps
changing their quarters every day."

"I say, hear that?" said the boy excitedly, as a distant call rang out.

"Yes, plain enough to hear," replied Pen.

"Then we ought to turn back, oughtn't we?"

"No. Why?"

"Some of the Frenchies in front. That was just before us, half a mile
away."

Pen shook his head, and the boy looked at him wonderingly.

"There! There it is again! Let's get into hiding somewhere, or we
shall be running right into them."

For another clear bugle-note rang out as if in answer to the first.

"That's nothing to mind, Punch," said Pen. "These notes came from
behind, and were echoed from the mountain in front."

"Why, of course! But I can't help it. Father always said that I had
got the thickest head he ever see. I got thinking that we were going to
run right into some French regiment. Then it's all right, and we shall
be able to divide our rations somewhere up yonder where the echoes are
playing that game. I say, what a mistake might be made if some officer
took an echo like that for the real thing!"

"Yes," said Pen thoughtfully; and the two lads stopped and listened to
different repetitions of the calls, which seemed fainter and fainter as
the time went on; and the sun was well up, brightening as lovely a
landscape of mountain, glen, and green slope as ever met human eye.

But it was blurred to Pen by the desolation and wildness of a country
that was being ravaged by invasion and its train of the horrors of war.

As the lads tramped on, seeing no sign of human habitation, not even a
goat-herd's hut on the mountain-slopes, the sun grew hotter and the way
more weary, till all at once Punch pointed to a few goats just visible
where the country was growing more rugged and wild.