."

"I shouldn't care much to be there, sir," remarked Tredennick.

"No," laughed the general. "But really there's no danger--except that
we're just in the line of their fire."

So they struck off to the left and approached the position by a
circuitous route, being greeted by the colonel and other officers, to
whom the visit of Sir Hugh Elcombe had been a considerable surprise.

The serviceable-looking guns were already mounted and in position, the
range had been found; the reserves, the ponies and the pipers were lying
concealed in a depression close at hand when they arrived.

The general, after a swift glance around, stood with legs apart and arms
folded to watch, while Fetherston and Tredennick, with field-glasses, had
halted a little distance away.

A sharp word of command was given, when next instant the first gun boomed
forth, and a shell went screaming through the air towards the low range
of sand-hills in the distance.

The general grunted. He was a man of few words, but a typical British
officer of the type which has made the Empire and won the war against the
Huns. He glanced at the watch upon his wrist, adjusted his monocle, and
said something in an undertone to the captain.

The firing proceeded, while Fetherston, his ears dulled by the constant
roar, watched the bursting shells with interest.

"I wonder what the lighthouse men think of it now?" he laughed, turning
to his friend. "A misdirected shot would send them quickly to kingdom
come!"

Time after time the range was increased, until, at last, the shells were
dropped just at the spot intended. As each left the gun it shrieked
overhead, while the flash could be seen long before the report reached
the ear.

"We'll see in a few moments how quickly they can get away," the general
said, as he approached Fetherston.

Then the order was given to cease fire. Words of command sounded, and
were repeated in the rear, where ponies and men lay hidden. The guns were
run back under cover, and with lightning rapidity dismounted, taken to
pieces, and loaded upon the backs of the ponies, together with the
leather ammunition cases--which looked like men's suit cases--and other
impedimenta.

The order was given to march, and, headed by the pipers, who commenced
their inspiring skirl to the beat of the drums, they moved away over the
rough, broken ground, the general standing astraddle and watching it all
through his monocle with critical eye, and keeping up