knoll and brought
you upon it suddenly. Nicky-Nan's heart beat fast, and unconsciously
he accelerated his hobble almost to a run. As he pulled up short on
the edge of the dip a sob broke from him--almost a cry.

Below him a couple of men in khaki were measuring the hollow with a
field-tape; while a third--an officer--stood almost midway between
them pencilling notes in a book. The tape stretched clean across the
potato-patch.

"Right!" announced the officer, not perceiving Nicky, whose shadow,
of course, lay behind on the path.

The nearer man--a stout corporal--dropped his end of the
measuring-tape. The other wound it up slowly.

"We'll have to lay the trench through here," said the officer; and
quoted, "'I'm sorry for Mr Naboth--I'm sorry to cause him pain;' but
you, corporal, must find him and tell him he'll get compensation for
disturbance." He pocketed his note-book, turned, and mounted the
slope towards the encampment. The soldier holding the spool on the
far side of the dip finished winding the tape very leisurably; which
gave it the movement and appearance of a long snake crawling back to
him across Nicky-Nan's potato-tops and over Nicky-Nan's fence.
Then, shutting the spool with a click, he turned away and followed
his officer. The stout corporal, left alone, seated himself on a
soft cushion of thyme, drew forth a pipe from his hip-pocket, and was
in the act of lighting it when Nicky-Nan descended upon him.

"And 'oo may _you_ be?" asked the stout corporal, turning about as he
puffed.

"You--you've no business here!" stammered Nicky wrathfully.
"The first sojer I catch trespassin' on my piece o' ground, I'll have
the law on him!"

"Hullo! Be you the owner o' this patch, then?"

"Yes, I be: and I tell 'ee you've no business messin' around my
property."

The corporal removed the pipe from his mouth and rubbed its bowl
softly against the side of his nose. "So you said, to be sure.
I didn' laugh at the moment, not bein' a triggerish chap at a joke.
But it'll come in time. That's why I joined the sappers."

"Eh?"

"I takes a pleasure in _redoocin'_ things. . . . Well, if you be the
owner o' this here patch, the pleasure is mootual, for you've saved
me time an' trouble over and above your speakin' so humorous.
And what might your name be, makin' so bold?"

"Nanjivell."

"You don't say so! . . . Christian name?"

"Nicholas."

"'Tis a fair co-incidence," mused the corporal aloud. "I knew