and the company then
moved along by the narrow pathway between the artificial inundation
and the foot of the Rock. They continued their way until they
arrived at the building that served as the main guard of the
outlying pickets. Here two-thirds of the company were left; and the
captain led the others out, an officer belonging to the regiment
whose men he was relieving accompanying him. As the sentries were
posted the men relieved fell in, under the orders of their officer
and, as soon as the last had been relieved, they marched back to
the guardhouse.

A minute later, Captain Antrobus turned to Bob.

"You need not wait," he said. "Go back to the guardhouse. Mind how
you go."

Bob saluted and turned off, leaving the officer standing by the
sentry. He went some distance back, then walked down the sand to
the water's edge, and waded noiselessly into the water. The oilskin
bag was, he knew, buoyant enough to give him ample support in the
water.

When he was breast deep, he let his uniform cloak slip off his
shoulders; allowed his shoes to sink to the bottom, and his
three-cornered hat to float away. The doctor had advised him to do
this.

"If you leave the things at the edge of the water, Bob, it will be
thought that somebody has deserted; and then there will be a lot of
questions, and inquiries. You had better take them well out into
the sea with you, and then let them go. They will sink, and drift
along under water and, if they are ever thrown up, it will be far
beyond our lines. In that way, as the whole of the guard will
answer to their names, when the roll is called tomorrow, no one
will ever give a thought to the drummer who fell in at the last
moment; or, if one of them does think of it, he will suppose that
the captain sent him into the town, with a report."

The bag would have been a great encumbrance, had Bob wanted to swim
fast. As it was, he simply placed his hands upon it, and struck out
with his feet, making straight out from the shore. This he did for
some ten minutes; and then, being certain that he was far beyond
the sight of anyone on shore, he turned and, as nearly as he could,
followed the line of the coast. The voices of the sentries calling
to each other came across the sea, and he could make out a light or
two in the great fort at the water's edge.

It was easy work. The water was, as nearly as possible, the
temperature of his body; and he felt that he could remain for any
time in it, wit