right in
the act of delivery, and with the uttermost strength of a most
powerful athlete in perfect training--and Hate Incarnate lent the
strength of madness to the strength of training and skill.

THUD!--and the Gorilla dropped like a log.

_"One--two--three--four--five--six--seven--"_ counted the
time-keeper, as men scarcely breathed in the dead silence into which
the voice cut sharply--_"eight--"_ and, in perfect silence, every man
of those thousands slowly rose to his feet--_"nine--OUT!"_ and such a
roar arose as bade fair to rend the skies. _"Outed" in two rounds!_
Men howled like lunatics, and the Queen's Greys behaved like very
dangerous lunatics. Hawker flung his arms round Dam and endeavoured to
raise him on his shoulders and chair him unaided. Bear and Goate got
each a hand and proceeded to do their best to crush it.

Seamen Jones and Smith exchanged a chaste kiss.

Damocles de Warrenne was the hero of the Queen's Greys. Best
Man-at-Arms in the Division, winner in Sword v. Sword Mounted and
Dismounted, Tent-pegging, Sword v. Lance, and Individual Jumping, and
in the winning teams for Tug-of-War, Section Jumping, and Section
Tent-pegging!

"Give him a trial as Corporal then, from the first of next month, sir,
if there's no sign of anything wrong during the week," agreed Captain
Daunt, talking him over with the Colonel, after receiving through
Troop-Sergeant-Major Scoles a petition to promote the man.

Within twenty-four hours of his fight with the Gorilla, Dam found
himself on sentry-go over what was known in the Regiment as "the Dead
'Ole"--which was the mortuary, situated in a lonely, isolated spot
beyond a nullah some half-furlong from the Hospital, and cut off from
view of human habitation by a belt of trees.

On mounting guard that evening, the Sergeant of the Guard had been
informed that a corpse lay in the mortuary, a young soldier having
been taken ill and having died within a few hours, of some disease of
a distinctly choleraic nature.

"I'll tell _you_ orf for that post, Matthewson," said the Sergeant.
"P'raps you'll see ghosties there, for a change," for it was customary
to mount a sentry over "the Dead 'Ole" when it contained an occupant,
and one of the sentry's pleasing duties was to rap loudly and
frequently upon the door throughout the night to scare away those
vermin which are no respecters of persons when the persons happen to
be dead and the vermin ravenous.

"I'm not afraid of gho