ted him to come
and hold the horse while they went into the different shops, but he
excused himself on the score of his morning's errand, and Uz was told
off for the duty, greatly to his disgust. Reggie asked Grantly to ride
with him, but Grantly complained of fatigue, and Reggie, who knew
perfectly well that the excuse was invalid, called him a slacker and
started forth huffily alone, mentally animadverting on the "edge"
displayed by the new type of cadet.

Nearly ten years' service gave Reggie the right to talk regretfully of
the stern school he had been brought up in.

Ger, on the previous day, had been sent to his grandparents at Woolwich
"by command"; and the Kitten was going with Thirza to a children's
party. She was therefore made to lie down for an hour after lunch--so
she was disposed of. There remained only Buz, and Buz was on the prowl
seeking someone to amuse him. His arm was still in a sling and he
expected sympathy. He shadowed Grantly till nearly half-past three,
when that gentleman appeared in the back passage clad in sweater and
shorts, with a Rugger ball under his arm.

"Hullo," cried Buz, "where are you off to?"

"I'm going to practise drop-kicks . . . by myself," Grantly answered
grumpily.

"Why can't I come? I could kick even if I can't use this beastly arm."

"No, it's too cold for you to stand about."

"Bosh; I can wrap myself in a railway rug if it comes to that."

"It needn't come to that. You go for a sharp walk or else take a book
and amuse yourself. I must be off."

"Well you _are_ a selfish curmudgeon," Buz exclaimed in real
astonishment. "Why this sudden passion for solitude?"

Grantly banged the door in Buz's face, regardless of the warning cards,
and set off to run. Buz opened the door and looked after him, noted
the direction, nodded his head thrice and nipped upstairs to Grantly's
room, where he abstracted his field-glasses from their case hanging on
a peg behind the door. He hung them round his neck by the short black
strap, tied a sweater over his shoulders, and went out by the side door
in quite a different direction from that taken by his brother.

* * * * * *

Oblivious of the surgeon's strict injunctions that he was on no account
to run or risk a fall of any kind, holding the glasses with his free
hand so that they shouldn't drag on his neck, directly he was clear of
the house he broke into the swinging steady trot that had w