e
missile, and I knew well that those sneak-marauders who infest the rear
of an army were in the habit of prowling about such places.

Suddenly I heard a loud shout on the staircase, followed by the clashing
of swords. I leaped up, seized the revolver, and ran out. One man
stood on the stair defending himself against two Circassians. I knew
the scoundrels instantly by their dress, and not less easily did I
recognise a countryman in the grey tweed shooting coat, glengarry cap,
and knickerbockers of the other. At the moment of my appearance the
Englishman, who was obviously a dexterous swordsman, had inflicted a
telling wound on one of his adversaries. I fired at the other, who,
leaping nearly his own height into the air, fell with a crash down the
staircase. He sprang up, however, instantly, and both men bolted out at
the front door and fled.

The Englishman turned to thank me for my timely aid, but, instead of
speaking, looked at me with amused surprise.

"Can it be?" I exclaimed; "not possible! _you_, Biquitous?"

"I told you we should probably meet," he replied, sheathing his sword,
"but I was not prophetic enough to foretell the exact circumstances of
the meeting."

"Come along, my dear fellow," said I, seizing his arm and dragging him
up-stairs; "how glad I am! what an unexpected--oh! never mind the look
of the room, it's pretty tight in most places, and I've stuffed my
overcoat into the shell-hole."

"Don't apologise for your quarters, Jeff," returned my friend, laying
his sword and revolver on the table; "the house is a palace compared
with some places I've inhabited of late. The last, for instance, was so
filthy that I believe, on my conscience, an irish pig, with an average
allowance of self-respect, would have declined to occupy it.--Here it
is, you'll find it somewhere near the middle."

He handed me a small sketch-book, and, while I turned over the leaves,
busied himself in filling a short meerschaum.

"Why, how busy you must have been!" said I, turning over the well-filled
book with interest.

"Slightly so," he replied. "Some of these will look pretty well, I
flatter myself, in the _Evergreen Isle_, if they are well engraved; but
that is the difficulty. No matter how carefully we correspondents
execute our sketches, some of these engravers--I won't say all of them--
make an awful mess of 'em.

"Yes, you may well laugh at that one. It was taken under fire, and I
can tell you that a ske