ocking them over they'll knock us
over, and I've got such a kind of liking for PP that I'd sooner shoot
one of them than that they should shoot me. Still, there is something a
bit queer about it."

"You are doing your duty, Pete, fighting for your country."

"I say, sir, that ain't quite right, is it? Seems to me that I'm
fighting for these 'ere people's country."

"We needn't go into that, Pete. You are doing your duty--fighting for
your comrades in defence of this station and the women and children."

"There he goes again, sir. Just you listen. It makes me wish I could
understand what he's saying."

Archie turned sharply, for from the part of the room where the Frenchman
was lying upon one of the mats Mrs Smithers had placed for him, with
another rolled-up to form his pillow, came the quick, excited utterance
of the terribly injured man.

He was delirious, and evidently in his wanderings was going over
something that had impressed him strongly, and almost at his first
utterances in his own tongue he attracted the subaltern to his side.

Archie was no good French scholar, but that tongue had formed part of
his studies at a public school, and he had been somewhat of a favourite
with the French master, who had encouraged his pupils in acquiring
French conversation by making them his companions in his country walks.

The sufferer's first utterance was an expression of anger at somebody
whom he was addressing, calling him an _imbecile_; and then Archie
pretty clearly gathered his meaning. He was telling the man to be
careful, and to give him something so that he could do it himself.

"No," he said, "you don't understand. I wish I could tell you in your
own tongue. There, your hands are trembling; you are afraid. You hate
these people, but not with the great hate I feel towards them, who am
their natural enemy. There, give me the two bags. Yes, it is bad
powder; not such as, if I had known, I might have brought from my own
country. What is it? You hear some one coming? Lie down. No one can
see us here, shut in behind these trees. You are afraid they will
shoot? Bah! Let them! They could not aim at us in this darkness. Be
brave, as I am. Recollect what I told you before we started to creep
here: if we fire, it will destroy all their ammunition. They will be
defenceless, and it will be easy for your prince to slay and capture all
these wretched British usurpers of your prince's country. And I s