this, the Major's pale face flushed for an instant, and Polson
grinned sardonically as he strode away. He found his way into the
canteen, made a rough breakfast there, and then returning found Volnay
ready to put him through all the necessary formalities. An old Sergeant
put the regulation questions as to name, age, and employment. Was he
married? No. Was he an apprentice? No. Had he ever at any time offered
himself for Her Majesty's service, and been refused? No. Had he ever
been tried for any criminal offence? No. Then here was the Queen's
shilling, and he was enlisted to serve Her Majesty for the term of
twenty years, and was now to report himself to the doctor, and after
passing his examination, would be required to present himself at noon
to be sworn in before the Colonel, and failing so to present himself, he
would be liable to arrest and imprisonment as a rogue and vagabond.

'So now the trick is done,' said Volnay, 'and you can't undo it. At
another time you could have bought out for thirty pounds; but we shall
be off to Varna in a week or two, and the Queen won't spare a man she
has once laid hands on for love or money until we have got through the
little brush that's coming with old Nick and his merry men.'

CHAPTER VI

There was no sleep in the grey-stone house on the Beacon Hill, on that
eventful night on which Polson Jervase left his home, for anybody except
the domestics, who were ignorant of the blow which had fallen on the
household. Jervase made no pretence of courting sleep at all: but having
banked up the fire he went down into the cellar, brought up a couple of
bottles of brandy, and prepared himself to make a night of it. It had
not been his habit for years to drink to excess, but in his earlier days
at any time of trouble he had gone to that false solace, and now
the instinct came back to him. James kept him company awhile in his
potations, but by and by crept off to bed, and Jervase sat alone
drinking fiercely, at first without apparent effect.

General Boswell rose before dawn without having closed an eye, and
waited for the daylight. At its first dawning he walked softly to the
room in which Irene lay and tapped quietly at the door.

'Who's there?' his daughter's voice asked him, and he answered:

'It is I, dear. I wish to speak to you for a moment.' The girl unlocked
the door and left it partly open. He waited for a moment and then half
entered the room. 'I am just starting for home,