wever, was quite sanguine. He would run into her all right. As soon
as he had found her he would let the Captain know. Up to the present
he had not communicated with the Captain. He could give the Captain no
definite address, so the Captain could not communicate with him.
Chipmunk had disappeared into the unknown.

"Isn't he quite capable of taking care of himself?" asked Peggy.

"I'm not so sure," replied Oliver. "Besides, he's hanging me up. I'm
kind of responsible for him, and I've got sixty pounds of his money.
It's all I could do to persuade him not to stow the lot in his pocket,
so as to divide it with Mrs. Chipmunk as soon as he saw her. I must
find out what has become of the beggar before I move."

"I suppose," said Doggie, "you're anxious now to get back to the South
Seas?"

Oliver stared at him. "No, sonny, not till the war's over."

"Why, you wouldn't be in any great danger out there, would you?"

Oliver laughed. "You're the funniest duck that ever was, Doggie. I'll
never get to the end of you." And he strolled away.

"What does he mean?" asked the bewildered Doggie.

"I think," replied Peggy, smiling, "that he means he's going to
fight."

"Oh," said Doggie. Then after a pause he added, "He's just the sort of
chap for a soldier, isn't he?"

The next day Oliver's anxiety as to Chipmunk was relieved by the
appearance of the man himself, incredibly dirty and dusty and thirsty.
Having found no trace of his wife, and having been robbed of the money
he carried about him, he had tramped to Durdlebury, where he reported
himself to his master as if nothing out of the way had happened.

"You silly blighter," said Oliver. "Suppose I had let you go with your
other sixty pounds, you would have been pretty well in the soup,
wouldn't you?"

"Yes, Cap'en," said Chipmunk.

"And you're not going on any blethering idiot wild-goose chases after
wives and such-like truck again, are you?"

"No, Cap'en," said Chipmunk.

This was in the stable-yard, after Chipmunk had shaken some of the
dust out of his hair and clothes and had eaten and drunk voraciously.
He was now sitting on an upturned bucket and smoking his clay pipe
with an air of solid content. Oliver, lean and supple, his hands in
his pockets, looked humorously down upon him.

"And you've got to stick to me for the future, like a roseate leech."

"Yes, Cap'en."

"You're going to ride a horse."

"A wot?" roared Chipmunk.

"A thing on four legs, that k