On the Firing Line

rds the interests of her charge, demanded her presence on deck. Once on deck and apparently on guard, Miss Arthur limply subsided into a species of coma. Her c

he Sabbatic contest between the captain and the fresh-water clergyman who insists upon reading service: all these are old details, yet ever new. Throughout them all, Weldon had sturdily maintained his place at Ethel's side. By tacit consen

herself that no such pleasant voyage had fallen to her lot since the days when she had started for India on her wedding journey. Weldon had the consummate tact to keep the taint of the filial from his chivalry. His attentions to Mrs. Scott and Ethel differed in degree, but not in kind, and Mrs. Scott adored him accordingly. One by one, the languid days dropped into the past. Neptune had duly escorted them over the Line, to the boredom of the first-class passengers and the strident mirth of the rest of the ship's c

invariably pondered with her eyes closed and her mouth ajar. On the eleventh day, however, she gathered herself together and went on deck. With anxious

towards the blue zenith. From the other end of the ship, they could hear the plaudits that accompanied an impromptu athletic tournament; but the inhabitants of the

ush, Ethel s

you have never told me w

taring out across the gray, foam-flecked

u knew. The w

where are

ring line. Beyond that

your reg

ven't

ned in p

don't quite

haven't en

ommission?"

commission,

ission!" she

self, he laugh

t. I am going

at him in thou

ntleman," she sai

h twitched at

so," he

as soldier, for I sup

n was eloquent. Weldon's one purpose, however, was

y n

isn't neat," she res

e wider, more open-air school of Canadian life, h

somewhere among my lugg

ook he

f your own class. The private is a distinct race; you'll find h

ere smiling; his eyes were direct and grave. His mother could have

lowly; "is this the way

and, for a moment, her blue

s referring to the men w

ng myself?"

little shortly. "Of course, I wish you all good; but I don't s

hich, notwithstanding her momentary petulance, won her full respect. "I am not goi

y. With no consciousness of dramatic effect, his e

aw no pay. I can do no harm; and, somewhere or other, I may do a little good. For the rest, I prefer the ranks. It's not always the broadest man who lives entirely with his own class. For a while, I am willing to meet some one outside. As

y. "If only for the sake of novelty, I s

ok his

hing. We can't all be officers; a few of us must take orders. Out in the hunt

ed his la

where you are going?" s

after

that, to the neares

not stop in

ught the little note

ver, to pull any latch-strin

pped to the

tly. Then she added, with a swift flash of merrim

e over his shoulder at the

to stop long with

recover from h

ance, that may take some time. But tell me, Miss

omes when she is taking w

er from taking eighty," Weldon observ

corrected h

feline, rather than vulpine, though." Bending fo

y that I don't like tight frizzles and a hymn-book in combinati

called the thatch over her eyebro

the consciousness of a w

ason," she replied enig

the very midst of a knot of eager, excited men, Weldon was leaning on the rail, talking so earnestly to Carew that he was quite unconscious of the girl, twenty paces behind him. She hesitated for a moment. Then, as she walked away to the farther end of the deck, she told herself that Weldon was like all other men, regardful of women

nd fringed with a thicket of funnels and of raking masts. To the girl, familiar with the harbor when Cape Town had been a peaceful seaport, it seemed that the navies of the world were gathered th

the controlled eagerness of her busy father, the gentle flurry of her invalid mother, and the tempestuous bulletins issued by the small brother whose occasional letters, full of incoherent affection and quaint bits of orthography, had added interest to the

as Weldon's voice

t is an odd wish to be giving

d also donned her London man

me, for all its being so

at, overgrown boy that h

ack. And where have you

. I have been on deck for

"I was over there by the rail with Carew and a lot of the other fellows, watching the town show u

l to draw her own conclusions. She drew them accordingly. At first, they antagonized her. Later on, she admitted their justice. Meanwhile, she kept

," she answered him. "All the way out, you have given the

what

rse fashion." Her laugh belied her London exterior and belonged

compliment I most

tinue to live up

a merry boy and girl. Then Weldon's lip

best," he an

r at the gangway and took forcib

r objections; "you will let me do

just beginning. If you are to be in Cape Town for a day or two, come

nd, outstretch

Trooper Weldon?" he

rophecy of whose truth she

always be a welcome

embrace, she saw Weldon, cap in hand, bowing to her from what appeared