On the Firing Line

Maitland Camp on the west, Paddy the cook communed

wards the awkward squad still manoeuvering its way about over the barren stretch of the parade ground. "They ride like tailors squattin

tretched himself at full lengt

n, I'll fire a kopje

dained th

of them! But it's the truth I'm telling. Half of these

Argentine ones that grin at you like a Cheshire cat, after they have done it. Both are bad for the nerves. Still, I'd rather be respectfully buck

's s

e was no especial need of his adopting the storage methods of the trek; nevertheless, he had taken to the new idea with prompt enthusiasm. Up

cked. So is he, for the matter of that. Go and tell your menial troop to remember to put

me is it

my piece of meat, when you give it to the orderly. Else I may not know it's the best one." With a reluctant yawn and a glance upward towards

long as Paddy manages the cooking tent, the cracked knives shall go to the dunderheads. The

yed him

along, man, and set your kettles to boiling, while you r

tle Irishman saluted them in farewell, then turned

"If Paddy's ambition to shoot a gun should ever be fulfilled, Englan

taste for the sake of keeping his sense of humor,

ointed out across the sun-baked par

It is nothing in this world

wed the pointing pipe-stem,

n, they had lost no time in donning their khaki and taking up their quarters under the fraction of canvas allotted to them. The days that followed were busy and slid past with a certain monotony, notwithstanding th

imits of Maitland. More than once there had been a breathless pause while the entire squadron had waited to watch the killing of Trooper Weldon; more than once there had been an utterly profane pause while the officers had waited for Trooper Weldon to bring his bolting steed back into some semblance of alignment. The pause always ended with Weldon upr

ne across the camp on the back of a little gray broncho who was making tentative motions towards a complete handspring. By the time the pony was convinced of the proper function of her own hind legs, Weldon found himself being driven from the door of the cooking tent by Paddy and a volley of potatoes. The broncho surveyed Paddy with scorn, rose to her hind legs an

and, his mount well in hand, galloped off in search of his squadron. That night, however, his clear baritone voice was missing from the usual chorus about the camp fire; and, as he thoughtfu

ry son of Eve. True, there was Miss Arthur; but Miss Arthur was antediluvian. Under these conditions, it was galling to Weldon to see Ethel absorbed by a comrade who, he frankly admitted to himself, was far the more personable man of the two. And the girl's blue eyes had laughed up into the eyes of the stranger just exactly as, two short

s fell to catechising him as to his pensive mood, and

ess orderly proclaimed, as he came into the tent, brandis

ertheless paused to tak

he creases of us," he observed. "Hermit, shall I serve you in the

spassionately as if the subject of discussion had been absent in Rhodesia. "

d him. "You are worse than O'Brien was, the morning after

e nearest pot of jam. "My left ear can prove an alibi for him. From taps till

turned himself about and p

, man?" h

on replied i

om bucking and the Stringies shoot no more. Meanwhile, if you could look

ed. He had tidings to impart,

Hill?" he asked, in the firs

-Hill had come out on the Dunottar Castle. He was known to

abou

coming out of t

will like that," Weldon commente

to come in by sea. He shipped in a leaky boat with a crew composed of one Kaffir boy; the Kaffir funked the surf

suggested. "Weldon, take warning. Next time you go to call on Miss Arthur,

rthur?" demand

o the last of the bacon. Then he ma

s Weldon's law

on arose reluctantly from his seat on

Dent, and Maitland Cam

he smiled up into

r, when Captain Frazer and I were wat

always choose the straightest course. If she elects to go to Maitland

rds. Then of a sudden

to give you such a

I beg pardon

appy?" she questione

it all; but I had a summer on a ranch, and I learned the trick of sitting tight until the

really go?"

nce at the horse fastened to a post in the

mus

e to he

fternoo

d by," h

oes tha

Maitland Camp i

d her voice showed her reg

hen into a train. Beyon

is journey out here for the sake of being drilled in Maitland Camp until the end of time. We shall miss you; b

ned back to wave a farewell to the tall girl framed in the arching greenery that sheltered the broad veran

deserted corner where she sat long, her elbows on the arms of her chair and her chin resting on her hands. He