much as a _gendarme_ nearer than that town."

"You haven't told us yet who you are, where you come from, nor what you
have been," said Jim bluntly.

The stranger looked him up and down with a critical eye:

"My word, but you would make a grenadier for a flank company," said he.
"As to what you ask, I might take offence at it from other lips; but you
have a right to know, since you have received me with so great courtesy.
My name is Bonaventure de Lapp. I am a soldier and a wanderer by trade,
and I have come from Dunkirk, as you may see printed upon the boat."

"I thought that you had been shipwrecked!" said I.

But he looked at me with the straight gaze of an honest man.

"That is right," said he, "but the ship went from Dunkirk, and this is
one of her boats. The crew got away in the long boat, and she went down
so quickly that I had no time to put anything into her. That was on
Monday."

"And to-day's Thursday. You have been three days without bite or sup."

"It is too long," said he. "Twice before I have been for two days, but
never quite so long as this. Well, I shall leave my boat here, and see
whether I can get lodgings in any of these little grey houses upon the
hillsides. Why is that great fire burning over yonder?"

"It is one of our neighbours who has served against the French. He is