us, we hunt up one, and inquire if the fort is accessible. He
does not know, but inclines to the opinion that it is. We go
up the hill, walk round the wall, and mark well her bulwarks,
till we come to a great gate, but it refuses to turn. The
walls are too high to scale, besides possible pickets on the
other side. I have no doubt in the world that we could creep
under, for the gate has shrunk since it was made, and needs to
have a tuck let down; but what would become of dignity? Grande
and the Anakim make a reconnaissance in force, to see if some
unwary postern-gate may not permit entrance. Halicarnassus
fumbles in his pockets for edge-tools, as if Queen Victoria,
who rules the waves, on whose dominions the sun never sets,
whose morning drum-beat encircles the world, would leave the
main gate of her main fort on one of the frontiers of her
empire so insecurely defended that a single American can carry
it with his fruit-knife. Such ideas I energetically enforce,
till I am cut short by the slow retrogression of the massive
gate on ponderous hinges turning.

"What about the fruit-knife?" inquires Halicarnassus as I pass
in. The reconnoitering party return to report a bootless
search, and are electrified to find the victory already gained.

"See the good of having been through college," exults Halicarnassus.

"How did you do it?" asks Grande, admiringly.

"By genius and assiduity," answers Halicarnassus.

"And lifting the latch," I append, for I have been examining