to fear you had already gone to the front."

"Not without seeing you again," he answered, as he followed her back
to the bamboo chairs at the shaded western end of the veranda. "In
fact, I began to be rather afraid I should never see the front at
all."

"What do you mean?" she asked quickly. "Has something happened since
I saw you?"

"A great deal has happened. The thing I referred to was my first
sight of British regulars."

Her face cleared.

"Oh, is that all?"

"It is a good deal," he assured her, as he sat down. "I came out
here with all sorts of high notions regarding volunteers."

"Well?" she questioned smilingly.

"Well, they have been taken out of me. An untrained man isn't worth
much in any line, least of all in the firing line. Still, it would
be very ignominious to go back home again."

Her eyes swept over his alert, well-groomed figure.

"And when do you start for the front, Trooper Weldon?"