"That is so, yer honour; the rigiment misses your tricks, though they did
bother us a bit. Three times were we turned out at night, under arms, when
we were at Athlone, once on a wet night too, and stood there for two hours
till the colonel found out it was a false alarm, and there was me and Mr.
Ryan, and two or three others as was in the secret, nigh choking ourselves
with laughter, to hear the men cursing and swearing at being called out of
bed. That was a foine time, yer honour."

"Attention, Tim!" Terence said, sharply.

They had now entered the village, and the burst of laughter in which
Hoolan indulged at the thought of the regiment being turned out on a false
alarm was unseemly, as he was accompanying an officer. So Tim straightened
himself up, and then followed in Terence's footsteps with military
precision and stiffness.

"There is a time for all things, Tim," the latter said, as he took the
little portmanteau from him. "It won't do to be laughing like that in
sight of head-quarters. I can't ask you to have a drink now; there is no
drink to be had, but the first time we get a chance I will make it up to
you."

"All right, yer honour! I was wrong entirely, but I could not have helped
it if the commander-in-chief had been standing there."

Terence went up to the attic that he and Trevor shared. There was no
changing for dinner, but after a wash he went below again.

"You are just in time," Trevor said, "and we are in luck. The head man of