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So little seemed to be the matter, that, when he was dressed, Dicksee walked slowly back to the school, Mercer and I following him with Lomax. "Rum thing," he said, "how crusty the being nearly drowned makes a lad. Hardly worth all the trouble we took over him, eh?" "Oh, don't talk like that, Lom!" I cried.
"What are you doing, sir? You don't want to look into the horse's ears." "I wasn't trying to," I said sharply. "What were you going to do, then? whisper to him to stop?" "I say, don't tease me, Lom," I said appealingly; "you know I couldn't help it." "Right, my lad, I know. But 'tention; this won't do. I've got to teach you to ride with a good military seat, and we're not friends now.
"But it seems to me as if they must feel that we have been learning, or else they would have been sure to have done something before now." "Never mind," I said, "let's wait. We don't want to fight, as Lom says, but if we're obliged to, we've got to do it well."
The Grand Duke Vladimir, the second brother of Alexander III., headed the infantry advance in the direction of Rustchuk, and served with marked distinction in command of one of the corps in the army of the Lom.
On the 5th they were again driven back from the Hermada and San Giovanni, while away in the north they failed to take the heights of Lom. This held up their further advance across the Bainsizza plateau, and its eastern half, containing peaks a thousand feet higher than any the Italians had conquered, remained in Austrian hands.
"I'll teach you," said the sergeant, "for the sake of helping to make a strong man of the son of a brave officer, who died for his country. There!" "Hooray!" cried Mercer; "and how much will you charge for the lessons, Lom? because you must make it a little more, as we shall have to go tick for a bit, because of paying so much for the gloves." "How much?" said the sergeant thoughtfully.
"Of course they do. Never so hard worked before. Soon get better. Let me see, this makes just a month you've been at it, eh?" "Yes, this is the end of the fourth week." "Then don't you think I deserve a bit of credit?" "Oh yes!" I cried eagerly. "You have taken great pains over me, Lom. I wish I had not been so stupid." "So do I," he said drily. "Saddle feel very slippery this morning?"
"I began to think you were going to shirk it." "Not I, Lom," I cried, and, feeling peculiarly excited, I went up to the horse's head and patted him, while the sergeant removed the stirrups. Then he gave me a leg up, and I was hoisted into my seat, and went through my lesson walk, trot, and gallop, with the saddle seeming less slippery, and without coming off once.
With good judgment enough our captors put a small advance-guard ahead, a score of Airlie's troopers, swanky blaspheming persons, whose horses pranced very gaily up Glen Tarf, guided by John Lom. M'Iver and I walked together with the main body, quite free and unfettered, sometimes talking with affability to our captors.
"Now, then, young Mercer, come up to the scratch," cried Burr. "Stand back, you boys, and make a better ring." Then a shuffling of feet, a few suppressed sounds of excitement, and the boys who were to look out turned from the windows. "Remember old Lom," I said, feeling very nervous and doubtful as I whispered to my principal.
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