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"He requited himself for the loss of his horse, and took his revenge at the same time," I said, with a view to evoking my companion's opinion. "Of course, from their point of view," said the staff-captain, "he was perfectly right." I was involuntarily struck by the aptitude which the Russian displays for accommodating himself to the customs of the people in whose midst he happens to be living.

Take that er topmast of yours away! Here's the man with the bow-string. I wish I were a staff-captain instead of a bloody lootenant. Sperril sleeps below every night. That's what makes Sperril tumble home from the waist uppards. Sperril, I defy you to touch me. I'm under orders for Zanzibar. Probably I shall annex it!"

"Why are you so certain?" answered the staff-captain, winking and smiling slyly. "Because things don't happen like that. A story with such an unusual beginning must also have an unusual ending." "You have guessed, of course"... "I am very glad to hear it." "It is all very well for you to be glad, but, indeed, it makes me sad when I think of it. Bela was a splendid girl.

"How about holding our meeting over there?" asked the Staff-Captain of the man in charge. "All right. Hold it wherever you like." So a few willing hands brought out the piano, and the four Salvationists made their way across to the ring. The soldiers raised a loud cheer and hurrah to see the women stoop and slip under the rope, and a spirit of sympathy seemed to be established at once.

There was no air and the Adjutant came to say there was too much light, but none of these things damped the enthusiasm. With the aid of the regimental chaplain, the Staff-Captain had arranged a suitable program for the occasion, the regimental band furnishing the music. When the General entered the hutment all of the men stood and uncovered and the band stopped abruptly in the middle of a strain.

This was really an invitation of goodwill and ceremony rather than an invitation to examine the line. But as this was not quite understood at the time I was included in the party as Brigade Bombing Officer, rather than the Staff-Captain or Machine-Gun Officer, either of whom should have gone in my place.

If Staff-Captain and Billy had been visiting me that night, the shell would have hit the Ford right in the center. Fierce bombardment all the day. Houses were struck on the entire street from end to end. Shells fell in the yard, one struck the corner of the house. The soldiers next door have gone, and my place can only be opened in the evenings.

I asked the staff-captain, seizing him by the arm, and involuntarily rejoicing. "No," he replied, "but the doctor was so far mistaken that she lived two days longer." "Explain, though, how Kazbich made off with her!" "It was like this: in spite of Pechorin's prohibition, she went out of the fortress and down to the river.

MEANWHILE the staff-captain continued his story. "Kazbich never put in an appearance again; but somehow I don't know why I could not get the idea out of my head that he had had a reason for coming, and that some mischievous scheme was in his mind. "Well, one day Pechorin tried to persuade me to go boar-hunting with him. For a long time I refused. What novelty was a wild boar to me?

His man has been gone a long time now, but evidently something has detained him." The staff-captain hurriedly sipped a cup of tea, refused a second, and went off again outside the gate not without a certain amount of disquietude.