THE PASSAGE OF THE DWINA 161

you will be in a big city and likely to have a deal more
excitement than will fall to our lot here.”

“1 don’t think it will be at all the sort of excitement I
should care for, Harry. However, my hope is, that the
colonel will be able to dissuade him from the idea.”

“Well | don’t know that I should wish that if I were in
your place, Charlie. Undoubtedly it is an honour being
chosen for such a mission, and it is possible you may get
a great deal of credit for it, as the king is always ready to
push forward those who do good service. Look how much
he thinks of you because you made that suggestion about
getting up a smoke to cover our passage.”

“{ wish I had never made it,” Charlie said heartily.

“Well, in that case, Charlie, it is likely enough we should
not be talking together here, for our loss in crossing the
river under fire would have been terrible.”

“Well, perhaps it is as well as it is,” Charlie agreed.
“But I did not want to attract his attention; I was very
happy as I was with you all, As for my suggestion about
the straw, anyone might have thought of it. I should never
have given the matter another moment’s consideration, and
I should be much better pleased if the king had not done
so either, instead of telling the colonel about it, and the
colonel speaking to the officers, and such a ridiculous fuss
being made about nothing.”

“My dear Charlie,” Harry said seriously, “you seem to
be forgetting that we all came out here together to make
our fortune, or at any rate to do as well as we could till the
Stuarts come to the throne again, and our fathers regain
their estates, a matter concerning which, let me tell you, I
do not feel by any means so certain as I did in the old
days. Then, you know, all our friends were of our way of
thinking, and the faith that the Stuarts would return was
like a matter of religion, which it was heresy to doubt for
an instant. Well, you see in the year that we have been