"What has that fellow been saying to you?" said Shaw, as I returned to
the tent. "I have heard nothing but his talking for the last half-hour."

R. had none of the peculiar traits of the ordinary "British snob";
his absurdities were all his own, belonging to no particular nation or
clime. He was possessed with an active devil that had driven him over
land and sea, to no great purpose, as it seemed; for although he had the
usual complement of eyes and ears, the avenues between these organs and
his brain appeared remarkably narrow and untrodden. His energy was much
more conspicuous than his wisdom; but his predominant characteristic was
a magnanimous ambition to exercise on all occasions an awful rule and
supremacy, and this propensity equally displayed itself, as the reader
will have observed, whether the matter in question was the baking of a
hoe-cake or a point of international law. When such diverse elements
as he and the easy-tempered captain came in contact, no wonder some
commotion ensued; R. rode roughshod, from morning till night, over his
military ally.

At noon the sky was clear and we set out, trailing through mud and slime
six inches deep. That night we were spared the customary infliction of
the shower bath.

On the next afternoon we were moving slowly along, not far from a patch
of woods which lay on the right. Jack C. rode a little in advance;


The livelong day he had not spoke;