"Now, pray go on: and that if--" "If he came to you with--with a message, sir, that he has just received, you would kick him out of your presence." "Humph!" said the Colonel sternly.

"Just this minute, sir, you said of me what you believed to be the truth; but now you have been saying what you must know to be false .-- Pray, what was the message Moray ?" he added, turning to me.
There was only one thing to do, and I did it, giving Moriarty's message to the end.
"The insolent, conceited idiot!" said the Colonel scornfully.

"You need not go back to him with my answer; but if you come across him again and he asks what I said, you can tell him this: that at the first opportunity I shall hand him over to my superior officers, as one of Her Majesty's subjects found with arms in his hand fighting against the British force after taking service with her enemies, and doing his best to impress Englishmen to serve in the same ranks .-- Mr Denham, I should like a few words with you in the morning." He turned upon his heel and strode heavily away, with his spurs clinking loudly and the guard at the end of his scabbard giving a sharp _chink_ every now and then, as, field-glass in hand, he climbed to the top of the wall to take a look round at the positions of the enemy before the evening closed in.
"Well," said Denham at last, looking the while as if all the military starch had been taken out of him, "you've done it now." I could keep back my laughter no longer.
"Somebody has," I cried merrily.
"Yes," he said dolefully; "somebody has.

Oh, I say, Val, you oughtn't to have told tales like that." "What ?" I cried.

"How could I help it ?" "Well, I suppose you couldn't," said my companion.