"
"Then why don't you get out?" Weldon queried.
"I am out of place now, I'm telling you," Paddy returned, as he
pensively rested his cheek upon the bowl of the spoon in his hand.
"Yes; but why not refuse to stay here as cook?"
Sorrowfully Paddy shook his head, spoon and all.
"That's what I did do, little one."
"And what happened?"
"This." The spoon came into evidence once more. "They blarneyed me
up and they blarneyed me down, and they said nobody could cook like
Paddy. Anybody could shoot a baker's dozen of Boers; but only one
man in the camp could fill up the boys to give them a fit and level
stomach for the battle. And here I am, and here I'm like to be, till
the new moon in the heavens turns to a curly strip of bully beef. If
I'd known the Captain was about to escape to Cape Town, it's Paddy
that would have escaped with him, hanging on to the tail of his
coat. Saint Patrick's vipers! What's that?"
A hum, a spat, and a little spurt of red dust rolled lazily upward.
Then another hum followed. There was a scurry of men, a squeak of
leather, the light clashing of rifles snatched from the stack; and
the troops were off.
Beside them, the nearer hills rose in brick-red patches against the
sky.
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