y of shooting down human beings, and more than ever it
occurred to me that if trouble did come, my old school-fellow might be
on one side and I on the other.

"I say," said Bigley suddenly; "we've only undone one box, oughtn't we
to undo the other?"

"What, that?" I said, looking at a shorter smaller box on end in the
corner behind the door.

"Yes."

"Father didn't say I was to."

"But that looks as if it came from the same place."

"Why, Big," I cried eagerly, "that must have the uniforms in it."

"Hurray! Yes," he cried. "Wonder whether they're scarlet?"

"No," I said. "They're sure to be blue, like the sailors'."

"Oh! I don't know about that," he cried. "Marines wear scarlet. I
daresay they're red."

"Should you open the box if you were me?"

"Well, no," said Bigley; "perhaps not. He didn't tell us to. But oh,
how I should like to take the paper off one of these pistols!"

"So should I," was my reply, with a longing look at the array of
quaint-looking parcels; "but we mustn't do that, though I do feel as if
I could do it up again just as neatly."

"No; don't try," cried Bigley. "Let 'em be. We can think what's
inside. I shouldn't wonder if some of them are mounted with brass, and
have lions' heads on the butts."

"Yes, and the swords too--brass lions' heads, holding the guards in
their mouths."

"Why, we haven't seen any belts."

"No; they would be with the uniforms. I say, I wonder whether the
cutlasses are very sharp?"

"And whether they are bright blue half-way up the blade; you said your
father's sword was."

"Yes," I replied; "and inlaid with gold. It was given to him when he
left his ship."

"Here, come out!" cried Bigley, laying hold of my hand.

"Come out? What for?" I said.

"Because it's the best way. I always run off when I see anything very
tempting that I want to touch, and ought not to."

"Get out!" I cried.

"I do, Sep, honour bright, and I feel now as if I should be obliged to
undo some of those papers, and try the pistols, and pull the swords out
of the sheaths. Let's go out."

I laughed, for I felt very much in the same way, only it seemed to be so
cowardly to go, and Bigley came to the same way of thinking, the result
being that we kept on picking up the different packages and feasting our
imaginations by means of touch, till suddenly the door opened, and my
father came in.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

READY FOR THE FRENCH.

"Well, boys," sai