or lass, she must have got into such trouble with her people
that she daren't come again."

"Her people!" cried the boy. "It's that ugly black-looking nigger of a
sweetheart of hers. You had a good sight of him that night when you
took aim with your rifle. Why didn't you pull the trigger? A chap like
that's no good in the world."

"Just the same as you would if you had had hold of the rifle yourself,
Punch--eh?"

"There you go again," said the boy sulkily. "What a chap you are! You
are always pitching it at me like that. Why, of course I should have
shot him like a man."

"Would you?" said Pen, smiling.

"Oh, well, I don't know. Perhaps I shouldn't. Such a chap as that
makes you feel as you couldn't be too hard on him. But it wouldn't be
quite the right thing, I suppose. There, don't bother. It makes my
sore place ache. But, oh, shouldn't I like to tell him what I think of
him! I say, don't you think she may come to-night?"

"No, Punch; I have almost ceased to hope. Besides, I don't want to
depend on people's charity, though I like to see it I want to be able to
do something for ourselves. No, I don't think she will come any more."

"I do," said the boy confidently. "I am beginning to think that she
will come after all. She is sure to. She must know how jolly hungry I
should be. She looked so kind. A gal like that wouldn't leave us to
starve. She is a nice, soft-hearted one, she is, though she is Spanish.
I wouldn't take no notice, but I see the tears come in her eyes, and
one of them dropped on my hand when she leaned over me and looked so
sorry because I was in pain. It's a pity she ain't English and lived
somewhere at home where one might expect to see her again. It is very
sad and shocking to have to live in a country like this."

"Do you feel so hungry now, Punch?"

"Yes, horrid. Give us a bit of that cheese to nibble. Then I must have
another drink, and try and go to sleep. Feel as though I could now you
have come back. I was afraid I was never going to see you again."

"I don't believe you thought I had forsaken you, Punch."

"Not me! You couldn't have done it. 'Tain't in you, comrade, I know.
But I tell you what I did think: that the Frenchies had got hold of you
and made you prisoner. Then I lay here feeling that I could not move
myself, and trying to work it out as to what you'd do--whether you would
try and make them come and fetch me to be a prisoner too, or whether