enched red hands about the size of two
young legs of mutton. Archie eyed him with a growing apprehension. There
are moments in life when, passing idly on our way, we see a strange
face, look into strange eyes, and with a sudden glow of human warmth
say to ourselves, "We have found a friend!" This was not one of those
moments. The only person Archie had ever seen in his life who looked
less friendly was the sergeant-major who had trained him in the early
days of the war, before he had got his commission.

"I've had my eye on you!" said the young man.

He still had his eye on him. It was a hot, gimlet-like eye, and it
pierced the recesses of Archie's soul. He backed a little farther
against the wall.

Archie was frankly disturbed. He was no poltroon, and had proved the
fact on many occasions during the days when the entire German army
seemed to be picking on him personally, but he hated and shrank from
anything in the nature of a bally public scene.

"What," enquired the young man, still bearing the burden of the
conversation, and shifting his left hand a little farther behind his
back, "do you mean by following this young lady?"

Archie was glad he had asked him. This was precisely what he wanted to
explain.

"My dear old lad--" he began.

In spite of the fact that he had asked a question and presumably desired
a reply, the sound of Archie's voice seemed to be more than the young
man could endure. It deprived him of the last vestige of restraint. With
a rasping snarl he brought his left fist round in a sweeping semicircle
in the direction of Archie's head.

Archie was no novice in the art of self-defence. Since his early days at
school he had learned much from leather-faced professors of the science.
He had been watching this unpleasant young man's eyes with close
attention, and the latter could not have indicated his scheme of action
more clearly if he had sent him a formal note. Archie saw the swing all
the way. He stepped nimbly aside, and the fist crashed against the wall.
The young man fell back with a yelp of anguish.

"Gus!" screamed the Girl Friend, bounding forward.

She flung her arms round the injured man, who was ruefully examining
a hand which, always of an out-size, was now swelling to still further
dimensions.

"Gus, darling!"

A sudden chill gripped Archie. So engrossed had he been with his mission
that it had never occurred to him that the love-lorn pitcher might have
taken it into his he