d he had a deep scar from the corner of his mouth to his ear,
which by no means improved his appearance. His hair was grizzled, but
his figure was stalwart, and his fur cap was cocked on one side so as to
give him a rakish, semi-military appearance. Altogether he gave me the
impression of being one of the most dangerous types of tramp that I had
ever fallen in with.

Instead of replying to my question, he eyed me for some time in silence
with sullen, yellow-shot eyes, and then closed his knife with a loud
snick.

"You're not a beak," he said, "too young for that, I guess. They had me
in chokey at Paisley and they had me in chokey at Wigtown, but by
the living thunder if another of them lays a hand on me I'll make him
remember Corporal Rufus Smith! It's a darned fine country this, where
they won't give a man work, and then lay him by the heels for having no
visible means of subsistence."

"I am sorry to see an old soldier so reduced," said I. "What corps did
you serve in?"

"H Battery, Royal Horse Artillery. Bad cess to the Service and every
one in it! Here I am nigh sixty years of age, with a beggarly pension of
thirty-eight pound ten--not enough to keep me in beer and baccy."

"I should have thought thirty-eight pound ten a year would have been a
nice help to you in your old age," I remarked.

"Would you, though?" he answered with a sneer, pushing his
weather-beaten face forward until it was within a foot of my own.

"How much d'ye think that slash with a tulwar is worth? And my foot with
all the bones rattling about like a bagful of dice where the trail
of the gun went across it. What's that worth, eh? And a liver like a
sponge, and ague whenever the wind comes round to the east--what's the
market value of that? Would you take the lot for a dirty forty pound a
year--would you now?"

"We are poor folk in this part of the country," I answered. "You would
pass for a rich man down here."

"They are fool folk and they have fool tastes," said he, drawing a black
pipe from his pocket and stuffing it with tobacco. "I know what good
living is, and, by cripes! while I have a shilling in my pocket I like
to spend it as a shilling should be spent. I've fought for my country
and my country has done darned little for me. I'll go to the Rooshians,
so help me! I could show them how to cross the Himalayas so that it
would puzzle either Afghans or British to stop 'em. What's that secret
worth in St. Petersburg, eh, mister?"