Rover beside him--an almost thoroughbred collie, and a
good dog, too, though his end had been tragic. . . . But why on earth
should his thoughts be running on Rover just now?

Yet, and although, as he went, England was nearer to him and more
real than the smoking heaps between which he picked his way, he
steered all the while towards the upper town, through the square, and
up the hill overlooked by the convent and the rocky base of the
citadel. He knew the exact position of the house, and he chose a
narrow street--uninhabited now, and devastated by fire--that led
directly to it.

The house was untouched by fire as yet, though another to the left of
it blazed furiously. It clung, as it were a swallow's nest, to the
face of the cliff. A garden wall ran under the front; and, parallel
with the wall, a road pretty constantly swept by musketry fire from
the convent. At the head of the street Corporal Sam stumbled against
a rifleman who, sheltered from bullets at the angle of the crossing,
stood calmly watching the conflagration.

'Hallo!' said the rifleman cheerfully; 'I wanted some more audience,
and you're just in time.'

'There's a child in the house, eh?' panted Corporal Sam, who had come
up the street at a run.

The rifleman nodded. 'Poor little devil! He'll soon be out of his
pain, though.'

'Why, there's heaps of time! The fire won't take hold for another
half-hour. What's the best way in? . . . You an' me can go shares,
if that's what you're hangin' back for,' added Corporal Sam, seeing
that the man eyed him without stirring.

'Hi! Bill!' the rifleman whistled to a comrade, who came slouching
out of a doorway close by, with a clock in one hand, and in the other
a lantern by help of which he had been examining the inside of this
piece of plunder. 'Here's a boiled lobster in a old woman's cloak,
wants to teach us the way into the house yonder.'

'Tell him to go home,' said Bill, still peering into the works of the
clock. 'Tell him we've _been_ there.' He chuckled a moment, looked
up, and addressed himself to Corporal Sam. 'What regiment?'

'The Royals.'

The two burst out laughing scornfully. 'Don't wonder you cover it
up,' said the first rifleman.

Corporal Sam pulled off his _poncho_. 'I'd offer to fight the both
of you,' he said, 'but 'tis time wasted with a couple of white-livers
that don't dare fetch a poor child across a roadway. Let me go by;
_you_'ll keep, anyway.'

'Now look here