_Frontispiece_
_"Sam was taken straddling a chair."_

WAR'S DEMAND, 6
_"But what did he want of soldiers?"_

THE MANLY SPORT AT EAST POINT, 56
_"Starkey stood off and gave him his 'coup de grace.'"_

A BLOOD BROTHERHOOD, 120
_"A big company to grab everything.... The
Benevolent Assimilation Company, Limited."_

TWO OF A KIND, 206
_"There are four marks."_

CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED, 238
_"What business have these people to talk about
equal rights?"_

WINNERS OF THE CROSS, 266
_"He got the Victorious Cross in South Africa."_

THE PERFECT SOLDIER, 324
_"The Emperor gave an exclamation of surprise
and delight."_

HARMLESS, 392
_"He sits like that for hours."_

CHAPTER I

A Bombshell

[Illustration]

"Bless my soul! I nearly forgot," exclaimed Colonel Jinks, as he came
back into the store. "To-morrow is Sam's birthday and I promised Ma to
bring him home something for a present. Have you got anything for a boy
six years old?"

"Let me see," answered the young woman behind the counter, turning
round and looking at an upper shelf. "Why, yes; there's just the thing.
It's a box of lead soldiers. I've never seen anything like them
before"--and she reached up and pulled down a large cardboard box.
"Just see," she added as she opened it. "The officers have swords that
come off, and the guns come off the men's shoulders; and look at
the----"

"Never mind," interrupted the colonel. "I'm in a hurry. That'll do very
well. How much is it?"

And two minutes later he went out of the store with the box in his hand
and got into his buggy, and was soon driving through the streets of
Homeville on his way to his farm.

No one had ever asked Colonel Jinks where he had obtained his title. In
fact, he had never put the question to himself. It was an integral part
of his person, and as little open to challenge as his hand or his foot.
There are favored regions of the world's surface where colonels, like
poets, are born, not made, and good fortune had placed the colonel's
birthplace in one of them. For the benefit of those of my readers who
ma