What Phil valued most was the crown set with brilliants on the back, and the inscription beneath, which ran: "_Presented to Corporal Philip Western, of the Grenadier Guards, In recognition of his gallantry, By Victoria R_." Many and many a time did Phil pull out the watch and gaze at that inscription, and often too did he determine that one day it should lie in the waistcoat pocket of an officer. "It's my first step in the regiment," he said quietly to Tony, when talking over his promotion, "and I hope it will not be the last." "Never fear, young un! You'll get higher yet, I know," Tony replied earnestly. "In these days of peace it will take a time, no doubt; but if there's war, as seems likely, then you'll go up, and I don't mind telling yer it's my opinion you'll be an officer yet afore I gets my stripes." "Humbug, Tony! It takes years and years to get a commission, even when on active service. But I mean to have a good try for it, and should troubles come with some foreign power, then, as you say, there is all the more chance of my being successful. Now I am off to the quarter-master to ask him to put this in his safe and keep it for me. I wouldn't lose it for worlds." CHAPTER SIX. WAR WITH RUSSIA. The summer months flew by in the pleasant surroundings of beautiful Windsor. Guard duties alternating with drills, and odd hours spent in the office of the regimental orderly-room, kept Phil pleasantly occupied, and when off duty he and Tony had always plenty of ways of amusing themselves, so that the latter days of September found them loth to leave the garrison and march to London. But orders had come for the battalion to go to Wellington Barracks, and in due course they found themselves once more installed in their old quarters, facing the park across the celebrated Bird-cage Walk. "We've had a real good time down there," remarked Tony, some two months after their arrival, jerking his thumb in the direction of Windsor, "and it'll be long before we strike against such another. "What's to be done here? Nothing--simply nothing! It's drill and go on guard nigh every day, and when you're free, kick yer heels in the square, or go out walking. I'm getting tired of it already." "Oh, come, Tony, it isn't quite so bad as that!" laughed Phil. "We're no harder worked here than we were during the summer, and in our free time we can find heaps to do if we only set about it. They say that thousands of Londoners know far less about their own surroundings than do occasional visitors. Now I propose we get some sort of a guide, and every day we are able, go off to see some gallery or museum. It will cost us little or nothing, and will be good fun. In any case it would take weeks to exhaust all the sights, and before that, if all one hears is true, we are likely to be setting our faces south for some other country."