‘I hope you can. Well, here we are,’ and Hodson opened a door which stood at the head of a flight of stone steps they had just ascended. ‘Chums,’ he cried, ‘an illustrious arrival has come amongst us. Allow me to introduce to you John Blair, askewer, taterpeeler to his Highness the King of the Cannibal Islands.’ Jack paused on the threshold of the door and gazed with interest for the first time at a barrack-room. CHAPTER V. A BARRACK-ROOM SQUABBLE. Ranged on one side of the room were eight iron bedsteads, the bedding being rolled up and strapped round to keep it neat during the daytime. Down the centre of the room, resting on iron trestles, were several long deal boards, scrubbed very white, forming a table; on each side of the table were forms. The occupants of the room were variously engaged. Two young fellows at one end of the room were engaged in a bout with the boxing-gloves; another was sitting at the table writing a letter; a fourth was engaged burnishing a sword-scabbard, other parts of his kit lying round him; a fifth lad was pipeclaying a pair of gauntlets; while seated at a window, dressed in shirt and overalls only, was the eldest of the party, a short, stout young man, smoking a clay-pipe and talking to a comrade. Over the beds hung each man’s sword and belts, and on a shelf above these were the lance-caps in their oilskin cases, and the clothes neatly folded, surmounting the sheepskin and the blue shabracks which covered the saddles when the regiment was in review order. Jack was not long taking in these details; but before he had done so the various occupants of the room had desisted from their occupations and fixed their eyes upon him. ‘Why, it’s Sergeant Barrymore’s pup!’ said the young fellow with the pipe. ‘Come here, kid, and let’s have a look at you.’ This was said in a sneering manner, and Jack took an instinctive dislike to the speaker. ‘Run away from school, or has yer mammy been spanking you?’ he added. ‘Neither,’ said Jack simply. ‘I have become a soldier of my own free will.’ ‘Ho my!’ exclaimed he with the pipe. ‘Well, just behave yourself, or you’ll feel the weight of my boot.’ ‘That’s Napper,’ said Hodson to Jack. ‘Don’t take any notice of him.’ He took Jack to a bed which he said would be his, and proceeded to show him how to put down and make it with the straw-filled tick and the coarse sheets and blankets. Jack helped to roll and strap it up again just as a trumpet sounded outside. ‘There goes mess,’ cried Bandsman Napper. ‘Now, Brown, shin off and get the grub;’ and a young trumpeter, picking up a big tin, left the room. The table required little laying, the boys producing from the shelves over their beds chunks of bread, in which knives and forks were stuck, plates and basins like pudding-basins were laid on the table, and the bandsman who had been talking to Napper, with a jaunty ‘Ta-ta, boys!’ went off to his own room.