[Frontispiece: ON THE WAY TO THAT COUNTRY] REDCOAT CAPTAIN A STORY OF THAT COUNTRY BY ALFRED OLLIVANT AUTHOR OF "BOB, SON OF BATTLE," ETC. ILLUMINATED BY GRAHAM ROBERTSON New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: JOHN MURRAY 1907 _All rights reserved_ COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1907. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. REDCOAT CAPTAIN [Illustration: Book I headpiece] BOOK I.--TINY TAKES COSY COTTAGE 1 So, after waiting faithfully for days and days and days, they agreed they could wait no longer. He was a Redcoat Captain in the Army of That Country: she was the daughter of the merry lady who lived among rooks. His had jolly little curls all over, with blue eyes under: hers was chestnut, with grey eyes like clouds in a lake. She was between ten and twenty: he was a little more. He was so tall that the Fellows called him Tiny: her name was Mabel, so they called her Baby. 2 So Tiny came to the Fort on the Hill where the sun used to set; and it was noon. And the Fort was a round wall with a barrack-square inside. And through a hole in the wall a great cannon of artillery peeped out over the country to keep Them down: for They were always supposed to be there, though nobody had ever seen Them. Then Tiny climbed in through the cannon-hole, and on to the barrack-square, where nobody was now only the back-view of Goliath, the elephant, whisking his tail in the stable, while the Boy, who saw to him, slept among his feet. So Tiny walked across the square in the sun till he came to a door in the dark of the wall. And on the door was painted in white letters O G R E which the Fellows said meant, Old General Roast End, but it really meant, Officers' Grub Royal Elephants, which was the name of the Regiment. And the Regiment was so named by order of the King because that pleased old Goly, so that he trampled less at night, when the Fellows wanted to sleep. Then Tiny knocked at the door and went in. And the room had crossed sugar-sticks on the wall, and a row of bottles full of little black and white marbly balls on the mantel-piece, and over them a great motto, _Every Bull's Eye has its billet._ And in one corner was a pile of painted india-rubber cannon-balls. And there was a huge fire roaring, though it was summer. And before the fire stood the General, with his hands behind him, sucking something and warming himself. Then Tiny shut the door, and began, "I am Tiny; and I am going to marry Baby. How long will I stop in this hole, because about taking a house to put Baby in?" So the General bent towards his boots; and his head shone; and his boots shone; and he bulged over the fire; and he said, "I am Sir Goodall Grouse, and a Major-General. I had ought to be a full General if I had me rights--only they cheat so."