Doggie broke in with a laugh. "Pray don't distress yourself, Phineas. It's not a question of money at all. The last thing in the world I've had to think of has been money." "What is the trouble?" Phineas demanded. "That's a long story," answered Doggie. "In the meantime I had better give some orders about dinner." The dinner came in presently, not particularly well served. They sat down to it. "By the way," remarked Doggie, "you haven't told me why you became a soldier." "Chance," replied Phineas. "I have been going down in the world for some time, and no one seemed to want me except my country. She clamored for me at every corner. A recruiting sergeant in Trafalgar Square at last persuaded me to take the leap. That's how I became Private Phineas McPhail of the Tenth Wessex Rangers, at the compensation of one shilling and two pence per day." "Do you like it?" asked Doggie. Phineas rubbed the side of his nose thoughtfully. "In itself it is a vile life," he made answer. "The hours are absurd, the work is distasteful, and the mode of living repulsive. But it contents me. The secret of happiness lies in adapting one's self to conditions. I adapt myself wherever I happen to be. And now, may I, without impertinent curiosity, again ask what you meant when you said you had come down to bed-rock?" All of Doggie's rage and shame flared up at the question. "I've been thrown out of the army!" he cried. "I'm here in hiding--hiding from my family and the decent folk I'm ashamed to meet!" "Tell me all about it, laddie," urged Phineas, gently. Then Doggie broke down, and with a gush of unminded tears found expression for his stony despair. His story took a long time in the telling, and Phineas interjected a sympathetic "Ay, ay," from time to time. "And now," cried Doggie, his young face distorted and reddened, his sleek hair ruffled, and his hands appealingly outstretched, "what am I going to do?" "You've got to go back home," said Phineas. "You've got to whip up all the moral courage in you and go back to Durdlebury." "I won't," said Doggie, "I can't. I'd sooner die than go back there disgraced. I'd sooner enlist as a private soldier." "Enlist?" repeated Phineas, and he drew himself up straight and gaunt. "Well, why not?" "Enlist?" echoed Doggie, in a dull tone. "As a Tommy?" "As a Tommy," replied Phineas. "Enlist!" murmured Doggie. He thought of the alternatives--flight, which was craven; home, which he could not bear. Doggie rose from his chair with a new light in his eyes. He had come to the supreme moment of his life; he had made his great resolution. Yes, he would enlist as a private soldier in the British army. III