"You can ride, I hope?" Lord Beresford, a powerfully-built, pleasant-looking man, said. "Yes, sir, we can both ride, but at present--" "You have no horses, of course?" Lord Beresford put in. "I will provide you with horses, and will assign servants to you from one of the cavalry regiments with me. Will you join me at daybreak to-morrow? we shall march at once." There was a general expression of regret when the Scudamores informed their comrades that they were again ordered on detached duty. As to Sam, when Tom told him that he could not accompany them, he was uproarious in his lamentations, and threatened to desert from his regiment in order to follow them. At this the boys laughed, and told Sam that he would be arrested and sent back before he had gone six hours. "I tink, Massa Tom, dat you might hab told de general dat you hab got an fust-class serbent, and dat you bring him wid you." "But we shall be mounted now, Sam, and must have mounted men with us. You can't ride, you know." "Yes, massa, dis child ride first-rate, he can." "Why, Sam, I heard you say not long ago you had never ridden on a horse all your life." "Never hab, massa, dat's true 'nuff; but Sam sure he can ride. Berry easy ting dat. Sit on saddle, one leg each side--not berry difficult dat. Sam see tousand soldiers do dat ebery day; dey sit quite easy on saddle; much more easy dat dan beat big drum." The boys laughed heartily at Sam's notion of riding without practice, and assured him that it was not so easy as he imagined. "Look here, Sam," Peter said at last, "you practice riding a little, and then next time we get away we will ask for you to go with us." And with this Sam was obliged to be content. Half an hour later, when the boys were chatting with Captain Manley, Carruthers, and two or three other officers, in the tent of the first-named officer, they heard a commotion outside, with shouts of laughter, in which they joined as soon as they went out and saw what was going on. Sam, upon leaving the Scudamores, determined at once upon trying the experiment of riding, in order that he might--for he had no doubt all would be easy enough--ride triumphantly up to his masters' tent and prove his ability to accompany them at once. He was not long before he saw a muleteer coming along sitting carelessly on his mule, with both legs on one side of the animal, side-saddle fashion, as is the frequent custom of muleteers. It was evident, by the slowness of his pace, that he was not pressed for time. Sam thought that this was a fine opportunity. "Let me have a ride?" he said to the muleteer in broken Portuguese. The man shook his head. Sam held out a quarter of a dollar. "There," he said, "I'll give you that for a hour's ride." The muleteer hesitated, and then said, "The mule is very bad tempered with strangers." "Oh, dat all nonsense," Sam thought, "he only pretend dat as excuse; any one can see de creature as quiet as lamb; don't he let his master sit on him sideways?"