"All right," he said aloud, "I try him." The muleteer dismounted, and Sam prepared to take his place on the saddle. By this time several of the Rangers had gathered round, and these foreseeing, from the appearance of the mule and the look of sly amusement in the face of the muleteer, that there was likely to be some fun, at once proposed to assist, which they did by giving advice to Sam of the most opposite nature. Sam was first going to mount on the off side, but this irregularity was repressed, and one wag, taking the stirrup of the near side in his hand, said, "Now, Sam, up you go, never mind what these fellows say, you put your right foot in the stirrup, and lift your left over the saddle." Sam acted according to these instructions, and found himself, to his intense amazement and the delight of the bystanders, sitting with his face to the mule's tail. "Hullo," he exclaimed in astonishment, "dis all wrong; you know noting about de business, you Bill Atkins." And Sam prepared to descend, when, at his first movement, the mule put down his head and flung his heels high in the air. Sam instinctively threw himself forward, but not recovering his upright position before the mule again flung up her hind quarters, he received a violent blow on the nose. "Golly!" exclaimed the black in a tone of extreme anguish, as, with water streaming from his eyes, he instinctively clutched the first thing which came to hand, the root of the mule's tail, and held on like grim death. The astonished mule lashed out wildly and furiously, but Sam, with his body laid close on her back, his hands grasping her tail, and his legs and feet pressing tight to her flanks, held on with the clutch of despair. "Seize de debil!--seize him!--he gone mad!"--he shouted frantically, but the soldiers were in such fits of laughter that they could do nothing. Then the mule, finding that he could not get rid of this singular burden by kicking, started suddenly off at full gallop. "Stop him--stop him," yelled Sam. "Gracious me, dis am drefful." This was the sight which met the eyes of the Scudamores and their brother officers as they issued from their tents. The soldiers were all out of their tents now, and the air rang with laughter mingled with shouts of "Go it, moke!" "Hold on, Sam!" "Stop that mule," Captain Manley shouted, "or the man will be killed." Several soldiers ran to catch at the bridle, but the mule swerved and dashed away out of camp along the road. "Look, look," Tom said, "there are the staff, and Lord Wellington among them. The mule's going to charge them."