The bargain was speedily concluded. The landlord was now in a better temper. At first he had been very doubtful of the intentions of the new-comers. Now that he saw that they were ready to pay for everything, and that at prices much higher than he could before have obtained, his face shone with good-humour. He and the two girls were already busy drawing wine and selling it to the customers. "I will get some wood, your honour, and light a fire here, or it is mighty little dinner that you will be getting. The soldiers will soon be dropping in, that is, if they don't keep this place for officers only, for there are two other places where they sell wine in the village. When I came up two officers had a slice of ham each on the points of their swords over the fire." "That will be a very good plan, Tim; you had better set to work about it at once, and at the same time I will try and get some bread." By the time that O'Grady returned with seven or eight other officers the fire was blazing. Terence had managed to get a sufficient number of knives and forks; there was, however, no table-cloth in the house. He and Terence were cooking slices of ham on a gridiron over the fire. "This is first-rate, O'Grady," Major Harrison said; "the place is crowded down below, and we should have fared very badly if you had not managed to get hold of this room." "If some of the boys will see to the cooking, Major, I will go down with Hoolan and get a barrel of wine and bring it up here; then we shall do first-rate." "How about the rations, Major?" Terence asked. "They have just been served out. I sent my man down to draw the rations for the whole wing at once, and told him to bring them up here." "And I have told mine," Captain O'Driscol said, "to go round the village and buy up two or three dozen chickens, if he can find them, and as many eggs as he can collect. I think that we had better tell off two of the men as cooks. I don't think it is likely that they will be able to get much done that way below. Hoolan and another will do." "I should think it best to keep Hoolan as forager; he is rather a genius in that capacity. I think he has got round those two girls, whether by his red hair or his insinuating manners I cannot say, but they seem ready to do anything for him, and we shall want lots of things in the way of pots and pans and so on." "Very well, Terence, then we will leave him free and put two others on." CHAPTER IV UNDER CANVAS In a short time O'Grady returned, followed by Hoolan, carrying a small barrel of wine. "It is good, I hope," the major said, as the barrel was set down in one corner of the room. "I think that it is the best they have; one of the girls went down with Tim into the cellar and pointed it out to him. I told him to ask her for _bueno vino_. I don't know whether it was right or not, but I think she understood." "How much does it hold, O'Grady?"