“Oh, all right,” said Dick merrily: “I’ll try. I suppose we’ve done for to-day. I’m hot and tired.”
“Rubbish!” cried Wyatt. “We’re never hot and tired. Always ready’s our motto. Talk like that after a field-day! What would you do if we went into action?”
“I don’t know; get so excited, I suppose, that I shouldn’t have time to think.”
“Of course you would. And now, look here; I’ll tell you something if you promise not to chatter about it.”
“I don’t chatter; but I’ll promise. What is it?”
“There’s something on the way.”
“Is there? What—war?”
“Oh, we don’t call our little fights wars, and I can’t tell you what is coming off, but Sir George dropped a hint to Hulton that he was to see that we were in perfect readiness.”
“Well, we always are.”
“Yes; but to be on the qui vive as to ammunition, tents, baggage, and provender.”