“That’s right, Pete. When shall we start?”
“What do you say, sir?”
“I say to-night, directly after Last Post.”
“Last Post it is, sir.”
Peter had not lost the memory of differences of position, but he was thinking of two men binding themselves upon a perilous compact that might mean death to both, as he slowly stole forward a very dirty hand.
The young officer to whom it was extended on his part did not see in his companion a private, but the brave, tried comrade, as he caught Peter’s powder-grimed hand in a warm grasp.
And Archie’s hand was just as grubby.