Just then they arrived at a little villa on G——e street, and the whole party alighted.
CHAPTER II.
Two days later, Lieutenant Manning was at the officers' mess at the quarters of the 100th Regiment. The fact that he had only recently been transferred, and that he was still on the convalescent list, made his temporary absence unnoticed. He ran his eye quickly over the faces of the men who greeted him by nod or word, for he was already a favorite. But he saw nothing unusual. The secret evidently was not out, and of this he was glad; for the Colonel could now receive the news directly from himself and not from officers' gossip.
They were talking of the prospective trip, and in the absence of Sir George, with more freedom than usual.
"Will you be ready, Manning?" Lieutenant Smith asked across the table. "The Colonel says we start in twelve days."
"So soon as that!" the young man exclaimed with a start. A lump had suddenly jumped into his throat. Pulling himself together before any one could observe, he went on: "Yes; but I thought we were to sail by the Challenger, which does not leave port until a week later."
"That was the first order," said Captain Cummings from the other end of the room; "but it had to be changed yesterday, for the Challenger on examination was found unseaworthy."
"And by what ship do we sail now?"
"By the North King, one of the best men-of-war in the navy. It is large, too, and leaves port a week earlier."
How Lieutenant Manning got through mess and the next two hours' official duties, before he could see the Colonel, he did not know. Never before did minutes appear so much like hours. Even when he lay in the trenches at Badajos, with a slice out of his leg, and could hear his comrades' cheers amid the din of cannonading, time seemed to pass more quickly.