Finally, he brought up at the barracks of Company F at Fort George, which company, as you remember, we learned from Mrs. Rainsford, was no longer quartered at the Avery homestead.
“Is Sergeant Bellows here?” Flutters asked, breathlessly, of one of the first men he met.
“He be,” answered the man, with provoking slowness, “but I doubt if he'll see ye the night, he turned in early with a headache.” Flutters looked crestfallen. “You sail for England day after to-morrow, don't you?” >
“We do that,” answered the man, “and it's with pleasure we'll be after shaking the dust of the place off us.”
“But I must see Sergeant Bellows before he goes,” said Flutters, pathetically. “Do you think he'd mind if I disturbed him just for a minute?”
“Maybe not,” said the man, “the Sergeant's that good-natured. You'll find him in bunk No. 6, in the front room above-stairs.”
So Flutters climbed the stairs and entered the great cheerless room, with its row of uncomfortable-looking bunks lining the wall. A candle was burning in a tin candlestick at one end of the room. Flutters went on tip-toe and brought it so as to inspect the numbers of the bunks, and make no mistake, for he could see that two or three other men had also “turned in.”
“'Who's there?' asked Sergeant Bellows.”
No. 6 was half-way down the room. “Sergeant Bellows,” said Flutters, in a penetrating whisper, screening the candle flame with his hand, so that it should not shine in the Sergeant's face.