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HOW JEVONS SCORED.

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(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.) I HOW JEVONS SCORED. Br DAVID CHRISTIE MURRAY. Author of "Joseph's Coat," "The Way of tiur Wof d. "The Bistro-p'? Amazement." Time's Fxsvenges." A Wasted Crime," &c Aru&ngci many odd little facts which may be noticed 11. the men who have come from the Front u this—that their teeth have grown very p^ceptably whiter. You may trace this to three causes The supply of b&ocy whether for smoking of for chewmg, has been extremely limited; alcoholic drink been a.bsolutly unattainable; and the food has been toagh and has had to be tfcM_rougr.lv uu^Tic."ted. Apart from all this, tnen's faoes have grown much darker in complexion, &nd any painter will tell you that oolovr ;s only valuable by contrast It dn not occui to young Adcock to think of oUlv ot these things, but he could not fail to that the teeth of his Bitn were abominaoly white and bright ted gieamm.It is by no means the purpose of t, is narrative to give away Adcock, who sven if he went from England as a bit of a > >u-lder, came back as a proven ffi i.ii of VHioa. with discretion and pohteo«^6 added to his ecord. For that reason his ffegiment shail )e pseudonymised W e will t\ka.1 from Tb. ckerav s parodies and will speak of the cc -ps as "The Gallant Onety Ortth." Adooc- had been taken prisoner b the Boers, had been stripped of everything but L s shirt, and it was when he returned, dreary seventeen miles' walk acicef; the v ldt. that he cotioed for the frrsi time how white and glaring behind the buli tasked skin were his men's teeth, when fchey relaxed their faces into laughter. He hac not often seen them laugh, for their part the campaign had been exceedingly grim and nasty. They had camped for the most part on the bare ground, w'- the night had grown too black for further travel, and had bwsn awakened at the first grey intimation ot the dawn. They had been hard-ridden, bard fought, and ill fed for the greater part r,* a year; and whatever the weather might have been they had seen no such thing as a. tern until the last week or two, and no etch thing as a kitchen range, even of the rudest son. from the beginning. It \v c Adcock's misfortune that he had taken a commission m a territorial regiment. In his own county he was sonw-body, even a very con isiderabie somebody; and the greater num- ber of the men who served under him were erlted under the territorial system, from Adcock's end of his own county, so that everybody knew him, or knew about him Such social honours as he wore were a trifle new and on that ground alone he was inclined to exaggerate them His father, had started as a shop-boy, had become a. baronet, as a result of his own remarkable dexterity of hand and mind. He had o become a millionaire, and these things, un- fortunately for Adcock, had happened before the young mat- was born. although they were well within the memory of many contempor- aries Amongst strangers he counted it al- most a religion to speak of his mother as "her ladyship," and of bis father as "Sir Samuel"; and these natural failings had got Kb. into trouble. Whan after his seizure by the Boers be taamped homeward to his camp, he felt very much inclined to suicide, and if his captors ba. left him but a gun and a cartridge he tn.ffht have put his idea into practice. He would have done almost any! hing rather than face his regiment in the ignominious guise which was left to him; and as he walked bcvorrt the outoosts he was more wretchedly conscious of his bare IIIPd sunburnt legs than he was even of his crippled and bleeding feet. He bad no idea that the mingled sense of pride and shame which had saved him from an original intention > f dying of starvation on the veldt was in the least degree creditable to him. and it was whan he started on his mareh through the iinoo in that absurd costume that he first be to cease to be a bounder. though no such notion crossed his mind Five things Adcock knew at this wretched moment, and no philosopher would ever after-1 wards have suoceoded m persuading him that it is possible only to think clearly of one thing at a time. He knew that his shirt *vas absurdly short, to begin with; he knew that his men were lying on th,r ragged khaki backs diesolved in laughter: he noted ror the first that their teeth were very and gw&tnjxg; he noted further .t -hei r spurs (dug into the ground in their momentary ecstasy of mirth and withdrawn again) became perceptibly brighter. Finally, he recognised the fact that the engagment of yesterday had resulted in a solitary capture, and that he was its representative. He stif, fened his soul and went on between the roaring lines; but he was not fated to reach the Colonel's tent and make his wetched ex- culpation there without further mssadven- tipe. The men had got earlv into camp the night before with a handful of loot-the. rarest of events in that campaign. They had fallen upon a trim of ox-waggons Laden with "medical comforts" intended for the express WHiSolation of one particular Dutch fighting man who was fond of Bass's beer. When the chariots of this hero been looted, •he boys had scattered the bottles fa.r and sride It was Adcock's luck to tread upon i. fragment of the broken glass and to tumble ttraight into the arms of Jevons, who waa that time it the blackest and filthiest hour f»f an unusually black and filthy day Jevons, it should be known at once, was the son of an old-established Earl, the sixt.h in descent, who lived at the other end of Adcock's xvauty. If.. re .were one thing more pro- mnert m thf mind n.f the newly-crated <ady Adcock than another, it was the hope ha* in some far-distant day she might be 'aced upon the visiting list of Lady Erls- < te, the mother of that identical Jevons, 10, if he "iad only taken the trouble to p >cla,im the fact, was art honourable, a.nd tÀ1 srefore to be respected. But the E rlsootes h d been protnoted six generations ago for Ita ring become wealthy, and had been st-sadily going backward in that one respect ei- since the title had been conferred, and ■ evens from his youth up had known very veil that he would have to work for a living Ie knew that the one thing for which nature :ad fitted him was the work of an enneer; nd he had devoted himself to his career with .-wnethmg like enthusiasm. Nothing pleased t im much better than to get into a canvas t rit and to crawl through the coaly bowels of any locomotive combination of stec1 and oil which by any chance found its inwards out of order. At the moment at which Adcock fell into his arms he was new from this delightful iaboui—black with coal-duet, and «t:nking of -aí1ei¿ oil from bead to foot.. He look the short-shirted Adcock in his arms and was repelled, at first with energy, but feter on, as the blood flowed from a severed artory in the heel, with growing feebleness. Jevons was a white man, but under his smear of and oil be looked very like a nigger, •od the last thing Adoock remembered be- fore he fainted at the flap of the hospital tent, was the white gleam of his teeth ir contrast with the bkek-and-tan of his solicitous visage. < Adcock got better in the course of time, itnd went into biis second action, where he was bsdlv hit. He got the better of this m?adventure also, but, being ercamped on poisoned ground, fell sick of enteric fever, through which he was piously nursed bv • xravrades who had become conscious of his growing value. He was getting- to be a. better fellow day by day; and, campaign- 17)12'. times, the gentle a.nd the simple are variously alert to this sort of ohnjige: which tj much more common than the ignorant «mld possible imagine. But Jevona was among Adcock's nurses, a.nd. as fate arranged Jevons was invariably dirty and dis- >ndere! wherever he called to Adcock. \dc(lCk had been transferred to a camp near vhom he could not possibly have spoken within nfty miles of home. say. Adcock, old chap," said the friendly aoal-and-oil smeared man, on one occasion, slipping a coal-and-oil-smeared canvas sleeve beneath the invalid's head and the words, the accent, and the gesture were no* forgiven until the time of Jevon's revenge came round. "Jones." said Adcock, turning +0 <- s bat- man, "give this man five shillings, and tell him not io come again." Jones grinned, and finding a dollar in his em waistcoat-pocket haasded the same to Jevons, who also grinned, and, insolently patt ng the patient on the head, said, "Ta-ta old boy!" and departed. Mary weeks afterwards Lieutenant Adcock found an opportunity for the retrieval of a reputation which had not so far leen t o favoured. Two British guns were in very serious trouble at the edge of a spruit, and half -a-dozen Dutch maxims were pump ng fire and lead at their defenders Adcock saw his chance, got two or three dozen of his men together, and fetched the imperilled guns ato Bafety, being himself for the second time rather badly wounded. Tboo, when he had I half recovered, the authorities sent him home. A man who has been captured rud freed, who has twice been hit under creditable cir euinstaaoes, and who has suffered from en tenc on a particularly hard march, mav be fairly said to have seen something of the rougher face of war; and T'ritish men and wcmen are proverbially kind to those who have had this sort of experience m their service So it befell that when Major d cock came home with three degrees of pro- motion to hit- name, there was a general de- position on the part of the men of nis county to give him dmners, and a not iess pro- nounced disposition on the part of the ladies ot the county to marry him out of hand. For some weeks he was interesting, as a hero and an iovahd but in the course of time other heroes and invalids came heme, amo Adcock began to feel chat after all his achievments he was a bit of a nonentity. Had this idea occurred to him two years before. it would have brought him pain; but now, after h.s wa.r experience, to discover that at his very best he was only one of a crowd afforded him a pleasure of a quiet kind, because he had more than begun to realis* that he was an Englishman, and, by that fact alone, ë person to be taken into con siderp.tion anywhere. He had fought and hied for his country. Once he had bled by a bullet wound, once by a bayonet wound, and onoe on account of a broken tottle; and on each occasion the loss of blood .had brought a gain of wisdom. Lady Adcock, a vain and fat old- woman, who was, after all, his mother, fussed around .him from the moment of his arding at Southampton until his final deposit in the room which had been for a whole year re- served for him in the new mansion in the Vale of Trent. And when Adcock began to get èá!1y. better after his long attack of enteric, his wound, and the tiresome sea tadyshirj told him one thing You must go, Sam," she said, "and call upon our neighbour, Lord Erlscote We have met him once of twice*—in society," the mother added in an almost awystricken voice. "You know the Erisootes Thev ww very poor for years, but a rich grand father of the present Earl died somewhere out. in California, and left him millions— many millions—whether dollars or pounds sterling, I can't tell you But money in anv C3."e more than heart could wish. The old Earl is dead, and all his sons are dead, ex- cept the youngest, who has come into the title, after a career in the Transvaal. You must-have met the Honourable Mr. Jevons, as ne than was, in the course of your cam- paign. And in any case, you are a fellow campaigner, and you ought to go and see him. I understand that he is to get married shortly. He was brought over by the news ot his father's death and his elder brother breaking his neck in the hunting field, and 1m wasn't anybody a. year ago, a.nd now he's a Peer of the realm, with millions. And we've got to know him. You might drive over to Erlscote Castle and leave 0 card." "Erboot.e," said the Major, "is only half- a-dozen miles away. I'll walk. It'll do me good; and I'll start this minute, if you'll rouse up Jones and tell him to bring the trap along to pick me up case I should fall tired." "You shan't go, Sam," said her ladyship. was wicked and cruel of me t< suggest ii:, I ought to ha.ve thought how weak you are." "Rnbbiè 1" said the Major. "I arm as fit as a fiddle. But since I had that beastly enteric I cret tired now and them, and when I do a lift is welcome. If I don't overdo it, a walk is a. good thing. But it's aJways pleasant to know that you have n gee to pull you home. Just ring the bell, Mateo1, and I'll give the necessary orders. j TIm bell was rung, and, in response to orders deli vered under a somewhat elaborate etiquette, Jones appeared. he said, touching his fore- lock. nearly in five minutes." But Jones gTitaned,. well itlrained as he was, and the glint of lug white teeth behind the Trans- vaal tan of his complexion brought a vague remembrance to Major Adcock's mlnd, Four miles away from home the Major found Jones ",¡! ",r1 rvri the v.v-(y»d. w h; c h been so out as to split a spinney in two halves. "I seen," said Jones, "a weasel iollow a rabbit acrows this '■e^e ivith, an-i 1 couldn't help but pttll up and look on at the works o' nature. it lovely, comin' back, sir?" very pleasant to be back. Jones," said the Major, sniffing up the mild air; "very rice, indeed "I don't suppose, siT," said Jonas, respect- fully." as "t ever entered your head to be a. poacher." "Wen," said the Major, smiling and twist- ing his moustache, "I don't know hat it ever did, Jones. I suppose." he added allow- irgly, "that you were born in the country V' "Yes. sir, eaid Jones. "Birn m the countTy and in this part of it, sr. And many's the time I've found a rabbit, or a partridge, 01 an 'a.re in this parti ukr little bit of a spinney. It's a regular breeding ground, this is, for all sorts o' gaci'*—all the kinds of fur and feather as yon gentlemen likes to shoot But bless my 'eart! if I was to be left here alone, sir, for five minutes, I don't want no gun. I wouldn't mind bet- ting what you like, sir, if you'll excuse the liberty of the offer, -hat Til walk into that there spinney, either side, and oome back with an 'are or a rabbit or a partridge in my 'and, and ask for not-hung but my native wits to guide me." "Jones," said the Major, "rm *n no hurry, and I will bet you a dollar that you don't go into that wood and come back again with fur and feather within a quarter "f an hour. It's an utterly nefarious enterprise on my part; but I'll watch. the old girl whilst you go." "Done with you, sir!" said Jones, touch- ing his cap ami leaping lightly from the dog- cart, into which the Major cldxnoed, some- what cumbrously. J "It's a baddish time of the day for- this kind of work, but then, sir, if you'll excuse my bragging, I'm an expert. Do you re- member my stalking that springbok, sir, and bringing you in the for a. Christmas dinner? "Go along. JOnefl," said the Major, "and let w sec wnat you can do." "Why, sir, said Jones, "I was poacOOr frun my cradle 1" And with that he dis- appeared into the spinney. Major Adcock was a little tired, and the comforta.ble cushions of the dog-cart were grateful to him. He sat there half-dozing in the sunshine, with the p;leasQ.nt autumn country air about him, and thougut how good a thing it was to be at home again, and stroked the well-combed mane of the mare in th; shafts with a. caressing touch 'f the whip." Vv hen Jones had gone five yards into the wood his step became inaudible, and the dreaming Major had actually ceased to think about him, when in about ten minutes' time he returned with a bird in one hand and a hare in the other. "Ain't forgot the trick, sir," said Jones, as he thrust the bird and t.he hare beineath imMtjer's (fie&i and clambered mio the dog-cart. "You forgot the trick," a voice very near at hand, "and you ain't forgot me, 'ave you, Jones?" Jones tunred with a calm which is not common to the detected poacher, and smiled. "No," he said, "you and me 'as been longer at war a.t than the British and the Dutch 'as been so far in the Transvaal. But J was just shewing the guv'nor a 1 ttle trick cr mine, and we're going up to the Castle to explain aboot it." "Yus," said the man in velveteens, who had originally accosted Jones, "you're going up to the Castle to explain about 't, and I'm going to show the way." The main in vel- veteens dexterously took the reins from the I hands of the astonished Major, amd began to lead the mare up hill r "But, I. say, look here, my friend," said the Major, "you're rather overdoing this. Jm going rt, at this moment to leave my card on Lord Erlscote, and I don't want to introduced as a poacher. Here's haJf-a- sovereign -for you, and suppose we say no more about it.* "I've got 'im," said the mail in velveteens very gnmiy, without turning; "I've got 'im red handed, and I've caught 'im in the act. "iou're along with 'im, whoever vou are, and you ye got to come afore his lordship. And, mini you this," said Velveteens, "whether I've got the law be'ind me or whether I ma&es no difference to ,me. I've got a gun. here, and I'll put more or less of a load Ol lead into whichever of you starts to lun, whether it's the thief or the receiver "My dear, good fellow," said the Major, "yon can t suppose "Never mind you what I suppose," said Velveteens, "nor what I can suppose, j \e known tbit chap for a poacher from his cradle, and this is the frst time I've got a chance at him. D'you think I'm going to loov it ? Not much I ain't! It was in these circuinstances 1 hat Major Adcock found himself landed at the lodge of Erlscote Casile, where the trap was taken in charge, and whence he and his mam weri j marched up the sweeping avenue, clrn- shadowed and half a mile in length. The Major twice or thrice attempted to propitiate the guard. "It's really absurd &aid the Major, "t expose one to so ridiculous a charge. I've told you already, by good fellow, that I'm going up to Erlsoote on 'i visit "So you 'ave," said Velveteens, swinging the dead hare in one hand and the pheasant in the other as he walked. "I'll give vou," said the Major, groping in his pocket, In order to je quite sure than he could fulfil h;.s promise there and then, "T"fl give you fifty shillings to let me walk up gmt>tlv to the door aind explain myself." do all the explaining," said Velvet- eens. "Whatever explaining there is to ex- plain I will explain. T've been after th-s man ever since I was a child in irms, and ¡I.'V\? got 'im last red 'anded. And you as is accomplice! HeTeyouare." Wi-e Major, iin place of walking up to Erlecote Castle as he bad hoped, and leaving a card at the front door, was ushered in at the back. it would have been at any moment too ignoble to run, and a stand up ficrht with the man in corduroy would have been a foolish thing on many grounds, apart from "that tired feeling" which had followed a long illness. "You go and tell his lordship hes got to do a Little bit of beak heTe," Velv"teens. "I've got the most notorious poacher m the couwty, and I've caught 'im red-"anded." So the word was passed, and ;n a l:ttle .while the over-able Jones and the Major were ushered into the presence of his lordship, a somewhat undersized, dark-haired, youngieh man, who smiled at the first sight of the Major and then composed his coantpmrce to Lear the etory. Velveteens put some emo- tion m the narrative. Man and toy, he declared with solmesiity, he bad KiKrvn this present Jonas as an arrant poacher, amd had never until this fortunate hour been able to lav a hand upon him. The other IJarty, he confessed, tie did not know; but he had seen him with his own hands receive and 6tow away these present prizes. He *vaved the hare acid the pheasant, and then respectfully deposited them upon the magisterial desk. "I understand you," said his lordship, "to Stir that you are Major Adcock, of he Onety- Ooeth, and that you nre. recently invalided home from the Transvaal. In that case yoJ. W;ll no doabt be able to find somebody who wil1 go bad fo- you under the exceedingly suspicious eiTcumsta.ncee." I don't care," said the Major, if your lordship will exctiea me for saying so. to incur the ridicule which will inevitably at- tach to such an affair as this; but f am quite willing to p*y your man anything you ina.y demand, and as one gentleman to another— His lordship interrupted him coldly. Pris'oner at the bar, vOIr offence is very clearly proved, a.nd the sentence of thiis court upon you is that you be fined one dollar, wnich the Bench will pay, and that you stay to dinner. I have nursed this com,' said his lordship, ope a drawer at his hand and throwing a five-shilling-piece upon 'he table, for nine months, old chap, but I never thought that 1 should get it back in such a lucky hour. Good gracious, I beg your pardon. I forgot tt, introduce myself. But don't you remember .'evoms?" [THE EK:>

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