didn't expect. Really, of course, they lead to Ashford and Romney and Ivychurch, and real live places like that. But they don't look it. The day when what I am going to tell you about happened, we were all leaning on the stone wall looking at the pigs. The pigman is a great friend[Pg 36] of ours—all except H. O., who is my youngest brother. His name is Horace Octavius, and if you want to know why we called him H. O. you had better read 'The Treasure Seekers' and find out. He had gone to tea with the schoolmaster's son—a hateful kid. [Pg 36] 'Isn't that the boy you're always fighting?' Dora asked when H. O. said he was going. 'Yes,' said H. O., 'but, then, he keeps rabbits.' So then we understood and let him go. Well, the rest of us were gazing fondly on the pigs, and two soldiers came by. We asked them where they were off to. They told us to mind our own business, which is not manners, even if you are a soldier on private affairs. 'Oh, all right,' said Oswald, who is the eldest. And he advised the soldiers to keep their hair on. The little they had was cut very short. 'I expect they're scouts or something,' said Dicky; 'it's a field-day, or a sham-fight, or something, as likely as not.' 'Let's go after them and see,' said Oswald, ever prompt in his decidings. So we did. We ran a bit at first, so as not to let the soldiers have too much of a lead. Their red coats made it[Pg 37] quite easy to keep them in sight on the winding white marsh road. But we did not catch them up: they seemed to go faster and faster. So we ran a little bit more every now and then, and we went quite a long way after them. But they didn't meet any of their officers or regiments or things, and we began to think that perchance we were engaged in the disheartening chase of the wild goose. This has sometimes occurred. [Pg 37] There is a ruined church about two miles from Lymchurch, and when we got close to that we lost sight of the red coats, so we
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