Soldiers of the Queen   By: Harold Avery (1867-1943)

SOLDIERS OF THE QUEEN

BY

HAROLD AVERY

LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK

THOMAS NELSON AND SONS

1898

CONTENTS

I. Tin Soldiers II. An Ugly Duckling III. The Rebel Reclaimed IV. The Court of Queen Mab V. An Unlucky Picnic VI. A Keepsake VII. Strife in the Upper Fourth VIII. A Banquet at "Duster's" IX. "Guard Turn Out!" X. "Storms in a Tea cup" XI. "Out of the Frying pan " XII. " Into the Fire" XIII. A Robbery at Brenlands XIV. The Sound of the Drum XV. The Queen's Shilling XVI. On Active Service XVII. Under Fire XVIII. The Battle XIX. "Food for Powder" XX. The River's Brink XXI. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again!" XXII. Conclusion

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"Lieutenant Lawson, revolver in hand, stepped into a gap in the ranks" . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece .

"Another volley swept the intervening stretch of tablecloth"

"'Make haste! I can't hang on much longer'" (missing from book)

"The visitors were seized, and hustled unceremoniously out of the room"

"'Here they are! now we've got them!'"

"It was Christmas Day in the camp at Korti"

"The enemy swerved round the flank of the square, and burst furiously upon the rear"

"The oncoming mass of Arabs"

SOLDIERS OF THE QUEEN.

CHAPTER I.

TIN SOLDIERS.

"They shouldered arms, and looked straight before them, and wore a splendid uniform, red and blue." The Brave Tin Soldier .

The battle was nearly over. Gallant tin soldiers of the line lay where they had fallen; nearly the whole of a shilling box of light cavalry had paid the penalty of rashly exposing themselves in a compact body to the enemy's fire; while a rickety little field gun, with bright red wheels, lay overturned on two infantry men, who, even in death, held their muskets firmly to their shoulders, like the grim old "die hards" that they were. The brigade of guards, a dozen red coated veterans of solid lead, who had taken up a strong position in the cover of a cardboard box, still held their ground with a desperate valour only equalled by the dogged pluck of a similar body of the enemy, who had occupied the inkstand with the evident intention of remaining there until the last cartridge had been expended.

Another volley swept the intervening stretch of tablecloth, and the deadly missiles glanced against the glass bottles and rattled among the pencils and penholders. Two men fell without a cry, and lay motionless with their heads resting on the pen wiper.

[Illustration: "Another volley swept the intervening stretch of tablecloth."]

"Look here, Barbara, you're cheating! You put in more than two peas that time, I know."

It was the commander in chief of the invading forces who spoke, and the words were addressed to a very harum scarum looking young lady, who stood facing him on the opposite side of the table.

"How d'you know I did?" she cried.

"Because I saw them hit. There were three at least, and the rule was that we weren't to fire more than two at a time."

"There weren't three, then," retorted the girl, laughing, and shaking back her tangled locks with an impatient movement of her head. "There were six ! Ha! ha! I put them all in my mouth at once, and you never noticed."

"Oh, you little cheat!" cried the boy. "I'll lick you."

The threat had evidently no terrors for her. She danced wildly round the table, crying, "Six! six! six!" and when at length he caught her, and held her by the waist, she turned round and rapped him smartly on the head with a tin pea shooter.

At this stage of the proceedings a lady, who had been sitting in a low chair by the fire, looked up from her book.