Gil the Gunner | Page 2

comer, while the governor seemed to me to be the greatest offender.
"Boasts about understanding boys and young men," I said bitterly, "and does not know how to be just. I wish I was out of it all, and could go away, so that I could be where people understood me, and--"
There was a sharp tap at the door, but I was too savage and sulky to answer, and there was a fresh tapping on the panel.
"Vincent, why don't you answer? I know you are in there."
It was the voice of my fellow-pupil with whom I had been about to fight, when the general came upon us.
"Well, what do you want?" I said sourly.
"The governor has sent me for you. Come along, look sharp. He wants you in his room."
My temper bubbled up like the carbonic acid gas in a chemical experiment, and my fists involuntarily clenched.
"To go there and be rowed," I thought; "and all through Morton. He might have let me off now after bullying me before the chaps. And then to send Morton!"
I stood quite still, frowning and angry, but all was still outside, and it was evident that, after delivering his message, Morton had run down again.
"A prig!" I muttered. "Lucky for him he didn't stop. I'd have punched his head if I'd been expelled for it."
I crossed the room, and threw open the door to go down, for, amiable as the governor always was to us, he was most stern and exacting in having all his orders obeyed with military promptitude, and there stood Morton waiting with, as I thought, a derisive smile on his face.
But I altered my opinion directly, for he held out his hand.
"I say, Gil, old chap," he said, "I'm sorry we fell out, and I'm jolly glad the old boy came and stopped us. Pretty pair of fools we should have looked by this time, with black eyes and swollen noses.--I was wrong. Shake hands."
A few moments before I could have struck him; but now I was so utterly overset by his frank manner, that it was not my nose which swelled up, but my throat, so that I could hardly speak as I caught hold of his hand and held it with all my force.
"No," I said huskily, "it wasn't your fault. Mine. I've got such a beastly temper."
"Tchah! not you. Come on down; it's all right now."
"Not quite," I said grimly. "I've got to face the gov., and have another dose. Has he given you yours?"
"No! 'Tisn't that Post's in, and he has had despatches or something. He had a great sealed paper in his hand when he told me to fetch you."
"What?" I cried excitedly. "'Tisn't--?"
"I'm not sure, but I think it is," he said. "Come on."
I felt as if all my breath had been taken away. The blood flushed right up to my temples; there was a singing in my ears, and my hands grew moist in their palms with excitement; but I could not speak as we hurried down.
"You are a lucky one," continued Morton. "I say, you do know some one in the India House, don't you?"
"Yes," I said. "Uncle Joe's on the board."
"That's it, then. You've got your commission, as safe as wheat, as our old coachman used to say. I salute you, sir. You'll be a Lord Clive one of these days, before I get my captaincy."
"Oh, nonsense!" I cried, and then all seemed to be one buzz of confusion, till I reached General Crude's study, and found him walking up and down the room. He had left his table with his gold snuff-box in one hand, his pinched-together finger and thumb of the other holding a tiny modicum of snuff, which he applied to his nose as I entered, and he stopped short before me.
"Oh, there you are, Vincent," he said in his prompt military way, and I noticed that the trouble of a short time before was all put aside. "You know what I want, I suppose?"
"I can't help guessing, sir."
"No, I suppose not. You must have plenty of interest, my dear lad, and I congratulate you. Here you are appointed to the artillery. Calcutta."
"Ah!" I ejaculated; and in those busy moments as I stood looking right ahead out of the study into my future, I felt as if young, slight, and youthful as I was, boyhood was dropping away, and I was going to be a man to command men.
"It's too early, Vincent," he said, shaking his head, and tapping his snuff-box; "much too early. You are such a boy. Why, you'll be the youngest officer in the service, though you do look old. I should have liked you to stay with us a couple of years longer."
"Yes, sir," I faltered. "I'm afraid I've got on very badly."
"No," he said