But their excuses were not held to be valid, the idea of Malcolm having left his men without orders being so preposterous that it was held it should never have been entertained for a moment by them.
"I shall never be anxious about you again," Nigel Graheme said, when Malcolm finished the narrative of his adventures to the officers of his regiment as they sat round the campfire on the evening when he rejoined them.

"This is the third or fourth time that I have given you up for dead.

Whatever happens in the future, I shall refuse to believe the possibility of any harm having come to you, and shall be sure that sooner or later you will walk quietly into camp with a fresh batch of adventures to tell us.

Whoever of us may be doomed to lay our bones in this German soil, it will not be you.

Some good fairy has distinctly taken charge of you, and there is no saying what brilliant destiny may await you." "But he must keep clear of the petticoats, Graheme," Colonel Munro laughed; "evidently danger lurks for him there, and if he is caught napping again some Delilah will assuredly crop the hair of this young Samson of ours." "There was not much of Delilah in that fury who felled me with a mallet, colonel," Malcolm laughed; "however, I will be careful in future, and will not give them a chance." "Ah! it may come in another form next time, Malcolm," Munro said; "this time it was an old woman, next time it may be a young one.