Page:On to Pekin.djvu/19



", Lieutenant Pennington, have you heard the news?"

"That depends upon what the news is, major. Do you mean that we are ordered back to Manila?"

"I mean a good deal more than that, lieutenant. We are ordered to China."

"China!" And Lieutenant Gilbert Pennington, formerly of the volunteers and now of the regulars stationed on the island of Luzon, leaped up from the camp stool upon which he had been sitting, and gazed at his old friend, Major Morris, as if he had not heard aright. "Who told you such a fairy tale as that?"