‘Too bloody true I am. I’d as lief go as stay be’ind in fuckin’ detail camp.’

They finished the beer, and went into the street, Bourne pointing out where his billet was.

‘I’ll bring them things along between ’alf-past one an’ two o’clock,’ said Evans; ‘but I shan’t be able to get down tonight. Look ’ere, there’ll be a lot o’ stuff to carry, wi’ two bottles o’ wine an’ all. Couldn’t you be outside the canteen at ’alf-past one? …’

‘Shem and Martlow may go,’ said Bourne, with a return to heat. ‘I am not going near the bloody place again. If I see that lance-jack outside, I’ll make his face so that he won’t be able to smile for a week. I don’t want to get into the mush for bashing him only once, but if I could have an uninterrupted three minutes.…’

Evans turned away, laughing; he could not wait longer, as he was already a bit behind time. He met Shem and Martlow outside the Expeditionary Force Canteen, and they asked him if he had seen Bourne.

‘Seen ’im, yes, I’ve seen ’im. They ’oofed ’im out o’ the canteen, an’ ’e’s gone completely off the ’andle about it. What I like about ol’ Bourne is, that when ’e does get up the pole, ’e goes abso-bloody-lutely fanti. ’e ’as been lookin’ for you two. Where’ve you been?’

‘We went round the back an’ ’ad some cocoa and biscuits,’ said Martlow, innocently.

‘For Gawd’s sake don’t mention cocoa an’ biscuits to ’im,’ said Evans. ‘You’d better go an’ take ’im back to billets, before ’e starts fightin’ a policeman. Everybody seems to be in a bloody bad temper today. All got wind-up, I suppose. Meet me ’ere at ’alf-past one, ’e’ll tell you about it. Just because they wouldn’t serve ’im, ’e wants the best they’ve got. Well, see you later.’

‘Let’s find Bourne,’ said Martlow to Shem, as Evans went into the shop; ‘when ’e’s like that, ’e’d quarrel with ’is own bloody shadder.’

They found him at last in their own billets, talking to Corporal Hamley, who was in a silent humour. He had recovered, but you could see he was still sore from injustice. Trying to make cheerful conversation, Shem inadvertently mentioned the incident of the Colonel and the Australian driver.

‘You want a few thousand Australians in the British Army,’ said Bourne angrily. ‘They would put wind up some of these bloody details who think they own the earth.’

‘What are you talkin’ about? What details?’ inquired Corporal Hamley, who knew nothing about the matter.

‘The whole bloody issue,’ said Bourne, comprehensively. ‘Officers, and other ranks. You can’t put eight hundred fighting men into the line, without having another eight hundred useless parasites behind them pinching the stores.’

He gave them a rapid, and somewhat incoherent, account of the episode which had ruffled him; and they could not quite make up their minds, either from what Evans had said, or from his own account, how far the trouble in the canteen had gone. The arrival of the orderly-corporal perturbed them still more.