‘They were a most devoted couple, sir,’ said Bourne tersely.

‘Well, Sergeant Trent and I got in with the two pushers, and left Bourne with the two prisoners. How did you get on with them, Bourne?’

‘Oh, we hit it off all right, sir,’ said Bourne indifferently. ‘Of course, you had given me orders to treat them strictly. They were two able-bodied six-footers, accustomed to chucking tons of coal about, and I stood a pretty poor chance if they chose to make a rough house of it. Besides they had their kit-bags with them, as well as their rifles: and they could have brained me with either. Of course I may have looked very pretty in belt and bayonet, but I was not exactly filled with confidence. My business was to establish a moral superiority over two members of the criminal classes. One of them turned to me as soon as the train started, and said: “Can we smoke, chum?” I said no, like a fool; and they turned away quietly and looked out of the windows at the sea. Well, I was sorry for them and I wanted to smoke myself; and if they couldn’t smoke because they were prisoners, I couldn’t either, because I was on duty. You had told me I was to treat them strictly, but after all, sir, you had deserted from duty. …’

‘I like your blasted cheek,’ exclaimed the regimental, surprised; but there was a general appreciation of the point, and Bourne continued tranquilly:

‘… so I had to take such practical measures as I thought best, and I took out my cigarette case, and handed it to them. The man who had been wounded was not too well. I expect his behind was sore. I carried his kit-bag for him when we changed trains at Pembroke; and then again up the hill to the gate. You and Sergeant Trent didn’t come on the scene again until I had landed my prisoners in the guard-room, and the sergeant wouldn’t take them over from me because you had the ticket. In the interval the prisoners and I had all become quite friendly.’

‘I wonder you didn’t tell them to cut and run for it,’ said the regimental ironically. ‘After I handed over the prisoners, Sergeant Trent and I went into the mess and had a bottle of Bass each, and gave Bourne one at the back door. Then the three of us went up to Sergeant Willis’s bunk; we had some tea there, and passed the time until the boozers had opened. We thought we had got Bourne weighed up, and he was only a bloody fool. He was a bloody masterpiece. As soon as we got into a boozer we started mopping up the beer, and he had drink for drink with us, beer or stout; but then he said he was tired of long drinks, and suggested that we had better have some gin and bitters. We improved quite a lot on that, but it didn’t seem to make any difference to Bourne, who said we ought to have a meal. We were down in The Hare and Hounds then, in the back parlour. He ordered some steak and onions, but we couldn’t eat much, though he seemed pretty hungry; and when we sat down to the table he said we had better make a party of it, and he ordered some champagne. Oh, he took charge all right, and did the thing properly; and he wanted a sweet, and as they didn’t have anything but tinned peaches, ordered those, and told us liqueur brandy was the proper stuff to drink with tinned peaches. There were two girls there, Sergeant Trent was a bit sweet on …’