‘Well, sir,’ said Bourne, firmly, ‘may I say what I think?’

‘What is it?’ asked Captain Malet, looking at his boot, and hitting it impatiently with his ash-stick.

‘I was asked if I would take a commission when I first enlisted; that was at Milharbour, sir; and when the adjutant spoke to me I told him that I had absolutely no experience of men, not even the kind of experience that a public-school boy gets from being one of a large community. I didn’t want to shirk my responsibilities, but I told him I thought it would be better if I got a little experience of men and of soldiering before trying for a commission. He hadn’t thought of it in that way, but he agreed immediately he saw the point. Well, now, I think we were both wrong. Experience in the ranks doesn’t help one a bit. I have only taken on the colour of the ranks. It would be very difficult for me now to look at war or to consider the men from the point of view which an officer is bound to take.’

‘Oh, you can forget all that,’ said Captain Malet cheerfully. ‘If you take my advice I shall get the matter under way at once; but I won’t press you for an answer today, in case you want time to think things over. I am sure it is the wisest thing you can do in the circumstances.’

‘There’s only one other thing, sir. I don’t want to be a trouble to you, but it looks as though they were getting us ready for another show. I don’t want to slip away before the show. I would rather take my chance and go afterwards.’

‘Very well, Bourne,’ said Captain Malet after hesitating, perplexed, for a second or two. ‘Have it your own way. Only I can’t promise you that you will remain in the company the whole time. It won’t make much difference: you won’t miss the show. You may go now.’

He looked after him curiously as he went back to the men, and then he turned to Sergeant Tozer.

‘You’re right, Sergeant, he’s a queer chap. You can carry on with some drill now; but I shouldn’t bustle the men any more. They have had a fairly hard time the last few days, and we move away tomorrow. You needn’t make things easy for Bourne, you know; in fact it would be better if you put him through it a bit. He looks at a question upside down and inside out, and then in the long run he does just what an ordinary sensible man would do. Keep him at it.’

The other men were rather curious to know why Bourne had been sent for, and Martlow, with his irrepressible curiosity, asked him; but Bourne refused to say anything, and the sergeant’s order to fall in again prevented further questions. They had an easy hour. When they went back to the huts, for their midday meal, he was still silent and preoccupied. The men took it that he had been told off for something, very likely for his failure to give satisfaction in the orderly-room; and a martyr to authority always moved their profounder sympathies, though when he was out of hearing they agreed that if a man tried to be too clever he was bound to come a mucker. Shem, who knew him, after a suspicious and furtive scrutiny, left him alone; and Sergeant Tozer also held aloof, somewhat reluctantly, as the interview at which he had assisted in the morning had embarrassed him a little. However, he was quite clear in his own mind on one point: he wasn’t going to bustle Bourne about just to please the company commander, so long as he went on quietly with his work. If a man thought he were being treated unjustly, it made him restive, then he became really troublesome and ended on the mat. There was no sense in it.