‘I know perfectly well they can’t be altered. They have got to run the machine more or less as it has been handed over to them; and because I know that, I have never groused to anyone, until I started grousing to you a few minutes ago. If the sergeant-major has got his back up with me I can stick it. The last time I heard from him, was when he asked me to pinch him some notebooks and pencils, out of the orderly-room. But don’t worry, I shall forget it. I have given you a rough notion of my reason for not wanting to take a commission; but if it’s up to me to take one, there’s no option, is there? I mustn’t shirk my responsibilities.’

‘You’re all right,’ said Sergeant Tozer, and paused to light his pipe very deliberately. ‘Only you’ll have to watch your step, you know. There are too many people interested in you, at present, for you to play the fool in safety.’

Bourne said nothing, but lit another cigarette, and they smoked in quiet. Then little Martlow came back and sat quietly beside them. He looked at the sergeant a little dubiously, and Bourne knew that he was telling himself that his money wouldn’t run to the entertainment of three people beside himself. He could see Martlow determining firmly not to ask the sergeant; and then quite suddenly Corporal Greenstreet put his head in the hut.

‘Bourne here?’

‘Yes, Corporal.’

‘Company guard tonight, six o’clock.’

‘Very good, Corporal. Just gives me time to get ready. I’m sorry, Martlow, but we’ll go on a binge together some other night. I dare say the sergeant-major thinks I have had too cushy a time lately.’

‘It’s a bloody army!’ said Martlow in disappointed tones, and he sat there looking at Bourne with his under lip thrust out in temper.

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Bourne cheerfully. ‘It’s all right in peace time, as the old sweats say.’

He looked at Sergeant Tozer with an almost laughing face, and the sergeant took his pipe out of his mouth.

‘You an’ Shem ’ad better come out with me tonight then, Martlow; it’s about up to me. We can ’ave some eggs and chips, and then go and take a peek at a couple of estaminets. It’ll pass the time. You might be able to bring Bourne back some vin blanc.’

‘That’s a damned good plan, Martlow. Cut along and tell Shem.’

‘’e don’t seem keen on it,’ said the sergeant, as Martlow went reluctantly.

‘He’s disappointed about his own show, otherwise he would be bucked by it. It is awfully decent of you, Sergeant.’

IX

But thy speaking of my tongue, and I thine, most truly-falsely, must needs be granted to be much at one.

SHAKESPEARE

BOURNE never slept much: as soon as he put out his cigarette and rolled himself up in his blankets, he would sleep like a log for an hour or two perhaps, and then so lightly that the least sound would wake him. It was a legend among the other men, that nobody ever woke, during the night, without finding Bourne sitting up and smoking a cigarette. Company guard didn’t bother him in the least. It was a cushy guard, without formality; and he liked the solitude and emptiness of the night. One bathed one’s soul in that silence, as in a deep, cold pool. Earth seemed to breathe, even if it were only with his own breathing, giving consciousness a kind of rhythm, which was neither of sound nor of motion, but might become either at any moment. The slagheaps, huge against the luminous sky, might have been watchtowers in Babylon, or pyramids in Egypt; night with its enchantments, changing even this flat and unlovely land into a place haunted by fantastic imaginings. Morning gave again to life, its sordid realities. He got himself some tea at the cooker, yarned to Abbot while he drank it, and was washed and shaved before the rest of his hut were fully awake.