ntly away. As I looked over my
shoulder the Mahratta was weeping softly.

VI

THE TROOP TRAIN

We were standing in the lounge of the Hotel M---- at the Base. "I'll
introduce you to young C---- of the Guards when he comes in," the Major
was saying to me. "He is going up to the Front with me to-night by the
troop train. You don't mind if I rag a bit, do you, old chap? You see
he's only just gazetted from Sandhurst, a mere infant, in fact, and he's
a bit in the blues, I fancy, at having to say good-bye to his mother.
He's her only child, and she's a widow. The father was an old friend of
mine. Hulloa, C----, my boy. Allow me to introduce you."

A youth with the milk and roses complexion of a girl, blue eyes, and
fair hair, well-built, but somewhat under the middle height--such was
C----, and he was good to look upon.

Introductions being made, we filed into the _salle a manger_.

"Chambertin, Julie, s'il vous plait," said the Major. "There's nothing
like a good burgundy to warm the cockles of your heart." He had the
radiant eye of an Irishman, and smiled on Julie as he gave the order.

"So you're leaving your hospital to go up and join a Field Ambulance?" I
said.

"That's so, old man. There was a chance of my being made A.D.M.S. at the
Base some day if I'd stayed on, but I wanted to get up to the Front, and
I've worked it at last. Besides I'm not too fond of playing Bo-peep with
my pals in the R.A.M.C. Beastly job, always worrying the O.C.'s. Talking
about A.D.M.S.'s, did I ever tell you the story of how I pulled the leg
of old Macassey in South Africa?"

"No," I said, although B---- had a way of telling the same stories twice
over occasionally. The one story he never told, not even once, was how
he got the D.S.O. at Spion Kop. I had heard it often enough from other
men in the service, and could never hear it too often. And let me tell
you that to know B---- and have the privilege of his friendship, is to
be admitted to the largest freemasonry of officers in the British Army.

"Well, it was like this," continued B----. "The A.D.M.S. was a thorn in
the side of every O.C. at the Base, walking up and down like the very
devil, seeking whose reputation he might devour, and ordering every
O.C. to turn his hospital upside down. He took a positive delight in
breaking men. You know the type, the kind of man who breaks his wife's
heart not because he's bad, but because he's querulous. The nagging
type. Nothing co