to go running after a nice, innocent little thing like that
who wouldn't know how to take care of herself. I wasn't going to stand
much of that sort of talk from Pat Singleton. I told him straight that
if he didn't tell me that girl's name and where she lived I'd make
things hot for him. I threatened to report the little game he'd had
with the nurse and that if I did he'd be court-martialled. I don't know
whether a man could be court-martialled for cheeking a nurse, but the
threat had a good effect on Pat He really was a bit afraid of that
woman. I don't wonder, though it's the first time I've ever known him
afraid of anyone."

Daintree paused and chuckled horribly.

"Well," I said, "who was the girl?"

"Haven't you tumbled to it yet?" said Daintree.

"No. Do I know her?"

"I can't say you exactly know her," said Daintree. "You know _him_. It
was a photo of Pat himself dressed up as the Sleeping Beauty, or Fatima,
or some such person in a pantomime they did down at the base last
Christmas when he was there. The young devil carried the thing about
with him so as to play off his silly spoof on every fellow he met I must
say he made a damned pretty girl."

"Good Lord!" I said. "And how did Simcox take it?"

"Simcox hasn't been told--yet," said Daintree. "That's just what my wife
wants your advice about You see it's an awkward situation."

"Very," I said.

"If we tell him," said Daintree, "he'll probably try to kill Pat
Singleton, and that would lead to a lot of trouble. On the other hand,
if we don't tell him he'll spend the rest of his life roaming about the
world looking for a girl who doesn't exist, and never did. It seems a
pity to let that happen."

"My idea," I said, "would be to get another girl, not necessarily like
the photo, but the same type, appealing and pathetic and all that. He'd
probably take to her after a time."

"I suggested that," said Daintree, "but my wife simply won't hear of it.
She says the story as it stands is a great romance and that it would be
utterly spoiled if Simcox switched off after another girl. I can't see
that, can you?"

"In a case like this," I said, "when the original girl wasn't a girl at
all----"

"Exactly," said Daintree, "but when I say that my wife brings up the
Angel in the Shell Hole part of the story and says that a great romance
is its own reward."

"I don't know what to advise," I said.

"I didn't think you would," said Daintree, "though my wife insist