ch felt that reliance could at any time
be placed upon the other: had they not already put their mettle to the
test and come through with honours?

The old humour re-asserted itself among the wild, careless fellows who
had come through. Tich, one of the Duo, Birfer, and Ginger were no
longer there to plot out their daily round of "schemes." Clarke, Martel,
Stumpy, and Old Casey were left to carry on--and they were quite capable
of doing so.

Stumpy formed a friendship with another of his diminutive height and
large waistband in the Middlesex, and the two were frequently hobnobbing
together in each others' billets.

"We lost a lot of good fellows," Stumpy sighed heavily over his pipe,
"wot we couldn't spare. There was three wot never drank rum and who all
got 'it." A roar of laughter interrupted him. "Yes, all got 'it. And
there was pore old Jack who got a dose in the arm an' 'ad to walk a 'ell
of a way to the dressin' station. 'E was bleedin' bad an' asked me ter
take orf 'is pack, which I did, an' his water-bottle as well, becos it
was full of rum and--an' rum is 'eavy."

"Rum, full of rum," his little pal looked up at him with dry lip,
"you--you ain't got any left?"

"No, becos I put it aside, an' some scrounger pinched it. All I 'opes is
that it bloomin' well choked 'im." Someone bawled from the doorway that
"supper was up."

Billets are a form of barracking troops in a number of barns and stables
spread over as small an area as possible. The one salient advantage of
these shelters is fresh air; it comes in with icy gusts through these
apertures made for the purpose and whistles through cracks in the
door--if there is a door--and gaps where once glass had kept it out. For
those to whom the sky on a star-lit night provides an hour's ecstacy a
hole or two in the roof is a blessing, but to the common mortal is a
damnation by which the winter wind tints the nose o' nights a soft shade
of deep purple or gives passage to a gentle flow of rain that forms
lakes and pools on your overcoat and blanket and which at the slightest
movement runs like a small river down your chest until you wake with a
shivering gasp.

Rats and mice make their way interestedly in and out of sleeping forms,
investigate with deliberate intent the contents of your pack, or
perchance make a tentative nibble at an odd toe or so. If anything
digestible is found in an overcoat pocket the exasperating rodents do
not enter by the obvious pocket-fla