your first time.' But even this did
not seem to console the army to any large extent; they hunched their
shoulders and kicked pebbles about with great apparent interest.

The fact was, they could not help seeing that they had lost their
prestige. It was true that their mother and elder sister at least (in
spite of the flag) did not seem to treat the past danger with all the
seriousness it deserved. It even struck Jack and Guy sometimes that
they were under the delusion that the whole thing had been only a new
development of the game. But as the General said: 'Even if that were so,
it was kinder not to undeceive them. He certainly was contented to leave
them in their error; he knew well enough what he had had to go
through--he did not like even now to think of his despair when he found
he would have to face the danger all alone.'

He was always making the army writhe by little unintentional reminders
of this kind, and they had cruel misgivings that Uncle Lambert, though
he was always quite kind and encouraging, did not in his heart believe
that their unfortunate absence in the hour of peril was quite an
accident on their part.

How they longed for an opportunity of wiping out their disgrace, and how
their hearts sank when Tinling, from the depths of his experience,
declared it very improbable that the attack would ever again be renewed.
In the school-stories, the good boy who refuses to fight when he is
kicked, and is sent to Coventry as a coward, always gets a speedy chance
to clear his character. Someone (generally the very boy who kicked him)
falls into a mill-stream, or a convenient horse runs away, or else a mad
but considerate bull comes into the playground--and the good boy is
always at hand to dive, or hang on to the bridle and be dragged several
yards in the dust, or slowly retreat backwards, throwing down first his
hat and then his coat to amuse and detain the infuriated bull.

But out of stories, unfortunately, as even Jack and Guy dimly perceived,
things are not always arranged so satisfactorily. They might have to
wait for weeks, perhaps months or years, before Uncle Lambert fell into
the fish-pond--and, even if he did, he could probably swim better than
they could. Then they were neither of them sure that they could
successfully stop a runaway horse, or a maniac bull, without a little
more practice than they had had as yet.

However, Fortune was kind, and took pity on them in a most unexpected
manner.