up of his own accord more difficult to
entertain; but at last he was singled out from among the many men who
wander about behind the firing line, and was placed under a guard that
put hope of escape out of the question. Not even the wander thirst in
his gipsy blood could set his feet on the wide chalk road again, or give
him one more night of freedom.

* * * * *

"He might have a long term of imprisonment, mightn't he, sir?" asked the
junior member of the Court Martial. "He could have no idea that his
regiment was suddenly warned for the trenches when he deserted. Besides,
the man used to be a tramp, and it must be exceptionally hard for a man
who has led a wandering life to accustom himself to discipline. It must
be in his blood to desert." And he blushed slightly, for he sounded
sentimental, and there is little room for sentiment in an army on active
service.

The President of the Court was a Major who liked his warm fire and his
linen sheets, which, with the elements of discipline and warfare,
occupied most of his thoughts. "I fear you forget," he said rather
testily, "that this is the twelfth occasion on which this man has made
off. I have never heard of such a case in my life. Besides, on this
occasion he was warned that the Downshires were in the trenches by the
sentry of the Westfords, and, instead of giving himself up, he
deliberately turned round and ran off, so that the excuse of ignorance
does not hold water. That the man was a tramp is, to my mind, no excuse
either--the army is not a rest home for tired tramps. The man is an
out-and-out scoundrel."

So the junior member, fearful of seeming sentimental and unmilitary,
timidly suggested the sentence of death, to which the other two agreed.

"We must make an example of these fellows. There are far too many cases
of desertion," said the Major, as he lit his pipe and hurried off to his
tea.

* * * * *

Thus ended the career of No. 1234 Pte. John Williams, formerly a tramp
in the west of England, unmourned and despised.

On the morning after he had been shot, his platoon sergeant sat before a
brazier and talked to a corporal. "'E ain't no bloomin' loss, 'e ain't.
'E gave me too much trouble, and I got fair sick of 'aving to report 'im
absent. It serves 'im blamed well right, that's what I say."

The corporal sipped his tea out of an extremely dirty canteen. "Well,"
he said at length, "I 'ope