llett said, angrily. "I have no patience with a young fool who
bets on race horses when he knows very well that if they lose there
is nothing for him to do but to go to the Jews for money. However,
he has had a sharp lesson, and as it is likely enough that the
regiment won't be back in England for years, he will have a chance
of getting straight again. This affair has been a godsend for him,
for had he remained in England there would have been nothing for
him to do but to sell out."

So they chatted until the mess waiters laid the table for
breakfast, when the other officers came pouring in. The meal was
eaten hastily, for the assembly was sounding in the barrack yard.
As soon as breakfast was finished, the officers went out and took
their places with their companies.

There was a brief inspection, then the drums and fifes set up "The
Girl I Left Behind Me," and the regiment marched off to the
station, the streets being already full of people who had got up to
see the last of them, and to wish them Godspeed in the work of
death they were going to perform.

The baggage was already in the train that was waiting for them in
the station, and in a few minutes it steamed away; the soldiers
hanging far out of every window to wave a last goodbye to the
weeping women who thronged the platform. Two hours later they
reached Plymouth, marched through the town to the dockyard, and
went straight on board the transport.

There was the usual confusion until the cabins had been allotted,
portmanteaus stowed away, and the general baggage lowered into the
hold. A tedious wait of three or four hours followed, no one
exactly knew why, and then the paddle wheels began to revolve. The
men burst into a loud cheer, and a few minutes later they passed
Drake's Island and headed down the sound.

They had, as expected, found young Marshall on board. He kept below
until they started, although told that there was little chance of
the bailiffs being permitted to enter the dockyard. As he had the
grace to feel thoroughly ashamed of his position, little was said
to him; but the manner of the senior officers was sufficient to
make him feel their strong disapproval of the position in which he
had placed himself by his folly.

"I have taken a solemn oath never to bet again," he said that
evening to Captain Mallett, who was a general favourite with the
younger officers; "and I mean to keep it."

"How much do you owe, young 'un?"

"Four hundred a