ou, but I found I was mistaken. All the same, he wanted to see
the stuff you were made of. The truth is, he hasn't much of an opinion
of O.T.C. men. He says that a lot of whipper-snappers from the public
schools pass their exams, in the O.T.C., who are no more fit for
officers than girls from a boarding-school. So, seeing you were
willing to enlist as a private, he took you at your word. In fact, if
Sapsworth had his way, he would have every officer in the Army rise
from the ranks. No man, he maintains, can be a good officer unless he
knows what it is to be a private. That was why you were sent here. He
gave special instructions about you, however, and told the drill
sergeant to keep his eye on you. He wanted to see what sort of stuff
you were made of."

"I satisfied him, I hope?"

"You've got your Lieutenancy. That's the answer. Here we are."

Bob felt very uncomfortable during the next half-hour. As Pringle
said, the Colonel was not a man who would stand any nonsense. He gave
Bob some wholesome advice in no honeyed terms; he asked him many
searching questions, after which he shook hands with him, and wished
him good luck.

If Bob had worked hard as a private, he worked still harder as an
officer. The work was, of course, different, yet it was essentially
the same. Every day he expected orders to go to the front, but day
followed day without the order being given. Meanwhile it seemed as
though he were doing three days' work in one.

Of course the circumstances were somewhat more pleasant than they had
been, the society was more congenial, and, instead of sleeping twelve
in a tent, there were only two. Still the life was rough and hard.

"I wonder when we shall be off!" thought Bob, after what seemed to him
an interminable number of days. "Pringle said we were to start
immediately, and yet we are still hanging around here."

At length the orders arrived, and one night Bob found himself in a
closely packed train bound for the South Coast. He wondered at what he
called his good fortune in being allowed to start so soon, but
reflected that he owed it to Captain Pringle's good offices and to what
were called the Colonel's eccentricities. He rejoiced now, although he
had been very reluctant at the time, that he had joined the O.T.C.
This, of course, had made it possible for him to get to the front so
soon.

Eager as he was to be in action, he could not help being saddened as he
watched the men m