in parting with this, his one book. He is
deep in it, this moment, at the far end of the table.

"_Sammy Barham_, so far as anyone can discover, has never read a
book in his life nor wanted to. He was educated at Harrow.
Lacking the _Daily Mail_, he is miserable just now, poor boy!
I almost forgave the Code upon discovering that his initials,
S.B., spell, for a distress signal, 'Can you lend (or give) me a
newspaper?'

"_Yarrell-Smith_ reads Penny Dreadfuls. He owns four, and was
kind enough, the other day, to lend me one: but it's a trifle
too artless even for my artless mind.

"Young _Williams_--a promising puppy sent up to me to be
walked--reads nothing at all. He brought two packs of Patience
cards and a Todhunter's _Euclid_; the one to rest, the other to
stimulate, his mind; and I've commandeered the _Euclid_.
A great writer, Sally! He's not juicy, and he don't palpitate,
but he's an angel for style. 'Therefore the triangle DBC is
equal to the triangle ABC--pause and count three--'the less to
the greater'--pause--'which is absurd.' Neat and demure: and
you're constantly coming on little things like that.
'Two straight lines cannot enclose a space'--so broad and
convincing, when once pointed out!--and why is it not in
_The Soldiers' Pocket-Book_ under 'Staff Axioms'?

"When you make up the next parcel, stick in a few of the unlikeliest
books. I don't want Paley's _Evidences of Christianity_: I have
tackled that for my Little-Go, and, besides, we have plenty of 'em
out here: but books about Ireland, and the Near East, and local
government, and farm-labourers' wages, and the future life, and all
that sort of thing.

"Two nights ago, Polkinghorne got going on our chances in another
world. Polkinghorne is a thoughtful man in his way, rising
forty--don't know his religion. I had an idea somehow that he was
interested in such things. But to my astonishment the boys took him
up and were off in full cry. It appeared that each one had been
nursing his own thoughts on the subject. The trouble was, none of us
knew very much about it--"

Otway, writing beneath the hurricane-lamp, had reached this point in
his letter when young Barham exclaimed to the world at large:

"Hallo! here's a tall story!"

The C.O. looked up. So did Polkinghorne, from his Bible. Sammy held
a torn sheet of