"Well, anyhow he thought they were."

"He didn't think anything about it. I wanted to go and I went. He--he
couldn't stop me."

"It's no good lying to me, Charlotte. I know too much. I know he had
orders to go to Zele himself and the damned coward funked it. I've a good
mind to report him to Head Quarters."

"No. You won't do that. You wouldn't be such a putrid beast."

"If I don't, Charlotte, it's because I like you. You're the pluckiest
little blighter in the world. But I'll tell you what I _shall_ do. Next
time your Mr. Conway's ordered on a job he doesn't fancy I'll go with him
and hold his nose down to it by the scruff of his neck. If he was _my_
man I'd bloody well tell him what I thought of him."

"It doesn't matter what you think of him. You were pretty well gone on
him yourself once."

"When? When?"

"When you wanted to turn Mac out and make him commandant."

"Oh, _then_--I was a jolly fool to be taken in by him. So were you."

She stopped on her way to the door. "I admit he _looks_ everything he
isn't. But that only shows what a beastly humbug the man is."

"No. He isn't a humbug. He really likes going out even if he can't stand