* * * * *

THE ADJUTANT ON LEAVE.

"Leave, I'm afraid," remarked the Adjutant, standing with his back to the
fire and hitching his bath towel more securely over his left shoulder, "can
only be granted now in special circumstances."

Flying being prevented for that afternoon by the weather conditions, we had
been playing hockey, and the Adjutant, who by virtue of seniority had just
had first go at the bathroom, was in a warm and expansive mood. The rest of
us sat about in his quarters awaiting our turns at a hot-water supply that
would certainly cease to have anything warming or expansive about it by the
time it reached the junior Second Lieutenant.

"The question is," said that dejected officer, fixing the Adjutant with a
watchful eye--"the question is, what are you going to regard as special
circumstances?"

"You state your circumstances to me officially to-morrow," said the
Adjutant cheerfully, "and I'll tell you quickly enough whether they're
special or not,"

"I suppose," suggested the Stunt Pilot, "that a wedding would be a pretty
special sort of circumstance, wouldn't it?"

"That depends," replied the Adjutant. "Are you thinking of getting married
yourself?"