"No, there was a general agreement among the married officers that
they had best be left behind. So for once the regiment goes without
women."

"There is a levity about your tone that I do not approve of,
Armstrong," Frank Mallett said, reprovingly. "There were no women
when we went out to the Crimea, at the time when you were a good
little boy doing Latin exercises."

"Well, altogether it is a good thing, Mallett, and we shall be much
more comfortable without them."

"Speak for yourself, Armstrong. Lads of your age who can talk
nothing but barrack slang, and are eminently uncomfortable when
they have to chat for five minutes to a lady, are naturally glad
when they are free from the restraint of having to talk like
reasonable beings; but it is not so with older and wiser men. How
about Marshall?"

"He has been away on leave for the last ten days. He has not come
back here. There have been two fellows inquiring after him
diligently for the last week. There was no mistaking their errand,
even if we did not know how he stood. I expect he is on board the
transport. I fancy the Colonel gave him a hint to join there. No
doubt the Jews will be on the lookout for him at Plymouth, as well
as here; but he will manage to smuggle himself on board somehow,
even if he has to wrap up as an old woman."

"He deserves all the trouble that has fallen upon him," Frank
Mallett said, angrily. "I have no patience with a young fool who