the Judge-Advocate, duly went its appointed way to the Confirming
Authority and there remained. For the General in Chief command in the
field was hard pressed with other and weightier matters, having reason
to believe that he would have to meet an attack of three Army Corps on a
front of eight miles with only one Division. Which belief turned out to
be true, and had for Sergeant John Stokes momentous consequences, as you
shall hear.


II

When John Stokes found himself once more in charge of a platoon he was
greatly puzzled. He had been suddenly given back his arms and his belt,
which no prisoner, whether in close or open arrest, is supposed to wear,
and his guard had gone with him. He knew nothing about Paragraph 482 of
the King's Regulations, which contemplates "emergencies"; still less did
he know that an emergency had arisen--such an emergency as will cast
lustre upon British arms to the end of time. But that strange things
were happening ahead he knew full well, for his new unit was as oddly
made up as Falstaff's army: gunners, cooks, and A.S.C. drivers were all
lumped together to make a company. Some carried their rifles at the
slope and some at the trail, some had bayonets and some had not, certain
details from the Rifle Brigade marched with their own quick trot, and
some wore spurs.

Of one thing he was thankful: his old battalion, wherever they were,
were not there. And the company commander coming along and perceiving
the stripes on his sleeve, had, without further inquiry, put him in
charge of a platoon, and thereafter he lost sight of his guard
altogether.