"Sergeant-Major, turn up 'Officers, army, temporary, the, in,' for
this gentleman."
And thus the shameful truth comes out. One card only--mine.
Exit audience wondering what manner of intrepid man this Henry might
be.
Originally the W.O. had had a great idea; they caused my regiment
softly and silently to vanish away, thinking that I would vanish with
it. But I had been too sharp for them. Learning that they were bent
on "disembodying" me, and not liking the sound of the word, I had very
quietly removed myself from my regiment to the Staff. Thus for a few
happy months we see the W.O. rendered inert.
My final defeat was due to a chance remark of my own, made to one of
the fifty-nine officers under whose direct command I served. Upon
my first arriving on his Staff he had said to me, "Oh, by the way,
P.S.C., of course?" Quite affable, frank and to the point; "P.S.C., of
course?"
Not knowing the language, I could not make an equally affable answer.
I asked him to repeat the question, but to change the code.
"You have Passed Staff College, of course?" he said a little less
affably.
I then had the misfortune to answer: "Why, of course, if you mean that
tall building on the right as I came up here from the station?"
He then made up his mind that I was not only wanting in essential
parts, but was also the sort of person who jested on religious
subjects.
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