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Burgard got his company on the 'heef, You see Burgard had been a lieutenant in the Line, but he came into the Guards on Trials like the men. He could command. They tried him in India with a wing of the battalion for three months. He did well so he got his company. That's what made me hopeful. But it's a gift, you see managing men and so I'm only a senior private.
"The Regulations lay down that every man's capacity for command must be tested to the uttermost. We construe that very literally when we're on the 'heef. F'r instance, any man can apply to take the command next above him, and if a man's too shy to ask, his company officer must see that he gets his chance.
Some corps ask ten guineas entrance-fee, and get it too, from the young bloods that want to shine in the arena. I told you we catered for all tastes. Now, as regards the Line proper, I believe the young artisan and mechanic puts in for that before he marries. He likes the two-months' 'heef' in his first year, and five bob a week is something to go on with between times."
We've got those 'League' corps I was talking about; and those studious corps that just scrape through their ten days' camp; and we've crack corps of highly-paid mechanics who can afford a two months' 'heef' in an interesting Area every other year; and we've senior and junior scientific corps of earnest boilermakers and fitters and engineers who read papers on high explosives, and do their 'heefing' in a wet picket-boat mine-droppin' at the ports.
There are two Areas in Ireland, one in Wales for hill-work, a couple in Scotland, and a sort of parade-ground in the Lake District; but the real working Areas are in India, Africa, and Australia, and so on." "And what do you do there?" "We 'heef' under service conditions, which are rather like hard work.
Then we come back to our territorial headquarters for six months, to educate the Line and Volunteer camps, to go to Hythe, to keep abreast of any new ideas, and then we fill up vacancies. We call those six months 'Schools, Then we begin all over again, thus: Home 'heef, foreign 'heef, sea-time, schools. 'Heefing' isn't precisely luxurious, but it's on 'heef' that we make our head-money."
"Oh, I'll attend to that on 'heef. Give me a man who can handle company- guns and I'll engage to make him a horse-master. D company will end by thinkin' 'emselves Captain Pigeon's private cavalry some day." I had never heard a private and a captain talking after this fashion, and my face must have betrayed my astonishment, for Burgard said: "These are not our parade manners.
"This is a cut above subaltern's quarters," I said, surveying the photos, the dhurri on the floor, the rifle in its rack, the field-kit hung up behind the door, and the knicknacks on the walls. "The Line bachelors use 'em while we're away; but they're nice to come back to after 'heef." Matthews passed me his cigarette-case. "Where have you 'heefed'?" I said.
We 'heef' in an English Area for about a year, coming into barracks for one month to make up wastage. Then we may 'heef' foreign for another year or eighteen months. Then we do sea-time in the war boats " "What-t?" I said. "Sea-time," Bayley repeated. "Just like Marines, to learn about the big guns and how to embark and disembark quick.
He was being fed and clothed for nothing, besides having a chance of making head-money, and his strike-pay was going clear to his wife and family. You see? Wily man. But wachtabittje! When that 'heef' finished in December the strike was still on.
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