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In passing by the edge of a mill-pond, after dark, our adjutant and his horse tumbled in, and, as the latter had no tail to hold on by, they were both very nearly drowned.
The thing in question at the moment was the fitness of our friend for the stripe when a vacancy occurred; and the Honourable Jimmy, being the Adjutant of the South Devons, and having the headquarter specialists under his eye, was somewhat intimately concerned with the solution of the question.
In "quiet" sections of the line the only variation to the routine was the number of casualties day by day, by casual shell-fire or snipers' bullets, and that became part of the boredom. "What casualties?" asked the adjutant in his dugout. "Two killed, three wounded, sir." "Very well... You can go." "Hell!... What a life!"
"Well," he said, smiling, "I am afraid I cannot interfere much with those military matters;" then, pointing with his left hand and thumb towards the War Department, "they fix them all up over there in the Adjutant General's office," he added.
So completely did this tactique turn the tables upon the poor adjutant, who the moment before was exulting over me, that I utterly forgot my own woes, and sat down convulsed with mirth at his situation an emotion certainly not lessened as I saw Curzon passed from one to the other at table, "like a pauper to his parish," till he found an asylum at the very foot, in juxta with the engaging Mister Donovan.
I followed his advice the very next day, and was very well received, for his excellency immediately ordered a squad of men to go to the island and bring large quantities of hay to Corfu. A few days later the Adjutant Minolto came to me in the coffee-house, and told me that the general wished to see me: this time I promptly obeyed his commands.
"The major has his adjutant and clerk and possibly some other officers. You should have at least one friend." "I understand," briefly answered Wren, as he stepped to the hallway to get his sun hat. "I wish it might be you."
As we swing down the village street, slightly cheered by a faint aroma of Irish stew the cooks have got the fires alight after all the adjutant rides up, and reins in his horse beside our company commander. Battalion orders of some kind! Probably a full-dress parade, to trace a missing bayonet!
Lawson, and without reference to the roster let the senior officers be selected." The Adjutant went round to the respective divisions, and in a low voice warned Captain Blessington, and the four senior subalterns, for that duty.
The entire regiment, as one man, swung from column of fours into battalion front, halted, and then cr-r-rick! boooo-m-m-m! came to order arms. The sides of the room were lined with a solid rampart of white and gray and gold. Barclay was aware of the First Sergeants, scurrying from their positions to report, of their voices, and those of the Majors and the Adjutant, and, finally the Colonel:
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