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The centres of disturbance were noncommissioned officers who, seated, growled and wrote down names. "Come to my table," said Burgard. "Well, Purvis, have you ear-marked our little lot?" "I've been tellin' 'em for the last hour we've only twenty-three vacancies," was the sergeant's answer. "I've taken nearly fifty for Trials, and this is what's left." Burgard smiled.
Through a ribbed ventilator I could see B Company far below watching some men who chased sheep. Burgard unlocked a glass-fronted fire-alarm arrangement flanked with dials and speaking- tubes, and bade me press the centre button.
I followed from the smoking-room across a wide corridor into a riding- school, under whose roof the voices of the few hundred assembled wandered in lost echoes. "I'll leave you, if you don't mind," said Burgard. "Company officers aren't supposed to assist at these games. Here, Matthews!" He called to a private and put me in his charge.
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.
In our rooms, as we say in the Guard, all men are men. Outside we are officers and men." "I begin to see," I stammered. "Matthews was telling me that sergeants handled half-companies and rose from the ranks and I don't see that there are any lieutenants and your companies appear to be two hundred and fifty strong. It's a shade confusing to the layman." Burgard leaned forward didactically.
There was a knock at the door, and Burgard entered, removing his cap. "I thought you'd be here," he said, as Matthews vacated the other chair and sat on the bed. "Well, has Matthews told you all about it? How did our Trials go, Matthews?" "Forty names in the Hat, Sir, at the finish. They'll make a fairish lot. Their gun-tricks weren't bad; but D company has taken the best horsemen as usual."
"I haven't the knack of handling men. Purvis let me have a half-company for a month in Rhodesia over towards Lake N'Garni. I couldn't work 'em properly. It's a gift." "Do colour-sergeants handle half-companies with you?" "They can command 'em on the 'heef. We've only four company officers Burgard, Luttrell, Kyd, and Harrison. Pigeon's our swop, and he's in charge of the ponies.
"Turned out the Guard horse, foot, and guns!" A telephone bell rang imperiously. Burgard snatched up the receiver: "Yes, Sir.... What, Sir?... I never heard they said that," he laughed, "but it would be just like 'em. In an hour and a half? Yes, Sir. Opposite the Statue? Yes, Sir." He turned to me with a wink as he hung up. "Bayley's playing up for you. Now you'll see some fun."
He readdressed himself to the telephone, and I kept my eye on the building to the southward. A Blue Peter climbed up to the top of the flagstaff that crowned it and blew out in the summer breeze. A black storm-cone followed. "Inspection for F.S. corps acknowledged, Sir," said Burgard down the telephone. "Now we'd better go to the riding-school. The battalion falls in there.
D Company keeps 'em to horse-work mostly. We call D the circus-riders and B the cooks. They call us the Gunners." "An' you've rejected me," said the man who had done sea-time, pushing out before us. "The Army's goin' to the dogs." I stood in the corridor looking for Burgard. "Come up to my room and have a smoke," said Matthews, private of the Imperial Guard.
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