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Updated: June 25, 2025
The peal of laughter which followed Gabriel's imitation of the incident was interrupted by a resounding knock at the hall door. Mary Jane ran to open it and let in Freddy Malins. Freddy Malins, with his hat well back on his head and his shoulders humped with cold, was puffing and steaming after his exertions. "I could only get one cab," he said.
It is a local joke to refer to the famous "dirigeable" balloon, which burst in the latter days of the Exhibition, as the "dechirable" balloon. "They pooh-pooh the past nowadays," said a tram-conductor to me, "but when I look at the Cathedral and Rubens' 'Descent from the Cross' I think our forefathers were assez malins."
Of course, they had good reason to be fussy on such a night. And then it was long after ten o'clock and yet there was no sign of Gabriel and his wife. Besides they were dreadfully afraid that Freddy Malins might turn up screwed. They would not wish for worlds that any of Mary Jane's pupils should see him under the influence; and when he was like that it was sometimes very hard to manage him.
Here I met many old friends of the St. Eloi battle and, curiously enough, it was at this very spot that I filmed the scene of the Northumberland Fusiliers, or Fighting Fifth, returning from battle, fagged out, but happy. General Burstall was there, and as soon as he saw me he came up and said: "Hullo, Malins, you here? Why I thought you would have been killed long ago."
Freddy Malins, who had listened with his head perched sideways to hear her better, was still applauding when everyone else had ceased and talking animatedly to his mother who nodded her head gravely and slowly in acquiescence.
Browne extended his open hand towards her and said to those who were near him in the manner of a showman introducing a prodigy to an audience: "Miss Julia Morkan, my latest discovery!" He was laughing very heartily at this himself when Freddy Malins turned to him and said: "Well, Browne, if you're serious you might make a worse discovery.
"I say, Malins," he said, "did you find your handle?" The words were barely out of his mouth when a shell shot by. Captain 's head went down like a jack-in-the-box. The sight was too funny for words. If he hadn't ducked the shell would have taken his head off, for it struck the ground and exploded, as we found out afterwards, only ten feet away.
"Well, Malins," said Colonel , "I have a special job for you. Will you be on the quay at Boulogne to-morrow morning by twelve o'clock? Captain is going down; he will make all arrangements for you there; he will also tell you who it is that's coming. Start at eight o'clock to-morrow morning. It is very important; so don't fail to be there." Leaving the Colonel I met Captain outside. "Who's coming?"
Freddy Malins said there was a Negro chieftain singing in the second part of the Gaiety pantomime who had one of the finest tenor voices he had ever heard. "Have you heard him?" he asked Mr. Bartell D'Arcy across the table. "No," answered Mr. Bartell D'Arcy carelessly. "Because," Freddy Malins explained, "now I'd be curious to hear your opinion of him. I think he has a grand voice."
Two stretcher-bearers came in at that moment to take him away. With difficulty they got him out of the trench, and grasping his hand I bade him good-bye. "I'm glad you got our boys, Malins. I do so want to see that film," were his last words. "I'll show it to you when I get back to England," I called after him, and then he disappeared. The fighting was now beginning to die down.
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