The Queens Cup | Page 9

men could be seen moving about. He drove across the barrack
yard to his own quarters, left his portmanteau there, and then walked to
the mess room. As he had expected, he found several officers there.
"Ah, Mallett, there you are. You are the last in; the others all turned up
by the evening train, but we thought that as you were comparatively
near you would come on by the mail."
"I thought I should find some of you fellows keeping it up."

"Well, there was nothing else to do. There won't be much chance of
going to sleep. We all dined in the town, for of course the mess plate
and kit have been packed up. We are not taking much with us now, just
enough to make shift with. The rest will be sent round to Calcutta, to be
stored there till we settle down. The men had a dinner given to them by
the town, and as they all got leave out till twelve o'clock, and the
loading of the wagons began at two, there has been a row going on all
night. Most of us played pool till an hour ago, then we gradually
dropped off for an hour's snooze."
"There will be a chance of getting breakfast, I hope?"
"Yes, there is to be a rough and tumble breakfast at a quarter to five.
We fall in at a quarter past. We got through the inspection of kits
yesterday. The mess sergeant and a party will pack up the breakfast
things, and the pots and pans will come on by the next train. There is
one at eight. It will be in plenty of time, as I don't suppose the transport
will be off until the afternoon, perhaps not till night. There are always
delays at the last moment.
"However, it will be something to be on board ship. That is the first
step towards getting at those black scoundrels. We are all afraid that we
shall be late for Delhi; still there is plenty of other work to be done."
"Any ladies with us?"
"No, there was a general agreement among the married officers that
they had best be left behind. So for once the regiment goes without
women."
"There is a levity about your tone that I do not approve of, Armstrong,"
Frank Mallett said, reprovingly. "There were no women when we went
out to the Crimea, at the time when you were a good little boy doing
Latin exercises."
"Well, altogether it is a good thing, Mallett, and we shall be much more
comfortable without them."

"Speak for yourself, Armstrong. Lads of your age who can talk nothing
but barrack slang, and are eminently uncomfortable when they have to
chat for five minutes to a lady, are naturally glad when they are free
from the restraint of having to talk like reasonable beings; but it is not
so with older and wiser men. How about Marshall?"
"He has been away on leave for the last ten days. He has not come back
here. There have been two fellows inquiring after him diligently for the
last week. There was no mistaking their errand, even if we did not
know how he stood. I expect he is on board the transport. I fancy the
Colonel gave him a hint to join there. No doubt the Jews will be on the
lookout for him at Plymouth, as well as here; but he will manage to
smuggle himself on board somehow, even if he has to wrap up as an
old woman."
"He deserves all the trouble that has fallen upon him," Frank Mallett
said, angrily. "I have no patience with a young fool who bets on race
horses when he knows very well that if they lose there is nothing for
him to do but to go to the Jews for money. However, he has had a sharp
lesson, and as it is likely enough that the regiment won't be back in
England for years, he will have a chance of getting straight again. This
affair has been a godsend for him, for had he remained in England there
would have been nothing for him to do but to sell out."
So they chatted until the mess waiters laid the table for breakfast, when
the other officers came pouring in. The meal was eaten hastily, for the
assembly was sounding in the barrack yard. As soon as breakfast was
finished, the officers went out and took their places with their
companies.
There was a brief inspection, then the drums and fifes set up "The Girl I
Left Behind Me," and the regiment marched off to the station, the
streets being already full of people who had got up to see the last of
them, and to wish