Then there was one of the men who had been with Harry, a good fellow, who hated being there. He told the story of the movements of the party with the usual broken irrelevances, but by his too obvious wish to help Harry did him no good. When asked 'in what condition' the officer was, he said, 'Well, sir, he seemed to have lost his nerve, like ... we all of us had as far as that goes, the shelling was that 'eavy.' But that was no defence for Harry.
Harry could either 'make a statement' not on oath, or give evidence on oath and be cross-examined. He chose the latter—related simply the movements of the party and himself, and did not deny any of the facts of which evidence had already been given.
'When you had collected the party under the bank by this corner you speak of,' said the President, 'why did you not then proceed with the party?'
'I thought the shelling was too heavy, sir, just then; I thought it would be better to go back and wait a bit where there was more cover till the shelling got less....'
'But Sergeant Peters says the party would probably have got through?'
'Yes, sir.'
'In view of the orders you had received, wouldn't it have been better to go straight on?'
'I don't know, sir—perhaps it would.'
'Then why didn't you do that?'
'At the time, sir, I thought it best to go back and wait.'