That was the end of it. They were kind enough, those grey men; they did not like the job, and they wanted only to do their duty. But they conceived that their duty was 'laid down in The Book,' to look at the 'hard facts,' and no further. And the 'hard facts' were very hard....
The Court was closed while they considered their verdict; it was closed for forty minutes, and when it reopened they asked for evidence of character. And that meant that the verdict was 'Guilty.' On the only facts they had succeeded in discovering it could hardly have been anything else.
The Adjutant put in formal evidence of Harry's service, age, record, and so on; and I was allowed to give evidence of character.
I told them simply the sort of fighting record he had, about Gallipoli, and the scouting, and the job he had refused in England.
I am glad to believe that I did him a little good; for that evening it got about somehow that he was recommended to mercy.
And perhaps they remembered that he was twenty-three.
XIII
That evening I sat in C Company mess for an hour and talked with them about the trial. They were very sad and upset at this thing happening in the regiment, but they were reasonable and generous, not like those D Company pups, Wallace and the other. For they were older men, and had nearly all been out a long time. Only one of them annoyed me, a fellow in the thirties, making a good income in the City, who had only joined up just before he had to under the Derby scheme, and had been out a month. This fellow was very strong on 'the honour of the regiment'; and seemed to think it desirable for that 'honour' that Harry should be shot. Though how the honour of the regiment would be thereby advanced, or what right he had to speak for it, I could not discover.
But the others were sensible, balanced men, and as perplexed and troubled as I. I had been thinking over a thing that Harry had said in his talk with me—'If I did have the wind-up I've never had cold feet.' It is a pity one cannot avoid these horrible terms, but one cannot. I take it that 'wind-up'—whatever the origin of that extraordinary expression may be—signifies simply 'fear.' 'Cold feet' also signifies fear, but, as I understand it, has an added implication in it of base yielding to that fear. I told them about this distinction of Harry's, and asked them what they thought.