"It would be better——" began Colonel Parker.
"Il vaudrait peut-être mieux——" Aurelle attempted to translate.
"Vossa Excellencia——" began Captain Pereira.
"No, no, no," said the old warrior passionately.
The Portuguese went to the shambles.
CHAPTER IV
A BUSINESS MAN IN THE ARMY
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."—G. B. Shaw (in A Revolutionist's Handbook).
Colonel Musgrave of the R.A.S.C. had been instructed to superintend the supply and transport arrangements of the Portuguese Division, and Lieutenant Barefoot, in charge of a Labour Company, had been detailed to assist him.
"These men," he explained to Colonel Musgrave, "are all Southampton dockers. In peace time I am their employer, and Sergeant Scott over there is their foreman. They tell me your Labour Companies
have often shown rather poor discipline. There's no fear of anything like that with my men; they have been chosen with care, and look up to me as if I were a king. Scott, my sergeant, can do anything; neither he nor my men ever drink a drop. As for me, I am a real business man, and I intend to introduce new methods into the army."