"While he had been patiently reconstructing the lost gun, some damned idiot had found it in a corner. And Boulton had to spend two years of clever manipulation of his books to account for the new gun which had been evolved out of nothing."
"Messiou," said the colonel, "do you remember the gate-keeper at Hondezeele? I should not have thought it of her."
"No more should I," said Aurelle. "She was very pretty."
"Messiou!" said the padre.
CHAPTER XVII
"Doctor," said the padre, "give me a cigar."
"Are you aware, padre, that my cigars were rolled on the bare thighs of the young girls of Havana?"
"O'Grady," said the colonel severely, "I consider that remark out of place."
"Give me one all the same," said the padre. "I must smoke a cigar to help me find a text for my sermon. The quartermaster made me promise to go and see the motor-drivers who are at the back, and I don't know what to talk to them about."
"Look here, padre, I will give you an appropriate text; lend me your Bible a moment. Ah, here it is. Listen! 'But David said, Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us ... but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff; they shall part alike.'"