"'Where's the adjutant?'
"'Drunk.'
"'Good God, sir, are you all drunk?'
"''Cept the surgeon—he's got the measles.'
"'Orderly, give this dispatch, to the first sober officer you can find.'
"'It's no use, captain,' says Tim, 'the regiment's drunk—'cept me, hic!' and Tim lost his balance, and tumbled over the orderly, for you see the captain put spurs to his horse rather suddenly, and whisked the friendly tail out of his hands.
"So we were all up before the general the next day, but swore ourselves clear, all except Tim, who had the circumstantial evidence rather too strong against him."
"And such are the men in whom the country has placed its trust?" muttered a grey-headed old gentleman, who, while apparently absorbed in his newspaper, had been listening to the colonel's narrative.
A young man who had lounged into the room approached the party and caught the colonel's eye:
"Ah! Searle, how are you? Come up and take a drink."