He was unsaddling his horse when Sergeant Barrymore came up to him.
‘Blair,’ he said, ‘the colonel wants to see you at once.’
With a sinking heart Jack followed the sergeant into the presence of his stern old colonel. Napper and the regimental sergeant-major were standing by him.
‘What’s this I hear about you,’ he began angrily; ‘absent from the lines and late on parade this morning—our first day ashore? What is the meaning of it?’
Jack was utterly surprised at the colonel’s tone, thinking he must have known where he had been. He did not learn till later that the colonel, feeling ill, had been up at the hospital all night, and only rejoined his regiment in the morning, not knowing that Jack had been mixed up in the scrimmage with the Greek. Jack explained where he had been, and the colonel was looking incredulously at him when Sergeant Linham came hurrying up and corroborated what Jack had said.
The colonel then turned angrily to Napper. ‘What do you mean by telling such a trumped-up story?’ he cried angrily. ‘If this is the way in which you are going to exercise your authority you won’t wear your stripes many days. Go away.—And you, Blair, are dismissed. I have been misinformed.’
Napper gave Jack a malignant glance as they both saluted and retired.
‘I’ll have you yet,’ hissed Napper quietly.
But Jack made no reply. He was thinking that the feud between him and Napper was as keen as ever, and that now Napper had every opportunity of making his life miserable.