“What are you laughing at?” he said.
“Only thinking about old Gee, sir. He ’listed just at the same time as me, sir; and then, all along of his bumptiousness and liking to bully everybody, while I was always easy-going and friends with every one, he gets first his corp’ral’s stripes, and then his sergeant’s, and begins to play Jack-in-office, till his uniform’s always ready to crack at the seams. Just fancy, sir, being able to give him a floorer without helping it. Ho, my!”
Gedge had to wipe his eyes with the backs of his hands, so full of mirth seemed the thought of discomfiting the tyrant who had hectored over him so long; and Bracy lay looking at him till he calmed down again.
“You don’t believe in all this being involuntary, Gedge?” he said at last.
“Didn’t at first, sir. I thought it was your larks, or else you were off your head. But I believe it all now, every bit, and I can’t get over it. Just to be able to hit your sooperior officer, and no court-martial. Then the Doctor. Just to be able to make him feel a bit, after what he has made us squirm over.”
“Then you do believe me now?”
“Of course, sir. And I tell yer it’s grand to have a complaint like that. I mean for such as me. No punishment-drill, no lines, no prison, no nothing at all, for bowling your sooperior officer over like a skittle.”
Bracy turned his head wearily.
“Ah, Gedge, you can’t realise what it all means, to be a hopeless cripple, always in pain.”
“Wuth it, sir, every twinge; and as to being a hopeless cripple, what’s that so long as there’s plenty o’ crutches to be had? Pst! Some un coming, sir.”