“Very well, then; we’ll fall out again for a few minutes when get down. ’Tention! Right face—march!”
The men went on, all the better for their rest, while the captain joined Dickenson in the rear, and marched step by step with him for some minutes in silence.
“What confoundedly bad walking it is down here!” he said at last. “Shakes a man all to pieces.”
“I hadn’t noticed it,” said Dickenson, with something like a sigh.
“I say!”
Dickenson turned to look in the captain’s face.
“Come straight to the chief with me, Dickenson. I don’t like my job of telling him. He’ll say I oughtn’t to have let the poor fellow go down.”
“I don’t think he will,” replied Dickenson, after a few moments’ silence. “The old man’s as hard as stone over a bit of want of discipline; but he’s always just.”
“Think so?” said the captain.
“Yes. Always just. I’ll come with you, though I feel as weak as water now. But I shall be better still when we get down to the quarters; and it has got to be done.”