“Well, yes, sir. He’s a hard nut, but he’s all that you say. I’d rather be under anybody else, but you talk about ten tigers: I’d go under ten Sergeant Tipsys if it was to bring Miss Minnie back.”
“I know you would, Pete. And poor Sir Charles was knocked over by the fever?”
“Sunstroke, sir.”
“Well, sunstroke. He’s hors de combat, and we want to take his place.”
The next day Archie signalised his permission to be about by asking for an interview with his commanding officer, who congratulated him warmly, and then replied to his request with an imperative:
“No! Quite out of the question, sir. I have weakened my force too much as it is, and I cannot spare another man.”
“Horribly disappointing,” said Archie to himself as he came away—“but he did call me man!”