"About the Hush! Hush! Brigade?"
Bobby nodded.
"Yes," he said. "Young Osborne, my best subaltern after Angus, disappeared last month to join it. Tell me, what is the—"
"Hush! Hush!" said Major Wagstaffe. "Méfiez vous! Taisez vous! and so on!"
The battalion moved off.
So much for the war-talk of veterans. Now let us listen to the novices.
"Bogle," said Angus M'Lachlan to his henchman, "I think we shall have to lighten this Wolseley valise of mine. With one thing and another it weighs far more than thirty-five pounds."
"That's a fact, sirr," agreed Mr. Bogle. "It carries ower mony books in the heid of it."
They shook out the contents of the valise upon the floor of Angus's bedroom—a loft over the kitchen in "A" Company's farm billet—and proceeded to prune Angus's personal effects. There were boots, socks, shaving-tackle, maps, packets of chocolate, and books of every size, but chiefly of the ever-blessed sevenpenny type.
"A lot of these things will have to go, Bogle," said Angus regretfully. "The colonel has warned officers about their kits, and it would never do to have mine turned back from the waggon at the last minute."