"We will see as we go. Have you eaten? No?" And he took him away to a mess-room just alongside, where a number of officers were drinking coffee from bowls, and smoking and talking.
They saluted Jim politely, and stared at him without restraint while he ate a chunk of very good white bread and drank his coffee, which was excellent, and meanwhile they plied his friend with questions.
And one, after much observation of Jim's uniform, suddenly made some remark which carried all eyes to him and made him extremely uncomfortable at so much observation.
"He is saying that your regiment was in that mad charge outside Balaclava," said his particular officer.
"Yes; I was in it," said Jim quietly.
And at that, to his immense surprise, every man in the room sprang to his feet and gravely saluted him again.
"And you got through whole?" was the next question.
"No. I had a lance wound and three bullets into me, but I've been a voyage to Constantinople since then, to brace up, you know."
And they crowded round him, and pressed cigars on him, and showed themselves right good fellows.
Then his new friend took him along to the hospital, and they learned that Jack had come to himself and was sleeping, and so they went on across the bridge of boats, and through the public gardens, and past the cathedral, to Head-quarters.