“Don’t walk so quick, we’re gettin’ over the ground too fast. Well, there’s a thing you’ll have to keep dark for me.”
“You’ll find me confidential, sir; my superior officers did.”
“I know that well—I know you, Archdale, and that is why I chose you out o’ a thousand, and it’s a confidential fellow—d——d confidential—I want, for the country’s all one as the town for talk, and tongues will keep goin’ like the bells on a sheep-walk, and there’s many a bit o’ nonsense, that’s no great odds when all’s told, that a chap wouldn’t like to have made the laugh or the talk o’ the country side.”
“Yes, sir,” said the inflexible Sergeant-Major.
“You held the same rank in the line, Sergeant-Major, didn’t you?”
“Yes, sir,” said the Sergeant-Major, and saluted from habit.
“I thought so, and that says a deal for you, Mr. Archdale; and I remember one of your papers says you were the youngest sergeant ever made in your regiment?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, that says a lot too, and a very responsible office that is. Egad, from all I ’a seen, I’d say the sergeants has more to do with the state of a regiment than all the other officers, commissioned or non-commissioned, put together.”
“There’s a good deal depends on ’em, sir.”