We had just started off again when Ducostal turned up. He handed me a new water-bottle:
"Here you are, Sergeant!"
"Thanks. You're a ripper!"
"Do you know, nobody knew your pal," he continued. "I was sent from pillar to post. Then at last I had the luck to come across the bloke who picked him up. He's not dead, but it'll be a near thing if he pulls through. Got a ball through the lungs."
"Oh, I hope to goodness he'll recover!" I said out loud.
I had fumbled with my purse in my pocket, and slipped a piece of silver into the man's hand. He looked at it, and then gave it back.
"No, Sergeant, we're not out to make at this game. You stick to it."
"And then," he added, "do you remember one morning when you were sergeant of the guard you didn't report me missing?"
The incident occurred to me. So he was the fellow who had turned up one morning, after a day's leave, and implored me to mark him down as having come back at midnight.
"Oh, so you haven't forgotten that?"