Burney straightened his long body with unusual suddenness.
'The mischief, you have! My word, Ken, you're a queer chap. Here you and I have been training together these six months, and you've never said a word of it to me or any of the rest of the crowd.'
'Come to that, I don't quite know why I have now,' answered Ken Carrington dryly.
Burney wisely made no reply, and after a few moments the other spoke again.
'You see, Dave, it wasn't anything to be proud of, so far as I'm concerned, and it brings back the most rotten time I ever had. So it isn't much wonder I don't talk about it.'
'Don't say anything now unless you want to,' said Burney, with the quiet courtesy which was part of him.
'But I do want to. And I'd a jolly sight sooner tell you than any one else. That is, if you don't mind listening.'
'I'd like to hear,' said Burney simply. 'It's always been a bit of a puzzle to me how a chap like you came to be a Tommy in this outfit. With your education, you ought to be an officer in some home regiment.'
'That's all rot,' returned Ken quickly. 'I'd a jolly sight sooner be in with this crowd than any I know of. And as for a commission, that's a thing which it seems to me a chap ought to win instead of getting it as a gift.
'But I'm gassing. I was going to tell you how it was that I'd seen fighting. My father was in the British Navy. He rose to the rank of Captain, and then had an offer from the Turkish Government of a place in the Naval Arsenal at Constantinople.'