“Hicks, you were reported this morning to have gone to sleep while on outpost duty.”
Hicks started visibly. “That’s true, sir.”
“Well, what the hell kind of a soldier are you, anyway?” Major Adams fairly bit his words loose.
“I don’t know, sir. I mean, I guess I’ve been a pretty good soldier.”
“You have like hell, Hicks, and you know it. Now, why did you go to sleep on watch?”
Hicks knew that if he were court-martialled his sentence might be life imprisonment. It might be anything, he reflected, that the group of morons sitting in solemn judgment might decide to give him.
Major Adams also knew it.
“Sir, the hours are too long. Nobody can stay awake when he goes on watch eight hours every night.”
“Yes?” Major Adams raised an eyebrow forbiddingly.