The major shook his head and sighed grievously.
"Was he killed?" asked one eagerly.
"Kill him!" said the major in hollow emphasis of scorn: "no, sir."
"Died, then?" suggested another.
"No, sir," said the major: "his worst enemy could not say that of him. No, he didn't die."
"Drowned?" put in a third, venturing at the major's conundrum.
"No, sir," said the major gutturally. "Water couldn't drown him. It is not wet enough. Lost."
"Lost!" marvelled his auditors at this sphinx. "How?"
"Married," said the major in basso-profundo, husky with emotion.
Such an ornament lost to the chivalry of duelling accentuated their admiration of his after-type in Bob's second.