"_Do_ something, man," said Colonel Dearman with haughty scorn, after some five minutes of strenuous tramping had told severely on the _morale_ of the regiment. And Major Pinto, hoping for the best and fearing the worst, lifted up his voice and screamed:-- "On the right _form battalion_!" Let us draw a veil. The adjective that General Murger used with the noun he called the Gungapur Fusiliers is not to be printed. The address he made to that Corps after it had once more found itself would have led a French or Japanese regiment to commit suicide by companies, taking the time from the right. A Colonel of Romance Race would have fallen on his sword at once (and borrowed something more lethal had it failed to penetrate). But the corps, though not particularly British, was neither French nor Japanese and was very glad of the rest while the General talked. And Colonel Dearman, instead of falling on his sword, fell on General Murger (in spirit) and swore to be revenged tenfold. He would have his own back, cost what it might, or his name was not Dearman--and he was going Home on leave immediately after the Volunteer Annual Camp of Exercise, just before General Murger retired.... "I shall inspect your corps in camp," General Murger had said, "and the question of its disbandment may wait until I have done so." _Disbandment_! The question of the _disbandment_ of the fine and far-famed Fusiliers of Gungapur could wait till then, could it? Well _and_ good! Ha! and likewise Ho! On Captain John Robin Ross-Ellison's return from leave, Colonel Dearman told that officer of General Murger's twofold insult--to Colonel Dearman's wife and to Colonel Dearman's Corps. On hearing of the first, Captain Ross-Ellison showed his teeth in a wolfish and ugly manner, and, on hearing of the second, propounded a scheme of vengeance that made Colonel Dearman grin and then burst into a roar of laughter. He bade Captain Ross-Ellison dine with him and elaborate details of the scheme. * * * * * To rumours of General Murger's failing health and growing alcoholism Colonel Dearman listened with interest--nay, satisfaction. Stories of seizures, strokes and "goes" of _delirium tremens_ met with no rebuke nor contradiction from him--and an air of leisured ease and unanxious peacefulness pervaded the Gungapur Fusiliers. If any member had thought that the sad performance of the fatal Saturday night and the winged words of General Murger were to be the prelude to period of fierce activity and frantic preparation, he was mistaken. It was almost as though Colonel Dearman believed that General Murger would not live to carry out his threat. The corps paraded week by week, fell in, marched round the ground and fell out again. There was no change of routine, no increase of work, no stress, no strain.