"It's got to be done," said Snogger, raising his eyebrows with the decision of a verdict beyond appeal. "It's horders, and if horders isn't obeyed ye'll find yourselves damned unlucky.... 'As anybody got a fag to spare?" Somebody handed the sergeant a cigarette and he lit it. This seemed to put him in a good humour and he began relating to Bowdy Benners the story of his card-playing the night before. "Couldn't get a card," he said. "I was dead off all the night. Once I got a top trotter, but Sergeant MacManus had a priol of deuces. I went some money on my 'and that go. But it's as I've always said: 'When a man's luck's out s'out, but when it's in s'in.'" The sergeant paused as if waiting for the full wisdom of his remark to sink into Bowdy's brain. Then he shouted at the top of his voice, "Get ready, men, get ready! We'll soon be movin' off," and went out to the farmyard. Much work was yet to be done, rifles had to be cleaned, odds and ends had to be collected from the straw. Here a knife and fork was found, there an entrenching tool handle, a tin of bully beef, a towel and a cake of soap. A great amount of stuff is lost in large barns; things disappear mysteriously, lost in the straw or stolen, perhaps, by the children of the billet. Soldiers treating themselves to meals at village cafés often find themselves served up with bully beef in new guise. Outside in the farmyard the fowls were standing on the smoking midden, several of them scratching the dung with crooked claws in search of worms. In the midst of the assembly, a rooster, proud as Lucifer, was clucking amorously. Now and again he selected a gentle hen, walked leisurely round her and strove to attract her attention. The hen would fix a careless but coquettish look on him, stretch out a wing and stand on one leg for a moment. Afterwards she would succumb and the triumphant Sultan would stretch out his neck and crow a challenge to any cock that dared to listen. At the hour of nine the battalion was ready to move off. The men were in a good temper now and full of confidence. The every-day inspection of equipment had been gone through, rifles had been examined and the men's feet looked at. All were so cool that it was difficult to believe that they were going up to the trenches, in which doubtless a number of them would lay down their lives. Most of the soldiers carried big French loaves on the back of their packs. The loaves had been holed through the middle, a string was placed in the hole and tied to the dees on the braces. Sergeant Snogger made a final inspection of his platoon. "'Ave yer everything?" he asked, then without waiting for an answer he went on: "Course yer should 'ave everything. If ye 'aven't ye 'aven't and that's all. Here, where the devil is Fitz?" he asked. "Forgot somethin' and 'e's gone into the barn," Bubb replied. "I see, I see," said Snogger, winking knowingly. "Fifi 'as gone in too, to 'elp 'im look for what 'e's forgot."