I do not know whether it was exhaustion after nervous strain or the whisky which affected Clithering. Whisky--and he had swallowed nearly a glassful--does produce striking effects upon teetotallers; so it may have been the whisky. Clithering turned slowly over on his side and went sound asleep. Bland and I carried him upstairs to a bedroom on the top storey of the club. There were, Bland said, three bullets buried in the mattress, so it was fortunate that we had not carried Clithering up earlier in the day. "Let's get the waiter," said Bland, "if he hasn't gone away, and tell him to undress this fool!" "It's hardly necessary to undress him, is it?" "Better to," said Bland, "and take away his clothes. Then he'll have to stay there, and won't be able to send any more telegrams." "It's rather a good thing he sent that last one," I said. "If he hadn't, somebody would certainly have been killed in the charge." "I suppose that telegram accounts for it," said Bland. "I mean for the behaviour of the soldiers. Orders sent straight from Downing Street. I say, what a frightful temper the Commanding Officer must be in this minute! I wonder if I could get an interview with him." He looked questioningly at me. I fancy he hoped that I would give him a letter of introduction to the General in command of the district. "His language," said Bland, "would be a tremendous scoop for me. Could you--?" "No," I said, "I couldn't. I don't know him, and even if I did--" "Oh, well," said Bland, "it can't be helped. And, any way, I dare say I shouldn't have been able to get my telegram through. The wires are sure to be blocked." CHAPTER XXII I looked at my watch and found that it was three o'clock. The battle had lasted more than two hours. "I had no idea," I said to Bland, "that fighting was such interesting work. The time has flown." "I'm uncommonly hungry," said Bland. "Let's try and find something to eat." When he mentioned the subject of eating I found that I too was very hungry. I felt, however, that it was scarcely right, certainly it was not suitable to sit down to luncheon in a club while a revolution was in full swing under the windows. People ought to be serious immediately after battles. "Oughtn't we to be doing something?" I asked. "Doing what?" "Well, I don't know. Seeing after the wounded, perhaps." Attending to wounded men is properly speaking work for women; but both Lady Moyne and Marion were in London. "There are sure to be a few somewhere," I said. "They've been fighting all over the town, and I don't suppose the soldiers were as careful everywhere else as they were here." "Are you a surgeon as well as a lord?" asked Bland. "Oh no. I don't know anything about surgery. My idea--"