"Aye!" The Mayor laughed bitterly. "Fat lot o' use they'll be when they've got 'em. Muddle, muddle, muddle." Like the Corporal, he was in a very black humor. "It's a mercy the Yankees are with us now--if they are not in too late." "Fancy muckin' it," said the Corporal, "with the game in our hands. A year ago we'd got 'em beat." "Press government," said Josiah savagely. The Corporal proceeded to chew a good cigar. "Dad," he said at last, and it was the first time in his life he had addressed his former employer so familiarly, "I'm thinking I'll have to go before the Medical Board again." Josiah combed an incipient goatee with a dubious forefinger. "But, my boy, from what you told me, you thought you could get your discharge any time you liked to ask for it." "That was back in January." "You're no fitter now than you were then, are you?" The Corporal slowly stretched his right leg to its full length, and then, gathering it under him leant his whole weight upon it. "I'm much firmer on my pins than I was then." His rough voice suddenly regained its usual gentleness. "Work seems to suit me." He laughed rather wryly. "I expect the Board'll pass me now--if I ask 'em to." It was the turn of Josiah to maltreat his cigar. "Not thinking of going back into the Line, are you?" "If they'll take me." The Corporal spoke slowly and softly. "And I daresay they will--if I ask 'em polite." Josiah's keen face was full of queer emotion. "Not for me to say anything." But he had been charged with a mission by the urgent Melia. No matter what his private feelings let him not betray it! "Seems to me, my boy, although it's not for me to say anything, that no one'll blame you, after what you've been through, if you stand aside and make room for others." The Corporal extended both legs towards the fire. He gazed into it solemnly without speaking. "Well, think it over, Bill." The voice of the tempter. "No one can blame you, if you stick to your present billet, which suits you so well--or even if you go into munitions at a good salary. You'll have earned anything they give you. And in a manner o' speaking you'll still be doing your bit. But as I say ... it's not for me...." Strangling a groan, the Corporal rose suddenly from his chair, "I must think it over." He threw the stump of his cigar into the fire. "You see, I don't like leaving the Chaps." The voice of the Corporal sank almost to a whisper. The Mayor gave his guest a second cigar and chose another for himself. But he didn't say anything. "You see--as you might say--I've had Experience." The Mayor looked a little queerly at the Corporal. Then he took a penknife out of the pocket of a rather ornate knitted waistcoat and dexterously removed the tip from his cigar. "I've had Experience." The Corporal sighed and sat down heavily in his cushioned chair. He fixed his eyes again on the fire.