* * * * *
"Pack! Campaign kit! One trunk!" he ordered his servant. "Orderly!"
An orderly ran in from outside.
"Tell Major Brammle and Captain Warrington to come to me!"
It took ten minutes to find Warrington, since every job was his, and
nearly every responsibility, until his colonel should take charge of a
paraded, perfect regiment, and lead it away to its fate. He came at
last, however, and on the run, and Brammle with him.
"Orders changed!" said Kirby. "March at noon! Man'll be here this
morning to take charge of officers' effects. Better have things ready
for him and full instructions. One trunk allowed each officer. Two
chargers."
"Destination, sir?" asked Brammle.
"Not disclosed!"
"Where do we entrain?" asked Warrington.
"We march out of Delhi. Entrain later, at a place appointed on the
road."
Warrington began to hum to himself and to be utterly, consciously happy.
"Then I'll get a move on!" he said, starting to hurry out.
"Everything's ready, but--"
"Wait a minute!" commanded Kirby; and Warrington remained in the room
after Brammle had left it.
"You haven't said anything to anybody, of course, about that incident
last night?"
"No, sir."
"Then _she_ has!"
Warrington whistled.
"Are you sure she has?"
"Quite. I've just had proof of it!"
"Makes a fellow reverence the sex!" swore Warrington.
"It'll be forgotten by the time we're back in India," said Kirby
solemnly. "Remember to keep absolutely silent about it. The best way to
help others forget it is to forget it yourself. Not one word now to
anybody, even under provocation!"
"Not a word, sir!"
"All right. Go and attend to business!"
What "attending to business" meant nobody can guess who has not been in
at the breaking up of quarters at short notice. Everything was ready,
as Warrington had boasted, but even an automobile may "stall" for a
time in the hands of the best chauffeur, and a regiment contains as
many separate human equations as it has men in its ranks.
The amount of personal possessions that had to be jettisoned, or left
to the tender mercies of a perfunctory agent, would have wrung groans
from any one but soldiers. The last minute details that seemed to be
nobody's job, and that, therefore, all fell to Warrington because
somebody had to see to them, were beyond the imagination of any but an
adjutant, and not even Warrington's imagination proved quite equal to
the task.
"We're ready, sir!" he reported at last to Kirby. "We're paraded and
waiting. Brammle's inspected 'em, and I've done ditto. There are only
thirteen thousand details left undone that I can't think of, and not
one of 'em's important enough to keep us waitin'!"
So Kirby rode out on parade and took the regiment's salute. There was
nobody to see them off. There were not even women to wail by the
barrack gate, for they marched away at dinner-time and official lies
had been distributed where they would do most good.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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