A CAMP "TERROR"

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2974, 11 January 1917, Page 6

A CAMP "TERROR"

• nut man me com m be manwD (By "A Gunner," in the "DailvlUail.") Charles Is an excellent signaller, but an indifferent soldier. His skill at tlio "buzzer" is tho admiration of the htstruefcor and his appearauco on parade is the despair of the depot. '"Three sergeants, Wo corporals, and a battery of bombardiers have grown tlun. and haggard in trying to instil ihe rudiments of discipline into Charles. Everything of or appertaining to Charles is undisciplined. Tho clothes he wears, the bed ho sleeps in, tbe manner in which ho does or does not brush his hair, the way he walks, and the way ho looks are a perpetual challenge to the Army Code and the King's Regulations. The regimental sergeantmajor has'lost precious hours thinking what he should do with Charles; and the youngest and most enthusiastic cornoral lost a stripe for doing things to Charles. There is something about Charles's.expression that dismays tlio most hardened drill sergeant. As one of. them forcibly phrased it, "He looks a cross between a mutiny and a free pardon. " If he does anything wrong lie forgives you." / Nobody has over found CljMes conscious of wrong. Ho never avoids offence; he simply does not recognise it. Since Charles joined the depot there has been no oy in the sergeants' mess. As a last hope they put Charles under tho care of a corporal who measured Gft^Tin.— a mau who had handled mutineers in Singapore. When Charles jvas handed over to Tiny, tlio tall corporal, I was lying in bed recovering from inoculation, and it was in my hut that Tiny gave Charles and tho rest of the class a. lesson on the hejiol graph. For the first five minutes Tiny addressed himself solely to Charles, who did nothing except shed another button from his tunic. Tiny told Charles to find the button, and Charles came to look for it under my bed. Hβ sat on the bed, looked at me critically, sadly shook his head, took half a cigarette, from behind his ear, solemnly struck a match, and had one Ion;;, deliberate draw, swallowing or otherwise disposing of the smoke. I watched for the smoke to appear and Charles watched mo. I was about to ask Charles how he did it, when the voice of Tiny was raised in anger inquiring for' Charles, and asking what tho blue Alsatian mountains ho meant by.it. i ■ "Hush!" said Charles, lifting an admonishing finger and nodding his head at me. "The man is sicg and needs repose." "You come here and lay this helio," roared Tiny. Charles smoothed my blanket, stole ray matches, and rose with a sigh. "Where shall I lay it, corporal?" ho asked, spinning the-duplox mirror like a top. "Lay it on tho door binge," growled Tiny. "Which door hinge, corporal?" murmured Charles.. "The top one, of course. Look lively." With a turn of the wrist, a squint of the eye, and two flicks of his forefinger, Charles aligned l the heliograph accurately, and while the corporal was inspecting it Charles turned to me with tho remark: "Queer thing, inoculation. Some say drink beer and take exercise. Others advise you to give up beer and stick to bed. Now, I should " "Keep quiet," roared Tiny. "Precisely," said Charles", beaming at the corporal. * * # ♦ After this episode I did not see Charles for two or three days. .« Tiny and he had differed! on the question of falling in. The parade ground was several inches deep ill niud. Charles arrived late as usual, and' the only space left-in the ranks was a, pool about a yard wide and ankle-deep. ' "Step lively; fall in," ordered Tiny. Charles looked at the pool, then at his boots, then gazed thoughtfully skywards. ■"■ "Fall in," repeated Tiny. / • "What happens if I don't?" asked Charles, still looking heavenwards. "You'll be for it. It'll be the clink, my lad." Charles lowered his glance to the pool, considered l its breadth and depth, gazed reproachfully at Tiny, and requested him to lead the way to the guard-room. . y When Charles was set freo ho surprised the guard five minutes later by returning once more a prisoner. Ho had met an officer who asked him what he was doing. "Nothing," replied Charles. "Nothing, what?" asked the officer sharply. "Just nothing,'! said Charles, wlio was sent back to the guard-room to learn how to address an officer, and for the next six hours he drove a bomTiarlier nearly frantic- by insisting oil addressing him as "Sir." Several days elapsed uneventfully, and then one cold, frosty morning Charles was sent to the stores for signalling flags. Minutes passed, but Charles did not return, The squad stamped ite feet and blow on its fingers. Tiny aworo and tried to hide his 6ft. Tin. from the sergeant-major. Fifteen minutes passed and §till no Charles. Thon Tiny and the squad went to look for him. They found him ultimately in the washhouse, where ho was frankly surprised to see them. "They had given out all the flags at tho store," he explained to the incoherent corporal, "so I thought 1 would have a wash. You remember you told me this morning I would; ho 'all the better for a good wash." f "That's dono it; I throw my hand 'in," spluttered the corporal. ' "Get out of my sight, you " While Tiny was thinking of new names for him Charles disappeared. Bβ had still disappeared at the next parade, and a search party failed to find him. "Where, can the blighter have got to?"- exclaimed Tiny for the fiftieth time. A recruit suggested that he might have befiii picked up by one of tlio aeroplanes hovering over the depot, and Tiny said things about that recruit's personal appearance that made him shun a mirror for two clays. Charles returned to the cniiip_just before dark and brought two military policemen with him. The police looked tired, and showed by their manner that they had a grievance against somebody or something. Charles had his kitba" on his shoulder, and no lamb led to the slaughter looked more innocenc tli'in he. , ~,,,, , , The "M.P." explained that they had found Charles and his kit-bag at tho nearest station four miles away. As he had no pass they arrested him and brought him back. They would have returned much sooner if Charles had not-shown them a short cut. "What did you want to go off for? asK-nd Tiny as they wero on their way to tlio guardroom. "Didn't you tell me to get out? retorted Charles. Thou ho stopped, banned affectionately on tlio corporal, and. with a sweet smile, pxclaimeil. "Did you miss we?" Free onco more, Charles forgave everyone, ami took his seat in'tlio class and proceeded to work wonders with the Morse Code. .Secretly, Tiny dreaded these hours with Charles and tlie electric vibrator commonly known j>s the "buzzer." Charles was easily tbe best reader not only in the class, but in the entire depot. Charles's weird skill made Tiny nervous, and ho would occasionally tap out an s for a break or a 6 for a B,

whereupon Charles would shako his head reprovingly. "I'm getting out <& this," confided Tiny to mo one evening as vro smoked a.last pipe over tiiß stove. ( "Where are you going?" I inquired. ) "France, Salonika, 'Mrcc&oi.Vui., "Mesopotamia, anywhere away from that man," was tho fierce reply. "I'll throw my hand iu. There isn't room ' for both of us in this camp." t Tiny was as good asliis word and joined a battery preparing to leave for 0 active service—and Charles went with B Wm - _________ .