Of course we _know_ demobilisation is proceeding apace. We _know_ that
pivotal men are simply pirouetting to England in countless droves. We
know it because we see it in the papers (when they come), and it is a
great source of comfort to us. But since it is six days' train journey
and four days' lorry-hopping from where we sit guarding the wrong side
of the river to the necessary seaport, perhaps they have forgotten us,
or they are keeping all the pivots in this area for one final orgy of
demobilisation at some future date, which for the moment I am not at
liberty to disclose.
At present my poor friend Cook is sitting in the Company Mess with
his thoughts all of the inside of Army prisons, instead of the glowing
pictures he used to have of himself exchanging his battle-bowler for
the headgear of civilisation. He says I'm responsible for his state of
mind, because I first put the idea into his head. Well, I did; but I
don't see how you can blame the fellow who filled the shell if some
silly ass hits it on the nose-cap with a hammer.
It started like this. After the Demobilisation General Post had
sounded Cook spent his time writing to everybody who did not know him
well enough to down his chances, filled up all the forms in triplicate
and packed his valise ready to start off any time of the day or night
for England, home and wholesale hardware, which is his particular
pivot. I may say here that nominally this business is run by him
and his brother, and the fact that they are now both in the Army is
probably the chief reason why the manager in charge is able to make
the business pay. However, you know what people are; if they draw
receipts from a business nothing will persuade them but that they
must be there, "on the spot you know," to "look after it." So, seeing
his face grow longer and longer as the days went by without the
Quarter-Master coming round and handing him his ration trilby hat,
civvy suit and the swagger cane he hopes for, I said, "Why don't you
put in for two months' business leave?"
The air was at once rent with a fearful rush of leaves of his A.B.
153, and he ceased to take any interest in his platoon from that
moment. In vain I urged upon him the consummate folly of neglecting
to inquire more closely into the case of a reprobate in No. 11 Platoon
who had so far forgotten all sense of discipline as to set out his
kit with haversack on the left instead of the right (or _vice-versâ_,
I forget which, but the Sergeant-Major spotted it.). He even went
the length of saying he didn't care a cuss; and when I asked
him sarcastically if he had forgotten the Platoon Commander's
pamphlet-bible, "Am I offensive enough?" he said he thought he was,
and I agreed with him.
When the whole mess-room was simply a-flutter with torn-out leaves
from his A.B. 153, representing his abortive attempts to put down his
application succinctly and plausibly, we all began to take an interest
in his case. We crowded round and offered him most valuable hints.
Together we got through two very pleasant evenings and three or four
A.B.'s 153, and still the application remained in a tentative state.
We got on all right to start with, but it was after the "I have the
honour to submit for the approval and recommendation of the Commanding
Officer this my application for two months' business leave" that we
got stuck.
Of course _I_ know it was no use, anyway. I have seen these things go
forward before. They have no chance.
It was then that a stroke of genius (unfortunate, as it turned out,
but a stroke of genius nevertheless) occurred to me. "Why not say that
your manager is a complete fool and in his hands the business is going
to rack and ruin?" I said. He bit at it like a tiger, and only the law
of libel prevented him putting it into execution there and then; but
all the same we had a jolly fine argument (six of us) about it for
some three hours, and nobody got put out of the room for introducing
acrimony into the discussion.
Finally, he said that he was sure his brother wouldn't mind his saying
it about _him_, and the application went in as follows:--
_To Adjutant, First Crackshire Regt._
Sir,--I have the honour to submit for the approval and recommendation
of the Commanding Officer this my application for two months' business
leave in the following special circumstances:--
The necessity of my presence in the business (wholesale hardware) has
become more and more urgent of late. It is imperative that I should
get home at once owing to the total incapability of my partner to
carry out simple directions which are dictated by letters, and it
is no exaggeration to say that the business, which has been built
up almost entirely by my efforts, must inevitably collapse unless it
receives my personal attention at once.
My address would be, etc., etc., London.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant, etc., etc.
The Adjutant looked serious when he read it. So did Cook, for he
thought the Adjutant had noted the London address and had remembered
the business was in Bristol. But it was all right. It wasn't that
at all really. Pencil and squared paper are poor means of conveying
information at any time, and when the Adjutant had been assured that
the business was really "wholesale hardware," and not "wholesale
hardbake," as he had first read it, everything went swimmingly. The
C.O. signed it and off it went on its momentous journey. Cook began
to take a renewed interest in his platoon, and, having discovered the
recalcitrant one of No. 11 actually coming on parade with only the
front of the tip of his bayonet-scabbard polished, he took a fiendish
delight in seeing the criminal writhing under the brutal and savage
sentence of three days' C.B.
A week later he got a great surprise. His brother-partner turned
up with a draft of men and found himself posted to the battalion.
The brothers met, as only brothers can, with the words, "What the
deuce are you doing here?" Highly elated, Cook told him about the
application for business leave and gloated over his chances of being
home first, and on full pay too. His brother was intensely amused,
and they both laughed heartily, when he told us that he himself, while
waiting at the reception-camp with the draft, had put in much the same
kind of application, saying the same kind of things about Cook.
But when they realised that both applications would be forwarded to
the same Divisional Headquarters for consideration the joke lost some
of its savour. And when the Adjutant called them up and handed the
two returned applications _pinned together_ both brothers needed all
their qualities of toughness and rigidity which, as I understand, are
acquired in the wholesale hardware business.