“But I tell ye, Wullie, I heard the officer sayin’ so,” says Jimmy
aggrievedly.
“Well, even tho ye did,” rejoins Willie, “what richt hae ye to be
turnin’ ower what the officer says in public?”
“He didna tell me to keep it quate, Wullie Black.”
“He didna tell ye onything at a’. It was jist thae big lugs o’ yours
happened by at the time. And noo, like the big mooth ye are, ye goun
clyping it a’ ower the place.”
Jimmy rose threateningly, and Willie was not a whit behind him. Both
were prepared for an immediate settlement. Another second and they
would have come to blows, but the sergeant intervened.
“Come ower here, baith o’ ye,” he said sternly, and the two slunk up to
him.
“It was Duffus here, sairgeant, was sayin’ that the officer was sayin’
that the Germans wud attack——”
“Be quate, Black,” broke in the sergeant. “Ye’re but a poor, ignorant
boy, Wullie,” he continued, speaking with great deliberation, “only
good to hold the horse by the head. Go and clean that rifle or I’ll tak
it from ye a’thegither.”
Completely subdued by so dire a threat, Willie went off to this task
with alacrity. Not only did he love his rifle, but he feared his
sergeant’s eloquence. “And as for you, Duffus,” said the latter,
turning to the other culprit, “if you do not keep your mooth shut aboot
what your betters say, ye’ll be oot o’ the section the morn’s mornin’.
Jist mind in future that onything the officer wants the section to
know, I’ll tell ye.”
Jimmy subsided discreetly, abashed but not extinguished, and still
bursting to blab. The sergeant adjusted himself to some bags of
charcoal and dozed off. When the muffled sounds of impending snores
assured Jimmy that the sergeant was asleep, he leaned eagerly forward
and in a momentous whisper heard by the others discharged his
high-tensioned information:
“The officer said the Germans will attack at dawn!”
Big Adam leaned forward and roused the sergeant. The younger man looked
up inquiringly, expecting some authoritative statement on the subject.
But as the sergeant lifted his head attentively, Big Adam, taking
appreciative sips from the spoon, said only:
“This is grand hare soup! Will ye tak’ a sup, Andra?”