Harry said nothing about Burnett; nothing about Philpott; probably it
would have done no good. And as he told me afterwards, 'The real charge
was that I'd lost my nerve--and so I had. And I don't want to wangle out
of it like that.'
That was the end of it. They were kind enough, those grey men; they did
not like the job, and they wanted only to do their duty. But they
conceived that their duty was 'laid down in The Book,' to look at the
'hard facts,' and no further. And the 'hard facts' were very hard....
The Court was closed while they considered their verdict; it was closed
for forty minutes, and when it reopened they asked for evidence of
character. And that meant that the verdict was 'Guilty.' On the only
facts they had succeeded in discovering it could hardly have been
anything else.
The Adjutant put in formal evidence of Harry's service, age, record, and
so on; and I was allowed to give evidence of character.
I told them simply the sort of fighting record he had, about Gallipoli,
and the scouting, and the job he had refused in England.
I am glad to believe that I did him a little good; for that evening it
got about somehow that he was recommended to mercy.
And perhaps they remembered that he was twenty-three.