NARVIK
bounds into life at the call of an allegro. Time and
time again the drumsticks flew into the air, like
coloured balls from a juggler's hands. The soldiers
in their balmorals formed an immense khaki
rectangle, lined with happy faces. The colours
shone in the spring sunshine.
'Do you recognize them after twenty-five years?*
asked my neighbour, the Colonel Bramble of 1940.
'They haven't changed/ I said, 'and the Germans
will find it out.*
He did not reply: he, too, had not changed.
Finishing School
'The Nth Corps/ said Duncan, 'has formed an
infantry school for subalterns. Would you care to
see it?*
*Very much/ I said.
The Commandant of the School arranged to meet
us in the country, at the corner of a wood.
'You'll find a platoon composed entirely of
officers and commanded by one of themselves.
Yesterday evening I set them a problem:—
reconnaissance of a wood beyond the line of advance
posts. Each of them has submitted his solution.
Fve picked out the most ingenious and told its
author to see it through/
'Is the enemy represented?*
'Yes. Each officer is entitled to bring his batman*
149