TheCompleteMemoirsOfGeorgeSherston

far better stay where he is. We'll find ourselves in
much less cushy places than this, and you say he's
turned forty-five. . . ." He handed me the letter.
"And you might find yourself back with €C' company
again if we had some casualties. Things change pretty
quick nowadays. And I don't mind betting there'll be
a few changes when Kinjack rolls up to take com-
mand of the battalion!"

I nodded wisely. For everyone now knew that
Winchell had got his brigade, and Major Kinjack was
expected (from the Second Battalion) in a week or
two. And Kinjack had a somewhat alarming reputa-
tion as a disciplinarian. He was, according to
Dottrell, who had known him since he was a subaltern,
"a bloody fine soldier but an absolute pig if you got
the wrong side of him". Old man Barton was in a
twitter about the new G.O.3 his only hope being, he
said, that Kinjack would send him home as incom-
petent. Barton came in at this moment, for the bat-
talion had returned from the trenches the day before.

"Why, Barton," exclaimed Dottrell, "you look as
if you'd just come out of quod!"

Barton's hair had been cut by an ex-barber (servant
to the medical officer), who had borrowed a pair of
horse-clippers to supplement his scissors. Barton
giggled and rubbed his cropped cranium. He said
it made him feel more efficient, and began to chaff
Dick (who had come in to ask if he might go for
a ride with me that afternoon) about his beautifully
brushed hair. "Kinjack'll soon have the horse-
clippers on your track, young man!5* he said. Dick
smiled and said nothing.

We arranged to go for a ride, and he went off to
inspect the company's dinners. When he had gone -
Barton remarked that he wished he could get Dick to

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