Ghastly was the ruin that escaped, and awful was the wrath of the Bazar-Sergeant. Awful, too, was the scene in Orderly-room when the two reprobates appeared to answer the charge of half-murdering a 'civilian.' The Bazar-Sergeant thirsted for a criminal action, and his son lied. The boys stood to attention while the black clouds of evidence accumulated.
[Illustration: 'Hey! What? Are you going to argue with _me_?' said the Colonel.--P. 35.]
'You little devils are more trouble than the rest of the Regiment put together,' said the Colonel angrily. 'One might as well admonish thistledown, and I can't well put you in cells or under stoppages. You must be birched again.'
'Beg y' pardon, Sir. Can't we say nothin' in our own defence, Sir?' shrilled Jakin.
'Hey! What? Are you going to argue with _me_?' said the Colonel.
'No, Sir,' said Lew. 'But if a man come to you, Sir, and said he was going to report you, Sir, for 'aving a bit of a turn-up with a friend, Sir, an' wanted to get money out o' _you_, Sir--'
The Orderly-room exploded in a roar of laughter. 'Well?' said the Colonel.
'That was what that measly _jarnwar_ there did, Sir, and 'e'd 'a' _done_ it, Sir, if we 'adn't prevented 'im. We didn't 'it 'im much, Sir. 'E 'adn't no manner o' right to interfere with us, Sir. I don't mind bein' birched by the Drum-Major, Sir, nor yet reported by _any_ Corp'ral, but I'm--but I don't think it's fair, Sir, for a civilian to come an' talk over a man in the Army.'
A second shout of laughter shook the Orderly-room, but the Colonel was grave.
'What sort of characters have these boys?' he asked of the Regimental Sergeant-Major.
'Accordin' to the Bandmaster, Sir,' returned that revered official--the only soul in the regiment whom the boys feared--'they do everything _but_ lie, Sir.'
'Is it like we'd go for that man for fun, Sir?' said Lew, pointing to the plaintiff.
'Oh, admonished--admonished!' said the Colonel testily, and when the boys had gone he read the Bazar-Sergeant's son a lecture on the sin of unprofitable meddling, and gave orders that the Bandmaster should keep the Drums in better discipline.
'If either of you comes to practice again with so much as a scratch on your two ugly little faces,' thundered the Bandmaster, 'I'll tell the Drum-Major to take the skin off your backs. Understand that, you young devils.'