“He deserves all the trouble that has fallen upon him,” Frank Mallett said, angrily.  “I have no patience with a young fool who bets on race horses when he knows very well that if they lose there is nothing for him to do but to go to the Jews for money.  However, he has had a sharp lesson, and as it is likely enough that the regiment won’t be back in England for years, he will have a chance of getting straight again.  This affair has been a godsend for him, for had he remained in England there would have been nothing for him to do but to sell out.”

So they chatted until the mess waiters laid the table for breakfast, when the other officers came pouring in.  The meal was eaten hastily, for the assembly was sounding in the barrack yard.  As soon as breakfast was finished, the officers went out and took their places with their companies.

There was a brief inspection, then the drums and fifes set up “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” and the regiment marched off to the station, the streets being already full of people who had got up to see the last of them, and to wish them Godspeed in the work of death they were going to perform.

The baggage was already in the train that was waiting for them in the station, and in a few minutes it steamed away; the soldiers hanging far out of every window to wave a last goodbye to the weeping women who thronged the platform.  Two hours later they reached Plymouth, marched through the town to the dockyard, and went straight on board the transport.

There was the usual confusion until the cabins had been allotted, portmanteaus stowed away, and the general baggage lowered into the hold.  A tedious wait of three or four hours followed, no one exactly knew why, and then the paddle wheels began to revolve.  The men burst into a loud cheer, and a few minutes later they passed Drake’s Island and headed down the sound.

They had, as expected, found young Marshall on board.  He kept below until they started, although told that there was little chance of the bailiffs being permitted to enter the dockyard.  As he had the grace to feel thoroughly ashamed of his position, little was said to him; but the manner of the senior officers was sufficient to make him feel their strong disapproval of the position in which he had placed himself by his folly.

“I have taken a solemn oath never to bet again,” he said that evening to Captain Mallett, who was a general favourite with the younger officers; “and I mean to keep it.”

“How much do you owe, young ’un?”

“Four hundred and fifty.  What with allowances and so on, I ought to be able to pay it off in three or four years.”

“Yes, and if you keep your word, Marshall, some of us may be inclined to help you.  I will for one.  I would have done so before, but to give money to a fool is worse than throwing it into the sea.  As soon as you show us by deeds, not words, that you really mean to keep straight, you will find that you are not without friends.”