"Bill!" it said. * * * * * * * Half an hour later Bill stood before Sergeant Lees. "Ho," said that autocrat. "'Ere you are.[Pg 96] Bilked yer bath, you 'ave, so I 'ear, an' missed the Captain's inspection; an' the British soldier's first dooty is to be clean." [Pg 96] "I got a better bath in the village, sergeant. Didn't think you'd mind," said Bill desperately. "Ho, did yer? Don't seem to 'ave done yer much good. 'Ave yer seen yerself?" The sergeant handed him a shaving-mirror. Grant studied his features in silence. His adventures in the hay had completely destroyed the effects of his bath. His face was streaked and mottled with black dust till he looked like a dissipated nigger. "No, my lad," said the sergeant grimly. "That yarn's like you—it don't wash. You'll report to Sergeant Oliver to-morrer an' act as bath-orderly for the rest o' the week." [Pg 97] [Pg 97] CHAPTER VIII BLIGHTY FOR TWO CHAPTER VIII BLIGHTY FOR TWO Grant's appointment to the menial position of bath-orderly plunged him into a state of savage gloom. His duties were arduous and his hours long; and as he spent even his free time in morose silence, he soon made Alf as miserable as himself. Gradually the week wore away until at last the sentence was served, and Bill was once more a free man. But his punishment seemed to have soured his whole outlook on life; even now he continued sullenly aloof till at last even the easy-going Alf felt himself constrained to remonstrate. "Look 'ere,
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