"I can ride anything, sir. I can stick on a horse galloping, with my face to its tail."
"I've had a car for years, and always driven it myself. I do my own repairing, and I know every inch of it, inside and out."
"Good again! Know anything about motorbikes?"
"Ridden one for years. After the last Easter Vac., I went from Cornwall to Oxford on an old Humber. When I got there, I took it all to pieces, repaired some of the parts, and turned it into a good machine. Excuse me for talking so much about myself. I wouldn't have done it, had you not asked me. Besides, I'm anxious to show you that I'm not helpless."
"Helpless, by George! You are a useful man. You ride like a Centaur, and you know all about motor-cars and motor-bikes. In addition to all this, you did jolly well in the O.T.C. Yes, you certainly must be made use of."
Again Captain Pringle was silent for a few seconds.
"You've got your licence and all that sort of thing for motoring?"
"That is, you can understand what a Frenchman or a German says?"
"Good! I'll speak to my Colonel right away. But let's strike while the iron is hot. You came here to enlist as a private, you say. In that case let's get through the medical business at once."
"That must be proved. You are big enough, Heaven knows! Six feet high, aren't you?"
"And forty inches around the chest, I should think. Come this way."
A few minutes later Bob had been overhauled by a doctor.
"Sound as a bell," was the doctor's verdict.
Next he had to submit himself to an oculist, who tested Bob's eyes.
"All right?" asked Captain Pringle, who was present during the examination, and told the doctors that Bob was an old friend of his.
"Should be a good shot," replied the oculist. "He's all right."
"Good!" said Captain. "How are your teeth, Nancarrow?"
Bob opened his mouth with a laugh. He was in high spirits.
"They look all right," said Captain Pringle; "but you must be properly examined. A week or two ago hundreds of fellows were taken on without any real examination at all. Only yesterday, when I was down at S----, I was talking with a doctor there, and he told me that a fellow had actually been passed who had a weak spine, and wore instruments to support his back. Of course he was sent home at once, but it shows how, under the new conditions, things were conducted in a loose fashion. However, that's all over now. We are taking only sound men. Here you are."