'Yes, my son, perhaps that's the reason'--this was old Constable again--'the average Australian is naturally a sight stouter-hearted than the average Englishman--they don't need it.'
'Then why the hell do they punish Englishmen worse than Australians, if they can't even be _expected_ to do so well?' retorted Foster; but this piece of dialectics was lost on Constable.
'Anyhow, I don't see that it need be such an absolute standard,' Smith began again, thoughtfully; he was a thoughtful young fellow. 'They don't expect everybody to have equally strong arms or equally good brains; and if a chap's legs or arms aren't strong enough for him to go on living in the trenches they take him out of it (if he's lucky). But every man's expected to have equally strong nerves in all circumstances, and to _go on having them_ till he goes under; and when he goes under they don't consider how far his nerves, or guts, or whatever you call it, were as good as other people's. Even if he had nerves like a chicken to begin with he's expected to behave as a man with nerves like a lion or a Drake would do....'
'A man with nerves like a chicken is a damned fool to go into the infantry at all,' put in Williams--'the honour of the regiment' person.
'Yes, but he may have had a will-power like a lion, and simply made himself do it.'
'You'd be all right, Smith,' somebody said, 'if you didn't use such long words; what the hell do you mean by an absolute standard?'
'Sorry, George, I forgot you were so ignorant. What I mean is this. Take a case like Penrose's: All they ask is, was he seen running the wrong way, or not going the right way? If the answer is Yes--the punishment is death, _et cetera, et cetera_. To begin with, as I said, they don't consider whether he was _capable_ physically or mentally--I don't know which it is--of doing the right thing. And then there are lots of other things which _we_ know make one man more "windy" than another, or windier to-day than he was yesterday--things like being a married man, or having boils, or a bad cold, or being just physically weak, so that you get so exhausted you haven't got any strength left to resist your fears (I've had that feeling myself)--none of those things are considered _at all_ at a court-martial--and I think they ought to be.'