There came at last a deep growl from the Corporal. It was the note of an old dog, whose life of many battles has not improved his temper. "If the bloody politicians will interfere!"
The words found an echo in the heart of the Mayor. Sinister tales were rife on every hand. And of his own knowledge he was aware that there were hundreds of thousands of trained men in the country at that moment whose presence was most imperatively called for on the perilously weakened and extended British line to France.
"Goin' to call up the grandads, I see," said the Corporal, grimly.
"Aye!" The Mayor laughed bitterly. "Fat lot o' use they'll be when they've got 'em. Muddle, muddle, muddle." Like the Corporal, he was in a very black humor. "It's a mercy the Yankees are with us now--if they are not in too late."
"Fancy muckin' it," said the Corporal, "with the game in our hands. A year ago we'd got 'em beat."
"Press government," said Josiah savagely.
The Corporal proceeded to chew a good cigar. "Dad," he said at last, and it was the first time in his life he had addressed his former employer so familiarly, "I'm thinking I'll have to go before the Medical Board again."
Josiah combed an incipient goatee with a dubious forefinger. "But, my boy, from what you told me, you thought you could get your discharge any time you liked to ask for it."
"You're no fitter now than you were then, are you?"
The Corporal slowly stretched his right leg to its full length, and then, gathering it under him leant his whole weight upon it. "I'm much firmer on my pins than I was then." His rough voice suddenly regained its usual gentleness. "Work seems to suit me." He laughed rather wryly. "I expect the Board'll pass me now--if I ask 'em to."
It was the turn of Josiah to maltreat his cigar. "Not thinking of going back into the Line, are you?"
"If they'll take me." The Corporal spoke slowly and softly. "And I daresay they will--if I ask 'em polite."
Josiah's keen face was full of queer emotion. "Not for me to say anything." But he had been charged with a mission by the urgent Melia. No matter what his private feelings let him not betray it! "Seems to me, my boy, although it's not for me to say anything, that no one'll blame you, after what you've been through, if you stand aside and make room for others."