PART II
The great hall was emptying apace as the clocks struck two, and we passed out through double doors into a huge reading and smoking room, blue with tobacco and buzzing with voices. ' We're quieter as a rule,' said the Boy. * But we're filling up vacancies to-day. Hence the anxious faces of the Line and Militia. Look ! ' There were four tables against the walls, and at each stood a crowd of uniforms. The centres of disturbance were non-commissioned officers who, seated, growled and wrote down names.
- Come to my table,' said Burgard. ' Well,
Purvis, have you ear-marked our little lot ? ' ' I've been tellin' 'em for the last hour we've only twenty-three vacancies,' was the sergeant's answer. ' I've taken nearly fifty for Trials, and this is what's left.' Burgard smiled. ' I'm very sorry,' he said to the crowd, ' but C Company's full.' 1 Excuse me, Sir,' said a man, c but wouldn't sea-time count in my favour ? I've put in three months with the Fleet. Small quick-firers, Sir ? Company guns ? Any sort of light machinery ? '
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