-er--ours. It was a question of discipline--you know
it is not usual for a non-commissioned officer to be on such friendly
terms with--er--officers. And I think he saw you in the anteroom of the
mess. So I told him something which was not at the time exactly true."

Tam nodded gravely.

For the first time since he had been a soldier he had a horrid feeling
of chagrin, of disappointment, of something that rebuffed and hurt.

"A' see, sir-r," he said, "'tis no' ma wish to put mesel' forward, an'
if A've been a wee bit free wi' the young laddies there was no
disrespect in it. A' know ma place an' A'm no' ashamed o' it. There's a
shipyard on the Clyde that's got ma name on its books as a
fitter--that's ma job an' A'm proud o' it. If ye're thinkin', Captain
Blackie, sir-r, that ma heid got big--"

"No, no, Tam," said Blackie hastily, "I'm just telling you--so that
you'll understand things when they happen."

Tam saluted and walked away.

He passed Brandspeth and Walker-Giddons and responded to their flippant
greetings with as stiff a salute as he was capable of offering. They
stared after him in amazement.

"What's the matter with Tam?" they demanded simultaneously, one of the
other.

Tam reached his room, closed and locked the door and sat down to unravel
a confused situation.

He had grown up with the squadron and had insensibly drifted into a
relationship which had no counterpart in any other branch of the
service. He was "Tam," unique and indefinable. He had few intimates of
his own rank, and little association with his juniors. The mechanics
treated him as being in a class apart and respected him since the day
when, to the prejudice of good order and military discipline, he had
followed a homesick boy who had deserted, found him and hammered him
until nostalgia would have been a welcome relief. All deserters are
shot, and the youth having at first decided that death was preferable to
a repetition of the thrashing he had received, changed his mind and was
tearfully grateful.

Sitting on his bed, his head between his hands, pondering this
remarkable change which had come to the attitude of his officers and
friends, Tam was sensible (to his astonishment) of the extraordinary
development his mentality had undergone. He had come to the army
resentfully, a rabid socialist with a keen contempt for "the upper
classes" which he had never concealed. The upper classes were people
who wore high white collars, turned up