is touched, except perhaps by a few slugs.
Of these, however, I dare say the surgeon will rid us this morning.
It has been a big affair and, if we live to a hundred years, we are
not likely to go through such another."

"I wish you would not be so confoundedly cheerful," Hallett said,
gloomily; "we have got to go down again, and the Kokofu are to be
dealt with. We shall probably have half a dozen more battles. The
rain, too, shows no signs of giving up, and we shall have to tramp
through swamps innumerable, ford countless rivers and, I dare say,
be short of food again before we have done. As to going through
such work again, my papers will be sent in at the first hint that I
am likely to have to take part in it."

"All of which means, Hallett, that just at the present moment a
reaction has set in; and I will guarantee that, if you had a
thoroughly good breakfast, and finished it off with a pint of
champagne, you would see matters in a different light, altogether."

"Don't talk of such things," Hallett said, feebly; "it is a dream,
a mere fantasy. It doesn't seem to me, at present, a possibility
that such a meal could fall to my lot.

"Look at me, look at my wasted figure! I weighed nearly fourteen
stone, when we started; I doubt whether I weigh ten, now."

"All the better, Hallett. When I first saw you, on shore at
Liverpool, I said to myself that you were as fat as a pig.

"'He would be a fine-looking young fellow,' I said, 'if he could
get some of it off. I suppose it is good living and idleness that
has done it.'"

Hallett laughed.

"Well, perhaps I need not grumble at that; but the worst of it is
that I have always heard that, when a fellow loses on active
service, he is sure to make it up again, and perhaps a stone more,
after it is over."

"Yes, it is clear that you will have to diet, when you get home. No
more savoury dishes, no more champagne suppers; just a cut of a
joint, a few vegetables, and a ten-mile walk after."

"Don't talk of such things," Hallett said, impatiently; "rather
than live as you say, I would put up with carrying sixteen stone
about with me. What is the use of living, if you are to have no
satisfaction out of life?"

"Well, Hallett, my advice to you in that case is, make love to some
young lady, directly you reach England; and marry her in a month,
before you have begun to assume elephantine proportions. Once
hooked, you know, she cannot sue for divorce, on the ground that
you