s and
bacon, bread and jam, and drank two cups of tea. Towards nine o'clock
his car took him to the wharf. When he saw the men standing
motionless, the officer saluting and the lorries all in a row,
his face went as red as a brick, and he stood up in his car and
addressed them angrily:

"So you are incapable of the slightest initiative! If I am absent for
an hour, detained by more important work, everything comes to a
standstill! I see I cannot rely on anyone here except myself!"

The same evening he called the officers together.

"To-morrow, Saturday," he said, "there will be a parade at 7 a.
m.--and this time I shall be there."

The next morning Barefoot with his men and lorries paraded once more
on the wharf, with a sea-wind sweeping an icy rain into their faces.
At half-past seven the lieutenant took action.

"We will start work," he said. "The colonel was quite right yesterday
and spoke like a real business man. In our respect for narrow
formalism, we stupidly wasted a whole morning's work."

So his men began to pile up the cases, the lorries started to move
the sacks of oats, and the day's work was pretty well advanced when
Colonel Musgrave appeared. Having had his bath and shaved, and
absorbed poached eggs on toast, bread, marmalade and three cups of
tea, he had not been able to be ready before ten. Suddenly coming
upon all this healthy bustle, he leaped out of his car, and angrily
addressed the eager Barefoot, who was approaching him with a modest
smile.

"Who has had the impudence to call the men off parade before my
arrival?" he said. "So if I happen to be detained elsewhere by more
important work, my orders are simply disregarded! I see again that I
cannot rely on anyone here except myself!"

Meanwhile the crestfallen Barefoot was meditating upon the mysterious
ways of the army. Musgrave inspected the work and decided that
everything was to be done all over again. The biscuits were to be
put in the shed where the oats had been piled, and the oats were to
be put out in the open where the biscuits had been. The meat was to
change places with the jam, and the mustard with the bacon. The
lorries were to take away again everything they had just brought up.
So that when lunch-time arrived, everything was in exactly the same
state as it had been at dawn. The Admiralty announced the arrival of
a transport at two o'clock; the men were supposed to find their
rations ready for them upon landing.

Musgrave v