t. As soon as the men
were in their seats, the Subaltern made his way to the seat he had
"bagged," and prepared to go to sleep. Another fellow pushed his head
through the window and wondered what had become of the regimental
transport. Somebody else said he didn't know or care; his valise was
always lost, he said; they always made a point of it.

Soon after, they were all asleep, and the train pulled slowly out of the
station.

When the Subaltern awoke it was early morning, and they were moving
through Hampshire fields at a rather sober pace. He was assailed with a
poignant feeling of annoyance and resentment that this war should be
forced upon them. England looked so good in the morning sunshine, and
the comforts of English civilisation were so hard to leave. The sinister
uncertainty of the Future brooded over them like a thunder cloud.

Isolated houses thickened into clusters, streets sprang up, and soon
they were in Southampton.

The train pulled up at the Embarkation Station, quite close to the wharf
to which some half-dozen steamers were moored. There was little or no
delay. The Battalion fell straight into "massed formation," and began
immediately to move on to one of the ships. The Colonel stood by the
gangway talking to an Embarkation Officer. Everything was in perfect
readiness, and the Subaltern was soon able to secure a berth.

There was plenty of excitement on deck while the horses of the
regimental transport were being shipped into the hold.

To induce "Light Draft," "Heavy Draft" horses and "Officers'
Chargers"--in all some sixty animals--to trust themselves to be lowered
into a dark and evil-smelling cavern, was no easy matter. Some shied
from the gangway, neighing; other walked peaceably on to it, and, with a
"thus far and no farther" expression in every line of their bodies, took
up a firm stand, and had to be pushed into the hold with the combined
weight of many men. Several of the transport section narrowly escaped
death and mutilation at the hands, or rather hoofs, of the Officers'
Chargers. Meanwhile a sentry, with fixed bayonet, was observed watching
some Lascars, who were engaged in getting the transport on board. It
appeared that the wretched fellows, thinking that they were to be taken
to France and forced to fight the Germans, had deserted to a man on the
previous night, and had had to be routed out of their hiding-places in
Southampton.

Not that such a small thing as that could upset