while Captain Daunt commanded the squadron the trooper
occasionally disgraced.

But he had his points, mark you, and it was a thousand pities that so
fine a soldier was undeniably subject to attacks of _delirium tremens_
and unmistakeably a secret drinker who might at any time have a
violent outburst, finishing in screams, sobs, and tears. A _most_
remarkable case! Who ever heard of a magnificent athlete--regimental
champion boxer and swordsman, admittedly as fine and bold a horseman
and horse-master as the Rough-Riding Sergeant-Major or the
Riding-Master himself--being a sufficiently industrious secret-drinker
to get "goes" of "d.t.," to drink till he behaved like some
God-and-man-forsaken wretch that lives on cheap gin in a chronic state
of alcoholism. He had his points, and if the Brigadier had ever
happened to say to the Colonel: "Send me your smartest, most
intelligent, and keenest man to gallop for me at the manoeuvres," or
the Inspector of Army Gymnasia had asked for the regiment's finest
specimen, or if one representative private soldier had to be sent
somewhere to uphold the credit and honour of the Queen's Greys,
undoubtedly Trooper Matthewson would have been chosen.

What a splendid squadron-sergeant major, regimental sergeant-major,
yea, what a fine officer he would have made, had he been reliable. But
there, you can't have an officer, nor a non-com., either, who lies
shrieking and blubbering on the floor _coram publico_, and screams to
God and man to save him from the snakes that exist only in his own
drink-deranged mind. For of course it can only be Drink that produces
"Snakes"! Yes, it is only through the ghastly alcohol-tinted glasses
that you can "see snakes"--any fool knows _that_.

And the fools of the Queen's Greys knew it, and hoped to God that
Matthewson would "keep off it" till after the Divisional Boxing
Tournament and Assault-at-Arms, for, if he did, the Queen's Greys
would certainly have the Best Man-at-Arms in the Division and have a
mighty good shot at having the Heavy-Weight All-India Champion, since
Matthewson had challenged the Holder and held an absolutely unbroken
record of victories in the various regimental and inter-regimental
boxing tournaments in which he had taken part since joining the
regiment. And he had been "up against some useful lads" as Captain
Chevalier, the president and Maecenas of the Queen's Greys'
boxing-club, expressed it. Yes, Matthewson had his points and the