sts, Sergeant," replied Dam--though his heart
sank within him at the thought of the long lonely vigil in the dark,
when he would be so utterly at the mercy of the Snake--the Snake over
whom he had just won a signal victory, and who would be all the more
vindictive and terrible in consequence. Could he keep sane through the
lonely darkness of those dreadful hours? Perhaps--if he kept himself
in some severe physical agony. He would put a spur beneath his
tight-drawn belt and next to his skin, he would strike his knee
frequently with the "toe of the butt" of his carbine, he would put
pebbles in his boots, and he would cause cramp in his limbs, one
after the other. Any kind of pain would help.

* * * * *

It must be quarter of an hour since he had rapped on the mortuary door
and sent his messages of prohibition to mouse, rat, bandicoot,
civet-cat, wild-cat or other vermin intruder through the
roof-ventilation holes. He would knock again. A strange thing
this--knocking at a dead man's door in the middle of the night.
Suppose the dead man called "Come in!" It would be intensely
interesting, but in no wise terrifying or horrible. Presumably poor
young Trooper Priddell was no more dangerous or dreadful in the spirit
than he had been in the flesh.... Fortunate young man! Were he only on
sentry-go outside the peaceful mortuary and Damocles de Warrenne
stretched on the bier within, to await the morrow and its pomp and
ceremony, when the carcass of the dead soldier would receive honours
never paid to the living, sentient man, be he never so worthy, heroic,
virtuous and deserving. Oh, to be lying in there at rest, to be on the
other side of that closed door at peace!...

To-morrow that poor dead yokel's body would receive a "Present Arms"
(as though he were an armed party commanded by an Officer) from the
Guard, which the sentry would turn out as the coffin passed the
Guard-room. For the first and last time in his life, he would get a
"_Present Arms_". It wouldn't be in his _life_ though. For the first
and last time in his death? That didn't sound right either. Anyhow he
would get it, and lots of strange, inexplicable, origin-forgotten
rites would be observed over this piece of clay--hitherto so cheaply
held and roughly treated.

Queer! As "Trooper Priddell" he was of no account. As a piece of
fast-decaying carrion he would be the centre of a piece of elaborate
ceremonial! His troop would parade i