the last day of this yer Derby scheme, an' there's such a rush of
chaps to get in before they make conscripts of 'em they're fair letting
anybody through."

Sabre's heart--that very heart!--bounded with an immense hope. "D'you
think it's the same at Tidborough?"

"They're saying it's the same everywhere. They say they're passing you
through if you can breathe. I reckon that's so at Chovensbury anyway.
Why, they didn't hardly look at me."

Sabre turned his front wheel to the Chovensbury road. "I'll go there."

VII

At Chovensbury the recruiting station was in the elementary schools.
Sabre entered a large room filled with men in various stages of
dressing, odorous of humanity, very noisy. It was a roughish collection:
the men mostly of the labouring or artisan classes. At a table in the
centre two soldiers with lance corporal's stripes were filling up blue
forms with the answers to questions barked out at the file of men who
shuffled before them. As each form was completed, it was pushed at the
man interrogated with "Get undressed."

Sabre took his place in the chain. In one corner of the room a doctor in
uniform was testing eyesight. Passed on from there each recruit joined a
group wearing only greatcoat or shirt and standing about a stove near
the door. At intervals the door opened and three nude men, coat or shirt
in hand, entered, and a sergeant bawled, "Next three!"

Sabre was presently one of the three. Of the two who companioned him one
was an undersized little individual wearing a truss, the other appeared
to be wearing a suit of deep brown tights out of which his red neck and
red hands thrust conspicuously. Sabre realised with a slight shock that
the brown suit was the grime of the unbathed. Across the passage another
room was entered. The recruits dropped their final covering and were
directed, one to two sergeants who operated weights, a height gauge and
a measuring tape; another to an officer who said, "Stand on one leg.
Bend your toes. Now on the other. Toes. Stretch out your arms. Work your
fingers. Squat on your heels." The third recruit went to an officer who
dabbed chests with a stethoscope and said, "Had any illnesses?" When the
recruit had passed through each performance he walked to two officers
seated with enrolment forms at a table, was spoken to, and then
recovered his discarded garment and walked out. The whole business took
about three minutes. They were certainly whizzing them through.