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'I know,' the old general said.

'Sir?' the captain said.

'I know what you mean,' the old general said. 'Continue,'

'Yes sir.-Civilians, organised our own company ourselves, to go out and die for dear old Rutgers-that sort of thing; elected our officers, notified the Government who was to get what commission and then got hold of the Articles of War and tried to memorise as much of it as we could before the commission came back. So when the flu hit us, we were in the transport coming over last October, and when the first one died-it was Brzewski-we found out that none of us had got far enough in the manual to find out how to bury a dead soldier except me-I was a sha-second lieutenant then-and I just happened to have found out by accident the last night before we left because a girl had stood me up and I thought I knew why. I mean, who it was, who the guy was. And you know how it is: you think of all the things to do to get even, make her sorry; you lying dead right there where she's got to step over you to pass, and it's too late now and boy, wont that fix her-'

'Yes,' the old general said. 'I know,'

'Sir?' the captain said.

'I know that too,' the old general said.

'Of course you do-remember, anyway,' the captain said. 'No-body's really that old, I dont care how-' going that far before he managed to stop himself.'I'm sorry, sir,' he said.

'Dont be,' the old general said. 'Continue. So you buried him,'

'So that night just by chance or curiosity or maybe it was personal interest, I was reading up on what somebody would have to do to get rid of me afterward and make Uncle Sam's books balance, and so when Br-' he paused and glanced rapidly at the corporal, but only for a second, even less than that: barely a falter even: '-the first one died, I was elected, to certify personally with the M. O. that the body was a dead body and sign the certificate and drill the firing squad and then give the command to dump him overboard. Though by the time we got to Brest two weeks later, all the rest of them had had plenty of practice at it. So you see where that leaves us. I mean, him; he's the one in the fix: if I buried him in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in October last year, then Colonel Beale couldn't have seen him killed at Mons in. And if Colonel Beale saw him killed in, he cant be standing here now waiting for you to shoot him tomor-' He stopped completely. He said quickly: 'I'm sorry, sir. I didn't-'

'Yes,' the old general said in his courteous and bland and inflectionless voice. 'Then Colonel Beale was wrong,'

'No sir,' the captain said.

'Then you wish to retract your statement that this is the man whose death you personally certified and whose body you saw sink into the Atlantic Ocean?'

'No sir,' the captain said.

'So you believe Colonel Beale,'

'If he says so, sir,'

'That's not quite an answer. Do you believe him?' He watched WednesdayNight the captain. The captain looked as steadily back at him. Then the captain said:

'And that I certified him dead and buried him,' He said to the corporal, even in a sort of French: 'So you came back. I'm glad to sec you and I hope you had a nice trip,' and looked back at the old general again as steadily as he, as courteously and as firm, a good moment this time until the old general said in French: 'You speak my tongue also,'

Thank you, sir,' the captain answered him. 'No other Frenchman ever called it that,'

'Do not demean yourself. You speak it well. What is your name?'

'Middleton, sir,'

'You have-twenty-five years, perhaps?'

'Twenty-four, sir,'

'Twenty-four. Some day you are going to be a very dangerous man, if you are not already so': and said to the corporal: 'Thank you, my child. You may return to your squad,' and spoke a name over his shoulder without turning his head, though the aide had already come around the table as the corporal about-faced, the aide flanking him back to the door and through it and out, the American captain turning his head back in time to meet for another second the