Page:The Borzoi 1920.djvu/74

44 bottle. And there was my soldier, who provided me with an empty case, and himself another, and we had the candle between us. On the table was a tin of condensed milk suffering from shock, and some documents under a shell-nose. Pictures of partly clad ladies began to dimmer from the walls through the gloom. Now and then the cellar trembled.

"Where's that old 'bus come from?" I asked.

"Ah! the pore old bitch, sir," said the soldier sadly.

"Yes, of course, but what's the matter with her?"

"She's done in, sir. But she's done her bit, she has," said my soldier, changing the crossing of his legs. "Ah! little did she think when I used to take 'er acrorse Ludgit Circus what a 'ell of a time I'd 'ave to give 'er some day. She's a good ole thing. She's done 'er bit. She won't see Liverpole Street no more. If Milertery Medals wasn't so cheap, she ought to 'ave one, she ought."

The cellar had a shocking fit of the palsy, and the candlelight shuddered and flattened.

"The ruddy swine are ruddy wild today. Suthin's upset 'em. 'Ow long will this ruddy war last, sir? "asked the soldier, slightly plaintive.

"I know," I said. "It's filthy. But what about your old 'bus?"

"Ah! What about 'er. She ain't 'arf 'ad a time. She's seen enough war to make a general want to go home and shell peas the rest of 'is life. What she knows about it would make all them clever fellers in London who reckon they know all about it turn green if they heard a door slam. Learned it all in one jolly old day too. Learned it sudden, like you gen'ally learns things you don't forgit afterwards.

"And I reckon I 'adn't anything to find out, either, not after Antwerp. It only shows— Don't tell me, sir, war teaches yer a lot. It only shows fools what they don't know but might 'ave guessed if they 'adn't been fools.