38 
LAND & WATER 
May 25, 19161 I. 
a low-toned conversation between the guards and two 
men who rehcved them. 
" What's the Cap. doin' ? " asked one. " Asleep," 
was the answer. " Same old thing — liquored as usual." 
" Isn't he chasin' round for evidence about this guy ? " 
" Not him. We asked round a bit but nobody seems to 
have heard of him. He's a spy, an' soon as the Cap. 
wakes up or the Colonel comes round he'll be tried an' 
shot right away like that last one we nailed." 
Tubbs tried to speak, but was silenced again savagely, 
and sat for another half hour alternately cheering himself 
with the thought that it must come right when he got a 
chance to sjjeak at his trial, and remembering, with beads 
of cold perspiration oozing out on his forehead, all the 
horrible tales he had ever heard of summary courts 
martial and their abrupt endings with unpleasant results 
to the prisoner. 
Then he was led back into the outer room to find there 
three officers sitting at a table and a few men with the 
sergeant who had arrested him. 'J"he officer who had first 
questioned him sat in the centre of the three. Tubbs 
took his place in front of the table, had his hat snatched 
off, and was told sternly to stand up. 
" What ha\e you got to say for yourself," asked the 
centre officer. Tubbs, telling himself he must keep cool, 
began the same lon^ explanation he had given before. 
It was cut short before he finished. " Have you any 
witnesses ? " " Crowds," he said eagerly. " There's 
the rest of my crowd, and the Staff Officer with them, 
and General Headquarters will vouch for me." 
" Sergeant, what is your evidence } " The sergeant 
stated how he had been called by the sentry, and thinking 
the prisoner a suspicious cha.racter had arrested him. 
" Have any steps been taken to verify or contradict 
the prisoner's story?" asked another of the officers 
mildly. 
" Every possible step," said the centre officer. " But — 
nothin' doin'. Nobody seems to have heard of him." 
" What was the number of this Battery you talk 
about ? " Tubbs had to confess he hadn't heard it. 
" But the Major's name," he said with sudden inspiration 
" was — wait a minute — I called him Major mostly, but 
I know I was introduced. It was — er — oh — what in 
thunder was it now ? " 
" Yes, what was it ? " said the centre officer grimly. 
" Now look here my son, you'll get off cheaper if you 
confess, and if you've got any useful information to give 
us about the enemy. If not ... I really don't 
think it's worth wasting more time with him, is it ? " 
he concluded, turning to the other two. " What do 
you say ? Guilty ? " 
One nodded and the other hesitated slightly. 
" This is murder," broke in Tubbs wildly. " You've 
only to send me to Headquarters or to find the Battery 
where I ate to-day." 
" Could you find your way there ? Here, can you show 
us where it is on the map ? " and a large map grid-ironed 
with red lines was flung on the table. " Here's where you 
are now," said the centre officer, and placed a finger on 
the map. " Now, where's this battery you talk about ? " 
Tubbs declined to have anything to do with the map. 
He liadn't seen the place on the map, he didn't know or 
care where he was on the map ; but if this cursed farce 
didn't stop he'd make somebody sweat for it presently ; 
he'd. ... 
" That'll do," said the officer sharply, and Tubbs 
stopped short at the touch of a pricking point in the small 
of his back. He gulped hard once or twice. " Send me 
to Headquarters," was all he said at last. 
. "What about it?" said the centre officer again. 
'■ Guilty — eh ? " One of the others wondered hesita- 
tingly whether it would be worth sending the man to 
H.O., but that suggestion was promptly squashed. " Fat 
lot of thanks we'd get for that. What would G.H.Q. 
say or 'do if every suspected prisoner was shunted on to 
them. Besides, I'd object a heap to G.H.Q. trying my 
prisoners. Don't see why we shouldn't have the privilege 
of shooting our own spies. The men like the sport for 
one thing, and it teaches these gentry to keep clear of 
us." 
" All right," gave in the objecting officer at last, and 
Tubbs' heart went down with a bump. " But just a 
minute. One thing that he said we might prove or dis- 
:SKaMP>^'4*iTiubbsUieArJ:'leapt'ii^agiiin, a*uljivjieii.tlie aaildJ^ « 
mannered officer whispered a moment to the others and 
then turning to him said, " Just step over to the other 
side of the room out of earshot a moment please." 
Tubbs stepped over-with alacrity. " Thank you. Now 
back again. ... By the way, what did you say 
was the reason you didn't go with your friends into tlie 
trenches ? " 
In a flash Tubbs saw how he had been caught. He 
stammered " I — I — I — my — er — " 
" E.xactly." said the officer. " Your knee was very 
bad. It has completely recovered since, I notice." He 
turned to the other two : " I agree with the finding of 
Guilty. The sentence I suppose " 
Tubbs' face was going grey. " See here," he blurted 
out, " You caught me for fair and I'll admit there's 
nothing wrong with my. knee. I just didn't feel well 
enough." 
The officer looked at him coldly. " Was it before or 
after lunch you felt unwell ? " 
" I've been — er, most of — just about lunch time I think 
it w^as." 
"Then, of course, you couldn't eat much lunch. 
Suppose " — and he looked at the others, " wouldn't the 
doctor and a stomach-pump settle this point ? If it 
goes against the prisoner I've nothing more to say." 
Tubbs remembered his lunch and his knees shook 
imder him. " I may have eaten a fair — " he began, 
buta.cold glance from his tormentor stopped him flounder- 
ing. He was coming to hate and to fear this man that at 
first he had thought his best hope as the worst of his 
inquisitors. 
" I'll tell you the plain truth," he blurted in 
desperation. " I got cold feet when that shelling came 
on. I didn't want to get killed, so I just plain quit." 
"That may be the truth— at last," said the mild 
officer. " But you can understand that all the lies you 
told don't help you. I agree — Guilty." 
"iNever saw such a fuss over one paltry spy," said the 
centre officer. " Sentence of the Court — prisoner to be 
taken out and shot forthwith." He pushed his chair 
back and stood up. " Go on sergeant — usual place ; 
and come back and report' when he's turned off. Now 
you fellows, what about a drink ? " 
" You pop-eyed booze-fighter," shouted Tubbs, 
stepping forward a pace and glaring. " Wait till my 
crowd start looking for me.. Wait till you hear what 
G.H.Q. has to say to you. Wait till you hear the Hyphen 
eagle squeal. You'll pay for this, you butchers. Talk 
about Germans, you're worse than any brute Hun that 
ever stepped. You —you —you. 
The escort closed in and seized him still raving and 
shouting hysterically; but as they commenced to drag 
him towards the door his knees sagged, his feet trailed out 
behind him and his head drooped. 
They laid him down hurriedly. " I was afraid it was 
going a bit too far," said the mild-mannered officer. 
" He'll raise Cain when he finds it was a sell," said the 
centre one, pulling off his fierce moustaches and stuffing 
them in his pocket. " Not much," said the third. "Don't 
forget, ' I got cold feet. I just plain quit.' That's a 
tale he won't be too anxious to advertise. But I think 
we ought to just naturally fade away and leave him to 
you, Pippy," he finished looking at the Artillery subaltern 
who had suddenly appeared on the scene immediately 
after Tubbs had collapsed. 
" Hustle," said Pippy simply. " He's coming to." 
Tubbs, as he came slowly round, saw Pippy's face 
bending over him. He stared vacantly at it a moment. 
You just came in time," he gasped faintly. " In another 
minute I'd have . . . murdered some of those 
guards, and then I suppose . . . they'd have shot 
me for sure." 
"Never mind that now," said Pippy soothingly. 
" Here, drink this. Its Old Rye." 
Signaller Ellis Silas. i6th Infantry Battalion, .\ustralian 
Contingent, had the honour of submitting his Sketches o: 
Gallipoli for the inspection of the King and Queen at Bucking- 
ham Palace last Saturday. The King was particular!}/ 
interested in the drawing depicting the cliargc up the hill at 
" Bloody .^ngle " on May ^nd, 1915, and also '' The Last 
.Assembly," " when many of us stood shoulder to shoulder 
for the last time in this world." 
