H 
Land & Water 
February 2i, 191 8 
The Sleuth Hound : By Alec Waugh 
E 
ERD the latest, Kid ? " 
" Nawh, Steve, what is it ? Cap n gone on 
" No such luck. There's a chance of makm 
twenty quid and getting a month's leave. 
Private Walker sat up suddenly. , xt * i:u i„ •> 
•• What's that ? Month's leave, did yer say ? Not hkely. 
" Straight, though ; just 'ad it from the Sergmt ; if anyone 
catches a BDche spy 'e gets twenty quid an a month s leave. 
Private Walker's face lit up suddenly, as one who has seen 
the beatific vision. 
" Stuff to give 'em, ay," said his companion. 
But he did not answer. There rose before him dreams of a 
resplendent future. A month's leave and twenty pounds to 
spend on it. Gawd, but what a time he would have ! Cinemas 
and music halls, joy rides and restaurants. For four weeks 
he could live like a lord ; but the secret must be kept fast. 
" Now look 'ere, Alf," he said cunningly, ' don t you go 
teUing the chaps about this. We must keep this to ourselves 
like. Don't do to 'ave too many in the know.' 
" You're right there, Kid," said Steve ; " dead nght. This 
is our job." . , ...,., 
" Yes," said Private Walker, and sank back into his dreams. 
From that moment onwards Private Walker was a changed 
man. No one in the gun team could understand it. 
" Look 'ere, you chaps," he said that evening. " I don't 
sleep so well 'o nights nowadays, and if any of you likes to 
turn in a bit longer, I don't mind doing an extra guard or two 
if anyone wants me to." 
Six voices rose in one unanimous discordant wail : 
" Me." 
" Well, I can't do 'em aU, you know ; I'll take it m turns. 
You don't mind, do you, Corporal ? " 
From the end of the dugout a drowsy voice muttered that 
if anyone was fool enough to want to go on guard, they 
blooming well could. As long as some one was sentry over 
the gun, he didn't care a farthing who it was. 
And so Private Walker mounted guard over the gun for 
twelve hours of the twenty-four ; and the rest of the gun 
team, accepting gratefully the gifts of Providence, drank off 
their rum ration and slept. 
As a sentry Private Walker had in the past been a sloppy, 
somnolent individual. Times without number Mr. Ferguson 
had found him at his post with his rifle unloaded ; never had 
Captain Evans extracted from him a satisfactory explanation 
of the procedure necessary in case of gas. F.P. No. 2 had 
come his way with monotonous regularity. He was quite 
the dud man of No. 305 Machine Gun Company, and it was 
the fervent wish of every officer and N.C.O. in the company 
that, when the Brigadier paid one of his periodical visits to 
the gun. Private Walker would not be the man on guard. 
But the miracle happened. From being lazy and sleepy- 
eyed, Private Walker became vigilant, keen, ruthless in the 
pursuance of his duty. He was the terror of anyone passing 
near him. On dark nights it was bad enough to be suddenly 
confronted with his fierce peering face, hoarse roar, and 
bayonet levelled at the throat. But it was worse on the clear 
nights, when the moonlight fell over long stretches of bleak 
moorland. For it did not matter how far away a figure was, 
he sentry's " Who are you ? " thundered across the night : 
and it was no good for the man once spotted to shout back, 
" Signaller with a message for Division." Private Walker's 
word " Advance and be recognised," had gone forth, and there 
was no gainsaying it. The signaller had to come back the 
whole five hundred yards, and satisfy that sleuth hound of 
spies that he was not a Prussian guardsman masquerading as 
a " Jock." And like every man with a true sense of duty, 
rank and position meant nothing at all to Walker. Even 
the captain of the R.E.'s was dragged before the inscrutable 
tribunal. For a moment or two he had demurred. 
" Look here ; damn it, man," he had shouted back ; " I'm 
in a hurry. It's all right. I'm a captain of the R.E.'s." 
Private Walker said nothing ; he loaded a round into the 
breach and fired into the night. 
The captain came. 
For a fortnight this went on ; the gun team was relieved, 
and went back to detail, spent a few days there ; then back 
into the line. 
" Still like doing buckshee guards. Walker ? " said the 
Corporal. 
• He nodded. He was one of those men who, when the hand 
is once set to the plough, do not turn back. His mind was 
only capable of holding one idea at a time, and at the present 
moment it was whoUy obsessed with the lust of thwarting the 
Boche. , , X 
The climax was reached two days later. 
Major Dunstan had only a week back been promoted to the 
Divisional Staff, as Divisional Machine-Gun Officer, and the 
first days of his consulship were spent in the reconnaissance 
of the gun positions under his command ; 305, being the 
divisional company, he left till last, and so till the time that 
Private Walker returned to the line his company as a whole 
had seen next to nothing of the major. Not having come 
into personal contact with him, they were merely aware of 
his existence, as they were of the General's — a remote being 
who was a necessary, but none the less insignificant, part of 
the establishment of a division. 
And so the tall, angular figure that obeyed Private Walker's 
imperative summons to " advance and be recognised " was 
quite unknown to that indefatigable worthy. 
" 305th Company, aren't you ? " said the major. 
" Yes, sir." 
"No. 36c gun position ? " 
" Yes, sir." 
" Now, let's see, where's the gun on your left ? " 
Private Walker looked at him suspiciously. What right 
had this man to be asking him all these questions ? He 
wasn't one of his company's officers. Still, he was an officer. 
" Over there, sir, behind that tree." 
"Yes, exactly," went on the major, "and, what's your 
target ? " 
Before answering. Private Walker gave him a very searching 
glance. This was suspicious. German spies often dressed 
up as officers. He had read about that ; and who but a 
German spy would want to ask him all this ? Still, he would 
make quite sure. 
" Point on the Bapaume Road, sir, three hundred yards 
north of Thiepval." 
" Yes, that's good," went on the major, happily, ignorant 
of the thoughts flooding tempestuously through Walker's 
mind. " And now what about your battle lines, supposing 
the Germans were to break through ? " 
That settled him, a bayonet flashed at the major's throat. 
" 'Ands up," shouted the sentry. " 'Ere, Sergint, 'ere ; 
I've got a spy 1 " 
" But, damn it, man," spluttered the major, " is this a 
joke ? " 
" You'll find it a joke, when you're in one of them cages. 
'Ere, Sergint, this is 'im ! " 
The sergeant looked a bit doubtful, remembering Walker's 
exploits in the past. 
" Are you certain. Walker ? " 
" Yes, Sergint ; 'e must go to the cap'n. May I take 
'im ? " 
" But, look here. Sergeant," said the major, " we can't have 
this. We're at war now." 
" Don't care what the 'ell we're at. You're a Boche ; 
and I am going to get twenty quid and a month's leave. May 
I take him off, Sergint ? " 
The sergeant thought for a moment. Walker was a most 
abandoned fool, but then, if it w?re a Boche it wouldn't do 
for him to let it go ; and whatever happened, Walker wa 
responsible. ■ ' . 
" All right. Walker. Take him off." 
" Thanks, Sergint, you'll see me off on leave to-morrer, I 
expect. Come on, you ! " he flung at the prisoner. And the 
major, resigning himself to the inevitable, followed dutifully. 
After all, he had a sense of humoiir. 
Triumphantly Private Walker led his spoil before Captain 
Evans. 
" German spy, sir 1 'E approached my post, in a most 
suspicious way, sir ; asked me a lot of questions, sir. Saw as 
'ow it must be a spy, sir " 
He broke off in the middle. The captain was looking at 
him with a look that spelt 28 days' F.P. No. i. 
" Do you know who you've arrested, Walker ? " he said, 
his voice dangerously cool. 
" No, sir. Thought as' ow it were " 
" It's Major Dunstan, the Divisional Machine-Gun Officer." 
Private Walker stood and gaped. 
" You may go, Walker," said the captain. 
He fled. - 
Next day he was once more on the field punishment list. 
Captain Evans had dealt out retributidn lavishly. 
" Well," said the sergeant,' " What can you expect, making 
a fool of yourself like that ? You've got what you deserve, 
of course; the captain's fed up. Think what sort of a name 
you've got the company." 
