’Yes, yes; we all do that sooner or later,—­thank Heaven who has set a term to our miseries,’ said Spurstow, settling the cushions under the head.  ’It occurs to me that unless I drink something I shall go out before my time.  I’ve stopped sweating, and—­I wear a seventeen-inch collar.’  He brewed himself scalding hot tea, which is an excellent remedy against heat-apoplexy if you take three or four cups of it in time.  Then he watched the sleeper.

’A blind face that cries and can’t wipe its eyes, a blind face that chases him down corridors!  H’m!  Decidedly, Hummil ought to go on leave as soon as possible; and, sane or otherwise, he undoubtedly did rowel himself most cruelly.  Well, Heaven send us understanding!’

At mid-day Hummil rose, with an evil taste in his mouth, but an unclouded eye and a joyful heart.

‘I was pretty bad last night, wasn’t I?’ said he.

’I have seen healthier men.  You must have had a touch of the sun.  Look here:  if I write you a swingeing medical certificate, will you apply for leave on the spot?’

‘No.’

‘Why not?  You want it.’

‘Yes, but I can hold on till the weather’s a little cooler.’

‘Why should you, if you can get relieved on the spot?’

‘Burkett is the only man who could be sent; and he’s a born fool.’

’Oh, never mind about the line.  You aren’t so important as all that.  Wire for leave, if necessary.’

Hummil looked very uncomfortable.

‘I can hold on till the Rains,’ he said evasively.

‘You can’t.  Wire to headquarters for Burkett.’

’I won’t.  If you want to know why, particularly, Burkett is married, and his wife’s just had a kid, and she’s up at Simla, in the cool, and Burkett has a very nice billet that takes him into Simla from Saturday to Monday.  That little woman isn’t at all well.  If Burkett was transferred she’d try to follow him.  If she left the baby behind she’d fret herself to death.  If she came,—­and Burkett’s one of those selfish little beasts who are always talking about a wife’s place being with her husband,—­she’d die.  It’s murder to bring a woman here just now.  Burkett hasn’t the physique of a rat.  If he came here he’d go out; and I know she hasn’t any money, and I’m pretty sure she’d go out too.  I’m salted in a sort of way, and I’m not married.  Wait till the Rains, and then Burkett can get thin down here.  It’ll do him heaps of good.’

’Do you mean to say that you intend to face—­what you have faced, till the Rains break?’

’Oh, it won’t be so bad, now you’ve shown me a way out of it.  I can always wire to you.  Besides, now I’ve once got into the way of sleeping, it’ll be all right.  Anyhow, I shan’t put in for leave.  That’s the long and the short of it.’

’My great Scott!  I thought all that sort of thing was dead and done with.’

’Bosh!  You’d do the same yourself.  I feel a new man, thanks to that cigarette-case.  You’re going over to camp now, aren’t you?’