Chapter 20 "Corporal Whitcomb" Summary

The chaplain, ashamed that he lacked the courage stand up to Colonel Cathcart, returns to the relative solitude of his wooded clearing. There, outside his tent, he spots his high strung assistant, Corporal Whitcomb, speaking to a mysterious man wearing a hospital robe. Moments later, Whitcomb explains that the robed man is a C.I.D. investigator who suspects that the chaplain has been intercepting Major Major's letters and that, further, he's been signing off on said letters with the forged name "Washington Irving."

The chaplain frantically denies all charges. Corporal Whitcomb is dubious, but explains to the chaplain that he has taken steps to assist him. It seems that the C.I.D. man has been trying to report the chaplain to his superiors, but someone at the hospital keeps censoring out the details. Greatly overstepping...