With
anything like a favorable wind we should be across in America in a
month. If orders are sent out a month after we start we may be back in
time for the opening ball. Judging from the past, it is likely to be a
long business unseating Napoleon again, and if we are not in for the
first of it we may be in plenty of time for a fair share of the
fighting, always supposing that the authorities are sufficiently awake
to the merits of the regiment to recall us."
"How is the wind this evening?" one of the officers asked.
"It was westerly when we came in," Lieutenant Desmond said. "Why do
you ask?"
"Why, as long as it blows from the west there is not much chance of
the transports getting in here."
"That is so," the major agreed. "The question for us to consider is
whether we ought to pray for a fair wind or a foul. A fair wind will
take us quickly across the Atlantic and will give us a chance of
getting back in time. A foul wind may possibly give them time to make
up their minds at the Horse Guards, and to stop us before we start. It
is a nice question."
"There is no hope whatever, major, that our government will make up
their minds before the wind changes, not if it blew in one quarter
longer than it has ever been known to do since the beginning of the
world. Especially, as not only they, but all the governments of Europe
have to come to a decision.
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