Now, don't be angry after you've been afraid. That's the worst kind of cowardice, said the troop-horse. Anybody can be forgiven for being scared in the night, I think, if they see things they don't understand. We've broken out of our pickets, again and again, four hundred and fifty of us, just because a new recruit got to telling tales of whip snakes at home in Australia till we were scared to death of the loose ends of our head-ropes.

That's all very well in camp, said Billy. I'm not above stampeding myself, for the fun of the thing, when I haven't been out for a day or two. But what do you do on active service?