"
"There's no 'of course' about it. Some men wouldn't."
"Nonsense, J. J. The tidal wave alone--"
"Some men," repeated Meldon, "would sit on and finish their accounts.
There was a soldier at Pompeii, for instance--they found his body
centuries afterwards--who wouldn't stir from his post even when he saw
the molten lava flowing down the street. I thought you might be that
sort of man."
"I'm not."
"I'm glad to hear it. That sentry has been made a hero of. I've
frequently heard him mentioned in sermons as a person to be imitated.
In reality he was the worst kind of ass; and I wouldn't like to think
of your getting embalmed as he did, and being dug out afterwards by an
antiquary with a chisel. For the matter of that I shouldn't care to
hear of people writing odes about you on account of your going under
while your sword was in its sheath and your fingers held the pen."
"What was he doing with the pen?" said the Major. "If he was on sentry
duty--"
"It wasn't that sentry whose fingers held the pen, but brave
Kempenfelt, another man of the same sort; though there was more excuse
for him, because he seems to have been taken by surprise when the land
breeze shook the shrouds.
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