He was a tremendous fire-eater, and a bit of a pessimist about our slow progress in the west.

I told him I came from South Africa and was a mining engineer.
'Been fighting with Botha ?' he asked.
'No,' I said.

'I'm not the fighting kind.' The second lieutenant screwed up his nose.
'Is there no conscription in South Africa ?' 'Thank God there isn't,' I said, and the old fellow begged permission to tell me a lot of unpalatable things.

I knew his kind and didn't give much for it.

He was the sort who, if he had been under fifty, would have crawled on his belly to his tribunal to get exempted, but being over age was able to pose as a patriot.