Then he said, "If I were exactly in your place, Auchterlay--" "Well, sir ?" said Alister, for he had hesitated.
-- "I should--enlist in the Royal Engineers." "Nothing like gunpowder," whispered Dennis to me.

I kicked him in return.
The pros and cons of the matter were not lengthy.

If Alister enlisted in any regiment, the two advantages of good behaviour and good education would tell towards his advancement more rapidly and more certainly than perhaps in any other line of life.

If he enlisted into a scientific corps, the chance of being almost immediately employed as a clerk was good, very much of the work would be interesting to an educated and practical man; the "marching, pipe-claying and starching," of which Dennis sang, was a secondary part of "R.E." duties at any time, and there were special opportunities of employment in foreign countries for superior men.

Alister was not at all likely to remain long a private, and it was quite "on the cards" that he might get a commission while he was still young.