.. So you see
we're mixed to a degree on the Volunteer side."
"It sounds that way," I ventured.
"You've overdone it, Bayley," said Devine. "You've missed our one strong
point." He turned to me and continued: "It's embarkation. The Volunteers
may be as mixed as the Colonel says, but they _are_ trained to go down to
the sea in ships. You ought to see a big Bank-Holiday roll-out. We suspend
most of the usual railway traffic and turn on the military time-table--say
on Friday at midnight. By 4 A.M. the trains are running from every big
centre in England to the nearest port at two-minute intervals. As a rule,
the Armity meets us at the other end with shipping of sorts--fleet
reserves or regular men of war or hulks--anything you can stick a
gang-plank to. We pile the men on to the troop-decks, stack the rifles in
the racks, send down the sea-kit, steam about for a few hours, and land
'em somewhere. It's a good notion, because our army to be any use _must_
be an army of embarkation. Why, last Whit Monday we had--how many were
down at the dock-edge in the first eight hours? Kyd, you're the Volunteer
enthusiast last from school."
"In the first ten hours over a hundred and eighteen thousand," said Kyd
across the table, "with thirty-six thousand actually put in and taken out
of ship. In the whole thirty-six hours we had close on ninety thousand men
on the water and a hundred and thirty-three thousand on the quays fallen
in with their sea-kit.
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