Although Archer had never made any progress in finding out what Doll was like, he judged it unwise to risk diminishing the effect of that half-bottle by saying what he really felt about Hargreaves’s outburst and thence, inevitably, what he felt about Doll’s politics. The major’s régime was doubtless drawing to a close, but its last days might well be marked by a fury of moral violence. Archer could not afford to irritate a friend at court, or anywhere else for that matter. He said decisively: ‘Yes, he did go too far, much too far. I think he feels a bit cheap about it today. You weren’t annoyed, I hope?’
‘Oh no, sir, my back is broad. As I say, all he did was help my side. That Government’ll fall soon, you mark my words. You were wanting to see the major, sir, were you?’
‘Yes, I thought I might look in.’
‘He’s got Captain Cleaver with him at the moment… Ah, here is the captain now.’
Doll got up as Cleaver emerged from the doorway and descended the steps. Archer grinned at him; Cleaver was the one officer in the detachment whom he regarded with nothing but contempt — groomed for stardom by the Adjutant and finally rejected on the grounds of technical incompetence: a tremendous achievement. He had got his captaincy, though. ‘Hallo, Wilf,’ Archer said.
‘Oh, hallo,’ Cleaver said, getting into his tone surprise at being so familiarly addressed. He carried gloves and a short cane and looked more than ever like a British officer as pictured in a German army manual. ‘The major’s waiting for you.’
The major was looking out of the window. A cow wearing a large floppy hat had just run along part of his road (known to everyone but himself as Raleigh’s Alley) and then turned off to flee up the lane past the wireless section’s billet. From somewhere near at hand a loud silly laugh had floated into the air. Whether this was associated with the cow or not, the two manifestations combined to pique and depress the major. They formed for him a symbol of anarchy mounting, of discipline and seriousness and purpose melting away. He felt there was some connection here with the chance of a Labour victory at the polls. Apart from a few negligible wild men like Hargreaves and Archer, he had never met anyone who confessed to having cast his proxy vote for Labour. On a recent visit to the Mess at Hildesfeld he had made a point of questioning his hosts on the matter and had heard the same story. His wife’s letters said that nobody knew of anybody in the whole town who was a Labour supporter and that everybody felt very sorry for poor Mr Jack, the Labour candidate. And yet the major was uneasy. Something monstrous and indefinable was growing in strength, something hostile to his accent and taste in clothes and modest directorship and ambitions for his sons and redbrick house at Purley with its back-garden tennis-court.
Somebody tapped on the door. The major called ‘Yes?’ and started speaking the moment Archer began crossing the threshold — a valuable foil, this, to his normal keep-’em-waiting procedure. ‘Now, Frank, where’s the summary of communications?’
Archer walked over to Cleaver’s table and instantly picked up a duplicated form in pale-blue ink with manuscript additions. ‘Here it is, sir.’
The major took it and went back to his seat. On the whole, he seemed mollified rather than the contrary. ‘About this parliament business, Frank. I’m not at all happy about it.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that, sir.’
‘I’m seriously thinking of closing it down.’
‘Surely there’s no need for that?’
‘That disgusting display of Hargreaves’s last night. Couldn’t you have prevented it? After all, as Speaker you must have some… And as an Officer, you—’
‘I don’t think that anything but force would have—’
‘Worst thing in the world for discipline. If the blokes get the idea that they can simply—’
‘Oh, I don’t agree at all, sir.’
The major’s eyes narrowed. ‘What?’
‘It’s a chance for them to let off steam, you see. They’re off parade — rank doesn’t count in there. Everyone accepts that. I mentioned last night to Doll just now and he obviously didn’t resent it.’
‘That’s not the point. And if rank doesn’t count, why aren’t officers and WOs allowed to take full part, instead of having to sit out like that? I let you have your way there, since you were organizing the thing, but I never followed your argument.’
‘Well, sir, rank doesn’t count there really, but chaps may think it does. They might feel chary of giving, er, let’s say Wilf Cleaver a proper hammering when they wouldn’t if it was a corporal from another section, or even their own.’
‘Mm. I don’t think the blokes are quite as stupid as you make out.’
Archer shrugged.
‘Tell me, Frank, I’ve often wondered: why do you hang on to Hargreaves when you’ve had so many chances to get rid of him? Does the section no good all round, having a type like that in it. Bad for morale.’
‘I just feel… he’s more or less settled in there. He’s not much liked, but at least he’s tolerated. Anywhere else he’d probably have a much thinner time.’
‘But good God man, a Signals section doesn’t exist to give a home to stray dogs and to wet-nurse people. It’s supposed to be an efficient unit in a war machine.’
‘Hargreaves can’t do the Allied cause much harm now.’
‘Perhaps I’d better remind you, Frank, that we’re all still in uniform and that our country is still at war. We’re not on holiday.’
Standing before the major’s table, Archer shrugged again and put his hands on his hips. His eyes fell on a framed text that said: Ich will mich freuen des Herrn und frölich sein in Gott.
‘Confidentially now, old boy, what’s the matter with Hargreaves? Basically the matter?’
‘That’s very simple, sir. He doesn’t like the Army.’
The major laughed through his nose. ‘I should imagine very few of us would sooner be here than anywhere else. If a man isn’t a cretin he knows it’s a question of getting a job done. A very important job, I take it you agree?’
‘Oh yes, sir. And Hargreaves is clear on that too. But it isn’t being in the Army that gets him down. It’s the Army.’
‘I’m afraid you’re being too subtle for me, Frank.’
‘Well, as far as I can make him out — he’s not an easy man to talk to, but the way he sees it, people have been nasty to him in the Army in a way they wouldn’t be in civilian life. The Army puts power into the hands of chaps who’ve never had it before, not that sort of power, and they use it to inflict injustices on other chaps whom they happen to dislike for personal reasons. That’s the way the Army works. According to Hargreaves.’
‘Don’t stand like that, Frank,’ Raleigh said, and waited until Archer had removed his hands from his hips and put them behind his back. ‘Well, whatever friend Hargreaves feels about being in the Army, you can tell him from me to pull himself together. So far I’ve tried to keep the original Company in one piece as far as possible. When postings come through I’ve been seeing to it that they’ve got passed on to these new arrivals. But there’s always plenty of call for blokes with Hargreaves’s qualifications, or lack of them rather, and I can get him out of the way any time I want to. If there’s one more bit of nonsense from him I’ll see he’s on the first available boat for Burma. Is that clear?’
‘Yes, sir. I’ll tell him.’
‘And what’s going on between him and young Hammond?’
‘Going on? Nothing that I know of. They are friends. Hammond’s about the only chap Hargreaves talks to.’