Rejtő, Jenő: The three musketeers in Africa; Q 19045
9 it was time he pulled out of this army business^ and Ae told the truth about himself to his sergeant. But Sgt Potrien laughed him off, telling him to stop playing the idiot. Hick began to yell, demanding that he be taken to the governor-general, whereupon the dreaded old non-com ordered him tied and chained to the side of a waggon. /"This is the way complicated matters are sorted out in the Legion. Whenever Hick Hopkins claimed he was someone else, he was: /a/ clapped into confinement and /b/ given a sound thrashing. Eventually, this procedure discouraged him from persisting in his claim: Hick Hopkins load become Herman Thorze."/ This Potrien is a "fell sergeant", a martinet LO-thfÜTK . who has his knife into the three chums. Their -fe-Je-rs tiervuytvT of Us ren t a-a eé a source of constant irritation to the veteran soldier, and he seizes every opportunity, the slightest excuse, to do the dirty on them. Of course, the trio are a hardy bunch who won't take such things lying down, so they retaliate, ragging their superior. /"Now we're going to start subjecting good old Potrien to a tapering-off cure," declared Nobody. "What'll we do? /asked Fowler/. It says in the Legion's dream-book that beating up a sergeant means a major court-martial with a highly unfavourable outcome ." "We wil l find a way of breaking him of this habit of his little by little."/ A running battle is thus started between them, a
