Rejtő, Jenő: The three musketeers in Africa; Q 19045

10 tit-for-tat guerrilla warfare that escalates with each new exchange of blows

. Potrien cancels Nobody's day-off pass because he thinks the buttons on the man's tunic aren't cl6an enough. Fowler gets four days in the guard-room for missing a step in a parade march. Hick Hopkins is ordered to swill the camel stable — twice

. On the evening of the same day, the fort resounds with the noise of Potrien tumbling down the stairs after slipping on the top /which someone had smeared with oil/ as he noiselessly stealed out of the female canteen-keeper's room. Next day, the orderly carrying Potrien's report to the captain is hugged on his way by an apparently drunken Hopkins -- and eventually delivers to the officer a lampoon on him that is current among the ranks

. So the secret feuding goes on and on. The gravest humiliation is suffered by Potrien when a party of high-ranking officers passes through Manson en route to Agadir, and he, commanding the welcoming line-up, becomes red-faced as he is unable to draw his sword, './hen at long last, with Fowler's help, the weapon is unsheathed, it turns out to be an old, rusty sword

! /Hopkins found it in the camel stable./ /""In action this manner of drawing your sword could prove a somewhat languid process," the captain remarked acidly. "Absolutely," nodded the general. "An impatient Arab might strike a blow before the