she got it out of the way early. Lord knows we would like to keep Excidium in harness at least two more generations, if he will have it; by now he knows our formations better than any ten officers put together. And you can see with Harcourt, there is no telling what may happen; it might take half-a-dozen tries to get a girl.
"No, but I will tell you," Granby went on, "I am a little worried about this business with Demane: I'll put a word in where I can, when I have got back to England, and I don't expect Admiral Roland will have any truck with this business of saying he isn't in the Corps. But that still leaves you with a good year and a half to manage, and I think Rankin means to encourage it, the rotter."
"So far as that goes, if need be we will remove to the valley, or find another," Laurence said, "and have done."
With Rankin's encouragement or no, Blincoln - evidently feeling that, as he had originally been offered the egg, he had some right now to try again - did make an attempt; he was a former rifleman, and while they were encamped took one of the guns and went out, in a surreptitious manner, to return with a fresh-killed cassowary, which he brought back and offered to Kulingile while nearly all the rest of the camp were sleeping. Laurence roused only in time to see Kulingile fall upon the carcass at once with evident pleasure, while Demane rolled up to his feet, his hands clenched by his sides, rigidly angry.
Blincoln did not look over, but in a low voice suggested, as he put out a hand to stroke Kulingile's side, that perhaps the dragonet would like another captain, with a proper rank and standing in the Corps, who might provide for him not only raw meat but the chance at real service.
"No," Kulingile said, eating unconcernedly, "I have Demane."
Blincoln paused and said, "Surely this is a very nice cassowary; I am glad you are enjoying it," beginning on another tack; but Kulingile said, "Yes, although the one which Temeraire gave me yesterday was a bit more fat; and the one Lieutenant Drewmore shot the day before had a better flavor," and indeed he had been used to be fed by so many, lacking the ability to hunt for himself, that it was not surprising he did not attach much significance to the gift.
The first attempt having failed, Blincoln would have withdrawn, but Demane confronted him: a head shorter than the lieutenant and some fifty pounds at least lighter, a slim dark figure trembling with rage, and he said, "You are a coward, and if you try and steal Kulingile again - "
He stumbled to a halt, not so much reluctant to threaten as unsure precisely to what degree, and Blincoln said, "I hope," with an air of stuffy superciliousness, "Mr. Demane, that you have better sense than to indulge in histrionics and unreasonable expectations: no heavy-weight can be managed by a young boy. Your passion is understandable, however, and I am sure if you should demonstrate perhaps some more sense - some cooperation - that you will find it a good foundation for future expectations, and a more steady and rational advancement in the Corps - "
Demane spat, comprehensively. "That for steady advancement, as though I would trust any of you cheats," he said, "and if you think I will ever help you take Kulingile from me, you are a great fool; as if he would have a lying sneak like you anyway, after you wanted to let his brains be knocked out with a sledge. As for being a boy, at least I am not a useless old scrub sent away because he did not deserve his old post - "
Blincoln slapped him across the face, which Laurence, on the point of intervening, could not call entirely unmerited, even if there were no shortage of blame to be credited to Blincoln's account in the situation; but the noise was crisp and loud in the dry air, and Kulingile's head snapped up from his repast to see Demane stumbling back under the blow.
Kulingile did not precisely spring: the motion was more peculiar, as he launched himself and landed against Blincoln still floating, but then he exhaled in a sharp, hissing way, and the swelled air-sacs began to deflate, so his real bodily weight at once began to tell, and Blincoln stumbled