Let me
see, there are thirty-two officers with the regiment. Now, what would you
say would be a fair allowance per day for each man?"
"I should say half a bottle, Colonel. There are some of them won't take as
much, but O'Grady will square matters up."
"I protest against the insinuation," O'Grady said, rising; "and, moreover,
I would observe, that it is mighty little would be left for me after each
man had taken his whack."
"That is sixteen bottles a day. For a continuance I should consider that
too much; but seeing that we have been out of dacent liquor for a month,
and may have but a fortnight after it arrives to make up for lost time, we
will say sixteen bottles."
"Make it three gallons," O'Grady said, persuasively; "we shall be having
lots of men drop in when it gets known that we have got a supply."
"There is something in that, O'Grady. Well, we will say three
gallons--that is, forty-two gallons for a fortnight. We will commission
Captain Hall to bring back that quantity."
"If you say forty-five, Colonel, it will give us a drop in our flasks to
start with, and we are as likely to be fifteen days as fourteen, anyway."
"Let it be forty-five then," the colonel assented. "Will you undertake
that, Captain Hall?"
"Willingly, Colonel. I will get the whisky emptied into wine casks, and as
I know one of the chief commissaries at Lisbon, I can get it brought up
with the wine for the troops.
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