Company Of Spears

Likewise, no specific disease can be reproduced unless there is a germ of that disease present in the nidus.’

‘Nidus?’

‘Your Latin?’

‘Ah, indeed.’

‘Just so: the nest of the infection.’

‘Which is situate where?’

Sam raised his hands. ‘That is the question: in the air, or water, or feculence. That is what science must address itself to.’

For the moment, Hervey had quite forgotten the troubles of the night and his smarting over the vexed order. He wanted to know more, for it revealed as much about Sam Kirwan as it did of veterinary science. ‘How do these “germs” get into the nest?’

Sam declared that that was yet another question. He explained that, taking the seed analogy further, in order for the acorn to grow into an oak the climatical conditions must be favourable, otherwise it would lie dormant. He believed it was possible for germs to be present in the horse ab origine, and that if the favourable conditions were understood, germination of the disease could be prevented. But the point was, what should be the treatment of the disease once it had developed? The symptoms must be treated, of course, for they were enervating, even fatal, but – and here he admitted that his analogy was uncertain – it was not known if the germ remained active within the body once the disease had developed. If it did, then only by destroying the germ could the disease be terminated, unless it somehow reverted to dormancy in the natural course of things. ‘This,’ he concluded, ‘is another of the areas in which science must ask impertinent questions.’

Hervey, tired though he was, followed the reasoning well enough – testimony, he observed, to the veterinarian’s powers of clear thinking. ‘The farriers are well able to ameliorate the symptoms, under your direction, but how is the germ itself to be destroyed? To begin with, are you able to see it?’

Sam inclined his head. ‘Were I to know where to look, perhaps, and had I a microscope with the power to see so small a thing. But how should I recognize it?’

‘It would not be evident? I remember once being told that a bird was best recognized by observing what it did.’

‘That is very true. And it would be well therefore to observe the blood of both the diseased animal and the healthy – and the excreta and mucus.’

Hervey now sat up, as if to say he had other things to be about. ‘Eminently sensible. And that is presumably what you have been able to do in the case of A Troop’s sick?’

‘To a point, but, as I said, I do not have a microscope with one hundredth of the power I might need to see a germ at work.’

Hervey frowned, but with a wry smile. ‘It seems to me therefore that you could never disprove your theory; only demonstrate the need of a more powerful microscope.’

Sam shrugged. ‘Neither do I think this country is the best place to observe, for all the sick in A Troop’s lines. Which is why, Hervey – and I would have wished to tell you in more agreeable circumstances – I have applied to the East India Company for employment.

The tropics are the place to observe diseases. The virulence is much more marked.’

Hervey was on the edge of his chair, dismayed. ‘There’s no doubt the tropics are the place to contract the most wretched of diseases! Sam, I’m uncommonly sorry you want to leave us, and so soon. Your stock will be awful high in both mess and canteen, the way you’ve handled things. Is there nothing will induce you to change your mind?’

Sam smiled thankfully and shook his head. ‘Believe me, Hervey, nothing would otherwise induce me to leave. The regiment is well-found, and, in truth, I find association with you wholly agreeable. But I have a most determined sense in this: I wish to make my science where it is hot, for heat is the nursemaid of contagion. You will be the first to read of my conclusions, I assure you!’

Hervey knew there were times when a prudent officer withdrew and let his subordinates carry on, whether they were other officers or NCOs. And now was such a time. Without him in barracks for the regimental staff to consult, or to make the troop officers look over their shoulders, what needed to be done would be done, and much the more expeditiously. Besides, he wanted time to think over a number of matters. As much as anything he wanted to dine with his old friend, Peto. He had no stauncher ally than Captain, lately Commodore, Sir Laughton Peto K.C.B. He enjoyed his company as much as he did Eyre Somervile’s, and it was true beyond doubt that he owed his life – twice – to Peto’s address, which made something particular of their friendship.

Hervey had but one duty to detain him in barracks, and that was to render a full account of the affair at Waltham Abbey, which both custom and discretion required to be submitted to the district headquarters within the day. Behind the closed doors of his office, therefore, he penned five close-written sides of foolscap, four of which comprised an entirely factual narrative of the night’s events (with various commendations), and the last a submission that in his judgement the action of the malefactors was so strange as to make him conclude the enterprise was the work of agents provocateurs. He did not add, though he was sorely tempted, that such work was not unknown, and that perhaps the malpractices of the Home Office in Lord Sidmouth’s time, not a decade before, had not been wholly extirpated.

When he was finished, he gave the despatch to the adjutant and asked that it be copied and taken by officer’s hand to the Horse Guards. Then he went to his quarters, where Johnson had drawn his bath, and in an hour, refreshed and dressed, he set out for the United Service Club.

Corporal Denny and the regimental chariot had been engaged on business in connection with the night before, so Hervey had had to send Johnson to the post-house in Hounslow to engage a hack chaise, with four horses at five shillings a mile to make the journey fast in one stage. He was able thereby to dismiss the coachman at the door of the United Service in Charles Street at precisely ten minutes to eight, a mere one hour and twenty minutes after leaving the barracks, although at uncommon cost to his pocket.

Peto was sitting in the coffee room reading the Edinburgh Review when Hervey entered.

‘Would you not be better served by a Tory paper if you are calling on their lordships?’

Peto lowered his journal. ‘Hah! You’ve heard then: Clarence to be Lord High Admiral! As well make my chaplain pope!’

Several members – some, officers of high rank – turned their heads, but Peto did not notice; or affected not to notice. He stood, and they shook hands.

‘So you are come for admiralty orders?’

Peto grimaced again. ‘Let us speak of it suitably victualled. Sherry?’

Hervey nodded, and Peto caught the waiter’s eye.

‘A dish apiece of the club Fino if you will.’

The waiter bowed and shuffled off, and both men sank into the tired-looking leather tubs that would soon be thrown out in the United Service’s move to superior quarters.

‘What is that stink?’ growled Peto as he laid aside the Review. ‘Worse than a whaler’s bilge!’

‘The gaslight, I imagine,’ replied Hervey, with a shrug. He was quite used to it, for he was lately something of an habitue of the club, whereas Peto’s time was divided between the quarterdeck and the wilds of Norfolk. ‘You should have smelled the old oil-gas, before it was coal.’

Peto pulled a face. ‘Rank stuff, sperm oil. Not cheap either: eight shillings a gallon at Lynn!’ He huffed. ‘Well, I think ours here are very moderate quarters, I must say. I had rather be at sea in a sixth-rate.’

Hervey knew full well he would rather be at sea. Peto had spent so little time ashore that even the gentlemanly estate he had taken nearby his childhood parsonage, provenance of two decades’ prize money, could not divert him sufficiently. Not without a wife, at least; and that was an unlikely prospect by all the evidence of a dozen years’ acquaintance. ‘I imagine in Pall Mall we shall be altogether better provided for.’

‘Nero’s Palace?’ sneered Peto (the new club was rising on the site of Carlton House, which had been the Prince of Wales’s dissipated residence). ‘Deuced lot of money just to be nearer the Admiralty and Horse