Free The Cadet Corporal by Christopher Cummings

turn-off.”
    â€œHow the hell did they get there?” CSM Cleland asked. Then he shook his head.
    Graham chuckled. “This is Dimbo we are talking about,” he said.
    At that Capt Conkey turned on him. “That’s enough of that talk! You are only a corporal too! Now you get back to your section Cpl Kirk.”
    Abashed, Graham fled. ‘Bloody drongo!’ he told himself. ‘Learn to keep your mouth shut!’
    As he walked away Graham heard Lt McEwen ask why Dimbo hadn’t answered his radio. Lt Maclaren answered. “He didn’t have it turned on!”
    The officers groaned and Graham shook his head. He made his way back to his platoon Graham heard movement and voices and saw a line of cadets come walking in along Sandy Track- Dimbo’s ‘Lost patrol’. ‘Some unhappy cadets there too,’ he thought.
    As he arrived back at the section hutchies Graham found Sgt Grenfell, Stephen and Roger standing to one side in the darkness. Naturally they wanted to know the outcome. As Graham arrived Gwen got up from her hutchie and joined them. Graham then related all that had passed, with the injunction not to talk about it.
    Stephen chuckled. “Hutchie Men! I like that. I’ll bet it was Porno and Ziggy.”
    â€œI’ll bet it was too,” Graham replied, “and I’ll bet it was Pigsy who put them up to it.”
    â€œIt certainly scared the crap out of Halyday and Andrews,” Roger said.
    They all laughed at that but then Sgt Grenfell got serious. “This is no good. We might have a problem if the little cadets aren’t game to go to the dunny for fear of the Hutchie Men.”
    Stephen gave another chuckle. “We will know after a few days when they look very full in the face.”
    Sgt Grenfell laughed with the others but then said, “It wasn’t constipation I was worrying about. The little buggers might just start to crap anywhere and then we will have a hygiene problem.”
    CUO Masters came over to join them from the fire. “What are you lot talking about?”
    â€œThe dreaded Hutchie Men sir,” Sgt Grenfell replied.
    â€œThen keep it quiet. Lt McEwen can hear you from there. In fact get to bed, it’s nearly midnight.”
    They moved off to their hutchies. Roger crawled straight in but Graham realised he now needed a pee. He looked in the direction of the latrine and felt a distinct reluctance to go back there. He told himself the Hutchie Men would not be there because the distant sound of voices indicated that 4 Platoon was being searched by the officers. But it was still a long way in the dark. ‘One little leak won’t matter,’ he rationalised. ‘I’ll just nip into the gully.’
    Even so he went carefully, worried about snakes more than Hutchie Men. Thus, when the bushes in front of him suddenly erupted he leapt back, heart hammering, and let out a cry of fright. Then he swore. “Bloody wallaby!” he muttered.
    Glancing around to check he was out of sight of the hutchies he stopped and did a pee, then walked quickly back up to the camp. As he passed Kirsty’s hutchie he got another fright when she sat up and spoke to him.
    â€œDid the Hutchie Men give you a scare then Graham?” she asked, giving a chuckle.
    He meant to rebuke her for not calling him Corporal Kirk but didn’t. ‘We are alone,’ he rationalised, even as he named it his weakness for what it was. Instead he stopped and knelt down. In the starlight he saw white skin extending down from her face to her neck, and then on down past her shoulders. ‘Holy Mackerel!’ he thought. ‘Is she wearing anything?’
    By staring hard he was reassured that she had her sleeping bag held across her chest. Then he whispered, “How do you know about the Hutchie Men?”
    â€œI could hear you talking just now,” she replied.
    â€œWell don’t say anything to the other cadets about