4 A.M.
The Volunteers may be as mixed as the Colonel says , but they _ are _ trained to go down to the sea in ships . You ought to see a big Bank-Holiday roll-out . We suspend most of the usual railway traffic and turn on the military time-table -- say on Friday at midnight . By 4 A.M. the trains are running from every big centre in England to the nearest port at two-minute intervals . As a rule , the Armity meets us at the other end with shipping of sorts -- fleet reserves or regular men of war or hulks -- anything you can stick a gang-plank to . We pile the men on to the troop-decks , stack the rifles in the racks , send down the sea-kit , steam about for a few hours , and land 'em somewhere . It 's a good notion , because our army to be any use _ must _ be an army of embarkation .