They mumbled the responses because Brown made them do it,
and they kept their eyes skinned because the night seemed full of
other eyes, and sounds.
"And now, you men," said Brown, changing his voice to suit the nature
of his task, "you can get your sleep by fours. I don't care which
four of you goes to sleep first, but there are only two watches of
us left, and there are about four hours left to sleep in, by my
reckoning. That's two hours' sleep for each man. And we'll keep
clear of the guardroom. As I understand my orders, the important
point's the cross-roads. I'm supposed to halt every one who comes,
and to ask him his business. And that'd be impossible to do from
the guardroom here. Let this be a lesson to you men, now. In
interpretin' orders, when a point's in doubt, always look for the
meaning of the orders rather than the letter of them, obeying the
letter only when the meaning and the letter are the same thing. The
letter of our orders says the guardroom. The meaning's clear. We're
here to guard the cross-roads.
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