The Sheikh and the Dustbin

The Sheikh and the Dustbin is the third and last collection of short stories by George MacDonald Fraser, featuring a young Scottish officer named Dand MacNeill. It is a sequel to The General Danced at Dawn and McAuslan in the Rough and concerns life in a Highland Regiment after the end of the Second World War.

The Servant Problem. Lieutenant MacNeill, having been overseas much longer than the other junior officers of the battalion due to his prior enlisted service, is sent home from North Africa on Leave In Advance of Python, "Python" being the code word for demobilization. As was the custom of the time, he visited the families of a number of his fellow officers and the men of his platoon, telling the families about their sons, husbands, and brothers. Along the way, he muses about being looked after by servants, his grandmother running a Highland lodge with a large staff of servants, and his own experiences with the batmen he has had since becoming an officer candidate and a commissioned officer.

Captain Errol. Just assigned to the battalion as the Intelligence Officer, Captain Errol — not his real name, but rather a reflection of the fact he bears a passing resemblance to Errol Flynn in physical appearance, and more than a passing resemblance to him in his personal mannerisms, panache, and style — is what the Jocks refer to as a "gallus man," someone who is simultaneously an extrovert, indifferent to his effect on others, and reckless. Highly decorated, he holds both a Military Cross and a Military Medal, as well as Balkan decorations for valor and several campaign stars and medals. He started the war as a commissioned officer, was broken to the ranks by court-martial, and subsequently was re-commissioned for outstanding service. Master of all the military arts, he is a sniper-grade marksman, expert in infiltration, a wizard at hand-to-hand combat, and an outstanding observer of the human condition and the psychology of command, yet he is an enigma. Like George Patton or Chesty Puller, Errol is one of those rare men born to excel as warriors. Worshiped by some, despised by others, regarded by a few as a menace to be avoided at all costs, he proves himself to Dand MacNeill and the other officers when the battalion is called on to assist the civil authorities when an Arab nationalist demagogue whips up a riot in the Suk and sends it against the modern town outside the walls of the Old City.