@@ -1288,8 +1288,13 @@ function screen_service {

         # sleep to allow bash to be ready to be send the command - we are

         # creating a new window in screen and then sends characters, so if

-        # bash isn't running by the time we send the command, nothing happens

-        sleep 3

+        # bash isn't running by the time we send the command, nothing

+        # happens.  This sleep was added originally to handle gate runs

+        # where we needed this to be at least 3 seconds to pass

+        # consistently on slow clouds. Now this is configurable so that we

+        # can determine a reasonable value for the local case which should

+        # be much smaller.

+        sleep ${SCREEN_SLEEP:-3}

         NL=`echo -ne '\015'`

         # This fun command does the following: