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diff --git a/27680.txt b/27680.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7757f48 --- /dev/null +++ b/27680.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7964 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Uncle Sam's Boys in the Ranks, by H. Irving +Hancock + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Uncle Sam's Boys in the Ranks + or, Two Recruits in the United States Army + + +Author: H. Irving Hancock + + + +Release Date: December 31, 2008 [eBook #27680] +Most recently updated: June 21, 2011 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCLE SAM'S BOYS IN THE RANKS*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Emmy, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 27680-h.htm or 27680-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/7/6/8/27680/27680-h/27680-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/7/6/8/27680/27680-h.zip) + + + + + +UNCLE SAM'S BOYS IN THE RANKS + +Or + +Two Recruits in the United States Army + +by + +H. IRVING HANCOCK + +Author of The Motor Boat Club Series, The High School Series, The West +Point Series, The Annapolis Series, The Young Engineers' Series, Etc., +Etc. + +Illustrated + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "And These Are Your Applications?" + +_Frontispiece._] + + + +Philadelphia +Henry Altemus Company + +Copyright, 1910, by Howard E. Altemus + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. A LESSON IN RESPECT FOR THE UNIFORM 7 + + II. AT THE RECRUITING OFFICE 25 + + III. THE ORDEAL OF EXAMINATION 37 + + IV. MRS. BRANDERS GETS A NEW VIEW 54 + + V. IN THE AWKWARD SQUAD 63 + + VI. THE TROUBLE WITH CORPORAL SHRIMP 79 + + VII. WHEN THE GUARD CAME 93 + + VIII. THE CALL TO COMPANY FORMATION 104 + + IX. ORDERED TO THE THIRTY-FOURTH 112 + + X. A SWIFT CALL TO DUTY 123 + + XI. GUARDING THE MAIL TRAIN 129 + + XII. THE ROOKIES REACH FORT CLOWDRY 139 + + XIII. "TWO NEW GENERALS AMONG US" 149 + + XIV. THE SQUAD ROOM HAZING 158 + + XV. PRIVATE BILL HOOPER LEARNS 167 + + XVI. THE MYSTERY OF POST THREE 178 + + XVII. HAL UNDER A FIRE OF QUESTIONS 190 + + XVIII. THE ANONYMOUS LETTER 198 + + XIX. A SECRET COWARD 206 + + XX. THE LUCK OF THE YOUNG RECRUIT 212 + + XXI. THE DUEL IN THE DARK 221 + + XXII. CAPTAIN CORTLAND HEADS THE PURSUIT 229 + + XXIII. THE STIRRING GAME AT DAWN 238 + + XXIV. CONCLUSION 250 + + + + +Uncle Sam's Boys in the Ranks + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A LESSON IN RESPECT FOR THE UNIFORM + + +"AW, what's the difference between a soldier and a loafer?" demanded +"Bunny" Hepburn. + +"A soldier ain't a loafer, and it takes nerve to be a soldier. It's a +job for the bravest kind of a man," retorted Jud Jeffers indignantly. + +"Answer my c'nundrum," insisted Bunny. + +"It ain't a decent conundrum," retorted Jud, with dignity, for his +father had served as a volunteer soldier in the war with Spain. + +"Go on, Bunny," broke in another boy in the group, laughing. "I'll be +the goat. What is the difference between a soldier and a loafer?" + +"A soldier gets paid and fed, and the other loafer doesn't," retorted +Bunny, with a broadening grin. A moment later, when he realized that his +"joke" had failed to raise a laugh, Bunny looked disappointed. + +"Aw, go on," flared up Jud Jeffers. "You don't know anything about a +soldier." + +"But my dad does," retorted Bunny positively. "Dad says soldiers don't +produce anything for a living; that they take their pay out of the +pockets of the public, and then laugh at the public for fools." + +"And what does your father do for a living?" demanded Jud hotly. + +"He's a man who knows a lot, and he lectures," declared Bunny, swelling +with importance. "When my dad talks a whole lot of men get excited and +cheer him." + +"Yes, and they buy him beer, too," jeered Jud, hot with derision for the +fellow who was running down the soldiers of the United States. "Your +father does his lecturing in small, dirty halls, where there's always a +beer saloon underneath. You talk about men being producers--and your +father goes around making anarchistic speeches to a lot of workingmen +who are down on everything because they aren't clever enough to earn as +good wages as sober, industrious and capable workmen earn." + +"Speech, Jud!" laughingly roared another boy in the crowd that now +numbered a score of youngsters. + +"Don't you dare talk against my dad!" sputtered Bunny, doubling his +fists and trying to look fierce. + +"Then don't say anything against soldiers," retorted Jud indignantly. +"My father was one. I tell you, soldiers are the salt of the earth." + +"Say, but they're a fine and dandy-looking lot, anyway," spoke up Tom +Andrews, as he turned toward the post-office window in front of which +the principal actors in this scene were standing. The place was one of +the smaller cities in New Jersey. + +In the post-office window hung a many-colored poster, headed "Recruits +Wanted for the United States Army." Soldiers of the various arms of the +service were shown, and in all the types of uniforms worn on the +different occasions. + +"Oh, yes, they're a fine and dandy lot of loafers--them soldiers!" +declared Bunny Hepburn contemptuously. + +This opinion might not have gotten him into trouble, but he emphasized +his opinion by spitting straight at the glass over the center of the +picture. + +"You coward!" choked Jud. + +Biff! + +Jud Jeffer's fist shot out, with all the force there is in +fourteen-year-old muscle. The fist caught Bunny Hepburn on the side of +the face and sent him sprawling. + +"Good for you, Jud!" roared several of the young boys together. + +"Go for him, Jud! He's mad, and wants it," called Tom Andrews. + +Bunny was mad, all the way through, even before he leaped to his feet. +Yet Bunny was not especially fond of fighting, and his anger was +tempered with caution. + +"You dassent do that again," he taunted, dancing about before Jud. + +"I will, if you give me the same cause," replied Jud. + +Bunny deliberately repeated his offensive act. Then he dodged, but not +fast enough. Jud Jeffer's, his eyes ablaze with righteous indignation, +sent the troublesome one to earth again. + +This time Bunny got up really full of fight. + +From the opposite side of the street two fine-looking young men of about +eighteen had seen much of what had passed. + +"Let's go over and separate them, Hal," proposed the quieter looking of +the pair. + +"If you like, Noll, though that young Hepburn rascal deserves about all +that he seems likely to get." + +"Jud Jeffers is too decent a young fellow to be allowed to soil his +hands on the Hepburn kid," objected Oliver Terry quietly. + +So he and Hal Overton hastened across the street. + +Bunny Hepburn was now showing a faint daub of crimson at the lower end +of his nose. Bunny was the larger boy, but Jud by far the braver. + +"Here, better stop all of this," broke in Hal good-naturedly, reaching +out and grabbing angry Bunny by the coat collar. + +Noll rested a rather friendly though detaining hand on Jud Jeffers's +shoulder. + +"Lemme at him!" roared Bunny. + +"Yes! Let 'em finish it!" urged three or four of the younger boys. + +"What's it all about, anyway?" demanded Hal Overton. + +"That fellow insulted his country's uniform. It's as bad as insulting +the Flag itself!" contended Jud hotly. + +"That's right," nodded Hal Overton grimly. "I think I saw the whole +thing. You're right to be mad about it, Jud, but this young what-is-it +is too mean for you to soil your hands on him. Now, see here, +Hepburn--right about face for you!" + +Hal's grip on the boy's coat collar tightened as he swung Bunny about +and headed him down the street. + +"Forward, quick time, march! And don't stop, either, Hepburn, unless you +want to hear Jud pattering down the street after you." + +Hal's first shove sent Bunny darting along for a few feet. Bunny +discreetly went down the street several yards before he halted and +lurched into a doorway, from which he peered out with a still hostile +look on his face. + +"Your view of the uniform, and of the old Flag, is all right, Jud, and +I'm mighty glad to find that you have such views," Hal continued. "But +you mustn't be too severe on a fellow like Bunny Hepburn. He simply +can't rise above his surroundings, and you know what a miserable, +egotistical, lying, slanderous fellow his father is. Bunny's father +hates the country he lives in, and would set everybody to tearing down +the government. That's the kind of a brainless anarchist Hepburn is, and +you can't expect his dull-witted son to know any more than the father +does. But you keep on, Jud, always respecting the soldier and his +uniform, and the Flag that both stand behind." + +"It gets on a good many of us," spoke up Tom Andrews, "to hear Bunny +always running down the soldiers. He believes all his father says, so he +keeps telling us that we're a nation of crooks and thieves, that the +government is the rottenest ever, and that our soldiers and sailors are +the biggest loafers of the whole American lot." + +"It's enough to disgust anybody," spoke up Oliver Terry quietly. "But, +boys, people who talk the way the Hepburns do are never worth fighting +with. And, unless they're stung hard, they won't fight, anyway." + +"Oh, won't they?" growled Bunny, who, listening to all this talk with a +flaming face, now retreated down the street. "Wait until I tell dad all +about this nonsense about the Flag and the uniform!" + +Hal and Noll stood for some moments gazing at the attractive recruiting +poster in the post-office window. One by one the boys who had gathered +went off in search of other interest or sport, until only Jud and Tom +remained near the two older boys. + +"I reckon you think I was foolish, don't you, Hal?" asked Jud, at last. + +"No; not just that," replied Overton, turning, with a smile. "No +American can ever be foolish to insist on respect for the country's Flag +and uniform." + +"I simply can't stand by and hear soldiers sneered at. My father was a +soldier, you know, even if he was only a war-time volunteer, and didn't +serve a whole year." + +"When you get out of patience with fellows like Bunny Hepburn," +suggested Noll Terry, "just you compare your father with a fellow like +Bunny's father. You know, well enough, that your father, as a useful and +valuable citizen, is worth more than a thousand Hepburns can ever be." + +"That's right," nodded Hal, with vigor. "And there's another man in this +town that you can compare with Bunny's father. You know Mr. Wright? +Sergeant Wright is his proper title. He's an old, retired sergeant from +the Regular Army, who served his country fighting Indians and Spaniards, +and now he has settled down here--a fine, upright, honest American, +middle aged, and with retired pay and savings enough to support him as +long as he lives. I haven't met many men as fine as Sergeant Wright." + +"I know," nodded Jud, his eyes shining. "Sergeant Wright is a fine man. +Sometimes he talks to Tom and me an hour at a time, telling us all about +the campaigns he has served in. Say, Hal, you and Noll ought to call on +him and ask him for some of his grand old Indian stories." + +"We know some of them," laughed Hal. "Noll and I have been calling there +often." + +"You have?" said Jud gleefully. "Say, ain't Sergeant Wright one of the +finest men ever? I'll bet he's been a regular up-and-down hero himself, +though he never tells us anything about his own big deeds." + +"He wears the medal of Congress," replied Hal warmly. "A soldier who +wears that doesn't need to brag." + +"Say," remarked Jud thoughtfully, "I guess you two fellows are about as +much struck with the soldiers as I am." + +"I'll tell you and Tom something--if you can keep a secret," replied Hal +Overton, after a side glance at his chum. + +"Oh, we can keep secrets all right!" protested Tom Andrews. + +"Well, then, fellows, Noll and I are going to New York to-morrow, to try +to enlist in the Regular Army." + +"You are?" gasped Jud, staring at Hal and Noll in round-eyed delight. +"Oh, say, but you two ought to make dandy soldiers!" + +"If the recruiting officer accepts us we'll do the best that's in us," +smiled Hal. + +"You'll be regular heroes!" predicted Jud, gazing at these two fortunate +youngsters with eyes wide open with approval. + +"Oh, no, we can't be heroes," grimaced Noll. "We're going to be +regulars, and it's only the volunteers who are allowed to be heroes, you +know," added Noll jocosely. "There's nothing heroic about a regular +fighting bravely. That's his trade and his training." + +"Don't you youngsters tell anyone," Hal insisted. "Or we shall be sorry +that we told you." + +"What do you take us for?" demanded Jud scornfully. + +Hal and Noll had had it in mind to stroll off by themselves, for this +was likely to be their last day in the home town for many a day to come. +But Jud and Tom were full of hero worship of the two budding soldier +boys, and walked along with them. + +"There's Tip Branders," muttered Tom suddenly. + +"I don't care," retorted Jud. "He won't dare try anything on us; and, if +he does, we can take care of him." + +"What has Tip against you?" asked Hal Overton. + +"He tried to thrash me, yesterday." + +"Why?" + +"I guess it was because I told him what I thought of him," admitted Jud, +with a grin. + +"How did that happen?" + +"Well, Tom and I were down in City Hall Park, sitting on one of the +benches. Tip came along and ordered us off the bench; said he wanted to +sit there himself. I told him he was a loafer and told him we wouldn't +get off the bench for anybody like him." + +"And then?" asked Hal. + +"Why, Tip just made a dive for me, and there was trouble in his eyes; so +I reconsidered, and made a quick get-away. So did Tom. Tip chased us a +little way, but we went so fast that we made it too much work for him. +So he halted, but yelled after us that he'd tan us the next time he got +close enough." + +Tip Branders surely deserved the epithet of "loafer." Though only +nineteen he had the look of being past twenty-one. He was a big, +powerful fellow. Though he had not been at school since he was fifteen, +Tip had not worked three months in the last four years. His mother, who +kept a large and prosperous boarding-house, regarded Tip as being one of +the manliest fellows in the world. She abetted his idleness by supplying +him with too much money. Tip dressed well, though a bit loudly, and +walked with a swagger. He was in a fair way to go through life without +becoming anything more than a bully. + +Hal Overton, on the other hand, was a quiet though merry young man, just +above medium height, slim, though well built, brown-haired, blue-eyed, +and a capable, industrious young fellow. The elder Overton was a clerk +in a local store. Ill-health through many years had kept the father from +prospering, and Hal, after two years in High School, had gone to work in +the same store with his father at the age of sixteen. + +Oliver Terry, too, had been at work since the age of sixteen. Noll's +father was engineer at one of the local machine shops, so Noll had gone +into one of the lathe rooms, and was already accounted a very fair young +mechanic. + +Both were only sons; and, in the case of each, the fathers and mothers +had felt sorry, indeed, to see the young men go to work before they had +at least completed their High School courses. + +By this time the fathers of both Hal and Noll had found themselves in +somewhat better circumstances. Hal and Noll, being ambitious, had both +felt dissatisfied, of late, with their surroundings and prospects, and +both had received parental permission to better themselves if they +could. So our two young friends, after many talks, and especially with +Sergeant Wright, had decided to serve at least three years in the +regular army by way of preliminary training. + +Unfortunately, few American youths, comparatively speaking, are aware of +the splendid training that the United States Army offers to a young +American. The Army offers splendid grounding for the young man who +prefers to serve but a single enlistment and then return to civil life. +But it also offers a solidly good career to the young man who enlists +and remains with the colors until he is retired after thirty years of +continuous service. + +Both Hal and Noll had looked thoroughly into the question, and each was +now convinced that the Army offered him the best place in life. Both +boys had very definite ideas of what they expected to accomplish by +entering the Army, as will appear presently. + +Tip--even Tip Branders--had something of an ambition in life. So far as +he had done anything, Tip had "trained" with a gang of young hoodlums +who were "useful" to the political machine in one of the tough wards of +the little city. Tip's ultimate idea was to "get a city job," at good +pay, and do little or nothing for the pay. + +But Tip dreaded a civil service examination--knew, in fact, that he +could not pass one. In most American cities, to-day, an honorably +discharged enlisted man from the Army or Navy is allowed to take an +appointment to a city position without civil service examination, or +else to do so on a lower marking than would be accepted from any other +candidate for a city job. + +So, curiously enough, Tip had decided to serve in the United States +Army. One term would be enough to serve his purpose. + +Tip, too, had kept his resolve a secret--even from his mother. + +As Hal and Noll, Jud and Tom strolled along they came up with Tip +Branders. + +"So this is you, you little freshy!" growled Tip, halting suddenly, and +close to Jud. "Now I'll give ye the thrashing I promised yesterday." + +His big fist shot out, making a grab for young Jeffers. + +But Hal Overton caught the wrist of that hand, and shoved it back. + +"That doesn't look exactly manly in you, Branders," remarked Hal +quietly. + +"Oh, it doesn't, hey?" roared Tip. "What have you got to say about it?" + +"Nothing in particular," admitted Hal pleasantly. "Nothing, except that +I'd rather see you tackle some one nearer your own size." + +"Would, hey?" roared Tip. "O. K!" + +With that he swung suddenly, and so unexpectedly that the blow caught +Hal Overton unawares, sending him to the sidewalk. + +"I believe I'll take a small hand in this," murmured Noll Terry, +starting to take off his coat. + +But Hal was up in a twinkling. + +"Leave this to me, please, Noll," he begged, and sailed in. + +Tip Branders was waiting, with an ugly grin on his face. He was far +bigger than Hal, and stronger, too. Yet, for the first few moments, Tip +had all he could do to ward off Hal's swift, clever blows. + +Then Tip swung around swiftly, taking the aggressive. + +It seemed like a bad mistake, for now Hal suddenly drove in a blow that +landed on Brander's nose, drawing the blood. + +"Now, I'll fix ye for that!" roared Tip, after backing off for an +instant. + +Just as he was about to charge again the big bully felt a strong grip on +his collar, while a deep, firm voice warned him: + +"Don't do anything of the sort, Branders, or I'll have to summon an +officer to take you in." + +Tip wheeled, to find himself looking into the grizzled face of Chief of +Police Blake. Tip often bragged of his political "pull," but he knew he +had none with this chief. + +"I got a right to smash this fellow," blustered Tip. "He hit me." + +"I'll wager you hit him first, though, or else gave young Overton good +cause for hitting you," smiled the chief. "I know Overton, and he's the +kind of boy his neighbors can vouch for. I don't know as much good of +you. But I'll tell you, Tip, how you can best win my good opinion. Take +a walk--a good, brisk walk--straight down the street. And start now!" + +Something in the police chief's voice told Tip that it would be well to +obey. He did so. + +"Too many young fellows like him on the street," observed Chief Blake, +with a quiet smile. "Good morning, boys." + +At the next corner Hal and Noll turned. + +"Oh, you're going to see Sergeant Wright?" asked Jud. + +"Yes," nodded Hal. "Our last visit to him." + +"Then you won't want us along," said Jud sensibly. "But say, we wish you +barrels of luck--honest--in the new life you're going into." + +"Thank you," laughed Hal good-humoredly, holding out his hand. + +"Send me a brass button soon, one that you've worn on your uniform +blouse, will you?" begged Jud. + +"Yes," agreed Hal, "if there's nothing in the regulations against it." + +"And you, Noll? Will you do as much for me?" begged Tom. + +"Surely, on the same conditions," promised Noll Terry. + +"But we haven't succeeded in getting into the service yet, you must +remember," Hal warned them. + +"Oh, shucks!" retorted Jud. "I wish I were as sure of anything that I +want. The recruiting officer'll be tickled to death when he sees you two +walking in on him." + +"I hope you're a real, true prophet, Jud," replied Hal, with a wistful +smile. + +Neither of these two younger boys had any idea how utterly Hal Overton +had set his heart on entering the service, nor why. The reader will +presently discover more about the surging "why." + +On one of the side streets the boys paused before the door of a cozy, +little cottage in which lived Sergeant Wright and the wife who had been +with him nearly the whole of his time in the service. + +Ere they could ring the bell the door opened, and Sergeant Wright, U. S. +Army, retired, stood before them, holding out his hand. + +"Well, boys," was the kindly greeting of this fine-looking, middle-aged +man, "have you settled the whole matter at home?" + +"Yes," nodded Hal happily. "We go to New York, to-morrow, to try our +luck with the recruiting officer." + +"Come right in, boys, and we'll have our final talk about the good old +Army," cried the retired sergeant heartily. + +It was that same afternoon that Tip Branders next espied Jud and Tom +coming down a street. Tip darted into a doorway, intent on lying in wait +for the pair. + +As they neared his place of hiding, however, Tip heard Jud and Tom +talking of something that changed his plan. + +"What's that?" echoed Tip to himself, straining his hearing. + +"Say," breathed Tom Andrews fervently, "wouldn't it be fine if we could +go to New York to-morrow morning, too, and see Hal and Noll sworn into +the United States Army?" + +Tip held his breath, listening for more. He heard enough to put him in +possession of practically all of the plans of Hal and Noll. + +"Oho!" chuckled Tip, as he strode away from the place later. "So that +pair of boobs are going to try for the Army. Oh, I daresay they'll get +in. But so will I--and in the same company with them. I wouldn't have +missed this for anything. I'll be the thorn in Hal Overton's side the +little while that he'll be in the service! I've more than to-day's +business to settle with that stuck-up dude!" + +All of which will soon appear and be made plain. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +AT THE RECRUITING OFFICE + + +THE solemn time came the following morning. + +Both Hal and Noll were "only children," or, at least, so thought their +mothers. + +Messrs. Overton and Terry, the elders, gave their sons' hands a last +strong grip. No good advice was offered by either father at parting. +That had already been attended to. + +Naturally the boys' mothers cried a good bit over them. Both mothers, in +fact, had wanted to go over to New York with their sons. But the fathers +had objected that this would only prolong the pain of parting, and that +soldiers in the bud should not be unfitted for their beginnings by +tears. + +So Hal and Noll met at the station, to take an early morning train. +There were no relatives to see them off. Early as the hour was, though, +Jud Jeffers and Tom Andrews had made a point of being on hand. + +"We wanted to see you start," explained Jud, his face beaming and eyes +wistful with longing. "We didn't know what train you'd take, so we've +been here since half-past six." + +"We may be back by early afternoon," laughed Hal. + +"Not you two!" declared Jud positively. "The recruiting officer will +jump right up, shake hands with you, and drag you over to where you sign +the Army rolls." + +The train came along in time to put a stop to a long conversation. + +As the two would-be soldiers stepped up to the train platform Jud and +Tom did their best to volley them with cheers. + +Noll blushed, darting into a car as quickly as he could, and sitting on +the opposite side of the train from these noisy young admirers. + +Hal, however, good-humoredly waved his hand from a window as the train +pulled out. Then, with a very solemn face, all of a sudden, young +Overton crossed and seated himself beside his chum. + +Neither boy carried any baggage whatever. If they failed to get into the +Army they would soon be home again. If they succeeded in enlisting, then +the Army authorities would furnish all the baggage to be needed. + +"Take your last look at the old town, Hal," Noll urged gravely, as the +train began to move faster. "It may be years before we see the good old +place again." + +"Oh, keep a stiff upper lip, Noll," smiled Hal, though he, also, felt +rather blue for the moment. "Our folks will be down to the recruit +drilling place to see us, soon, if we succeed in getting enrolled." + +It hurt both boys a bit, as long as any part of their home city remained +in sight. Each tried bravely, however, to look as though going away from +home had been a frequent occurrence in their lives. + +By the time that they were ten miles on their way both youngsters had +recovered their spirits. Indeed, now they were looking forward with +almost feverish eagerness to their meeting the recruiting officer. + +"I hope the Army surgeon doesn't find anything wrong with our physical +condition," said Hal, at last. + +"Dr. Brooks didn't," replied Noll, as confidently as though that settled +it. + +"But Dr. Brooks has never been an Army surgeon," returned Hal. "He may +not know all the fine points that Army surgeons know." + +"Well we'll know before the day is over," replied Noll, with a catching +of his breath. "Then, of course, we don't know whether the Army is at +present taking boys under twenty-one." + +"The law allows it," declared Hal stoutly. + +"Yes; but you remember Sergeant Wright told us, fairly, that sometimes, +when the right sort of recruits are coming along fast, the recruiting +officers shut down on taking any minors." + +"I imagine," predicted Hal, "that much more will depend upon how we +happen, individually, to impress the recruiting officer." + +In this Hal Overton was very close to being right. + +The ride of more than two hours ended at last, bringing the young +would-be soldiers to the ferry on the Jersey side. As they crossed the +North River both boys admitted to themselves that they were becoming a +good deal more nervous. + +"We'll get a Broadway surface car, and that will take us right up to +Madison Square," proposed Noll. + +"It would take us too long," negatived Hal. "We can save a lot of time +by taking the Sixth Avenue "L" uptown and walking across to Madison +Square." + +"You're in a hurry to have it over with?" laughed Noll, but there was a +slight tremor in his voice. + +"I'm in a hurry to know my fate," admitted Hal. + +Oliver Terry had been in New York but once before. Hal, by virtue of his +superiority in having made four visits to New York, led the way +straight to the elevated railroad. They climbed the stairs, and were +just in time to board a train. + +A few minutes later they got out at Twenty-third Street, crossed to +Fifth Avenue and Broadway, then made their way swiftly over to Madison +Square. + +"There's the place, over there!" cried Noll, suddenly seizing Hal's arm +and dragging him along. "There's an officer and a man, and the soldier +is holding a banner. It has something on it that says something about +recruits for the Army." + +"The man you call an officer is a non-commissioned officer--a sergeant, +in fact," Hal replied. "Don't you see the chevrons on his sleeve?" + +"That's so," Noll admitted slowly. "Cavalry, at that. His chevrons and +facings are yellow. It was his fine uniform that made me take him for an +officer." + +"We'll go up to the sergeant and ask him where the recruiting office +is," Hal continued. + +Certainly the sergeant looked "fine" enough to be an officer. His +uniform was immaculate, rich-looking and faultless. Both sergeant and +private wore the olive khaki, with handsome visored caps of the same +material. + +The early April forenoon was somewhat chilly, yet the benches in the +center of the square were more than half-filled by men plainly "down on +their luck." Some of these men, of course, were hopelessly besotted or +vicious, and Uncle Sam had no use for any of these in his Army uniform. +There were other men, however, on the seats, who looked like good and +useful men who had met with hard times. Most of these men on the benches +had not breakfasted, and had no assurance that they would lunch or dine +on that day. + +It was to the better elements among these men that the sergeant and the +private soldier were intended to appeal. Yet the sergeant was not +seeking unwilling recruits; he addressed no man who did not first speak +to him. + +In the tidy, striking uniforms, their well-built bodies, their well-fed +appearance and their whole air of well-being, these two enlisted men of +the regular army must have presented a powerful, if mute, appeal to the +hungry unfortunate ones on the benches. + +"Good morning, Sergeant," spoke Hal, as soon as the two chums had +reached the Army pair. + +"Good morning, sir," replied the sergeant. + +"You're in the recruiting service?" Hal continued. + +"Yes, sir." + +Always the invariable "sir" with which the careful soldier answers +citizens. In the Army men are taught the use of that "sir," and to look +upon all citizens as their employers. + +"Then no doubt you will direct us to the recruiting office in this +neighborhood?" Hal went on. + +"Certainly, sir," answered the sergeant, and wheeling still further +around he pointed north across the square to where the office was +situated. + +"You can hardly miss it, sir, with the orderly standing outside," said +the sergeant, smiling. + +"No, indeed," Hal agreed. "Thank you very much, Sergeant." + +"You're welcome, sir. May I inquire if you are considering enlisting?" + +"Both of us are," Hal nodded. + +"Glad to hear it, sir," the sergeant continued, looking both boys over +with evident approval. "You look like the clean, solid, sensible, right +sort that we're looking for in the Army. I wish you both the best of +good luck." + +"Thank you," Hal acknowledged. "Good morning, Sergeant." + +"Good morning, sir." + +Still that "sir" to the citizen. The sergeant would drop it, as far as +these two boys were concerned, if they entered the service and became +his subordinates. + +It seemed to Hal and Noll as if they could not get over the ground fast +enough until they reached that doorway where the orderly stood. The +orderly directed them how to reach the office upstairs, and both boys, +after thanking him, proceeded rapidly to higher regions. + +They soon found themselves before the door. It stood ajar. Inside sat a +sergeant at a flat-top desk. He, too, was of the cavalry. There were +also two privates in the room. + +Doffing their hats Hal and Noll entered the room. Overton led the way +straight to the sergeant's desk. + +"Good morning, Sergeant. We have come to see whether we can enlist." + +"How old were you on your last birthday?" inquired the sergeant, eyeing +Hal keenly. + +"Eighteen, Sergeant." + +"And you?" turning to Noll. + +"Seventeen," Noll replied. + +"You are too young, I'm sorry to say," replied the sergeant to Noll. + +Then, turning to Hal, he added: + +"You may be accepted." + +"But I've got another birthday coming very soon," interjected Noll. + +"How soon?" + +"To-morrow." + +"You'll be eighteen to-morrow?" questioned the sergeant. + +"Yes, sir." + +"That will be all right, then," nodded the sergeant. "You won't need to +be sworn in before to-morrow. You have both of you parents living?" + +"Yes, sir," Hal answered, this time. + +"It is not necessary, or usual, to say 'sir,' when answering a +non-commissioned officer," the sergeant informed them. "Say 'sir,' +always, when addressing a commissioned officer or a citizen." + +"Thank you," Hal acknowledged. + +"Now, you have the consent of your parents to enlist?" + +"Yes, Sergeant." + +"Both of you?" + +"Yes." + +"Aldridge!" + +One of the pair of very spruce-looking privates in the room wheeled +about. + +"Furnish these young men with application blanks, and take them over to +the high desk." + +Having said this the sergeant turned back to some papers that he had +been examining. + +"You will fill out these papers," Private Aldridge explained to the +boys, after he had led them to the high desk. "I think all the +questions are plain enough. If there are any you don't understand then +ask me." + +It was a race between Hal and Noll to see which could get a pen in his +hand first. Then they began to write. + +The first question, naturally, was as to the full name of the applicant; +then followed his present age and other questions of personal history. + +For some time both pens flew over the paper or paused as a new question +was being considered. + +When he came to the question as to which arm of the service was +preferred by the applicant Noll turned to Hal to whisper: + +"Is it still the infantry?" young Terry asked. + +"Still and always the infantry," Hal nodded. + +"All right," half sighed Noll. "I'm almost wishing for the cavalry, +though, so I could ride a horse." + +"The infantry is best for our plans," Hal replied. + +When they had finished making out their papers Hal and Noll went back to +the sergeant's desk. + +"Do we hand these to you?" Hal asked. + +"Yes," said the sergeant, taking both papers. He ran his eyes over them +hurriedly, then rose and passed into an inner office. When he came out +all he said was: + +"Take seats over there until you're wanted." + +Two or three minutes later a buzzer sounded over the sergeant's head. +Rising, he entered the inner room. + +"Our time's come, now, I guess," whispered Noll. + +"Or else something else is going to happen," replied Hal, smiling. "You +and I are not the only two problems with which the Army concerns +itself." + +Noll's guess was right, however. The sergeant speedily returned to the +outer office and crossed over to the boys, who rose. + +"Lieutenant Shackleton will see you," announced the sergeant. "Step +right into his office. Stand erect and facing him. Use the word, 'sir,' +when answering him, and be very respectful in all your replies. Let him +do all the talking." + +"We understand, thank you," nodded Hal. + +The sergeant, who had his cap in his hand, turned to leave the office +for a few moments on other business. As he was going out he nearly +bumped into a heavily-built young fellow who was entering. + +Hal Overton had reached the door leading into the lieutenant's office +and pulled it open. + +Just as he did so he heard a rather familiar voice behind him demand: + +"Where's the officer in charge?" + +"In that office," replied one of the soldiers, pointing. + +The newcomer did not stop to thank the soldier, but sprang toward the +door that Hal had just opened. + +"Here, you kids can stand aside until a man gets through with his +business in there," exclaimed Tip Branders, gripping Hal by the +shoulders and swinging him aside. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE ORDEAL OF EXAMINATION + + +HAL OVERTON was so astonished that he offered no resistance to the bully +from home. + +Instead, Hal and Noll paused by the door, while Tip, with a confident +leer on his face, strode into the inner office. + +Lieutenant Shackleton, a man of twenty-eight, in blue fatigue uniform, +with the single bar of the first lieutenant on his shoulder-straps, +looked up quickly and in some amazement. + +"Who are you?" he asked. + +"I've come to see you about enlisting in the Army," continued Tip, who, +with his hat still on, was marching up to the desk. + +"Take off your hat." + +"Eh? Huh?" + +"Take off your hat!" came the repeated order, with a good deal more of +emphasis. + +"Hey? Oh, cert. Anything to oblige," assented Tip, with a sheepish grin, +as he removed his hat. + +"Is your name Overton?" asked the recruiting officer, glancing at the +papers before him. + +"Naw, nothing like it," returned Tip easily. + +"Or, Terry?" + +"Them two boobs is outside," returned Tip, with evident scorn. "I told +'em to stand aside until I went in and had my rag-chew out with you." + +Lieutenant Shackleton flashed an angry look at Branders, though a keen +reader of faces would have known that this experienced recruiting +officer was trying hard to conceal a smile. The lieutenant had dealt +with many of these "tough" applicants. + +"Orderly!" rasped out the lieutenant. + +Private Aldridge appeared in the doorway, standing at attention. + +"Orderly, I understand that this man wishes to enlist----" + +"That's dead right," nodded Tip encouragingly. + +"But his application has not been received by me," continued the +lieutenant, ignoring the interruption. "Take him outside and let +Sergeant Wayburn look him over first. Also ask the sergeant to inform +this man as to the proper way to approach and address an officer." + +"Very good, sir," replied Private Aldridge. He tried to catch Tip's eye, +but Branders was not looking at him, so the soldier crossed over to +Branders, resting a hand on his arm. + +"Come with me," requested the soldier. + +"Hey?" asked Tip. + +"My man, go with that orderly," cried Lieutenant Shackleton, in an +annoyed tone. + +"Me? Oh, all right," nodded Tip, and went out with the soldier. + +"Overton! Terry!" called the recruiting officer. + +"Here, sir," answered Hal, as both boys entered the room. + +"One of you close the door then come here," directed Lieutenant +Shackleton. + +Noll closed the door, after which both boys advanced to the roll-top +desk behind which the lieutenant sat. + +"You are Henry Overton and Oliver Terry?" asked the officer. + +"Yes, sir," Hal answered. + +"And these are your applications?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"You have filled them out truthfully, in every detail?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"You, Overton, are already eighteen?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"And you, Terry, will be eighteen years old to-morrow?" + +"Yes, sir----" from Noll. + +The lieutenant looked them both over keenly, as if to make up his own +mind about their ages. + +"May I speak, sir?" queried Hal. + +"Yes." + +"To satisfy any doubt about our ages, sir, we have brought with us +copies of our birth certificates, both certified to by the city clerk at +home." + +"You're intelligent lads," exclaimed the officer, with a gratified +smile. "You go at things in the right way. Be good enough to turn over +the certificates to me." + +Hal took some papers from his pocket, passing two of them over to the +recruiting officer, who examined the certificates swiftly. + +"All regular," he declared. "Terry, of course, if he passes, cannot be +sworn in until to-morrow. You have other papers there?" + +"Yes, sir," Hal admitted. "The consent for our joining, signed by both +our fathers and mothers, since we are under twenty-one." + +"But I cannot know, until I have ascertained, that these are the genuine +signatures of your parents. That investigation will take a little time." + +"Pardon me, sir," Hal answered, laying the two remaining papers before +the officer, "but you will find both papers witnessed under the seal of +a notary public, who states that our parents are personally known to +him." + +"Well, well, you are bright lads--good enough to make soldiers of," +laughed Lieutenant Shackleton almost gleefully, as he scanned the added +papers. + +"May I speak, sir?" + +"Yes." + +"We can't claim credit for bringing these papers. We are well acquainted +with a retired sergeant of the Army, who suggested that these papers, in +their present form, would save us a lot of bother." + +"Then you don't deserve any of the credit?" + +"No, sir." + +"You deserve a higher credit, then, for you are both honest lads." + +Again the lieutenant turned to look them over keenly, sizing them up, as +it were. Both were plainly more than five-feet-four, and so would not be +rejected on account of height. They seemed like good, solid youngsters, +too. + +"Smoke cigarettes?" suddenly shot out the lieutenant. + +"No, sir!" + +"Smoke anything else, or chew tobacco? Or drink alcoholic beverages?" + +"We have never done any of these things, sir," Hal replied. + +"I see that you express a preference for the infantry," continued the +recruiting officer. + +"Yes, sir," Hal replied. + +"I am almost sorry for that," continued the officer. "I would like to +see two lads of your evident caliber going into my own arm of the +service--the cavalry." + +"We have chosen the infantry, sir," Hal explained, "because we will have +more leisure time there than in the cavalry or artillery." + +"Looking for easy berths?" asked Lieutenant Shackleton, with a suddenly +suspicious ring to his voice. + +"No, sir," Hal rejoined. "May I explain, sir?" + +"Yes; go ahead." + +"We both of us have hopes, sir, if we can get into the Army, that we may +be able to rise to be commissioned officers. We have learned that there +is less to do in the infantry, ordinarily, and that we would therefore +have more time in the infantry for study to fit ourselves to take +examinations for officer's commissions." + +"Then, to save you from possible future disappointment, I had better be +very frank with you about the chances of winning commissions from the +ranks," said the lieutenant. "In the Army we have some excellent +officers who have risen from the ranks. Each year a few enlisted men are +promoted to be commissioned officers. The examination, however, is a +very stiff one. Out of the applicants each year more enlisted men are +rejected than are promoted. The difficulty of the examination causes +most enlisted men to fail." + +"Thank you, sir. We have thought of all that, and have looked over the +nature of the examinations given enlisted men who seek to be officers," +Hal replied. "We know the examinations are very hard, but we have twelve +years if need be in which to prepare ourselves for the examination. +Enlisted men, so I am told, may apply for commissions up to the age of +thirty." + +"Yes; that is right," nodded the lieutenant. "But how much schooling +have you behind you?" + +"We have each had two years in High School, sir." + +"On that basis you will both have hard times to prepare yourselves for +officers' examinations. However, with great application, you may make +it--if you achieve also sufficiently good records as enlisted men." + +This explanation being sufficient, Lieutenant Shackleton paused, then +went on: + +"As you are unusually in earnest about enlisting I fancy that you want +to hear the surgeon's verdict as soon as possible." + +"Yes, sir, if you please," replied Hal. + +"Orderly!" + +One of the two soldiers entered. Lieutenant Shackleton made some +entries on the application papers, then handed them to the soldier. + +"Orderly, take these young men to the surgeon at once." + +"Yes, sir. Come this way, please." + +Hal and Noll were again conducted into the outer office. The sergeant +had returned by this time and was at his desk. Over at the high desk +stood Tip Branders, making out his application. + +"Oh, we're it, aren't we?" demanded Tip, looking around with a scowl at +the chums. "You freshies!" + +"Be silent," ordered the sergeant looking up briskly. + +"Well, those two kids----" began Tip. But the sergeant, though a +middle-aged man, showed himself agile enough to reach Tip Branders' side +in three swift, long bounds. + +"Young man, either conduct yourself properly, or get out of here," +ordered the sergeant point-blank. + +Muttering something under his breath, Tip turned back to his writing, at +which he was making poor headway, while the orderly led Hal and Noll +down the corridor, halting and knocking at another door. + +"Come in!" called a voice. + +"Lieutenant Shackleton's compliments, sir, and two applicants to be +examined, sir." + +"Very good, Orderly," replied Captain Wayburn, assistant surgeon, Army +Medical Corps, as he received the papers from the orderly. The latter +then left the room, closing the door behind him. + +"You are Overton and Terry?" questioned Captain Wayburn, eyeing the +papers, then turning to the chums, who answered in the affirmative. + +Captain Wayburn, being a medical officer of the Army, wore shoulder +straps with a green ground. At the ends of each strap rested the two +bars that proclaimed his rank of captain. Being a staff officer, Captain +Wayburn wore black trousers, instead of blue, beneath his blue fatigue +blouse. Moreover, the black trousers of the staff carried no broad side +stripe along the leg. The side stripe is always in evidence along the +outer leg side of the blue trousers of the line officer, and the color +of the stripe denotes to which arm of the service the officer belongs--a +white stripe denotes the infantry officer, while a yellow stripe +distinguishes the cavalry and a red stripe the artillery officer. + +Captain Wayburn now laid out two other sets of papers on his desk. These +were the blanks for the surgeon's report on an applicant for enlistment. + +At first this examination didn't seem to amount to much. The surgeon +began by looking Hal Overton's scalp over, next examining his face, neck +and back of head. Then he took a look at Hal's teeth, which he found to +be perfect. + +"Stand where you are. Read this line of letters to me," ordered the +surgeon, stepping across the room to a card on which were ranged several +rows of printed letters of different sizes. + +Hal read the line off perfectly. + +"Read the line above." + +Hal did so. He read all of the lines, to the smallest, in fact, without +an error. + +"There's nothing the matter with your vision," remarked Captain Wayburn, +in a pleased tone. "Now tell me--promptly--what color is this?" + +The surgeon held up a skein of yarn. + +"Red," announced Hal, without an instant's hesitation. + +"This one?" + +"Green." + +"And this?" + +"Blue." + +And so on. Hal missed with none of the colors. + +"Go to that chair in the corner, Overton, and strip yourself, piling +your clothing neatly on the chair. Terry, come here." + +Noll went through similar tests with equal success. By the time he had +finished Hal was stripped. Now came the real examination. Hal's heart +and other organs were examined; his skin and body were searched for +blemishes. He was made to run and do various other exercises. After this +the surgeon again listened to his heart from various points of +examination. Finally Hal was told to lie down on a cot. Now, the +examination of the heart was made over again in this position. It was +mostly Greek to the boy. When the examination was nearly over Noll was +ordered to strip and take his turn. + +When it was over Captain Wayburn turned to them to say: + +"If I pronounced you young men absolutely flawless in a physical sense, +it wouldn't be much of an exaggeration. You are just barely over the one +hundred and twenty pound weight, but that is all that can be expected at +your age." + +"You pass us, sir," asked Hal eagerly. + +"Most decidedly. As soon as Terry is dressed I'll hand you each your +papers to take back to the recruiting officer." + +Five minutes later Hal and Noll returned to the main waiting room. + +"Pass?" inquired the sergeant, with friendly interest. + +"Yes," nodded Hal. + +Tip Branders was sitting in a chair, a dark scowl on his face. + +"Orderly, take Branders to the surgeon, now," continued the sergeant, +and Tip disappeared. Then the sergeant knocked at the door of the +lieutenant's office and entered after receiving the officer's +permission. He came out in a moment, holding the door open. + +"Overton and Terry, the lieutenant will see you now." + +Hal and Noll entered, handing their papers back to Lieutenant +Shackleton, who glanced briefly at the surgeon's reports. + +"I don't see much difficulty about your enlisting," smiled the officer. +"I congratulate you both." + +"We're delighted, sir," said Noll simply. + +"Now, Overton, I can let you sign, provisionally, to-day but I can't +accept your friend, Terry, until to-morrow, when he will have reached +the proper age for enlisting. This may seem like a trivial thing to you, +but Terry is just one day short of the age, and the regulations provide +that an officer who knowingly enlists a recruit below the proper age is +to be dismissed from the service. Now, if you prefer, Overton, you can +delay enlisting until to-morrow, so as to enter on the same date with +your friend." + +"I'd prefer that, sir," admitted Hal. + +"You are both in earnest about enlisting?" + +"Indeed we are, sir," breathed Noll fervently. + +"I believe you," nodded the officer. "Now, have you money enough for a +hotel bed and meals until to-morrow forenoon?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then be here at nine o'clock to-morrow morning, sharp, and I'll sign +you both on the rolls of the Army. Now, furnish me with home references, +and, especially, the name of your last employer. These will be +investigated by telegraph. Also, are you acquainted with the chief of +police in your home city?" + +Hal and Noll answered these questions. + +Then, having nothing pressing on his hands for the moment, Lieutenant +Shackleton offered the boys much sound and wholesome advice as to the +way to conduct themselves in the Army. He laid especial stress upon +truthfulness, which is the keystone of the service. He warned them +against bad habits of all kinds, and told them to pick their friends +with care, both in and out of the service. + +"In particular," continued the lieutenant, "I want to warn you against +contracting the 'guard-house habit.' That is what we call it when a +soldier gets in the habit of committing petty breaches of discipline +such as will land him in the guard-house for a term of confinement for +twenty-four hours or more. The 'guard-house habit' has spoiled hundreds +of men, who, but for that first confinement, would have made admirable +soldiers. The enlisted man with the 'guard-house habit' is as useless +and hopeless as the tramp or the petty thief in civil life." + +It was an excellent talk all the way through. Both boys listened +respectfully and appreciatively. It struck them that Lieutenant +Shackleton was giving them a large amount of his time. They learned, +later, that a competent officer is always willing and anxious to talk +with his men upon questions of discipline, duty and efficiency. It is +one of the things that the officer is expected and paid to do. + +By the time they came out Tip was just returning from the surgeon's +examination. + +"You freshies needn't think ye're the only ones that passed," growled +Tip in a low voice, as he passed. + +Neither chum paid any heed to Branders. Somehow, as long as he kept his +hands at his sides, Branders didn't seem worth noticing. + +"Make it?" asked the sergeant at the street door. + +"Yes; we sign to-morrow, if our references are all right," Hal nodded +happily. + +With a sudden recollection that soldiers must hold themselves erect, +Hal and Noll braced their shoulders until they thought they looked and +carried themselves very much as the sergeant did. They kept this pose +until they had turned the corner into Broadway. + +"Whoop!" exploded the usually quiet Noll Terry unexpectedly. + +"What's wrong, old fellow?" asked Hal quickly. + +"Nothing! Everything's right, and we're soldiers at last!" cried Noll, +his eyes shining. + +"At least, we shall be to-morrow, if all goes well," rejoined Hal. + +"Oh, nonsense! Everything is going to go right, now. It can't go any +other way." + +As he spoke, Noll turned to cross Broadway at the next corner. + +Hal made a pounce forward, seizing his comrade by an arm. Then he backed +like a flash, dragging Noll back to the sidewalk with him. Even at that +a moving automobile brushed Noll's clothes, leaving a layer of dirt on +them. + +"Things will go wrong, if you don't watch where you're going," cried Hal +rather excitedly. "Noll, Noll, don't try to walk on clouds, but remember +you're on Broadway." + +"Let's get off of Broadway, then," begged young Terry. "I'm so tickled +that I want a chance to enjoy my thoughts." + +"We'll cross and go down Broadway, then," Hal proposed. "I have the +address of a hotel with rates low enough to suit our treasury, and it's +some blocks below here." + +"Say," muttered Noll, "of all the things I ever heard of! Think of Tip +Branders wanting to serve the Flag!" + +The boys talked of this puzzle, mainly, until they reached their street +and crossed once more to go to the hotel. They registered, went to their +room, and here Noll put in the next twenty minutes in making his clothes +look presentable again. + +"If you've got that done, let's go downstairs," proposed happy Hal. "I'm +hungry enough to scare the bill of fare clear off the table." + +As they descended into the lobby Hal suddenly touched Noll's arm and +stood still. + +"I guess Tip is going to stay right with us," whispered Overton in his +chum's ear. "That's Tip's mother over there in the chair. She and her +son must be stopping at this hotel." + +"They surely are," nodded Noll, "for there's Tip himself just coming +in." + +Neither mother nor son noted the presence of the chums near by. + +Tip hurried up to his mother, a grin on his not very handsome face. + +"Well, old lady," was that son's greeting, "I've gone and done it." + +"You don't mean that you've gotten into any trouble, do you, Tip?" asked +his mother apprehensively. + +"Trouble--nothing!" retorted Tip eloquently. "Naw! I've been around to +the rookie shed and got passed as a soldier in the Regular Army." + +"What?" gasped his mother paling. + +"Now, that ain't nothing so fierce," almost growled Tip. "But there is a +fool rule--me being under twenty-one--that you've got to go and give +your consent. So that's the cloth that's cut for you this afternoon, old +lady." + +"Oh, oh, oh!" cried Mrs. Branders, sinking back in her chair and +covering her face with her hands. "What have I ever done that I should +be disgraced by having a son of mine going to--enlist in the Army!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MRS. BRANDERS GETS A NEW VIEW + + +THE chums waited to hear no more. It was none of their affair, so they +slipped into one of the adjacent dining rooms. + +Hal's eyes were flashing with indignation over Mrs. Brander's remark. + +Noll, on the other hand, was smiling quietly. + +"That must be a severe blow to Mrs. Branders," murmured Noll aloud, as +the boys slipped into their chairs at table. "To think of gentle Tip +going off into anything as rough and brutal as the Army! And poor little +Tip raised so tenderly as a pet!" + +As it afterwards turned out, however, Mrs. Branders, after offering her +son a present of a hundred dollars to stay out of the Army, had at last +tearfully given her consent to his becoming a soldier. + +She even went to the recruiting office that afternoon with Tip, and gave +a reluctant consent to her son's enlistment. + +"Be here at nine o'clock, sharp, to-morrow morning," directed Lieutenant +Shackleton. + +It was doubtful if either youngster slept very well that night. Both +were too full of thoughts of the Army and of the service. When Hal did +dream it was of Indians and Filipinos. + +Both were up early, and had breakfast out of the way in record time--and +then they hurried to Madison Square. They reached there ten minutes +ahead of time. + +The sergeant, however, came along five minutes later, and admitted them +to the recruiting office. + +Hardly had they stepped inside when Tip and his mother also appeared. +Then came the other enlisted men stationed at this office. Punctually at +the stroke of nine Lieutenant Shackleton entered, lifted his uniform cap +to Mrs. Branders and entered his own inner office. + +"Now you kids will get orders to skin back home," jeered Tip, in a low +tone, as he glanced over at Hal and Noll. + +"No pleasantries of that sort here," directed the sergeant, glancing up +from his desk. + +The door of the inner office opened, and Lieutenant Shackleton stepped +out. + +"Overton and Terry, your references prove to be absolutely good. I will +enlist you presently." + +Then the officer moved over to where Tip Branders and his mother sat. +Tip rose awkwardly. + +"Branders, I'm sorry to say we must decline your enlistment," announced +the recruiting officer, in a low tone. + +"Wot's that?" demanded Tip unbelievingly. + +"I find myself unable to accept you as a recruit in the Army," replied +the lieutenant. + +"Why, wot's the matter?" demanded Tip, thunderstruck. "Didn't I get by +the sawbones all right?" + +"If you mean the surgeon, yes," replied the recruiting officer. "But I +regret to say that we do not receive satisfactory accounts of you from +the home town." + +"Wot's the matter? Somebody out home trying to give me the crisscross?" +demanded Tip indignantly. + +"We do not receive a satisfactory account of your character, Branders, +and therefore you are not eligible for enlistment," went on Shackleton. +"Madam, I am extremely sorry, but the regulations allow me to pursue no +other course in the matter. I cannot enlist your son." + +"See here, officer----" began Mrs. Branders hoarsely, as she got upon +her feet. + +"When addressing Mr. Shackleton, call him 'lieutenant,' not 'officer,'" +murmured one of the orderlies in her ear. + +"You mind your own business," flashed Mrs. Branders, turning her face +briefly to the orderly. Then she wheeled, giving her whole attention to +the lieutenant. + +"See here, officer, do you mean to say that my boy ain't good enough to +get into the Army?" + +"I am sorry, madam, but the report we receive of his character isn't +satisfactory," answered Shackleton quietly. + +"What? My boy ain't good enough to go with the loafers and roughs in the +Army?" cried Mrs. Branders angrily. "He's too good for 'em--a heap sight +too good for any such low company! But s'posing Tip has been just a +little frisky sometimes, what has that got to do with his being a +soldier? I thought you wanted young fellows to fight--not pray!" + +"The soldier who can do both makes the better soldier, madam," replied +the lieutenant, feeling sorry for the mother's humiliation. "And now I +will say good morning to you and your son, madam, for I am very busy +to-day. Overton and Terry, come into my office." + +Before turning, Lieutenant Shackleton bowed to Mrs. Branders as +gracefully and courteously as he could have done to the President's +wife. Then he started for his office, leaving Mrs. Branders and Tip to +depart in bewilderment and anger. + +Hal and Noll followed the lieutenant, trying not to let their faces +betray any feeling over Tip's troubles. + +"You still wish to enlist?" asked Shackleton, turning to the waiting +lads, after he had seated himself. + +"Yes, sir," answered both. + +"Then you will sign the rolls," directed the recruiting officer, passing +papers forward, dipping a pen in ink and passing it to Hal. + +Hal signed, slowly, with a solemn feeling. It was Noll's turn next. + +"I will now administer the oath," continued Lieutenant Shackleton +gravely, as he rose at his desk. "Raise your right hand, Overton, and +repeat after me." + +This was the oath of service that Hal repeated: + +"'I Henry Overton, do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and +allegiance to the United States of America; that I will serve them +honestly and faithfully against all their enemies whomsoever; and that I +will obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the +orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the rules and +articles of war.'" + +Then Noll took the same oath. + +"You have already signed the same oath as a part of your enlistment +contract," continued Lieutenant Shackleton. "I have now to certify that +you have taken the oath and signed before me." + +Seating himself once more the recruiting officer certified in the +following form on each set of papers: + + "Subscribed and duly sworn to before me this -- + day of ---- , A. D. ---- + + "THOMAS P. SHACKLETON, + "First Lieutenant, 17th Cavalry, + "Recruiting Officer." + +"That is all," finished the recruiting officer. "You are now recruits in +the United States Army. I wish you both all happiness and success. You +will take your further orders from my sergeant, or from the corporal to +whom he turns you over. You will probably find yourself at the recruit +rendezvous at Bedloe's Island in time for dinner to-day." + +Touching a button on his desk the lieutenant waited until the sergeant +entered. + +"Sergeant, turn these men over to Corporal Dodds. Come back in ten +minutes for the papers." + +"Very good, sir." + +The sergeant led them down the corridor, opening a door and leading the +way inside. + +"Corporal Dodds, here are two recruits. Take care of them until I bring +the papers." + +"Very good, Sergeant." + +The door closed. + +"Help yourselves to chairs, or stand and look out of the window, if +you'd rather," invited Corporal Dodds, who, himself, was seated at a +small desk. + +Hal and Noll tried sitting down at first. This soon became so irksome +that they rose and went to one of the windows. + +Corporal Dodds said nothing until the door opened once more, and the +sergeant entered with an envelope. + +"Here are the papers for Privates Overton and Terry. You are directed to +see that the young men go with you on the eleven o'clock ferry to +Bedloe's Island. You will report with these recruits to the post +adjutant as usual." + +"Very good, Sergeant," replied Corporal Dodds, and again the boys were +alone with their present guide. + +To the raw young recruits it was a tremendously solemn day, but to the +corporal, it was simply a matter of dry routine. + +"Ten-fifteen," yawned the corporal, at last. "Come along, rookies; +nothing like being on time--in the Army, especially." + +"Rookie" is the term by which a new recruit is designated in Army slang. +It is a term of mild derision. + +Corporal Dodds paused long enough at the recruiting office to turn over +his key to the sergeant; then he led the way to the street, across to +the Sixth Avenue Elevated road, and thence they embarked on a train +bound down town. + +All the way to the Battery Corporal Dodds did not furnish his pair of +recruits with more than a dozen words by way of conversation. + +But neither Hal nor Noll felt much like talking. Though either would +have died sooner than admit it, each was suffering, just then from acute +homesickness, and also from a secret dread that the Army might not turn +out to be as rosy as they had painted it in their imagination. + +"This way to the Army ferry," directed Corporal Dodds, leading them +across the Battery. + +Once aboard a small steamer that flew the flag of the Quartermaster's +Department, United States Army, Corporal Dodds watched his two young +rookies as though he suspected they would desert if they got a chance. + +After the ferry had left the slip, however, Dodds paid no more heed to +them. He at least left them free to end it all by jumping over into the +bay, if they wished to do so. + +Finding that he was under no restrictions, Private Hal Overton, United +States Army, sauntered forward to the bow. Private Noll Terry, feeling, +if anything a bit more forlorn, followed him. + +Just as they were nearing the dock at Bedloe's Island, Noll ventured: + +"I wonder how Tip Branders feels about now." + +"I wonder," muttered Hal. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +IN THE AWKWARD SQUAD + + +ONCE they were ashore our young rookies found Bedloe's Island a very +much larger bit of real estate than it appears to the passerby on a +steamboat. + +It was, in fact, a long walk from the dock to the adjutant's office at +headquarters. + +"Hit up the stride, rookies," ordered Corporal Dodds. "Double-time +march--hike. Don't keep the post adjutant from his luncheon." + +Corporal Dodds' real reason for haste was that he had a crony in one of +the squad rooms at barracks whom he wanted to see as early as possible. + +Shortly the rookies and their guide entered the adjutant's office. The +adjutant proved to be a captain of infantry with a corporal and two +privates on duty in his office as clerks. + +"Sir, I report with two recruits," announced Corporal Dodds, coming to a +salute, which the adjutant returned. + +"Their papers?" asked the adjutant. + +"Here, sir." + +"Very good, Corporal. You may go." + +Turning to the chums Captain Anderson asked: + +"You are Overton?" + +"Yes, sir," Hal replied, doing his best to salute as neatly as Corporal +Dodds had. Again the adjutant returned the salute in kind. "Then you are +Terry?" he asked, turning. + +"Yes, sir," Noll returned, not omitting to salute. + +The adjutant called to his principal clerk. + +"Corporal, make the proper entries for these men. Then take them over to +Sergeant Brimmer's squad room." + +With that the adjutant picked up his uniform cap and left the office, +all the enlisted men present rising and standing at attention until he +had closed the door after him. + +The corporal made the necessary entries, then rose and picked up his own +uniform cap. + +"Come with me, rookies," he directed briefly. + +So Hal and Noll followed, feeling within them another surge of that +curiously lonely and depressed feeling. + +This corporal led them into the barracks building, and down a corridor +on the ground floor. He paused, at last, before a door that he flung +open. Striding into the room, the corporal looked about him. + +"Where is Sergeant Brimmer?" he asked. + +"Not here now," replied another corporal, coming forward. + +"Two rookies. Hand 'em over to Brimmer when he comes in," replied the +conductor from the adjutant's office. + +With that he strode out again, shutting the door after him. + +The last corporal of all proved to be an older man than any of his +predecessors. He appeared to be about thirty-five years old; he was +tall, dark-featured and rather sullen-looking. + +In this room there were twenty cot beds, arranged in two opposite rows, +with their heads to the walls. On each cot the bedding had been rolled +back in a peculiarly exact fashion. + +At the further end of the squad room was a table and several chairs. + +The occupants of the room, at this moment, were a dozen men, besides the +corporal. Three of the men, like our young rookies, were still wearing +the clothes in which they had enlisted. The others wore light blue +uniform trousers and fatigue blouses of dark blue. Some of these men in +uniform looked almost indescribably "slouchy." They were men who had +received their uniforms, but who had not yet had enough of the +setting-up drills to know how to wear their uniforms. + +"What are you looking about you for?" demanded the corporal. "Wondering +why dinner ain't spread on that table yonder?" + +"No," replied Hal quietly. "We're just waiting to be told what to do +with ourselves." + +"What do I care what you do with yourselves?" demanded the corporal, +turning on his heel and walking away. + +So Hal and Noll remained where they were, the feeling of loneliness +growing all the time. + +"Don't mind Corporal Shrimp any more than you have to," advised one of +the uniformed rookies, coming over to them after a few moments. "Shrimp +is a terror and a grouch all the time. Sergeant Brimmer you'll find a +real old soldier, and a gentleman all the time." + +"Then it's just our luck to find Sergeant Brimmer out," smiled Hal. + +"Here he comes now," murmured the uniformed rookie, as the door of the +squad room opened. + +At the first glimpse of the newcomer Hal made up his mind that he was +going to like Sergeant Brimmer. He was a man of about thirty, tall, +rather slender, erect, thoroughly well built, with light, almost golden +hair and mustache, and a keen but kindly blue eye. + +"Recruits?" he asked, as he approached the boys. + +Both answered in the affirmative. + +"Corporal Shrimp," called Brimmer, "have you no report to make to me +about these new men?" + +"Why, yes," answered Shrimp, coming from the further end of the room. +"These men have just been brought here from the adjutant. They're +assigned to your squad room." + +"Very good, Corporal. Men, what are your names?" + +Hal and Noll both answered. + +"Friends?" asked Sergeant Brimmer. + +"Chums," Hal stated. + +"Then you'll be bunkies, too, of course. You want beds together, don't +you?" + +"If we may have them," Noll answered. + +"Follow me, then. Here you are. Eight and nine will be your beds until +further orders. Later, when you have your clothing issued, Corporal +Shrimp or I will show you how and where to take care of it. Now, men, +you'll likely find it a bit dull here for a day or two. Recruits +generally do. Then that will all wear off, and you'll be glad you're in +the Army. If there's anything you need to know, ask Corporal +Shrimp"--Hal winced inwardly--"or me. The mess call will soon go for +dinner. When it does, follow me outside, but take your places in the +rear of A Company, which is the recruit company that you now belong to. +I'll show you where to stand. New recruits don't march with the +battalion--not until they've been drilled enough to know how to march." + +"Is there a battalion here, Sergeant?" + +"Two recruit companies, at present. The non-commissioned officers, of +course, are trained soldiers. Then there are a few old-time privates in +each company--just enough to give the recruits some steadiness. The +trained privates also act as instructors sometimes." + +With this remark Sergeant Brimmer moved away. + +"He's all right," murmured Noll Terry. "If all were like Sergeant +Brimmer we wouldn't feel so lonely and blue." + +Noll had let that last word escape him without thinking. But Hal, who +felt just as blue, pretended not to have heard. + +"It'll all look different to us, just as soon as we get into uniform, +and get past the first breaking-in," predicted young Overton. + +Ta-ra-ra-ra-ta! sounded a bugle, out in the corridor. + +"That must be the call to dinner," muttered Hal. + +But a uniformed recruit, passing them, stopped to say, pleasantly: + +"No; that's first call to mess. Every call by the bugler has a 'first +call,' sounded just a little while before. That 'first call' is always +just the same strain. But the real call differs, according to what is +meant. The mess call itself, which is the one you'll hear next, sounds +like this." + +The recruit hummed mess call for them. + +"Thank you," acknowledged Hal gratefully. + +"Feeling lonesome?" asked the uniformed rookie. + +"J-j-just a bit," assented Hal. + +"I'm getting almost over it," smiled the uniformed one, "The older men, +those who have seen service with a regiment, tell me that a man soon +gets to find delight in being in the Army. But that's after he has +gotten away from the recruit rendezvous." + +"Oh, we'll get over it before then," promised Hal. "We'll be all over it +by to-morrow." + +"Look out for that Shrimp," whispered the uniformed rookie. + +"Does anyone ever need that warning, after seeing the corporal and +hearing him talk?" laughed Hal, in an undertone. + +"Don't you rookies go to take this squad-room for a vawdy-vill show," +growled Corporal Shrimp, from the near distance, as he heard the three +laughing. Sergeant Brimmer had just stepped outside. + +Ta-ra-ta-ra-ta! sounded a bugle again in the corridor. + +"A little time to ourselves now," whispered the uniformed recruit. +"That's mess call." + +The men in the room were quickly filing out. Outside of barracks A +Company was falling in, with B Company to the left of it. + +"You un-uniformed recruits take your position at the rear, without +forming," ordered Sergeant Brimmer coming up. "As your company starts +Corporal Shrimp will instruct you how to form at the rear of the +company." + +What followed was little understood by the two recruits. But presently +the two first sergeants gave their commands, and marched their companies +into the mess hall. + +"Fall in lively, there, by twos!" growled Shrimp roughly. "Hurry up! +Don't get in the way of the head of B Company!" + +To give emphasis to his orders Shrimp seized Hal and Noll each by an arm +and swung them into place. + +Both recruits went in with flushed faces. Shrimp's treatment had been +such as to make them feel uncomfortably "raw." But as the men marched to +their seats at the long tables in the mess hall this feeling of +humiliation left both boys. + +Hal's new friend occupied a seat at their right. + +"All the corporals ain't Shrimps," he whispered. "We've probably got +one of the meanest corporals in the Army." + +"He knows how to make everyone else feel as mean as himself," Hal +whispered back. + +Then all hands fell to at the meal, which tasted uncommonly good. It +consisted of a stew, with plenty of meat and potatoes, and other +vegetables in it. There was also bread and butter. Pie and coffee +followed. Then the recruit companies were marched out again and were +dismissed. + +"We have twenty minutes for relaxation now," laughed Hal's new friend, +who had introduced himself as Private Stanley. "After that I suppose +Shrimp will get you for the setting-up drills. He always has the new men +in our squad room. He----" + +At this moment Sergeant Brimmer stepped up to the trio as they stood in +the open air chatting. + +"Overton and Terry, you'll be under Corporal Shrimp's orders after the +recreation period. He'll instruct you in some of the first work of the +recruit. Go with him when he orders you to turn out." + +"Very good, Sergeant." + +No sooner had a bugle sounded than Corporal Shrimp appeared, followed by +two other un-uniformed rookies walking behind him. + +"You, Overton, and you, Terry, fall in by twos behind these two raw +rookies," ordered Shrimp. "Try to act a bit as though you were marching, +at that. Don't be too dumb! Forward!" + +Conscious that they were not cutting much of a figure, Hal and Noll +followed the pair ahead of them. + +Shrimp led them to a bit of green some distance away from any of the +larger drill grounds. + +"Squad halt!" he rumbled. "Now, rookies, you'll fall in in single rank, +facing the front and about four inches apart. No, no, ye idiots!" as the +four rookies started confusedly to obey. "You'll wait until I give the +order 'fall in.' When I do, Overton, being the tallest, will take his +place at the right, Terry next him, then Strawbridge, and then Healy. +Now, rookies, d'ye think ye understand? And you'll take your places +about four inches apart--just enough distance to allow each man the free +use of his body. Fall in!" + +So confused were the poor rookies under the scowling glances of Shrimp +that, in their haste to obey, they nearly upset each other. + +"Ye're a bad lot," commented the corporal, eyeing them with extreme +disfavor. "You don't even know how to judge the interval between each +man. Now, let every man except the man at the left rest his left hand +on his hip, just below where his belt would be if he wore one. Let the +right arm hang flat at the side. Now, each man move up so that his right +arm just touches his neighbor's left elbow. Careful, there! Don't crowd. +Now, let your left arms fall flat. There, you ostriches, you have the +interval from man to man as well as rookies can get it inside of a week. +Now, each one of you note his interval from the man at his right. So. +Fall out!" + +Without moving the rookies stood looking uncertainly at Corporal Shrimp. + +"Fall out, I say!" roared the corporal. + +"Do we go back to the squad room?" asked one of the rookies. + +"Listen to the man, now!" growled Shrimp. "Do you go back to the squad +room! You'll be lucky if ye ever live to see the squad room again. Fall +out--fall out of ranks, ye idiots!" + +"Oh," answered the same rookie. "Why didn't you say so?" + +"Why didn't I say so?" roared Shrimp. "Why didn't I say so, indeed! +Ye'll take the order the way I give it--not the way ye want it. When I +tell ye to fall in, that means to get into line, with the proper +interval from man to man. When I say fall out, ye're to get out of ranks +again. Now, then--fall in!" + +In a twinkling the recruits jumped to obey. Shrimp surveyed their +alignment with a scowl. Nothing that a recruit could do would satisfy +him. + +"Left hand on the hips, again. Now, get the interval--get it!" roared +Shrimp. "Dress up there, ye rookie idiots!" + +Shrimp would have made an excellent drillmaster had he possessed the +patience and the human decency of Sergeant Brimmer. But this corporal +made his work doubly hard, and hindered the rookies from learning, by +his persistent nagging and bad temper. + +"Now, we'll see whether ye can do as well at learning the position of +the soldier," he snapped out nastily, after a while. "Whenever, in +barracks, or elsewhere, in ranks or out, if you hear the command, +'Attention,' ye'll come to the position of the soldier. Now, watch me, +ye thick-pated rookies, and, as I describe it, bit by bit, I'll come to +the position of the soldier." + +After lounging for an instant Corporal Shrimp continued: + +"Heels on the same line, and as near together as possible. Turn your +feet out equally so that they form an angle of sixty degrees." + +Then, straightening up, this irate drillmaster went on: + +"Hold your knees straight, but don't have 'em stiff. Keep your body +erect on the hips, but inclined ever so little forward; keep your +shoulders squared, and let 'em fall equally. Let your arms and hands +hang naturally, with the backs of the hands outward and the little +fingers almost touching the seams of your trousers legs. Keep your +elbows near the body. Head erect and square to the front. Draw yer chin +in slightly, but don't hold it as if it was glued there, and keep yer +eyes straight to the front." + +Corporal Shrimp illustrated excellently in his own person. But then he +glared at the rookies and shouted, "Attention!" + +Of course none of the rookies did it just right. + +"Fall out! Overton, ye lobster, come on the carpet before me, and I'll +teach ye or make ye crazy!" + +"The--the carpet?" asked Hal, staring dubiously. His head was tired from +the corporal's badgering, or he would have been brighter. + +"On that spot!" glared Shrimp, pointing at the grass about six feet in +front of him, and adding an oath that made Hal's face flush. But young +Overton obeyed, nevertheless. Shrimp scolded and hounded, but Hal did +his best to keep his patience and really learn. Then it was Noll's turn. +Terry came in for a worse badgering than ever. + +"Ye bandy-legged griddle-greaser!" snarled Shrimp, beside himself. "Is +that what ye call letting yer arms hang naturally. Where did ye get yer +ideas of nature, anyway, ye spindle-shanked carpenter's apprentice?" + +Sergeant Brimmer had stepped within view, though behind the corporal's +back, and stood looking quietly on. + +"Ye wart on an Army buzzard!" howled Shrimp. "Ye----" + +"That will do, Corporal," broke in Sergeant Brimmer quietly. "You're +relieved, Corporal. I have time to take over the squad myself. You may +go to the squad room." + +Shrimp turned with a glare, but with the snarl somehow dying on his +lips. He gasped with anger and humiliation, then turned about and +stalked away toward barracks. + +During the next hour things went along very differently. Sergeant +Brimmer was an alert drillmaster, and he permitted no lagging or +indifference on the part of the recruits. Neither did he hesitate to +single out any rookie who did a thing improperly. But the sergeant's +method of drilling was wholly manly. He was patient, even if firm, and +he called no rookie uncomplimentary names. + +"Fall out," ordered the sergeant presently. "Sit down if you want to, +men, or walk about. And I'll answer any questions that you may want to +ask me out of ranks." + +"What a difference between non-coms," uttered Hal to Noll, as the two +chums stepped away a few yards. "Sergeant Brimmer is a man, first of +all. I'd cheerfully drill under him until I dropped." + +"Non-com" is the abbreviation used in the Army for non-commissioned +officer--a corporal or sergeant. + +"I hope we don't have to have much to do with Shrimp," muttered Noll +Terry. "And I hope we don't find many Shrimps in the Army." + +"Fall in!" sounded Sergeant Brimmer's voice, at last. How the young +rookies sprang to obey, their eyes shining with interest! + +Sergeant Brimmer now began to explain the "rests." Next he came to the +salute. For some minutes he drilled them in the first principles of +marching. But brief rests were frequent, and during these rests he +answered all questions put to him. + +"Fall in!" he shouted once more. The rookies fell in as eagerly as +before. "Squad, attention!" + +At that instant a far-off bugle sounded. + +"That closes this period of instruction," announced the sergeant. +"Dismissed!" + +As the four broke out of ranks Hal approached their instructor +respectfully. + +"Sergeant, 'dismissed' means that we're through, doesn't it?" + +"Yes, Overton. And this squad is dismissed until supper time. You can +return to squad room, or you may remain about out-doors, if you'd +rather. Don't go far away from barracks, though." + +"Thank you," Hal replied, and turned away with Noll. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE TROUBLE WITH CORPORAL SHRIMP + + +"I DON'T want to say or think anything disloyal," laughed Noll, as the +two chums turned in at barracks, "but I wish Shrimp would desert." + +"I wish we could have Sergeant Brimmer to teach us all the time," +returned Hal. "I can't believe that Corporal Shrimp is any good to the +service." + +"I wouldn't be any good if I had to stand around for a fellow like +Shrimp all the time," Noll answered. "How different it is when we are +under a real soldier like the sergeant." + +Corporal Shrimp was alone in the squad room when the two chums entered. +The corporal was scowling sulkily until he caught sight of Hal and Noll. + +"Come over to yer beds, ye two blamed rookies!" ordered Shrimp, jumping +up. "I'll be bound ye know nothing yet of how to fold yer bedding." + +"No, we don't," replied Hal, with an outward respect that he was far +from feeling. + +"Then watch me, bandy-legs, while I put yer bed down in regulation +style." + +Shrimp quickly threw the bedding down on Hal's cot. With the deft hands +of the trained soldier Shrimp made the bed up with neatness and +dispatch. + +"And in the morning, after first call to reveille," continued the +Corporal, "ye'll turn yer mattress up--so. And fold and lay the +bedding--so. Now, let's see ye shake down yer bed and make it." + +This task Hal performed rather well for the first time trying. But +Shrimp found a lot of fault, volubly, then finally shoved Hal Overton +aside and finished the bed-making with a few deft touches. + +"Now, turn up yer mattress, and fold yer bedding," ordered the corporal. + +Hal started patiently to obey, but there was no pleasing Shrimp. He +vented a couple of oaths, evidently in order to make the matter clearer. + +"Now, do it over again," ordered Shrimp roughly. + +"This fellow is venting his spite on us because he's angry at the way +Sergeant Brimmer relieved him this afternoon," thought Hal hotly. Yet he +tried patiently to follow out his instructions. + +In the meantime four or five other recruits had entered the squad room. + +"Here ye gibbering monkey! Not that way!" snarled Shrimp. "Stand aside!" + +Seizing Hal by the shoulders Shrimp deliberately hurled him out into the +middle of the squad room. Hal did not fall, but he wheeled about, his +eyes flashing. + +Corporal Shrimp stood surveying him angrily. + +"Making faces at me, are ye, ye Army-lawyer?" howled Shrimp, springing +toward Hal. + +He launched a blow full at the young rookie. Private Overton, who had +some knowledge of boxing and of its companion foot-work, stepped aside. + +But as Shrimp recovered and prepared to launch another blow, Hal Overton +threw his hands up at guard. + +Then recollecting that he was a private soldier, under discipline, Hal +let his hands fall uselessly at his side, while a hot flush of shame +mounted to his brow. + +"Going to hit me, were ye?" sneered Shrimp, in an ugly tone. "It's well +ye didn't! Now, stand where ye are till I take some of the conceit out +of ye!" + +Shrimp raised his right fist deliberately. + +"Corporal!" + +There was no mistaking that crisp tone. It was one of sharp command. +Sergeant Brimmer, who had just opened the door and looked in, now came +striding down the squad room. + +"Corporal, stand at attention!" + +Shrimp wheeled about, coming to the position of the soldier as he faced +the sergeant. But the corporal's countenance was still as black as +thunder. Sergeant Brimmer, too, was thoroughly angry, though righteously +so. + +"Corporal Shrimp, you're in arrest for striking at and humiliating a +private soldier. Come with me to the company commander." + +"Now, see here, Sergeant," began Shrimp hoarsely, "you don't know what I +have to put up with with these rookies. I have to do something to keep +discipline among men who are new to barracks. I----" + +"Hold your tongue and come with me," insisted Sergeant Brimmer crisply. + +There was no disregarding that angry, authoritative tone. As the +sergeant wheeled Shrimp turned and went with him, as though stricken +suddenly dumb. + +"Good enough!" rose a cry, as the door closed on the two non-coms. + +"Got what he needs," muttered some one else. + +"I hope he stays in arrest," added another rookie. "This squad room was +a good deal like a madhouse when the sergeant wasn't here." + +Twenty minutes went by before the door opened to admit Sergeant Brimmer +on his return. + +"Now, men, come close. I want to tell you a few things," began the +sergeant. "The first is this. No non-commissioned officer has any right +to swear at any of you. It is in violation of regulations. If any +non-commissioned officer calls you vile names, or swears at you, it is +your right, and your duty, too, to report it to the non-commissioned +officer in charge of the squad room. If he fails to take heed of your +complaint, then go to the first sergeant of the company. If he fails to +heed your complaint, then go to the company commander. Is that clear?" + +The recruits nodded. + +"Second," pursued Sergeant Brimmer, "no non-commissioned officer has any +right to strike you, unless it be strictly in self-defense, or in +defense of an officer who is threatened by you. You have the same remedy +of complaint, if any non-commissioned officer strikes you, or lays +violent hands on you, as in the case of vile or profane language. Is +that clear." + +"Yes, Sergeant," came from all sides. + +"Any questions?" asked Sergeant Brimmer, looking about him. + +"Has any officer any right to direct bad language at an enlisted man, or +to strike him?" queried Noll. + +"The officer has no more right than anyone else, except in an emergency +of danger to himself or others," replied Sergeant Brimmer. "But there's +this difference: I've been in the Army fourteen years, and I never knew +an officer to degrade himself in that fashion. But occasionally a +non-commissioned officer will so disgrace himself. Either the officer or +non-commissioned officer who swears at or strikes an enlisted man may be +court-martialed, and, if it is found that he is guilty, he is dismissed +from the service." + +"We've had an awful lot to put up with from Corporal Shrimp, Sergeant," +announced one of the uniformed recruits. + +"I'm afraid you have, men. But I don't want you to carry tales to me. +Tale-bearing is never worth while, nor encouraged, in the Army. Corporal +Shrimp's case is now before the commanding officer. To-night or +to-morrow an officer will be here to take the complaints of any of you +men who have grievances. You will be expected to complain to the officer +only about wrongs that have been done you by Corporal Shrimp. The +officer will not permit any tale-bearing about anything that happened to +anyone else. Corporal Shrimp is now in another squad room, under arrest. +He will probably be court-martialed. In any case he won't return here +until his case has been thoroughly disposed of." + +The door opened, and a corporal of twenty-five years, or under, entered, +striding straight up to Brimmer. + +"Sergeant, I am directed by the company commander to report to you for +quarters and duty here," announced the newcomer. + +"Very good, Corporal Davis. I will assign you to your cot at once." + +The new corporal was speedily assigned, after which the sergeant left +the room on duty. + +"Are there any new recruits here who do not fully understand the care of +their bedding?" inquired Corporal Davis pleasantly. + +"I do not, Corporal," Hal answered. + +"Nor do I," came from Noll. + +"Which are your beds, then?" asked Davis promptly. + +Within fifteen minutes both Hal and Noll knew how to make beds, and how +to fold them away for the day. + +Davis proved to be a younger edition of the sergeant. He was not +familiar with the recruits, but taught what he was there to teach, and +did it with a mingling of firmness and patience. + +"From policing of quarters in the morning until tattoo at night," went +on Corporal Davis, "you are not allowed to take down your bedding and +make up the bed, except under orders for purposes of instruction. At +tattoo you may make up your bed and turn in promptly, if you wish. At +taps you must have your bed made, and get into it at once. Any man up +after taps, except by permission, is subject to discipline." + +Supper call came soon after. When the evening meal was finished our +young rookies found that they had the evening to themselves. They could +stay in squad room, or could go out into the open, if they preferred, +though, as rookies, they could not roam as they pleased over the whole +post. + +Hal and Noll elected to take a stroll after supper. + +"Hal," proposed Noll, "I want to ask you something." + +"Permission granted," laughed Private Overton. + +"Do you think you're going to like the Regular Army as much as you +expected!" + +"Yes, siree," replied Hal promptly, and with enthusiasm. "Shrimp was +hard to swallow, and he would have made this place purgatory to us. But +he was caught, red-handed, and we've had a lesson, the first day in the +service, that real justice rules always in the Army. The breaking-in as +recruits, Noll, is going to be harder than I thought, even if we have +such fine men as Brimmer and Davis all the time. But, after we get +through that period, and at last know our duties and understand the +life, we're going to be mighty glad that we took the oath and enlisted +under the Flag." + +"It's mighty good to hear you say that," replied Noll Terry almost +gratefully. "But I'm afraid we have a fearful lot ahead of us to learn. +It will take an awfully long time to learn all we have got to know, I +fear." + +"A recruit generally stays about three months at the rendezvous," Hal +went on. "After that he's drafted to his regiment, sent away to join it, +and then he's a real soldier at last." + +"With still a lot to learn, though," added Noll. + +"Yes," Hal assented. "I imagine that the real soldier always learns as +long as he remains in the service." + +After a long walk, doubling back and forth over some roads and paths +several times, our young rookies found themselves looking at the water +by the Jersey end of the island. + +"I wonder if we'd be allowed to go over there by the water's edge!" +suggested Hal. "It would be fine to sit down there and hear the waves +lap up against the shore. I don't want to go in yet, Noll, but I am +tired enough to want to sit down." + +"Here comes some one in uniform," murmured Noll. + +It was a sergeant passing, though one the rookies had not seen before. + +"Sergeant," called Hal, "may I ask you a question?" + +"Of course," answered the sergeant, halting and regarding them. + +"We're rookies; just joined to-day," continued Hal. "We were wondering +if it would be any breach of discipline for us to go over there by the +shore and sit down near the water for a while." + +"There's no rule against it," replied the sergeant. "But I'd advise you +to be back before taps, for it generally takes a recruit some time to +get his bed made right." + +"Thank you, Sergeant. We'll be sure to go back in time." + +As the sergeant passed on Hal and Noll headed for the shore. + +"Here's as good a place as any, Noll," said Hal, as they reached the +shore. He pointed to a little depression in the ground. There was a +little rise of ground before them as they threw themselves down flat, +though it did not wholly shut off their view of the water. + +Little waves lapped up monotonously against the beach. + +"My, but that's a sound to make one drowsy," laughed Noll contentedly. + +"We mustn't let it have that effect on us," uttered Hal, half in alarm. +"I am tired, but it would never do to fall asleep here and be late at +tattoo. I don't know what kind of scrape that would get us into." + +"Do you know," went on Noll, "this day's doings all seem like parts of a +dream to me. I can't realize, yet, that I'm a soldier. I suppose it's +because we haven't our uniforms yet." + +"That has something to do with it, of course," nodded Hal. "I thought +this a pretty good suit of clothes when I left home, but now I feel +actually shabby and fearfully awkward when I look about me at older +recruits in their snappy uniform. It'll really seem like a big load off +my mind, Noll, when I find myself in the blue." + +"The fellows tell me that a rookie generally has his first issue of +uniform in about three days," said Noll. "That won't be so very long to +wait." + +"Won't it, though?" almost grumbled Hal. "Any time at all is too long to +wait, when we've been dreaming so long about wearing the uniform." + +"Why, we'd be a discredit to the uniform at present," smiled Noll. +"Think how awkward we looked and felt, and were to-day. It seemed as +though it were going to be simply impossible to learn the first steps of +a soldier's business." + +"We'll learn faster, now," suggested Hal; "now that Shrimp has gone out +of our lives." + +"_Has_ he gone out of our lives, I wonder?" mused Noll. + +"Say," hinted Hal, "I'd have given a lot to have seen Tip Branders +drilling under Shrimp." + +"I don't suppose we'll be very likely to see Tip again, for some years," +suggested Noll. + +In this he was in error, as will presently appear. + +"How's the time running along, I wonder?" was Noll's next thought. + +Hal drew his watch from a pocket, laid it on the ground, and struck a +match, screening the blaze with his hands. + +"We've nearly an hour yet," Overton answered. + +"I don't know but we'd better go back before we have to," ventured Noll. +"Hullo, there's a boat out there, putting in this way." + +Though neither of the boys knew it some of the glow of the burning match +had been visible in the darkness out on the water, and this boat was +coming in answer to a fancied signal. + +"I'm going to watch that boat a bit," whispered Hal in his chum's ear. + +"Why?" + +"Well, I don't believe it has any right to land here at night. Any +boatman here on honest business ought to go around to the dock, I +think." + +"Pooh!" breathed Noll. + +"Don't make any noise, anyway." + +It was very dark, but the rookies could see a small rowboat head into +the beach just a little way below them. There was one man in the boat, +and he promptly sounded a low, cautious whistle. It was answered from +behind the young recruits, somewhere. Then the sound of steps. + +Some one was approaching, and the boatman, standing up in his craft, +listened, then called in a low voice: + +"That you, Sim?" + +"Yep." + +"Good!" answered the boatman. "I got your word, 'phoned from New York. +I've got cit clothes for you in the boat, also a weight to sink your +uniform with, when you make the change." + +Now the newcomer trod down straight past the place of concealment of the +boys. Something in his figure was wholly familiar. + +"Why, that's Corporal Shrimp!" called Hal, springing up and running down +toward the shore. Noll followed his chum on the instant, both arriving +at once. + +"Well, what do you rookies want here?" demanded Shrimp, turning upon +them with an oath. + +"I guess we're here on duty," clicked Hal resolutely. "You're supposed +to be in arrest, Corporal, and here you are leaving the post on the +sly!" + +"I'm out of arrest, and on duty. Stand aside!" snarled Shrimp, his look +becoming very ugly. + +"Is it a kind of duty that calls for you to sneak away in this fashion, +put on citizen's clothes, and sink your uniform in the bay?" demanded +Private Overton mockingly. "If you tell me that, Corporal, I don't +believe you." + +Corporal Shrimp uttered another ugly oath. Then, with a flashing +movement, he drew a service revolver from under his blouse and thrust +the muzzle almost in Private Overton's face. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +WHEN THE GUARD CAME + + +"LOOK out, Sim Shrimp!" called the boatman quickly, warningly. + +For, while Hal had stood looking gamely at the revolver, Noll Terry had +side-stepped, and now leaped at the corporal. + +Whack! Noll struck up the glinting barrel of the weapon. + +Private Overton, seeming to move in the same instant, leaped forward in +front. + +Bang! The revolver was discharged, but harmlessly into the air, as both +rookies tackled the corporal and bore him to the ground. + +"Help, here, Bill!" cried Shrimp, as he found himself going over +backward. + +The boatman leaned over to snatch up an oar. As he rose with it he saw +Private Hal Overton rise with the corporal's revolver in his hand. + +"Stay where you are, Corporal, and don't make any fuss," advised Hal +grimly. "Your friend had better stay where he is if he doesn't want to +know what it feels like to have a bullet going through him." + +"Drop that gun, and let me up! Get out of my way," ordered Shrimp. +"You're interfering with me in the discharge of my duty, and I'll put +you both in a lot of trouble." + +"Don't you try to get up," ordered Noll, who had thrown himself across +the corporal and was holding him down. + +"Sentry!" yelled Hal. "Sentry." + +He should have called, "Corporal of the guard!" but he didn't know that. + +Another shot at some distance was heard, followed by a lusty shout from +a sentry of: + +"Corporal of the guard, post number seven!" + +"Let me up out of this, and I'll let you both off," proposed Corporal +Simeon Shrimp. + +"You'll stay just where you are," ordered Hal, "and I give you my word +that, if I see any signs of your trying to escape, I'll drill you +through with all the bullets this revolver carries." + +Running feet were now coming rapidly their way. + +"Lemme go--boys, do," pleaded the corporal brokenly, terror ringing in +his voice. "Boys, you don't know what fearful trouble you'll get me +into." + +"That's a different song," retorted Private Hal Overton dryly. "But it +wouldn't do any good to let you go now. Your friend has shoved off, and +is rowing like mad." + +The steps of running men now came nearer. + +[Illustration: Both Rookies Tackled the Corporal.] + +"This way, Corporal of the guard!" called Private Overton. + +In another moment the corporal and two men of the guard raced to the +spot. + +"This is Corporal Shrimp. He was under arrest, and trying to escape," +announced Hal. "There was a friend of his here with a boat, and he's out +yonder now, Corporal, trying to get away." + +"Load with ball cartridge, hail that boat, and fire if the man doesn't +come about promptly and row in," ordered the corporal, turning to one of +the members of the guard. + +The soldier so directed loaded his rifle like lightning. + +"Boat ahoy, turn about and come back!" shouted the soldier. + +There was no answer from the water. + +"Turn about and come back," repeated the soldier. + +Still no answer. Then, after a third hail, the soldier raised his rifle +to his shoulder, sighting as best he could in the darkness. + +Bang! The rifle spat forth a jet of fire and sent a bullet whistling +over the water. + +"Send a couple of more shots after him," ordered the corporal. + +Still no answer from out on the water. And, by this time, the boat was +so far away in the darkness that it was impossible to judge in which +direction to aim. + +"Cease firing. The rascal has escaped," said the corporal of the guard. +"You are recruits, aren't you?" turning to Hal and Noll. + +"Yes, Corporal." + +"You're right about Corporal Shrimp being in arrest. Corporal, you've +taken a long chance in breaking your arrest like this." + +Shrimp said not a word. He was cunning enough to know that nothing he +could say now would help his case any. + +Suddenly one of the two members of the guard stepped forward, bringing +his rifle to port. + +"Halt!" he called. "Who goes there?" + +"Sergeant of the guard," replied another voice out of the darkness. + +"Advance, Sergeant of the guard, to be recognized." + +Not only the sergeant came forward, but four other members of the guard +with him. + +"Corporal Shrimp, breaking arrest and attempting to desert, Sergeant," +reported the corporal of the guard. + +"Shrimp, what a fool you've been to-day!" muttered Sergeant Collins. +"Let him up, men. Hold out your hands, Corporal Shrimp. I've got to do +it." + +His face sallow with dread and humiliation, Shrimp held out his hands, +while the sergeant snapped a pair of handcuffs into place over his +wrists. + +"March the prisoner to the guard-house, Corporal," directed the sergeant +of the guard. Then he turned to Private Hal, who still held the +revolver. + +"You two are recruits?" + +"Yes, Sergeant." + +"You stopped the prisoner from escaping?" + +"Yes, Sergeant." + +"Where did you get that revolver?" + +"It is the one that Corporal Shrimp drew on us when we attempted to +prevent him from escaping." + +"You took it away from him in a scuffle?" + +"Yes, Sergeant." + +"Mighty fine work for a pair of young recruits," declared Sergeant +Collins promptly. "Your names?" + +Hal and Noll informed the sergeant of the guard on this point as the +sergeant turned on his way back to the guard-house. + +"You'll come with me, Overton and Terry. The officer of the day will +need to hear your statements." + +"We'll not be censured, Sergeant, for being late at the squad room?" + +"Hardly," came the dry retort. "You're now under orders from the guard. +Don't worry, men." + +Shrimp's voice was audible once more. He was swearing volubly over the +trick that fate had played him. + +"Stop that prisoner's swearing," ordered Sergeant Collins sharply. + +In a short time the guard party reached the post guard-house. + +Lieutenant Mayberry, officer of the day, stood just outside of the door. + +"What have you there, Corporal?" asked Lieutenant Mayberry curiously. + +"Corporal Shrimp, sir, for breaking arrest and attempting to desert, +sir," replied the corporal of the guard, bringing his hand to his piece +in a rifle salute, which the officer of the day acknowledge by bringing +his right hand up to the visor of his cap. + +"Where did you catch him?" + +"At the shore, sir, over there," replied the corporal of the guard, +pointing. + +"There's no sentry post over there, Corporal." + +"No, sir; the prisoner was caught by two rook--recruits, sir." + +"Two recruits?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Where are they?" + +"Coming, sir, with the sergeant of the guard." + +At this moment Sergeant Collins stepped forward into the light. + +"These are the two recruits, sir, who caught the prisoner," announced +Sergeant Collins, making the rifle salute. + +"Your names and company, men?" asked Lieutenant Mayberry. + +"Private Overton, A Company, sir," replied Hal, saluting. + +"Private Terry, A Company, sir," from Noll. + +"How long have you men been on post?" asked the officer of the guard. + +"Since about noon, to-day, sir." Hal was spokesman this time. + +"And you've already started your Army career by catching a man in the +act of desertion?" cried the lieutenant. "Men, you're beginning well. +Corporal, lock the prisoner in a cell. Then report to me at my desk. +Sergeant, bring Privates Overton and Terry inside with you." + +Hal and Noll, the sergeant and the corporal soon stood grouped before +the desk of the officer of the day. Sergeant Collins had turned over the +revolver that Private Hal had taken from Shrimp. + +Lieutenant Mayberry listened with very evident interest as the story of +the capture was unfolded to him. + +"Corporal, did you see the boat in question?" asked the officer of the +day, at last. + +"Yes, sir, though very indistinctly, in the distance. It was out of +sight in the darkness, an instant after, sir." + +"But there can be no doubt that the boat was there, Corporal?" + +"I am absolutely certain of it, sir," replied the corporal. + +"That is all, now," finished Lieutenant Mayberry. "Overton and Terry, I +am going to commend you, in an off-hand way, now, for your judgment and +intelligence to-night. You have made an excellent beginning. You may +very likely hear from the commanding officer later." + +At that moment a bugle call was heard. + +"That's taps, isn't it?" asked Hal, realizing for the first time how +time had passed at the guard-house. + +"Yes," replied Sergeant Collins. "Tattoo went some time ago." + +"You won't find yourselves in any trouble, men," broke in Lieutenant +Mayberry, with a slight smile. "Report to the non-commissioned officer +in charge of your squad room that you have been at the guard-house under +orders." + +As soon as dismissed Hal and Noll made a swift spurt for barracks. + +"Too bad, the first night, men," said Sergeant Brimmer quietly, meeting +them just inside the door of the squad room. + +Hal promptly accounted for both himself and his chum. + +"Whew!" whistled the startled sergeant softly. "You caught Corporal +Shrimp in the act of deserting? Men, your time to get square came around +soon, didn't it?" + +"We didn't do it to get square, Sergeant," replied Hal. "We did it as a +matter of military duty." + +"Well, go softly to your beds, men. I'll go with you, to see that you +make 'em up according to rule." + +As Sergeant Brimmer went back to his own iron cot he muttered to +himself: + +"Caught Shrimp, and turned him over to the guard! Those lads are going +to make good soldiers. And it won't pay any comrade to make enemies of +them needlessly." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CALL TO COMPANY FORMATION + + +UNIFORMED rookies at last! + +How proud each of our young rookies felt when at last he had a chance to +survey himself in a glass. + +Never, it seemed, had uniforms fitted quite as neatly before. + +Never, at all events, had young recruits felt any keener delight than +did Hal and Noll when they found themselves in their first infantry +uniforms. + +From that happy instant they were looked upon as the two brightest, +keenest recruits on post. + +On the first day of their uniformed lives Sergeant Brimmer came to them. + +"You are directed to fall in at parade, this afternoon, without arms. At +formation I will place you in the rear rank." + +Though they had their uniforms, their rifles had not yet been issued. + +"What does it all mean?" wondered Noll. "We're not promoted to the +company yet. We're not out of the squad work yet." + +"We can wait to find out what it means," Hal answered. "It won't be +many hours till parade time, now." + +Then, at the bugle call, these young soldiers hurried outside, where +Corporal Davis formed them and marched them away. + +Having finished with the "school of the soldier" our two rookies were +now in the "school of the squad." + +In a company of infantry the squad consists of seven privates and a +corporal. Marching in column of twos, or in column of fours, the +corporal's place is on the left of the front rank of the squad; he +himself makes the eighth man. But, for purposes of instructing recruits, +the squad consists of eight rookies and a corporal. + +Davis now led them away to the field, where he halted them. + +"We will first," he announced, "take up the six setting-up drills of the +manual, and go through with them three or four times. You men will do it +as snappily as possible to-day." + +These exercises consist of various gymnastic movements with the arms, of +bending until the hands touch the ground, and of leg-raising work. The +setting-up drills are very similar to ordinary work without apparatus in +a gymnasium--but with this difference: the rookie is made to go through +with them more and more snappily each time that he is set to the work. +The result is that, within a few weeks, an awkward and perhaps +shuffling, shambling young man is trained and built into the erect, +alert, snappy and dignified soldier. + +The setting-up work performed, Corporal Davis next drilled the rookies +in alignments, interval-taking, marchings, turnings and "about," which +corresponds to the old-time "about-face." It might be well to remark +that all military commands in these days, have been greatly simplified +as compared with the old style of doing things. + +Davis was an alert and industrious instructor, yet he abused none of the +men, nor ever lost his patience. He was making rapid progress with this +squad. + +"Fall out," he called, from time to time. + +"To-morrow you will have your arms issued to you," he announced during +one of the rests. "Then you will learn the manual of arms, and also how +to march with arms. Your work will be harder, but you're being prepared +for harder work now." + +By this time Hal and Noll had been in the Army nearly three weeks. Some +of the rookies in the same squad had been in the service considerably +longer. The length of time that he remains a recruit depends very much +upon the rookie himself. + +"Our arms?" said Noll to his chum. "That's the last step toward being a +real soldier." + +"No; the last step is when your company commander pronounces you a +qualified private soldier," rejoined Hal Overton. "And that's after +you've been drafted into a real regiment, at that." + +The loneliness had all vanished now. Both Hal and Noll were now wholly +in love with the life, and anxious for the day when they should be sent +forth to their regiment. They had requested that they be sent to the +same regiment, and had little doubt but that their wish would be +granted. + +No longer did the arduous work make them tired. Instead, the steady, +brisk and systematic exercise left them keen and very much alive when +the command "dismissed" came. + +At last a bugle sounded the recall for the rookie squads. Corporal Davis +finished the instruction in which he was engaged, then called out: + +"Halt! Dismissed." + +In an instant the rookies left the ranks, glad of a bit of play-time +before supper. + +But Davis called after two of them: + +"Overton and Terry, don't forget that you're under orders to report at +company formation before parade this afternoon." + +"We won't forget it, Corporal," Hal answered. + +"Why are you ordered to company formation?" asked one of the men of the +squad curiously. + +"We haven't the least idea," Hal answered frankly. + +"Oh, well, I can be near enough to find out," rejoined the curious one. + +"Say," suggested Noll almost excitedly, "it can't be that we're +considered far enough advanced to turn out with the company?" + +"Hardly likely," murmured Hal, "when we don't know the manual of arms +yet." + +"Then what----" + +"Wait." + +Yet Hal Overton was certainly decidedly curious, despite his coolness. +Both our young rookies hung about until they heard first call for +parade. Then they hurried toward the company parade ground. + +Soon the fall-in order was given, and the older rookies fell in under +arms. Sergeant Brimmer, true to his word, stepped up and placed Hal and +Noll six paces to the rear of the second platoon. + +"Obey all orders that do not call for the manual of arms," was his +parting instruction. Then Brimmer went to his own position. + +The company was assembled, roll-call followed and there was a brief +inspection of arms. While this was going on the post adjutant appeared +and took up post. + +"Publish the orders," commanded the captain, at last. + +From the breast of his blouse the adjutant drew forth an official paper. +While the men in ranks stood at order arms, the adjutant read aloud: + +"'For exceptional zeal, intelligence and loyalty in preventing the +escape and attempted desertion of a prisoner, Recruit Privates Overton +and Terry are hereby commended.'" + +This was signed by the post commander. + +Now Sergeant Brimmer stepped over to Hal and Noll with military stride, +saying briskly: + +"Recruit Privates Overton and Terry dismissed." + +That was all. Brimmer was already on his way back to his own post. + +"Was that all we turned out for with the company?" asked Noll in a low +voice. + +"Wasn't it enough?" retorted Hal in an equally low tone, as they watched +the manoeuvres of the company at a distance. + +"There's one thing we didn't get commended for in that order," Noll went +on. + +"What was that?" + +"Well, we had to tackle an armed man when we went up against the +Shrimp. The order didn't say anything about courage." + +"That's because only exceptional courage is ever mentioned in orders," +Hal explained. "Any soldier is expected to have courage enough to face +firearms." + +When Sergeant Brimmer returned to squad room after parade he came +straight over to Hal and Noll. + +"That was a pretty good thing for you this afternoon, men," he commented +pleasantly. "It isn't often that a rookie gets commended in orders." + +"Does it bring any more pay?" laughed Noll. + +"No; but, my man, it goes on your record, and that's worth something. +The commendation that was read out in orders this afternoon goes forward +to your new colonel, when you're drafted to a line regiment, and that +commendation becomes a part of your permanent record in the Army. Isn't +that enough?" + +"It's too much," Hal declared, "for such a little thing as we did." + +"You men want promotion, don't you?" asked Sergeant Brimmer. + +"Surely," nodded Noll. + +"When you get to your regiment, and your company commander has occasion +to appoint a new corporal, he looks over the records of the men in his +company. Men, I guess you've each of you got your first grip on one of +the chevrons that Shrimp dropped." + +For Shrimp had been tried by court-martial, three days before. The +findings, verdict and sentence had been sent on through the military +channels, and would not be published until approved by the department +commander. But no one at the island doubted that Shrimp would lose his +corporal's chevrons, would be dismissed the service and sentenced to +imprisonment in addition. + +"I'd rather get chevrons, if they're coming my way, by some other means +than pulling them off another man's sleeves," thought Hal to himself. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ORDERED TO THE THIRTY-FOURTH + + +TWELVE working days with arms, and Privates Overton and Terry were moved +on into A Company. + +They were now deeper than ever in the work of learning the soldier's +trade. + +A tremendous change had been worked in them. Though their faces were as +youthful as ever, the boys seemed to have grown into the dignity of +men--of trained men, at that. + +They carried themselves like soldiers, thought of themselves as +soldiers, and were soldiers. For they loved their work better than ever. + +"We need only to get to our regiment now, to be wholly happy," Noll +declared to his chum. "Oh, why can't more young fellows, droning their +lives out in offices, or tending senseless machines in shops, understand +the joy of this free, manly life?" + +Of course, not all rookies at the post had conceived as large an idea of +Army life. + +Two, who had joined at about the same time as Overton and Terry, had not +proved themselves wholly suited to a life of discipline. This pair had +committed several breaches of the rules, and had at last been haled +before courts-martial and dismissed the service. + +Only the young man who has in him the makings of a man and a soldier +finds the life of the Army attractive. The incompetent, the shiftless +and the vicious are no better off in the Army than they would be +anywhere else. In fact they are out of their element. + +Shrimp, the sullen, had gone, too, at last. The order had been published +that sent him to undergo a year's imprisonment for having attempted to +desert. + +This corporal had had in him three quarters of the makings of a good +soldier. He had been promoted once, and fell short of being a soldier +only as he fell short of being a man. + +Ahead of any that had joined at about the same time, Hal and Noll were +"warned" for guard-duty. Sergeant Brimmer gave them the order, and +seemed happy in doing it. + +"You men are doing your work splendidly," he added briefly. "Read up the +manual of guard-duty for all you're worth before guard-mount to-morrow +morning." + +"I think we know it by heart, already, Sergeant," Hal answered. + +"I don't doubt that in the least. But it can't do you any harm to read +up some more." + +"Thank you, Sergeant; we'll do it." + +Guard-mounting is a ceremony of importance in the Army. It is done to +music, where music is available. Every man who turns out on the new +guard--which means that he is to be on duty for the next twenty-four +hours--is expected to present himself with his person, uniform and +equipments absolutely clean and tidy. The two men who thus make the most +soldierly appearance are detailed as orderlies at headquarters. These +orderlies do not have to walk post as sentries, and have in all ways a +much easier time than the other members of the guard. There is always +keen rivalry for the position of orderly. + +On this morning, after the formation of the guard, and inspection, the +post adjutant stepped forward. + +"Privates Denton and Burke will fall out and report as orderlies," he +commanded. + +Denton and Burke obeyed, striving hard to suppress their exultation. + +"Orderly detail would have fallen to Privates Overton and Terry, who +present the most soldierly appearance," continued the adjutant, in his +official tone. "But this is the first tour of guard duty for Privates +Overton and Terry, and it is considered essential that they first of all +learn to walk post and become familiar with the duties of sentries." + +At that the glee in the faces of Privates Denton and Burke faded +somewhat. Hal and Noll tried to keep their own faces expressionless. + +Hal Overton never forgot his feelings when he shouldered his rifle, with +bayonet fixed, and patrolled his first sentry post for two hours. + +He felt even more the sense of responsibility when he came to his first +night tour of sentry duty. + +In his way the sentry is a tremendously important personage. On his post +he represents the whole sovereignty of the United States of America. The +youngest sentry in the Army may halt and detain any officer, no matter +of how exalted rank, until he is certain that the man halted is an +officer entitled to pass. Of course, with a sentry of common sense the +mere appearance of the uniform is enough under ordinary circumstances. +But no personage in the United States may attempt to go by a sentry +without the sentry's permission. + +"How'd you enjoy it, Overton?" asked Sergeant Brimmer, who was sergeant +of the guard, when Hal came in from his tour of night duty. + +"I hope I didn't get myself into trouble," Hal answered. + +"How so, lad?" + +"I halted the commanding officer of the post." + +"Was he in uniform?" + +"No; in civilian dress. He had been to the city, I guess, and was coming +up from the shore. It was dark, and I saw only the civilian clothes. So +I challenged him." + +"What did the K. O. say?" + +"K. O." is the Army abbreviation for "commanding officer." + +"He asked me what I was trying to do?" smiled Hal. "So I repeated my +question, 'who's there,' Then he answered, 'the commanding officer.' I +replied: 'Advance, commanding officer, to be recognized.' He seemed +uncertain about it, but I made him step right up to me. When I saw who +it was I told him to proceed." + +"Did you hold your gun at port all the time?" inquired Sergeant Brimmer. + +"Yes; until I recognized the commanding officer. Then I came to present +arms, and he returned my salute, then walked by." + +"Your skirts are clear enough, then," nodded the sergeant of the guard. + +"But why did he ask me, so crossly, what I was trying to do?" asked Hal. + +"Why," mused the sergeant, "my own idea of it is that K. O. was trying +you out on purpose. And I'll wager the K. O. was glad to find a rook +sentry so thoroughly alive to his job. Though I doubt if you'll get +commended in orders for just being awake. But that reminds me of +something that happened to me, in the Philippines," laughed Brimmer. "I +was sergeant of the guard out there, and one night the colonel of +another regiment tried to go by our guard. At that time the law was that +no civilian could be on the streets after half-past eight. 'Twas called +the curfew law there. + +"Well, Colonel Blank came up in a carriage at about ten in the evening. +He wasn't in uniform, mind you, lad. Well, the sentry on number one +post, who didn't know the colonel, stopped his carriage, of course. + +"'I'm Colonel Blank,' says the man in the carriage. 'Corporal of the +guard,' calls the sentry. 'I'm Colonel Blank,' says the man in the +carriage to the corporal of the guard. Now, the corporal didn't know the +colonel either. So the corporal bawls, 'Sergeant of the guard.' That was +I, that night, and I didn't know the colonel, either. So I asked: 'Beg +your pardon, sir, but do you know any of the officers of this command?' + +"'Name the officers,' says the man in the carriage. So I named them. + +"'I don't know one of your officers,' says the man in the carriage. + +"'Then I'm sorry, sir,' says I, 'but I'll have to ask you, sir, to step +into our guard-house until some officer of your regiment comes over in +uniform and identifies you.' + +"At that the man in the carriage puts on an awful scowl, draws himself +up very stiff, and answers, 'I'll do nothing of the sort, Sergeant.' + +"'I beg your pardon, sir,' says I, 'but if you are Colonel Blank, then +you know very well, sir, that you'll have to step inside the guard-house +and wait.'" + +Sergeant Brimmer chuckled heartily over the recollection. + +"And did Colonel Blank obey you, and go inside and wait?" asked Hal. + +"Did he?" asked Brimmer, looking surprised. "Of course he did. What's a +guard for in the Army, if it can't enforce its orders? And it was past +midnight when we finally got an officer, by telephone, to come over and +go bail for his colonel's identity. Then, of course, we turned the +colonel loose." + +"Did he complain against you?" queried Private Hal. + +"Who? Colonel Blank? He's too good a soldier," laughed Sergeant Brimmer. +"And he's General Blank, now. Before he left, the colonel complimented +me on my fitness for guard duty." + +"A sentry, or a corporal or sergeant of the guard is a pretty big +soldier, isn't he?" smiled Hal. + +"In some ways," nodded the sergeant, "he's a bigger man than the +President. The President is only the head of the nation, while the +sentry on post is the whole nation itself!" + +Noll had the last two hours before daylight on post that night, but +nothing happened to him except the arrival of the corporal with the +relief just as dawn was breaking. + +The days and the weeks sped by rapidly now. There were always new duties +to be learned, but our young rookies had now picked up the habit of +learning so easily and quickly that everything seemed a matter of +course. + +"How do you like Army life now, Noll?" Hal asked one day. + +"I wouldn't swap this life for any other," exclaimed Private Noll Terry, +his eyes shining. "Hal, have you never suspected that they're making men +out of us here? We're learning to obey without asking why, and we're +being trained in a way that will fit us to lead other men one of these +days. And look how strong all the gymnastics with a rifle is making us. +We sleep as we never slept before, and it takes a heap to make us +tired." + +"We're eating everything in sight, if that's a sign of good physical +condition," laughed Hal. + +"But I wish I could hear the orders sending us to our regiment," sighed +Noll. + +"Don't be downspirited," urged Hal, smiling cheerfully. "Our stay here +at the rendezvous can't last much longer, anyway." + +"How long have we been here, anyway?" Noll wondered. + +"Why, we came here early in April and it's now past the middle of June," +Hal went on. "Let me think. Why, it's just ten weeks to a day since we +took the oath to serve the Flag." + +"And a rook generally puts in three months here----" Noll began, when a +soldier, close to the door of the squad room, called out: + +"Attention!" + +Instantly every man in the room rose and wheeled about, standing at the +position of the soldier. An officer, followed by the first sergeant of A +Company, was entering the room. + +As the officer came to a halt the first sergeant called: + +"Overton and Terry, step forward." + +Hal and Noll approached the officer and the sergeant, then again stood +at attention. The officer was the post adjutant, and now he spoke: + +"Overton and Terry, your company commander is satisfied that you are now +sufficiently instructed to go to your regiment. We have a draft for two +men for the first battalion of the Thirty-fourth Infantry, stationed at +Fort Clowdry, in the Colorado mountains. If you have any objections to +that regiment, or station, I will listen to them." + +"Colorado will very exactly suit me, sir, thank you," Hal replied, his +pleasure showing in his face. + +"And me also, sir," added Noll. + +"Very good, then. You will both report to Sergeant Brimmer, on his +return, that you are released from further duty here. You will report at +my office at half-past two this afternoon for your instructions. That is +all. Sergeant, follow me to the next squad room." + +The instant that the door closed Hal and Noll began to execute a swift +little dance of joy, while the other rookies looked on in grinning +congratulation. + +"What sort of regiment is the Thirty-fourth, Sergeant?" asked Hal, after +he and Noll had reported to Sergeant Brimmer. + +"Just like any other infantry regiment," replied Sergeant Brimmer. +"They're all alike. The only difference is in the station, and the +station of each infantry command is usually changed every two or three +years. For that matter, though you join in the Rockies, your regiment, +two months later, may be ordered to the Philippines." + +That afternoon Hal and Noll reported at the post adjutant's office. Here +they were provided with their railway tickets through to their new +station, and were handed each a sum of money in place of rations. In +addition they were granted four days' furlough before starting, this +furlough to be spent at their homes. Then, each carrying his canvas case +containing his surplus outfit, the young recruits started down to the +dock to take the three-thirty boat to New York City. + +What a glorious furlough it was, while it lasted! All their old +schoolmates in the home town, and all the smaller youngsters, listened +to the tales Hal and Noll told of the Army. Two or three dozen +youngsters then and there formed their resolutions to enlist in the Army +as soon as they were old enough. + +Tip Branders had left town. Where Tip had gone was not known--but Uncle +Sam's two young recruits were destined to find out later on. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A SWIFT CALL TO DUTY + + +"SEE that man in the black derby and the brown suit, coming this way, +Noll? The one with the iron-gray hair?" + +"Of course," replied Noll. + +"Salute him, if we get close enough." + +"Why?" + +"He's an officer." + +"Maybe," half-assented Noll, eyeing the man with iron-gray hair. + +"There isn't much doubt about it," retorted Hal. "He boarded the train +at Kansas City. It's summer, but he's going somewhere up in the hills, +for he had an overcoat over one arm when he boarded the train, and that +overcoat was an officer's coat. He's in the service, and he isn't any +junior officer, either, judging by the color of his hair." + +"But----" + +"Sh! Be ready with your salute." + +The two young recruits, their uniforms looking spick and span, despite +their long journey by train, now brought their right hands smartly up to +their cap visors as the man with iron-gray hair stepped close. + +He gave Hal and Noll a prompt, smart acknowledgment of their salute, +then suddenly paused, glanced at them, and asked: + +"My men, how did you know me to be an officer?" + +"I observed your overcoat, sir, when you boarded the train at Kansas +City," Hal answered. + +"You judged rightly, men," replied the officer, with a smile. "I am +Major Davis, Seventeenth Cavalry. And you, as I see by your caps, belong +to the Thirty-fourth Infantry." + +"Yes, sir," Hal answered. "We are joining the first battalion at Fort +Clowdry." + +"Recruits?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"I wish you a pleasant life in the Army, men." + +"Thank you, sir; we feel certain of finding it," Hal replied. + +Both young soldiers saluted, again, as the major turned to resume his +walk. + +The train had stopped at Pueblo, Colorado, in the middle of the +afternoon. It would be but half an hour's delay. Noll had been eager to +step out away from the railway station and see as much of Pueblo as was +possible. Hal had negatived this idea, through fear that they might be +left behind. + +"And we've not an hour to spare, you know, Noll. This is the last train +for us to take if we're to report in season. So we'd better stay close +to the conductor." + +During the forenoon the train had rolled across the mesa or tableland +below Pueblo. Hal and Noll, seated in one of the two day coaches of the +train, had studied the mesa with longing eyes. Here they caught +occasional glimpses of cowboys on ponies, for this mesa is still a +favorite cattle region. + +At this height of some five thousand feet above sea level even the late +June day was not really hot. It was a glorious country on which the +young recruits feasted their eyes. + +"Where do we eat next?" asked Noll, of a trainman standing by. + +"Any time and place you like, if you've got the chow with you," replied +the trainman. + +"What is the next eating station at which the train stops?" Noll +insisted. + +"Salida. We ought to stop there about nine o'clock to-night." + +"Good eating place?" + +"Great." + +"It's a long time to wait," complained Noll, whom the mountain air was +making furiously hungry. "Come along, Hal. We'll lay in a few sandwiches +as a safety-valve." + +"I hope they're not as bad as some we've bought along the way," Hal +laughed, as they started toward the railroad restaurant. "Do you +remember the sandwich we bought at Chicago that had the stamp on the +under side, 'U. S. Army, 1863?'" + +"No, and neither do you," grinned Noll. + +"Fact," insisted Hal. "I found the stamp on the sandwich, and threw it +out of the car. I'm sorry, now; I wish I had saved that sandwich for a +curiosity. Father would have been proud of it." + +Noll with a bag of sandwiches, Hal with a box of fruit, the two recruits +turned toward the train again. + +They were soon under way. After leaving Pueblo they forgot all about +eating, for some time, for the train now bore them through some of the +most picturesque parts of the lower Rocky Mountains. Both rookies spent +their time on one of the car platforms, hanging far out at either side +to get better views, as well as glimpses down steep cliffs into gullies +below. + +"Say, it's going to be dark, soon," remarked Noll, looking toward the +western sky. "Why on earth didn't we get a train that would do the whole +trip between Pueblo and Salida in daylight?" + +"Because we didn't know the route well enough," sighed Hal. "However, +we may think we've had plenty of Rocky Mountains before our regiment's +station is changed." + +Half an hour later both went back to their seat in the car. Black night +had come on and shut out all further possibility of viewing the +wonderful country through which the train was passing. + +"We can eat, anyway," sighed Noll. + +For the next fifteen minutes they regaled themselves, though they were +careful not to eat enough to spoil their appetite for a good hot supper +at Salida. + +Then, as peering out of the window revealed nothing, Noll settled back +in the seat. + +"If I go to sleep, be sure to wake me at Salida," he begged. "What time +is the train due at Fort Clowdry?" + +"Two o'clock in the morning," Hal answered. + +"That's a beastly time to have to be awake," growled Noll, and began to +slumber. + +Not for long, however. On a steep up-grade the train was barely crawling +along. + +Suddenly it stopped, and with a considerable jolt, too. + +Bang, bang, bang! The whistle of bullets was heard alongside the train, +wherever windows were open. + +"What's that?" demanded Noll, jumping up. + +But Hal was in the aisle before him. Both hastened to the rear door. + +"Here, laddy-bucks," called a brakeman grimly, "stay inside! It's +healthier!" + +"What's up?" demanded Hal, without pausing. + +"Judging by the sound, the train is held up, laddy-buck. It's a bad +business going outside if that's the case." + +But at this instant the door was opened before Hal's face. Major Davis +bounded into the car. + +"Come with me, men," he called sharply. "You're not armed, are you?" + +"No, sir." + +Even at that exciting moment Hal did not forget his salute. + +"Then keep behind me," ordered the major, drawing his revolver. "This is +a mail train, and, as a United States officer, I can't allow an attempt +to rob it pass without an attempt at a protest." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +GUARDING THE MAIL TRAIN + + +MAJOR DAVIS backed quickly out of the car, holding his weapon behind his +back as he dropped to the ground beside the car. + +He did not look to see whether the rookies were behind him, but they +were. + +Ahead, and about them, all was black, save for the light that came +through the car windows. + +In a twinkling, out of the fringe of darkness, almost beside the +recruits, stepped a masked man. + +"Back, all three of you. Back into the car!" called the masked man +sharply. + +Major Davis wheeled like a flash, bringing his revolver to bear. But he +could not use it. A sudden move of the recruits prevented. + +"Noll!" called Hal sharply, and threw himself to the ground before the +masked ruffian. + +Like a flash Hal wrapped his arms around the knees of the masked robber. +In almost the same instant Hal struggled to his feet, carrying the +unknown's legs up with him. + +Of course the ruffian toppled over backward. But Noll, who had darted to +his chum's aid, hurled himself upon the fellow, striking him hard three +times between the eyes. + +The masked man's revolver was discharged as he toppled over backward, +but the bullet sped harmlessly off into the night. + +In another second Hal had the fellow's revolver. + +"Fix him, Noll!" called Private Overton, darting forward to the +officer's side. + +"I have, already," muttered Noll. But he bent for an instant over the +unconscious ruffian's body, then darted forward. + +"Here's his box of cartridges, Hal," panted Noll. + +All this had seemed to occupy but a few seconds. + +"Splendidly done!" glowed Major Davis. "Now come forward, and support +me." + +At the moment of the discharge of the pistol the uncoupled engine +started forward, away from the train, with a hissing of steam. This +noise must have drowned out the noise of the single shot from the train +robbers up forward. + +Suddenly Major Davis shot out his left arm, and Hal, bumping against it, +halted beside the officer. + +"There are two of the men, standing by the mail car," whispered the +major. "Raise your revolver. Ready! Fire!" + +[Illustration: "Back, All Three of You!"] + +Both the major's revolver and Hal's spat out jets of flame. Both poured +their shots in rapidly at the two men whom they could just make out in +the darkness ahead. + +Then Hal had a sudden, new sensation, not by any means agreeable. + +The two men, neither hit so far, turned and raised their own weapons. It +seemed like two bright cascades of flame just ahead, as the ruffians +fired, kneeling. + +Bullets whistled close to the major and the two recruits on either side. + +Then, just as suddenly, one of the ruffians toppled over; it was +impossible to tell whether Major Davis or Hal Overton had scored the +hit. + +Thereupon, the other man, lowering his weapon, leaped for the steps of +the mail car and vanished. + +Major Davis ran forward, followed by both recruits. Noll was intent on +getting a revolver for himself. + +But Davis, more accustomed to the ways of fighting men, suddenly +crouched low, peering under the body of the car just behind the mail +coach. + +Almost immediately the major began to fire again, in answer to shots +that came from underneath the car. + +But Noll waited for nothing. His sole thought was to possess a weapon. +He halted over the fallen one, snatched an empty revolver from his side, +then saw that the man was wounded in the right breast. + +"You must have some cartridges," muttered Noll, rummaging in the +fellow's clothes. + +He found the box just in time. + +"Lie down, you two!" called Major Davis sharply to Hal and Noll. "You'll +be fired on from ahead." + +Hal threw himself flat, and none too soon, for now a gust of bullets +swept down from the head of the train. + +As coolly as he could Hal Overton reloaded. Noll, also lying flat on the +ground, was similarly engaged. + +Hal was ready to fire first. There was need of it, too, for he could +dimly make out two men, near the extreme head of the train, who were +firing rapidly and firing their weapons in a fashion that drove up +spurts of dirt all about the recruits. + +For a few seconds the fight seemed as serious to those engaged in it as +battle on a larger scale could have been. + +Major Davis now made the first direct move. He crawled swiftly under the +car, putting himself on the same side with the man he was after. + +There was more shooting on the other side of the train; then, suddenly +it stopped. + +The two ahead, who were engaging Hal and Noll, dodged off to the side of +the track into the darkness. Now, all firing stopped, for all weapons +were empty. + +"I hope that other scoundrel didn't get the major!" throbbed Hal +anxiously. + +Yet he couldn't go to see. He had his own work on this side of the +train. + +"Where are our pair?" whispered Noll, creeping closer. + +"I don't know," Hal answered, also in a whisper. "But crawl off a little +way. Bunching together gives 'em a better mark to hit." + +Lying flat on the ground, both recruits played the waiting game. + +Had the pair ahead stolen off altogether in the darkness? + +"I'll wait a few moments," Hal decided. "Then, if I don't hear from the +scoundrels, I'll cross over to see what has happened to Major Davis." + +Crack! crack! crack! The vanished pair of train robbers were opening +fire again, from behind a boulder that sheltered them admirably. Hal and +Noll had no protection other than they could get from lying close to the +ground. But they answered the fire briskly. + +Crack! crack! crack! As fast as revolvers were emptied the marksmen +reloaded and again began firing. In daylight the execution would have +been swifter, but all hits made in black darkness are made by the grace +of luck. + +In the first place the only target anyone in the combat had was the +flash of an opponent's pistol. + +The train robbers behind the ledge changed their positions after nearly +every shot. And Hal and Noll, after the warm, uncomfortable experience +of having bullets fan their faces persistently, found it advisable to +crouch low and dart here and there, firing from new positions. + +All this time the scores of people on the train were sitting in +terrified silence. Passengers or train crews rarely interfere in a case +of this kind. + +Not even the train's lights aided either side, for the two young +recruits had taken pains to close in on the ledge sufficiently to escape +illumination by the train's lights. + +Crack! crack! crack! This was a new note, coming from past the forward +end of the ledge. + +Almost in the same instant a howl sounded from behind the barrier of +rock. + +Then another voice was heard, shouting. + +"Hold on! We surrender! Stop the shooting!" + +Instantly this hail was answered by another. It sounded good to the +young recruits as Major Davis roared from behind the forward end of the +ledge: + +"Then throw up your hands, keep them up, and walk into the train light +where we can see you." + +"You won't shoot?" demanded the voice of the surrendering one. + +"Not unless you attempt tricks," replied the voice of Major Davis. + +"All right. Here I come." + +A lone figure rose over the edge of the ledge, and a tall, masked man, +holding his hands very high, strode toward the train, passing between +Hal and Noll, who instantly turned and covered him with their weapons. + +"Where's the other man?" demanded Major Davis, still invisible in the +blackness beyond. + +"You'll find him behind the ledge," returned the surrendered one. "He's +hurt too bad to move." + +"Overton," called the major, "keep your weapon trained right on that +prisoner. Terry, join me behind the ledge." + +"Yes, sir," answered both recruits. + +Noll was quickly with the major on the further side of the ledge. Here +they speedily found a masked man, short and rather thick-set, who had +the appearance of being unconscious. He was breathing with great effort, +a deep crimson spot appearing on his right breast. + +"May I ask, sir, about the man you went under the train to get?" queried +Noll. + +"He's dead, my man," replied Major Davis very quietly. + +"Shall I try to lift this man, sir?" + +"No; take his revolver, and search him for other weapons, as far as you +can do so without disturbing the fellow and putting him in more pain. +We'll let that hiding train crew move the casualties to the baggage +car." + +So Noll completed his search, while the conductor, baggage-master and +some of the brakemen, noting that the firing had stopped, ventured +forth. + +"You trainmen take care of the dead and wounded," directed Major Davis +crisply. "Terry, rejoin your comrade. I shall have to trouble you two +men to stand guard over the prisoners in the baggage car until we reach +Salida." + +Both recruits saluted. Noll returned to the track in time to find that +the first man whom he and Hal had bowled over was just coming back to +his senses. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE ROOKIES REACH FORT CLOWDRY + + +ONCE more the train was under way. The engineer had taken his uncoupled +engine some distance up the track, but had returned when sent for, and +now the train, twenty additional minutes late, was crawling up the steep +grade. + +The wounded men lay on the floor of the car, receiving the attentions of +a physician who had been found among the passengers. + +The unwounded ones stood in a corner at the forward end of the car, +Private Hal Overton, revolver in hand, watching the men closely. + +Noll, a revolver in either hand, stood a little past the middle of the +car, looking wholly businesslike. + +Major Davis, having gone back to make sure that his own belongings were +safe, now returned to the baggage car. + +"Fellow," he asked of the tall prisoner, "what on earth made you stop +this train?" + +"Hard up," replied the man sullenly. "And a friend told us that the last +time he held up a mail train, he and his pal found twelve thousand +dollars in the registered mail pouches." + +"You'll find at least twelve years in the mail pouches this trip," +retorted Major Davis grimly. + +Half an hour later a stop was made at a little tank station, to enable +Major Davis to wire ahead to Salida for officers to be in readiness when +they arrived. + +Then the train crawled on again through the inky darkness. Noll relieved +Hal, presently, though there seemed little need of alertness. The two +prisoners capable of fighting looked pretty well cowed. Down at the rear +end of the car, covered with a rubber blanket, lay the rigid remains of +the man killed by the major. + +Something more than an hour late the train pulled in at Salida. There +was a crowd on hand, including four sheriff's officers. These latter +came to the baggage car just before the train stopped. + +"Will you take full responsibility for the prisoners now?" asked Major +Davis of one officer who led the rest and who displayed his badge. + +"Yes, sir," replied the deputy sheriff. + +"Then I'll go and have something to eat," smiled the major dryly. "My +men, do you eat here, too?" + +"Yes, sir," Hal answered, saluting. + +It was not an invitation to join their officer. Both recruits fully +understood that. The gulf of discipline prevents officers and men +eating together. + +On the platform before the station-building Major Davis halted long +enough to say: + +"My men, I appreciate your help to-night. It would have been too much +for me alone. You men stood by me like soldiers. As a United States Army +officer I would have felt disgraced had I allowed a United States mail +car to be rifled without striking a blow to stop it." + +"It was a daring thing to do, sir," Hal ventured, with another salute. + +"It was my plainest sort of duty, as an officer," replied Major Davis, +returning the salute. + +"May I ask, sir," ventured Hal, "whether it would have been our duty, +had we been armed, and you not on the train?" + +"Not unless led by an officer," replied the major. "But where did you +young men learn to obey so promptly, and without questioning or +hesitation?" + +"At the recruit rendezvous, sir." + +"Which one?" + +"At Bedloe's Island, sir." + +"Who was your instructor?" + +"One of them, sir, was a namesake of yours--Corporal Davis." + +"He will be glad to hear of this," nodded the major, smiling. "Corporal +Davis is my son." + +"Your son, sir--an enlisted man?" stammered Hal. + +"Yes. My son enlisted in order to try to win a commission. Thank you, +men, and good-night. I will tell the sheriff's men that you will be +found at Fort Clowdry if you are wanted as witnesses." + +Again acknowledging their salutes, Major Davis stepped inside. + +Hal and Noll waited a moment before entering the station. When they did +so, and passed on to the lunch room, they saw Major Davis at a table in +one corner, so the rookies passed on to stools before the lunch counter. + +"How long have we to eat?" asked Hal, of one of the trainmen. + +"You've about twenty-two minutes left." + +"I feel as if I could make excellent use of all the time," laughed Hal. + +He and Noll plunged into hot chicken, potatoes and gravy, and plenty of +side dishes. The late excitement had not destroyed the appetite of +either recruit. + +When they had finished Hal asked the waiter: + +"How much do we owe you?" + +"Nothing," replied the waiter. "I was told to say that the account is +settled, with Major Davis's compliments." + +Both recruits turned, saluting in the major's direction, as token of +their thanks. He nodded, smiling. + +Out on the platform, just before the train started, the recruits saw +Major Davis again. That officer was turned halfway from them, without +seeing them, so they passed along to the day coach in which they had +been riding. + +Now a dozen men crowded about them, eager to talk with the young heroes +of the night. + +"Pretty gritty work that you boys did," grinned one of the men. "Do you +often have things like that to do in the Army?" + +"We never did, before to-night," Hal answered quietly. + +"Must take a lot of nerve." + +"We didn't think of it at the time," smiled Hal. "It seemed all in the +way of business." + +"You ought to have seen the folks you left behind here," put in another +man. + +"Oh, shut up," called others. + +"No, I won't," retorted the last speaker. "What do you suppose we folks +that you left behind in this car were doing?" + +"Nothing very noisy, was it?" queried Hal. + +"Not particularly," admitted the man, with a laugh. "We were lying along +the aisle, or else we crawled under seats. At one time there were +altogether too many bullets hitting the side of the car, or coming +through the windows. None of us in here got hit, but that was because +of the good care we took of ourselves." + +"Oh, we might have done something," protested another man, "only we +didn't have anything to shoot with." + +"These two young soldiers didn't have anything to shoot with, either, at +the outset of the trouble. They hustled outside and got their guns from +the enemy." + +"Got any of those guns now?" asked another passenger, crowding forward. +"Want to sell any of 'em?" + +"We haven't even a cartridge," Hal replied. + +"What did you do with them?" + +"Turned them over to the sheriff's officers, of course." + +It was nearly an hour before the curious passengers would consent to +leave the young soldiers to themselves. Noll finally managed to convey +an excellent hint by leaning back in his seat and closing his eyes as if +in sleep. + +Hal dozed somewhat, but by one o'clock in the morning both recruits were +wide awake. + +"What time are we due at Clowdry?" Hal asked the passing brakeman. + +"More'n an hour late," answered the trainman. + +"Whew! That means we won't get there until after three in the morning," +muttered Hal. + +"I wish we wouldn't get there until daylight," rejoined Noll. "Then I'd +feel like dropping back for another nap." + +Nearly everyone else in the car was dozing, it being after midnight. + +It was half-past three o'clock in the morning when the brakeman rested +his hand on Hal's shoulder. + +"We ought to be at Clowdry in five minutes now," said the brakeman. + +"Much obliged," Overton answered. "Thank goodness, Noll." + +By the time that the train slowed up both recruits were out on the rear +platform of the car, each gripping his canvas case. + +"Clowdry! Clowdry!" bawled the brakeman. + +Hal and Noll dropped off into the black night. The only light was in the +station, past which the train slowly rolled. + +There was no one in the station save the telegraph operator. On these +mountain divisions, where accidents may so easily happen, a night +operator is kept at every station. + +Hal and Noll stood on the station platform until the train had pulled +out. Then, as their eyes became more accustomed to the darkness, they +made out what appeared to be a small hotel on the other side of the +track. There were two or three other buildings near by that looked like +dwellings. + +"Clowdry is a pretty large city," observed Noll, with a grin. + +The real town was nearly a mile away. + +"I wonder where the fort is," returned Hal. "We'll ask the operator." + +Apparently the operator was too well accustomed to seeing soldiers to +take any deep interest in this new pair. But he was obliging, at any +rate. + +"Wait a minute," he called back, in answer to Private Overton's +question, "and I'll go and show you the road." + +So the two soldiers stood by their canvas cases until the operator had +finished at his clicking instruments. Then the operator came out, +heading for the rear door of the station. + +"I'll show you from here, Jack," called the operator. "You see that +road? Follow it about a half a mile; take the first turn to the left, +and then keep straight on until you come to the fort." + +"How far is Fort Clowdry?" Hal wanted to know. + +"About three miles from here." + +"Good road?" questioned Noll. + +"Tenderfeet, ain't you?" asked the operator, smiling. + +"Yes," admitted Hal. + +"Thought you must be," nodded the operator, "else you'd know that the +road between an Army post and the nearest freight station is always a +good one. Them Army wagon bosses would put up a fearful holler if they +had to drive the transport wagons over bad roads. Just joining?" + +"Yes," assented Hal. + +"Good luck to you! Well, follow the road and you can't have any +trouble." + +"Thank you, and good-night," came from both recruits. Then, each taking +a new grip on his canvas case, which was fairly heavy, the recruits +started down the road. + +They came, finally, to the turn to the left. + +"These equipment cases don't grow any lighter with distance, do they?" +laughed Hal. + +"Mine doesn't," grunted Noll. + +When they had walked on a good deal farther Noll remarked: + +"I wish we had that operator here!" + +"What for?" + +"He told us it was three miles. We could ask him what kind of miles." + +"There's daylight coming," nodded Hal, pointing to the east. "That will +make the distance seem shorter." + +The sun up, at last, gave the recruits their first glimpse of their +first station in the Army. Fort Clowdry lay before them. There were no +frowning parapets, no stone battlements, no cannon in sight. Fort +Clowdry, as seen at the distance, consisted of a great number of +buildings, of all sizes. + +Boom! went a gun suddenly. + +"Great!" cried Hal, his eyes shining. "That's the essence of the +soldier's life--the sunrise gun. The Flag has just been hauled up." + +In the middle distance the recruits caught sight of a soldier pacing, +his gun, with bayonet fixed, at shoulder arms. + +"That sentry will put us on the rest of our way," predicted Noll. + +It being now broad daylight the sentry did not challenge the newcomers. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +"TWO NEW GENERALS AMONG US" + + +"SENTRY, we're recruit privates, joining the regiment at this station," +announced Hal. "Where do we report?" + +Bringing his rifle to port arms the soldier replied: "This is post +number seven. You'll find post number one at that building under the +fir-tree. That's the guard-house. Report, first, to the corporal of the +guard." + +"Thank you, Sentry." + +"Welcome." + +Bringing his piece to shoulder arms, the sentry resumed his pacing. + +Hal and Noll now followed a well-kept road to the guard-house. Outside +stood the corporal of the guard for this relief. As he gazed at the +young soldiers, noting their canvas cases, he did not need to be told +that they were recruits. None but recruits have cases the pattern they +were carrying. + +"Corporal," reported Hal, "we are Privates Overton and Terry, under +orders to join the Thirty-fourth." + +"Take seats inside, then," said the corporal. "Go to sleep in your +chairs, if you want to." + +Several other privates, belonging to the guard, were dozing in chairs. +But Hal and Noll felt now too wide awake to think of dozing. They longed +to step outside for a better look at this post, which was to be their +future home. Yet, having been directed to remain inside, they obeyed. + +It was a long while afterward before a bugler blew the first call to +reveille, which is the "Army alarm clock," the signal to rise. + +"Attention!" called the corporal, a few minutes afterward. + +All the dozers sprang to their feet, standing at attention. + +The officer of the day entered, looking over the men. + +Then his glance fell upon the recruits. + +"You are new men joining?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir," Hal and Noll answered, presenting their orders. + +"Corporal, when mess call sounds send a private of the guard with these +men to put them in D Company's mess for their first meal." + +"Very good, sir." + +"Overton and Terry, you will report at the adjutant's office promptly at +nine o'clock." + +"Very good, sir." + +The officer remained to glance over the guard report, then went away. + +"When does that mess call sound, Corporal?" asked Hal. + +"Five minutes more. Bates, you'll take the recruits to D Company's +mess." + +Nor did either recruit feel sorry when he was ushered into the enlisted +men's mess, near barracks. + +"Attention!" roared one waggish soldier. + +As by instinct the men in the room stood at attention. + +"Two new young generals are honoring us this morning," grinned the wag. + +"Throw him out!" growled a sergeant. "It's bad enough to be a rookie +without having it rubbed in." + +The first sergeant now gave the seating order, and the men fell in at +table. The wag sat at Noll's left. + +"I find I'm mistaken," called the wag, down the table. "Our guests are +only colonels." + +"You'll be a general, one of these days, if you don't look out, Fowler," +warned another soldier near by. + +"The gypsies always told my mother I'd be a general," replied Fowler +complacently. + +"Yes, a general prisoner," continued the soldier who had just warned the +wag. + +This raised a prompt laugh, for, in the Army, a "general prisoner" is +one who is serving a term of confinement after sentence by a general +court-martial. + +"There are generals, and generals, of course," admitted Fowler. + +"There'd be a general famine, Fowler, if you ever stopped talking at +mess long enough to do all the eating that your mouth calls for." + +"How long have you young gentlemen been out of West Point?" asked +Fowler, turning to Noll. + +Noll grinned, but did not make any answer to this question. + +"I hope you are West Pointers," continued the company wag. "Nearly all +of the gentlemen present are West Pointers." + +"Give the rooks time to eat their meal in comfort," ordered a sergeant +gruffly. "Have you forgotten the day, Fowler, when you were the greenest +rook that the Thirty-fourth ever had?" + +"I never was a rook," retorted Fowler. + +"You never got beyond being one," retorted a corporal. "Don't mind this +chin-bugler, lads. He doesn't know any better." + +Hal was paying attention strictly to the meal before him. A good-sized +piece of steak and a dish of baked potatoes had come his way, and he +enjoyed them keenly. The men of this battalion had a first class +commissary officer and lived well. + +"You've visiting cards with you, of course?" continued Fowler, after a +few moments. + +"No," Noll admitted. + +"Why, rook, you'll need cards. You've got to call on the K. O. +(commanding officer) after breakfast. But we'll fix you out. I'll lend +you my pack. The jack of clubs is the one you want to send in to the K. +O. Then he'll know 'tis a husky lad that has honored the Thirty-fourth +by joining." + +"You'll live most of the time at the guard-house, if you take Fowler for +your authority on doughboy life," broke in a quiet soldier across the +table. + +"More likely the happy house would be our address," laughed Hal. + +"Doughboy" is the term applied to an infantry soldier. Hal and Noll, +being in an infantry regiment, had thereby become doughboys. The "happy +house" is the part of a military hospital where mild cases of insanity +are confined. + +The meal was soon over, and the first sergeant took the trouble to go up +to the boys. + +"When do you report at the adjutant's office?" he asked. + +"At nine o'clock, Sergeant," Hal responded. + +"Then, as long as you don't bother anyone else, you can just as well +stroll where you please around the post, until nine," continued the +sergeant. "Of course you know that nine o'clock means nine to the very +minute?" + +"We were taught a lot about punctuality at the rendezvous station," Hal +answered. + +"Punctuality is about the greatest virtue in Army life," nodded the +first sergeant of D Company, as he moved away. + +In the interval of time at their disposal Hal and Noll were able to see +a good deal of Fort Clowdry. + +The center of the life there was the great parade ground, a level, +grassy plain. + +At the north end of this plain stood a row of pretty dwellings. The +largest was the residence of Colonel North, commanding officer of the +Thirty-fourth. Next to the colonel's residence was that of Major +Silsbee, the battalion commander. Past the major's residence was a row +of somewhat smaller cottages, each the home of a married officer. The +name and rank of each officer was on a doorplate. At the furthest end of +the row from Colonel North's dwelling was a building containing quarters +for bachelor officers. + +On another side of the parade ground were various buildings devoted to +the life of the post. There was an Officers' Club, a library, a +gymnasium, and at one corner, the post hospital. + +Further away from the parade ground were the quarters of enlisted +married men, and, beyond that, the barracks of the four companies of the +Thirty-fourth stationed at Fort Clowdry. Chapel also faced the parade +ground, and, near it, a Y. M. C. A. building. + +Further away was the power house, for the buildings and roads on the +post were lighted by electricity. + +"Have we time to go over to the power house?" asked Noll. + +"We haven't," decided Hal, after consulting his watch. "In twelve +minutes we must be at the adjutant's office." + +"Here comes an officer," whispered Noll. + +Both young soldiers were alert as a first lieutenant came down the road +toward them. At the same instant Hal and Noll raised their right hands +smartly in salute, which was promptly returned by that officer. + +They had already inquired where the adjutant's office was located. +Having passed the officer, our young recruits now hastened over to the +headquarters building. + +"Adjutant's office?" inquired Hal of an orderly before a door. + +"Right inside," nodded the orderly. + +Noll fell in behind Hal as the latter stepped into the office. +At a flat-top desk sat a battalion sergeant-major, who is the +non-commissioned assistant of the regimental adjutant. + +At a roll-top desk in another corner of the office the adjutant himself, +a first lieutenant, was seated. + +"We are recruits reporting, Sergeant," announced Hal, in a low tone. + +"You have your orders with you?" asked the sergeant-major. + +"Yes, Sergeant." Hal handed both sets of papers to his questioner. + +At the same time each recruit was alert to salute the officer at the +roll-top desk, in case he should look up. But he didn't until the +battalion sergeant-major placed the papers on his desk. + +"Come here, men," directed the officer. + +Both rookies stepped over to his desk, halted and saluted. + +"Recruit Privates Overton and Terry?" asked the adjutant, after a glance +at the papers. + +"Yes, sir." + +The adjutant turned to examine a list that lay on his desk. + +"Private Overton to B Company. Private Terry to C Company." + +From an inner room stepped out a gray-haired officer, wearing on his +shoulder-straps the silver eagles of a colonel. This must be Colonel +North, the Thirty-fourth's K. O. Both recruits immediately came to the +salute again. + +"These are the young men I wanted to see, are they not, Wright?" asked +the colonel. + +"They are, sir," replied the adjutant, rising. + +"Major Silsbee!" called the colonel, looking over one shoulder. + +That officer entered, also from the inner room, and again the recruits +saluted. + +"Major," went on the colonel, "these are the young men I told you about, +who are joining your battalion." + +Major Silsbee looked them over keenly, even if briefly. + +"They look the part, Colonel," was the major's comment. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE SQUAD ROOM HAZING + + +"MEN, we have had word of you in advance of your coming," continued the +colonel. + +"Yes, sir," replied Hal. + +"Very good word, indeed. It seems that you took stirring part in +assisting an Army officer last night." + +"We obeyed Major Davis's orders, sir, if that is what you refer to," Hal +assented, once more saluting. + +"And did it in a manner that distinguishes you as good soldiers, eh, +major?" went on the colonel, turning to Major Silsbee. + +"Yes," replied Major Silsbee. "Major Davis's commendation is not earned +except by merit." + +"You are surprised, I take it," resumed Colonel North, bending a shrewd +yet kindly glance on the recruits, "that we should already know of your +conduct last night. Major Davis wired me concerning it from Salida last +night. Men, this is a very good start, or, rather, a second one, for +your record, as forwarded me from the recruit rendezvous, mentions that +you have already been commended in orders for aiding in preventing the +escape of a prisoner. You start well, men, in the Thirty-fourth. Report +to your respective first sergeants that, with the approval of your +company commanders, you will not take up with duty until to-morrow. That +will give you time to look about the post. If you wish, you have also +permission to be off post this afternoon, for three hours beginning at +two o'clock. That is all." + +"Thank you, sir," acknowledged each recruit, saluting. Then they stepped +forth. + +"At the rate we're getting commended, we ought soon to be brigadier +generals," smiled Hal. + +"A second lieutenancy, even after four years, will suit me well enough," +retorted Noll. "But what shall we do now?" + +"Plainly enough our first duty is to report to our first sergeants, as +ordered." + +"Too bad we couldn't be bunkies, in the same company," murmured Noll. + +"Yes; I would rather have had it that way. But I take it that one of the +first lessons a fellow has to learn in the Army is that he can't have +things his own way." + +"At all events we can be together during a good deal of our leisure +time," declared Noll. + +"Nothing--not even being half the world apart--could prevent our being +chums, old fellow." + +Reaching barracks each recruit inquired where to find his own first +sergeant. Hal was soon facing Sergeant Gray, of B Company. The first +sergeant of a company is a highly important man. He is the ranking +non-commissioned officer of his company, and might aptly be termed the +"foreman" of the company. He lives right with his company all the time, +and knows each man thoroughly. The first sergeant is responsible to the +company commander for the discipline and order of the company. + +"Is your name Overton?" asked Sergeant Gray, holding out his hand. "Glad +to have you with us, Overton. You'll bunk in Sergeant Hupner's squad +room. Remember that, when there's anything you really need to know, the +non-commissioned officers of the company are paid to instruct you. Don't +be afraid to ask necessary questions." + +"I won't, thank you, Sergeant." + +"And don't be sensitive or foolish, Overton, about any little pranks +some of the men are more or less bound to play upon you at first. The +easiest way to keep out of trouble is to be good-natured all the time. +But that doesn't mean that you have to submit to any abuse." + +"Thank you, Sergeant." + +"Now, I'll take you to Sergeant Hupner." + +That was more easily said than done. Sergeant Gray took Hal to the squad +room in which he was to live thereafter, but Hupner was out at the time. + +"Just stay here a little while, and report to Sergeant Hupner when he +comes in," directed the first sergeant. "He'll assign you to a bed and +make you feel at home." + +Hardly had Sergeant Gray closed the door when Hal thought he had taken +the measure of the eight other privates present. They looked like a +clean, capable and genial lot of young fellows. He was speedily to find +that they were "genial" enough. + +"So you want to be a regular, do you?" quizzed one of the soldiers, +halting before Hal, and looking him over. + +"Why, I am one already, am I not?" asked Hal, smiling. + +"No, sir, you're not," retorted the questioner. "How did you start in? +Made a grand stand play on the train last night, didn't you? Helped to +shoot up a lot of train robbers, didn't you?" + +"That was under orders of an Army officer," Hal replied good-naturedly. +The other soldiers had crowded about the pair. + +"You went and played the hero, didn't you?" persisted the questioner. +"Probably you didn't know that a regular is never allowed to be a hero. +Heroes serve only in the volunteers." + +This is a well-known joke in the Army. In war time local pride in the +volunteer regiments is always strong. Local newspapers always devote +most of their war space to the "heroic" doings of the local volunteer +regiment. The regulars do the bulk of the fighting, and the most +dangerous, but their deeds of daring are rarely chronicled in the +newspapers. All the praise goes to the volunteer regiments. Hence, in +war time, a stock Army question is, "Are you a hero or a regular?" + +"I guess you've made a mistake," remonstrated Hal, still good-naturedly. +"My friend and I didn't do anything in the heroic line. We simply fired +when told to, and stopped firing, when told to. We didn't make any +charges, capture any forts, or do anything in the least heroic. We +simply stood by and did what the major told us." + +"Good," nodded one of the other men. "The kid is bound to be a regular, +all right. He doesn't brag, and I don't believe he's looking for any +write-up in the newspapers." + +"How did you feel under fire last night?" continued the merciless +questioner. "Brave as a lion?" + +"Don't you believe it," laughed Hal. + +"Were you cool under fire?" + +"Yes; I was!" Hal's answer leaped forth. "Cool? Why, man, I was so cold +that it took me an hour, afterwards, to get warm again." + +"He's got you there, Hyman," laughed another soldier. "Oh, the kid's +going to be one of us, all right. He's no bouquet chaser." + +"I don't know about that," replied Private Hyman gravely. "So many +heroes in disguise try to sneak in among the regulars that it pays us to +keep our eyes open. What sort of a medal are you going to order from +Congress, kid?" + +"A leather one," smiled Hal, "though I'd really prefer a tin medal." + +Good-natured laughter greeted this answer. + +But Private Hyman persisted: + +"In war time you'd chuck us, just to get a commission in the volunteers, +wouldn't you?" + +"Not even for a general's commission in the volunteers," retorted Hal. + +"Are you good at athletics?" + +"No." + +"Know anything about gymnastics?" + +"Only one or two things." + +"Come down to the end of the room with me," ordered Private Hyman. + +Hal good-naturedly followed. So did the others. + +"Now, let's see if you can do this," Hyman proposed. "Take a good start +and jump over the first cot, then over the second, and right on down the +line, as far as you can do." + +That didn't look difficult. Hal leaped over the first cot, then, with +hardly a pause, jumped over the second. So on he went, down over the +line of ten cots. + +"Now, go back again, over the cots on the other side," ordered Private +Hyman. + +Hal did so without difficulty, though he was flushed and panting by the +time that he finished this brisk exercise. + +"Kid, you're no good," grunted Hyman. + +"I didn't try to make you believe I was any good," Hal retorted calmly. + +"No, sir! Any man who jumps as easily and naturally as you do would jump +the regulars any time, and go with the high-toned volunteer crowd." + +"Humph! A fellow who can jump like that would jump right out of the +service at the first breath of trouble," broke in another soldier. + +"He'd desert," agreed a third. + +"Walk on your hands?" queried Hyman. + +Hal proved that he could do so by throwing his heels up into the air and +taking a dozen steps on his hands before he again came to an erect +attitude. + +"Brains are all in your heels," remarked Private Hyman thoughtfully. +"Can you pick that man up and carry him around on your back?" + +The soldier indicated weighed at least a hundred and sixty pounds. + +"I'll try," nodded Hal. Backing up to the soldier, he locked elbows, +back to back, lifted the heavy one to his back and carried him twenty +feet down the squad room. + +"Any fellow with all that strength in his back would get his back up at +trouble, and back out of any fight that came his way," declared Private +Hyman. "But see here, can you place your head on one chair and your feet +on another, stiffen your body and lie there without touching the floor +in any way." + +"Let's see," proposed Hal. Two chairs were quickly swung forward. Hal, +who had good muscular control, took the attitude named, stiffened his +body, and lay between the chairs for some moments. + +"He lies well and easily," observed one of the onlookers. + +"Yes," agreed Private Hyman. "He's easily the champion liar of the +company." + +At that Hal sprang to his feet again. + +As he did so he accidentally pushed one of the chairs over backward. It +was close to the door, which, at that instant, opened. The flying chair +struck the incomer across his shins, bringing an angry exclamation from +the man. + +"Don't you know anything, rook?" demanded the man, Private Bill Hooper. +Hooper stood five feet ten in his socks. He was just under thirty, a man +who was not popular in the company because of his unruly temper. + +"I'm sorry," apologized Hal. "I didn't know you were there." + +"You'll be sorrier, now," cried Hooper fiercely. Striding up to young +Overton, Hooper landed a sound box on one of the boy's ears. + +Hal flushed crimson in an instant. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +PRIVATE BILL HOOPER LEARNS + + +"HOLD on, Hooper!" + +"Don't act like a dog!" + +"He's only a kid--can't you see?" + +Then something happened like lightning. + +Private Hal Overton had meant to take all his hazing good-humoredly. But +a blow struck in anger, and without just cause, was more than he was +prepared to brook. + +"Sergeant Gray told me I was not expected to stand abuse," flashed +through his mind. + +So, instead of cringing away from a repetition of the blow, Hal took a +sudden bound forward. + +Whack! + +"I have no use for a box on the ear," smiled Hal grimly. "So you can +have it back!" + +Private Bill Hooper let out a roar, then sprang for the boy, intending +to pulverize the young rookie with his fists. But five or six of the men +sprang between them, forming an effective human wall. + +"Shame on you, Hooper!" + +"That's no way for a man to act." + +"Get off your blouse, kid," blustered Private Hooper, as he unfastened +his own blouse and tossed it over the end of a cot. "You need a +trimming, and you're going to get it right now!" + +"Here, kid, button your blouse up again," ordered Private Hyman. "You +ain't called upon to fight that bully. Hooper, if you're spoiling for +fight I'll do my best to be kind to you." + +But Hal, the flush dying from his cheeks, coolly continued unbuttoning +his blouse. Then he pulled it off, handing it to a soldier near by. + +"Dress yourself, kid. You don't have to fight a man twice your size." + +"Let some one else have the job, kid. There's some of us here will take +it." + +"The kid will stand up and take his own trimming," announced Hooper, +with ugly emphasis. + +"No, no, no!" + +"Beat it, Hooper!" + +"Mates," went on Hal, as soon as he could make himself heard, "I'm +willing to stand for anything that's coming to a rook. But this is a +case that calls for something different. I've got to satisfy this man +that I can stand up before a pair of fists, or he'll never respect me +enough to let me alone." + +"Why, kid, a man of Hooper's size will reduce you to powder," objected +Hyman seriously. "It's all right to have sand, and I guess you've got +it, but you've no call to be slaughtered." + +"He'll thrash me," agreed Hal coolly, "but I'll get in enough on him to +make him want to let me alone after this. I'm ready for the fellow." + +Realizing that the rookie was in earnest the soldiers stepped away from +between the pair. + +"But you play fair, Hooper, or we'll kick you all over the squad room," +warned another soldier. + +Private Hooper clenched his fists, and stood flexing his arms, which, +through his shirt-sleeves, appeared to be decidedly powerful. + +"Step up, kid, and get your trimming," he invited, with a ferocious +smile. + +"I don't know much about fighting," admitted Hal, smiling pleasantly. +"All I know my dancing teacher taught me." + +That raised a laugh and angered Hooper. This was just what the rookie +wanted to do, for he judged that Hooper could be prodded into a blind +rage. + +Hooper now jumped forward, aiming an ugly swing for Hal's head. But the +rookie side-stepped swiftly out of the way. As he did so, one foot +dragged in front of the advancing bully. Hooper tripped over that foot, +and the force of his swing carried him forward so that he fell flat on +his face. + +"Too bad! I hope you didn't hurt yourself," teased Hal sweetly, whirling +about like a flash. + +Hooper was up with an oath, wind-milling his big arms. + +"Take that!" he roared, aiming a heavy blow straight at Hal's chest. + +"Against the rules of my dancing master!" mimicked Hal, bounding to the +left. As he did so he let his right fist drop on the point of Hooper's +chin. + +"Ugh!" grunted the bully. + +"Spit it out, if it got in your mouth," advised Hal unconcernedly, as he +again faced his antagonist. + +From the way he dodged the next six or eight assaults it did look as +though Hal had spoken the truth when he stated that he had learned his +style of fighting from a dancing master. For the nimble rookie never did +seem to be just where Bill Hooper looked for him when landing blows. + +"Take your partners!" mocked Hal Overton, as he darted past again. This +time, however, he landed a very hot and powerful blow right against +Hooper's right eye. + +Now cautious cries of approval went up from the other men crowding +about. All of the men were careful not to make much noise, through fear +of bringing interference. + +A minute later Hooper received such a stinging blow on the nose that it +brought a little trickle of red. + +"Woof!" panted Hal, in going by again. + +"Woof!" echoed Hooper. "Wow--ow--ugh!" + +Then he doubled up, winded, for Hal, after feinting for the big fellow's +face had calmly but forcefully struck him just above the beltline. +Hooper was out of it for the present, and he knew it. + +"Now sail in and finish him, rook!" called four or five men at once. + +"Not this time," replied Hal, going over to the soldier who held his +blouse, taking the garment and putting it on. "I'll save the rest for +the next dance whenever Hooper feels festive." + +Grateful that he didn't have to stand and take punishment in his present +condition, Hooper groped to a chair and sat down. + +"Now, then, mates," announced Hal modestly, "when we were interrupted I +was trying to show you that I don't ache to be a hero. Being a regular +is good enough for me. I am ready to answer any further questions." + +But just at that moment a bugle sounded the call to drill. + +"You've answered enough questions for the present, rook," replied +Private Hyman, patting Overton on the shoulder as he went by. Hooper +struggled into his blouse, then went over to a sink and washed the red +from his nose before hurrying out with the others. The big private +didn't even look at Hal Overton as he went by. + +Being excused from duty for the day, Hal went in search of Noll Terry. +He found him waiting outside of barracks. + +"Whew, but I've been through a mill," sighed Noll. + +"I've been ground just a bit myself," laughed Hal. + +"Did the fellows twit you about last night's work?" asked Noll +curiously. + +"Well, some," admitted Hal. + +"If there's anything left that the fellows in the squad room can think +of to do to me, I'm wondering what it is," grunted Private Terry. + +"Oh, they'll think up enough things," Hal declared. "We needn't imagine +that our mates will exhaust themselves in twenty minutes of fun. You +didn't lose your temper, did you, Noll?" + +"No; and I don't want to. But there's one fellow in our room that I am +certain I'll have to fight before I get through." + +"There's a fellow in our room that I don't believe I will have to +fight," chuckled Private Overton. + +"Have you been in a fight already?" asked Noll, flashing a swift look at +his chum. + +"Oh, no," Hal answered. "A dancing lesson was as far as I got this +morning. But come along, Noll. I want to get where we can get a look at +the great mountains yonder. My, how they seem to tower above the fort +and wall us in!" + +Fort Clowdry was some fifty-two hundred feet above sea level. From +there, however, high mountains were visible that extended some thousands +of feet higher in the air. All about was a great view of rugged mountain +scenery. + +Over past the buildings at the west end of the post the two rookies +wandered. Now they had a noble view of the mountains. + +"Are you going off post this afternoon, as the colonel said we could?" +asked Noll, by and by. + +"Not unless you very much want to, Noll. Can't we put in the time better +learning our way around the post?" + +"Perhaps we can," assented Noll. + +A soldier came along, driving a pair of mules to which a quarter +master's wagon was hitched. As he drew near, with a heavy load aboard, +he halted to rest the mules. + +"Rooks, ain't ye?" questioned the soldier. + +"Yes," admitted Hal. + +"Taking a survey of the post?" + +"Rather. We don't have to report for duty until to-morrow." + +After a few moments the soldier climbed down from the seat of the wagon. +He was wholly willing to tell the boys whatever they wanted to know +about Fort Clowdry and to point out the features of interest in the +surrounding lines of mountains. + +"Ever go hunting?" asked the soldier, at last. + +"Yes; after squirrels and partridges," laughed Hal. + +"No real hunting, though?" + +"None." + +"Then, if you can keep out of discipline troubles, ye'll have some fun +around here by and by." + +"Soldiers don't have much time for hunting, do they?" Hal asked. + +"Those that know how to hunt do," replied the older soldier. "That's +part of the life here. Didn't ye ever hear about soldier hunting +parties?" + +"I certainly haven't," Hal admitted. + +"Why, men of good conduct are often allowed to go off on hunting parties +when the game's running right. Generally there's six or eight men to a +party, and all have to be fair shots, for the K. O. doesn't aim to have +too much ammunition wasted," explained the old soldier. "One of the +party is a non-com and he has charge of the party." + +"What do the hunters get?" queried Hal. + +"Well, for bigger game, bear and mountain antelope mostly. Then some +parties go after birds; there's plenty of them, too, in the mountains, +at the right seasons." + +"Say!" exploded Noll, his eyes shining. + +"Think ye'd like to go on a hunting party, do ye?" asked the soldier. +"Get up yer record for marksmanship, then." + +"What's done with the game?" asked Noll innocently. + +"What----" the soldier started to repeat. Then he added, dryly: + +"Oh, we send the game to the hospitals in Denver and Pueblo, of course!" + +"Don't we get any of it to eat?" asked Noll, looking up. + +"Say, don't ever go off with a party that doesn't bring back a big haul +of game," advised the older soldier. "If ye do, the company cooks will +lynch ye. Why, that's what we go hunting for--to vary the bill of fare +here at the post. Sometimes, when we're all just aching for bear steaks, +an officer and twenty or thirty men all hike off at once into the +mountain trails. There are plenty of game dinners at Clowdry, at +different times in the year." + +Then the soldier climbed leisurely to the seat of his wagon and started +on again. + +"I wonder if he was fooling us about hunting parties," mused Hal. + +Later on, however, the rookies discovered that the soldier had told them +the truth. On some of the Western posts, hunting forms one of the +diversions of the men. + +Presently they met another soldier, this time afoot. + +"How far can we go without getting off the reservation?" Hal inquired. + +"The way you're headed now you can go another mile without getting off +limits," the soldier replied. + +"Reservation" is a term applied to the limits of an Army post. Wherever +an Army post exists it includes land reserved by the United States from +the jurisdiction of the individual state. Hence the name of reservation. + +It was wilder country out here, away from the well-kept roads. + +"Come on," urged Hal. "I'm going to take a good walk yet." + +They had gone along, briskly, for at least another half mile when some +flying missile went by Hal's head. Noll, who was just behind him, saw +the missile, and watched it land on the ground beyond. + +"Whoever is throwing rocks of that size--quit!" shouted Noll, wheeling +to his left and glaring at an irregularly-shaped ledge some sixty yards +away. + +"Let's see who it is, anyway," cried Hal, darting toward the ledge. + +By the time they reached the ledge they heard some lively scrambling +among the rocks beyond, but neither rookie could see anyone. All was +quiet for a few moments. Then a foot slipped on a stone, at a little +distance. Hal raced straight in the direction of the sound. He was in +time to see a crouching, running figure darting in and out among the +rocks. + +"Come on, Noll! We've got him!" yelled Hal. + +In another minute they had overtaken the fugitive, who now stood panting +at bay. + +"Well, you're a nice one!" ejaculated Private Hal Overton. + +"Tip Branders--out here in Colorado!" ejaculated Noll Terry. + +"No; my name ain't Branders. Ye've got me mixed up with somebody else!" +glowered the young man at bay. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE MYSTERY OF POST THREE + + +"OH, no, your name isn't Tip Branders!" mocked Hal Overton. + +"That's what I said," retorted the young man at bay. + +"Then how do you know who we are?" + +"I don't know who ye are, and what's more, I don't care," retorted the +other. + +"Tip, I guess you've forgotten to write home lately," broke in Noll. +"What would you say if you should hear that your uncle in Australia had +died and left your mother more than two million dollars?" + +The young man's eyes opened very wide indeed. He gasped, and then his +eyes flashed eagerly. + +"Has the old lady all that money?" he demanded. "Noll Terry, what else +do you know about it?" + +The young man came briskly forward now, all trembling with eagerness. + +"I don't know anything at all about it," retorted Noll coolly, "and I +don't believe it either." + +"But you said----" + +"Oh, Tip, what an idiot you are to think you can deny your identity to +us," jeered Noll, while Hal laughed merrily. + +"Say, if you're trying to have sport with me," snarled Tip, "I'll----" + +"Is it your idea of sport to shy rocks at us?" demanded Private Hal. + +"I didn't shy anything at you," asserted Tip sullenly. + +"Why, for that matter," Hal went on jeeringly, "I don't suppose you'll +even admit that you're here, at all?" + +"Don't get too festive, just because you've got the government's blue +clothes on," Tip retorted sullenly. "A plain, ordinary soldier ain't +such a much." + +"Opinions may differ about that, of course," Hal admitted. "But being a +soldier was too much of a job for you to get a chance at, wasn't it, +Tip?" + +"I'm just as well suited as it is," rejoined Tip, flushing a bit, none +the less. + +"You haven't told us what you're doing out in this country," Noll +suggested. + +"And I don't know that it's any of your business, either," Branders went +on. "Ain't nothing to be ashamed of, though. You know I used to travel a +bit with the political crowd at home." + +"With the heelers of the city," Noll amended. + +Tip scowled, but continued: + +"Well, I got into a bit of a row, that's all. So I lit out until things +could blow over a bit." + +"And took some of your mother's cash before you left, I heard," nodded +Private Noll Terry. + +"She gave it to me," cried Tip fiercely. "Now, see here, don't you +fellows say nothing about seeing me out in this part of the country. I'm +out here trying to run down a good, new start in life. You just keep +your tongues behind your teeth as far as my affairs are concerned." + +"What kind of a new start can you make out in these hills?" queried Hal. + +"That's what I'm here to find out. My cash has about run out, so I'm +walking. I'm bound for a ranch about forty miles west of here, where I +expect to land a job. So don't you go to talking too much about me, and +trying to spoil me." + +"Why did you try to knock me over with a small-sized boulder?" Hal +insisted. + +"Because I wanted to play a joke on you," retorted Tip, with a grin. + +"That's a lie, but let it go at that," rejoined Hal Overton. "It would +be too much, anyway, wouldn't it, Tip, to expect the truth from you?" + +"You always were down on me," replied Branders half coaxingly. "If you'd +only taken more trouble to understand me you'd have understood that I'm +not a half bad fellow." + +"No; only about nine-tenths bad," grimaced Noll derisively. + +"Well, there's no use in my staying here to talk with you fellows," +muttered Tip angrily. "You never were friends of mine. So I'll be on my +way." + +"Tramping it for forty miles, are you?" called Noll, as Tip turned away. + +"'Bout that," Branders called back over his shoulder. + +"Then, man alive, why don't you keep to the road, instead of scrambling +over these rough boulders?" + +Tip's only answer was a snort. + +"Come back to the road," proposed Hal to his chum. So the two rookies +clambered back over the ledge and down onto the excellent military road. +But they caught no further glimpse of Tip Branders; plainly he preferred +different paths. + +"What do you make out of Tip?" asked Noll, a minute later. + +"Nothing," Hal answered, "except that he was lying, as usual, of course. +Tip never tells the truth; there's no sport in it." + +"I'd like to know what he is doing out in this country." + +"Oh, I reckon," suggested Hal, "that, as he couldn't be a soldier, he +thought he'd take up cowboy life as the next best thing." + +"He won't last long as a cowboy," laughed Noll. "Tip hates work, and the +cowboy is about the hardest worked man in America." + +"Well, we don't have to worry about Tip," muttered Hal. "We don't even +have to talk about him. Noll, look at those noble old mountains!" + +"Some day, when we have enough time off, we must walk to the mountains," +urged Noll. "I wonder how many miles away they are--five, or six?" + +"Hm!" laughed Hal. "I asked Sergeant Gray, and he said that range over +there is about forty miles away." + +"Forty!" Noll looked plainly unbelieving. + +"You'll find out, Noll Terry, that the air in these glorious old Rocky +Mountains is so mighty clear that you can't judge distances the way you +did back East. I'd rather have Sergeant Gray's word than any evidence +that my own eyes can supply me with." + +"We won't get to that mountain range, then, until we have a week off," +sighed Noll. + +After wandering about for some time more the young rookies strolled +back to barracks. Hal had yet to find Sergeant Hupner and get assigned +to a bed and a locker. + +Hupner proved to be a rather short, but keen and very pleasant fellow. +He was of German origin, but had no accent in his speech, having been +educated in this country. + +"You'll like the regiment, the battalion and B Company, Overton, when +you get used to us," Sergeant Hupner informed the young rookie. + +"I'm sure of it, Sergeant," Hal replied. "But it'll be far more to the +point, won't it, if I make my comrades like me?" + +"Oh, you'll get along all right," replied Hupner, who had had a report +on the quiet of Hal's performance with big Bill Hooper that morning. +"The main thing for a recruit, Overton, is not to act as if he knew it +all until he really does. And no old soldier does claim to know too +much. You'll have to fall in for dinner in about ten minutes. When the +company assembles report to Sergeant Gray, who'll give you your place in +the ranks." + +When the two recruits marched into company mess, that noon, both Hal and +Noll felt odd. The chums had not been used to being separated. + +After dinner the two were together again, however. Guided by Hyman they +went to the recreation hall, on the second floor of barracks building. +This hall was fitted up for games and sports, and at one end was a stage +with scenery. + +"Who gives the shows?" asked Hal. + +"Once in a great while the men chip in from company funds to hire a real +company, or troupe," replied Private Hyman. "The officers always add +something, then. But, more often, the men supply their own talent. We've +got a lot of show talent of all sorts among nearly four hundred men." + +Hyman was soon called away to a drill, though not before he had pointed +out other places of interest. Hal and Noll went over to the library, the +gym. and the Y. M. C. A. building. They wound up their afternoon of +leisure by attending parade just before retreat. Retreat is always +followed, immediately, by the firing of the sunset gun and the hauling +down of the post Flag for the night. + +When tattoo was sounded by the bugler that night both chums were glad +enough to turn down their beds and get into them. Neither Hal nor Noll +remained awake more than two minutes. + +The windows were open, and a cool, delicious breeze, circulated through +the squad room. Hal slept the sleep of the truly tired, hearing nothing +of the martial snores of some of the men on adjoining cots. It was late +in the night when Private Overton was awakened by the sound of a rifle +shot. + +"I must have been dreaming through the scenes of last night again," Hal +muttered drowsily. + +None of the other men in the room appeared to have heard the sound at +all. + +But now it came again. A shot was followed by a second, then by a third. + +"Corporal of the guard--post number three!" yelled a lusty voice, though +the distance was such that Hal Overton heard the sound only faintly. + +Crack--crack! + +Then a bugle pealed on the air, though still Hal's comrades in the squad +room slumbered on. + +Too curious to turn over and go to sleep again, Hal stole softly from +his cot and reached an open window on the side that looked out over the +parade. + +There was no moon, but in the light of the stars Hal could see several +uniformed men running swiftly across the parade ground to officers' row. + +"It's no dream," muttered Overton, intensely interested, "for there goes +the corporal with the guard. What on earth can it mean?" + +There was something up--and something exciting, at that, for experienced +sentries never fire except in case of need. Moreover, several +sentries--no fewer than four--had just fired almost simultaneously. + +Nor did the corporal and his squad return within the next few minutes. + +Whatever it was that had resulted in turning out the guard, the need for +the guard plainly still continued. + +"There's no more shooting, anyway," Hal reflected. "I may as well go +back to bed." + +It was some minutes ere he could sleep. When he did fall off it seemed +as though only a minute or two had passed when the bugle again pealed. + +Hal was on his feet in a second. So were most of the other soldiers in +the squad room this time. + +"Why, it's daylight now," uttered Hal, looking astounded. + +"Of course it is, rook," laughed the soldier whose bed was next to +Hal's. "That bugler sounded first call to reveille. Don't you know what +that is yet?" + +In other words the soldier's alarm clock had "gone off." Though all of +these men had slept through the call for the corporal of the guard, +simply because it did not concern them, every man had turned out at the +first or second note of "first call to reveille." + +Every man dressed swiftly. As soon as he got his clothing on each +soldier turned up his bedding according to the regulations. + +There was some "policing" of the room done. That is, everything was made +shipshape and tidy. Last of all, and within a very few minutes from the +start, the men made their way briskly to the sinks, where soap and +water, comb and brush, put on the finishing touches. A sergeant, two +corporals and nearly a score of men were now as neat and clean as +soldiers must ever be. + +"What was that row in the night, Corporal? Do you know?" Hal asked. + +"What row in the night?" asked Corporal Cotter. + +"Why, there was a lot of shooting, and a call for the corporal of the +guard to post number six." + +"First I've heard of it," replied Corporal Cotter. "But we'll know +before long. Now, step lively, rook, for you're on duty with the rest +to-day." + +By the time that Sergeant Gray's squad room emptied at the call of the +bugle it was instantly plain outside that something unusual was going +on. + +A and D Companies, as they fell in, proved each to be twenty men short. + +"There are extra guards out, and a picket down the road to town," +muttered Private Hyman, who stood next to Hal in the ranks. + +"What does it mean?" asked Hal Overton, but instantly his thoughts went +back to the shots and the excitement of the night. + +"Silence in the ranks," growled Corporal Cotter. + +But at breakfast tongues were unloosed. Hal quickly told what little he +had seen and heard in the night. Others passed the gossip that twenty +men had been silently summoned from a squad room in A Company, and +twenty more from a squad room in D Company. + +"There's some mischief floating in the air--that's certain," muttered +Private Hyman. + +"How did you happen to be up to see and hear it all, Overton?" demanded +Sergeant Gray. + +Hal explained, frankly and briefly, but the sergeant's eyes were keenly +questioning. + +Before the meal was over the company commander, Captain Cortland, +entered the room. + +"Keep your seats, men. Go on with your breakfast. Sergeant Gray, I will +speak with you for a moment." + +The first sergeant hastily rose, going over to his captain and saluting. +After the company commander had gone, at the end of a brief, almost +whispered conversation, Gray came back to his seat, looking wholly +mysterious. + +"B Company, rise," ordered the first sergeant, at the end of the meal. +"Attention! The men of this company will have ten minutes for +recreation, then be prepared to fall in at an extra inspection on the +parade ground. After filing out of here no man will go indoors again +before inspection." + +"Is it to be inspection without arms, Sergeant Gray?" called Sergeant +Hupner. + +"Inspection just as you stand," replied Sergeant Gray, then gave the +marching order. + +"What on earth is up, Hal?" demanded Noll, when the two young rookies +met outside of mess a few minutes later. + +"I wish I knew," was Hal's puzzled reply. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +HAL UNDER A FIRE OF QUESTIONS + + +IMMEDIATELY after the bugle call for assembly the four companies of the +first battalion of the Thirty-fourth fell in by companies on the parade +ground. + +After roll-call had been read each company commander stepped before his +own command. + +"Was any man of B Company absent from his squad room at any time around +two o'clock this morning?" called Captain Cortland, looking keenly over +his command. Other company commanders were asking the same question. "If +so, that man will fall out." + +Not a man fell out of any of the four companies. + +"Was any man in B Company up and moving about the squad room at or about +two o'clock this morning?" was Captain Cortland's next question. "If so, +fall out." + +Private Hal Overton quickly left his place in the ranks. + +"Advance, Private Overton," ordered Captain Cortland. + +Hal stepped forward, halting six paces from his company commander and +saluting. + +"You were up and about in the squad room at that time, Private Overton?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Did you leave the squad room?" + +"No, sir." + +"You are positive of that?" + +"Positive, sir." + +"You did not leave the squad room, even for a moment?" + +"No, sir." + +"What brought you out of your bed?" + +"I heard shots, sir, and calls for the guard." + +"What else did you see or hear, Private Overton?" + +"I went to the window, and saw that there was some excitement up by the +officers' quarters, sir." + +"Then what did you do?" + +"After listening and looking for some time, sir, I returned to my bed, +wondering what it was all about." + +Hal was the only soldier in the battalion who had fallen out of ranks. + +"Follow me," ordered Captain Cortland. He led the young soldier back to +where Adjutant Wright and the sergeant-major were standing by Major +Silsbee. + +"Lieutenant Wright," reported Captain Cortland, "Private Overton admits +being up in the squad room at the time when the shots were fired in the +dark hours this morning. He claims that he did not leave the squad room, +and that it was the noise that woke him and made him curious." + +"Go to my office, Private Overton, with Sergeant-major Beall," directed +the adjutant briefly. + +Hal and the sergeant-major saluted, then stepped away. + +"Is it allowable, Sergeant, for a rookie to ask what this is all about?" +asked Hal respectfully, as the two neared the adjutant's office at +headquarters. + +"You'd better not ask. I'm not going to tell you anything," replied +Beall. + +So Hal was silent, though he could hardly escape the feeling that he was +being treated a good deal like a suspected criminal. Though he knew that +he was innocent of any wrong-doing in connection with the excitement of +the night before he could not help feeling undefined dread. + +Lieutenant Wright speedily returned to his office, taking his seat at +his desk. Hal was summoned and made to stand at attention before the +adjutant. + +"Now, Private Overton," began the adjutant, fixing a frigid gaze on the +rookie, "you may as well tell me all you know about last night's +business." + +Hal quickly told the little that he knew. + +"Come, come, my man," retorted Lieutenant Wright, "that much won't do. +Out with the rest of it." + +"There isn't any 'rest of it' that I know of, sir," Private Hal answered +respectfully. + +"Now, my man----" + +With that preliminary Lieutenant Wright proceeded to put the young +recruit through a severe, grilling cross-examination. But Hal kept his +head through it all, insisting that he had told all he knew. + +"Overton," rapped in the adjutant, at last, "you are very new to the +Army, and you don't appear to realize all the facilities we have for +compelling men to speak. If you remain obtuse any longer, it may be +necessary for me to order you to the guard-house under confinement." + +"I am very sorry, Lieutenant," Hal replied, flushing, "that you will not +believe me. On my word of honor as a soldier I have told you all that I +know of the matter." + +The adjutant bent forward, looking keenly into the rookie's eyes. Hal +did not flinch, returning the gaze steadily, respectfully. + +Then, in a somewhat less gruff tone, Lieutenant Wright continued: + +"That is all for the present, Private Overton. Report to your company +commander, at once." + +The adjutant and sergeant-major left headquarters a moment later, going +by a different path. As Hal glanced down the parade ground he saw the +men out of ranks, though every man was still close to his place. + +"Major," reported the adjutant, after the exchange of salutes between +the officers, "Private Overton denies having left the squad room in the +early hours this morning. For that matter, sir, if he had not been +honest, he need not have reported that he was out of his bed, or that he +heard the sentries' shots." + +"It was well he did admit that much," replied the major, "for he let it +out at company mess this morning." + +"I went at the young recruit, sir, so severely that I was almost ashamed +of myself," continued the adjutant. "I am under the impression, sir, +that Private Overton told me the truth." + +"So am I," admitted Major Silsbee thoughtfully. "His record, so far, is +against the idea of his being mixed up in rascally business. I think it +likely that Private Overton's extreme fault, if he is guilty of any, is +that he is possibly shielding some other soldiers whom he saw sneak +back into barracks after the excitement was over. Probably he isn't even +guilty of that much." + +"Are you going to search the squad rooms, sir?" inquired the adjutant. + +"Yes, Wright, though it makes me feel almost sick to put such an affront +upon hundreds of innocent and decent men." + +"The decent ones, sir, will welcome the search." + +"That is what Colonel North told me. Summon the company commanders, and +direct them to go into each squad room of their companies with the +sergeant in charge of the squad room." + +Hal, in the meantime, had returned to B Company. He found many of his +comrades regarding him suspiciously, and flushed in consequence. But +Corporal Cotter, Private Hyman and others stepped over to him. + +"What's it all about, rookie? Do you know?" asked the corporal. + +"Not a blessed thing, Corporal," replied the young recruit. + +"Look! Here come the company commanders back," called another soldier, +in a low tone. + +"Sergeant Gray and the other sergeants of B Company will follow me to +barracks," called Captain Cortland. + +Now the curious soldiers saw each company commander, followed by his +sergeants, step back to barracks. + +For an hour the puzzled men of the battalion waited on the parade +ground. + +Then, in some mysterious manner, the news of what had really happened +began to spread. + +In the night unknown men had broken into Major Silsbee's house. This had +not been a difficult thing to do as, on a military post, doors are +rarely locked. Not one of the three entrances to Major Silsbee's +quarters had been locked at the time. + +Downstairs the thieves had gathered a few articles together, but had not +taken them, as they had found better plunder upstairs. From a +dressing-room adjoining Mrs. Silsbee's sleeping apartment the prowlers +had taken a jewel case containing jewels worth some three thousand +dollars. There had also been about two hundred dollars in money in the +case. + +As the thieves were leaving the house they were seen by a sentry some +sixty yards away. The sentry had challenged, then fired. The thieves had +fled, swiftly, running directly away from all light. But another sentry +had also seen them, and had fired. Both sentries had agreed that there +were four men, and that they wore the uniforms of soldiers. + +The thieves made good their escape. Soon after the alarm was given +forty men from A and D companies had been silently turned out to aid in +establishing a stronger guard, and the barracks building had been +watched through the rest of the night. + +Yet no soldier had been caught trying to get back into barracks, nor had +any man been missing at roll-call unless well accounted for. + +"Somewhere in this battalion, then," murmured Noll to a man in C +Company, "there are four soldiers who are thieves." + +"Yes," replied the soldier bluntly, "and it looks as though your bunkie +at the recruit rendezvous might know something about it." + +"Hal Overton doesn't know," flared Noll promptly, "or he'd have told!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE ANONYMOUS LETTER + + +IT was a four days' wonder, and then it dropped. + +The search at barracks had revealed nothing. There was not a soldier on +the post against whom any tangible suspicion pointed. + +"There's just one way that a clue might be found," muttered Private Bill +Hooper, one morning in Sergeant Hupner's squad room. "In time it may +turn out that a sweetheart of some soldier gets some pretty jewelry +trinkets given to her." + +He glared covertly, though meaningly, at Hal Overton. + +But Hal was far enough away neither to see nor to hear Hooper's fling. + +"You'll never get caught on that trick, Bill," jeered Private Hyman. "No +girl would look at you, even if you displayed the whole of the missing +jewelry." + +"I've had my share of sweethearts in my day," growled big Private +Hooper. + +"That was before your face changed for worse," grinned Hyman. + +"Don't get gay with me," warned Hooper sulkily, "or your face may +suffer some changes!" + +"Go over and thump the kid," proposed Hyman. + +It was Hal who was meant by the term "kid." + +"I don't like that youngster," muttered Hooper. "And I don't trust him, +either." + +"That'll never worry Hal Overton," smiled Hyman. "Hooper, you look so +untidy that it's a wonder Sergeant Hupner doesn't 'call' you oftener for +it. And you clean up your rifle about once a fortnight. Look at Overton +over there." + +Hal was at work with his kit of cleaning tools, going over his rifle as +methodically and industriously as though it were a piece of rare silver +plate. + +"He'll rub and polish that old piece of his until he wears it out," +mumbled Hooper. + +"One of the surest signs of the good soldier is when you see him putting +in a lot of his spare time caring for his uniforms and equipments," +broke in Sergeant Hupner, behind them. "Hooper, go and brush your +uniform, and clean your boots and polish 'em. I'll report you, if I see +you so slouchy in the future." + +Bill Hooper moved away, scowling. + +Sergeant Gray strode in at that moment. + +"Do you want leave to go to town to-day, reporting back at tattoo, +Hyman?" inquired the first sergeant. + +"Thank you, yes, Sergeant." + +"All right; I'll turn you in on the list to Captain Cortland. I'll +notify you of leave within half an hour." + +Then he stepped over to Hal. + +"Overton, you haven't had any leave to visit town since you joined. +Would you like to take leave to-day?" + +"No, Sergeant, thank you." + +Sergeant Gray looked his surprise. + +"Why not?" he demanded. + +"I have too much to learn right here, Sergeant. I'm going to stick, and +work, until I'm out of the recruit class." + +"Good boy!" murmured Gray, in an undertone, and passed on. But Gray +stopped when he came up with Hupner. + +"Hupner, you've got a valuable man in Overton." + +"I know it, Sergeant." + +"Give him all the little points you can that will take him out of the +recruit class promptly." + +"Why, Sergeant," smiled Hupner, "Overton can go out of the recruit class +at about any time now. Report him for the guard detail any time that you +want. He'll make good. He's keen on every bit of his work. He can go +through his manual of arms like a juggler. He has studied his infantry +drill regulations until he's about worn the book out; he knows his +manual of guard duty by heart, and it would be mighty hard to trip him +anywhere in his small arms firing manual. Have you noticed his facings +and his marching at drill?" + +"Yes," nodded Sergeant Gray thoughtfully. "The boy's a good one, all +right." + +"Take it from me, Sergeant--you needn't hesitate to detail the kid for +guard or any other duty. He'll suit Captain Cortland." + +"I'll detail him for guard, then, as soon as I can," returned Sergeant +Gray. "That gives a young soldier confidence as soon as anything else +ever does." + +As often as is practicable enlisted men are given a day's leave, with +permission to go off post and visit the nearest town. This leave is +given to men known to be of good conduct. A "bad" soldier, when one is +found, gets little in the way of leave. + +Whenever a soldier or an ex-soldier is found slandering the Army service +it is invariably safe to set him down as a man who, through very poor +soldierly qualities, or actual viciousness, got "in the bad books" of +his officers. There is every desire on the part of regimental and +company officers to make it pleasant for a truly good soldier, and to +keep him in the service until he has reached retiring age. + +The man who gets into bad company when away on leave is the soldier who +has the most difficulty in getting leave another time. + +On the other hand, the soldier of good conduct can have much leave +during the month. It is a practice at many posts, when a man has a +trade, and can get small jobs to do near the post, to allow him as many +half days for that work as may be granted him without injury to the +service. In this way handy men or mechanics among the soldiers often add +many dollars to their pocket money. + +As Private Bill Hooper went away to clean up his uniform and shoes, Hal +blithely kept at work putting his rifle in A 1 order. + +Both were interrupted, half an hour later, by the bugle call for +separate company drill. + +Private Overton was among the first on the drill ground. His clothing +looked as though it had just come from the tailor's; his rifle had the +appearance of being fresh from the arsenal. + +"There's a man for you, Hyman," spoke Sergeant Hupner, in an undertone. +"If the kid keeps on as he has started he'll be a winner." + +"I've had my eye on him," nodded Private Hyman. "He seems to be good all +the way through." + +"Is he ever a little bit fresh in the squad room?" continued Sergeant +Hupner. + +"If the kid is," replied Hyman, "I've never happened to be around at +that time. But he stands up for himself when he has to. I suppose you've +heard, Sergeant, how he trimmed Bill Hooper off?" + +"Yes," nodded Hupner; "that sort of thing won't hurt Hooper at all, +either." + +"Hooper may lay for a chance to accuse Overton of something in the squad +room that the kid didn't do." + +"I'll have my eyes open for Hooper," replied Hupner dryly. "I haven't +anything against any of the other sergeants in this battalion, but I +really wish some other sergeant had Hooper in his squad room." + +"B Company fall in," sounded the voice of Captain Cortland. + +First Lieutenant Hampton and the sergeants hastened to their posts, +while the corporals and privates went to their places in the ranks. + +The command for open order was given, after which Captain Cortland +commanded: + +"Inspect the second platoon, Lieutenant Hampton." + +With that the company commander himself passed behind the backs of the +men of the first platoon, looking each man over keenly. + +"Private Hooper, fall out!" ordered Captain Cortland sharply. + +When the captain had finished his own work, and Lieutenant Hampton had +reported all men in the second platoon to be soldierly in appearance, +Captain Cortland turned to Bill Hooper with a look of disapproval. + +"Private Hooper, this is the third time within a month that you've +failed to report in neat and soldierly appearance. Who is in charge of +your squad room?" + +"Sergeant Hupner, sir." + +"Sergeant Hupner," resumed the captain, "what have you to say to this +man's appearance?" + +"I ordered him, at least a half an hour ago, sir, to clean himself up." + +"Keep right after Private Hooper, Sergeant. If he fails again to keep +himself as a soldier should, report him to the first sergeant." + +Hooper's face burned darkly. Even honest Sergeant Hupner flushed. A +shiftless soldier is a sore trial to the sergeant responsible for him. + +Now, at the brisk command, B Company moved off in column of fours. A +long practice march followed. While out, the company was halted and +drilled searchingly. It was a hard morning's work, B Company returning +just in time for dinner. In the afternoon there was another drill. +Parade wound up the day. + +On his return from parade Lieutenant Wright, the adjutant, found in his +office mail a letter that caused him a good deal of astonishment. + + "Watch Private Overton, B. Company, if you want to + find a man who knows a lot about the robbery the + other night. He has been acting suspiciously, and + I have it from a man in his squad room that + Overton sometimes talks in his sleep in a way to + show that either he was one of the robbers, or + else that he knows who they are. + + "A FRIEND." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A SECRET COWARD + + +IF any official notice was taken of that lying anonymous note the +rascally writer thereof did not have the satisfaction of discovering it +for some time to come. + +Duties in the battalion went on, as usual, at Fort Clowdry, the next +day. + +Late in the afternoon, however, came a brief battalion drill, followed +by the glorious spectacle of dress parade. + +After the regimental band had played the colors down the line, and the +other ceremonies had been observed, Adjutant Wright took his post to +publish the orders. + +These were few, and the reading did not occupy long. As the officer +returned the papers to the breast of his coat the men expected to see +him step back. Instead, however, the adjutant sharply called: + +"Battalion, attention! I am directed by the battalion commander to make +an inquiry. Each man will pay close heed, and answer if he is able. Has +any non-commissioned officer or private in this battalion heard, at any +time lately, any man in the same squad room with him talk in his sleep +in such a way as to indicate that the man talking in his sleep had any +knowledge concerning the men who recently broke into and robbed the +battalion commander's quarters? Any man having such knowledge will fall +out." + +There was a tense silence, but the ranks of the first battalion remained +intact. + +"If there is any non-commissioned officer or private who did not fully +understand my question, he will fall out," continued the adjutant. + +Still no man fell out. + +"If the man who addressed the anonymous letter to the battalion adjutant +is present he will step out," continued Lieutenant Wright. + +Still the ranks remained unbroken. + +Being at "attention," each man in the four companies was looking fixedly +ahead. But curiosity was running wild under all those blue fatigue +blouses! + +"An anonymous letter has been received at battalion headquarters," +continued the adjutant sternly. "This letter accuses a soldier, who is +named, of having guilty knowledge concerning the perpetrators of the +robbery of the other night. The writer of this letter asserts that other +men in the squad room have heard the anonymously accused soldier talking +in his sleep in such a manner as to implicate the accused in the +robbery. + +"No man present has acknowledged having heard such talk. Either some +soldiers now in ranks have lied in denying having heard such talk, or +else the writer of the anonymous letter is a liar. I am directed by the +battalion commander to state his belief that the writer of the anonymous +letter is the liar. + +"The writer of the letter has been ordered to fall out and reveal +himself. If that writer is present, then he knows in his own mind, and +one of these days his comrades will know, that he is too much of a +coward to face responsibility for his sneaking action. + +"The man who writes an anonymous letter is always a coward, a sneak, and +usually a liar, too. I am directed by the battalion commander to state +that, if the writer of this anonymous letter can be found, he will be +placed on trial for his act, which is one unworthy of a soldier. + +"I am further directed by the battalion commander to state that no +letter anonymously accusing an enlisted man will react in any way +against the accused. The battalion commander feels that he cannot state, +too strongly, his intense contempt for any coward who will resort to +slandering a comrade in an anonymous letter. + +"The battalion commander will be glad, at any time, to receive from any +man in his command any information or report that may be made honestly +and for the good of the service. But the man making such report will go +to headquarters and make it in person, or else will put his information +in writing and sign it fully and manfully." + +After an impressive pause Adjutant Wright stepped back, saluted his +commanding officer, then stepped to his proper position. + +At a signal from the adjutant the buglers now sounded retreat. As the +last notes died out the sunset gun was fired. Rifles flew to "present +arms," swords flashed to salute and male civilian onlookers uncovered +their heads while the band crashed out with "The Star Spangled Banner." + +As the band played, the Flag fluttered down from the peak of the post +flag staff and descended into the hands of its defenders. One man stood +in the ranks at that moment who was unfit to touch even the border of +that national emblem. + +"Order arms!" rang out, as the last note died out. "Right shoulder +arms!" + +Then by column of fours the battalion marched briskly off the field, to +be halted and dismissed near barracks. + +No sooner were the men in their quarters than the same angry inquiry +rose in each squad room: + +"Who has been writing lying letters about a comrade?" + +No one admitted being the dastard, of course, yet over at headquarters +Major Silsbee, at that very moment, was asking: + +"What makes you so very sure, Wright, that some man in this command +wrote the anonymous letter?" + +"It is all very simple, sir," replied the adjutant. "Look at the note +again, sir, and you'll see that it is typewritten----" + +"Of course, Wright; I've known that from the first." + +"But, sir, it's written in the style of type that is used on the Everite +typewriter. This post is equipped with Everite typewriters; we have them +here at headquarters, and every first sergeant has one, too, for his +clerk." + +"And there may be a dozen more Everite typewriters over in Clowdry," +suggested Major Silsbee dubiously. + +"No, Major; I've made an investigation. I have a list of every firm or +person in Clowdry who owns a machine--only about a dozen in all, and not +one of them is an Everite. Major, the letter was written on this post, +and with an Everite machine." + +"Then, by the great guns, sir, I hope you go further and catch the +culprit," exploded Major Silsbee, bringing his fist down on the desk. + +"Ah," sighed Lieutenant Wright. "That's just where the trouble is. It +will be a hard task, sir." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE LUCK OF THE YOUNG RECRUIT + + +ON top of all this came the news that Colonel North's quarters had been +entered the night following. + +Worse, the scoundrels had used chloroform this time. Colonel North awoke +at about three in the morning, his head feeling heavy and dull. He noted +at once the strange odor in the room. Then he roused his family. Traces +of thieves were found; within ten seconds after that Colonel North had +summoned the guard. + +Yet the two sentries on duty in officers' row both declared that they +had seen no prowlers. + +Almost every article of value had been found and taken. A pair of costly +revolvers belonging to the regimental commander had gone with the loot. +Some money, too, had been found and taken. Colonel North and his family +placed their loss at nearly four thousand dollars. + +"Lieutenant Ray," said Colonel North, to the officer of the day, who had +followed the guard, "I think you had better summon Major Silsbee at +once." + +The major was there, inside of five minutes. + +"So the scoundrels have blistered you, too, sir?" demanded the +white-faced battalion commander wrathfully. + +"They have taken almost everything in the way of valuable property that +Mrs. North and I own, Major." + +"We've got to put a stop to this, sir. And we've got to find and bring +the rascals to boot." + +"Pardon me, Colonel; shall I pass the order for a prompt search of +barracks?" queried the officer of the day. + +"No, Mr. Ray," replied Colonel North promptly. "Until I have real proof +I'm not going to put the slight upon our enlisted men. I believe they're +all fine men. If I had taken more time to think I never would have +sanctioned the last search of barracks. It shan't happen again." + +Captain Ruggles of A Company, having heard some excitement along the +row, now came in. + +"What we might, and perhaps ought to do, Major," continued the Colonel, +"is to advise the married officers whose homes have not yet been robbed +that they will do well to send their valuables into town for +safe-keeping at the bank for the present." + +"We might, sir," assented Silsbee dryly. "The bank in Clowdry is under +the protection of a police force of less than a dozen men. Shall we +admit, Colonel, that a dozen policemen are safer guardians of property +than our four hundred men of the Regular Army?" + +Colonel North looked troubled at that way of putting the matter. + +"I believe Mrs. Ruggles and I have some things worth stealing," broke in +Captain Ruggles quietly. "But I feel certain that neither of us would +like to throw any slight over the ability of this battalion to protect +its own property." + +"My head isn't very clear yet," admitted Colonel North. "I realize that +I have made a poor suggestion. I don't imagine, Major, that you'd be +much better pleased if I directed you to double the guard." + +"I shall obey, of course, Colonel, any orders on that subject that you +may give me," replied Major Silsbee. + +"These robberies are likely to continue, at intervals, until the +quarters of all married officers have been entered and despoiled, sir," +suggested Captain Ruggles, "so it seems to me, sir, that it would be +wise to put each guard on its mettle." + +"I am thinking only of protecting you gentlemen who have not yet +sustained losses," continued Colonel North. + +"And we appreciate your solicitude greatly, sir," resumed Major +Silsbee. + +"I leave it to you, Major." + +"Then I shall make it my business, sir, to see to it that the men are +instructed to be more alert than ever in guard duty," replied Silsbee. + +The next morning the news, of course, traveled swiftly all through the +garrison. + +Hal and Noll had a chance to chat together for a few minutes before the +sounding of the first assembly after breakfast. + +"The thieves are around again," mused Noll aloud. + +"Yes," nodded Private Hal thoughtfully. + +"I wish we might catch the rascals at it." + +"You've got time enough to think out your plan, then," laughed Hal, in +mild derision at this suggestion. + +"How so?" + +"Well, the thieves are not due for a few days yet on their next raid. It +seems to be their plan to leave intervals between their raids." + +"If the burglars are scheming further attempts they may vary their plans +by coming again to-night," hinted Noll. + +"I hardly believe they will," replied Hal, shaking his head. + +That day at noon Sergeant Gray warned Hal for guard the following day. +Just after dinner Hal found that his chum Noll had also been warned. + +"If the thieves are coming again I hope it will be to-morrow night," +suggested Hal. + +"No good," retorted Noll cynically. + +"Why not?" + +"We're only rooks." + +"Well?" + +"There isn't a ghost of a chance that we'd be put on post up in +officers' row. The oldest and keenest soldiers will be put on that duty +every night." + +"Oh, I suppose so," sighed Hal. "Of course rookies are just rooks. We'll +get the post down by the commissary stores, where a wagon train would be +needed for stealing anything really worth money." + +At guard mount the next morning both recruits turned out spick and span. +Knowing that they could not expect to get any important posts for night +tours both boys hoped to be selected by the officer of the day for +orderly duty. But two older soldiers were chosen for that. When guard +mount was over Sergeant Hupner, as commander of the guard, marched the +new guard over to the guard-house, where the old guard was relieved. + +This was the first time that the rookies had been detailed to guard duty +since joining their regiment. No matter to what inconsequential posts +they might be assigned both were full of determination to show +themselves model sentries. + +During the day Hal and Noll, who were assigned to the same relief, had +two tours. The first was in officers' row; the second, which ended just +before dark, was down at the main entrance of the post. + +Then followed some hours for leisure and sleep. + +"You men will go on post again at two in the morning," announced +Corporal Sanders, who was in command of the relief to which the rookies +belonged. + +Punctually that relief was turned out, aligned, inspected and +instructed. + +"Post number three, Private Overton. Post number four, Private Terry," +ran the corporal's orders. "Post number five----" + +And so on. + +Hal's heart was already beating high with hope. He had the post along +officers' row, Noll the one just beyond. + +"All sentries will exercise unusual vigilance," announced Sergeant +Hupner, as commander of the guard. "This applies especially to the +sentries on posts number three and four. But let no sentry, anywhere, +allow his whole attention to wander from his duties for an instant. +Corporal, march the relief." + +"Attention," called Corporal Sanders on receiving this order. "Right +shoulder arms! By twos, left march!" + +Three minutes later the man on post three had been relieved, Hal having +been dropped into his place. + +It was just after two o'clock in the morning when Private Hal Overton +began to pace his post, watching the relief vanish in the darkness in +the direction of post number four. + +Then he heard a sentry's hail: + +"Halt! Who goes there?" + +"The relief." + +"Advance, relief." + +After that, the steps of the marching party died off in the distance. + +In the darkest part of the moonless night Hal walked up and down before +the officers' quarters. + +But he did more than walk. Making his own steps as noiseless as possible +Hal felt that he was truly "all ears and eyes." + +Thus some twenty minutes went by. + +Then, suddenly, just as Hal had passed the north side of Captain +Ruggles' quarters the young sentry halted like a flash. + +Under the dim starlight he saw two shadowy forms leave by the captain's +back door. + +Each carried a bundle, though Hal could not make out the size or shape +of either very distinctly. + +"The burglars--at their tricks!" flashed Hal exultantly. + +But he wasted no time thinking. In a twinkling he slipped a cartridge +into his rifle, bringing the piece to his shoulder. + +"Halt!" he challenged. "Who's there?" + +The two figures, crouching low, made a bolt for the tall corn in a +vegetable garden at the rear of the grounds. + +"As fast as he could shout the words Private Hal Overton shouted: + +"Halt! Who's there? Halt! Who's there?" + +Having obeyed a sentry's instructions to challenge three times, and +receiving no answer, Hal pressed the trigger. + +A flash of flame lit the darkness around the rifle. It leaped straight +from the muzzle. + +Bang! The bullet sped in among the corn stalks. + +Over it all sounded Hal's voice: + +"Corporal of the guard, post number three!" + +Hal shot back the bolt of his rifle, dropping in a cartridge with +fingers as steady as at drill. + +"Corporal of the guard, post number three!" + +The gate was too far away. Hal took the fence at a bound, carrying his +cocked piece with him. + +Straight to the growing corn the young private took his speedy way. + +"Come out and show yourselves, or I fire at once," Private Overton +shouted. + +Crack! crack! Two pistol shots rang out from the corn patch. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE DUEL IN THE DARK + + +ALL this had occupied but a few seconds. + +Private Hal Overton was on duty, and bent on business. + +"I'll get one, or both of the rascals--dead or alive!" flashed through +his mind. + +Not even those two pistol shots brought him to a halt. + +Yet one of the bullets struck the ground beside him as he raced, the +other fanning his left cheek with a little breeze. + +"Get back there, boy!" growled a gruff voice. "You don't want to be +killed, do you?" + +For answer Hal sighted swiftly and fired. + +Then, for an instant, he dropped to one knee. + +From out of the corn patch a curse reached his ears. + +"If you'd rather be a dead soldier, all right," came the ugly response. +"Give it to him good and hot!" + +Hal had already slipped back the bolt of his piece. Now, as fast as he +could handle the material, and while still down on one knee, he slipped +five cartridges into his magazine, and a sixth he drove home in the +chamber. + +Bright flashes, swift reports greeted him from two points in the corn +patch. These points were about twenty feet apart. + +The young soldier simply couldn't cover both points of attack. + +From the way the bullets whistled past his face and body the recruit +knew that both his enemies were firing in deadly earnest. + +And now, from a third point, another assailant joined in the firing, and +Hal marveled, with each second, that he still remained alive. He felt as +though he were the center of a leaden storm. + +Yet, as coolly as he could, Soldier Hal chose the man at the left and +drove two shots straight in the direction of the flashes. + +"He's got me," yelled a cursing voice. + +"I'll get you all, if you don't stop shooting and come out," warned +Overton coolly. + +He could hear the wounded man moving rather swiftly through the corn. + +"He ought to leave a trail of blood," thought Hal, swiftly, and turned +his attention to the next enemy. + +But that man had stopped his firing. + +Then Hal turned his rifle in the direction of the flashes from the +pistol farthest away. + +Bang! He sent one shot there, and the shooting of the unknown stopped. + +[Illustration: Hal Dropped to One Knee.] + +Private Overton, however, could not know whether he had hit the fellow. + +"That fellow in the middle may be left yet," breathed Hal Overton, "I'll +find out." + +He had three shots yet left in his magazine, and his piece was at cock. + +Rising, he made swiftly for the corn, and dived in. + +"Back for your life!" sounded a voice straight ahead. + +Crack! crack! + +Two pistols shots fanned his face. + +But Hal took another running bound forward, preferring to reserve his +fire until he could catch a good glimpse of the fellow's body. + +"Back, you fool!" hissed the voice, followed by two more shots. + +"Come out with your hands up, or I'll get you!" Hal retorted. + +Instead, the unknown and unseen turned and ran some fifty feet. + +Hal pursued, without shooting. + +Crack! crack! + +For an instant Hal felt almost dizzy with sudden dread, for those +flashes seemed almost to smite him in the face. + +Yes, he was afraid, for a brief space. The coward is not the man who is +afraid, but the man who allows his fear to overmaster him. + +"Fire again," yelled Hal, "and I'll know just where to send a bullet." + +As he rushed onward he came out of the corn patch. + +Fifty feet further on he saw the fugitive, just dropping to the ground +at the roots of a tree. + +Crack! crack! crack! + +Lying on the ground, his head hardly showing beyond the roots, the +fugitive was now in excellent position to stop the young sentry's rush. + +Whizz--zz! whizz--zz! Click! + +Two of the speeding bullets flew past Hal's head. The third struck and +glanced off the rifle butt just as Hal, dropping to one knee, was +raising the piece to his shoulder to sight. + +Bang! That was Hal's rifle, again in action. He had aimed swiftly, but +deliberately, for the base of the tree. + +Against the military rifle of to-day an ordinary tree offers no +protection. The American Army rifle, at short range, will send a bullet +through three feet of green oak. + +"Wow!" yelled the other. Though Hal did not then know it, the bullet had +driven a handful of dirt into the fellow's mouth. + +Hal could hear the rascal spitting, so he called: + +"Come on out and surrender, and I won't fire again." + +"You go to blazes!" yelled an angry voice. + +Muffled as the voice was, it had a strangely familiar sound to the young +soldier. + +Hal seized the chance to fill his magazine as he shot the bolt back. He +slipped another cartridge into the chamber. + +From the sounds beyond he knew that his enemy was also reloading. + +"Any time you want me to stop shooting," Hal coolly announced, "just +call out that you surrender." + +Then he brought his piece to his shoulder. + +Bang! + +He could hear the bullet strike with a thud. + +Had there been light Hal could have scored a hit, but all shooting in +the dark is mainly guesswork. + +Crack! crack! The fugitive's pistol was also in action. + +One of the bullets carried the young soldier's sombrero from his head, +but he was barely aware of the fact. Yet, had that bullet been aimed two +inches lower, it would have found a resting place in his brain. + +Bang! + +Hal fired his second shot with deliberation. + +"Stop that!" wailed the other, with a new note of fear in his voice. + +"Surrender!" + +Crack! crack! + +Two pistol shots made up the reply. + +"I'm afraid I've got to kill him, if he doesn't get me first." + +Bang! + +"Ow--ow--ow--ow!" That yell was genuine enough to show that the young +sentry's bullet had struck flesh. + +"Do you surrender?" + +"Not to you!" + +Hal fired again. Then he crouched low, slipping two more cartridges into +his rifle. + +Crack! crack! + +"I'll get you yet," called a furious voice. + +Hal started as though he had been shot, though he was not aware of a +hit. + +"Tip Branders!" he called, in astonishment, and fired again. + +"Yes, it's me," came the admission. "Hal Overton, are you going to kill +an old friend?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +CAPTAIN CORTLAND HEADS THE PURSUIT + + +AWAY over by post number four Hal heard three rifle shots ring out. But +he paid no heed. Instead he answered the now terrorized wretch in front +of him: + +"I'll have to kill you, unless you surrender!" + +"Then I'll get you first," came the defiant answer. + +From the flashes, it could now be seen that Tip Branders was firing with +a revolver in each hand. + +The bullets came in so swift and close that Private Hal Overton +expected, every instant, to be bowled over. + +But still he fired deliberately, though he now strove to make each shot +effective. + +In a few moments he fired next to the last cartridge in his magazine, +just as the furious revolver fusillade came to an end. + +"O-o-oh!" + +Then the young sentry felt, rather than saw, something topple over at +the base of the tree. + +Hal leaped up, at the same instant hearing some one run up behind him. + +That brought the young sentry about like a flash. + +"I'm Captain Ruggles, Sentry!" came the prompt hail, and Private Overton +recognized the voice. + +Then Hal wheeled the other way, rushing toward the tree, calling back as +he ran: + +"I think I got the scoundrel, sir." + +In another moment Hal was beside the tree, holding his rifle clubbed and +ready, in case Tip Branders was playing 'possum. + +But the fellow lay on the ground, curiously huddled up, not moving a +hand. + +"I got him with that last shot, sir," announced Private Overton, turning +and carefully saluting his officer. + +"You've had a brisk and brave fight, Sentry," cried Captain Ruggles +warmly. "I heard your first shot, and rushed here as fast as I could +come." + +In reality, long as the time had seemed, hardly more than a full minute +had passed. Captain Ruggles, with a pair of white-striped trousers drawn +on over his pajamas, and slippers on his feet, presented a picture of +speed. + +Hal bent beside his old enemy of the home town to see where Tip had been +hit. + +Captain Ruggles, changing his revolver to his left hand, drew a match +and struck it. + +Tip's first apparent wound was a graze at the top of his right shoulder. +A dark, red stain appeared there. Another bullet had grazed his right +wrist. + +The third wound apparent was at the right side of the chest. + +"It'll need a rain-maker (Army surgeon) to tell whether that bullet +touched the scoundrel's right lung," declared Captain Ruggles. + +At that instant a woman's voice sounded from one of the windows of the +house behind them: + +"Corporal of the guard, you'll find Captain Ruggles and the sentry +somewhere back of the garden." + +Then came the sounds of running feet. Corporal Sanders was coming with +the guard. + +That incident showed the young soldier, more clearly than anything else +could have done, how brief the duel between Tip and himself had been. + +For Hal knew that, when the alarm is sounded, accompanied by the sound +of a shot, the corporal and the guard come on the dead run. + +"Right here, Corporal of the guard!" shouted Captain Ruggles, standing +up. "Send one man back immediately for hospital men and a stretcher." + +"Hospital men and a stretcher, Davidson," called the corporal, and one +soldier detached himself from the running squad, wheeling and racing +back. + +Then the corporal of the guard dashed up at the head of his men, giving +Captain Ruggles the rifle salute by bringing his left hand smartly +against the barrel of his piece. + +Barely behind the guard came Lieutenant Hayes, of A Company, who was +officer of the day. + +"The sentry has caught one of the burglars, Hayes," called Captain +Ruggles, as the lieutenant came up on the run. + +"Glad of it, sir. It's about time." + +Then, turning to Hal, Lieutenant Hayes continued: + +"You're sentry on number three, Private Overton?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Make your report in as few words as you can." + +This Hal did, telling about the two men whom he saw sneaking away with +bundles, and also about the third man who had joined in firing at him. + +"Which way did the other two retreat, Private Overton?" + +"I couldn't see, sir," the young soldier answered. "I was in the corn at +that moment." + +The corporal of the guard, in the meantime, had sent another man to +relieve Noll Terry on post number four, directing Terry to report to the +officer of the day. + +Still another member of the guard had been placed on post number three. + +All the other commissioned officers on post, including Colonel North, +now appeared, and the investigating party was adjourned to the roadway. + +Noll reported that he had seen two fugitives at a distance, and had +fired three times. + +Under military discipline matters move rapidly. Soldiers with lanterns +were now searching for the trail of those who had escaped. Keen eyes +were also seeking either bundle of loot from Captain Ruggles's quarters. +It was thought that the thieves, in their haste to get away, might have +dropped their plunder. + +Tip Branders, still unconscious, and badly hurt, according to the +surgeon, was taken to the post hospital, and the civil authorities in +Clowdry were notified. + +"That fellow you shot called you by name, didn't he, Overton?" inquired +Captain Ruggles. + +"Yes, sir," Hal admitted. + +"Ah, you knew the fellow, then?" inquired Colonel North. He spoke +blandly, but he had an instant recollection of the anonymous note that +had been received at battalion headquarters. + +"Yes, sir," Hal spoke promptly. "The fellow is Tip Branders. He comes +from the same home town that I do. He tried to enlist in the Army, but +was rejected because he could not supply good enough references. Then he +ran away from home, taking with him some money he stole from his mother, +according to local accounts." + +"Did you know the fellow Branders was in this part of the world?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then why, Private Overton, did you not report your information promptly +to your officers?" + +"Why, I did not have the least idea, sir, that Branders was still in +this neighborhood, and I did not, at any time, connect him in my mind +with the robberies." + +"How often, and where, have you seen Branders in this part of the +country?" demanded Colonel North, impressively, while the other officers +looked on with keen interest. + +Hal flushed, for he felt that now he was under some suspicion himself. + +"I have seen Branders just once, sir," the recruit replied. "Private +Terry was with me at the time." + +"This man here?" inquired Colonel North, turning to glance at Noll, who +stood by. + +"Yes, sir." + +"When did you both see Branders, then?" + +"Our first day here, sir. You may recall, Colonel, that you told Terry +and me that we need not go on duty that first day, but that we might +have the day to ourselves, as a reward for having helped Major Davis in +that mail-train affair the night before our arrival at this post." + +"I remember," nodded Colonel North. "But you have not yet told me the +circumstances of your meeting with Branders." + +Hal hurriedly recounted the details of that meeting, among the rocks +past the ledge, out on the road leading westward from the post. + +"At that time, Colonel," Private Hal Overton continued, "Branders told +us he was headed for a ranch to the westward, where he expected to get a +job. We had no reason for disbelieving him, at the time, and so it never +even occurred to us, until to-night, that he might be one of the +burglars who have been looting this post. Besides, sir, though Tip had +always been known as a rather worthless fellow, we had never heard of +his being the associate of downright criminals." + +Now the searchers came in to report that they could find neither a +trail nor any sight of dropped bundles of loot. + +"At daylight, Major," suggested Colonel North to Major Silsbee, "you may +be able to send out scouts who, with a better light, may succeed in +finding a trail." + +Hal turned to Lieutenant Hayes, saluting. + +"I wonder, sir, if it won't be best for me to offer a suggestion to +Colonel North?" + +The regimental commander turned at once. + +"You may speak, Private Overton." + +"I was about to inquire, sir," replied Hal, saluting, "if it isn't +likely that there may be a good hiding place for thieves among the rocks +back of the ledge of which I spoke some time ago." + +"What makes you think the thieves may be there, Overton?" + +"The thought has just struck me, sir, that Branders was probably lurking +about in the vicinity of a cave or other place of concealment, on the +day that he threw the stone at us. It struck me, sir, that a squad of +men might search that locality with the chance of finding the rest of +Branders's associates and also of recovering much of the stuff that has +been stolen from quarters on this post." + +"That's a bright suggestion, worth working upon. Cortland, will you take +a detachment of men and hasten out to that locality? Post men all +around while it is still dark, and then, with a few men, plunge right +through that neighborhood. Overton and Terry will go with you as guides, +so that you may strike the exact spot without loss of time." + +Captain Cortland dispatched a soldier to go at once to Sergeant Hupner's +squad room, with orders to turn out the men in that room at once and +under arms, with fifty rounds of ammunition per man. + +This done, Captain Cortland hastened to his own quarters, soon returning +with his sword hanging at his belt and his revolver in its holster. + +"While you are gone, Cortland," said Colonel North, "Silsbee and I will +make whatever other investigations we can think of." + +In an almost incredibly short space of time Sergeant Hupner's squad was +ready, and turned into officers' row. + +"Overton and Terry, you will walk ahead of the detachment, and I will go +with you," Captain Cortland announced. "Sergeant Hupner, march your +detachment in column of twos, twenty paces to the rear of the guides. +Forward!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE STIRRING GAME AT DAWN + + +"THERE is the ledge, sir, right in yonder," announced Hal, peering +through the darkness. A wind was coming up and the stars had faded. It +was in the darkest hour before dawn. + +Captain Cortland stepped back, holding out one hand as a signal. + +Sergeant Hupner saw, and halted his detachment, marching almost without +a sound. + +"Remain here, guides, with the detachment," directed the company +commander, in a whisper. "Sergeant Hupner, you and I will go forward and +reconnoitre." + +As soon as the officer and the non-commissioned officer had departed +Private Bill Hooper growled out: + +"What kind of a fool chase is this you've got us into, Overton?" + +"Silence in the ranks," hissed Corporal Cotter sharply. "Not a word!" + +Fifteen minutes later Captain Cortland and the sergeant returned. + +"Take twelve of the men, now, Sergeant. You know where to post them," +directed Captain Cortland briskly. "As soon as you have done so return +to me." + +Hupner marched off in the darkness with his dozen men. In a few minutes +he was back. + +"We'll want until daylight now for the rest of our work," announced the +company commander. + +Slowly enough the time passed. No word was spoken. All was as still +around the little military force as though they had been isolated in the +center of a vast desert. + +Then the first faint signs of dawn came. Some of the soldiers were +seated on the ground, gaping and with difficulty refraining from going +to sleep, for these men of Uncle Sam's Army had been routed from their +beds in the middle of the night. + +The morning light increased, though it was still dim, and the first +vague shapes near the ledge began to take more definite shape. + +"We won't need to wait more than five minutes more, Sergeant Hupner," +declared the captain. + +Cortland stood holding his watch close to his face. As soon as he could +read the time he turned to whisper: + +"Now, Overton, lead us up to the exact spot from which you had your +interview with the fellow Branders." + +"Shall the men load, sir?" whispered Sergeant Hupner. + +"Yes; full magazines." + +As silently as possible the men of the little searching party slipped +back the bolts of their pieces and loaded. + +"Go ahead, Overton," whispered Captain Cortland. + +Just behind Soldier Hal stepped the company commander himself, watching +every footstep in order not to step on any loose stone that might sound +a premature alarm. + +Yet one man among them slipped and made a noise. It was trifling, but +almost instantly a whistle sounded ahead. + +Without even thinking to wait for orders Hal returned the whistle. + +"That you, Tip?" called the voice of an invisible man. "Good for you, +lad. We thought you was a goner." + +Hal did not answer further, for Captain Cortland broke in: + +"Rush 'em, men! We've got 'em." + +"Ho! The blazes you have!" sounded a rough voice ahead. "Come on, +boys--it's the sojers! Give it to 'em!" + +Almost in an instant the crevices between the rocks ahead were full of +red flashes. + +Bullets sped, struck rocks with spiteful thuds and flattened out before +bounding into the air again. + +"Lie down, men!" shouted Captain Cortland. "Give it to the rascals as +long as they shoot at us." + +All in a moment this rock-strewn spot had become a bedlam of discharging +firearms. + +Two regulars were hit before they could find cover from which to fire. +These men, however, made no outcry, but, finding themselves unable to +handle their rifles, lay quietly where they had fallen until the time +came for them to have attention. + +Though he had sharply ordered his men to lie down, Captain Cortland did +nothing of the sort himself. Instead, with his revolver drawn, he stood +up, peering ahead and trying to get sight of the scoundrels beyond. + +Bullets flew all about the captain, many of them passing his head. But +he stood there calmly until he caught just the opportunity for which he +had waited. + +Then his pistol spoke, and a groan beyond showed that he had been a +successful marksman. + +"Squad, rise!" shot out the commander's order. "Charge!" + +Crouching low, the soldiers sprang suddenly forward. + +"Halt! Lie down," continued Cortland. He had gained sixty feet by his +rush without loss of a man. "Fire only when you see something to shoot +at. Commence firing at will." + +Now the firing slackened, though it was not less deadly. Even the +scoundrels ahead slowed down their fire, as though they found their +weapons becoming hot. + +Captain Cortland was in no hurry. He meant to have the scoundrels, dead +or alive, but he did not intend to risk his own men needlessly. The army +officer knew it was now only a question of time. Nor did he fear running +out of ammunition, for the greater part of his small command was not yet +in action, but posted beyond. + +The daylight grew stronger; then the upper rim of the sun peeped over +the horizon, sending its rays into the sky. + +"Cease firing," commanded Cortland at last. Then he called over the +rocks. + +"Are you fellows ready to surrender to United States forces?" + +"Not until we're all dead," came the taunting reply. + +"Then we'll try to accommodate you by killing you with as little delay +as possible," called back the captain. Then, to his own little force he +added: + +"Men, advance as you see opportunity. Fire whenever you see anything to +aim at." + +Steadily the regulars crawled forward, a foot or a yard at a time. + +As they moved they tried, Indian fashion, to find new cover behind rocks +over which they could aim and fire. + +Hal and Noll, not ten feet apart, occasionally glanced at each other +after firing. + +Both young rookies were thoroughly enjoying this actual taste of +fighting life. + +It was not many minutes before the advancing handful of soldiers were +within seventy or eighty feet of the rocks that sheltered the rascals. + +Then suddenly they saw three crouching figures begin to retreat among +the rocks. + +With a cheer the attacking force went forward, crouching. + +But just then three rifles from out beyond spoke, and bullets whistled +past the scoundrels from a new quarter. + +"Great smoke, boys!" bellowed one of the fugitives hoarsely. "The sojers +have us hemmed in on all sides." + +"Yes, we have," shouted Captain Cortland. "Do you want to surrender?" + +"Make your men stop shooting or moving, and give us two minutes to +think." + +"We'll keep on advancing and firing until we have your surrender," +retorted Captain Cortland grimly. "Whenever you want to surrender tell +me so and raise your hands high in the air." + +"Wait a min----" + +"Keep on firing, men," called Captain Cortland. + +"Hold on! We give in, Cap." + +"Cease firing, men," called the commander of B Company. "Now you fellows +jump up and show yourselves with your hands reaching for the sky." + +Three rough-looking figures clambered up on rocks, holding their empty +hands as high as they could get them. One of them had his neck bound, +and there was blood on his clothing. This was the first man whom Hal had +wounded back of Captain Ruggles's quarters at the beginning of the fray. + +"Stand just that way until we reach you," ordered the army officer. +"Close in on them, men, and fire if you see one of them reach for a +weapon." + +But the trio plainly had no further intentions in the way of fighting. +They waited, sullen-faced and silent, until the soldiers had reached +them and had taken away their weapons. + +"You have handcuffs, Sergeant?" inquired the captain. + +Hupner and Corporal Cotter both produced the steel bracelets. The three +rogues were swiftly handcuffed. + +"You'll find our boss over yonder," nodded one of the men. "He's bad +hit, too." + +They found the fellow, nearly unconscious, but groaning, his right +shoulder badly shattered by the bullet from Captain Cortland's revolver. + +"Sergeant," directed B Company's commander, "send a messenger back to +the post for hospital men and an ambulance. You can report that two of +our own men have been hit." + +The leader of the scoundrels was lifted and carried back where the two +men of B Company lay. Captain Cortland directed such aid as could be +given on the spot to all of the wounded men. + +"Shall I call in the men I posted, sir?" inquired Hupner. + +"Not yet, Sergeant. There may be others of this gang hidden somewhere +among the rocks. But you may take three men and search for others." + +Within ten minutes the search had been made thoroughly. No more of the +evil band had been found. + +"We'll go back just as soon as the ambulance arrives and the wounded +have been taken care of," announced Captain Cortland. + +Hal, at that moment, had his eye on one of the prisoners. He saw a gleam +of satisfaction show in the fellow's eyes. + +"May I speak, sir?" asked Private Overton, saluting Captain Cortland. + +"Yes," nodded the officer. + +"May some of us remain behind them, sir, to search all this ground +over?" + +"For what, Overton?" + +"It doesn't seem likely, sir, that these scoundrels have been living in +the open air. And they must have some place for concealing their booty." + +"Quite right, Overton. Corporal Cotter, take Overton, Terry and two +other men and make a thorough search of the rocks and ground +hereabouts." + +Hal turned swiftly to the man in whose eyes he had seen that gleam of +satisfaction the moment before. Now the fellow was scowling. + +"That was a hit," Hal murmured to himself. "The rascals have some hiding +place around here." + +"Now we'll divide the ground up in small squares," announced Corporal +Cotter as he led his picked men away. "We'll search each square +minutely, so that no little patch may be overlooked." + +"Won't it be best, Corporal," hinted Hal, "to start where the thieves +were when the fighting began?" + +"Just the ticket, Overton," nodded the corporal. + +So the search began at that point. Nor did it last long, for Hal, +thrusting with the butt of his rifle, poked a large bush partly aside +exclaiming: + +"I guess you'd better come here, Corporal," the recruit called. + +As Cotter came running to the spot Private Overton displayed a hole +rising some three feet above the grounds. It had been covered by the +foliage of the bush. + +"Looks like the mouth of a cave, doesn't it?" Hal asked, with gleaming +eyes. + +"A whole lot," agreed Corporal Cotter, producing a pocket electric +flashlight. "You can follow me in, Overton, if you like." + +Corporal and private crawled into the hole. They did not have to go more +than six feet before they stood in a stone-walled chamber of +considerable size. Roughly, it appeared to be an apartment of about +twenty by thirty-five feet. + +"Beds, tables, chairs, lamps, grub," enumerated Corporal Cotter, +looking about him gleefully. "Take the lamp, Overton. I'm going back to +call the captain." + +Less than two minutes later Captain Cortland stood in the rockbound +chamber. + +"Well, this is a place!" whistled the officer in surprise. + +"This chest is locked, sir," reported Hal, who had been improving his +time by looking about. "Do you think it may contain loot. Captain?" + +"There's an ax," nodded Cortland, glancing around him. "Corporal, just +try the ax on the chest--carefully." + +With a few blows Cotter had the chest open. Captain Cortland knelt by +the wooden chest to inspect. + +"This is clothing on top," he announced. "But--ah, what does this look +like?" + +In the middle of the chest's contents he had come upon carefully wrapped +packages of jewelry, watches and the like. + +"We won't go any further just now," declared the captain. "But we'll +take back this chest with us." + +On the return to Fort Clowdry the prisoners, though captured on the +military reservation, were turned over to the civil officers. Even Tip +Branders and the wounded chief of the band were taken to Clowdry for +care by the town authorities. + +The chest was found to have contained all the stolen jewelry. The money +that had been taken on the same raids, however, was not found. Plainly +the thieves had used the money for the needs of the moment. + +Hal and Noll, on their return, reported promptly to the commander of the +guard, for they still belonged to the guard detail. + +"Queer, ain't it?" asked Private Bill Hooper that morning in Hupner's +squad room as the men were washing up before morning mess call. + +"What is?" demanded Private Hyman. + +"Why, that kid, Overton, knew one of the gang--one, at least--all the +time. Yet Overton shot his old-time friend. And Overton knew all along +where the bunch was hiding. And did you hear how neatly he led Corporal +Cotter right to the cave of the gang? Now if that don't prove----" + +Hyman promptly knocked Hooper down. + +"It proves, Bill," growled Hyman, "that you're so fond of lying that you +don't know the truth when you hear it." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +CONCLUSION + + +TIP BRANDERS recovered. + +So did the leader of the gang with which Tip had foolishly cast his evil +lot down in Pueblo, when he had first come west after robbing his +mother. The man wounded in the neck had been at no time in a dangerous +condition. + +Not much sympathy need be wasted on Tip. He had chosen his own place in +life, and had filled it. + +Before Tip was out of the local hospital, and in his cell in jail, his +mother, who had read of his fate in a newspaper in her home town, joined +her son in the town of Clowdry. + +She stood by her son to the last, until the testimony of officers and +soldiers from Fort Clowdry had sent him away to prison for ten years. + +At first, on his recovery, Tip Branders had been inclined to be +boastful. He had shown his boldness by his thieving exploits and by +daring to face the steady rifle fire of Private Hal Overton, United +States Army. But when the sentence of the court came upon him Tip broke +down. He wept and could hardly stand. He implored the judge to lessen +his sentence. All the braggadocio in him ran out as rapidly as the +sawdust from a punctured doll. + +The other members of the band received equally severe sentences, for all +had been engaged in battle with troops who represent law and order. + +From that trial Hal and Noll journeyed to Denver. Major Davis, of the +Seventeenth Cavalry, also traveled from his post, for the trial of the +baffled men who had attempted to rob the United States mail was on in +the United States District Court. These men, too, were sent away to the +penitentiary for long terms. + +The writer of the anonymous note against Hal had so far escaped +detection. + +"We've been getting a lot of travel lately," smiled Hal as the two chums +trudged down the road from the railway station to Fort Clowdry on their +return from Denver. + +"All we're going to have for a while, I hope," returned Noll Terry +quietly. "I'd sooner put in my time learning soldiering." + +"Not tired of the army yet, Noll?" + +"I never shall be, nor you either, Hal, as long as we're young enough to +serve." + +"What I dread," mused Hal, "is the time when if we live to that age, we +shall be too old for the Army, and will have to go away and settle down +in some town as retired men of the Army." + +"That will be time to die, won't it?" asked Noll, so solemnly that +Private Overton laughed merrily. + +"That time is a long way off, Noll Terry. Let's see; we're eighteen now, +and a fellow doesn't have to be retired, for age, until he's sixty-two." + +"Forty-four years," figured Noll. "Oh, well, a fellow ought to be able +to have a deal of fun in that number of years." + +Both recruits were in merry mood as they turned in past the sentry at +the main entrance to the post grounds. + +They kept on, full of life and spirits until they reached the edge of +the parade ground. + +"Attention!" murmured Hal quietly. + +Unostentatiously but with a world of reverence in their act both young +soldiers lifted their uniform caps close to the shadow of the grand old +Flag. + +Without halting they passed on, returning their caps to their heads. +Both young men of the service walked a trifle more erectly, if that were +possible. + +Nor had they gone much further when they espied a man coming toward +them. The broad white stripes down the seam of his trousers, and the +double-barred shoulder straps proclaimed the infantry officer. It was +Captain Cortland, commanding officer of B Company. + +Both young soldiers raised their right hands smartly in salute as they +passed the officer, who returned their salute in kind. Then Cortland +halted. + +"Glad to see you back, Overton." + +"Thank you, sir." + +"And you, too, Terry." + +"Thank you, sir." + +"And, by the way, Terry, I have remembered your request that you be +transferred to B Company, and to Sergeant Hupner's squad room. Captain +Freeman said he was sorry to lose you, Terry; but since you wanted to be +with your friend, he has consented to your transfer to B Company. The +matter has been arranged through the adjutant, and my first sergeant +will notify you of your transfer when you return to your former squad +room. I'm very glad, Terry, to have so good a soldier as yourself in B +Company, even if I do have to rob Captain Freeman." + +"Thank you, sir," replied Noll, with another salute. + +Then the two young soldiers resumed their walk. Just as soon as they +were out of earshot of Captain Cortland, Noll broke forth jubilantly: + +"In the same company at last, Hal, old fellow. Oh, won't it be great, +now that we're truly bunkies at last!" + +Great indeed--greater than either Hal Overton or Noll Terry guessed. +They stood at the beginning, though neither suspected it, of some +exciting and never-to-be-forgotten incidents and phases of the soldier's +life. + +What followed, however, will have to be reserved for the next volume in +this series, which will be published under the title: "UNCLE SAM'S BOYS +ON FIELD DUTY; Or, Winning Corporal's Chevrons." In this volume the two +young soldiers will be found to be no longer recruits, but trained +soldiers of the Regular Army, and in the midst of a series of rousing +adventures incidental to the military life. + + +THE END. + + + * * * * * + + +HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY'S + + Best and Least Expensive + Books for Boys and Girls + + +The Motor Boat Club Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +The keynote of these books is manliness. The stories are wonderfully +entertaining, and they are at the same time sound and wholesome. No boy +will willingly lay down an unfinished book in this series. + + 1 THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB OF THE KENNEBEC; Or, The + Secret of Smugglers' Island. + + 2 THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AT NANTUCKET; Or, The + Mystery of the Dunstan Heir. + + 3 THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB OFF LONG ISLAND; Or, A + Daring Marine Game at Racing Speed. + + 4 THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AND THE WIRELESS; Or, The + Dot, Dash and Dare Cruise. + + 5 THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB IN FLORIDA; Or, Laying the + Ghost of Alligator Swamp. + + 6 THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AT THE GOLDEN GATE; Or, A + Thrilling Capture in the Great Fog. + + 7 THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB ON THE GREAT LAKES; Or, The + Flying Dutchman of the Big Fresh Water. + + Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. + +Sold by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price. + + * * * * * + + Henry Altemus Company + 1326-1336 Vine Street Philadelphia + + + + +Battleship Boys Series + +By FRANK GEE PATCHIN + +These stories throb with the life of young Americans on to-day's huge +drab Dreadnaughts. + + 1 THE BATTLESHIP BOYS AT SEA; Or, Two Apprentices + in Uncle Sam's Navy. + + 2 THE BATTLESHIP BOYS' FIRST STEP UPWARD; Or, + Winning Their Grades as Petty Officers. + + 3 THE BATTLESHIP BOYS IN FOREIGN SERVICE; Or, + Earning New Ratings in European Seas. + + 4 THE BATTLESHIP BOYS IN THE TROPICS; Or, + Upholding the American Flag in a Honduras + Revolution. + + 6 THE BATTLESHIP BOYS IN THE WARDROOM; Or, Winning + their Commissions as Line Officers. + + 7 THE BATTLESHIP BOYS WITH THE ADRIATIC CHASERS; + Or, Blocking the Path of the Undersea Raiders. + + 8 THE BATTLESHIP BOYS' SKY PATROL; Or, Fighting + the Hun from above the Clouds. + + + + +The Range and Grange Hustlers + +By FRANK GEE PATCHIN + +Have you any idea of the excitements, the glories of life on great +ranches in the West? Any bright boy will "devour" the books of this +series, once he has made a start with the first volume. + + 1 THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS ON THE RANCH; Or, + The Boy Shepherds of the Great Divide. + + 2 THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS' GREATEST + ROUND-UP; Or, Pitting Their Wits Against a + Packers' Combine. + + 3 THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS ON THE PLAINS; Or, + Following the Steam Plows Across the Prairie. + + 4 THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS AT CHICAGO; Or, + The Conspiracy of the Wheat Pit. + + Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. + + + + +Submarine Boys Series + +By VICTOR G. DURHAM + + 1 THE SUBMARINE BOYS ON DUTY; Or, Life on a Diving + Torpedo Boat. + + 2 THE SUBMARINE BOYS' TRIAL TRIP; Or, "Making + Good" as Young Experts. + + 3 THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE MIDDIES; Or, The + Prize Detail at Annapolis. + + 4 THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE SPIES; Or, Dodging + the Sharks of the Deep. + + 5 THE SUBMARINE BOYS' LIGHTNING CRUISE; Or, The + Young Kings of the Deep. + + 6 THE SUBMARINE BOYS FOR THE FLAG; Or, Deeding + Their Lives to Uncle Sam. + + 7 THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE SMUGGLERS; Or, + Breaking Up the New Jersey Customs Frauds. + + + + +The Square Dollar Boys Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + + 1 THE SQUARE DOLLAR BOYS WAKE UP; Or, Fighting the + Trolley Franchise Steal. + + 2 THE SQUARE DOLLAR BOYS SMASH THE RING; Or, In + the Lists Against the Crooked Land Deal. + + + + +The College Girls Series + +By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A.M. + + 1 GRACE HARLOWE'S FIRST YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. + + 2 GRACE HARLOWE'S SECOND YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. + + 3 GRACE HARLOWE'S THIRD YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. + + 4 GRACE HARLOWE'S FOURTH YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. + + 5 GRACE HARLOWE'S RETURN TO OVERTON CAMPUS. + + 6 GRACE HARLOWE'S PROBLEM. + + 7 GRACE HARLOWE'S GOLDEN SUMMER. + +All these books are bound in Cloth and will be sent postpaid on receipt +of only 50 cents each. + + + + +Pony Rider Boys Series + +By FRANK GEE PATCHIN + +These tales may be aptly described the best books for boys and girls. + + 1 THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE ROCKIES; Or, The + Secret of the Lost Claim.--2 THE PONY RIDER BOYS + IN TEXAS; Or, The Veiled Riddle of the Plains.--3 + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN MONTANA; Or, The Mystery of + the Old Custer Trail.--4 THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN + THE OZARKS; Or, The Secret of Ruby Mountain.--5 + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE ALKALI; Or, Finding a + Key to the Desert Maze.--6 THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN + NEW MEXICO; Or, The End of the Silver Trail.--7 + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE GRAND CANYON; Or, The + Mystery of Bright Angel Gulch. + + Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. + + + + +The Boys of Steel Series + +By JAMES R. MEARS + +Each book presents vivid picture of this great industry. Each story is +full of adventure and fascination. + + 1 THE IRON BOYS IN THE MINES; Or, Starting at the + Bottom of the Shaft.--2 THE IRON BOYS AS FOREMEN; + Or, Heading the Diamond Drill Shift.--3 THE IRON + BOYS ON THE ORE BOATS; Or, Roughing It on the + Great Lakes.--4 THE IRON BOYS IN THE STEEL MILLS; + Or, Beginning Anew in the Cinder Pits. + + Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. + + + + +The Madge Morton Books + +By AMY D. V. CHALMERS + + 1 MADGE MORTON--CAPTAIN OF THE MERRY MAID. + + 2 MADGE MORTON'S SECRET. + + 3 MADGE MORTON'S TRUST. + + 4 MADGE MORTON'S VICTORY. + + Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. + + + + +West Point Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +The principal characters in these narratives are manly, young Americans +whose doings will inspire all boy readers. + + 1 DICK PRESCOTT'S FIRST YEAR AT WEST POINT; Or, + Two Chums in the Cadet Gray. + + 2 DICK PRESCOTT'S SECOND YEAR AT WEST POINT; Or, + Finding the Glory of the Soldier's Life. + + 3 DICK PRESCOTT'S THIRD YEAR AT WEST POINT; Or, + Standing Firm for Flag and Honor. + + 4 DICK PRESCOTT'S FOURTH YEAR AT WEST POINT; Or, + Ready to Drop the Gray for Shoulder Straps. + + Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. + + + + +Annapolis Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +The Spirit of the new Navy is delightfully and truthfully depicted in +these volumes. + + 1 DAVE DARRIN'S FIRST YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; Or, Two + Plebe Midshipmen at the U. S. Naval Academy. + + 2 DAVE DARRIN'S SECOND YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; Or, Two + Midshipmen as Naval Academy "Youngsters." + + 3 DAVE DARRIN'S THIRD YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; Or, + Leaders of the Second Class Midshipmen. + + 4 DAVE DARRIN'S FOURTH YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; Or, + Headed for Graduation and the Big Cruise. + + Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. + + + + +The Young Engineers Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +The heroes of these stories are known to readers of the High School Boys +Series. In this new series Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton prove worthy of +all the traditions of Dick & Co. + + 1 THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN COLORADO; Or, At Railroad + Building in Earnest. + + 2 THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN ARIZONA; Or, Laying + Tracks on the "Man-Killer" Quicksand. + + 3 THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN NEVADA; Or, Seeking + Fortune on the Turn of a Pick. + + 4 THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN MEXICO; Or, Fighting the + Mine Swindlers. + + Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. + + + + +Boys of the Army Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +These books breathe the life and spirit of the United States Army of +to-day, and the life, just as it is, is described by a master pen. + + 1 UNCLE SAM'S BOYS IN THE RANKS; Or, Two Recruits + in the United States Army. + + 2 UNCLE SAM'S BOYS ON FIELD DUTY; Or, Winning + Corporal's Chevrons. + + 3 UNCLE SAM'S BOYS AS SERGEANTS; Or, Handling Their + First Real Commands. + + 4 UNCLE SAM'S BOYS IN THE PHILIPPINES; Or, + Following the Flag Against the Moros. + + 6 UNCLE SAM'S BOYS AS LIEUTENANTS; Or, Serving Old + Glory as Line Officers. + + 7 UNCLE SAM'S BOYS WITH PERSHING; Or, Dick Prescott + at Grips with the Boche. + + 8 UNCLE SAM'S BOYS IN THE GREAT MARNE DRIVE; Or, + Putting Old Glory in the Forefront in France. + + + + +Dave Darrin Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + + 1 DAVE DARRIN AT VERA CRUZ; Or, Fighting With the + U. S. Navy in Mexico. + + 2 DAVE DARRIN ON MEDITERRANEAN SERVICE. + + 3 DAVE DARRIN'S SOUTH AMERICAN CRUISE. + + 4 DAVE DARRIN ON THE ASIATIC STATION. + + 5 DAVE DARRIN AND THE GERMAN SUBMARINES. + + 6 DAVE DARRIN AFTER THE MINE LAYERS; Or, Hitting + the Enemy a Hard Naval Blow. + + + + +The Meadow-Brook Girls Series + +By JANET ALDRIDGE + + 1 THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS UNDER CANVAS. + + 2 THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ACROSS COUNTRY. + + 3 THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS AFLOAT. + + 4 THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS IN THE HILLS. + + 5 THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS BY THE SEA. + + 6 THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ON THE TENNIS COURTS. + + +All these books are bound in Cloth and will be sent postpaid on receipt +of only 50 cents each. + + + + +High School Boys Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +In this series of bright, crisp books a new note has been struck. Boys +of every age under sixty will be interested in these fascinating +volumes. + + 1 THE HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMEN; Or, Dick & Co.'s First + Year Pranks and Sports. + + 2 THE HIGH SCHOOL PITCHER; Or, Dick & Co. on the + Gridley Diamond. + + 3 THE HIGH SCHOOL LEFT END; Or, Dick & Co. + Grilling on the Football Gridiron. + + 4 THE HIGH SCHOOL CAPTAIN OF THE TEAM; Or, Dick & + Co. Leading the Athletic Vanguard. + + Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. + + + + +Grammar School Boys Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +This series of stories, based on the actual doings of grammar school +boys, comes near to the heart of the average American boy. + + 1 THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS OF GRIDLEY; Or, Dick & + Co. Start Things Moving. + + 2 THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS SNOWBOUND; Or, Dick & + Co. at Winter Sports. + + 3 THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS IN THE WOODS; Or, Dick & + Co. Trail Fun and Knowledge. + + 4 THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS IN SUMMER ATHLETICS; Or, + Dick & Co. Make Their Fame Secure. + + Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. + + + + +High School Boys' Vacation Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +"Give us more Dick Prescott books!" + +This has been the burden of the cry from young readers of the country +over. Almost numberless letters have been received by the publishers, +making this eager demand; for Dick Prescott, Dave Darrin, Tom Reade, and +the other members of Dick & Co. are the most popular high school boys in +the land. Boys will alternately thrill and chuckle when reading these +splendid narratives. + + 1 THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' CANOE CLUB; Or, Dick & + Co.'s Rivals on Lake Pleasant. + + 2 THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS IN SUMMER CAMP; Or, The + Dick Prescott Six Training for the Gridley Eleven. + + 3 THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' FISHING TRIP; Or, Dick & + Co. in the Wilderness. + + 4 THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' TRAINING HIKE; Or, Dick & + Co. Making Themselves "Hard as Nails." + + Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. + + + + +The Circus Boys Series + +By EDGAR B. P. DARLINGTON + +Mr. Darlington's books breathe forth every phase of an intensely +interesting and exciting life. + + 1 THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE FLYING RINGS; Or, Making + the Start in the Sawdust Life. + + 2 THE CIRCUS BOYS ACROSS THE CONTINENT; Or, + Winning New Laurels on the Tanbark. + + 3 THE CIRCUS BOYS IN DIXIE LAND; Or, Winning the + Plaudits of the Sunny South. + + 4 THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI; Or, Afloat + with the Big Show on the Big River. + + Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. + + + + +The High School Girls Series + +By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M. + +These breezy stories of the American High School Girl take the reader +fairly by storm. + + 1 GRACE HARLOWE'S PLEBE YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; Or, + The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshman Girls. + + 2 GRACE HARLOWE'S SOPHOMORE YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; + Or, The Record of the Girl Chums in Work and + Athletics. + + 3 GRACE HARLOWE'S JUNIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; Or, + Fast Friends in the Sororities. + + 4 GRACE HARLOWE'S SENIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; Or, + The Parting of the Ways. + + Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. + + + + +The Automobile Girls Series + +By LAURA DENT CRANE + +No girl's library--no family book-case can be considered at all complete +unless it contains these sparkling twentieth-century books. + + 1 THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT NEWPORT; Or, Watching + the Summer Parade.--2 THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS IN THE + BERKSHIRES; Or, The Ghost of Lost Man's Trail.--3 + THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS ALONG THE HUDSON; Or, + Fighting Fire in Sleepy Hollow.--4 THE AUTOMOBILE + GIRLS AT CHICAGO; Or, Winning Out Against Heavy + Odds.--5 THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT PALM BEACH; Or, + Proving Their Mettle Under Southern Skies.--6 THE + AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT WASHINGTON; Or, Checkmating + the Plots of Foreign Spies. + + Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors corrected. + +Page 37, "glacing" changed to "glancing" (glancing at the papers) + +Page 39, "you" changed to "your" (these are your applications) + +Page 74, "degress" changed to "degrees" (angle of sixty degrees) + +Page 84, "ex-expected" changed to "expected" (You will be expected) + +Page 127, "and" changed to "an" (Half an hour later) + +Page 145, paragraph break inserted at: "I wish we wouldn't get. + +Page 192, word "the" inserted into text (the squad room at the) + +Page 195, "roms" changed to "rooms" (search the squad rooms) + +Page 221, "bo" changed to "boy" (Get back there, boy!) + +Page 226, "and" changed to "on" (Come on out) + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCLE SAM'S BOYS IN THE RANKS*** + + +******* This file should be named 27680.txt or 27680.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/7/6/8/27680 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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