Uncle Sam's Boys as Sergeants: or, Handling Their First Real Commands

"Not in quarters? Did you look in at the officers' club, too?"

"Yes, sir. Lieutenant Ferrers' bed was not slept in last night, so his striker told me."

Adjutant Wright fumed inwardly, though he turned to Hal to say:

"Sergeant, inspect the guard."

A little later Hal marched his new guard down to the guard house. Lieutenant Ferrers had not yet been found, and there was a storm brewing.

CHAPTER VIII

ASTONISHMENT JOLTS MR. FERRERS

IT was nearly four in the afternoon when the sentry on post number one called briskly:

"Sergeant of the guard, post number one!"

"What is it, sentry?" asked Hal, stepping briskly out of the guard house.

"Lieutenant Ferrers is approaching, Sergeant," replied the sentry, nodding his head down the road.

An auto car bowled leisurely up the road toward the main entrance to the post. In it, at the wheel, sat Lieutenant Algy Ferrers, who was supposed to be officer of the day. He was driving the one car that he had been allowed to store on post.

Algy looked decidedly tired and bored as he drove along.

"Halt the lieutenant, sentry."

"Very good, Sergeant."

Just as the lieutenant turned his car in at the gate, the sentry, instead of coming to present arms, threw his gun over to port arms, calling:

"Halt, sir. Sergeant of the guard, post number one."

Algy, with a look of astonishment on his face, slowed the car down and stopped. Sergeant Hal approached, giving him the rifle salute.

"Well, what's in the wind, Sergeant?" demanded Algy, reaching in a pocket for his cigarette case.

"I beg your pardon for stopping you, sir, but the adjutant directed me to ask you to report to him immediately upon your return, sir."

"All right; I'll drop around and see Wright as soon as I put my car up and get a bath," replied Lieutenant Algy, striking a match.

"Beg your pardon, sir; don't light that cigarette until you've driven on."

"Now how long since sergeants have taken to giving officers orders?" inquired Mr. Ferrers in very great astonishment.

"The guard always has power to enforce the rules, sir. And smoking is forbidden when addressing the guard on official business."

"Oh, I daresay you're right, Sergeant," assented Algy, dropping his match out of the car. "Very good; I'll see Wright within an hour or so."

"But the order was explicit, sir, that you are to report to the adjutant at once. If you'll pardon the suggestion, Lieutenant, I think it will be better, sir, if you drive straight to the adjutant's office."

"Oh, all right," nodded Algy indifferently. "'Pon my word, it takes a fellow quite a while to get hold of some of these peculiar Army customs. Even an officer is likely to be ordered about a good deal as though he were a dog. Eh, Sergeant?"

"I have never felt like a dog, sir, since entering the Army."

"Oh, I dare say Wright is quite proper in his order, you know. I'll go up and drop in on him right now."

Both sergeant and sentry saluted again as this very unusual officer turned on the speed and went driving lazily up to headquarters' building.

Algy Ferrers had his cigarette going by the time that he stepped leisurely into the adjutant's office.

"Some one told me you wanted to see me, Wright," began Algy.

Lieutenant Wright wheeled around briskly upon his subordinate.

"I want to see you, Mr. Ferrers, only to pass you on to the colonel. I'll tell him that you're here."

Adjutant Wright stepped into the inner office, nodding his head at the colonel, then wheeled about.

"Colonel North will see you, sir."

Algy took three quick whiffs of his cigarette, then tossed it away. He had already gained an idea that a young officer does not go into his colonel's presence smoking.

"So you're here, sir?" demanded Colonel North, looking up from his desk as Algy came to a halt before him.

"Yes; I'm here, Colonel – or most of me is. My, how seedy I feel this afternoon! Do you know, Colonel, I'm almost persuaded to cut out social – "

"Silence, Mr. Ferrers!" commanded Colonel North very coldly. "Concern yourself only with answering my questions. Yesterday afternoon you were warned that you would be officer of the day to-day."

"Bless me, so I was," assented Algy mildly.

"Yet this morning you failed to be present at guard-mount."

"Yes, sir. I'll tell you how it happened."

"Be good enough to tell me without delay."

"Colonel, did you ever hear of the Douglas-Fraziers, of Detroit?"

"Answer my question, Mr. Ferrers!"

"Or the Porterby-Masons, of Chicago?" pursued Algy calmly. "Both families are very old friends of our family. They and some others were very much interested in my being a soldier, and – "

"You being a soldier!" exploded the irate colonel under his breath.

"And so they and some others who were on their way to the coast on a special train had their train switched off at Clowdry last night. They expected to get in at eight, but it was eleven when they arrived last night. However, sir, they telephoned right up to me and tipped me off to join them at once at the Clowdry Hotel. So what could I do?"

"Eh?" quivered Colonel North, who seemed momentarily all but bereft of speech.

"What could I do, sir? Of course I couldn't turn down such old friends. Besides, there were some fine girls with the party. And it was too late, Colonel, to go waking you over the telephone, so I just went down to the quartermaster's stable and got my car out and was mighty soon in Clowdry."

"There might have been nothing very serious in that, Mr. Ferrers, had you returned in time for guard-mount this morning."

"But I simply couldn't. Don't you understand?" pleaded Algy with good-natured patience.

"No, sir! I don't understand!" thundered Colonel North. "All I understand, sir, is that you have disgraced yourself and your regiment by failing to report as the officer of the day."

"Let me explain, sir," went on Algy, with a slight wave of his hand. "When I got to the hotel the Douglas-Fraziers had ordered dinner. They were starved. I had a pretty good appetite myself. Dinner lasted until half past one. Then we had a jolly time, some of the girls singing in the hotel parlor. After they'd turned in, between three and four in the morning, the men insisted on hearing how well I was coming along in the Army."

"They did?" inquired the colonel, with an irony that was wholly thrown away on Algy.

"Yes, sir. And then we sat down to play cards. First thing we knew it was ten in the morning. Then we had breakfast, and the ladies got downstairs before the meal was over. The Douglas-Frazier train couldn't pull out until three thirty this afternoon. So, after they'd gone to so much trouble to see me, and had put up such a ripping time for me, of course I had to stay in town to see them off."

"Naturally," assented Colonel North with fine sarcasm.

"I am glad you understand it, Colonel, and so there's not a bit of harm done, after all. I'm an ignoramus about guard duty, anyway, and I'll wager the guard got on better without me, after all. And now, Colonel, since I've given you a wholly satisfactory explanation as to why I simply couldn't be here to-day, if you've nothing more to say to me, sir, I'll go to my quarters, get into my bath and then tumble into bed, for I'm just about dead for slee – "

Colonel North rose fiercely, looking as though he were threatened with an attack of apoplexy.

"Stop all your idiotic chatter, Mr. Ferrers, and listen to me with whatever little power of concentration you may possess. Your conduct, sir, has been wholly unfitting an officer and a gentleman. If I did my full duty I'd order you in arrest at once, and have you brought to trial before a general court-martial. You have visited upon yourself a disgrace that you can't wipe out in a year. You have – but what's the use? You wouldn't understand!"

"I'm a little dull just now, sir," agreed Algy. "But after a bath and a long night's sleep I'll be as fresh as ever."

"You'll have neither bath nor sleep!" retorted the colonel testily. "You'll go to your quarters and get into your uniform without a moment's delay. You'll be back here in fifteen minutes, or I'll order you in arrest. And you'll finish out your tour of guard duty. You'll be on duty and awake, sir, until the old guard goes off to-morrow morning. More, you'll remain all that time at the guard house, so that the sergeant of the guard can be sure that you are awake."

"Good heavens!" murmured Algy.

"Further, Mr. Ferrers, until further orders, you will not step off the limits of the post without express permission from either myself or Major Silsbee. Now, go to your quarters, sir – and don't dare to be gone more than fifteen minutes."

Lieutenant Prescott, hearing some one move in Mr. Ferrers' rooms, looked in inquiringly.

"Oh, but I'm in an awful hurry. I've got to get back to that beastly colonel," explained Algy.

"Beastly? Colonel North is a fine old brick!" retorted Prescott indignantly.

"Well, he has an – er – most peculiar temper at times," insisted Algy. "Why, he seemed positively annoyed because I had obeyed the social instinct and had gone away to meet old friends of our family."

"Have you any idea what you did to-day?" demanded Lieutenant Prescott. "Ferrers, you've been guilty of conduct that is sufficient to get an officer kicked out of the service for good and all."

"And just between ourselves," sputtered Algy, "I don't believe the officer would lose much by the operation. Have you any idea of the social importance of the Douglas-Fraziers and of the – "

"Oh, hang the Douglas-Fraziers and all their works," uttered Prescott disgustedly. "Algy, are you ever going to become a soldier?"

"You're as bad as the colonel!" muttered Ferrers. "What the Army needs is a little more exact understanding of social life and its obligations."

"Let me help you on with your sword," interrupted Prescott dryly. "You're getting it tangled up between your legs."

"I'm excited, that's why," returned Ferrers. "It all comes of having a colonel who understands nothing of the social life. There; now I'm ready, and I must get away on the bounce."

"I'll walk along with you and explain the nature of your offense of to-day, if you don't mind," proposed Prescott.

Algy Ferrers reported at Colonel North's office and soon came out.

"Now I'm off," cried Ferrers gayly, as he came out again.

"I don't believe you've ever been anything else but 'off,'" murmured Prescott, as he stood in front of headquarters and watched Algy, who was actually walking briskly.

As Lieutenant Prescott stood there Colonel North came out. The younger officer wheeled, saluting respectfully.

"Mr. Prescott, if you've nothing important on this evening, will you drop down to the guard house for a little while? You may be able to prevent Mr. Ferrers from doing something that will compel me to resort to almost as strong measures as I would adopt with a really responsible being."

"Yes, sir; I'll pay Mr. Ferrers a visit soon after dinner."

"Of course, the young man has to break in at guard duty some time," continued the regiment's commander. "But I am very glad to know that young Overton is sergeant of the guard to-night. He will prevent anyone from stealing the guard house!"

"I rather think Sergeant Overton would, sir. He's pretty young, but he's an all-around soldier."

"I wish," muttered the colonel, as he turned to stride toward his own quarters, "that Overton were the lieutenant and Mr. Ferrers the sergeant. Then I could reduce Ferrers and get the surgeon to order him into hospital!"

CHAPTER IX

PRIVATE HINKEY DELIVERS HIS ANSWER

THANKS to a most capable sergeant of the guard, Lieutenant Algy got through his balance of the tour of guard duty without setting the post on fire.

There was no rest, however, for the irresponsible young lieutenant.

For three successive mornings Ferrers had to grub hard at drill, with Lieutenant Prescott standing by to coach him.

Then, on the fourth morning, Lieutenant Algy was ordered out to take A Company on a twenty-mile hike over rough country.

"Sergeant Reed knows the whole route and will be a most capable guide, Mr. Ferrers," explained Captain Ruggles. "We shall look for you to be back by five o'clock this afternoon. Don't use your men too hard. Now, I'll stand by to see you start the company."

With a brave determination to show how worthy he was of trust, Lieutenant Algy stepped briskly over to A Company, which rested in ranks in platoon front. Drawing his sword, he commanded:

"Attention!"

Thereupon he put the company through half a dozen movements of the manual of arms, next marching the company away in column of fours. The regulars, of course, responded like clockwork. They made a fine appearance as they started off under their freakish second lieutenant. Ere they had gone far Ferrers swung them into column of twos at the route step.

"He's doing that almost well," muttered Captain Ruggles under his breath. "I believe the young cub is trying to be a soldier, after all."

It still lacked much of two in the afternoon when Captain Ruggles, leaving his quarters, saw his company marching back.

"Gracious! How did the youngster ever get the men over the ground in this time?" wondered Captain Ruggles, glancing at his watch. "And he hasn't used the company up, either. The men move as actively as though they had just come from bed and a bath."

Captain Ruggles walked rapidly over toward barracks. Lieutenant Ferrers threw his company into column of platoons, faced them about and brought the men to a halt. Then he wheeled about, saluting Captain Ruggles.

"Any further orders, sir?" inquired Algy.

"No, Lieutenant. Dismiss the company."

As soon as the men had started barrackwards, Captain Ruggles asked the lieutenant:

"How did you manage it, Ferrers, to bring the men back in such fine condition and so early in the day?"

"Just a matter of good judgment, Captain," beamed Algy.

"What do you mean?"

"I changed the orders a bit, sir, to meet the conditions that I discovered."

"Conditions?"

"Yes, Captain. The day proved to be extremely warm. I marched the men for about six miles; it may have been nearer seven. Curiously enough, Sergeant Reed and I disagreed on that point. He said we had gone about a mile and a half."

"Well? What next?"

"Why, sir, I found it so warm that I couldn't march with any comfort at all. Now, I don't believe an officer should expect his men to go where he isn't willing to go himself, and as for myself I didn't want to go any further. So I halted the company and – "

"And – "

"Why, Captain," smiled Lieutenant Ferrers, "I just let the men enjoy themselves under the trees until it was time to have their dinner on the field rations they'd taken along."

"And then?"

"Why, then, sir, I marched them back here. I'll take them out again some day when the weather is cooler, and – "

Captain Ruggles acted a good deal like a man who is about to lose his temper.

"Mr. Ferrers," came his rasping order, "go to your rooms! Remain there until you hear from Colonel North, Major Silsbee or myself."

"Why, what on earth have I done now?" gasped the astonished young man.

"Go to your rooms, sir!"

"Now, what ails good old Ruggles? Isn't the Army the queerest old place on the map of the moon?"

Within fifteen minutes Algy Ferrers, sitting back in an easy chair in his quarters, glancing out of a window with a look of absolute boredom, received a telephone call.

"Colonel North's compliments, and will you come to his house at once?" was the brief message.

"Now, I shouldn't wonder if old Ruggles had forgotten to mind his own business," muttered Algy disconsolately, as he reached for his fatigue cap.

"Mr. Ferrers," was the colonel's stern greeting, "every day your conduct becomes more incomprehensible!"

"And every day, sir, I might say," retorted the young man pleasantly, "the Army becomes harder to understand. I don't wish to be guilty of any impertinence, sir, but wouldn't it be well to have a law enacted that officers from civil life should be appointed wholly from clerks, who have learned how to keep office hours and never do any thinking for themselves?"

"There might be some advantage in that plan, Mr. Ferrers," replied the colonel grimly. "And I can't help feeling that you would give infinitely more satisfaction here if you had first been trained a bit in one of your father's many offices. I don't suppose you have the least idea, sir, of what a grave offense you have committed to-day?"

"I expected to be praised, sir," replied Algy almost testily, "for having been highly humane to the men under my command."

"Humane!" exploded Colonel North. "Bah! Mr. Ferrers, do you imagine that our regulars are so many weaklings, that they have to come in when it rains, or stay in when the sun shines? Bah! You have been guilty of gross disobedience of orders, and you are an officer, sir – supposed to be engaged in teaching obedience to enlisted men. That is all, sir – you may go to your quarters!"

By the time that young Mr. Ferrers reached his own quarters he found Lieutenant Prescott there, though the latter did not say a word about Colonel North having ordered him to make the call.

Algy immediately started in upon what was, for him, a furious tirade.

"Do you know, dear chap," he wound up, "I can't always understand a man like old Papa North. Sometimes I think he's just a beast!"

But Prescott's laughing advice was:

"Hold yourself in, Ferrers; your hoops are cracked."

"Bah!" stormed Lieutenant Algy. "An Army post is a crazy place for a fellow to go when looking for sympathy or reason."

In the meantime A Company's men had spread the joke through enlisted men's barracks.

"What's the use!" growled Private Hinkey to a group of private soldiers. "Ferrers is just a plumb fool, and all the colonels in the world can't ever make anything else of him. Ferrers is a born idiot!"

Sergeant Hal Overton paused just at the edge of the group.

"Hinkey," the boyish non-com. observed dryly, "if that's your opinion, you'll show a lot of wisdom and good sense in keeping it to yourself."

"Oh, you shut up!" sneered Hinkey. "No one spoke to you. Move on. Your opinions are not wanted here."

Words cannot convey the intent in Hickey's words, though it was plain enough to all who stood near by.

Hinkey plainly sought to convey that no man in barracks had any use for Sergeant Overton, a man as good as convicted of having robbed Private William Green.

Nor did Hal, by any means, miss the intended slur. Yet he was above taking up any quarrel on personal grounds.

"Hinkey," rebuked the young sergeant, "you're not answering a non-commissioned officer with the proper amount of respect."

"What's the use?" jeered the ugly soldier. "I don't feel any."

"Silence, my man!"

"Then since you're putting on airs just because of your chevrons, you'd better set an example of silence yourself. Then your lesson will wash down all the better."

The other soldiers in the group took no part in the conversation. They did not attempt to "show sides," but Sergeant Hal knew that they were looking on and listening with keen interest.

It would never do for this boy who was a sergeant to "back down" before such an affront, both to himself and to good discipline.

"He's trying to make me mad, so that I'll make it seem like a personal affair," thought Hal Overton swiftly. "I'll keep cool and fool the fellow!"

Hinkey, after glaring defiantly and contemptuously at the young sergeant, turned on his heel and started away.

"Halt, there, my man!" ordered Sergeant Hal coolly, yet at the same time sternly.

Hinkey kept on as though he had not heard.

Without an instant's hesitation, his manner still cool but his face white and set, Sergeant Overton leaped after his man, laying a hand heavily on the private's shoulder.

"I halted you, my man!"

"Did you?" said Hinkey. "I didn't hear it."

With that, he slipped out from under Hal Overton's detaining grasp, turned his back and once more started onward.

"Careful there, Hinkey!" called one of the soldiers warningly.

But the sullen soldier was now beyond any sense of caution.

As Hal again grabbed him, this time with both hands, and swinging him about, Hinkey thrust his face menacingly close to Overton's.

"What do you want, Overton? Maybe I've got it."

"Attention!"

"I'm listening," growled Hinkey, his whole carriage slouching.

"Stand at attention!"

"Hinkey, you're wholly disrespectful and insubordinate!"

Out of the corner of his eye the soldier saw his late companions silently drawing nearer.

"If I'm disrespectful, I'm disrespectful to nothing!" he retorted derisively.

Then he added with more insulting directness:

"Or to less than nothing!"

"Hinkey, are you going to stand at attention and be silent until I'm through with you?"

"No!"

Again he tried to free himself from the boyish sergeant's grasp, but this time he found it harder than he had expected.

"Stand at attention, man!"

"I'll see you in Tophet first! And take your hands off of me, unless you want to start trouble at once!"

"Hinkey, you are making a fearful mistake in forgetting yourself! I'll give you this one chance to come to your senses."

"And if you don't take your hands off of me you'll lose your senses – if you ever had any!"

Hal's answer was to tighten his grip until the other winced. Then Private Hinkey delivered his answer. Suddenly wrenching himself free, by the exercise of his full strength, he let his fist fly at Sergeant Overton's face.

CHAPTER X

SERGEANT OVERTON AND DISCIPLINE

JUST how it all happened Private Hinkey was never afterwards able to figure out to his own satisfaction.

Instead of his blow landing, the soldier found himself on his own back on the grass – and he fell with a bump that jarred him.

"You chevroned cur! I'll make you eat that blow!" yelled Hinkey, beside himself with rage.

Then he leaped to his feet, fairly quivering with the great passion that had seized him.

"Slosson! Kelly! Take hold of Hinkey! He's under arrest," announced the boyish sergeant.

Hinkey made a dive at Hal, but the two soldiers, hearing themselves summoned, and knowing the penalties of disobedience, threw themselves between the sulky brute and the sergeant.

"Let me at him!" screamed Hinkey, struggling with the two comrades who now held him.

"Be silent, you fool!" warned Slosson. "You'll get yourself in stiff before you know what you're about."

"What do I care?" panted Hinkey. "The cur coward! He doesn't dare face me."

"If the sergeant came at ye once wid his fists, ye'd know better – as soon as ye knew anything," jeered Private Kelly.

"The sarge is a scrapper – few like him in 'ours' when he turns himself loose," supplemented Slosson.

"Then let go of me, and let the cur turn himself loose," pleaded Hinkey, fighting furiously with his captors. "Let him show me if he dares."

Into such a passion was he working himself that Hinkey seemed likely to tear himself away from the two soldiers who sought to restrain him.

But Hal had sense enough to keep his own hands out of the affair.

"Meade, get in there and help," he directed.

Then, with Hinkey growing rapidly angrier and putting forth more strength, there was battle royal.

When it was over Hinkey had a bleeding nose, a cut lip, one eye closed and his uniform all but torn from him.

But he panted and surrendered, at last – a prisoner.

"What's this all about, Sergeant Overton?" demanded First Sergeant Gray, hastening to the spot.

"I've placed Hinkey under arrest, Sergeant, for disrespectful speech against an officer, for disrespectful answers to myself and for insubordination."

"You wouldn't act without strong cause, I know, Sergeant Overton," replied First Sergeant Gray. "Hustle Private Hinkey down to the guard house, then."

"Forward with him, men," ordered Hal.

Hinkey would have started the fight all over again, but he realized the weight of discipline and numbers, and felt that it would give his enemy too much satisfaction.

So, with much growling and many oaths, Hinkey submitted to being marched down to the guard house.