"We didn"t see you there in July," said Hal.
"No; in June I was ordered to this regiment."
"We had no notion of ever meeting you down here," replied Noll, now noting the figures, "37," just over the crossed rifles of Algy"s collar device.
"I don"t belong to this battalion," Ferrers explained. "I"m here temporarily, only, on special duty. I belong with B company, first battalion. I"m just praying for this regiment to be ordered somewhere where I can see some of the real fighting work."
"You will see fighting enough one of these days," said Hal prophetically.
"Cut that, Ferrers!" warned Sears. "Most of us are quite content with ordinary garrison routine in "G.o.d"s country.""
"That"s all well enough for you fellows," muttered Algy. "You don"t need any of what I"m longing for. And I might have gone to the Philippines, too, with the Thirty-fourth, if I hadn"t been such a dub," added Ferrers, glancing at Hal and Noll. "Perhaps I"m putting on airs, though. Overton, when I was at Fort Clowdry, I don"t believe I was quite as high as a dub, was I?"
Algy spoke so plaintively that all the officers at table laughed.
"Oh, that"s all right for you fellows," retorted Algy. "But you never had a glimpse of me in those old, first days. Why, fellows, I used to go off the post without permission. I got into an all-night party in Clowdry, and preferred it to reporting back in season to go on for guard duty."
A somewhat incredulous laugh from trained officers greeted this a.s.sertion.
"Oh, that"s straight," declared Algy remorsefully. "And when Colonel North tried to do the fatherly act with me by way of remonstrance, I believe I a.s.sured him that my little lapse was nothing to get warm about."
A shout of genuine laughter greeted this reminiscence.
"And one day," pursued Algy, "when Colonel North undertook to be really a trifle severe with me, I flared up and offered my resignation on the spot. I told him that, if an officer couldn"t leave post for a little fun, without the hanged formality of reporting and securing permission, then the Army was no place for a gentleman."
"Did Colonel North let you get away with that?" demanded Lieutenant Johnson.
"He did," confessed Algy, "for in his good old soldierly heart he knew that I hadn"t arrived at the dignity even of being a dub. Then I wired my father and asked him to see the President and get my resignation through at once. Instead, my father wired that he"d had me ordered to the Service Schools at Fort Leavenworth; that I"d have to go there, work like blazes and make good, or else that he"d disown me and make me work for a living. I thought the Service Schools would be easier than working for a living," added Algy reminiscently, "but from what I went through at Leavenworth I"d advise any lazy man to go to work instead."
"It"s tough at Leavenworth," a.s.sented Brisbane. "I put in a year there once."
"I"m glad, now, that I went to Leavenworth," Algy continued. "I was taught there that a soldier"s life is about the finest going, if only a fellow can buckle down to work and discipline, and forget that he has any preferences of his own for anything."
"Leavenworth certainly made a good soldier of you, Ferrers," put in Sears. "I don"t know a harder-working officer than you are to-day."
"Thank you," came from Algy. "But that seems hard for you to believe, doesn"t it, Overton?"
"From the past, Ferrers, yes; but not from what I see of you now, or from what I heard you saying as you came into the club."
"Why, Ferrers is called one of the worst grinds in the service," laughed Lieutenant Hapgood. "Overton, I know it to be a fact that Algy Ferrers, for the last year, has been returning all the remittances that his father sent him. Algy simply wrote back that, by the time he had his day"s work done, he was too tired to go out and spend money."
"Well, why not?" challenged Algy. "A second lieutenant is paid seventeen hundred dollars a year. To my way of thinking that"s all an honest, hard-working young fellow ought to be allowed to have."
"You can"t keep many automobiles on that," smiled Noll.
"I don"t have to," retorted Algy. "I haven"t been in an auto, except under orders, since I left Clowdry for Leavenworth."
A wonderful change had come about in the case of Algy Ferrers. Hal and Noll felt like pinching themselves to see if they would wake up.
"Every younger officer, nowadays, has to put in two or three spells of study at the Service Schools," continued Algy, turning to the two newest members of the club. "It does "em a lot of good, too. You"ll run up against it one of these days, without a doubt. If you"ve any angles the Service School will rub "em off. They try to be kind to you at Leavenworth, Terry. One of their plans, there, is to give you time for eight hours" sleep, but you can"t always connect. All the rest of the time is working day. Why, I"ve gone to my quarters at Leavenworth so tired out at night that I"ve sat down in a chair for a moment, to try to rest a bit before undressing. Then my eyes would close, and the next thing I"d know it would be daylight--and I"d slept all night in my chair with my clothes on. That"s no fanciful picture either." Algy finished plaintively. "A married man is in huge luck at Leavenworth, if he has a good wife."
"Why?" Noll wanted to know.
"Because the poor student officer can usually depend upon his wife to wake him in time to shave before the next day"s grind begins. You will know all about it when your turn comes to be detailed at Leavenworth."
By this time the meal was over. Some of the officers had begun to smoke, those who did not use tobacco, lingered over their coffee.
Lieutenant Pratt drew a pasteboard box from an inside pocket, took from it a cigarette, lighted it and lay the box beside his plate.
"You might be good," put in Hapgood, "and pa.s.s me a cigarette."
"Had I known that you wanted one, Hapgood, you"d have had this one,"
explained Lieutenant Pratt apologetically. "It was the last one in the box."
"I don"t see that I smoke, then, as there"s no waiter in the room,"
sighed Hapgood, with an air of comic discontent.
"Try Ferrers," advised Hal. "He never moves anywhere with less than a hundred cigarettes about him."
"I?" demanded Algy, wheeling, a flush mounting to his cheeks and temples. "Not guilty, I"m glad to say."
"Why, you used----" began Hal.
"All bygones," declared Algy. "I know I used to walk around looking like an empty house on fire, but Leavenworth changed that, too. The second day I was there I lighted a coffin-nail before one of the older officers. Wish you could have seen him go for me! It was all smooth as velvet, and eloquent of courtesy, but that old officer said----"
Algy halted suddenly in his speech.
"_What?_" chorused half a dozen others.
"I"m not going to tell you," Ferrers made answer. "There are too many smokers here, and I don"t intend to make any enemies out of good fellows."
"Tell us, do," coaxed Pratt. "We don"t hold you responsible, Ferrers.
We"ll charge the jolt up to the old officer you mentioned."
"Well, then," resumed Algy, "he asked me what I meant by making a foul chimney of my nose and stewing my brain all day long in a mess of nicotine. He further asked me why I didn"t give it up."
"What did you say to him?"
"Why," confessed Algy honestly, "I told him that it had never occurred to me before that a cigarette smoker is violating the nuisance act all day long, and that an Army officer could be in better business than breaking the minor laws."
"Thank you," said Pratt dryly, rising and walking over to a fire place, into which he threw his lighted cigarette. A general laugh greeted the act.
"You two used to be clean young fellows, with no cigarettes in your pockets," continued Ferrers, turning to Hal and Noll.
"We don"t smoke yet," answered Terry.
Brisbane, the ranking officer present, arose, and the others followed.
"Now, Overton, it"s ten minutes to two," explained Lieutenant Sears, glancing at his watch. "If you want to go over to Captain Foster"s quarters, and be presented to him, I"m at your service."