In an instant the Colonel was upon his feet, looking across the street to where his old friend pointed.
"Jeb!--and Marian!" he added, his voice ringing with delight. "Which is going to be the captain, Amos?" he chuckled. "By Gad, they"re coming up!
He"ll make a fine officer!"
But Amos Strong was looking tenderly at the girl; then he turned and caught the Colonel"s hand, crying:
"Roger, we"ll set the pace for every city and town throughout our country. We"ll equip the company, so it"ll be ready to go at the first crack--and Jeb will be a credit!"
"One who"ll capture hearts as well as Huns, I"ll warrant--if he"s not already a helpless prisoner!"
The two old men looked at each other and smiled, and it was while they were in this att.i.tude that Marian and Jeb entered.
She stopped on the threshold, scarcely believing her eyes; and Jeb, looking over her head, was no less mystified. That these two sworn enemies should be standing there, holding hands in all friendliness, surpa.s.sed the miraculous.
The men had turned cordially to welcome her, but hesitated at the amazement that was pictured in her face. Their reconciliation had been so spontaneously genuine that it seemed already to be a thing of long standing, and they did not penetrate Marian"s embarra.s.sment until she timidly advanced, asking:
"Is it all right for us to come in, Daddy? Were you and Colonel Hampton really shaking hands?"
He approached swiftly and took her in his arms, turning to the Colonel and repeating the girl"s question:
"Were we really shaking hands, Roger?"
"By gad, Amos, we"ve been shaking hands every day for forty years, only we didn"t know it!"
"You should have come in before, Roger."
"How, in thunder, could I come in, when your perverted editorial columns were----"
"Stop!" Marian cried, running to him and throwing her arms about his neck. "Do you want it to begin all over again, just when I have you both together for the first time in my life?"
But her father laughed good-naturedly, knowing that as soon as he called "Truce!" the irate Colonel would subside.
"How in the world did it happen?" she asked, still clinging to the Colonel"s neck and looking up into his eyes which were fast growing moist with tears of happiness. "Tell me at once, which of you was generous enough to make the first move?"
"Poof and nonsense!" he exclaimed, trying to frown upon her severely.
"There was no generosity about it! I reckon Amos and I know where each other lives!"
"You"ll tell me, Daddy," she turned to him. "Which of you big babies was big enough----"
"Don"t tell her a thing, Amos," the Colonel thundered, getting red.
"So you"re the one, then," she smiled up at him. "I"m going to call you Uncle Roger!"--and she kissed him.
"I wish she"d call me Uncle Jeb," came a half sigh from across the table.
"She"ll be calling you _Captain_ Jeb,--eh, Roger?" Mr. Strong laughed.
"Tell them about it!"
"Oh," the Colonel said, wiping his gla.s.ses, "my best friend, here, has proposed that he and I recruit a company of soldiers, equip it, and have it ready for business. Jeb is to be its captain."
"You mean uniforms, and everything?" Jeb cried.
"Uniforms and everything," Mr. Strong emphatically answered. "The story will run in to-morrow"s _Eagle_, and we"ll take recruits right here in this office, where Colonel Hampton--your Uncle Roger," he pinched Marian"s cheek, "will have charge. We"ll wire Washington for a hundred and fifty equipments, and be drilling by this time next week. Now, what do you think about it?"
"I"m crazy about it," Jeb shouted; and Marian, catching his hands, cried:
"_Captain_ Jeb! I"m as proud of you as I can be!"
His eyes were sparkling as he gazed down at her; his vivid imagination had lost no time picturing the khaki-clad lads, with him at their head, marching, drilling, and doing all manner of things of which he could not have told the names but had seen in the movies. She gloried in his enthusiasm, and squeezed his hands again, whispering:
"I"m proud of you!"
"There must be books and manuals and the like in Washington," the Colonel was saying, "which teach the duties of a captain; so we"ll wire for them, also. Then I"ll coach you, Jeb; I"ll make an officer out of you, you young cub!"
More and more each of them had caught the spirit. Jeb"s eyes danced; his pulse was bounding; his dreams of military splendor were coming true.
Marian had clasped her hands and rather worshipfully stared at him. Mr.
Strong stood with legs apart, looking him over with unfeigned admiration; while the Colonel, also gazing, unconsciously drummed a marching tattoo with his fingers on the table.
It all seemed so easy! With the simple faith of men who implicitly believed the War Department would suspend business to fulfil their wishes, they decided to order uniforms and wire the Hillsdale representative to dash out in search of books. Jeb would absorb the books and become a captain; the Colonel, ensconced in Mr. Strong"s room, would recruit the company, which, in turn, would don the uniforms and make Hillsdale gasp at its brilliant efficiency. Flags would wave, citizens would applaud, and the President would send a message of fervent congratulations. That was the way it seemed to Jeb. He did not dream of the nearness of the war, which had been viewed by him, as by millions of others, as a mirage far off beyond the seas. Now he spoke in a voice that trembled with pride:
"I"ll make it a company of sharpshooters in no time; for, if there"s one thing I can do, it"s shoot! Look at my last targets!" he cried, drawing them from his pocket.
Meanwhile, the key out in the telegraph room began an agitated ticking.
It was too early for "A.P. stuff," but the reporter recognized, by long a.s.sociation, sounds resembling the _Eagle"s_ call. Now he heard the operator give a low whistle, and that, also, from long a.s.sociation, he knew meant "flash!" so he sauntered back and sat on the table, waiting.
In another moment he burst into Mr. Strong"s room, thrusting a message across the targets which Jeb had just unfolded.
The editor read it and caught his breath, then pa.s.sed it over to his friend, with the brief remark to all:
"War"s declared!"
The Colonel sprang up as if electrified. Standing at full height he clasped both hands above his face and fervently cried:
"Thank G.o.d! The honor of our country is vindicated!"
War! Jeb felt suddenly sick and dizzy. The targets which had meant so much to him, taking on a l.u.s.tre as if they were jewels in his crown of pride, and pa.s.sports to a military future, became gray and sordid. He hated them, he hated everything they stood for, and, seeing the eyes of Marian and her father fixed upon the Colonel, he surrept.i.tiously dropped them to the floor, pushing them farther out of sight beneath the table with his foot.
"War!" Marian gasped, as though she were struggling to take in the full significance of this startling news. Then she flew to the editor and wrapped him in her arms, saying excitedly: "Oh, Daddy, remember your promise! I"m going!--I"m going! You _said_ I could if it ever came!--and I"m all ready, Daddy dear, for the very first boat that leaves!"
The Colonel could not have told why, but suddenly he burst into tears, coughed, made a great fuss pulling himself together, and thundered:
"War! War on the d.a.m.nedest hierachy of fiends--if I may use the term--the world has ever known! And we"re going to thrash "em if it takes the last drop of blood in Hillsdale; yes, sir, the very last drop!
You, Jeb, will now lead your company into the thick of it! Lord, boy, but I envy you!"
Marian left her father and ran to Jeb.
"Oh, just think!--maybe we can go on the same----" She stopped short, frightened at the appearance of his face. She tried to finish the sentence, but stammered over it as though her eyes, dilated with horror, were holding her tongue captive by what she saw.
Amos Strong had turned and was looking out of the window, overcome by the far-reaching consequences of his promise made half thoughtlessly two years before, and he therefore did not see the mute tragedy being played behind him; but the Colonel missed none of it, although his faith in Jeb was too deeply rooted to be shaken. He merely believed that his young friend had been shocked--for the moment shocked--and nothing more; a belief which he considered justified when Jeb, calling upon every ounce of the Tumpson pride, forced his knees to stiffen and his lips to smile.