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[Illustration: "Stop This Nonsense!"
_Frontispiece._]
Uncle Sam's Boys as
Lieutenants
OR
Serving Old Glory as Line Officers
By
H. IRVING HANCOCK
Author of "Uncle Sam's Boys in the Ranks," "Uncle Sam's Boys
on Field Duty," "Uncle Sam's Boys as Sergeants," "Uncle
Sam's Boys in the Philippines," "Uncle Sam's Boys
on Their Mettle," The Motor Boat Club Series,
The High School Boys Series, The West
Point Series, The Annapolis Series,
The Young Engineers Series,
Etc., Etc., Etc.
Illustrated
P H I L A D E L P H I A
HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY
HOWARD E. ALTEMUS
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I--ON WAITING ORDERS 11
Uncle Sam's Boys grow impatient. A mother's logic. The
postman's whistle makes Hal nervous. "Who is Ad Interim?"
Uniforms are ready. A surprise for Mrs. Overton.
"Lieutenants" Overton and Terry now.
CHAPTER II--TROUBLE IN THE MAKING 25
In their new uniforms. All eyes on Uncle Sam's Boys. Honors
and insult. "See the Conquering Hero Comes." An invitation
declined. Bunny Hepburn loses his job. "I'll get even with
that cheap officer."
CHAPTER III--PLOTTERS LAY THEIR PLANS 41
Victims walk into a trap. "Get busy, Skinny!" Twelve against
two. "Sail into the soldier loafers!" Hal Overton's blood is
up. Bunny's eyes are closed. A fight to a finish.
CHAPTER IV--THE WAR DEPARTMENT ACTS 54
Hal and Noll under charges. Uncle Sam's Boys shunned by
neighbors. "We won't submit to such false charges." A town
divided against itself. A bitter attack in the press. "The
culprits face their ordeal to-day."
CHAPTER V--BEFORE A COURT OF INQUIRY 62
Looks dark for the young lieutenants. Perjurers have their
say. "I wouldn't believe 'em under oath." Gangsters get a
jolt. The findings of the Court of Inquiry. Hal and Noll
outwit the enemy.
CHAPTER VI--THE CALL TO DUTY 74
All in the soldier's game. A descendant of the knight of
old. "There isn't a thing left that we can ask for." A
parting shot. Mothers as "best girls." The goal of their
youthful dreams lays before Hal and Noll.
CHAPTER VII--AT THEIR NEW POST 80
Welcomed by the Major. Bachelors and glad of it. Hal and
Noll settle down in their new quarters. "At the officers'
club." An old friend in a new guise. "It's our old Algy."
Brother officers are cordial to the boys who have risen from
the ranks.
CHAPTER VIII--NEW LIEUTENANTS LOOK AND LISTEN 91
"Feathers" tells his life history. Algy reads brother
officers a lecture. "We do not smoke yet." The start to meet
their captains. The new life in the Army begins.
CHAPTER IX--THE SUMMONS TO DUTY 100
The new officers get their assignments. An invitation to
Mrs. Overton. The Mexican situation threatens. Frontier duty
promised. Young lieutenants perform their duties with snap
and precision. "The Mexican border trouble has broken out!"
CHAPTER X--ON ACTIVE SERVICE 111
Overton and Terry keenly alert to their work. "Quick work."
Platoons march. The camp at Agua Dulce. On a ticklish
mission. On the trail of the hidden rifles. The Greasers are
ugly.
CHAPTER XI--LIEUTENANT HAL GUARDS THE ENTRANCE 120
"Keep them from closing that door!" Mexicans assume a
threatening attitude. "Back, all of you!" Lieutenant Overton
draws his sword. His life hangs on a thread. Greasers cowed
by his nerve. Grimmer work ahead.
CHAPTER XII--IN THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY 131
A much-needed rest. Assigned to an important post. The night
patrol of the river bank. A nerve-trying vigil. "Halt! Who
goes there?" A stealthy step. Lieutenant Hal in the toils.
CHAPTER XIII--HALL SEES HIS REPUTATION BLASTED 139
Bound hand and foot. A disheartening discovery. A knife at
his throat. Sentries in a fix. Greasers gloat and threaten.
A Mexican boot in Hal's face. Moving day on the border.
"It's our night to laugh." Rejoicing on the Rio Grande.
CHAPTER XIV--WHEN THE TABLES WERE TURNED 149
A thrill of joy. Unarmed but free. Lieutenant Overton
plans his next move. Only a fighting chance. Crafty as an
Indian. The enemy's plans revealed. "Lift that hawser and
I'll shoot you!"
CHAPTER XV--LIEUTENANT OVERTON IN A QUANDARY 160
In command of a river tug. The skipper learns a lesson. A
duty well done. "A very bad business." Prisoners taken to
camp. "Do you begin to see a light, Mr. Overton?" A
suspicious craft sighted.
CHAPTER XVI--ORDERS THAT WERE DISOBEYED 170
Hal takes a long chance. The race on the river. Beaten by
the stranger. Lieutenant Overton has misgivings. Discipline
the soldier's greatest asset. The return to shore. "Now I'm
in for it."
CHAPTER XVII--A BREACH OF ORDERS 175
Overton meets his first rebuke. "Your defence is a manly
one." A message that was never delivered. Old friends
surprise Hal. Lieutenants Prescott and Holmes share the
tug's hospitality. Dave Darrin joins the happy family. "Real
doings" promised.
CHAPTER XVIII--AN ACT OF PIRACY 189
The cruise of the "Restless." "A real fighting bunch."
Ensign Darrin at the wheel. "Look sharp there!" A suspicious
craft sighted. The pursued motor boat refuses to lay to. The
"Restless" swept by a volley of rifle shots. The battle is
on.
CHAPTER XIX--THE BRIBE OF A TRAITOR 198
"Fire!" commands Lieutenant Hal Overton. A woman's shriek.
"Fix bayonets!" The stranger boarded. Mexicans ordered to
surrender. A young woman on board. Contraband discovered in
the hold. "We can fix it all with money."
CHAPTER XX--AN OFFICER AND HIS HONOR 207
A bribe hurled into the offender's face. "I'll pitchfork
that honor of yours." Ruggles makes a charge. What was found
in Lieutenant Overton's holster. "It's a cowardly lie!" Hal
faces disgrace.
CHAPTER XXI--UNDER A DARK CLOUD 221
Hal's face turns ghastly. "Do you believe me guilty, sir?"
Detained in camp on parole. "I'll fight every inch of the
way." Word that the Mexicans are rising. American women in
peril. Lieutenant Overton's bitter disappointment.
CHAPTER XXII--THE SERGEANT WHO REMEMBERED 232
"Ye lop-sided shadow of a rookie!" Sorry he didn't throw the
scoundrel overboard. Hal Overton is vindicated. Permission
to join the rescue party. "Sound the recall." Stirring times
ahead.
CHAPTER XXIII--IN THE THICK OF THE RIOT 238
Troops ordered to Holmesville. Up the river at racing speed.
"Sweethearts in peril." Flames in the sky. A lightning-like
landing. "Forward on double quick!" "Charge!" shouts
Lieutenant Overton.
CHAPTER XXIV--"THE SOLDIERS ARE COMING!" 247
A path hewn with swords. A sharp, ugly clash. A woman's
scream guides the three young officers. Just in time.
Enraged Texans held in check. A double service wedding.
Ready for the great war.
Uncle Sam's Boys as Lieutenants
CHAPTER I
THE LETTER FROM THE WAR DEPARTMENT
"Whew, but it's hot here!" grumbled Sergeant Noll Terry, of the United
States Army.
"That's an odd complaint to hear from a young man who served so actively
for two years in the tropics," laughed Mrs. Overton, a short, plump,
middle-aged matron.
"Well, Mother, it is a hot day," put in Sergeant Hal Overton quietly.
"Yes, it is," agreed Hal's mother, "though you two, who came from the
Philippines the very picture of health can't feel the weather to-day
much. New Jersey isn't in the tropics."
Hal's mother said that with an air of finality. Her son and his chum had
been through the most strenuous forms of active army service in Uncle
Sam's colonial possessions, the Philippine Islands. If they could endure
the heat in that tropical belt, even that day's broiling weather at home
must seem cool by comparison.
"I suppose you have an idea, Mother, that the nearer you go to the
equator the hotter the weather gets."
"Well, isn't it so?" challenged Mrs. Overton.
"It may be, as far as actual degrees of heat are marked off on the
thermometer," explained Sergeant Hal. "But I'll stick to it, Mother,
that the average of weather that we struck in the Philippines was not
nearly so disagreeable as the weather is here to-day."
"That's so," nodded youthful Sergeant Terry, with emphasis.
"I don't understand that," replied Mrs. Overton, looking a good deal
puzzled.
"I don't pretend to understand it, either, Mother," Hal continued. "But
it's a fact that there are very few spots in the actual tropics that
seem so disagreeable as are New York City and some places in New Jersey
in the heated terms of July and August."
"That astonishes me," declared Mrs. Overton. "I have always supposed
that, the further south one goes in summer, the hotter one finds it. So
New York City is hotter in summer than the tropics?"
"It seems hotter," Sergeant Hal affirmed.
The boys were more or less inclined to joke Mrs. Overton, because, while
there are many pleasant days in the tropics, particularly near the
coast, the weather is for the most part undeniably hot and oppressive.
"Anyhow," remarked Noll, philosophically, "the hardest thing we have to
do here is to walk a short distance down the street and buy another ice
cream."
"I'd rather be working," retorted Hal quickly. "I'd rather be doing
anything than lying idly around like this!"
"Henry!" cried his mother reproachfully. She was sure to be hurt or
angry when she addressed him so formally. "Don't you care anything about
being at home, after you've been away from us for more than three
years?"
"Of course I care about being home, Mother," Sergeant Hal made haste to
rejoin, as he rose, went over and kissed her. "But I don't believe you
can gain a hundredth of an idea as to the suspense Noll and I are under
at present. When we get our orders from the War Department we'll
know--one way or the other."
"Oh, you're safe enough for your commission as second lieutenant, Hal,"
Noll broke in. "I only wish I felt half as safe for myself as I do for
you."
"It doesn't seem fair that you shouldn't both get your commissions as
second lieutenants," murmured Mrs. Overton. "You're both certain that
you passed your final examinations at Fort Leavenworth."
"We'd both get our commissions, Mother, if there were vacancies enough.
However, this year fifty-nine young soldiers passed their final
examinations, and there are only forty-two vacancies to be filled from
the ranks. Consequently, seventeen of us----"
"It isn't fair," broke in Mrs. Overton, with all a mother's logic where
her son is concerned. "All of you who passed ought to be appointed
officers in the Army."
"Seventeen of us won't be," sighed Hal.
Ever since their first enlistment Hal and Noll had been imbued with the
ambition to rise from the ranks, and become officers. This promotion
from the ranks is not as simple a matter as young people might gain from
reading the stories of some misinformed authors who know nothing of
actual military service. The enlisted man who would rise from the ranks
must first of all be sure that his military record is fine and clean,
and that his reputation for coolness and bravery is firmly established.
But this is only the beginning for the ambitious soldier in the ranks.
He must study almost incessantly, for, when his turn comes to be
promoted to a second lieutenancy, he must be fitted to take a stiff
academic examination and pass it with credit. That examination, in
Sergeant Noll's grim description, "is enough to make a college
professor's hair turn gray." There is no easy way of rising from the
ranks to become an officer.
Hal and Noll, following the method provided by law, had gone up for
their preliminary examinations in the Philippines. Both had succeeded in
passing, though Noll was much nearer the bottom of the list than his
chum. Then, a good many months later, both young sergeants had been
ordered home from the Philippines, that they might undergo their final
examination for commissions. As they were "up" for commissions in the
infantry arm of the service, these two youthful soldiers were sent
before a board of Army officers at Fort Leavenworth. In the interval
between the examinations both young soldiers had studied harder than
ever. They believed that they had passed these final examinations in
July. They had then been ordered to their homes to await the action of
the War Department. It was now well along in August.
"You haven't either one of you appeared on the street in your Army
uniforms since you returned home," remarked Mrs. Overton, presently.
"Noll, why don't you put on your uniform to-night and bring your
mother over here? Then Hal can put on his uniform and you can both take
your mothers out this evening. Don't you suppose that, when American
women give their sons up to the Army, these same women like once in a
while to be seen in public with their sons in uniform?"
"Why, yes, we can do that, of course, Mrs. Overton," Noll agreed
readily. "But wouldn't you rather wait a few days and see if we don't
obtain the right to wear _officers'_ uniforms?"
"That won't happen in ages," declared Hal's mother warmly. "Every one
over in Washington is sound asleep during these hot days. Mrs. Terry and
I will have to wait until winter if we must wait to see you both put on
lieutenants' uniforms."
"I'm horribly afraid that my mother will have to wait even longer than
that," sighed Noll.
Tr-r-r-r-rill! sounded a shrill whistle up the street.
"I wonder if he's coming here?" murmured Mrs. Overton nervously.
Tr-r-r-rill! "Overton!" sounded the postman's voice. "Oh--young
Overton!"
Hal fairly bounded out of the little parlor, through the short hallway,
and pulled the front door open.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Colton," was Hal's almost shaky greeting. Hal had
known this postman ever since the young soldier had been a boy in his
first trousers.
"Good afternoon, Hal," rejoined the postman. "One letter--for you. I'll
be back to ask you about it to-morrow morning."
Hal stood in the doorway, almost dazed. It was a long, official-looking
envelope that he held in his hand. Up in one corner he made out the
words, "War Department--Official Business."
Then, still clutching the envelope, Hal walked unsteadily back into the
little parlor.
"By George--he's _got_ it!" almost shouted Noll. "What's--what's the
real word, Hal?"
Noll was now standing on his feet, actually trembling.
Mrs. Overton fairly flew to her son.
"What is it, Hal? What's the answer?" she demanded, in a shaking voice
that was but little above a whisper.
"It's--it's addressed, 'Lieutenant Henry Overton, U. S. A.,'" replied
Hal, turning the envelope so that his mother might read. But a sudden
rush of mist to her eyes made the letters blur.
"Whoop!" let out Sergeant Noll. "Hal, you've won out!"
"Why don't you open the envelope?" asked Mrs. Overton tremulously.
"I'm afraid I'm almost too dizzy to think of anything," answered Hal in
a strained voice.
For answer his eager mother snatched the envelope from his hands, caught
up her sewing scissors from a table, and held the envelope up to the
light.
"Now, take out your letter, Hal, as quickly as you can, and let us know
what it says," commanded Mrs. Overton.
Hal withdrew the letter from the envelope. It was from the adjutant
general of the Army, stating that Hal had passed the examinations and
that the President had just appointed him, _ad interim_, a second
lieutenant of infantry in the United States Army.
"Now, what's the meaning of that awful '_ad interim_'?" demanded Mrs.
Overton.
"Why, you see, Mother, Congress isn't in session just now----"
"I don't see what that has to do with----"
"Why, Mother, officers are appointed by the President, and----"
"And it's none of Congress's business!"
"All appointments to commissions in the Army and Navy, Mother, are made
by the President, subject to the approval of the Senate----"
"I just knew there was some string to it all," cried Mrs. Overton.
"As a matter of form the Senate has to approve. But the Senate rarely
ever refuses to confirm the President's full list of appointments for
the Army and Navy."
"Tell me this, Hal: Is there a bootblack at the Capitol in Washington?"
"I--I think it very likely that there is at least one, Mother."
"Then we'll find out that the bootblack has to be consulted, too, my
boy, before we're at all sure that you're really an Army officer."
"Oh, no, Mother," laughed Hal. "I feel just as sure, at this moment,
that I'm a second lieutenant in the Army as I shall ever feel."
"I--I hope so," sighed his mother. "But I--well, I'm afraid I don't
trust any one in Washington any too thoroughly."
Hal laughed heartily. He had got over the first electric shock of the
news, and was happy enough now to laugh at anything.
"Noll, I hope you----" began Mrs. Overton, overflowing with generosity.
"Why--where is--what has become of that boy? He was here a moment ago!"
It was certain enough now that Noll Terry was nowhere about.
"Mother," said Hal wisely, "you needn't look for Noll. He's beating a
nine-second sprint to his own house."
"He didn't need----"
"Don't you understand? Noll is traveling hot-foot to his own roof to see
if the postman on that route has left a long envelope for _him_."
"Poor boy! I hope he has won his commission, too," sighed Mrs. Overton,
wistfully.
"Oh, I think he has."
"He's a nice boy."
"Mother, he's one of the very best fellows in the world."
"I suppose Mr. Ad Interim will have a lot to say about Noll's
commission, too," said Hal's mother.
"_Ad interim_ is Latin, Mother. It means 'in the time between,' or
something like that."
"Oh," smiled Mrs. Overton. "I didn't know but Ad was the bootblack at
the Capitol."
"I feel like running right after Noll," murmured Hal.
"Don't you dare do it, my son. Don't you feel that I've any right to my
boy's company in the first moments that such good news has come to him?
Hal, I'm thinking how you'll look in your new uniforms--_ad interim_.
Will you order a uniform at once?"
"No; I rather think I won't."
"Why!" demanded Mrs. Overton, eagerly.
"Mother, you may think me reckless, and over-confident. But the fact is,
I've already been measured for my new uniforms."
"When? And when will they be here?"
"Do you remember the big mahogany chest that I brought with me from the
Philippines, Mother?"
"Yes."
"Well, the whole outfit of uniforms is packed in that chest."
"Henry Overton--you take me right upstairs and unlock that chest--this
instant!"
"Come on, Mother!" Hal called back, gayly, as he darted out of the
parlor and up the front stairs.
"And they've been here all this time," panted the mother, as her
officer-son brought out his key-ring and fumbled at the lock of the
mahogany chest. "And you--you--you told me the chest held clothes of
yours."
"Well, that wasn't a lie was it, Mother?" Hal threw up the lid and
lifted out a tray. "Now, wade into 'em. Look 'em over to your heart's
content. Here's the dress sword. Isn't it a beauty?"
Gripping the scabbard with his left hand, Hal drew out the handsome
blade with a flourish.
"Ugh! I don't like it, except to look at," shuddered his mother. "I hope
my son will never have any need to cut up a fellow-being with that
sword."
"Hardly likely," chuckled Hal. "An officer carries only a cane or a
stick of some sort just in order that he may point out the location of
the enemy, or to indicate some tree on the other side that he thinks has
a sharp-shooter up among the foliage, and, of course, he wears his heavy
service revolver."
"And an officer never leads a charge, flourishing his sword?"
"Hardly. The officer would be in too much danger from the bullets of his
own men if he got in front of them."
"Then an officer isn't in so very much danger, after all," guessed Mrs.
Overton, speaking in a tone of relief. "Some one in front of him will
stop the bullets."
"No one man can stop a bullet that's going under full steam, Mother. At
two or three hundred yards' range, to-day, a bullet will pass through
six or eight men in succession, if there are that many men in its path."
"I--I guess I don't want to hear any more of that kind of stuff,"
shivered the little woman. "It all sounds--awfully dangerous!"
But Hal's mother was not idle. With the deft fingers of a woman she was
lifting and laying out the handsome uniforms one by one.
"Here's the one I want you to wear when you go out with your father and
me this evening," she said, holding up the full-dress uniform.
Hal laid down the sword he had been examining, stepped over and placed
an arm around his mother's waist.
"Mother, dear, I'm afraid you don't understand. An officer, when away
from troops and duty, rarely wears his uniform in public. It would be
looked upon as a foolish piece of vanity on his part."
"But you wore your sergeant's uniform when you first came home."
"All I can say, Mother, is that the two cases are different. One of
these days you'll understand just why an enlisted man goes off post in
uniform, and an officer, when away from his duties, ordinarily wears
citizen's dress. But here's one uniform, Mother, that I can wear at home
in hot weather."
He lifted two garments from near the bottom of the box.
"Why, that's only a set of tennis flannels," objected his mother.
"It's part of an officer's prescribed uniform, just the same," Hal
assured her.
"But there's no gold lace, no braid, no shoulder-straps--nothing." Mrs.
Overton's voice quivered with disappointment.
"Here's the red sash that goes with the trousers," smiled Hal, bringing
to light the article he had named. "That gives the suit quite a gay and
military appearance, as you'll soon see."
"It doesn't look like much more than any clerk might wear," remarked
Mrs. Overton, doubtfully.
"It isn't meant to. This flannel undress is intended for an officer to
wear when he doesn't want to look conspicuous among civilians. I'll go
to my room and put it on presently, and then I think you'll like it a
whole lot better."
"Maybe," said Mrs. Overton doubtfully.
"All this time," pursued Lieutenant Hal, "I'm wondering whether Noll had
found a letter waiting for him at his home, and whether his news was as
fine as mine."
"You up there, Hal?" called a voice from below--Noll's.
"Charge!" yelled back the young lieutenant.
Up the stairs very sedately came Noll Terry. His appearance proclaimed
the story. He was wearing the tennis flannel undress, red sash and all.