THAT C COMPANY CORPORAL EATS CROW
"Company, halt!"
Then, just a little later:
"C Company, halt!"
The long, dusty line of khaki-clad soldiers, at the word, dropped out
of ranks, finding seats on the ground near where they had left the
ranks.
Behind the men, now stopped, the wagon train came up and also halted.
Not far from the head of the line that morning stood the log cabin of
the old-time hunter.
Though the military did not suspect it, a sharp pair of old eyes peered
out through a chink in the cabin wall.
Then the cabin door opened, the old-time hunter sauntering slowly forth.
At sight of him Corporal Raynes, C Company, tried to shrink into
smaller space than he had ever succeeded in occupying before.
"Which side won the tom-fool match?" inquired the aged hunter of a
pleasant-faced young man on whose shoulders glistened the plain straps
of a second lieutenant.
"B Company won the miniature manoeuvres by capturing C Company,
if that's what you mean, sir," replied Lieutenant Dick Prescott
pleasantly.
"B Company?" cried the old man almost indignantly. "Why, B Company
stood for the Japs, didn't they!"
"Not that I've heard, sir," answered Prescott. "B Company and C Company
represented two forces that were supposed to be hostile to each other.
Neither side was designated by the name of any country."
"Why, that's dinged strange!" uttered the old hunter. "A lot of your
camp wagons went by yesterday, and there was a feller from one of 'em,
who told me he belonged to C Company, and that C Company was supposed
to be the Americans, and B Company was the Japs. Now, I've always hated
the Japs!"
"Did you ever see any Japanese, sir?" asked Lieutenant Prescott.
"Nope, young man; but what's that got to do with hating 'em? Well, as I
was saying, that C Company feller on one of the wagons told me about B
Company being the Japs, and he asked me if I would like to help along
the licking of B Company. So I done the best I could."
"By sending two young B Company soldiers across the wilderness, to that
elevation over yonder?" inquired Captain Cortland, who had heard the
conversation.
"The C Company feller told me that it would help lick the company
that was standing for the Japs," explained the old man, his face an
interesting study as he gazed from one officer's face to another.
Captain Freeman had not yet heard the story of how Hal and Noll had
come to be in his camp at dark. He had been denied that knowledge by
the laughing officers of B Company. But Freeman had been near enough to
hear the hunter's explanation, and now C Company's commander thought he
saw a whole lot of sudden light.
"Pass the word for Corporal Raynes!" he shouted.
Raynes heard, and shivered. Yet he was a soldier; there was but one
thing to do. Quaking in his restored shoes, Raynes rose and marched
briskly forward, halting and saluting before his captain.
"Is this the man who was on one of the wagons, and who told you to send
two B Company men hiking across a wilderness of rock?" asked Captain
Freeman.
"That's the very man," declared the old hunter.
Hal and Noll had been looking on from a little distance. Now they
caught Captain Cortland's signal to come up, and obeyed.
"Are these the two young men you sent, sir, on that wild-goose chase
off over the rocks?" asked Captain Freeman, pointing over towards the
bunkies.
"They sure are," nodded the hunter.
Captain Freeman turned, fixing the quaking Raynes with a glance that
brought the victim scant comfort.
"Corporal Raynes, you were despoiled by Overton while on outpost night
before last. Then, yesterday afternoon, you fixed up a practical joke
on Overton and Terry in order to pay Overton back for his conduct to
you the night before?" queried Captain Freeman.
"Yes, sir," admitted Raynes, feeling as though he would like to sink
about a mile into the ground.
"Corporal Raynes," continued his captain, half scathingly and half
quizzically, "you have proved a most valuable man to your company
during this period of field duty. First, while on outpost duty, you
allow yourself to be despoiled of your rifle, shoes and canteen. Then,
in your humorous efforts to get even, you perpetrate a near-joke that
sends the enemy's two best scouts where they will be right on hand to
learn our plans and betray us to the enemy. Corporal Raynes, you have
covered yourself with glory indeed! Return to your company."
Like wildfire the story spread down the line. Raynes had to endure
jeering looks from nearly two hundred men.
"Ain't it fearful how these kids gain glory from the very things that
other folks do to smash 'em?" demanded Private Bill Hooper hoarsely in
the ear of Private Dowley.
"It's a long lane of luck that has no turning," growled Dowley.
"After what I've seen of their luck, I'm almost afraid to put up any
job against 'em," confessed Hooper.
"You never did have much sand or wit, I reckon," snarled Dowley.
"Are you still going to try to bring the kid soldiers to disgrace?"
asked Hooper in an eager undertone.
"If I do, I don't believe you'll be much help."
"But I'd like to know----"
"Bill Hooper, if I need your help in anything I'll be sure to let you
know."
"Now, Dowley, you needn't be so warm-tongued about it," urged Hooper.
"Of course, if there's any safe scheme for fixing the records of these
kids, I'm plumb crazy to have a hand in it, and that you know, Dowley."
"Did the last thing we put up--spoiling Kid Overton's rifle--get traced
back to us?" demanded Dowley.
"Now, that scheme didn't work much trouble to the kid," complained
Hooper. "He was in bad for half a day, then got a new rifle, and has
been receiving bouquets ever since."
"You wait--watch and listen," urged Dowley. "You won't be very much
older when you'll hear something drop that'll fix Overton if he happens
to be around."
"I wish you'd tell me," half whined Bill Hooper.
"I will, if I want your help," remarked Dowley dryly.
"Well, so long as the kid is chased out of this regiment, I don't care
who does it."
"Fall in!" rang down the line.
* * * * *
"I'm glad I know who put up that job on us," laughed Private Overton,
as he stepped to his place in ranks.
"But I wonder how it feels to be Corporal Raynes just now?" hinted
Private Terry facetiously.
"I hope he won't get reduced to the ranks as a consequence," observed
Hal.
"That would he rather rough. But I don't believe Captain Freeman will
do anything like that."
Just before noon the troops were halted, then marched, by companies,
into a field. The order to pitch camp was given.
It was really too bad, but one of the wagons drove up and the men on it
began to unload bear carcasses. All this bear meat was dumped before B
Company's line. C Company men tried not to look in that direction at
all, for C Company's share in the bear meat was to be--none.
Early that morning Captain Cortland had sent the wagon and men to
recover the bear carcasses from the cave. The bears had been promptly
"skinned" and dressed before loading them into the wagon.
From still another wagon sounded the whines of the five cubs. These
were to be taken back to Fort Clowdry, there to be fattened and served
at the coming Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner of B Company's men. A
few months later these cubs would be "a good size for killing."
"To the victors belong the spoils." The two older bears had been killed
as already related, and the cubs found by B Company scouts within C
Company's "territory."
Out were tumbled the Army cookstoves. Men of B Company cut up the
meat. Soon the odor of baking and roasting meats was on the air. Other
willing helpers to the cook were trimming off pieces of meat for
broiling.
It was torment to hungry C Company men to smell the appetizing odors
and to meet the grins with which B Company men favored them.
B Company must wait a while for its dinner, but was willing. The men of
C Company, to stop, as far as possible, the pangs of longing and the
watering of mouths, fell to at once to cook their own monotonous bacon.
"See here, Freeman, there's going to be an abundance of bear meat,"
remarked Captain Cortland, going over to his fellow company commander.
"Your men may as well have some of it."
"Not under the circumstances under which the meat was obtained,"
replied Captain Freeman firmly. "Let the men of my company realize
that they were disgracefully worsted, and that they have no cause for
complaint."
So the men of one company sat down to a meal of hard tack, bacon and
coffee, while B Company men waited for a better feast.
At last B's spread was ready.
"My man," said Captain Cortland to his dog-robber, "cut off some nice
pieces of bear meat and take them over to the officers of C Company
with my compliments."
But the dog-robber soon returned, bearing the platter on which the meat
still lay.
"Captain Freeman's compliments, sir, but he says that the officers of C
Company will endure a deserved disappointment along with their men."
Ere B Company's feast ended a commotion started that appeared to come
from behind C Company's street.
Hal, dropping his ration plate to the ground, leaped up.
"Look, Noll!" he called laughingly. "Corporal Raynes is certainly
'getting his.' Wow! Look at the fracas!"
As a matter of fact, Raynes, at this moment, was being made the
recipient of most unwelcome attentions.
He was being tossed in a blanket.
This is the most emphatic and picturesque way that soldiers have of
displaying their displeasure against a man. It is a torment that is
also inflicted on any soldier who is accused of being "too fresh."
Eight soldiers had hold of an ordinary army blanket, holding to it by
the edges.
Several other soldiers had started in pursuit of Corporal Raynes.
Though that non-com ran for all he was worth, he was captured,
overpowered and dragged to the blanket.
Willing hands caught him up, throwing him into the slack of the
blanket.
"Heave her, boys!"
Instantly, before Raynes could scramble to his feet and escape, the
slack blanket was hauled taut.
Up into the air some four feet shot Corporal Raynes's sprawling figure.
Down he came again, into the slack, but just as promptly he was tossed
again. This time the victim went up more than five feet into the air.
"Stop it!" gasped the victim from up in the air.
But no one was in a mood to stop it. Higher and higher shot the body
of the unpopular corporal, until he was going up ten feet or more at
nearly every toss.
It is a most ludicrous punishment to look at, but the victim of this
strenuous prank feels that it is more than ridicule. He is always
certain that an outrage is being carried on against him.
"Sto-o-op it!" gasped Raynes weakly.
Under the merciless tossing and consequent jolting nearly all the
breath had left his body.
"Give him a few more tastes," advised three or four of C Company's men
who stood in the front rank of those looking on.
Of course it was a breach of discipline, in a way, for privates to toss
a non-commissioned officer, but neither Captain Freeman nor either
of his lieutenants interfered. The non-com is not always safe, by any
means, from blanket tossing.
At last, however, the blanket was dropped to the ground, and Corporal
Raynes, breathless and very red-faced, was allowed to roll off the
woolen surface.
As the corporal lay on the ground one of the men voiced the feeling of
all his comrades in C Company by muttering grimly:
"Put up jobs that supply B's men with fresh meat and leave us out, will
you?"