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!"