PLANNING FOR THE SOLDIERS' HUNT
"I'LL go away on the eleven o'clock train to-morrow, sir," stated Algy,
as he rose to go. "I won't bother about the few things in my room until
I go to Denver and engage a man. Then I'll send my man here to pack up
whatever of my belongings are worth having."
"Do you really imagine you can leave the post to-morrow, Mr. Ferrers?"
demanded the colonel, a good deal astonished.
"Yes; can't I?"
"Mr. Ferrers, you are of the Army until your resignation has been
accepted in the usual way."
"Haven't you accepted it, Colonel?"
"I have no authority to do so. Your resignation will have to go to
Washington through the usual military channels, and can be accepted only
by the authority of the President."
"Oh, that will be all right," declared Algy promptly. "I'll get my
friend, Benson-Bodge, to attend to that."
"I'm afraid he can't do it for you, young man. Mr. Ferrers, you will
have to remain at this post, and perform all your duties, until the
acceptance of your resignation comes in due form, and through the usual
channels. And if you absent yourself from post again, without leave,
I'll use the telegraph to make sure that your resignation is refused and
that you are obliged to stand trial."
It took Mr. Ferrers until the next morning to recover his good spirits.
Then, immediately after the first drill--which he attended on time--Algy
went over to the post telegraph station, where he picked up a blank and
wrote this message to his father:
"You'll be glad to know that I'll be with you
after a few days more. Have resigned from this
beastly Army."
Sergeant Noll Terry was in charge of the office. He looked the message
over gravely, then said:
"I am sorry, sir, but I am afraid that I cannot allow this message to go
without the written approval of the post commander."
"What's the matter now?" asked Algy.
"Pardon me, sir, but you have referred to the Army in slighting terms. I
am certain that Colonel North would censure me if I allowed this message
to go."
"But I'm an officer--yet--so what right have you to refuse to send it,
Sergeant?"
"It will have to be approved by Colonel North, or his adjutant, before I
can allow it to be sent, sir," replied Noll firmly.
"Humph! But it's high time to get out of the Army when a chap can't even
write his own telegrams!"
However, Ferrers thought it over for a few moments. Then he wrote this
new message:
"Expect me home, soon. Have resigned from the Army."
"Is a chap allowed to send a message like that?" Algy inquired
plaintively.
"Certainly, Lieutenant," Noll replied, and handed the message over to a
soldier operator.
A glance at the clock in the room told Lieutenant Ferrers that he had a
little time to spare before he was due at his next bit of duty. He put
in the time strolling about the post. When he saw the brisk,
trim-looking soldiers, and received their salutes in passing, Algy began
almost to regret the Army that he had given up. Then the remembrance of
gay times in the set where he had once been something of a favorite
consoled him, and he looked forward to being where he did not have to
answer to a colonel as a boy does to a schoolmaster.
"'Pon my word, I think I could like the Army very well, if they weren't
so beastly strict about everything," murmured Algy to himself.
Finally a bugle blew, and Lieutenant Ferrers hastened away to another
duty, which was not now so distasteful, since there was soon to be an
end of it all.
"I used to think being a soldier was all parading," Algy muttered to
himself. "I didn't know that there was about six months of never-ending
drill behind each parade."
Just before the noon mess call Captain Cortland, in passing, called out
to Hal.
"Sergeant, it is getting so well on into the fall of the year, now, that
Major Silsbee has suggested to me that some of the men of B company
would do well to hit the trail into the mountains."
"Another practice hike, sir?" asked Hal.
"Not exactly, Sergeant. The enlisted men of this post, to say nothing of
the officers, would appreciate some supplies of game in place of the
regular issues of beef and mutton. Major Silsbee has suggested that I
allow some of the men of B company to form themselves into a hunting
party and go away on leave into the mountains."
"That would be fine for the men who get away, sir," agreed Hal, his eyes
shining at the thought.
"How would you like, Sergeant, to make up such a party and head it?"
continued Captain Cortland.
"I head the hunting party? I would like it immensely, sir, but for one
objection. I am not an experienced hunter."
"But you are a non-commissioned officer who would be sure to preserve
whatever discipline may be needed on a hunting trip, and that is the
matter of greatest importance. As to experience in hunting, there are
some highly experienced hunters in B company, and you could include them
in your party."
"How much discipline is needed, sir, with a hunting party?"
"Not too much," replied Captain Cortland. "A soldier's hunting party is
something of a picnic affair, and discipline is relaxed as much as
possible. You want just enough discipline to keep order and make the men
pull together. For, on one of these hunting parties, recollect that the
men are actually expected to bag enough game, and to bring it back with
them."
"I thank you, Captain, and I shall be delighted if I can persuade enough
of the really useful men to go with me. But I suppose you know, sir,
that there is still a good deal of suspicion felt about me in barracks."
As Hal said this he flushed a bit.
"Oh, that old affair, Sergeant, of Private Green and his missing money?"
replied the captain. "Sergeant, no suspicion ever justly directed itself
against you, and you must deny, even to yourself, that any of the
suspicion still lingers in the minds of any of the men."
"Thank you, sir."
"But you haven't answered me as to whether you will head the hunting
party."
"I shall do it gladly and eagerly, sir."
"Very good; then pick out about fourteen men to go with you, and make
sure that they all wish to go, as no soldier is compelled to go on a
hunting trip against his own wishes. It will take you about two days to
reach the hunting grounds, Sergeant, and about two days more to get
back. So you shall have fourteen days' leave, which will give you about
ten days of actual hunting."
"I thank you again, sir."
"Go and find your men."
"Very good, sir. May I include Sergeant Terry?"
"If he can arrange for relief at the telegraph station."
In his spare time during the rest of the day Sergeant Hal Overton was
extremely happy. He was busy interviewing soldiers, and in finding out
who were the most experienced hunters, for there was big game to be had
up in the mountains.
Noll was invited first of all. Terry succeeded in arranging for relief
from telegraph duties, so that he could go.
Corporal Hyman proved to be one of the skilled hunters, and he at once
agreed, besides suggesting others who should be invited.
"It's a great picnic, Kid Sergeant; you don't know what bully fun it is
until you get there," Hyman assured Hal.
Lieutenant Ferrers dropped in at the officers' club well ahead of the
dinner hour that evening.
"Yes, fellows," he drawled, "I'm going back to life and civilization. No
more of this boarding school and chain-gang life for me."
The other officers present laughed good-humoredly.
"Yet, just as sure as you're alive, Ferrers, the day will come, and
before long, when you'll wish yourself back once more among the
regulars' uniforms."
"Maybe," sniffed Algy doubtfully.
An orderly appeared in the doorway, yellow envelope in hand.
"Telegram for Lieutenant Ferrers," he announced.
"Right here, my man. Thank you."
Algy tore open the envelope, after apologizing, and glanced at the
bottom of the message.
"It's from the guv'nor," he announced. "I expect he's getting ready to
kill the fatted calf against my arrival home."
Then Algy fell to reading the message. As he started his brows puckered.
Once he gasped. Then, at the end, he burst forth:
"My, but the guv'nor seems almost annoyed," cried Algy, his face
reddening.
"Anything serious?" inquired Holmes politely.
"Read it aloud to the rest, old chap," begged Algy, passing the telegram
to Lieutenant Holmes. This was the message that the latter thereupon
read aloud:
"You blithering young idiot! I worked like blazes
to get you into the Army, in order to give you one
last chance to grab at a little manhood. I've set
the government machinery going at Washington, and
your resignation won't be accepted. Within a day
or two you'll receive orders to report at the
Infantry School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. There
you'll have to work sixteen hours out of every
twenty-four, but it will make a man of you if
anything can, and you'll learn all about becoming
a real infantry officer. Don't send me any more
news about resigning. If you quit the Army, or
are kicked out of it, I'll separate you forever
from every cent of my money.
"(Signed) Donald Ferrers."
There was silence in the club parlor, until it was broken by Algy, who
wailed plaintively:
"That's the guv'nor. That's the guv'nor every time. Says he'd separate
me from every cent of his money. And he'd do it, too! Fellows, I'm
afraid I've simply got to like the Army."
"That's your trump card, now, Algy," observed Jerrold, of A company.
"Some class about your father, Ferrers, isn't there?" asked Lieutenant
Prescott.
"Oh, he's a fine old fellow," replied Algy loyally. "But he has a
confoundedly abrupt way about him sometimes. You see, he
didn't--er--start life exactly as a gentleman. He had to work hard most
of his life to get what money he has, and I suppose--well, I guess his
hard work has made him pig-headed to some extent."
Now that he knew that he would have to stay in the Army, young Ferrers
found himself hating it worse than ever.
Nor did the information that his comrades offered him console him any.
He was assured that there would be no doubt about his learning all of
his military duties at Fort Leavenworth--if he lived to get through the
ordeal.
In the Army there is an officers' school for every branch of the
service. Officers attend as "student officers"; the course is severe,
but the officer seldom fails to learn whatever he goes to such a school
to learn.
Two days later there were two officers leaving the post.
Algy went down to the station to take up his journey to the new station
in Kansas. Despite his seeming inability to learn to be a soldier,
Ferrers had made himself well enough liked personally, so many of the
officers accompanied him as far as the Clowdry station.
Lieutenant Prescott was going with the hunting party. He had succeeded
in procuring leave for hunting, and in getting himself invited to go
along with Sergeant Hal Overton's party.