Chapter 9. Private Hinkey Delivers His Answer

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_ CHAPTER IX. PRIVATE HINKEY DELIVERS HIS ANSWER

THANKS to a most capable sergeant of the guard, Lieutenant Algy got through his balance of the tour of guard duty without setting the post on fire.

There was no rest, however, for the irresponsible young lieutenant.

For three successive mornings Ferrers had to grub hard at drill, with Lieutenant Prescott standing by to coach him.

Then, on the fourth morning, Lieutenant Algy was ordered out to take A Company on a twenty-mile hike over rough country.

"Sergeant Reed knows the whole route and will be a most capable guide, Mr. Ferrers," explained Captain Ruggles. "We shall look for you to be back by five o'clock this afternoon. Don't use your men too hard. Now, I'll stand by to see you start the company."

With a brave determination to show how worthy he was of trust, Lieutenant Algy stepped briskly over to A Company, which rested in ranks in platoon front. Drawing his sword, he commanded:

"Attention!"

Thereupon he put the company through half a dozen movements of the manual of arms, next marching the company away in column of fours. The regulars, of course, responded like clockwork. They made a fine appearance as they started off under their freakish second lieutenant. Ere they had gone far Ferrers swung them into column of twos at the route step.

"He's doing that almost well," muttered Captain Ruggles under his breath. "I believe the young cub is trying to be a soldier, after all."

It still lacked much of two in the afternoon when Captain Ruggles, leaving his quarters, saw his company marching back.

"Gracious! How did the youngster ever get the men over the ground in this time?" wondered Captain Ruggles, glancing at his watch. "And he hasn't used the company up, either. The men move as actively as though they had just come from bed and a bath."

Captain Ruggles walked rapidly over toward barracks. Lieutenant Ferrers threw his company into column of platoons, faced them about and brought the men to a halt. Then he wheeled about, saluting Captain Ruggles.

"Any further orders, sir?" inquired Algy.

"No, Lieutenant. Dismiss the company."

As soon as the men had started barrackwards, Captain Ruggles asked the lieutenant:

"How did you manage it, Ferrers, to bring the men back in such fine condition and so early in the day?"

"Just a matter of good judgment, Captain," beamed Algy.

"What do you mean?"

"I changed the orders a bit, sir, to meet the conditions that I discovered."

"Conditions?"

"Yes, Captain. The day proved to be extremely warm. I marched the men for about six miles; it may have been nearer seven. Curiously enough, Sergeant Reed and I disagreed on that point. He said we had gone about a mile and a half."

"Well? What next?"

"Why, sir, I found it so warm that I couldn't march with any comfort at all. Now, I don't believe an officer should expect his men to go where he isn't willing to go himself, and as for myself I didn't want to go any further. So I halted the company and----"

"And----"

"Why, Captain," smiled Lieutenant Ferrers, "I just let the men enjoy themselves under the trees until it was time to have their dinner on the field rations they'd taken along."

"And then?"

"Why, then, sir, I marched them back here. I'll take them out again some day when the weather is cooler, and----"

Captain Ruggles acted a good deal like a man who is about to lose his temper.

"Mr. Ferrers," came his rasping order, "go to your rooms! Remain there until you hear from Colonel North, Major Silsbee or myself."

"Why, what on earth have I done now?" gasped the astonished young man.

"Go to your rooms, sir!"

"Now, what ails good old Ruggles? Isn't the Army the queerest old place on the map of the moon?"

Within fifteen minutes Algy Ferrers, sitting back in an easy chair in his quarters, glancing out of a window with a look of absolute boredom, received a telephone call.

"Colonel North's compliments, and will you come to his house at once?" was the brief message.

"Now, I shouldn't wonder if old Ruggles had forgotten to mind his own business," muttered Algy disconsolately, as he reached for his fatigue cap.

"Mr. Ferrers," was the colonel's stern greeting, "every day your conduct becomes more incomprehensible!"

"And every day, sir, I might say," retorted the young man pleasantly, "the Army becomes harder to understand. I don't wish to be guilty of any impertinence, sir, but wouldn't it be well to have a law enacted that officers from civil life should be appointed wholly from clerks, who have learned how to keep office hours and never do any thinking for themselves?"

"There might be some advantage in that plan, Mr. Ferrers," replied the colonel grimly. "And I can't help feeling that you would give infinitely more satisfaction here if you had first been trained a bit in one of your father's many offices. I don't suppose you have the least idea, sir, of what a grave offense you have committed to-day?"

"I expected to be praised, sir," replied Algy almost testily, "for having been highly humane to the men under my command."

"Humane!" exploded Colonel North. "Bah! Mr. Ferrers, do you imagine that our regulars are so many weaklings, that they have to come in when it rains, or stay in when the sun shines? Bah! You have been guilty of gross disobedience of orders, and you are an officer, sir--supposed to be engaged in teaching obedience to enlisted men. That is all, sir--you may go to your quarters!"

By the time that young Mr. Ferrers reached his own quarters he found Lieutenant Prescott there, though the latter did not say a word about Colonel North having ordered him to make the call.

Algy immediately started in upon what was, for him, a furious tirade.

"Do you know, dear chap," he wound up, "I can't always understand a man like old Papa North. Sometimes I think he's just a beast!"

But Prescott's laughing advice was:

"Hold yourself in, Ferrers; your hoops are cracked."

"Bah!" stormed Lieutenant Algy. "An Army post is a crazy place for a fellow to go when looking for sympathy or reason."

In the meantime A Company's men had spread the joke through enlisted men's barracks.

"What's the use!" growled Private Hinkey to a group of private soldiers. "Ferrers is just a plumb fool, and all the colonels in the world can't ever make anything else of him. Ferrers is a born idiot!"

Sergeant Hal Overton paused just at the edge of the group.

"Hinkey," the boyish non-com. observed dryly, "if that's your opinion, you'll show a lot of wisdom and good sense in keeping it to yourself."

"Oh, you shut up!" sneered Hinkey. "No one spoke to you. Move on. Your opinions are not wanted here."

Words cannot convey the intent in Hickey's words, though it was plain enough to all who stood near by.

Hinkey plainly sought to convey that no man in barracks had any use for Sergeant Overton, a man as good as convicted of having robbed Private William Green.

Nor did Hal, by any means, miss the intended slur. Yet he was above taking up any quarrel on personal grounds.

"Hinkey," rebuked the young sergeant, "you're not answering a non-commissioned officer with the proper amount of respect."

"What's the use?" jeered the ugly soldier. "I don't feel any."

"Silence, my man!"

"Then since you're putting on airs just because of your chevrons, you'd better set an example of silence yourself. Then your lesson will wash down all the better."

The other soldiers in the group took no part in the conversation. They did not attempt to "show sides," but Sergeant Hal knew that they were looking on and listening with keen interest.

It would never do for this boy who was a sergeant to "back down" before such an affront, both to himself and to good discipline.

"He's trying to make me mad, so that I'll make it seem like a personal affair," thought Hal Overton swiftly. "I'll keep cool and fool the fellow!"

Hinkey, after glaring defiantly and contemptuously at the young sergeant, turned on his heel and started away.

"Halt, there, my man!" ordered Sergeant Hal coolly, yet at the same time sternly.

Hinkey kept on as though he had not heard.

Without an instant's hesitation, his manner still cool but his face white and set, Sergeant Overton leaped after his man, laying a hand heavily on the private's shoulder.

"I halted you, my man!"

"Did you?" said Hinkey. "I didn't hear it."

With that, he slipped out from under Hal Overton's detaining grasp, turned his back and once more started onward.

"Careful there, Hinkey!" called one of the soldiers warningly.

But the sullen soldier was now beyond any sense of caution.

As Hal again grabbed him, this time with both hands, and swinging him about, Hinkey thrust his face menacingly close to Overton's.

"What do you want, Overton? Maybe I've got it."

"Attention!"

"I'm listening," growled Hinkey, his whole carriage slouching.

"Stand at attention!"

"Hinkey, you're wholly disrespectful and insubordinate!"

Out of the corner of his eye the soldier saw his late companions silently drawing nearer.

"If I'm disrespectful, I'm disrespectful to nothing!" he retorted derisively.

Then he added with more insulting directness:

"Or to less than nothing!"

"Hinkey, are you going to stand at attention and be silent until I'm through with you?"

"No!"

Again he tried to free himself from the boyish sergeant's grasp, but this time he found it harder than he had expected.

"Stand at attention, man!"

"I'll see you in Tophet first! And take your hands off of me, unless you want to start trouble at once!"

"Hinkey, you are making a fearful mistake in forgetting yourself! I'll give you this one chance to come to your senses."

"And if you don't take your hands off of me you'll lose your senses--if you ever had any!"

Hal's answer was to tighten his grip until the other winced. Then Private Hinkey delivered his answer. Suddenly wrenching himself free, by the exercise of his full strength, he let his fist fly at Sergeant Overton's face. _

Read next: Chapter 10. Sergeant Overton And Discipline

Read previous: Chapter 8. Astonishment Jolts Mr. Ferrers

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