CHAPTER XV

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 pa.s.sing, 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 pa.s.sing, 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."