"The Navy garrisons the island of Guam, Mother."

"Well, then, to Alaska, or to some other outlandish place. I'm glad you're to go to some place where I can get on the cars and go to see you."

There was to come a time in the no distant future when her splendid son would be called upon to go where she could not follow--a time when Hal and his a.s.sociates would be over-seas fighting for the democracy of the world, as well as for the existence of their beloved homeland.

"And some of my first savings as an officer will go to pay your fare, Mother. But you don't seem interested in the regiment, after all."

"Well, which regiment is it?"

"The Thirty-seventh Infantry, Colonel Wheatman."

"Would you rather have gone to the Thirty-fourth?"

"For many reasons, much rather. But I'm contented to go wherever Uncle Sam sends me. That's the only right way for a soldier to feel."

"I would have liked the Thirty-fourth better, too," remarked Mrs.

Overton thoughtfully. "The Thirty-fourth is soon due to be back from the Philippines, while your new Thirty-seventh may just be getting ready to start there."

"And the last bit of my news, Mother, is that I am to report for duty with my new regiment on September fifteenth."

"So soon?" cried Mrs. Overton, her voice keen with disappointment. "Why, it seems as though you had come home only yesterday. And now you must run away again."

"All in the soldier's game. But it won't be long before you'll be coming out to visit me."

"You have no house on the post, and you won't have any place to keep me if I come, Hal."

"A bachelor officer, Mother, must be very attentive to the married women on the post. Then one of the married women will invite his mother to visit at her quarters."

"You don't have to _flirt_ with married women, I hope?"

"Not so you could notice it, Mother," replied Lieutenant Hal gravely.

"An officer, we are taught in the Army, is the descendant of the knight of old. So the officer must be careful to be always very respectful with all women. If he fails in that obligation his brother officers make his stay in the Army so disagreeable that he's glad to get out of the Army altogether."

"Is the whole regiment stationed at Fort Cutler?"

"Fort Butler, Mother. No; only the second battalion of the regiment.

Major Tipton will be my immediate commanding officer. And now you'll excuse me, won't you?"

"You're going around to Noll's?"

"Yes. We made a request that we be a.s.signed to the same battalion. I'm mighty anxious to know whether it has been convenient to grant our wish."

"Does Mr. Ad Interim have anything to with _that_?" demanded Mrs.

Overton.

"I believe not," laughed Hal, then vanished through the doorway.

"Strange to me what complete fascination there can be about the Army,"

mused Mrs. Overton. "That boy of mine, now that he's ordered to join his regiment again, is wholly and unreasonably happy."

Noll had received his orders just before Hal arrived. Lieutenant Terry was also ordered to Fort Butler.

"There isn't a thing left that we can ask for!" exclaimed Hal contentedly.

"I hope we'll have as good luck with each step upward," beamed young Terry.

"There may come a time in our upward progress when we can't serve in the same regiment," warned Hal. "That will be when we become lieutenant-colonels. The present law allows but one lieutenant-colonel to a regiment, you know."

"Oh, as far as that's concerned, cheer up, chum," grinned Lieutenant Noll. "Before we get anywhere near as high as lieutenant-colonel we may each be occupying a two-by-six in a soldiers' cemetery."

"It would please the Hepburns and Sayles better if we did now," laughed Hal. "But let's forget malice toward others--we've been able to get everything on earth that we've wanted so far. Noll, to-morrow morning, we must pay another visit to Sergeant Wright."

Several times since their return home the Army boys had been to call on Wright, a retired old Army sergeant living in this Jersey town. It was Sergeant Wright who had first inspired the boys with a desire for the Army life.

"We've got several visits to make, and very little time in which to do it," decided Noll.

It is difficult, indeed, to keep the press from learning all that is happening. The next morning the _Sphere_ contained this paragraph:

"Most of our citizens will be glad to learn that Lieutenants Overton and Terry, of the Regular Army, are leaving soon to go to their new station in far-away Texas."

There was nothing libelous in that paragraph. It could be taken either way--as a piece of congratulation or as a covert sneer. So Hal and Noll concluded to let it pa.s.s as a joke, and each clipped out the paragraph to show at Fort Butler.

All the good home times ended at last. Divided between pangs of regret and eager thoughts of the new service as line officers, Hal and Noll boarded a train one morning and started west.

The new life, the goal of their youthful dreams, lay before them. What would it bring?

CHAPTER VII

AN OLD FRIEND IN A NEW GUISE

At eleven o'clock on the morning of September fifteenth two slim, sun-burnt, erect and athletic-looking young men walked into headquarters at Fort Butler.

The sergeant seated at a desk in the outer room, after taking a look at them, concluded to take a chance. He rose, saluted and stood at attention.

"What can I do for you, gentlemen?" he asked.

"Is Major Tipton at headquarters?" queried Hal.

"Yes, sir."

"Will you take our cards in to the major if he is not too busily engaged to receive them?"

The sergeant glanced at the uppermost card, on which was printed, from engraved script, in the regular form for officers' cards: