Uncle Sam's Boys in the Ranks: or, Two Recruits in the United States Army
With a sudden recollection that soldiers must hold themselves erect, Hal and Noll braced their shoulders until they thought they looked and carried themselves very much as the sergeant did. They kept this pose until they had turned the corner into Broadway.
"Whoop!" exploded the usually quiet Noll Terry unexpectedly.
"What's wrong, old fellow?" asked Hal quickly.
"Nothing! Everything's right, and we're soldiers at last!" cried Noll, his eyes shining.
"At least, we shall be to-morrow, if all goes well," rejoined Hal.
"Oh, nonsense! Everything is going to go right, now. It can't go any other way."
As he spoke, Noll turned to cross Broadway at the next corner.
Hal made a pounce forward, seizing his comrade by an arm. Then he backed like a flash, dragging Noll back to the sidewalk with him. Even at that a moving automobile brushed Noll's clothes, leaving a layer of dirt on them.
"Things will go wrong, if you don't watch where you're going," cried Hal rather excitedly. "Noll, Noll, don't try to walk on clouds, but remember you're on Broadway."
"Let's get off of Broadway, then," begged young Terry. "I'm so tickled that I want a chance to enjoy my thoughts."
"We'll cross and go down Broadway, then," Hal proposed. "I have the address of a hotel with rates low enough to suit our treasury, and it's some blocks below here."
"Say," muttered Noll, "of all the things I ever heard of! Think of Tip Branders wanting to serve the Flag!"
The boys talked of this puzzle, mainly, until they reached their street and crossed once more to go to the hotel. They registered, went to their room, and here Noll put in the next twenty minutes in making his clothes look presentable again.
"If you've got that done, let's go downstairs," proposed happy Hal. "I'm hungry enough to scare the bill of fare clear off the table."
As they descended into the lobby Hal suddenly touched Noll's arm and stood still.
"I guess Tip is going to stay right with us," whispered Overton in his chum's ear. "That's Tip's mother over there in the chair. She and her son must be stopping at this hotel."
"They surely are," nodded Noll, "for there's Tip himself just coming in."
Neither mother nor son noted the presence of the chums near by.
Tip hurried up to his mother, a grin on his not very handsome face.
"Well, old lady," was that son's greeting, "I've gone and done it."
"You don't mean that you've gotten into any trouble, do you, Tip?" asked his mother apprehensively.
"Trouble – nothing!" retorted Tip eloquently. "Naw! I've been around to the rookie shed and got passed as a soldier in the Regular Army."
"What?" gasped his mother paling.
"Now, that ain't nothing so fierce," almost growled Tip. "But there is a fool rule – me being under twenty-one – that you've got to go and give your consent. So that's the cloth that's cut for you this afternoon, old lady."
"Oh, oh, oh!" cried Mrs. Branders, sinking back in her chair and covering her face with her hands. "What have I ever done that I should be disgraced by having a son of mine going to – enlist in the Army!"
CHAPTER IV
MRS. BRANDERS GETS A NEW VIEW
THE chums waited to hear no more. It was none of their affair, so they slipped into one of the adjacent dining rooms.
Hal's eyes were flashing with indignation over Mrs. Brander's remark.
Noll, on the other hand, was smiling quietly.
"That must be a severe blow to Mrs. Branders," murmured Noll aloud, as the boys slipped into their chairs at table. "To think of gentle Tip going off into anything as rough and brutal as the Army! And poor little Tip raised so tenderly as a pet!"
As it afterwards turned out, however, Mrs. Branders, after offering her son a present of a hundred dollars to stay out of the Army, had at last tearfully given her consent to his becoming a soldier.
She even went to the recruiting office that afternoon with Tip, and gave a reluctant consent to her son's enlistment.
"Be here at nine o'clock, sharp, to-morrow morning," directed Lieutenant Shackleton.
It was doubtful if either youngster slept very well that night. Both were too full of thoughts of the Army and of the service. When Hal did dream it was of Indians and Filipinos.
Both were up early, and had breakfast out of the way in record time – and then they hurried to Madison Square. They reached there ten minutes ahead of time.
The sergeant, however, came along five minutes later, and admitted them to the recruiting office.
Hardly had they stepped inside when Tip and his mother also appeared. Then came the other enlisted men stationed at this office. Punctually at the stroke of nine Lieutenant Shackleton entered, lifted his uniform cap to Mrs. Branders and entered his own inner office.
"Now you kids will get orders to skin back home," jeered Tip, in a low tone, as he glanced over at Hal and Noll.
"No pleasantries of that sort here," directed the sergeant, glancing up from his desk.
The door of the inner office opened, and Lieutenant Shackleton stepped out.
"Overton and Terry, your references prove to be absolutely good. I will enlist you presently."
Then the officer moved over to where Tip Branders and his mother sat. Tip rose awkwardly.
"Branders, I'm sorry to say we must decline your enlistment," announced the recruiting officer, in a low tone.
"Wot's that?" demanded Tip unbelievingly.
"I find myself unable to accept you as a recruit in the Army," replied the lieutenant.
"Why, wot's the matter?" demanded Tip, thunderstruck. "Didn't I get by the sawbones all right?"
"If you mean the surgeon, yes," replied the recruiting officer. "But I regret to say that we do not receive satisfactory accounts of you from the home town."
"Wot's the matter? Somebody out home trying to give me the crisscross?" demanded Tip indignantly.
"We do not receive a satisfactory account of your character, Branders, and therefore you are not eligible for enlistment," went on Shackleton. "Madam, I am extremely sorry, but the regulations allow me to pursue no other course in the matter. I cannot enlist your son."
"See here, officer – " began Mrs. Branders hoarsely, as she got upon her feet.
"When addressing Mr. Shackleton, call him 'lieutenant,' not 'officer,'" murmured one of the orderlies in her ear.
"You mind your own business," flashed Mrs. Branders, turning her face briefly to the orderly. Then she wheeled, giving her whole attention to the lieutenant.
"See here, officer, do you mean to say that my boy ain't good enough to get into the Army?"
"I am sorry, madam, but the report we receive of his character isn't satisfactory," answered Shackleton quietly.
"What? My boy ain't good enough to go with the loafers and roughs in the Army?" cried Mrs. Branders angrily. "He's too good for 'em – a heap sight too good for any such low company! But s'posing Tip has been just a little frisky sometimes, what has that got to do with his being a soldier? I thought you wanted young fellows to fight – not pray!"
"The soldier who can do both makes the better soldier, madam," replied the lieutenant, feeling sorry for the mother's humiliation. "And now I will say good morning to you and your son, madam, for I am very busy to-day. Overton and Terry, come into my office."
Before turning, Lieutenant Shackleton bowed to Mrs. Branders as gracefully and courteously as he could have done to the President's wife. Then he started for his office, leaving Mrs. Branders and Tip to depart in bewilderment and anger.
Hal and Noll followed the lieutenant, trying not to let their faces betray any feeling over Tip's troubles.
"You still wish to enlist?" asked Shackleton, turning to the waiting lads, after he had seated himself.
"Yes, sir," answered both.
"Then you will sign the rolls," directed the recruiting officer, passing papers forward, dipping a pen in ink and passing it to Hal.
Hal signed, slowly, with a solemn feeling. It was Noll's turn next.
"I will now administer the oath," continued Lieutenant Shackleton gravely, as he rose at his desk. "Raise your right hand, Overton, and repeat after me."
This was the oath of service that Hal repeated:
"'I Henry Overton, do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America; that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies whomsoever; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the rules and articles of war.'"
Then Noll took the same oath.
"You have already signed the same oath as a part of your enlistment contract," continued Lieutenant Shackleton. "I have now to certify that you have taken the oath and signed before me."
Seating himself once more the recruiting officer certified in the following form on each set of papers:
"Subscribed and duly sworn to before me this – day of – , A. D. —
"Thomas P. Shackleton,"First Lieutenant, 17th Cavalry,"Recruiting Officer.""That is all," finished the recruiting officer. "You are now recruits in the United States Army. I wish you both all happiness and success. You will take your further orders from my sergeant, or from the corporal to whom he turns you over. You will probably find yourself at the recruit rendezvous at Bedloe's Island in time for dinner to-day."
Touching a button on his desk the lieutenant waited until the sergeant entered.
"Sergeant, turn these men over to Corporal Dodds. Come back in ten minutes for the papers."
"Very good, sir."
The sergeant led them down the corridor, opening a door and leading the way inside.
"Corporal Dodds, here are two recruits. Take care of them until I bring the papers."
"Very good, Sergeant."
The door closed.
"Help yourselves to chairs, or stand and look out of the window, if you'd rather," invited Corporal Dodds, who, himself, was seated at a small desk.
Hal and Noll tried sitting down at first. This soon became so irksome that they rose and went to one of the windows.
Corporal Dodds said nothing until the door opened once more, and the sergeant entered with an envelope.
"Here are the papers for Privates Overton and Terry. You are directed to see that the young men go with you on the eleven o'clock ferry to Bedloe's Island. You will report with these recruits to the post adjutant as usual."
"Very good, Sergeant," replied Corporal Dodds, and again the boys were alone with their present guide.
To the raw young recruits it was a tremendously solemn day, but to the corporal, it was simply a matter of dry routine.
"Ten-fifteen," yawned the corporal, at last. "Come along, rookies; nothing like being on time – in the Army, especially."
"Rookie" is the term by which a new recruit is designated in Army slang. It is a term of mild derision.
Corporal Dodds paused long enough at the recruiting office to turn over his key to the sergeant; then he led the way to the street, across to the Sixth Avenue Elevated road, and thence they embarked on a train bound down town.
All the way to the Battery Corporal Dodds did not furnish his pair of recruits with more than a dozen words by way of conversation.
But neither Hal nor Noll felt much like talking. Though either would have died sooner than admit it, each was suffering, just then from acute homesickness, and also from a secret dread that the Army might not turn out to be as rosy as they had painted it in their imagination.
"This way to the Army ferry," directed Corporal Dodds, leading them across the Battery.
Once aboard a small steamer that flew the flag of the Quartermaster's Department, United States Army, Corporal Dodds watched his two young rookies as though he suspected they would desert if they got a chance.
After the ferry had left the slip, however, Dodds paid no more heed to them. He at least left them free to end it all by jumping over into the bay, if they wished to do so.
Finding that he was under no restrictions, Private Hal Overton, United States Army, sauntered forward to the bow. Private Noll Terry, feeling, if anything a bit more forlorn, followed him.
Just as they were nearing the dock at Bedloe's Island, Noll ventured:
"I wonder how Tip Branders feels about now."
"I wonder," muttered Hal.
CHAPTER V
IN THE AWKWARD SQUAD
ONCE they were ashore our young rookies found Bedloe's Island a very much larger bit of real estate than it appears to the passerby on a steamboat.
It was, in fact, a long walk from the dock to the adjutant's office at headquarters.
"Hit up the stride, rookies," ordered Corporal Dodds. "Double-time march – hike. Don't keep the post adjutant from his luncheon."
Corporal Dodds' real reason for haste was that he had a crony in one of the squad rooms at barracks whom he wanted to see as early as possible.
Shortly the rookies and their guide entered the adjutant's office. The adjutant proved to be a captain of infantry with a corporal and two privates on duty in his office as clerks.
"Sir, I report with two recruits," announced Corporal Dodds, coming to a salute, which the adjutant returned.
"Their papers?" asked the adjutant.
"Here, sir."
"Very good, Corporal. You may go."
Turning to the chums Captain Anderson asked:
"You are Overton?"
"Yes, sir," Hal replied, doing his best to salute as neatly as Corporal Dodds had. Again the adjutant returned the salute in kind. "Then you are Terry?" he asked, turning.
"Yes, sir," Noll returned, not omitting to salute.
The adjutant called to his principal clerk.
"Corporal, make the proper entries for these men. Then take them over to Sergeant Brimmer's squad room."
With that the adjutant picked up his uniform cap and left the office, all the enlisted men present rising and standing at attention until he had closed the door after him.
The corporal made the necessary entries, then rose and picked up his own uniform cap.
"Come with me, rookies," he directed briefly.
So Hal and Noll followed, feeling within them another surge of that curiously lonely and depressed feeling.
This corporal led them into the barracks building, and down a corridor on the ground floor. He paused, at last, before a door that he flung open. Striding into the room, the corporal looked about him.
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