ide glance at his chum.

"Oh, we can keep secrets all right!" protested Tom Andrews.

"Well, then, fellows, Noll and I are going to New York to-morrow, to try
to enlist in the Regular Army."

"You are?" gasped Jud, staring at Hal and Noll in round-eyed delight.
"Oh, say, but you two ought to make dandy soldiers!"

"If the recruiting officer accepts us we'll do the best that's in us,"
smiled Hal.

"You'll be regular heroes!" predicted Jud, gazing at these two fortunate
youngsters with eyes wide open with approval.

"Oh, no, we can't be heroes," grimaced Noll. "We're going to be
regulars, and it's only the volunteers who are allowed to be heroes, you
know," added Noll jocosely. "There's nothing heroic about a regular
fighting bravely. That's his trade and his training."

"Don't you youngsters tell anyone," Hal insisted. "Or we shall be sorry
that we told you."

"What do you take us for?" demanded Jud scornfully.

Hal and Noll had had it in mind to stroll off by themselves, for this
was likely to be their last day in the home town for many a day to come.
But Jud and Tom were full of hero worship of the two budding soldier
boys, and walked along with them.

"There's Tip Branders," muttered Tom suddenly.

"I don't care," retorted Jud. "He won't dare try anything on us; and, if
he does, we can take care of him."

"What has Tip against you?" asked Hal Overton.

"He tried to thrash me, yesterday."

"Why?"

"I guess it was because I told him what I thought of him," admitted Jud,
with a grin.

"How did that happen?"

"Well, Tom and I were down in City Hall Park, sitting on one of the
benches. Tip came along and ordered us off the bench; said he wanted to
sit there himself. I told him he was a loafer and told him we wouldn't
get off the bench for anybody like him."

"And then?" asked Hal.

"Why, Tip just made a dive for me, and there was trouble in his eyes; so
I reconsidered, and made a quick get-away. So did Tom. Tip chased us a
little way, but we went so fast that we made it too much work for him.
So he halted, but yelled after us that he'd tan us the next time he got
close enough."

Tip Branders surely deserved the epithet of "loafer." Though only
nineteen he had the look of being past twenty-one. He was a big,
powerful fellow. Though he had not been at school since he was fifteen,
Tip had not worked three months in the last four years. His mother, who
kept a large and prosperous boarding-house, rega