rsey side. As they crossed the
North River both boys admitted to themselves that they were becoming a
good deal more nervous.

"We'll get a Broadway surface car, and that will take us right up to
Madison Square," proposed Noll.

"It would take us too long," negatived Hal. "We can save a lot of time
by taking the Sixth Avenue "L" uptown and walking across to Madison
Square."

"You're in a hurry to have it over with?" laughed Noll, but there was a
slight tremor in his voice.

"I'm in a hurry to know my fate," admitted Hal.

Oliver Terry had been in New York but once before. Hal, by virtue of his
superiority in having made four visits to New York, led the way
straight to the elevated railroad. They climbed the stairs, and were
just in time to board a train.

A few minutes later they got out at Twenty-third Street, crossed to
Fifth Avenue and Broadway, then made their way swiftly over to Madison
Square.

"There's the place, over there!" cried Noll, suddenly seizing Hal's arm
and dragging him along. "There's an officer and a man, and the soldier
is holding a banner. It has something on it that says something about
recruits for the Army."

"The man you call an officer is a non-commissioned officer--a sergeant,
in fact," Hal replied. "Don't you see the chevrons on his sleeve?"

"That's so," Noll admitted slowly. "Cavalry, at that. His chevrons and
facings are yellow. It was his fine uniform that made me take him for an
officer."

"We'll go up to the sergeant and ask him where the recruiting office
is," Hal continued.

Certainly the sergeant looked "fine" enough to be an officer. His
uniform was immaculate, rich-looking and faultless. Both sergeant and
private wore the olive khaki, with handsome visored caps of the same
material.

The early April forenoon was somewhat chilly, yet the benches in the
center of the square were more than half-filled by men plainly "down on
their luck." Some of these men, of course, were hopelessly besotted or
vicious, and Uncle Sam had no use for any of these in his Army uniform.
There were other men, however, on the seats, who looked like good and
useful men who had met with hard times. Most of these men on the benches
had not breakfasted, and had no assurance that they would lunch or dine
on that day.

It was to the better elements among these men that the sergeant and the
private soldier were intended to appeal. Yet the sergeant was not
seeking unwilling recruits; he addressed