t was unthinkable. But then, perhaps this
grim joker, Yancey, was spoofing a bit.

"Come on, Wart," Hampden called to Siddons from the doorway. "Tex has
just been listening to old General Rumor. I'd like right much to see
this instructor before I get excited about it. Come on, let's go into
town. The night's young--and so am I."

"You'll get excited when you see him," Tex responded, sagely.

"Who is he?" Nathan Rodd asked, which was about as long a sentence as
Rodd ever spoke. He saved words as though they were so much gold.

"He's an English lieutenant," Tex answered. "Red-headed, freckle-faced,
and so runty that he'd have to set on a stepladder to see out of a
cockpit."

"A Limey!" chorused half a dozen incredulous, angry voices. "Whatdya
know about that!"

Tex nodded solemnly. He was enjoying the situation. Inwardly, he was as
furious as any of the others, but he had the happy faculty of being able
to enjoy mob distress. "Yeah, a Limey! Some gink in town told me he was
a famous ace. I forget his name. Never could remember names. But you
boys'll love him. Like as not he'll let some of us solo after a month or
so. Ain't the air service wonderful?"

More growls, and a half dozen muttered threats.

"Now boys, you-all be good, or Uncle Samuel'll send you back home and
let you work in the shipyards at twenty per day. I'm surprised and hurt
that you take this good news in this fashion. I should think you'd be
delighted to have a Limey show you how he shot down a few of--"

"Attention!" Hampden called from the doorway, a warning quality in his
voice.

The men looked up. There in the doorway stood Major Cowan, and by his
side was a neatly uniformed, diminutive member of the Royal Flying
Corps. The men scrambled hastily to their feet. Yancey upset his chair
with a clatter as he unwound his long, thin legs from around the rungs.

Major Cowan, always maddeningly correct in military courtesies, turned
upon Hampden with a withering look.

"Lieutenant," his voice had the edge of a razor but its cut was not so
smooth, "do you not know that attention is not called when at mess?"

"Yes, sir."

"You do, or you do not?"

"Double negatives bother me right much," Hampden replied, his eyes on
the English pilot and caring not a whit for court-martial now that he
saw in the flesh the proof of Yancey's report, "but I do know the rule."

"Then observe it," Major Cowan responded, testily. "Gentlemen, this is
Lieutenant McGee