old you responsible, Ferrers.
We'll charge the jolt up to the old officer you mentioned."

"Well, then," resumed Algy, "he asked me what I meant by making a foul
chimney of my nose and stewing my brain all day long in a mess of
nicotine. He further asked me why I didn't give it up."

"What did you say to him?"

"Why," confessed Algy honestly, "I told him that it had never occurred
to me before that a cigarette smoker is violating the nuisance act all
day long, and that an Army officer could be in better business than
breaking the minor laws."

"Thank you," said Pratt dryly, rising and walking over to a fire place,
into which he threw his lighted cigarette. A general laugh greeted the
act.

"You two used to be clean young fellows, with no cigarettes in your
pockets," continued Ferrers, turning to Hal and Noll.

"We don't smoke yet," answered Terry.

Brisbane, the ranking officer present, arose, and the others followed.

"Now, Overton, it's ten minutes to two," explained Lieutenant Sears,
glancing at his watch. "If you want to go over to Captain Foster's
quarters, and be presented to him, I'm at your service."

"Thank you; I'm ready."

At the same time Lieutenant Johnson made the same offer to Noll. The
four officers left the club together, all returning the salutes of a
sentry who stood at present arms.

"What's all that nonsense Ferrers gives us about the old days when he
was such a rookie from civil life?" inquired Lieutenant Sears.

"It's all true enough," Hal answered. "Ferrers was a mighty good-hearted
fellow----"

"He is now," interposed Sears.

"But he was really the laughing-stock of all the enlisted men, and the
despair of all the other officers at Fort Clowdry," continued Hal.
"Nothing has pleased me so much, in a long time, as to see him such a
dead-in-earnest, dyed-in-the-wool officer as he is now."

"Ferrers is one of the most capable youngsters in the service," Sears
declared warmly. "Really, you know, it seems incredible that he could
ever have been any other kind of officer."

"If a man like Algy Ferrers can come back, and be what he is to-day,"
Noll declared, "then there's hope for a pair of raw youngsters like
Overton and myself."

"Oh, you two will have no trouble; you've been enlisted men," replied
Johnson. "Men who come up from the ranks, as you two did, have had all
the possible nonsense knocked out of them before they got to their first
examinations. But here's Captain Goodale