he weather is cooler, and----"

Captain Ruggles acted a good deal like a man who is about to lose his
temper.

"Mr. Ferrers," came his rasping order, "go to your rooms! Remain there
until you hear from Colonel North, Major Silsbee or myself."

"Why, what on earth have I done now?" gasped the astonished young man.

"Go to your rooms, sir!"

"Now, what ails good old Ruggles? Isn't the Army the queerest old place
on the map of the moon?"

Within fifteen minutes Algy Ferrers, sitting back in an easy chair in
his quarters, glancing out of a window with a look of absolute boredom,
received a telephone call.

"Colonel North's compliments, and will you come to his house at once?"
was the brief message.

"Now, I shouldn't wonder if old Ruggles had forgotten to mind his own
business," muttered Algy disconsolately, as he reached for his fatigue
cap.

"Mr. Ferrers," was the colonel's stern greeting, "every day your conduct
becomes more incomprehensible!"

"And every day, sir, I might say," retorted the young man pleasantly,
"the Army becomes harder to understand. I don't wish to be guilty of
any impertinence, sir, but wouldn't it be well to have a law enacted
that officers from civil life should be appointed wholly from clerks,
who have learned how to keep office hours and never do any thinking for
themselves?"

"There might be some advantage in that plan, Mr. Ferrers," replied the
colonel grimly. "And I can't help feeling that you would give infinitely
more satisfaction here if you had first been trained a bit in one of
your father's many offices. I don't suppose you have the least idea,
sir, of what a grave offense you have committed to-day?"

"I expected to be praised, sir," replied Algy almost testily, "for
having been highly humane to the men under my command."

"Humane!" exploded Colonel North. "Bah! Mr. Ferrers, do you imagine that
our regulars are so many weaklings, that they have to come in when it
rains, or stay in when the sun shines? Bah! You have been guilty of
gross disobedience of orders, and you are an officer, sir--supposed to
be engaged in teaching obedience to enlisted men. That is all, sir--you
may go to your quarters!"

By the time that young Mr. Ferrers reached his own quarters he found
Lieutenant Prescott there, though the latter did not say a word about
Colonel North having ordered him to make the call.

Algy immediately started in upon what was, for him, a furious tirade.

"Do you know,