s" and
"stage settings" as are needed by a big theatrical company.

For the tournament is, actually and purposely, a big theatrical display.
It is intended to show all the excitement, snap and glamour of the
soldier's life and his deeds of high skill and great daring.

Then came the day when the battalion, with drum-major and band at its
head, marched away with colors bravely flying, and boarded the train at
the little, nearby station.

The train left soon after nine in the morning.

Private Hinkey was greatly disappointed at this. He had hoped that the
command might travel by night. He had dreamed of catching Sergeant Hal
on a platform, and of hurling him from the moving car without his crime
being seen of other eyes.

"But no matter!" muttered the brute to himself. "I know the programme at
the tournament, and there'll be a lot of chances--more than I can use,
as I need but one!" the sullen fellow finished grimly under his breath.

It was late in the afternoon when the train was shunted upon a siding
not far from the great ball grounds on which the tourney was to be held.
There was no crowd here as yet, and no crashing of brass or flourish of
trumpets. The battalion, at route step, moved into the grounds. Here
ranks were broken and arms stacked. Then, by detachments, each under an
officer, or non-commissioned officer, the men were hustled off to attend
to an enormous amount of swift, skilful labor.

At one far-end of the grounds the full-sized Army tents were erected,
with cook tents, mess and hospital tents, and all, for the men were to
live comfortably in the brief time that they were to be here.

Engineer and cavalry troops were already on the field, the engineers
having arrived first of all, in order to lay the grounds out for the
work in hand. Artillery and Signal Corps men, and a small detachment of
ordnance troops, were due to arrive before dark.

By supper time the hard-worked soldiers had some right to feel tired. It
was not until nine in the evening that the men were through for that
day. Then a few of the men of best conduct were given passes to leave
camp and visit Denver until midnight.

Private Hinkey was not one of these men. He did not even want to go, for
he had worked like a beaver, and was thoroughly tired out. It had
seemed, since reaching the grounds, as though Hinkey had been determined
to show how good and industrious a soldier he could be.

"That man is working to reinstate himself i