ver.

Nor did the information that his comrades offered him console him any.
He was assured that there would be no doubt about his learning all of
his military duties at Fort Leavenworth--if he lived to get through the
ordeal.

In the Army there is an officers' school for every branch of the
service. Officers attend as "student officers"; the course is severe,
but the officer seldom fails to learn whatever he goes to such a school
to learn.

Two days later there were two officers leaving the post.

Algy went down to the station to take up his journey to the new station
in Kansas. Despite his seeming inability to learn to be a soldier,
Ferrers had made himself well enough liked personally, so many of the
officers accompanied him as far as the Clowdry station.

Lieutenant Prescott was going with the hunting party. He had succeeded
in procuring leave for hunting, and in getting himself invited to go
along with Sergeant Hal Overton's party.

CHAPTER XVI

HAL'S GUN MAKES THE REST CURIOUS

"OH, my, but that smells good!"

The words came in a sort of ecstasy from the lips of Sergeant Noll
Terry, as, gun in hand, he tramped into camp with Corporal Hyman and
three others.

"Bear meat," said Slosson briefly. "Sergeant Overton and Lieutenant
Prescott brought it in just before noon with their compliments."

"Where are they now?"

"Somewhere out in the world," replied Private Kelly, nodding at the
mountain tops beyond. "They went out to see how much more they could
get."

Slosson had mentioned the sergeant before the lieutenant, but that was
not an unpardonable breach of etiquette, out here in the wilds.

More especially was it proper because Sergeant Hal, and not the
handsome, fine, young West Pointer, commanded this camp and detachment.

"Where are your mates, Sarge?" inquired Slosson.

"Oh, I left my crowd," smiled Noll. "They won't be in for an hour yet,
in all probability."

"Get anything, any of you?" queried Kelly.

"Not a thing, up to the time I quit," sighed Noll.

"Humph! We've all got to get a brace on us," muttered Slosson. "This is
our third day in camp, and what have we killed so far? Just enough meat
to satisfy the appetites we've developed up here in the hills!"

Sergeant Hal Overton's hunting detachment of the Thirty-fourth was now
encamped up in the highest points, almost, of all the Colorado Rockies.

Entraining, the party had gone some sixty miles over the rails. At the
station