ordinary issue, I think it better for me to
seek Major Silsbee's authority for issuing them."

"Would it have been better if I had gone to the battalion commander in
the first place, sir?"

"No; whenever you wish anything in the Army it is usually better to go
direct to the officer who has that thing in charge in his department,
save when it is something that you are expected to draw through your
company officers."

"It was Captain Cortland who sent me to you, sir, but he said he had no
authority to draw a requisition for signal flags."

"You have taken the right course, Corporal. If Major Silsbee is in his
office it will take but a moment more."

While the young corporal remained at attention Lieutenant Pope turned to
his telephone and called for the battalion commander.

"It's all right, Corporal," nodded the lieutenant, hanging up the
receiver. Then he wrote on a slip of official paper. "Here is an order
on which the quartermaster sergeant will issue you two signal flags. You
are, of course, responsible for the flags, or for the value."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

Five minutes later Corporal Hal Overton stepped briskly from the
building in which the quartermaster's stores were kept. Under his left
arm he carried two signal flags, rolled and attached to short staffs.

"Noll hasn't shown up yet. I hope he won't be long," murmured Hal,
gazing across the parade grounds in the direction of the barracks of
enlisted men. "Bunkie and I have a lot to do to-day."

Readers of the preceding volumes in this series will need no
introduction to Corporals Hal Overton and Noll Terry, of the
Thirty-fourth United States Infantry.

The headquarters battalion to which these two earnest young soldiers
were attached was still stationed at Fort Clowdry. Readers of "UNCLE
SAM'S BOYS IN THE RANKS" are familiar with the circumstances under which
Overton and Terry first enlisted at a recruiting office in New York
City. These same readers also know how the two young soldiers put in
several weeks of steady drilling at a recruit rendezvous near New York,
where they learned the first steps in the soldier's strenuous calling.
Our readers are also familiar with all the many things that happened
during that period of recruit instruction, and how Hal and Noll, while
traveling through the Rockies on their way to join their regiment, aided
in resisting an attempt by robbers to hold up the United States mail
train. Our readers are well awar