I'm going to do my share with
a company one hundred percent. good, even if I don't find time
for any sleep."

Up the corridor there sounded a knock at a door. Something was
said in a low voice. Then the knock was repeated on Prescott's
door.

"Come in!" called Dick.

An orderly entered saluting.

"Orders from the adjutant, sir," said the soldier, handing Prescott
a folded paper. He handed one like it to Greg, then saluted and
left the room, knocking at the next door.

"Company drill from one to two-thirty," summarized Prescott, glancing
through the typewritten words on the unfolded sheet. "Practice
march by battalions from two-forty-five to three-forty-five.
Squad drill from four o'clock until retreat. That looks brisk, Greg."

"Doesn't it?" asked Holmes, without too plain signs of enthusiasm.
"Company drill and the hike call for our presence, preferably,
and yet I've paper work enough to keep me busy until evening mess."

"Paper work," so-called, is the bane of life for the company commander.
It consists of keeping, making and signing records, of the keeping
and inspection of accounts; it deals with requisitions for supplies
and an endless number of reports.

"I have a barrelful of paper work, too," Dick admitted. "But
I'm going to see everything going well on the drill ground before I
go near company office."

"All good things must end," grunted Greg, rising to his feet, "even
this rest. Mess will be on in eight minutes."

The instant that the door had closed Dick drew off his olive drab
shirt, drew out a lidded box from under the bed and deposited
the shirt therein, next restoring the box to place bring out a
basin from under the bed and placing it on a chair, he found towel
and soap and busied himself with washing up. His toilet completed,
he took a clean shirt from a bundle on one of the neatly arranged
shelves and donned the garment. A few more touches, and, spick-and-span,
clean and very soldierly looking, he descended to the ground floor.
A glance into the mess-room showed him that the noon meal was not
yet ready, so be sauntered to the doorway, remaining just inside
out of the sun's rays.

Other officers gathered quickly. A waiter from mess appeared at
the inner doorway, speaking a quiet word that caused the regiment's
officers, except the colonel and his staff, to file inside.

Plain pine tables, without cloths, long pine benches nailed to
the floor---officers' mess was exactly lik