iments
were then being added to the Regular Army. Two or three hundred
trained soldiers and several hundred recruits had made up the
beginnings of the regiment. Prescott and Holmes had been among
the latest of the captains sent to the regiment, arriving in August.
And now Colonel Cleaves had just joined his command on orders
from Washington.

With forty men in the headquarters company and some fifty in the
machine-gun company, the rifle companies on this September day
averaged about seventy men. Nor had a full complement of officers
yet arrived.

Dick Prescott and Greg Holmes, lately first lieutenants, as readers
of former volumes of this series are aware, had received their
commissions as captains just before joining the Ninety-ninth.

"This regiment is scheduled to go over at an early date," Colonel
Cleaves had informed his regimental officers, at the conference
of which we have just witnessed the close. "Headquarters and
machine-gun companies must be raised to their respective quotas
of men, and each rifle company must be increased from seventy
to two hundred and fifty men each. New recruits will arrive every
week. These men must be whipped into shape. Gentlemen, I expect
your tireless aid in making this the finest infantry regiment in
the American line."

One or two glances at Colonel Cleaves, when he was talking earnestly,
were enough to show the observer that this officer meant all he
said. Shirkers, among either officers or men, would receive scant
consideration in his regiment.

Camp Berry, at which the Ninety-ninth and the Hundredth were stationed,
lay in one of the prettiest parts of Georgia. Needless to say
the day was one of sweltering heat and the regimental officers,
as they filed out of the company barracks that had been used for
holding the conference, fanned themselves busily with their campaign
hats. Each, however, as he struck the steps leading to the ground,
placed his campaign hat squarely on his head.

"Some pace the K.O. has set for us," murmured Greg, as he and
Dick started to walk down the company street.

"And we must keep that pace if we hope to last in Colonel Cleaves's
regiment," Dick declared, with conviction. "Time was when an
officer in the Regular Army could look forward to remaining an
officer as long as he was physically fit and did not disgrace
himself. But in this war any officer, regular or otherwise, will
find himself laid on the shelf whenever he fails to pr