to take the grey car through the fields as Jack
retraced their course over the straight road from Bremerton. They met
pickets, but those they met, who had heard something of the deeds Jack
had already accomplished, cheered his progress now, since this was no
longer the enemy's country but a part of Red territory, by virtue of
Bean's swift and successful attack of the morning. The soldiers they saw
were a part of their own army, and Jack waved his hand in grateful
acknowledgment of the cheers that pursued them as they sped by.

"Those fellows are regulars," he told Tom, as they passed one small
detachment. "It makes you feel good to think that they regard us as
comrades in arms, doesn't it, Tom? Those fellows know what they're
about, and they must regard some of our militia as a good deal of a
joke."

"I don't think that's a bit fair, Jack," said Tom. "The militia have
their own work to do most of the time, and they do the best they can
when they turn soldiers. And if we had a war, the regulars wouldn't be
able to go very far without help--they must know that!"

"They're not mean about it, Tom. They help the militia as much as they
can when they're in camp together, and teach them the tricks of the
trade. But they're trained men who don't do anything but work at their
soldiering, and the trained men always feel a bit superior to the
volunteers."

"Some countries have a much bigger army than we do, don't they, Jack?"

"Indeed they do! Why, in Europe, in every country except England, every
man has to serve in the army, unless he's too weak to do it. You see,
they have possible enemies on all sides of them. Over here we don't
realize how lucky we are to have the sea guarding us from the most
dangerous enemies we might have. We haven't any reason to fear trouble
with England, and Canada, of course, isn't any better off than we when
it comes to an army. We could take care of them easily enough with the
trained troops we have. And Mexico, while they might fight us, couldn't
put up any sort of a real fight. The Mexicans couldn't invade this
country, and if we ever had to invade Mexico, we'd have all the time we
needed to train an army to go across and fight them, the way we did
before. We may have to do that some time, but I hope not, because
fighting in the sort of country there is down there would mean an awful
loss of life."

"You mean that they know the country so well that a small force of them
could worry us and ma