From the Ranks | Page 3

strolled
hesitatingly over to the desk, balanced unsteadily on one leg, and, with
his hands sticking in his trousers-pockets and his forage-cap swinging
from protruding thumb and forefinger, cleared his throat, and, with
marked lack of confidence, accosted his absorbed superior:
"Colonel gone home?"
"Didn't you see him?" was the uncompromising reply; and the captain
did not deign to raise his head or eyes.
"Well--er--yes, I suppose I did," said Mr. Hall, shifting uncomfortably
to his other leg, and prodding the floor with the toe of his boot.
"Then that wasn't what you wanted to know, I presume," said Captain
Chester, signing his name with a vicious dab of the pen and bringing
his fist down with a thump on the blotting-pad, while he wheeled
around in his chair and looked squarely up into the perturbed features
of the junior.
"No, it wasn't," answered Mr. Hall, in an injured tone, while an audible
snicker at the door added to his sense of discomfort. "What I mainly
wanted was to know could I go to town."
"That matter is easily arranged, Mr. Hall. All you have to do is to get
out of that uncomfortable and unsoldierly position, stand in the attitude
in which you are certainly more at home and infinitely more
picturesque, proffer your request in respectful words, and there is no
question as to the result."

"Oh! you're in command, then?" said Mr. Hall, slowly wriggling into
the position of the soldier and flushing through his bronzed cheeks. "I
thought the colonel might be only gone for a minute."
"The colonel may not be back for a week; but you be here for
dress-parade all the same, and--Mr. Hall!" he called, as the young
officer was turning away. The latter faced about again.
"Was Mr. Jerrold going with you to town?"
"Yes, sir. He was to drive me in his dog-cart, and it's over here now."
"Mr. Jerrold cannot go,--at least not until I have seen him."
"Why, captain, he got the colonel's permission at breakfast this
morning."
"That is true, no doubt, Mr. Hall." And the captain dropped his sharp
and captious manner, and his voice fell, as though in sympathy with the
cloud that settled on his face. "I cannot explain matters just now. There
are reasons why the permission is withdrawn for the time being. The
adjutant will notify him." And Captain Chester turned to his desk again
as the new officer of the day, guard-book in hand, entered to make his
report.
"The usual orders, captain," said Chester, as he took the book from his
hand and looked over the list of prisoners. Then, in bold and rapid
strokes, he wrote across the page the customary certificate of the old
officer of the day, winding up with this remark:
"He also inspected guard and visited sentries between 3 and 3.35 a.m.
The firing at 3.30 a.m. was by his order."
Meantime, those officers who had entered and who had no immediate
duty to perform were standing or seated around the room, but all
observing profound silence. For a moment or two no sound was heard
but the scratching of the captain's pen. Then, with some embarrassment
and hesitancy, he laid it down and glanced around him.

"Has any one here anything to ask,--any business to transact?"
Two or three mentioned some routine matters that required the action
of the post-commander, but did so reluctantly, as though they preferred
to await the orders of the colonel himself. Captain Wilton, indeed,
spoke his sentiments:
"I wanted to see Colonel Maynard about getting two men of my
company relieved from extra duty; but, as he isn't here, I fancy I had
better wait."
"Not at all. Who are your men?--Have it done at once, Mr. Adjutant,
and supply their places from my company, if need be. Now is there
anything else?"
The group was apparently "nonplussed," as the adjutant afterwards put
it, by such unlooked-for complaisance on the part of the usually
crotchety senior captain. Still, no one offered to lead the others and
leave the room. After a moment's nervous rapping with his knuckles on
the desk, Captain Chester again abruptly spoke:
"Gentlemen, I am sorry to incommode you, but, if there be nothing
more that you desire to see me about, I shall go on with some other
matters, which--pardon me--do not require your presence."
At this very broad hint the party slowly found their legs, and with much
wonderment and not a few resentful glances at their temporary
commander the officers sauntered to the door-way. There, however,
several stopped again, still reluctant to leave in the face of so pervading
a mystery, for Wilton turned.
"Am I to understand that Colonel Maynard has left the post to be gone
any length of time?" he asked.
"He