Army and Navy Weekly — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

- ished till it shone like a morror. ARMY AND NAVY you on, 1f you please.’ And by George ) ‘You don’t mean he cleaned your gun for you!’’ gasped Baby. ‘“That’s just exactly what Ido! You might have knocked me over with a feather. He said, ‘Certainly, sir.’ Yes, by jiminy, he actually said ‘sir.’ And when I left him he was working away like a beaver. He had the gun half cleaned. What do you think of that?” Gus finished and gazed at his two com- panions triumphantly. had accomplished something that no other member of his class ever had. ‘“T?]l bet Mallory was afraid of you,”’ chirruped Baby Edwards. ‘‘Don’t you suppose that’s it, Merry ?”’ Vance picked up his mandolin and re- sumed his cynical smile. ‘*T’]1] tell you what I think,’’ he said. ‘“What?’’? demanded Murray. “That you’re a fool.”’ ‘*What the dickens do you mean ?’’ ‘“Simply,’’ said Vance, ‘‘that Mallory was playing some kind of ajoke on you.”’ “But he wasn’t?” erjed the other. ‘‘I went back after he was through and the gun was perfect. The wood was pol- I actu- ally did not like to touch-it, it was s pretty.”’ | ‘*And how about the rest of the tent ?’’ inquired Vance. ‘He hadn’t disturbed a thing. I looked particularly. I.tell you, man, that Mal- lory has given in.”’ “It’s not much like him,’’ said Merry, dubiously. ‘“VYou don’t have to look very far for the cause,’’ began Murray. ‘‘ You remem- ber how the first class gave him a licking the other day ?”’ Vance admitted that might have some- thing to do with it. “Tt’s got everything,’’ chuckled Mur- trav. ‘‘It’s simply broken his spirit. Why look, man. He was black and blue all over., Even now one of his arms dsinasling. I tell you he’s made up his mind that it isn’t safe to carry on as he’s been, and so he’s decided to get meek and mild for a change.” pene, On, say, if it’s true! cried _ Baby, excitedly. ‘‘Ifi it’s true! Gee whiz, won’t we have some fun!”’ He felt that he. 1071 “Just won’t we!’’? responded Murray, doubling up his fists and glaring as if the hated plebe were really in front of him. ‘‘T just tell you I mean to make him wish he’d never been born. I’ve been waiting for achance to get even with that con- founded beast, and now I’ll have him.”? For the next half hour there was joy unbounded among those three young gen-. tlemen. Only those who are familiar with their dispositions can comprehend the amount of satisfaction they felt; and only those who know our friend Mark Mal- lory’s character as they'did can appreci- ate their surprise at his ‘‘flunk.”’ “T wish Bull were here to hear about it,’? remarked Baby at last. ‘Where the dickens is Bull anyhow?”’ inquired Murray, who was chief lieuten- ant in Bull’s gang and an invaluable as- sistant in all of Bull’s schemes for re- venge upon Mark. That question changed the topic of con- yersation for a few minutes. It was Vance who.answered it. ‘’There’s something mysterious about Bull,?”-he said.. “I’ve been. puzzling’ my head to think what it means. You know Bull was absent trom taps last night.”’ ‘What!’ ; ‘Ves, he was. And you know that’s a pretty serious offense. It may mean court- martial, you know.”’ “Good gracious!’’ gasped Baby. ‘What would we do without Bull?”’ ‘‘T guess we won’t have to,’’ laughed Vance. ‘‘You needn’t begin to worry. I was corporal of the guard last night when Bull came in to report. It was way after eleven.”’ ‘Where on earth had he been ?”? ‘“‘He wouldn’t tell me. He was deucedly mysterious. It seems that he had been in the water somehow and was soak- ing wet; all I could get out of him was thatthe business had something to do with Meg Adams.’’ “Meg Adams!’ cried Gus. ‘I thought she wouldn’t speak to him.”’ ‘Well, I don’t know,’’ said Vance. . ‘That was what Bull told me. Anyhow he didn’t seem a bit alarmed about his absence.’’ ‘The superintendent sent for him this afternoon,’’ put in Murray. ‘‘I stppose comichooks.conn