The first night of their stay at the training station passed uneventfully. At the sound of the bugle, on the following morning, all hands started up suddenly. Sam Hickey muttered drowsily and turned over. “Get up, thickhead!” jeered Flink, giving the lad a vicious dig with his fist. “Wha—wha——” demanded Sam sleepily. “Turn out, old chap,” called Dan. “Didn’t you hear the bugle?” Sam suddenly bethought himself of his duty, but he did not give thought to the fact that he was in a hammock. He thought he was in bed. Without opening his eyes he started to get out in the usual way. The result was inevitable. Sam once more flattened himself upon the hard cement floor underneath his billet. He was awake without further urging. “Say, Dan, how long did we enlist for?” he demanded. “Four years.” “Oh, help!” moaned Sam, pulling himself together and starting for the shower bath with his clothes under his arm. At the door of the bathroom he paused long enough to shake his fist at Flink. “Blinkers, I remember now, something hit me this morning before I got my eyes open. Much obliged. That’s another score you’ll have to answer for when the day of reckoning comes around.” Flink grinned sarcastically, as he climbed down from his hammock and prepared to follow to the bathroom. Breakfast that morning was more interesting. There were all of fifty boys in the mess of barracks A, all of whom marched across the grounds to the mess hall, the newcomers bringing up the rear in a straggling line. “I guess we are not making much of a showing,” grinned Dan. “Our fire company at home could beat the alignment of this bunch. But see how those boys up ahead are marching.” “Yes; nobody would think they were going to breakfast,” replied Sam, with a hand slyly laid upon his stomach. “I have a goneness here that nothing except a hot breakfast will satisfy.” Practically the first duty of the day was drill. The apprentices were instructed in the rudiments of company drill. Led by a drum and bugle corps, they marched back and forth across the field in the sunlight, with the sparkling waters of the bay almost at their feet. Dan Davis had had some experience in drilling, and he proved himself an apt pupil. After the drill the boys were marched to the drill hall, where they were given guns and instructed in the manual of arms. “This is something like,” grinned Sam, who was thoroughly at home with a gun in his hand. “I’d like to take this piece out and hunt woodchucks with it. I’ll bet it’s a dandy for chucks.” “Wouldn’t it be likely to blow them off the face of the earth?” questioned Dan, with a smile. “It might that.” “Attention!” commanded the officer, who had caught the faint sound of voices. “No talking in the ranks.” The lads subsided instantly. “We will now have a little physical drill, and after that a cock-fight,” announced the officer. Dan and Sam glanced at each other in surprise.