“In compliance with the order just read we will now proceed to the election of a first lieutenant for Company E. It has been certified to me that your company carries sixty-seven regularly enlisted men on its roll, all of whom are present in uniform. You therefore have nine more members than the minimum number required for holding an election. A candidate must receive at least thirty-four votes in order to be elected. I understand that there are but two known candidates for the office, and that printed ballots have been distributed containing their names. However, lest any man should be without, or should not care to use, a printed ballot, the clerk will now distribute blank slips to you, on which a candidate’s name may be written. Five minutes after this distribution has been made, I shall have the company roll called, and each man, as his name is spoken, will come forward and deposit his ballot in the box on the table. I have appointed Captain Murray and Lieutenant Brownell to be inspectors of the election. After the votes have been cast they will be counted by us, and the result will be immediately announced.” There was some whispering among the men, and a few of them began to write the name of their candidate on the blank slips which had now been distributed to them. For the most part, however, the electors sat quietly with their printed ballots in their hands, awaiting the calling of the roll. It was during this lull that Private Stone arose in his place. Stone was a clerk in the employ of the Barriscale Manufacturing Company, and a violent partisan of the first sergeant. “May I ask for information?” he inquired. “You may,” replied the presiding officer. “I want to know if, under military law, a man is eligible to election as first lieutenant over the head of a man who is now his superior officer, and who is also a candidate?” “I know of no rule of military law,” replied the chairman, “that denies his eligibility.” Friends of McCormack, who had looked up apprehensively when the question was put, breathed freely again. “Then I want to know,” continued Stone, “if it is according to military custom for an under officer to be promoted like that?” “As a general thing,” replied Major Huntington, “officers go up in accordance with their existing rank. But it is not contrary to military ethics to jump grades. The members of a company have a perfect right, if they choose to do so, to elevate a private to the captaincy over the heads of all intervening officers.” But Stone was persistent. “Do you think,” he asked, “that things like that are for ‘the good of the service’? Isn’t it better for military discipline that men should work their way up in regular order?” “That,” replied the major, “is a matter that I cannot discuss with you at this time. You must settle that for yourselves, by your ballots.”