"Well, Sergeant Dorlan, I’m glad to have you back under my command,"
said the Captain as he shook hands; "report to the First Sergeant at
once, and tell him I said you are in charge of the working detail
loading the cars." Then he turned to Dick. "Where have I seen you
before, music? Your face looks familiar, but I can’t place you."
"I met the Captain on the _Nantucket_, sir, if the Captain remembers the
day we were upset by a motor boat and Dorlan rescued Tommy Turner."
"Now I know! You are Drummer Comstock. Your friend’s uncle asked me to
keep an eye on you in case I ran across you. How is it that you are a
drummer? I understood you enlisted to get a commission."
"I hope to have my rank changed before long, sir, but at the time I
enlisted they were taking only musics into the Corps."
"Does this young man know anything? Can we make a corporal out of him?"
asked Captain Henderson, turning to Dorlan, who still stood at attention
near by.
"Indeed he’s a broth of a lad, sir, and knows more’n most of the
corporals right now, but if the Captain will excuse me, I wanted to
explain before goin’ to the First Sergeant that I’m only a corporal
meself, sir. Ye may disremember I was reduced in rank over a year ago."
"I remember it very well, Dorlan; but from to-day on you are again a
sergeant. So get busy with that work of loading. As for you, music,
I’ll make you my orderly for the present. Go aboard, find my mess boy,
Jackson, and get my luggage on that train. It is already packed. Then
present my respects to the Colonel, and tell him my company is ready to
move any time he sends me word."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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