"Cut that, Ferrers!" warned Sears. "Most of us are quite content with ordinary garrison routine in 'God's country.'" "That's all well enough for you fellows," muttered Algy. "You don't need any of what I'm longing for. And I might have gone to the Philippines, too, with the Thirty-fourth, if I hadn't been such a dub," added Ferrers, glancing at Hal and Noll. "Perhaps I'm putting on airs, though. Overton, when I was at Fort Clowdry, I don't believe I was quite as high as a dub, was I?" Algy spoke so plaintively that all the officers at table laughed. "Oh, that's all right for you fellows," retorted Algy. "But you never had a glimpse of me in those old, first days. Why, fellows, I used to go off the post without permission. I got into an all-night party in Clowdry, and preferred it to reporting back in season to go on for guard duty." A somewhat incredulous laugh from trained officers greeted this assertion. "Oh, that's straight," declared Algy remorsefully. "And when Colonel North tried to do the fatherly act with me by way of remonstrance, I believe I assured him that my little lapse was nothing to get warm about." A shout of genuine laughter greeted this reminiscence. "And one day," pursued Algy, "when Colonel North undertook to be really a trifle severe with me, I flared up and offered my resignation on the spot. I told him that, if an officer couldn't leave post for a little fun, without the hanged formality of reporting and securing permission, then the Army was no place for a gentleman." "Did Colonel North let you get away with that?" demanded Lieutenant Johnson. "He did," confessed Algy, "for in his good old soldierly heart he knew that I hadn't arrived at the dignity even of being a dub. Then I wired my father and asked him to see the President and get my resignation through at once. Instead, my father wired that he'd had me ordered to the Service Schools at Fort Leavenworth; that I'd have to go there, work like blazes and make good, or else that he'd disown me and make me work for a living. I thought the Service Schools would be easier than working for a living," added Algy reminiscently, "but from what I went through at Leavenworth I'd advise any lazy man to go to work instead." "It's tough at Leavenworth," assented Brisbane. "I put in a year there once." "I'm glad, now, that I went to Leavenworth," Algy continued. "I was taught there that a soldier's life is about the finest going, if only a fellow can buckle down to work and discipline, and forget that he has any preferences of his own for anything." "Leavenworth certainly made a good soldier of you, Ferrers," put in Sears. "I don't know a harder-working officer than you are to-day." "Thank you," came from Algy. "But that seems hard for you to believe, doesn't it, Overton?" "From the past, Ferrers, yes; but not from what I see of you now, or from what I heard you saying as you came into the club."