Instantly the officers, looking eagerly on, turned their glances away and began general conversation again, for they were quick to see that Dick's usual tact was at least postponing a quarrel. "It will be a hot afternoon for drill, won't it?" Dick asked, in the next breath, and in a low tone. "Maybe," grunted Cartwright. "But perhaps I shall find still hotter work before the drill-call sounds." "Nonsense!" said Dick quickly. "After the K.O.'s talk this morning, don't start anything that will take our mind off our work." "I've got to have a bit more than an explanation from Holmes," the sulky captain continued, though in a low voice. "Cartwright," said Dick, in an authoritative undertone, "I don't want you to start anything in that direction until you've had a good talk with me!" There the matter ended for the moment. Dick joined in the general conversation. Presently Cartwright tried to, but the officers to whom he addressed his remarks replied either so briefly or so coolly that the captain realized that he was not popular at the present time. "Holmes will make trouble for any one who doesn't toady to him," thought Captain Cartwright moodily. "I can see that I've got to make it my business to take the conceit and arrogance out of him." At almost the same moment, over in a company barracks, Sergeant Mock, as he chewed his food gloomily, was reflecting: "So Captain Holmes will call me down before a lot of officers, will he? He'll order me to show more 'pep,' will he, the slave-driver? And if I don't he'll break me, eh?" "Breaking" a non-commissioned officer is securing his reduction to the grade of private. "The captain is so lazy himself that he doesn't know a good man when he sees one," Mock told himself angrily. Then he added, threateningly to himself: "He'd better not try it. If he does, he'll sure wish he hadn't. Since this war began even the officers are only on probation, and I've brains enough to find a way to put him in bad with the regimental K.O." "What's the matter, Mock, don't you like your food?" asked the sergeant seated at his left. "You're scowling something fierce." "It isn't the chow," Sergeant Mock retorted gruffly. "Must be the heat, then---or a call-down," observed his brother sergeant. "Never you mind!" retorted Mock. "And I'm not talking much now; I want to think." "Must have been a real 'cussing-out' that you got," grinned the other sergeant unconcernedly. Bending over a passing soldier murmured to Mock: "Top wants to see you in the company office when you're through eating." The first sergeant of a company is also known, in Army parlance, as the "top sergeant" or the "top cutter." Though he dawdled with his meal Mock did not eat much more. Finally he rose, stalking sulkily from the mess-room and across the central corridor. Thrusting out a hand he turned the knob of the door of the company office and almost flung the door open, stepping haughtily inside.