The loose flesh that had accumulated during fourteen years of bibulous indulgence had vanished; to be replaced by hard muscle. The alcohol had been utterly banished from his system by nine months of hard working and clean, outdoor living.
At Ideala he would have passed for sixty; here for little more than forty.
“Sergeant Dadd,” said the general, looking up from some papers and maps on the table as the non-commissioned officer’s shadow fell athwart his vision, “I have sent for you to act as courier in getting copies of some important plans through to General Hooker. Your success in carrying a message across thirty miles of country infested by the enemy’s skirmishing parties last month has been reported to me. That is why I have sent for you now.”
Dad’s face did not relax its look of military blankness. But a faint flush of pleasure tinged the tan of his cheeks.
The general as he spoke was sorting from the heap before him several papers whereon were written pages, columns of figures and rough-drawn plans. These he thrust into an envelope, which he triple-sealed with wax heated in a tallow dip that sputtered for that purpose on one corner of the table.
Then, addressing the envelope, he sanded it and passed it across the table into the outstretched hand of Dad.
“To General Hooker himself, and no other,” he said succinctly.
Dad saluted, thrusting the envelope into the bosom of his flannel shirt. Vaguely he wondered why he, an infantry sergeant, should be chosen for this task in a camp that bristled with aids and couriers.
His former feat of the sort had been performed in a moment of dire emergency, for which volunteers had been requested. He had volunteered, had accomplished the ticklish task, and had thereby won promotion from a second to a first sergeancy in his company.
But as the general spread out a pocket map on the table and pointed to the present position of General Hooker’s headquarters, Dad began to understand why a specially equipped man, instead of an ordinary courier, had been selected for this particular purpose.