A few minutes passed silently by. Randolph loitered about near the tent, as one might do who found the evening air refreshing. Then suddenly Adjutant Cox passed down the colour line.
"Say, Cox," Randolph hailed him, "come and see what I've got in my tent."
Thinking only of boodle, for which he had a soft spot, Mr. Cox came up, and pushed back the tent flap.
"Here comes the unsuspecting stranger!" cried Randolph, and from the darkness poured forth such a horrible and very prehistoric roar that the tall cadet made one spring across the company street, demanding in no gentle tones of Randolph "What on earth he had got there?" Then, "hiving" the joke, he walked rapidly away. Only one such roar could be risked, and after a little more hectoring the plebs were let out quietly one by one, and Randolph sought out Magnus and Rig to receive their compliments on his success.
XV
SIGNALING FOR HELP
All common things, each day's events,
That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures, and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend. —Longfellow.
It was a new experience to be on guard as corporal; and instead of the tedious pacing up and down, to go round the camp at set intervals, posting the reliefs, and then to sleep or lounge in the guard tent. No more sounding out the "All's well!" in proper, or improper, style; but it seemed to Magnus that he never missed hearing it.
But whereas in the old days he used to wish every time he called the hour that the beautiful, serious, and weird cry could reach across the continent, even to his mother's ears, now, on the whole, he was content that it did not.
"If only she could hear it!" he used to think; if only the "All's well!" could cross those weary miles that kept her away. But now, somehow, he did not wish it. Yes, it was all well with the camp, all well with the Post; was it all well with him? Would the words bear a true report as she would understand them?