By the end of three days the cadets felt quite settled at Camp Barlight. Everything had been put in the best of order, and drills and other exercises had been held daily. Captain Dale was teaching the cadets a new bayonet exercise, and one afternoon he had an officer come over from Camp Huxwell to show the students some of the fine points in handling a bayonet. This was decidedly interesting, especially to Jack, and he did his best to imitate what the regular military instructor had done.
“No use of talking, when it comes to fighting the Huns our men have got to be pretty quick,” was the young captain’s comment.
“I hope we see some of those exercises when we get over to Camp Huxwell,” returned Fred.
During those first days in camp the boys did not forget to write long letters to the folks at home, and also to the girls at Clearwater Hall, telling of how they were settled down. They invited the girls to call at the camp before going home, and a couple of days later came back word that the girls would do this, paying the visit in a touring car.
“It will be mighty nice to have all of them here for a day,” said Jack. “We can show them all around the camp and let them look at our exercises. And maybe we can have a little picnic in the woods, too.”
“That would suit me right down to the ground,” answered Fred.
To give the camp a truly military aspect, Captain Dale instituted a regular guard, both night and day. The cadets were given a password, and it was understood that no one could get into the camp without giving this.
“Well, it’s my turn to go on guard to-night,” announced Randy one evening at supper time. “And I must say, I don’t like the outlook much. It looks to me as if it was going to rain.”
“Well, you’ll have only four hours of it, Randy,” answered Jack. “That isn’t so very long. What time do you go on?”
“Twelve o’clock. Then I am to relieve Ned Lowe.”