“Allen Charter is going to do the trick for me,” answered Tom Rover.
“Allen Charter?” exclaimed Sam Rover. “I thought you said he had declined and was going to volunteer!”
“He did volunteer; but they wouldn’t accept him—something the matter with his heart, I believe. Anyway, they wouldn’t take him. Of course, Charter was much downcast. But he at once came to me and said he would take hold of our concern. He’s going to do it in connection with Mr. Frank A. A. Powell, Songbird’s uncle, the lawyer who helped us out so much when we had our trouble with Pelter, Japson & Company,” continued Tom Rover, referring to a matter the details of which were given in the volume entitled, “The Rover Boys in New York.”
“And he’s been just the craziest fellow ever was since he fixed it so he could go,” declared Nellie, Tom’s wife. “He tore around the house like a wild Indian, trying to get his things into shape. I guess he has an idea he’s going to take a kit and a gun and go over to France this afternoon.”
Of course the older folks wanted more of the particulars, and as the whole party strolled over to Captain Dick Rover’s quarters, Tom related them.
“Of course I’m sorry that Allen Charter can’t go to the front,” said the father of the twins, “but I am mighty glad that we can get him to take charge, for he is not only a first-class business man, but you know he is honesty itself.”
“Yes, I know that,” answered Dick. “I wouldn’t want a better fellow.”
“And if Mr. Frank Powell works with him, I’m sure matters will go along very nicely,” put in Sam. He caught his brother by the shoulder. “Say, Tom, this is the best news yet! Don’t you know Dick and I have had the worst kind of blues thinking that you must be left behind?”
“But, Dad! aren’t you going in for a commission of some sort?” questioned Andy quickly.
“Nothing doing in that line,” answered Tom Rover promptly. “I’ve always been a high private in the rear rank in the past, and I suppose that is what I shall be in the present and the future—although, of course, I don’t expect to stay in the rear rank when there is some real fighting ahead,” he added quickly. “Then I want to get in the front-line trenches and go over the top.”