“I believe upon my word, Ben Russell, you want to go to the front this minute!”
“What about yourself, Gilbert? Now come, tell the plain truth.”
“Do you want the plain truth, and nothing but the truth, as they say in court?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’d join the Japanese army to-morrow if it wasn’t for my duty here, and if I was sure I could get a commission. I don’t at all like the way I was treated at Port Arthur by the Russians, and I’d just like the chance to square accounts with them.”
“Hurrah! let’s all go to war!” burst out Larry. “You two can be officers, while I’ll be a high private in the rear rank.” And he began to march around in true military style, with an imaginary gun on his shoulder. “By column of fours, march! Left wheel! Halt! Captain Pennington will deploy to the left. Captain Russell will send out an advance guard under High Private Russell to see if the Russian warships are hiding anywhere behind yonder huckleberry bushes.”
“Larry, quit your fooling,” interrupted Ben, and then burst out laughing. “Gilbert, he’s as bad as ever. I can’t do a thing with him.”
“Never mind, he’s got the war fever just as bad as any of us. Isn’t that true, Larry?”
“Just you try me and see. If both of you go to the front, you’ve got to take me along,—that is, if Captain Ponsberry will let me go.”
“What! what! are ye going to desert the ship?” broke in the master of the Columbia. “I can’t allow this nohow!”