Jack explained to the military man that Tom had been from the first the camp's reliance for meat supplies, and that incidentally he had secured all the meal that was then in camp.
"Excellent!" exclaimed the lieutenant. "We have more bread than anything else, and we needn't borrow any of your meal. But if your brother—by the way, it was you who stood by me in the fight out there this morning, wasn't it? Are you much hurt?"
"Oh, no," answered Tom. "One of those moonshiners thought I ought to wear earrings, and so he pierced my left ear with a bullet, that's all," said Tom, whose ear the Doctor had carefully disinfected and bandaged.
"But why aren't you at West Point?" again asked the officer. "I never saw a cooler hand or a boy that the army so clearly needed. Why aren't you at West Point?"
"Because I can't get an appointment," said Tom.
"Why can't you get an appointment?"
"Because I have no political influence. You see my father, while he lived, was very active in politics, and he belonged to a party just the opposite of the one our present Congressman belongs to."
"Would you like to go?" asked the lieutenant.
"Very much, indeed," answered Tom. "I want just the sort of education they give there."
"Could you stand the entrance examinations—say a year hence?"