"Pardon me, sir, but you have referred to the Army in slighting terms. I am certain that Colonel North would censure me if I allowed this message to go."
"But I'm an officer—yet—so what right have you to refuse to send it, Sergeant?"
"It will have to be approved by Colonel North, or his adjutant, before I can allow it to be sent, sir," replied Noll firmly.
"Humph! But it's high time to get out of the Army when a chap can't even write his own telegrams!"
However, Ferrers thought it over for a few moments. Then he wrote this new message:
"Expect me home, soon. Have resigned from the Army."
"Is a chap allowed to send a message like that?" Algy inquired plaintively.
"Certainly, Lieutenant," Noll replied, and handed the message over to a soldier operator.
A glance at the clock in the room told Lieutenant Ferrers that he had a little time to spare before he was due at his next bit of duty. He put in the time strolling about the post. When he saw the brisk, trim-looking soldiers, and received their salutes in passing, Algy began almost to regret the Army that he had given up. Then the remembrance of gay times in the set where he had once been something of a favorite consoled him, and he looked forward to being where he did not have to answer to a colonel as a boy does to a schoolmaster.
"'Pon my word, I think I could like the Army very well, if they weren't so beastly strict about everything," murmured Algy to himself.