"Would it have been better if I had gone to the battalion commander in the first place, sir?"
"No; whenever you wish anything in the Army it is usually better to go direct to the officer who has that thing in charge in his department, save when it is something that you are expected to draw through your company officers."
"It was Captain Cortland who sent me to you, sir, but he said he had no authority to draw a requisition for signal flags."
"You have taken the right course, Corporal. If Major Silsbee is in his office it will take but a moment more."
While the young corporal remained at attention Lieutenant Pope turned to his telephone and called for the battalion commander.
"It's all right, Corporal," nodded the lieutenant, hanging up the receiver. Then he wrote on a slip of official paper. "Here is an order on which the quartermaster sergeant will issue you two signal flags. You are, of course, responsible for the flags, or for the value."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."
Five minutes later Corporal Hal Overton stepped briskly from the building in which the quartermaster's stores were kept. Under his left arm he carried two signal flags, rolled and attached to short staffs.
"Noll hasn't shown up yet. I hope he won't be long," murmured Hal, gazing across the parade grounds in the direction of the barracks of enlisted men. "Bunkie and I have a lot to do to-day."
Readers of the preceding volumes in this series will need no introduction to Corporals Hal Overton and Noll Terry, of the Thirty-fourth United States Infantry.