Algy immediately started in upon what was, for him, a furious tirade.
"Do you know, dear chap," he wound up, "I can't always understand a man like old Papa North. Sometimes I think he's just a beast!"
But Prescott's laughing advice was:
"Hold yourself in, Ferrers; your hoops are cracked."
"Bah!" stormed Lieutenant Algy. "An Army post is a crazy place for a fellow to go when looking for sympathy or reason."
In the meantime A Company's men had spread the joke through enlisted men's barracks.
"What's the use!" growled Private Hinkey to a group of private soldiers. "Ferrers is just a plumb fool, and all the colonels in the world can't ever make anything else of him. Ferrers is a born idiot!"
Sergeant Hal Overton paused just at the edge of the group.
"Hinkey," the boyish non-com. observed dryly, "if that's your opinion, you'll show a lot of wisdom and good sense in keeping it to yourself."
"Oh, you shut up!" sneered Hinkey. "No one spoke to you. Move on. Your opinions are not wanted here."