"It's no dream," muttered Overton, intensely interested, "for there goes the corporal with the guard. What on earth can it mean?"
There was something up—and something exciting, at that, for experienced sentries never fire except in case of need. Moreover, several sentries—no fewer than four—had just fired almost simultaneously.
Nor did the corporal and his squad return within the next few minutes.
Whatever it was that had resulted in turning out the guard, the need for the guard plainly still continued.
"There's no more shooting, anyway," Hal reflected. "I may as well go back to bed."
It was some minutes ere he could sleep. When he did fall off it seemed as though only a minute or two had passed when the bugle again pealed.
Hal was on his feet in a second. So were most of the other soldiers in the squad room this time.
"Why, it's daylight now," uttered Hal, looking astounded.
"Of course it is, rook," laughed the soldier whose bed was next to Hal's. "That bugler sounded first call to reveille. Don't you know what that is yet?"
In other words the soldier's alarm clock had "gone off." Though all of these men had slept through the call for the corporal of the guard, simply because it did not concern them, every man had turned out at the first or second note of "first call to reveille."