Noll had let that last word escape him without thinking. But Hal, who felt just as blue, pretended not to have heard.
"It'll all look different to us, just as soon as we get into uniform, and get past the first breaking-in," predicted young Overton.
Ta-ra-ra-ra-ta! sounded a bugle, out in the corridor.
"That must be the call to dinner," muttered Hal.
But a uniformed recruit, passing them, stopped to say, pleasantly:
"No; that's first call to mess. Every call by the bugler has a 'first call,' sounded just a little while before. That 'first call' is always just the same strain. But the real call differs, according to what is meant. The mess call itself, which is the one you'll hear next, sounds like this."
The recruit hummed mess call for them.
"Thank you," acknowledged Hal gratefully.
"Feeling lonesome?" asked the uniformed rookie.
"J-j-just a bit," assented Hal.