"Ye may jest as well get out of here, kid in brass buttons," jeered a voice behind the bar. "None of yer crew are in here."
But Hal had halted before a door at the end of the room, his hand on the knob.
"Here," yelled a voice, "don't you go in there! That's my family's quarters. Private!"
But Soldier Hal, without replying, pushed the door open and stepped over the sill.
He found himself in a short, narrow passage, the only light coming from the room he had just left.
Beyond was another doorway. Hal stepped to that and turned the knob.
"Waiter!" hailed an impatient voice. "What kept you so long?"
Two other men laughed coarsely, but in an instant the laughter had died out of their voices.
Hal was in a room in the center of which stood a table.
Gathered around that table, in a dense blue haze that ascended from burning tobacco, sat Corporal Minturn and Privates Dowley and Hooper.