"Orderly!" called the colonel crisply two minutes later.
A young soldier of the guard stepped in, saluting and standing at attention.
"Orderly, my compliments to Captain Cortland, and ask him to attend me here as soon as possible."
Five minutes later B Company's commander entered and saluted.
"Take a seat, Cortland," urged the older man. "I have a telegram here that will interest you. It's from the senior surgeon at department military hospital. Corporal Hapgood, of your company, who was sent there for treatment, died yesterday. A very bad case of typhoid had developed."
"Then poor Hapgood won't be sent back here for burial, sir?"
"No; the dispatch says that the corporal is being buried there to-day."
"I'm sorry for Hapgood," said Captain Cortland solemnly, a slight break in his voice. "He was a man, every inch of him, and a fine soldier with big promise for the future. I have his mother's address, and I will write her. But the best kind of letter will seem a poor substitute for a son in the case of that lonely old mother. He was all she had."
"The mother will be able to draw a pension of twelve dollars a month for the rest of her life, then," replied the colonel. "That is something, even if not as good as having a live son to comfort her."
"Yes; the pension will be assured," mused Captain Cortland.