“Say, what’s all this, about Corporal Letar’s pants? Here’s the letter all O. K.—just as his service record shows. ‘Twenty-five cents was deducted from Corporal Letar’s pay in July at Shenannigan Field, Texas, for repairing his pants.’”
“Ah, that’s what’s wrong,” replied the adjutant smoothly. “Where’s your grammar? Haven’t you ever been to school? What you should say is: ‘Twenty-five cents were deducted from Corporal Letar’s pay at Shenannigan Field, Texas—’”
“What’s this?” burst an angry roar from an inner office, as Major Krause rushed out. “What’s all this about pants? Who’s this talking about pants? Don’t you know there’s no such thing in the United States Army as pants? Who are you, young man?”
Tommy stood speechless at the outburst. Why, oh why, hadn’t he kept on following Long John’s advice about keeping out of sight?
“This is Lieutenant Lang, sir,” said the adjutant silkily, “the commanding officer of the 946th Aero Squadron on this Post. We were discussing a very serious error in one of his reports.”
“Oh, it is, is it?” said Major Krause angrily. “I was going to send for you. I issued orders that all commanding officers of organizations on this post should personally give their units an hour’s close order drill every morning. Yesterday morning I saw a sergeant drilling your squadron. Where were you, sir? Why weren’t you drilling them yourself?”
“Why,” blurted Tommy, “I don’t know how to drill ’em. I never drilled anybody in my life!”
“What? You, a commissioned officer in the United States Army, stand there and admit that you are not capable of drilling the men under your command? Well, sir, you are hereby relieved from that command. Remove yourself and your belongings from the 946th Squadron’s barrack at once, to make room for your successor. And, young man, remember this: Never give ‘You don’t know how’ as an excuse in the United States Army. If you don’t know how, learn how! If you get an order, do it, and if you can’t do it, do as near it as you can. That will do. You may go.”
Tommy dragged himself away disconsolately, and had a couple of men of his late command carry his stuff back to the barrack with the open end. It was colder than ever now, after the warm quarters from which he had been ousted. But on the other hand, perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. He had been flying lately, and had graduated from the penguins whose wings were too short to fly, and from the gawky twenty-three meter Nieuports, and now he was on the eighteens.