Lester did not find an opportunity to talk with his room-mate again that day. They marched down to supper together, and as soon as the ranks were broken, Huggins made all haste to put on his hat and overcoat, secure his bundle and quit the room. He would hardly wait to say good-by to Lester, and didn’t want the latter to go with him as far as the gate.
“He’s well out of his troubles, and mine are just about to begin,” thought Lester, as he stood on the front steps and saw Huggins disappear in the darkness. “I would run away myself if I were not afraid of the consequences. It wouldn’t be safe to try father’s patience too severely, for there is no telling what he would do to me.”
Lester strolled about until the bugle sounded “to quarters,” and then he went up to his room, where he passed a very lonely evening. No one dared to come near him, and if he had attempted to leave his room, he would have been ordered back by the floor-guard. He knew he ought to study, but still he would not do it. It would be time enough, he thought, to take up his books, when he could see no way to get out of it.
Lester went to bed long before taps, and slept soundly until he was aroused by the report of the morning gun, and the noise of the fifes and drums in the drill-room. Having been told that he would have just six minutes in which to dress, he got into his clothes without loss of time, and fell into the ranks just as the last strains of the morning call died away.
CHAPTER IV.
FLIGHT AND PURSUIT.
“Fourth company. All present or accounted for with the exception of Private Albert Huggins,” said Bert Gordon, as he faced about and raised his hand to his cap.
“Where is Private Huggins?” demanded Captain Clayton.
“I don’t know, sir. He had a pass last night, and he seems to have abused it. At any rate he is not in the ranks to answer to his name.”