“Because it’s come to me pretty straight that all this talk about your not running is simply to pull the wool over my eyes, catch me off my guard, make me think I’ll have no opposition, and come in at the last minute with a whirlwind campaign and sweep me off my feet. If there’s any game of this kind on foot I want to know it.”
For a moment Hal was too greatly shocked and too deeply amazed to reply. He could not quite understand why he should be accused of such trickery.
“Would you suspect me,” he said at last, “of being guilty of playing this kind of politics?”
“I don’t know,” replied Barriscale bluntly. “I wouldn’t have thought it of you two years ago; but it’s said that a man is no better than the company he keeps. And the crowd you’ve been running with lately will bear watching every hour of the twenty-four. But that is neither here nor there. What I want to know is whether you are going to stand as a candidate for the first lieutenancy?”
At last Sergeant McCormack’s wrath was roused.
“Do you think,” he asked angrily, “that your insolent manner and language entitle you to that information?”
“I think,” was the equally angry reply, “that I was a fool to expect decent treatment from a Guardsman who has no respect for his country or his flag.”
With other men, in other surroundings, the next thing would have been blows. But these men were soldiers, and this was the armory, and it was inconceivable that the place should witness such a physical encounter as befits only the barroom or the slums. Simultaneously the two men turned on their heels and started back across the hall. But another thought came into Barriscale’s mind and he swung around and again faced his rival.
“I want to give you notice now,” he declared savagely, “that if you do oppose my election, either with your own or any one else’s candidacy, I shall file charges against you and demand your dismissal from the Guard.”
Suddenly Hal seemed to have recovered his composure.