“Sir:
“I have the honor to advise you that I hereby accept the election to the office of First Lieutenant of Company E, ——th Regiment Infantry, N. G. P.
“Very respectfully,
Halpert McCormack,
Second Sergeant Company E,
Fairweather, Pa.”
But there was no positive assurance that Hal would receive his commission. He still had Ben Barriscale to deal with, and Barriscale had threatened to force him out of the Guard. The first step in such a movement would of course be to attempt to block the confirmation of McCormack’s election before the military board authorized by law to deny a commission to elected but unapproved officers.
That the defeated candidate would not hesitate to take action of this kind, if he could be assured of any fair prospect of success, every one knew.
He was disappointed, angry, and bitter beyond belief over his defeat. He felt that he had been betrayed by some of those whose support he had a right to receive; that, as he said, they had given him “the double cross,” and that it was their defection that had led to his defeat. He did not know, or perhaps could not have understood if he had known, that it was his own injudicious and threatening outburst on the day of election that caused the changing of enough ballots to precipitate the disaster to his cause.
And he did not know, and was destined never to know, about the midnight visit of Chick Dalloway with Fred Lewis, nor why it was that McCormack carried the election by a majority of just one vote.
Of course much of his anger and resentment were directed toward his late opponent. His threat on the night of the election had been no idle one, and Hal and his friends knew it. They waited, therefore, not without some apprehension, to see what steps he might now take to prevent the first lieutenant-elect from ever having the benefit of his shoulder-straps.