“It has been said the captain is the proprietor of the company, and the first sergeant is the foreman. Under supervision of the captain he has immediate charge of all routine matters pertaining to the company.”
Captain Murray knew that whichever one of the two men he selected he would have an intelligent and efficient first sergeant. His hesitation was due to the fact that he wished to avoid any appearance of favoritism. Finally, remembering and following the still unfulfilled purpose and plan of Benjamin Barriscale, Sr., he decided to award the office as a prize to the man who should most successfully pass an examination in military tactics. In order to be entirely fair the test was thrown open to every enlisted man; and in order still further to secure absolute justice in the matter, Captain Cowperthwaite from Company M was called in to conduct the examination.
But, as every one knew would be the case, Corporals McCormack and Barriscale were the only ones who took the test. It was unusually thorough and severe, and was a combination of written, oral and physical exercises. Three days after it was held Captain Cowperthwaite made his report which was to the effect that Corporal Barriscale had won out by three points, the score standing nine-five and ninety-eight.
The report was read to the company at the armory on the night of the weekly drill. There was no demonstration from the ranks. The men were at attention, and anything like a demonstration would have been subversive of military discipline. Moreover, there was no enthusiasm among the enlisted men over Barriscale’s success. Most of them liked Hal better and would have been glad to see him capture the prize. But they knew that Ben was a good soldier, would make an efficient orderly, and had won his promotion fairly, so they were content.
Immediately following the reading of the report Captain Murray announced the appointment of Corporal Barriscale to be first sergeant, and Corporal McCormack to be second sergeant, and directed that official warrants confirming these appointments be read accordingly.
When the company was dismissed Hal was the first to grasp the hand of the new first sergeant and congratulate him on his appointment. And he did it so frankly, with such good spirit and apparent sincerity, that his conduct should have gone a long way toward closing the breach that had opened between the two boys on the night of Chick’s rebuff, had yawned wide on the night of the meeting called to decide the question of acceptance of the prize offered by the senior Barriscale, and had never since been completely bridged over. There had, indeed, been no open hostility between them on account of these incidents. The matters had not been mentioned by either of them since their occurrence. But there was no companionship, no friendship. They were members of and officers in the same militia company, they had such communication with each other as their military duties required of them; that was all.
But both boys had grown, not only physically and mentally, but also in their outlook on life. Young Barriscale was less autocratic and arrogant, more approachable, more politic perhaps, yet he retained, nevertheless, much of his aristocratic feeling. He still believed that society was and should be divided into classes, and that while it was the privilege of some to command, it was the duty of others to obey. He approved of a democratic government indeed, provided it was sufficiently strong to hold the masses in check, and for this purpose its military arm should, in his opinion, be complete, invincible, and at all times ready for use.
McCormack, on the other hand, was still peace-loving, and more of a humanitarian than ever. He had always been a student and a dreamer, and the more he read and pondered, the more he saw of actual social conditions, the more thoroughly convinced he became that the salvation of humanity for the future lay in that leveling process by which the workers and the poor should be lifted to a higher social and economic plane, and the millionaires and aristocrats brought down to approximately the same level. Perhaps he was a socialist, he did not quite know. At any rate, he was not a radical. He believed in a democratic form of government, operated by virtue of its laws, and that its laws should be enforced, even though it became necessary to use its military arm in order to do so.
During the last two years he had seen much of Hugo Donatello. They had, on many occasions, discussed with each other the economic problems confronting the country and the world. But they could not quite reach a common ground. As time passed Donatello, who had become practically the leader of a group of organized radicals in the city, grew more and more extreme in his views, and through the medium of his journal, The Disinherited, advocated, every week, such direct action as would make the “workers of the world,” without further delay, the masters of its wealth and pleasures. Quiet in manner, dreamy-eyed, soft-voiced except when aroused, persuasive in argument and eloquent in appeal, he exerted an influence over Hal the true extent of which the boy did not realize. The ideas of the young radical were so big, his humanitarian instincts apparently so strong, his theory of internationalism, as opposed to nationalism, leading to the ultimate and glorious brotherhood of all men, was so pleasingly and convincingly put, that it was difficult for this bank clerk, unschooled in the art of logic, to detect the fallacies with which the argument abounded. Yet the boy was not swept off his feet. By reason both of his ancestry and his education he was firmly grounded in the principle of patriotism, and he was not easily moved. His mind was receptive, it was not thoroughly convinced.
But his friendship with Donatello and his association with other social radicals in the city were commented on unfavorably in many quarters. When the matter reached the ears of his aunt, Miss Sarah Halpert, she brought him up with a round turn.