Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories; Second Series

by Mary Antin; Elizabeth Ashe; Kathleen Carman; Cornelia A. P. Comer; Mazo De la Roche; Annie Hamilton Donnell; James Edmund Dunning; Rebecca Hooper East

'You have been marching along here as the advance party to your advance guard, when suddenly you receive a burst of fire from that bluff, which you estimate to be directed by about a platoon. What do you do?'

'I’d tell them to—'

'I didn’t ask you what you’d tell. I asked you what you’d do.'

'I’d put them, sir—'

'Put who?'

'I’d put the company—'

'You speak of the company as if it were a bird-cage or a jack-knife.'

'Sir, I just wanted—'

'I just asked you what YOU would do—do you get it?'

By this time Ruggs was so aroused that every fibre of his mind was alert. Instead of being more confused, he was able to concentrate more acutely than before. He pulled his whistle from his pocket and blew it almost in the Meter’s face, at the same time signaling to the company to deploy and lie down.