“There, I saw a soldier stop the captain and salute, after which he handed him something,” Blake burst out with, excitedly. “Now Captain Barclay is pointing straight toward us, boys; and see, he’s handed the thing back again. Looks to me as if he had ordered him to deliver the same to us. I wonder what under the sun it can be?”
“We’ll soon know,” advised Bud, “because here comes the soldier; and by the same token it’s Burch Shafter, Hugh, whom you got to join the battery after convincing his mother it was a duty he owed his country.”[3]
They watched the man in uniform approach them with growing interest. It struck the scouts as having some sort of connection with their mission in the mobilization camp. Perhaps the young fellow was bringing them fresh news—Blake even began to speculate upon the most improbable things, to the extent of wondering whether this might not be some audacious communication from Luther Gregory telling him that his quest would be fruitless, and that he might just as well return to Oakvale, since he could not find Felix within the given time.
Then the artilleryman arrived. Young Shafter recognized them all, and he looked particularly at Hugh with a gleam of affection in his eyes, because the scout master had been mainly instrumental in getting his mother’s consent to his enlistment. Nevertheless, he made a stiff military salute upon first arriving, and then dropped his hand at his side “at attention.”
“Huh! that doesn’t go among old friends, Burch,” chuckled Bud. “Nobody’s watching you now, so you c’n drop your camp manners, and be sociable.”
With that he clutched the other’s hand and shook it. The “rookie” laughed, and from that moment became companionable. Hugh and Blake in turn greeted him; for up to then they had not chanced to run across young Shafter, as he had been in another part of the camp, possibly sent on official business.
“Something was found in Felix Gregory’s tent, and they dispatched me with it to the captain,” he went on to explain. “When he looked it over he said Blake here ought to take charge of the same, and so I’m turning it over to him.”
When Blake glanced at the object that was placed in his hand he gave a cry of astonishment.
“Look here, Hugh, Bud!” he commenced to say, deeply moved, “it’s a letter written by Felix, and sealed; and, would you believe it, the same is directed to Uncle Reuben. Oh! I wonder now did Felix repent of his own accord of those ugly things he said in his hasty temper, and write to apologize? Wouldn’t that be a great thing, though, and a bully ending of the whole silly affair?”