“Yes,” said Fischer. “What?”
“They’ve decided that you’ll be the man to meet him first.”
And the committee wondered what was the matter with Fischer.
CHAPTER XXVI.
“I HAVE THE COURAGE TO BE A COWARD.”
Something which happened immediately after Fischer left the tent effectually drove from Mark’s mind all ideas of fights and first classmen. It was the blessed long-expected signal, a roll upon the drum, the summons to fall in for the evening’s dress parade.
And oh, how those plebes were “spruced up!” The four members of the Banded Seven who roomed in Mark’s tent had taken turns looking over each other in the effort to find a single flaw. A member of the guard trying for colors was never more immaculate than those anxious strangers. Of the many pair of duck trousers allotted to each cadet every pair had been critically inspected so as to get the very whitest. Buttons and belt plates were little mirrors, and every part of guns and equipments shone. When those four “turned out” of their tent they felt that they were worthy of the ceremony.
It was an honor to be in the battalion, even if you were in the rear rank and could see nothing all the time but the stiffly marching backs in front. And it was an honor to have your name called next to a first classman’s on the roll. The cadet officer had known the roll by heart and rattled it off in a breath or two; but now he had to read it slowly, since the new names were stuck in, which bothered him if it did delight the plebes.
It was a grand moment when each plebe answered very solemnly and precisely to his own; and another grand moment when the cadet band marched down the long line to its place; and another when the cadet adjutant turned the parade over to the charge of the officer in command; and finally, last of all, the climax, when the latter faced about and gave the order, “Forward, march!” when the band struck up a stirring tune and amid waving of flags and of handkerchiefs from hundreds of spectators, the all-delighted plebes strode forward on parade at last.
How tremblingly and nervously he stepped! How gingerly and cautiously he went through the manual of arms! And with what a gasp of relief he finally broke ranks at the sunset gun and realized that actually he had gotten out of it without a blunder!