Finally good-byes were said to Père Goubain, and the crowd filed into the great outdoors. The village street was enveloped in the soft light of the moon, and but for the bark of a distant dog would have been silent. The stuccoed buildings rose pale and ghostlike, or in sombre, mysterious tones, against the sky, and deep shadows crossed the cobbled highway. A few beams of light to cheer those who might be astir came from the windows of the ancient, time-worn hostelry, the Hotel Lion d’Or, where George Glenn was staying.
At the entrance, Don and the others bid the combat pilot of the Lafayette Squadron good-night, and then the march back to the flying field was begun. It was rather late when they arrived at the barracks. The excitement, the great desire to begin his schooling and the new surroundings all tended to drive sleepy feelings away from Don Hale. But Mittengale very solemnly assured him that unless he “hit the pillow” at once he would be liable to have regretful feelings in the morning.
“I know, because I know,” he declared.
“Then I’ll ‘hit the pillow,’” laughed Don.
The sound of laughter and voices was gradually ceasing as Don Hale climbed into his bed.
Several of the lamps had been extinguished and the interior of the big barracks certainly appeared very sombre—very gloomy indeed. Here and there details made a valiant effort to reveal their presence, but, for the most part, shadows, grotesque in shape, deep and grim in tone, held the mastery.
Presently Don Hale’s impressions became a little confused, and, within a very few minutes, he was sleeping that sound and dreamless slumber which is another of the glorious possessions of youth.
CHAPTER IV—“PENGUINS”
“I say, boy, wake up! Didn’t you hear the bugle sound? The reveillé! Wake up, for goodness’ sake! You’ll be late. It’s almost three-thirty now. You have that early morning feeling, eh?—a pippin of a feeling, too! I know, because I know!”
The sense of this string of words, jerked out with extraordinary rapidity by Roy Mittengale, was quite lost on Don Hale’s mental faculties, but, nevertheless, they had exactly the effect the speaker intended. With a start and a half-stifled gasp, the new student sat up.