Uncle Sam's Boys on Field Duty. Hancock Harrie Irving
IV
THE JOKING SCOUT
"CAN you see the enemy, Overton?"
"I can't see a thing, Corporal."
"Move forward cautiously. Don't make a sound. If you do you'll betray our position."
"How far shall I go, Corporal?"
"Move ahead until you run into signs of the enemy. Above all, bear in mind that you mustn't betray our presence to the enemy."
Private Hal Overton gripped his rifle tightly in the darkness as he all but wriggled forward over the ground.
It was all very real business to the soldiers engaged in this mimic warfare. If nothing more serious happened, any big mistake on the part of a soldier in this sham warfare would bring upon him the displeasure of his officers.
Late that same afternoon B Company had been attacked by lurking C Company. Some very clever manœuvring of the men under cover bad been done, and a good deal of blank ammunition had been fired. True, there had been no real casualties, but, under the rules of the game, B Company had made such a spirited and excellent defense that C Company had been driven further back.
Now the position of C Company was unknown, but the "enemy" was believed to be lurking in the vicinity, bent upon a night surprise.
Two thirds of B Company slept back in the camp of pup-houses. The other third, under command of Lieutenant Prescott, was divided up among sentries, outposts and scouts.
To Corporal Cotter had been entrusted the problem of taking a scouting party consisting of three privates and trying to locate either the enemy's outpost or the main body.
Just a moment before Hal's orders to prowl forward a sound had been heard, evidently about four hundred yards ahead.
So now Hal stole forward, moving as softly as any cat could have done, this despite the fact that his advance must be over jagged rocks here and there.
The ground was ideal for ambush fighting.
Hal now had a new rifle, that had been issued to him when the wagons of B Company came up late that night. The damaged piece was now in the wagon, and Hal bore a rifle on whose efficient action he could depend.
"It's almost a mockery to have a gun, though, just now," Hal smiled grimly as he lifted the piece over a ledge of rock and followed.
"Wouldn't I get a clever roasting from Captain Cortland if I dared to fire it while scouting."
Now Private Overton came to an open space where he could walk more easily. He did not hasten, however, for there was no telling when, in the darkness, he might step on a stone and send it rolling, with a resulting racket that would warn the enemy, if any of them were within hearing.
Every step had to be taken as though the troops were in the midst of life and death war. The rules of the game were strict, and any bit of bad judgment was likely to count against the score of the company to which the man belonged.
Every now and then the sham young scout halted, peering backward, for it was going to be of prime importance to him to know how to get back when his scouting trip was done.
"Halt! Who's there?"
Overton did halt, flattening himself down against the rock.
The hail, though softly spoken, had been unmistakable.
"Halt! Who's there?"
"You'll have to come here and find out," thought Overton.
Then, as silence followed, Hal, holding his very breath, crawled some ten yards to the left. Again he halted, but this time there was no faintly spoken challenge.
"I think I know where that fellow is," mused Hal. "Is he a lone sentry, or part of an outpost?"
It required fifteen minutes now of the most cautious procedure, but Private Overton at last found himself hugging the ground at a point from which he could just barely discern the dimly defined figure of an alert sentry against the skyline.
"I've got him between our camp and myself now," thought Hal swiftly. "Now I've got to be doubly careful. I don't care to have B Company laughing at me because I got captured while on scouting duty. But I'll settle the question of whether that sentry is alone, or part of an outpost."
Three minutes later, after some most careful manœuvring, Overton had solved the question. His grinning face was turned toward a corporal and two men who lay rolled in their blankets some ten yards behind the sentry.
"It's an outpost, all right," grinned Hal. "Whee! How I would like to bag the outpost and take them in as prisoners."
But that was out of the question – not to be thought of.
Private Hal Overton found himself seized by a spirit of mischief. It was the same type of impulse which, carried to the point of reckless daring in real warfare, leads men on to swift promotion.
Almost before he realized what he was doing Hal had hidden his own rifle and was crawling stealthily toward the sleeping men.
Beside the corporal lay his rifle. Barely breathing, his body flattened against the ground. Hal crept closer and closer, then stealthily withdrew the rifle.
A moment or two later Hal had the captured rifle lying on the ground beside his own.
"That's a real find to take back to camp," laughed Hal silently.
He was about to make off with the captured piece when a new impulse seized him.
"Why not go back after more loot?" he asked himself, grinning. "Jupiter, I'll do it!"
Every such move as this was fraught with added danger. But Hal moved on his stomach, taking plenty of time, always with his watchful eyes on the dim figure of the sentry a few yards away. That soldier, however, appeared to be peering mostly in the direction where he believed the camp of B Company to lie.
After a short time Hal, back in safety again, gloated over the sight of three rifles beside his own.
"I'll be a hog, if I don't look out!" chuckled the young scout of sham warfare.
Yet, though this was no life and death fighting, Private Overton had nevertheless a good deal at stake. It would result in his being set down as a rather stupid soldier should he be captured by the enemy's outpost while on scouting duty.
"I can't help it. I've got to have one more try, anyway," decided the mischievous soldier boy.
So back he crept. An instant later he tried to make himself flatter against the earth than he had been able yet to do.
For that sentry had now turned and was looking in his direction.
"I commit myself to the darkness," gasped Private Overton inwardly.
For, if his presence were detected, the sentry, with one call, could bring the other three sleeping men to their feet. Against such odds Hal would have but scant chance of getting away.
"And I'll have to leave my rifle behind if I duck from here," thought Hal, beginning to regret his rashness.
It was one thing to capture the rifles of the outpost; it was quite another thing to leave his own gun behind in their hands.
After a few moments of agony the dimly seen sentry again turned his face in another direction.
"Now that I've started this trick, I'll put it through or die," thought the soldier boy, setting his teeth.
Again he crouched close to the corporal and the two other sleepers. This time there appeared to be no loot loose save a pair of canteens that lay upon the ground. Private Hal Overton made sure of these articles, then, as he lay there, took a last sweeping look.
The shoes of Corporal Raynes, of C Company, protruded under the foot of his blanket.
"I guess it would be too risky a stunt to try to unlace the corporal's shoes and carry 'em away," quivered mischievous Hal, eyeing the footgear longingly.
Then, as he gazed, it struck the soldier boy that there was something odd about the position of the corporal's shoes with regard to the line of Raynes body.
"I