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By Root 13843 0

automatically for him to stop to let him pass, but the private was too intent upon his job to see him. When he did not stop Capt Holmes, still thinking about the Colonel, stepped across from dry to wet between the strokes. The beard of the mop slapped his heel, and the private looked up startled, then popped to a guilty wide-eyed Attention, the mop dangling from his hand. He looked down at it a moment indecisively, then jerked the stick up along his right side like a guidon and looked at Holmes. Capt Holmes gave him one disdainful look, disgusted at such chaotic and unreasonable fear of officers which always irritated him, and went on silently.

Col Delbert was in his office. Behind the big desk and across the long expanse of gleaming floor, between the two tall flags, one the country’s the other the Regiment’s, he looked deceptively small. But he was a big man, big enough that the tiny irongray mustache he wore always embarrassed Capt Holmes, no matter how hard he tried not to judge. Outside of the black cocker that slept on the floor and two straight chairs the office was properly and soldierly bare.

Everything went off as Holmes saluted coldly and impersonally. Even the cocker seemed no longer to be breathing. The Old Man returned it with the same precision, then everything came on again and the Colonel smiled. When he smiled he was really, truly almost fatherly.

“Well,” the Col said, pushing back his chair and slapping his hands down on his knees. “Whats on your mind, eh, ‘Dynamite’?”

Capt Holmes smiled back and got one of the chairs from against the wall, wishing he could get rid of that ridiculous uneasiness.

“Well, Sir. One of my old men . . .”

“We certainly looked bad last Sunday in baseball.” The Col clipped the words. “You see the game? A rout. A veritable rout. The 21st ran over us roughshod, I say. It’d’ve been much worse if ’t hadn’t been for Big Chief Choate. Best firstbaseman ever saw. Really ought to transfer him to Hq Company and give him a Staff Sergeancy.” Col Delbert beamed and the short mustache bent sharply in the middle like a distant bird in flight. “Fact, I would if we had a team at all in baseball, but he’s the only thing we’ve got.”

Capt Holmes debated in the pause whether the Col intended to go on, or whether he could go ahead with what he wanted. He decided it would be better to wait than interrupt him if he did go on.

“We wont do anything in baseball this year,” the Col went on. Holmes chalked up a hit. “Your boxing squad was only athletic championship we won all year last year. Looks like the only one we’ll have a chance of winning this year. I’ve taken some mighty strong ribbing about our athletic prowess lately.”

“Yes, Sir,” Capt Holmes said in the next pause. “Thank you, Sir.”

“Every soldier knows,” the Col said, “that good athletics make for good soldiering. Our Regiment’s athletic reputation has suffered badly this last year. Even the downtown newspapers were lampooning us. A thing like that is never good. You, my boy, are about the only bright spot on our horizon.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Capt Holmes said, trying to figure what it was leading up to.

Col Delbert paused, sagely screwing up his eyes. “Do you think we’ll win that championship again this year, Captain?”

“Well, Sir,” Capt Holmes said. “We’ve got a fifty-fifty chance so far. We’re ahead of the 27th on points; but not with enough margin to have a cinch,” he added.

“Then you dont think we’ll win it?” Col Delbert said.

“I didnt say that, Sir,” said Capt Holmes.

“Well,” the Col said, “either you think we’ll win it, or you dont think we’ll win it. Dont you?”

“Yes, Sir,” Holmes said.

“Then which?”

“What?” Holmes said. “Oh, we’ll win it, Sir.”

“Good. Good,” the Col said. “There hasnt been enough work put on athletics here the last two years.”

Capt Holmes considered carefully. “Yes, Sir,” he said. “But I think all we coaches did our best.”

The Col nodded, emphatically. “Think so too. But we ’ve got to get results. Our S-3 training is all very fine, soldiers need to drill to keep them busy. But in peacetime we both know