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Page 7
"All right, father," replied the young fellow. "I won't tell you a thing
about it, for I don't know where I am going any more than you do."
"Then good-bye, my boy, and may Almighty God restore you to us safe and
well when the war is over. Here is the money you asked for, and I only
wish I were able to give you ten times the sum. Be careful of it, and
don't spend it recklessly, for you must remember that we are poor folk
now."
Thus saying, the elder man slipped a roll of crisp bills into his son's
hand, kissed him on the cheek, a thing he had not done before in a dozen
years, and, without trusting his voice for another word, drove rapidly
away.
For a minute Ridge stood in the shadow of the massive building, listening
with a full heart to the rattle of departing wheels. Then he stooped to
pick up the hand-bag, which was all the luggage he proposed to take with
him. As he did so, two men brushed past him, and he overheard one of
them say:
"Yes, old Norris was bought cheap. A second-lieutenancy for his cub
fixed him. The berth'll soon be vacant again though, for the boy hasn't
sand enough to--"
Here the voice of the speaker was lost as the two turned into the armory.
"Thanks for your opinion, Major Dodley," murmured Ridge; "that cheap
berth will be vacant sooner than you think."
Then, picking up his "grip," the young fellow walked rapidly away towards
the railway station. He was clad in a blue flannel shirt, brown canvas
coat, trousers, and leggings, and wore a brown felt hat, the combination
making up a costume almost identical with that decided upon as a Cuban
campaign uniform for the United States army. Ridge had provided himself
with it in order to save the carrying of useless luggage. In his "grip"
he had an extra shirt, two changes of under-flannels, several pairs of
socks, a pair of stout walking-shoes, and a few toilet articles, all of
which could easily be stowed in an army haversack.
Our hero's vaguely formed plan, as he neared the station, was to take the
first east-bound train and make his way to one of the great camps of
mobilization, either at Chickamauga, Georgia, or Tampa, Florida, where he
hoped to find some regiment in which he could conscientiously enlist. A
train from the North had just reached the station as he entered it; but,
to his disgust, he found that several hours must elapse before one would
be ready to bear him eastward.
He was too excited to wait patiently, but wandered restlessly up and down
the long platform. All at once there came to his ears the sound of a
familiar voice, and, turning, he saw, advancing towards him, in the full
glare of an electric light, three men, all young and evidently in high
spirits. One, thin, brown, and wiry, was dressed as a cowboy of the
Western plains. Another, who was a giant in stature, wore a golf suit of
gray tweed; while the third, of boyish aspect, whom Ridge recognized as
the son of a well-known New York millionaire, was clad in brown canvas
much after his own style, though he also wore a prodigious revolver and a
belt full of cartridges.
He was Roland Van Kyp, called "Rollo" for short, one of the most
persistent and luxurious of globe-trotters, who generally travelled in
his own magnificent steam-yacht _Royal Flush_, on board of which he had
entertained princes and the cream of foreign nobility without number.
Everybody knew Van Kyp, and everybody liked him; he was such a genial
soul, ever ready to bother himself over some other fellow's trouble, but
never intimating that he had any of his own; reckless, generous,
happy-go-lucky, always getting into scrapes and out of them with equal
facility. To his more intimate friends he had been variously known as
"Rollo Abroad," "Rollo in Love," "Rollo in Search of a Wife," or "Rollo
at Play," and when Ridge became acquainted with him in Yokohama he was
"Rollo in Japan."
He now recognized our hero at a glance, and sprang forward with
outstretched hand.
"Hello, Norris, my dear boy!" he cried. "Whatever brings you here?
Thought you were still far away in the misty Orient, doing the grand
among the little brown Japs, while here you are in flannel and canvas as
though you were a major-general in the regular army. What does it mean?
Are you one of us? Have you too become a man of war, a fire-eater, a
target for Mausers? Have you enlisted under the banner of the screaming
eagle?"
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