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Page 8
"Not yet," laughed Ridge, "but I am on my way East to do so in the first
regiment uncontaminated by politics that I can find."
"Then, old man, you don't want to go East. You want to come West with
us. There is but one regiment such as you have named, and it is mine;
for, behold! I am now Rollo in the Army, Rollo the Rough Rider, Rollo
the Terror. Perhaps it would be more becoming, though, to say 'Ours,'
for we are all in it."
"I should rather imagine that it would," growled he of the golf
stockings, now joining in the conversation. "And, 'Rollo in Disguise,'
suppose you present us to your friend; for, if I am not mistaken, he is a
gentleman of whom I have heard and would like much to meet."
"Of course you would," responded Rollo, "and I beg your pardon for not
having introduced you at once; but in times of war, you know, one is apt
to neglect the amenities of a more peaceful existence. Mr. Norris, allow
me to present my friend and pupil in the art of football-playing--"
"Oh, come off," laughed the big man.
"Pupil, as I was saying when rudely interrupted," continued Rollo, "Mr.
Mark Gridley."
"Not Gridley, the famous quarter-back!" exclaimed Ridge, holding out his
hand.
"That's him," replied Van Kyp.
"And aren't you Norris, the gentleman rider?" asked Gridley.
"I have ridden," acknowledged Ridge.
"So has this my other friend and fellow-soldier," cried Van Kyp.
"Norris, I want you to know Mr. Silas Pine, of Medora, North Dakota, a
bad man from the Bad Lands, a bronco-buster by profession, who has also
consented to become a terror to Spaniards in my company."
"Have you a company, then?" asked Ridge, after he had acknowledged this
introduction.
"I have--that is, I belong to one; but, in the sense you mean, you must
not use the word company. That is a term common to 'doughboys,' who, as
you doubtless know, are merely uniformed pedestrians; but we of the
cavalry always speak of our immediate fighting coterie as a 'troop.'
Likewise the 'battalion' of the inconsequent doughboy has for our behoof
been supplanted by the more formidable word 'squadron,' to show that we
are _de jure_ as well as _de facto_ men of war. Sabe?"
"Then you are really in the cavalry?" asked Ridge, while laughing at this
nonsense.
"Yes, I really am, or rather I really shall be when I get there; for
though enlisted and sworn in, we haven't yet joined or been sworn at."
"What is your regiment?"
"You mean our 'command.' Why, didn't I tell you? 'Teddy's Terrors,'
Roosevelt's Rough Riders. First Volunteer Cavalry, U.S.A., Colonel
Leonard Wood commanding."
"The very one!" cried Ridge. "Why didn't I think of it before? How I
wish I could join it."
"And why not?"
"I thought there were so many applications that the ranks were more than
full."
"So there may be, but, like lots of other full things, there's always
room for one more, if he's of the right sort."
"Do you imagine I would stand the slightest chance of getting in?"
"I should say you would. With me ready to use my influence in your
behalf, and me and Teddy the chums we are, besides you being the rider
you are. Why the first question Teddy asks of an applicant is 'Can you
ride a horse?' And when you answer, 'Sir, I am the man who wrote--I mean
who won the silver hurdles at the last Yokohama gym.', he'll be so
anxious to have you in the regiment that he'd resign in your favor rather
than lose you. Oh, if I only had your backing do you suppose I'd be a
mere private Terror? No, siree, I'd be corporal or colonel or something
of that kind, sure as you're born. But come on, let's get aboard, for
there's the tinkle-bell a-tinkling."
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