the shirt therein, next restoring the box to place bring out a
basin from under the bed and placing it on a chair, he found towel
and soap and busied himself with washing up. His toilet completed,
he took a clean shirt from a bundle on one of the neatly arranged
shelves and donned the garment. A few more touches, and, spick-and-span,
clean and very soldierly looking, he descended to the ground floor.
A glance into the mess-room showed him that the noon meal was not
yet ready, so be sauntered to the doorway, remaining just inside
out of the sun's rays.

Other officers gathered quickly. A waiter from mess appeared at
the inner doorway, speaking a quiet word that caused the regiment's
officers, except the colonel and his staff, to file inside.

Plain pine tables, without cloths, long pine benches nailed to
the floor---officers' mess was exactly like that of the enlisted
men, save that officers' mess was provided with heavy crockery,
while in the company mess-rooms the men ate from aluminum mess-kits.

Most of the food was already in place on the table. The meal
began with a lively hum of conversation. Occasionally some merry
officer called out jokingly to some officer at another table;
there was no special effort at dignified silence.

"The K.O. has our number!" exclaimed an irrepressible lieutenant.

"How so?" demanded Noll Terry, Prescott's first lieutenant.

"He knows us for a bunch of shirkers, and so he gave us the 'pep'
talk this morning."