which First Sergeant Lund turned and strode away.

Nor was Mock a happy man. Holmes arranged that a regimental surgeon
should come over to B company barracks later and make a careful
examination of Sergeant Mock's feet. For some reason the surgeon
did not come promptly. The evening meal was eaten, and darkness
settled down over Camp Berry. Mock, still limping and looking
woeful, kept out in the open air.

"Psst!" came sharply from somewhere, and Mock, turning, saw a
man in civilian garb standing in the shadow of a latrine shed.

"Come here," called the stranger. Still surly, but urged by curiosity,
Mock obeyed the summons.

"I don't want to be seen talking with you," murmured the stranger,
in a low voice, "but I want to offer you my sympathy. Say, but
a man gets treated roughly in the Army. That captain of yours---"

As the stranger paused, looking keenly at Mock, the disgruntled
sergeant finished vengefully:

"The captain? He's a dog!"

"Dog is right," agreed the stranger promptly. "Will he do anything
more to you?"

"I expect he'll bust me," said Sergeant Mock.

To "bust" is the same as to "break." It means to reduce a non-com