CHAPTER XXX.
THE MOVE INTO CAMP.
The new cadets at West Point are housed in barracks for two weeks aftertheir admission. During this time "squad drill" is the daily rule, andthe strangers learn to march and stand and face--everything a newsoldier has to learn, with the exception of the manual of arms. Afterthat they are adjudged fit to associate with the older cadets, and aremarched up to "Camp McPherson." This usually takes place about the firstday of July.
Our friends, the seven, had been measured for uniforms along with therest of the plebe company during their first days in barracks. Thefatigue uniforms had been given out that morning, to the greatexcitement of everybody, and now "cit" clothing, with all its fantasticvariety of hats and coats of all colors, was stowed away in trunks "forgood," and the plebes costumed uniformly in somber suits of gray, withshort jackets and only a black seam down the trousers for ornament. Fulldress uniforms, such as the old cadets up at camp were wearing, wereyet things of the future.
That morning also the plebes had been "sized" for companies.
Of "companies" there are four, into which the battalion of some threehundred cadets is divided, "for purposes of instruction in infantrytactics, and in military police and discipline." (For purposes of"academic instruction," they are of course divided into the fourclasses: First, second, third, or "yearlings," and fourth, the"plebes".) The companies afore-mentioned are under the command oftactical officers. These latter report to the "commandant of cadets,"who is, next to the superintendent, the highest ranking officer on thepost.
The companies are designated A, B, C and D. A and D are flank companies,and to them the tallest cadets are assigned. B and C are centercompanies. Mark and Texas, and also the Parson and Sleepy, all of whomwere above the average height, found themselves in A. The remainder ofthe Seven Devils managed to land in B; and the whole plebe class wasordered to pack up and be ready to move immediately after dinner.
The cadets are allowed to take only certain articles to camp; the rest,together with the cit's clothing, was stored in trunks and put away inthe trunk room.
Right here at the start there was trouble for the members of ourorganization. Texas, it will be remembered, had a choice assortment ofguns of all caliber, sixteen in number. These he had stored up thechimney of his room for safety. (The chimney is a favorite place ofconcealment for contraband articles at West Point). But there was nosuch place of concealment in camp; and no way of getting the guns thereanyhow. There are no pockets in the cadets' uniforms except a small onefor a watch. Money they are not allowed to carry, and theirhandkerchiefs are tucked in the breasts of their coats.
It was a difficult situation, for Texas, with true Texan cautiousness,vowed he'd never leave his guns behind.
"Why, look a yere, man," he cried. "I tell you, t'ain't safe now fo' afeller to go up thar 'thout anything to defend himself. You kain't tellwhat may happen!"
The Parson was in a similar quandary. His chimney contained a variousassortment of chemicals, together with sundry geological specimens,including that now world-famous cyathophylloid coral which had beendiscovered "in a sandstone of Tertiary origin." And the Parson vowedthat either that cyathophylloid went to camp or he stayed inbarracks--yea, by Zeus!
There was no use arguing with them; Mark tried it in vain. Texas wasobdurate and talked of holding up the crowd that dared to take thoseguns away; and the Parson said that he had kept a return ticket toBoston, his native town, a glorious city where science was encouragedand not repressed.
That was the state of affairs through dinner, and up to the moment whenthe cry, "New cadets turn out!" came from the area. By that time Texashad tied his guns in one of his shirts, and the Parson had variouslydistributed his fossils about his body until he was one bundle of lumps.
"If you people will congregate closely about me," he exclaimed, "Iapprehend that the state of affairs will not be observed."
It was a curious assembly that "turned out"--a mass of bundles, broomsand buckets, with a few staggering plebes underneath. They marched up tocamp that way, too, and it was with audible sighs of relief that theydropped their burdens at the end.
A word of description of "Camp McPherson" may be of interest to thosewho have never visited West Point. It is important that the readershould be familiar with its appearance, for many of Mark's adventureswere destined to happen there--some of them this very same night.
The camp is half a mile or so from barracks, just beyond the CavalryPlain and very close to old Fort Clinton. The site is a pretty one, thewhite tents standing out against the green of the shade trees and theparapet of the fort.
The tents are arranged in four "company streets" and are about five feetapart. The tents have wooden platforms for floors and are large enoughfor four cadets each. A long wooden box painted green serves as the"locker"--it has no lock or key--and a wooden rod near the ridge poleserves as a wardrobe. And that is the sum total of the furniture.
The plebes made their way up the company streets and the cadet officersin charge, under the supervision of the "tacs," assigned them to theirtents. Fortunately, plebes are allowed to select their own tent mates;it may readily be believed the four devils of A company went together.By good fortune the three remaining in B company, as was learned later,found one whole tent left over and so were spared the nuisance of astranger in their midst--a fact which was especially gratifying to theexclusive Master Chauncey.
Having been assigned to their tents, the plebes were set to work underthe brief instructions of a cadet corporal at the task of arrangingtheir household effects. This is done with mathematical exactness. Thereis a place for everything, and a penalty for not keeping it there.Blankets, comforters, pillows, etc., go in a pile at one corner. Alooking-glass hangs on the front tent pole; a water bucket is depositedon the front edge of the platform; candlesticks, candles, cleaningmaterials, etc., are kept in a cylindrical tin box at the foot of therear tent pole; and so on it goes, through a hundred items or so. Thereare probably no more uniform things in all nature than the cadet tentsin camp. The proverbial peas are not to be compared with them.
The amount of fear and trembling which was caused to those four friendsof ours in a certain A company tent by the contraband goods of Texas andthe Parson is difficult to imagine. The cadet corporal, lynx-eyed andvigilant, scarcely gave them a chance to hide anything. It was only byMark's interposing his body before his friends that they managed toslide their precious cargoes in under the blankets, a temporary hidingplace. And even when the articles were thus safely hidden, what mustthat officious yearling do but march over and rearrange the pileaccurately, almost touching one of the revolvers, and making the fourtremble and quake in their boots.
They managed the task without discovery, however, and went on with theirwork. And by the first drum beat for dress parade that afternoon,everything was done up in spick-and-span order, to the eye at any rate.
Dress parade was a formality in which the plebes took no part but thatof interested spectators. They huddled together shyly in their newlyoccupied "plebe hotels" and watched the yearlings, all in spotless snowyuniforms, "fall in" on the company street outside. The yearlings werewild with delight and anticipation at having the strangers right amongthem at last, and they manifested great interest in the plebes, theirdwellings, and in fact in everything about them. Advice and criticism,and all kinds of guying that can be imagined were poured upon thetrembling lads' heads, and this continued in a volley until the seconddrum changed the merry crowd into a silent and motionless line ofsoldiers.
Mark could scarcely keep his excitable friend Texas from sallying outthen and there to attack some of the more active members of thishilarious crowd. It was evident that, while no plebe escaped entirely,there was no plebe hotel in A company so much observed as their own. Forthe three B. J.-est plebes in the whole plebe class were known to behoused therein. Cadet Mallory, "professional hero," was urged in allseriousness to come out and rescue somebody on the spot, whichoft-repeated request
, together with other merry chaffing, he bore with agood-natured smile. Cadet Stanard was plagued with geological questionsgalore, among which the "cyathophylloid" occupied a prominent place.Cadet Powers was dared to come out and lasso a stray "tac," whoseblue-uniformed figure was visible out on the parade ground. And Mr.Chilvers found the state of "craps" a point of great solicitude to all.
It was all stopped by the drum as has been mentioned; the companywheeled by fours and marched down the street, leaving the plebes to anhour of rest. But oh! those same yearlings were thinking. "Oh, won't wejust soak 'em to-night!"
And, strange to say, the same thought was in the minds of sevenparticular plebes that stayed behind. For Mark had a plot by this time.
A Cadet's Honor: Mark Mallory's Heroism Page 30
