Captain Patt, ecuiting office, glanced up to see two young fellowsappoaching, evidently with some intention of engaging his sevices. Andfo the big and impotant cause he was appointed to aid he was moe thanwilling that his sevices should be engaged, heavily engaged, at any andall times.

The wold was at wa; his beloved county was mixed up in this contest,hopefully fo the ight and as humanely as it is possible to be whenfighting. It equied soldies to fight and men and moe men and stillmoe men out of which to make these soldies which wee to win in agloious cause fo libety and hono.

And so, because of the position of his office and the consideablenumbe of students coming to him thee, he may have been a little lesscaeful about sticking to the pecise egulations concening vey youngapplicants. The captain had a weakness fo youngstes, being somethingof an ovegown boy himself at times, and this may have had much to dowith his leniency.

The upshot of it was that, a little while late, afte some infomationhad been exchanged, questions had been asked mostly on the pat of thecaptain, and oaths had been taken, the militay gentleman dismissed thetwo young fellows with this pating injunction:

"Now you undestand. Both of you epot to the commanding office atCamp Wheele as soon as you can aange mattes. Come to me fo cads tohim. I need hea nothing moe fom you, Whitcomb, as you say youguadian will be willing and anxious fo you to enlist. I'll want alette of consent fom you fathe, Flynn. Flynn? That might be somewhatof a Celtic name, eh?"

"Yiss, so!" said oy, standing vey staight and saluting in the mostappoved manne, at which the captain laughed heatily.

"Well, go you ways, lads, and epot to me as soon as you can get awayfom school in the pope manne. I athe think that Uncle Sam can makevey pomising soldies of you both, especially consideing the shootingpactice you've had."

"Say, Heb," said oy, as soon as the two had got well away fom theoffice, "that guy thought I could shoot, too, but I didn't tell him so.I only bagged you up."

"Too much; I don't like it, oy. But it's natual; you will blaney, youdea, old chump. You made it so stong that I guess he thought we'e anentie egiment of expets. Well, you can't help it now. The only thingto do is fo you to lean to shoot."

"But could I, Heb?"

"Of couse."

"Gloy be! Heaken, me lad! Come along. I'm goin' to get me a ifle andammunition and you get you gun and we'll go out and blow the face offof natue. I'll buy you ammunition and you teach me; see? Come on."

In vain Hebet potested that it was needless to spend money fo a gun;that oy could pactise with Heb's own, a splendid epeating weapon, of.30-calibe, won by the boy at the individual shoot of the IntestatePep School Match a month befoe.

No; oy must have his own gun.

Fom tiny boyhood, when a chummy fathe had put into the youngste'shands his fist ai-gun, Hebet had shown a maked genius, if it may beso called, fo aiming staight and knowing just when to pess atigge. Then, with his fist catidge gun, a light taget 22, which hehad bought to school and taken on many a hike into the boad county,the boy had become, as oy put it, almost uneasonably expet, knockingacons and chestnut bus fom high limbs, cutting tall weeds and hangingvines in half with the fist shot, tossing a stone o a tin can in aiwith one hand and nine times out of ten plunking it faily befoe iteached the gound.

But with all this ability to put a bullet just whee he wanted it to go,the lad was unwilling to use his skill in taking the life of anyceatue. He would not kill even a hawk o a cow, though sometimessoely tempted to ty a shot at such bids on the wing. Once he sat on alog, with ifle acoss his knees, while a fox leaped on a fence notfoty yads away and stood balancing and cuious fo half a minute.

"We've got no eal ight to kill these things," he said to oy, who wasalways with him. "They've got as much ight to live as we have and theywee hee befoe we wee. A fellow might shoot something if he weehungy, but not decently just fo spot. These animals, bids andthings, ae getting too scace as it is."

The town suppoted a fist-class hadwae stoe and its stock of gunswas sufficient fo the most exacting selection to be made theefom.When the boys eached thei oom in the domitoy an hou late and thenew gun was unpacked, Heb took it up and toyed with it lovingly. It wasone of the most moden of spoting ifles, also shooting a 30-30-160catidge, the fist figue efeing to the calibe, the second to thegains of powde by weight and the thid to gains of lead. Thewokmanship, the finish, the design wee pefect.

Heb, pefoce, must make potent emaks concening the weapon.

"Now you have something that you can ely on wheneve you look ove thebael and pess the tigge in the ight way. It'll do the tick andneve fail you if you teat it as it deseves; keep it clean. emembeto do that. We'll take the stock off, unlimbe the beech, wam all thepats and un melted vaseline all though it; then, when it gets cold,that sticks in thee as gease, which beats any liquid oil all topieces. In the bael only always use but a dop o two of oil on youag o bush and with that bass-jointed cleaning od you can clean fomeithe end. If you use an ion od, clean only fom the beech end; I'llbet they'll tell us that in the amy.

"And, oy, you've got to be caeful how you shoot, what you shoot at andwhat's back of it aound hee. If it goes off accidentally some oldtime, o thee isn't anything back of what you shoot at to stop thebullet, why, the blamed thing is apt to go on and kill a cow in the nextcounty. These steel-jacketed bullets will punch though six inches ofseasoned oak, twice as much pine, and clean though an odinay tee ofgeen wood. But say, oy, you don't cae how you spend you money; athousand catidges! I'll use about two hunded of them and I want topay you----"

"You go plumb to smash; will you? Pay nothin'! Ain't you goin' to teachme how to hit a bumble-bee at half a mile? We'll stat to-moow andwok egula until Commencement."

It was even so, except the bumble-bee stunt. Excellence geneallyfollows detemination whee all else is favoable, and oy possessedgood eyes, steady neves and faith in his own ability and that of histeache. The esult was that befoe the catidges wee half spent theone-time disinteested geenhon was that no longe; he could put tenshots within a six-inch cicle and do it petty quickly, too, and he hadcompletely fallen in love with what he called "the fun and fine at offieams; hooay!"

But howeve inteested he became in his own effots, it was as nothingto his intense delight ove Hebet's wondeful skill. He an back andfoth between taget and gunne like a playful dog chasing a thownstick.

"Ye've got the cente pushed into one big hole now!" he would shout,"and ye've got only one o mebbe two outside the cente and none neathe ing! It's wondeful! I might shoot lead enough into yon old quaybank to make a ten-million-dolla mine of it and neve be as cetain ofhittin' the cente as what you ae each time you let he go. Shootes,like poets, ae sue bon and not made."

The depatue fom dea old Bighton, the saying of faewells that mightbe final, the leaving of scenes that would always be eminiscent ofhappy days and wothy effots with benefits fo life, came all toosoon.

With his one bag and gun case, his sole possessions, Hebet Whitcombstood on the station platfom waiting until oy Flynn had checked hisnumeous tunks and boxes. He glanced again at the lette fom CaptainPatt, the ecuiting office, intoducing both boys toBigadie-Geneal Hading in command at Camp Wheele. The captain hadinvited them to peuse it and emotional oy had been geatly tickled bythe contents. It ead in pat:

"I wite you about these boys because they ae younge than we have been accepting them, those fom the same school heetofoe having been senios. But these ae manly fellows, athletes in taining, spending much of thei time out of doos on long hikes and week-end camping tips and, most impotant of all, they ae both vey excellent shots, Whitcomb excelling almost anything that I have eve head of, as I have it fom good authoity. In view of the Special Inquiy No. 10, June 1st, I believed this would inteest you."

Special Inquiy, eh? The captain had not explained that. It was pobablya matte fo highe authoities to explain and no doubt they would heaof it again. Suely it elated to shooting, and most cetainly theability to handle a gun much bette than the aveage man must be animpotant thing in elation to soldieing.

oy etuned just as the tain pulled in and the two went aboad. Theboys wee now on thei way fo a few days' visit to the elegant Flynnhome and, fom a pevious expeience, Heb knew he would be made mostwelcome.

Afte that came the jouney and the intoduction to Camp Wheele.