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[Illustration: "Let Me Look at That Bolt." _Frontispiece._]




  Uncle Sam's Boys
  on Field Duty

  OR

  Winning Corporal's Chevrons

  By
  H. IRVING HANCOCK

  Author of The Motor Boat Club Series, The High School Boys' Series,
  The West Point Series, The Annapolis Series, Uncle Sam's Boys
  in the Ranks, Uncle Sam's Boys as Sergeants, Etc.

  Illustrated

  PHILADELPHIA
  HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY




  COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY
  HOWARD E. ALTEMUS




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                               PAGE
      I. A SQUAD-ROOM MISUNDERSTANDING                      7
     II. ON THE GREAT SUMMER HIKE                          29
    III. SOLDIER HAL MARCHES AS A PRISONER                 47
     IV. THE JOKING SCOUT                                  54
      V. THE CORPORAL WITH THE SHEEPISH GRIN               65
     VI. RAYNES FINDS A PATRIOTIC ALLY                     77
    VII. BEARS AND OTHER TROUBLES                          90
   VIII. IN THE MIDST OF THE "HOSTILES"                    97
     IX. PLANNING FOR THE NIGHT ATTACK                    103
      X. TRAPPERS AND TRAPPED                             113
     XI. THAT C COMPANY CORPORAL EATS CROW                119
    XII. THE CALL TO DEADLY WORK                          130
   XIII. THE APPOINTMENT WITH SUPREME DANGER              138
    XIV. MEETING BLICK IN EARNEST                         145
     XV. THE BATTLE OF THEIR LIVES                        155
    XVI. CAPTAIN CORTLAND "MAKES A SPEECH"                162
   XVII. ROUNDING UP THE MISSING LEAVE MEN                171
  XVIII. DOWLEY EGGS ON A CATSPAW                         184
    XIX. A DISPUTE IN THE GUARD HOUSE                     192
     XX. PROMOTION FLIES IN THE AIR                       202
    XXI. THE PRICE OF BEING A MAN                         211
   XXII. TWO YOUNG CORPORALS SEND OUT THE "C. Q. D."      227
  XXIII. THE WIND CHANGES ITS COURSE AND BLOWS            235
   XXIV. CONCLUSION                                       246




Uncle Sam's Boys on Field Duty

CHAPTER I

A SQUAD-ROOM MISUNDERSTANDING


"I see by the paper----" began Private Green, looking up.

Instantly the doughboys in the squad room turned loose on him.

"You can never believe what you read in the papers," broke in Private
Hyman.

"Cut it and study your guard manual!" yelled another.

"Is it going to rain to-night, rookie?"

"Let him alone. He wants to prove that he can read," jeered another,
which witticism brought a swift flush to the face of Private Green.

For Green was as verdant as his name. He was a new recruit, just in
after his probationary period at a northwestern recruit rendezvous. He
was so green, in fact, that the men in the squad room, and throughout
B Company of the Thirty-fourth United States Infantry accused the
young fellow of having joined the Army so that he could get a wall of
bayonets between his own inexperienced self and the bunco men.

The young recruit's mistake lay in pretending to know a lot more than
he really did know. He had been put through the unmerciful hazing that
always awaits a very "fresh" rookie, or recruit, but even that had
taught him little. Private Green was always looking for the chance to
prove to his new comrades among the regulars of the Thirty-fourth that
he knew something after all. This afternoon his trouble had taken the
form of trying to find something in a two-days' old newspaper on which
he could discourse for the enlightenment of the other men.

"I see by the paper," continued Private William Green, as soon as his
tormentors would let him proceed, "that we of the United States are now
manufacturing the biggest and finest guns in the world."

"Meaning cannon?" quizzed Private Hyman innocently.

"Sure," nodded Private William Green.

"Take that over to the red sheds," jeered one soldier.

"What do we of the infantry care about the red legs and their
troubles?" demanded Hyman, as though affronted.

For the "doughboys," or infantrymen, of the regular Army, affect
supreme scorn for all other arms of the service. In