Sergeant Cuff

“ There's good and bad, to be sure; but an officer like the captain here, that the men can trust, is harder spared than any sergeant: let alone that you can easily spread officers too thick—even good ones, and even in a forlorn hope.'
'He wants my place,' said Captain Archimbeau; 'and he salves my feelings with a testimonial.'
'As for that, sir'—the sergeant conceded a grin—'I reckon you won't be far behind us when the trouble begins. ”

“ His superiors all knew his swift methods of passing any reprimand he might receive on to the troops under him.
A grim light was shining in the eyes that regarded the rugged face of the harshest Sergeant-Major in the Police Force.
“Now, let there be no mistake, Sergeant-Major. No mistake whatever,” the man at the desk went on, in a carefully calculated tone. “The prisoner, Pryse, has to be recaptured. If there is any further failure, you will have to answer for it. Do you understand me? How many patrols have you got out?” ”

“ The voice of Sergeant-Major Cowley exclaimed tranquilly from outside:
"Fall in now. Men who've got their ring papers and identity disks—three of them—on the left. Men who haven't, on the right. Any man who has not been able to draw his blankets tell Colour-Sergeant Morgan. Don't forget. You won't get any where you're going. Any man who hasn't made his will in his Soldier's Small Book or elsewhere and wants to, to consult Captain Tietjens. Any man who wants to draw money, ask Captain Mackenzie. ”

“ As the number of men was to be limited to forty, too much care could not be exercised in their selection. I chose the great majority of them from the sharpshooters, men who, in addition to being cool and brave, were experienced and skilful marksmen. My standard-bearer, a well-tried sergeant, was selected as the senior non-commissioned officer of the party. The officers who were to accompany me were my brother Colonel Custer, Captain Robbins, and Dr. ”

“ The gratitude of the officers, the thanks of the women putting themselves in my place and giving him praise for encountering danger for another, were some sort of compensation. The poor sergeant had nothing; he went back to the barracks, and sank his individuality in the ranks, where the men look so alike in their uniform it is almost impossible to distinguish the soldier that has acted the hero from one who is never aught but a poltroon. After the excitement of the peril I had passed was over, I no longer wondered that there was such violent opposition to women traveling with troops. ”

“ Granny asked nervously at this point, arriving just in time to hear the conclusion of the sergeant's explanation. "Oh, Chris, my darling, what have you been doing?"
"I'm a soldier now, my Granny," he stated proudly, with a defiant look at Briggs and myself. "He said I was, didn't you?" he asked, turning to the sergeant, who smiled again. "He's going to lend me his soldier clothes till you buy me some. He said he would."
"He'd have been here before if I could have got a lift, marm," explained the sergeant, "but it chanced nothing passed by us. ”

“ I took note that he wore sergeant's stripes.
"What's the poor thing called?" someone inquired of the sentry.
The sentry, being an Irishman, mistook the idiom. "He's called a Bull," said he, stroking the barrel of his rifle. "H'what the divvle else?"
"But 'tis the man we mean."
"Oh, he's called Letcher; sergeant; North Wilts."
Letcher gulped down a mouthful of water and managed to sit up, pushing the butcher's arm aside.
"Where's Plinlimmon?" he asked hoarsely. "Hurt?"
"Here I am, old fellow," answered Archibald, reeling rather than stepping forward. "A crack on the skull, that's all. ”

“ And inside of half an hour we had all five of them spools lookin' new and bright, like they'd just come from the mill.
"What next, sir?" asks the sergeant.
"Why," says I, "the fussy old major who's so hot for getting these things is waiting at the Plutoria, about ten blocks down. Maybe he wants 'em there. I wonder if we could——"
"Sure!" says the sergeant. "This heavy gun bunch can move anything. Here! I'll show 'em how."
With that he runs a crowbar through the center of one of the spools, puts a man on either side to push, and rolls it along as easy as wheelin' a baby carriage. ”

“ I will have a couple of machine-guns down here to-morrow morning, and we shall see then what will happen."
He turned suddenly, interrupted by a storm of broken and confused cheering. The soldiers had almost reached their barracks; one man was raised on the shoulders of others, and surrounded by the rest of the regiment, waving their helmets, brandishing their rifles, and cheering wildly.
"It is the sergeant," said the Colonel.
"So I perceive," replied Sorrento bitterly. "A popular man, I suppose. Have you many non-commissioned officers like that?" ”

“ And if the major wants a good man from B Company, you'll agree with me, sir, that yonder he goes.' And Sergeant Wilkes jerked a thumb after the tall young corporal, a moment before the sandhills hid his retreating figure. ”

“ When the sergeant major, attracted by the unwonted uproar, appeared upon the scene, there was a man on every one of McQuaig's limbs, and another one astride his stomach. “Heavin' like sawlogs shootin' a rapid,” as Private Corbin, a lumberjack from the Eau Claire, was later heard to remark.
“What is he like now?” inquired the colonel, after listening to the sergeant major's report of the Homeric combat.
“He is in a compartment in the hold, sir, and raging like one demented. He very nearly did for Major Bustead, smashing at him with a scantling that he ripped from the ship's timbers, sir. ”

“ Oh, Lord, that's all I'll ever ask You—fur God's sake git Billy Priest out of there! Ez a favour to me, Lord, please, Suh, git Billy Priest out of there!” From many throats at once a yell arose—a yell so shrill and loud that it overtopped all lesser sounds; a yell so loud that the sergeant ceased from his praying to look. Through the smoke, and over the sloping peak of the roof from the rear, came a slim, dark shape on its all-fours. ”

“ They spangled his skin as with red asterisks, and the gnarled hand he extended in greeting as he mounted the porch looked as though in its time it had mixed at least one million bran mashes.
Achieving a somewhat wabbly standing posture in his keeler, the sergeant welcomed him in due form.
“I don't live here myself,” he explained, “but I reckin you might say I'm in full charge, seein' ez I crippled myself up this mornin' and had to stay behind this evenin'. ”

“ The Staff officer, with a vague reminiscence of his regimental days, exclaimed:
"Damn it! . . . I wonder you don't break into the depot blanket store and take what you want. . . ."
The sergeant-major, becoming Simon Pure, exclaimed:
"Oh, no, sir, we could never do that, sir. . . ."
"But the confounded men are urgently needed in the line," Colonel Levin said. "Damn it, it's touch and go! . . . We're rushing . . ." He appreciated the fact again that he was on the gawdy Staff, and that the sergeant-major and Tietjens, playing like left backs into each other's hands, had trickily let him in. ”

“ On reaching the police-station we made our way into a small, quiet office, the only tenant of which was a benevolent-looking, bald-headed sergeant, who was seated at a high desk, and, who presented that peculiar, decapitated aspect that appertains to a police officer minus his helmet. As we entered the sergeant laid down his pen and turned to us with a benign smile.
"Good morning, Mr. Japp," said he. "What can I have the pleasure of doing for you?" ”

“ Cheers would follow this intimation, and a sarcastic old soldier might interject the remark, “The captain don’t know, Sergeant-Major, how strong A troop heads are. We could drink a gallon per man, and never turn a hair!” Whereunto the honest sergeant-major would retort, “Ah, Lucas, we know what a power of suction you have without showing the drink, but remember it’s not a fortnight since when you were walking pack-drill for being as drunk as a boiled owl.” ”

“ The colonel said:
"But surely, sergeant-majah . . ."
Old Cowley might as well have said "madam" as "sir" to the red hat-band . . . The four hundred had come with only what they stood up in. The unit had had to wangle everything: boots, blankets, toothbrushes, braces, rifles, iron-rations, identity disks out of the depot store. And it was now only twenty-one twenty. . . . Cowley permitted his commanding officer at this point to say:
"You must understand that we work in circumstances of extreme difficulty, sir. . . ." ”

“ It was at the armory just prior to the Thursday evening drill that Chick said to him:
“I couldn’t stay in the company no longer if Sergeant Barriscale was elected first lieutenant.”
“Why not, Chick?” asked Hal.
“Oh, he’d lord it over everybody,” was the reply. “He’s bad enough as first sergeant. I don’t know what he would be if he was first lieutenant. You’ve got to run, Sergeant ’Cormack; you’ve simply got to run. We’ll see that you’re ’lected, all right. I’ll work my hands an’ feet off, an’ my head, too. An’ they’s plenty more of us’ll do the same thing. I know. I’ve heard the boys talk. ”

“ Lieutenant Worth was at once aroused and the situation explained to him, and before the sergeant could deliver the colonel’s message he cried:
“I’ll take a score of men and go back with you, for that villain must be run down. You know your men best, Cody, so pick out from the three commands together here ten of your best scouts, and let them take the finest horses, whether their own or not. You, Sergeant Fallon, pick a corporal and ten troopers, and see that they get the very best mounts. ”

“ Sergeant John nodded, and without waiting for her consent lifted her in his arms. For the moment there was no safer spot than that upon which they were, but it would not be safe for long, he knew. Running to the car he had left, he placed her in it and vaulted after. Then he laid her in a little alleyway formed by boxes of tinned stuff.
"Will ye stay here, now?" he demanded.
"Send him to me!" she begged. "He's not fit to be out there. And anyway he's not in charge of those recruits—they're infantrymen." ”

“ Sergeant Wilkes, running a pace or two behind the major, slipping and staggering at every second yard, was aware—though he could not see him—of young Corporal Sam close at his shoulder. The lad talked to himself as he ran: but his talk was no more than a babble of quiet unmeaning curses, and the sergeant, who understood how the lust of fighting works in different men, did not trouble to answer until, himself floundering up to his knees in a saltwater pool, he flung out a hand for support and felt it gripped. ”

“ You have too fine a record as a soldier for any such belief to find acceptance without the strongest, most positive proof."
"There is something that Captain Cortland and I have had in mind to do for you. The present time, therefore, seems an especially suitable one for showing the full measure of our confidence in you, Corporal. Of course, if any evidence came up that would sustain a charge of crime against you, then what we are thinking of doing could be very easily undone at need. Corporal Overton, at parade, to-morrow afternoon, your appointment as sergeant in B company will be announced." ”

“ A cannon boomed, and a round-shot whined down the road.
“B’gorry, this day we make a horn or spoil a spoon,” Corporal Finerty declared. “Who’s for climbin’ over thim breastworks?”
“I!” and “I!” and “Here’s your man!” were the replies.
“Less noise there, sergeant,” called Captain Gore.
“You hear? Hould your breaths, for you’ll nade ’em,” Sergeant Mulligan rebuked.
“Sure, sergeant, wan Cerry Gordo shout an’ thim beggars’d be showin’ us their heels,” Corporal Finerty grinned.
“Here he comes! Old Fuss and Feathers himself! ’Tis like a smell o’ powder—the sight of him. ”

“ Pouring from their car, excited and expectant, the recruits formed. Already the ordnance sergeant was busy—also without authority—in the car he had left, and in a moment two sweating corporals were serving out clips of cartridges and running back for fresh armfuls.
Toward the head of the train, where lay the "honeymoon special," as Sergeant John had mentally named the private car, men already were hurrying, all armed with the heavy army six-shooter—department men, like the old sergeant himself, and civilian clerks, for the most part, with a heavy sprinkling of train-hands. ”

“ Where's the officer in charge of the draft?"
Sergeant-Major Cowley said:
"Sergeant-Major Ledoux said it was like a cattle-stampede on the . . . some river where they come from. You couldn't stop them, sir. It was their first German plane. . . . And they going up the line to-night, sir."
"To-night!" Tietjens exclaimed. "Next Christmas!"
The sergeant-major said:
"Poor boys!" and continued to gaze into the distance. "I heard another good one, sir," he said. "The answer to the one about the King saluting a private soldier and he not taking any notice is: when he's dead. . . ”

“ The sergeant was giving orders to the spy as they rode, and at the crossway the sergeant, shouting, "Shoot low!" turned sharp to the left while the spy made for the right.
It was a pretty trick, for it put me between two fires. I was on the spy's pistol hand as he turned, and he let fly at me, not out of calculated bravery, as his face plainly showed, but in a flurry of despair. The motive behind a shot, however, does not matter. It's the bullet that counts, and his got me just above the left elbow. I was up in my stirrups, aiming at the sergeant, who was pulling his horse round to be at me. ”