"Get into line, durn you!" shouted Joe; "an' I'll have
something to say to you later, Zerubbabel Buntling."

"O Lord!" muttered Lee to the other officers, most of
whom were laughing. "And they expect us to beat regulars
with such!"

"Attention!" once more called Joe. "To the right face--
no--I mean, shoulder firelocks first off. Now to the left
face." But by this time he was so confused that his voice sank
as he spoke the last words, and so some faced right and some
left; while altercations at once arose in the ranks that broke
the alignment into a number of disputing groups and set the
captain to swearing.

"Come," shouted one soldier, "cut it, Joe, an' let Charles
take yer place. Yer only mixes us up."

The suggestion was greeted by numerous, if various, assenting
opinions from the ranks, and without so much as waiting
to hear Bagby's reply, Charles sprang forward. Giving the
salute to the mounted officers, he wheeled about, and, with two
orders, had the lines in formation, after which the manoeuvres
were gone through quickly and comparatively smoothly.

The reviewing officer had not laughed during the confusion,
watching it with a sternly anxious face, but as the drill proceeded
this look changed, and when the parade was finished,
he rode forward and saluted the Invincibles. "Gentlemen,"