Then he added, threateningly to himself:
"He'd better not try it. If he does, he'll sure wish he hadn't.
Since this war began even the officers are only on probation, and
I've brains enough to find a way to put him in bad with the
regimental K.O."
"What's the matter, Mock, don't you like your food?" asked the
sergeant seated at his left. "You're scowling something fierce."
"It isn't the chow," Sergeant Mock retorted gruffly.
"Must be the heat, then---or a call-down," observed his brother
sergeant.
"Never you mind!" retorted Mock. "And I'm not talking much now;
I want to think."
"Must have been a real 'cussing-out' that you got," grinned the
other sergeant unconcernedly.
Bending over a passing soldier murmured to Mock:
"Top wants to see you in the company office when you're through
eating."
The first sergeant of a company is also known, in Army parlance,
as the "top sergeant" or the "top cutter."
Though he dawdled with his meal Mock did not eat much more. Finally
he rose, stalking sulkily from the mess-room and across the central
corridor.
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