Chapter 3

Dev was housed in the Officer's Quarters. To him, it was a nice enough place to live. It was one room, but rather largish, with a real bed, not the wooden board rack he had slept on as a private in the army.

He had a footlocker that contained his uniforms, hose, and his civilian clothing. His extra riding boots and regular army boots were under his bed. Instead of a fireplace, he had a small potbelly stove that kept the room warm enough in the cold weather.

The stove was a fairly new innovation to Westford. Still, the Army had bought a number of them, and had had them shipped and placed in Officer's Quarters in the colder climate areas of the kingdom. It seemed sensible to Dev.

He sat in one of his two chairs and thought about one of his problems that he was going to have to deal with. His platoon sergeant had not been pleased to be put back into the position of just platoon sergeant. Until Dev came along, he had been the platoon sergeant and platoon leader, and he resented Dev's being there.

Dev already had developed a plan of action. He was going to let his platoon sergeant go, and promote corporal Alder to platoon sergeant. He would then promote file leader Kitch to corporal and move a couple people around, in the platoon. This would balance the files. He would still be short of people, but at least the files would be well matched.

The next day Dev got up and decided that this was the day he dealt with platoon sergeant Cryder. There was a knock on his door.

"Come," he said.

The door opened and sergeant Cryder came in.

"You wanted to see me?" Cryder asked, almost sneering.

Dev studied Cryder a moment. What he saw was a man of about forty, getting a bit overweight, with short brown hair peppered with gray. He was about two inches shorter than Dev.

"Cryder, you have resented me and have been just short of out and out disrespectful of me, since I arrived. I am tired of your behavior, so I am relieving you of your position as platoon sergeant.

"I am informing the captain as soon as we are finished here, and if he finds a position for you, it will surprise me. If I were you, I would look for a position somewhere in the civilian portion of town," Dev told the man.

Cryder's face had gotten ugly as Dev spoke and his hands closed into fists.

"Why you little popinjay. You come in here and in just a couple weeks you think you can run this platoon? I was in the Army before you were out of your mamma's belly! You can't come in here and try to ruin me, without taking your lumps," Cryder snarled and rushed at Dev.

Dev dodged and hit the man in his kidney as he went by. Cryder winced but was game and turned. He drew a knife and glared at Dev.

"I was just going to beat you to a pulp, but now I think I will carve my name in your face," Cryder snarled.

Dev found himself in a fight for his life! He dodged twice and then managed to trap the arm with the knife. He used a trick he had learned and forced the elbow up. He heard a gasp, and Cryder dropped the knife.

But the platoon sergeant was not done yet. Even as he was dropping the knife, he brought his other fist around and hit Dev in the side of his face. Dev dropped the trapped arm and stumbled backwards.

'Damn, but the man could hit hard' Dev thought to himself. He circled Cryder, his training he had received during the last year standing him in good stead. While he had always been strong and had never shirked a fight, this was a very serious matter. A weapon had been drawn against a superior officer, and that was an offense, which would send sergeant Cryder to prison at the very least.

"You're going to prison now, Cryder. You made a mistake by drawing a weapon on me," Dev told him.

Cryder had been shaking his right arm and now reset himself.

"You need to be alive to make those charges, boy," Cryder said and launched himself at

Dev.

That was when Dev won the fight. As he had been trained, he spun around, and helped the sergeant in the direction the sergeant had been going. The sergeant smashed his face against the wall, breaking his nose.

As the sergeant staggered back from the wall, Dev launched a punch at the base of the man's skull, and down went Cryder, out cold.

Dev took a deep shuddering breath, and walked to the door and opened it. He went out and saw a few troopers walking by.

"You two! Go get the guard! I have a prisoner for them," Dev told them.

Startled, the two took off at a run and Dev went back in to his quarters and kept an eye on the unconscious Cryder. Shortly two guards showed up at about the time Cryder started to regain consciousness. They took him into custody, and Dev went to report to his captain what had happened.

Captain Onders was not pleased.

"I can't believe you were so naive as to as to confront someone in your quarters, alone. Particularly when you were telling someone their career was over, just like that," the captain said scathingly, with a snap of his fingers.

"Yes, Sir. I underestimated him," Dev responded.

"Yes, you did. Also, he was a damned good sergeant. Oh, I knew he could be a troublemaker, but to attack you like that..." the captain shook his head in disbelief.

They talked a while longer with the captain ordering Dev to write up a report on exactly what happened, and to have it on the Captain's desk by the noon meal, after which he was dismissed back to his platoon.

Dev had a small office in the company's headquarters, and went in there to write up his report. He finished it within an hour, and sent it over to the captain via a clerk. He then decided to go over the platoon's books that had been taken from the sergeant's quarters, very carefully.

Each platoon was given a set amount of money a month to spend for supplies and needs. As Dev went over the books, he started noticing a pattern. Cryder had started taking out cash, as was the platoon leader's right, to buy for the platoon. Most items in the platoons books when he did this were headed as miscellaneous. Usually small amounts, of two or less silvers a month.

Dev brought the books and his suspicions to the captain. Dev explained his thoughts and the captain went over the books with him. Two hours later they were both convinced that the sergeant had been skimming from the company.

Dev was sent back to his platoon, and the captain took the books with him to the colonel's office. This was something that would have to be dealt with by the colonel. The colonel had left standing orders to notify him of any theft at all. Theft was becoming a problem in the Army, and the King had ordered it stopped at all costs.

Dev was surprised when the captain came into his office. Dev jumped to attention.

"At ease, Dev. Sit down," the captain directed, then placed Dev's books on the desk, and sat down himself.

"The colonel was not pleased with what you discovered. I am going to fill you in on an open secret. Skimming has been going on since armies first appeared. Mostly by supply sergeants, and officers. The lower ranks are not in a position to get involved really. An occasional guard will turn a blind eye, that's about it.

"I suspected Cryder was skimming, but the amount he has taken is in golds, not brass, or even a few silver. It adds up to over seven golds, since he took charge of the platoon, and that's way to much," the captain paused while Dev digested this.