As usual, when they reached the army they made it amid cheers, and the first man who greeted John was short and young but with a face of pride.
"You have come back to us out of the air, Monsieur Scott," he said, "and I salute you." It was Pierre Louis Bougainville, made a colonel already for extraordinary, almost unprecedented, valor and ability in so young a man.

John recognized his rank by his uniform, and he acknowledged it gladly.
"It's true, I have come back, Colonel Bougainville," he said, "and right glad I am to come.

I see that your country has had no cause to complain of you in the last week." "Nor of hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen," said Bougainville.

"Your company, the Strangers, is close at hand, and here is your captain now." Captain Daniel Colton, thin and ascetic, walked forward.

John gave him his best salute and said: "Captain Colton, I beg to report to you for duty." A light smile passed swiftly over Cotton's face.
"You're a little late, Lieutenant Scott," he said.
"I know it, sir, but I've brought Lieutenant Carstairs and Lieutenant Wharton with me.