noon
`` Hicks -- ahoy ! I say , Hicks -- '' Old Hinky-Dink , a letter in his hand , hobbled from the cook-tent toward them ; like a sinister harbinger of evil he advanced , grinning deprecatingly at the squad : `` Mistah Hicks am gone ! '' he announced importantly . `` He done gib me fo ' bits to row him ober to de village , to cotch de noon ` spress fo ' Philadelphy ! Heah am a letter what he lef ' -- '' Big Butch Brewster , to whom the _ billet-doux _ was addressed in T. Haviland Hicks , Jr. 's , familiar scrawl , tore open the envelope , and while the squad listened , he read aloud the message left by that sunny-souled youth ; `` DEAR BUTCH : `` Coach Corridan will have to use the alarm clock from now on ! I 'm called away on business . See that my stuff gets to Bannister O.K. Stow it in the room next to yours .