Their newly issued jackets and trousers, as well as the straw hats, had immediately found their use. After the lunch break, the recruits were ordered back to line up in the plaza under the sweltering heat of the midday sun. Now, the formation was no longer one large block of men. They had formed into four columns, each consisting of 25 to 26 men, with the NCOs of my escolta standing at the head of each as platoon leaders.
Meanwhile, in the relative comfort of the shadow cast by the Casa Real, I had the officer cadets, as well as Vicente and Dimalanta, form their own much smaller column. I also had them take the oath and issued them uniforms—with only a white sash to differentiate them from the other recruits.
"I thought you said we'd be trained separately?" Lorenzo Madrigal finally spoke up, after they had been standing for about thirty minutes.
