u're no fossil, of course, but you're no angel, either, and there are
some things in your career that aren't exactly laid down in military
manuals."

"Oh, my uncle Henry looked after my commission. It was a cinch! He thinks
the sun rises and sets in me, and he had no idea how he perjured himself
when he put me through. Why, I've got some of the biggest men in the
country for my backers, and wouldn't they lie awake at night if they knew!
Oh Boy! I thought I'd croak when I read some of those recommendations,
they fairly gushed with praise. You'd have died laughing, Bob, if you had
read them. They had such adjectives as 'estimable, moral, active,
efficient,' and one went so far as to say that I was equally distinguished
in college in scholarship and athletics! Some stretch of imagination, eh,
what?"

The two laughed loudly over this.

"And the best of it is," continued the first lieutenant, "the poor boob
believed it was all true!"

"But your college records, Harry, how could they get around those? Or
didn't they look you up?"

"Oh, mother fixed that all up. She sent the college a good fat check to
establish a new scholarship or something."

"Lucky dog!" sighed his friend. "Now I'm just the other way. I never try
to put anything over but I get caught, and nobody ever tried to cover up
my tracks for me when I got gay!"

"You worry too much, Bobby, and you never take a chance. Now _I_----"

The front door of the car opened and shut with a slam, and a tall young
fellow with a finely cut face and wearing workman's clothes entered. He
gave one quick glance down the car as though he was searching for
someone, and came on down the aisle. The sight of him stopped the boast
on young Wainwright's tongue, and an angry flush grew, and rolled up from
the top of his immaculate olive-drab collar to his close, military
hair-cut.

Slowly, deliberately, John Cameron walked down the aisle of the car
looking keenly from side to side, scanning each face alertly, until his
eyes lighted on the two young officers. At Bob Wetherill he merely
glanced knowingly, but he fixed his eyes on young Wainwright with a
steady, amused, contemptuous gaze as he came toward him; a gaze so
noticeable that it could not fail to arrest the attention of any who were
looking; and he finished the affront with a lingering turn of his head as
he passed by, and a slight accentuation of the amusement as he finally
lifted his gaze and passed on out of the rear do