while Heinie was perpetual bondsman for local Magdalenes.

"Well, ain't we in Dutch--us three guys!" he remarked with forced
carelessness. "We sure done it that time."

"Did you do business with Duck?" inquired Pick-em-up, curiously.

"Not so he noticed it. Joe, can't you and Heinie rise to your
opportunities? This is the first time in your lives you've ever been
decent, ever done a respectable thing. Can't you start in and live
straight--think straight? You're wearing the uniform of God's own
soldiers; you're standing shoulder to shoulder with men who are fighting
God's own battle. The fate of every woman, every child, every unborn baby
in Europe--and in America, too--depends on your bravery. If you don't win
out, it will be our turn next. If you don't stop the Huns--if you don't
come back at them and wipe them out, the world will not be worth
inhabiting."

I stepped nearer: "Heinie," I said, "you know what your trade has been,
and what it is called. Here's your chance to clean yourself. Joe--you've
dealt out misery, insanity, death, to women and children. You're called
the Coke King of the East Side. Joe, we'll get you sooner or later. Don't
take the trouble to doubt it. Why not order a new pack and a fresh deal?
Why not resolve to live straight from this moment--here where you have
taken your place in the ranks among real men--here where this army stands
for liberty, for the right to live! You've got your chance to become a
real man; so has Heinie. And when you come back, we'll stand by you----"

"An' gimme a job choppin' tickets in the subway!" snarled Heinie. "Expec'
me to squeal f'r that? Reeform, hey? Show me a livin' in it an' I carry a
banner. But there ain't nothing into it. How's a guy to live if there
ain't no graft into nothin'?"

Joe touched his gas-mask with a sneer: "He's pushin' the yellow stuff at
us, Heinie," he said; and to me: "You get _yours_ all right. I don't know
what it is, but you get it, same as me an' Heinie an' Duck. _I_ don't know
what it is," he repeated impatiently; "maybe it's dough; maybe it's them
suffragettes with their silk feet an' white gloves what clap their hands
at you. _I_ ain't saying nothin' to _you_, am I? Then lemme alone an' go
an' talk business with Duck over there----"

Officers passed rapidly between the speaker and me and continued east and
west along the ranks of riflemen, repeating in calm, steady voices:

"Fix bayonets, _mes enfants_; make as little noise as