u're fightin'. I'm fightin'. It's a darn sight easier to
quit, a darn sight, but--but Al didn't quit. And--and we mustn't--not if
we can help it," he added, drawing a hand across his forehead.

His agitation seemed to surprise Captain Zelotes. "So all hands are
fightin', are they, Labe," he observed. "Well, I presume likely there's
some truth in that. What's your particular fight, for instance?"

The little bookkeeper looked at him for an instant before replying.
The captain's question was kindly asked, but there was, or so Laban
imagined, the faintest trace of sarcasm in its tone. That trace decided
him. He leaned across the desk.

"My particular fight?" he repeated. "You--you want to know what 'tis,
Cap'n Lote? All right, all right, I'll tell you."

And without waiting for further questioning and with, for him,
surprisingly few repetitions, he told of his "enlistment" to fight John
Barleycorn for the duration of the war. Captain Zelotes listened to the
very end in silence. Laban mopped his forehead with a hand which shook
much as it had done during the interview with Albert in the room above
the shoe store.

"There--there," he declared, in conclusion, "that's my fight, Cap'n
Lote. Al and I, we--we kind of went into it together, as you might say,
though his enlistin' was consider'ble more heroic than mine--yes indeed,
I should say so . . . yes, yes, yes. But I'm fightin' too . . . er . . .
I'm fightin' too."

Captain Zelotes pulled his beard.

"How's the fight goin', Labe?" he asked, quietly.

"Well--well, it's kind of--kind of spotty, as you might say. There's
spots when I get along fairly smooth and others when--well, when it's
pretty rough goin'. I've had four hard spots since Al went away, but
there's two that was the hardest. One was along Christmas and New Year
time; you know I 'most generally had one of my--er--spells along about
then. And t'other is just now; I mean since we got word about--about
Al. I don't suppose likely you surmised it, Cap'n, but--but I'd come to
think a lot of that boy--yes, I had. Seems funny to you, I don't doubt,
but it's so. And since the word come, you know--I--I--well, I've had
some fight, some fight. I--I don't cal'late I've slept more'n four hours
in the last four nights--not more'n that, no. Walkin' helps me most,
seems so. Last night I walked to West Orham."

"To West Orham! You WALKED there? Last NIGHT?"

"Um-hm. Long's I can keep walkin' I--I seem to part way forget-