you know."

With that he gets back to his Reserve Army scheme and he sure does give
me an earful. We'd got as far as the cheese and demi tasse when I
noticed one of the soldiers--a big, two-fisted husk--wander past us slow
and then drift out. A minute or two later Hartley is being paged and
the boy says there's a 'phone call for him.

"For me?" says Hartley, lookin' puzzled. "Oh, very well."

He hadn't more'n left when the other four strolls over, and one of the
lot remarks: "I beg your pardon, but does your friend happen to be
Second Lieutenant Grue?"

"That's his name," says I, "only it was no accident he got to be second
lieutenant. That just had to be."

They grins friendly at that. "You've described it," says one.

"He was some swell officer, too, I understand," says I.

"Oh, all of that," says another. "He--he's out of the service now, is
he?"

"Accordin' to the War Department he is," says I, "but if a little plan
of his goes through he'll be back in the game soon." And I sketches out
hasty Hartley's idea of keepin' the returned vets on tap.

"Wouldn't that be perfectly lovely now!" says the buddy with the medal,
diggin' his elbow enthusiastic into the ribs of the one nearest him.
"Wonder if we couldn't persuade him to make it two drill nights a week
instead of one. Eh, old Cootie Tamer?"

Course, it develops that these noble young gents, before being sent over
to buck the Hindenburg line, had all been in one of the companies
Hartley had trained so successful. I wouldn't care to state that they
was hep to the fact that if it hadn't been for him they wouldn't have
turned out to be such fine soldiers. But they sure did take a lot of
interest in discoverin' one of their old officers. That was natural and
did them credit.

Yes, they wanted to know all about Hartley; where he worked; what he
did, and what were his off hours. It was almost touchin' to see how
eager they was for all the details. Havin' been abroad so long, and
among foreigners, and in strange places, I expect Hartley looked like
home to 'em.

And then again, you know how they say all them boys who went over have
come back men, serious and full of solemn, lofty thoughts. You could see
it shinin' in their eyes, even if they did let on to be chucklin' at
times. So I gives 'em all the dope I could about their dear old second
lieutenant and asks 'em to stick around a few minutes so they could meet
him.

"We'd love to," says the one the others