"It may be slightly irregular, but the time is so short we can"t help ourselves; so I"ve vouched for your physical condition. I"ve also waived indemnity in case you"re killed, since, of course, thus far in life you"ve contributed nothing to the support of your aunts."
This mention of being killed, put down in regular form, drove the color from Jeb"s cheeks; but it seemed absurd to him and the next moment he laughed, saying:
"I don"t suppose there"s one chance in a thousand of that, way back in a hospital!"
The desk telephone rang and Mr. Strong took up the receiver, thus checking his reply.
"Yes, Barrow, I called you. I"ve a man for Wade"s place. Still room?
Good! Jeb Tumpson--known him all his life! J-E-B, yes, Jeb. Not time to mail it?--wait!" He reached for the application and began to read it slowly, sometimes repeating so the listener could take it correctly down. "When shall he report, Barrow? Good! He"ll be uniformed there?
Splendid! Don"t forget, if you should see my daughter! Well, goodbye and good luck, Barrow; yours is a n.o.ble work, and G.o.d husband you!"
"Amen," the Colonel whispered.
Mr. Strong, hanging up the receiver, swung about enthusiastically.
"Jeb," he cried, "hustle! Barrow says bring only a suitcase and toilet articles; report to his hospital as soon as your train lands you, and be fitted out. I"ll mail this original application to the proper place with a notation that you"ve left. You"ll take the fast express this afternoon, reach him about nine-thirty, and sail some time after midnight. That"s moving some!" he slapped his thigh. "Now hurry home and tell the little aunts. Roger and I will have money at the train for you.
Oh, by the way," he arose and followed Jeb who was about to pa.s.s out, "I wouldn"t let on about dangers, understand? Just pretend there aren"t any; for if those dear ladies knew you were going into a branch of service where the death toll is higher than any place else in the army, they"d be ill with worrying."
Jeb leaned against the door-jamb and opened his lips wide for breath.
His throat felt parched, his heart was beating like the roll-call on a drum. But Mr. Strong, moved greatly by the moment, laid a hand on his shoulder, adding:
"I haven"t said as much as I want; I"m not going to, either. You know I want to be proud of you, and I"ll be watching for news with an interest akin to that which I feel for Marian. You"re going away to play a mighty big game, boy, wherein Humanity is trumps and Patriotism, Righteousness and Service are the other three aces. Yet even if you hold all these, you may still lose unless you possess one more magic card: Self-respect.
We all owe to our soul a certain measure of self-respect, Jeb. It is a gentleman"s personal debt of honor to himself, demanding payment before every other obligation, and is satisfied only when we face each of life"s crises with steel-tipped, crystal courage. Think of this often; carry it with you everywhere; it is the last and best thing I can give you. Now hustle!" he gave him an affectionate push. "We"ll be at the depot waiting."
Job went down the stairs in a storm of mental hysteria. His physical senses seemed to be numb, but the brain more than made up for this. It was writhing in an agony of fear, a chaos of racing tortures; yet in their midst one thing stood aloof with the firmness of rock. This was the belief--una.s.sailable, absolute--that he could not by any human means turn from the direction his life was pointing. He felt this profoundly.
His mind kicked and held back against it, but a great something was calmly impelling him on. He hated this inexorable force; he cursed it; for he did not realize that it was his own soul!
The editor had followed him out, having duties elsewhere in the building, so the Colonel sat alone listening to their retreating steps.
His fine head was erect, his hands were clasped and his arms thrust out before him on the table. Jeb"s confession was burning into his brain as he reviewed every chapter of the boy"s behavior since early April. Each of Jeb"s procrastinations and evasions now stood out clearly, connoting but one thing, predicated on but one thing! Slowly the old gentleman"s mustache began to move in a curious way; by degrees his face became convulsed; then, letting his head fall between the outstretched arms, he yielded to a great sob:
"My G.o.d--a coward!"
CHAPTER VII
Some time before daylight Jeb fell asleep. In the work and hustle of getting aboard and stowing supplies for his unit, of dodging a company of Canadians looking to their own embarkation, and of steering his course through half an army of sweating stevedores who were loading vast quant.i.ties of freight for the Allied army, he had not thought of himself. But he had felt the elation which comes to all who are cohesively striving for a single purpose that lies beyond dangerous, and as yet insurmountable, ground. He had responded to the _camaraderie_ of these Canadian chaps, and it had been good. Now he slept.
The steamer that took his unit to France, and these few furloughed boys from Canada back to their regiment, was not large as steamers go, but it looked monstrous to Jeb. Had he been familiar with trans-Atlantic travel he would have missed the library, main saloon, smoking and writing-rooms, as these s.p.a.ces which formerly belonged to the pleasure traveler were now converted into bunks. Bunks were everywhere--empty bunks for the most part on this trip, but ready for the great movement later on. Perhaps the next time over she might bring the American boys!
When these lads from Canada, the doctors and the nurses (and the stretcher bearers, of which Jeb was one, although he had not yet discovered it) realized their transport was an old reconverted German tub, they would have cheered an irony so delightful had not orders been issued for complete silence. No one must know that this ship, secretly restored from the ravages of her former crew, entertained the slightest idea of sailing; not one of the swarm of spies in German pay, infesting New York and its environs, must suspect this midnight-to-dawn embarkation! So, while Jeb slept, tugs quietly warped her out, towed her in ghostlike fashion toward the Bay and turned her free. By daylight she was over the horizon.
And no one suspected that before daylight one of the sweating stevedores, washed and smartly dressed, left his back-hall room in a Hoboken boarding house, crossed to New York and entered a telephone booth in a large hotel; thereupon calling an uptown number and telling a keen-eyed man who listened gratefully that his wife was out of danger and the doctor had left at two o"clock. Later that morning one of the commercial messages which loaded the telegraph wires sped to a merchant in Buenos Ayres asking quotations on 8,000 feet of 2-A grade mahogany veneer; and, half an hour later, the Swedish Legation there was telling Berlin that, upon this date, at 2 A. M., a steamer of 8,000 tons burden had cleared New York, destination France.
When the bugles sounded reveille Jeb fell out with the others. This taste of the military was decidedly acceptable to him. He regretted that his unit did not fall in for mess, as the Canadian veterans, for instance. He regretted keenly his ignorance of army matters, the manual, even, and the habit that came with constant discipline of keeping oneself smart, straight, clear-eyed and ever courteous--as a good soldier is. There were several pretty nurses aboard--several who were not!--and for once his cla.s.sic features found worthy rivals in the less handsome, though more perfectly conditioned, regulars.
Jeb had not realized as yet that he was stepping into an age where Service counts above all other human a.s.sets; where the millionaire who sits smugly in his club is contemptible beside the twenty-five dollar a week man who puts his shoulder to the yoke. He had not seen this as yet, nor could he have believed that henceforth, as never before, the real men and real women of the world would be graded by the stamp of _sterling service_, as distinguished from, and higher than, sterling dollars. This great lesson he had yet to learn, as millions are learning and will continue to learn.
There sometimes comes in the life of men an affinity for other men; when two from afar will be drawn together as old acquaintances. This is more usual when the s.e.xes are crossed--at least, poets would have it so--but in all reaches of human habitation there are moments when a man will see another in a crowd and say to himself, "I"d like to meet that chap!"
Thus it was with Jeb and Sergeant Tim Doreen, one-time citizen of Galway (the old sod), later American citizen, still later discharged with honor from a Canadian regiment because of a grievous wound. But wounds meant less to Tim than fighting and now, within six weeks, he was on his way back. "Not as I wouldn"t love to go wid me Stars an" Stripes, lad," he carefully explained, "--for "twould do me "art good to slug the heathen Boche from under its majistic folds--but ye"ll be some time gittin"
ready over here, whilst the b"ys av me old rigiment is standin" at attintion waitin" fer me this minute!"
He and Jeb possessed not one thing in common, yet each was endowed with something the other would have given his all to own. Jeb"s face, for instance, was like a cameo, high-bred, delicate and intellectual; Tim"s was scarred by shrapnel--although it had never been much of a face to start with! He had always wanted to be handsome, for he loved beauty extravagantly, be it in man or woman. Jeb, moreover, was tall, splendidly built, graceful; his hands were smooth, his fingers well groomed, he carried himself with the air of a gentleman. Tim was short, perhaps just within the army requirement; he was built like a pine knot, was smartly soldierly but lacked every other grace; his hands were what hands should be that had not shirked in the trenches. He could not have pa.s.sed for a gentleman--or for what is the usually accepted term for that individual--with all the arts of Poole and the rest of Piccadilly thrown in; and Tim"s highest ambition would have been to walk some evening into the Ritz-Carlton, Sheppards, Continental, or Plaza, "wid clothes enough an" manners enough to make them as eats there break their sweet necks wid lookin", an" strain their soft eyes wid admirin" av me!"
Jeb could have done it, for he drew just such looks in places given over to social frivolities; so Tim liked Jeb, because Tim was generous and knew only a manly man"s psychology. Little did he dream which of the two would attract the smiles of admiration, the tears of adulation, in the great field of human service! Just one thing he did possess, however, which Jeb would have given his world for, and that was courage. If ever man bore the mark of courage, "twas Tim Doreen! Perhaps the widest breach between them might have been thus summed up: Jeb was well aware that Jeb was handsome; Tim had never given a thought to the fact that Tim was in the highest sense courageous.
The duties of a sergeant are not all hammocks and cigarettes. He occupies an anomalous position of go-between for his captain and the men; he must swear here, praise there, appear to be hurt at other times.
He must never miss anything, from a grumble beneath the breath to a blistered heel or a bad tooth. He must lay alongside the men, in a figurative sense, and get to know their souls; and get them to love him or to hate him--but never to think of him with indifference. If his captain is wise, he will listen to him patiently and follow his advice; for a good sergeant maketh a happy company, just as truly as a good housewife maketh a contented home.
There were few duties aboard ship. The Canadians were already veterans, and their new captain who was taking them back allowed more loafing than usual. He believed in a generous breathing s.p.a.ce before the sterner days to come--providing they kept themselves fit! Neither did Barrow care much how his unit employed its time, if all hands attended his lectures and first aid demonstrations; and so it came about that Tim and Jeb sat many hours together. It also followed that Tim saw in his new friend elements which puzzled him, for now, the sixth day out, he turned, saying quietly:
"Lad, ye"ve been talkin" a lot about this Medical Corps job av yours, an" the risk ye"re takin"; an" whin ye"re not talkin", ye"re wonderin"
how soon we"ll be blowed up be a submarine! W"ot ails ye now? W"ot"s bitin" ye?"
The irresistible caress of the Celtic tongue was in Tim"s question, and Jeb, hesitating but a moment, impulsively leaned toward him.
"Tim," he said, "I don"t want you to think less of me, but the idea of being sunk out here in mid ocean, or being shot up in a battle, scares me stiff. I guess I"m a--a----"
"Don"t say it," the other checked him. "Don"t be callin" yeself w"ot ye"d be knockin" the head off anither mon for sayin! I"ve suspected ye had a strong leanin" thot way, Jeb, but hadn"t thought no less av ye, as I"ve seen manny a lad change from bad to good in the jumpin" av a cartridge clip."
"But the worst of it is, Tim, that I came away to escape the draft; and now I see the draft was a cinch to what I"ve got into."
"It _is_ not!" Tim vigorously replied. "I"d sooner have yer job twinty times! To begin wid, ye only had wan chanct in eight to be taken in the draft, but wid the doctors ye"re _shure_ to see sc.r.a.ppin"! Thot"s the way to look at it, lad!"
"Oh, I know!--but I can"t," Jeb muttered, despairingly. "Since Barrow told me I had to lug a stretcher I haven"t eaten a meal a day, Tim. It isn"t sea-sickness, either, for the ocean"s like a mill pond; it"s just knowing the Medical mortality is heavier than any branch of the service--heavier"n air fighting, even!"
"Thot"s right," Tim said thoughtfully. "Medical comes first--fifty-fifty, mind ye; thin the infantry, an" thin the air--or maybe "tis the artillery; I forget now. But, anyway, thot"s w"ot makes it worth a domn, can"t ye see, lad? I own thot it don"t strike me funny-bone, though. Whin I stand up for to be shot at, I want to do some shootin" meself; I don"t want to have me hands glued to no stretcher, an" me heart bleedin" for the poor divil on it, an" let a lot of "arf-fed outcasts plug me lights out! No, sor! Whin anny lunatic av a Hun pulls his trigger at Tim Doreen it arouses me timper, an" I"d be apt to drop me load an" go back an" take a swat at "im; thin, like as not, the doctors "d have me court-martialled!"
"If you hadn"t got blown up first," Jeb bitterly replied.
"Now, don"t ye go thinkin" "bout bein" blowed up! "Tis the worst kind av weed a soldier can smoke!--an" I"m sayin" "tis been the trouble wid ye, Jeb; ye think too much! Transfer thim thoughts to how quick ye"re goin"
to blow up the inimies av yer country; thin yell wanst or twict like the ould divil hisself, an" ye"ll be itchin" for a sc.r.a.p so"s ye can"t sleep! Quit thinkin" thot rot "bout bein" kilt--which ye can"t control in anny case; an" begin thinkin" how ye"ll kill a Hun--which ye _can_ control! Thot"s the creed, as good soldiers sees it!"
"But h.e.l.l, Tim," he said, with something like a whine, "I can"t possibly shut out the dangers! They loom up like mountains."
"h.e.l.l yer _own_ self," the sergeant turned on him. "Dangers as looks mountain high ain"t no more"n a hill o" beans whin ye git ye"re belly on "em! W"y, look!--me ould fayther, wanst, waked me in the night sayin" as a gang o" burglars was downstairs lootin" the family silver. Well, lad, bein" but half awake I believed "im, an" the goose flesh growed out on me ar-rms so that--"tis the truth I"m tellin" ye--I plucked enough for a parlor duster! But whin I got downstairs investigatin", the gang was no more"n a loose shutter flappin" in the wind. The burglars was just a noise--d"ye git me? No danger, but a noise--an" w"ot"s a noise? Ye see, Jeb, "twas the wrong kind of thinkin"; an" the wrong kind of thinkin"
breeds fear, an" fear shrinks up a man whilst it makes the inimy grow six inches. Put them six inches on yeself, say I, an" let the Boche shrink--which he"ll do, too, whin he sees ye"ve the bigger courage!"
It did not occur to Jeb that this man was doing his very utmost to inspire one spark of the lacking courage; he did not realize that Tim was thoughtfully picking his words, as carefully as though he were telling stories to a little child. Tim would not have been the crack sergeant that he was had Jeb suspected this!
"I can see them shrinking now," Jeb said, with something like a sneer at Tim"s a.s.surance. "Why, everybody says they"re the finest fighters on earth!"
"Thin iverybody lies, an" "tis Tim Doreen as says it! There ye go again wid a lot of domn fool thinkin" of w"ot ye got no cause to think. Wasn"t I just after tellin" ye there ain"t no worse dry-rot for a soldier? The Boche can put up as good a sc.r.a.p as most, lad, whin they"re bunched in a crowd, but take "em mon for mon an" they ain"t no fighters a-tall, a-tall. I ain"t denyin" their officers is hep to the game--but thot"s just w"ot proves me p"int: for do ye s"pose their fat-headed gineral staff"d be silly enough to march ar-rmy after ar-rmy jam up aginst our strong positions, bunched like a herd o" sheep, if they didn"t know the men was too spineless to go into the fray like us, or the British, or the Frinch--which is to say, in open order an" like h.e.l.l?"
"I don"t see how that"ll get us anywhere," Jeb remarked.