Evening star., 1917-09-16
WHEN TORCHY GOT THE CALL

ute or SO before l had sense enough to
drift out on the sidewalk. And l might
as well admit I was feelin' mighty low.
l didn't know whether to hunt up the
nearest hospital. or sit down on the curb
and walt until they came after me with
the stretcher-cart. Anyway, I knew l
must be physical wreck. And to think
/ hadn't suspected it before.
Somehow, l dragged back to the office.
and a while later Mr.. Eilins discovers
me slunped in my chair with my chin
down.
Mars and Mercury" says he. You
haven't been through a battle so soon
have you?'
At that. I tries to brace up a bit and
pass it off light.
why didn't some one tell me I was a
chronic invalid?" says !. after sketchin
out how my entry had been scratched
by the chesty one. Il wonder where
could get pair of crutches and
light-running wheel chair
Bah" says he. Some of those army
officers have red-tape brains and no
more common sense than he guinea
pigs What in the me of the Seven
ShHhs did he think was the matter with
you?"
My eyes don't track and I weigh
under the scale" says !. Il expect
there's other things. too. Maybe my
fioatin ribs are water-logeed and my
memory muscle bound But I'm
wreck, all right.
We'll see about that" says Old Hick
And inside of an hour l felt lot bet
ter. I'd been gone over by life in
surance expert. who said I hadn't
soft spot on me. and an eye specialist
had reported that my sight was up to
the avera ge. Oh. the right lamp did
range a little further, but he claims
that's often the case.
Maybe my hair was too vivid for
trench work. says I, "or else that cap
tain was luggin' a Crouch. Makes
feel like a wooden nickel at the bot
tom of the till. just the same: for
did hope | might be useful some how.
I'll look swell joinin the home guards.
won't T.
Don't overIoo1l the fact. young man"
puts in Old Hickory. that the Corfu
gated trust is not altogether out of
this affair and that We are running
short-handed as it is
7 was too sore in my mind to be
soothed much by that thought just
then. though did buckle into the work
harder than ever.
AS for Wee, she don't have much to
say. but she gives me the close tackle
when she hears the news.
Il don't care says she. 1T was
splendid of you to want to go And
shall be just as proud of you as though
You had been accepted"
"Oh. sure" says I. Likely I'll be
mentioned in dispatches for the noble
way l handled the correspondence all
through a hot spell"
That state of mind I didn't shake
loose in hurry. either. For three or
four weeks there. I was about the
meekest commuter carried on the eight
three. l didn't do any gloatin over
the war news. I didn't join any of the
volunteer boards of strategy that met
every mornin' to tell each other how
the subs ought to be suppressed or
what Haig should be dom on the west
front. I even stopped wearin an enam-
eled fla g in my buttonhole. If that was
all l could do. | wouldn't fourflush.
The Corrugated was handlin' a lot of
war contracts. too. Course, we was
only gettin our 10 per cent and from
some we'd subbed out not even that
1t didn't strike me there was any open
in for me until I'd heard Mr. Ellins. for
about the fourth time that week, start
heefin' about the kind of work we was
gettin' done.
But amt it all o. K.'d by government
inspectors" l asks
Precisely why am suspicious"
says he. Not per cent turned back,
And on rush work that's too good to
be true. Looks to me like careless in
specting-or worse. Yet every man
I'VE sent out has brought in clean
bill: even for the Wonder Motors peo-
pie, who have that subcontract for 500
tanks. And | wouldn't trust that crowd
to pass the hat for an orphans home.
l wish | knew of a man who could