ll
be glad to nurse a broom or anything else right now."

Gregory was on the point of telling Barnes to wait until he had
conferred with McCoy when he noticed the peculiar manner with which his
employee held his broom.

"What's the matter with your arm?" he asked quietly.

Barnes tapped the member in question and regarded him somewhat
doubtfully.

"Nothin'," he said.

Gregory stepped nearer and examined the shoulder carefully.

"Why didn't you tell me your arm had been hurt?" he asked in a low
voice.

Barnes met his eyes squarely.

"Because I was afraid it would queer me for a job," he said. "You see,
Gregory, when a man hires a fellow he figures he's all there. He kind of
rents him all over and when he's shy on somethin', he kind of figures
the fellow's holding back on him. I didn't want to slip anything over on
you. Because you were white to me from the start. But I was afraid when
you saw my pin was faked you might change your mind."

Gregory's eyes were fixed intently on the soldier as he went on:

"You see I got my insurance. But that ain't enough. My old man died
while I was away. And my mother ain't any too well. So I just lets her
have the money. But that ain't all there is to it. You see when a
fellow's worked and hit the ball, he don't want to lay round and loaf."

Still Gregory said nothing, and Barnes, misconstruing his silence,
continued:

"It's wonderful what a fellow can do with what the doctors leave him
when they get through cuttin'. You ought to go up to Port Angeles and
see what the Bureau's teaching the poor blind devils. It kind of seems
like their eyes goes into their arms and legs, for they can do more with
them now than they ever thought of doing before they lost their lamps."

He extended his good arm and flexed the muscles until they stood out
like lumps of whip-cord. "Look at that," he exclaimed. "They's twice the
pep in that one since they hacked up the other one. You don't need to be
afraid of me not doing a day's work. I----"

"Are there many of the boys out of work?" Gregory found his voice at
last.

Barnes nodded.

"Scads of 'em. Some of them went back to their old jobs. Some of them
found 'em gone and they was others that couldn't cut it like they used
to. The government's tryin' to land 'em all jobs. But it's slow."

Gregory turned slowly about and retraced his steps in the direction of
the office. Then he remembered Barnes's request.

"You can tell your friends