pin into the cloth as
neatly as though it had been done with a mallet.

"Want to try?" he asked Jardin.

Jardin smiled sourly. "I am no professional," he said.

He and Frank sauntered out, followed by Bill and Lee.

"Who is that soldier?" asked Jardin. "Isn't he just an enlisted man?"

"That's all," said Frank. "He is the Major's orderly."

"I don't like his looks," said Jardin.

"Neither do I," agreed Frank. "But you had better not tell Bill that. He
is crazy over Lee."

"Every man to his taste!" Jardin said with a sneer.

CHAPTER V

About a week later, Bill, accompanied by Lee, drove the Swallow over to
the Aviation Field. They found Horace Jardin staying there at Frank's
quarters, as the houses are called on all army posts. Mr. Jardin had
gone down into the Burkburnett Oil Fields and Frank had invited the boy
to come and stay with him. Mrs. Anderson, a weak and idle person, was
flattered to have the young millionaire as her guest and revelled as
Frank did in his glowing yarns of everything concerning the Jardins.
Horace treated Mrs. Anderson and the Major with all the politeness he
could muster.

It was always his policy to be agreeable to other fellows' parents. It
made things easier all around to have what he privately and rudely
called "the old folks" think he was a fine boy, and he found that they
always "fell for it" when he paid them a little attention.

So he cleverly kept silence whenever the Major was around, only asking
questions that he knew would please him to answer and enlarge upon.

With Mrs. Anderson he worked a different scheme. He launched into
glowing accounts of parties and bridge luncheons his mother had given,
recounting with more or less truth details about the food and the
decorations, and the jewels worn by the guests.

"Seems to be a very quiet, studious boy," was Major Anderson's decision,
and Mrs. Anderson proclaimed him "The sweetest child, with such _lovely_
manners, and perfectly unspoiled by his enormous wealth."

Jardin laughed in his sleeve, and Frank, also a willing listener, but to
a greatly differing line of talk, was rapidly absorbing all the mental
and moral poison that Jardin could think up.

As Bill looked at his friend, he was conscious of a change in him. He
had a worldly, bored air that to Bill was extremely funny. Frank and
Horace did not trouble to speak to Lee, who grinned cheerfully and said
nothing, while he cared even less. Lee saw through t