retty lucky--some days I got enough for
a mess--and he'd heard of me. He opened a map and said to me: 'Here's
about where he holes up. Go get him, Private Peck.' Well, Mr. Ricks, I
snapped into it and gave him a rifle salute, and said, 'Sir, it shall be
done'--and I'll never forget the look that man gave me. He came down to
the field hospital to see me after I'd walked into one of those Austrian
88's. I knew my left wing was a total loss and I suspected my left leg
was about to leave me, and I was downhearted and wanted to die. He came
and bucked me up. He said: 'Why, Private Peck, you aren't half dead. In
civil life you're going to be worth half a dozen live ones--aren't you?'
But I was pretty far gone and I told him I didn't believe it, so he gave
me a hard look and said: 'Private Peck will do his utmost to recover and
as a starter he will smile.' Of course, putting it in the form of an
order, I had to give him the usual reply, so I grinned and said: 'Sir,
it shall be done.' He was quite a man, sir, and his brigade had a
soul--his soul----"

"I see, Bill. And his soul goes marching on, eh? Who was he, Bill?"

Bill Peck named his idol.

"By the Twelve Ragged Apostles!" There was awe in Cappy Ricks' voice,
there was reverence in his faded old eyes. "Son," he continued gently,
"twenty-five years your brigadier was a candidate for an important job
in my employ--and I gave him the Degree of the Blue Vase. He couldn't
get the vase legitimately, so he threw a cobble-stone through the
window, grabbed the vase and ran a mile and a half before the police
captured him. Cost me a lot of money to square the case and keep it
quiet. But he was too good, Bill, and I couldn't stand in his way; I let
him go forward to his destiny. But tell me, Bill. How did you get the
two thousand dollars to pay for this vase?"

"Once," said ex-Private Peck thoughtfully, "the brigadier and I were
first at a dug-out entrance. It was a headquarters dug-out and they
wouldn't surrender, so I bombed them and then we went down. I found a
finger with a ring on it--and the brigadier said if I didn't take the
ring somebody else would. I left that ring as security for my check."

"But how could you have the courage to let me in for a two thousand
dollar vase? Didn't you realize that the price was absurd and that I
might repudiate the transaction?"

"Certainly not. You are responsible for the acts of your servant. You
are a true blue sport and would never