you're
sure I don't have to tell them I'm eighteen. Maybe you wouldn't call it
being in the war exactly, but----"

"Sure you would," Archer interrupted, with great alacrity, "I'll tell
you something I didn't tell you before, but you have to keep your mouth
shut. We're going to be a transport pretty soon--as soon as the boys
begin coming out of the camps. We'll be taking them over by the
thousands around next November--you see!"

"Do you think they'll take me?" Tom asked.

"They'll grab you--you see!"

To be sure, this assurance of a job was not on very high authority, but
it was quite like Tom to place implicit confidence in what this engaging
young stranger told him. His faith in people was unbounded.

He sat down on the carriage step beside Archer as if there were nothing
extreme or unusual in his momentous decision, and with his usual air of
indifference waited for the trolley car which would take them to the
station at Catskill Landing.

"What d'you say we hit up a couple more apples?" said Archer.

"Will you have plenty left for Tommy Walters?" said Tom.

"Sure! I got enough to last him right through the danger zone."

"Through the danger zone," Tom mused.

For a few minutes they sat munching their apples in silence.

"There's two reasons," said Tom abruptly. "One is because I just got a
letter that shows people think I'm a liar and break promises. The other
is on account of what you told me about that little girl. If we take
food and things over now and take soldiers over later, I guess that's
helping, all right. Anyway, it's better than making badges. In another
year I'll be eighteen, and then----"

"Here comes the car," said Archibald Archer.

CHAPTER XIV

TOM GETS A JOB

The momentous step which Tom had resolved to take did not appear to
agitate his stolid nature in the least. Nor did he give any sign of
feeling disappointment or resentment. His whole simple faith was in
young Archer now, and he trusted him implicitly.

He sat in the train, sometimes looking straight ahead and sometimes out
at the beautiful Hudson where he had spent so many happy hours in the
troop's cabin launch, the _Good Turn_.

After a while he said abruptly, "If a feller does what's right and does
a good turn and he gets misjudged, then after that he's got a right to
do as he pleases."

His companion did not offer any comment upon this, but looked at Tom
rather curiously.

After about ten minutes of silence