r, for he was but that--was anything but spick and
span. His clothes were torn and muddy, his face dirty and bloody--it had
been scratched by something. He knew what he was in for. Court martial
and imprisonment for desertion. We knew what _that_ meant.

"He was a sorry, unsoldierly sight. Gone to pieces. Unnerved. All in. His
chin was quivering. And then the little lieutenant came along, starting
out for golf. He stood in front of him and looked him up and down--this
boy who had been caught. Boy who would be imprisoned. And as he looked at
him he laughed; or smiled rather, that smile that was a sneer.

"He stood there continuing to smile--torturing him with that smile he
couldn't do a thing about--this boy who was down; this fellow who was all
in. That was when I struck him in the face and knocked him down.

"The penalty for that, as I presume I need not tell an army girl, is
death. 'Or such other punishment as a court martial may direct.'

"The thing directed in my case was imprisonment at Fort Leavenworth for
five years. Most of the men in that prison would say, 'Give me death.'

"I'd better not say much about it. Something gets hot in my head when I
begin to talk about it. If you were with me--your cooling hand, your
steadying eyes--I could tell you about it. 'If you were with me'! I find
that a very arresting phrase, Katie.

"Those were black years. Cruel years. Years to twist a man's soul. They
took something from me that will not be mine again. I remember your
telling how Ann said there were things to make perfect happiness forever
impossible. She was right. There _are_ hours that stay.

"I went into the army just an adventurous boy. I came from it an
embittered man. My experience with it made me suspect all of life. I
was more than unhappy. I was sullen. I _hated_--and I wanted to get
even. Oh it was a lovely spirit in which I went forth a second time to
meet the world.

"I don't know what might not have happened, I think I was right in line
to become a criminal, like so many of the rest of them who have served
time at Leavenworth--I don't suppose the United States has any finer
school anywhere than its academy for criminals at Fort Leavenworth--had
it not been for a man I met.

"I got a job in a garage. I had always been pretty good at mechanical
things and knew a little about it. And there I met this man--and through
him came salvation.

"I don't know, Katie, maybe socialism will not save the world.