"You're lucky," Duke told him mechanically, not sure whether he meant
it or not. Oddly, the idea of a kid like this mixed up in an
interplanetary war bothered him. He turned to go, then hesitated. "Got
a newspaper or a directory around that I could borrow?"

The boy fished a paper out of a wastebasket. "It's all yours, captain.
The whole place is yours. Slam the door when you go out. I'm going over
to the Cathay office."

"I'll go along," Duke offered. The address of that place was all he'd
wanted from the paper. He'd have preferred the Federation to joining up
with Earth colonists, but beggars never made good choosers.

The kid shook his head. He dragged open a drawer, found a slip of
paper, and handed it over. It was a notice that the legal maximum age
for recruiting had been reduced to thirty! "You'd never make it,
captain," he said.

Duke looked at the paper in his hands and at the dim reflection of his
face in a window. "No," he agreed. "I didn't make it."

He followed the boy to the door, staring out at the street, thick with
its noises and smells. He dropped to the doorsill and looked briefly up
at the sky where two ships were cutting out to space. Flannery had
known the regulation and hadn't told him. Yet it was his own fault; the
age limit was lower now, but there had always been a limit. He had
simply forgotten that he'd grown older.

He found it hard to realize he'd been no older than the kid when he'd
signed up for the war with Throm.

* * * * *

For a while he sat looking at the street, trying to realize what had
happened to him. It took time to face the facts. He listened with half
his attention as a small group of teen-age boys came from one of the
buildings and began exchanging angry insults with another group
apparently waiting for them on the corner. From their attitudes, some
of them were carrying weapons and were half-eager, half-afraid to use
them. It was hard to remember back to the time when such things had
seemed important to him. He considered putting a stop to the argument,
before it got out of hand, since no police were near; but adults had no
business in kid fights. He watched them retreat slowly back to an
alley, still shouting to work up their courage. Maybe he should be glad
that there was even this much fire left under the smug placidity of
Earth.

Finally, he picked up the newspaper from where he'd dropped it and
began turning back to t