第6章

"Jed," he ordered, "leave off daubin' at that wooden doll baby for a minute, will you? I want to talk to you.I want to ask you what you think I'd better do.I know what Gab Bearse-- Much obliged for that name, Jed; 'Gab's' the best name on earth for that critter--I know what Gab came in here to talk about.'Twas about me and my bein' put on the Exemption Board, of course.That was it, wan't it? Um-hm, I knew 'twas.I was the 'this' in his 'this and that.' And Phin Babbitt was the 'that'; I'll bet on it.Am Iright?"

Winslow nodded.

"Sure thing!" continued the captain."Well, there 'tis.What am Igoin' to do? When they wanted me to take the job in the first place I kind of hesitated.You know I did.'Twas bound to be one of those thankless sort of jobs that get a feller into trouble, bound to be.And yet--and yet--well, SOMEBODY has to take those kind of jobs.And a man hadn't ought to talk all the time about how he wishes he could do somethin' to help his country, and then lay down and quit on the first chance that comes his way, just 'cause that chance ain't--ain't eatin' up all the pie in the state so the Germans can't get it, or somethin' like that.Ain't that so?""Seems so to me, Sam."

"Yes.Well, so I said I'd take my Exemption Board job.But when Isaid I'd accept it, it didn't run across my mind that Leander Babbitt was liable to be drafted, first crack out of the box.Now he IS drafted, and, if I know Phin Babbitt, the old man will be down on us Board fellers the first thing to get the boy exempted.

AND, I bein' on the Board and hailin' from his own town, Orham here, it would naturally be to me that he'd come first.Eh?

That's what he'd naturally do, ain't it?"His friend nodded once more.Captain Sam lost patience.

"Gracious king!" he exclaimed."Jed Winslow, for thunder sakes say somethin'! Don't set there bobbin' your head up and down like one of those wound-up images in a Christmas-time store window.I ask you if that ain't what Phin Babbitt would do? What would you do if you was in his shoes?"Jed rubbed his chin.

"Step out of 'em, I guess likely," he drawled.

"Humph! Yes--well, any self-respectin' person would do that, even if he had to go barefooted the rest of his life.But, what I'm gettin' at is this: Babbitt'll come to me orderin' me to get Leander exempted.And what'll I say?"Winslow turned and looked at him.

"Seems to me, Sam," he answered, "that if that thing happened there'd be only one thing to say.You'd just have to tell him that you'd listen to his reasons and if they seemed good enough to let the boy off, for your part you'd vote to let him off.If they didn't seem good enough--why--""Well--what?"

"Why, then Leander'd have to go to war and his dad could go to--""Eh? Go on.I want to hear you say it.Where could he go?"Jed wiped the surplus paint from his brush on the edge of the can.

"To sellin' hardware," he concluded, gravely, but with a twinkle in his eye.

Captain Sam sniffed, perhaps in disappointment."His hardware'd melt where I'D tell him to go," he declared."What you say is all right, Ed.It's an easy doctrine to preach, but, like lots of other preacher's doctrines, it's hard to live up to.Phin loves me like a step-brother and I love him the same way.Well, now here he comes to ask me to do a favor for him.If I don't do it, he'll say, and the whole town'll say, that I'm ventin' my spite on him, keepin' on with my grudge, bein' nasty, cussed, everything that's mean.If I do do it, if I let Leander off, all hands'll say that Idid it because I was afraid of Phineas and the rest would say the other thing.It puts me in a devil of a position.It's all right to say, 'Do your duty,' 'Stand up in your shoes,' 'Do what you think's right, never mind whose boy 'tis,' and all that, but Iwouldn't have that old skunk goin' around sayin' I took advantage of my position to rob him of his son for anything on earth.Idespise him too much to give him that much satisfaction.And yet there I am, and the case'll come up afore me.What'll I do, Jed?

Shall I resign? Help me out.I'm about crazy.Shall I heave up the job? Shall I quit?"Jed put down the brush and the sailor man.He rubbed his chin.

"No-o," he drawled, after a moment.

"Oh, I shan't, eh? Why not?"

"'Cause you don't know how, Sam.It always seemed to me that it took a lot of practice to be a quitter.You never practiced.""Thanks.All right, then, I'm to hang on, I suppose, and take my medicine.If that's all the advice you've got to give me, I might as well have stayed at home.But I tell you this, Jed Winslow: If I'd realized--if I'd thought about the Leander Babbitt case comin'

up afore me on that Board I never would have accepted the appointment.When you and I were talkin' here the other night it's queer that neither of us thought of it....Eh? What are you lookin at me like that for? You don't mean to tell me that YOU DIDthink of it? Did you?"

Winslow nodded.

"Yes," he said."I thought of it."

"You DID! Well, I swear! Then why in thunder didn't you--"He was interrupted.The bell attached to the door of the outer shop rang.The maker of windmills rose jerkily to his feet.

Captain Sam made a gesture of impatience.

"Get rid of your customer and come back here soon as you can," he ordered.Having commanded a steamer before he left the sea and become a banker, the captain usually ordered rather than requested.

"Hurry all you can.I ain't half through talkin' with you.For the land sakes, MOVE! Of all the deliberate, slow travelin'--"He did not finish his sentence, nor did Winslow, who had started toward the door, have time to reach it.The door was opened and a short, thickset man, with a leathery face and a bristling yellow-white chin beard, burst into the room.At the sight of its occupants he uttered a grunt of satisfaction and his bushy brows were drawn together above his little eyes, the latter a washed-out gray and set very close together.