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Show """J ITT PRATT W.N. II. RELEASE &Am tmi-S FAR: Forty-four- - ' ,nkV. h0 OP"2'" Oat. l hick or his home, Is " L to his doml- "ramp, off to ' ' n tmsht and shake fe irjdure on the front I L. KH in.orrsted ,0"f ' 1. KinUe lead, the n,r,h ofT behind e , rtW 'uUc se,,d5 - i:f. aa't sure if this was , rg!;t spirit. He was ' ,Jt appear in time to 11 "Cad been watching for .I, the last of the six -- '7her, hurrying along lr Her face was flushed. f him. and Mr. Winkle, H n was the correct thing 1 1 back. - arrived at the open-air v. iere was a quarter of -1 confusion whose details -. -ever remembered very M selectees left their for- searched out their re-Mr. re-Mr. Winkle found dog. Penelope was en- eexcitementtoyapsev-iar eexcitementtoyapsev-iar Mrs. Winkle said, "You :rr military." t eader," he told her. ' of the bus honked. ' in Mrs. Winkle's " not going to cry," she Mr. Winkle regarded him severely. severe-ly. "I wouldn't have dont a thing. That would be for othirs. You wouldn't get very far." "You mean with the blonde?" Freddie inquired, and received his laugh. He kept up a horseplay of saying that this was as far as he wanted to go, that he'd had a ni'.e ride, but would now go back home. When this wore thin, he innoduced a new subject. "Still proud to fight, Pop?" he inquired. Mr. Winkle kept his temper. "We all ought to be." "Well, I'm not." Freddie declared. "I'm not going because I want to. and I don't care who knows it. I don't want to be any darned soldier. sol-dier. Lugs, that's all they are. They're going to make me into a lug." Mr. Winkle looked around. No one except the contingent from Spring-ville Spring-ville seemed to have heard these remarks. The men listened with interest. Some of them looked startled. star-tled. "I don't think you ought to say such things," Mr. Winkle advised. "Who says that, Pop? Who says I can't say what I want?" "Well ..." began Mr. Winkle. "Isn't this a free .country, Pop? Can't a man say what he wants? Tell me that, Pop." When Mr. Winkle didn't reply, Freddie was infuriated, taking out his resentment on him as if holding Mr. Winkle personally responsible for his being drafted. "Tell me that, you old coot, and don't act like we're in the Army already." Before Mr. Winkle could gather his outraged senses. Jack Pettigrew he had been given, he felt deflated and not in the least like a lion. The Sergeant went inside. Mr. Winkle waited with the others. Their eyes went frequently to the door. What smiles there were on any faces were nervous ones. The Sergeant came out again. In a foghorn voice he began calling names. It was nearly an hour, during dur-ing which other busses arrived, before be-fore the Springville men were reached. Mr. Winkle found himself in a small room passing down a line of soldier clerks sitting at desks. In place of his own papers, an information infor-mation card was given to him, which he was instructed to hang around his neck by the cord attached. Thus ticketed, he took his place in line down the hall, and finally into an enormous room where many men were in the process of being examined. exam-ined. Here, Mr. Winkle saw, was where his fate would be decided. He was told to drop his bag by the wall under a clothing hook, and strip. Shivering, he stood in line clad only in his socks and shoes and information in-formation card. It was humiliating when he compared his skinny physique phy-sique with the more robust bodies about him. Several men glanced at him as if to say he didn't amount to much. He began to run a gantlet of doctors doc-tors and medical assistants. Each doctor had one part of the body to examine. Mr. Winkle was accustomed accus-tomed to having his family physician physi-cian make something of a fuss over him, cajoling him, and treating him like a living, breathing, human being be-ing instead of a skeleton within and around which was gathered a certain cer-tain amount of flesh and certain organs. or-gans. Now he felt like an automobile automo-bile being put together on an assem-. bly line in a factory. His card was taken away from him and in its place there was daubed in iodine a number on his chest. That, he was sure, was the final ignominy. He was questioned, weighed, measured, poked, tapped, and the inner workings of his structure struc-ture listened to. He was asked to read a chart without with-out his glasses and with them. He regretted each letter he made out, but he couldn't, as he had half planned, bring himself to cheat. His eyes were good enough to fight a war. Even his pulse was found sufficiently suf-ficiently calm after he had been set running in one place for a minute without going anywhere. Well, he reflected, he hadn't really real-ly counted on any of these things to save him. It was his dyspepsia he was banking on. He was laid on a paper-covered table. His stomach was kneaded pushed through the group of men and came up to Freddie. His thin face was white with anger. "Don't talk like that to Mr. Winkle." he ordered. Freddie turned on the revolving stool to Mr. Winkle, ignoring Jack. "How about that. Pop? Should I talk like that to you?" Jack made a lunge at Freddie, who whirled, placed his hand on the boy's chest, and shoved him back. Jack, crying imprecations, returned re-turned to the fray with clenched fists. Freddie jumped up to meet him. Mr. Winkle was gripped with dismay. dis-may. Things were fast getting out of hand. In fact, they were already well out of hand. The proprietor of the place was yelling, a waitress shrieked, and customers called out. Mr. Winkle heard his own voice crying, "Now look here! Look here! Save that for the Germans! Or the Japs!" The men laughed. Jack subsided, glaring. Freddie made ironic grimaces. gri-maces. An armistice had been declared in the premature war. Mr. Winkle breathed with relief. He wasn't certain cer-tain that he liked the responsibilities responsibili-ties of leadership. He counted the men carefully as they got back on the bus, making sure Freddie was among them. His glance caught that of Jack, whose eyes were hot and who said, "I'm going to get him! I'm going to get him plenty." "That's all right," Mr. Winkle calmed him. "I appreciate your standing up for me, but you've done enough." Another hour's ride got them to their destination, and they descended descend-ed at a busy station where they were transferred to another bus. This was already half filled with soldiers-elect like themselves. "Hello, fresh meat," one of these greeted them. From the highway, three miles out of town, the entrance to the camp was no more than a dirt side road where two armed guards stood and a sign declared this to be a military reservation and that no admittance iif-ae allrmPfi. me fast getting out of And the tears didn't tut remained in her eyes tlinked them back, fast, imy looked at each other They embraced. They other very close. They ! kissed again, while the i women wept, and hand-ad hand-ad flags waved. thing Mr. Winkle knew ( found himself seated in d the vehicle was getting Looking back, he saw ! holding up Penelope could see him go to war. wasn't interested, but other way. ot the bus was occupied 1 contingent. There hadn't ?li of them to charter a their sole use. 'lone, not because he "self, as the leader, any r the others. Nor did he aloof; he would have wel-"ebody wel-"ebody to talk with, but arges joined him. Jack sat up beside the driver, topped and several more on. One of them was a 7 blonde. Mr. Winkle tascinated. as Freddie ma-selectee ma-selectee beside him ;eat and grinned winning-Monde. winning-Monde. She sat beside :i"ice, atd they began an conversation. Isethe tension the draftees ,J them from their send-'kughed, send-'kughed, and began to le, and discuss their "s just a little too loud -L iebus stopped at a sched-for sched-for lunch. Mr. Winkle barges to the counter in-"front in-"front roadside restau-r restau-r m produced the proper Main meals for them as toe Government. Freddie "'med outside, talking to herehe aS catching an' Freddie alone until he had ''meal. Then he went Freddie. "If you want jJ'ng to eat, you'd bet- fl with you. Pop." Mr. fck to the counter. J his time. He waited ;nde's new bus pulled in. i 0n it and then joined Some of the men looked 'ration and envy. Mld you have done.. jjWed of Mr. Winkle', "if ,? the bus with her and Having been invited, they were admitted. ad-mitted. After passing through a quarter of a mile of thick woods, they came to a great cleared space in which stood a hidden city. There were many wooden buildings, some of them of one story, others of two stories. Dust rose from the passing of their own and other vehicles, and from marching march-ing feet. The bus stopped before a building which had a sign on it saying, "Induction "In-duction Checking Station." Standing up or sitting on the ground before this were perhaps fifty more selectees selec-tees They stared at the newcomers newcom-ers who descended from the bus. No one spoke in the atmosphere of patient waiting and weary anxiety. Mr Winkle looked about, somewhat' some-what' at a loss. He didn't know what to do next. A tall thickset Sergeant, holding a sheaf of papers in bis hand came out of the building. He looked at the new arrivals and asked huskily. Who's the leader?" Mr Winkle went forward. The Sergeant gazed down at. him Mr. Winkle saw the mouse-recognUion-look come into the man s face, the ame way it showed in Amy's. Then he Sergeant took on an express.on "s iMoSay he didn't surprised at anything sen to . him. He inquired, "Got 'em a 11. John? Mr. Winkle said he had and turned over the group papers. This re-lieved re-lieved him of his command. He was a leer no longer, but just a Electee like any other. Because of 1 his and because of the mou.c-look Mr. Winkle went forward; the sergeant ser-geant gazed down at him. and he was asked, "What's this on your record about dyspepsia?" Mr. Winkle detailed and even boasted about his acute intestinal difficulties and the need he had for his pills. He was kneaded some more, as if he were an automobile no longer, but a piece of dough. The doctor gave a skeptical grunt, a deprecating snort, and wrote something some-thing on Mr. Winkle's record sheet. Mr. Winkle, to his horror, gathered gath-ered that his dyspepsia had made little impression, that it had let him down completely. At this, as he was passed on to the next doctor, his heart beat so fast that the doctor, who applied a stethoscope steth-oscope to it, took it away and actually actu-ally looked at him, saying patiently, "I expect it from the kids, but not from you." Mr. Winkle was abashed. He accused ac-cused himself of behaving like a child, like Jack Pettigrew whom he saw standing tensely, on guard, with a strained, taut expression on his boy's face. And then Mr. Winkle went through an experience he never expected to have. All during the days leading up tc this, and during the first of the examining ex-amining process, he hoped fervently that he would be rejected. He had even prayed for it But now he found himself hoping he would be accepted. (TO BE CONTINUED) |