“I suppose it’s all right, Dad,” she whispered in his ear. “But, oh! I do hope you’ll come back all right.” And she clung to him in a way that spoke volumes.
“Of course I’ll come back all right, Martha,” said Dick Rover confidently. “And for all you know, your dad will come back a major or a colonel, or maybe a brigadier general.”
“Oh, I don’t care about that! All I want is for you to come back safe and sound!”
“Your father will be up in a little while,” announced Dick Rover to the twins. “He had a meeting to attend in reference to the next Liberty Loan. He’s a tremendously busy man these days.”
“But Uncle Dick! he wanted to go to the front just as well as you did, didn’t he?” questioned Randy eagerly.
“Of course he wanted to go,” was the ready response. “But we couldn’t all go, you know. Somebody had to stay behind to look after our business interests in Wall Street.”
“But—but couldn’t you hire somebody else to run the business for you?” questioned Andy. Now that he and his brother were face to face with the fact that their Uncle Dick and their Uncle Sam were going into the army, it did not look right at all to them to have their father left behind.
“We thought something of that, but we really couldn’t see how it could be done. You see, we have a great many important deals under way, and if those transactions are not looked after carefully, we might stand to lose a great deal of money.”
“I don’t care—if dad wanted to go to the front, he should have had the chance to go!” burst out Randy.
“I declare, Randy, you’ll be as hard to manage in this affair as your father was,” said Dick Rover, with a faint smile.