"Out with it," Dick smiled coolly.
"I am a conscientious objector, sir," Pitson rejoined. "No matter what punishment may await me for refusing, I must decline to accept any duty that may call upon me to kill another human being."
"Yet you would call a policeman, in the case of finding a burglar in your house?"
"Not if I thought the policeman would have to kill the burglar, sir," Pitson protested.
"I'll wager the fellow is lying, at that," Prescott reflected, as he rose. "Take off your hat, Pitson."
The soldier obeyed. His forehead sloped up and back. The back of his head sloped up and forward, so that the top of his head was pointshaped.
"I've been interested in seeing what the head of a real conscientious objector looked like," Dick remarked slowly. "I've seen your head and from its shape I believe you to be a real conscientious objector. I am going to approve your transfer to a non-combatant branch, Pitson. You may step outside until you are sent for again."
After Pitson had gone Dick ordered the two remaining men to remove their campaign hats. He studied the shapes of their heads so attentively that both young men winced plainly under the inspection.
"Your heads are shaped differently from Pitson's," Prescott went on. "The top of his head goes up to a point. If a mule had a head shaped like that our veterinary surgeons would call it a fool mule and reject it. But you men have heads expressing more intelligence.
"What is the matter with you two? Have you been listening to socialistic or other freak talk? Do you realize that the German Kaiser and his nation threaten the freedom of the world? Do you realize that the Germans want to rule this world, and do you know how they would rule it, and what a miserable, impossible world it would be for free men to live in?