Panama remained silent for a moment, waiting for some comment from Phelps but there was none forthcoming. He merely lolled on the edge of the cot, resting his weary head in his hands.
“Come on, now; you will do it, won’t you?” Williams urged.
The boy sat up straight, trying to set his befuddled brain in order again. He looked up at his friend as a shadow of helplessness crossed his face.
“I’d do anything in the world for you, anything,” he strove to make Panama believe, “but when you ask me to speak to Elinor about a thing like—like—well, if you wanted me to cut my heart right out of my body and hand it to you, that would be easier!”
Panama smiled generously and patted the boy upon the back. “I know it must be hard to do another feller’s work for him, but if I told you that what I’m askin’ means my life’s happiness; if I said that I’ve lived every moment since the time I first saw her for the day when she’d say, ‘yes’; that every hour I’m awake, I think of us together in a cottage some place with flowers and kids, and when I’m asleep, I just dream of her an’ me married, what would you say?”
Without answering, Lefty rose, proceeding to remove his work jumper as Panama, watching him eagerly, caught the significance of this gesture and jumped to his feet, bearing a triumphant and enthusiastic smile as his prospects once more grew brighter.
“Atta boy!” he shouted jubilantly. “I knew you wouldn’t fail me!”
“When you put it the way you did, about it meaning everything in the world to you, I couldn’t turn you down,” the boy explained, moving about the tent in a daze.
He walked to the little stand that held the washbasin and cleaned the oil and grease off of his hands and then brushed his hair.
As he gazed into the small mirror just above the washbasin, his eyes rested upon a snapshot of Elinor that Panama had stuck there. Confronted by the magnetic features of the girl, everything within him revolted against the unfairness of it all. He swung about, ready to announce his definite refusal to participate in the scheme, only to come face to face with the sergeant who was standing behind him, watching eagerly.