One hell of a lot of trouble next day! This young lady’s army days seemed numbered—and a damned small number, too.
Of all the unexpected, damn-fool, crazy things that ever happened! It was, for once, my luck to be out when the blow fell, but my absence just delayed the agony. I couldn’t possibly escape being discovered—and just when I thought everything was going along so nicely. Just my rotten luck!
Just after I left for the General’s the top-kicker announced that the C.O. had ordered one of those damnably intimate “inspections” before we landed, and he proceeded to call the roll. When he came to me, he asked Ben where I was and Ben said, “With General Backett.”
“Tell him about this when he comes in, Garlotz, and tell him to report to me.” And the top-kicker lined them all up and led the way to the sick-bay, where they were duly looked over by a captain in the Medical Corps.
I came in after noon mess and Ben told me about it. “They caught one bird,” he informed me. “Wonder what they’ll do with him?”
“What do you mean?” I demanded, suppressing my excitement as much as possible.
“Was you born this morning?” inquires Ben sarcastically.
“But how in the devil could a man get anything on this ship. Don’t you get things like that from women?”
Ben just laughed then. “Don’t you know, Leony, that sometimes it takes nine or ten days for it to show up? That’s why they waited until now to have this thing, because they figure that if a guy ain’t got nothin’ wrong with him now, he won’t have unless he gets something from one o’ these passionate mademoiselles.”
I must have looked pretty scared, for he asked, “What the hell’s the matter with you?”