“Oh, nothing,” I replied, catching up my slipping nerves. “That stuff doesn’t worry me any. I just haven’t got time to chase up there to the sick-bay.”
“Well, you might’s well go and get it over with,” he advised.
But I didn’t. I beat it right back to the General’s and believe me I managed to keep myself busy there all afternoon and part of the evening. But I didn’t know what was going to happen. The top-kicker later came around and said, “I’ve been looking all over for you, Canwick. You’re the only one the Doc hasn’t seen, so to-morrow morning, I’ll take you up.”
Well, I was racking my brains, but if the morrow didn’t bring forth any more than my brains had so far, then somebody was in line for a scandalous surprise to-morrow morning.
God, why did I ever get into such a mess! If I wasn’t sure that they’d pull me out, I’d have gone over the side straight. The way I felt then, I’d rather have died than be discovered. It was awful!
—6—
I found it necessary to hide out the following day: when I wasn’t with the General I managed to find other places to go—any place except the hole. And of course I was worried sick all day, and even then I wasn’t sure whether I’d escaped or just delayed again the inevitable moment of detection. This suspense certainly was hard on a girl’s nerves.
When I came in at night, Ben welcomed me with, “Well, Leony, you can thank me fer savin’ yer stars this time.”
“Why?” I inquired, at a loss to know what he was talking about.
“The top-kick’s been in here a dozen times lookin’ fer you, and every time I said you were busy as hell with the Gen.”