—3—
Everybody seemed to run across that brother of mine except me. Ben saw him once and almost caught him. When he came back and told me about it, after asking if I had been out, I wondered why he wanted to catch him.
“Because,” says Ben, “if that wasn’t you, it was the guy that got me in that jam up in Le Mans, and I just wanted to speak to him a minute—just long enough to crown him a coupla times.”
I couldn’t see what good that would do him but he seemed to think it would do a lot of good. He said he noticed there weren’t any chevrons on the fellow’s sleeve and he made a bee line for him, but Leon apparently was some kind of a dispatch carrier, for he hopped into a motor cycle side car and left Ben with a cloud of dust for his pains.
I wished I could get hold of Leon before he got us both into trouble.
—4—
If you dream of the devil long enough he’s bound to appear.
Who should I bump square into one day but my handsome Captain! I saluted and started to move on, for I had decided that he probably didn’t know Leon—I mean, that Leon probably didn’t know him. But he caught my arm and stared into my face very studiously.
“Excuse me, Sergeant,” he explained, looking straight at me. “I know your name but I can’t think of it. I met your sister one night last year—she danced and you read some poetry.”
I didn’t know what to say and when I didn’t say anything, he continued, as if he were trying to make me remember the party or him. “Your aunt or cousin or somebody told me how much alike you and your sister were and I remember seeing you—just a glimpse—now what in the dickens is that name?”