“I’m going to get away,” said Tom simply.
“You must be crazy,” Archer said, staring at him in astonishment. “How are you going to do it? Didn’t I tell you, you couldn’t even get a file?”
Tom went on seriously.
“I’d like to have you go with me only I don’t know if you’d want to take a chance the same as I would.”
“Sure, I’d take a chance, but——”
“You don’t have to go and I do,” Tom interrupted. “That’s what I mean. If the war should end and I didn’t fight, I’d be a kind of a—— I mean I got to fight for two people. I got to. So it ain’t a question of whether I take a chance or not. And it ain’t a question of whether it’s fair to try and escape. ’Cause I got that all settled.”
Archer said nothing, but looked at Tom just as he had first looked at him a year ago, and tried to dope him out. For a few paces they walked in silence.
“If you take a chance, I take a chance with you,” Archer said.
“If anybody should discover us and call for us to halt, I’m not going to halt,” said Tom.
“Believe me, I’ll sprint,” said Archer, “but that part’s a cinch anyway——”