“Queer thing is,” he was saying, “though you might not say it was so queer, either; but when Ted found me on the carrier he dragged me off to a dark corner. He seemed pretty excited.
“What he said was, ‘Look here, Jack. We’re not from the same town—not any more, we aren’t.’
“I didn’t like that kind of talk. ‘How come?’ I demanded.
“‘Look, Jack, don’t get me wrong.’ He seemed very much in earnest. ‘I’ll do anything I can for you, just anything. But you know how we’ve always been?’
“‘Yes. Fighting.’ I said.
“‘Well, not fighting,’ he said, ‘but rivals. That was all right back there,’ he went on. ‘But here it’s different. Here we’re working for Uncle Sam. We’ve no time now for personal rivalries. It’s a mighty serious business.’
“‘It sure is, Ted,’ I told him.
“‘All right then, look.’ He grabbed my hand. ‘We’ve got just one rival in this business.’
“‘Tojo,’ I said.
“‘You’re dead right. And look,’ he gripped my hand, ‘we can’t fight Tojo and one another at the same time, so what do you say we don’t tell anybody we’re both from Pineville?’