Even then Blackie did not comply at once. Turning to the boys, he said in a low tone, “You boys are dead right. No use letting a log or anything else lick you.” Dropping his voice still lower he added, “I might take you with me next spring on that coast guard boat. I just might, that is, if you still want to go.”
Then in a changed voice he said, “All right, Joe, I’ll tell you all about that leg of mine, though I’m not fond of doing it. It always makes me hopping mad, just thinking about it.
“You see,” he went on at once, “I was up a river in Asia. Doesn’t matter which river. I was in the navy. Less than six months ago, although it seems two years. I was on a small U. S. gunboat. What one? That doesn’t matter, either. She’s at the bottom of the river now.” He paused to stare at the fire.
“We were laying up the river. There was fighting down below. We’d come up-river to get out of the way. The fighting was foolish enough, but none of our business.
“We were there to protect American citizens. There were twenty or more of them on board, reporters and missionaries and the like.
“I’d just come on duty when a big bombing plane came hovering, like a vulture, over us. It circled off again. ‘Good riddance,’ I said to my buddy.
“I hadn’t finished saying it when it came zooming back. This time higher up and—” Blackie took a long breath. “The bloomin’ infidels! What do you think? They let go a bomb that missed us by inches.
“You should have seen us scatter,” Blackie laughed in spite of himself.
And then, of a sudden, the lines between his eyes grew deep and long. “They bombed us. They sank our ship. My buddy was killed. I caught it in the leg. I got a lifeboat off, doing what I could to save the women.
“Me,” he faltered. “I’m no sort of a story teller. But I hope I’m something of a fighter. This old leg will be good as new next spring. And, sure’s I’m living, I’m going hunting little brown men up there in Bristol Bay. They stole a cool million dollars’ worth of fish last season. How many’ll they get this year? That depends on the Coast Guard men and, glory be! I’m one of them. I’m out of the navy, invalided home, back on the good old job, and there’ll be plenty of things a-popping in May.