Late that night when the Doctor rode forth again alone in his own car on an errand of mercy, he thought of the thing which he had heard. Then came the inevitable question: why wasn't Derry Drake fighting?
CHAPTER V
THE SLACKER
It was at the Witherspoon dinner that Jean McKenzie first heard the things that were being said about Derry.
"I can't understand," someone had remarked, "why Derry Drake is staying out of it."
"I fancy he'll be getting in," Ralph Witherspoon had said. "Derry's no slacker."
Ralph could afford to be generous. He was in the Naval Flying Corps. He looked extremely well in his Ensign's uniform, and he knew it; he was hoping, in the spring, for active service on the other side.
"I don't see why Derry should fight. I don't see why any man should. I never did believe in getting into other people's fusses."
It was Alma Drew who said that. Nobody took Alma very seriously. She was too pretty with her shining hair and her sea-green eyes, and her way of claiming admiration.