“Well ... you guys ain’t goin’ back to the front no more.”
“Hooray!” they sceptically shouted. “You damned liar.”
“Fact. The brigade commander was down here yesterday, and I heard him tell Major Adams that the First Battalion was goin’ on board ship.”
“Oh-o. That ain’t so good. I was sick all the way over on that damn transport,” Pugh remembered aloud.
“Sure, you always do,” said Rousey, the old-timer. “But after the first cruise you’re all right. God, man, you don’t know how soft it is on board ship. A clean bunk and good chow. Shore leave whenever you go into port. Why, I remember——”
“Maybe you’re right, but I’ll take my chances with my feet on the ground. There ain’t no damn whale gonna eat me, not if I know it.”
“Well, it’s a blame sight better than lettin’ them Squareheads use you for a target. I’m glad we’re goin’.”
While they talked the rumor that they had so sceptically regarded had become a fact. No one doubted that they were soon to be loaded into box cars and sent off to some seaport, where trim, clean ships would be waiting to take them aboard.