“Well, I should hope to cough in your mess kit, I have,” Williams announced with no attempt to shield his indignation. “What do I look like—somethin’ that would scare away the women and babies?” “To be honest with you,” Lefty replied, struggling to keep a straight face, “I should say, yes—also the old folks as well as the women and babies!” “I’d like to punch you in the nose,” Panama roared, then holding up the snapshots, changed his mind and said, “Come here, useless, and lamp these! Ain’t she a peach!” Lefty came closer and took the photos in his hands, examining them closely as he felt his heart heating away furiously. He looked up at Panama with uncertainty, struggling to hide his apparent concern. “Is this your girl?” Panama grinned broadly, throwing out his chest and looking down at Lefty with self-confidence, believing that he had succeeded in redeeming his self-respect insofar as being an attraction for the opposite sex was concerned. “You see, I ain’t so hard to look at,” he added, boastfully. “There are some people who say we’ll be gettin’ married some day, if I ever get the nerve to ask her.” Lefty forced himself to smile generously as he slapped his friend on the back in a good-natured fashion. “Why don’t you ask her—are you afraid!” “Not exactly, only—well—I don’t know how to put the right kind of words together. Gee—if I only had your lingo—we’d of probably been married long ago! You know, somethin’! I didn’t even have the crust to ask her for these pictures! Yes, sir, I had to wait until she was gone and swipe ’em!” From the moment that Lefty grasped the fact that Panama was in love with the same girl whom he idolized, the boy’s heart sunk within him. He realized that all was fair in love and war—but not in this case when the other man was his best friend. Besides, he tried to tell himself, he had no right to even think of Elinor so long as Panama wanted her. He knew her first, and then again, maybe she really loved the sergeant and—no, that couldn’t be so, but the one thing vividly certain was the fact that Panama had befriended him when the rest of the world had turned their backs. Surely he owed this man something for that alone. He stood by, silently, fumbling the snapshot carelessly as he allowed the entire matter to turn over in his mind, reflecting upon what course to pursue. Panama noticed the way Lefty was handling the snapshot and pulled it away from him, saying, “Be careful of that—you act as if it was yours!” “I’m sorry,” the boy apologized, as Panama carefully put the photograph away again in his breast pocket. “That’s Okay. Now get busy on the plane. I gotta pack. See you later!” Panama walked away toward the barracks, leaving the boy alone, looking after him just as an orderly approached, bearing a communication from the Post Commandant.