"Um-m, he will, will he?" and Major Glendinning fairly bristled. "I am not letting any good men get away from my department. Show him to me." Naughton nodded in the direction of Walter, who was deep in a discussion of signals with his catcher. Then the "powder man," with Harrison as fluent ally, paid tribute to the manly qualities of the young pitcher, nor were their motives wholly selfish. The major listened attentively, chewing his gray mustache, and now and then glancing at Walter with keen appraisement. At length he exclaimed: "You chaps know how to get on my blind side. I have had my eye on a cheerful young loafer in the Cristobal commissary who is not earning his salary. If he should--er--resign, there might be a vacancy. I like Goodwin's looks. Fetch him over here, if you please." Naughton and Harrison grinned at each other as they marched to the side of the field and escorted Walter with great pomp of manner. The abashed pitcher wiped his dripping face and heard Major Glendinning say to him: "You had better not think of leaving Cristobal just now. It is the best place in the Zone. When you are through with Naughton and his infernal cargo, come and see me in my office, if he doesn't blow you sky-high in the meantime. And don't forget that I expect you to win that next game against Culebra." He wheeled his horse sharply and trotted from the field, leaving Walter to gaze after him with a dazed, foolish smile. Harrison thumped him on the back and jubilantly shouted: "Wasn't that easy? What did we tell you?" "But do you honestly think he has any intention of giving me a job on the gold roll?" tremulously implored Walter, whose emotions were in a state of tumult. "Sure thing," said Naughton. "He can always find a place for a young fellow with the right stuff in him." "'A husky young fellow with the right stuff in him,'" echoed Walter. The familiar words had come home to roost. "He will start you in at seventy-five per month"--this was from Harrison--"and you will have to earn it. Base-ball cuts no figure with the major in business hours." "Your conscience can rest easy on that score," added Naughton. "No danger of your cheating Uncle Sam." "An honest pull is the noblest work of man," declaimed Harrison, and this seemed to sum up the whole matter. When Walter returned to his quarters, his first impulse was to write a letter home. This proved more difficult than might seem. To report to his anxious parents and his adoring sister that he was employed on board a dynamite ship would not tend to ease their minds. He could imagine this bit of news landing in the cottage at Wolverton with the effect of a full-sized explosion. Eleanor would probably take her pen in hand to compose a metrical companion piece of "The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck."