Your Country Needs You

A COMPLETE NOVELETTE

By Frederick Faust

"Homo guard T" queried Peter Crit-

tenden.

Peter Crittenden. Sr., stopped in his pacing to and fro through the big library to glance at the plctu'e which hung on the wall above his ;iead. It showed a white-haired old n<an in a colonel’s uniforta of the CM1 War period, and as he looked at it Peter Crittenden. Sr., stiffened somewhat like a soldier preparing to s.lute a superior officer. His face da Iceued as he turned again toward b s son aud said: “At least your heart is right

Peter."

Young Peter did not raise Us head, but continued staring at the t rack in the floor which had occupied his attention for most of the last hear. "Home guard!” he repeated. Peter Crittenden. Sr., clear-d h.n throat and stretched himself to his full five feet four and a half inch. "The homr guard.” he said, "is not a disgrace." His son made no answer. "And all Crittendens must fled some way of serving their coir ter in what capacity," vo*t on the elder man. "The home guard!” repeated Peter. "What else is there you can do? asked the father a little sharply. "I wus bantain-weigh: champion at college." said Peter vaguely. "How tall are you?” asked Mr. Crit-

tenden.

•1 wax coxswain to the crew fo" three years.” went on Peter in the same dull voice. "How tall arc you?" insisted Mr. Crittenden. "i subbed at quarter-back for two years and played fen mirut.*s In the last big game." drened Peter. "How tall are you?” asked Mr. Crit-

tenden.

Peter raised his head and sighed deeply before he replied. "Five foet three and three-quarters. ’ he said. Mr. Ckiltenden strode across the room to the library table and picked trjm it a little handbill covered with large typeprint. "Your country needs you!” he read "You must have the will to serve your country, be at least five feet four inches high, weigh over one hundred and twenty pounds stripped; have good eyes, good teeth, good feet; between eighteen and forty-five years; have at least taken out your first papers. If you have any doubts, let the surgeon look you over. Join now!" "Five feet four inches!” sighed Peter mUcra! A little silence came or. them again. Mr. Crittenden paced slowly up and down the room with one arm folded across his chest, which was swelled not to Its areafest capacity, while his other hand alternately tugged and twisted at his mus

tache.

"I am only a quarter of an Inch

under height.” said Peter.

”A miss” stated Mr. Crittenden philosophically, "is as good as a mile.” "I am only two pounds under

weight." went on Peter.

"When the country be<omes hard pressed for men." sr.ld Mr. Critten-

den. “yon may be taken.

"Dad." broke in Peter, rising now

going out now and do the | rounds of the r allsttng offices." statPeter. "There’s a ghost of a chance for me. A ghost of a chance, eh. dad: and my country needs me. that's what the poster says." But his father turned his back and as scaring once ircr- up to the milltary figure whose picture hung on the wall above his head. Peter turned and walked quietly and rapidly from the room. He tried his fortune first at the little dingy group of khaki tents hlch stand In the midst of Columbus Circle. His start went fast enough as he worked his way throuen the little crowd of men not ready to enltat but waiting to watch those who would with a aulgar emotion, half pity and half curiosity. The pre’lminaries parsed rapidly, and Peter went into a small enclosure with two other men and stripped to the skin. He worked slowly thinking hard as he undressed. The other men were naked before him. He looked curiously from one to the other of them; to the straight, flabby lines of their upper arms, the significant prominence of their elbows and knees. Then he glanced down oer his own body with a pardonable pride. He was not heavily built, hut every muscle stood delicately defined under the pink skin as if it had been outlined at the edge with a faint blue

pencil.

He stood lightly on one foot. Thmuscles along his shin leaped out hard and long. Many a long iog around the cinder path and across coaniry had made his legs as hard an steel end a- toughly pliable as tanned

leather.

Above his knee the thigh muscles tensed to a thousand Intertwisted cords, split deeply down the center. •as the driving power which had many times sent him into the football line so hard and so low that, despite his lack of weight, he had been able to writhe threugh for the needed yards. He looked with dc*p contempt on the hollow inward curve ot the chests of the other three; then he put his hands on his hips and drew a deep breath. His chest swelled like a pouter pigeon's and every bone of th" ribs stood out. He stretched his arms now and clinched his fists. The muscles on the back of the forearm bulged and quivered like a hundred whip-lashes tied together, and on the point of the shoulder appeared deeply can-ed lines. They had supplied the speed and the punching power which had made him feared even among the featherweights and lightweights of the boxing classes at college. "James Maxwell!" called a voice. One of the men rose from th" stool on which he sat and stepped into the next room. Peter sat down to wait, tugging his summer overcoat around his body In a few moments Maxwell returned. "Get byT’ queried one of the two who had appeared with Maxwell \t the enlisting station. "Sure.” he answered, without enthusiasm. "The examination !s a Joke. All you got to do is to be measured and have your chest expansion taken.

tram U> .-hair u* .PBiomalM «*• "•* •* * “ d *> '

[v little things like that.”

Peter started at the gaunt figure

father with one hand extended in appoal. "you have lots of pull. ^ on know lots of the authorities. Some of the men who fougnt with you through the Spanish-American war have big positions In the army no*. Can’t you do something for me?” Mr Crittenden turned his head slowly and obsem d his son with a

critical eye.

"A bad precedent." he declared, shaking his head. "It will not do deceive the country *vi-n in these small matters. Peter, my boy." "Johnnie Stillson enlisted in the coast patrol yesterday," said Peter, returning to his chair and slumping t lnto it as if the muscular frame of his lithe body had suddenly give

way.

Mr. Crittenden coughed and turned his head away quickly. -’Johnnie roomed with you for three years at rollege. didn’t he’" he a*ke< -Harry Maxwell was accepted Isi week: he went today to join his unit." went on Peter, as tf be had not heard the last remark. "There is no disgrace attached the home guard.’ insisted Mr. Critti

den. Pe

a hH faet.

ue guard!” be tbutl that shook him from !>o you think I’m a

of

HU father found It rough again.

with a vague wonder. What was your chest expansion' he asked. and a half inches." said the other, “that’s half an inch more than requirements. I could have done other quarter of an inch if I’d tried hard. But I don’t enre whether lake me or not. 1 can go hack to work any day for as much money i

here."

Peter Crittenden!” called a voice from the outer room. Peter rose, cast off hi* overcoat and alked into the outer room. A large man in his khaki shirt stood there with a tape iu his hand and

-koned to Peter.

Stand over here.” hi- ordered. Vtei went obediently and stood on the little platform while the doctor drew the measuring apparatus down his bead. He looked at it nar-

rowly.

"Step out from under.” be commanded. Peter obeyed. "Now step on again and. mind you. stand straight.” Peter swelled out his chest, straight en.-d his bv* * r - il Mopped on again. "Five feet three and three-quarters.” announced the doctor, “kfraid you won’t do. my man’” nn’i do? <*boed Pet' ’ faintly. "Quarter of an inch shy that’s all Otherwise vou look pretty “ ld the doctor. John Lawronre’ That. all tor you—T-Criltenden!"

Peter turned and walkeu with head down. He had made up h<s mina that If one of the three in the other room asked If be had paused he would reply with his fists. But they pala no auention to him. They were busy rolling cigarettes and talking out ot the side of their mouths. Peter dressed slowly, and as he did so he was thinking hatd and fast. He remembered the remark of the man Maxwell that he could hav swelled his chest another quarter of of an inch if he had tried. Perhaps it was possible that he himself could rise a quarter of an inch In his toes, were to be measured again. He tried a recruiting office in the far part of the city this tlm" and went through the usual routine until he to be measured. Then he rose slightly and slowly on his U The doctor was staring critically the m< asuring stick. e feet four and an eighth," he announced; "you Just get Inside the limit, young man.” The heart of Peter raced madly and a hot flush stained his face. "Stand off the platform.” said the doctor, "raise your arms.” Peter oebyed. and the tape was passed around his chest. He forced all the air out of his lugns and then drew a slow and mtgthy breath, could feel the tape tugging lightly his skin and slipping through the fingers of the doctor. It was ant moment for Peter. "Five and a half!” called the doctor to the man behind the desk who wrote down the data of each physical examination. • "Five and a half what?" cried the

other man.

"Five and a half inches expansion*” said the doctor. The cleik remained staring as if his writing hand had becom? paralyzed. "ThuI man?” he queried slowly. "Regular po-iter-pigeon." grinned the doctor. Are you an athlete’ The doctor loosened the stethoscope (rom around his neck and listened Peter's heart. Sound as a bell.” be said. “Now hold up your feet. No. not that way. for I want to s»-e the soles of your feet. That’s it!" Peter obeyed, and the uoctor leaned and examined the right foot first and then the left. “What’s here?" he asked. "Nothing wrong. I hop"?" he asked. Peter glanced down at his left fool

ith concern.

"Pretty .lat,” said the doctor grmvl "Ever have an accident?" Then Peter remembered with a great fall of the heart. He had indeed had an accident. When he was playing quarterback on the second eleven In a practice came the fall before. a groat, blue-shined guard had plunged through the line, and when >ve at him in the mlx-up the heel of the guard's foot had crushed down Into his Instep. After that he had had to wenr a tape around the Instep for three weeks, but since that time the foot had never bothered him. "A slight accident.” he murmured: 'nothing to amount to cnythlng." ••Well.” said the doctor. "I’m sorry o say that it amounts to somethlng n the army. You've got a fiat foot,

my friend."

•eter stared at him wi:b dull eyes. ’Doctor.” he pleaded. "I swear that that foot has never bothered me In the slightest after it was first hurt ’That's an old story’ around here." said the doctor, not unkindly, "but I'm afraid I can’t pass you with a foot like that. I tmight hold up for a long time and then give wav on you during a forced march. You're refused. Crittenden. Next!" Peter turned away and walked from the room to put on his clothes again. It was noon and he found his restaurant. But he had no heart for

food.

He finally pushed his plate away rand sat with a grim face testing his coffee at long intervals. H«- was re membering his last glimpse of hii father with his back turned towan him and his face raised to the picture of the military ancestor hanging c the wall. A long and glorious military car»-< rested on the shoulders of the su cessive Crittendens, beginning, ' ll the first Peter Critteno-m. who lu h-lped to stair, the snow with his bai

famous year 1847. Through the Indian \ through the War of the Re’.i. :ilon. through the Spanlsh-American War. there had always been a i-eter Crittenden to shoulder a gun for his coucflag. These memories came back to Pe'er now with a redoubled bit-

terness.

For he had now bore that fated

name of Peter Crittenden, and he I The doctor hesitated. Peter felt would make the first gap In the glor-|that heaven and hell rested on the relous annals of his country. As he | sol’. But the big physician finally thought and pondered, a plimflierinr shook his head.

tor and sighed. behind a little table, and the doctor "Otherwise you’ve found me all himself, who stood with his stethoright, doctor?" said Peter. I scope hanging around his neck. He "Righi as a trivet,” said the doctor, was a heavy built roan. squnre-Jawe<'. cordially. | bull-necked and quick moving. "Doctor." said Peter. "I am very “Well, lad." said he. "what can I

eager to Join the colors. I'll gain! do for you?"

that half pound In two days If you'll * "Better get undressed before you give me a chance." see the doctor." broke in the clerk

officio uslv.

’The dressing room is there.'

a new thought came to Peter. He tensed his arms hard in their sleeves, and his jaw thrust out a significant fraction, and his head sank lower between his shoulders. That fighting face had not been his least asset when he fought ic the roped

circle.

He became aware that his coffee as cold, rose from his seat and found the street again. But he decided to make one more trial in the accepted and ordinary manner. This enlisting depo-. was running more men through, and running them through more rapidly, than the others he had visited. The rapidity with •hlch one name after another was called out gave great heart to Peter The very face of the physician who idid the examining was an enenuragei square-jawed man. with touch of Scotch burr In Ills voice and glimmer of Scotch color dyeing his (Cheeks. As he stood on the platform to be measured. Peter raised again slowly an bis toes. The physician looked *f him with a half-smile and hesitated. Peter could have sworn that he was discovered, but the doctor said noth-

ing.

'Five feet four and a quarter." he called, and started measuring Peter’s chest. Again the result astonished the registration clerk. When he came to look at the feet. Peter’s heart misgave him again, but the doctor merely passed his hand slowly over the bottom cf his foot a times and went on with his ex amination. There was an infinite tap ping of the chest and listening with the stethoscope while Peter obediently coughed and breathed, and coughed short and hard again. "Sound lungs." said the doctor; "great little chest you have hen-, my lad. and not so small, either, (let on the scales over there.” Peter strode gaily to the scales and stood while the weights were slid along the bar. "One hundred and nineteen and n hatf." said the physician, and hesitated. "Half a pound light?” asked the clerk. "Half a pound light.” said the doc-

I'm sorry." he said, "but I’m not authorized to make exceptions.” Peter thought back sadly to the lunch which he had neglected to eat. "Next!” called the doctor, and Peter ec: back to the dressing room. His step was light and his manner strange, as he walked down the street. And his face once more twisted inn its fighting expression. And it chanced by the merest quirk of fate that when he had walked blindly some half-dozen blocks he raised hit head and saw the sign of a fourth recruiting office. Peter paused in the street, threw back his head and laughed. He entered the outer recruiting office. Two clerks sat there. I want to see the examining physician.” said Peter gently. Want to be examined?" asked one of the clerks. "You don'» look hardly big enough to get by; bu*. go Into that room and take off your clothes. The doctor'll see you in a minute.” There Is nothing farther from my thoughts than to be examined." said Peter In the same quiet voice, "but I see the doctor?" h. sure.” said the clerk, "it it's just a personal matter.” 'It is." said Peter: "strictly per-

sonal.”

"Thetf you’ll find him in that room through that door there; he’s not busy-

now.”

’ Thank you." said Peter, and stepped to the door and Into the next

room.

There were only two men in the room, the registering cleik, who sat

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’ said Peter Critten-

sald

the doctor. But I’m 1

He walked calmly enough acrosr the room, and his eyes never moved from the big doctor's face. •Well.” said the doctor, rather puzzled by his strange visitor’s actionr. vfiat's the main idea?" ’This!" salu Peter, and planted his right fist on the |>olnt of the doctor's square chin. Now. if a boxing cri'ic had wit r.esscd that punch, he could not but have admin-d. Not the famous (iriffo himself ever delivered a blow more cleanly, or with more machtne-ilko precision. It was a right cross. Peter stepped in as be drove his fist forward. As ho stepped In and to the left with his left foot, his right foot rose to the toe and his right hand snapped in across, the fist twisting a*,

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But If It take a long time to de- ] (Continued on Page Seven)

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