“And the movie was A Farewell to Arms, from three years ago,” complained a Los Angeles fellow who went by Cal.

Riley gibed him, “That didn’t keep you from going in, or from coming out with three girls you went and bought sodas for. You got any money left?”

“Not much,” Cal answered. “But it was money well spent. Kind of an investment in the future, so I’ll have a partner at that dance the major’s been promising.”

Pops told him, “Treating one girl to a soda’s an investment. But three—seems to me, that’s courting trouble.”

“Where did you disappear to, Moss?” Riley asked. “You go off with a girl?”

Nate answered, “He came home with me.”

Talk halted while the truck negotiated an especially bad stretch of road. Then Apple suddenly said, “We came pretty close, didn’t we?”

“You mean to doing all Monroe’s attractions?” Hal asked.

“No, he means to getting our camp finished. Don’t you, Apple?” Sam said.

“Yeah. I keep thinking what a shame it is we won’t quite make it. Almost worse than if we’d got nowhere near.”

“That’s true,” Riley said. “I was thinking it before.”

“Just remember what the major told you,” Pops said. “What with all that has been accomplished, you’ve done yourselves proud.”

I woke up knowing I hadn’t been asleep long. It was eleven, maybe? The fire, visible through the grill in the stove door, made the tent roof look red.

The breathing sounds were off a bit; too few of them, I realized. Someone was missing. I rolled over and looked around. Romeo’s cot was empty.

I laid there for a while, expecting him to return from a quick trip to the bushes. But eventually, when he didn’t, I got up, pulled on some clothes and fumbled with my boots.

“What are you doing?” Sam whispered.

“Going to see what Romeo’s up to.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“No need,” I said, but Sam was already reaching for his own things.

Chapter 19

We checked the latrine to start with, shining our flashlights inside as the tail of some animal slipped away under one cloth wall. Sam said, “Remind me not to use this place without looking first. Where next?”

“The mess hall maybe?”

But before we got there, we spotted a light on in the shower house. Along with the barracks, it was one of the buildings we’d really hoped to have completed before Monday.

And sure enough, Romeo was inside, a piece of pipe in each hand and some pipe fittings on the floor in front of him, a totally perplexed expression on his face.

“What are you doing?” Sam asked from the doorway.