“She’s all in white,” Billie went on rapturously; the fact that she herself was all in white seemed to have escaped her. “White suit and sandals and white jockey cap—even white sun glasses!”

“How could anybody have white sun glasses?” Hauman said.

“I mean the rims, as you very well know. And she has the loveliest red hair, real fiery red! I wonder if it’s real . . .”

Hauman got to his feet. His shorts were so tight that the belt seemed to cut into his flesh. “What do you say, John, shall we take a look too?”

“I don’t mind,” Grandin said, getting up. “Want to come, Ethel?”

“No thanks.”

“I’ll come,” Billie said; “I know just where she is.”

“We’ll find her, you stay here with Ethel and the others,” Hauman said. He took Grandin’s arm and they started off.

Alone with Hauman, Grandin felt self-­conscious; he sensed within himself the feelings of a small boy again, a boy who looked up in hero worship to the other. This became the more unreasonable when he reflected that he was the one looked up to, by Hauman. The responsibility that this put upon him in their relationship was something he would rather not have had.

“Cliff,” he said, “do you ever think of not coming back?”

“Why gee, I hope we do, often! Billie and I love it here.”

“I meant from the South Pacific, or wherever you’re going. After all, a good many of them don’t came back.”

“Oh. Well, that’s something you always think of as happening to the other guy, I guess.”

The beach was hard, smooth and hot under their feet; to the left, the water slid up and back on the wet dark sand.

“You know something? I heard the Major say once that if he named ten guys to go out on a raid and knew in advance that nine of ’em wouldn’t be coming back—and told ’em so, too—there isn’t one of them but what would go. Of course they might look at each other in a funny way, because each one would be thinking they were the one that was coming back and it was tough on the other guys, but they’d all of them go.” Then he added, “I don’t know what it’s like in the Army, but that’s the way it is with the Marines.” He laughed. “Gee, I wouldn’t dare say that in front of Billie. She’d think I was bragging, and anyway she doesn’t like to hear about the war. But darn it, it’s true.”

“What about yourself, Cliff? Doesn’t the thought of death—”