“Thought of death!” He laughed heartily. “Nobody has thoughts of death, don’t you know that, John? That’s just something in people’s mind—not real at all. Anyway you don’t have time, you’re much too busy. Why, the way they keep you jumping out there, you never give it a thought.”

“Not even when someone you know is shot down? Your—well, your buddy, say?” The word made him feel awkward, but he felt it was the one which Hauman would understand.

“That’s just tough luck. But you can’t stop and think about it every time. That wouldn’t get you anywheres. Besides, if you’d seen as much death as I have— Gee, maybe that sounds like bragging again.”

“I suppose it’s a matter of—getting used to it.”

“Why say!” Hauman placed a broad hand on his shoulder. “When you see those big bulldozers come grinding along and push ’em all into one big trench, you begin to think life doesn’t amount to very much, or death either. Nobody can take time to bury the bodies with shovels in the old-­fashioned way, in the right kind of grave, and all that.”

“The enemy dead?”

“Oh, our own too! You can’t beat those bulldozers, they do the job on the double. A guy sits up top steering—I’ve done it myself—with nothing on but a helmet and a pair of shorts and boondockers. It’s pretty hot work; those engines give out a lot of heat when they got a big load to shove around.—Look, I’ll bet that’s her now, though Billie didn’t say anything about the officer.”

In the sand some fifty feet back sat the young girl in white whom Grandin had seen twice now, and a young naval officer in a dark-­blue uniform and white cap. They did not talk as they watched Grandin and Hauman go by.

It would have been silly not to turn frankly and look at her; it was what they had come down here for and she must have known it. Grandin saw that their curiosity was not unwelcome. From under the visor of the white jockey cap she returned a gaze as frank as theirs, and her amused smile was a good enough substitute for hello.

“Well, I guess that’s that, John. Let’s go back.”

Grandin felt that for dignity’s sake it might look better if they went on a short distance farther; but in view of the girl’s smile and her frank acceptance of their frank curiosity, he took Hauman’s suggestion and they turned back at once.

“Didn’t we tell you, wasn’t it worth it?” Bill Howard asked, in a fairly accurate imitation of Billie’s excitement.

“Oh I don’t know,” Hauman said, “she’s got to go some to beat Billie.”

“Why Clifford Hauman, thank you very much.”