“The case is exactly the same, except in the matter of magnitude,” Prescott retorted.  “Germany is the burglar, trying to break into the house of the world.  You haven’t time necessary courage to fight a German yourself, but you will be glad to see a braver man serve on the firing line in your stead.  And you are a conscientious objector, too, are you, Rindle?”

“I—–­I thought I was, sir,” confessed the soldier.  “Your questions, sir, and your way of putting the case confuse me.”

“And you, Pitson?” Dick demanded, eyeing the third man.  “Knowing that, if you are sent to some non-combatant work, some other man will have to be sent to this company to do your killing work for you, you wish to dodge fighting duty?”

“Yes, sir; I do,” Pitson answered unhesitatingly.

“Pitson, consider the matter seriously and try to decide whether you’re a moral hero or a physical coward!”

“Sir, I am no mor-----”

Here the man hesitated, growing red in the face.

“Out with it,” Dick smiled coolly.

“I am a conscientious objector, sir,” Pitson rejoined.  “No matter what punishment may await me for refusing, I must decline to accept any duty that may call upon me to kill another human being.”

“Yet you would call a policeman, in the case of finding a burglar in your house?”

“Not if I thought the policeman would have to kill the burglar, sir,” Pitson protested.

“I’ll wager the fellow is lying, at that,” Prescott reflected, as he rose.  “Take off your hat, Pitson.”

The soldier obeyed.  His forehead sloped up and back.  The back of his head sloped up and forward, so that the top of his head was pointshaped.

“I’ve been interested in seeing what the head of a real conscientious objector looked like,” Dick remarked slowly.  “I’ve seen your head and from its shape I believe you to be a real conscientious objector.  I am going to approve your transfer to a non-combatant branch, Pitson.  You may step outside until you are sent for again.”

After Pitson had gone Dick ordered the two remaining men to remove their campaign hats.  He studied the shapes of their heads so attentively that both young men winced plainly under the inspection.

“Your heads are shaped differently from Pitson’s,” Prescott went on.  “The top of his head goes up to a point.  If a mule had a head shaped like that our veterinary surgeons would call it a fool mule and reject it.  But you men have heads expressing more intelligence.

“What is the matter with you two?  Have you been listening to socialistic or other freak talk?  Do you realize that the German Kaiser and his nation threaten the freedom of the world?  Do you realize that the Germans want to rule this world, and do you know how they would rule it, and what a miserable, impossible world it would be for free men to live in?