Mr. Hamlin interrupted savagely.

“To hell with their medals,” he said.  “They can take their medals and hang ’em on Christmas trees.  I don’t owe the British army anything.  It owes me.  I’ve done my bit.  I’ve earned what I’ve got, and there’s no one can take it away from me.”

“You can,” said the Kid.  Before Hamlin could reply the door opened and John came in, followed by Uncle Jim.  The older man was looking very grave, and John very unhappy.  Hamlin turned quickly to John.

“I thought these men were friends of yours,” he began, “and Americans.  They’re fine Americans.  They’re as full of human kindness and red blood as a kippered herring!”

John looked inquiringly at the Kid.

“He wants to hang himself,” explained Billy, “and because we tried to cut him down, he’s sore.”

“They talked to me,” protested Hamlin, “as though I was a yellow dog.  As though I was a quitter.  I’m no quitter!  But, if I’m ready to quit, who’s got a better right?  I’m not an Englishman, but there are several million Englishmen haven’t done as much for England in this war as I have.  What do you fellows know about it?  You write about it, about the ‘brave lads in the trenches’; but what do you know about the trenches?  What you’ve seen from automobiles.  That’s all.  That’s where you get off!  I’ve lived in the trenches for fifteen months, froze in ’em, starved in ’em, risked my life in ’em, and I’ve saved other lives, too, by hauling men out of the trenches.  And that’s no airy persiflage, either!”

He ran to the wardrobe where John’s clothes hung, and from the bottom of it dragged a khaki uniform.  It was still so caked with mud and snow that when he flung it on the floor it splashed like a wet bathing suit.  “How would you like to wear one of those?” he demanded.  “Stinking with lice and sweat and blood; the blood of other men, the men you’ve helped off the field, and your own blood.”

As though committing hara-kiri, he slashed his hand across his stomach, and then drew it up from his waist to his chin.  “I’m scraped with shrapnel from there to there,” said Mr. Hamlin.  “And another time I got a ball in the shoulder.  That would have been a ‘blighty’ for a fighting man—­they’re always giving them leave—­ but all I got was six weeks at Havre in hospital.  Then it was the Dardanelles, and sunstroke and sand; sleeping in sand, eating sand, sand in your boots, sand in your teeth; hiding in holes in the sand like a dirty prairie dog.  And then, ‘Off to Servia!’ And the next act opens in the snow and the mud!  Cold?  God, how cold it was!  And most of us in sun helmets.”

As though the cold still gnawed at his bones, he shivered.