""Gordon floated out of the commander's office. He sensed his fortunes had turned 180 degrees. On the pinnacle of a phenomenal high, incandescing like lights on Broadway, he now believed that the backbreaking labor he had performed for his father on the roofs of Brooklyn had a larger purpose. His feet carried him to where his prayer book lay open to the well-worn page containing the sentence ."and the Lord shall raise an ensign." Once again his strictly private play on the word "ensign" gave him solace-even as his frequent trouble-making public displays of dry wit provided cover." "And the...