Inside the restored hut lay Buck Bangs on a white cot, while on another reclined the stalwart form of Lafayette Blaine. Both of these spad pilots, though pale and looking rather the worse for wear, showed such evidence of comfort and bodily ease that one felt sure things must have happened to both. On the lapel of each coat was military decoration, evidently very recently bestowed.
Blaine at last threw down the magazine he was reading and glared at his partner, who moved with more difficulty when he changed his reclining position for one less unbearable.
"What"s got into you, Buck?" said Blaine impatiently. "Why don"t you go to sleep? Afraid you"ll dream of that pretty girl what picked you up?"
"Little good I get dreaming of her, Lafe! But wasn"t it queer? Just as soon as you got straight and I was out of danger, off they went-bang! Durn it! They was both here yesterday while the Doe and Sawbones were at work. My, how that girl could smile -- and exclaim!"
"That was one thing she could do, Buck." Blaine grinned. "All her exclaiming was in good Yankee English -- real United States."
"And what have we got waiting on us now? Ugh!" Buck made a painful face, but whether caused by his thought or by having to change his position again was not at first apparent.
A middle-aged, rather homely, yet kindly nurse entered and puttered round them both. At last she inquired in rather lame English:
"Will Monseurs, so lately promoted for their gallantry -- will they have anything more? I shall be delight to --"
"No, no, Madame," broke in Buck, while Blaine furtively grinned. "We are doing finely-finely -- ouch!"
"Ees zat anew pain?" The elderly nurse was at once by his side. "We must rest quiet, mon enfant. Quiet for joost one day more. Then you will be moved to our nearest base -"
"Say, Madame!" Buck was interrupting eagerly, "what has become of the girls that were here yesterday?"
"Ah-h! Yes, yes! They are grand Mesdemoiselles -- both. Reech! La, la! I hear their father owns r-railroads in your countree. Oui! Yiss, yiss, all right.
Zere! I am learning ze language. It cooms easy - adieu!" And she vanished through the door.
"What do you think of that, Lafe? Why were those two young girls, both Red Cross apprentices, why were they left here alone? Don"t they know the Boches would rather bomb a hospital than eat wienerwurst for lunch?
And then as soon as the place became really safe, off they go; but where?"
"Say, Buck, you make me tired! Hush up! I guess we"ll meet up with them some day soon. If we don"t -- what"s the odds?"
"And their daddy -- so this blessed old mollycoddle says -- owns real United States railroads. Makes me sick! But -- say, Lafe! Wasn"t that youngest one a beaut? If ever I get a furlough, I"m going to look her up."
"And be a fool for your pains! Look here, you do have sense enough to put up a good fight in the air. But on the ground, the real earth, you"re becoming a fool."
But Buck rolled, and grumbled, and so wore himself out fretting that on the next day it was decided to send them both to the base hospital for a week, which was duly done.
Three days more and Blaine, now an ensign, besides having his French decoration) had so nearly regained his strength that he no longer lay on a cot, but sat and walked about, a convalescent.
Buck Bangs, now a sergeant, still fretted and grumbled, improving more slowly. The new stripes on his arm cheered him somewhat, yet he eagerly eyed each group of visitors who strolled through the wards, the reading rooms, and other parts of the big base hospital where the two were convalescing. But, so far, his longings were ungratified.
A few hundred yards further back, on the edge of a French village that now quartered a brigade of our Sammies, was the new aerodrome where (quite a number of Uncle Sam"s new aviators were on duty, day and night. Most of those we have met before were there, all except poor Finzer and a few others that had fallen in the various raids that had taken place from time to time. There was Erwin, now a corporal; Lex Brodno, His American Pole, and others . Byers was in charge, with Anson and one or two other British aviators detailed to help the new American airmen get into thorough shape and training.
This recent transfer from the other station had taken place while Blaine and Bangs were absent raiding and subsequently in the hospital.
Bauer, the fellow who had made the signal to the enemy the night that raid started, had been tried by court-martial and was to have been shot but on the night before the intended execution he managed to escape, probably by connivance of somebody. It was afterward heard that he had gotten back to Germany by some hook or crook. Would he ever pay the penalty he had so richly deserved? That remains yet to be seen.
On the day when Byers himself escorted Blaine and Bangs from the hospital to the aviation camp, there were many visitors. Amid the cordial welcomes given them by their old comrades and also many new ones, Buck anxiously scanned each group of visitors as they pa.s.sed.
Lafe joked him about this.
"Why, you poor stiff," said the new ensign, "where are you looking?
What"s wrong, anyhow? Gee! Isn"t it jolly to be back among the boys -- well, well!"
Blaine interrupted himself when Buck, his eyes roving, suddenly espied two young women, garbed as Red Cross nurses - novitiates -- wandering amid the new hangars in which were a score or more of the American machines. Straightway Buck had bolted.
Blaine, following him with his eyes, saw Buck doff his aviator"s cap as he reached the group that also included an elderly man and lady, and another matronly form which was easily recognized by many as the head nurse in charge of the new Red Cross stations within the American sector.
"Durn me if he isn"t shaking hands with those girls!" soliloquized Lafe. "The cheek of him! If he wasn"t such a mighty good fellow, I"d call him down!"
But Blaine was a pretty good chap himself. He and Erwin had come together and were exchanging cordial small talk concerning what had happened to each recently, when he again saw Buck with these visitors strolling leisurely by towards the nearest landing stage. Towards this place a pair of swift scouts were making, on their return from the German front somewhere east.
"Know those folks?" he idly queried of Orris, now a corporal.
"Bet your life! Say, Lafe, who doesn"t know of Senator Knute Walsen of Idaho? He"s a big man, over here to supervise our rail transportation in France. See those two Red Cross girls? They"re his daughters.
Taking courses in nursing, I hear, and right at the front too.
Wouldn"t that get you? Who is that showing them round?"
"That is Buck Bangs, from b.u.t.te, Montana -- Our old Buck! What d"ye think of that, bo?"
"He seems quite intimate with "em, don"t he? Where"d he meet up with that crowd, Lafe?"
"Well, he and I sort o" dropped in on the girls just before we were in the relief station. Remember, don"t you? It was while we were returning home from that raid where poor Finzer got his."
"Don"t say! Yes, of course, we"ve all heard how you and Buck piloted our fellows after you two had been out all night. Had a h.e.l.l of a time -- didn"t you?" Suddenly Erwin looked his amazement. "Look here, Lafe. Honest Injun! Were those two daughters of old Walsen in that hut when you and Bangs just managed to make your landing there?
Whoopee!"
Blaine had nodded, then looked after the receding group half regretfully. Orris gripped the Ensign"s arm, and began telling things.
"They must be plucky girls, all right. It so happened that the older nurse -- the one you and I saw later -- had gone away with a desperately wounded man in an ambulance to the next base. After you and Buck landed, you were both bad off, he worse than you. Well, sir, the Boches sh.e.l.led that hut before any one got back, and before our boys had driven the Boches clear off. What do you reckon those two girls did? They didn"t holler: nary a squeal! But they stuck to you two and to business, and nursed you both, so that by the time aid arrived, you were all pretty comfortable. Some girls, those two! I hear that the younger, Miss Andra Walsen, is going to remain. Maybe they both are. And as for money, there"s wads of it in the family, believe me! No wonder Bucky is bucking up to "em a bit!"
After this lengthy exordium, Orris discreetly, changed the subject by wanting to know when he and Buck would be a.s.signed again to duty.
"I"m ready right now. Whether Buck is or not I can"t say. As for me, I"ve got the old flying fever, big and hot. I suppose it rests with Byers."
Later on as the group whom they had been discussing approached, Blaine and his friend were introduced. Andra, it was plain to see, had ready given poor Buck a deal to think about later on. She was handsome, dark-eyed, light-haired with a peachy complexion -- a combination hard indeed for a susceptible youth to resist. Avella, her sister, blue-eyed, dark-haired, a year older than her sister, was equally fascinating, yet in a different way.
Both were kindly, earnest, in love with their new work, and ready to go anywhere or do anything that would serve the good cause.
As a matter of course, when Erwin excused himself on plea of other business and the Senator, looking at his watch, found he had an appointment with Byers, the four young people were left alone. By couples they strolled through the aerodrome, inspecting this, commenting on that, while other fliers regarded the boys with more or less envy.
After a while several specks were seen in the eastern sky that approached rather more rapidly than was usual with friendly planes at such time of day. Blaine had his gla.s.ses out, while listening to the comments of the girls on the difficulties they bad in bringing both boys into that hut and dressing their wounds.
"We had to go for water," said Avella.
"You see we hadn"t been there but a day or so. I went, and nearly got lost among the old sh.e.l.l craters before I got to the spring that was an awful distance off. It was dark, and so smoky! I was afraid something might happen while I was away."
"You sure were mighty good to us," remarked Blaine. "What luck! To come way over here and be saved by two lovely girls right from our own part of the world. Can you beat it, Buck?"
"Don"t want to beat it! Say, you ladies are our own kind of folks.
I"ll be homesick when you two leave."
"Perhaps we won"t leave -- yet." Avella smiled enigmatically. "Papa is willing for us to stay. At first I was going with him; but he says Andra and I would need each other to keep from getting homesick."