She reached for one of his hands, the one that was not bandaged, and she laid her soft cheek against it, and held her breath to listen. Perhaps even now behind that quiet face the spirit had departed beyond her grasp.
There was no flutter of the eyelids even. She could not see that he still breathed, although his hand was not cold, and his face when she touched it still seemed human. She drew closer in an agony of fear, and laid her lips against his cheek, and then her face softly, with one hand about his other cheek. Her lips were close to his ear now.
"John!" she whispered softly, "John! My dear knight!"
There was a quiver of the eyelids now, a faint hesitating sigh. She touched her lips to his and spoke his name again. A faint smile flickered over his features as if he were seeing other worlds of beauty that had no connection here. But still she continued to press her face against his cheek and whisper his name.
At last he opened his eyes, with a bewildered, wondering gaze and saw her. The old dear smile broke forth:
"Ruth! You here? Is this--heaven?"
"Not yet," she whispered softly. "But it"s earth, and the war is over!
I"ve come to help you get well and take you home! It"s really you and you"re not "Missing" any more."
Then without any excuse at all she laid her lips on his forehead and kissed him. She had read her permit in his eyes.
His well arm stole out and pressed her to him hungrily:
"It"s--really you and you don"t belong to anybody else?" he asked, anxiously searching her face for his answer.
"Oh, John! I never did belong to anybody else but you. All my life ever since I was a little girl I"ve thought you were wonderful! Didn"t you know that? Didn"t you see down at camp? I"m sure it was written all over my face."
His hand crept up and pressed her face close against his:
"Oh, my darling!" he breathed, "_my_ darling! The most wonderful girl in the world!"
When the doctor and nurse pushed back the screen and entered the little alcove the new nurse sat demurely at the foot of the cot, but a little while later the voice of the patient rang out joyously:
"Doctor, how soon can I get out of this. I think I"ve stayed here about long enough."
The wondering doctor touched his patient"s forehead, looked at him keenly, felt his pulse with practised finger, and replied:
"I"ve been thinking you"d get to this spot pretty soon. Some beef tea, nurse, and make it good and strong. We"ve got to get this fellow on his feet pretty quick for I can see he"s about done lying in bed."
Then the wounds came in for attention, and Ruth stood bravely and watched, quivering in her heart over the sight, yet never flinching in her outward calm.
When the dressing of the wounds was over the doctor stood back and surveyed his patient:
"Well, you"re in pretty good shape now, and if you keep on you can leave here in about a week. Thank fortune there isn"t any more front to go back to! But now, if you don"t mind I"d like to know what"s made this marvellous change in you?"
The light broke out on Cameron"s face anew. He looked at the doctor smiling, and then he looked at Ruth, and reached out his hand to get hers:
"You see," he said, "I--we--Miss Macdonald"s from my home town and----"
"I see," said the doctor looking quizzically from one happy face to the other, "but hasn"t she always been from your home town?"
Cameron twinkled with his old Irish grin:
"Always," he said solemnly, "but, you see, she hasn"t always been here."
"I see," said the doctor again looking quizzically into the sweet face of the girl, and doing reverence to her pure beauty with his gaze. "I congratulate you, corporal," he said, and then turning to Ruth he said earnestly: "And you, too, Madame. He is a man if there ever was one."
In the quiet evening when the wards were put to sleep and Ruth sat beside his cot with her hand softly in his, Cameron opened his eyes from the nap he was supposed to be taking and looked at her with his bright smile.
"I haven"t told you the news," he said softly. "I have found G.o.d. I found Him out on the battlefield and He is great! It"s all true! But you have to search for Him with _all_ your heart, and not let any little old hate or anything else hinder you, or it doesn"t do any good."
Ruth, with her eyes shining, touched her lips softly to the back of his bandaged hand that lay near her and whispered softly:
"I have found Him, too, dear. And I realize that He has been close beside me all the time, only my heart was so full of myself that I never saw Him before. But, oh, hasn"t He been wonderful to us, and won"t we have a beautiful time living for Him together the rest of our lives?"
Then the bandaged hand went out and folded her close, and Cameron uttered his a.s.sent in words too sacred for other ears to hear.