“The officer who had actually caused the mischief by holding us up had been staring very hard at Dr Dare. When he saw what happened he went white in the face and swore hard in German at the hussars. Then he turned to me and said, in English, ‘Bind him up quickly! Will he die?’ I told him I did not know. But with another fellow’s help I bound the Doctor’s wrists very tightly to stop the bleeding, and put on tourniquets above each elbow and twisted them as tight as I could. Then he handed us over to a sergeant and half-a-dozen men,--there were eight of us altogether;--he gave him some very particular orders and then went on after the battle. The sergeant presently collared a stretcher and bearers, and marched us to the rear of their advance, and the numbers of men we saw there, pressing on to the pursuit, was an eye-opener. They seemed endless,--moving torrents of gray. I never saw so many men in my life. The sergeant found a doctor, and the doctor looked very grave over the matter. But he was clever. Dr Dare was coming round. He anæsthetised him and sent him off again and made a very good job of the wrists. If he’d been a bungler we would not be here. We were sent off to the rear and eventually into Germany.” “The man who held us up, and so was the real cause of the trouble, was Von Helse----” said Con. “Ludwig?--Oh, Con!” gasped Lois, horrified. “He was not to blame for the rest. In fact he was dreadfully cut up about it, and took to himself blame which did not really lie. He has done all he could to make amends. He got permission for me to keep Bob with me all the time, and most of the time we have been on parole at Frau von Helse’s house in Leipsic, and she and Luise have done everything they could for me. And it is von Helse who arranged for our release;--how, I cannot imagine, but here we are and it’s thanks to him. That’s the whole story. As to what I’ve felt about it all--well, perhaps the less said the better. At first, the only thing I wanted was to die and have done with it all. The thought of going through life handless was too awful. But Bob here won me back to a braver mind. It’s really due to him, in a dozen different ways, that I pulled through. And now----” “We can never thank you properly, Mr Grant,” said Alma, reaching for his hand and shaking it warmly in both hers. “We’ll do our best, however,” said Mrs Dare, patting him on the shoulder in motherly fashion. “He’s been just absolutely everything to me,” said Con, “and he’s going to stop on with me and continue his good work. He was studying for a medical, you see, up in Edinburgh, so we get on fine together. But it would be a queer sort that couldn’t get on with Bob Grant. He’s a white man all through.” Robert Grant’s lean cheek responded briefly to the genial warmth of the atmosphere which enveloped him. “That is very good hearing, Mr Grant,” said Mrs Dare heartily. “We could wish nothing better. It will be a joy to have you among us.”