The officer threw himself from the horse's back, cast the reins to his orderly, and came impetuously toward the astonished Army boys with his hand extended to Frank. "Monsieur Sheldon!" he exclaimed, his face beaming. "_Mon brave Americain. Le sauveur de ma vie._" "Colonel Pavet!" cried Frank with equal pleasure, as he took the extended hand. "Yes," replied the newcomer, "Colonel Pavet, alive and well, thanks to you. Ah, I shall never forget the night when I lay wounded on the battlefield and you climbed out of the trench and made your way through a storm of bullets and shells to my side and carried me back to safety. It was the deed of a hero, a modern d'Artagnan! How glad I am to see you again!" "And I to see you" responded Frank warmly. "You were so dreadfully wounded that I feared you might not recover." They were talking in French, which Frank spoke like a native, thanks to his French mother, and the other boys saluted and passed on, leaving the two together. "If we had not met, I would have searched you out," went on the colonel, "for I have some news for you. News that both you and your mother will be glad to hear." "My mother," repeated Frank, his eyes kindling and his heart responding, as it never failed to do at the mention of that dear mother of his, who in her lonely home across the sea was waiting and praying for him. CHAPTER IX THE ESCAPE "Yes," replied Colonel Pavet, "your mother, Madame Sheldon,--it seems strange for me to name her thus, for I never think of her except as Lucie De Latour, as I knew her in her girlhood--has a very excellent prospect of coming into the property that was willed to her." "I'm very glad to hear that!" exclaimed Frank. "And I know that my mother will be pleased too. I have told her in my letters about my meeting with you, and I gave her the remembrances that you were kind enough to send her. She was delighted to know that I had met one of her old neighbors in Auvergne, and she asked me to thank you most heartily for your kindness in promising to look after her interests." The colonel smiled genially. "She is too good," he responded. "The obligation is all on my side. My humble services would have been at her disposal in any event simply for the sake of old friendship. But how much more ought they to be wholly hers, now that her son has saved my life." "I am afraid you put too much value on what I did, Colonel," said Frank deprecatingly. "It was something that not one in ten thousand would have done," replied the colonel warmly. "When I found myself helpless and wounded on that field of death I thought my life was over, and I had commended my soul to God." "I'm glad that you have lived to strike another blow for France," said Frank. "Ah, for France!" repeated the colonel fervently, as he lifted his cap reverently.