She had been oblivious to the fact that a doctor had taken his seat by her side--it was as though he had emerged from nothingness and had assumed shape and substance as he spoke. She turned her wheel mechanically, bumped across a little ditch and passed through a broken fence to where a knot of men were regarding something on the ground. She hardly stopped the ambulance before she leapt out and pushed her way through the group. "Tam!" she whispered and at that moment Tam opened his eyes. He looked in wonder from face to face, then his eyes rested on the girl. She was down on her knees by his side in a second and her hand was under his head. "Tam!" she whispered and thrilled at the look which came into his blue eyes. Then before them all she bent her head and kissed him. "From which moment," said Blackie afterward, "Tam began one of the most remarkable recoveries medical science has ever recorded. He had three bullets through his chest, one through his shoulder-blade, and two of his ribs were broken." Tam closed his eyes. "Vera," he murmured. She looked up, self-possessed, and eyed Blackie steadily as the doctor stooped over the stricken man on the other side and gingerly felt for the wounds. "Tam is going to live, Captain Blackie," she said, "because he knows I want him to--don't you, dear?" "Aye--lassie," said Tam faintly. "Because--because," she said, "we are going to be married, aren't we, Tam?" He nodded and she stooped to listen. "Say it--in--Scotch." She said it--in his ear, her eyes bright and shining, her face as pink as the sunset flooding the scene and then she got up to her feet and they lifted the stretcher and slid it gently into the grooved guides on the floor of the ambulance. "Now--driver," said the doctor with a little smile. She went to her place and mounted to the seat. The hands that touched the polished wheel trembled and she slipped back to the ground again, her face white. "I can't--I can't drive him," she said and burst into tears upon Blackie's shoulder. So Blackie drove the car himself and left his general to wipe Vera's eyes. A month later Captain Blackie went to Havre to see Tam en route for home. "You're a wonderful fellow, Tam--you ought to be dead really instead of being bound for England." "Scotland," corrected Tam. "But don't you think you're lucky?" "Weel," said Tam, "I did until the morn, then I struck a verra bad patch." "Bad luck," said the innocent and surprised Blackie, "I am sorry to hear that. What happened?" "The big feller, the principal doctor," said Tam, "said I might smoke a wee seegair, and, believe me, Captain Blackie, sir-r, when I looked in ma pooch there wasna a single--" Blackie took his cigar-case from his pocket, opened and extended it. "Tam," he said, "you're nearly well." THE END _The greatest pleasure in life is that of reading. Why not then own the books of great novelists when the price is so small_