"You said it," agreed Frank heartily. "He's been through some of the heaviest fighting, and to hear him tell some of his experiences is better than a dozen lectures. I wish we could have brought him along so you girls could have heard him." "I don't," Roy interjected. "He was too good-looking." "All the more reason why you should have brought him," yawned Grace. "It would be a treat to have around something good to look at." "Whew," whistled Frank. "That was a bad one, Gracie. We know we're not Adonises--" "I'm glad you know something," Grace was beginning, when once more Betty interrupted her. "Oh dear!" she said, "if you don't hurry, the biscuits will be done, and we won't have heard anything about the nice Englishman. And I'm very much interested." "Oh, you are, are you?" said Allen, sitting up. "I begin to think we made a mistake in mentioning that Englishman. I think we must have dreamed him, fellows." "Oh, he was real enough," put in Frank. "But I shouldn't wonder if he dreamt some of those adventures. They sounded too good to be true." "Perhaps you've heard that old saying," Grace remarked, with her usual languor, "that truth is stranger than fiction?" "Oh, hurry," begged Betty. "The biscuits are almost done; I can smell them." "So can I," said Roy, with another longing sniff. "Don't let 'em burn, will you, Betty?" "I will, if somebody doesn't satisfy my curiosity, right away," threatened the Little Captain, her lips set threateningly. "Now, will you be good?" "Gee, Allen, did you hear that?" Roy's expression was pathetic. "Hurry it up, will you?" "Well," began Allen with aggravating deliberation, "he was a tall, lean, rangy fellow with sandy hair and twinkling eyes. Seems he had been wounded several times, and the last shot had cost him his right arm." "Oh," cried Mollie, her eyes like two saucers. "How did that happen?" "Bomb exploding close to him shot it all to pieces," explained Allen cryptically. "Of course it had to be amputated, permanently disabling him. That's why he was sent across to America--to stimulate recruiting." "As if we needed any stimulating," said Mollie indignantly. "You don't have to stand behind our boys with a gun to make them go." "Of course not," agreed Allen. "Just the same, it's almost impossible for us over here, with the broad Atlantic separating us from the scene of conflict, actually to realize what we're up against. That's why it's good to have a fellow like this Englishman, who has really been right in the thick of it, relate his own experiences. While he was talking you could almost hear the thunder of cannon and the bursting of shells. I tell you, we fellows felt like shouldering our guns, and marching over right away." "Oh, it's wonderful to be a man these days," sighed Mollie. "You can get right in the thick of it, while all we can do is stay home and root for you."