e.

In the moat L'Ombre still remained, unstirring; old Anne lay in the
kitchen dying; and the Wood of Aulnes was swarming with ghastly shapes
which had no faces, only eyes.

CHAPTER XI

THE SEED OF DEATH

It was Dr. Vail whose identification secured burial for Neeland, not in
the American cemetery, but in Aulnes Wood.

When the raid into Finistere ended, and the unclean birds took flight,
Vail, at Quimper, ordered north with his unit, heard of the tragedy, and
went to Aulnes. And so Neeland was properly buried beside the youthful
chatelaine. Which was, no doubt, what his severed soul desired. And
perhaps hers desired it, too.

Vail continued on to Paris, to Flanders, got gassed, and came back to New
York.

He had aged ten years in as many months.

Gray, the younger surgeon, kept glancing from time to time at Vail's
pallid face, and the latter understood the professional interest of the
younger man.

"You think I look ill?" he asked, finally.

"You don't look very fit, Doctor."

"No.... I'm _going West_."

"You mean it?"

"Yes."

"Why do you think that you are--_going West_?"

"There's a thing over there, born of gas. It's a living thing, animal or
vegetable. I don't know which. It's only recently been recognized. We call
it the 'Seed of Death.'"

Gray gazed at the haggard face of the older man in silence.

Vail went on, slowly: "It's properly named. It is always fatal. A man may
live for a few months. But, once gassed, even in the slightest degree, if
that germ is inhaled, death is certain."

After a silence Gray began: "Do you have any apprehension--" And did not
finish the sentence.

Vail shrugged. "It's interesting, isn't it?" he said with pleasant
impersonality.

After a silence Gray said: "Are you doing anything about it?"

"Oh, yes. It's working in the dark, of course. I'm feeling rottener every
day."

He rested his handsome head on one thin hand:

"I don't want to die, Gray, but I don't know how to keep alive. It's odd,
isn't it? I don't wish to die. It's an interesting world. I want to see
how the local elections turn out in New York."

"What!"

"Certainly. That is what worries me more than anything. We Allies are sure
to win. I'm not worrying about that. But I'd like to live to see Tammany a
dead cock in the pit!"

Gray forced a laugh; Vail laughed unfeignedly, and then, solemn again,
said:

"I'd like to live to see this country aspire to something really noble.