oment, Horace Carey stood like a statue, then he sprang into the
river and swam against the fire of the hidden foe to where Thaine Aydelot
had disappeared. Ten minutes later, while Luna's forces were trying vainly
to resist the daring Americans, Thaine Aydelot lay on a raft which Carey,
with a Red Cross aid, was pulling toward the south bank.

* * * * *

When the Fighting Twentieth soldiers were relieved from service, and
turned their faces gladly toward the Kansas prairies, whither hundreds of
proud fathers and mothers and wives and sweethearts were waiting to give
eager, happy welcome, Thaine Aydelot lay hovering between life and death
in the hospital at Manila. The white-haired doctor who had saved him from
the waters of the Rio Grande watched hourly beside him, relying not so
much on the ministrations of his calling as in his trust in an Infinite
Father, through whom at last the sick may be made whole.

CHAPTER XX

THE CROOKED TRAIL

Life may be given in many ways,
And loyalty to truth be sealed
As bravely in the closet as the field.
--Lowell.

"Here's yo' letter from the Fillippians, Mis' Virginia; Mr. Champers done
bring hit for you all." Boanerges Peeperville fairly danced into the
living room of the Sunflower Inn. "They ain't no black mournin' aidge
bindin' it round nuthah, thank the good Lawd foh that."

Virginia Aydelot opened the letter with trembling fingers. It was only a
brief page, but the message on it was big with comfort for her.

"It is from Horace," she said, as her eyes followed the lines. "He was
with Thaine when he wrote it. Thaine is perfectly well again and busy as
ever. He and Horace seem to be needed over there yet awhile. Isn't it
wonderful how Thaine ever lived through that dreadful bullet wound and
fever?"

"I jus' wondeh how you all stand up undeh such 'flictions. Seems to me a
motheh done wilt down, but they don't. Mothehs is the bravest things they
is," Bo Peep declared with a broad grin of admiration.

"Oh, we get schooled to it. Asher's mother waited through six years while
he was in army service; and remember how long I waited in Virginia for him
to come back to me! I wondered at the test of my endurance then. I know
now it was to prepare me for Thaine's time of service for his country."

"I done remember, all right, 'bout that