orough a training as she might have had, and the responsibility lies
with me. But I can give you five minutes before I start back again."

Needless to say Nellie by this time had both boys fairly agog with
curiosity, for neither of them could give the slightest guess as to the
nature of the news she was bringing.

"You see, they were bringing in a lot of fresh cases," she explained,
"for there has been some furious fighting going on this morning, as our
boys drove in to chase the Huns out of the village. Among the number of
wounded, one man among others fell into my care. His name is Bertrand
Hale, and I think both of you know him."

Tom and Jack exchanged looks.

"We have met him many times," said the former; "but I can't say that he
has ever been a friend of ours. He's rather a wild harum-scarum sort of
chap--I imagine his own worst enemy, for he drinks heavily when he can
get it, and spends much of the time in the guard-house. Still, they say
he's a fighter, every inch of him, and has done some things worth
mentioning."

"I imagine you describe him exactly, Tom," Nellie told him. "Very well,
this time he's in a pretty bad way, for he has a number of serious
injuries, and, besides has lost his left arm, though it's possible he may
pull through if his constitution hasn't been weakened too much through
dissipation."

"But what about Bertrand Hale, Nellie? Did he tell you anything that
would be of interest to us?" asked Tom.

"I can see that you're beginning to suspect already, Tom," she continued.
"For that is exactly what happened. He kept following me with his eyes as
I moved around doing my work, after taking care of him. Then he beckoned
to me, and asked whether I wasn't a particular friend of Jack Parmly and
Tom Raymond.

"Of course I assured him it was so, and with that he looked so very eager
that I knew he had a secret to tell me. This is the gist of what he said,
boys. Just four days ago he was approached by a man he didn't know, who
managed to get some strong drink into his hands, and after Hale had
indulged more than he ought made a brazen proposition to him.

"It was to the effect that he was willing to pay a certain sum to have
you boys injured so that you would be laid up in the hospital for weeks.
He had gained the promise first of all that Bertrand would never say a
word about what he meant to tell him.

"Although he admitted that his mind was hardly clear at the time, still
Bertrand assured