ounding down the steep slope to meet them. They turned back with him,
and Rachel supposed they had gone to fetch a stretcher, and if possible a
doctor, from the small camp hospital which Mrs. Fergusson had pointed out
to her near the gate. Meanwhile, for a few minutes, she was alone with
this suffering lad. Was he fatally hurt--dying? She managed to get some
brandy down, and then he lay groaning and unconscious, murmuring
incoherent words. She caught "Mamma" again, then "Lisa," "Hans," and
broken phrases that meant nothing to her. Was his mind back in some
German home, which, perhaps, he would never see again?

All sorts of thoughts passed through her: vague memories gathered
from the newspapers, of what the Germans had done in Belgium and
France--horrible, indescribable things! Oh, not this boy, surely!
He could not be more than nineteen. He must have been captured in the
fighting of July, perhaps in his first action. Captain Ellesborough had
said to her that there was no fighting spirit among any of the prisoners.
They were thankful to find themselves out of it, "safely captured," as
one of them had had the bravado to say, and with enough to eat. No doubt
this boy had dreamt day and night of peace, and getting back to Germany,
to "Mamma" and "Lisa" and "Hans." To die, if he was to die, by this
clumsy accident, in an enemy country, was hard!

Pity, passionate pity sprang up in her, and it warmed her heart to
remember the pity in the face of Captain Ellesborough. She would have
hated him if he had shown any touch of a callous or cruel spirit towards
this helpless creature. But there had been none.

In a few more minutes she was aware of Mrs. Fergusson and Janet climbing
rapidly towards her. And behind them came stretcher-bearers, the captain,
and possibly a doctor.

* * * * *

The accident broke up the working afternoon. The injured lad was carried
to hospital, where the surgeon shook his head, and refused to prophesy
till twenty-four hours were over.

Captain Ellesborough disappeared, while Rachel and Janet were given tea
at the woman's hostel and shown the camp. Rachel took an absorbed
interest in it all. This world of the new woman, with its widening
horizons, its atmosphere of change and discovery, its independence of
men, soothed some deep smart in her that Janet was only now beginning
to realize. And yet, Janet remembered the vicar, and had watched the talk
with Ellesborough. C