e met the Company Commander's over the table, and he
shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Dead beat." His lips framed the
words, and he returned to the contemplation of his cigar, which was not
doing all that a well-trained cigar should.

The Kid stood up and glanced round the mess at his brother officers a
little shamefacedly; only to find them engrossed--a trifle
ostentatiously--in their own business. "I'm sorry, you fellows," he
blurted out suddenly. "Forgive me being such a fool; I suppose I'm a
bit tired."

The Doctor took him firmly by the arm, and led him towards the bed.
"Look here, old soul," he remarked, "if you wish to avoid the wrath of
my displeasure, you will cease talking and go to bed. Every one knows
what it is to be weary; and there's only one cure--sleep."

The Kid laughed and threw himself on the bed. "Jove!" he muttered
sleepily; "then it's a pleasant medicine, Doctor dear." He pulled a
blanket over his shoulders; his head touched the pillow; his eyes
closed; and before the Doctor had resumed his seat the Kid was asleep.

* * * * * *

It seemed only a minute afterwards that he was awake again, staring
into the dim-lit dug-out with every sense alert. He was conscious
first of a faint elusive scent--a scent which was new to him. His mind
wandered to the scents he knew--Chaminade, Mysterieuse, Trefle
Incarnat--but this was different. Delicate, sensuous, with the
slightest suggestion of jasmine about it, it seemed to permeate every
part of him. Vaguely expectant, he waited for something that he knew
must happen. What it would be, he had no idea; he felt like a man
waiting for the curtain to rise on a first night, when the music of the
overture is dying away to a finish. He experienced no fear: merely an
overwhelming curiosity to witness the drama, and to confirm his
certainty about the owner of the scent. In his mind there was no doubt
as to who she was. It was the girl he had seen in the corner as he was
taking off his puttees: the girl who had looked at him with eyes that
held the sadness of the world and its despair in them; the girl who had
vanished so quickly. Her disappearance did not strike him as peculiar;
she would explain when she came. And so the Kid waited for the
drop-scene to lift.

It struck him as he glanced round the dug-out that the furniture had
been moved. The table seemed nearer the wall; the chairs were
differently arranged. Ins