old indomitable
smile appearing in his eyes, "but you'll have to cure me fast, faster
than you ever cured anybody before, because I'm a flying man, and I fly
again tomorrow."

"Not tomorrow. In two or three days, perhaps--"

"Yes, tomorrow, I tell you! Nothing can keep me from it! This army will
march tonight! I know it! and do you think such a wound as this can keep
me here, when the fate of Europe is being decided? I'd rise from these
blankets and go with the army even if I knew that it would make me fall
dead the next day!"

He spoke with such fierce energy that the surgeon who at first sternly
forbade, looked doubtful and then acquiescent.

"Go, then," he said, "if you can. The fact that we have so many heroes
may save us."

He left John alone in the tent with Lannes. The Frenchman regarded his
comrade with a cool, assured gaze.

"John," he said, "I shall be up in the _Arrow_ tomorrow. I'm not nervous
and excited now, and I'll not cause any fever in my wound. Somebody will
come in five minutes with food. I shall eat a good supper, fall quietly
to sleep, sleep soundly until night, then rise, refreshed and strong,
and go about the work for which I'm best fitted. My mind shall rule over
my body."

"I see you're what we would call at home a Christian Scientist, and in
your case when a mind like yours is brought to bear there's something in
it."

The food appeared within the prescribed time, and both ate heartily.
John watched Lannes. He knew that he would suffer agonies of
mortification if he were not able to share in the great movement which
so obviously was about to take place, and, as he looked, he felt a
growing admiration for Philip's immense power of self-control.

Mind had truly taken command of body. Lannes ate slowly and with evident
relish. From without came many noises of a great army, but he refused to
be disturbed or excited by them. He spoke lightly of his life before the
war, and of a little country home that the Lannes family had in
Normandy.

"We own the two places, that and the home in the city," he said. "The
house in Normandy is small, but it's beautiful, hidden by flower gardens
and orchards, with a tiny river just back of the last orchard. Julie has
spent most of her life there. She and my mother would go there now, but
it's safer at Lyons or in the Midi. A wonderful girl, Julie! I hope,
John, that you'll come for a long stay with us after the war, among the
Normandy orchards and ros