ticed? They've stopped firing!"

"About time, too! What a lot of ammunition they have wasted! Well, they
have plenty! We haven't, and when we shoot it will be when we're pretty
sure that there are Austrians in the way!"

"Yes. Steady, now--careful! Don't jolt him even a little--it won't take
much to start that bleeding up again."

Tenderly, carefully, they lifted the wounded man and got him on the
stretcher. Then with the utmost care, lest they disturb the rough
bandaging, they raised it. And when they had it up and were about to
start, in broken step, to make the movement smoother, there came a
fearful test of their nerve. A dull roar sounded behind them, and above
their heads a whistling, shrieking sound, that they had learned to know
well that night! It was the hiss of a shell, and in a moment it burst.
But it had overshot the mark, and when it burst, though their hands
shook, they held their firm grip on the stretcher, and that last,
wanton shot had no more effect than its predecessors. It was the last.
They finished the ascent safely. And there they found Mischa and the
rest, who relieved them and carried the stretcher to the road a few
hundred yards beyond, where, by great good luck, they met a marching
regiment, with a real surgeon.

Their work for Obrenovitch was done.

CHAPTER VIII

A NEW EXPLOIT

Dick dropped into the background when they encountered the soldiers, and
let Stepan do the talking. Now that the strain was over, he was feeling
very tired and he wanted only to get to a place where he could sleep.
But Stepan would not allow him to escape so easily. He told everyone
within hearing of Dick's feat in going back to look for the wounded
captain. The surgeon, bending over the bandages and making little
adjustments, looked up quickly.

"Whoever applied this tourniquet saved this man's life," he said,
briskly. "He would have bled to death in a very little time. As it is,
he will do very well, if the wound has not been infected, and there was
so much blood that I doubt if there was any great danger of that."

Then the colonel of the regiment appeared, and drew aside Stepan, whom
he evidently knew. When they returned the colonel spoke to Dick very
quietly.

"This is not the time to try to thank you for what you have done
to-night," he said. "I can only tell you that, if I live long enough, I
shall see that your heroism is properly known and fittingly rewarded.
You have helped to bring Step