earned that Captain Colton sent a surgeon in the night to
examine him. Wharton had done a good job with his bandages, he admitted,
but he cleaned and dressed the wound and said the patient was in such a
healthy condition that he would be entirely well again in a short time.
He's only a young boy, isn't he, Scott?"

"Yes, I suppose that's why I have such a fatherly feeling for him."

"That, or because you brought him in from sure death. We're always
attached to anyone we save."

"I mean to have him exchanged and sent back to his mother in Austria.
He's bound to have a mother there and she'll thank me though she may
never see me. I wish these pleasant Austrians had more sense."

Kratzek opened his eyes and looked blankly at the two young men. He
strove to rise, but fell back with a low sigh of pain. Then he closed
his eyes, but John saw the muscles of his face working.

"He's trying to remember," whispered Carstairs.

Memory came back to Kratzek in a few moments, and he opened his eyes
again.

"I was saved by somebody last night and I think it was you," he said,
looking at John. "I want to say to you that I am very grateful. I do not
wish to appear boastful, but I have relatives in both the Austrian and
German armies who are very powerful--ours is both a North German and
South German house, and East German, too."

"That is, it's _wohlgeboren_ and _hochwohlgeboren_," said Wharton, who
appeared at that moment.

"Yes," said the Austrian boy, smiling faintly. "I am highborn and very
highborn, although it's not my fault. You, I take it, by your accent,
are American and these things, of course, don't count with you."

"I don't know, they seem to count pretty heavily with some of our women,
if you can judge by the newspapers."

"Who are these men of whom you speak?" asked John.

"The chief is Prince Karl of Auersperg, who is not far from your front.
I betray no military secret when I say that. I shall send word to him
that you have saved my life, and, if you should fall a prisoner into
German hands, he will do as much for you as you have done for me."

The Austrian boy did not notice the quick glances exchanged by the
three, and he went on:

"Prince Karl of Auersperg is a general of ability, and owing to that and
his very high birth, he has great influence with both emperors. You have
nothing to fear from our brave Germans if you should fall into their
hands, but I beg you in any event, to get word to the prince