le moan or two,
then silence. "John Smith," rather white, stood looking at the fresh
mound of earth.

"There were six fellows in there when I came away," he said. "Get to
work, everybody!"

With sabers and pieces of wood and hands, they cleared away the
wreckage. One by one they came to the pitiful fragments that had been
men. One by one, they laid them reverently aside. It was only just as
they had reached the angle leading to the cook house that they found a
crumpled body that moved slightly as they touched it.

"We can't hurt him much; he's too far gone," said "John Smith." "Lift
him up, and get him over to the First Aid!"

They kicked a rough way into the cook house, hurried through it and the
connecting tunnel to the First Aid. There they laid the shattered body
on the table, and with the exception of Zaidos and Velo, all went back
to repair the trench.

Never again during his experience with the Red Cross did Zaidos find
time to watch the marvelous skill of a field surgeon. The soldier, a
large and muscular man, was almost in ribbons. His flesh was actually
tattered, and the dirt had been driven into the wounds. A leg had been
blown off, and both arms were broken. Yet he lived. There was quick
and silent work for awhile. When the doctor finally stood up and
looked critically at his finished task lying there bandaged like a
mummy and breathing with the heavy slowness of insensibility, he nodded
in satisfaction.

"I only wish all the other poor fellows who come in here had your luck,
my boy," he said, nodding at the insensible patient. "If I could get
you one at a time, it would be an easy matter; but when you come at us
by the dozen, it is a different affair entirely. He's ready," he added
to Zaidos. "Get a couple of bearers, and take him to the rear. Don't
lift him yourself. There are plenty to do it to-night, and your leg is
not too strong yet."

Zaidos called a couple of privates from the trench, and went with them
back to the main hospital. The man on the stretcher lay like dead.
Nurse Helen received him.

"I'm coming your way to-morrow, John," she said. "I have been detailed
to the First Aid shelter."

"I'm sorry," said Zaidos. "It is too near the firing line in there for
a woman."

"For a woman perhaps," said Helen with a little smile, "but not for a
nurse. That is a different thing, John."

"I can't see it," said Zaidos.

As he spoke, another dull roar marked the fallin