r alive. That simplifies things a lot! I wouldn't go
away now if I could."

"You _shall_ go, the first chance there is," insisted Tony, with new
authority. "And it may come soon. There are some high-up Belgian
officers at the hotel to-night. They came in an automobile not so big as
ours, and it's broken down. If they can't get it right by to-morrow,
when they want to go back to Brussels, where they came from, I'll make
'em a present of our car for the rest of the war, if they'll take us
with them. You see, it's a serious matter with me. Things are getting
worse here, and my leave'll soon be up. You don't think I'd go, and let
you stay shut up in Liege with bombs falling all round you and perhaps
on you?"

"Look!" I said, forgetting to answer, as I peered out through the open
street door. "Here come some men with a litter. They're bringing it this
way. Oh, Tony, if it should be the man of the monoplane! They think in
the hospital that he fell with his machine clear of the Zeppelin, and
may be alive."

Ahead of the slowly borne litter ran a youth with a Red Cross band on
his arm. Seeing my nurse's cap and apron, all the uniform I had, he
began speaking breathlessly in Belgian French. Had we a bed? Our nurses
had sent word yesterday that if two or three were needed, we could
supply them. He hoped they hadn't filled up since, as here was an urgent
case: the aviator who had attacked the Zeppelin, and destroyed it by
plunging on to its balloon at the risk of almost certain death. But he
was not dead, and might live if he could have prompt surgical attendance
and nursing.

"Yes, we can take him in," I said. "Everything is ready, and I'll run
ahead of you to warn the staff."

"Tell them," the Red Cross man called after me, as, forgetful of Tony, I
turned to fly, "tell them we think it is the British or American
Monsieur Mars who did us such service, bringing news to the forts from
over the German frontier two days ago."

I dashed on without stopping to answer or look back, for the litter was
arriving; and it was not till I repeated the name, as I gave in my
hurried report, that the sound of it on my own lips made my heart jump.
Monsieur Mars! Could it be.... The thought was too far-fetched.... I
dared not harbour it.

My ward was on the top floor, where the least serious cases were
treated, men who could be got upstairs without too much strain and
suffering. On the ground floor one bed was free, as I knew, and it was