t being made to save them. They lie
just as they were let down on the ground by the poor fellows,
their comrades, who brought them on their backs from the camp with
the greatest tenderness but who are not allowed to remain with
them. The sick appear to be tended by the sick, and the dying by
the dying. There are no nurses--and men are literally dying
hourly, because the medical staff of the British army has
forgotten that old rags of linen are necessary for the dressing of
wounds."

"My God!" cried Ian, as he let the paper fall from the hands he
clasped passionately together, "My God! How can Thou permit this?"

"Well, then, young man," said Adam, "thou must remember that God
permits what He does not will. And Conall," he continued, "millions
have been voted and spent for war and hospital materials, where are
the goods?"

"The captain of the packet told me no one could get their hands on
them. Some are in the holds of vessels and other things so piled on
the top of them that they cannot be got at till the hold is regularly
emptied. Some are stored in warehouses which no one has authority to
open--some are actually rotting on the open wharves, because the
precise order to remove them to the hospital cannot be found. The
surgeons have no bandages, the doctors no medicine, and as I said
there are no nurses but a few rough military orderlies. The situation
paralyses those who see it!"

"Paralyses! Pure nonsense!" cried Vedder, whose face was wet with
passionate tears, though he did not know it. "Paralyses! No, no! It
must make them work miracles. I am going to Edinburgh tomorrow. I am
going to buy all the luxuries and medicines I can afford for the lads
fighting and suffering. Sunna is going to spend a week in gathering
old linen in Kirkwall and then Mistress Brodie and she will bring it
with them. Rahal, Thora, you must do your best. And thou, Conall?"

"Adam, thou can open my purse and take all thou thinks is right. My
Boris may be among those dear lads; his mother will have something to
send him. Wilt thou see it is set on a fair way to reach his hand?"

"I will take it to him. If he be in London with his vessel, I will
find him; if he be at the front, I will find him. If he be in Scutari
hospital, I will find him!"

"Oh, Adam, Adam!" cried Rahal, "thou art the good man that God loves,
the man after His own heart." Her face was set and stern and white as
snow, and Thora's was a duplicate of it; b