“But it’s solution will have to be deferred, my good Monsieur Delorme, and so you’d better quit thumping my head so hard.  Give me that certificate, because if you don’t I’ll get up and go without it.  Don’t you hear those guns out there, doctor?  Why, they’re calling to me all the time.  They tell me, strong and well, again, to come at once and join my comrades of the Strangers, who are fighting the enemy.”

“You shall go in the morning,” said Surgeon Delorme, putting his broad hand upon young Scott’s head.  “The effects of the concussion will have vanished then.”

“But I want to get up now and put on my uniform; can’t I?”

“I know no reason why you shouldn’t.  There’s a huge fellow named Picard around here who has been watching over you, and who has your uniform.  I’ll call him.”

When John was dressed he walked with Picard into the edge of the forest.  His first steps were wavering, and his head swam a little, but in a few minutes the dizziness disappeared and his walk became steady and elastic.  He was his old self again, strong in every fiber.  He would certainly be with the Strangers the next morning.

Many more of the wounded, thousands of them, were lying or sitting on the short grass in the forest.  They were the less seriously hurt, and they were cheerful.  Some of them sang.

“They’ll be going back to the army fast,” said Picard.  “Unless they’re torn by shrapnel nearly all the wounded get well again and quickly.  The bullet with the great power is merciful.  It goes through so fast that it does not tear either flesh or bone.  If you’re healthy, if your blood is good, psst! you’re well again in a week.”

“Do you know if Lieutenant Lannes is expected here?” asked John.

“I heard from Mademoiselle Julie that he would come at set of sun.  He has been on another perilous errand.  Ah, his is a strange and terrible life, sir.  Up there in the sky, a half mile, maybe a mile, above the earth.  All the dangers of the earth and those, too, of the air to fight!  Nothing above you and nothing below you.  It’s a new world in which Monsieur Philip Lannes moves, but I would not go in it with him, not for all the treasures of the Louvre!”

He looked up at the calm and benevolent blue sky and shuddered.

John laughed.

“Some of us feel that way,” he said.  “Many men as brave as any that ever lived can’t bear to look down from a height.  But sunset is approaching, my gallant Picard, and Lannes should soon be here.”

The rays of the sun fell in showers of red gold where they stood, but a narrow band of gray under the eastern horizon showed that twilight was not far away.  The two stood side by side staring up at the heavens, where they felt with absolute certainty the black dot would appear at the appointed time.  It was a singular tribute to the courage and character of Lannes that all who knew him had implicit faith in his promises, not alone in his honesty of purpose, but in his ability to carry it out in the face of difficulty and danger.  The band of gray in the east broadened, but they still watched with the utmost faith.