-gun.

* * * * *

The matron beckoned Vera.

"Here's your last job, Vera," she said with a smile. "Take your car to
the aerodrome. One of the pilots has been killed."

Vera stared. "At the aerodrome?"

Control it as she might, her voice shook.

"Yes--didn't you see the fight in the air?"

"I came out as it was finishing--oh, may I take the ambulance?"

The matron looked at her in wonder. "Yes, child, take the Stafford
car," she nodded to an ambulance which waited on the broad drive.

Without another word Vera ran to the car and cranked it up. As she
climbed into the driver's seat she felt her knees trembling.

"Please God, it isn't Tam!" she prayed as she drove the little car along
the aerodrome road; "not Tam, dear Lord--not Tam!"

And yet, by the very panic within her she knew it was Tam and none
other.

"To the left, I think."

She looked round in affright.

She had been oblivious to the fact that a doctor had taken his seat by
her side--it was as though he had emerged from nothingness and had
assumed shape and substance as he spoke.

She turned her wheel mechanically, bumped across a little ditch and
passed through a broken fence to where a knot of men were regarding
something on the ground.

She hardly stopped the ambulance before she leapt out and pushed her
way through the group.

"Tam!" she whispered and at that moment Tam opened his eyes. He looked
in wonder from face to face, then his eyes rested on the girl.

She was down on her knees by his side in a second and her hand was under
his head.

"Tam!" she whispered and thrilled at the look which came into his blue
eyes.

Then before them all she bent her head and kissed him.

"From which moment," said Blackie afterward, "Tam began one of the most
remarkable recoveries medical science has ever recorded. He had three
bullets through his chest, one through his shoulder-blade, and two of
his ribs were broken."

Tam closed his eyes. "Vera," he murmured.

She looked up, self-possessed, and eyed Blackie steadily as the doctor
stooped over the stricken man on the other side and gingerly felt for
the wounds.

"Tam is going to live, Captain Blackie," she said, "because he knows I
want him to--don't you, dear?"

"Aye--lassie," said Tam faintly.

"Because--because," she said, "we are going to be married, aren't we,
Tam?"

He nodded and she stooped to listen. "Say it--in--Scotch."

She said it--in his ear,