The thought brought me strength. Here was something worthy the effort
--and I made it, gritting my teeth grimly to the pain, and bracing my
hands against the wall. Once I had to stop, faint and sick, everything
about swimming in mist; then I made the supreme effort, and turned over,
my back against the wall, and Miles' ghastly face in my lap. I sat
staring at it, half demented, utterly helpless to do more, my own body
throbbing with a thousand agonies. Some poor devil shrieked, and I
trembled and shook as though lashed by a whip. Then a hand fell softly
on my forehead, and I looked up dizzily, half believing it a dream, into
Billie's eyes. She was upon her knees beside me, her unbound hair
sweeping to the floor, her face as white as the sergeant's.

"And you live?--you live!" she cried, as though doubting her own eyes.
"O God, I thank you!"

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE MYSTERY SOLVED

It was impossible for me to speak. Twice I endeavored, but no sound came
from my parched lips, and I think my eyes must have filled with tears,
her dear face was so blurred and indistinct. She must have understood,
for she drew my head down upon her shoulder, pressing back the matted
hair with one hand.

"My poor boy!" she whispered sobbingly. "My poor boy!"

"And you--you are injured?" I managed to ask with supreme effort.

"No, not physically--but the horror of it; the thought of you in midst
of that awful fighting! Oh, I never knew before what fiends men can
become. This has taught me to hate war," and she hid her face against my
cheek. "I was in that dark corner against the wall; I saw nothing, yet
could not stop my ears. But this sight sickens me. I--I stood there
holding onto the rail staring at all those dead bodies, believing you
to be among them. I thought I should go mad, and then--then I saw you."

Her words--wild, almost incoherent--aroused me to new strength of
purpose. To remain idle there, amid such surroundings, would wreck the
girl's reason.

"It was a desperate struggle, lass," I said, "but there are living men
here as well as dead, and they need help. Draw this man off me, so I can
sit up against the wall. Don't be afraid, dear; that is Miles, and he is
yet alive. I felt his pulse a moment ago, and it was still beating."

She shrank from the grewsome task, her hands trembling, her face white,
yet she drew the heavy body back, resting the head upon the pile of
plaster. The next moment her arms were about me, and I