s
though talking to herself: "Carried off by the Pixies? Gone? Cousin
Faith gone? Sophia gone?"

Then she started as from a trance. There was a tremor in her voice, but
she spoke quietly, as one who had struggled with her own heart and got
the victory.

"Grace, God help them! But our duty lies here. There is no time now for
grief. There is no call on us to take part in the work and peril of
delivering our sister Nurses. Others will do it better than we. Our duty
is plain. And is just before us. Mine is here. Grace, dear, yours is
there!"

She pointed first to the couch at which she had been kneeling, then to
one across the aisle, and quietly turning from her companion, knelt down
again by the wounded Brownie, and took up the dropped thread of her
labor of love. When she lifted her eyes Grace was at her post. Noble
conquerors! These are the victories of those who be better than they who
take a city.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote AB: Appendix, Note A.]

CHAPTER XI.

ON THE TRAIL.

Meanwhile, the light of fox-fire and fire-fly lanterns was glancing
everywhere through camp and field, showing where eager searchers were
scattered looking for the lost Nurses. Rodney was well nigh frantic with
grief, and ran here and there among the tents calling the name of his
daughter. Only the echo of his voice came back to him out of the night.
Pipe was as one paralyzed. He leaned against the wall of the tent with
folded arms, and eyes fixed upon the spot where his child had lain. His
mute sorrow was pitiful to see.

Blythe and Sergeant True entered the tent. The Adjutant's bright face
was clouded; the tall form of the Sergeant was bowed.

"If one only knew!" said Blythe. "It is this terrible uncertainty that
is so hard to bear. If I knew where they were, I could cut my way
through legions of fiends to save them, or die trying."

"Is there no trace at all?" asked True.

"Not the slightest. It is only a suspicion"--he lowered his voice--"that
they have been carried off by the Pixies. No one dares even name it to
the Commodore and--" nodding toward the Boatswain.

"But that is not reason," answered True. "It is important that we should
know the worst, at once. For one, I mean to find out the truth, if I
can, and face it manfully."

He stepped to the couch, which lay just as it had been left by the
Nurses. His hand caught upon a thread of gossamer that lay upon a
pillow. He looked more closely. There was another, then a