d suddenly Graham's arms were around his shoulders,
and something tight around Clayton's heart relaxed. Once again, and now
for good, he had found his boy, the little boy who had not so long ago
stood on a chair for this very embrace. Only now the boy was a man.

"I'm going to France, father," he said. "I'm going to pay them back for
this. And out of every two shots I fire one will be for you."

Perhaps he had found his boy only to lose him, but that would have to be
as God willed.

At ten o'clock he went up to the house, to change his wet and draggled
clothing. The ruins were being guarded by soldiers, and the work of
rescue was still going on, more slowly now, since there was little or no
hope of finding any still living thing in that flame-swept wreckage. He
found Natalie in bed, with Madeleine in attendance, and he learned that
her physician had just gone.

He felt that he could not talk to her just then. She had a morbid
interest in horrors, and with the sights of that night fresh in his mind
he could not discuss them. He stopped, however, in her doorway.

"I'm glad you are resting," he said, "Better stay in bed to-day. It's
been a shock."

"Resting! I've been frightfully ill."

"I'm sorry, my dear. I'll come in again on my way out."

"Clay!"

He turned in the doorway.

"Is it all gone? Everything?"

"Practically. Yes."

"But you were insured?"

"I'll tell you about that later. I haven't given it much thought yet. I
don't know just how we stand."

"I shall never let Graham go back to it again. I warn you. I've been
lying here for hours, thinking that it might have happened as easily as
not while he was there."

He hardly listened. He had just remembered Anna.

"I left a girl here last night, Natalie," he said. "Do you happen to
know what became of her?"

Natalie stirred on her pillows.

"I should think I do. She fainted, or pretended to faint. The servants
looked after her."

"Has she gone?"

"I hope so. It is almost noon. Oh, by the way," she called, as he moved
off, "there is a message for you. A woman named Gould, from the Central
Hospital. She wants to see you at once. They have kept the telephone
ringing all the morning."

Clare Gould! That was odd. He had seen her taken out, a bruised and
moaning creature, her masses of fair hair over her shoulders, her eyes
shut. The surgeons had said she was not badly hurt. She might be worse
than they thought. The mention of her name brought Au