mental condition.

But, to Jimmy's relief, the doctor's and nurse's reports were
favorable. It was more a case of exhaustion than anything else, though
the sergeant had been wounded.

"Did he tell where he had been ever since he has been missing?" asked
Jimmy of a hospital attendant before going in himself to see his
friend.

"Well he remembered some of it. It seems he was captured while out
on a listening post one night, and taken away a prisoner. Instead of
sending him to a camp, as the Huns do with most of our poor chaps they
get, the Boches kept the sergeant with them, taking him from place to
place. It was their idea, I believe, to either force him to desert and
join them, or use him as a decoy--or perhaps make him a spy.

"Anyhow they kept him with them, and once he was struck and wounded by
a beast of a German officer. After that they neglected him and he got
terribly run down, though his wound healed. Then, just before the
last big fight--the one you say you were in--the sergeant was held
a prisoner in the hut where you found him. He was in a bad way and I
suppose the Germans thought he'd die when they left him--which they
did when our boys knocked the spots off 'em, if you'll excuse my
slang."

"Oh, I'll excuse it all right!" laughed Jimmy. "It isn't any too
strong."

"Well, I guess you may see the sergeant now," said the orderly. "Only
don't talk to him too much. He doesn't like to dwell on what happened
to him. They must have treated him worse than they would a beast!"

"It's awful!" declared Jimmy. "But they'll be made to pay for it! No,
I won't tax him with any talk of the past. I just want to see if he
knows me and remembers a certain matter."

"Oh, he'll know you all right," returned the orderly. "As a matter of
fact, he has been asking for you."

"That's a good sign!" thought Jimmy.

Sergeant Maxwell held out a wan hand to his friend. "I can't begin to
thank you for what you and the other boys did for me," he said, weakly.
"If you hadn't discovered me in that lonely hut I wouldn't be alive now."

"Oh, maybe someone else would have found you," said Jimmy, cheerfully.
"But we're glad we did."

"I've been wishing you'd come in," went on the sick sergeant. "There's
something that's been worrying me. It's about that five thousand
francs you gave me to keep for you."

"Well, don't worry about it," and Jimmy tried to keep his voice up to
the cheerful mark. "Have you got it?"

"No," said the