ciate him, and as for me, to the end of my days, I shall be just
Nurse Helen." She sighed softly, and for a moment looked into the
night.

"Do you want to see him?" she asked. She drew from her uniform a
slender chain with a big gold locket swinging on it. A crest was on it
set with diamonds that flashed in the dim light. Zaidos looked at the
open, handsome face.

"Look like him?" he asked.

"Exactly like him!" she replied.

"Well, when I meet him," promised Zaidos, "I'll tell him a few things!"

Helen smiled. "You will never meet," she said. "But if ever anything
happens to me, John, take this and send it to him. You'll remember the
name, won't you?"

"Oh, yes!" said Zaidos, "I'll remember! But just you take notice, he
never got that letter!"

"What a stubborn boy you are!" exclaimed Helen.

"Not stubborn at all," declared Zaidos, looking at the lovely face.
"I'm merely a man _myself_, if I _am_ young."

CHAPTER VIII

HAPPINESS FOR HELEN

Again Helen laughed.

"All right," said Zaidos. "Have it all your own way, but I know I am
right about this affair. A fellow with a face like that, engaged to a
girl like you, would have acknowledged that letter just in common
politeness if nothing else. Just to say, 'Thank you, but I don't care
to play with you any more!' Oh, yes, he would have answered it!"

"Whether he would or not," said Helen, "the breach is too wide to cross
now. It is all over. I deserved to lose him and I feel no bitterness
about it. My fate is what I deserve."

Zaidos hated to hear her self-reproaches. "I don't know about that,"
he defended awkwardly. "Probably he ought to have come half way. It
looks so to me."

"It is growing light in the east," said Helen. "We have talked all
night about my poor little affairs. Let us think of something else
now, let us--"

She was interrupted by a shattering boom of artillery. It seemed to
crack the very air. They sprang upright and stood for a moment
listening.

"The beginning!" said Helen solemnly.

"Well, good-bye," said Zaidos. "I must see where they want me to go.
Where's that doctor?"

The doctor and his assistants as well were there. They hurried into
the dug-out, calm, collected, business-like.

"Set out the antiseptics, nurse," said the doctor. "You were on night
duty, but I can't let you go until someone comes to relieve you. This
is very apt to be a big day. You, Zaidos, get out in the first line
tre