. But in the
meantime, he thought it better to do as Zaidos commanded and say
nothing about the family. Zaidos had elected to be known as a common
soldier, and he would keep to his word. Velo realized that he himself
could make no pretentions while Zaidos was about; he would not stand
for that. So Velo acted in his best and oiliest manner, and waited on
the nurse, and urged his services on the doctors, and wondered why they
never acted at ease and friendly with him, as they all did with the
laughing boy on the cot.

When they were sent ashore it dawned on Velo that now they would be
separated. Zaidos would have to go to a hospital to wait for his leg
to heal; but he was well, and would be set at some duty which would
separate him from Zaidos. That would never do. He worried over it as
they approached land, and finally took the matter to the doctor. He
put the matter strongly. He had promised Zaidos' dying father that he
would not be separated from the boy. They were almost of an age, but
he had always been the one to look out for Zaidos, and surely now if
ever was the time to be true to his trust. He explained the manner of
their enlistment, and reminded the doctor they were both listed among
the drowned.

"You see I _must_ remain near him," he urged. "Just help me find a
way."

"The hospitals are all short handed," mused the good-natured physician.
"I think they would be glad to get you. There is lots of heavy lifting
that tells on the nurses, and all that sort of thing, you know. It
will be two weeks before Zaidos can be discharged. That bone is not
knitting right. It was splintered, you see. I'll do all I can for
you, Velo, and I think it will work out nicely."

So it came about that when the patients on the Red Cross ship were
transferred to the land hospital within the English lines, Velo was
there in full force, carrying one end of Zaidos' stretcher. Of course
it was the light end; Velo saw to that instinctively, but then it was
Velo's attention to just such little details that made life easy for
him.

Zaidos soon improved so that he was allowed to hop about on crutches.
The second day he used them, however, a brass pin somehow worked into
the arm pad and scratched him badly before he knew that it was just
where his weight would press it into his shoulder. It was very sore,
and that same night, when he sat carefully on the edge of his narrow
bed, waiting for Velo to come and help him undr