think of you simply as a
particularly nice, agreeable boy, who has made his illness a very
pleasant time for the people who have been near him; and so I think I
will call you something simpler than Zaidos. Is John one of your five
or six names?"

"Nothing so easy as that," said Zaidos, smiling. "Why, I will tell you
what they are."

"I don't want to know," said the nurse. "I, too, have a name that we
will forget for the time, but you may call me Nurse Helen. And I have
the dearest father in the world whose name is John; so I will call you
John. Do you mind?"

"I should say not!" said Zaidos.

"You see, John," said Nurse Helen, "every time I say that name I feel
closer to my home and all the dear ones there. Some day I will tell
you about them all."

"I wish you would," said Zaidos. "I have often wondered how your
people could let a dandy girl like you get into this sort of thing."
He wanted to say such a _pretty_ girl, but did not quite have the
courage to do it. "You know you might even get hurt."

"It's quite likely," said Helen simply. "One has to accept that
chance. And there _is_ a chance about everything. A lot of the people
in this war, dreadful as it is, will go home when it is over, and get
run over by London busses, or fall down stairs, or things like that."

"Or slip on banana peels," added Zaidos. "You are right about it. I
wonder I never thought of it before."

"Who is Velo Kupenol?" asked Helen. "Is he really your cousin?"

"My second cousin, to be exact," said Zaidos; "He has lived at our
house ever since he was a boy eight years old. I don't exactly
understand Velo lots of the time."

"I wouldn't think he was too awfully hard to understand," said Helen.

"Well, he is," said Zaidos. "He has been just nice to me ever since I
was hurt, but he has done some of the queerest things. And what he
told the doctor about what happened the day we were in the water--Oh
well, I can't explain it very well!"

Zaidos was too modest to tell Helen that the account had simply been
twisted around to Velo's advantage.

"Don't try," commented Helen. "There is one thing I feel as though I
ought to tell you. That is, that I want you to watch that cousin of
yours. If we are doing him an injustice, we will find it out just so
much sooner. Otherwise it pays to be on guard. Just tell me one
thing, John. If anything happened to you, would there be anything for
Velo to gain by your death?"

Za