after all, Tom felt, it was best that the matter was left to
Jack.

But Jack was a long time in returning. In a short time Tom must go on
duty, and what was he to do with Jeanne in the meanwhile?

"Little girls are all right," murmured Tom, "but I guess they are not
much in my line. Gee! I wish Jack would come."

CHAPTER V

A RED CROSS NURSE

HALF an hour later, and just as Tom was growing desperate, his
companions in the flying unit having one and all laughingly refused to
help him out of his predicament by acting as "nurse maid," as they
called it, Jack showed up again.

"Got the old bus safe in its shed all right," he told his chum, nodding
cheerily to Jeanne, who greeted his coming with a smile. "Now to hit the
grub pile and then to see if we can get off for a short time! Got to
make some arrangement for Jeanne tonight, you know, Tom!"

"You do," assented the other, "but I'm out of it." Then Tom told his
chum of his own assignment to special duty. "I'm off now, but don't
forget to give Nellie my best regards."

"I sure will, Tom," answered Jack.

With that he hurried away to learn if anything worth eating had been
left after the ferocious charge, not of the Light Brigade, but a pack
of hungry Yankees whose capacity for storing away food seemed unbounded.

Jack either had scanty pickings, or else he tempted an attack of
dyspepsia by bolting his food, for inside of ten minutes he was around
again. Tom, who had not yet got away on his mission, looked surprised.

"Cleaned out, were they, at the chuck-wagon?" he asked.

"Well, Erastus told me that he had had a most unusual run on his outfit
this evening, and so I just took a bite in a hurry. You know, if I feel
like it I can stop in at the Red Triangle hut on the way to the field
hospital and buy some chocolate. Then if I run across any Salvation Army
girls it's possible they'll have a few of their doughnuts left over.
That would be a great treat to Jeanne."

"I reckon either of them would," remarked Tom thoughtfully. "If her
folks have been back of the Boche lines all these four years they must
have lived on short rations. Here, Jack, I insist on standing for half
of all the expense. Take this silver and call on me for any amount as
you may need it. I won't listen to a refusal, understand."

Jack had been about to decline absolutely, but on second thought he
accepted the loose change.

"Fact is, Jeanne will need some things most likely, for you