Shelled by an Unseen Foe Part 18

CHAPTER XII

GREATER THINGS

A week flew past. In the convalescent ward there was the greatest amount of suppressed excitement. All the soldiers loved Helen, and they showered her with queer, pathetic little gifts, always the best of their poor store of belongings. Tony was not to leave his cot. He would have to be moved across Europe on a stretcher, but he lay beaming at the men who called good wishes to him in half a dozen languages.

The wedding morning dawned clear and beautiful. Every soldier who could hobble was out early gathering flowers and boughs with which they trimmed the ward. Helen, who was a hundred yards away, in the nurses'

tent, knew nothing of all this. An hour before she was to come to meet Tony, the old doctor, bearing a large package, stood before the tent.

"My dear," he said awkwardly when Helen appeared, "I--er--wanted to do something for you, and it gave me a good deal of happiness to pretend that you were my own daughter, if you don't object. I happen to have a sister in Paris, and I telegraphed her a week ago. I think I have heard you say you were size thirty-six. Well, my dear, this package has just come. She sent it in care of a reserve of nurses. You see--ha--hum--the men will be so pleased. Now you put it on if it is fit for you, and wear it, with the love of a grateful old man." He turned and abruptly walked away as Helen untied the box, but he could not so escape from those swift feet. There was a cry as the girl peered beneath the papers, and then a swift rush toward him. So it happened that it was not Zaidos' reluctant and unaccustomed shoulder on which the happy tears were shed, and it was not to Tony that Helen's last tender girl-kisses were given.

And when the time came for the simple, sad little ceremony in the hospital ward, it was not a dark clad nurse who walked between the cots on the doctor's arm, but such a vision of loveliness that the men gasped and Tony turned so pale that the aid beside him reached for the spirits of ammonia. For the doctor's present was a wedding dress, just as satiny and lacy and long as any bride in Mayfair could have worn.

The veil covered her lovely face, and through it her dark eyes lingered tenderly on the eager white faces that lined her path. And last they rested on Tony. Zaidos caught the look, and it made him feel that he would do most anything to have anyone look at him like that. It was a look that a fellow could never bear unless he had lived a clean and honest life. Zaidos, seeing this wonderful look that was meant for Tony alone, glanced quickly away and somehow it was he, down in his innermost heart, who longed for a shoulder to cry on!

In a few short minutes the little ceremony was over, and a musical genius played the wedding march on a mouth-organ so you'd know it anywhere. He followed that with _G.o.d Save the King_, and _Tipperary_, while Helen, looking more like an angel every minute, walked slowly down the aisle, shaking hands with the men. She came at last to one whose arms were both gone. Without a moment's hesitation she stooped and pressed a kiss on the upturned brow. Another moment with a last smile and wave of her hand, she was gone, leaving the men with their beautiful memory.

Zaidos asked the doctor, who was openly wiping his eyes, to speak with him a moment outside.

"You know my cousin is out there," he said, with a wave of the arm at the field where great trenches made a resting place for hundreds of unknown men. "I've been trying to think of something to do for him, something to remember him by. I couldn't think of anything. First I thought of a monument; and then I thought of tablets in the church at Saloniki. Then it just happened to come to me, that why not do something for our field hospital here. When I get to England I will arrange to have the money sent you. Do you approve of that?"

"Of course I do, my boy," said the doctor heartily. "Of course I approve! Any help would be most gratefully accepted. You know how short we are for everything. Send anything you feel like affording.

Any little sum you happen to want to give."

"I was wondering about five hundred dollars a month, while the war lasts," said Zaidos musingly. "Would that make much difference?"

"Five--five hundred American dollars?" screamed the doctor. "_A hundred pounds_? You don't mean that, do you? Why, hum--haw--can you afford it?"

"Oh, yes," said Zaidos simply. "I suppose I can afford almost anything I want. I had a long talk with my father the night he died, so I happen to know just what my income is. And I don't spend much. There isn't anything to spend it for. Of course, when I go back to school, I mean to put up a new gymnasium. The one we have is a freak; but that won't break me, either."

"A hundred pounds!" said the doctor. Delightful visions of endless rolls of bandages, antiseptics, medicines, nurses, litters, shelter tents, beds, and food appeared before the doctor's delighted eyes. "A hundred pounds!" he repeated. "Zaidos, Zaidos, you will erect a monument to your cousin finer--" he choked, then turned, and with an arm over Zaidos' shoulder continued: "Well, Zaidos, it is hard for an Englishman, and an old Englishman at that, to express what he feels; but, my boy, I am as proud of you as though you were my own son! Proud of you, Zaidos! You are perfectly sure you mean it?"

"Of course," said Zaidos, laughing. "I think the thing to do is to put money in a bank and fix it so you yourself can draw it, as needed, at the rate of five hundred a month. I'll be busy in school catching up so I won't be able to see to it."

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" said the doctor. "I think I will go see the General, Zaidos. I have got to tell someone. I can never keep all this to myself."

He went hurrying off and Zaidos watched him. Once he b.u.mped into a tree and twice an orderly called him. He made no reply. He was thinking with whirling brain of the lives he would be able to save.

Then he reached the General's tent, and burst in unceremoniously. They had been cla.s.smates at college.

"d.i.c.k," cried the doctor, "d.i.c.k, the most amazing thing has happened!"

and with a rush of words he poured out the fine news.

"Well, bless me, bless me!" cried the General, shoving back from the table where a map of Europe was spread. "Now, Henry, I know just how well pleased you are. Why, what wonderful things you can do with all that money! But are you sure the lad will do as he says?"

"You ought to know that lad, d.i.c.k!" exploded the doctor. "He's the finest boy! He's just what you would have wanted your boy to be like, if you had loved some girl, and had married her, and had had a baby, and it had grown up. He won't disappoint me, rest a.s.sured of that!"

And Zaidos didn't.

When, after a long, slow and anxious journey, Helen and Tony and Zaidos finally reached London, Zaidos left the young married pair in the charge of a full battalion of relatives that had advanced in close formation as their train drew into the station, and proceeded at once to the office of a lawyer who was none other than Tony's cousin Jack.

It took only a couple of days to fix the thing all up for the doctor; indeed, it was so tied up with red tape and all that, that Zaidos was not sure anyone would _ever_ get the money.

Jack was more than nice to Zaidos, and insisted on taking him to his own quarters, where he rested quietly for several days. The journey had been harder than Zaidos had realized. His leg ached, and it was slow work getting around on crutches. As soon as Jack could get away, he suggested that they should go down to Hazelden, and see for themselves if Tony was improving as much as the family claimed.

They went on the train, for Jack had given up his motor car as his donation to the war fund. In the station, as Zaidos was hobbling painfully along, a husky youth in uniform b.u.mped into him, and nearly knocked him over. He apologized.

"All right, Nick, all right!" said Zaidos joyously.

The husky youth stared, then gave a very un-English whoop, and made a bear rush at Zaidos. When he had finished patting him on the back and stuttering all sorts of inquiries, he managed to make a few questions clear. Where was he going? What for? Who was he going to stay with?

When was he coming back? If it wasn't rotten, _rotten_ luck that he was just off for Paris on government business!

When Zaidos could get a word in edgewise, he broke it to Nickell-Wheelerson that he was going away from England, back to America--and to that end his pa.s.sage was already secured on a vessel leaving in a week's time. He was going down to visit some people named Hazelden.

"My second cousins, by Jove!" averred Nick, delighted. "A week? Well, if I can smooth things over between the Allies and Germany, in less than that time, I'll come down and ask them to put me up for a day."

He patted Zaidos again. "It certainly seems good to see you, old chap!

Here's my train, so I must go. Don't forget me, and I'll get down before you leave, if I can."

He dashed for the door the porter held open for him, and with a last wave of the hand was carried out of sight. When Jack returned, Zaidos told him about the encounter, and Jack laughed.

"Of course he's a cousin," he said. "One of the nicest fellows I know.

Didn't know you knew him. Odd about its being such a little world and all that, don't you think?" He laughed. "Once I met a chap in India way up in the mountains. I was running around a bit, and he was tracking down a lost tribe or something of the sort. A while after that I walked into dad's billiard room at home, and there was the Johnny playing billiards with himself, cool as you please! He stopped, and said, 'Hullo, didn't know you knew I this family!'

"I said, 'Didn't know you knew them, either.'

"'Relations, perhaps?' he asked.

"'Yes, parents,' I told him, and then we had a jolly gas."

Jack waited on Zaidos with such care all the way down from London that the boy said he would be entirely spoiled. A big, roomy car met them at the station and carried them smoothly over miles of perfect road through the vast park of the Hazelden's where pheasants by the dozen flew across their path, bright-eyed deer dashed into hiding, and hundreds of wonderful Persian sheep grazed on the lawns that had been lawns for generations.

It seemed strange to see Helen in filmy summer dress instead of the severe uniform of a nurse, and Zaidos missed the white cap on her beautiful hair, but he decided finally that she was even prettier without it. Zaidos could not keep from watching her every move. She ordered Tony about with a pretty air of sternness, but with such a look of loving devotion that it was easy to see the reason for the young man's look of contentment.

The days flew past as though on wings. Helen's younger sister proved to be a second edition of Helen, even prettier if possible, and Zaidos found himself wondering how he could ever have given a thought to the blonde damsel whom he had met at the hop so long ago. Before it came time to go, Zaidos caught himself regarding Helen in a new light. He found himself thinking that she would be a very pleasant person to have in the family! And that was going a long, long way for Zaidos!

He had news for Helen. A letter from the old doctor, with pages of thanks and plans for the use of the money. Of course Helen had to hear it all, and afternoons they would all sit on the terrace together, and talk of the future and make pleasant plans.

Of the past, of the dreadful days on the stained battlefields of the Dardanelles, they spoke little. Some day perhaps when time had mellowed the colors, then this group of young people could talk it over. Just now the price they had paid for their experiences seemed too great. It was all too near. They tried to put it behind them, as all the world will have to do when at last this war is over, when the last gun calls its death challenge, when all the submarines rise to the surface of the outraged sea, and the last war Zeppelin settles to earth. On that day, a curtain must fall over this terrible middle-act in modern history, to rise again on new and n.o.bler things.

The group on the terrace, enjoying the warm afternoon sun, often kept the mournful silence of those who have known all war's horrors, yet they were filled with deepest thankfulness that they were spared to each other.

The old Earl followed Tony in his invalid chair with adoring eyes.

Every day, a dozen women, ladies of high degree, a.s.sembled and sewed or knit for the soldiers. The great county houses on either side were given over as convalescent homes. Fairs, bazaars, teas, meetings filled the days. England gave all her time and strength for the soldiers.

When Zaidos found a chance to read the doctor's letter to Helen she was so pleased with it that she insisted on taking it and reading it to a number of the committees that seemed to be meeting from morning until night. The letter gave a clear view of the needs of the Red Cross, and told so well of the good it was doing. And to his horror, Zaidos was invited to address three separate organizations. Helen refused for him after he had threatened to run away by night and walk to London.

Nick evidently had trouble with the Allies or the Germans, because he did not come down, and sent no word.