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Page 15
A shell screaming high overhead was his morning salutation, and then
came other shells, desultory but noisy. John paid no more attention to
them than if they had been distant bees buzzing. He looked at his young
prisoner, Kratzek, and found that he was still sleeping, with a healthy
color in his face. John was impressed anew by his youth. "Why do they
let such babies come to the war?" he asked himself, but he added,
"They're brave babies, though."
"Well, he's pulling along all right," said Carstairs. "I was up before
you and I learned that Captain Colton sent a surgeon in the night to
examine him. Wharton had done a good job with his bandages, he admitted,
but he cleaned and dressed the wound and said the patient was in such a
healthy condition that he would be entirely well again in a short time.
He's only a young boy, isn't he, Scott?"
"Yes, I suppose that's why I have such a fatherly feeling for him."
"That, or because you brought him in from sure death. We're always
attached to anyone we save."
"I mean to have him exchanged and sent back to his mother in Austria.
He's bound to have a mother there and she'll thank me though she may
never see me. I wish these pleasant Austrians had more sense."
Kratzek opened his eyes and looked blankly at the two young men. He
strove to rise, but fell back with a low sigh of pain. Then he closed
his eyes, but John saw the muscles of his face working.
"He's trying to remember," whispered Carstairs.
Memory came back to Kratzek in a few moments, and he opened his eyes
again.
"I was saved by somebody last night and I think it was you," he said,
looking at John. "I want to say to you that I am very grateful. I do not
wish to appear boastful, but I have relatives in both the Austrian and
German armies who are very powerful--ours is both a North German and
South German house, and East German, too."
"That is, it's _wohlgeboren_ and _hochwohlgeboren_," said Wharton, who
appeared at that moment.
"Yes," said the Austrian boy, smiling faintly. "I am highborn and very
highborn, although it's not my fault. You, I take it, by your accent,
are American and these things, of course, don't count with you."
"I don't know, they seem to count pretty heavily with some of our women,
if you can judge by the newspapers."
"Who are these men of whom you speak?" asked John.
"The chief is Prince Karl of Auersperg, who is not far from your front.
I betray no military secret when I say that. I shall send word to him
that you have saved my life, and, if you should fall a prisoner into
German hands, he will do as much for you as you have done for me."
The Austrian boy did not notice the quick glances exchanged by the
three, and he went on:
"Prince Karl of Auersperg is a general of ability, and owing to that and
his very high birth, he has great influence with both emperors. You have
nothing to fear from our brave Germans if you should fall into their
hands, but I beg you in any event, to get word to the prince and to give
him my name."
"I'll do it," replied John, but he soothed his conscience by telling
himself that it was a white lie. If he should be captured for the third
time Prince Karl of Auersperg was the last one whom he wanted to know of
it. Neither was he pleased to hear that this medieval baron was again so
near, although he did not realize why until later.
"We've talked enough now," said John, "and I'll see that food is sent
you. Then it's off with you to the hospital. It's a French hospital, but
they'll treat a German shoulder just as they would one of their own."
The life in the vast honeycomb of trenches was awakening fast. Two
million men perhaps, devoted to the task of killing one another, crept
from their burrows and stood up. Along the whole line almost of twenty
score miles snow had fallen, but the rifles and cannon were firing
already, spasmodic sharpshooting at some points, and fierce little
battles at others.
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