Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 3, 2025
"All right; all right!" agreed the soldier, while the others, listening near, laughed. "At least it is a pretty story, Count. Stick to it. We like to hear you talk." "Well, it is so, and I can prove it!" "How?" said Zaidos, suddenly leaning over the edge of his bunk. For a full minute Velo stared at him with bulging eyes. "How will you prove it?" said Zaidos with a steady stare.
They kicked a rough way into the cook house, hurried through it and the connecting tunnel to the First Aid. There they laid the shattered body on the table, and with the exception of Zaidos and Velo, all went back to repair the trench. Never again during his experience with the Red Cross did Zaidos find time to watch the marvelous skill of a field surgeon.
The hand in his grew limp, then very cold. Zaidos held it loyally but he kept his eyes shut tight, because he could not bear to look. The Red Cross orderlies did not find Zaidos until after dark. He was very cold, or else very hot, he did not know which, but tried to tell them all about it, and only succeeded in mumbling very fast before he dropped off into unconsciousness.
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?"
"There is someone living over here," said Velo. "I heard a groan." They turned and found a group of men; three dead, and across their bodies two who surely moved. Zaidos propped his light on the breast of one of the dead soldiers and lifted the head of a young officer whose shattered leg held him helpless. He was quite conscious, and spoke to Zaidos in a weak whisper. "I'm gone!" he said.
The opening, "too small for a fly," had swallowed him; and the unsuspicious fellow outside was filled with almost superstitious amazement. He knew that Zaidos could not by any possibility have reached the corner without making the least sound, and the street was absolutely silent. Zaidos, scarcely daring to breathe, smiled in the dark.
"I asked him to telephone me," said Helen. "I watched that telephone for three days all the time." "Didn't you leave it at all?" said Zaidos. "Only once for an hour," said Helen, "and then I had my own maid sit right beside it. "That is all there is to my poor little story, John boy. Tony is somewhere in France, if he still lives, and I came out here when I could stand it no longer at home.
"No," said the doctor. "I should call it very good. And you have already found out, Zaidos, that sometimes blood relations fail a man. "I think I will write out a discharge for you, and as soon as you can move you had better get away, and move toward the first seaport where you can get an American ship. I will pull all the wires I can. You had a pretty bad fever, my boy.
"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.
He did not return, nor did the slightest whisper concerning him reach Zaidos. Four days dragged by. Two days were filled with strenuous drilling. Twice Zaidos was visited by members of his father's family devoted old servants who begged to do something to free him from his present position, and who questioned him vainly for news of Velo Kupenol.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking