“we’ll only be too glad to help, miss,” said amos, quickly, without giving his cousin the first chance to say anything.
this was a field where possibly he excelled jack in proficiency, for he had had more practical experience with motors than the western lad. if it had been anything connected with horses now, amos would have known that he must take a back seat, for the ranch boy was quite at home along those lines.
for once, jack was ready and willing to allow his chum to work while he looked on. he had seen the nurse staring hard at that small emblem of the country across the sea which amos so proudly carried on his coat lapel.
“you are really and truly americans?” she remarked, turning to jack.
[172]
“oh! yes, we belong over there, and have come across because we had a very important errand,” he told her. “we were in england only recently, and met your lord kitchener, to whom we had a letter of introduction from the father of my cousin, who used to be great friends with him long ago out in egypt or somewhere. he gave us a paper that is turning out to be a great help in our search.”
amos was working busily at the tire, with the belgian youth to assist him; but he evidently heard every word they said, for he turned to nod his head at this juncture and remark:
“your k. of k. is the finest gentleman ever, for he fixed us out, and right now we’re hoping to be able to find my brother before a great while. jack, you explain about it, won’t you, please, while i knuckle down to this job.”
“then you are looking for some one who has been caught over here by the war breaking out?” suggested the nurse. “there are thousands in that same trouble. i myself have met many, and we try to assist them as far as our limited means[173] will allow. oh! if there ever was a time when i wished for a thousand arms it is in these terrible days and nights. for many weeks each day has brought new hosts of poor wounded fellows. i sometimes think the better part of our young manhood will be cut off if this thing continues much longer. but you did not answer my question.”
“well, we are looking for some one,” jack admitted, “though he was not caught in belgium by the breaking out of the war. on the contrary, this brother of my chum, who is about ten years his senior, must have offered his services to your government as an experienced aviator, and was accepted because the supply of air pilots just then was not equal to the demand. we have reason to believe he has been serving in that capacity, and done a few pretty daring things along his line of scouting and the like.”
“i have met with dozens of aviators,” she told him. “in fact, for a time it happened that i was attached to a corps particularly assigned to[174] cases of necessity among the pilots of aeroplanes; for you must know they frequently meet with serious accidents aside from the dangers they run while over the enemy’s lines.”
again did amos’ head bob up.
“well, i declare, that’s queer,” he was saying. “i wonder now if you ever did happen to meet my brother.”
“what was his name, for you haven’t even told me yours yet?” the nurse continued, as she gave the boy one of her smiles.
“my name is amos turner, and his is frank, but we’ve learned that when he enlisted he went as frank bradford.”
the nurse started, and looked more sharply at the speaker.
“frank bradford, you say?” she remarked, quickly.
“yes, and it’s plain to be seen from the way you act you’ve heard about him,” continued amos, his interest growing by leaps and bounds.
“i have even met him,” the red cross nurse announced. “yes, more than that, it was my[175] privilege to attend to his trifling hurts after he had returned from one of his most remarkable forays over many miles of hostile territory, doing an immense amount of damage to the german concentration camps, stores, railway stations, and zeppelin hangars.”
amos colored with pride, for it must be remembered that it was a turner, and his own brother, of whom this praise was being spoken.
“we read accounts of that long flight he made that left a trail of alarm behind,” said jack, “but there was no name mentioned. we only heard this very day through a british colonel that it was frank bradford.”
amos left his work for a minute. he was so excited he felt he must find out a little more about frank from the red cross attendant.
“how was he injured, nurse?” he asked.
“the wings of his plane were fairly riddled with shrapnel,” she explained, “but he had escaped all that in a miraculous way. in fact, his only injuries consisted of a few minor hurts on[176] one of his arms, where he had scraped it in falling, after he got back into our lines.”
“was it his left arm?” asked amos, quickly, and although the nurse may have possibly imagined this a foolish question, she answered it after a second’s thought.
“his left arm—yes, that’s the one he had injured, i remember.”
“my brother frank had some tattoo work on his forearm,” explained amos. “it was done by an old sailor he knew, and whose tales of worldwide adventure frank was never tired of hearing. can you remember, nurse, whether the frank bradford you attended was marked with colored india inks—he had an eagle stamped there on his arm, a real screaming american eagle?”
“yes, it was an eagle, i remember now,” she affirmed. “he laughed when i told him it was a shame to allow himself to be mutilated that way, and said he had dreamed of being a sailor some day, and visiting every quarter of the globe.[177] he also told me he had been around pretty much during the last few years.”
amos exchanged pleased glances with his cousin.
“how strange it seems, jack, that we should meet two persons in one day who have known frank. the tattoo business tells the story good enough for me; but p’raps i’d better flash that picture out, and make dead sure.”
when the red cross nurse had taken one look she nodded her head.
“that’s certainly the frank bradford i met,” she told amos, “though of course he looks older than in this picture.”
amos was wearing a broad smile now. it seemed to him all things must be working together for their benefit, and that before a great while he would meet this brother face to face, when he could tell him how the cloud had been magically removed from his name at home, and with what deep anxiety his father was waiting to welcome him and ask his forgiveness.
“what a lucky thing it was this old tire of[178] yours had to go down and need fixing, miss,” he said, with considerable feeling. “only for that we wouldn’t have met you, or learned this bit of good news.”
“get busy and finish your job, amos,” said jack. “time is worth something to many a poor wounded tommy atkins lying out there on the field, where we saw them falling like ripe grain.”
“that’s a fact,” declared the other, again dropping down on hands and knees so as to continue his labors. “i was forgetting that others are concerned in this business besides myself. it’s nearly finished, and i think will hold as good as new. jack, try and find out if you can where we’d likely run across frank about this time.”
the nurse did not know, in fact she had not seen the air pilot since that time when she looked after his hurts, after his return from his long raid up along the fortified banks of the rhine over cologne and beyond.
“one thing you can depend on,” she did tell them, “wherever there is most need of a fearless[179] aviator there you are apt to find him, whether it happens to be in flanders, with the french along the aisne, far over in the frozen mountain regions of the vosges in alsace, or even along the dardanelles, where they have commenced to batter their way through to constantinople.”
to hear such words said of his own brother must have thrilled amos. he worked away, and soon arose, saying:
“it’s all done, miss, and as good as any one might manage it. i reckon you’ll get along with that tire for some time now.”
“i wish i knew how to repay you two noble boys for doing what you have,” the grateful red cross nurse said, with earnestness.
“i think you have more than repaid us as it is,” declared jack, “in giving us the news you did about my chum’s brother.”
amos looked a little confused, as though he hardly knew how what he meant to say might be taken; still he was very set in his ways, and[180] once he had allowed a thing to get a grip on his mind he could not be easily discouraged.
“perhaps i’m bold to mention such a thing, miss,” he started to say, “but after we went to all the trouble to plaster him up, somehow we seem to take a personal interest in that german.”
“i don’t seem to follow you,” she said, as she climbed upon the seat of the ambulance again, alongside the belgian boy chauffeur who was ready to once more guide the car of mercy along its way to the field hospital, where its ghastly cargo could be taken aboard.
“from the cupola of a chateau that had been pillaged by the german army,” explained jack, “we saw a detachment of uhlans, that had become caught back of the british lines, being hotly pursued by some cavalrymen. two were shot, and fell alongside the road. afterwards we came on one of them who was badly wounded.”
“you stopped and assisted him, i am sure,” she said, quickly. “it would be just like such gallant boys. besides, this is no affair of yours,[181] and i can see how german interests appeal partly to you, even though you may be at heart on the side of the allies. what do you want me to do? tell me quickly, please.”
jack described how they had left the poor wounded uhlan near the mansion she was sure to notice on the way to the field hospital for a load of the wounded.
“on the way back,” said amos, “if by any means you can crowd just one more in your ambulance, will you take him along? i ask this favor partly because he is our patient, and our professional interest has been aroused.”
the earnestness of the two boys had its influence upon the english nurse.
“i promise you to do the best i can,” she told them, as she gave jack and then amos her little hand in parting. “it is partly because i am more than curious to see if you are as much at home in binding up the wounds of men as you seem to be at making a punctured tire whole. good-bye! the best of luck follow your efforts to find your brother frank. if i see him i shall surely tell[182] him that you have come all the way over here from your land of peace to discover him.”
the ambulance went hurrying along the road, and the two boys had no idea they would ever see the red-cheeked english nurse again. they felt that they had been repaid ten times over because of the little trouble taken to relieve those in trouble.
“it certainly beats the dutch how things turn out,” amos was saying as they once more started to trudge along, with their backs for the most part toward the region where the big guns growled, and the tumult of battle was borne to their ears from time to time with the rising and falling of the wind.
“we’ve got little to complain of, for a fact,” added jack. “it all goes to prove that a good act is never thrown away. we didn’t expect to be rewarded in any way when we stopped to patch up that tire; yet see how it came out.”
“yes,” added amos, earnestly, “after this i’ll never doubt that old saying, for it’s been proved over and over again. but i’d give a heap to[183] know whether frank was one of those air pilots we saw wheeling and dodging about when the battle was going on. and jack, the scent is getting warmer all the time. we’ll find frank yet!”
