"CORPORAL Cameron? Constable Cameron is--"
"Corporal Cameron, I said. I have just had Constable Scott's report and felt I must see him at once."
"Come in, Superintendent! Sit down! I shall enquire if he is resting. Nurse! Nurse! Enquire if Corporal Cameron can be seen."
The little nurse tip-toed into the doctor's tent, lifted the curtain, took one glance and drew swiftly back. This is what her eyes looked upon. A girl's form kneeling by the bed, golden hair mingling with black upon the pillow, two strong arms holding her close and hers wreathed in answering embrace.
"Mr. Cameron I am afraid," she reported, "cannot be seen. He is--I think--he is--engaged."
"Ah!" said the doctor.
"Well," said the Superintendent, "just tell Corporal Cameron for me that I am particularly well pleased with his bearing to-day, and that I hope he will be very soon fit for duty."
"Certainly, Superintendent. Now let me help you up the hill."
"Never mind, here's the Sergeant. Good evening! Very fine thing!
Very fine thing indeed! I see rapid promotion in his profession for that young man."
"Inspector, eh?" said the doctor.
"Yes, Sir, I should without hesitation recommend him and should be only too pleased to have him as Inspector in my command."
It was not, however, as Inspector that Corporal Cameron served under the gallant Superintendent, but in another equally honourable capacity did they ride away together one bright April morning a few weeks later, on duty for their Queen and country. But that is another story.
"That message ought to be delivered, nurse," said the doctor thoughtfully.
"But not at once," replied the nurse.
"It is important," urged the doctor.
"Yes, but--there are other things."
"Ah! Other things?"
"Yes, equally--pressing," said the nurse with an undeniably joyous laugh. The doctor looked at her a moment.
"Ah, nurse," he said in a shocked tone, "how often have I deprecated your tendency to--"
"I don't care one bit!" laughed the nurse saucily.
"The message ought to be delivered," insisted the doctor firmly as he moved toward the tent door.
"Well, deliver it then. But wait!" The little nurse ran in before him and called "Nu-u-u-r-s-e Ha-l-ey!"
"All right!" called Cameron from the inside. "Come in!"
"Go on then," said the little nurse to the doctor, "you wanted to."
"A message from the Superintendent," said the doctor, lifting the curtain and passing in.
"Don't move, Mandy," said Cameron. "Never mind him."
"No, don't, I beg," said the doctor, ignoring what he saw. "A message, an urgent message for--Corporal Cameron!"
"CORPORAL Cameron?" echoed Nurse Haley.
"He distinctly said and repeated it--Corporal Cameron. And the Corporal is to report for duty as speedily as possible."
"He can't go," said Mandy, standing up very straight with a light in her eyes that the doctor had not seen since that tragic night nearly two years before.
"Can't, eh?" said the doctor. "But the Superintendent says Corporal Cameron is--"
"Corporal Cameron can't go!"
"You--"
"Yes, I forbid it."
"The Corporal is--?"
"Yes," she said proudly, "the Corporal is mine."
"Then," said the doctor emphatically, "of all the lucky chaps it has been my fortune to meet, by all the gods the luckiest of them is this same Corporal Cameron!"
And Cameron, drawing down to him again the girl standing so straight and proud beside him, looked up at his friend and said:
"Yes, old chap, the luckiest man in all the world is that same Corporal Cameron."
