CHAPTER XXVII

"IF THEY DON'T KILL YOU"





Jane had been a nurse in the Red Cross society for a little more
than six weeks. She was inexperienced but willing and there was
such urgent need for nurses that the army accepted any and all who
seemed capable of development under the training of experts. There
had been tremendous opposition on the part of the Harbins, but in
the end, finding her unalterably determined, the colonel permitted
her to go out in the service. She was sent forth on the special
expedition in the wake of Major March's forces, her secret desire
being to be near Graydon Bansemer in event of his injury. She
gave no heed to their protest that the name of Bansemer should be
hateful to her; she ignored the ugly remarks of her aunt and the
angry reproaches of the colonel. It was more the spirit of spite
than any other motive which at last compelled him to accept the
situation; he even went so far as to growl to his wife: "Cursed
good riddance, that's what I say. I didn't want her to come in the
first place."

But when, after a month, she brought Bansemer back to the city,