together and were exchanging cordial small talk concerning what had
happened to each recently, when he again saw Buck with these visitors
strolling leisurely by towards the nearest landing stage. Towards this
place a pair of swift scouts were making, on their return from the
German front somewhere east.

"Know those folks?" he idly queried of Orris, now a corporal.

"Bet your life! Say, Lafe, who doesn't know of Senator Knute Walsen of
Idaho? He's a big man, over here to supervise our rail transportation
in France. See those two Red Cross girls? They're his daughters.
Taking courses in nursing, I hear, and right at the front too.
Wouldn't that get you? Who is that showing them round?"

"That is Buck Bangs, from Butte, Montana -- Our old Buck! What d'ye
think of that, bo?"

"He seems quite intimate with 'em, don't he? Where'd he meet up with
that crowd, Lafe?"

"Well, he and I sort o' dropped in on the girls just before we were in
the relief station. Remember, don't you? It was while we were
returning home from that raid where poor Finzer got his."

"Don't say! Yes, of course, we've all heard how you and Buck piloted
our fellows after you two had been out all night. Had a hell of a time
-- didn't you?" Suddenly Erwin looked his amazement. "Look here,
Lafe. Honest Injun! Were those two daughters of old Walsen in that
hut when you and Bangs just managed to make your landing there?
Whoopee!"