Blaine had nodded, then looked after the receding group half
regretfully. Orris gripped the Ensign's arm, and began telling things.

"They must be plucky girls, all right. It so happened that the older
nurse -- the one you and I saw later -- had gone away with a
desperately wounded man in an ambulance to the next base. After you
and Buck landed, you were both bad off, he worse than you. Well, sir,
the Boches shelled that hut before any one got back, and before our
boys had driven the Boches clear off. What do you reckon those two
girls did? They didn't holler: nary a squeal! But they stuck to you
two and to business, and nursed you both, so that by the time aid
arrived, you were all pretty comfortable. Some girls, those two! I
hear that the younger, Miss Andra Walsen, is going to remain. Maybe
they both are. And as for money, there's wads of it in the family,
believe me! No wonder Bucky is bucking up to 'em a bit!"

After this lengthy exordium, Orris discreetly, changed the subject by
wanting to know when he and Buck would be assigned again to duty.

"I'm ready right now. Whether Buck is or not I can't say. As for me,
I've got the old flying fever, big and hot. I suppose it rests with
Byers."

Later on as the group whom they had been discussing approached, Blaine
and his friend were introduced. Andra, it was plain to see, had ready
given poor Buck a deal to think about later on. She was handsome,
dark-eyed, light-haired with a peachy complexion -- a combination hard
indeed for a susceptible youth to resist. Avella, her sister,
blue-eyed, dark-haired, a year older than her sister, was equally