CHAPTER XVIII.
A NEW ASSIGNMENT.
When Billy regained his senses he found himself in a clean, enameledwhite bed, and was conscious of a black silk sleeve with snowy cuff whena deft hand tenderly adjusted a bandage that lay damp upon his achingforehead. These little details were impressive in the way of assuranceto the patient that he had awakened this side of the grave.
"Where's Henri?"
The nurse made no reply to this first question from the bed, except themute expression of putting a finger to her lips, enjoining silence.
"I say, nurse, I mustn't be wasting time here; my chum and I have aflying contract on hand, and this very minute ought to be stickingaround that big building down the street."
Getting more and more impatient, Billy essayed a sitting posture, butthe effort forced a groan. At this the attendant hastened to settle theboy in comfortable position.
"You must be quiet, monsieur," she softly admonished in French.
"Guess I'll have to be," weakly conceded Billy. "But can't you tell mewhether or not my pal is all right? And--that's so; did the child in thesleigh come out safe?"
"No one hurt but you," gently assured the woman.
"Bully for so much," rejoiced the boy.
"Surely enough," murmured the attendant.
A portly surgeon entered the room, reached for the wrist of the patient,and his smiling face indicated that the case looked good to him.
"Out in a week," he announced to the nurse.
Billy did not understand the words, but the manner was satisfactory.
To some whispered inquiry by the nurse, the surgeon nodded his head.
"To-morrow will do," he advised.
With the passing of the surgeon, the nurse told Billy that he mightexpect a visit from his comrade in the morning. "You can be sure," sheadded, "that it has been no easy task to keep him out."
The patient grinned. Since he had learned that Henri had escaped unhurt,he had really wondered how they had worked it to keep his chum away fromhim.
When the morning brought Henri, the French boy was not alone--and therather boisterous greeting between the reunited inseparables waswitnessed by a tall, broad-shouldered man of most distinguished bearingand a beautiful child with a shower of bright curls over her shoulders.
In the presence of the important visitor the surgeon and the nurse wereall deference, and eager to give information that would interest.
But the tall stranger then had eyes for no other than the boy propped upamong the pillows of the hospital bed.
"My brave lad," he said, leaning over the boy with the bandaged head,and lifting Billy's hand from the coverlet, "what I might say wouldpoorly express my gratitude and admiration for your heroic action.Fredonia, my daughter, would add her tribute of heartfelt thanks tomine."
The child shyly extended her hand, which Billy touched as he would aflower.
With an arm over the shoulders of Henri, the tall man amended theinitial address by saying:
"What I most desire now is to have both of you in the service at Odessa,that I may have opportunity to advance your interests and in somesubstantial way emphasize my grateful appreciation of your splendidlycourageous action on behalf of my child."
"But we are already spoken for in Warsaw," intimated Billy.
The man smiled as he quietly remarked:
"Perhaps they may not speak louder than Sergius. Until you have mended,then, my lad, we will await final decision."
When the surgeon had bowed these interesting visitors to the door, hebriskly returned to the bedside, and put Billy in possession of somefacts regarding the gentleman whose high favor the boys had won.
"A master of money, my lads," declared the doctor, "and allied with themost powerful elements of the empire, of blood rank most high, and nonethe less a prince of finance for all that. He ought to know what is inthe war chest, for he has wonderfully helped to fill it. To Odessa withSergius? Thank your lucky stars, lads, for the chance. He has airshipswithout rest at his command, as well as the other kind."
The surgeon had been told by Henri that aviation was the profession ofboth his chum and himself, and so in exploiting the opportunities opento the boys through their new acquaintance he naturally laid stress onthe aircraft inducement.
In the doorway now appeared Salisky and Marovitch who within the hourhad been apprised of the exact whereabouts of their pilots, and havingalso earlier learned of the thrilling scene on the Prospekt, in whichtheir young friends had been the principal actors.
"Come alive, son, but it is good to see you with your head still on yourshoulders."
The greeting by Salisky, though on the surface of the lighter vein, hadnevertheless an undertone of deep feeling. That the veteran scouts weregreatly attached to these boys was a fact not open to argument.
"You will be wanting somebody soon to drive you home, old top," criedBilly, evidencing his pleasure at the sight of the hardy observers.
"Two flyers of the Admiralty corps have already been detailed to take usback, and we start in the morning."
"Nothing slow about the way you are replacing us."
Billy was inclined to be a little piqued at this ready acceptance of newservice on the part of the scouts, though he was well aware that hewould be in no condition to take his turn at the wheel within theprescribed time limit.
Salisky leaned toward the boy, and said:
"The truth of it is, if you do not already know it, that your next moveis not of our choosing. Your assignment to Warsaw has been cancelled,and your custody, if it might be called that, has been transferred toanother center of operation."
"The result of a long reach," supplemented Henri.
"Just so," concluded Salisky. "Good-bye, my young friends; luck be itthat some day we may meet again."
The speaker turned away without another word, and Marovitch was equallybrief in his farewell. Both of the scouts, strange to state, were seizedwith a joint spell of coughing as they passed out.
"Now, let's have a bit of a confab all by ourselves," invited Billy,"before the nurse fires you. Tell me what happened after I took thecount in front of those black space-killers?"
"When you started that circus act on the horse's back," narrated Henri,"I was hanging on by my eyebrows. Then I managed to get a leg inside thesleigh and had rolled over on the pile of robes; then a sudden stop asthe sleigh bumped into the fallen horses--so sudden that my head crackedthe dashboard. You sure found the combination in the nick of time, withan open drawbridge less than twenty yards ahead. While about a dozen menwere sitting on the heads of those flopping beasts, who should comegalloping up on a big gray horse but the little girl's father, and theyhad a time together, for a minute or two, I tell you. When we picked youup, limp and bleeding, I prayed like a good fellow that you would openyour eyes and say 'All right, pard.' The prince, duke, or count, Ididn't know which, had you in a carriage in a brace of shakes, and youhave been here ever since, with me hanging around like a lost soul."
"Where was the driver of the runaways all this time? How did they getaway from him?"
Billy was a stickler for details.
"Oh," continued Henri, "all I know about that is hearsay; the rig was infront of a palace up the way, the little one waiting for her father tocome out. The moujik, or driver, was standing at the horses' heads whena passing auto blew up a tire. The fellow in front of the wild ones thatyou pulled down counted for as much as a piece of paper string. Theyleft him in the road. That's how we got into it. There's one thing more,Buddy, believe me--those Sergius horses are not city broke; they're toonervous for even a joy ride."
The nurse came in on the talk about this time and banished Henri.
A week later, when Billy was himself again, the boys, so long accustomedto the plain fare, and often no fare, the hardships, the makeshifts, thediscomforts and dangers of military campaigning, began to believe thatthey had hitched up with another Monte Cristo. Nothin
g was too good forthem in the well-ordered train of Sergius.
"If we don't get out of here pretty soon," declared Billy, "we will beafraid to sit near an open window on account of the draught!"
Here was a pair not built for coddling.
But the days of ease were slipping into the scroll of time. It was notintended that the flying boys should too long linger in the lap ofluxury. Their patron had another side to his make-up, and that wasadamant and of boundless determination.
The call of the Black Sea was in the air--there was plenty of powderburning in and about those strange waters, and another belligerentnation involved, the like of which the young aviators had never beforeencountered during their varied experiences in the great war zone.