Somehow or other Thad quite forgot that just then. The mere fact that he had been asked to do this thing appealed to all that was valiant in him; and we happen to know that times without number he had proven himself the possessor of red blood in his veins.
“Say yes, Thad!”
That was Allan urging him to accept, and yet in times past this same Allan had often betrayed unusual signs of caution. He, too, must have been overwhelmed with a sense of the high honor thus suddenly thrust upon them; though, for that matter, the tragic events of the day would have been quite enough to make those lads feel that they were enlisted heart and soul in the cause of the Allies.
“How did he come to be hurt, sir?” asked Thad, first of all.
“He was riding a motorcycle at mad speed when a van crossed in the way,” explained the surgeon promptly. “The result was bad for the messenger, since his machine was smashed and he himself hurled against the van. They found him there, doubled up in the road, and carried him back to us. That is all I have learned, except that he has plain directions where Headquarters can be found. He will give them to me as soon as any one swears to carry his dispatches through.”
“Thad, we ought to do it, sure as anything!”
Why, if it wasn’t Bumpus himself who was saying that; and surely if the stout chum felt that a duty had been thrust upon them that they ought not attempt to shirk, Thad should be the last one to hold back.
“We’ll undertake to deliver the dispatches, sir, though of course it’s none of our business what their nature is,” he immediately told the waiting surgeon.
“That’s fine of you, but no more than I expected, son,” the other hastened to tell him; and then, once more bending down closer to the wounded officer, he commenced to talk with him.
They guessed that he was asking for the directions as well as where he would find the dispatches secreted about the person of the wounded man. Presently the surgeon stood up again. He was holding a small packet in his hand, and it looked as though it might be of importance, seeing that it was wrapped in yellow, water-proof material such as Thad remembered sailors’ garments were made of.