"Do you see my bandages?" he asked.
Major Healy said he did.
"I received the wounds they cover in a fight which took place in the kitchen between the Grand Duke's soldiers and Prussian Hussars. Neither the Duke nor the Kaiser sent to warn me that a fight would be in the kitchen, which I entered by chance without any idea the Russians had come to the rescue. It was a very good thing they did come because, as you know, grain and potatoes are worth a dozen old men's skulls nowadays."
"Oh--don't say that," protested the major politely.
The priest went on:
"Let us put it in this way. What would have happened if Miss Burton and not myself had gone into the kitchen?"
"I suppose her head would have been smashed, too," murmured the American.
"Exactly," agreed the priest. "Her pretty young head would have been broken. And as a woman's head is softer than a priest's, it would probably have been broken past repairing."
Major Healy waited for more. It came.
"And what would the American government say if an American woman had her skull broken in a Polish kitchen?" he pursued.