Everything changed. He felt a kindliness and affection for Velo.
“You will get well, Velo, and we’ll hit it off like twins.”
“It’s too late,” said Velo, smiling, “too late for anything except to be happy to think you have forgiven me. Besides, it is as well for me to go. I think I’m a bad sort, Zaidos.... But I’m—so—glad—you—will—forgive me—”
There was a long silence. Then Velo opened his eyes once more.
“I’m going,” he whispered. “Take my hand—”
Zaidos did so, and for a long, long time did not stir. The hand in his grew limp, then very cold. Zaidos held it loyally but he kept his eyes shut tight, because he could not bear to look.
The Red Cross orderlies did not find Zaidos until after dark. He was very cold, or else very hot, he did not know which, but tried to tell them all about it, and only succeeded in mumbling very fast before he dropped off into unconsciousness. He could not say farewell to Velo, lying there under the stars with a noble company about him. He was silent enough himself until he reached the big field hospital in the rear. He did not know Nurse Helen when she bent over him, but he commenced to talk in a low tone, and he kept on, as though he would never stop.
He told her all about everything, including a green dragon that sat on his leg, and felt heavy. He told her school jokes, and about the girl who came to the hop and about several million other things. Fever raged in him and his voice went down and down until it was as thin as a field mouse’s squeak. Nurse Helen grew to look at him gravely and rather sadly and she spent no time at all with Tony Hazelden, who was almost well enough to get married. At least he could sit up an hour every day. But at last one day there came a change. Zaidos gave a sigh, and stopped talking and went to sleep.
The next time he opened his eyes, he looked straight into Nurse Helen’s great, lovely, dark pools of silence and content. He looked at her a long time; then without speaking, he went to sleep again. The next time he woke up, he managed to whisper, “Got a lot to tell you!”
“Let it wait,” she whispered back. “Don’t talk at all. You will get well much sooner.”