The doctor laughed.
“Best thing you ever did in your life,” he said. “The blow he got on the head was just what he needed to shake him into sanity again. Medical history is full of just such cases. You’ve got the proof of it right here. He was undoubtedly insane when he came into the tent to take your blanket. He knew that he was cold and his only thought was to get something to keep him warm.”
“But why should he happen to strike our tent instead of somebody else’s?” asked Billy.
“Because he knew it was yours,” answered the doctor. “In his poor twisted brain he had recognized you and knew vaguely that you were his friends. Probably he has been dodging around somewhere and kept track of you.”
The boys’ eyes grew moist as the pathos of it all came upon them.
The doctor left them some stimulating medicine, promised to send the ambulance around in the morning and took his leave.
There was no more sleep for the boys the rest of that night. They were strung to too high a pitch of excitement and delight. They felt as though they were treading on air.
Bart was back with them again, dear old Bart, whose absence they had mourned as though he had been their brother, brave old Bart, with the heart of a lion, who had stood at their side in a score of desperate fights. For hours they sat outside the tent so that they would not disturb the sleeper, and talked in low voices of the great thing that had happened.
Bart woke in the morning refreshed and perfectly himself again as far as his mind was concerned. They fed him well and when the ambulance came around they helped to put him in it, promising to drop round to see him whenever they could get leave. The ambulance went along with the army, so that the boys had the feeling that Bart was with them all the time, even though not stepping along in the ranks.
Dick dropped in on them during the day, as did Will Stone, who was going along in one of the tank units of the army of occupation, and their delight was almost as great as that of the Army Boys themselves when they heard the news. Together they went to visit Bart at every opportunity they had, and rejoiced to find that he was getting stronger all the time.