“Too bad,” said Stone sympathetically, “but I don’t think we need to figure on an attack today. They won’t be able to get things in readiness before night. I was tipped off a little while ago that the fight was going to start tomorrow morning at dawn. So you may be able to see Bart today. If you do, tell him I was asking about him and that I’m rooting for him to get well. But I’ll have to tinker up this machine of mine and be getting along.”
With a cordial wave of the hand he left them, and after adjusting the machinery started off to reach his appointed part of the line.
“He’s a bully good fellow,” remarked Frank admiringly, as they gazed after him.
“You bet he is,” agreed Tom.
Stone’s prophecy proved to be correct, for late that afternoon it was announced that the attack would take place on the following morning. The men were released from standing in readiness and the Army Boys had no difficulty in getting permission to visit their comrade.
But the hopes they had cherished of finding Bart better were doomed to disappointment. They were taken by the Red Cross nurse into the ward in which he lay, his face flushed with fever, his hands clenching and unclenching, while incoherent mutterings came from his lips. It wrung their hearts to see their chum in such a plight.
“What does the doctor say about him?” Frank asked the nurse anxiously.
“He says that the case is very serious,” was the reply. “He fears that it may develop into brain fever. He said this morning that if it were not for the splendid vitality of the patient, he wouldn’t have a chance. As it is, he hopes he may pull him through.”
The boys were shocked by this verdict. They had been through so many adventures with Bart, he had been such a loyal and dependable comrade, that it seemed as though he had become a part of themselves. Army life without Bart with them seemed almost unthinkable.
“Of course,” the nurse hastened to reassure them, as she saw their clouded faces, “it may not prove as serious as the doctor fears. It will be a day or two before he can predict with some degree of certainty.”