"Well, I guess you may see the sergeant now," said the orderly. "Only don't talk to him too much. He doesn't like to dwell on what happened to him. They must have treated him worse than they would a beast!"
"It's awful!" declared Jimmy. "But they'll be made to pay for it! No, I won't tax him with any talk of the past. I just want to see if he knows me and remembers a certain matter."
"Oh, he'll know you all right," returned the orderly. "As a matter of fact, he has been asking for you."
"That's a good sign!" thought Jimmy.
Sergeant Maxwell held out a wan hand to his friend. "I can't begin to thank you for what you and the other boys did for me," he said, weakly. "If you hadn't discovered me in that lonely hut I wouldn't be alive now."
"Oh, maybe someone else would have found you," said Jimmy, cheerfully.
"But we're glad we did."
"I've been wishing you'd come in," went on the sick sergeant. "There's something that's been worrying me. It's about that five thousand francs you gave me to keep for you."
"Well, don't worry about it," and Jimmy tried to keep his voice up to the cheerful mark. "Have you got it?"
"No," said the sergeant, "I haven't. But—"
He paused to take a drink of water, and Jimmy's feelings went down to about the zero position.