Several of the soldiers were writing letters, others were yawning and half lying down on the hard wooden benches, bored and listless and homesick.
Hearing voices outside the Y.M.C.A. tent, one young officer, who also had been writing, lifted his eyes.
The same instant Bettina Graham walked quickly inside the tent, holding out her hand.
"Why, here is my lieutenant!" she exclaimed. "May I call you my lieutenant, although Marta Clark will dispute the title? For I did reach you first after your accident and it is my first-aid treatment you seem to have survived. I did not know you had arrived at this cantonment, Lieutenant Carson. I do hope you have entirely recovered."
CHAPTER X
Plans
One afternoon, after resting for an hour or more, Mrs. Burton appeared at her little front door, wondering why she was encompassed by so unusual a silence.
The fact that at present the Sunrise camp was situated several miles from any other human habitation, with the sea stretching before it and a great ranch as its background, did not ordinarily insure it an essential silence. As a matter of fact, there were generally nine youthful persons, engaged in strenuous occupations of one kind or another, in its immediate vicinity.
This afternoon Mrs. Burton discovered that they had withdrawn to some distance from the camping grounds.