At the door of the hospital, which was only a wooden house with a Red Cross flag outside, the doctor met the little company.
"You will be as quiet as you can and try not to excite him," he said, and there was something in his voice which made all questioning impossible.
Then Mrs. Webster and Dan and Peggy went inside the little hospital. Within a few moments Dan came out again with his head bowed and went away by himself without speaking.
"Will it be many hours, Doctor?" Mrs. Burton inquired.
The doctor shook his head.
"Not many."
Mrs. Burton was standing with her arm about Vera Lagerloff, feeling Vera's grief almost as deeply as her own. Without a tie of blood, without the right to be near him which his family had, Vera was yet closer to Billy in many ways than any other human being in the world.
"You shall see him soon, dear," Mrs. Burton murmured.
Vera nodded.
"Billy will send for me; there will be so many things he will wish to say," she replied and her tone was one of love and understanding.