Of course, it was his time for sleeping. His hours off duty were short enough at the best. Somebody had gone to his cot to call him and he was not there. The bed had not been slept in.
"Ach!" raved Corporal Baum. "What a pig it is! The crazy Frenchman is not to be trusted. And you said he was faithful."
He said this to Belinda just before she left her ward for the night.
"He has been faithful to me," she told him. "If he has made one misstep you must forgive him for my sake, Carl."
"Ach! The drillmaster's whip should feel his back. Now I have to detail one of my men to do his work."
"The night nurse is coming. See that you get a good man to help her."
Belinda went through the ward again to make sure all was right with each of her wounded for the night, and found opportunity of whispering to Frank, as she squeezed his hand under the blanket:
"'All quiet along the Potomac.' He's gone."
Carl had gone fuming back to his duty; but as Belinda came out into the chill dusk of the March evening a cloaked figure awaited her.
"Paul!" she ejaculated, rather startled.