Sanderson discovered something that Belinda had not learned. One of the Germans—a man somewhat older than his fellows—could speak broken English.
"Wie geht es? You are from America, yet?" he said to Sanderson. "I lif' there, too."
"By Hannah!" roared Captain Dexter from the rear, "why didn't you stay there?"
"Yes, I wish I was back there alretty. But I haf' to fight for the Fatherland."
"A reservist," whispered Belinda. But she had not learned this about him before. She really had not felt interested enough in the bearded, silent man to talk much with him.
But Sanderson seemed interested in everybody in the ward and was immensely cheering. Jacob, as was the bearded man's name, told the young aviator he had a delicatessen store in New York, on the upper East Side.
"But, soh!" he blew a sigh. "I may never see it again."
The energetic Captain Dexter had to view the entire hospital, and went off with one of the visiting doctors for that purpose. It was being whispered about among the hospital attendants that the "so-rich" and benevolent Américain was about to furnish money for an entire hospital unit to the Croix Rouge.
"The skipper must be causing his three 'darters' a great deal of worry of mind just now," chuckled Sanderson, remaining with Belinda. "He's drawn on his bankers for so much money that, he tells me, Mesdames Prudence, Patience and Penelope tried to hold up the advances, thinking the poor old chap had gone quite off his head and had become demoralized by the wickedness and gaieties of Paris. They do not realize that Paris at present is about as lively as its namesake in Kentucky, U. S. A.!
"And what good the old gentleman manages to do with his money—my word! He spends it like a sailor ashore with his pay in his pocket. The other day I found him strapped—flat broke, and without enough to pay for his dinner. But it's worrying the three 'darters.'"