"How awful!" exclaimed Earl with a shudder. "Do you suppose he'll ever get well again?"
"It's hard to say," replied Jacques. "Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't."
"I've heard about these things happening in the trenches," remarked Leon. "This is the first case I've seen."
"There are a good many made the same way," said Jacques soberly. "The terrible strain and the awful slaughter affect men's nerves so that they sometimes go entirely to pieces. It is very sad."
"It's horrible!" muttered Earl with a shudder.
"For my part I'd rather be killed," said Leon.
Attendants came and led poor Lippen away. Perhaps with constant care and prolonged quiet his shattered nerves might mend. At any rate he was but one small part of the army and the war must go on whether he was gone or not. Of course all would be done for him that was possible, but after all one man more or less is a very tiny part of a big army. If sympathy was expended on every pitiful case there would not be much time left for fighting.
As the soldiers crouched behind the parapet Captain Le Blanc approached the spot where Jacques was seated.
"Private Dineau," he said, "I understand that you are an aviator."
"Yes, sir," exclaimed Jacques, quickly springing to his feet and saluting.