Questions like this latter one always alienated Lane in some unaccountable way. It must have been revealed in his face.
"Never mind, Daren. I see that you did.... I'm glad you're back alive. Now what can I do for you?"
"I've been discharged from three hospitals in the last two months—not because I was well, but because I was in better shape than some other poor devil. Those doctors in the service grew hard—they had to be hard—but they saw the worst, the agony of the war. I always felt sorry for them. They never seemed to eat or sleep or rest. They had no time to save a man. It was cut him up or tie him up—then on to the next.... Now, Doc, I want you to look me over and—well—tell me what to expect."
"All right," replied Doctor Bronson, gruffly.
"And I want you to promise not to tell mother or any one. Will you?"
"Yes, I promise. Now come in here and get off some of your clothes."
"Doctor, it's pretty tough on me to get in and out of my clothes."
"I'll help you. Now tell me what the Germans did to you."
Lane laughed grimly. "Doctor, do you remember I was in your Sunday School class?"
"Yes, I remember that. What's it got to do with Germans?"
"Nothing. It struck me funny, that's all.... Well, to get it over. I was injured several times at the training camp."
"Anything serious?"
"No, I guess not. Anyway I forgot about them. Doctor, I was shot four times, once clear through. I'll show you. Got a bad bayonet jab that doesn't seem to heal well. Then I had a dose of both gases—chlorine and mustard—and both all but killed me. Last I've a weak place in my spine. There's a vertebra that slips out of place occasionally. The least movement may do it. I can't guard against it. The last time it slipped out I was washing my teeth. I'm in mortal dread of this. For it twists me out of shape and hurts horribly. I'm afraid it'll give me paralysis."
"Humph! It would. But it can be fixed.... So that's all they did to you?"
Underneath the dry humor of the little doctor, Lane thought he detected something akin to anger.
"Yes, that's all they did to my body," replied Lane.
Doctor Bronson, during a careful and thorough examination of Lane's heart, lungs, blood pressure, and abdominal region, did not speak once. But when he turned him over, to see and feel the hole in Lane's back, he exclaimed: "My God, boy, what made this—a shell? I can put my fist in it."
"That's the bayonet jab."
Doctor Bronson cursed in a most undignified and unprofessional manner. Then without further comment he went on and completed the examination.
"That'll do," he said, and lent a hand while Lane put on his clothes. It was then he noticed Lane's medal.
"Ha! The Croix de Guerre!... Daren, I was a friend of your father's. I know how that medal would have made him feel. Tell me what you did to get it?"
"Nothing much," replied Lane, stirred. "It was in the Argonne, when we took to open fighting. In fact I got most of my hurts there.... I carried a badly wounded French officer back off the field. He was a heavy man. That's where I injured my spine. I had to run with him. And worse luck, he was dead when I got him back. But I didn't know that."
"So the French decorated you, hey?" asked the doctor, leaning back with hands on hips, and keenly eyeing Lane.
"Yes."
"Why did not the American Army give you equal honor?"
"Well, for one thing it was never reported. And besides, it wasn't anything any other fellow wouldn't do."
Doctor Bronson dropped his head and paced to and fro. Then the door-bell rang in the reception room.
"Daren Lane," began the doctor, suddenly stopping before Lane, "I'd hesitate to ask most men if they wanted the truth. To many men I'd lie. But I know a few words from me can't faze you."
"No, Doctor, one way or another it is all the same to me."
"Well, boy, I can fix up that vertebra so it won't slip out again.... But, if there's anything in the world to save your life, I don't know what it is."
"Thank you, Doctor. It's—something to know—what to expect," returned Lane, with a smile.
"You might live a year—and you might not.... You might improve. God only knows. Miracles do happen. Anyway, come back to see me."
Lane shook hands with him and went out, passing another patient in the reception room. Then as Lane opened the door and stepped out upon the porch he almost collided with a girl who evidently had been about to come in.
"I beg your——" he began, and stopped. He knew this girl, but the strained tragic shadow of her eyes was strikingly unfamiliar. The transparent white skin let the blue tracery of veins show. On the instant her lips trembled and parted.
"Oh, Daren—don't you know me?" she asked.
"Mel Iden!" he burst out. "Know you? I should smile I do. But it—it was so sudden. And you're older—different somehow. Mel, you're sweeter—why you're beautiful."
He clasped her hands and held on to them, until he felt her rather nervously trying to withdraw them.
"Oh, Daren, I'm glad to see you home—alive—whole," she said, almost in a whisper. "Are you—well?"
"No, Mel. I'm in pretty bad shape," he replied. "Lucky to get home alive—to see you all."
"I'm sorry. You're so white. You're wonderfully changed, Daren."
"So are you. But I'll say I'm happy it's not painted face and plucked eyebrows.... Mel, what's happened to you?"
She suddenly espied the decoration on his coat. The blood rose and stained her clear cheek. With a gesture of exquisite grace and sensibility that thrilled Lane she touched the medal. "Oh! The Croix de Guerre.... Daren, you were a hero."
"No, Mel, just a soldier."
She looked up into his face with eyes that fascinated Lane, so beautiful were they—the blue of corn-flowers—and lighted then with strange rapt glow.
"Just a soldier!" she murmured. But Lane heard in that all the sweetness and understanding possible for any woman's heart. She amazed him—held him spellbound. Here was the sympathy—and something else—a nameless need—for which he yearned. The moment was fraught with incomprehensible forces. Lane's sore heart responded to her rapt look, to the sudden strange passion of her pale face. Swiftly he divined that Mel Iden gloried in the presence of a maimed and proven soldier.
"Mel, I'll come to see you," he said, breaking the spell. "Do you still live out on the Hill road? I remember the four big white oaks."
"No, Daren, I've left home," she said, with slow change, as if his words recalled something she had forgotten. All the radiance vanished, leaving her singularly white.
"Left home! What for?" he asked, bluntly.
"Father turned me out," she replied, with face averted. The soft roundness of her throat swelled. Lane saw her full breast heave under her coat.
"What're you saying, Mel Iden?" he demanded, as quickly as he could find his voice.
Then she turned bravely to meet his gaze, and Lane had never seen as sad eyes as looked into his.
"Daren, haven't you heard—about me?" she asked, with tremulous lips.
"No. What's wrong?"
"I—I can't let you call on me."
"Why not? Are you married—jealous husband?"
"No, I'm not married—but I—I have a baby," she whispered.
"Mel!"