"It was that bath given for her illness, but I would not have received her for the farther voyage if the clever Miss Hanna were not firmly at my side.
---199---
"She will be a good prop for the old man. Of course, she has enough to do with her wounded, to whom I myself am now also joined."
The physician was silent for a moment. "Nevertheless I will speak with her to-morrow if it would not be more suitable to pass her wounded on, perhaps to Rodenburg."
"Hm, hm! Then you see the case here as so serious?"
"An early prevention doesn't hurt."
"But the red cross up there-"
"Who tells us that the Russians will respect it?"
The pastor was taken aback. "Now, is our ward still so impatient?" he askt in his kind way. "Or have you calmed him down a bit, Doctor?"
"With these people there is nothing to start. They all burn to let themselves be devoured by the fire. They prefer to have limped on one leg or crawled back on all fours."
The old man had listened with only little attention. "Yet it is wonderful-" he said and then broke off.
"What is wonderful, Pastor?" askt Fritz.
"Oh, nothing - the man who was just with me has a brother here in our area, barely three miles away and stands his ground firmly and rigidly- but no, why should one repeat that!? It is idle hogwash; this war has stampt out millions of brave warriors from the earth, but it has also mobilized a whole army of old wives. Now then, you are sitting pretty with us, right, Captain, and not going before our good doctor allows it?"
