They drifted into other topics and all too soon they reached Wilmington and had to say good-bye. But the thought stayed with Ruth more or less during the days that followed, and crept into her letters when she wrote to Corporal Cameron, as she did quite often in these days; and still no solution had come to the great question which was so like the one of old, "What shall I do to be saved?" It came and went during the days that followed, and now and again the fact that it had originated in a talk with Cameron clashed badly in her mind with that word "Rotten" that Wainwright had used about him. So that at last she resolved to talk to her cousin, Captain La Rue, the next time he came up.
"Cousin Captain," she said, "do you know a boy at your camp from Bryne Haven named John Cameron?"
"Indeed I do!" said the captain.
"What kind of a man is he?"
"The best young man I know in every way," answered the captain promptly. "If the world were made up of men like him it would be a pretty good place in which to live. Do you know him?"
"A little," said Ruth evasively, with a satisfied smile on her lips. "His mother is in our Red Cross now. She thinks he's about right, of course, but mothers usually do, I guess. I'll have to tell her what you said. It will please her. He used to be in school with me years ago. I haven't seen much of him since."
"Well, all I have to say is, improve your acquaintance if you get the chance. He's worth ten to one of your society youths that loll around here almost every time I come."
"Now, Cousin Captain!" chided Ruth. But she went off smiling and she kept all his words in her heart.