Alice B. Emerson

“ Suddenly Ruth seized her companion's arm.
"There!" she whispered.
"What is it?" he asked in the same low tone.
"There are men. See them?"
"No, no, Mademoiselle," he told her with a small chuckle. "There are no men standing so boldly there. They are posts—posts to which our barbed-wire entanglements are fixed."
"Oh!" she breathed with relief.
"Be not alarmed——" He seized her shoulder as he spoke and so great was his sudden pressure on it that he carried her with him to the ground.
A shower of flare rockets had erupted from the German trenches. ”

“ In places the huge guns stood so close together they all but touched. Beyond these were the front trenches, in which the sharpshooters and the machine-gun men watched the enemy. And beyond again were the listening posts and the wire entanglements.
How could a girl ever get through the jungle of barbed wire? And in places the Huns had strung live wires, carrying voltages strong enough to kill a man, just as they did along the borderland of Holland.
When Ruth thought of these things she lost hope. But she tried not to think at all. Major Marchand had bade her be of good hope. ”

“ Ruth was amazed, and for a time dumb. Should she bring Major Henri Marchand into the matter? The secret agent knew him and respected him. Ruth shrank from putting suspicion upon a possibly innocent person.
And yet, his height, his manner of bowing, an indefinite air about him, had convinced Ruth that Nicko's double was Henri Marchand. Who else could it be? Could there be some person who so resembled the countess' younger son?
The thought roweled her mind. There was something in it to be considered. Who else could the mysterious man be? ”

“ Two of the brancardiers came out of the hospital and drew forth one stretcher on which a convalescent patient lay.
"Oh, the poor man!" murmured Helen. "What do they do with him now?"
"He has come in from a field hospital," began Ruth. And then she saw the face of the ambulance driver. "Oh, Charlie Bragg!" she called.
"What did I tell you?" said Jennie solemnly. "She knows 'em all. They grow on bushes around here, I warrant." ”

“ We cannot tell."
"But, Doctor Monteith, who are in this district save our soldiers and the French inhabitants?" asked Ruth.
"True. But there may be a traitor among us. Indeed, it is believed that there has been," and Ruth winced and looked away from him. "As for our allies here—well, all of them may not be above earning German gold. And they would think it was not as though they were betraying their own countrymen. There are only United States soldiers in this sector now, as you say, Miss Fielding."
"I cannot imagine people being so wicked," sighed the girl. ”

“ We have had night air raids at Clair. But, as Charlie Bragg says, 'I have not been killed yet.'"
"That is the way to look at it," he said cheerfully. "It's the only way. Back in all our minds is the expectation of sudden death, I suppose. Only—if it is sudden! That is what we pray for—if it is to come."
"I know," Ruth said softly. "But let us keep from thinking of it. Who is this lady?" she asked a moment later.
"Ah!" said the gentlemanly surgeon, seeing the figure in the doorway of the new supply hut. "It is our matron, Mrs. Strang. A lovely lady. I will leave you to her kindness." ”

“ See you! madame has not servants enough now to begin to care for the place."
"I suppose she has stored away the rugs and the books from the library shelves," began Ruth; but Henriette quickly said:
"Non! non! You do not understand, Mademoiselle, what our good lady has done. The wonderful rugs she has sold—that off the library floor, which, they say, the old count himself brought from Bagdad. And the books—all her library—have gone to the convalescent hospitals, or to the poilus in the trenches. For they, poor men, need the distraction of reading." ”

“ He was gardener there in my husband's time. But as he bears a German name and his wife is German, they have never suspected him.
"It is with this old gardener, Brodart, my son communicates; and it is to him our good Bubu goes."
"But how can the dog get across No Man's Land?" cried Ruth. "I do not understand that at all!"
"There are bare and bleak places between the lines which we know nothing about," the countess said, shaking her head. "Not in all places are the two armies facing each other at a distance of a few hundred yards. There is the lake and swampland of Savoie, for instance. ”

“ I have come here to get away from cooking."
"Will you fast then, while you remain at Clair?" asked Ruth rather wickedly.
"Ow-wow!" shrieked the plump girl. "How you can twist a fellow's meaning around! No! I merely will not cook!"
"But she still hopes to eat," said Helen. "What is it you want of your poor slaves, Lady Ruth?"
"Do my work here while I'm gone. Look out for the supplies. I can break you both in this morning. I do not know just when I shall be called for——"
"By whom, pray?" put in the saucy Jennie drawlingly.
Ruth ignored the question. ”

“ Now there were but few servants remaining at the chateau. For the most part the elderly Countess Marchand lived alone and used but few of the rooms.
As the girls waited an answer to their summons, Henriette said, in reference to what had already passed in conversation between them:
"It hurts me, dear friend, that anybody should doubt the loyalty of our countess whom we know to be so good. Why! there are people even wicked enough to connect her with that—that awful Thing we know of," and the girl dropped her voice and looked suddenly around her, as though she feared an unseen presence. ”

“ At Clair she had been used to going out of the hospital when she liked and going anywhere she pleased. Here she found it was necessary to have a pass even to step out of the hospital compound.
"And be careful where you walk, Miss Fielding," said Dr. Monteith, as he signed her pass. "Do not go toward the battle front. If you do you may be halted."
"Halted!" repeated Ruth, not quite understanding.
"And perhaps suspected," he said, nodding gravely. "Even your Red Cross will not save you."
"Oh, dear me!" exclaimed the girl. "Is everybody suspected of spying? I think it has become a craze." ”

“ But there was a great outcry when, at breakfast, Ruth explained to Helen and Jennie that she was called away from the hospital on private and important business, and for several days.
"She's running away to be married!" gasped Jennie Stone. "Treason!"
"Your romantic imagination is ever on tap, isn't it, Heavy?" responded Ruth with scorn.
"That's all right," returned the plump girl sharply. "You look out for your brother Tom, Helen Cameron."
"But it may be one of these French officers," Helen said, with more mildness. "Some of them are awfully nice." ”

“ There is not a country in Europe where the tale of the human being who can change his form at will to that of a wolf, is not repeated.
Ruth Fielding had come across the superstition—and for the first time in the company of Charlie Bragg—as she had approached the town of Clair to begin her work in that hospital some months before.
This same white figure which they had both now glimpsed had crossed the road, flying as it was now toward the trenches. The werwolf, as the superstitious French peasants declared it to be, crossed both to and from the battle line; for it was frequently seen. ”

“ The car started again. It slipped between the massive stone posts of the gateway. It sped toward the front. But all the peril was yet ahead.
"How can we get through the German trenches if they are already filled with the shock troops that will be sent over following the barrage?" asked Tom.
"We must beat them to it, as you Americans say," chuckled the major, whose spirits seemed to rise as the peril increased.
And he prophesied well in this matter. They were, indeed, in the trenches before the reserves were brought up for the planned attack upon the American lines. ”

“ Yet for a greyhound the fifteen or twenty kilometers between the chateau and the battle front was a mere nothing. At the rate the girl had seen the "werwolf" flying over the fields, he must have covered that distance faster than an automobile. And, too, he would take a route much more direct.
The countess seemed to have forgotten Ruth's presence; but the girl could not well draw her arm away and remain behind. Besides, she was desperately eager to know what would be done to Bubu, or with him, now that he had returned to the chateau. ”

“ The French girl's plump cheeks were tear-streaked and Ruth instantly saw that not only the girl but the whole family was much disturbed.
"What has happened?" the American girl asked.
In these days of war almost any imaginable thing might happen.
"It is poor old Aunt Abelard!" Henriette exclaimed in her own tongue. "She must remove from her old home at Nacon."
Ruth knew that the place was a little village (and villages can be small, indeed, in France) between Clair and the field hospital where she had herself been for a week, but on another road than that by which she had traveled. ”

“ The French farmer is as deeply rooted in his soil as the great trees of the French forests. That is why their treatment by the German invader and the ruin of their farms have been so great a cross for them to shoulder.
Ruth learned that Aunt Abelard—an aunt of Farmer Dupay, and a widow—had lived upon her little place since her marriage over half a century before. Without her little garden and her small fields, and her cow and pig and chickens, she would scarcely know how to live. ”

“ The two stood talking for a while before the secret agent returned to the gate. He got into the car again with just a word to his chauffeur.
"Mademoiselle," said M. Lafrane, his face serious, indeed, "there are many disappointments in life, as well as many sacrifices. We saw the old woman torn from her home—and from her pullets—just now. The pattern of life is complex for us all.
"I have come from Paris because you called me." Ruth started and looked at him closely. "I hoped that you might have something of moment to tell me. I shall always trust in your good sense." ”

“ At least, the Red Cross girl had to show hers. Charlie was pretty well known by everybody in this part of the war zone.
They would come to a dugout in the hillside, or a half-hidden hut, and be challenged by a sentinel, or by one of the military police. A pocket lamp would play upon Ruth's face, then upon her passport, and the sentinel would grunt, salute, and the car would plunge on again. It seemed to Ruth as though this went on for hours.
All the time her brain was active with the possibilities surrounding Tom Cameron's disappearance. What could really have happened to him? ”

“ Ruth let fall the heavy rubber garment she had worn through the swamp. Then she removed her outer clothing and got into the uniform and into the long, polished boots quickly. There was even the swagger cane that young Prussian officers carry.
She viewed herself as well as she could in the piece of mirror in the corner. She might have the appearance of a "stage" soldier; but nobody would ever, for a moment, take her for a man! ”

“ She arose, and, after making her toilet and before breakfast, went out of the hut. She beheld an entirely different looking landscape from that which she was used to about Clair.
Through the gateway of the compound she saw a rutted road, with dun fields beyond. Behind, the ridge rose abruptly between the hospital and the battle front.
A red-headed young Irishman in khaki stood at the gateway, or tramped up and down with his rifle on his shoulder. He could not look at the girl without grinning, and Ruth smiled in return. ”

“ It was the suggestion of the long and arduous passage between the American trenches and the German trenches. What lay for her in that No Man's Land of which she had heard so much?
"I am ready," she said at length, and calmly. "Am I to remove my skirts?"
"Quite unnecessary, Mademoiselle," replied the major respectfully. "See! The garment is roomy. It was made, you may be sure, for a man of some size. Your skirts will ruffle up around you and help to keep you warm. At this time in the year the swamp water is as cold as the grave." ”

“ Ruth heard the corporal in charge of the squad say to the old woman. The automobile had stopped, for the road was too narrow for it to pass the wagon.
The old woman seemed to understand the American's mixture of English and French. She shook her head with emphasis.
"But I cannot leave my pullets," she said, aghast. "They will starve. You will go along, you Americans, and leave me alone."
"You must come; Tante," repeated the corporal, inflexibly. "You should have prepared for this. You were warned in time." Then to his men: "Go in, boys, and bring out her goods. ”