Robert W. Hamilton

“ And you an aviator! Bah!"
"Well, I'm hanged if that ugly Dutchman's half good enough for her, even if he did fix me up!" Sanderson growled.
"Of course he isn't. What man is ever good enough for a woman?" was the tart rejoinder.
"The Lord help the fellow who gets you, Miss Trivett!" Sanderson said with feeling.
"No. You are wrong. I know my own weakness," sighed the wise, if plain, nurse. "If I should marry, I would love him so much that he might walk upon me if he wished."
It was not by any determined and set method that Belinda Melnotte kept Sanderson at a distance. ”

“ Sanderson, in his fast-flying Nieuport, shaped his course in a long slant toward the trenches. He flew over the hospital in which Belinda worked. She might then be wending her way toward it from her lodging. If so, and if she saw the flotilla of aeroplanes overhead would she think of him?
The whole sector along the trenches had become alive since the first streak of light. And of course the Germans were just as busy. From above, the conflict seemed like a huge cauldron, over which the steam hung like a cloud, and out of which pale rockets shot—the exploding shrapnel. ”

“ Belinda Melnotte was no coward. The turmoil in her soul could not go on for long without arousing scorn for herself.
"Why, he is not worthy of my thought," she told herself bitterly. "A married man! A man with wife and children! Oh! I should be ashamed of myself! I who call myself good!
"This certainly cannot be love. He has a fascination for me; just as Doctor Herschall inspires me with disgust—with hate! Am I different from other girls? ”

“ Not of the wrongs of France.
She suddenly had a vision of a grassy lane, on either hand old but pleasant houses with red-tiled or thatched roofs, a rambling inn on one side, a footbridge over a stream at the end of the lane, and a gristmill with its babbling wheel.
Marching out of one dooryard into the lane defiled a phalanx of geese led by a high-headed old gander. The little girl, Belinda herself, in the short petticoats and with the plaits of hair down her back, who was standing in the lane was a stranger and she was afraid of that gander. ”

“ He marched on, passing Belinda's door without a glance. The girl had shrunk back, hiding herself within the ward. She was trembling and afraid. Fear laid hold upon her—such fear as she had not experienced since entering upon her work on the battlefields. For it was, in large part, that uncanny shrinking of the soul she had been wont to feel in the New York hospital. And it was from the same cause.
The grim, helmeted figure that stalked down the yard, the chief of this German hospital unit, was Doctor Franz Herschall! ”

“ It was not until the following day that Belinda met Frank Sanderson. The submarine scare of the first evening at sea was all but forgotten in the morning sunshine and with the Belle o' Perth plowing through a perfectly placid sea.
The calm was not sufficient, however, to tempt Aunt Roberta on deck—or even out of her stateroom.
"An absolutely horizontal posture for forty-eight or sixty hours after leaving port is the only safeguard against mal de mer," the Frenchwoman declared. "How you can be so reckless I do not see, Belinda. It is almost a crime for a woman to possess such robust health." ”

“ Sanderson smiled grimly.
"And a word from your Cousin Carl, or your Cousin Paul, or from Erard, it seems, and we are lost. Pshaw! Let us not lose our courage. We are Americans, Belinda."
"Oh!" cried the Red Cross nurse under her breath, "I wish we were back in dear America again! I—I am frightened, Frank."
She had to leave him then. She feared some of the others had noted her special attentions to the wounded aviator. Jacob said:
"Ach, Fräulein, it warms my old heart to see your kindness to that brave man. He flies and fights for the Fatherland. He is worthy of any good woman's love." ”

“ Ah, an uneasy mind is harder to bear than physical ills! Whether she deserved it or not, Belinda Melnotte bore a burden on her heart that seemingly nothing in the future could lift.
Save death. They could die together—she and Frank. Indeed, she felt she should die if Sanderson were stood up and shot as poor Erard had been. Without doubt she would have no choice in the matter. The Herr Doktor's evidence against the aviator would convict her as well.
But to have the decision postponed—to wait in this wretched uncertainty on the pleasure of the Prussian surgeon! ”

“ Sanderson left Belinda strapped to her seat and did good service with the machine gun. He almost immediately got one of the three enemy airplanes and the girl saw the aviator and his machine—the latter on fire—go spinning down the airways to a dreadful fall.
She was in the midst of battle and sudden, awful death. This was far worse than anything she had dreamed of in all her field hospital experience.
The thundering of the trench cannon, the bursting of shells, the results of the earth conflict, were dwarfed by what she now saw.
Men fighting, almost hand to hand, in the unstable air! ”

“ Along the battlefront the great guns volleyed and thundered. It was growing dusk, but the glare from the lines, the flare of bombs and exploding shells, flouted the falling night.
Suddenly, in their rear, a great light burst skyward. The explosion crashed in the ears of the fugitives and Belinda would have fallen had her companion not held her up.
As they looked back the château from which they had so recently escaped, seemed to rise heavenward. The vibration of the disintegrating mass rocked the earth itself. ”

“ Ernest had tugged at his cloak. "What do you mean, you young dog? Can you not wait your turn?"
"They send me to the convalescent camp, Herr Doktor," the boy cried. "Then it will be back to the trenches soon—I know. I cannot stand it. I will not——"
"Be still!" commanded Doctor Herschall with a sudden calmness that should have warned even Ernest of his danger. "Can you not see I am speaking with the Herr Lieutenant Gessler?"
"He? He?" repeated Ernest in his shrill voice. "He is no more the flying-man than I am."
Belinda turned toward Sanderson, a look of terror in her eyes. ”

“ They all want to make love to me."
"The Herr Doktor?" he growled. "Herr Gott!"
"He is worse than any of you," she almost sobbed. "He haunted me at the hospital in New York. I was so glad to escape him when I got through there. And I confess one reason why I came to France was to escape Doctor Herschall's attentions. And here he is!"
"Ah!" said Paul morosely. "And this dog of a flying-man, Gessler. Has he fallen before you, too?"
"Hush, Paul! You make me feel horrid. Can I help it if all of you men are children? The wounded aviator is a gentleman. He does not offend me, at least." ”

“ Belinda said, "that he is a flying-man."
"Yes. Mr. Frank Sanderson. Quite famous, in a way. He fell with his plane over Van Cortlandt Park in the night. There must be something behind it—more than a mere practice flight, it would seem to me. They do not usually go up at night, do they?"
"I really do not know, Mrs. Blythe."
"Well, he is to have the best of everything. And so young a man!" sighed the matron, gazing down upon the face of the aviator. "Give him your best attention, Miss Melnotte. I really feel safe when I put a patient in your care. ”

“ When the girl bade the matron and her particular friends among the nursing staff good-by that last evening and left the hospital by the side exit with her bag, it was her fate to meet Doctor Herschall likewise going out. Or had he waited for her?
"We lose you, do we, Miss Belinda?" he said, taking her bag with his usual assurance. "We shall miss you—none more than I, Fräulein, I do assure you."
"You are very kind, Doctor," murmured the girl, wishing that she might rid herself of him. ”

“ These opinions had been shouted, of course, for the roaring of the motor and the wind whining through the stays of the aeroplane made an ordinary tone of conversation impossible.
"See here!" exclaimed Lefevre at last. "Isn't there anything you can reach it with and unhook the bomb?"
"Of course. Mother's clothes pole. Wait till I get it," scoffed Sanderson. "And if it could be unhooked, what then? It wouldn't do a bit of good down yonder," and he gestured toward the aviation camp in plain view. "Dropping bombs on one's own camp isn't done, you know, Lefevre—it really isn't done!" ”

“ Find me my little infirmier, Erard. I must have somebody who knows how to assist at a dressing. You are wasting my time."
"Ah, Belinda, why are you so cross?" cried the sergeant-major, with a pleading note in his voice. "Why so harsh with one who admires you so?"
"Tut, tut, Paul! Save your love making for village maidens," Belinda told him tartly. "Nor are we rehearsing a scene from a comic opera. This is serious business, this hospital work——"
"And I'd have you know," said Paul with sudden fierceness, "that I am serious, too, Cousin Belinda. ”

“ When one has long expected a certain disaster, even though it be one that can be averted by no act of the victim, a reprieve can scarcely be a greater relief than the shock of another, and utterly unexpected, catastrophe.
Belinda, day after day, had looked forward to the fatal moment when Doctor Herschall should stalk into her ward and discover with his piercing black eyes that "Nurse Genau" was Belinda Melnotte, who he must certainly know had left New York to be a Red Cross nurse in France. ”

“ It is always the way," sighed the matron. "We graduate so many more nurses than we can possibly use. But you will have small trouble in getting placed, my dear. So many are going into Red Cross work just now."
"I had thought of that," murmured Belinda dreamily.
"Not you!" the matron cried. "You have too much sense, I hope, my dear. Those who go to France for service on the battlefields take their lives in their hands."
"But so we do if we go into some of those East Side tenements to nurse contagious cases," the girl said quietly. ”

“ The nurse remembered suddenly about that other woman and "the kiddies." Sanderson thought of his brother's warning: "A man in your position has no business to try to tie up any woman's affections."
He released her hand and the lowered lashes hid from him the light that shone in Belinda's eyes.
"Mon Dieu!" said Aunt Roberta, aroused from her stupor, "if once we arrive in that so dear France, never will I step foot upon the sea again—non!"
"Pshaw!" interjected Captain Dexter, rejoining, them at this moment. "You mustn't mind a little thing like a submarine. ”

“ She went no more to look out; but she knew by the immediate silence that the hospital enclosure was deserted. In the distance was the rumble of heavy lorries dragging away the big guns to prevent their capture by the Germans, and the rattle of cannons and caissons as well, as the horses galloped to the rear with the batteries.
Men's lives were being poured out like water to save these guns from capture. The roll of the advancing German batteries drew nearer. ”

“ Old Minerva had been packed up, ready to leave, before the girl had started for the hospital.
"What has that to do with us, Erard?" the nurse demanded. "Our duty is here. They have not yet ordered the evacuation of our ward."
"Nor will they, Mademoiselle," cried the little infirmier. "These sales Boches! Let them lie! Let their own guns cut them to shreds! They shell the hospital now."
His shriek arose above that of the shell that landed within the hedge. A window was broken. Belinda ran to pick up the bits of glass and close the aperture as best she could against the draft. ”

“ His final words on this occasion startled the nurse into speaking.
"A flying machine, Doctor? Did he fall?"
"He came down, at least," growled Doctor Herschall. "Ach, these American airmen are mere amateurs! No training. Everything is haphazard in this country. Anybody reckless and bold enough is allowed to ascend in an aeroplane. Not like European methods—especially our own army methods. In Germany a man must be trained for his work ere he is allowed to pilot even a taube." ”

“ Jacob, Belinda's self-appointed helper, aroused the girl from the spell of fear under which she had fallen at sight of Doctor Herschall.
"Poor Ernest is suffering greatly, Fräulein," he said. "These boys! They should be at home with their mothers. It matters not so much that war takes us old fellows. It is crueler to the young."
The girl, recalled to her duty, hurried to the side of the lad. Ernest was not a patient youth. His disregard of her orders had brought on this attack of pneumonia that the doctor had now successfully combatted. ”

“ She's probably made desperate love to by an average of a patient a week. That's the meaning of my 'slam,' as you call it. It's just a bit of a warning, my boy," went on Miss Trivett cheerfully. "Beauty is more of a liability than an asset to a nurse—a nurse who is really in earnest, I mean. And Miss Melnotte does not scamp her work. Why, she is the most popular of us all with the surgical staff!"
Sanderson was quick to seize the opportunity to ask a question that had long been trembling on his lips. Yet he put it carelessly.
"That black-browed German seems to be mighty fond of her." ”