Chapter 23
CHAPTER XXIII. THE WARK OF A HUN BOMB The fall and the shock of the exploding bomb, which had been dropped from an enemy plane, wrecking the house, had dazed Grace Harlow, and for a long time she lay in the cellar, protected by the timbers of the floor, one end of which had settled down into the cellar, with the other end clinging tightly to the wall to which it had been originally anchored.
Grace finally sat up, felt her head, and wondered where she was. Her faculties returned to her in a flash of remembrance. "'The house was hit!' she exclaimed under her breath. What was that? Someone was crying softly, uttering low, heart-breaking sobs, and evidently seeking to suppress them. Who is it? called Captain Grace.
Marie. Marie was the second of the daughters of the woman she had taken to the emergency hospital. Are you hurt again? Yes, mademoiselle. Where? In my leg.
I will see if I can get to you. Wait, if I haven't lost it, I have a light. Grace drew her flash lamp and pressed the button, but no light came. The lamp evidently had been broken in the fall. Too bad, but never mind, Marie.
If the rest of the house doesn't fall on us, we shall be all right, so long as we are here, she added under her breath. Crawling on all fours, groping cautiously, she picked her way over rubbish and wreckage to the opposite side of the cellar and found the girl. Marie had been wounded in the leg, presumably by a piece of the wreckage.
Grace bandaged the wound and made a pillow for the girl with her own gas mask. Grace did not believe anyone knew that she was in the house, and that therefore her chances of being rescued were not encouraging. Daylight came soon after the explosion, and with it Captain Thomas discovered that Captain Grace was missing.
He set to work at once to look for her. Failing to find anyone who had seen her, he ingenuously began with the patients in the hospital, questioning them as to who brought them in. When he got to Marie's mother, he had the answer to his question.
She told him that the young woman had gone back for her daughters, but that neither Grace nor the daughters had come to the hospital. Captain Thomas went down the street at a run and had located the house when some distance from it. Climbing over the wreckage, he shouted Grace Harlow's name again and again,
but there was no answer. They are in there, probably dead, but I can't take anything for granted. I must help quickly, he cried. Assistance was not easy to get in the circumstances,
though there were many soldiers in St. Sous-Pleu waiting for the engineers to erect a bridge so they could cross the river. Four times had their bridge been shot from under them, but the engineers each time began their work over again and were still at it. The Red Cross man ran out to the edge of the town
and finally found a captain whom he knew. I've got to have assistance, Captain, he cried. "'How many men, and what for?' demanded the captain. "'A company, a whole regiment if you can spare them. "'One of my best workers, a woman, the bravest of the brave,
"'is under a house that was smacked this morning. "'An American woman, captain.' "'What the American infantry captain said in reply is not recorded in history. "'What he did do was to order a company, two hundred and fifty men,
to place themselves at the Red Cross man's service and double-time it to the scene. The infantry captain marched them to the house on the run. When those doughboys understood that it was a woman, an American woman who was under the wreckage,
they worked like wild men. They could not have been held back by enemy shells or machine-gun fire. All day they worked on the wreckage, until four o'clock that afternoon, when Captain Thomas, renewing his shouting, received a response.
She's alive, he cried. Dig, you fighting devils. Dig as if it were the Kaiser himself that you were after. Uttering a cheer, the doughboys did dig, cautioned by their officers to be careful
as they enlarged the hole through which it was hoped to rescue the imprisoned Red Cross woman. Steady now, warned Captain Thomas. What is your position down there? He called to Grace.
Protected by the floor, perfectly secure unless the other end of the floor gives way. Dig down from the front of the house, but don't disturb the rear. We are liable to be smashed flat if you let the floor down on us. They heeded her warning and began at the front, throwing stones and timbers into the streets. The enemy was still hurling shells into the town and now and then spraying the streets with machine-gun fire.
There was plenty of activity in the air, but the doughboys gave no heed, even if they heard. The fact that an American woman was down there was all sufficient for them. I have a case down here, finally called Grace, who, up to this time, had kept under cover lest something fall on her and finish the job. Please send a couple of men down. She can't help herself.
Captain Thomas was the first to let himself down into the hole. He grasped Grace by both hands. Thank God, he exclaimed. Thank you too, sir. The old woman's younger daughter is here.
I think the other one is buried somewhere in the wreckage. The captain shook his head. She was blown out into the street. Gone west, questioned Grace. Yes.
Another black mark against those fiends, muttered the Overton girl. This one has two wounds in the same leg, so please handle her gently. How do you do, buddies? She said, smiling at the two soldiers who had come down to her assistance. Sorry to have you go to all this trouble for me when you have so many things of greater importance on your hands.
It's the surest thing you know that we haven't, miss, was the hearty reply. Not another little thing doing when a girl from God's country is needing our help. They lifted Marie out as gently as possible. Then Captain Thomas sought to assist Grace, who thanked him and said she could manage it alone very nicely. Reaching the top she saluted the infantry captain, who shook hands with her and congratulated her on the work she had done.
Captain Thomas having told him briefly of Grace's having volunteered to come to St. Soutre and what she had accomplished since arriving there. What is the situation, Captain? she questioned, turning to the Red Cross man. Still at it, but the situation is improving. Getting the wounded assembled and under treatment. Evacuating civilians from the town as rapidly as possible.
Kitchen's expected up some time this evening, if the Bosches don't blow them off the map. Plenty of work to be done, however, and will be for some days to come. The boys will be going over the river early to-morrow morning, if not sooner. I think you had best go back, Mrs. Gray. You have had about enough, and more than one woman ought to be able to stand up under.
Go back, Captain! exclaimed Grace. I shall not do that unless I am ordered to do so until we have finally solved this human problem. This is our real work, ours to undo, so far as we can, the wrongs that the cruel Huns have inflicted
on the long-suffering people of St. Soutre. Very good, Mrs. Gray, but if I see you flinching, back you go, warned the captain with well-assumed sternness. As a matter of fact, he did not wish to lose his one-woman assistant, who was a tower of strength to him and to the little group of volunteers who had come over with him. Grace worked until late.
It was on one of her rounds carrying food to those who were unable to go for it themselves, for the field kitchens had come up and were serving, that she discovered a figure on the opposite side of the street that looked strangely familiar to her. The man who had attracted her attention was in the uniform of a private of the American Expeditionary Force. He was wearing the armband of a messenger, a runner, but, as Grace observed, he was moving rather too deliberately for a runner. Putting down the kettle of soup that she was carrying, Grace Harlow skulked along in the shadow of the buildings until she was abreast of him. "'I knew it!' exclaimed Captain Grace, the moment she got a look at his profile in the faint light.
"'In an American uniform, too. I wonder what that gentleman is up to now?' Grace decided to follow him and find out what the fellow was doing, which she did, and the further she went in her quest, the more convinced did she become that the man was acting suspiciously. She saw him halt and pick up the handkerchief that he had dropped, but in reality, she believed, to permit him to take a quick glance about him
to see if he were observed. The next instant he stepped quickly between two buildings. The Overton girl waited a moment, then slipped into the outer end of what in reality was an alley, just in time to see the fellow going out at the rear end. Quick, buddy, come with me.
She called softly to a doughboy who, rifle in hand, was hugging the wall of a building nearby. He might have been on duty, and probably was, but he responded quickly to her hail. What is it, miss? Can you come with me? I'm following a man. I'll explain later. Sure thing.
She ran on ahead after cautioning him to proceed quietly, peered out at the other end of the alley and beckoned to her companion. "'He is heading for the river, further up the stream,' she whispered. "'Come.' The man had quickened his pace, and they had done the same,
Grace and the doughboy screened by one of the many hedges that were to be found everywhere on this sector. Soon they were obliged to run to keep up with him, nor did the chase stop until he reached the bank of the river. "'He's going in,' whispered Grace,
as the fellow began stripping off his blouse, but still they waited. What shall I do? questioned the soldier in a whisper. Wait.
There he goes. Stop him. Halt. The click of a rifle bolt punctuated the command. Come back here and give an account of yourself
unless you were thinking of committing suicide. The fellow halted, hesitated, searched with his eyes for the owner of the voice, then turned and plunged into the river. Quick as he was, however,
the soldier was quicker and a rifle bullet went through the man's shoulder before he struck the water. The doughboy, tossing his rifle aside, was in the water in a twinkling after the man who was floundering and crying for help. Come out of there. This looks bad for you, Mr. Man. I'm hit, Monsieur. Let me go. I'll have you taken up for this. Of course you're hit. Lucky you didn't get it through the head. What has this fellow done, miss? He may have done a great deal.
Please take him to headquarters and let the colonel decide what is to be done with him. Before starting out for the village, Grace dressed the man's wounds, he pretending not to recognise her, though she knew very well that he did. The USA headquarters had been established at the city hall, where Grace and her companion hailed the man and turned him over to an intelligence officer. We caught this man trying to cross the river to the enemy line, sir,
Grace Harlow informed him. I discovered him on the street in our uniform, and knowing him I suspected the fellow at once. Who is he? demanded the intelligence captain. His name is Faroe.
He is supposed to be a Belgian, and has been employed for some time about the field hospital where I have been working. I have suspected that he was not all that he seemed, and that he has had something to do with certain attempts on my own life,
but I haven't now, nor have I had, the slightest information to base that suspicion on. "'Ferro,' exclaimed the captain sharply. "'So, thank you. What is your name and station? You are a Red Cross woman?'
Grace said she was, and gave him her name and station as requested, explaining that the doughboy with her had shot Ferro while the latter was trying to escape the river. You have done well, Madam Grey. This man was discovered two nights ago
placing a bomb in the motor of an ambulance at a field hospital but he got away before they could land him. We were warned to be on the lookout for him as he is believed to be one of a group of enemy agents who have been giving us a great deal of trouble.
The work those fellows have been doing is the lowest form of fiendishness that could be imagined. "'Tell me what you know about him. "'Might it not be wise to remove him, sir?' "'For answer, the officer, with a wave of the hand,
"'sent the fellow into another room under guard, "'following which Grace related the story of her narrow escapes, "'that she believed to be due to enemy agencies, "'then handed him the message which she had found in her helmet. "'Good. This is evidence.
I thank you, Mrs. Gray, and congratulate you. I shall mention your part in this affair in my report. I hope to wring a confession from him, in which event, if it will be any satisfaction to you, I shall be glad to tell you of the result
so far as it bears on your own experiences. Thank you, sir, answered the Overton girl, who, after saluting, went out in search of her kettle of soup. End of chapter 23 Recording by Ashley Jane
