IN THE RED TRIANGLE HUT
NIGHT had come again. The work of the day was over, and weary khaki-clad
fighters could rest For they must be fit for the duties of the
succeeding day, which, like all recent ones, would bring its new
dangers, glories, and no doubt pain and death for untold numbers of
their fellows.
Still, in the camps where they were gathered that night, it would have
been hard to run across a single soldier who showed a sign of
discouragement or concern. Already they bore themselves with the mien of
veterans, ready to joke and laugh, and swarming to the Red Triangle huts
for a breath of entertainment, a glimpse of a rosy cheeked "home girl"
in the midst of all this ghastly business of tragic warfare.
There Tom found Jack and Harry when he turned up rather late that night.
He, too, had had a heavy and exciting though successful day's work in
the air, as had Jack. Nevertheless, on his return he had asked and
received permission to absent himself from quarters for a time.
Of course there was need of consultation with the accommodating hospital
nurse concerning the disposition of little Jeanne, the ward of the trio,
Jack, Tom, and Nellie, and Tom did not wish to neglect his duty--nor his
opportunity.
Late though it was, there still lingered a goodly crowd in the old
dugout once occupied by a number of German officers, but now taken
possession of by the girls and men who wore the uniforms of Y. M. C. A.
workers, when Tom reached it.
An old piano had somehow been brought along, and this was in almost
constant use, for numbers of the boys could play; and as for singing
there was an almost continuous chorus bawling out favorite songs, such
as "Over There," "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag," "When You
Come Back," and the like.
When some daring man ventured to play "Home, Sweet Home," however, not a
sound was heard; and apparently many of the loudest talkers found
something wonderfully important in the magazines they chanced to have
before them, to judge from the way they bent persistently over while
reading. But then no soldier wants his comrades to see that his eyes are
swimming in tears, as pictures of those at home dawn upon his vision.
Tom quickly found his two comrades, to be instantly met with a rush of
remarks that, however, fell from him as water would from a duck's back.
"You seem pretty happy, I must say!" observed Harry, grinning, for he
understood what an attraction that pretty sister of his was to Tom.
"Oh, everything looks lovely, and the goose hangs high, whenever Tom has
spent an hour in Nellie's company," Jack remarked, going on with the
teasing.
"Seems to me, Jack," said the object of this joking, "that you're in
something of the same box yourself. What important news did Bessie have
in that letter you got this evening, and which you thought I didn't see
you smuggle into your pocket on the sly?"
"Oh, I don't mind telling you," Jack announced smiling. "Meant to later
on anyway. Why, do you know, Bessie has become a Red Triangle worker
now, as she and her mother had been transferred to that service. She
said there was some talk of letting them come along here to the American
front, since Mrs. Gleason had expressed a wish to do her bit within
hearing of the guns."
"That sounds good to me, Jack," remarked Harry.
"Do you know," added Tom, "I had a suspicion there was a hen on in that
nest just from a remark Nellie made about hoping to see Bessie before
long. Wouldn't explain what she meant, either; so I reckon it's a put-up
job between the girls."
"Well, they have become quite fond of one another, you know," Jack
suggested.
Harry pretended to look huffed.
"All very fine," he grumbled; "but where do I come in, I'd like to
know?"
"Huh! what about some of those pretty French girls I've heard you raving
over, Harry? You might choose one and study French under her direction.
Plenty of our boys are doing it, and seem to be pleased."
"If it comes to the worst," added Jack, soberly, "he can wait for little
Jeanne to grow up. I imagine she's bound to be a peach one of these
days, and well worth waiting for, Harry. But, joking aside, Tom," he
continued, "what's doing over there with Nellie and our little charge?"
"Oh, she's making capital progress," came the quick reply. "Told me all
about it, you know."
"Sure thing, every word," put in Harry. "A whole hour it took, too, I
warrant. There must have been a heap to tell."
"She's already managed to get together quite a number of things for the
child," Tom went on to explain. "A pair of fairly decent shoes and some
material that one of the nurses will make into a dress, for she used to
be a seamstress over in the good old U. S. A. before the call came. Best
of all, Nellie has found just the family to leave our ward with."
"That's news worth while," asserted Jack. "What else do you know that's
interesting, old scout?"
"This family is named Desplanes," Tom continued. "They have a fine home
in Paris, from which they have been kept ever since the war began,
because of the Germans getting between. They are glad to take charge of
your little girl, Jack, since they mean to start immediately for the
capital, having only been able to get into our lines a few days back."
"Then that part of our job is settled, if you've got their Paris
address!" Jack exclaimed. "The other connected with the finding of
Helene is going to prove a harder task I reckon."
"Oh! I've picked up a bit of information in that direction," the
newcomer told them, an announcement which of course caused Jack to look
intensely interested.
He had often found himself repeating that sad message and picturing the
suffering of the poor woman who, in dying, did not know what would be
the fate of her twin children, thus rudely separated, the one to be
carried away by a remorseless relative and the other cast adrift in the
midst of the fighting zone.
And so when Tom hinted that fortune had allowed him to secure valuable
information connected with the abduction of Helene Anstey Jack's
interest leaped upward by bounds. The spirit of laughter passed, and he
was now only alert for news that would perhaps stand them in good stead.
"Was it about that man, Von Berthold, Tom?" he demanded.
"No other," came the answer. "Nellie gave me the tip, and I made some
inquiries of a prisoner she had picked out from among those who claimed
to be Lorrainers and fighting for Germany against their wishes, because
they were forced into it. She had dressed a wound for him, and had got
to talking with him. I was able to treat him to some cigarettes, and
also gave him a cake of chocolate on the sly; because that's really
against orders, you know. But he promised to nibble it in secret, and
not let any one see him."
"I'm really ashamed of you, Tom!" said Harry, shaking his forefinger in
a threatening fashion, and pretending to scowl. "A fine example to set
to other pilots in our unit, or any of the doughboys in fact. But then
you'll claim you had a good object in doing it; and of course
circumstances alter army rules, as well as ordinary cases. Go on, and
talk some more."
"Well, from this prisoner I learned that General von Berthold's first
name is really Anton, which you remember she used in telling of his
carrying little Helene off."
"We'll call that point settled, then," affirmed Jack decisively. "This
German officer whose brilliant work has often been mentioned in
dispatches to the Paris newspapers, is Jeanne's uncle. What else did you
pick up?"
"He's quartered right now in an old chateau on a height that overlooks
this whole sector of country, though some miles beyond the Argonne
forest," explained the one who was telling the story.
"For a short time only," grimly announced Harry, "because the doughboys
have got the Boche on the run, and before long we'll see him skipping
out for Sedan and the border. I suppose when this famous general does
have to give up his fine chateau he'll send it sky-high with explosives,
as they always do, so as to leave nothing that is French made to comfort
their enemies."
Tom nodded his head in assent.
"Do you know this Lorrainer told me that had already been arranged," he
hastened to say. "He himself had been one of a party of engineers to
plant terrible mines secretly in certain places under the walls, so the
whole building could be blown up in a flash. But that cunning old fox
managed it so that no one but himself knows how to start things moving."
"Why should he do a thing like that?" asked the puzzled Harry.
"Oh, it seems that a good many of the Boche soldiers have no particular
love for General von Berthold," Tom answered briskly, as though he had
anticipated that very question and was prepared to meet it.
"I see. He's afraid that if they chanced to know the combination,"
chuckled Harry Leroy, "they might be tempted some fine night, when he
was asleep in his featherbed, to give him a rise in the world, since no
one would be any the wiser. Yes, he's a sharp old duck, believe me!"
"I wonder," remarked Tom, "if he could have taken little Helene to that
chateau and is waiting for a chance to send her on to Munich, or some
other German capital."
"Do you know, I've got a big hunch that way, Tom!" Jack exclaimed. "And
I mean, for one, to take the very first chance that comes along to run
over back of the Hun lines so as to find if I can the chateau."
"Sainte Mershon, I learned the place is called," said Tom. "And I'll do
the same, boy."
"You said it was located on a height, so that it commanded an extensive
view, didn't you?"
"Yes, that's what the prisoner told me. Said it looked very much like a
lot of castles he knew about along the Rhine. We've all seen pictures of
those, so it's easy to guess what they resemble. But he also said the
building had been twice dynamited, though only one section was in
ruins."
"If either of us is lucky enough to make a find, remember, Tom, nothing
must be done until we've had a chance to talk matters over."
"Oh, sure thing," affirmed Tom. "I wouldn't dream of trying to cut in
and steal your thunder Jack. Jeanne is your find, and we're pals in this
game, as we've always been since we were kids together in the U. S. A.
When the hour strikes for General von Berthold to have uninvited guests
drop down on him from the skies, we'll be in cahoots, as usual. And you
may lead off."
Jack looked relieved. Apparently he had begun to suspect dimly that his
ambitious chum might have thought to cut the ground out from under his,
Jack's, feet, by planning a bold raid on the chateau, spurred on to such
a rash deed by his ardent desire to impress Nellie Leroy.
Tom began to stretch himself.
"Feeling some tired after such a rushing day's business," he told them,
in a vein of apology. "And I think, mates, I'll turn in after I've
munched a cake or two and had a drink of lemonade. Join me in a glass,
will you, Jack, Harry? I feel like treating to-night, I'm so perfectly
satisfied with the way things are going."
The other two exchanged looks and chuckles, which, however, Tom
pretended not to notice; for he had made up his mind not to be disturbed
any longer because of his comrades' jokes concerning his warm friendship
for Harry's sister. What boy among the tens of thousands of Americans in
that sector but would be pleased to have such a delightful "sister" with
whom to hold occasional interesting chats when opportunity arose?
They accepted the invitation, however, for really it was rather warm in
the Red Triangle dugout, mostly underground, just as the fleeing Hun
officers had left it when compelled to run. Somehow those enterprising
Y. M. C. A. workers managed to keep constantly on hand a supply of
certain articles deemed necessary to the comfort of the fighting men;
and lemons stood near the first in this preferred list.
When coming in on a hot day from hard work in the trenches, or after
creeping through tangled undergrowth where not a breath of breeze
stirred, with their nerves strained every second of the time, nothing
could revive the flagging energies more quickly than a lemonade mixed by
the dextrous fingers of a clever girl in khaki, a sunny smile on her
face, and a love for everything connected with America in her warm
heart.
Those huts erected by the Red Triangle corps, what oceans of comfort
they brought to the boys over there! Sometimes they were large and
commodious, possessing almost every conceivable means for gratifying the
normal appetite of a healthy-minded but tired and homesick soldier boy.
Then again it might be, as in the present instance, that circumstances
prevented any display, and the restoration bivouac had to be opened
under rather discouraging conditions, while the supplies also ran low,
for it was not easy to get them so far up along the line.
But the main thing was that there could be found the cheerful,
never-failing services of those who gave every minute of their time to
working for the boys wearing the khaki, and braving death itself under
Old Glory.
The night had up to then been fairly quiet.
Tired after the day's fighting, both armies lay down to rest, looking
forward to a renewal of hostilities when another day dawned. Doubtless
the retreating Huns would utilize this time in preparing many more of
the machine-gun nests, each of which was calculated to hold up the
advancing Americans for a certain period.
As for the Americans trying to advance during the night, that was
utterly out of the question, since under those trees a pall lay that
might hide any number of deadly traps, into which they, in their
ignorance, would surely stumble.
The three Air Service boys were still standing chatting with the girl in
khaki, whom they knew very well, and sipping their lemonade when,
without warning, there broke out a terrible din. The ground under their
feet seemed to shake with the force of an explosion, which they realized
must be quite near at hand.
Another explosion immediately followed, and then still more in irregular
succession. The boys had learned by now to tell what such explosions
signified, so they looked at each other aghast, and Jack cried out:
"The Huns are making an air raid on our lines back here! They must be in
great force, too, with all those bombs dropping! Tom, didn't it strike
you those explosions came mostly from the quarter where our Red Cross
field hospital lies?"
Tom felt a cold chill, the same thought having gripped him.