“You’ll have about as much use for grenades as I have for pink eye,” he
said almost savagely. “I don’t like to criticize, Miss Tish, and I must
say I think to this point we’ve made good. But when I see you stocking
up with grenades instead of cigarettes, and giving every indication of
being headed for the Rhine, I feel that it is time to ask what next?”
“Have you any complaint about the last few weeks?” Tish inquired coldly.
“Well, if we continue to leave a trail of depredations behind us——
It’s bad enough to have a certain person think I’m a slacker, but if she
gets the idea that I’m a first-class second-story worker I’m done,
that’s all.”
Fortunately Aggie announced luncheon just then.
Every incident of that luncheon is fixed clearly in my mind, because of
what came after it. We had indeed penetrated close to the Front, as was
shown by the number of shells which fell in it while we ate. The dirt
from one, in fact, quite spoiled the floating island, and we were
compelled to open a can of peaches to replace it. It was while we were
drinking our after-dinner coffee that Tish voiced the philosophy which
upheld her.
“When my hour comes it will come,” she said calmly. “Viewed from that
standpoint the attempts of the enemy to disturb us become
amusing—nothing more.”
“Exactly,” said Mr. Burton, skimming some dust from the last explosion
out of his coffee cup. “Amusing is the word. Funny, I call it. Funny as
a crutch. Why, look who’s here!”
There was a young officer riding up the valley rapidly. I remember Tish
taking a look at him and then saying quickly: “Lizzie, go and close the
floor of the ambulance. Don’t run. I’ll explain later.”
Well, the officer rode up and jumped off his horse and saluted.
“Some of our fellows said you were trapped here, Miss Carberry,” he
said. “I didn’t believe it at first. It’s a bad place. We’ll have to get
you out somehow.”
“I’m not anxious to get out.”
“But,” he said, and stared at all of us—“you are—— Do you know that
our trenches are just beyond this hill?”
“I wish you’d tell the Germans that; they seem to think they are in this
valley.”
He laughed a little and said: “They ought to make you a general, Miss
Carberry.” He then said to Mr. Burton: “I’d like to speak to you for a
moment.”
Looking back I believe that Tish had a premonition of trouble then, for
during their conversation aside she got out her knitting, always with
her an indication of perturbation or of deep thought, and she spoke
rather sharply to Aggie about rinsing the luncheon dishes more
thoroughly. Aggie said afterward that she herself had felt at that time
that peculiar itching in the palms of her hands which always with her
presages bad news.
“If he asks about those grenades, Lizzie, you can reply. Say you don’t
know anything about them. That’s the truth.”
“I know where they are,” I said with some acidity. “And what’s more, I
know I’m not going to ride a foot in that ambulance with that
concentrated extract of hell under my feet.”
“Lizzie——”
She began sternly, but just then the two men came back, and the
officer’s face was uncomfortable.
“I—from your demeanor,” he said, “and—er—the fact that you haven’t
mentioned it I rather gather that you have not heard the er—the news,
Miss Carberry.”
“I didn’t see the morning papers,” Tish said with the dry wit so
characteristic of her.
“You have a nephew, I understand, at the Front?”
Tish’s face suddenly grew set and stern.
“Have—or had?” she asked in a terrible voice.
“Oh, it’s not so bad as all that. In fact, he’s a lot safer just now
than you are, for instance. But it’s rather unfortunate in a way too. He
has been captured by the enemy.”
Aggie ran to her then with the blackberry cordial, but Tish waved her
away.
“A prisoner!” she said. “A nephew of mine has allowed himself to be
captured by the Germans? It is incredible!”
“Lots of us are doing it,” he said. “It’s no disgrace. In fact, it’s a
mark of courage. A fellow goes farther than he ought to, and the first
thing he knows he’s got a belt of bayonet points, and it is a time for
discretion.”
“Leave me, please,” Tish said majestically. “I am ashamed. I am humbled.
I must think.”
Shortly after that she called us back and said: “I have come to this
conclusion: The situation is unbearable and must be rectified. Do you
know where he is enduring this shameful captivity?”
“I wouldn’t take it too hard, Miss Tish,” said the officer. “He’s very
comfortable, as we happen to know. One of our runners got back at dawn
this morning. He said he left your nephew in the church at V——,
playing pinochle with the German C. O. The runner was hidden in the
cellar under the church, and he said the C. O. had lost all his money
and his Iron Cross, and was going to hold Captain Sands until he could
win them back.”
He then urged her, the moment night fell, to retire from our dangerous
position, and to feel no anxiety whatever.
“If I know him,” were his parting words, “he’ll pick that German as
clean as a chicken. Pinochle will win the war,” he added and rode away.
During the remainder of the afternoon Tish sat by herself, knitting and
thinking. It was undoubtedly then that she formed the plan which in its
execution has brought us so much hateful publicity, yet without which
the town of V—— might still be in German hands.