The Summons
Later in the same night, being unable to sleep, Mrs. Burton was aroused
by hearing the approach of another motor car. It must have been between
two and three o'clock in the dark hours before dawn when the earth is so
strangely quiet. Moreover, cars were not in the habit of passing Sunrise
camp at any hour, as it was too far from the main road to allure
travelers.
Mrs. Burton quietly slipped on her dressing gown and slippers in order
not to disturb her sister, who slept in the room with her. As she walked
to the front door she was under the impression that Gerry must have
returned home to camp and would wish to see her.
But outside it was so dark that for a moment she could see nothing. Then
at a little distance off she discovered two figures standing close
together. As Mrs. Burton drew nearer she recognized one of them as Dan
Webster, and as Dan was fully dressed he could not have been in bed
during the night. The other man was Lieutenant Carson.
[Illustration: As Mrs. Burton Drew Near She Recognized One of Them as
Dan Webster]
"Yes, I have been worried all night," she overheard Dan say. "I
persuaded mother to go to bed fairly early by telling her I would wait
for Billy. But after midnight when he did not come I have not known what
to do. I had no idea where to go to look for him. I was afraid something
had happened. Is the accident serious?"
"If it were not I would never have wakened you at such an hour,"
Lieutenant Carson answered. "Please break the news to your mother and
sister as quickly as you can and ask them to hurry. I brought over one
of our army cars, so there need be no delay. On the way to camp I will
tell you as much as I know."
Then Mrs. Burton stepped out of the shadow.
"Billy is hurt," she began, not asking a question, but stating a
conviction. "What has he done?" she hesitated, her voice breaking.
"He has done something so wonderful there is not a soldier in camp who
would not be proud to accomplish one-half so much. But he has been
injured and----" Lieutenant Carson tried to keep his own tones from
becoming husky.
"I'll see your mother, Dan," said Mrs. Burton. "Will you please waken
Vera and Peggy? If Billy is conscious when we arrive he will wish to
have Vera near him."
Within ten minutes the four women and Dan were on their way with
Lieutenant Carson to the army cantonment.
The lieutenant had asked Dan to drive the car during the first part of
the journey so that he might explain what had occurred.
"Yes, Mrs. Webster, your son is in our Red Cross hospital and everything
possible is being done for him. A doctor reached him almost at once. But
I wish I could tell you exactly what happened. As it is I can only
repeat the story the little chap told himself. No one knows anything
else, but he has been perfectly conscious all along and I am told is not
suffering a great deal," Lieutenant Carson faltered, wishing that the
task in which he was engaged had fallen to some one else.
"Please tell us everything you can," Peggy urged. "I feel my mother had
best know the truth before we reach Billy."
"As far as I could find out there have been two laborers employed at our
camp who are traitors. In spite of all the official red tape and
investigations, your son Billy seems to have been the only person who
discovered the fact. The little fellow apparently called himself a
pacifist and made friends with the men. Anyhow they must have believed
he sympathized with them, for he has been watching them for some time. I
don't know how long, I am having to guess a part of this. But they must
have finally decided he was one of them, as they allowed him to find out
their secrets. It is amazing. I don't see how he managed!"
"But you have not yet told us how Billy chanced to be at your camp
tonight and how he came to be hurt, Lieutenant Carson," Peggy pleaded,
knowing that the same thought was in all their minds.
"Billy knew there was mischief brewing without knowing exactly what the
ruffians were planning to do, at least, that is the way I understand
the facts," the young officer continued. "But it seems that when he had
followed them to their meeting place earlier in the evening, he found
out they had placed a bomb in one of our big buildings at camp which was
set to go off at a certain hour tonight. Billy says he made the men
believe he considered this a great idea, otherwise they would never have
allowed him to escape. He seems to have had the nerve to get up and
spout a little speech on pacifism before about half a dozen of them. I
believe he said that if only the men managed to destroy our war camps,
the United States would never be able to enter the war in Europe and so
peace would soon have to be declared as the Allies couldn't go on
without America's aid. Anyhow, after a while they let the little fellow
go and he pretended to be starting for home. But instead he made for our
camp.
"Perhaps he could have managed better. What I should have done in his
place I don't know; but he was a little chap up against a pretty big
proposition. He did not know how to get the news to camp unless he told
some one out here what was about to take place. He was trying to slip
into camp with his news when one of our sentries shot him. He was just
able to tell the soldier who picked him up what his business was
and--well, we found the infernal machine where he told us to look for
it. And God only knows how many lives Billy has saved!"
"But my son will live?" Mrs. Webster inquired, with the quiet fortitude
which comes now and then to some of us in the really great moments of
our lives.
"I don't know, Mrs. Webster," Lieutenant Carson answered honestly. "I
was only ordered to bring you to camp as quickly as possible."
Then the young officer took charge of the car, as he was more familiar
with the road than Dan.
The southern dawn which Billy had learned to love in these past weeks
was breaking into pale lavender and rose when the army automobile
arrived at camp.
A good many of the soldiers were walking about, not caring to go back to
sleep after what had occurred. More of them than one would imagine
remembered seeing Billy about camp in the past few weeks, the delicate
young fellow with the extraordinary blue eyes. Lucky thing for them that
he had been around, but hard on him!
Captain Mason and Major Anderson, two of the officers who were friends
of Mrs. Burton's, came forward to meet her and Mrs. Webster.
They led the way to the hospital, with the girls and Dan and Lieutenant
Carson following.
"Your son has been asking for you, Mrs. Webster, only he said you were
not to be frightened about him and we were not to let you know what had
happened until breakfast time," Major Anderson remarked with that same
huskiness in his voice which Lieutenant Carson had been unable to
conceal. "This war has made many heroes and will make many more, but I
don't know of a finer thing than your son has done. He must have known
the risk he ran when he came out here alone tonight on such an errand."
At the door of the hospital, which was only a wooden house with a Red
Cross flag outside, the doctor met the little company.
"You will be as quiet as you can and try not to excite him," he said,
and there was something in his voice which made all questioning
impossible.
Then Mrs. Webster and Dan and Peggy went inside the little hospital.
Within a few moments Dan came out again with his head bowed and went
away by himself without speaking.
"Will it be many hours, Doctor?" Mrs. Burton inquired.
The doctor shook his head.
"Not many."
Mrs. Burton was standing with her arm about Vera Lagerloff, feeling
Vera's grief almost as deeply as her own. Without a tie of blood,
without the right to be near him which his family had, Vera was yet
closer to Billy in many ways than any other human being in the world.
"You shall see him soon, dear," Mrs. Burton murmured.
Vera nodded.
"Billy will send for me; there will be so many things he will wish to
say," she replied and her tone was one of love and understanding.
"I don't think I can get on without Billy afterwards, Mrs. Burton. No
one else has realized how wonderful he was, what beautiful things he was
planning to do with his life." Vera was shivering so Mrs. Burton could
only hold her more closely.
"I know, dear, and yet how could one do more than Billy has done?
Greater love hath no man than this that he lay down his life for his
friend. Billy's friends, remember, were never merely the few people he
knew; his idea of friendship was a bigger thing than ours."
"Billy wishes to speak to you, Tante, and to Vera," Peggy said at this
instant appearing at the open door. "Don't be unhappy at seeing him. He
is not frightened and yet he understands perfectly he has only a little
while."
Billy was lying on a cot with a nurse on one side of him and his mother
on the other, but, except for this, looking much as he usually did.
His face was paler and the blue eyes even wider open, yet for once in
his life they seemed to have lost their questioning look.
"I promised you not to get into mischief, Tante. Well, this is the last
time; at least, I suppose it is my last. But after all one does not
know; there may be other chances over there."
Billy was trying to smile and Mrs. Burton leaned over and kissed him.
"I know there will be, Billy, and you will take them as gallantly as you
have done this one. Don't worry, old chap, I'll look after your mother
and Peggy."
Then she turned away.
Vera had kneeled down and was hiding her face in the bed clothes.
It was to her Billy turned like a little boy.
"Please look at me, Vera, and tell me you are sorry. It was like me to
do the right thing in the wrong way, wasn't it? Yet there are so many
things I want to say, want to explain to people. You see it is all a
question of our learning to understand each other better to end fighting
and all the rest of it. You believed in me, didn't you, Vera? Yet you
understand that I could not let the soldiers out here be killed when
they are getting ready to give their lives for ours. What is that we
read about Christ the other day, Vera?"
Vera held Billy's two hands folded closely in her own.
"Listen, dear, and remember this:
"'Christ is courage, Christ is adventure, he fights for us and with us
against death.'"