Ruth said nothing to Monsieur Lafrane, although she was startled. He had
had no idea, then, of taking her to the Dupay farm. She was somewhat
relieved by this discovery, although she was curious as to why she was
being carried to the chateau.
It was plain that their visit was expected. The great front door of the
old pile of masonry was wide open and a flaring, swinging lamp
illuminated the entrance hall, the light shining far across the flagging
before the door. As the girl had noted, there seemed no fear here at the
chateau of German night raiders, while the village of Clair lay like a
black swamp below the hill, not a lamp, even in the hospital, being
allowed to shine from windows or doorways there.
"Will you come in, Mademoiselle?" said the leader of the expedition
softly.
One of his companions got out, too, and him they left in the entrance
hall, standing grim and silent against the wall like an added piece of
ancient armor, of which there were several in sight, while the secret
agent and Ruth entered an apartment on the right.
It was a library--a long and lofty room, paneled with carved oak and
furnished in a wood quite as dark, the chairs and huge table being
massive. There were a few fine old pictures; but the bookshelves were
almost stripped of volumes. Ruth noted that but a few dozen remained.
The floor, too, was bare; yet by the stain on the boards she saw that
once a huge rug must have almost covered the room. Everything remaining
gave the apartment a stern and poverty-stricken air.
These things she noted at first glance. The countess was present, and it
was the countess who attracted Ruth's almost immediate attention.
She was quite as handsome and graceful as she had seemed when Ruth saw
her walking in the road. But now she was angry, and her head was held
high and her cheeks were deeply flushed. Her scant skirts swishing in
and out of the candlelight, she walked up and down the room beyond the
table, with something of the litheness of the caged tiger.
"And have you come back to repeat these things you have said about
Bessie?" she demanded in French of the secret agent.
"But, yes, Madame la Countess. It is necessary that you be convinced,"
he said respectfully.
"I cannot believe it. I resent your accusation of poor Bessie. She has
been with me for twenty years."
"It is so," said the man gravely. "And we cast no reflection upon her
faithfulness to you, Madame. But have you noted no change in her--of
late?"
"Ah, who has not been changed by the war?" murmured the countess,
stopping to look at them across the table. Then for the first time she
seemed to apprehend Ruth's presence. She bowed distantly. "Mademoiselle
Americaine," she murmured. "What is this?"
"I would ask the mademoiselle to tell you what she knows of the
connection of your servant with these men we are after," said the secret
agent briefly. Then he gestured for Ruth to speak.
The latter understood now what she had been brought here for. And she
was shrewd enough to see, too, that the French secret police thought the
countess entirely trustworthy.
Therefore Ruth began at the beginning and told of her suspicions aroused
against Legrand and José when still she was in America, and of all the
events which linked them to some plot, aimed against France, although
she, of course, did not know and was not likely to know what that plot
was.
The men were proven crooks. They were in disguise. And Ruth was positive
that José was closely associated with the old serving woman whom Ruth
had seen with the dog.
At mention of the greyhound the countess and the secret agent exchanged
glances. Ruth intercepted them; but she made no comment. She saw well
enough that there was a secret in that which she was not to know.
Nor did she ever expect to learn anything more about that phase of the
matter, being unblessed with second sight. However, in our next volume,
"Ruth Fielding at the War Front; Or, The Hunt for a Lost Soldier," she
was destined to gain much information on several points connected with
the old chateau and its occupants.
Now, however, she merely told the countess what the agent had asked her
to tell, including the fact that Bessie had been seen that afternoon
riding away from the chateau with the two criminals, Legrand and José.
Her testimony seemed to convince the lady of the chateau. She bowed her
head and wiped away the tears that moistened her now paling cheeks.
"_Ma foi!_ Who, then, is to be trusted?" she murmured, when the girl had
finished. "Your pardon, Monsieur! But, remember, I have had the poor
creature in my service for many years.
"I must accept all your story as true. The American mademoiselle
convinces me. This José, then, must be Bessie's nephew. I had heard of
him. I must thank her, perhaps, that she did not allow him and his
associate to rob me before she ran away. The apaches!"
"We will get them," said the agent cheerfully, preparing to depart. "I
leave men in the neighborhood. They will communicate with you--and you
can trust them. If the woman reappears alone we must question her. You
understand?" and he spoke with some sternness.
The countess nodded, having recovered her self-control. "I know my duty,
Monsieur," she said. Then to Ruth, putting forth her hand, she added:
"You have called and find me in sore trouble, my dear. Do I understand
that you work in our hospital at Clair?"
"Yes, Madame," replied the girl.
"Come to see me again, then--at a happier time." She pressed Ruth's hand
for a moment and went out. The secret service agent bowed low as she
disappeared. Then he said with admiration to Ruth:
"_Ma foi!_ A countess, say you? She should be a queen." Ah, this good
republican was quite plainly a lover of the aristocracy, too!
Ruth was whisked back to the hospital. On the way Monsieur Lafrane
assured her that she would be gratefully remembered by the French secret
police for what seemed to her, after all, a very simple thing.
The men were confident of soon apprehending Legrand and his companions.
"And then--the jug!" ejaculated the leader, using with gusto what he
fondly believed to be another Americanism.
It was not likely that Ruth would sleep much that night. Her mind was
greatly overwrought. But finally, about daylight, when she did fall into
a more or less refreshing sleep, an orderly came to her door and knocked
until she responded.
"Mademoiselle has waiting for her on the steps a visitor," he said, with
a chuckle. "She should come down at once."
"A visitor, Henri?" she cried. "Who can it be?"
"One young _Americaine_," he replied, and went away cheerfully humming a
tune.
"What can that Charlie Bragg want at this hour in the morning?" Ruth
murmured, yet hurrying her toilet. "Possibly he brings news of Tom!"
Down she ran to the court as soon as she was neat. A man was sitting on
the steps, leaning against the doorpost. It was not Charlie, for he was
in military uniform and she could see an officer's insignia. He was
asleep.
She saw as she left the stairway and crossed the entrance hall that he
wore his arm in a sling. She thought instantly of the unknown American
in Lyse Hospital who had lost his forearm. Then----
"Tom Cameron!" she cried, and sprang to his side.
The soldier awoke with a start. He looked up at her and grinned.
"Hullo, Ruthie," he observed. "Excuse this early call, but I might not
have another rest day for a long time. We're going into the
trenches--going to take over a sector of the French line, they say,
before long. So----
"Hullo! What's happened?"
"Your arm, Tom! You are wounded?" she gasped.
"Oh, shucks! Got a splinter of shell in it. Nothing much. Keeping it in
splints so it will mend quicker," he said.
"But your letter, Tom!" she cried, and there, in the early morning,
standing upon the hospital steps, she told him the story of the
happening that had so disturbed and troubled her.
"Don't that beat all!" exclaimed Tom. "I wondered what had happened to
that letter that I had just finished when I was called on duty. It was
Sam Hines who had his arm torn off--poor fellow. We heard from him. He's
getting on all right, but, of course, he'll have to go home.
"He must have picked up my letter, maybe to give it to me, knowing I had
forgotten it. Well, it's all right, Ruthie. I can tell you lots more
than was in that letter--and you've got a lot to tell me."
So they sat down, side by side, and related each to the other all their
adventures, while the great guns on the battle line boomed a rumbling
accompaniment to what was said.
THE END
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By ALICE B. EMERSON
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1. PEGGY AND MICHAEL OF THE COFFEE PLANTATION
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End of Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding In the Red Cross, by Alice B. Emerson