"WOUNDED AND MISSING"
"Battered but Not Broken" was the headline in Monday's paper, and Susan
repeated it over and over to herself as she went about her work. The
gap caused by the St. Quentin disaster had been patched up in time, but
the Allied line was being pushed relentlessly back from the territory
they had purchased in 1917 with half a million lives. On Wednesday the
headline was "British and French Check Germans"; but still the retreat
went on. Back--and back--and back! Where would it end? Would the line
break again--this time disastrously?
On Saturday the headline was "Even Berlin Admits Offensive Checked,"
and for the first time in that terrible week the Ingleside folk dared
to draw a long breath.
"Well, we have got one week over--now for the next," said Susan
staunchly.
"I feel like a prisoner on the rack when they stopped turning it," Miss
Oliver said to Rilla, as they went to church on Easter morning. "But I
am not off the rack. The torture may begin again at any time."
"I doubted God last Sunday," said Rilla, "but I don't doubt him today.
Evil cannot win. Spirit is on our side and it is bound to outlast
flesh."
Nevertheless her faith was often tried in the dark spring that
followed. Armageddon was not, as they had hoped, a matter of a few
days. It stretched out into weeks and months. Again and again
Hindenburg struck his savage, sudden blows, with alarming, though
futile success. Again and again the military critics declared the
situation extremely perilous. Again and again Cousin Sophia agreed with
the military critics.
"If the Allies go back three miles more the war is lost," she wailed.
"Is the British navy anchored in those three miles?" demanded Susan
scornfully.
"It is the opinion of a man who knows all about it," said Cousin Sophia
solemnly.
"There is no such person," retorted Susan. "As for the military
critics, they do not know one blessed thing about it, any more than you
or I. They have been mistaken times out of number. Why do you always
look on the dark side, Sophia Crawford?"
"Because there ain't any bright side, Susan Baker."
"Oh, is there not? It is the twentieth of April, and Hindy is not in
Paris yet, although he said he would be there by April first. Is that
not a bright spot at least?"
"It is my opinion that the Germans will be in Paris before very long
and more than that, Susan Baker, they will be in Canada."
"Not in this part of it. The Huns shall never set foot in Prince Edward
Island as long as I can handle a pitchfork," declared Susan, looking,
and feeling quite equal to routing the entire German army
single-handed. "No, Sophia Crawford, to tell you the plain truth I am
sick and tired of your gloomy predictions. I do not deny that some
mistakes have been made. The Germans would never have got back
Passchendaele if the Canadians had been left there; and it was bad
business trusting to those Portuguese at the Lys River. But that is no
reason why you or anyone should go about proclaiming the war is lost. I
do not want to quarrel with you, least of all at such a time as this,
but our morale must be kept up, and I am going to speak my mind out
plainly and tell you that if you cannot keep from such croaking your
room is better than your company."
Cousin Sophia marched home in high dudgeon to digest her affront, and
did not reappear in Susan's kitchen for many weeks. Perhaps it was just
as well, for they were hard weeks, when the Germans continued to
strike, now here, now there, and seemingly vital points fell to them at
every blow. And one day in early May, when wind and sunshine frolicked
in Rainbow Valley and the maple grove was golden-green and the harbour
all blue and dimpled and white-capped, the news came about Jem.
There had been a trench raid on the Canadian front--a little trench
raid so insignificant that it was never even mentioned in the
dispatches and when it was over Lieutenant James Blythe was reported
"wounded and missing."
"I think this is even worse than the news of his death would have
been," moaned Rilla through her white lips, that night.
"No--no--'missing' leaves a little hope, Rilla," urged Gertrude Oliver.
"Yes--torturing, agonized hope that keeps you from ever becoming quite
resigned to the worst," said Rilla. "Oh, Miss Oliver--must we go for
weeks and months--not knowing whether Jem is alive or dead? Perhaps we
will never know. I--I cannot bear it--I cannot. Walter--and now Jem.
This will kill mother--look at her face, Miss Oliver, and you will see
that. And Faith--poor Faith--how can she bear it?"
Gertrude shivered with pain. She looked up at the pictures hanging over
Rilla's desk and felt a sudden hatred of Mona Lisa's endless smile.
"Will not even this blot it off your face?" she thought savagely.
But she said gently, "No, it won't kill your mother. She's made of
finer mettle than that. Besides, she refuses to believe Jem is dead;
she will cling to hope and we must all do that. Faith, you may be sure,
will do it."
"I cannot," moaned Rilla, "Jem was wounded--what chance would he have?
Even if the Germans found him--we know how they have treated wounded
prisoners. I wish I could hope, Miss Oliver--it would help, I suppose.
But hope seems dead in me. I can't hope without some reason for it--and
there is no reason."
When Miss Oliver had gone to her own room and Rilla was lying on her
bed in the moonlight, praying desperately for a little strength, Susan
stepped in like a gaunt shadow and sat down beside her.
"Rilla, dear, do not you worry. Little Jem is not dead."
"Oh, how can you believe that, Susan?"
"Because I know. Listen you to me. When that word came this morning the
first thing I thought of was Dog Monday. And tonight, as soon as I got
the supper dishes washed and the bread set, I went down to the station.
There was Dog Monday, waiting for the train, just as patient as usual.
Now, Rilla, dear, that trench raid was four days ago--last Monday--and
I said to the station-agent, 'Can you tell me if that dog howled or
made any kind of a fuss last Monday night?' He thought it over a bit,
and then he said, 'No, he did not.' 'Are you sure?' I said. 'There's
more depends on it than you think!' 'Dead sure,' he said. 'I was up all
night last Monday night because my mare was sick, and there was never a
sound out of him. I would have heard if there had been, for the stable
door was open all the time and his kennel is right across from it!' Now
Rilla dear, those were the man's very words. And you know how that poor
little dog howled all night after the battle of Courcelette. Yet he did
not love Walter as much as he loved Jem. If he mourned for Walter like
that, do you suppose he would sleep sound in his kennel the night after
Jem had been killed? No, Rilla dear, little Jem is not dead, and that
you may tie to. If he were, Dog Monday would have known, just as he
knew before, and he would not be still waiting for the trains."
It was absurd--and irrational--and impossible. But Rilla believed it,
for all that; and Mrs. Blythe believed it; and the doctor, though he
smiled faintly in pretended derision, felt an odd confidence replace
his first despair; and foolish and absurd or not, they all plucked up
heart and courage to carry on, just because a faithful little dog at
the Glen station was still watching with unbroken faith for his master
to come home. Common sense might scorn--incredulity might mutter "Mere
superstition"--but in their hearts the folk of Ingleside stood by their
belief that Dog Monday knew.