CAPTAIN VON BRENNER'S SISTER
The major turned immediately to Ruth, drawing his brother forward.
"Mademoiselle Ruth Fielding, Allaire. The Count Marchand," he
whispered formally. "You understand, from my message by Bubu, Allaire,
for what reason the lady has taken this arduous journey, do you not?"
"But yes," rejoined his brother. "Bubu safely arrived. I have not yet
sent him back."
"But Tom--Lieutenant Cameron? What of him?" Ruth asked anxiously.
"Have no present fear, Fraulein," said the count in German. "He has
not yet been allowed to return to his rooms at the hotel in Merz. That
is all."
"He is a prisoner at the house up yonder, yes?" the major asked, with a
shrug.
"Not a prisoner. A guest," replied the count. "General Stultz is
still friendly. The Hauptman von Brenner," and he smiled, "is teaching
the general some American card game, I believe. The whole staff is
card-crazy. They have little else to do but play."
"And what plans have you already made for Fraulein Ruth?" queried Major
Marchand.
"While she remains under this roof she will pass as Frau Krause's
niece. But in the morning she will be furnished an outfit I have
secured, and she shall enter Merz as a very different person."
"Oh, dear!" murmured Ruth. "Another disguise?"
"You could scarcely continue in your present dress and escape
discovery--by daylight," the count said dryly.
This fact was, of course, patent. Ruth was only too glad that the
voluminous cloak covered her completely.
The count led her up two flights of stairs to a tiny, neat chamber
under the roof. It was evidently a domestic's bedroom.
"Put the uniform outside the door, Fraulein, when you remove it. It
must be hidden," whispered the count. "You will find night apparel on
the chair. The good Frau Krause has thought of everything."
This, indeed, seemed to be the fact when Ruth awoke from her sound
sleep at mid-forenoon. She might not have aroused then had there not
been an insistent tapping on the door.
"_Ja_? _Herein_!" exclaimed Ruth, not too sleepy to remember her
German.
A broad face surmounted by a cap, then the woman--quite a motherly
looking person--appeared. "I am to help the Fraulein dress," announced
Frau Krause, smiling.
"If you will be so kind," the girl agreed.
What she had not noticed when she went to bed was an open trunk heaped
with clothing--both for under and outer wear. The rich and "stuffy"
gown was typically German, and so was the plumed hat.
Ruth was sitting, with her hat on, in the little dining-room of the
cottage over her pot of substitute coffee, rye bread and schmierkäse,
when a private and almost noiseless auto-car rolled up to the door.
She went out and entered it quite alone, and they were out of the
Marchand estate by a rear exit and on the highway to Merz before Ruth
discovered that the capped and goggled chauffeur was none other than
Count Allaire Marchand himself.
In a stretch of the road where there was no traffic and few houses in
sight, he half turned in his seat and told Ruth in brisk, illuminating
sentences what she was to do.
It sounded easy, providing she aroused no suspicion in the breasts of
those whom she met. The supposed character of Captain von Brenner's
sister would enable her to treat everybody in a distant and haughty
manner.
"But be careful of your German, Fraulein," urged the count. "Make no
error in your speech. Deny yourself to everybody until your brother
appears. After your first outburst of anger and alarm, when you arrive
at the hotel, retire to the rooms he engaged for you, and refuse to
discuss the matter with anybody.
"It is, as you Americans say, one grand game of bluff. It can be
carried through by no other means. Remember what I have told you to
tell your brother. To-night at nine, or to-morrow night at nine, I
will be in waiting with the car. This is absolutely all my brother and
I can do for you."
In a few minutes the car rolled into the principal street of Merz.
Just beyond the great, glass-roofed building, wherein in happier times
the visitors went daily to drink the medicated waters, was the hotel.
A rheumatic old woman with a sash, who acted as carriage opener, with a
young boy for porter, met "Captain von Brenner's sister." In the hall
the corpulent host bowed before her.
"Captain von Brenner?" queried Ruth. "I am his sister."
Mine host paled. His eyes grew round with wonder.
"What it the matter with you?" asked the girl impatiently. "Are you
dumb?"
"He is not here, mein Fraulein," chattered the man.
"Send for him, then. And show me to the suite he engaged for me."
"Fraulein! Pardon!" gasped the innkeeper. "We did not understand.
That is--it was---- We thought he would not return."
"What?"
"And that--that the _gnädiges Fraulein_ would not come."
"Idiot!" exclaimed Ruth, revealing an excellent semblance of rage.
"You have relet my rooms?"
"But you may occupy the Herr Hauptman's," burst out the browbeaten
Innkeeper.
"And where is Captain von Brenner?"
It all came out at one gush of chattering information. The captain had
been sent for by the Herr General Stultz. He had already been away
three days. It was whispered he was arrested.
After her first show of annoyance Ruth seemed to recover her
self-possession. She listened more quietly to the explanation of the
excited hotel man. Then she demanded to be shown to her "brother's"
rooms.
There she sat down and wrote quite a long letter to Tom Cameron in the
character of his sister, "Mina von Brenner." She was sure Tom would
recognize her handwriting and understand at once that she was at Merz
in an attempt to aid him.
"Fear not for me, Brother," she wrote in conclusion. "But hasten to
assure your Mina that you are perfectly safe. Is it not possible for
you to return to the hotel by dinner time? I am distraught for your
safety."
She sent this letter, with gold, by the hotel keeper, who said he could
find a messenger to go to the Marchand estate. Ruth knew, of course,
that her letter would be read there before it was given to Tom.
Even if they questioned him about his sister before giving him the
letter Tom would make no mistake. "Mina von Brenner" was already a
character and name chosen by Count Allaire and Tom when the latter took
up his difficult and dangerous work in the guise of an Uhlan captain.
That was one of the longest days Ruth Fielding had ever spent. As the
hours dragged by she sat and pondered in the rooms Tom had occupied,
one moment in despair of his coming, the next fearing that every step
in the corridor outside her door was that of a guard come to arrest her.
Yet her own safety scarcely mattered. She felt that if she could not
compass Tom's escape, she did not care to go back across the lines,
were that even possible!
Ruth Fielding learned much about her own heart during that long
wait--much that she would not have acknowledged to any other soul in
the world.
It finally grew dark. She would allow the servant to light but a
single candle. This stood upon her table beside which she sat with her
forehead resting in her hand, her elbow on the table.
Suddenly there sounded a quick step in the corridor. Ruth had been
mistaken so many times that she did not raise her head or look up. A
rap on the door, and before she could say "_Herein_!" the knob turned.
A figure dashed in--a brave figure in a uniform somewhat similar to the
one Ruth herself had worn the night before.
"Mina!" cried a welcome and familiar voice. "My dear sister!"
Tom rushed across the room. Ruth saw, as she rose, that there were two
officers with him, but they remained outside. They saw Tom take her in
his arms in a most affectionate and brotherly manner. Then they closed
the door, evidently satisfied.
"No need of tearing my hair down and breaking my ribs, Tom," Ruth
whispered. "Please remember that I am _not_ Helen, after all."
"No," he returned softly. Then, holding her off to look more closely
at her, he went on more lightly: "You are Mina von Brenner. Great
heavens, my dear! How did you get here?"