The Red Cross Girls with Pershing to Victory Part 15

Therefore both of them noticed a soldier-messenger march down the street from the corner and enter the front yard of the house where they were living.

In answer to a command from his superior officer, Sergeant Hackett met the messenger at the front door. The soldier bore a note which was addressed to Major Hersey. The note requested that Major Hersey come at once to the headquarters of his Colonel.

There was no explanation as to why his presence had become suddenly necessary. However, without any particular emotion either of interest or curiosity, Major Hersey at once set out.

The streets were fairly deserted. The citizens of Coblenz were living under military law and, although the laws were not severe, two demands were made upon them, one that no arms or ammunition of any kind remain in the possession of any German, the second that they be inside their own homes at a certain hour each night.

This hour had not arrived and yet there were not many persons about, a few groups of American soldiers on leave, but scarcely any Germans.

The house of Colonel Winfield was at no great distance away.

"Most extraordinary thing, Hersey!" the Colonel was soon explaining, "you might guess for a dozen years why I have sent for you and never hit the correct answer. Don't look so mystified over my words. I have not sent for you to give you any military command, or to ask your advice on military matters, as I have now and then in spite of your being too youthful for the t.i.tle you have been lucky enough to earn. I have sent for you because tonight you and I may regard ourselves as characters in a play. In a short time I hope to introduce the heroine."

Colonel Winfield was an elderly man a good deal past fifty, with closely cropped grey hair, small twinkling blue eyes under heavy brows and a mouth which could be extremely stern when the occasion demanded and equally humorous under opposite conditions.

Tonight he was seated in a large, handsome room, a little too elaborately furnished after German ideas of luxury, and before a wide table covered with books and old American newspapers and magazines.

Major Hersey could only stare at him in amazement, and with a total lack of comprehension.

"I might as well explain to you your part in the drama, Hersey. You haven't at present a very fortunate role, although I cannot tell how it may develop. The facts are that two women, or I should say one woman and a girl, arrived in Coblenz this afternoon without satisfactory pa.s.sports. They were detained by one of our officers and because of something or other in their story, perhaps because of their appearance and manner, the circ.u.mstances were reported to me. I believe the young woman knew my name and requested that she be allowed to speak to me. I was busy and only saw her and her companion a few moments ago. Then she asked that I send for you and for Mrs. David Clark, saying you would both be able to identify her. Most extraordinary story she related, I find it difficult either to believe or disbelieve!" And Colonel Winfield leaned back in his chair studying the younger officer's face.

If he expected to find any clue to his puzzle in Major Jimmie's expression at this instant he was disappointed. The younger man was nonplused.

A woman and a girl who had arrived in Coblenz insisting that he could identify them! Why, he knew no woman or girl in the world who would be apt to make so unexpected an appearance! And yet for a few seconds the names of several girls he had known in the United States in the past who might possibly have come to Coblenz to work among the soldiers flashed before his mental vision.

"Suppose you see the two strangers at once, Jimmie, I don't feel that I have been polite in forcing them to wait here for me as long as they have waited, but I was unavoidably detained. They are in a little reception room across the way. I'll ask them to come here and speak to you as this room is larger and more agreeable."

"Don't you think, Colonel, we might postpone the interview until the arrival of Mrs. David Clark? Surely the women would find it more agreeable to explain their situation to her," Major Hersey protested.

The older man shook his head.

"I have sent for Mrs. Clark, but remember she is living at some distance from here and may not be able to come to us tonight. In a moment it will all be over, James. If you do not know the young woman who says she knows you, you have only to say so briefly. I have an idea, however, that almost any young man might wish to know her. Yet if there is any uncertainty about her story, we must see that she and her companion are made comfortable for the night somewhere and then that she starts for home in the morning. I have an idea from what she confided to me that she must be sent home in any case."

A few moments later, Colonel Winfield re-entered the library with two companions. One of them was a thin, angular woman with a large nose and a highly colored skin. She was wearing a black dress and coat and a black feather boa. The other was a girl of about twenty in an odd costume. A portion of it was an American Red Cross uniform, worn and shabby, a dark blue coat and cap with the Red Cross insignia. The girl's skirt was of some other dark cloth, yet on her arm she carried a splendid sable coat.

Underneath her cap her cheeks were brilliantly red and her eyes glowing.

"Countess Charlotta!" Major Hersey stammered. "What brings you to Coblenz? You have relatives here whom you are intending to visit?"

The girl turned toward the older American officer.

"There! Major Hersey does remember me and I was so afraid he might have forgotten! We met but once in the Red Cross hospital in Luxemburg where we were both patients at the same time. At least until Mrs. Clark arrives he may persuade you, Colonel Winfield, that I am not a spy or in any way a dangerous character."

Then the girl turned again to Major Jimmie.

"I don't know what Mrs. Clark will say or do when she sees me. She told me positively I was not to embarra.s.s the American Red Cross by taking refuge with them. And I tried my best to be brave and endure my existence. I even gave up to my father's wishes, but I found I could not keep my word. So I confided in Miss Pringle. She is English and was my governess when I was a little girl. She had continued living in Luxemburg after the war began, and yet perhaps because she was English she understood me better than other people. Anyhow we came away together. It was not so difficult to accomplish as you may imagine. Most of the people in Luxemburg at present dislike the Germans as thoroughly as I do. I told a few acquaintances that I was going away because I could not endure being forced into a German marriage. Miss Pringle was with me and I said I was going to join some American friends. Besides, Luxemburg is not very large you know and it does not take long to reach the frontier. If Mrs. Clark is not willing to receive us at the Red Cross Hospital, surely we can find a place to shelter us for awhile.

Miss Pringle says she will be glad to go with me to the United States, as she has long wished to travel. I suppose, Colonel Winfield, that you could arrange for us to go to the United States?"

Plainly the young countess's words and manner both amused and annoyed the Colonel.

"Nonsense, young woman, girls who run away from their homes no matter from what motive, must be sent back to their parents. Mrs. Clark will doubtless see that you and Miss Pringle are made comfortable for a few days. But I think I understand how you managed to reach Coblenz and why you were permitted to have an interview with me. The colonel of an American regiment of the army of occupation is not in the habit of having young women whose credentials and pa.s.sports are not what they should be, take up his spare time. Where, child, had you ever heard my name?"

"Oh, I often heard Mrs. Clark and the American Red Cross nurses speak of you when they referred to their winter at the Red Cross hospital near Chateau-Thierry. They said too they were delighted that you were to be in Coblenz because they liked you so very much," the Countess Charlotta concluded in the frank fashion which was entirely natural to her.

Nevertheless the colonel looked slightly mollified.

"You will sit down, won't you, and wait until we hear whether Mrs. Clark will be able to join us tonight?"

The Colonel pushed a large leather chair toward the fire, which the little countess dropped into gratefully. Miss Pringle was already seated in a chair which Major Hersey had provided for her during the Countess Charlotta's recital.

"I am sorry, extremely sorry, you were forced to wait so long to see me," Colonel Winfield protested. "It would have been pleasanter if arrangements could have been made for you earlier in the day."

"Oh, you need not worry," the Countess Charlotta returned graciously, "I am not in the least unhappy myself. Getting away from Luxemburg was so much simpler than I ever dreamed it could be, that nothing ahead seems so important. I wrote my father saying that I intended to sail for the United States as soon as it could be arranged. As for sending me back home," the little countess stretched her two hands before the fire so that they grew rose pink from the warmth, then she sighed, but with no deep show of emotion, "it would be very useless and very unkind to send me back to my father after what I have done? Neither my father nor aunt will wish to see me again. Even though they know Miss Pringle has been with me every minute and that I have done nothing in the least wrong, they would never forgive my disobedience. And they would not wish me to live with them because they should always consider that I had disobeyed them and that I would be an unfortunate influence upon other girls in Luxemburg."

At this instant there was a knock at the door and a few moments later Sonya, Dr. Clark and Bianca entered the large room.

If there was no especial enthusiasm in Sonya's greeting of the Countess Charlotta, still there was no question of their acquaintance and Bianca's welcome revealed all the pleasure which Sonya's lacked.

Nevertheless, Sonya offered to take charge of Miss Pringle and the young countess at the Red Cross hospital for the night until better arrangements could be made. They had several spare rooms in the old castle. It was too late at present for any definite point of view in regard to the unexpected intruders.

CHAPTER XVI

_A Growing Friendship_

A FEW weeks pa.s.sed and it was March in Coblenz. The days continued cold and oftentimes dreary, but the American Army of Occupation was growing more accustomed and more reconciled to their new way of life.

Then there were occasional spring days when the winds blew from the south bringing with them scents and fragrances of gentler lands.

At the American Red Cross hospital high up on the hill overlooking the Rhine the conditions were reflected from the army. The Red Cross staff also became more contented and more amenable to discipline than in the early weeks succeeding the close of the war.

There were a good many patients constantly being cared for at the hospital, but they were simply suffering from ordinary illnesses. Only now and then a wounded American prisoner, only partially recovered, would come wandering in from some German hospital in the interior, preferring to be looked after by his own people until he was well enough to be sent back home.

Therefore, although there was sufficient work for the entire corps of physicians, nurses and helpers, there was no undue strain.

However, one member of Dr. Clark's former staff was freed from all Red Cross responsibility. Even before her arrival in Coblenz, Bianca Zoli had showed the effects of the nervous strain of the last months of her war work. Moreover, Sonya had always considered that Bianca was too young and too frail for what she had undertaken and had wished to leave the young girl at school in New York until her own and her husband's return from Europe. But as Bianca had been so determined and as Sonya had dreaded leaving her alone in the United States, she had finally reluctantly consented.

And Bianca had done her full duty. Never once in the terrible months before the close of the war had she flinched or asked to be spared in any possible way. Nor was it by Bianca's own request that she was idle at the present time. It was Sonya who first had noticed the young girl's listlessness, her occasional hours of exhaustion and sometimes of depression. And it was Sonya who had called her husband's attention to Bianca's condition, although afterwards it was Dr. Clark who had ordered that Bianca have a complete rest.

During the first weeks in Coblenz, Bianca had been bored and sometimes a little rebellious over this new state of her existence. She had no friends of her own age in Coblenz, the Red Cross nurses at the hospital were too much engaged with their work and in their leisure with other interests in which Bianca had no share, to give her a great deal either of their time or thought. Sonya naturally wished to be with her husband whenever it was possible, although she never for a moment neglected, or failed to look after Bianca's health and happiness in every fashion she could arrange. But what Bianca really needed was entertainment and friendships near her own age and these under the present circ.u.mstances of their life, Sonya was not able to provide.

So far as Bianca was concerned, Carlo Navara had really ceased to count in any measure of importance. He so seldom made the effort to see Bianca and appeared wholly absorbed by his soldier life and such entertainment as he found outside. From his superior officer he had secured permission to take singing lessons from an old music master in Coblenz, and was finding an immense satisfaction and help in this.

But with the coming of the young Countess Charlotta to Coblenz, life a.s.sumed a new and far more agreeable aspect for Bianca.