Part 24 (1/2)
”Well, so long,” he added, hopping into his car. ”Next time I'm back this way maybe I'll have some news for you-_good_ news.”
”Oh, I hope so!” murmured Ruth, watching the battered ambulance wheel out of the hospital court.
Henriette Dupay had an errand in the village the next day and came to see Ruth, too. The little French girl was very much excited.
”Oh, my dear Mademoiselle Ruth!” she cried. ”What do you think?”
”I could not possibly think-for _you_,” smiled Ruth.
”It is so-just as I told you,” wailed the other girl. ”It always happens.”
”Do tell me what you mean? What has happened now?”
”Something bad always follows the seeing of the werwolf. My grandmere says it is a curse on the neighborhood because many of our people neglect the church. Think!”
”Do tell me,” begged the American girl.
”Our best cow died,” cried Henriette. ”Our-ve-ry-best-cow! It is an affliction, Mademoiselle.”
Ruth could well understand that to be so, for cows, since the German invasion, have been very scarce in this part of France. Henriette was quite confident that the appearance of the ”werwolf” had foretold the demise of ”the poor Lally.” The American girl saw that it was quite useless to seek to change her little friend's opinion on that score.
”Of course, the thing we saw in the road could not have been the countess' dog?” she ventured.
But Henriette would have none of that. ”Why, Bubu's blanket is black,”
she cried. ”And you know the werwolf is all of a white color-and so hu-u-uge!”
She would have nothing of the idea that Bubu was the basis of the countryside superst.i.tion. But the French girl had a second exciting bit of news.
”Think you!” she cried, ”what I saw coming over to town this ve-ry day, Mademoiselle Ruth.”
”Another mystery?”
”Quite so. But yes. You would never, as you say, 'guess.' I pa.s.sed old Bessie, Madame la Countess' serving woman, riding fast, _fast_ in a motor-car. Is it not a wonder?”
The statement startled Ruth, but she hid her emotion, asking:
”Not alone-surely? You do not mean that that old woman drives the countess' car?”
”Oh, no, Mademoiselle. The countess has no car. This was the strange car you and I saw on the road that day-the one that was stalled in the rut.
You remember the tall capitaine-and the little one?”
The shock of the French girl's statement was almost too much for Ruth's self-control. Her voice sounded husky in her own ears when she asked:
”Tell me, Henriette! Are you _sure_? The old woman was riding away with those two men?”
”But yes, Mademoiselle. And they drive fast, fast!” and she pointed east, away from the hospital, and away from the road which led to Lyse.
CHAPTER XXIV-A PARTIAL EXPOSURE