Part 32 (1/2)
”Oh--o!” said the major. ”So you are fighting with your own countrymen at last, eh?”
”I am, thank goodness,” said Hal. ”But can this indeed be Mademoiselle Vaubaun? I have heard of her before, but I judged that she was a young woman.”
Major Derevaux smiled.
”And a consummate actress,” he said. ”Mademoiselle, will you grant my friend the lieutenant a look at your true self?”
”If this young man is a friend of yours, Raoul, he is a friend of mine,” said the woman.
She removed a cap from her head, straightened herself up and shook down her hair. Then she pa.s.sed a hand several times over her face, and when Hal looked again there stood before him a girl in her teens.
”Great Scott!” exclaimed Hal, and started back.
In a few words he now explained his own presence in the German lines, together with that of Chester and the four Canadians.
Mademoiselle Vaubaun, in turn, told the lad how she had been left in Cambrai when German troops had swept across Belgium and France in the early days of the war, and how, from time to time, she had found it possible to send word to the French and British staffs of impending German movements.
”But how about me and my friends?” inquired Hal.
”I can hide you all, too. Beyond the room in which your friends are now is a second room and beyond that a false wall. It is there, I will hide the major. I was about to take him there when you came to the door tonight. There is room for all.”
”Then I shall return to my friends,” said Hal. ”I have been gone so long Chester will fear something has happened to me. Will you go with me, major?”
”To be sure. I shall be glad to see Chester again. May we have a light, Antoinette?”
”I will lead the way myself,” said the girl. ”It will be as well that you go to your hiding places now.”
She lighted the way upstairs with a candle.
In the darkened room above, Chester and the Canadians had been waiting impatiently. Chester had come to the conclusion that something had happened to Hal and was about to go down and hunt for him. As the light came upstairs, however, he drew back.
”It's all right, Chester,” Hal called. ”Here is the light and an old friend to greet you.”
”Old friend,” said Chester in surprise. ”I didn't know I had any friends on this side of the line.”
”Well, have a look at this man and see if you recognize him,” said Hal, and pushed Major Derevaux forward.
Chester took one look at the major and then dashed forward with hand out.
”Major Derevaux!” he cried.
The two clasped hands warmly.
”Now, Chester,” said Hal, ”I want you to meet our hostess, Mademoiselle Vaubaun.”
Chester bowed in acknowledgment of the introduction, then added: ”I suppose it was your mother who admitted us some time since?”
The girl laughed lightly.