Part 20 (1/2)
”We don't want to talk about ourselves or the war,” muttered Frank, almost as if to himself. ”We want to forget about it--if we can.”
”You see,” Will explained, and there was a stern note in his young voice, ”we worked and we sweated and we fought. We lived under conditions week after week and month after month that it makes us shudder even to think of now. For months we lived in a perfect inferno--and do you know what our idea of heaven was then?”
They said nothing and he went on in a lighter tone.
”It was just to get back alive and, well, to G.o.d's country and you girls--to sit for hours, days if we could, where we could look at you and listen to you and not do a thing but just be happy. I wonder if you can understand that?”
”Of course, we can, Will!” cried Betty, impulsively reaching over and laying a hand on the boy's arm. ”You have earned the right to sit and be amused, and we'll do it till you cry aloud for mercy. And you needn't tell us a single word about yourselves until you get good and ready.”
”You're a brick, Betty,” said Will warmly, laying his hand over her little one. ”I might have known we could count on you.”
”By the way,” Roy broke in suddenly, his eye on the basket of eatables that the girls had prepared for their adventure, ”what's in that hamper, anyway? If it's anything to eat, let's have it.”
Betty pulled the basket over to her, lifted the cover and pa.s.sed it over to the ravenous one.
”Eat while there is anything left,” she commanded, adding with a chuckle: ”Our adventure seems to be over for to-day, at least.”
”Adventure?” repeated Frank inquiringly, as he reached for a sandwich.
”Yes,” said Mollie, adding with a sigh: ”And you boys had to come along just in time to spoil it all.”
Chapter XX
Very Much Alive
”That is complimentary, I must say,” grinned Will, getting up from his seat on the porch and going over to join Roy on the railing. ”After being away for months we are told the minute we get back that we've 'spoiled everything.'”
”'Tis rather hard lines,” said Mollie with an answering grin. ”But one must tell the truth, you know.”
”By the way,” put in Grace curiously, ”I know Betty promised that we wouldn't ask questions, but there is just one thing I want to know.”
”Speak, fair damsel,” Roy replied, thinking meanwhile how much prettier Grace had grown. ”We will promise to answer faithfully anything that is not connected with war.”
”When did you get in?” asked Grace, ”and how did you get here?”
”We came in yesterday,” answered Roy, helping himself to another sandwich.
”And of course we beat it for headquarters right away.”
”Yes'm, and I'll tell you we were a disappointed lot when we found that you girls had flown,” added Frank ruefully. ”We were all set for a jolly reunion--”
”But we wrote you about spending the summer here,” Betty interrupted. ”And we were mourning because you couldn't be at the lodge with us.”
”We missed your letters, I guess,” said Will. ”We sailed very suddenly, and there is probably a stack of them piled up there at the old service station.”
”We found out where you were all rightie, though,” Roy continued. ”So we took the first train out this morning, debarked at the nearest station south of here, and proceeded to walk the rest of the way. It was thus that you came upon us.”
”You came upon us, you mean,” Amy corrected. ”We ought to know well enough, because you nearly gave us heart failure.”
Will looked at her as if he wanted to say something but did not quite dare in public. However, she intercepted the look and with a little panicky feeling turned her eyes away.