all, my nephew is at the Front. I wantto be near him. I am a childless woman, and he is all I have. Second, Ifancy the more cigarettes and so on our boys have the better for them,though I disapprove of cigarettes generally. And finally, I do notintend to let the biggest thing in my lifetime go by without having beena part of it, even in the most humble manner."
"Entirely reasonable too," he said.
But he still had a strange expression on his face, and soon after thathe said he'd walk round a little in the air and then come back and tellus his decision.
At five o'clock he was back and he was very pale and wore what Aggieconsidered a haunted look. He stalked in and stood, his cap in hishand.
"I'll go," he said. "I'll go, and I don't give a--I don't care whether Icome back or not. That's clear, isn't it? I'll go as far as you will,Miss Tish, and I take it that means moving right along. I'll go there,and then I'll keep on going."
"You've seen Hilda!" Aggie exclaimed with the intuition of her ownexperience in matters of the heart.
"I've seen her," he said grimly. "I wasn't looking for her. I've giventhat up. She was with that--well, you know. If I had any sense I'd havestolen those photographs and mailed them to her, one at a time. Fivedays, one each day, I'd have----"
"You might save all that hate for the Germans," Tish said. "I don't careto promise anything, but I have an idea that you may have a chance touse it."
And again, as always, our dear Tish was right.
We left Paris that evening. We made up quite comfortable beds in theambulance, which had four new tires and which Tish with her customaryforethought had filled as full as possible with cigarettes and candy. Ihave never inquired as to where Tish secured these articles, but I havelearned that very early Tish adopted an army term called salvage, whichseems to consist of taking whatever is necessary wherever it may befound. For instance, she has always referred to the night when shesalvaged the ambulance and the extra tires; and the night later on, whenwe found the window of a warehouse open and secured seven cases oforanges for some of our boys who had no decent drinking water, she alsoreferred to our actions at that time as salvage.
In fact, so common did the term become that I have heard her speaking ofthe time we salvaged the town of V----.
_In re_ the matter of passports--_in re_ is also military, and meansreferring to, or concerning; I find a certain tendency myself to usemilitary terms. _In re_ the matter of passports and permits, since theauthenticity of our adventure has recently been challenged here at home,particularly in our church, though we have been lifelong members, it isa strange fact that we never required any. The sacred emblem on theambulance and ourselves, including Mr. Burton, was amply sufficient. Andthough there were times when Mr. Burton found it expedient to lie in theback of the car and emit slow and tortured groans I have alwayscontended that it was not really necessary in the two months whichfollowed.
Over those two months I shall pass lightly. Our brave Tish was almostincessantly at the wheel, and we distributed uncounted numbers ofcigarettes and so on. We had, naturally, no home other than theambulance, but owing to Tish's forethought we found, among otherarticles in the secret compartment under the floor, a full store ofcanned goods and a nest of cooking kettles.
With this outfit we were able to supplement when necessary suchprovisions as we purchased along the way, and even now and then to makesuch occasional delicacies as cup custard or to bake a few muffins orsmall sweet cakes. More than once, too, we have drawn up beside the roadwhere troops were passing, and turned out some really excellent hotdoughnuts for them.
Indeed I may say that we became quite well known among both officers andmen, being called The Three Graces.
But when so many were doing similar work on a much larger scale our poorefforts are hardly worthy of record. Only one thing is significant! Wemoved slowly but inevitably toward the Front, and toward that portion ofthe Front where Charlie Sands was serving his country.
During all this time Mr. Burton never mentioned Hilda but once, and thatwas to state that he had learned Captain Weber was a widower.
"Not that it makes any difference to me," he said. "She can marry himtomorrow as far as I'm concerned. I've forgotten her, practically. If Imarry it will be one of these French girls. They can cook anyhow, andshe can't. Her idea of a meal is a plate of fudge."
"He's really breaking his heart for her," Aggie confided to me later."Do you notice how thin he is? And every time he looks at the moon hesighs."
"So do I," I said tartly; "and I'm not in love either. Ever since thatmoonlight night when that fool of a German flew over and dropped a bombonto the best layer cake I've ever baked I've sighed at the moon too."
But he was thinner; and, when the weather grew cold and wet and wesuggested flannels to him as delicately as possible, he refused toconsider them.
"I'd as soon have pneumonia as not," he said. "It's quick and easy,and--anyhow we need them to cover the engine on cold nights."
It was, I believe, at the end of the seventh week that we drew in onenight at a small village within sound of the guns. We limped in, indeed,for we had had one of our frequent blowouts, and had no spare tire.
Scattering as was our custom, we began a search for an extra tire, butwithout results. There was only one machine in the town, and thatbelonged to General Pershing. We knew it at once by the four stars. Aswe did not desire to be interrogated by the commander-in-chief we drewinto a small alleyway behind a ruined house, and Aggie and I cooked aSpanish omelet and arranged some lettuce-and-mayonnaise sandwiches.
Tish had not returned, but Mr. Burton came back just as I was placingthe meal on the folding table we carried for the purpose, and we saw atonce that something was wrong. He wore a look he had not worn since weleft Paris.
"Leg, probably," I said in an undertone to Aggie. He was subject toattacks of pain in the milk leg.
But Aggie's perceptions were more tender.
"Hilda, most likely," she said.
However, we were distracted by the arrival of Tish, who came in with hercustomary poise and unrolled her dinner napkin with a thoughtful air.She commented kindly on the omelet, but was rather silent.
At the end of the meal, however, she said: "If you will walk up theroad past the Y. M. C. A. hut, Mr. Burton, it is just possible you willfind an extra tire lying there. I am not positive, but I think itlikely. I should continue walking until you find it."
"Must have seen a rubber plant up that way," Mr. Burton said, ratherdisagreeably for him. He was most pleasant usually.
"I have simply indicated a possibility," Tish said. "Aggie, I think I'llhave a small quantity of blackberry cordial."
With Tish recourse to that remedy indicated either fatigue or a certainnervous strain. That it was the latter was shown by the fact that whenMr. Burton had gone she started the engine of the car and suggested thatwe be ready to leave at a moment's notice. She then took a folding chairand placed herself in a dark corner of the ruined house.
"If you see the lights of a car approaching," she called, "just tell me,will you?"
However, I am happy to say that no car came near. Somewhat later Mr.Burton appeared rolling a tire ahead of him, and wearing the dazed lookhe still occasionally wore when confronted with new evidences of Tish'sefficiency.
"Well," he said, dropping the tire and staring at Aggie and myself,"she dreamed true. Either that or----"
"Mr. Burton," Tish called, "do you mind hiding that tire until morning?We found it and it is ours. But it's unnecessary to excite suspicion atany time."
I am not certain that Mr. Burton's theory is right, but even if it is Icontend that war is war and justifies certain practices hardly to becondoned in times of peace.
Briefly, he has always maintained that Tish being desperate and arguingthat the C. in C.--which is military for commander-in-chief--was able tosecure tires whenever necessary--that Tish had deliberately unfastened aspare tire from the rear of General Pershing's automobile; not of courseactually salvaging it, but leavin
g it in a position where on the car'sgetting into motion it would fall off and could then be salvaged.
I do not know. I do know, however, that Tish retired very early to herbed in the ambulance. As Aggie was heating water for a bath, havingfound a sheltered horse trough behind a broken wall, I took Mr. Burtonfor a walk through the town in an endeavor to bring him to a morecheerful frame of mind. He was still very low-spirited, but he offeredno confidences until we approached the only undestroyed building insight. He stopped then and suggested turning back.
"It's a Y hut," he said. "We'll be about as welcome there as a skunk ata garden party."
I reprimanded him for this, as I had found