Barney looked at Stormy joyously.
“She won’t be angry,” he said. “And you’ll tell her, of course. Wait till we get to Farmdale. Why did the admiral want to see us? Why invite us to dinner? I’d rather get home and tell Margaret what’s happened. And tell Cornelia, too.”
“Yes, said Stormy, “I would, too, but your admiral was so insistent that we come, and he said there were some of the people who had been assisting him about your request who wanted to see us. I think we should go. He said they wanted to ask some questions. You know, the old dope that you have to give over the radio every little while, perhaps. Anyhow, he’s been so kind to us both we’ll have to go, of course.”
“Of course,” said Barney. “But I wish we could hurry away right off. I want to see Margaret, and I want you to see Cornelia.”
Stormy sat for a moment in silence, thoughtfully. Then he spoke, as if it was something he must explain.
“I have had the strangest experience about Cornelia,” he said. “Sometimes I wonder if I was out of my head when it happened. I guess perhaps I was at one time, at least. I had been going for days with scarcely anything to eat, chewing a little dried grass, once a raw egg I found in a deserted shack, and once a can of tomatoes. Then so long a time with nothing, not even any clean water to drink. I had a fever, I know, and couldn’t think very straight. I thought I had reached the end and I was dying, and then there came a spot of moonlight and I saw her face, like an angel, up by the clouds. I wasn’t rational enough to work it out the first time who she was, just an angel that God had sent to cheer me, to help me to heaven perhaps. And looking at her face, I fell asleep. I saw her face several times after that, and when I began to come to myself I took out her picture and looked at it. I saw they were the same.”
He took out the little picture, looked at it earnestly, and then handed it over to Barney.
“Does she look like that now?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Barney, taking the picture. “Exactly.”
There came a satisfied look in Stormy’s eyes, and then he met Barney’s glance with a grin.
“You think I’m a nut, don’t you?” he said.
But Barney grinned back. “No,” said Barney, “I don’t. Besides, you see, I’m in love myself, and I know what it is to be lonely and long for someone to act like homefolks.”
“Yes, I guess that’s it,” said Stormy half sheepishly. “But I’ll be glad to get to Farmdale. Of course, she’ll think I’m a fool, I suppose. She’s from a swell family, all kinds of money and social training and all that, but I want to see her anyway. Maybe I won’t feel this way when I see her in the flesh again, but I’ve got to get this idea out of my system before I’ll be much good anywhere.”
“Oh, sure! You’ve got it bad!” Barney said, grinning. “I know the symptoms. I haven’t got over them yet myself. After all, I’ve had such a few days with Margaret.”
“Well, come on, you old bomber; it’s time we went and got some lunch. I’ll admit I’m hungry as a bear. I’ve not been in the land of plenty so long that I don’t get hungry now and then. And after lunch, two o’clock to be more accurate, I promised that you and I would appear at that radio station and give a broadcast of our life together in service. Something about the camp life and how I was supposed to have saved your life and how you tried to save mine, or something along those lines. Though, of course, we won’t. We’ll just shy off politely and sneak out. But we’ve got to appear once, for I promised. It was all the fault of that doggone admiral. If he hadn’t been right there on tiptoe, smiling, I would have got out of it somehow; but he seems to think he’s running mamma’s two little boys, and we have to do whatever he chooses to order next.”
So they went to lunch, then to the radio station, then walked a little around the city seeing a few things they hadn’t seen before. They arrived at the admiral’s stately mansion and were ushered into the presence of the entire body of powers who had under their control such matters as the request of Barney that he might go out and hunt for Stormy.
It was an august body and most impressive, and Stormy grinned to himself to think that these dignified gentlemen could have any conception of what it had been like to get lost out there. To roll out of an internment camp between barbed wires, to go hungry for days. And not knowing that, how could they presume to order whether a lost one should be searched for or allowed to stay lost? Also he thought how good it was to know that God Himself was able to order matters over the heads of all the notables in any country and work out the need of every living soul.
But the men were interesting and pleasant. They took a personal interest in the two young men who had made such attainments in war service. The dinner was good, the conversation a bit thrilling because it smacked of political problems and deadly differences of opinion, and it gave Barney and Stormy an opportunity to get the pulse of their country firsthand, as it was represented by a few of the powerful men who had the affairs of the country in their hands, at least for the time being.
After dinner they went into a luxurious library and sat around a costly table. They answered a lot of questions that at first seemed utterly pointless, but afterward it developed that these two young men were to be appointed heads of a new group, which should function for the furtherance of an understanding of the enemy, what enemy plans were likely to be and how to frustrate them.
It appeared that these two, because of their valor in bombing enemy planes and in searching in dangerous places for valuable information, were to be awarded notable honors. They were told to return to Washington on a certain day in the near future to publicly receive these awards. They were also informed that after their furloughs were ended they would be assigned to new work, which likely would keep them in Washington or the vicinity at least for some time.
Dazed, almost bewildered, the two young men went back to their hotel room at last and sat down to discuss the matter for a while, and then side by side they knelt and committed it all to their heavenly Father. And then as it was definite orders and not anything that they had a choice about, they went to bed. They were still in the army, and what the army said, they must do.
“Well,” said Barney, “I can’t help thinking there may be good in it. I’m not anxious to go on killing, or even spying, but I’m entirely willing to teach others the methods by which I gained my honorable mentions.”
“Yes,” said Stormy, “this war isn’t going on forever, of course, and I guess it’s our turn to have a little look at peace before we leave and go up higher.”
So the next morning they went home to Farmdale, having first telephoned Roxy to have a good dinner ready, and told her to please invite Margaret and Cornelia to dinner that night.
“It’s a surprise,” said Barney. “Roxy won’t tell; she’ll see that the girls are there and that there is plenty to eat, but they won’t know a thing yet about you being home, nor our new status in the army.”
So like two little boys planning mischief, these two tall, handsome soldiers plotted to relax and have a little fun.
Meantime the two girls back in Farmdale prayed most earnestly, wondering if Barney had started for overseas yet and how many weeks it would be before they would hear from him and know what he had been able to do.
Hortense and her crowd were wondering what was going to happen next and how they could manage to reap a little benefit from that reception they had put over on the unsuspecting Barney. Wondering what they should do next to separate him from those two obnoxious girls who seemed to have absorbed him.
“We might have a religious service in the public square,” said Hortense. “Sunday afternoon would be a good time and get an enormous crowd. And we could recruit a glee club and sing choruses and songs. We could decorate the platform in the park with flags and get a band, and let them play softly all through the prayer—I suppose we’d have to have a prayer, wouldn’t we? We couldn’t get by without that, could we, not with Barney in it, for if we didn’t have it on the program he??
?d drag one in somehow. I never saw what a religious complex that fellow has! I declare, it’s a shame. He simply spoils everything we try to do.”
“Well, what I don’t understand is, why you insist upon working Barney into everything,” said Janet Harper. “He isn’t our kind, you know he isn’t, and you can’t make him over, no matter how hard you try. If I were you I’d go down to the camp and get some soldiers who aren’t that kind, soldiers who’ll be real peppy and ready for any devilment you want to get up, and then you can have some real fun.”
“Well, to tell you the truth,” said Hortense wearily, “there are hardly any of that other kind left. They seem to all have got soft and religious. I can’t understand it. Just as soon as they get into real fighting they seem to get awfully religious. Do you know, the other night at the canteen, where I was helping to entertain soldiers, a kid walked in and the hostess asked him if he would like to dance? He said no, he didn’t know how to dance. And she said, ‘Oh, that’s all right. You go right up those stairs and you’ll find a woman up there who will teach you to dance, and you can come back down here and have a real good time. It doesn’t take her long to teach you a few steps.’ And do you know that fellow fairly glared at her, and he was only a kid, too. But he said, ‘Lady, I didn’t come in here to learn how to dance. I’ve got to go out tomorrow morning into battle and be ready to die perhaps, and I came in here to find somebody who could teach me how to die.’ Did you ever hear such talk? Can you imagine it? Talking like that to really nice people who were trying to help him have a little good time? Why, it made me positively sick when I heard it. I didn’t want to stay there any longer where a thing like that could happen. I hate all this talk about dying. Everybody has to die sometime, I suppose, but I certainly don’t want to hear about it till my time comes.”
“Well, Hortense, if you wait till your time comes,” spoke up Hank suddenly, “it will certainly be too late to get ready to die. But perhaps you don’t care. Probably you think you can get by without getting ready.”
“Oh, shut up,” said Hortense. “Are you getting religious, too? I declare, if you are, I’m off you for life!”
“Well, I wouldn’t be losing so much at that,” said Hank sourly. “All I get out of this is a chance to do your heavy work. If I’d quit you, I might have a little time left on my hands, and I’d stand some chance of teaching myself how to die. They tell me I’m in line to be called to war pretty soon, and I might need to know.”
“It’s a pity you wouldn’t try a little religion yourself, Hortense,” said Janet Harper. “You might be able to get hold of Barney that way. You’ve tried everything else on him and it doesn’t work, but I think he’d be caught that way.”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake! What’s the matter with you all?” said Hortense angrily and walked off with her chin up and her eyes flashing.
Chapter 24
The two girls were surprised at Roxy’s telephoned invitation, but because they were both unsettled and anxious to get news and thought perhaps Barney would telephone Roxy or she might have had a letter, they went. Margaret, mainly because she loved to be where Barney had been, and also because she had known and loved Roxy for years. And Cornelia because she was lonely, just didn’t know what to do; and she liked to be with Margaret.
Roxy had told them to come early, but they reached there a little before dinnertime, and as they stepped up to the door Barney swung it open and stood smiling to greet them.
“Oh!” they exclaimed in delight. “You’ve come back! How grand! But wouldn’t they let you go? What has happened?”
A flame of lovely rose swept up into Margaret’s cheeks and her eyes shone with delight.
“Welcome!” said Barney joyously and turned to the other tall soldier just behind him. “And let me introduce my friend Stormy Applegate!” He grabbed Stormy’s arm and brought him forward. And then, and not until then, he turned and took his Margaret in his arms and kissed her. Right there before them all, when nobody had been told yet that they belonged to each other. Margaret’s cheeks grew flame-color, but she gasped and returned the kiss eagerly and then hid her face on Barney’s shoulder.
But she needn’t have minded, for when she at last ventured to peek out from those enfolding arms that held her close and still more closely, she saw that the other two were not looking at her at all; they were just standing there holding hands, both pairs of hands, and looking into each other’s faces, with a look of great wonder and delight, as if they were getting to know each other all in a minute, in place of the years of acquaintance they wished they might have had. As if no one else were by and they had nothing to think of but each other.
So Margaret relaxed and just stayed there in Barney’s arms that drew her close, and then Barney bent his head and kissed her again quite thoroughly.
Suddenly Stormy caught on to what had been happening, and he said in his droll way, “Oh, is that the order of the day? You should have told me. Do you mind, Cornelia? Because, you see, I’ve known you for a very long time, even though you may not remember.” And quickly he drew her to him and kissed her, almost shyly, if Stormy could do anything shyly—certainly reverently. And then those two were for the moment oblivious to everything but their two selves.
A moment more and a little silver bell tinkled and they looked up to see a puzzled but delighted Roxy standing in the doorway ringing the table bell for attention.
“Children, your dinner is ready,” she called. “Would you like to have it hot, or would you prefer to eat it cold?”
Laughingly they drew apart, and the two couples, hand in hand, went out to the dining room, where was a table loaded with good things. Hot chicken with dumplings sending forth a savory steam; little new peas and potatoes out of the garden, the first that were ready to eat; crisp lettuce with nuts and apples for salad; crisp celery; and on the sideboard a glass dish heaped with luscious strawberries, flanked by a pitcher of rich golden cream. Real cream from a pampered cow who wouldn’t have known what a ration stamp was if she’d been offered one.
“Oh boy!” said Stormy as he held out Cornelia’s chair. “Gaze on that! And to think that I once was glad to get an ancient raw egg and cried for more when it was gone!”
Amid the laughter they sat down and Barney bowed his head: “Lord, our Father, we thank Thee for this food, and we thank Thee most of all that Thou hast answered our prayers and brought our Stormy back to us safely. We thank Thee that Thou art our Savior who hast saved us, all of us, and taught us to know Thee and to love Thee better than anything else in life. We all of us thank Thee today. For Christ’s sake, amen.”
Roxy stood by with folded hands and unspeakable joy in her face, her eyes closed and a smile on her lips. She was feeling how glad Barney’s mother would be about this.
It was a wonderful dinner, every crumb appreciated, every bit of it eaten, after they had made sure that Roxy had saved enough for Joel and herself. And then they went back into the living room for a few minutes and stood beaming at one another.
“I’ll tell you what,” said Stormy. “Let’s go out and take a walk in the lovely twilight. I want to tell Cornelia something.”
Cornelia looked up and smiled assent.
“Well,” said Barney, “I was just wishing we would because I want to tell a lot of things to Margaret.”
So into the twilight they went, holding hands again, and walking very close to one another.
“We’re going to see Margaret’s mother first,” announced Barney. “We want to show Stormy off to her. She’s been praying as hard as any of us for his return.”
“Why, sure,” said Stormy. “I like to be shown off to nice people who’ve been praying me home again. How about it, Cornelia?”
“Oh, of course,” said Cornelia. “She’s very nice. You’ll like her, Stormy.”
“Of course I will,” said Stormy drolly. “Look who she has for a daughter.”
And then amid laughter and joy they started on, Barney and Sunny taking the lead, the
other two coming more and more slowly and talking in low tones.
“I’ve known you a long time, Cornelia, only you didn’t know me.”
“Oh, yes, I did. My brother has told me so much about you that I feel as if we almost might have grown up together.”
Stormy smiled and slipped her hand in his other one, putting the nearest arm around her shoulders. “But, you see, I’ve been loving you a long time, too.”
“Well,” said Cornelia quietly, “maybe it just wasn’t very formal of me, but I’m afraid I’ve almost been loving you, too. Of course, I haven’t any right to be loving you, only Jim told me so much about you, and he adored you so thoroughly that I somehow couldn’t help loving everything you did. And I’ve cherished a little picture of you I stole from my brother. I don’t think he knows I have it, but I wouldn’t give it up for anything.”
“Yes?” said Stormy. “But, my dear, I have carried a picture of you close to my heart all through this war. It has helped me a lot over hard places, and it got so thoroughly into my soul that once when I was ill and hungry and burning with fever, I thought it was you who came into the shack where I was lying on a bunch of old potato bags and hay, and laid your cool little hand on my forehead. And I have seen you often when I looked up to the clouds, and I thought you were an angel smiling down at me. Sometimes it seemed that if it hadn’t been for you I never would have got through to come home. And then after the crash—I know you haven’t heard about that yet, but I’m coming to it. After the crash you came alongside and wakened me, when otherwise I would have burned to death. And when I got out at last safely, and there was a long way to walk to safety, you walked with me sometimes in the night, and I held your hand this way. Of course, I had no right to let myself think all that out, and dream of you, but I’m asking you for the right now, Cornelia. Will you let me love you? And will you marry me and be with me always?”