"_What!_"
"You are in Brittany, province of Finistere. Didn"t you know it?"
The air-officer seemed astounded. Presently he said: "The dirty weather foxed us. Then that fellow out yonder winged us. I was glad enough to see a coast line."
"Did you fall?"
"No; we controlled our landing pretty well."
"Where did you land?"
There was a second"s hesitation; the airman looked at Wayland, glanced at his crippled leg.
"Out there near some woods," he said. "My pilot"s there now trying to patch up.... You are not French, are you?"
"American."
"Oh! A--volunteer, I presume."
"Foreign Legion--2d."
"I see. Back from the trenches with a leg."
"It"s nearly well. I"ll be back soon."
"Can you walk?" asked the airman so abruptly that Wayland, looking at him, hesitated, he did not quite know why.
"Not very far," he replied, cautiously. "I can get to the window with my crutches pretty well."
And the next moment he felt ashamed of his caution when the airman laughed frankly.
"I need a guide to some petrol," he said. "Evidently you can"t go with me."
"Haven"t you enough petrol to take you to Lorient?"
"How far is Lorient?"
Wayland told him.
"I don"t know," said the flight-lieutenant; "I"ll have to try to get somewhere. I suppose it is useless for me to ask," he added, "but have you, by any chance, a bit of canvas--an old sail or hammock?--I don"t need much. That"s what I came for--and some sh.e.l.lac and wire, and a screwdriver of sorts? We need patching as well as petrol; and we"re a little short of supplies."
Wayland"s steady gaze never left him, but his smile was friendly.
"We"re in a tearing hurry, too," added the flight-lieutenant, looking out of the window.
Wayland smiled. "Of course there"s no petrol here. There"s nothing here. I don"t suppose you could have landed in a more deserted region if you had tried. There"s a chateau in the Las woods, but it"s closed; owner and servants are at the war and the family in Paris."
He shrugged his shoulders. "Everybody has cleared out; the war has stripped the country; and there never were any people on these moors, excepting shooting parties and, in the summer, a stray artist or two from Quimperle."
The lieutenant looked at him. "You say there is n.o.body here--between here and Lorient? No--troops?"
"There"s nothing to guard. The coast is one vast shoal. Ships pa.s.s hull down. Once a day a coast guard patrols along the cliffs----"
"When?"
"He has pa.s.sed, unfortunately. Otherwise he might signal by relay to Lorient and have them send you out some petrol. By the way--are you hungry?"
The flight-lieutenant showed all his firm, white teeth under a yellow mustache, which curled somewhat upward. He laughed in a carefree way, as though something had suddenly eased his mind of perplexity--perhaps the certainty that there was no possible chance for petrol. Certainty is said to be more endurable than suspense.
"I"ll stop for a bite--if you don"t mind--while my pilot tinkers out yonder," he said. "We"re not in such a bad way. It might easily have been worse. Do you think you could find us a bit of sail, or something, to use for patching?"
Wayland indicated an old high-backed chair of oak, quaintly embellished with ancient leather in faded blue and gold. It had been a royal chair in its day, or the Fleur-de-Lys lied.
The flight-lieutenant seated himself with a rather stiff bow.
"If you need canvas"--Wayland hesitated--then, gravely: "There are, in my room, a number of artists" _toiles_--old cha.s.sis with the blank canvas still untouched."
"Exactly what we need!" exclaimed the other. "What luck, now, to meet a painter in such a place as this!"
"They belonged to my father," explained Wayland. "We--Marie-Josephine and I--have always kept my father"s old canvases and colours--everything of his.... I"ll be glad to give them to a British soldier.... They"re about all I have that was his--except that oak chair you sit on."
He rose on his crutches, spoke briefly in Breton to Marie-Josephine, then limped slowly away to his room.
When he returned with half a dozen blank canvases the flight-lieutenant, at table, was eating pork and black bread and drinking Breton cider.
Wayland seated himself, laid both crutches across his knees, picked up one of the cha.s.sis, and began to rip from it the dusty canvas. It was like tearing muscles from his own bones. But he smiled and chatted on, casually, with the air-officer, who ate as though half starved.
"I suppose," said Wayland, "you"ll start back across the Channel as soon as you secure petrol enough?"
"Yes, of course."
"You could go by way of Quimper or by Lorient. There"s petrol to be had at both places for military purposes"--leisurely continuing to rip the big squares of canvas from the frames.
The airman, still eating, watched him askance at intervals.
"I"ve brought what"s left of the sh.e.l.lac; it isn"t much use, I fear. But here is his hammer and canvas stretcher, and the remainder of the nails he used for stretching his canvases," said Wayland, with an effort to speak carelessly.
"Many thanks. You also are a painter, I take it."
Wayland laid one hand on the sleeve of his uniform and laughed.
"I _was_ a writer. But there are only soldiers in the world now."
"Quite so ... This is an odd place for an American to live in."
"My father bought it years ago. He was a painter of peasant life." He added, lowering his voice, although Marie-Josephine understood no English: "This old peasant woman was his model many years ago. She also kept house for him. He lived here; I was born here."
"Really?"