"There is no disgrace in going back."
"You said once, "anybody can weep for friend and country. Few avenge either." I am--happy--to be among the few."
He nodded. After a moment he said:
"I"ll bet you something. My country is all right, but it"s sick. It"s got a nauseous dose of verbiage to spew up--something it"s swallowed--something about being too proud to fight.... My brother and I couldn"t stand it, so we came to France.... He was in the photo air service. He was in mufti--and about two miles up, I believe. Six Huns went for him.... And winged him. He had to land behind their lines.... In mufti.... Well--I"ve never found courage to hear the details. I can"t stand them--yet."
"Your brother--is dead, monsieur?" she asked timidly.
"Oh, yes. With--circ.u.mstances. Well, then--after that, from an ordinary, commonplace man I became a machine for the extermination of vermin. That"s all I am--an animated magazine of Persian powder--or I do it in any handy way. It"s not a sporting proposition, you see, just get rid of them any old way. You don"t understand, do you?"
"A--little."
"But it"s slow work--slow work," he muttered vaguely, "--and the world is crawling--crawling with them. But if G.o.d guides my bomb this time and if I hit one of their gas cylinders--_that_ ought to be worth while."
In the starlight his features became tense and terrible; she shivered in her threadbare jacket.
After a few moments" silence he went away up the steps to put on his German uniform. When he descended again she had a troubled question for him to answer:
"But how shall you account for me, a French girl, monsieur, if they come to the belfry?"
A heavy flush darkened his face:
"Little mistress of the bells, I shall pretend to be what the Huns are. Do you know how they treat French women?"
"I have heard," she said faintly.
"Then if they come and find you here as my--_prisoner_--they will think they understand."
The colour flamed in her face and she bowed it, resting her elbows on the keyboard.
"Come," he said, "don"t be distressed. Does it matter what a Hun thinks?
Come; let"s be cheerful. Can you hum for me "La Brabanconne"?"
She did not reply.
"Well, never mind," he said. "But it"s a grand battle anthem.... We Americans have one.... It"s out of fashion. And after all, I had rather hear "La Brabanconne" when the time comes.... What a terrible admission!
But what Americans have done to my country is far more terrible. The nation"s sick--sick!... I prefer "La Brabanconne" for the time being."
The Prussians entered Nivelle a little before dawn. The airman had been watching the street below. Down there in the slight glow from the cinders of what once had been a cottage a cat had been squatting, staring at the bed of coals, as though she were once more installed upon the family hearthstone.
Then something unseen as yet by the airman attracted the animal"s attention. Alert, crouching, she stared down the vista of dark, deserted houses, then turned and fled like a ghost.
For a long while the airman perceived nothing. Suddenly close to the house facades on either side of the street, shadowy forms came gliding forward.
They pa.s.sed the glowing embers and went on toward Sainte-Lesse; jagers, with knapsacks on back and rifles trailing; and on their heads oddly shaped pot helmets with battered looking visors.
One or two motorcyclists followed, whizzing through the desolate street and into the country beyond.
After a few minutes, out of the throat of the darkness emerged a solid column of infantry. In a moment, beneath the bell tower, the ground was swarming with Huns; every inch of the earth became infested with them; fields, hedges, alleys crawled alive with Germans. They overran every road, every street, every inch of open country; their wagons choked the main thoroughfare, they were already establishing themselves in the redoubt below, in the trench, running in and out of dugouts and all over scarp, counter-scarp, parades and parapet, ant-like in energy, busy with machine gun, trench mortar, installing telephones, searchlights, periscopes, machine guns.
Automobiles arrived--two armoured cars and grey pa.s.senger machines in which there were officers.
The airman laid his hand on Maryette"s arm.
"Little bell-mistress," he said, "German officers are coming into the tower. I want them to find you in my arms when they come up into this belfry. Understand me, and forgive me."
"I--understand," she whispered.
"Play your part bravely. Will you?"
"Yes."
He put his arms around her; they stood rigid, listening.
"Now!" he whispered, and drew her close, kissing her.
Spurred boots clattered on the stone floor:
"Herr Je!" exclaimed an astonished voice. Somebody laughed. But the airman coolly pushed the girl aside, and as the faint grey light of dawn fell on his field uniform bearing the ribbon of the iron cross, two pairs of spurred heels hastily clinked together and two hands flew to the oddly shaped helmet visors.
"Also!" exclaimed the airman in a mincing Berlin accent. "When I require a corps of observers I usually send my aide. That being now quite perfectly understood, you gentlemen will give yourselves the trouble to descend as you have come. Further, you will place a sentry at the tower door, and inform enquirers that General Count von Gierdorff and his staff are occupying the Nivelle belfry for purposes of observation."
The astounded officers saluted steadily; and if they imagined that the mythical staff of this general officer was cl.u.s.tered aloft somewhere up there where the bells hung it was impossible to tell by the strained expressions on their wooden countenances.
However, it was evidently perfectly plain to them what the high Excellenz was about in this vaulted room where wires led aloft to an unseen carillon on the landing in the belfry above.
The airman nodded; they went. And when their clattering steps echoed far below on the spiral stone stairs, the airman motioned to the little bell-mistress. She followed him up the short flight to where the bells hung.
"We"re in for it now," he said. "If High Command comes into this place to investigate then I shall have to hold those stairs.... It"s growing quite light in the east. Which way is the wind?"
"North," she said in a steady voice. She was terribly pale.
He went to the parapet and looked over, half wondering, perhaps, whether he would receive a rifle shot through the head.
Far below at the foot of the bell-tower the dimly discerned Nivelle redoubt, swarming with men, was being armed; and, to the south, wired he thought, but could not see distinctly.
Then, as the dusk of early dawn grew greyer, the first rifle shots rattled out in the west. The French salient was saluting the wire-stringers.
Back under shelter they tumbled; whistles sounded distantly; a trench mortar crashed; then the accentless tattoo of machine guns broke from every emplacement.
"The east is turning a little yellow," he said calmly. "I believe this matter is going through. Toss some dust into the air. Which way?"
"North," said the girl.
"Good. I think they"re placing their cylinders. I think I can see them laying their coils. I"m certain of it. What luck!"