The Campfire Girls on the Field of Honor.
by Margaret Vandercook.
CHAPTER I
AN OLD HOUSE
There are certain old houses in New York City built of rose-colored brick and white stone which face Washington Square.
On this morning in early winter a light snow covered the ground and clung to the bare branches of the shrubs and trees.
In a drawing-room of one of the old houses a young girl was moving quietly about at work. She was alone and the room was almost entirely dismantled, the pictures having been taken down from the walls, the decorations stored away and the furniture protected by linen covers.
The girl herself was wearing an odd costume, a long frock made like a peasant"s smock with an insignia of two crossed logs and a flame embroidered upon one sleeve. With her dark eyes, her dark, rather coa.r.s.e hair, which she wore parted in the middle over a low forehead, and her white, unusually colorless skin, she suggested a foreigner.
Nevertheless, although her mother and father were born in Russia, Vera Lagerloff was not a foreigner. However, at this moment she was talking quietly to herself in a foreign tongue, yet the language she was making an attempt to practice was French and not Russian. Since the entry of the United States into the world war, New York City had been exchanging peoples as well as material supplies with her Allies to so large an extent that _one_ language was no longer sufficient even for the requirements of one"s own country.
Finally, still reciting her broken sentences almost as if she were rehearsing a part in a play, Vera walked over to a front window and stood gazing expectantly out into the Square as if she were looking for some one.
It was about three o"clock in the afternoon and the neighborhood was almost deserted. In the paths beyond the Washington Arch a few children were playing. Now and then an occasional man or woman pa.s.sed along the street, to vanish into a house or apartment building.
A few taxis and private cars rolled by, but not one made even a pretence of stopping before the rose-colored brick house.
After about five minutes of waiting, sighing and then, smiling at her own folly, the girl turned away and began slowly to climb up the old colonial stairs leading to the second floor.
"When will human beings cease demanding the impossible?" she asked of herself, yet speaking aloud. "I know that Mrs. Burton and Bettina cannot arrive for another half hour, nevertheless I am wasting both time and energy watching for their appearance."
During the past month Vera Lagerloff had been the guest of Mrs. Richard Burton in her New York home. Together they had been closing the house for an indefinite period and making their final arrangements for sailing for France. Within a few days the American Sunrise Camp Fire unit, with Mrs. Burton as their guardian, was to set sail to help with the work of reclamation in the devastated area of France and also to establish the first group of Camp Fire girls ever recognized upon French soil.
Since their summer "Behind the Lines" in southern California, Vera had been studying with these two purposes in mind.
In the front of the house on the second floor Mrs. Burton"s private sitting-room was to be left undisturbed until the day of her departure, and it was toward this room Vera was making her way.
Except for the two servants, man and wife, engaged only a short time before, who were presumably busy downstairs, she supposed herself alone.
Now as she approached the sitting-room, through the open door she caught sight of the blue and silver of the walls, a pair of old blue curtains and a tea-table decorated with a tea-service and a blue bowl of yellow jonquils. Then an unlooked-for sensation made the girl pause within a few feet on the far side of the threshold, almost holding her breath, for she had the extraordinary impression that the room she had presumed empty was already occupied.
The next instant Vera discovered that a man was standing in front of a small mahogany desk endeavoring to break into a locked drawer. He had not heard her approach, for he did not turn toward her, nevertheless she immediately recognized the man and the situation. The day before, in order to meet the expenses of the journey to France, Mrs. Burton had drawn a large sum of money from bank, placing it in her desk for safe keeping. To the members of her own household she had made no secret of this, and now one of them was taking advantage of his knowledge.
Vera recognized that she must think and act quickly, or it might be possible that all their hopes and plans for service in France would vanish in one tragic instant.
In the bedroom in the rear of the hall she knew there was a telephone.
Yet the moments occupied in having the telephone answered and in calling the police seemed interminable. In far less time surely the thief must have accomplished his design!
Yet naturally after her call had been answered Vera knew she must return to make sure and equally naturally she feared to face the man were he still upstairs.
In the right hand corner of Mrs. Burton"s dressing table was a silver mounted pistol. This had been Captain Burton"s parting gift to his wife before his own departure for Europe a few weeks before. Vera distinctly remembered her own and Mrs. Burton"s nervousness over the gift and Captain Burton"s annoyance. They were about to make their home in a devastated country recently occupied by the enemy and yet were afraid of so simple a method of self-protection! Vera had shared in Captain Burton"s lecture and in his instructions.
Moreover, ordinarily she was not timid, but instead possessed a singular feminine courage. So an instant later, holding the small pistol partly concealed by her skirt, Vera slipped noiselessly back again into the hall, moving along in the shadow near the wall. Within a few feet of the sitting-room suddenly the thief appeared in the doorway. The next instant, startled by her appearance, he made a headlong rush down the stairs with his purpose too nearly accomplished to think of surrender.
As Vera followed she wondered if, when the thief reached the front door, where he must pause in opening it, would she then have the courage to fire? Much as she desired to secure the stolen money, she felt the instinctive feminine dislike of wounding another human being.
Yet now she discovered that, in spite of having failed to notice the fact on her way upstairs, the front door was not locked. It had been purposely left slightly ajar so that there need be no dangerous delay.
But before the thief actually reached the front door majestically it was flung open. From the outside a voice called "Halt."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Have You Nothing Better to do than Steal?"]
Immediately after, instead of a policeman as she antic.i.p.ated, Vera beheld one of the most singular figures she had ever seen. For the moment, in her excitement and confusion, she could not tell whether the figure was a woman"s or a man"s. A long arm was thrust forward, then, such was the thief"s surprise, that he allowed the stolen pocketbook to be removed from his grasp without opposition.
As Vera regained sufficient equanimity to cover him with her pistol she heard a rich Irish voice unmistakably a woman"s, saying:
"Sure, man alive and have you nothing better to do than steal when the world is so hard put for honest soldiers and workmen to carry on her affairs. Now get you away and pray the saints to forgive you, for the next time you"ll not be let off so easily."
Glad to take the newcomer at her word, the man vanished. Then before Vera could either move or speak, the surprising visitor marched up to her.
"Put that pistol away, child, and never handle it again, or you will injure yourself! Now take me upstairs to Polly Burton"s sitting-room and make me some tea, for the plain truth is I am famished. I have just arrived in New York from Boston, and travel in war times certainly has its drawbacks. But if you will wait I"ll first bring my suitcase inside the hall until we feel more like carrying it upstairs."
Before Vera could offer her a.s.sistance a shabby suitcase was brought indoors.
Immediately after she found herself, not leading the way, but following the unexpected intruder to the second floor. Evidently the elderly woman was familiar with the house, for she made her way directly to the sitting-room and, seating herself upon the divan, began untying her bonnet strings.
In spite of her own confusion and excitement and the visitor"s surprising appearance, Vera believed herself in the presence of an important personage. She understood this, notwithstanding the fact that the woman"s costume was conspicuously shabby and she herself extremely plain.
The bonnet which she removed without waiting to be asked followed a fashion of about a quarter of a century before. When her traveling coat had been laid aside the black dress underneath was almost equally old-fashioned in design.
"Here, child, please take this money and hide it in the same place, or find a safer one," she announced. "Yet it may be just as well not to mention the robbery to Polly Burton. She is sure to need more strength than she possesses to be able to start on this perilous journey to France almost at the beginning of winter, with only you foolish children as her companions. Besides, I presume Polly left the money in the most conspicuous place in the house; she never has learned not to trust the entire world. I allowed the thief to escape so we need give no further time to him. But tell me the whole story--who are you, how did the man get into the house and why are you here alone?"
At last, in the first opportunity which had been vouchsafed her, Vera endeavored to explain what had occurred. As she spoke she could feel herself being observed with the keenest, most searching scrutiny. Yet for some reason, although never having heard the name or seen her companion before, she had no thought of disputing her visitor"s right to whatever information she desired. The dark eyes in the weather-beaten old face were wise and kind; the manner belonged to a woman accustomed to being obeyed.
Later Vera and her guest made a careful tour of the lower part of the house. Of course the cook had vanished soon after her husband. But they were downstairs in time to meet the police when they finally made their appearance.
Vera opened the door, yet she stood aside to hear her companion announce.
"You can go away again. No, we have no need of you, the telephone call was a mistake."
Finally when the police had disappeared without requiring a great deal of persuasion, for the second time Vera followed her unknown companion upstairs.
"You understand, child, it would have been the greatest interruption to our present plans if I had not permitted the thief to escape. Some one would have had to appear in court and doubtless Polly Burton would have had newspaper reporters coming to the house at all hours. They would have liked a story in which a woman of her prominence played a part."
Fifteen minutes later, having presented the unexpected guest with the tea she had requested, Vera was sitting beside the tea table waiting to satisfy her further needs, when she caught the sound of a key being turned in the lock of the front door downstairs and the next instant Mrs. Burton"s voice, followed by Bettina Graham"s, calling for her.
With a hurried apology and really fearful that her autocratic companion might attempt to detain her, Vera ran out of the room.
Over the banisters she could see Bettina Graham, who had just arrived from Washington, and Mrs. Burton, who had gone down to the Pennsylvania station to meet her.
Standing near Bettina was a girl whom Vera had never seen before.