Right in the midst of that Wadley Fiske blows in and proceeds to hammer Mr. Robert on the back.
"I say, Bob," says he, "you remember my telling you about the lovely Marcelle Jedain? I"m sure I told you."
"If you didn"t it must have been an oversight," says Mr. Robert.
"Suppose we admit that you did."
"Well, what do you think?" goes on Waddy, "She is here!"
"Eh?" says Mr. Robert, glancin" around nervous. "Why the deuce do you bring her here?"
"No, no, my dear chap!" protests Waddy. "In this country, I mean."
"Oh!" and Mr. Robert sighs relieved. "Well, give the young lady my best regards and--er--I wish you luck. Thanks for dropping in to tell me."
"Not at all," says Waddy, drapin" himself easy on a chair. "But that"s just the beginning."
"Sorry, Waddy," says Mr. Robert, "but I fear I am too busy just now to----"
"Bah!" snorts Waddy. "You can attend to business any time--tomorrow, next week, next month. But the lovely Marcelle may be sailing within forty-eight hours."
"Well, what do you expect me to do?" demands Mr. Robert. "Want me to scuttle the steamer?"
"I want you to help me find Joe Bruzinski," says Waddy.
Mr. Robert throws up both hands and groans. "Here, Torchy," says, he, "take him away. Listen to his ravings, and if you can discover any sense----"
"But I tell you," insists Waddy, "that I must find Bruzinski at once."
"Very well," says Mr. Robert, pushin" him towards the door. "Torchy will help you find him. Understand, Torchy? Bruzinski. Stay with him until he does."
"Yes, sir," says I, grinnin" as I locks an arm through one of Waddy"s and tows him into the outer office. "Bruzinski or bust."
And by degrees I got the tale. First off, this lovely Marcelle person was somebody he"d met while he was helpin" wind up the great war. No, not on the Potomac sector. Waddy actually got across. You might not think it to look at him, but he did. Second lieutenant, too. Infantry, at that. But they handed out eommissions to odder specimens than him at Plattsburg, you know. And while Waddy got over kind of late he had the luck to be in a replacement unit that made the whoop-la advance into Belgium after the Hun line had cracked.
Seems it was up in some d.i.n.ky Belgian town where the Fritzies had been runnin" things for four years that Waddy meets this fair lady with the impulsive manners. His regiment had wandered in only a few hours after the Germans left and to say that the survivin" natives was glad to see "em is drawin" it mild. This Miss Jedain was the gladdest of the glad, and when Waddy shows up at her front door with a billet ticket callin"
for the best front room she just naturally falls on his neck. I take it he got kissed about four times in quick concussion. Also that the flavor lasted.
"To be received in that manner by a high born, charming young woman,"
says Waddy. "It--it was delightful. Perhaps you can imagine."
"No," says I. "I ain"t got that kind of a mind. But go on. What"s the rest?"
Well, him and the lovely Marcelle had three days of it. Not going to a fond clinch every time he came down to breakfast or drifted in for luncheon. She simmered down a bit, I under stand, after her first wild splurge. But she was very folksy all through his stay, insisted that Waddy was her heroic deliverer, and all that sort of thing.
"Of course," says Waddy, "I tried to tell her that I"d had very little to do personally with smashing the Hindenburg line. But she wouldn"t listen to a word. Besides, my French was rather lame. So we--we--Well, we became very dear to each other. She was charming, utterly. And so full of grat.i.tude to all America. She could not do enough for our boys.
All day she was going among them, distributing little dainties she had cooked, giving them little keepsakes, smiling at them, singing to them.
And every night she had half a dozen officers in to dinner. But to me--ah, I can"t tell you how sweet she was."
"Don"t try," says I. "I think I get a glimmer. All this lasted three days, eh! Then you moved on."
Waddy sighs deep. "I didn"t know until then how dreadful war could be,"
says he. "I promised to come back to her just as soon as the awful mess was over. She declared that she would come to America if I didn"t. She gave me one of her rings. "It shall be as a token," she told me, "that I am yours.""
"Sort of a trunk check, eh?" says I.
"Ah, that ring!" says Waddy. "You see, it was too large for my little finger too small for any of the others. And I was afraid of losing it if I kept it in my pocket. I was always losing things--shaving mirrors, socks, wrist watch. Going about like that one does. At least, I did. All over France I scattered my belongings. That"s what you get by having had a valet for so long.
"So I called up Joe Bruzinski, my top sergeant. Best top in the army, Joe; systematic, methodical. I depended upon him for nearly everything; couldn"t have gotten along without him, in fact. Not an educated fellow, you know. Rather crude. An Americanized Pole, I believe. But efficient, careful about little things. I gave him the ring to keep for me. Less than a week after that I was laid up with a beastly siege of influenza which came near finishing me. I was shipped back to a base hospital and it was more than a month before I was on my feet again. Meanwhile I"d gotten out of touch with my division, applied for a transfer to another branch, got stuck with an S. O. S. job, and landed home at the tail-end of everything after all the shouting was over."
"I see," says I. "Bruzinski lost in the shuffle."
"Precisely," says Waddy. "Mustered out months before I was. When I did get loose they wouldn"t let me go back to Belgium. And then----"
"I remember," says I. "You side-tracked the lovely Marcelle for that little blonde from. Richmond, didn"t you?"
"A mere pa.s.sing fancy," says Waddy, flushin" up. "Nothing serious. She was really engaged all the time to Bent Hawley. They"re to be married next month, I hear. But Marcelle! She has come. Just think, she has been in this country for weeks, came over with the King and Queen of Belgium and stayed on. Looking for me. I suppose. And I knew nothing at all about it until yesterday. She"s in Washington. Jimmy Carson saw her driving down Pennsylvania avenue. He was captain of my company, you know. Rattle-brained chap, Jimmy. Hadn"t kept track of Bruzinski at all.
Knew he came back, but no more. So you see? In order to get that ring I must find Joe."
"I don"t quite get you," says I. "Why not find the lovely Marcelle first and explain about the ring afterwards?"
Waddy shakes his head. "I was in uniform when she knew me," says he.
"I--I looked rather well in it, I"m told. Anyway, different. But in civies, even a frock coat, I"ve an idea she wouldn"t recognize me as a n.o.ble hero. Eh?"
"Might be something in that," I admits.
"But if I had the ring that she gave me--her token--well, you see?" goes on Waddy. "I must have it. So I must find Bruzinski."
"Yes, that"s your play," I agrees. "Where did he hail from?"
"Why, from somewhere in Pennsylvania," says Waddy; "some weird little place that I never could remember the name of."
"Huh!" says I. "Quite a sizable state, you know. You couldn"t ramble through it in an afternoon pagin" Joe Bruzinski."
"I suppose one couldn"t," says Waddy. "But there must be some way of locating him. Couldn"t I telegraph to the War Department?"
"You could," says I, "and about a year from next Yom Kippur you might get a notice that your wire had been received and placed on file. Why, they"re still revisin" casualty lists from the summer of 1918. If you"re in any hurry about gettin" in touch with Mr. Bruzinski----"
"Hurry!" gasps Waddy. "Why, I must find him by tonight."
"That"s goin" to call for speed," says I. "I don"t see how you could--Say, now! I just thought of something. We might tickle Uncle Sam in the W. R. I. B."
"Beg pardon!" says Waddy, gawpin".
"War Risk Insurance Bureau," I explains. "That is, if Miss Callahan"s still there. Used to be one of our stenogs until she went into war work.
Last I knew she was still at it, had charge of one of the filing cases.
They handle soldier"s insurance there, you know, and if Bruzinski"s kept his up----"
"By George!" breaks in Waddy. "Of course. Do you know, I never thought of that."