CHAPTER V
SPY COMPLEX
The next day three things happened. Norma saw her favorite Lieutenant.She asked Rosa a question and received a surprising reply, and Millie,the shopgirl who was in the Army now, led them all in an amusingadventure that might not have turned out so well.
In the afternoon they drilled as a squad, as a platoon, and as acompany. It was a hard workout, but to Norma it was a thrillingadventure.
“All this is the real thing!” she exclaimed once.
“I’ll say it is!” Betty laughed. “These new shoes are burning up myfeet!”
“It’s the real McCoy, all the same,” Norma insisted. “It’s what I’vebeen training for all my life! My father thought it was just for fun,for after all, I was a girl.”
“How little he knew!” Betty replied soberly.
Marching and drilling were not hard for Norma. She had time to think ofother things. She began studying the ancient fort, and the atmospherethat hung about it like a cloud.
She had begun to love the place, and at times found herself wishingthat she might remain here for a long time.
“Four weeks seem terribly short,” she told Betty.
“It may be much longer,” Betty suggested. “You might join the motortransport school and learn to drive a truck in a convoy.”
“Yes, and I might not,” was her reply.
“Or attend the bakers’ and cooks’ school,” Betty suggested.
“Not that either.”
“Well then,” Betty exclaimed, “since you’re so awfully good at thisdrilling stuff, perhaps they’d let you attend the officers’ trainingschool.”
“Hmm.” she murmured. “Now you’re talking! Maybe. I don’t know.”
On that particular day, as a bright winter sun shone down on the longparade ground, Norma thought only of the old fort and what it stood for.
It was quite ancient, but just how old, she could not tell. Always alover of horses, she tried to picture the parade ground in those olddays when a thousand, perhaps two thousand men, all mounted on gloriouscavalry horses, came riding down that stretch of green.
“Dignified officers in the lead—band playing and horses prancing! Whata picture!” she murmured.
On each side of the parade ground were rows of red brick buildings. Onthe right side had been the homes of officers. Now these were occupiedby the officers of the school.
On the opposite side were barracks occupied by officer candidates intraining.
“That’s where I’d be training,” she thought with a little thrill, “if Iapplied for entrance and was accepted.”
On bright, warm days, she had been told, the whole school, six thousandstrong, assembled on the parade ground and marched down the field.“That,” she thought, “would be glorious!” She hoped that they wouldhave fine weather before she went away.
It was after drill was over that a rather strange thing happened. Therewas, she had discovered, an air of grim, serious determination aboutthis place that was almost depressing. You seldom heard a laugh. Therewas always the tramp-tramp of feet.
Even now, when her squad of ten had been put on their own, and theywere headed for the Service Club for a bottle of coke or a cup of hotchocolate, they were still going tramp-tramp, in regular file.
“It’s a little bit too much!” she thought.
Just at that moment a shrill voice cried out sharply:
“Left! Right! One! Two! One! Two.” She recognized that voice. It wasMillie, the shopgirl!
For a space of seconds they kept up the steady tramp, tramp, tramp.Then, with a burst of laughter, they all took up the chant: “One! Two!”
They kept this up to the very door of the Club. Then, all of a sudden,the chant ended with a low escape of breath. There in front of the Clubstood a captain of the WACs.
As they filed past, the girls saluted, and the captain gravely returnedtheir salute.
“Wasn’t that terrible!” Millie whispered, gripping Norma’s arm. “And Istarted it! Do—do you suppose they’ll put me in the guardhouse?”
“I don’t know,” Norma hesitated. “No—not the guardhouse. No WAC is everput in there. I guess it wasn’t so bad. We were just letting off steam,that was all.” Truth was, she didn’t know the answer. Of one thing shewas sure—she for one felt better for this little bit of gaiety.
The Service Club had a cheerful atmosphere about it. Straight ahead, asthey entered, they saw at the back of a fairly large lounging room, afire in a large open fireplace. From the right, where chairs stoodabout small tables, came the pleasant odor of hot coffee and chocolate.
As Norma turned to the right she caught the eye of Lieutenant Warren.She was seated alone at a table, sipping coffee. At once she motionedto Norma to come sit across from her. With some hesitation, Normajoined her.
“What will you have? It’s on me,” the Lieutenant smiled.
“That coffee smells just right,” was the reply.
“Doughnuts—a sweet roll, or cookies?”
“A—a sweet roll. But please let me get them!”
“No! No! Permit me!” Lieutenant Warren was away.
“That training you received at college was fine,” the Lieutenant saidwhen they were seated. “Grand stuff. I only wish all colleges went infor it. And they will. Our quota now is a hundred and fifty thousand.It will be a half million before you know it.”
“But Lieutenant Warren!” Norma’s brow puckered. “We’re not to carryguns, are we?”
“No. That’s not contemplated.”
“Then why all this drilling?”
“We’re going in for hard things—driving trucks, carrying messages onmotorcycles, repairing radios, cars, airplanes. We’re to take theplaces of soldiers so they can carry guns and fight. We’ve got to behard—hard as nails.”
“I—I see.”
“That’s not all.” The Lieutenant’s eyes shone. “Learning to drillproperly is learning to obey orders. That’s necessary. If I say to you,‘Take this message down that road where the bullets are flying,’ you’vejolly well got to do it.”
“I—I see,” Norma repeated.
“You don’t mind this drilling, do you?”
“I love it!” This time Norma’s eyes shone.
“I thought so. And you know a great deal about it—perhaps more thanmost of us.”
“Per—perhaps,” the girl agreed, hesitatingly.
“With your permission, I am going to suggest that you be given acompany to drill.”
“Oh! Oh, please! No!” Norma held up a hand.
“Wait.” The tone was low. “You saw me examining recruits?”
“Yes.”
“I was the only officer doing that work.”
“I—I didn’t notice.”
“All the same it was true. Why do you think I did it?”
“Because you wished to serve,” Norma replied in a low voice. “But withme it would be a step up too soon.”
“We are in a war. A step up or down does not matter. All that mattersis that we should be prepared for that step. You are well prepared. Youwon’t refuse?”
“I won’t refuse,” the girl answered solemnly.
“Lieutenant,” Norma said in a low tone a moment later, “when I had myinterview they asked me what I’d do if I suspected someone of being aspy. Why did they ask me that?”
“The psychologist was taking your measure. That was a problem question.The answer would give her a slant on your general character.”
“Then they don’t expect to find a spy among the WACs?”
“It’s not impossible for a spy to join our ranks, but certainly noteasy. You filled out a questionnaire that told every place you hadlived and when, every school you attended, and when.”
“And if I had been working, I would have had to tell how long and when,why I quit, and all the rest. All the same,” Norma spoke slowly,guardedly,—“spies have gotten into every sort of place, so—”
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“So you think we have a spy?” The Lieutenant’s voice was low. “Anythingyou’d like to tell me?”
“No. Not—not yet.”
“Okay. Let’s skip it. But just one thing. We all need to be carefulabout members of our organization who are children of the foreign-born.It’s easy to do them an injustice. Too easy. They form a large group inour population. Take that little Italian girl over there. She’s anattractive young lady.”
“That’s true,” Norma agreed.
“And that big girl—Lena. Her parents are foreign-born. What a truckdriver she’d make!”
“Yes—Oh yes. Sure she would.”
The Lieutenant gave Norma a short, sharp look.
Nothing more was said. A moment later Millie stood by their table.There was a worried look on the shopgirl’s face.
“Wasn’t that terrible?” She did not smile.
“What’s so terrible?” The Lieutenant smiled.
“What we did a little while ago,” said Millie.
“Want to tell me about it?” the Lieutenant asked.
Millie dropped into a chair to tell the story of their hilarious march.
“Now,” she exclaimed at the end, “It was I who started it. What willthey do to me?”
“Nothing,” was the instant response, quite as quickly rewarded by agolden smile.
“You were on your own,” the Lieutenant explained. “We want you to behappy. When an army loses its sense of humor it begins losing battles.”
“I—I’m so glad,” Millie exclaimed.
“But let me tell you.” The Lieutenant held up a warning hand. “Thereare other times and places. Take Inspection as an example. When youline up by your cots for inspection be sure there are no wrinkles inyour blanket; that your locker is in order and open; that your shoes,towel, washcloth and laundry bag are in place. And above all, lookstraight ahead. Don’t smile. Don’t frown. Just look—and don’t move amuscle—not even if a fly gets inside your glasses or a bee stings you.”
“Jeepers!” Millie exclaimed. “This is some woman’s army!”
That evening, by some strange chance, Norma found herself in the dayroom with Rosa, alone.
“It’s my chance.” she told herself with a sharp intake of breath. “NowI’ll ask her.”
“Rosa,” she said quietly, “why do you flash a light by the window atnight?”
“Oh!” Rosa exclaimed sharply. “Does it show?” Her face was flushed.
“Yes. Just a little.” Norma was trying to make it easy. “But why shouldyou do it at all?”
“I don’t like to tell you.” Rosa backed away. “You’ll laugh at me.”
“Rosa, I’ll never laugh at you about anything.”
“Honest?” Rosa’s dark eyes searched her face.
“Honest. Never! Never!”
“All right, then. I’ll tell you. My mother didn’t want me to join up.She believes much in prayer. She gave me a book of prayers and said:‘Read one prayer every night.’ I have read one prayer every night. Butit was dark, so I hid a small flashlight in my bed. Now you can laugh.”Rosa turned away.
“Rosa,”—Norma put an arm about her—“I think that’s wonderful! But Rosa,your mother did not say ‘Read a prayer in bed.’”
“No, she did not say that.”
“Rosa, we are forbidden a light in the barracks after nine-thirty, sowhy don’t you come down here to read your prayer?”
“Thank you! Thank you so very much. I shall do that.” Instantly Rosawas away after her book.
Long after Rosa had read her prayer and left the room, Norma satstaring at the fire. In that fire she read many questions. Would she beasked to drill a company? Should she ask for the privilege of enteringofficers’ training? Had Rosa told the truth? And Lena? What of Lena andthe strange girl in the beauty parlor?
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