Hilda; I could see that.
It was some time before we got out of Paris, and the news we had ofCharlie Sands was that he was at the Front, near V----, which was heldby the enemy. Tish went out and bought a map, and decided that shewould be sent in that direction or nowhere. But for several weeksnothing happened, and she found the ambulance had come and was beingused to carry ice cream to convalescent hospitals round Paris. What wasmore, she could not get it back.
For once I thought our dauntless Tish was daunted. How true it is thatwe forget past success in present failure! But after a number ofmysterious absences she came into my room after Aggie had gone to bedand said: "I've found where they keep it."
"Keep what?"
"My ambulance."
I was putting my hair on wavers at the time, and I saw in the mirrorthat she had her hat and coat on, and the expression she wears when shehas decided to break the law.
"I'm not going to spend this night in a French jail, Tish Carberry," Isaid.
"Very well," she retorted, and turned to go out.
But the thought of Tish alone, embarked on a dangerous enterprise, wastoo much for me, and I called her back.
"I'll go," I said, "and I'll steal, if that's what you're up to. But I'ma fool, and I know it. You can't deceive a lot of Frenchmen with yourhandkerchief-fish-trunk-pencil stuff. And you can't book-soup-oystersyourself out of jail."
"I'm taking my own, and only my own," Tish said with dignity.
Well, I dressed and we went out into the street. I tried to tell Tishthat even if we got it we couldn't take it home and hide it under thebed or in a bureau drawer, but she was engrossed in her own thoughts,and besides, the streets were entirely dark and not a taxicab anywhere.She had a city map, however, and a flashlight, and at last about two inthe morning we reached the street where she said it was stored in agarage.
I was limping by that time, and there were cold chills running up anddown my spine, but Tish was quite calm. And just then there was aterrific outburst of noise, whistles and sirens of all sorts, and a manwalking near us suddenly began to run and dived into a doorway.
"Air raid," said Tish calmly, and walked on. I clutched at her arm, butshe shook me off.
"Tish!" I begged.
"Don't be a craven, Lizzie," she said. "Statistics show that thepercentage of mortality from these things is considerably less than frommumps, and not to be compared with riding in an elevator or with theperils of maternity."
All sorts of people were running madly by that time, and suddenlydisappearing, and a man with a bird cage in his hand bumped flat into meand knocked me down. Tish, however, had moved on without noticing, andwhen I caught up to her she was standing beside a wide door which wasopen, staring in.
"This is the place," she said. And just then half a dozen men poured outthrough the doorway and ran along the street. Tish drew a long breath.
"You see?" she said. "Providence watches over those whose motives arepure, even if compelled to certain methods----"
There was a terrible crash at that moment down the street, followed byglass falling all round us.
"----which are not entirely ethical," Tish continued calmly. "We mightas well go inside, Lizzie. They may drop another, and we shall neverhave such a chance again."
"I can't walk, Tish," I said in a quavering voice. "My knees are bendingbackward."
"Fiddlesticks!" she replied scornfully and stalked inside.
I have since reflected on Tish during that air raid, on the calm mannerin which she filled the gasoline tank of her ambulance, on the way inwhich she flung out six empty ice-cream freezers, and the perfectaplomb with which she kicked the tires to see if they containedsufficient air. For such attributes I have nothing but admiration. But Iam not so certain as to the mental processes which permitted her calmlyto take three spare tires from other cars and to throw them into theambulance.
Perhaps there is with all true greatness an element of ruthlessness. Orperhaps she subsequently sent conscience money to the Red Crossanonymously. There are certain matters on which I do not interrogateher.
I was still sitting on the running board of a limousine inhaling mysmelling salts when she pronounced all ready and we got into the drivingseat and started. Just as we moved out a man came in from the street andbegan to yell at us. When Tish paid no attention to him he took a flyingleap and landed on the step beside us.
"Here, what the---- do you think you are doing?" he said in English."Where's your permit?"
Tish said nothing, but turned out into the street and threw on the gas.He was on my side and the jerk almost flung him off.
"Stop this car!" he yelled. "Hey, Grogan! Grogan!"
But whoever Grogan was he was still in some cellar probably, and bythat time we were going very fast. Unluckily the glass in the street cutall four tires almost immediately, and we swung madly from one side tothe other. And just then, too, we struck the hole the shell had made,and went into it with a terrible bump. The man disappeared immediately,but Tish was quite composed. She simply changed gears, and the carcrawled out on the other side.
"This motor will go anywhere, Lizzie," she said easily. "I feel that myjudgment is entirely vindicated. Where's that man?"
"Killed, probably," I retorted with a certain acidity.
"I hope not," she replied with kindly tolerance. "But if he is it willbe supposed that a bomb did it."
As a matter of fact the _Herald_ next morning reported the miraculousescape of an American found on the very edge of a shell hole,recovering, but showing one of the curious results of shell shock, beingconvinced that two women had stolen a car from his garage, and had runit into the hole in a deliberate attempt to kill him.
Aggie read this to us at breakfast, and Tish merely observed that it wasvery sad, and that she proposed studying shell shock at the Front. Notuntil months later did we tell Aggie the story of that night.
That morning Tish disappeared, and at noon she came back to say that shehad at last secured the ambulance, and that we would start for the Frontat once. Privately she told me that in a pocket of the car she had foundpermits to get us out of Paris, but that the car would be missed beforelong, and that we would better start at once.
It is strange to look back and recall with what blitheness we preparedto leave. And it is interesting, too, to remember the conversation withMr. Burton when he called that afternoon.
"Hello!" he said, glancing about. "This looks like moving on. Where to,oh, brave and radiant spirits?"
"We haven't quite decided," Tish said. She was cleaning her revolver atthe time.
"You haven't decided! Great Scott, haven't you any orders? Or anypermits?"
"All that are necessary," Tish said, squinting into the barrel of herrevolver. "Aggie, don't forget your hay-fever spray."
"But look here," he began, "you know this is France in wartime. I hateto throw a wrench into the machinery, but no one can travel a mile inthis country without having about a million papers. You'll be arrested;you'll be----"
"Young man," Tish said quietly, pouring oil on a rag, "I was arrestedbefore you were born. Aggie, will you order some tea? And make mine veryweak."
"Weak tea!" he repeated with a sort of groan. "Weak tea! And yet youstart for the Front, picking out any trench that takes your fancy,and--weak tea! And I am going to St.-Nazaire! I, a man, with a man'sstomach and a mad affection for a girl who thinks I prefer servingdoughnuts to fighting! I do that, while you----"
"Why do you go to St.-Nazaire?" Tish inquired. "You can sit with Aggieinside the ambulance, and I'm sure you could be useful, changing tires,and so on. You could simply disappear, you know. That is what we intendto do."
"I'll have a cup of tea," he said in a strange voice. "Very strong,please; I seem rather dazed."
"I figure this way," Tish went on, putting down her revolver and takingup her knitting: "I don't believe an ambulance loaded with cigarettesand stick candy and chocolate, with perhaps lemons for lemonade, isgoing to be stopped anywhere as long as it's hea
ded for the Front. Iunderstand they don't stop ambulances anyhow. If they do you canstretch out and pretend to be wounded. This is one way in which you canbe very useful--being wounded."
He took all his tea at a gulp, and then looked round in an almostdistracted manner.
"Certainly," he said. "Of course. It's all perfectly simple. You--youdon't mind, I suppose, if I take a moment to arrange my mind? It seemsto be all mussed up. Apparently I think clearly, but somehow orother----"
"We are actuated by several motives," Tish went on, beginning to turnthe heel of the sock. "First of