More Tish

when we wakened it was daylight, and theGermans were in full possession of the town. They inspected the churchbuilding overhead, but left it quickly; and Tish drew a keen deductionfrom that.

  "Well, that's something in our favor," she said. "Evidently they'reafraid the thing will fall in on them."

  At eight o'clock she complained of being hungry, and I felt the need offood myself. With her customary promptness she set out to discover food,leaving me alone, a prey to sad misgivings. In a short time, however,she returned and asked me if I'd seen a piece of wire anywhere.

  "I've got considerable barbed wire sticking in me in various places," Isaid rather tartly, "if that will do."

  But she only stood, staring about her in the semidarkness.

  "A lath with a nail in the end of it would answer," she observed."Didn't you step on a nail last night?"

  Well, I had, and at last we found it. It was in the end of a plank andseemed to be precisely what she wanted. She took it away with her, andwas gone some twenty minutes. At the end of that time she returnedcarrying carefully a small panful of fried bacon.

  "I had to wait," she explained. "He had just put in some fresh sliceswhen I got there."

  While we ate she explained.

  "There is a small opening to the street," she said, "where there is amachine gun, now covered with debris. Just outside I perceived a soldiercooking his breakfast. Of course there was a chance that he would notlook away at the proper moment, but he stood up to fill his pipe. I'dhave got his coffee too, but in the fight he kicked it over."

  "What fight?" I asked.

  "He blamed another soldier for taking the bacon. He was really savage,Lizzie. From the way he acted I gather that they haven't any too much toeat."

  Breakfast fortified us both greatly, but it also set me to thinkingsadly of Aggie, whose morning meal was a crisp slice of bacon, variedoccasionally by an egg. I had not Tish's confidence in her escape. AndTish was restless. She insisted on wandering about the cellar, and nearnoon I missed her for two hours. When she came back she was covered withplaster dust, but she made no explanation.

  "I have been thinking over the situation, Lizzie," she said, "and itdivides itself into two parts. We must wait until nightfall and thensearch again for Aggie, in case my judgment is wrong as to her escape.And then there is a higher law than that of friendship. There is ourduty to Aggie, and there is also our duty to the nation."

  "Well," I said rather shortly, "I guess we've done our duty. We've takena prisoner. I owe a duty to my backbone, which is sore from these rocks;and my right leg, which has been tied in a knot with cramp for threehours."

  "When," Tish broke in, "is a railroad most safe to travel on? Just aftera wreck, certainly. And when, then, is a town easiest to capture? Justafter it has been captured. Do you think for one moment that they'llexpect another raid tonight?"

  "Do you think there will be one?" I asked hopefully.

  "I know there will."

  She would say nothing further, but departed immediately and was gonemost of the afternoon. She came back wearing a strange look of triumph,and asked me if I remembered the code Aggie used, but I had neverlearned it. She was very impatient.

  "It's typical of her," she said, "to disappear just when we need hermost. If you knew the code and could get rid of the lookout they keep inthe tower, while I----"

  She broke off and reflected.

  "They've got to change the lookout in the tower," she said. "If the onecomes down before the other goes up, and if we had a hatchet----"

  "Exactly," I said. "And if we were back in the cottage at Penzance, withnothing worse to fight than mosquitoes----"

  We had no midday meal, but at dusk Tish was lucky enough to capture aknapsack set down by a German soldier just outside the machine-gunaperture, and we ate what I believe are termed emergency rations. Bythat time it was quite dark, and Tish announced that the time had cometo strike, though she refused any other explanation.

  We had no difficulty in getting out of the cellar, and Tish led the wayimmediately to the foot of the tower.

  "We must get rid of the sentry up there," she whispered. "The moment hehears a racket in the street he will signal for reenforcements, whichwould be unfortunate."

  "What racket?" I demanded.

  But she did not reply. Instead she moved into the recess below the towerand stood looking up thoughtfully. I joined her, and we could make outwhat seemed to be a platform above, and we distinctly saw a light on it,as though the lookout had struck a match. I suggested firing up at him,but Tish sniffed.

  "And bring in the entire regiment, or whatever it is!" she saidscornfully but in a whisper. "Use your brains, Lizzie!"

  However, at that moment the sentry solved the question himself, for hestarted down. We could hear his coming. We concealed ourselves hastily,and Tish watched him go out and into a cellar across the street, whereshe said she was convinced they were serving beer. Indeed, there couldbe no doubt of it, she maintained, as the men went there in crowds, andmany of them carried tin cups.

  Tish's first thought was that he would be immediately relieved byanother lookout, and she stationed herself inside the door, ready tomake him prisoner. But finally the truth dawned on us that he hadtemporarily deserted his post. Tish took immediate advantage of hisabsence to prepare to ascend the tower, and having found a large knifein the knapsack she had salvaged she took it between her teeth andclimbed the narrow winding staircase.

  "If he comes back before I return, Lizzie," she said, "capture him, butdon't shoot. It might make the rest suspicious."

  She then disappeared and I heard her climbing the stairs with her usualagility. However, she returned considerably sooner than I hadanticipated, and in a state of intense anger.

  "There is another one up there," she whispered. "I heard him sneezing.Why he didn't shoot at me I don't know, unless he thought I was theother one. But I've fixed him," she added with a tinge of complacency."It's a rope ladder at the top. I reached up as high as I could and cutit."

  She then grew thoughtful and observed that cutting the laddernecessitated changing a part of her plan.

  "What plan?" I demanded. "I guess my life's at stake as well as yours,Tish Carberry."

  "I should think it would be perfectly clear," she said. "We've eithergot to take this town or starve like rats in that cellar. They've got sonow that they won't even walk on the side next to the church, and someof them cross themselves. The frying pan seems to have started it, andwhen the knapsack disappeared---- However, here's my plan, Lizzie. Fromwhat I have observed during the day pretty nearly the entire lot, exceptthe sentries, will be in that beer cellar across in an hour or so. Therest will run for it--take my word--the moment I open fire."

  "I'll take your word, Tish," I said. "But what if they don't run?"

  She merely waved her hand.

  "My plan is simply this," she said: "I've been tinkering with thatmachine gun most of the day, and my conviction is that it will work. Yousimply turn a handle like a hand sewing machine. As soon as you hear mestarting it you leave the church by that shell hole at the back and goas rapidly as possible back to the American lines. I'll guarantee," sheadded grimly, "that not a German leaves that cellar across the streetuntil my arm's worn out."

  "What shall I say, Tish?" I quavered.

  I shall never forget the way she drew herself up.

  "Say," she directed, "that we have captured the town of V---- and thatthey can come over and plant the flag."

  I must profess to a certain anxiety during the period of waiting thatfollowed. I felt keenly the necessity of leaving my dear Tish to captureand hold the town alone. And various painful thoughts of Aggie added tomy uneasiness. Nor was my perturbation decreased by the reentrance ofthe lookout some half hour after he had gone out. Concealed behinddebris we listened to his footsteps as he ascended the tower, and coulddistinctly hear his ferocious mutterings when he discovered that therope had been cut.

  But strangely enough he did not call to the other ma
n, cut off on theplatform above.

  "I don't believe there was another," I whispered to Tish. But she wasconfident that she had heard one, and she observed that very probablythe two had quarreled.

  "It is a well-known tendency of two men, cut off from their kind," shesaid, "to become violently embittered toward each other. Listen. He iscoming down."

  I regret to say that he raised an immediate alarm, and that we wereforced to retire behind our sarcophagus in the cellar for some time.During the search the enemy was close to us a number of times, and hadnot one