CHAPTER VI
THE MYSTERY
Ruth Fielding's rising fear was quenched when she saw the faces of thenewcomers more clearly. They were those of young men belonging to theAmerican Expeditionary Forces, as their uniforms betrayed. And theywere teasing Mother Gervaise in the free and easy way of American youth.
Nor was she anywhere near as angry as she assumed. They pushed herinto the cottage and crowded in themselves before they saw Ruthstanding at the end of the long table. Then, quite suddenly, theirvoices fell.
Not so Mother Gervaise. She fetched one of her tormentors a sharpsmack with the palm of her hand.
"_Un vaurien_!" she cried, meaning, in the slang of the day,"good-for-nothing." "You would take my house by storm! Do you thinkit is a Boche dugout you charge when you come to Mother Gervaise?"
The silence of the rough and careless fellows was becoming marked.Already the Frenchwoman was noticing it. She turned, saw their eyesfixed upon Ruth, and remarked:
"Ha! It's well they respect the mademoiselle. Come in, wicked ones,and shut the door."
Ruth, relieved, saw that all were young commissioned officers--a very,very young captain, two first lieutenants, and several subalterns.They bowed rather bashfully to Ruth, and could not take their eyes offher.
One finally said: "You must be the lady at the Clair Hospital--MissFielding? You're the only American girl at that station."
"I am Miss Fielding," Ruth returned. Her eyes shone, her tone grewsofter. She saw that he belonged to Tom Cameron's regiment. "I have afriend in your regiment--Mr. Cameron. Lieutenant Thomas Cameron. Ishe on duty with you?"
Their respectful silence when they tumbled in and saw her was marked.But the utter dumbness that followed this question was so impressivethat Ruth could almost hear her own heart beat.
"What---- He is not _hurt_?" she cried, looking from one to the other.
"I believe not, Miss Fielding," the captain said. "He is not on dutywith us. I can tell you nothing about Lieutenant Cameron."
The decision with which he spoke and the expression upon the faces ofthe others, appalled the girl. She could not find breath to askanother question.
Mother Gervaise bustled forward to set upon the napkin she had spread aplate of the ragout for Ruth. The latter sank into the chair. Theyoung officers gathered upon the other side of the hearth. They werehopelessly dumb.
There was a noise outside--the chugging of a car. It was a welcomerelief. The door opened again and Charlie Bragg and the other two boysentered.
"Well, the Boches didn't get us that time," said Charlie, withsatisfaction. "Nor the old fliver, either. Hello! Here's GeneralHaig and all his staff. Or is it General Disorder? Hurry up with theMulligan, Mother Gervaise--we've got to gobble and go."
He slipped into the seat next to Ruth, smiling at her. He was just ahungry, slangy boy. But those others----
Ruth could scarcely force the food down; but she determined to make ameal for her body's sake. She did not know what was before her--howmuch work, or how hard it would be, before she obtained another meal.She managed to ask:
"Is the car all right again, Charlie?"
"You can't bust it!" he declared enthusiastically. "The Britishersmake all manner of fun of 'em. Call 'em 'mechanical fleas' and allthat. But with a hammer, a monkey-wrench, and some bale-wire, a fellowcan perform major and minor operations on a fliver in the middle of agarageless wilderness and come through all right when better cars areleft for the junk department to gather up and salvage."
The other two ambulance drivers to whom Ruth had been introduced cameto the table and finished their suppers, Mother Gervaise grumblinglydishing up more hot stew for them.
"It is for you and such as you I slave and slave," she said. "And whatthanks do I get?"
"For _la zozotte_ do you work, Mother," said one, laughing. "And whowould want better thanks than money?"
But Ruth kissed the woman when she rose to depart. She believed MotherGervaise was "tender under her rough skin," as is the saying.
The young officers had not come to the table while Ruth remained; nordid Charlie pay much attention to them. At least, he did not try tointroduce them, and Ruth was glad of that.
There was something wrong. There was a mystery. Why should TomCameron's own associates act so oddly when his name was mentioned?
She merely bowed to the officers, but shook hands with Charlie'sbrother _ambulanciers_. There seemed to her something very wholesomeand fine about these youths who drove the ambulances. They had--mostof them--come to France and enlisted in their present employment beforethe United States got into the war at all.
She suspected that many of them were of that class known about theirhome neighborhoods as "that boy of Jones'," or "that Jackson kid." Inother words, their overflow of animal spirits, or ambition, or whateverit was, had probably made them something of a trial to their neighbors,if not to their families.
Ruth began to see them in a sort of golden glow of heroism. They werethe truer heroes because they denied this designation. Charlie grewred and gruff if she as much as suggested that he was doing anythingout of the ordinary. Yet she knew he had written a book about hisfirst year's experiences and his brother had found a publisher for itin New York. His share of the proceeds from that book was going to theRed Cross.
Into the ambulance they climbed, and again they were rolling over thedark and rough road. Ruth gathered together all her courage and asked:
"Do you know anything about Tom Cameron?"
"Tom Cameron?"
"Yes," she said. "I want to know what's happened to him, Charlie."
"For the love of Pete!" gasped the young fellow. "I didn't knowanything had happened to him--again."
"I must know," Ruth told him, her voice quivering. "Some of thoseofficers belonged to his battalion. _All_ were of his regiment. Butwhen I asked about him they refused to answer."
"You don't mean it!" Plainly Charlie Bragg was nonplussed. "I thoughtthey acted funny," he said, with a sudden grin, which she sensed ratherthan saw. "But I thought it was girlitis. It has a terrible effectupon these fellows that haven't seen a real American girl for so long."
"I am serious, Charlie," she told him. "Something has happened toTom--or about him. It seems to me that those officers were afraid tospeak of it. As though there was something--something disgracefulabout it!"
"Oh, say!" murmured Charlie. "That's not sense, you know."
"Of course Tom could do nothing disgraceful. But why should those menbe afraid to speak of him?" cried the shaken girl. "He can't bewounded again. That can't be it. Haven't you heard a word?"
She suddenly realized that her companion had grown silent. He made nocomment now upon her speech. She waited a full minute before burstingout again:
"You _have_ heard something, Charlie! Something about Tom!"
"I--I don't know," he muttered. "I didn't know it was Tom."
"What is it?" she demanded with rising eagerness.
"I don't know that it's about Cameron _now_," he muttered. "I shouldhope not."
"Charlie Bragg! Do you want to drive me wild?" she demanded, clutchingat his arm.
"Hold on! You'll have us in the ditch," he warned her.
"You answer me--at once!" she commanded.
"Oh---- But what can I say? I don't know anything. I don't believeTom Cameron would be tricky--not a bit. And as for selling out to theBoches----"
"What _do_ you mean?" almost shrieked the girl. "Are you crazy,Charlie Bragg?"
"There you go," he grumbled. "I told you I didn't know anything--forsure. But I heard some gossip."
"About Tom?"
"I didn't know it was about Tom. And I don't know now. But what yousay about how funny those chaps acted----"
"_Do_ explain!" begged Ruth. "Come right out with it, Charlie."
"Why, I heard a chap had been accused of giving information to theenemy. Yes. One of our own chaps--an
American. It's said he met aBoche spy on listening post--right out there between the lines. He wasseen twice."
"Not Tom?"
"No name told when I heard it. First a fellow saw him talking to afigure that stole away toward the German line. This fellow told histop sergeant, and toppy told his captain. They waited and watched.Three men saw the same thing happen. They were going to have theblamed traitor up before the brass hats when all of a sudden hedisappeared."
"Who disappeared?" gasped Ruth Fielding.
"This chap they suspect gave information to the Boches. He'sgone--like that!"
"Captured?" questioned Ruth breathlessly.
"Or gone over to them," returned Charlie, with evident unwillingness.
Ruth sighed. "But that never could be Tom Cameron!"
"You wouldn't think so," was the reply. "But that's all I can guessthat those fellows had in mind when they would not answer you--goodgracious, look at that!"
He braked madly. The ambulance rocked and came to an abruptstandstill. Across the track, scarcely two yards before the nose ofthe car, had dashed a white object, which, soundlessly, was gone inhalf a minute--swallowed up in the shadowy field beside the road.
"We see it again, Ruth," said Charlie Bragg, with a strange solemnity.
"What do you mean?" she demanded, but her voice, too, shook.
"The werwolf. That dog--whatever it is. Ghost or despatch-bearer,whatever you call it. I got a good sight of it again, Miss Ruth.Didn't _you_?"