Grace Harlowe with the American Army on the RhineChase, Josephine
General
Grace Harlowe with the American Army on the Rhine
Chase, Josephine
Rhine River -- Juvenile fiction; War stories; World War, 1914-1918 -- Juvenile fiction
“I understand--I understand. I will call a car to take you to your
billet. Your signal from the castle was seen by one of our agents
before the army got here. Then later Major Colt escaped and swam the
Rhine, and he too reported it. He saw your Morse message just as he
reached the bank on this side. When you are able I shall wish you to
tell me what occurred over there.”
“I will tell you now, if I may.” Grace took up the narrative from the
time of her landing in the vineyard, giving him only such information
as she knew to be of military interest. The Intelligence officer
listened with close attention.
“You should be in the secret service,” he declared after she had
finished. “By what means do you think the Germans got information about
you?”
“Pigeon or spy, sir. Pigeon most likely. You have not found the guilty
one, have you, sir?”
“We have not.” The captain pinched his lips together. “I think we shall
have to ask you to run this spy matter down, Mrs. Gray.”
CHAPTER XVI
ELFREDA HAS A SUSPICION
The billet to which Grace had been assigned was the home of a German
doctor, where she had a comfortable, large room extending all the way
across the rear of the house. The owner, as she later learned, occupied
a large front room with a small communicating room on the left-hand
side of the house, a similar apartment on the other side of the house
being occupied by some one else.
Elfreda Briggs was busy getting her hand in at canteen work when Grace
arrived at the billet with her credentials, without which no one could
obtain lodgings in Coblenz, now that the Americans had taken possession
of the place and were at work setting it in order. The Overton girl
found her belongings already there, including her mail. There was mail
from home, but a letter from Emma Dean got first reading and put Grace
in a happy frame of mind.
“My Darling Grace (This goes for all of the Overton Unit),” wrote Emma:
“We haven’t had a letter from you in so long I don’t believe we should
recognize your handwriting. There isn’t a thing new in Paris except
military news that I hear over the wire, which of course I can’t tell
you. By the way, I did hear that William the First had been called
before a court-martial for insubordination and ungentlemanly language
to a superior officer. My! what a narrow escape I did have. Think what
a terrible mistake I should have made had I married him. Thank heaven
my present William is not that sort of a fighter. By the way, I learned
over the wire only yesterday that he too is on his way to Coblenz. I
am glad of that, for, you being a married woman, I can trust you to
chaperon him and see that he doesn’t fall in love with one of those
rosy-cheeked Gretchens on the Rhine. I am told that they are inclined
to favor the American doughboys. They’d better not favor my William.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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