“I know,” Ruth said. “But we’re going to kill them--kill men, men, and more men! We have to. I’ll not be too soft, don’t fear! I’ve been all this month among women--girls and children, too--from the departments they’ve overrun! Not that they’ve told me much which I didn’t believe before; but--well, getting it direct is different.” “Yes.” He was thinking, she knew, of their initial encounter; was she so pleased and proud of the tardiness of America now? “I found out a remarkable thing from some Belgians,” she said, half in answer to this unspoken challenge. “They told me that after the Germans took complete possession of their country and forbade them to wear Belgian colors or even rosette symbols, they took to wearing American colors. We were neutral then; and the Germans didn’t dare stop it; so they all wore, as their symbol of defiance, our flag!” “That was when everyone thought always that we must come in,” he rejoined. He was not thinking about what she was saying, but of her. “You’ve had more in your mind all along than just coming here to do relief work,” he announced his thought aloud to her. “Yes, I had.” “Can I ask what it is?” “I can’t tell you.” “But you’ve been doing some of it?” “Some.” “You’re going to keep at it?” “If you’ll let me.” “You mean by not making you tell how you found out about De Trevenac and by keeping you out of that?” She nodded. “But you must tell me anything else of that sort you know.” “I don’t know anything more of that sort except this: he had orders to see that someone be sent to the vicinity of Roisel to observe particularly dispositions of the British Fifth Army--their reserve strength and whether there were signs that they will extend their front.” “That’s absolutely all?” “Absolutely all--except that I think that was a particularly imperative order.” “They’d be sending people all along that front,” Gerry said. “We know they’re to try an offensive where the armies join; the only doubt is when. I say, I’ll report for you that you just overheard something on the street; and I’ll try to get past with it. If I can’t, you’ll see me here soon again; and soon anyway, if you don’t mind, please.” “I wouldn’t mind,” Ruth said simply, “but I’ll not be here. I’m leaving Paris in the morning.” “Ho! Where to?” “I applied day before yesterday for field work and got it; so I’m going to Picardy.” “That’s no address. What part?” “Roisel.” “Hmm!” Was he evolving--she wondered--the fact that De Trevenac’s order to someone to go to Roisel had been delivered to her?