THE GIRL FROM ALSACE A Romance of the Great War Originally Published under the title of LITTLE COMRADE by BURTON E. STEVENSON New York Grosset & Dunlap Publishers Copyright, 1914. By Burton E. Stevenson Copyright, 1915. By Henry Holt and Company Published March, 1915 [Illustration: THERE WAS SOMETHING SINISTER AND THREATENING ABOUT THOSE ROOFLESS BLACKENED WALLS.] PUBLISHER'S NOTE The Story of THE GIRL FROM ALSACE The book was originally published under the title of LITTLE COMRADE. It has been changed to THE GIRL FROM ALSACE, as the publishers considered that name as better descriptive of the character of the story. The dramatic elements of the story led to its being put in play form, and it became the theatrical success entitled ARMS AND THE GIRL, with Fay Bainter and Cyril Scott playing the leading rôles. It has also been produced as a photo-play by the World Film Company under the title ON DANGEROUS GROUND, featuring Carlyle Blackwell and Gail Kane, and is being widely shown throughout the country. CONTENTS I. THE THIRTY-FIRST OF JULY II. THE FIRST RUMBLINGS III. "STATE OF WAR" IV. THE MYSTERY OF THE SATIN SLIPPERS V. ONE WAY TO ACQUIRE A WIFE VI. THE SNARE VII. IN THE TRAP VIII. PRESTO! CHANGE! IX. THE FRONTIER X. FORTUNE FROWNS XI. THE NIGHT ATTACK XII. AN ARMY IN ACTION XIII. THE PASSAGE OF THE MEUSE XIV. THE LAST DASH XV. DISASTER XVI. A TRUST FULFILLED XVII. "LITTLE COMRADE" THE GIRL FROM ALSACE CHAPTER I THE THIRTY-FIRST OF JULY "Let us have coffee on the terrace," Bloem suggested, and, as his companion nodded, lifted a finger to the waiter and gave the order. Both were a little sad, for this was their last meal together. Though they had known each other less than a fortnight, they had become fast friends. They had been thrown together by chance at the Surgical congress at Vienna, where Bloem, finding the American's German lame and halting, had constituted himself a sort of interpreter, and Stewart had reciprocated by polishing away some of the roughnesses and Teutonic involutions of Bloem's formal English. When the congress ended, they had journeyed back together in leisurely fashion through Germany, spending a day in medieval Nuremberg, another in odorous Würzburg, and a third in mountain-shadowed Heidelberg, where Bloem had sought out some of his old comrades and initiated his American friend into the mysteries of an evening session in the Hirschgasse. Then they had turned northward to Mayence, and so down the terraced Rhine to Cologne. Here they were to part, Bloem to return to his work at Elberfeld, Stewart for a week or two in Brussels and Paris, and then home to America.