The Girl from Alsace: A Romance of the Great War, Originally Published under the Title of Little ComradeStevenson, Burton Egbert
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The Girl from Alsace: A Romance of the Great War, Originally Published under the Title of Little Comrade
Stevenson, Burton Egbert
Alsace (France) -- Fiction; War stories; World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
Looking along the platform, Stewart saw approaching the head of an
infantry column. In a moment, the soldiers were clambering into the
coaches, with the same mathematical precision he had seen before. But
there was something unfamiliar in their appearance; and, looking more
closely, Stewart saw that their spiked helmets were covered with gray
cloth, and that not a button or bit of gilt glittered anywhere on the
gray-green field uniforms. Wonderful forethought, he told himself. By
night these troops would be quite invisible; by day they would be merged
indistinguishably with the brown soil of the fields, the gray trunks of
trees, the green of hedges.
The train rolled slowly out of the station, and Stewart saw that on the
track beyond there was another, also loaded with troops. In a moment, it
started westward after the first; and beyond it a third train lay
revealed.
Stewart, glancing at his companion, was startled by the whiteness of her
face, the steely glitter of her eyes.
"It looks like a regular invasion," he said. "But let us find out what's
going to happen to us. We can't stand here all night. Good heavens--what
is that?"
From the air above them came the sudden savage whirr of a powerful
engine, and, looking up, they saw a giant shape sweep across the sky. It
was gone in an instant.
"A Zeppelin!" said Stewart, and felt within himself a thrill of wonder
and exultation. Oh, this would be a great war! It would be like no other
ever seen upon this earth. It would be fought in the air, as well as on
the land; in the depths of the ocean, as well as on its surface. At last
all theories were to be put to the supreme test!
"You will come with me," said the man in the helmet, and Stewart, with a
nod, picked up his grips again before he remembered that he was supposed
to be ignorant of German.
"Did you say there was another train?" he asked. "Shall we be able to
get away?"
The man shook his head and led the way along the platform, without
glancing to the right or left. As they passed the bare little station,
they saw that it was jammed to the doors with men and women and
children, mixed in an indiscriminate mass, and evidently most
uncomfortable. But their guide led them past it without stopping, and
Stewart breathed a sigh of relief. Anything would be better than to be
thrust into that crowd!
Again he had cause to wonder at the length of that interminable
platform; but at last, near its farther end, their guide stopped before
a small, square structure, whose use Stewart could not even guess, and
flung open the door.
"You will enter here," he said.
"But look here," Stewart protested, "we are American citizens. You have
no right----"
The man signed to them to hurry. There was something in the gesture
which stopped the words on Stewart's lips.
"Oh, damn the fool!" he growled, swallowing hard. "Come along, my dear;
there's no use to argue," and, bending his head at the low door, he
stepped inside.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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