The Girl from Alsace Part 13

It was locked.

The certainty that they were trapped turned him a little giddy.

"Who the devil could have locked this door?" he demanded, shaking the handle savagely.

"Seat yourself, Tommy," his companion advised. "Do not excite yourself--and have your pa.s.sport ready. Perhaps they will not put us off."

And then a face, crowned by the ubiquitous spiked helmet, appeared at the window.

"You will have to get out," said the man in German, and tried to open the door.

Stewart shook his head to show that he didn't understand, and produced his pa.s.sport.

The man waved it impatiently away, and wrenched viciously at the door, purple with rage at finding it locked. Then he shouted savagely at someone farther up the platform.

"I have always been told that the Germans were a phlegmatic people,"

observed Stewart; "but as a matter of fact, they blow up quicker and harder than anybody I ever saw. Look at that fellow, now----"

But at that moment a guard came running up, produced a key, and opened the door.

"Come, get out!" said the man, with a gesture there was no mistaking, and Stewart, picking up his bags, stepped out upon the platform and helped his companion to alight.

"How long will we be detained here?" he asked in English; but the man, with a contemptuous shrug, motioned him to stand back.

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 b.u.t.ton 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 pa.s.sed the bare little station, they saw that it was jammed to the doors with men and women and children, mixed in an indiscriminate ma.s.s, 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, d.a.m.n 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.

In an instant, the door was slammed shut, and the snap of a lock told them that they were prisoners.

CHAPTER VII

IN THE TRAP

As Stewart set down his bags, still swearing softly to himself, he heard behind him the sound of a stifled sob.

"There! there!" he said. "We'll soon be all right!" and as he turned swiftly and reached out his arms to grope for her, it seemed to him that she walked right into them.

"Oh, oh!" she moaned, and pressed close against him. "What will they do to us? Why have they placed us here?" And then he felt her lips against his ear. "Be careful!" she whispered in the merest breath. "There is an open window!"

Stewart's heart was thrilling. What a woman! What an actress! Well, he would prove that he, too, could play a part.

"They will do nothing to us, dear," he answered, patting her shoulder.

"They will not dare to harm us! Remember, we are Americans!"

"But--but why should they place us here?"

"I don't know--I suppose they have to be careful. I'll appeal to our amba.s.sador in the morning. He'll soon bring them to their senses. So don't worry!"

"But it is so dark!" she complained. "And I am so tired. Can we not seat ourselves somewhere?"

"We can sit on our bags," said Stewart. "Wait!" In a moment he had found them and placed them one upon the other. "There you are. Now let us see what sort of a place we've come to."

He got out his match-box and struck a light. The first flare almost blinded him; then, holding the match above his head, he saw they were in a brick cubicle, about twenty feet square. There was a single small window, without gla.s.s but heavily barred. The place was empty, save for a pile of barrels against one end.

"It's a store-house of some kind," he said, and then he sniffed sharply.

"Gasoline! I'd better not strike any more matches."

He sat down beside her and for some moments they were silent. Almost unconsciously, his arm found its way about her waist. She did not draw away.

"Do you suppose they will keep us here all night?" she asked, at last.

"Heaven knows! They seem capable of any folly!"

And then again he felt her lips against his ear.

"We must destroy your ticket," she breathed. "Can you find it in the dark?"

"I think so." He fumbled in an inside pocket and drew it out. "Here it is."