CHAPTER XVIIIThe Command
A WEEK or ten days later, in the early autumn, the order was received at the American camp for a limited number of picked American troops to be sent to the fighting line in France.
The order had been for some time eagerly expected, yet the information was not published either in the American or in the European press.
The American soldiers were to have their first trial by fire in France without having the fact heralded or discussed. In the trenches they were now prepared to test the training in modern warfare which they had been undergoing since their arrival at their own camp in France.
Under secret orders and at night the men were to march out, not even their own comrades in arms being informed of the direction in which they were to travel nor behindwhat particular battle front they were to be stationed.
Yet the chosen troops were permitted to say farewell to their friends, provided that nothing except good-byes were said. However, the men could scarcely have betrayed the secret of their destination, since only the officers in command had been informed. They were to march in twenty-four hours after the order.
At the nearby American hospital it was Mollie Drew who was the first of the Red Cross nurses to be told the stirring news.
Mollie was not engaged to Guy Ellis. She had insisted upon this both to Barbara and Nona. But she had confessed there was a kind of understanding between them, and when the war was over, if she and Guy had both played their parts faithfully, and his parents did not object to a poor girl, then Mollie was willing to concede there might be an engagement.
Nevertheless, as soon as he had received permission from his superior officer, Captain John Martin, Guy came straight to her.
Mollie also reported the news of LieutenantMartin’s promotion to a captaincy, which he had been awarded only a few days before.
It was shortly before luncheon when Guy arrived at the hospital and Nona could not help wondering, after Mollie had imparted the information of the withdrawal of a number of the American troops, whether Captain Martin would make an effort to see her before he left camp. For his desire had been granted and he was to be one of the officers in charge of the first corps of American troops in the fighting area in France.
She kept the thought at the back of her mind all during the day, no matter in what occupation she chanced to be engaged. Nona felt she would like to see Captain Martin before he left for the front, if for no other reason than to congratulate him on his promotion.
It was after dinner that evening when Captain Martin, accompanied by Lieutenant Kelley, came to the hospital.
But to Nona’s secret surprise Captain Martin made no effort to see her alone. He and Lieutenant Kelley asked for MadameCastaigne, for Miss Thornton and Mrs. Thornton, as well as for Miss Davis and two or three other Red Cross nurses who were also their friends.
Nona was interested in watching the meeting between Lieutenant Kelley and Richard Thornton.
Dick was to leave the next day to continue his ambulance work. Whether Barbara asked him to meet Lieutenant Kelley, or whether he chose to make the best of the opportunity Nona did not, of course, know.
She only saw that Barbara introduced the two men in as matter-of-fact a fashion as she could manage and that, after looking at each other steadily for a barely perceptible moment, they instinctively shook hands.
Later, without even a word with Nona that the entire group of friends could not hear, Captain Martin made his adieus. Moreover, during the few moments of his visit he had appeared much more pleased by Eugenia’s congratulations than by Nona’s effort to express her pleasure at his good fortune.
After their final leave-taking Nona confessed to herself that she was a little disappointed. She knew, of course, that as soon as he recovered Captain Martin would forget the emotion he had believed he felt for her during his convalescence. However, she had not really expected him to forget it so entirety he would not even have a feeling of especial friendliness for her. And there was ever the thought that a soldier’s good-bye might be a final one.
Nona was glad Lieutenant Kelley was accompanying his friend. Whatever small differences the two men had formerly had, had disappeared entirely. The faith in him under stress, which Captain Martin had shown, the younger soldier would not forget.
That night not only Nona Davis, but nearly every nurse, doctor, patient and servant at the American hospital lay awake, or slept only fitfully. They were waiting and hoping to hear the tramping of the feet of the American soldiers on their way to this strange paradox of a war, which is being fought on through the years for the final award of a world peace.
Toward dawn Nona believed she heard the men marching past the hospital.
Slipping to the window, she saw stretched along the road a long, double row of khaki-clad figures. They were marching in silence, each soldier carrying his pack and rifle. There were no flags flying, no beating of drums. The men were going to their day’s work, to the work the new day had appointed for them. But when the last figures had passed, in the east Nona saw the first rose-colored lights of the morning.
She went back to bed then, not having awakened anyone. Eugenia was now with Captain Castaigne.
Alone, Nona prayed that her countrymen might meet the great test without faltering and that the rose light in the sky was an omen of good for the future.