“Yes. He got word to me that he was going to try to land behind the town, and I came out to meet him.” She plunged into the story of Bob’s coming, repeating all he had told her of the difficulties in the way of the Allied advance, and her own new-found hope, at mention of Argenton, that the young Englishman might have some of the information so vital for the recovery of Château-Plessis and the adjoining ground.
“Oh, if I could only have seen him for one moment! What a chance in a thousand!” her listener broke in with desperate eagerness.
“Then you do know about Argenton? You could have told him?” Lucy panted.
“Didn’t I walk all through their trenches and wait for hours in the broiling sun above their beastly batteries? But I had no hope of getting news of it to our lines. If I could have seen Gordon for five minutes!”
“I never thought of it in time. I always do things too late,” moaned Lucy, almost in despair. “Couldn’t you tell me anyhow, Captain Beattie? So that if he does come again—he’s going to try to—I won’t fail a second time?” Her voice shook with the sobs that rose uncontrollably in her throat. To have been so near success and to have missed it! A weight of disappointment settled on her heart.
“I couldn’t explain the defenses to you now,” said Captain Beattie doubtfully. “You wouldn’t remember them accurately enough to do any good. Anyhow, it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to make the trip again.”
“Never mind—he might.”
“Well, I have paper and pencil, and I’ll draw a sketch—a camouflaged one. You could tell him, of course, what it is. But I don’t think you ought to come here a second time.”
“I’m coming. I’ll bring you things to eat. Didn’t I tell you Bob had been in a German prison? Anyway, I’ve made such a mess of this I’m going to try to succeed in the end.”
“Don’t feel bad,” said the young officer, concealing his disappointment. “It would have been a horrible risk to bring your brother here—though so far as I can see the town is empty and deserted as a tomb. I wish you’d go now yourself, though. I’m awfully anxious about you. Where is your friend?”