CHAPTER XV
The Court-Martial
Joey couldn't go to sleep that night. She was excited, and all kinds of thoughts went whirling round and round in her head, making sleep impossible.
The whole day had been exciting—the play had only been the culmination of it all. The walk to the station—the conversation about Professor Trouville and his queerness; on top of that the thrill of being coupled with Noreen in Gabrielle's invitation to the great match; the long talk about home-things with Miss Craigie in her bedroom; and then the play.
It was this last, probably, that turned her thoughts so much to Father, dying far away from them all, among his enemies.
The man who had been Father's special friend among the prisoners had come to see Mums, when the Armistice released those of our men who had survived the German treatment, and had told her that Father was taken from the prison camp in a dying state, and word had come back a few days later that he was dead.
Captain Verney had done his very best, delaying his own return, to find out for Mums just how he died and where he had been buried, but it seemed that no one knew or cared; and Uncle Staff had had no better luck when he went out with a War-Office permit to investigate a few weeks later. Mums and the children had just the one consolation of knowing that Father died for England just as surely as though he had been shot going over the top, to help them bear the thought of the long weeks of suffering and ill-usage which had come first. If only escaping from prison were as easy as it seemed in books and plays, Joey thought, tossing restlessly, she and Gavin would have been out in Germany with a file and a bottle of chloroform, and have set Father free before the Huns had time to kill him. But in real life you could do nothing except wait and wait and say your prayers, and take care of Mums.
Joey sat up in bed, and stared out at the dark window-pane so close to her. It was a mild, damp night—she threw off her quilt—perhaps she was too hot and that was the reason that she could not sleep. And while she was sitting up, she saw something flash in the darkness, and knew in a second what it was. A series of short blue flashes, coming from the dark.