“No. I have heard of her. Why?”
“Just a woman’s curiosity.”
“I would suggest that you ask Captain Boucher about that. You will be somewhat amazed at what he will tell you—if he tells you anything,” laughed the officer. “There’s a real mystery for you, eh?”
Grace shrugged her shoulders.
“There are many others more worth while, sir,” she made reply, turning to hand a doughboy a bar of chocolate. “I—”
Grace did not finish the sentence. An explosion that seemed to be splitting the earth wide open crushed in one end of the canteen and blew off part of the roof, bringing a good part of the structure down on the heads of the occupants of the building.
CHAPTER XVII
THE TREACHERY OF THE HUN
FORTUNATELY for those in the canteen the heavy framework of the building stood up under the blast, so though they were buried in the wreckage it was comparatively light wreckage.
Major Colt and one soldier suffered the most, the major being hit on the head with a piece of galvanized iron roofing and knocked unconscious. It was Grace Harlowe who raised the piece from his body and dug him out of the mess, though she herself was dazed almost to the point of losing herself. In the midst of the confusion she found herself thinking of Elfreda, who had not yet come on for the evening, though darkness had fallen, and Grace was thankful.