Nona nodded sympathetically.
“Yes, it does spoil my afternoon in a way to have to think there may be traitors in our own American camp. But I really don’t see why I should be on my guard, or what I can do to help, except perhaps to warn Lieutenant Martin, and he hates to discuss the subject, says he prefers anything to a scandal in camp. Besides, I am not the proper person to talk of it.”
“No,” Philip Dawson agreed. “When Martin is well enough his superior officer will discuss the situation with him. Martin is one of the favorite officers of the Colonel of his regiment. But the truth is, I might as well tell you frankly, one of the suspicions is that there is a woman who is also concerned in the trouble. As I said before, the information is far too uncertain to take seriously, yet there is just one chance in a hundred she may be someone whom you know.”
“Someone whom I know,” Nona repeated rather stupidly. “But that is out of the question. I only know the dozen or more nurses who are at our American hospital, and Madame Bonnèt and Berthe. I have met no one else since I came to France this time, and I don’t see why I should so often be involved in suspicions of this kind. Please let us go on back.”
Philip Dawson got up instantly. He was one of the agreeable persons who did not dispute small matters.
“Just as you like, only come first to the little French farmhouse. You may find it sufficiently interesting to forgive my being annoying.”
CHAPTER XII
The Casino
THE soldiers had brought in small branches of trees and whatever wild flowers they could find in the countryside. The wild asters were in bloom and a few cornflowers and some wild trillium, so that the bouquets were of tricolor.
At the back of the stage in the Casino hung two great flags, one the French, the other the United States. The flags were the property of the American hospital, but Eugenia had loaned them to Barbara, under the promise that they were to be treated with especial care.
The chief decoration, however, hung suspended above the front of the stage. This was a great wreath made from leaves as nearly like the laurel as could be found and tied with two great bows of ribbon, the one showing the design of the French, the other the design of the American flag.