"One railroad train came out. But it was manned by dead men, I think, because it crashed into the rear masonry of the station and was smashed."
"Nothing else, living or dead, came out?"
"Nothing, sir. There is wild excitement at Zell. Troops at the tunnel's mouth wear gas-masks. We bombed them and raked them. The Boche planes took the air but two crashed and the rest turned east."
"You saw no living creature escape from the Zell end of the tunnel?"
"Not a soul, sir."
Recklow turned to the group of officers around him:
"I guess they're done for," he said. "That fumigation cleaned out the vermin. But keep the tunnel pumped full of gas…. Au revoir, messieurs!"
On his way back across Mount Terrible he encountered a relay of Alpinists bringing fresh gas. tanks; and he laughed and saluted their officers. "This poor old world needs a de-lousing," he said. "Foch will attend to it up here on top of the world. See that you gentlemen, purge her interior!"
The nurse opened the door and looked into the garden. Then she closed the door, gently, and went back into the house.
For she had seen a slim girl with short yellow hair curling all over her head, and that head was resting on a young man's shoulder.