So the name she had acknowledged by Paul's advice had spread among the hospital attachés. But what would the Herr Doktor say when he met and recognized her?
These personal trials rather tempered the threatening perils of the battle that raged almost at the door of the hospital. The German commander suddenly discovered that his advance wedge was being squeezed from both sides by the unexpected weight of the enemy's reserves. Reinforcements were brought up with promptness; but the German advance was halted.
The guns thundered continually. The hospital lay about in the middle of the widest part of the wedge and so escaped the French shells. But bomb-dropping from the French air machines had become a nightly terror.
To the north of the hospital, and several miles away, was a small wood. In some way it had escaped utter annihilation, perhaps because it was too open to offer cover for either infantry or a battery.
Toward evening, when Belinda was outside for a breath of air, she, with others, saw a most exciting duel in the air just above this grove of trees. First of all a small aeroplane was observed coming swiftly out of the north. There had been no action in that direction during the day, and this machine was alone.
"Ach!" said Carl, who was near his cousin, "that fellow is a spy. It is a spy-plane. You can see he has been carrying one of his accursed comrades into our territory for spy-work and is now returning alone."
"Are you sure it is a French plane?"
"Absolutely. See! He is chased." Then: "Ach! our flyingmen never fail!"
A second aeroplane was shooting down from a greater height, close upon the trail of the Nieuport. The two aviators circled so low above the treetops that the spectators could plainly observe the duel.
Belinda shuddered.