CHAPTER XXI
ACROSS BURNING SANDS
When one has long expected a certain disaster, even though it be one that can be averted by no act of the victim, a reprieve can scarcely be a greater relief than the shock of another, and utterly unexpected, catastrophe.
Belinda, day after day, had looked forward to the fatal moment when Doctor Herschall should stalk into her ward and discover with his piercing black eyes that "Nurse Genau" was Belinda Melnotte, who he must certainly know had left New York to be a Red Cross nurse in France.
At the alarm from the watchful Jacob that the Herr Doktor approached, the girl discovered that the long-expected peril was dwarfed by danger that threatened from another point.
The unconscious man on the cot, the wounded aviator just brought into the ward, was Frank Sanderson.
Belinda's thoughts fastened to this amazing discovery, and much that it might portend of peril to them both flashed through her mind.
She was not stunned, but was keenly alert in every sense. It impressed her instantly that she alone could shield Sanderson from discovery.
For recognition by Doctor Herschall would bring disaster to the young American aviator. He had been found within the enemy's lines and in German uniform. The ignoble death of a spy could scarcely fail to be his portion if his identity was revealed to the Germans.
The thought of Sanderson's plight dwarfed the sense of her own danger. Here approached—even now he was entering the door—the surgeon who had treated the aviator in the New York hospital eight months before. Belinda hoped that Doctor Herschall would not recognize the unconscious airman.