Threatened from all sides with a danger that might at any time become of deadly import, the Red Cross nurse had gone about her duties with an apparently unshaken demeanor. And yet she was no braver than the ordinary girl of her age and with her experience.
She remembered well one Red Cross nurse, martyred by the Prussians in Belgium, for just what she was doing—indeed, for less! A vile imprisonment, or the firing squad, might be just ahead of her.
Yet Belinda Melnotte glowed and was glad all through her being at the thought of Frank's presence near by and what they now were to each other!
She had utterly cast aside all her former doubts and prejudices. The love to which she had finally given speech crowded down the warning word of conscience.
No longer did Belinda Melnotte ask herself whether or no she was good in thought as well as act. She was a loving woman—loved and beloved! And nothing else in the world mattered.
She slept fitfully, but was up at dawn. During the night she had worried much about Erard.
Had he been able to travel as far as Sanderson said the rendezvous with Renaud was, and without being apprehended? And when would he return? If the man did not come back, how would they know if he met the French spy or if the latter was safe? All that forenoon she kept a watch upon the entrance gate of the hospital enclosure.
"The guardhouse for that harelipped rascal of yours when he does come," Carl Baum promised Belinda. "I cannot save him—nor can that sly fox, Paul Genau. If he is only sent back to a detention camp he will be lucky."
The nurse had but little opportunity to speak in private with Sanderson during the morning, for Jacob was her principal assistant. But their stolen glances told each other much.
There was a little bustle at the gate about noon. Belinda, watchful as ever, ran out of her ward.