CHAPTER XXVIII
THE HERO
This was a moment when the self-control of Belinda Melnotte came very near to being utterly broken.
She had suffered so much anxiety, had carried such a burden of fear, for so many days that overwrought nature was near to collapse.
And, oddly enough, it was Doctor Franz Herschall who saved her from a mental breakdown at this time.
She turned from seeing Erard marched away guarded by the file of soldiers, to face the Prussian surgeon. She realized that at last Doctor Herschall had discovered all that she had sought to hide from him. Frank Sanderson was at his mercy, and she herself was caught in a web in the center of which the Herr Doktor crouched like a venomous spider.
Next would be Sanderson's trial before the military court, the discovery of his masquerade, and then the sentence due a spy.
Herself, she must likewise be entangled in the hateful coil and dragged before the court. Her fate might be no less awful than that confronting Erard and the aviator.
All hinged upon the word of the black-browed surgeon and the testimony of his little spy, Ernest Spiegel. Belinda's eyes, staring into the surgeon's glittering orbs, must have expressed some of the bitter, bitter hatred she felt for him.
Doctor Herschall seemed to hesitate. For once, at least, he was not quick of decision. He studied the pallid face of the young nurse gloomily.