“They didn’t deserve it!” exclaimed Nancy bitterly.
Miss Anna looked at her with an odd expression. “We must not become bitter or intolerant, even toward our enemies,” she said with gentle persuasiveness. “We would appreciate our dead being given honorable burial, wouldn’t we?”
“Oh, yes, of course!” exclaimed Nancy, thinking at once of her brother, and how she had prayed that the enemy would treat him humanely if he had fallen into their hands. But she had seen too many pictures of scores of people thrown into common graves to credit the enemy with ever treating any as considerately as these men from the Japanese sub had been treated.
“If by treating their prisoners fairly it will make life easier for even a few of ours in their prison camps it will be worth the effort,” said Miss Anna.
“But it makes me positively ill when I think that Tommy may have fallen into their hands,” said Nancy.
“It would be better a thousand times if he were dead,” Miss Anna told her with conviction. “Tommy had nothing to fear in death, but horrible things to endure if he’s a prisoner of the Japs.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” Nancy said. “But I simply can’t believe he’s dead—I can’t.”
“Don’t let wishful thinking keep you from facing reality, my dear. There’re many things worse than death in this war.”
“I’m sure of that. But Tommy isn’t dead! I—I just know it!”
Suddenly Miss Anna’s palm stroked Nancy’s cheek caressingly. “I hope you’re right, my dear. I must admit I, too, have a feeling that Tommy is alive somewhere and needs help.”