NANCY DALE
Army Nurse

Story by

RUBY LORRAINE RADFORD

Illustrated by

HENRY E. VALLELY

FIGHTERS for FREEDOM Series

WHITMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY

RACINE, WISCONSIN

Copyright, 1944, by

WHITMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY

Racine, Wisconsin

PRINTED IN U. S. A.

All names, characters, and events in this story

are entirely fictitious

To Whom It May Concern

Those men wounded beneath their battle flags

May or may not have a fighting chance.

Nurses are needed, yet recruiting lags

While every mile of ground our troops advance

Is bought with blood and even lives expended;

Though death to some has always been the price

Of victory when any right’s defended,

Nothing excuses useless sacrifice!

Whether or not the men in foreign lands

Have little nursing care to ease their pain—

Or die perhaps—the answer’s in your hands.

Life means so much to them! Can you explain

To any youth who fought, suffered, and bled,

Why you did not serve, too, beside his bed?

—Ruth Arundel Piercy, r.n.

From The American Journal of Nursing,

Vol. 44. No. 2. Feb. 1944, p. 97.

By permission of The American Journal

of Nursing.

CONTENTS

Nancy Waved to the Middle-Aged Couple

Nancy Dale

ARMY NURSE

CHAPTER ONE
EMERGENCY

Nancy stood on the steps of the train and waved at a misty-eyed couple, a man and woman of middle years. Strange how she could be so close to tears, yet so buoyantly happy all in the same moment.

The train began to move slowly and Nancy called back, “Be sure to forward all Tommy’s letters, Mom!”

Her mother nodded and smiled, while her father lifted his hat in that courtly way he had. Nancy could scarcely believe that at last she was on her way to becoming a member of the great Army Nurse Corps. In fact she was one now, for she had already taken her oath of allegiance. This slowly moving train marked the beginning of a wonderful journey that might take her anywhere in the whole world—Africa, Italy, India, the Arctic or the South Pacific.

She had been praying ever since she joined that it would be the South Pacific, not only because her brother was there flying a bomber over the tropical blue waters, but because the tropics had always seemed fascinating. But little did she dream what she must go through before she saw again that beloved couple she had just left.

As she turned back into the Pullman she suddenly felt empty, with that awful, hollow, going-away feeling. She thought how lucky she had been to get her nurse’s training right in her own home town. She had never known the feeling of homesickness, for her few brief trips had all been for pleasure. But this was different and far more exciting, yet she knew suddenly now that it would also have its heartaches.

From her seat in the car she caught one more glimpse of her parents. How lonesome they would be with both their children in the service! For a few minutes, as the train crawled out of the city, Nancy could think of nothing but the two she was leaving behind.

How concerned poor Mom had been when she said, “Do be careful, darling, about getting wet. You know how easily you take cold when your feet are wet.”

Nancy had promised to be as careful as possible, but didn’t fret her mother by saying she was afraid there would often be days on end when her feet would always be wet, if her experiences were anything like the overseas nurses she heard from in Italy and New Guinea.

Not until the last house of her beloved town had vanished beyond the green hills did Nancy turn her gaze to the inside of the Pullman. She noticed now that practically everyone was in uniform, both men and women. There were two WACs across from her, and an ANC captain a little farther up.

She thought it would have been more fun had someone been going with her. This trip to the capital was always so slow and boring, then there would be a tiresome wait before she took the sleeper for Alabama. She tried to read but was too keyed up to concentrate. She could think of nothing but the great adventure into which she was going. Settling her head against the cushion she faced the window, watching the rolling hills. Suddenly she realized she was tired after all the excitement of farewell parties and packing. How grand everyone had been to her! Since she was the only volunteer in her class, she had been given a dance at the Nurse’s Home. How could anyone stay behind, she wondered, when the fighting men needed so many nurses?

Drowsiness was creeping over her when she caught the low tones of two men behind her. The fact that they were speaking in a foreign tongue pricked her to alertness. She leaned closer to the window and concentrated. They were talking almost in whispers, but she heard the gutteral syllables of several German words. She had studied a little German in her high school days in order to sing some selections from the Wagnerian operas. Now she caught the words, ute Abend and acht Kusches.

“Tonight ... eight cars,” she translated.

The Pullman conductor came down the aisle, and the men fell silent. If they hadn’t become so abruptly silent at his approach, Nancy might have thought little of the whispered conversation. Though she tried to dismiss her suspicions, attributing her sensitiveness to the fact that she had just entered the service, she could not forget the two men speaking German fluently who sat behind her.

After an interval Nancy decided to take a look at the pair. She started down the aisle under pretense of getting a drink of water. The man nearest the aisle had the broad face and blond complexion of a typical German, though he wore the uniform of an American soldier. The other was in civilian clothes, and wore a small mustache. All Nancy could glean in her hasty inspection was that he had a lean countenance, dark coloring, and wore dark-rimmed glasses. On her return she noticed that the blond had a corporal’s stripes on his sleeve.

If he was a spy, surely the army would have detected it before making him a corporal, she thought, and promptly tried to dismiss her suspicions. Not until eleven o’clock that night when she was hurrying with the crowd to go aboard the west-bound train, did she again think of those words spoken in German behind her. Her Pullman was at the end of a very long train. Soldiers were filing into the front coaches. She counted eight cars ahead of hers.

Suddenly she recalled the words she had heard behind her at the beginning of her journey, acht Kusches. And here they were, eight coaches of service men. Again she thought of their words, ute Abend. Tonight! Could there possibly be any connection between those words and this troop train?

Nancy followed the redcap to her Pullman seat with a feeling of uneasiness. She knew that spies all over the country were busy trying to get information about the movements of troop trains and transports. She pressed her eyes to the window and looked out at the milling crowd. Then suddenly she saw the blond corporal. He did not get aboard the train, but watched the troops marching down the paved walk between the tracks. Then he turned sharply and hurried back toward the station. The man in civilian clothes was not with him.

Nancy tried to shake off the nagging uneasiness that haunted her even after she was comfortably stretched in her berth, and the train was rushing out across the red Georgia hills. But her interest in what lay ahead was too keen for her to remain depressed. Several times she raised the shade to peep out when the train slowed at small towns where street lights twinkled sleepily, but at last the hum of the wheels lulled her to sleep.

Then suddenly, several hours before dawn, there came a terrific crash and jolt. Nancy caught wildly at the clothes hammock to keep from being hurled into the aisle, as the Pullman crashed to a stop and toppled slightly to the right. Screams and moans were heard above the grinding noises.

Nancy clung to the hammock a moment, too stunned to move. She expected the tilting coach to crash to earth any moment. Lights had vanished beyond the cracks of her curtain. With shaking hands she found her flashlight in the zipper bag left at the foot of her berth. She opened the curtain and turned the light up and down the aisle. Several who hadn’t been thrown from their berths were climbing out, wanting to know what had happened. Groans, curses and cries only added to the confusion.

Then with the speed of a fireman preparing to answer a call to duty, Nancy put on her clothes. Some sure instinct warned her that in a few minutes there would be no time to think of herself. At last her long legs swung down from the berth. Her flashlight showed some people still lying where they had fallen in the aisle. Some actually climbed over them in their frantic haste to get out of the leaning Pullman.

She turned her light on the nearest injured person. It was a gray-haired lady, moaning that her arm was broken. A big man, clad only in his undershirt and army trousers, emerged from his berth.

“Here, give me a hand,” ordered Nancy. “This lady has a broken arm.”

The soldier, who was of powerful build, braced himself against the berth on the lower side, and lifted the stunned old lady to his shoulder. Nancy held her flashlight so he could see as they made their way toward the exit. She snatched a sheet to use for bandages from one of the berths as she went.

On reaching the platform they found the Pullman was leaning precariously against a clay cut on one side, while the steps on the other were high in air. Flares had already been lighted beside the track, and eager hands reached up to help with the injured woman. Nancy never remembered how she got down herself. Her one idea was to help the little old lady whose wavy gray hair was so like her own mother’s.

“Do you have a pocket knife?” she asked the service man as he was stretching the woman on the ground.

He dug in his trouser pocket and produced one.

“Cut me a splint off some bush or tree,” she ordered. “I’ll have to protect this broken arm till it can be X-rayed and properly set.”

She took off her coat to cushion the gray head. While she waited for the splint she saw that injured people were being brought from the three rear coaches. Just beyond the clay bank which had saved their car from greater damage, she saw that several coaches had overturned and telescoped into a horrible mass of wreckage.

The soldier came back promptly with a good splint from which he was deftly peeling the bark. To Nancy’s surprise he knelt on the ground, and in the light of her flash began to manipulate the broken bone into position. One glance at those skillful fingers and Nancy exclaimed, “Oh, you’re a doctor!”

“Yes,” was all he said as he proceeded to the business of the moment.

“Thank God,” she said earnestly, and began to tear the sheet into bandages.

As she had done numberless times before in the emergency room, Nancy helped bind up the broken arm.

“I see you’ve at least had first aid,” he said as they worked.

“I’m a nurse,” she retorted as tersely as he had informed her he was a doctor.

“There’ll be plenty for us to do tonight,” he told her.

When the arm was set, he lifted the frail woman and carried her out of the cut.

“Wait here with her,” the doctor ordered. “I’ll go back for my bag. She should have a hypo. You can help.”

Someone had placed some boxes for steps at the rear entrance to the coach and he returned that way. They were still hauling people out and stretching them beside the end coach, which by some miracle had not overturned. To Nancy’s surprise she recognized the ANC captain she had noticed on the train yesterday afternoon. She was trying to stop the bleeding in a leg wound of a man next to Nancy’s old lady.

“Please, someone try to find a doctor,” she said to no one in particular.

“One was here just now,” Nancy told her. “He’ll be back in a moment. He went for his bag.”

Nancy bent to help the captain make a tourniquet below the injured man’s knee. She had just secured the knot with a stick when she saw the doctor returning. The ANC captain straightened and saluted.

“This man will have to have some stitches, Major,” she said.

“I’ll look after him.”

To Nancy’s consternation she saw that the soldier she had just been ordering around, had put on his coat. His gold leaf indicated him a major, and the caduceus that he was a member of the medical corps. She felt terribly embarrassed at her mistake.

He seemed to think nothing of it, however, for he explained to the captain, “I’ll keep this young lady to help me. She says she’s a nurse.”

“Then I’ll go look after some of the others,” said the captain, alertly.

Major Reed was stooping to give attention to the injured man, and asked as he did so, “Where did you graduate?”

“Stanford Hospital. I’m Nancy Dale. I just joined the Army Nurse Corps and am on my way for basic training.”

This explanation seemed quite satisfactory to the major. He set his bag on the ground and pulled the zipper. “Give the lady there a hypo. We’ll need one here, too. Tell Captain Lewis to get what she needs from my bag.”

Until the sun rose over the red clay hills Nancy worked beside Major Reed, setting bones, sewing up cuts and giving sedatives to the hysterical. Several automobiles had gathered and focused their headlights upon the scene. Though Nancy had never faced such an emergency, she did not lose her head, nor did her hands shake as she worked to relieve the injured.

Only once did she feel an inward tremor and that was when she thought of how she had ordered Major Reed around. But there was no time to dwell on that in the busy hours before the arrival of nurses, doctors and ambulances from the nearest town.

“Someone to relieve us at last,” said Captain Mary Lewis, who now looked as weary as Nancy felt.

“I phoned the camp for a car to be sent for us,” Major Reed told them. “There’ll be plenty of room for the three of us and our baggage.”

Nancy glanced from one officer to the other in astonishment. “Oh, are we really within driving distance of the camp?”

“Only about fifty miles,” replied Major Reed.

“And you’re both going there?”

Captain Lewis nodded and smiled. “I’ve been on a tour of inspection, and Major Reed has been assigned work there.”

“I’m Nancy Dale,” Nancy Told the Major

“Then I can get there almost as soon as scheduled,” said Nancy in relief. “I was worrying over being off schedule.”

“Young lady, if you ever had a good excuse for being late you have it this time,” said the major. He looked down at her a moment and smiled whimsically. “I’d say she’s made of good fighting stuff, wouldn’t you, Miss Lewis?”

“I’ll say,” agreed Miss Lewis. “She’s had a fine try-out tonight.”

Nancy’s face flushed, then she burst forth impulsively, “Oh, I hope they’ll think me good enough to send to the South Pacific.”

“That’s something we have to leave to our Uncle Samuel, young lady.”

Nancy was silent a moment, then looked up at the major shyly out of the corner of her eye. “I owe you an apology, sir.”

“How’s that?”

“For ordering you about—demanding that you cut me a splint. But how could I know you were a major?”

He broke into a hearty laugh. “Well, Miss Dale, I can’t see that an officer is due any respect when he goes around in his undershirt. You did what any nurse should have done.”

“That must be your car over there, Major,” said Miss Lewis.

“So ’tis. Let’s get our baggage and be off.”

CHAPTER TWO
HURDLES

At Major Reed’s request a young private brought Nancy’s baggage from the Pullman and packed it in the car. The major gave the local doctor last minute instructions about some of the injured, while Nancy and Captain Mary Lewis waited for him. It was the first five minutes Nancy had had since the accident to think quietly about the catastrophe.

With a sudden inner jolt she recalled the two German-speaking passengers who had sat behind her the previous afternoon. Could there possibly be any connection between their whispered conversation and this tragedy? The demand for her services during these last horrible hours had driven out all other thoughts except the use of her skill in helping the injured.

When the doctor returned to the car and started to get in, Nancy said, “Major Reed, there’s something I believe I should tell you before we leave here.”

He glanced at her, his foot lifted to the step, and said absent-mindedly, “Yes?”

“This may or may not have any connection with the wreck.”

“They’ve already found evidence that it’s the work of saboteurs,” he told her frankly.

Nancy felt the blood drain from her cheeks. What would they think of her not mentioning her suspicions sooner? She had gone too far now to remain silent. Briefly she gave an account of the German conversation behind her the previous afternoon.

“I might have thought little of it,” she hastened to add, on seeing the scowl on the major’s face, “but on boarding the train last night I noticed there were eight troop cars. Instantly I thought of what the two men behind me had said. I also noticed the blond corporal watching the entraining men. He stood at the edge of the crowd outside my coach.”

“You should have reported him as a suspect,” stated Captain Mary Lewis sharply.

Nancy flushed, and asked, “To whom should I have reported him? They would only have laughed at me. Nobody on that train knew who I was.”

“Never take a chance when it comes to anything like that,” said Major Reed. “Where large numbers of lives are involved it’s excusable to be suspicious of your own brother, rather than take any chances.”

Nancy didn’t flare up in anger or burst into tears, but looked the major squarely in the eyes. “I’m sure you’re right. Had I been at a hospital, or in camp, I would have reported my suspicions to the right authorities. Under the circumstances, sir, what would you have done?”

The major got suddenly into the car and slammed the door. “I would probably have done exactly as you did, young lady.”

Then Nancy did want to cry from sheer relief. Their car crawled off through the traffic congestion at the scene of the accident. The highway ran parallel with the track for some distance. They had an appalling view of the twisted mass of wreckage in the forward part of the train. At a group of official-looking cars, Major Reed had the driver stop. He got out to talk to two men. A few minutes later he brought them over to the car and had Nancy give a description of the two suspects she had noticed on the train.

“You are to be commended, Miss Dale,” said Mr. Nelson, the taller of the two strangers, “for at least giving the suspects a looking over.”

“I had to see what they were like after I heard them whispering in German!” exclaimed Nancy. “But when I saw one was a corporal in the army I thought perhaps I was being too suspicious.”

Mr. Nelson laughed bitterly. “We’ve picked up several spies lately, disguised in soldier’s uniforms. A man isn’t always to be trusted just because he wears our colors.”

“I suppose it would be impossible now to locate the pair,” said Nancy unhappily. “The blond could be anywhere among the thousands back there at the station, or hundreds of miles away by this time.”

The other plainclothes official said, “You underrate our Secret Service, miss. The description you’ve given is elaborate compared with some we get. We’ve sometimes caught ’em on little more than a shoestring.”

He saluted respectfully and their car rolled out to the open country, and across the red clay hills. They were all too tired for conversation, even if they had had the heart for it after such a depressing experience. Captain Lewis did not seem inclined to conversation, and Nancy was glad enough to ride in silence. She snuggled deep into her corner, and was actually asleep before they had left the wreck five miles behind.

Some time later she was startled by a gentle hand shaking her shoulder. “Here we are, my dear,” Miss Lewis was saying. Nancy opened her eyes.

She sat up with a start, wondering if there’d been another wreck. To her amazement she found they had stopped in front of a long, one-story building. Some white-uniformed nurses were coming down the steps. Across the lawn she saw another group in coveralls.

“You mean we are actually there—at camp?” she asked in amazement.

“You slept like a baby all the way,” said Captain Lewis. “That ability to relax at once will stand you in good stead when you get in the thick of things.”

Nancy was pleased. “Mother has always said if anyone would give me a pillow I could go to sleep any time, anywhere.”

“And this time you didn’t even have a pillow.” Then suddenly Captain Lewis assumed her official air. “Lieutenant Hauser will show you to your room and help you get settled. Would you like to join me at breakfast when you get cleaned up?”

“Oh yes, thanks. This brisk morning air has really whipped up my appetite.”

Not until long afterward did Nancy discover what an honor Captain Lewis had bestowed upon her. Too many new and exciting things were happening just then for her to appreciate the full significance of the invitation.

Captain Lewis introduced her to Lieutenant Hauser who was rather short and stocky and had a ready smile. She gave Nancy the comfortable feeling that there was really no difference in their positions, even though Miss Hauser was already a first lieutenant.

“Your roommate is Mabel Larsen,” explained Miss Hauser. “She got in yesterday and already knows enough to show you the ropes.”

They went down a long, narrow hall. A moment later Miss Hauser opened the door of a neat little room with two beds, attractive cretonne drapes and comfortable chairs and floor lamps.

An exclamation of delight escaped Nancy, “Oh, I thought we’d be sleeping on army cots in tents!”

“You’ll get plenty of that later. Better enjoy these comforts while you have them,” Lieutenant Hauser warned her. “Mabel’s out on the obstacle course right now. You’ll have a chance to do some unpacking and clean up before she comes in.”

Miss Hauser pointed out a list of rules tacked on the door, told Nancy where the dining room was and left her to her own devices. An hour later when Nancy came back from a hearty breakfast with Captain Lewis she found Mabel Larsen stretched on her bed.

Mabel merely lifted her head when Nancy came in, and greeted her casually. “Oh, hello! You’re the latest shavetail, I suppose?”

“I’m Nancy Dale, and they tell me you’re Mabel Larsen.”

“Glad you came. Sorry I can’t be very formal just now, but I’m all in—got only fifteen minutes to get my wind back.” She groaned softly. “Gosh, but my legs ache!”

“What’s wrong? Are you ill?”

“Oh, nothing that won’t be worse tomorrow! Just wait till you try those hurdles!” Mabel turned over cautiously and groaned again. “I might’ve been pounded by Japs from the way these shanks feel.”

Nancy laughed in spite of herself. “You must’ve been neglecting your daily dozen before you came here.”

“I’ve never been one of those exercise addicts,” stated Mabel. “I’ve always gotten enough floor work in the wards without this one, two, three business.” Mabel reached for a bottle of rubbing alcohol and began to massage her rather plump legs.

“Wait, let me do it,” said Nancy.

Mabel lay back on the bed and gave herself up to the enjoyment of the soothing touch of Nancy’s hands.

“You oughter been a masseuse,” she sighed. Then after a moment she asked, “Why were you so late? We thought you were coming on that early train.”

“There was a wreck,” said Nancy, reluctant to recall her trying experience.

Mabel sat up suddenly. “You mean the train you were on?”

Nancy nodded and gave her a hasty sketch of what had happened, and their work with the injured.

“Well, if I’m not the daughter of a sloth!” burst forth Mabel. “Here I am letting you give me an alcohol rub when you’ve already been working like a trooper for hours!”

“Oh, I got a bit of sleep coming over in the car, but Miss Lewis suggested that I go to bed again till lunch time. I had breakfast with her just now.”

“Not Captain Mary Lewis?” asked Mabel.

Nancy nodded as she began to take off her clothes.

“Well, aren’t you the lucky bloke!” exclaimed Mabel. “Hobnobbing with the majors and captains on the very day of your arrival.”

“It just happened that way.”

“Think of the chance you had to prove to ’em right off the bat what stuff you’re made of. Some people do have all the luck.”

Nancy didn’t know just what to make of this talkative roommate, but she was too tired to care just then. She found her rumpled pajamas in the zipper bag and got them out. In the meantime Mabel was painfully putting on her uniform to report to class.

“They’ll probably give you a bunch of this gear this afternoon,” Mabel said. “I never had so many new duds all at one time as they issued to me yesterday.”

“Miss Hauser said I’d get my uniforms this afternoon, and be given my schedule, too. After that experience this morning I’m rather glad I don’t have to get down to business till tomorrow.”

Nancy crawled into bed and was thankful to find it very comfortable. She watched her new friend straighten her tie and set her new visor cap at a rakish angle on her reddish curls.

“Boy, do I feel swell in this uniform,” boasted Mabel. “It sure boosts your morale to feel you’re really one of the bunch at last. I’ve been raring to get in for months.”

“So have I,” Nancy told her. “But I only graduated last month.”

“Shake, sister! You’re a gal after my own heart. I just finished, too.” The irrepressible Mabel seized Nancy’s hand that lay on the spread. “I believe we’re gonner hit it off fine.”

“We’ll make a team to whip the Japs,” Nancy said, entering into the spirit of her banter.

“Say, that’s swell! So you want to go down under, too?”

“You bet! My brother’s flying a bomber there.”

“I’ve got a sweety out there, too. Yeah, we’ll make a team—the long and short, the chestnut curls and the strawberry-blond mop, your common sense and my nonsense.”

Then they were both laughing and the ice was completely broken.

Mabel glanced at her watch and bounded toward the door. “Be seeing you later,” she called back.

Nancy felt as though a whirlwind had just passed, and she settled into her pillow with a sigh of relief. She felt certain she was going to like her new roommate. Though most of her remarks were flippant, she showed that there was the right sort of stuff underneath.

After a couple of hours’ sleep and a shower, Nancy felt ready to tackle her new life. She spent the rest of the afternoon being fitted for her clothes. She was surprised to know the old blue uniforms were no longer issued, and that she would wear olive drab for dress.

“They found the Japs wearing blue sometimes in the Pacific area. It proved confusing,” Lieutenant Hauser told her. “White uniforms are not customarily worn, either, by nurses at the front—too easily spotted from the air. All these changes are the result of practical experience.”

When Nancy went out to supper with her new friend, Mabel remarked, “Leisure’s a scarce commodity round here. We put in eight hours of hard work every day, counting all the classes, ward work, drills and stuff. Six days a week, too, sister!”

“I’m used to that,” Nancy told her.

Nancy’s real initiation came the next morning when they were routed out before daylight for half an hour of calisthenics. Mabel stuck close to give her a prod or hint against doing things wrong. That morning Nancy also noticed Tini Hoffman for the first time. Unlike her nickname Tini was of a large build, and she seemed not to have the slightest sense of rhythm or coordination. She was constantly getting out of step and throwing the line off.

“All right then I’ll step out!” snapped Tini, when she had been reprimanded the third time. “I can’t do anything to please you.”

“You’ll stay in ranks and keep trying till you do it correctly,” Lieutenant Carson stated. “Or else!”

After that the girl stomped about like a spoiled child, making the dust fly over those around her. Nancy wondered why she was here at all if she had not come in the spirit of cooperation with the training program.

“Too much silly falderal,” she heard Tini say in a low tone when the formation broke up. “I came in to nurse the sick, not to do a lot of crazy drilling.”

That afternoon Tini was close to Mabel and Nancy when they were jumping some hurdles. Nancy’s long legs swung easily over the first two, but the last took all the ability she had. Tini, however, didn’t even try to go over the last, but quickly ducked under when the instructor wasn’t looking.

“Go back, you cheat!” snapped Mabel. “We’re not going to have any duckers-under in this unit.”

Mabel’s bluntness attracted the attention of Lieutenant John Warren, who was putting them through this phase of their training. He called out good-naturedly, “Now, now, young lady! You have to take it over the top, you know.”

Tini knocked down the bar twice before she finally made that last hurdle. She scraped her chin the first time she hit the gravel. When their instructor was out of hearing she gave him some back talk, and continued to grumble while she crawled parallel with Nancy and Mabel under some lengths of chicken wire.

Nancy was sure her palms had as much earth on them as skin when she finally came triumphantly through on the other side. “Boy, what an experience!” she burst forth, when she got up to brush herself off.

“Just imagine how much faster we could do it, if the Japs were using the soles of our G.I. shoes for target practice,” Mabel reminded her.

“There’s just no sense in all this,” complained Tini, wiping her gritty palms on her coveralls.

Nancy didn’t like this girl, nor her attitude, and found she couldn’t keep silent any longer.

“Looks as though you’d better get out of this right now,” she snapped. “If I understand the reason for all this, it’s for our own good—to prepare us for real trials to come if we’re sent into the fighting areas.”

“Mind your own business,” snapped Tini like a spoiled child. “I’ve got a right to blow off if I want to.”

She stalked on to the next test. Here they were required to swing by a rope down the side of a ravine. Nancy and Mabel followed slowly, and Mabel said, “If they keep her on she’ll get our unit into trouble, sure as life.”

“I doubt if they keep her with such an attitude.”

“She griped like that all the way through nurse’s training,” Mabel explained.

“Oh, was she in your class?”

“Yes. We came here together, too. You have to hand it to Tini, though. She has a keen mind and makes grand marks. They had no grounds for turning her down, I suppose.”

“She makes me feel as uncomfortable as those suspects on the train did.”

“Yeah!” agreed Mabel. “There’re more ways of working against Uncle Sam than outright sabotage.”

CHAPTER THREE
SUSPECTS

In the busy days that followed, Nancy, with the other girls of her unit, was plunged into the intensive work of preparing for service in the fighting zones. Fully alert to the importance of these instructions, Nancy worked even harder than she had during her nurse’s training. Here they must put the lectures and discussions into practice at once.

The day after her arrival there were lectures on military courtesy and customs of the service. They were told how to wear their uniforms, and how to recognize the various insignia of office.

In their room afterwards Nancy and Mabel had lots of fun practicing the military salute.

“You’ve got to learn to do it automatically,” said Mabel. “Your fingers should go to your forehead when you see a superior officer as instinctively as your foot goes to the car brake in an emergency.”

“And I suppose it will prove to be ‘a restriction’ emergency if you don’t,” Nancy came back with a laugh.

For the next day or two they saluted every time they passed each other in their room and had some good laughs over their actions.

“Tini Hoffman says she hates to salute,” Mabel confided. “She says it makes her feel inferior.”

“If Tini isn’t careful she’s going to get kicked out of this training camp,” Nancy said. “I don’t like her attitude one bit.”

“Neither do the instructors. But she’s got an uncle who’s a colonel or something—anyhow he’s one of the bigwigs in the training program.”

“I don’t imagine that will have any influence if she doesn’t make the grade,” Nancy replied. “I’d hate to think of the kind of army we’d have if it did.”

“You may be right,” Mabel conceded. “But what’s more, I don’t even like her name. It’s much too German.”

“I think we ought to be careful about things like that,” warned Nancy. “There’re plenty of good, loyal Americans, you know, with foreign-sounding names.”

“Yes, of course. But when a foreign name goes along with a rebellious attitude it makes you wonder.”

Something happened a week later to make the two girls think more seriously than ever of Tini Hoffman and her strange conduct. After their eight hours of work, the nurses were free to seek recreation, go into the village on shopping tours or to movies. And they were usually ready for a change when their day’s work was over.

One evening Nancy and Mabel had stopped in a drugstore for a soda after going to the movies, and they came unexpectedly upon Tini. The drugstore they had entered was very narrow in the rear, with little, private booths down each wall and an aisle in between for serving. The girls slipped into one of the booths to have their soda and chat about the picture. Couples filled all the other seats and crowded around the tables in front. Most of them were men and women in uniform.

“We’re lucky to get seats,” said Mabel.

While waiting for their order to be filled, Nancy said, “Oh, I meant to get some cleansing tissues.”

“I’ll get ’em for you,” offered Mabel. “I promised to pick up a package here for Miss Hauser. She phoned her order over.”

While Mabel was at the drug counter Nancy sat idly gazing around at the chatting groups. Then suddenly she noticed Tini Hoffman directly across the aisle. Tini was so busy talking to a man in civilian clothes that she hadn’t noticed her dormitory mates. She sat with her elbows on the table, her hands folded under her dimpled chin, while her blond countenance beamed on her companion. Nancy felt sure Tini’s hair was bleached, and wondered what it would look like after several months in the Pacific islands. It was too golden-blond to be natural. It proved amusing to find Tini so pleased with her situation for once.

So fascinated was Nancy in watching Tini that Mabel was returning before she gave the gentleman opposite Tini a fleeting glance. Then suddenly her eyes became fixed. Where had she seen that lean profile before? She tried to hold herself under control as her mind tied up the loose ends of memory. The longer she stared, the more positive she became that the horn-rimmed glasses and small mustache belonged to the same man who had sat beside the blond corporal the day she left her home town. Though she had had only a hasty glance as she went down the aisle of the train those faces had become indelibly impressed upon her mind.

As Mabel came nearer, Nancy saw Tini’s companion watching covertly. She couldn’t blame any man for being attracted by Mabel, for she was really worth looking at in her trimly fitting uniform with her cap sitting jauntily on her golden curls. But the man’s heavy-lidded glance had little admiration in it, only a sort of cynical calculation.

Nancy felt she must know if he was really the blond corporal’s train mate. Impulsively she said as Mabel handed her the package she had bought, “Danke schoen.”

She deliberately used the German word for “thank you,” and spoke loud enough to be heard across the aisle.

Her trick brought the expected result, for the man turned sharply toward her. Mabel glided into the seat opposite and glanced at her with a puzzled frown. When it was too late for regrets, Nancy felt the hot blood welling to her face. Others may have heard her, too, and what would they think?

Nancy Discovered Tini Across the Aisle

There was even a chance that the man might recognize her as the same girl who had sat in front of them on the train, even though she had worn a green suit then and was now clad in olive drab.

“At least,” she thought ruefully, “I could swear he’s the same man. But what’s he doing here with Tini Hoffman?”

Mabel had to speak to her twice before she heeded.

“They make grand sodas here, don’t they?”

“Sure do!” Nancy stuck a couple of straws in hers so hard they bent double.

“What’s wrong?” asked Mabel under her breath.

Nancy glanced warily at the couple across the aisle, nudged Mabel with her foot, and laid her finger cautiously on her lips before she placed the fresh straws in her glass.

Mabel wisely changed the subject, and remarked, “Cleansing tissues are sure hard to get now. Guess we’ll have to get all ours hereafter at the P.X.”

“We’ll need plenty to take across—if we get to go over.”

“Yeah, my friend Lydia, in North Africa, wrote me we’d better take along plenty of stuff like that.”

Suddenly Nancy was impatient to be through with their sodas and out of the drugstore. She meant to take no chances on suspects this time, but report what she had seen to Captain Lewis. She finished her soda in a hurry and reached to the back of the table for her purse.

“Let’s get going,” she suggested.

“Not till I finish the last spoonful of this ice cream,” Mabel said firmly. “I’d think about it regretfully every time I’m marooned somewhere on a desert over there.”

“Then I’ll go ahead and be paying.”

“What’s all the hurry?” Mabel wanted to know, an edge in her tone.

Out of the corner of her eye Nancy saw that the sleek gentleman across the aisle was watching them. Then she noticed that Tini’s attention had wandered sufficiently from her companion to recognize them.

“Hiya!” she said with a proud toss of her head, which plainly showed her personal triumph over their dateless condition.

Nancy returned the greeting and led the way out. When they were on the street, Mabel slipped her arm through Nancy’s and inquired, “What’s wrong? You acted as though you were sitting on nettles.”

“Nettles would have been mild to the prickles I felt.”

“What do you mean?”

“That man with Tini looked exactly like the one who was with the blond corporal I told you about on the train.”

“Oh! So that’s why you thanked me in German?”

“Of course. I wanted to see if I could get a reaction out of him.”

“And did you?”

“I’ll say. He shot a glance at me as if I’d poked him in the ribs.”

Mabel grunted. “Don’t see where that proves anything. Anybody using German words in these times should surely make people sit up and take notice.”

“But I could swear he’s the same, Mabel. Dark-rimmed glasses, small mustache, lean face, and a very immaculate, tailored look about his clothes.”

“Well, what are you going to do about it?”

“Go straight to Captain Lewis. I’m taking no chances again, even if it gets Tini into trouble.”

“She may be working with him.”

“She’s certainly acted in a way to make us suspicious,” agreed Nancy.

“Oh, she’s always acted like that—behind the backs of those over her. I never paid much attention to that. She’s an only child, very spoiled. Her parents have oodles of money.”

“Then she didn’t have to take nurse’s training—for a way to make a living.”

Mabel laughed significantly again. “At the time she went in she was in love with one of the hospital internes. It gave her a chance to be with him more.”

“Evidently she didn’t get him.”

“She sure didn’t. Soon after he got settled with his practice, he married a real sweet girl. By that time Tini was so nearly through her training she couldn’t quit without causing lots of talk.”

“Strange for her to take on the hardships of the Army Nurse Corps.”

“She wanted to get away from home and the catty people who enjoyed her being jilted.”

“Too bad to have such an experience so young,” said Nancy, suddenly feeling sorry for Tini.

“She surely was thrilled at having that new fellow tonight.”

They were moving into the throng at the bus stop now, and fell silent, for they had been warned about too much talk within the hearing of others.

“Spies can find meaning in your most innocent remarks,” Major Reed had warned them.

They couldn’t find seats together anyhow, so the girls rode in silence back to the camp. Quite a number of other nurses were coming back to the camp on the same bus, but Nancy was glad not to sit with any of them, for she wanted to think about what she would say to Captain Lewis.

When she went straight on to their room with Mabel, her friend said, “Thought you were going to report what you saw to Cap’n Lewis.”

“I didn’t want any of the others to see me going to her,” explained Nancy. “I’ll wait a few minutes till they’re all in their rooms. This thing is best kept under lid.”

“Sure. I agree with you.”

“Tini’s made enough enemies without adding suspicion to her troubles.”

When the halls were empty Nancy slipped downstairs. Miss Lewis’s bedroom was next to her office, but to her consternation she found all the lights out. She hesitated to wake her, yet didn’t want to wait till morning to make her revelations.

Over and over again she had been haunted by the idea that the train wreck might have been averted if those German-speaking passengers had been apprehended in time. Yet she still couldn’t see what she might have done about it. But this time she did know what to do, and she meant to do it.

She was still hesitating in the hall when she noticed a light in an office farther down, and heard men talking. Suddenly she recognized Major Reed’s hearty laughter. The hours they had worked together that night at the wreck had made him seem so human and likeable to Nancy, that their difference in station could never again be a barrier to understanding.

Eagerly she hurried toward his office. The door stood open. She paused in the doorway till her eyes came to rest on the major among the group of men.