Nona Davis delivered Colonel Dalton’s message to the superintendent of the Sacred Heart Hospital. However, after second thought Colonel Dalton also sent a letter explaining the circumstances more fully and asking for a private meeting in order that a thorough investigation be made. A woman of about forty with a large experience of life, Miss Grey, though deeply disturbed by the British officer’s suspicion, did not allow herself to go to pieces over it. She knew that they were living in the heat and turmoil of the most terrible war in history, where every day thousands of men and women were willing to give their lives to afford the slightest aid to their country. Everywhere there had been stories of spies and oftentimes many of them were the last persons to be suspected. It[272] was dreadful to learn that a spy had crept within the shelter of the Sacred Heart Hospital, and yet there was no reason why one place should be spared more than another.
So very quietly Miss Grey set to work to study possibilities for herself, in order that she might be able later to assist Colonel Dalton in his effort to unearth the guilty person. She knew the name and something of the past history of every individual on her hospital staff, including both the outside and inside servants. This, owing to the conditions of war, she had considered a part of her duty. Indeed, she kept a small book in which their names, previous addresses and occupations were carefully registered and the Red Cross nurses had also presented their nursing certificates with a brief outline of their circumstances.
So without discussing the situation with any one else seriously, Miss Grey studied the contents of this little volume, intending to hand it to Colonel Dalton as soon as they met.
Without the least sense of prejudice she[273] found herself most interested in the latest arrivals at the hospital. Of course, there was as yet no reason, so far as she knew, why one person should be suspected beyond another. The spy may have been in their midst many months waiting the opportunity for betrayal. Nevertheless, as the discovery of treachery was so recent, it was natural for her to guess that the evildoer was a comparatively new member of their staff.
The newcomers chanced to be the eight new nurses, four of them American and four British, who had begun work about two months before, and Lady Dorian, who was the last arrival.
Just as Nona had felt a sudden chill at the thought of Lady Dorian’s painful experience and her evident wish not to talk of herself, so Miss Grey frowned and flushed when she came upon her name in the hospital biography.
Had the authorities been wise in accepting Lady Dorian’s presence among them and the very generous gifts she had made so soon after her trial in London? It was[274] true that nothing had then been proven against her and so very probably she had naught to do with the attempted destruction of the ship upon which she had chanced to be a passenger. However, it might have been the better part of valor to have regarded Lady Dorian with possible scepticism, more especially as so little was known of her previous history.
Yet with no facts at her disposal Miss Grey took the only wise course, she reserved judgment.
Thirty-six hours later, just after dusk, Colonel Dalton, accompanied by the lieutenant who was one of his aides, rode up to the Sacred Heart Hospital. He went straight into the business office of the superintendent, where he spent half an hour with Miss Grey, Mrs. Payne and other persons in positions of trust.
At the close of that time a command was issued, asking the surgeons, nurses and servants in relays of eight or ten to come into the office in order that Colonel Dalton might question them. No one, of course, except Nona Davis, had any conception of[275] why a British officer should be devoting his valuable time to interviewing the members of a hospital staff for any purpose whatsoever.
But by chance Eugenia, Mildred, Barbara and Nona, Lady Mathers, Alexina McIntyre and Lady Dorian made one of the latest groups. It was not by chance, however, that Nona went first to Lady Dorian’s tiny room at the top of the tallest tower and asked that they might go downstairs together.
To the girl’s horror Lady Dorian absolutely refused to accompany her.
She was sitting by a window with only a lighted taper in the room, apparently nervous and unhappy.
“Please present my respects to Commander Dalton,” she said, “and say that as I am not well it will be impossible for me to see him.” Lady Dorian spoke so quietly, as if there were no question of her wish not being respected, that Nona was frightened.
“But you must come, please,” the younger girl urged. “I am afraid you don’t realize[276] how important it is that all of us be present. Don’t you appreciate that whatever reason Colonel Dalton may have for talking with us, it would not look well for any one of us to refuse to be interviewed?”
But Nona’s arguments and persuasions proved of no avail. Finally she had to go down to the office with the others, leaving Lady Dorian in her own room.
Nevertheless Nona did not dare repeat aloud the message her friend had given her. She only whispered its substance confusedly in Miss Grey’s ear and the next moment the superintendent left the room.
No one of the four American Red Cross girls nor any one else present ever forgot the next quarter of an hour.
Colonel Dalton was intensely angry. He considered that he was not doing the work of a soldier and only his interest in the Sacred Heart Hospital induced him to conduct an inquiry of such a nature. However, the traitor had to be discovered and at once.
In his hand he held the bunch of papers which Nona recognized as the same he had[277] in his conversation with her. Also she recognized the lieutenant as the young officer who had previously escorted her and who had made such an extraordinary speech at their moment of parting.
However, Colonel Dalton was only beginning his cross-examination of the latest comers when the door of the office again opened and Miss Grey entered accompanied by Lady Dorian.
Nona gave a little gasp of relief and dismay. For never had she seen any one look so ill and wretched as Lady Dorian. She was plainly making every effort to keep her face averted from the gaze of the older man, who was sitting in a chair beside a small table.
But Nona was the more amazed when she turned to see what impression had been made upon Colonel Dalton. Disturbed by the opening of the door, he had glanced up. Now his face was no longer crimson from anger and outdoor exposure, but white and drawn, and his eyes expressed extraordinary surprise and discomfort.
[278]
For a moment his lips moved without making a sound, but the next he had assumed his former military bearing.
“In the past few weeks letters have been mailed from this hospital, supposedly addressed to a newspaper in New York City for publication, but in reality exposing the secrets of the British army in this neighborhood to our enemy,” he began. “It should not be difficult for some one on this staff to tell me who posted these letters and where the information they contain was obtained.” The officer then struck the table harshly with the papers in his hand. “One of these letters got through the post, the others are in my possession, so there will be little chance for the informant to escape. Has any one a suggestion as to who the man or woman may be?”
At the question had all the persons in the room been spies they could scarcely have appeared more miserable and guilty. Moreover, for a moment no one attempted to reply.
Presently Mildred Thornton walked over to the table.
[279]
Mildred was not handsome, yet at this moment her dignity, her refinement and more than that, her look of intelligence which was like her distinguished father’s, had never been more apparent.
“Will you show me the letters you speak of, Colonel Dalton?” she asked in a low tone.
The officer appeared to hesitate, but after a careful study of the girl he gave the letters into her hands.
Near them was a lamp on the table and Mildred stooped as she went rapidly through the papers. The............