No, it couldn't have
been that, for British jaws are firm enough, and have need to be, Heaven
knows! Were their chins more prominent? But millions of British chins
are prominent. My brain collapsed in the strain after comparisons,
abandoned the effort and drank in a draught of rich, ripe American slang
as a glorious pick-me-up. No wonder the French officers in _liaison_
have caught the new "code." The coming of those brown boys with their
bright and glittering teeth and witty words made up to us for miles of
trenches we hadn't seen. Gee, but they were bully! Oh, _boy_! Get hep to
that!

CHAPTER XVII

Father Beckett must have suffered dark hours of reaction after seeing
those soldier-sons of American fathers, if there had been time to think.
But we flashed back to Nancy in haste, for a late dinner and adieux to
our friends. Brian and I snatched the story of our day's adventure from
his mouth for Mother Beckett; and luckily he was too tired to give her a
new version. I heard in the morning that he had slept through an air
raid!

I, too, was tired, and for the same reason: but I could not sleep.
Waking dreams marched through my mind--dreams of Jim as he must have
looked in khaki, dreams which made an air raid more or less seem
unimportant. As the clocks of Nancy told the hours, I was in a mood for
the first time since Gerbeviller to puzzle out the meaning of Paul
Herter's parable.

What had he meant by saying that his mission would be no more dangerous
than a rat-trap for a bit of toasted cheese?

I had exclaimed, "That sounds as if you were to bait the trap!" but he
had not encouraged me to guess. And there had been so much else to think
of, just then! His offer of introductions to specialists for Brian had
appealed to me more than a vague suggestion of service to myself "some
day."

But now, through the darkness of night, a ray like a searchlight struck
clear upon his cryptic hint.

Somehow, Herter hoped to get across the frontier into Germany! His
question, whether I had loved Jim Beckett, was not an idle one. He had
not asked it through mere curiosity, or because he was jealous of the
dead. His idea was that, if I had deeply cared for Jim, I should be glad
to know how he had died, and where his body lay. Germany was the one
place where the mystery could be solved. I realized suddenly that Doctor
Paul expected "some day" to be in a position to solve it.

"He's going into Germany as a spy," I said to