ired and
distrusted. For the name carried with it its own suggestion of beauty
and of melancholy. What secret could Sonya Valesky be concealing that
forced even her friends to warn others against her?

Of course there could be no answer in her own consciousness to this
puzzle, yet Nona kept the problem at the back of her mind during the
following week of strenuous work. Nursing inside the bleak fortress
at Grovno was of a more difficult character than any work the three
American Red Cross girls had yet undertaken. The surroundings were so
uncomfortable, the nursing supplies so limited. Worse than anything
else, an atmosphere of almost tragic suspense hung like a palpable
cloud over every inmate of the fort.

Authentic news was difficult to obtain, yet refugees were constantly
pouring in with stories of fresh German conquests in Poland. For it
chanced that the months after the arrival of the three American girls in
Russia were among the darkest in Russia's history during the great war.
Military strategists might be able to understand why the Grand Duke
Nicholas and his army were giving way before almost every furious German
onslaught. They could explain that he was endeavoring to lead the enemy
deeper and deeper into a foreign land, so as to cut them off from their
base of supplies. Yet it was hard for the ordinary man and woman or the
common soldier to conceive of anything except fresh danger and disaster
in each defeat.

So day after day, night after night the business of strengthening the
line of fortifications at Grovno went on. The work was done with the
silence and the industry of some enormous horde of ants.

Shut off in the left wing of the fort with the ill and wounded soldiers,
the Red Cross nurses had only occasional glimpses of the warlike
preparations that were being made. Once when there was a review of the
troops in the courtyard behind the fortifications Mildred Thornton
summoned Nona and Barbara. She had already told them of her experience
with the commanding officer of the fort, but she wished the other two
girls to have a look at him. It was difficult to get a vivid impression
of a personality from a bird's-eye view out of a small upper window. Yet
the figure of General Alexis could never be anything but dominating.
There was a hush of admiration from every man or woman inside the
fortifications whenever their leader's name was mentioned. If he could
not hold the German avalanche in check, then the