finished, and that it will, on French territory, give egress to a
Hun army debouching from Alsace, under Switzerland, into France
behind the French lines. That part of the Franco-Swiss frontier is
unguarded, unfortified, uninhabited. From there a Hun army can
strike the French trenches from the rear--strike Toul, Nancy,
Belfort, Verdun--why, the road is open to Paris that way--open to
Calais, to England!"

"This is frightful!" cried the girl. "If such a dreadful--"

"Wait! I told you that it is merely a surmise. I don't know. I
guess. Why I guess it I have told you.... They were savage with
me--those Huns.... They got nothing out of me. I lied steadily, even
when drunk. No, they got nothing out of me. I denied I had seen
anything. I denied--and truly enough--that anybody had accompanied
me. No, they wrenched nothing out of me--not by starving me, not by
water torture, not by their firing-squads, not by blows, not even by
making of me the drunkard I am."

The pencil fell from Miss Erith's hand and the hand caught McKay's,
held it, crushed it.

"You're only a boy," she murmured. "I'm not much more than a girl.
We've both got years ahead of us--the best of our lives."

"YOU have."

"You also! Oh, don't, don't look at me that way. I'll help you.
We've got work to do, you and I. Don't you see? Don't you
understand? Work to do for our Government! Work to do for America!"