»S 3545 182 S8 [921 :opy 1 ulky Sue by Caroline Wise and Gaily Ryland Sulky Sue Sulky Sue By Caroline Wise and CALLY RyLAND Richmond, Virginia .^^ COPYRIGHT, 1921 SEP 29 1921 §)CI,A627016 Sulky Sue How Sulky Sue Saved the Soldiers SHE name Sulky Sue mos' eve'y since she was bawn," her grandmother had to explain whenever Sue's name was men- tioned. **Nor'm, 'taint bekase she's mean an' ornary. Sue's just as peart as anybody, but look like she's always studyin' 'bout somep'n, so you gotter ax her a queshton three, fo' times befo' she hear you, en den it's jes like pullin' a eye-toof to git de answer outer Sue. Dats hoccum de chillun got in de habit of callin' her 'Sulky Sue.' " Ever since the first whisper went around that the place adjoining Temple's Farm, where Sue lived, was to be taken over by the gov- ernment and one of the biggest cantonments in the country was to be established there, Sue had been agog with interest. She pestered the surveyors to death hanging around with a clean, sweet-smelling cedar bucket full of spring water and a spick and span yellow gourd for them to dip it up with. They thought, of course, she was hinting" for 'a tip, and one of them was very plainly surprised when Sue picked up the dime he threw her and handed it back to him with a **I don't want your money. Mister." "What the devil do you want then !" he shouted, and burst into laughter at the look of terror that made Sue's black eyes roll around in her head like marbles as she picked up her bucket and scattered the dust of the road from her flying feet. Every hour of the day she could escape from the double tutelage of her school and her grandmother Sue spent near enough to the camp to watch every phase of its growth, and every fresh quota of men as they arrived. She trudged miles on its outskirts, never daring to question one of its occupants, but with a hun- dred questions in her heart. And one day when her grandmother heard that her '*01e Marster's" son was the officer in command of the whole medical section, *'with a house all to hissef and sojers salutin' all round him," not only Sue but Aunt Jemimy herself rose at the news with a shout of welcome. Now that they had ''white folks" in camp, and even "boss of de whole show," Aunt Jemimy was ready to gather the whole North to her ample bosom and sing her nunc dimittis. However, having a practical mind, she made so bold as to ask "young Marse Jo" for the privilege of doing his washing instead, and sent him linen that put the first snowflake of winter to the blush. Sue always managed to be on hand when the last handkerchief was laid on top of the basket and a fresh cover tucked neatly over it, so that she might be allowed to act as hon- orary escort to those clothes. Brief were the glimpses she had of "young Marse Jo," but he seemed to her a marvelous being in his khaki uniform, and even though the hair under his cap was sprinkled with grey Sue's loyalty pro- nounced him, as her grandmother called him, "young Master," and her pride in serving him was beyond belief. In the soft haze of a late November after- noon the small wiry figure of Sulky Sue, bal- ancing her strap of books on her head, looked like the little black ghost of a fiddler crab ambling up the road. Sue had been kept in. Formerly this was a usual occurrence with her, but since the thrill of Camp Lee and its activities had possessed her soul Sue had always managed to keep out of mischief till today when the weather and the imp of the perverse proved too strong a com- bination for her. Indian summer in Virginia is as warm as a genuine New England summer, the road was long and dusty and Sue was tired and sleepy, so measuring the distance to the cross roads where she must turn off to reach the little patch of ground on which Aunt Jemimy's cabin had stood for many years, she decided to rest herself and her burden of books for a few snoozy moments by the wayside before going on. She waked a little later to the hum of voices. At first she held her breath in sleepy sus- pense, and then, little by little, as she grew wider awake she heard a man's voice utter a string of words which were wholly without meaning to her, and another man's voice break in quickly with, "For God's sake man, speak English." ''German or English, what does it matter here, sir? There is nobody aboud," came in guttural acents. Sue's heart quaked. A few scrubby pines were all that hid her from view, and rolling her eyes warily without daring to turn her head, she saw, almost within reach of her hand, a young officer sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree by the wayside, and standing in front of him, in a respectful attitude, the new overseer at Temple's Farm. This was no unusual sight to Sue. Tem- ple's Farm, had already furnished the men at Camp Lee with many supplies and quite evi- dently here was an officer bargaining for more. Sue closed her eyes again comfortably, wait- ing for the usual reckoning in dollars and cents, milk and butter and eggs to be over with before she crept out of her sleepy hollow and took to the dusty road again. The officer's voice cut the silence sharply: "You've got the tunnel cleared?" "Ja, mein Herr," the overseer began. "English ! English !" broke in the officer impatiently. "Good Lord, Heinrich, how stupid you are ! How often do I have to tell you the same thing over. Speak English, American, slang, anything but German. You'll queer the game before the jack pot is opened. And don't be so damned respectful. There's no place for that here, in this rotten democracy. Cut out the heel clicks, and the bows too. Let us get down to brass tacks. Here, take this. Look out, man. Handle it more carefully. There are only three more packages to bring. Now let's hear what progress you have made. The tunnel is clear, you say?" "By Monday, at latest," answered the over- seer. 'T had less trouble than I thought. The old chap dug well." "What old chap? 1 told you to do the work yourself. You haven't called in anybody to help you!" The officer's face blazed with rage. "Bitte, no, sir, no, sir. I have not," the over- seer made haste to answer. "I have done the work secretly, alone. I meant that old chap 8 Temple, whose son owns the farm. It was during the Civil War here that he dug this tunnel. He was a timid chap. He heard the Yankees were coming and he set his slaves to work to tunnel to Petersburg. When he found that the Yankees had got to Petersburg first he stopped work and fled in the other direc- tion, but his work was good, albeit so few know of it in these days. He dug for us, and his tunnel lies under that part of Camp Lee which is its heart — the medical supplies, the — " "Yes, yes, I know all that," broke in the officer, while Sue's blood froze slowly in her veins. "What I am chiefly concerned with is, where you have placed the rest of the powder I brought, and if you have a clear passage for the fuse. You shall pay dearly for any mis- take you make, Heinrich. I think I can safely promise you that. On the other hand, the Iron Cross and a fine reward if you succeed. The Fatherland is kindest to those who serve in such danger in the very teeth of the enemy. "In his teeth ! By God ! in his ribs, to blow up and pulverize his very heart, as you say. "And what you leave undone I shall do. The tubes of bacilli arrived this morning, in a good jelly cake, sent me by an admiring friend. How kind these admiring friends are to the poor soldiers! Your fuse is to be touched off not later than 9:30 P. M., Thanksgiving eve. I, of course, shall obtain leave of absence. I shall go to Petersburg for the evening. On my way back to Camp . . . horrors ! The whole earth shall rock. Legs, arms, blood and hair, teeth and eyes shall be blown to the moon with all the ether and instruments and surgi- cal supplies necessary to put them together again. A fine Thanksgivings Day for the Fatherland, Heinrich ! A great crater we shall make here, greater than Petersburg has ever yet boasted. "And then ... I shall come." In the interest of developing his theme the young of- ficer rose to his feet and shook his fist almost in the overseer's face. "Yes, I shall come. I shall leave others to care for the wounded — for there will be a few hundreds who are wounded, my good Heinrich, in spite of the pulverizing work of the deadliest powder known to mankind — and I shall care for those 10 who are left hale and well, who have not been shattered into little bits. O, I shall be the helpful surgeon, the good doctor. I shall have coffee brewed for them when they are ex- hausted, and into the coffee shall go the con- tents of those precious little tubes sent me in the jelly roll cake by my good friend. Into the coffee, into the food, and into the water my gallant army of little germs shall go. And so, within a few days the whole of this great Camp Lee, this mighty portion of the great little army that is to fight our Kaiser shall be dead to a man, and — " *'Kutchoo-oo-oo !" Shivering as with bitter cold, icy with fear, trembling in every bone in her body, Sue, though a thing of terror, was human. She sneezed. In an instant the officer's revolver was in his hand and the overseer, pale with fright, took a step backward and cast a wild look over his shoulder. ''Halt!" cried the officer under his breath, and Heinrich's heels came together with a dutiful click. II ?^ "Come out, or I shoot" ! commanded the of- ficer, pointing his pistol in three directions at once. "Search those bushes, Heinrich. At once. Do you hear?" As when a hunter, ranging the woods for big game, bags an insignificant little hare, so Heinrich, stung to action by his officer's com- mand, beat the bushes and brought to light a small trembling figure whose usually black face was ashen with terror, whose teeth chattered and whose knees knocked together in sheer fright. "Stand up there !" shouted the officer, but Sue was too far gone to understand what was said to her. Down on her trembling knees she sank in the dust of the road. "Stand up there, I say!" cried the officer again, and Heinrich's big hand closed on her shoulder and shook and dragged her upright. "Now, then, you little black devil, you have been spying on me, have you? So. But in my country we know that dead children tell no tales. Perhaps you do not believe that. Very well, we shall give you a chance to prove 12 it. One little blackling more or less will not count in this part of the world." The lieutenant was so visibly relieved at the unimportance of the eavesdropper he could well afford to be jovial. "I shall snip off her ears first, for listening, eh, Heinrich? Then, out go her eyes for spy- ing on me, and then her tongue for the tales she would delight to tell. Have you last words to utter with that tongue little blackling? Come, come, surely a little negro is never at a loss for a word. No? Then, stand off, Hein- rich." ''Forgive me, Herr Lieutenant, she is not worth the trouble it might give you," put in Heinrich quickly. "This black child, she is deaf and dumb. Yes. She lives on the out- skirts of Temple's Farm. I have seen her often before, and she has no voice. She never speaks." The officer lowered his revolver. "But I take no chances, Heinrich," he said. "What if she should not be deaf and dumb." "But I can assure you she is, Herr Lieuten- ant," answered Heinrich. 13 "I see her with an old woman on this farm many times a week and never yet does she speak, even though the old woman talks much. And picture the burial of the body, and the old woman's search for the child. They are terrible people, these black people, for venge- ance, and the old woman is well known in the neighborhood. They would come to me, per- haps, and — " "O, its you, is it?" sneered the officer. Its your precious hide you're so careful of, Hein- rich. Oh, well, if you are sure the child is deaf and dumb its as good as being dead, after all. Get along there, you little devil." But Sue, whose wits had come back to her at the very first hint that she was not to be shot to pieces, never moved an inch. Her black eyes rolled from officer to hireling and back again, but not a sound did she utter. It was only when Heinrich's big hand came down again heavily on her shoulder and he gave her a shove and a wave of the arm, which meant delicious freedom even to a deaf and dumb person did Sue take advantage of her liberty and speed up the dusty road like an arrow from a taut bow. 14 Once out of sight and hearing, however, Sue's speed began to slacken. The horror of the whole business came over her. chilling her very soul with its plan of remorseless cruelty, its well-laid scheme of destruction. Her sobbing breath caught in her throat. "O Lordy! O Marse Jesus! What is I gwineter do now !" she sobbed, giving a fright- ened look over her shoulder as she turned in at the cross roads and made a bee-line for home and her grandmother. Aunt Jemimy was sitting comfortably in the doorway of her cabin, which her ample form filled to overflowing, feeding a quarrelsome little family of chickens, when Sue burst in upon her, scattering the family right and left. "Whafs de matter wid you. Sue?" demanded her grandmother severely. But Sue put her head down in her grandmother's lap and burst into sobs. "I knowed somep'n was de matter wid dis chile de minute I lay eyes on her," Aunt Jeminy said, addressing apparently, all animate and inanimate nature. **Now what is you been 15 eatin'? You mout jus' as well tell me, kase I'se gwineter pick yo' teef an' find out ef'n you don't." "Spies !" gasped Sue. "Spies ! Is you been in dat orchard after Mis' Temple's No'thern Spy apples ag'in, Sue. when I tole you plain as de nose in yo' face to stay outer dar? I declar I'se gotter take a switch to you yet." "Spies is after young Marse Jo," sobbed Sue convulsively. "I heard em an' I seen em, gran'mammy." Whar has you been sleep, Sue?" demanded the old woman. "In school or out on de road- side? Git up an' stop dreamin' an' go wash dat face an' ban's dis minute. Don' lemme have to speak to you but once, Miss. Step along." Plainly her grandmother was not the one to whom Sue could go for help. She didn't be- lieve her. She thought it was all a dream, and Sue was far too inarticulate to explain the seriousness of what she had seen and heard to an imperious and impatient old woman who refused to listen to her broken phrases. i6 There was no one else to confide in, no one who could save young Marse Jo and the whole camp from the awful doom and destruction that surely awaited them. Yes, there was One. Sue had learned a hymn in Sunday School which began : "What a friend we have in Jesus," and ended with the refrain, "Take it to the Lord in prayer." With a great sigh of relief Sue went down on her knees by the side of her bed. "Marse Jesus," she prayed, "Dis is a awful time dat have come. I dunno what to do 'bout it. Fse so small an' weak an' black, but Thou are strong and great an' white, an' I axes you to help dis li'l nigger to save young Marse Jo an' dat great camp f'om de-struction. Gran- mammy 'lows, O Marse Jesus, dat ef'n you is gwineter help anybody in dis worl' you is gwineter help de Hottentots, de Huguenots, de Abyssinnians an' de Virginians. Marse Jesus, I axes You to let all de res' of dem folks alone dis day an' help de Virginians. Amen." 17 And Sue rose from her knees calm and com- forted. She didn't know how or when '^Marse Jesus" was going to help, but with that sublime faith of her race she believed and watched for a sign. The sign came sooner even than she hoped or expected. Sue found her grandmother fuming next morning. "Here is all dese socks what I fuhgot to put in dat barskit yestiddy when I tuk Marse Jo's does home," she grum- bled, taking the broom out of Sue's hands and trying to raise dust from an abnormally clean floor. "Look like I aint got no mem'ry dese days for nothin'." "Gran-mammy, lemme tote em to him," begged Sue, eagerly. Aunt Jemimy looked dubious. "I don' hoi' wid you runnin' round dat Camp by yo'sef," she said. "Marse Jo is jus' bleedged to have his socks dis mornin' an' I ain't got a minute to was'e f'om my work. G'long chile, an' take em to him. Skin up dar an' back quick as you kin. I don't want no mo' dreamin' by de road- side, you heah me." i8 There was no great distance to cover be- tween Temple's Farm and the medical head- quarters of Camp Lee and Sue covered it at a run and brought up before the steps leading to "Marse Jo's house" panting like a race horse. No orderly was in sight, and Sue crept war- ily up the steps, her heart beating hard with the message she had. Would Marse Jo be- lieve her, or would he, as her grandmother had done, accuse her of being asleep and dreaming? Could she describe to him the scene she had witnessed and repeat to him the words she had heard? Could she possibly convince him of his danger, of the danger of his section of the Camp, of the danger implied, though scarcely understood by Sue, by the "tubes" that had come in the jelly roll cake and that would be used for some terrible and sinister purpose? Never in her whole life had Sue felt so small, so weak and insignificant. But her trust was in a Higher Power. "Marse Jesus," she prayed fervently, "efn You is ever gwineter help dem Virginians now is de time." 19 ''What's that?" A man's head came into view as Sue climbed to the top step. "What's that?" ''It's me, sir." "Who's me? Come up here. Let's get a look at you." "I'se done brought de socks whar gran'- mammy forgot, Marse Jo." "Good. Just put them on the bench there." Major Corbin put his cigar in his mouth again and proceeded to take up the train of thought Sue had interrupted. Sue waited patiently. "Marse Jo," she said timidly, "Won't you please, sir, lis'n to me. I'se got somep'n to tell you." "Something to tell me?" Major Corbin looked with amusement at the small wiry fig- ure with its thin legs, its black eyes that rolled like marbles, its "wrapped" hair and spotlessly clean apron. "What is it? You want your wash-m.oney, or a nickel for chewing gum?" 20 "Naw, sir, taint none of dem things, Marse Jo. 'Tis 'bout Camp Lee an' de spies." Major Corbin sat up straight in his chair and laid his cigar on the railing. ''Camp Lee and the spies," he repeated slowly. ''What about Camp Lee and the spies?" And little by little, in her odd, stumbling fashion. Sue tried to repeat as nearly as she could, the conversation between the officer and the overseer. Now and then Major Corbin interrupted her with a sharp question or stopped her to ask over again some point which her halting dia- lect made even more difficult to understand, but for the most part he let her tell the tale in her own way, listening earnestly and watch- ing her intently. "Where do you live?" he asked suddenly. "I lives on Temple's Farm, wid gran'- mammy. You calls her 'Aunt Jemimy,' Marse Jo." "Yes, I know. Is there a tunnel there?" "Dars a cave." "How do you know?" 21 "Kase we-all useter play robbers in it." "Could you find it now?" "Hi! Yassir, Marse Jo. Hits down by de big oak tree, tother side de spring whar dried up." "Do you know the overseer when you see him?" "Yassir." Her reply was emphatic on that score. "Had you ever seen him before yesterday?" "Yassir. He come over to our house one day long time ago an' tole gran'mammy ef n de colored folks didn' stop comin' to dat spring for water he was gwineter dry it up. He say de water was p'ison, anyway." "He did, eh? Well, did you ever see the of- ficer before with whom he was talking?" asked Major Corbin. "Nawsir." "Would you know him if you were to see him again?" Sue shivered and gave a quick look over her shoulder. "I reckon ef'n I was dyin' Fd see dat man's face," she said solemnly. 22 "Sit there on the steps till I come out," ad- monished Major Corbin. She could hear him repeat in a low tone over the telephone the story she had told him. And then, at last, "No harm to give it a trial, is it, sir? If nothing comes of it nobody would ever be the wiser. If you will allow me I will arrange the meeting here. It would be in the nature of the usual official gathering to map out the work for next day. Then you will come at three, General? Thank you, sir." Major Corbin hung up the receiver and came out again to his chair on the porch. "What sort of man was that officer?" he asked. "I mean, was his hair light or dark?" "He got hair de color of dat pine bench," Sue explained, "an' his eyes is jes like Gimb- licks." "H-m. That makes it a little more compli- cated," murmured Major Corbin to himself. "Three lieutenants in my command with yel- low hair, and by jove! I hope the eyes of all three may look like gimlets when they meet the Boches. However. Come here, child, and listen carefully to what I am going to say. 33 What is your name? Sulky Sue? Well, Sue, you did perfectly right to come and tell me about this matter, but you must not tell' any- body else, not even your grandmother. Do you understand that?" "Yassir." "I am sure you believe what you have told, but I cannot believe it unless I have direct proof of it. Do you understand v^hat I mean by that?" **I tole you de trufe, Mars Jo." "Yes, perhaps, but even the truth has to be proved sometimes. Nov^ this is v^hat I want you to do. You must come here to my head- quarters tomorrow afternoon at three o'clock. My orderly will show you where you are to stand, in an alcove, in the back of my office, behind a screen. There will be a hole in the screen just about the level of your eyes, and I want you to look through that hole at the offi- cers who come in and sit with me around the table. If you see the gentleman who was talking to the overseer you are not to say one word. You must wait patiently and quietly there till they have all gone. Then you may 24 tell me which gentleman it was and which chair he sat in at the table." "You aint gwineter let him kill me, is you, Marse Jo?" burst in Sue, terrified beyond measure at the idea of being in the neighbor- hood of those **gimblick" eyes behind a pistol again. "Of course not. Nobody will speak to you or hurt you in any way. Are you quite cer- tain now that you understand exactly what I want you to do? And you will be here exactly at three o'clock? Well, cut along now, and mind you, not a word to anybody." Saturday seemed a hundred years long to Sue. She could not do her duties around the cabin for looking at the clock for the fatal hour of three to arrive. The more she thought of it the more she dreaded it, for in spite of Marse Jo's reassuring promise, fear clutched her by the throat whenever she remembered the narrow escape she had had. Just suppose Young Marse Jo and his offi- cers should leave the room for a minute and there would be nobody there but the man with the gimlet eyes boring into hers over the top 25 of that pistol. With nobody to defend her, not even the rough overseer, who might have found out by this time that she was not the poor deaf and dumb idiot he imagined her to be, there wouldn't be a chance for her to escape a second time. A shudder passed over Sue. She couldn't risk it; no, not even for Young Marse Jo, for even he had shown himself incredulous of her story. He was just trying it as an experiment, not because he believed her word. Perhaps he would not believe her even if she pointed out the man who sought his life and who wanted to wipe the whole of Camp Lee off the face of the earth. In her halting, childish fashion, Sue argued the whole matter over and over with herself, and the more she argued the better reasons she found for staying safely at home with her grandmother, who already was beginning to cast an anxious eye on her and mutter to her- self "dat chile is sho gwineter have a spell." Sue felt she would welcome "a. spell," even if it meant castor oil and going to bed in a room as hot as the fiery furnace in the Bible 26 if only in that way she might escape the awful doom that seemed to await her. Two o'clock came, and half past two, and then a quarter of three, and still the turmoil in Sue's mind became more and more tempest- uous; and then, even as St. Paul on the road to Antioch, had suddenly been blinded by the great light that flooded his soul, so too, there came to Sue in that darkest hour of her life a light so gloriously bewildering that for the moment she was dazzled by it. She must do this thing, not for Marse Jo's sake, not because she had promised to do it, She must do it because it was for her country, because it was p-a-t-r-i-o-t-i-s-m. The real meaning of that word came in a flash to Sue. It meant doing the thing you were afraid to do, because your country asked it of you. There was not a moment to lose, and Sue feared to lose a moment. She did not want to be beaten down again by that cowardly fear, to shudder and gasp and think up excuses for not doing the thing she knew she must do. Here was her chance. She knew it and took it 27 Without waiting a second, she sped through the door, through the gate and down the dusty road that led to Camlp Lee. Is I — is I too late?" she gasped a few min- utes later to the orderly who was watching for her from the rear of Major Corbin's head- quarters. "No, Cinderella, you aint," drawled that gentleman. "You got a full minute to get your breath in. When you can get it without sounding like a buzz saw you can go inside. Now come along and get in your observation post." Sue's heart beat so loud as she screwed her small body up in the chair that had been placed for her behind the screen she felt sure anybody could have heard it who listened, but she applied her eyes steadfastly to the little peep hole that had been cut for her and held on tight with both hands to the sides of the chair. For a few minutes there was not a sound in the house. Sue felt as utterly alone as if she were stranded on a desert isle. Then she heard a step on the porch and Young Marse 28 Jo's voice calling out, "Come in, Dutton. On time to the instant, as usual, eh? We'll go inside and wait for the others." They came into the room, and Marse Jo took a seat at the end of the table with his back to Sue and pointed to the chair next him with one hand while with the other he pushed a box of cigars towards his fellow offi- cer. "You needn't be afraid of these," he said with a smile. "I bought them myself." In a few minutes a third officer came in, and then a fourth, and Sue's eager glances fell upon each with the same disappointment. She held her breath when the fifth slipped in to his place at the opposite end of the table. His hair was the color of the pine bench out- side, but his eyes were as blue and merry as a child's. He sprang to his feet, as did all the rest, when General Blanton, with an apology for dropping so informally into the business meeting of men whose profession he admired so much, and yet knew so little about, asked if he might listen to the program for next day's work, and took his seat a little apart from the others. 29 When the seventh and eighth officer pounded in with apologies and excuses for being- late and Major Corbin looked around at the group and said, "Well, gentlemen, if we are all here, we may as well come down to business." Sue turned cold from head to foot. "All here !" and the spy not am,ong them. All her agony of mind for nothing; for Marse Jo would never believe her now. He had given her this one chance to prove that the marvel- ous tale she had told him was true and now he would be sure it was not true, that she had lied to him ; or, if he were kind enough to make an excuse for her, that she had fallen asleep and dreamed of the terrors she told. Sob after sob rose in Sue's throat. It was all she could do to stifle them. She knew she must sit there till "the business," whatever it was, was ended. Could she do it. With an immense effort at self control, she gripped the edges of her chair and clenched her teeth, blinking the tears fiercely from her eyes. Perhaps it was because she was praying so hard and so desperately that she did not hear the soft footfall in the room. 30 "'Good afternoon, General. A thousand par- dons, Major Corbin. I was detained by some very important — er — laboratory work. I hope I am not too late." That voice. Sue would know it in her grave. The same hard, cold, gimlet eyes. He had come, after all. Marse Jo was safe. Camp Lee was saved, Marse Jesus had heard her prayer. In the violent reaction of her emo- tion, Sue sprang to her feet. Over went the screen. Pointing a finger at the late comer she cried in a voice tremulous with relief and excitement and fear— ''DAT'S HIM !" The young officers turned around in their chairs and glanced at Sue amusedly or quizzi- cally or indignantly, according to their vary- ing power of expression; but the man who was still standing looked at the tense, accus- ing little figure and muttered hoarsely, "My Godr At the same moment Major Corbin's order- ly, appearing at the door, coughed apologeti- cally and said, "Excuse me, sir. Here's the man you wanted to see about the milk. It was your orders, sir, to let him in the moment 31 he came," and stepping aside, the big bulk of Heinrich, the overseer, took his place in the doorway. Slowly the officer turned and faced this new terror. "Heinrich !" he hissed. "You !" "I have told nothing, Herr Lieutenant!" broke in Heinrich quickly, and realized that his betrayal was instantaneous. "I am afraid you have betrayed yourself, Lieutenant Schumann." General Blanton rose slowly from his seat. "Arrest these men." He gave his orders briefly. "Major Corbin, have Lieutenant Schumann's quarters searched at once. There is no liberty and no mercy for a spy in Camp Lee. As for that child — " But Sue was really deaf and dumb now for she had fainted for the first and only time in her life. It was the morning of Thanksgivings Day. Sue, who, with the resiliency of youth had re- covered from the "spell" her grandmother had predicted, was sweeping the little pathway that 32 led up to the cabin, and on the doorstep watch- ing her every movement, sat her grandmother. Aunt Jemimy had done some hard thinking since the afternoon Marse Jo had brought Sue home in his own car, Hfted her out as care- fully as if she had been his own kith and kin and put her into her grandmother's arms. "Put this child to bed. Auntie," he had said, and give her anything in the world she wants, for she is a regular little heroine, and but for her — well, there'd be precious few of us left at Camp Lee to see Thanksgivings Day." And then, "jes like ole times, when his pa was a li'l boy," as Aunt Jemimy put it to her- self, he had sat down on the doorstep and told the proudest grandmother in the world what Sulky Sue had done to save the soldiers. Sue's story had been proven true in every detail. The tubes of deadly bacilli had been found skilfully concealed in Lieutenant Schu- mann's comifort kit, while a careful search of the "cave" had brought to light the clever ar- rangement of powder and time fuse which was to work such ghastly devastation in Camp Lee. 33 And so Aunt Jemimy sat glorified in her character as the grandmother of the heroine who was sweeping the pathway, when sud- denly the heroine called out, *'Sojers comin' !" threw down her broom and started at break- neck speed down the path. "You Sulky Sue ! You Soo-oo ! roared Aunt Jemimy after her. ''Come back here dis min- ute, ef n you don't I'll give you another dose o' castor ile. Reg'lar heroines got no business runnin' noway," she added as Sue paused in her flight. 'Taint fittin'." The tramp, tramp, tramp camje closer. Aunt Jemimy rose from her seat to watch the men go by. Sue had her broom over her shoulder in a minute and was marching too. But the "sojers" did not go by. Instead, they turned into the crossroad, and then, to the huge amazement and delight of Sue, marched "column two, left face!" through Aunt Jemimy's little gate, up the well-swept pathway to a "halt !" in front of the door. The sight of Marse Jo as commanding ofifi- cer brought reassurance. As he stepped for- 34 ward one of his men handed him a package. It was plain to everybody that he was going to make a speech. He cleared his throat. "Boys," he said, "a few days ago that little girl standing there overheard the plot to destroy Camp Lee, and at the risk of her life not only came and told me about it, but came back the second time to point out the dastardly spy who was work- ing to destroy us. I consider it the bravest deed I have ever known. Now, then, Sue, these men of the medical department of Camp Lee are offering you their appreciation in the shape of this packet of Liberty Bonds — see, a big bundle of them, big enough to last you a lifetime, to send you to school and provide for your comfort and the comfort of this good old grandmother of yours as long as she lives and you live. Here they are. Take care of them. They are to commemorate our gratitude to you. And now, boys, three rousing cheers for Sulky Sue. We've adopted her as the mascot of our Camp and weVe all got to look out for her. "Hip, hip, hurray!" 35 The cheers were given with a will and a tiger in which Sue joined in spite of her grand- mother's hasty admonition, "Stop dat holl'erin' for yo'sef, Sue." The men fell in line, swung to the right, marching briskly in the November sunshine. The tramp, tramp, tramp of their feet could be heard long after tiiey passed out of sight. Sue drew a long sigh of perfect happiness. ''Gran*- mammy," she said, *'you sho kin trus' de A'mighty to look after de Virginians eve'y time." 36 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 015 928 716 6 WHITTET A 8HEPPERS0N, PRINTERS, RICHMOND, VA.