off to sleep she would know that if she could only be rested enough she could rise above this and plan a way out. There was just one thing she waited for and that was the end of the month, when she might hope to get her wages, and then she could quietly take her leave. She had not been told how much her wages were to be, but they would surely be enough to take her back to Chicago, or at least to some town where she could get a decent place to stay until she could find work. Sometimes, as she was going about her work, she would try to plan how little she could get along with, and once she summoned courage to ask Mrs. Schwarz how much she was earning a week, but the woman only stared with an ugly laugh and said:
“I know nodding about it. Zumetimes I think you do nod earn your salt.”
And with that she went out of the room.
Hilda thought about it awhile and concluded that Mr. Schwarz managed all those matters, so that night she went to him.
“Vages!” He roared. “I pay you no vages! It iss enough that I give you a good home. You should pe thankful for that! You are not worth vages!”
Hilda, with flaming cheeks, opened her mouth to protest, to say that Uncle Otto had told her there would be good wages, but when she looked into the fierce, cunning eyes of the man, her very soul quaked. Something that would have protested two weeks before had crumpled up within her and she saw herself precipitately retiring to the kitchen from the roaring of his angry tongue.
That night when she tried to sleep she kept thinking that it was men like Schwarz who had gone to war. It was such men that the American soldiers would have to fight! She shuddered in her dreams as she, thought of the long lines of gallant young soldiers she had watched marching in procession in Chicago. They had merry tunes on their lips and smiles on their faces. They walked with strength and sturdiness; but they would have to face men like Schwarz! Would the same lethargy steal over them when they got within German power as had come to her soul since she came to the truck farm to live?
She must rouse herself to do something. If only there were just one friend. There was that strong young engineer. If he only knew her plight! But it had been seven long days since his whistle had sounded out its clear blasts, three long and two short, about two o'clock every day, and waked the echoes in the valley. Perhaps he was sick, or his route had been changed, or perhaps he had gone to war like so many brave boys. She sighed as she thought of it all, so much beautiful manhood going out to meet —what? Millions of men like Schwarz! Oh, it was terrible!
It was lonelier than ever without that whistle. Of course, she had known all along that it would not last forever. He would grow tired of whistling to a stranger whom he had seen but once. It had been good to feel that there was at least one in the neighborhood who remembered her and greeted her once a day. But that was visionary. He had grown tired and he had forgotten. Of course, that was it. He had forgotten! She must never think of him any more. So she put the little red scarf away in her suitcase, for of what use would it be to hang out a signal when there was no eye to see? And she folded her neat white towel and hung it over the back of a chair in lieu of a towel rack, firmly resolving it should hang out of the window no more.
And then, it was that very next day, just at five minutes past two, that the afternoon freight came racketting down the road and the whistle sounded forth in clear cheerful blasts:
——————! ——————! ——————! ————! ———!
She was carrying a great pan of sour milk across the kitchen to Mrs. Schwarz at the time, and she started so that the milk slopped over on the clean kitchen floor and brought forth a reproof of unusual strength from the mistress.
The color flamed into Hilda's cheeks and a glad light came in her eyes. Somehow a sense of more security stole over her, and almost a little song came to her lips as she went about her work. Almost, but not quite, for Mrs. Schwarz was not far away, and the men were working near the house and constantly coming back and forth.
When she went up to her bed that night she did not feel quite so disheartened as she had for the last lonely week. It was ridiculous, she told herself, that a whistle should do that to her, but it did, and she could not afford just now to put by any source of comfort.
It was that night that she was awakened again sharply; and sat up in bed with fear in her heart, and the strange whining sound in her ears. This time she knew what it was instantly, and her hand fluttered to her throat in her horror. The air-man had returned!
Stiff and cold with fright, she crept noiselessly from her bed over to the window and dropped tensely down beside the window sill. She must find out if he was going to remain in the morning. If there was a possibility of that she must escape before dawn. She would not risk his presence again. She trembled at the thought of his repulsive eyes upon her. He filled her with loathing and a fear that she could not analyze.
After a long time she heard soft footfalls on the grass below and guarded whispers growing gradually into distinct low tones. They were talking about a very particular piece of work that must be done on the morrow. Most careful directions were given by the air-man. Certain stones in some bridge were to be drilled, certain other stones removed, so many pounds of dynamite were to be ready———. Hilda could make nothing of it at first, but suddenly something was said that made her sure that it was the great stone railroad bridge out there in the valley that they were talking about, and she sat and listened with all her soul. Gradually she began to understand from their talk that a trainload of powder and munitions was expected to be sent over that bridge soon, en route to France, and that they were planning to blow up the whole thing—bridge, munitions and all. She could not make out, though she listened intently, what time this train was expected to pass, but gathered that it was a special train, and that the time would be announced by telephone later. She wondered at that, for she had nowhere seen a sign of a telephone since she came to the farm.
It also appeared that this was but the first of a series of explosions and disasters that were planned to hinder the United States in their war preparations. The visitor handed Schwarz a small piece of paper on which he said was a list of the other plots with their dates, and for which Schwarz was to prepare and collect and deal out the explosives. He told Schwarz to give it to a man named Eisel when he came. Then Schwarz stooped and lifted the big ring in the iron lid under the window, pulled up the lid, turned on his flash torch and disclosed a rude staircase down which the two men disappeared.
They were gone a long time, and Hilda sat shivering and staring into the darkness, trying to take in the colossal horror that had just been revealed in her hearing. She was then truly in the midst of spies! She had only half believed her own dawning convictions before. The words of the young engineer, spoken lightly, had come true!
Hot and cold waves of fear rolled from her heart to her throat and back again. A cold perspiration broke out over her whole body. Now and then a metallic clink came distinctly to her ears from the hole in the ground where the two men had disappeared. It seemed a long blank period of awfulness that she knelt there shivering in the chill of the dawning till she heard at last the low voices of the men returning. Schwarz dropped the iron lid into place with a thud and they turned away.
“Better get your men to work at once! It's safer working before daylight,” said the low voice of the stranger. “Remember to keep under cover when the trains go by. Don't take any chances. This must go through! Those are the orders! I’ll ’phone you as early as possible, in code, of course. I must hurry away, and you've no time to lose. Make haste! By the way, don't forget to cover that trap-door. Better do it right away!”
The stranger made a quick salute in the darkness and hurried away down the path between the cabbages. In a moment more the whirr of his motor filled the air, and she saw a dark shape arising from the field beyond the
