But if it can wait --"
"But -- it can't wait, Captain," pleaded Stanley. "They sent me 'cause
they couldn't come. All our planes were bombed from overhead. Had to
use Fritzy's little old Fokker after we got him and his machine.
Believe me, they're a tight place, and there's two women with 'em, one
of them an American girl from Chicago; t'other a good old Belgian."
"Go ahead, my man," urged Byers.
Thereupon Stanley, refreshed by a mug of real Red Cross French wine,
proceeded to relate a succinctly as he could all that the reader now
knows Irwin, and Bangs, so far as Stanley had known. Also their varied
adventures after following the defeated Hun down amid the ruins of the
old baronial chateau.
"Believe me, sir, they are in bad shape," continued Stanley earnestly.
"Both them chaps are clean knocked out for the time being, though I
know they will be able to travel by the time we get back there."
"You say there are women there, too?"
"Yes, sir; two of 'em. One is sister to the wife of the Belgian baron
who owns the whole chateau and estate. They got a permit somehow and
came through the lines; but in view of recent troubles around there
they don't know how to get back. "I'm sure sorry for them."
"What did they go there for, knowing the Germans controlled all that
territory? Had they no better sense?"
"So far as I could understand, they went in the first place for some
important papers hid away there, and which the Boches don't know of.
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