Page:Ruth of the U.S.A. (IA ruthofusa00balm).pdf/135

 of the U-boats upon the Tuscania overshadowed all other news.

It was not alone the loss of the hundreds of American soldiers; it was the ugly threat that, where the U-boats at last had succeeded in sinking a transport out of a convoy, they might succeed again and, as the Germans had been boasting, they might—they just possibly might cut that bridge of ships really beginning this month to bring America over the seas. Ruth thrilled with discovery at how these people here in France had come to count upon the arrival of her people. She talked not only with the acquaintances from the Ribot, but Milicent and she practiced their French upon the polite and patient ladies from Bordeaux.

Ruth thus found that these French women were relieved that the Tuscania was not an American ship and had not been under convoy of American destroyers when it was lost.

"They have the most appalling faith in us!" Ruth reported this to Gerry when he stopped to speak with her during the afternoon. "They think we can do anything; that we cannot fail!"

"That's their way," he warned. "We're the new ally. The British must have done wonders to get off all but two hundred men from a crowded transport going down in a heavy sea."

"I don't mean that we could have done more," Ruth said, "or that we could have saved the Tuscania; I'm just glad people can believe so in us. But it puts upon us an awful responsibility to make good."

"It does," Gerry agreed, laconically, and went on.