Page:Ruth of the U.S.A. (IA ruthofusa00balm).pdf/294

 in all matters the private soldier was accustomed to accept.

The authority which Ruth thus possessed was extremely local, of course; its realms might not run beyond the little leafy valley of the brook, and it surely was temporary; but locally and for the instant it was hers.

"You desire, gnädiges Fräulein," the soldier asked her, "that I stay here and send one of them," he indicated the Russians, "with word to the manor or that I go?"

"You go," Ruth directed, struggling up to her feet. "I am quite strong again and you can do nothing for Herr Hauptmann."

"No, gnädiges Fräulein, I can do nothing for Herr Hauptmann," the soldier agreed. Of himself he was doubtful whether he should yet leave his gnädiges Fräulein, but he had been commanded, so he went.

The Russians had withdrawn a little; and after the German soldier was gone Ruth stood alone, gazing down at von Forstner's body. She had killed von Forstner and his servant. She had killed them in self-defense and by an act which might have destroyed her as well as them, yet horror shrank her as she saw them lying dead—horror which first had seized her at the idea of individually dealing in death that day long ago when she stood with Gerry in the parlor of the pension upon the Rue des Saints Pères, and when he had told her that the French had taken Louis de Trevenac upon her information, and were to execute him.

If she had killed these men solely to save herself, she must cast herself down beside them. But she had not! That sudden, mad deed which she had just performed