Page:Ruth of the U.S.A. (IA ruthofusa00balm).pdf/304

 memory, Adler,' he always says to me, 'and nothing will be misplaced, nothing will get astray, nothing will be obtained by others.'

Yes, Herr Hauptmann,' I say, 'but suppose something happen to that ordered mind and that good memory! What then?' Ah! He laughs at me and pats me on the back so indulgently. But where is that ordered mind; where now is that memory to which the most important things may be committed? Well, he is away from the trouble," the secretary raged in his dismay. "He can hear nothing which Oberst-Lieutenant von Fallenbosch may say of him. But I—I will get it. . . . Yet you can make your report to him. At least, that much may be added. You have come from where, Fräulein Brun? Which front?" he beseeched hopefully.

"From Picardy," Ruth said. "I had the honor to be assigned to Roisel and to attach myself, particularly, to the British Fifth Army."

"Ah! I salute you, gnädiges Fräulein, and your comrades for the wonderful work you have done. But the importance of that is past, Fräulein Brun! Since then where have you been?"

"My duty, as I interpreted it, was to retreat with the British; so I was swept back with them to Compiègne. Since then, as I explained to Herr Hauptmann, passport difficulties detained me in Paris."

"Then all from Reims to Soissons is in Herr Hauptmann's ordered mind! It is, as all the most essential would be, in his 'good memory'! And, by the latest, today the report was to start to great headquarters!"

The secretary jerked about from Ruth and hurried