admiration.

“You have a wise head on your shoulders, Miss Dale. If anything else comes up let me know.”

They heard the last busload of girls out front long after Mabel and Nancy were already in bed. It was so much later than Nancy expected. Major Reed might after all have reached the bus station in time to see their suspect put Tini aboard. She wondered what he had done about it.

CHAPTER FOUR THE GAS CHAMBER

CHAPTER FOUR

THE GAS CHAMBER

The following morning a scheduled lecture on military law was postponed for an impromptu talk by Major Reed. Nancy’s heart skipped a beat when Lieutenant Hauser introduced the major to the assembled unit. Instinctively she felt his appearance had something to do with what she had told him last night. And she was right.

He talked to them for an hour on the subtle ways in which the enemy succeeded in getting information. He admonished the nurses about silence in public places, and prohibited discussion outside the camp grounds about what was going on inside. He warned them against picking up conversations with strange men who might craftily get information from them. He finished his talk by giving a half-dozen actual incidents where absolutely loyal men and women had witlessly supplied the enemy with vital information.

“This is for your protection as well as for our boys out there on the battlefronts,” he told them. “I warn you to make no close contacts with strangers.”

As the girls filed out of the lecture room there was awe in their whispered remarks. Most of them felt more keenly than ever the responsibilities of the task ahead.

As they went to the grounds for instructions in using gas masks, Ida Hall and Tini Hoffman were close to Nancy and Mabel.

“I noticed you had a mighty swell-looking date last night,” Nancy heard Ida saying to Tini. “Where’d you pick him up?”

“I didn’t pick him up,” retorted Tini. “I met him in Charleston.”

“Recently?”

“When I was on vacation after finishing my nurse’s training.”

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