camp.

After their conversation Nona naturally thought nothing more of his having had a companion with him before she came on the[116] scene. There was nothing in what he had said to indicate it and nothing in his appearance or manner to suggest deception. Besides, why should he have wished to deceive her?

[116]

She did think, however, of what he had said and of how universal this fear he had expressed had become. The whole world seemed obsessed by it. In almost every one of her Red Cross experiences, since the present war began, Nona had come in contact either with the actual business of spying, or with the suspicion of it. Here in France, guarded as they all were, they must be safe. Nona was sorry that the idea had again been presented to her. She hoped never to be brought into touch with anything or person connected with the business of spying again. For one thing, their recent Italian experience with Nannina was too fresh in her mind. No news had, so far, been heard of what had become of the Italian woman.

Naturally, Nona walked on farther than she realized, thinking of these things.

Then somewhat sharply she suddenly[117] came upon some barbed wire entanglements, making further progress impossible.

[117]

Evidently this portion of the French countryside had been used by the American soldiers for learning to construct these entrenchments. Nona knew that this was one of the tasks they had been working upon as a part of their intensive military training in these past few weeks in France. For modern wire entanglements of the same character had never been used before in any war.

Leaning over, intensely interested, Nona began studying the intricate twisting and weaving in and out of the heavy wires.

The next instant, however, she jumped up both surprised and frightened, for not many feet away a man was keeling on the ground making a more careful study of the entanglements than her own had been and he was not in the uniform of a soldier.

[118]

CHAPTER IX A Dispute

“I AM not a German spy,” the young man announced, half resentfully and half in a tone of amusement, as he rose up from the ground and faced Nona Davis.

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