As Mabel came nearer, Nancy saw Tini’s companion watching covertly. She couldn’t blame any man for being attracted by Mabel, for she was really worth looking at in her trimly fitting uniform with her cap sitting jauntily on her golden curls. But the man’s heavy-lidded glance had little admiration in it, only a sort of cynical calculation.
Nancy felt she must know if he was really the blond corporal’s train mate. Impulsively she said as Mabel handed her the package she had bought, “_Danke schoen_.”
She deliberately used the German word for “thank you,” and spoke loud enough to be heard across the aisle.
Her trick brought the expected result, for the man turned sharply toward her. Mabel glided into the seat opposite and glanced at her with a puzzled frown. When it was too late for regrets, Nancy felt the hot blood welling to her face. Others may have heard her, too, and what would they think?
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[Illustration: _Nancy Discovered Tini Across the Aisle_]
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There was even a chance that the man might recognize her as the same girl who had sat in front of them on the train, even though she had worn a green suit then and was now clad in olive drab.
“At least,” she thought ruefully, “I could swear he’s the same man. But what’s he doing here with Tini Hoffman?”
Mabel had to speak to her twice before she heeded.
“They make grand sodas here, don’t they?”
“Sure do!” Nancy stuck a couple of straws in hers so hard they bent double.
“What’s wrong?” asked Mabel under her breath.
Nancy glanced warily at the couple across the aisle, nudged Mabel with her foot, and laid her finger cautiously on her lips before she placed the fresh straws in her glass.
Mabel wisely changed the subject, and remarked, “Cleansing tissues are sure hard to get now. Guess we’ll have to get all ours hereafter at the P.X.”
“We’ll need plenty to take across—if we get to go over.”
“Yeah, my friend Lydia, in North Africa, wrote me we’d better take along plenty of stuff like that.”
Suddenly Nancy was impatient to be through with their sodas and out of the drugstore. She meant to take no chances on suspects this time, but report what she had seen to Captain Lewis. She finished her soda in a hurry and reached to the back of the table for her purse.