It was Nona Davis in her nurse's Red Cross costume who opened the door for the two men in uniform. They were not dressed like soldiers, and as she could not understand what they said, she did not dream of their errand.
But Sonya's peasant servants must have understood, for at the sight of the strangers they dropped on their knees and held out imploring hands.
Sonya herself finally made things clear. The men were two police officers who had been sent to bring her to Petrograd. She had been in hiding here near Grovno for several months and had hoped to escape their vigilance. Evidently Sonya had been arrested by the Russian authorities.
In spite of Nona's insistence that her patient was not well enough to be moved, Sonya agreed to go with them at once.
And only at the moment of parting did she bestow any confidence upon the younger girl.
Then she looked deep into Nona's golden brown eyes with her own strangely glowing blue ones, and whispered:
"I have done nothing of which I am ashamed, Nona, or I should never have asked for your friendship. It may be that I can make the Russian people understand, but I do not feel sure. This war has made men blinder than ever. I have only tried to be a follower of the 'Prince of Peace.'"
Then after she had walked away a few steps she came back again.
"Go back to your United States as soon as you can, Nona," she urged. "Russia is no place for you or your friends."
Because Nona Davis dared not trust herself to speak, Sonya afterwards went away without a word of faith or farewell from her.
One afternoon, after Nona had been nursing her friend, Sonya Valesky, for some time, Mildred Thornton went alone into a little Russian church.
The church was situated behind the line of the fortifications at Grovno. Many years before it had been erected, and now it did not occur to the Russian officers that it stood in especial peril. Yet the church had the golden dome of all Russian churches, glittering like a ball of fire in the sun. Certainly it afforded an easy target for the enemy's guns, and more than this would aid German aeroplanists in making observations of the geography of the surrounding neighborhood. But since Grovno was deemed invincible, apparently no one considered the possibility of the other side to this question.