CHAPTER XIII--THE NEW CHIEF

Ruth Fielding was troubled by her most recent discovery. Yet she was in no mind to take Clare into her confidence--or anybody else.

She was cautious. With nothing but suspicions to report to the Red Cross authorities, what could she really say? What, after all, do suspicions amount to?

If the man calling himself Professor Perry was really Legrand, and the Italian chef, Signor Aristo the lame man, was he who had been known as Mr. José at the Robinsburg Red Cross headquarters, her identification of them must be corroborated. How could she prove such assertions?

It was a serious situation; but one in which Ruth felt that her hands were tied. She must wait for something to turn up that would give her a sure hold on these people whom she believed to be out and out crooks.

Ruth accompanied the remainder of the "left behind" party of workers into the building, and they found the proper office in which to report their arrival in Paris. The other members of the supply unit met the delayed party with much hilarity; the joke of their having been left behind was not soon to be forgotten.

The hospital units, better organized, and with their heads, or chiefs, already trained and on the spot, went on toward the front that very day. But Ruth's battalion still lacked a leader. They were scattered among different hotels and pensions in the vicinity of the Red Cross offices, and spent several days in comparative idleness.

It gave the girls an opportunity of going about and seeing the French capital, which, even in wartime, had a certain amount of gayety. Ruth searched out Madame Picolet, and Madame was transported with joy on seeing her one-time pupil.

The Frenchwoman held the girl of the Red Mill in grateful remembrance, and for more than Ruth's contribution to Madame Picolet's work among the widows and orphans of her dear poilus. In "Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall," Madame Picolet's personal history is narrated, and how Ruth had been the means of aiding the lady in a very serious predicament is shown.

"Ah, my dear child!" exclaimed the Frenchwoman, "it is a blessing of _le bon Dieu_ that we should meet again. And in this, my own country! I love all Americans for what they are doing for our poor poilus. Your sweet and volatile friend, Helen, is here. She has gone with her father just now to a southern city. And even that mischievous Mam'zelle Stone is working in a good cause. She will be delight' to see you, too."

This was quite true. Jennie Stone welcomed Ruth in the headquarters of the American Women's League with a scream of joy, and flew into the arms of the girl of the Red Mill.

The latter staggered under the shock. Jennie looked at her woefully.

"_Don't_ tell me that work agrees with me!" she wailed. "_Don't_ say that I am getting fat again! It's the cooking."

"What cooking? French cooking will never make you fat in a hundred years," declared Ruth, who had had her own experiences in the French hotels in war times. "Don't tell me that, Jennie.

"I don't. It's the diet kitchen. I'm in that, you know, and I'm tasting food all the time. It--it's _dreadful_ the amount I manage to absorb without thinking every day. I know, before this war is over, I shall be as big as one of those British tanks they talk about."

"My goodness, girl!" cried Ruth. "You don't have to make a tank of yourself, do you? Exercise----"

"Now stop right there, Ruth Fielding!" cried Jennie Stone, with flashing eyes. "You have as little sense as the rest of these people. They tell me to exercise, and don't you know that every time I go horseback riding, or do anything else of a violent nature, that I have to come right back and eat enough victuals to put on twice the number of pounds the exercise is supposed to take off? Don't--tell--me! It's impossible to reduce and keep one's health."

Jennie was doing something besides putting on flesh, however. Her practical work in the diet kitchen Ruth saw was worthy, indeed.

The girl of the Red Mill could not see Helen at this time, but she believed her chum and Mr. Cameron would look her up, wherever the supply unit to which Ruth belonged was ultimately assigned.

She received a letter from Tom Cameron about this time, too, and found that he was hard at work in a camp right behind the French lines and had already made one step in the line of progress, being now a first lieutenant. He expected, with his force of Pershing's boys, to go into the trenches for the first time within a fortnight.

She wished she might see Tom again before his battalion went into action; but she was under command of the Red Cross; and, in any case, she could not have got her passport viséed for the front. Mr. Cameron, as a representative of the United States Government, with Helen, had been able to visit Tom in the training camp over here.

Ruth wrote, however--wrote a letter that Tom slipped into the little leather pouch he wore inside his shirt, and which he would surely have with him when he endured his first round of duty in the trenches. With the verities of life and death so near to them, these young people were very serious, indeed.

Yet the note of cheerfulness was never lost among the workers of the Red Cross with whom Ruth Fielding daily associated. While she waited for her unit to be assigned to its place the girl of the Red Mill did not waste her time. There was always something to see and something to learn.

When congregated at the headquarters of the Supply Department one day, the unit was suddenly notified that their new chief had arrived. They gathered quickly in the reception room and soon a number of Red Cross officials entered, headed by one in a major's uniform and with several medals on the breast of his coat. He was a medical army officer in addition to being a Red Cross commissioner.

"The ladies of our new base supply unit," said the commissioner, introducing the workers, "already assigned to Lyse. That was decided last evening.

"And it is my pleasure," he added, "to introduce to you ladies your new chief. She has come over especially to take charge of your unit. Madame Mantel, ladies. Her experience, her executive ability, and her knowledge of French makes her quite the right person for the place. I know you will welcome her warmly."

Even before he spoke Ruth Fielding had recognized the woman in black. Nor did she feel any overwhelming surprise at Rose Mantel's appearance. It was as though the girl had expected, back in her mind, something like this to happen.

The man who spoke like Legrand and the one who looked like José, appearing at the Paris Red Cross offices, had prepared Ruth for this very thing. "Madame" Mantel had crossed the path of the girl of the Red Mill again. Ruth crowded behind her companions and hid herself from the sharp and "snaky" eyes of the woman in black.

The question of how Mrs. Mantel had obtained this place under the Red Cross did not trouble Ruth at all. She had gained it. The thing that made Ruth feel anxious was the object the woman in black had in obtaining her prominent position in the organization.

The girl could not help feeling that there was something crooked about Rose Mantel, about Legrand, and about José. These three had, she believed, robbed the organization in Robinsburg. Their "pickings" there had perhaps been small beside the loot they could obtain with the woman in black as chief of a base supply unit.

Her first experience with Mrs. Mantel in Cheslow had convinced Ruth Fielding that the woman was dishonest. The incident of the fire at Robinsburg seemed to prove this belief correct. Yet how could she convince the higher authorities of the Red Cross that the new chief of this supply unit was a dangerous person?

At least, Ruth was not minded to face Mrs. Mantel at this time. She managed to keep out of the woman's way while they remained in Paris. In two days the unit got their transportation for Lyse, and it was not until they were well settled in their work at the base hospital in that city that Ruth Fielding came in personal contact with the woman in black, her immediate superior.

Ruth had charge of the linen department and had taken over the supplies before speaking with Mrs. Mantel. They met in one of the hospital corridors--and quite suddenly.

The woman in black, who still dressed so that this nickname was borne out by her appearance, halted in amazement, and Ruth saw her hand go swiftly to her bosom--was it to still her heart's increased beat, or did she hide some weapon there? The malevolent flash of Rose Mantel's eyes easily suggested the latter supposition.

"Miss Fielding!" she gasped.

"How do you do, Mrs. Mantel?" the girl of the Red Mill returned quietly.

"How---- I had no idea you had come across. And in my unit?"

"I was equally surprised when I discovered you, Mrs. Mantel," said the girl.

"You---- How odd!" murmured the woman in black. "Quite a coincidence. I had not seen you since the fire----"

"And I hope there will be no fire here--don't you, Madame Mantel?" interrupted Ruth. "That would be too dreadful."

"You are right. Quite too dreadful," agreed Mrs. Mantel, and swept past the girl haughtily.