Ghost Soldier

by Theresa Breslin

  ‘Private Jack Otterby, reporting for duty.’ Jack had arrived.

  ‘Rob thinks there’s a secret room on the top floor of Mill House,’ Millie told him.

  ‘Secret room?’ said Jack. ‘I knew it! Spies are hiding in the clinic! Tonight we’ll find out what they’re doing!’ He showed them the small key he held in his hand.

  With Jack, it was best to take things slowly, so Millie gave him the puppy to hold while they waited for the main clinic lights to go out. He settled himself in a corner and tickled Sandy behind his ear. Then he looked up at Rob and Millie. ‘My mother and father are coming to see me tomorrow.’

  ‘Oh, Jack.’ Millie’s face beamed a huge smile. ‘I’m so happy for you.’

  Jack nodded his head. ‘So am I,’ he said.

  Rob looked at Jack’s face. The nervous twitches around his mouth and eyes were less noticeable now. If Mr and Mrs Otterby were being allowed to visit, then the doctors must think that he was getting better. Rob suspected that he came to the hut at night to see the puppy, and slept there for part of that time – all the more soundly because he felt safe there. And if he got proper rest, it would make him calmer when he was awake.

  Rob was relieved when Millie agreed to his suggestion that she should stay in the shed with Nell while he and Jack went into the clinic. ‘At school on Monday, I’m going to tell Miss Finlay what’s been happening. I don’t want to worry Mummy. But’ – Rob paused – ‘if I don’t come back by daybreak, you have to go straight to Glebe Farm and tell Mr and Mrs Gordon that Jack and I went to investigate a hidden room in the attic of Mill House. They’ll know what to do.’

  Millie gave him a hug and then put her arms round Jack. He smiled. Rob’s heart flipped over. Since they’d first met him on the hospital train, it was the only time he’d seen Jack Otterby smile.

  ‘Look at the windows.’

  Once Rob was inside the end attic room with Jack and the door was locked behind them, he pointed to the windows. ‘There are two windows in this room,’ he said.

  ‘Yes, yes?’ Jack was more interested in opening up the locked cupboards.

  ‘I have been in every room on this corridor, and there are two windows in each. Six rooms. Twelve windows. But when you’re outside looking up at the house, you can see thirteen windows.’

  ‘There’s another room – a room with a secret door?’ Jack asked. ‘Where the spies are living?’

  ‘It can’t be big enough for spies to live there,’ said Rob, ‘but they are definitely hiding something.’

  ‘This is the end of the corridor. There’s nothing else.’

  Rob paced around the room. ‘There is a secret room,’ he said stubbornly. ‘There must be. It’s the only explanation.’

  ‘Whatever is in here might tell us what they’re doing.’ Jack fumbled with the key in the lock. ‘There’s a metal cabinet inside this cupboard.’

  A surge of cold air filled the room.

  ‘It’s a cold-store unit.’

  Rob was puzzled. Cold-store units were used to keep food fresh. Why was there one up here rather than in the kitchens? ‘What’s in it?’

  ‘Bottles,’ said Jack. ‘Glass bottles.’

  ‘What’s in them?’

  Jack took one out. He brought it over to the window and held it up so that the moonlight fell across it. He didn’t need to answer Rob’s question. It was obvious to both of them what was in the bottles.

  Blood.

  Jack tilted his head. ‘There’s someone in the corridor!’

  Rob looked round in panic. But not only was Jack Otterby’s hearing acute, he was also very quick on his feet. He replaced the bottle, locked the cupboard door, grabbed Rob’s arm and dragged him behind the screen in the corner as the door opened.

  Pulse rate rocketing, Rob crouched down beside Jack. Through a gap in the screen he could see Professor Holt enter the room. The professor closed the door and went straight to the windows. There he unfolded the window shutter on the left-hand side.

  Behind it was a door in the wall.

  Professor Holt opened it up and disappeared inside.

  In a single movement, Jack was flat on the floor. Before Rob could stop him, he was slithering on his belly towards the window. Rob had no option but to follow him.

  ‘Blood . . . we need more blood.’

  The secret door was ajar. Professor Holt was talking. Jack inched closer; Rob got to his knees so that he could see through the crack.

  There was a single bed near the window. A body lay on it, the face corpse-white. Professor Holt was inserting a needle connected to a thin tube into the man’s arm.

  In a crashing second of shock Rob realized that the professor intended to drain away the man’s blood.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  ROB CLAMPED HIS fist over his mouth to stop himself crying out.

  ‘Please, please,’ the man on the bed moaned. ‘Please . . .’

  Rob’s first impulse was to rush forward and snatch the tubing away from the professor. It was Jack who kept his head. Silently he indicated to Rob that they should retreat. As soft as prowling cats, they left the room and made their way back to the shed.

  ‘There’s a German spy in the clinic!’ Jack declared triumphantly to Millie. ‘We have proof.’

  The single thought throbbing in Rob’s brain was that he must take Millie to safety as soon as possible.

  ‘We’re leaving,’ he told her. ‘We’ll stop at Glebe Farm. Mr and Mrs Gordon will know what to do.’

  ‘No!’ Jack waved his bayonet in the air. ‘We need to take Nell with us and mount an attack on the clinic. Now! When they least expect it.’

  Instead of returning Sandy to his cage, Millie offered Jack the puppy to hold. ‘Jack, you mustn’t attack anyone,’ she told him, ‘else you’ll not be allowed visitors for a very long time.’

  ‘You can come with us, Jack,’ said Rob.

  ‘He’ll be in terrible trouble if he leaves the clinic.’ Millie looked from Jack to Rob. ‘What did you see that upset you so much? The ghost soldier is supposed to try to save people’s lives.’

  ‘It wasn’t a ghost that we saw,’ said Rob. ‘We found the secret room, and inside . . . inside—’ He broke off, not wanting to tell Millie what he had seen.

  ‘We saw a German spy,’ Jack said again. The puppy was licking his fingers and his voice was steadier. He took a deep breath. ‘He was draining the blood from a British soldier.’

  ‘But how do you know he was a German spy?’

  ‘We heard him talking in a German accent,’ said Rob.

  Millie looked at her brother and then at Jack. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said. ‘If this man is German, why doesn’t he just speak in German?’

  ‘Because I am not German,’ said a voice.

  Professor Holt stood in the doorway.

  Rob shoved Millie behind him. With one hand Jack clutched the pup to his chest, gripping his bayonet with the other. Nell sprang in front of them.

  Professor Holt put his hands above his head. ‘I carry no weapon,’ he said. ‘And I repeat: I am not German. I am a Belgian doctor who is trying to save the lives of British soldiers.’

  Jack shook his head. ‘You are a German spy!’ he hissed. ‘We found the bottles of blood that you take from our soldiers.’

  As Jack spoke, Rob was thinking desperately of how to escape. If he gave the order, he knew his dog would pen Professor Holt in the hut while they left to get help. But it would be best if they tied him up and gagged him so that he couldn’t move or shout out. Rob rummaged in his haversack and pulled out a piece of rope.

  ‘I do not take blood from the soldiers,’ the professor answered Jack. ‘Quite the reverse. I have been experimenting with putting blood into some seriously wounded men. I have been researching this field of medicine for years. After the war broke out, your government asked me to continue my work here as unobtrusively as possible.’

  ‘I don’t believe you,’ said Jack.

  ‘I assure yo
u I speak the truth. Major Cummings, who manages the clinic, knows of the work I am doing on the attic floor.’

  ‘I know he does,’ said Rob. ‘At the clinic open day I heard him speaking to you. He said you had to remain hidden as he didn’t want anyone to notice your German accent.’

  ‘Oh!’ Professor Holt raised his eyebrows. ‘Oh, I see why the confusion has happened. You thought Major Cummings said this because I am German, but in fact, Major Cummings wanted to prevent people hearing me in case they mistook my Belgian accent for a German trying to speak English. I knew that Jack suspected there was something happening on the top floor, but I had no idea that anyone else did. You were both so brave to attempt to investigate.’ He looked at Rob and Millie in admiration.

  ‘Rob is very brave and clever.’ Millie nodded her head. ‘I just followed him.’

  ‘It is good to have a brother like that,’ the professor answered her. ‘And good also that all of you are so loyal to your country that you try to trap someone you think may be an enemy spy. I feel that you are entitled to some explanation. Although blood transfusion is known in many countries, the techniques involved in storing blood are not. I have been working on a method of preserving donated blood to be used days later.’

  ‘That’s why there were bottles of blood in the locked room!’ said Jack.

  ‘Yes. And the room was locked to protect that secret just in case there were alien informers snooping around.’

  ‘How did you know that Jack was suspicious?’ said Millie. ‘How did you know to come to this shed?’

  ‘I heard you leave the attic room and watched from the window to see where you went. We were aware that Jack went outside at night, no matter how Doctor McKay tried to sedate him.’ Professor Holt smiled. ‘Jack is very good at making things disappear, including his medication.’

  ‘I take my pills,’ said Jack, ‘in the morning.’

  ‘Jack was becoming much more relaxed,’ the professor went on. ‘Doctor McKay thought that it was benefiting him being outside at night; that he had made a den somewhere and felt safer there. But we didn’t realize he had friends.’ Professor Holt reached out and touched Sandy on the head. ‘My youngest son had a puppy dog. I gave it to him on his seventh birthday.’ He took a photograph from his pocket and held it out for them to look at. Two young boys stood beside a swing in the garden of a large house. ‘My children,’ he said. ‘I lost them and my wife at the beginning of the war. I was in Vienna at a Medical Conference when Belgium was invaded. Since then I have never been able to get home.’

  ‘Our daddy went away at the beginning of the war,’ said Millie, ‘and he’s never been home, either.’

  ‘I’m sure he thinks about you all the time. I know I think of my own children every day.’

  ‘Mummy got a telegram which said “missing in action”,’ Millie told him, ‘and she has been very sad. But Rob thought of a plan. We go to meet the hospital trains when they stop below Glebe Hill. I bring plum-jam sandwiches ’cos Rob thinks Daddy could be on one of the trains and plum jam is his favourite.’

  ‘I see.’ Professor Holt swept his hands across his eyes. ‘That is a good plan, Rob. I hope it works out for you. ‘I – I . . .’ He struggled to speak. ‘Let me tell you of my plan. I thought, I will dedicate my life to something worthwhile. Faced with the destruction of my homeland and surrounded by death, I wanted to improve the blood-transfusion process to try to save soldiers’ lives.’

  ‘Oh!’ exclaimed Rob. ‘That’s why you said, “Blood . . . we need more blood.”’

  ‘Indeed we do. Early methods involved direct transfusion – drawing blood from a healthy person and putting it immediately into a needy patient. This can lead to complications for both individuals, and is not ideal in a war situation. But now we can chill the blood and it will keep for a short time. This will greatly advance the work and reduce mortality among the wounded men.’

  ‘You take blood from the patients in the clinic!’ Jack said.

  ‘Absolutely not,’ the professor replied. ‘The work of the clinic is completely separate. The men being treated there are very vulnerable mentally and it would be unethical to ask them to donate blood. In any case, we were trying to keep the transfusion experiments secret, for it will be a great asset in helping our wounded soldiers.’ He made a wry grimace. ‘Although, obviously, we have not been totally successful in our attempts to stay hidden.’

  ‘What are you going to do with us?’ It was Millie who asked the important question.

  Professor Holt pondered and then said, ‘I’d like you to swear that you will speak to no one about the work that I am doing. It is of tremendous value and should be kept private for as long as possible.’

  ‘We do. We will,’ Rob said at once.

  ‘Also, bring your mother to the clinic tomorrow afternoon so that Major Cummings can speak with her. I’m sorry,’ he added as he saw the expression on Millie’s face, ‘for I will hazard a guess that she does not know what you have been doing here. It will be most uncomfortable for you to have to tell her, but you must do it.’

  Rob dropped the piece of rope he was holding into his haversack. ‘We should go home,’ he said to Millie.

  ‘That would be best,’ Professor Holt agreed. ‘Jack, if you feel safer sleeping here, then please do so.’

  Still holding Sandy and his bayonet, Jack flopped onto the blanket on the floor and closed his eyes.

  As they were leaving the hut, Rob asked the professor, ‘So, what we thought was the ghost of the dead man at the attic window was your soldier recovering?’

  ‘What dead man did you see?’

  ‘One night a wagon brought a soldier to the side door. You and Major Cummings took him inside, even though the wagon driver said you were wasting your time. The very next night I saw him standing at the window. I thought I was seeing a ghost.’

  ‘Transfusion is almost miraculous when it works. A man can be on his feet within hours.’

  ‘And the one I saw at the attic window the night after you first came here,’ said Rob. ‘Did that man survive?’

  ‘What night was that?’

  ‘One night before work began to change Mill House into a clinic, I watched you and Major Cummings carry boxes into the building.’

  ‘Ah yes, we wanted to lock away our equipment on the top floor before the clinic staff arrived.’

  ‘When I came back the next night, I saw a soldier at the end attic window.’

  ‘But we didn’t return until ten days later.’ Professor Holt gave Rob a puzzled look. ‘There was no soldier in Mill House that night.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  THE FOLLOWING MORNING Rob kept himself busy with chores as he worried how he might prepare his mother for the impending afternoon visit to Mill House Clinic. As it neared midday, these thoughts were driven from his head by the arrival of Mr and Mrs Gordon.

  Rob stopped sweeping the yard when he saw their horse and cart coming along the cottage lane. He went to meet them while Millie pulled some grass for the horse to chew.

  ‘We’re going to visit our daughter,’ said Mr Gordon, ‘but I thought I’d call by and let you know that there’s a hospital train due at noon. A couple of railway workers who were checking the water tank this morning told me. Said the line was quiet on account of it being Sunday, so they’d put on an extra one today.’

  As Millie was making her sandwiches, their mother came out of her bedroom. She picked up the bread knife to cut slices from the loaf. ‘I hear you’ve been walking over to Glebe Valley to see the hospital trains pass by.’ She paused and spoke directly to Rob. ‘You do appreciate that there’s only a tiny chance that . . . that . . . anyone we know . . . might be on one of those trains?’

  Rob nodded, and blinked away the sudden tears that formed in his eyes. He and his mother looked at Millie, who was packing the sandwiches in her basket. Unspoken between them was the thought that at some point they’d have to try to help her understand that it was very unlikely she would
ever see her daddy again.

  ‘Nevertheless’ – she put her hands on Rob’s shoulders – ‘I think it’s a worthwhile thing to do. Waving to the men must cheer them up enormously. It will let them see that they’re not forgotten by the people at home.’

  Rob wondered if now was the moment to tell his mother about the situation at the clinic. He’d also have to explain why the puppy was still alive: his mother still gathered wild flowers to place on the pretend grave in their garden. She piled a log on the fire and then sat down in his father’s chair. Nell crossed the room and leaned her head on his mother’s lap. Rob decided that he’d allow them to sit in peace together for a bit. He’d wait until he and Millie returned before letting his mother know what he’d been doing during the last few weeks.

  The day was cold as they set out across the fields. A long skein of geese flew over, heading south. Winter was taking hold of the land. Leaves were falling so fast that the bare branches of the stripped trees looked like the spokes of an umbrella poking into the sky. The path in the woods was exposed, so that when they came down the slope of Glebe Hill they could see someone walking there. The person was coming from the direction of Mill House, and their furtive manner made Rob stop and look more closely.

  It was Jed – with something bundled up in his arms. As Rob watched, Jed opened his jacket and placed what he was carrying on the ground. Then he took the string attached to it and started to drag it along the path behind him.

  Millie, following Rob’s gaze, was the first to realize what it was. ‘Sandy! He’s got Sandy! Jed is stealing my puppy!’

  Loud though Millie’s scream was, Jed was too far away to hear her.

  ‘He’s going to take Sandy to the vet! And then my puppy will be sent to the war and I’ll never see him again.’

  ‘No he’s not,’ said Rob. ‘I won’t let him.’ He was just about to tell Millie to go and fetch Nell when a piercing sound rent the air.

  It was the whistle of a train. Rob’s head whipped round. The engine driver never pulled the train whistle on his approach to Glebe Hill. He only used it after the water tender was filled, to let those passengers who’d dismounted to stretch their legs know that the train was ready to leave. What was different about today?