On Dangerous Ground

Summary

In the gas-lit twilight of a Europe already trembling under the drums of 1914, an American scalpel-wielder, Bradford Stewart, dines amid the gothic shadows of Cologne with Ritter Bloem—Teutonic dreamer, Nietzsche-reader, patriot whose heart beats in 3/4 time to the Radetzky March. War erupts between courses; the Rhine seems to curdle. Enter Trapadoux, sphinx-eyed éminence grise of the Deuxième Bureau, masquerading as a Prussian policeman while the city’s cathedral bells clang like iron lungs. One forged glance at Stewart’s passport and the surgeon’s future is stitched to espionage. At Aachen’s Holmer Hof, landlady Frau Schanne—part Mother Courage, part weeping willow—hides franc-tinted loyalties behind beer-stained aprons while her manservant Hans sniffs treason like a bloodhound. Into Stewart’s valise go silk stockings, gossamer lingerie, a pair of satin slippers—bread-crumb bait for catastrophe. Midnight: a latch clicks, a whirlwind of lace and danger—the “Little Comrade,” a French agent whose codename smells of lilac gunpowder—bursts in, brands Stewart “husband,” and etches her own portrait onto his visa with a fountain pen trembling like a tuning fork. Frontier, searchlights, bayonets, a masquerade within a masquerade: Trapadoux re-appears as the hawk-faced major from Metz, waves them through the corridor of dogs and death. Brussels greets them with velvet darkness; dawn greets them with artillery. Mud, shrapnel, shared hemorrhage—she is dragged away by real grey uniforms, he collapses clutching state secrets instead of her pulse. While she endures the cold spiderweb of German HQ, Stewart crawls toward a French general, veins full of morphine and vengeance, delivering intelligence that will redraw trenches. The Legion of Honor flutters against his hospital smock like a wounded bird; delirium cocoons him. Yet Bloem—philosopher-turned-commander whose life once lay between Stewart’s gloved fingers—cannot sign her death warrant when he learns the condemned woman loves the American who saved him. Evidence evaporates; she is escorted back across no-man’s-land, a ghost reprieved. In a white ward smelling of carbolic and lilacs, two broken lovers reunite, the ribbon of a republic and the shadow of an empire braided around their wrists.

Synopsis

Bradford Stewart, a young American surgeon studying in Germany, is dining in Cologne with a German friend, Ritter Bloem, a philosopher and a patriotic German. The latter is called away by German officers, and on his return announces to Stewart that war has been declared. After Bloem's departure, Trapadoux, chief of the French Secret Service maintained in Germany, who has been listening to their conversation, accosts Stewart, claiming to be one of the German police agents, inspects his passport, and learns to which hotel he will go in Aachen, which is his next destination. Frau Schanne, the proprietress of the Holmer Hof, secretly maintains French sympathies, but her servant, Hans, is a German spy. In Stewart's absence from his room, Trapadoux brings Frau Schanne a package, the contents of which he instructs her to place in Stewart's baggage to avert police suspicion during their later moves. Upon his return to his room Stewart finds in his luggage a lady's slippers, silk hose and dainty lingerie. The door of his room is opened and Little Comrade hurries in, embraces him fondly and calling him husband. Outside the door Hans listens, perplexed and a little suspicious, but had he not seen the lady's garments in Stewart's belongings? Perhaps, after all, she is his wife. After making sure of Hans' retirement, Little Comrade explains to Stewart that she is a French spy fleeing from Germany with secrets stolen from the German officers with whom she has been wont to flirt in Alsace-Lorraine; that even now they are on the watch for her and that if she is brought back, death will be the penalty. Stewart consents to help her, and watches while she forges an addition to his passport, adding to his own name and description, the description of herself as his wife traveling with him. Together they pass the gauntlet of police inspection and board the train for Brussels. At the frontier the train is held up and all passengers inspected. The police inspector stationed there holds Stewart and his "wife" for the coming of a German' officer from Metz to identify Little Comrade. One of the French spies on the frontier summons Trapadoux, who comes in the guise of the officer from Metz, and after inspecting Little Comrade, states that she is not the woman spy they feared. In the morning they arrive at the Belgium camp, where they are welcomed, but a few hours later the Belgians muster in battle against the German invaders. Little Comrade and Stewart are wounded, and while Stewart goes for a stretcher for her, she is captured by a genuine officer from Metz, who takes her to German headquarters and denounces her as a spy. Bloem, who is in command is unable to persuade her to confess. When Stewart discovers Little Comrade gone, weak from loss of blood, he becomes unconscious for several days. Upon regaining consciousness he learns that Little Comrade has been captured, so he concentrates his energies on delivering to General Joffre the papers she confided to his keeping. In gratitude, General Joffre bestows on Stewart the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, but overwhelmed by his loss and weak from this last effort, Stewart is borne away delirious. At the German headquarters, Bloem finding Little Comrade obdurate, is about to pass sentence upon her when she begs him to send her last words of love to Stewart. Finding that Stewart is her lover, Bloem, whose life was once saved by Stewart, refuses to condemn her, claiming that there is not sufficient evidence, and sends her back to "her American husband." There follows a joyous reunion in the hospital between Stewart and Little Comrade.