One morning a short time afterwards, as the Red Cross ambulance drew within two miles of the field hospital, the chauffeur stopped. For a quarter of an hour before, though no one had spoken of it, the four occupants of the wagon had heard the far-off echo of a tremendous cannonading. It was not possible to locate the sound.
Now the chauffeur turned to Dr. Milton.
“I don’t know whether we ought to report for duty this morning,” he volunteered. “I’ve an idea the trouble we hoped was pretty well over in this neighborhood has broken out again. We will probably get into the thick of things if we go much nearer.”
Dr. Milton’s lips tightened. “That’s what we are here for, isn’t it? Oh, I understand what you mean; of course you have[236] no fear for yourself. Let’s think the situation over.”
The young fellow who had charge of the particular ambulance in which Nona and Barbara were acting as nurses was a young Englishman who had volunteered for the service from one of the Manchester automobile factories. He was a skilled and trained workman and believed that in guiding a Red Cross ambulance he was doing more for his country than in actual fighting. But he was as gallant as possible and utterly fearless for his own safety.
The two men were together on the front seat of the car. Nevertheless, when they began talking, as long as the ambulance was no longer in movement, both Barbara and Nona were able to understand the subject of their conversation.
However, neither girl spoke immediately.
Nona Davis turned to gaze at her companion.
But Barbara seemed to have her entire attention engaged in straining her ears to the noise of the bombarding. Now and again there was a faint lull and then the[237] noise broke out with added fury. Sometimes the sound came from one side of the line and sometimes from the other. There could be no disputing the fact, fighting had indeed begun again.
Dr. Milton swung around and looked at Nona.
“Miss Davis,” he began. “I know it is a great deal to ask of you and Miss Meade. We are several miles this side of the hospital and the walk will be a long one; nevertheless, won’t you both attempt it? Of course, you have guessed, just as we have, that trouble has broken out afresh in our neighborhood and if our ambulance goes on much farther we may at any moment be in the midst of it. We are flying the Red Cross flag, but that does not always save us, and couldn’t save us in any case from the bursting of a shell. Yet Martin and I feel we must go on toward the battlefield, as we are needed now more than any other time. We must not take you into such danger, so if you will leave us——”
Nona’s golden brown eyes wore almost[238] an exalted look, they were so free from thought of self.
“But won’t nurses also be more needed?” she asked, although not requiring an answer to so self-evident a question.
“Dr. Milton, I entirely appreciate your feeling, but honestly I am not afraid. I don’t exactly know why, but I don’t believe anything will happen to me. If it does, why of course when one comes here for the Red Cross work, one expects to take chances.” Again Nona glanced toward Barbara, who still had not spoken. “Do you think there would be any danger if Miss Meade should walk back to the hospital alone?” she asked.
Really Nona had not the least idea of the insult her words implied to the other girl. Not for worlds would she have wounded or offended her! Neither did she believe Barbara a coward because she felt that the work ahead of them might be too much for her. This business of nursing is often a matter of sensibility. The people with the finest nerves and tenderest hearts are least fitted for the profession. So it[239] had become almost a matter of course in the past few weeks for the three American Red Cross girls to regard the fourth of their number in this light.
But Barbara flushed so painfully that tears filled her eyes.
“So that is what you think of me, is it, Nona?” she queried. But she offered no further reproaches; only turning quietly toward the driver of the ambulance said, “Drive on, will you, please. I too am unwilling to go back now. We will, of course, be as careful as possible, since only in that way can we really help.”
Then nobody said another word for the next half an hour. Perhaps their hearts were too full for speech or their nerves on too terrible a tension. Also the noise of the firing as they approached nearer the line of the British trenches grew more appalling.
But along the way Nona slipped her hand inside Barbara’s and though her lips were not opened, her apology was made and accepted. Moreover, in a sub-conscious fashion Barbara appreciated that no distrust[240] had been intended. For indeed, the two girls were daily becoming closer and closer friends now that their ambulance work gave them the chance for spending long hours in each other’s society. Unlike as they were they appreciated the very differences between them.
But now was not the time for thinking of themselves nor of their friendship.
The thought of what lay before them called only for brave silences.
With great skill and care the driver of their Red Cross ambulance moved in the direction of the battle. There could be no doubt in any mind of what was taking place. Therefore to approach even within the neighborhood of the little field hospital near the trenches required infinite caution and judgment.
Once the car stopped short. Thirty yards before them a giant shell tore through the air and fell, ripping a tunnel in the green earth. The big ambulance wagon felt the shock of the explosion, but was not sufficiently near to be endangered, except of course the thought would force itself: Next time would they escape so easily?
[241]
Yet mysteriously Nona and not even Barbara were so frightened as one might expect. In moments of great peril, as we all know, a courage is born which one does not have in the lesser moments of life.
Once Barbara thought with a whimsical twisting of her lips no one saw, that in all probability she was so terrified that she had no ordinary method of showing it. One could not scream or cry out and certainly one could not weep like a nervous school girl. Having made up her mind to go through with whatever lay before them, stoicism was the only possible way of facing the situation.
Finally the ambulance arrived at the edge of a woods about half a mile back from the stable which had been transformed into the temporary Red Cross hospital at the beginning of the fighting at Neuve Chapelle.
For the moment the noise of the cannon and guns from the two lines of trenches lying so tragically near one another, made speech between the occupants of the wagon almost impossible. Yet the young Englishman[242] brought his ambulance to ............