CHAPTER III
A PERILOUS PROJECT
"That can be no other than Charlie Bragg," announced Ruth, getting upin haste, and naming a young friend of hers from the States who hadbeen an ambulance driver for some months. "Something must havehappened."
"I fear something is happening," Major Marchand said softly. "Thesudden activity along this front must be significant, don't you think,Mademoiselle Fielding?"
Ruth's lips were pressed together for a moment in thought, and she eyedthe major shrewdly.
"I really could not say," she observed coldly. Then she turned fromhim to take the hand of the countess.
"I'm sorry our little tea must be broken in upon," the American girlsaid.
She could not help loving the countess, no matter what some of theneighbors believed regarding her. But Ruth had her doubts about thisson who was always in Paris and never at the front.
Henriette was too bashful to remain longer than Ruth, so she rose to goas well. The countess kissed her little neighbor and sent her favor tothe girl's father and mother. Major Marchand accompanied the twovisitors out of the chateau and toward the entrance gate, which Dolgehad not opened.
"I sincerely hope we may meet again, Mademoiselle Fielding," the majorsaid softly.
"That is not likely," she responded with soberness.
"No? Do you expect to leave Clair soon?"
"No," she said, and there was sharpness in her voice. "But I am muchengaged in our hospital work--and you are not likely to be broughtthere, are you?"
Evidently he felt the bite in her question. He flushed and dropped hisgaze. Her intimation was not to be mistaken. He seemed unlikely to bebrought wounded to the hospital.
Before he could recover himself they were at the gate. Dolge openedthe postern and the two girls stepped through, followed by the Frenchofficer. The young fellow in the American ambulance immediately hailedRuth.
"Oh, I say, Miss Ruth!" he cried, "sorry to hunt you out this way, butyou are needed down at the hospital."
"So I presume, or you would not have come for me, Charlie," she toldhim, smiling. "What is it?"
"Supplies needed for one of the field hospitals," he said. "And I tellyou straight, Miss Ruth, they're in bad shape there. Not half enoughhelp. The supply room of that station is all shot away--terriblething."
"Oh, dear!" gasped Ruth. "Do you mean that the Germans have bombed it?"
"It wasn't an air raid. Yet it must have been done deliberately. Theydropped a Jack Johnson right on that end of the hospital. Twoorderlies hurt and the girl who ran the supply room killed. They wantsomebody to come right up there and arrange a new room and new stock."
"Oh! you won't go, Mademoiselle Ruth?" shrieked Henriette.
"It would be extremely dangerous," Major Marchand said. "Another shellmight drop in the same place."
"Oh, we settled that battery. They tell me it's torn all to pieces.When our doughboys heard the Red Cross girl was killed they were wild.The gunners smashed the German position to smithereens. But it wasawful for her, poor thing.
"The station needs supplies dreadfully, just the same," added CharlieBragg. "And somebody who knows about 'em. I told the _medicin-chef_I'd speak to you myself, Miss Ruth----"
"I'll go with you. They can get along at Clair without me for a fewdays, I am sure."
"Good," returned Charlie, and moved over a little to make room on theseat for her. Major Marchand said:
"There must be something big going on over there. Is it a generaladvance, Monsieur?"
Ruth flashed him a look and laid her fingers gently on Charlie Bragg'sarm. The ambulance driver was by no means dull.
"I can't say what is on foot," he said to the French officer. "Ishould think you might know more about it than I do," he added.
His engine began to rattle the somewhat infirm car. Charlie winkedopenly at Henriette, who laughed at him. The car began to move. MajorMarchand stood beside the road and bowed profoundly again to Ruth--thatbow from the hips. It was German, that bow; it proved that hismilitary education had not been wholly gained in France.
She could not help doubting the loyalty of Major Henri Marchand as wellas that of his older brother, the present count. Their mother might bethe loveliest lady in the world, but there was something wrong with hersons.
Here the younger one was idling away his time about the chateau, or inParis, so it was said, while the count had suddenly disappeared and wasnot to be found at all! Neither had been engaged in any dangerous workon the battle front. It was all very strange.
The bouncing ambulance was swiftly out of sight of the chateau gate.Ruth sighed.
"Say! isn't there anybody at all who can go with those supplies they'rein need of but you, Miss Ruth?" inquired Charlie Bragg, lookingsideways at her.
"No. I am alone at Clair, you know quite well, Charlie. The suppliesare entirely under my care. I can teach somebody else over there atthe bombed hospital in a short time how to handle the things.Meanwhile, the matron--or somebody else--can do my work here. It wouldnot do to send a greenhorn to such a busy hospital as this must be towhich you are taking me."
"Busy! You said it!" observed the driver. "You'll see a lot of roughstuff, Miss Ruth; and you haven't been used to that. What'll TomCameron say?" and he grinned suddenly.
Ruth laughed a little. "Every tub must stand on its own bottom, AuntAlvirah says. I must do my duty."
"It'll be a mighty dangerous trip. I'm not fooling you. There areplaces on the road---- Well! the Boches are all stirred up and theyare likely to drop a shell or two almost anywhere, you know."
"You came through it, didn't you?" she demanded pluckily.
"By the skin of my teeth," he returned.
"You're trying to scare me."
"Honest to goodness I'm not. They sent me over for the supplies andsomebody to attend to them."
"Well?" she said inquiringly, as Charlie ceased to speak.
"But I didn't think you'd have to make the trip. Isn't there anybodyelse, Miss Ruth?" and the young fellow was quite earnest now.
"Nobody," she said firmly. "No use telling me anything more, Charlie.For the very reason the trip is dangerous, you wouldn't want me to putit off on somebody else, would you?"
He said no more. The car rattled down into the little town, with itscrooked, paved streets and its countless smells. Clair was the centerof a farming community, and, in some cases, the human inhabitants andthe dumb beasts lived very close together.
The hospital sprawled over considerable ground. It was but two storiesin height, save at the back, where a third story was run up for the"cells" of the nurses and the other women engaged in the work. Ruthran up at once to her own tiny room to pack her handbag before she didanything else.
The matron met her at the supply-room door when she came down. She wasa voluble, if not volatile, Frenchwoman of certain age.
"I dread having you go, Mademoiselle Ruth," she said, with her armabout the girl. "I feel as though you were particularly in my care.If anything should happen to you----"
"You surely would not be blamed," said Ruth, smiling. "Somebody mustgo and why not I? Please send two orderlies to carry out these boxes.This list calls for a lot of supplies. Surely the ambulance will befilled."
Which was, indeed, the case. When she finally went downstairs, turningthe key of her store-room over to the matron, the ambulance body wascrowded with cases. The stretchers had been taken out before CharlieBragg drove in. Ruth must occupy the seat beside him in front.
She did not keep him waiting, but ran down with her bag and crept inunder the torn hood beside him. Several of the nurses stood in thedoor to call good-bye after her. The sentinel in the courtyard stoodat attention as the car rolled out of the gate.
"Well," remarked Charlie Bragg, "I hope to thunder nothing busts,that's all. You've never been to the front, have you?"
"No nearer than this," she confessed.
"Humph! You do
n't know anything about it."
"But is the hospital you are taking me to exactly at the front?"
"About five miles behind the first dressing station in this sector.It's under the protection of a hill and is well camouflaged. Butalmost any time the Boches may get its range, and then--good-night!"
With which remark he became silent, giving his strict attention to thecar and the road.