CHAPTER XV IN THE SERVICE OF THE RED CROSS
“What’s this mean, Giraffe?”
That was the natural way in which Bumpus greeted his chum as he staredup into the smiling face of the ambulance driver.
“Where’ve you been, Bumpus?” demanded the other.
“Oh! it’s too long a story for me to try to spin right now, Giraffe,except to say I’ve had a truly _won_derful experience since I lost myway in the dark last night. But please tell me what you’re doing on thisambulance; and I declare if you haven’t got a Red Cross band around yoursleeve in the bargain! Whee! this beats anything I’ve struck yet. Tellme about it, and are the other fellows working this same way too,Giraffe?”
“Nixey, Bumpus, I’m the only driver of the lot just now,” the otherreplied; “but all the same they’re doing something to help out. You see,while we were trudging along the road a bit ago this ambulance caught upwith us. The driver had been struck with a piece of flying shell and wasbleeding terribly, one of his arms being badly torn. He was gettingwhite about the gills, too, from loss of blood, though gamely stickingto his job.”
“Oh! my stars!” commented the eager listener, filled with sympathy forthe valiant man who had refused to leave his post on account of a wound.
“Well, he nearly fell from the seat when he brought the ambulance to astop in front of us. Fact is, Thad and myself just managed to catch himin our arms as he toppled over. Here, you can see the mess he left.Well, Thad and Allan got busy right away. They’re fixing him up rightnow alongside the road a little ways on there. I knew it was up to me toget these poor chaps to the city, so I jumped at the chance. And now Ioughtn’t to spend another second jawing here while they need so muchattention. I’m coming back again, and Thad said to look for them at thefield hospital. So-long, Bumpus; keep going straight on and you’ll findthe boys.”
With that the energetic Giraffe once more started the ambulance ahead ata rapid pace. Fortunately he knew more or less about motors anddoubtless would be able to handle the machine as well as the next one.And once in Paris he could easily find his way to a hospital byfollowing some other vehicle that also carried wounded French heroesfrom the field of battle.
Bumpus, left there on the road, looked after him for a full minute.
“Shucks!” he was muttering to himself in evident bitter disappointment,“why didn’t I think quick enough to ask Giraffe to try and look mymother up while in the city so as to tell her I was safe? Just like myslow-moving wits, after all. But then that would be selfish in me, Iguess, because think of the poor chaps who’d have to wait so much longerbefore they could receive proper medical attention. It’s just as well Ididn’t ask him.”
With that conclusion Bumpus wheeled and once more started along theroad. He increased his pace almost to a run, so eager was he to comeupon Thad and Allan before they finished dressing the wounds of theunfortunate ambulance driver and put him aboard some passing van.
Shortly afterward Bumpus believed he glimpsed those whom he was yearningto see. At least he discovered figures at one side of the dusty roadwhen passing vehicles allowed him the opportunity, and they seemed to bebending over some object which he could easily believe might be thedriver. Yes, and now he made sure of it, because who else would bewearing that well-known khaki uniform with the equally familiar batteredcampaign hats?
It was with a lively sense of gratification that Bumpus hurried along,and presently saw Allan wave his hand in a way to testify that he hadrecognized the stout chum. Thad, too, looked up and gave him a welcomingsmile.
“Well, stranger, where have you sprung from?” asked Allan, as thewheezing Bumpus joined them.
Apparently the scouts had managed to stop the flow of blood and hadbound the injured arm of the driver with more or less skill. The poorchap looked white and weak, yet his eyes glowed with fire, and Bumpusbelieved there could be no doubt about his getting over his accidentalwounding. It might have proven a fatal injury, though, if not taken justin time, for the man had lost a great deal of blood.
“Oh! I got lost, all right, just as Giraffe said I would,” repliedBumpus cheerfully, “and I’ve had a whole lot of queer adventures whichI’ll tell you about later on. What are you meaning to do with this poorchap, fellows? I met Giraffe down the road and he told me how I’d findyou here, so I hurried along.”
“Here’s a van coming,” explained Thad, “and we’ll put him aboard ifthey’ll make a little room. He can explain who he is and how one of ourcrowd has taken his place on the ambulance.”
Allan stopped the motor truck. It was a large affair which had probablycarried ammunition to the front; now it was taking back the fruits ofthat sort of deadly business in the shape of grievously woundedsoldiers; as Allan put it, “cause and effect.”
The man in charge happened to understand enough English to grasp whatAllan attempted to tell him about the wounded driver. Upon examinationit was found that there was not an inch of room inside the truck, forthe injured men lay as thickly as they could be placed. But the drivertold them he had a seat that might accommodate two in a pinch, andmoreover, he could part of the time keep an arm around the other.
So they hastened to help the wounded Red Cross driver to climb aboard.He vainly tried to thank them for what they had done for him, but hissmile was enough to satisfy those scouts. Then the big van pulled outand the three boys were left on the road.
“Come, tell us what you’ve been doing, Bumpus,” urged Allan, doubtlessfairly consumed with boyish curiosity, after hearing the returnedwanderer say what he had about meeting with strange adventures.
“First, what about yourselves—from what Giraffe flung at me as he wasstarting off again I reckon you’ve got some plan or other afoot, andthat it’s connected with this same field-hospital work.”
“Oh! well, that’s about the size of it,” returned Allan, seeing thatBumpus, who was very stubborn, would not budge an inch until he hadcomplied with this reasonable request. “We’re here and want to see moreof what’s going on, and as scouts always expect to make themselvesuseful as well as ornamental, why we fixed it up to offer our servicesto the Red Cross, if so be they’d take us on.”
“Oh! then that accounts for Giraffe taking the place of the injureddriver, eh?” Bumpus went on to say. “Well, it’s a funny coincidence, butdo you know as I walked along the road even before I met Giraffe I wasthinking of that very same thing. I guess it must have struck me becausethose old monks were so benevolent, and, as I understand it, spend mostall their time trying to help suffering humanity along.”
“Monks!” ejaculated Allan in astonishment, “what under the sun do youmean by saying that, Bumpus? Is it apes or men you’re talking about?”
“Oh! that’s part of my story, you see,” came the quick reply; “and whilewe’re on our way toward the front in search of a field hospital I’lltell you all that happened to me since we separated last night.”
This he proceeded to do, and the boys were of course deeply interestedin the recital. On the whole, they considered that Bumpus had a veryremarkable experience. And no doubt they could appreciate his feelingswhen, upon being awakened by that weird chant in the courtyard below, helooked from his window and witnessed the strange burial procession ofthe departed monk.
“I’m glad you found a chance to tell those good Brothers something aboutthe success of the scout movement over in America,” Thad observed afterthe other had come to where he met Giraffe so unexpectedly on the roaddriving an ambulance in the direction of distant Paris. “I say this,because from what I’ve heard, the people over on this side of the waterdon’t understand what we’re doing along the lines of our work. In mymind it goes away ahead of anything they dream of here, where the scoutsare only a minor military organization.”
“Still, the movement was started in England, we’ve got to remember, byBaden-Powell, the hero of the Boer war,” suggested Allan. “And thenagain, conditions are altogether different over h
ere. We have no causeto fear our neighbors north or south, and two oceans separate us fromother really powerful nations. If we had near neighbors who envied usour wealth, perhaps scouts in our country would have a connection withthe military authorities too.”
Talking in this strain they continued to push on. And all the while thatstream of laden vehicles kept going and coming, for no van was allowedto speed back to the city without its full quota of injured soldiersaboard.
“I wonder where in the wide world they’ll ever find room to accommodatethem in the hospital beds of Paris?” Bumpus exclaimed, appalled by thisnever-ceasing string of ambulances and vans and lorries of everydescription that passed them by.
“Oh! they’ve been opening up temporary hospitals in lots of places, Ishould say,” Thad explained. “And, besides, many will go beyond Paris.The trains for the south of France that have carried troops to thecapital to assist in its defense will take wounded men back to Boulogne,Lyons and all those places.”
It was no easy task talking with all that clamor going on; and, really,as the minutes passed it seemed to be growing steadily in volume withfresh batallions and batteries coming into action. Never in any knownwar were such monster guns used, and as to number, they outclassed allprevious records by ten or twenty to one. Even at that this was but thebeginning. Two years later, when the struggle along the trenches of theAisne carried through a whole summer, this number was destined to bemultiplied many times over.
No wonder, then, that the very air throbbed and pulsated under thealmost continuous blasts. No wonder that a strange halo surrounded thesun the live-long day as sulphurous fumes continued to rise inever-increasing volume.
There did not seem to be five seconds at a stretch when they could notobserve some monster shell bursting over the entrenchments of the Frenchor throwing up those dirt geysers where it lodged in the earth beforeexploding. And all the while the French batteries were also sending outtheir compliments toward the German lines, trying to ferret out theplaces where the Teuton regiments were lying in wait for the order toattack.
Thad knew just where he was going. He was not the one to enter into athing blindly, and doubtless before the injured driver of the ambulancewas sent on his way he had told the scout leader just where to come uponthe field hospital from which he had taken his load.
“We must turn off the road here,” Thad informed the others. “You can seethat only the vans from Paris keep on beyond this point with their loadsof ammunition and supplies. The ambulances and those vehicles used assuch are coming out of this lane. It leads to the hospital, so come on,and we’ll soon be there.”
Both Allan and Bumpus increased their pace. They looked deeplyinterested, but at the same time there was a sort of peaked expressionabout the face of the stout boy which Thad, noticing, caused him to say,as he smiled into the eyes of Bumpus:
“Now be sure and keep a stiff upper lip, old chum, because like as notwe’ll run across some pretty gruesome sights here.”
“Oh, that’s all right, Thad,” Bumpus hastened to tell him; “I’ve gotconsiderable grit when it comes down to standing things, and I mean togo through with this business no matter how it pulls. You’ll find megame, all right, boys, I promise you.”
The Boy Scouts Afoot in France; or, With the Red Cross Corps at the Marne Page 15
