James R. Driscoll

“ Clem said, glancing at the soldier lying on the cot that Duncan had spread for him. The ambulancier went over and stooped down to look at or speak to the wounded man. Then he straightened up with a jerk and stepped back. Though his nerves were of steel after the many bitter experiences following battles, raids, artillery fire and gas attacks, he must have had a sharp prod at the sight that met him. It is one thing to see men killed, maimed, blown to pieces in fair fighting, but quite another thing to find one foully murdered outside of the area of fighting. ”

“ Shrapnel and whiz-bangs could not cover the ground, but it seemed as though the rain of machine-gun bullets that suddenly swept down from the thickets and rocks of the great hillside which loomed ahead must reach every inch of space.
“Double quick! Charge!” came the order, echoed from mouth to mouth by under-officers and still, like one man, that khaki-clad host went at it on the run. Every man saw that the more quickly the work was done the better chances he and his fellows had for surviving that leaden hail. ”

“ With the idea uppermost that it was his first duty to play the part of a good soldier in the work he had enlisted to do, Don got up to join the army ambulance. Two hours later, in his own car and at its best speed, he was returning from the Red Cross base. The man beside him began to think himself most unlucky to have been assigned to duty with this dare-devil of a driver, who spoke hardly a word and seemed not to care if they were presently piled in a heap and both killed. Around, past and in between lorries, trucks, ambulances, big guns being hauled to the front and marching men they dashed. ”

“ But Wash had become more reconciled to a camp in a soggy field by the time he had set his teeth into the bacon, several boxes of which, with other good things, filled a grub box in the car. Then, warmed by a fire that roared in spite of the drizzling rain and mist, and later rolled in a thick army blanket on the bottom of the ambulance, the darky’s snores soon gave evidence that ghosts were haunting him no longer.
The morning dawned with lifting mists and a breeze that was making a counter [133] drive to chase away the enemy clouds in order to let the peaceful sunlight through. ”

“ Don’t crack any sticks nor roll any stones. Ready?”
Clem wondered at first whether the method would prove successful. It loomed up like a large undertaking, considering the distance. Would it not be better to just march right up on the spies and trade gun-fire with them, if need be? But the farther the boys progressed the more Clem became convinced that this was the only means of surprising the enemy. The nature of the ground was such that any one walking boldly up could have been seen first by the spies, and held up or shot. Fortunate, indeed, was it that this fellow Duncan was on the hill. ”

“ With a sound like the rending of a thousand taut cords a hole was torn in the tent roof, the interior was filled with streaks of flame and smoke and flying objects, a choking odor filled the air with stinging fumes and through it all came groans, screams and curses in a hideous melody. Wounded men some with limbs in splints, some half covered with bandages, leaped or tumbled out of their cots, and sought imagined shelter anywhere. ”

“ There was the ambulance itself, in plain sight, by the edge of the thicket and, moreover, a Red Cross sign had been raised on a pole above the low trees.
Billy’s eyes rapidly scanned the surroundings. A line of trees on the slope toward the south shut off the thicket from the view of the woods and the low ground here could not well be seen by the reserves back on the cross-road. It seemed a place that might be well chosen for isolation, if desired. And high in air, far over the enemy’s trenches, a Hun observation balloon could be plainly seen against the white, cumulus clouds. ”

“ The birds were singing everywhere, even amidst the desolate scenes of battle. Except where the shells and shrapnel of the opposing armies had torn the ground and battered the forests, there was the peacefulness over all and beauty of the new life of the season. Even now not far back from the fighting front of the Allies, some daring tillers of the soil were making ready to plant their crops. ”

“ The German mind can not cope in matters of woodcraft and ambush with that of an American backwoodsman. Duncan wormed himself away and Clem could not detect a sound made in his progress. Hardly more than fifteen minutes would be required for him to gain his object, but in less than five minutes a whistle sounded up the hill. The watcher ran that way and there was the buzz of a self-starter and the whir of a motor. Before the bushwhackers had time to collect their senses the long car, with its lights on, was running back across the field. ”

“ Across the grain and flowering fields marched the soldiers, advancing in thin lines, one after the other, the marines in the center and on either flank a battalion of doughboys, regulars of the United States army. This was the good old training in American fighting methods: Advance on a run and lie down, advance and lie down, the front rank shooting all the while, and when these fellows, who must bear the brunt [213] of the strong defense that the enemy was making, were thinned out reinforcements were rushed from the rear to fill up the broken ranks. ”

“ Don’s new duties exhilarated him and as he turned his car northward he could have said, with Macduff, when that warrior sought to meet Macbeth, the master war-maker: “That way the noise is. Tyrant show thy face!” for, boy-like, yet with a thorough understanding of the situation, secretly desirous of taking some part—he did not know what—in fighting, he had smuggled a sporting rifle into his car, and he carried a long-barreled revolver in a holster on his hip. ”

“ It seemed to be the idea of one and all that this was the work of German spies.
Presently, from behind some splintered boxes, they found the half-unconscious watchman and resuscitated him, getting him to talk. He had obtained one good look at the miscreants as they ran away.
Don kept an eye open for Clem and as that youth appeared leaping with his father, from a big motor car, he was grabbed and pulled aside.
“Don’t say a word about what we know,” Don whispered. “Here’s a chance for us to get right up on top of everybody. It was those two, Clem.” ”

“ Don and Wash had reached the crest of a hill on the road running southwest into LaFerté when they came upon a Red Cross ambulance which had been disabled. Don pulled up a moment to ask if he could briefly give aid, thinking to tow the other car in, if necessary. It was not the custom for a car loaded with blessés to spend any time on the road, if it could be avoided.
A weazen little man, with a foreign face, replied to the boy, in good English:
“Can you lend us a heavy wrench? We have only one and a light one. We need two to take off a bolt.” ”

“ After the ambulance had traversed another mile, at the best speed possible over such a highway, it overtook a string of ammunition trucks going into position, ready for progress or retreat. Dodging around these and avoiding other shell-holes was difficult for the half mile on to where the artillery had debouched. Once, not two hundred feet ahead, a big shell came over with a swish and snarl and landed in the field near the road, sending up a cloud of sod, dirt and stones and sprinkling the ambulance and its drivers with bits of gravel. ”

“ If anything happens I’ll do all in my power And I’m going to ask you, as an old Brighton boy, to do the same for me. Somehow, you know I feel as though it might be—that is, you see, there will be hard fighting and a great number of casualties and we must all do our best. We’ve got to make good and we shall. But some of us—I’m afraid a good many of us—won’t come out of it—won’t live to see the result. Here’s my card, Stapley—my home address. ”

“ It was Don who, as usual, saw first the need of action and improved upon it. Your trained, competing athlete, boxer, wrestler, leader of team contests must be as quick with his head as with his hands and the event of weapons on a possibly tragic mission and against a really dangerous opponent flabbergasted the boy not a bit. Words, he saw, were entirely useless; delay might be fatal—to someone, at least.
The boy’s revolver barked and spit out its fiery protest over Shultz’s head ”

“ There’s one way to get those chaps and that only, Duncan. Listen to me—Wash, you get in back and lie low. We two will get in on the front seat. We’ll dim the lights and then go along singing and let on we’re half tipsy until we get right up to them. I’ll stop and ask them for a drink and you turn the bull’s-eye on them and if it’s the spies we’ll act quick; see?”
“I’m going with you,” said Clem.
“Not in my car,” Don retorted. But Clem walked to Don’s ambulance and jumped in.
“We can scrap afterwards, Richards; not now. Come on—three are better than two.” ”

“ The wounded airman in the car turn his face toward Don and made a remark in German, probably not expecting it to be understood. Don replied in German:
“One of your airmen has blown up the little farmhouse where we got the drink! No doubt the good people are killed!”
“But it is war and a good hit is to be praised. Besides, these degenerate French—”
Don turned on the fellow with the glare of an angry wildcat; in his excitement his German mostly gave way to English. ”

“ A few stuck to their guns until overpowered, and died fighting. Many, threatened with the bayonet, surrendered at once. And the marines went yelling on, overtaking the fleeing Germans, stabbing to death, shooting or clubbing with rifles those who still resisted. Breaking up the machine-gun nests, they rounded up the prisoners until the hillside was entirely in American hands. Then the Yanks halted and sought shelter from the German artillery which now began to throw shells upon the eastern and northern side of the hill from enemy positions beyond. ”

“ Donald Richards, late student at old Brighton and now Red Cross ambulance driver, too young to enlist as a soldier, but nevertheless keen for action and to do his bit and his best, at once so interested his superiors that after he had fully qualified they quickly placed him where his craving for thrills and work worth while should be amply satisfied. ”

“ Another bomb fell that was a second clean miss of the main tent, though it struck the corner of the medical supplies tent and scattered the Major’s personal effects beyond recovery. Two other bombs came down in quick succession, one in the road beyond, cutting a hind tire, lifting the top off of the last ambulance in the line and knocking down two sentries. The fifth bomb went wild and did no harm. Those who still had their eyes on the murderous thing aloft saw it turn eastward and rise beyond the reach of the guns. ”

“ Either the surgeons at the dressing stations or Major Little and his assistants at the cross-roads hospitals will tell you where to take the wounded. Critical cases are first operated on at the evacuation hospitals so as to save time, but shell shock, slight wounds, men not very seriously gassed, and merely sick men are brought here direct [62] from the field. Hence it will be best for you, if there are no wounded to be brought away from the evacuation hospitals, to go to the dressing stations or into a battle area, to get the wounded in your car anyway you can. ”

“ That night Don and Wash slept in their car, not far from the Château-Thierry road and within a short distance of some American regulars placed in reserve. Seeing the boys’ fire, a few officers came over to talk. They were much interested in Don, and amused at Wash and his lingo. They also were free with certain information and opinions. One first-lieutenant who had most to say remarked:
“Well, we’ve got a job on our hands tomorrow, but we’ll do it! These Frenchies are good fellows and good scrappers, but they have to follow fixed methods of fighting. This is not the American way. ”

“ Tim Don Richards’ new helper on the Red Cross ambulance was an under-sized, red-headed Irishman by the name of Tim Casey. He was a month or two short of nineteen winters and, as he expressed it, an undetermined number of summers, but judging by the bleached-out color of his hair, which he assured Don was originally as black as a nigger’s pocket, there must have been a long siege of sunny months. County Kerry was his birthplace and his native village was noted for its big men, his own father being almost a walking church steeple and his numerous brothers all six-footers. ”

“ The round trip completed, Don and Wash at the base hospital, re-stocked their car for any emergency. They started out on a new road, coming up with the tail end of the marines in their big camions—passing them, one by one. The way led east, then south and east again, passing first through the town of Senlis, then around the little city of Meaux, then away on a splendid road toward Rheims. Before reaching the objective beyond the town of LaFerté, the road crossed the beautiful Marne, called a river, though Don regarded it merely a big creek, as it would be called in America. ”

“ If all of the fellows had been as cool and as helpful as you and that little, red-headed Irishman we would have had less trouble straightening things out. I see he is running his own car now. Who is your helper?” So spoke Major Little, when he came out of the operating room to get a breath of fresh air, and said to Don.
“I guess I’ll get a colored chap, if I get any,” the boy replied. “A lot of new cars have come over and they want men. I can get along alone. Some of the fellows do.”
“Better to have company. Helps the morale. Gives a chance of aid if one fellow gets hit. ”

“ Half an hour later the two regiments of marines, moving like one man, were marching straight across country a little to the northwest of Château-Thierry. It was the intention to drive the Huns out of their threatening positions in the hills where they were concentrating troops and artillery, mostly machine-gun units. A brigade also of the Third Division U. S. Regulars, moved forward at nearly the same time in support of the marines, if needed.
No prettier sight could be imagined than those long lines of soldiers, over two thousand in number, sweeping forward. ”

“ Clement Stapley and Donald Richards heard the call and stopped to consider it. They knew old Brighton was ready to welcome back her knights of brain and brawn, but even more insistently they were aware that far greater institutions controlled by the United States Government were also eager to welcome the same brain and brawn. The Red Cross beckoned them, the Emergency Aid and the Y. M. C. A. wanted the help of strong and willing hands; bigger still loomed the Government itself, with its [50] demands for men, but with a more urgent need. ”