.

"What is it, what has happened?" Sonya Clark asked, as soon as she had
recovered sufficient breath, then opening the door of the closed car she
peered out into the snow-covered road.

A little beyond she was able to see an object lying in the road only a
few feet beyond their car.

In the semi-darkness and at the distance, with the snow forming a thick
veil between, it was impossible to tell just what the object might be.
Partly covered with snow and showing no sign of movement it was probably
an animal that had gone astray and been frozen in the November storm.

Quickly Sonya got out of the car followed by Mildred Thornton and Ruth
Carroll, the other girls remaining in the automobile at her request.

The chauffeur joined them.

The next moment the four of them were bending over the figure of a young
girl, who was wearing a close fitting cap and a long dark blue coat,
and sewed on her sleeve a small Red Cross.

Yet when Sonya spoke to her, she showed no sign of being able to reply
and made no movement, not even to the raising of her lashes. When the
chauffeur lifted and placed her inside the car she still seemed
unconscious.

"I think we had best go on to the hospital at once," Sonya commanded.
"We are not more than a few moments' journey and whatever should be done
for this girl can be better accomplished there."

CHAPTER II

_A Late Recruit_

A LITTLE before noon the following day, Mrs. David Clark, the wife of
the surgeon in command of the Red Cross hospital near Chateau-Thierry,
entered a small room in one of the towers of the old French chateau,
which had been serving as a hospital for the American wounded.

The room was in the portion of the building set apart for the use of the
Red Cross nurses.

Opening the door quietly and without knocking, Sonya stood for a moment
in silence upon the threshold, staring in polite amazement at the figure
she beheld sitting upright in the small hospital bed.

The figure was that of a young girl with straight brown hair cut short
and parted at one side, a rather thin white face with a pointed chin and
large hazel eyes. There was a boyish, or perhaps more of a sprite-like
quality in her appearance. As Sonya looked straightway she saw a
fleeting picture of Peter Pan, before the girl turned and spoke to her.

"You are Mrs. Clark aren't you? You are very kind to come to ask about
me. I am sorry I gave you so much trouble yesterday; another mile or
more an