t gets gangrene and tetanus from the stale old
soil. And instead of having a good fighting man back in trim in a
fortnight, you have a sick man in a London hospital for a couple of
months, and a cripple for a lifetime."

"You would make a good special pleader," responded the Colonel with a
bow. "I applaud your spirit, but the wounded are not so important, you
know. There are other considerations that come ahead of the wounded."

"But don't the wounded come first?" asked Hilda, in a hurt tone.

"Certainly not," answered the Colonel. "We have to keep the roads clear
for military necessity. This is the order in which we have to regard the
use of roads in war-time." He checked off his list on his fingers--

"First comes ammunition, then food, then reinforcements, and fourth, the
wounded."

IN RAMSKAPPELE BARNYARD

Thirteen dead men were scattered about in the straw and
dung. Some of them were sitting in absurd postures, as if
they were actors in a pantomime. Others of them, though
burned and shattered, lay peacefully at full length. No
impress of torture could any longer rob them of the rest on
which they had entered so suddenly. I saw that each one of
them had come to the end of his quest and had found the
thing for which he had been searching. The Frenchman had his
equality now. The German had doubtless by this time, found
his God "a mighty fortress." The Belgian had won a
neutrality which nothing would ever invade.

As I looked on that barnyard of dead, I was glad for them
that they were dead, and not as the men I had seen in the
hospital wards--the German with his leg being sawn off, and
the strange bloated face of the Belgian: all those maimed
and broken men condemned to live and carry on the living
flesh the pranks of shell fire. For it was surely better to
be torn to pieces and to die than to be sent forth a jest.

VI

THE CHEVALIER

Hilda's friends in England had prepared a "surprise" for her. It was
engineered by a wise and energetic old lady in London, who had been
charmed with the daring of the American girl at the front. So, without
Hilda's knowledge, she published the following advertisement:--

"'HILDA'--Will every Hilda, big and little, in Great
Britain and Ireland, send contributions for a 'Hilda' motor
ambulance, costing L500, to be sent for service in Pervyse,
to save wounded B