ng it."

Nevertheless, the doctor and Patsy strode off. Just within the shelter
of the ridge they found another Belgian, desperately wounded, and the
doctor stopped to ease his pain with the hypodermic needle. Patsy looked
across the narrow defile; it was a bare fifty feet, and seemed safe
enough. Her Red Cross uniform would protect her, she reasoned, and
boldly enough she stepped out into the open. A cry from a wounded
soldier ahead hastened her footsteps. Without heeding the warning shout
of Doctor Gys she calmly stooped over the man who had called to her.

And then there was a sudden rending, blinding, terrifying crash that
sent the world into a thousand shrieking echoes. A huge shell had fallen
not fifty feet away, plowing its way through the earthworks above. Its
explosion sent timbers, abandoned gun-carriages, everything, flying
through the air. And one great piece of wood caught Patsy a glancing
blow on the back of her head as she crouched over the wounded Belgian.
With a weak cry she toppled over, not unconscious, but unable to raise
herself.

Another shell crashed down a hundred yards away, and then one closer
that sent the sand spouting high in a blinding cloud. She raised herself
slowly and glanced back toward Doctor Gys. He stood, his face ashen with
fear, hiding behind the shelter of the other hill. He looked up as she
stirred; a cry of relief came to his lips.

"Wait!" he called, bracing up suddenly. "Wait and I will get you."

Bending his head low he sprang across the unprotected space. He stopped
with a sudden jerk and then came on.

"You were hit!" cried Patsy as he bent over her.

"It is nothing," he answered brusquely. "Hold tight around my neck."
"Now--" another shell scattered sand over them--"we must get away from
here."

Breathing thickly, he staggered across the open, dropping her with a
great groan behind the protection of the ridge.

"The man you were helping," he gasped. "I must bring him in."

"But you are wounded--" Patsy cried.

He straightened up--his hand clutched his side--there came across his
disfigured features a queer twisted smile--he sighed softly and slowly
sank in a crumpled heap. A clean little puncture in the breast of his
coat told the whole story. Patsy felt herself slipping.... All grew
dark.

* * * * *

It was Ajo who found her and carried her back to the ambulance, where
Dr. Kelsey and Nanette were presently able to restore he