f time.

Chapter VIII

INTO HER OWN

The last big drive was on. Somewhere on the road between what had been the
line of defense and what was the line of farthest advance rumbled a
hospital camion with its nose to the war trail like an old dog on a fresh
scent. In the camion sat Sheila O'Leary, late of the old San and later yet
of the American Military Hospital No. 10. She was in field uniform; a pair
of the chief's own boots were strapped over two pairs of woolen stockings.
She was contemplating those boots now with a smile of rare contentment
that showed its inwardness even in the gray light of early morning.

"Never thought I should step into the shoes of a great surgeon. They ought
to pass me through to the front if everything else fails, don't you
think?"

The chief eyed her quizzically. "They'll carry you as far as you'll care
to go and for as long as you'll stand. What's troubling me is what your
man will say when he knows?"

"Who--Peter?" Sheila's smile deepened. "He'll understand; he'll be glad.
Something both of us will remember always, something big to share. Oh, I
know it's going to be life and death, heaven and hell, rolled into a
minute, but I wouldn't be missing this chance--" She broke off suddenly,
and when she spoke again there was a great reverence in her voice. "I feel
as the littlest angel might have felt if God had asked him to be at the
Creation."

"Rather different, this." Griggs, the chief's assistant, spoke. There were
just the three of them in the ambulance.

"Not so very. It's another big primal happening, the hurling together of
elemental things and impulses and watching something more solid and
lasting come out. A new heaven and a new earth."

"What we see coming out won't be so solid or so lasting. We may not be
ourselves." Griggs was a pessimist, a heroic one, with an eye ever keen
for the grimmest and most disappointing in life and a courage to meet it
squarely.

The chief's glance brushed him on its way to the nurse; Griggs's share of
it was plainly commiserating. "And I say, blessed be those who shall
inherit it. But, girl, this doesn't settle the question of your man. I've
had to duck orders a bit to bring you along. Women aren't wanted at the
front. He may hold it up stiff against me for it."

"But I can help. Any woman who can stand it will be needed. They shouldn't
bar us out. That's all Peter'll think about. Don't worry."

There was no question in the girl's