must return to Clair. After all, she had been assigned to the job
there and must not desert it.

An ambulance was going down to Clair with its burden of wounded men,
and Ruth was assigned to the seat beside the driver. He chanced to be
"Cub" Holdness, one of the ambulance drivers to whom Ruth had been
introduced by Charlie Bragg at Mother Gervaise's cottage the night of
her trip up to the field hospital.

Holdness was plainly delighted to have the girl with him for the drive
to Clair. He was a Philadelphia boy, and he confessed to having had no
chance to drive a girl--even in an ambulance--since coming over.

"I had one of those 'reckless roadsters' back home," he sighed. "Dad
said every time his telephone rang he expected it was me calling from
some outlying police station for him to come and bail me out for
overspeeding.

"And there was a bunch of girls I knew who were just crazy to have me
take 'em for a spin out around Fairmount Park and along the speedways.
Just think, Miss Fielding, of the difference between those times and
these," and he nodded solemnly.

"I should say there was a difference," laughed Ruth, trying to appear
in good spirits. "Don't you get dreadfully tired of all these awful
sights and sounds?"

"No. Excitement keeps us keyed up, I guess," he replied. "You know,
there is almost always something doing."

"I should say there was!"

She saw that while he talked he did not for a moment forget that he was
driving three sorely wounded men. He eased the ambulance over the
rough parts of the road and around the sharp turns with infinite skill.
It was actually wonderful how smoothly the ambulance ran.

Occasionally they were caught in a tight corner and the machine jounced
so that moans of agony were wrung from the lips of the wounded behind
them on the stretchers. This, however, occurred but seldom.

Once one of the men begged for water--water to drink and its coolness
on his head. They were passing a trickling stream that looked clear
and refreshing.

"Let me get out a moment and get him some," begged Ruth.

"Can't do it. Against orders. We're commanded not to taste water from
any stream, spring, or well in this sector--let alone give it to the
wounded. Nobody knows when the water is poisoned."

"But the Germans have been gone from this district so long now!" she
cried.

"They may have their spies here. In fact," grumbled Holdness, "we are
sure they do have friends in the