ditch. As we came to a cross road the
A.S.C. Lieutenant who was testing me, said, "There you see the marks
where the last man I tested skidded with his car." "Yes, rather, how
jolly!" I replied in my agitation, wondering if my fate would be
likewise. We passed the spot more by luck than good management, and then
I reversed for some distance along that same road. At last I turned at
the cross roads, and after some traffic driving, luckily without any
mishap, drove back to hospital. I was questioned about mechanics on the
way, and at the end tactfully explained I was just going on leave and
meant to spend every second in a garage! I got out at the hospital gates
feeling quite sure I had failed, but to my intense relief and joy he
told me I had passed, and he would send up the marks to hospital later
on. I jumped at least a foot off the pavement!

I went in and told the joyful news to Lieutenant Franklin, who was to be
boss of the new Convoy, while Lieutenant MacDougal was to be head of the
Belgian hospital, and of the unit down at the big Convalescent depot in
the S. of France, at Camp de Ruchard, where Lady Baird and Sister Lovell
superintended the hospital, and Chris and Thompson did the driving.

It was sad to bid good-bye to Lamarck and the Belgians, but as the
English Convoy was to be in the same town it was not as if we should
never see them again.

"Camille," in Ward I, whose back had been broken when the dug-out
collapsed on him during a bombardment, hung on to my hand while the
tears filled his eyes. He had been my special case when he first
arrived, and his gratitude for anything we could do for him was
touching.

The Adjutant Heddebaud, who was the official Belgian head of the
hospital, wrote out with many flourishes a panegyric of sorts thanking
me for what I had done, which I duly pasted in my War Album; and so I
said Good-bye to Lamarck and the Belgians, and left for England,
December, 1915.

CHAPTER XI

THE ENGLISH CONVOY

My second leave was spent for the most part at a garage in the
neighbouring town near the village where we lived. I positively dreamt
of carburettors, magnetoes, and how to change tyres! The remaining three
of my precious fourteen days were spent in London enjoying life and
collecting kit and such like. We were to be entirely under canvas in our
new camp, and as it was mid-winter you can imagine we made what
preparations we could to avoid dying of pneumonia.

The prese