d been killed, and the wounded needed help. Wherever they might be, it
must be possible to reach them, and it was decided that no time be lost.
Our men commenced work in the hold of the ship to get at medical
supplies and dressings, and the captain took his orders. I find in my
diary at the close of that day the following paragraph: "It is the Rough
Riders we go to, and the relief may be also rough, but it will be
_ready_. A better body of helpers could scarcely be gotten together."

Nine o'clock of the same night found us at Siboney, which can scarcely
be called a harbor, for it has no anchorage. The next morning at
daybreak we stood on deck to see the soldiers filing up over the hill,
in heavy marching order, forming in lines by ones and twos, winding up,
in and out among the hills, higher and higher. As we watched them they
were a moving line trailing on toward the clouds, till lost in the mist,
and we could only think, as we looked at them, on how many and on which,
is set the mark of death? He knew no more than we--poor fellow--and
with his swinging, steady gait, toils up and up and waits for--he knows
not what.

The hospitals, both American and Cuban, located on the shore just to the
right of us, were visited by our men that same evening. Some of their
surgeons called on us. All seemed interested in the Red Cross, but none
thought that a woman nurse would be in place in a soldiers'
hospital--indeed, very much out of place. I suggested that that decision
was hard for me, for I had spent a great deal of time in soldiers'
hospitals myself. They appeared to understand that perfectly, but there
seemed to be a _later_ line which could not be crossed.

The Cubans who had just come into camp expressed a desire for any
assistance we could give them. They would be glad to have the Red Cross
Sisters in their little hospital, but begged us to wait just a day until
it could be put in better order. The Sisters were not the persons to
grant that day of preparation.

On the contrary they at once went to work, thoroughly cleaned the little
three-room building--Garcia's abandoned headquarters, to be used as a
hospital--and when the day closed the transformation showed clean rooms,
clean cots, and the grateful occupants wondering whether Heaven itself
could be more comfortable, or anything more desirable than the palatable
food prepared for them by the Sisters.

Three days later the following letter was received:

"To MISS C