heir clothes and hurried
outside and around to the parking lot by the south wing.
"Gee, Freddy!" Dave panted as they raced along side by side. "I was
afraid I was going to stay in that hospital for the rest of the war, and
not get another chance to do anything."
"A bit worried, myself," Freddy said. "I was afraid that we'd done our
job, and that it was all over as far as we were concerned. But, I have a
feeling, Dave, that perhaps it's really just beginning for us."
And Freddy Farmer never spoke a truer word in his life, as they were
both soon to realize!
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
_Fate Laughs At Last_
"Right you are, lad, off you go, and good luck!"
The voice of the Lille hospital orderly came to Dave as though from a
thousand miles away. It came to him like a voice awakening him from a
sound sleep. He lifted his head and mechanically reached for the brake
lever of the Daimler built ambulance and stared out of bloodshot eyes at
a scene that had become as familiar to him as his own face when he
looked into a mirror. It was the dirt road that wound away from the
Lille Hospital, curved about the small pond and then disappeared from
view in some woods a half mile to the east.
How many times had he driven over that road today? He didn't know, and
he didn't even bother to guess. Probably a hundred. Fifty at least. His
brain had stopped thinking about things hours ago. For hours his actions
had all been mechanical. A mechanical routine over and over again. Help
fill the ambulance at the Lille Hospital. Get in behind the wheel and
start the engine, and take off the brake, and shift into first. Start
down the winding road and shift into second, and then into high. A
stretch of brown road always in front of him. Driving, driving, always
driving forward. Skirting shell and bomb craters. Pulling in under the
nearest group of trees whenever he heard the deadly drone of Stuka dive
bombers. Sitting crouched at the wheel while death whistled down from
the sky to explode in the ground and spray slivers of screaming steel
into all directions.
Climbing in back to put a slipping bandage back in place. Lighting a
cigarette for some poor wounded soldier who couldn't use his hands.
Giving them all a grin to cheer them up. Saying, "We'll be there in a
couple of shakes," a million times. Starting on again. Stopping again.
And then finally pulling into the St. Omer Hospital court. Helping to
unload, and then the wild ride alon
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