“Oh! they’ve been opening up temporary hospitals in lots of places, I should say,” Thad explained. “And, besides, many will go beyond Paris. The trains for the south of France that have carried troops to the capital to assist in its defense will take wounded men back to Boulogne, Lyons and all those places.”
It was no easy task talking with all that clamor going on; and, really, as the minutes passed it seemed to be growing steadily in volume with fresh batallions and batteries coming into action. Never in any known war were such monster guns used, and as to number, they outclassed all previous records by ten or twenty to one. Even at that this was but the beginning. Two years later, when the struggle along the trenches of the Aisne carried through a whole summer, this number was destined to be multiplied many times over.
No wonder, then, that the very air throbbed and pulsated under the almost continuous blasts. No wonder that a strange halo surrounded the sun the live-long day as sulphurous fumes continued to rise in ever-increasing volume.
There did not seem to be five seconds at a stretch when they could not observe some monster shell bursting over the entrenchments of the French or throwing up those dirt geysers where it lodged in the earth before exploding. And all the while the French batteries were also sending out their compliments toward the German lines, trying to ferret out the places where the Teuton regiments were lying in wait for the order to attack.
Thad knew just where he was going. He was not the one to enter into a thing blindly, and doubtless before the injured driver of the ambulance was sent on his way he had told the scout leader just where to come upon the field hospital from which he had taken his load.
“We must turn off the road here,” Thad informed the others. “You can see that only the vans from Paris keep on beyond this point with their loads of ammunition and supplies. The ambulances and those vehicles used as such are coming out of this lane. It leads to the hospital, so come on, and we’ll soon be there.”
Both Allan and Bumpus increased their pace. They looked deeply interested, but at the same time there was a sort of peaked expression about the face of the stout boy which Thad, noticing, caused him to say, as he smiled into the eyes of Bumpus:
“Now be sure and keep a stiff upper lip, old chum, because like as not we’ll run across some pretty gruesome sights here.”
“Oh, that’s all right, Thad,” Bumpus hastened to tell him; “I’ve got considerable grit when it comes down to standing things, and I mean to go through with this business no matter how it pulls. You’ll find me game, all right, boys, I promise you.”