The field hospital had been laid out on rising ground. This was to allow the enemy a full chance to mark the spot, so that their guns might not drop shells in that particular quarter.
“Listen!” exclaimed Allen just then, “some one is talking good old United States over yonder, Thad! Think of our running across an American here of all places, will you?”
“It must be one of the surgeons!” the scout leader declared. “Perhaps he was in Paris at the time and volunteered to come out and work under the Red Cross. That is always permissible, you know. Even neutrals can help the wounded, which is why we’re here right now. There, I’ve placed the party, and from the way others consult him I guess he’s the head surgeon, in this section of the hospital, anyway.”
Of course it was the sensible thing for Thad to do to try and get in touch with the English-speaking operator, who would much more readily understand their desire to do something than a French doctor could.
The busy surgeon looked up at their approach. He was, of course, considerably surprised at seeing three lads clad in faded khaki; a bustling field hospital did not seem to be just the place for youngsters of this type. His astonishment jumped to a still higher notch, however, when the foremost boy spoke to him in English.
“We are American Boy Scouts, sir, who by accident happen to be caught over here between the two armies. One of our number has even now taken an ambulance on to Paris, for the regular driver was sorely wounded. The rest of us fixed up his hurts and sent him on board a loaded van. That gave us the idea we might make ourselves useful while trapped here between the lines. We’ve been trained as Scouts to give first aid, you see, sir, and if you could tell us what to do we’d be ready to start in right away.”
There happened to be a temporary lull in business. The hard-worked head surgeon could afford to give these remarkable boys a minute or two of his precious time. His grim face broke into a half-smile, as though their coming had been in the nature of a breath of fresh air.
“Good for you, my boy,” he said energetically. “I’m also an American, from New York City. Just now I’m devoting my whole energies to looking after these poor fellows who come out of the shambles; no matter on which side they fought, it is all the same to me. A surgeon has no right to be partisan at a time like this. To be sure I can make you useful, for we are suffering from a lack of attendants.”
He immediately assigned them to a certain work that he expected they could attend to, and which in a measure would relieve his assistants. A sudden fresh rush of new patients caused the head surgeon to leave the three scouts to their work; but ever and anon as he labored feverishly he found occasion to glance toward where Thad, ably backed by Allan and Bumpus, was bandaging less severe wounds, and from the gleam in the surgeon’s eye and the faint smile on his face it looked as though he felt highly pleased with their methods of procedure.
Thad put his whole soul into his work. His previous experience profited him now to a certain extent, and by the time half an hour had passed he felt as though he were a veteran along the line of wrapping up cuts and abrasions.