“Course that’d be next door to a miracle,” Bumpus admitted to himself candidly: “but then it’s possible at that. And it’d be fine for Giraffe to let Ma know her darling boy was safe and sound and just now as busy as a beaver, helping poor chaps along! Oh! well, before a great while I hope to be in Paris myself, when I can look her up. Sooner or later there’ll come along a chance to ride with a driver, and if Thad thinks it’s all right I guess I’ll go.”
Then he started in to labor with more vim than ever, as though determined to “make hay while the sun shone.” Truth to tell, few fellows could put their whole soul into any work of mercy better than Bumpus, who was known among his mates as an exceedingly tender-hearted chap.
It was while these things were going on with the momentum and precision of a great machine, the wounded coming and going in constant streams, that a sudden and startling interruption occurred.
Thad at the time had just finished bandaging the leg of a young French soldier, who bore the excruciating pain with the stoicism of a hero. He had made an especially decent job of the operation, according to his way of looking at it, and the patient thanked him in voluble French, which, of course, Thad could only partly understand.
Thinking to get him in one of the vans that were loading, Thad had just turned and half-risen to his feet when he experienced a rude shock. Close by there came a most terrific explosion. The earth flew high in the air in a shower that resembled a miniature geyser. No doubt considerable damage was done and a number of men either killed or maimed, while several horses immediately tried to run away, adding to the confusion.
Thad knew what this meant without being told. A German shell, the first that had been sent anywhere near the field hospital, had fallen in their midst and wrought much ruin. That was not the worst. For some reason unknown the German gunfire had been suddenly raised, and there was a strong likelihood that other terrible shells would follow that leader, rendering the position untenable!
No wonder, then, that consternation filled the hearts of the working surgeons as they held their breath while waiting to see if the blow would be repeated.
CHAPTER XVII
THE SCOUTS UNDER FIRE
“Oh! there comes another shell! Duck; fellows; duck, quick!” almost shrieked Bumpus, as a strange and terrifying sound was heard in the air above them.
Then followed a second frightful crash. The very ground seemed quaking under the feet of the boys. They could see the havoc this German missile had wrought almost alongside one of the operating tables. Bumpus turned as white as a ghost and looked as though ready to collapse.