He led Patchou into a cowpath and they trudged on.
Twice André pulled Patchou down into a ditch as rifle and machine gun fire broke out in near-by villages.
After the second dive into a ditch, André sat thoughtfully silent. It would be better to go back, he knew. But then he thought of his empty house—
“Come on, Patchou,” he whispered. “When we get across the main road to St. Sauveur, just over there, we will try to find somebody to tell us how to find Maman in the hospital.”
They scurried across the tree-lined highway.
Where they crossed, the road seemed deserted. André could not see far in any direction. Back in the fields a stone barn stood among shredded trees below a hill. A château stood on the hilltop, almost hidden by trees.
Just as André looked up, a shell arched down from the sky a hundred yards away.
Before André could grab Patchou’s collar the explosion showered them both with stones and mud.
André reached wildly for Patchou and ran headlong with him into the field toward the nearest building he could see—the stone barn.