Finally the climax came.
By chance Nona and Barbara, who had again joined the ambulance corps, first brought the news to the Sacred Heart Hospital. The order had come from Colonel Dalton. Later it was delivered in person by Lieutenant Hume.
The Sacred Heart Hospital must be abandoned. Having forced the British line for several miles, the Germans were now dangerously near. If the hospital wished to protect its wounded, to save supplies, to safeguard its workers, their present habitation must be abandoned.
No army ever moved its encampment with greater efficiency. In between their periods of nursing the four American girls assisted with the packing. No one of them ever forgot the experience. Yet at the last there was a sudden rush. The enemy was reported advancing before another refuge could be found for the Sacred Heart staff. Wounded soldiers had to be transported in half a dozen directions wherever a spot could be found for them. At the time there was no place for so many extra nurses.
It was Eugenia Peabody who finally made the suggestion to Miss Grey. She proposed that she and her three friends should find a retreat for themselves, and there await orders. It would relieve so much of the Superintendent’s responsibility.
So one afternoon the four American girls were hurried away in one of the army motors to the nearest railroad station in a zone of safety.
The next morning, in a little less than a year after their arrival in Europe, they found themselves in a small French city.
A few days after Nona Davis suggested that they offer their services to the French Red Cross. Having come abroad to serve the Allies, it was natural they should wish to care for the wounded soldiers of the different nationalities.
This first volume in the American Red Cross series can, of course, only begin to tell the adventures and experiences of the four American girls, who, forgetful of self, offered their services to the wounded soldiers in the war. The stories of their lives and the friends they gather around them will be continued in the next book in the series, to be known as “The Red Cross Girls on the French Firing Line.”