Wet and miserable, Chase Manning passed through some very distressing moments.
And then something occurred which once more caused him to start with alarm. It was the familiar whistle of an "arrivé," a sound which never failed to send a series of tremors through him. He had time to wonder where it was going to land and whether he should throw himself flat on the ground when the explosion occurred. And it was so close at hand that for a few terrible moments Chase felt that he must certainly be struck by some of the flying fragments.
"By George, that was another narrow shave!" he exclaimed, in a hollow voice. "If I don't get away from here in a hurry one of those confounded things will get me yet."
For a second time Chase Manning began a flight, not so precipitous as the first, though none the less determined.
But for the lightning he would scarcely have been able to make any progress at all; for he was now in the midst of a patch of timber. The tall straight trees, mostly denuded of their branches and boughs, seemed more suggestive of a collection of gaunt telegraph poles than of monarchs of the forest. He did not succeed in getting through this woods, however, without receiving many painful jabs and bumps from various objects which impeded his progress.
A little farther along Chase stumbled upon a road at the crest of a hill, and after his weary march over the water-soaked, torn-up earth to be actually on a highway once more came as a most welcome relief.
"Well, only a little while ago I certainly never would have expected that I'd be standing here safe and sound!" he panted. "Now, what am I going to do? The bombardment along the road seems to be about over."
With the change in the situation the tension seemed to be lifted in a measure from the young Red Cross driver's mind. He had gone through the most frightful peril without anything more serious happening to him than a few minor bruises and scratches. And now that it was all over it scarcely seemed as if it ever could have happened. And what was the sequel to be?
To this self-propounded query the answer came at once:
"Return to the road and Ambulance Number Eight, or, at least, to the place where you left it."