However, toward morning she dozed. There was steady firing at Nieuport
and the windows shook constantly. An ambulance came in, followed by a
stirring on the lower floor. Then silence. He got up then and secured
the key. There was no time for dressing, because she was a suspicious
person and likely to waken at any time. He rolled his clothing into a
bundle and carried it under his well arm. The other was almost useless.
The ambulance was still waiting outside, at the foot of the staircase.
There were voices and lights in the operating room, forward along the
tiled hall. Still in his night clothing, Henri got into the ambulance
and threw his uniform behind him. Then he got the car under way.
Outside the village he paused long enough to dress. His head was
amazingly clear. He had never felt so sure of himself before. As to
his errand he had no doubt whatever. Jean had learned that he had
crossed the channel. Therefore Jean had taken up his work--Jean, who
had but one eye and was as clumsy as a bear. The thought of Jean
crawling through the German trenches set him laughing until he ended
with a sob.
It was rather odd about the ambulance. It did not keep the road very
well. Sometimes it was on one side and sometimes on the other. It slid
as though the road were greased. And after a time Henri made an amazing
discovery. He was not alone in the car.
He looked back, without stopping, and the machine went off in a wide arc.
He brought it back again, grinning.
"Thought you had me, didn't you?" he observed to the car in general, and
the engine in particular. "Now no tricks!"
There was a wounded man in the car. He had had morphia and he was very
comfortable. He was not badly hurt, and he considered that he was being
taken to Calais. He was too tired to talk, and the swinging of the car
rather interested him. He would doze and waken and doze again. But at
last he heard something that made him rise on his elbow.
It was the hammering of the big guns.
He called Henri's attention to this, but Henri said:
"Lie down, Jean, and don't talk. We'll make it yet."
The wounded man intended to make a protest, but he went to sleep instead.
They had reached the village now where was the little house of mercy.
The ambulance rolled and leaped down the street, with both lights full
on, which was forbidden, and came to a stop at the door. The man inside
was grunting then, and Henri, whose head had never been so clear, got
out and went round to the rear of the car.
"Now, out with you, comrade!" he said. "I have made an error, but it is
immaterial. Can you walk?"
He lighted a cigarette, and the man inside saw his burning eyes and
shaking hands. Even through the apathy of the morphia he felt a thrill
of terror. He could walk. He got out while Henri pounded at the door.
"_Attention_!" he called. "_Attention_!"
Then he hummed an air of the camps:
Trou là là, ça ne va guère;
Trou là là, ça ne va pas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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