What next to do? There was room for two or three more; why return with but one? And just beyond here lay the dressing stations, which they could reach in less than two minutes. Don made up his mind quickly and drove the car farther down the narrow farm road and over another field--a pasture. Half way across and toward them, four men were walking in single file. The boys had just made out that these were stretcher-bearers when suddenly the men stopped, ducked down and the foremost one raised his arm signaling for the car to stop. The next instant they were hidden from view by a fountain of earth between them and the ambulance and not over seventy-five feet from the car. The earth shook with the tremendous concussion of the explosion. It was one of the largest shells. The ambulance was stopped as though it had butted into a stone wall; Don felt a mass of glass fly against him and the car lifted partly up and swung aside. When he regained his senses and could see about him through the settling cloud of dust, he discovered that the car had been flung crosswise, that the windshield was smashed, and that the top was bent back, and very much askew. Billy, not having a grip on a steering wheel, as Don had, and having partly risen, was now on his back on the bottom of the car, behind the seat, his long legs sticking out over the back. He regained his normal position only by turning a back somersault and climbing forward. That the lads were not hurt was almost a miracle. [Illustration: THE AMBULANCE WAS STOPPED AS THOUGH IT HAD BUTTED INTO A STONE WALL.] But strangest of all was the fact that the tail doors had been blown open, the stretcher lifted out on the ground as neatly as though human hands had done it and looking back Don saw the German airman, shocked into consciousness, sitting up and gazing at him. CHAPTER IX REPRISALS “Billy, you aren’t kilt entirely, eh? Well, then, hop out and crank her; maybe that volcano didn’t stall her. We’ll turn round, if she runs, and hunt for those stretcher chaps; guess we can find ’em. Say, I’ll bet they’re sorry they saw us coming.” “No, for here they come again! It could not have reached them. Oooh, but wasn’t it a daisy? For about one second I longed to be back in the good, old United States. Hah! Wait till I spin her. There she goes as fine as a hand organ!” Don backed and turned the car; then the lads went to the German. “Well, Fritz, feel better?” Don asked, speaking English.